The best signatures

[Domski]

Tried running it through an on-line translator and it gave up.

Something to do with the vine of life according to Google although nobody seems to be sure. Makes me feel (slighlty) less thick at least.

 

[joefrench]

Tried running it through an on-line translator and it gave up.

Something to do with the vine of life according to Google although nobody seems to be sure. Makes me feel (slighlty) less thick at least.

This is what I got with Google....but it seems that it's just a guess/approximation...
Uva uvam vivendo varia fit --"The changing vine becomes the living vine."
http://members.aol.com/katydidit/ktscrols.htm

 

[Patience]

'keep your snake eggs in a vivarium that's big enough'

Spot on! That's exactly what it means!

Not really, although it is Latin, and deliberately bad Latin.

[link] http://alkek.library.txstate.edu/swwc/ld/ldex081a1.html [/link]

The Latin phrase that appears on the Hat Creek Cattle Company sign in "Lonesome Dove" is a garbled corruption, and there's no direct translation. It derives from the scholia to Juvenal 2.81 which cites the proverb "uva uvam videndo varia fit" This means something like "a grape changes color [i.e., ripens] when it sees [another] grape"

Novelist Larry McMurtry probably intentionally misused the Latin, perhaps to make a point about Augustus McCrae's tenuous understanding of the language.

From there, any number of interpretations have arisen to explain why McMurtry chose to communicate that particular idea. Probably the soundest theory is that the phrase serves as a metaphor for the group's journey, as many of the story's characters go through a process of personal maturation and development. Much like grapes ripen in the presence of others.

It seems fitting for a place where shared learning and ideas stimulate an increase in knowledge and to some extent self-knowledge. And the fact that it is really bad Latin and means nothing, suggests that there is always more to learn.

And I love the book and the mimiseries of Lonesome Dove, particularly the chracter of Gus McRea who thinks he is clever because he 'knows' Latin.

 

[Patience]

This is what I got with Google....but it seems that it's just a guess/approximation...
Uva uvam vivendo varia fit --"The changing vine becomes the living vine."
http://members.aol.com/katydidit/ktscrols.htm

That article is slightly inaccurate (and contains a big plot spoiler!) as it doesn't refer to 'Lonesome Dove' as it claims, but 'Return to Lonesome Dove' which is a good but not very good sequel to 'Lonesome Dove' (and was not written by Larry McMurtry.)

 

[al_b_cnu]

This thread might get moved to 'Questions in other languages' if we're not careful :¬/

If it's any consolation, if I'd understood it before, it would have got my vote

 

[Expiry]

Ok, it took me a couple of times through to get that one!

1st read - "What the .......???"

2nd read - "Oh I get it"

3rd read - "Groan"

I think it definately qualifies as a groaner!! But a good effort none-the-less!! Good spot!

There are 2 reasons why it qualifies as a groaner:

1. You're groaning because it's the kind of genius that you wish you'd thought of.

2. It's a really rubbish play on words.

Come on, Expiry! You can do better than that.

 

[Patience]

This thread might get moved to 'Questions in other languages' if we're not careful :¬/

If it's any consolation, if I'd understood it before, it would have got my vote

Ah well, I am flattered! I can't claim to have thought of the words, but I am flattered none the less.

 

[RossMcColl]

Reminds me of a phrase i saw (although I can't remember the exact changes) rephrasing the famous poem "Dulce et Decorum est" which reads:

Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori - meaning "how fitting it is to die for ones country"

And someone had reworded it to be "how fitting it is to die for ones failed timeline"

There are a lot of people in our IT department that assume they're intelligent because they "know" latin...


But I feel we digress