Old English Cognates With Latin

Origins of English
It is funny how small the world can seem. Two of my intrests have collided in an unusual way. One of my favorite things to do is to read old books, many of which are written in the British English of the 17th and 18th centuries. Another interest is to learn Spanish. While reading these books I keep coming across obscure words that quite easily translate into Latin and Spanish. With so many cognates (words that have a common origin) it is a shame I'm not fluent in Spanish yet.

English Latin Spanish Synonym

felicity feleciter feliz happyness

rudd rubor rojo reddness

facile facile facil easy

translucent lucere lucir clear

It's true what they say, " English is a German language with a Latin vocabulary".

Class is not going well

On Thursday evenings from 6:30 till 7:50 I attend a class on Anatomy and Physiology at the local junior college. The teacher had fooled around for the first few classes and now he had three classes of material to cover in one night. While approaching the third hour of lecture with only one five minute break I noticed everyone was either rubbing their face or stabbing theirselves with the blunt end of their pens.
It reminded me of an episode of Seinfeld that brought this subject up.

Excerpt from Episode 45 "The Wallet"
JERRY: It's a tell. You gotta tell.
ELAINE: What tell? What's a tell?
JERRY: When you ask someone about their relationship and they touch their face you know it's not going too well. Go ahead ask me how it's going with somebody.
ELAINE: Um, uh, who's it going with, uh, Alice?
JERRY: Good, going good (scratches chin) And the higher up on the face you go the worse the relationship is getting. You know it is like - pretty good - not bad - I gotta get out.
ELAINE: How high did I go?
GEORGE: You almost did the nose.

Yeah, Class is definitely not going well.

Grrr... Snowbirds

Loxahatchee River

I know this is insignificant, but I was speaking with a snowbird this week. He was complaining about a floater in his vision. I winked at him and said I hoped people wouldn't think he was crazy for swatting air so much. "No they won't" he says, "they'll just think its because of all the mosquitos here in Florida."

It felt like he just just another person here to use this State solely for it's warmth and sterile, planned communities. Many of these people that come for the winter are also begging for the portability exemption for their condo taxes. You know what? I think that if you don't even know that there won't be any mosquitos until March, then you don't deserve the tax break given to the locals who put up with the mosquitos in July.

Another person I just love is my neighbor that lives two doors down in my condo building. Every January he leaves to go back to Michigan and boards up his windows like he is living in Warsaw during the German bombings. He is kind enough to take them back down when he returns every late December.

I feel like my home is a Hotel

Why Population Figures Matter

Infancy's the tender fountain,

Power may with beauty flow,

Mother's first to guide the streamlets,

From them souls unresting grow--

Grow on for the good or evil,

Sunshine streamed or evil hurled;

For the hand that rocks the cradle

Is the hand that rules the world.

William Ross Wallace

full text

The Result of Social Planning

A Bleak Future for Italy

With the population expected to fall by a third over the next 50 years, Italy is considered to be in a baby crisis. The fertility rate has hovered around 1.2 births per 1000 population, far below the 2.1 needed for population maintenance. One of the pitfalls of both Womens Lib and Socialistic Ideals is that the state alters the natural flow of life so that it is inconvient to raise children. New, often Progressive social pressures change the norm. Italy's figures are indicitive to what is happening throughout Europe excluding Ireland and France.

Europe's baby shortage crisis

Persistent Drop in Fertility Reshapes Europe's Future

The rise of the 'childfree'

To the Torches of Freedom

The Colossus of Rhodes

To you, o Sun, the people of Dorian Rhodes set up this bronze statue reaching to Olympus, when they had pacified the waves of war and crowned their city with the spoils taken from the enemy. Not only over the seas but also on land did they kindle the lovely torch of freedom and independence. For to the descendants of Herakles belongs dominion over sea and land.

Dedicatory inscription of the Colossus 290 BC

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Emma Lazarus, 1883