Street Wisdom

Which of the Ten Commandments Are You?

You Are “Thou Shalt Not Kill”

You are a very peaceful person, and you try to avoid hurting a fly if possible. You believe every life is sacred, and you wish there was no killing in the world.You have a kind heart and a passion for social justice. You wish things were more fair. It breaks your heart to know about hunger, poverty, disease, and violence. You are working towards change!

Which of the Ten Commandments Are You?

Blogthings: 100′s of Fun, Free Quizzes!

The Ugliness of Modern

I was going to add the word ‘Architecture’ to the title. Then I thought about this building.

In Milligan St, Perth

A Lego building. Hundreds of replicated blocks stacked on top of and beside each other.

Ashamed of the complete lack of any redeeming features, the assemblers decided that a couple of rectangular splashes of colour would help soften this very geometric, masculine edifice.

When that failed they decided to add some feminine curves. In cold stainless steel.

That failed as well.

The effect is that of a flaccid penis.

From a Roman Wall

“Excellent Caffeinus!” Libertinus shouted across to Nellus the Barristerus.

And it was indeed an excellent blend, brought all the way from Libya and roasted to perfection by the Arabian traders in their quarter of Modern Rome.

Literatus the Librarian grumbled, ‘The Caffeinus may be good but I wonder at the young people of today. They have so little culture and their education is sadly lacking.”

“You really have a grump on today”, said Verbo Ipsum. “What has brought that on?”

“Walking here today I spotted a new graffiti carved on the west wall of this open space.” explained Literatus. “It read, ‘OMFG teh phoenecian suckz LOL’. Such immaturity. And their spelling!”

“Ahh”, exclaimed Verbo Ipsum, “What else can you expect from a Forum Poster.

Sid and Sod

Coincidence? I Think Not

Hard on the heels of news of the election of  hard-right DLP inspired Senator, Joe Bullock comes the news of the death of hard-right DLP inspired Senator Harridine.

Senator Harridine was anti-Gay, Anti Contraception, Anti Choice, Anti anything progressive.

Senator Bullock will be Anti-Gay, Anti Contraception, Anti Choice, Anti anything progressive.

I wonder how long it will be before Bullock “does a Harridine” and resigns from, or is sacked by, the ALP so he may easier support his University friend, hard-right DLP inspired Tony Abbott.

About the only difference between the two, other than state of origin, is that Brian Harridine had thirteen children!

The Very First F-Bomb

How good is this?

An image is spotted on FaceBook and a little research finds so much more.

So, where did it all begin and where does that image come from?

The sources quoted are worth reading in full!

The first recorded use

The first instance of use of the word “fuck,” came from a satirical poem, written in Latin, in the year 1500. The line is referring to a group of friars, and runs like this: “Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk.” If it suddenly starts looking like Kryptonian instead of Latin after the word quia, it’s because it had to be written in code. Each letter of the word was swapped out for the letter following it in the alphabet. Remember that the alphabet was in a different order back then, and that Latin conjugates verbs differently, but gxddbov translates as “fuccant.” The overall line states, “They are not in Heaven, since they fuck the wives of Ely.” That is one racy poem!

Those early scibes were a clever lot. We learn to read and write but how many of our modern educated people could code like this, knowing that others would know how to decode. We stoop to “fxck” using the “x” because “v” and “w” are too close to the substituted letter.

The image below is of a page transcribed by a monk in 1528.

The transcription was of  “De Officiis” (On Duties or On Obligations), an essay written by Marcus Tullius Cicero during October and November 44 BC. This was Cicero’s last year alive, and he was 62 years of age. The work is divided into three books, in which Cicero expounds his conception of the best way to live, behave, and observe moral obligations. It was considered so important during the 1400′s and 1500′s that it was the second book to be printed on Gutenberg’s Press, after the Bible.

 

 

It is difficult to know whether the annotator intended “fucking” to mean “having sex,” as in “that guy is doing too much fucking for someone who is supposed to be celibate,” or whether he used it as an intensifier, to convey his extreme dismay; if the latter, it anticipates the first recorded use by more than three hundred years. Either is possible, really—John Burton, the abbot in question, was a man of questionable monastic morals.

John Burton was Abbott of Burton Abbey from 1305 too his death in 1316. There were several other “John”s as Abbot.

John de Stafford from 1260 to 1281
John of Ibestock from 1347 to 1366
John de Sudbury from 1400 to 1424

In 1528 the Abbott was William Beyne. He held office 1501-1531. He was followed by John Beaton who was Abbott from 1532-1533, just before the Reformation.

The Abbey appears to have had a lot of moral and financial problems over the centuries and certainly from the mid 1200′s onwards there were rumours of immorality amongst its leaders and the monks.

If the Scribe was referring to John de Burton, then he was doing so from legend and passed down tales within the Monastery. If he was referring to John Beaton, formerly prior of Burton, then perhaps he was anticipating a future promotion. Or perhaps there is a slight error in the timing of the above image.

NO COMMENT!

I make no comment on the possibility that this scribe was clairvoyant; seeing the future of a Great South Land and the depths to which it could tumble.