Friday Funnies

[+ tassojunior]

German "humor" lol

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1FUdeaLGJK/

Edited January 26 by tassojunior

[BSR]

 

[mike carey]

While it's been 43 degrees (Celsius) here in Canberra today, I understand there has been a little snow in parts of North America.

[Nue2thegame]

[mike carey]

The graphic is not funny.

What is funny is that half the social media comments were about how wrong it was. Luxembourg has more people than greater London? Malta? Iceland? Really?

The coup de grâce was that the other half of the comments were that it should be fewer, not less.

[+ tassojunior]

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1HKwwZPftK/

 

Edited Thursday at 06:42 PM by tassojunior

[mike carey]

The somewhat mischievously named 'Heard Island Government' Blue Sky account (named as a totally, like totally serious reference to certain economic policy decisions from nowhere near the actual, real Heard and McDonald Islands) quote posted a comment from elsewhere in the social media universe about the derivation of the word Arctic (it's a reference to bears), and by extension the naming of Antarctica. The reply that won the day?

In the comments, someone asked what the Greek would be for Penguins and No Penguins, and someone dutifully provided an answer. Because of course they did.

[mike carey]

[+ tassojunior]

[Nue2thegame]

55 minutes ago, tassojunior said:

Et tu Brutus?

[Lotus-eater]

7 hours ago, tassojunior said:

 

The pen is mightier than the sword:

[+ tassojunior]

four-fingers-in is a taught wrestling move?

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AwrANHyJH/

[Nue2thegame]

[+ Gar1eth]

On 1/31/2026 at 8:58 AM, tassojunior said:

 

On 1/31/2026 at 9:54 AM, Nue2thegame said:

Et tu Brutus?

If I may interject a bit of Latin grammar here, Brutus is a proper noun in the Vocative Case. The Vocative Case is used when addressing someone directly-ie calling someone out. In fact the derivation of the English word 'vocative' is from the Latin verb 'Vocare' meaning 'to call' and ultimately from the Latin word 'Vos' meaning voice  

The word 'Brutus' is a proper noun in what is called the 2nd declension. Declensions  are groups of words that are declined (ie change their forms) alike with the same ending when used as  a 'possessive' (aka genitive).

 

Unlike English Latin has more than one ending to make a noun possessive. In Latin there are 5 declensions.  So there are approximately 10 possessive endings  (counting singular and plural)  I say approximately as I haven't had a formal Latin class since 1979.  So I'm a bit rusty on some of the nuances.
 

Now for most of the declensions, the ending for the Vocative is the same as that used for the Nominative which is the ending placed on nouns when they are used as a subject of a sentence.
For example if I took the Latin phrase 

"  Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis" 

"Times change,  and we change with them."

In this sentence 'Tempora' is the subject of the sentence. It's a noun meaning 'Times' and is in the 3rd Declension.   
 

In the phrase "O tempora, O mores!!"

"Oh the times!! Oh the customs!!"

Tempora is being 'addressed.'  But you see the form of the word is the same .

 

As I said for most of the Declensions, the Vocative case is the exact same as the Nominative (Subject ) Case.   To be more specific, the Vocative is the same ending in  4 of the 5 Declensions.

So getting back to the word Brutus. As I said earlier, It's in the 2nd Declension.  And it ends with -us.  This is THE ONLY place the Vocative changes.  Singular nouns of the 2nd Declension that end in

-us change their ending to an -e in the Vocative.  So, while I wasn't actually there-and to be honest -it's more than possible that Shakespeare wrote the phrase for his tragedy "Julius Caesar," and that  Caesar never actually  uttered it, the grammatical way to say/write it (and the way Shakespeare wrote it) was "Et tu, Brute?"  Meaning of course "And you, Brutus?"

Exeunt!!

 

 

 

 

Edited 8 hours ago by Gar1eth

[+ Gar1eth]

On a non-Latin topic

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1GxB8HogSt/?mibextid=wwXIfr

[mike carey]

44 minutes ago, Gar1eth said:

the grammatical way to say/write it (and the way Shakespeare wrote it) was "Et tu, Brute?"

Hah, I've never studied Latin, but when I read 'Et tu Brutus' the first time, my immediate thought was that it should have said 'Brute'. Must have been muscle memory from the play.