May 2007 Archives

I've never been content with the name Verum Peto because I always feared it was a bone-headed translation. I was right. It's supposed to mean "truth seeker" in Latin, but it's not correct. I was very concerned about this possibility because googling verum peto only yielded a few hits that mostly pointed to a group of Freemasons. And, because I doubted I was the only one clever enough to use "Truth Seeker" in Latin as a title or motto, I expected to find many more hits. I finally found a site that catalogs Latin quotations, maxims, phrases, and mottos, and verum peto doesn't appear. Sigh. Perhaps Monkus Ignoramus would have been more appropriate.

The Latin phase that I was really looking for (and that has far more relevant hits on Google) was Quaere Verum, which translates as "seek truth."

So, the name of my blog will be changed, but I'm not going to use Quaere Verum because it's too common (and because it stings a bit). Keeping with the Latin theme, here are some new alternatives. Please voice your opinions.

Compos mentis - Of sound mind (and judgement)
Deo vindice - God will prove us right.*
Ecce signum - Behold the proof
Fides quaerens intellectum - Faith seeking understanding
Lux et veritas - Light and Truth
Pactum serva - Keep the faith
Promotor fidei - Promoter of the faith
Salve veritate - Saving the truth (a little arrogant)

*I liked Deo vindice until I discovered it's the motto of the Confederate States of America.

Other options that may not be appropriate but made me chuckle:

Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo! - Make me chaste and pure, but not yet!
Huc accedit zambonis! - Here comes the Zamboni!
Lusus naturae - A freak of nature
Nolite id cogere, cape malleum majorem - Don't force it, get a bigger hammer
Pecvniate obedivnt omnia - All things obey money. Money makes the world go round
Potestatem obscuri lateris nescis - You don't know the power of the dark side. (a personal favorite)

Finally, my favorite:
Illegitimis nil carborundum - Don't let the bastards grind you down

All suggestions will be considered.

My lab got a short write-up in Mason's Gazette today. My student David and I did the photo shoot on Friday.

Sorry for the lack of posts for the past few weeks, but life has been a wild ride since Rudy died. We sold our house, packed our house, and moved into a small one-bedroom apartment 30 miles away. Meanwhile, the semester was coming to an end (this is finals week). In any case, we're settled into the 703 square-feet upstairs unit that we'll call home for the next six months or so.

Part of moving to a new area is discovering its culinary offerings. It turns out that Woodbridge has just about every restaurant you can imagine--as long as your imagination is constrained by chain restaurants. Seriously, it's an urbanite's nightmare. One of the small handful of mom-and-pop type pizza places is a take-n-bake that was written up favorably in the Washington Post. It's located just down the street from us so I swung by to pick up a pie to cook in our new place (in a brand-new oven, I might add).

I was greeted nicely enough at Papa Petrone's Take 'N Bake by a thin, gray-haired, nimble man who quickly approached the counter from the back of the store. When I asked if they had salami as a topping (which at that point I could see was not on their menu) he quickly replied "no." He asked me in a cocky tone, "Where you from?" I looked up from the menu flier and said, "California originally." He squinted and looked at me like he was Philip Baker Hall and fired, "Californians don't know shit about pizza." Stunned, I chuckled and said, "Well I don't know about that, but no one seems to have salami any more." I proceeded to place my order (pepperoni, mushroom, and black olives for the curious) without incident.

I kept replaying the conversation in my head the entire way home, laughing harder with each time. Cynthia laughed hard for a while, too. Evidently salami is a taboo topping at Papa Petrone's.