slubberdegullion
A careless, slabbering sloven

You may have noticed The Serpent's Spell is sprinkled with Latin words...

Did you know that half the English language comes directly from Latin?

Did you know that A.A. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner has been translated into Latin as Winnie Ille Pu Semper Ludet? See also Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham (Virent Ova! Viret Perha!) and The Cat in the Hat (Cattus Petasatus), as well as J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis). Check out Amazon's great list of children's books translated into Latin.

And did you know that Nuntii Latini ("The News in Latin") is broadcast from YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company? Nuntii Latini is heard around the world on short or medium wave and via satellite on Radio Finland. You can also hear this weekly review of world news in Classical Latin via RealAudio on-line.

Every Thursday, a five-person committee meets in Rome to update the Latin language. From the Lexicon Recentis Latinatis (source: Globe & Mail, Jan. 30/04, A14)—

• hot dog
  pastillum botello fartum
  ("a little roll stuffed with sausage")
• weapons of mass destruction
  universalis destructionis armamenta
• videocassette
  sonorarum visualiumque taeniarum cestellula
  ("a little box of ribbons of sounds and sights")