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In 10th grade, Dr. D wished to impress his friends and so boned up on his Latin phrases. It didn't make him as cool in the hallways as he thought it might. In pace requiescat, foreign-language Fonzie catchphrases.
Nothing much has changed since then; Dr. D is still trying to impress his friends and still coming off more like Wayne Knight than Dennis Miller. That won't prevent you from taking a selfie, next April 4, with one of these handy SSI in-the-know saber slogans. You probably know more Latin than you thought you did, eh?
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REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM "reduction to the absurd" refers to SSI's favorite strategem, that of refuting baseball baloney by taking a lousy argument to its logical extreme. This gorgeous Latin pomposity can be used when we are riffling thru all potential 17-man pitching staffs built around Micah Owings. At the park it can be used when either Leonys Martin, Pat Venditte, or James Paxton are deployed.
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CAVEAT EMPTOR "let the buyer beware" - brandish this when any long-bearded Red Sox steps to the mound for us, or when you are ruing the day you bought an SSI coffee mug with Gene Wilder on it, or when Nelson Cruz steps to the plate in blatant defiance of blog-o-sphere virtual rioting.
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PERSONA NON GRATA "a person unacceptable" - GM Viktor Korchnoi once wrote a self-important book with exactly this title. Dr. D has courageously refrained from doing the same. Steve Clevenger could exploit it beautifully on his Twitter account.
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COGITO ERGO SUM "I think, therefore I am" - best waved from the cheapest seats, while somebody else in your "posse" brandishes a 4-foot face of Donald Trump.
No! NOT that one where his teeth are against his lower lip in prep for roaring some word that starts with F, like "foreign aid blows chunks" or whatever he was going to say. That face would be too EASY. Easy is not funny; get that straight. Get a giant Cogito Ergo Sum in "trumpfont" to go with a face such as
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Cogito Ergo Sum is also great when Brandon League is swapped in from the other bullpen, or when Nathan Karns throws a 1-2 fastball three feet outside.
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AD HOMINEM "to [attack] the man" - kind of tough to actually deploy at the ballpark, this slogan is more useful in the postgame blogs. Various hominids at the P-I forums can relate. It was originally -- say, a few thousand years ago -- meant to insinuate that the attacker had a vapid logic and an inability to control his/her anger. However, after the past 18 months it seems to have lost some of its pejorative force.
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A CANE NON MAGNO SAEPE TENETUR APER "a boar is often held by a not large dog" - there. Let's see if Terry's ruler-wielding Catholic teachers taught him that one. :: waits, looks, gives satisfied nod :: Dr. D would pay good money, and that's no joke, if a Denizen actually got onto ROOT TV with this sign during an Hisashi Iwakuma two-hitter.
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MEMENTO MORI "remember, you'll die" - rally the troops for 1-year Zack Cozart rentals with this two-poled banner. Remember, prospects geeks, next year's pennant is worth something just like 2022's is.
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Build your own,
Dr D
En Flagrante Delicto
In fiery crime. English is "flagrant foul" Means caught red handed in the act itself. Like Doc catching a baseball with his Trout jersey on and being featured on the jumbotron.
Nullum Gratuitum Prandium
Theres no free lunch. In the American League anyway if not America. Credit Ray Troll.
. . . .not include the famous Aquinas line: Quod visum placet? That which pleases merely by being seen.
Is a grand theme of aiki aesthetics - taking it on faith that beauty will most often lead to success. So putting a glove wizard next to Robinson Cano might not be too tough on the eyes, and might not work out so badly either :- )
There was a whole James Paxton Latin phrase pageant on the site a few years back. Pax incendium, or peace through arson, was my favorite. Can't find the link.
while I think about the most recent move.
Ars ad victoriam. (Art of, or in, victory) Spectacular dives, 100MPH fastballs, bases stolen with ease, phenomenal off balance throws, a suicide squeeze, pitches that jump away from the path of a bat, a perfectly placed bunt and towering homeruns. I've seen a lot of most of that from the current roster, could use more speed and spectacular defense.
In omnia paratus. (Ready for anything) Waiting for Dipotos next move, with the understanding that none of us will have guessed it.
Panem et circemses. (Bread and circuses) What the ownership group often seemed more concerned with supplying than victories. This may be somewhat the same ownership group, however that majority owner is entirely gone as are the leading decision-makers selected by them. To say it is the same so quickly is to ignore that fact and refuse to see any others in the details of what happens after the changeover. We're only a few months into this changeover, it may not all be bread and circuses.
and I'd completely forgotten we have a lawyer in the room. :- ) Well, I'd forgotten that lawyers know Latin. LOL.
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Forgot about the Paxton thread? My memory is a travesty; are you sure that was at SSI? Pax Incendium is so beautiful. I study a fair bit of Greek (/Latin) but had never noticed that Paxton's name underlines the word "Peace." And had forgotten about the goddess. K-Pax brings a "ton" of "peace" to my Unit-regretting soul, that is for sure.
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Would Deus Ex Machina, for those of us who had lost hope entirely, characterize the preposterously happy change of ownership in any sense?
"after this, therefore because of this"
Refers to the fallacy of conflating the causality of one event to the event immediately succeeding it.
As in: James Paxton, in a 1-2 count, cracks off a sizziling, beautiful yellow hammer at a righty's back shoe then, limbs strewn akimbo, reorganizes himself in time to watch the shortstop throw the easy double play into section 118.
Looking forward to the solomn talking head tell me all about Paxton's lack of will to win.