Cicero Is My Guidance Consular

"Guidance consular," spotted in a New Jersey administrative decision.

Well, to be fair, guidance was an important feature of the consular's role. (The Latin noun for someone who had already served as a consular is "consularis," but "consular" is a standard Anglicization.) The administrative decision, so you can see the word in situ, is here.

Comments

[Ben_]

These sorts of posts are risky. Someday the person making the error will be one of the very special people and you will be declared guilty of something for highlighting it.

[LawTalkingGuy]

What on earth are you talking about? He’s talking about a typo in this post.

[Ben_]

Very special people have rights. Those include, but are not limited to, never having negative interactions with others or experiencing negative attention. Pointing out a typo is negative attention.

Today’s "talking about a typo" is tomorrow’s "dog whistle".

Remember when those people got in trouble for playing circle game?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/us/ok-sign-white-power.html

What on earth are you talking about? Just shows you’re old or out of touch or both. Or you’re pretending.

[LawTalkingGuy]

No. I’m a normal person where not every anodyne post is a confirmation of my paranoid delusions about how the world works.

[Ben_]

And yet, those cadets playing circle game might have avoided trouble had someone like me been there to warn them.

[LawTalkingGuy]

You’re hopeless.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Why are you refusing to address the similar professor who spoke Chinese?

[LawTalkingGuy]

The better question is: why are you bringing it up on a post about Latin?

[Sarcastr0]

Why are you refusing to address the similar professor who spoke Chinese?

'This real thing happened and was dumb and bad, therefore I can make up whatever I want!'

Come off it, man. Stick to being outraged about real stuff.

[Ben_]

Avoiding problems is the opposite of hopeless.

[Sarcastr0]

Making up problems and then acting like they're real is not how you keep hope alive.

[Ben_]

Says the guy who anticipates the next Covid mutation to bring back societal restrictions — and to justify continuing the current restrictions (forever?) even though Covid has become a fast-waning problem.

[Sarcastr0]

You appear to be making things up again, Ben_.

I've never said anything like that.

[Ben_]

I looked back and you are correct. Don Nico was talking about the glorious future of covid, and you appeared to agree with him but that wasn't the precise substance of the agreement.

[Longtobefree]

Well, it was just an administrative decision, so - - - - -

[Longtobefree]

But I suspect knowing Latin is racist.
It can lead people to think "decimate" only means killing 10% of the military age males instead of total destruction.

[Gandydancer]

I didn't know "consular" was a noun. So there's that.

[LawTalkingGuy]

I had to translate First Oration against Cataline in high school for Latin III. Did not enjoy it. The Gallic Wars and the Aeneid were much more interesting. Although the Gallic Wars did have a bunch of lists of things.

[Gandydancer]

Cicero, Julius C. and Vergil cover much of a range of dates? Was the Latin pretty much the same?

[Gandydancer]

...Virgil...

[santamonica811]

For Years Five and Six of my Latin (Jr High and HS), I did nothing other than translate the Aeneid every morning, from 8-9 a.m.. [Once in a great while, I also got to tutor the first year students.] These last few years of Latin class were about the 6th concentric circle of hell, as far as I was concerned. It being an 8 am class was the hellish cherry on the top of that hellish sundae.

[Sarcastr0]

My first 3 years of Latin were super useful and recommended.

My second 3 years were much less useful unless I planned to become a professional classicist. Cicero needs to get to the verb sooner, ffs. ANd part II of the Aenead, which is super boring.

[LawTalkingGuy]

I had a sort of friend who loved HS Latin and did in fact become a classics professor.

[Sarcastr0]

My HS crush did that.

[Gandydancer]

My French and German were an utter waste of my time. If they'd concentrated on translation it might have been useful... in grad school. But language-for-tourists....

[Gandydancer]

Is anyone else than I having a problem posting? Any time I do it takes me back to no comments, with "show comments" non-functional unless I use it to open a new window (or, maybe, tab).

[Ridgeway]

At least he didn't say "God is my Copulate."

[Ben_]

This presumes that the mob cares about their targets. Sometimes they care. Sometimes any target will do.

[Sarcastr0]

Dude, making a joke pointing out a typo in an administrative decision is not really a candidate for mob outrage.

Sorry, you cancel culture paranoia just makes you look silly here.

[Ben_]

Not this time maybe.

Next time there might be something specific to be gained from launching an attack.

[Ben_]

I’m not joking.

It’s not a big risk, but it is a risk. The time to understand that is before you need to understand it, while you can still do something.

[David Nieporent]

Powerful people do petty things, like cause a traffic jam on a bridge for a traffic survey, when they don’t get their way.

You mean "for political revenge, while claiming it was for a survey." And speaking of which, Bridget Kelly, convicted of a felony¹ for her involvement in that scheme, is now running for election to be Bergen County clerk.

¹FTR: said conviction was overturned by SCOTUS, not because she didn't do it but because the federal crime with which she was charged didn't match her actions.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

My guidance counselor suggested I attend vocational school and prepare for a career in plumbing and heating, aircraft maintenance, or some type of "nuclear fabrication."

He developed this recommendation solely from my home address.

When I told him I planned to attend a university, he seemed surprised and responded: 'College is not for everyone. It's very expensive and may not give you the skills you will need in life.'

I never made another meeting with that guy.

[Krayt]

My one interaction with the guidance counselor was her showing up at my computers class and saying, "Here's an MIT application, you should fill it out." Which I proceeded to ignore and went to Michigan instead, giving question as to whether I was that bright to begin with.

Eh, they both have flags on the moon. Good enough.

[LawTalkingGuy]

The worst crimes are the hypothetical ones.

[Sarcastr0]

If it's so damn common, Ben, you don't need to make up scenarios where it happens to get angry about.

Your cancel culture fan fiction sucks.

[LawTalkingGuy]

It’s a big risk to make an awful pun?

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

They tried to cancel that professor for speaking Chinese and willfully misunderstanding him. You can't use logic on someone whose entire rationale depends on being outraged.

[Ben_]

See, here’s your problem. I specifically said "it’s not a big risk".

Maybe that’s why you don’t understand the point? It’s hard to guess how long this disability has been in effect.

[Ben_]

Best be careful to avoid those then.

[LawTalkingGuy]

“You can’t use logic on someone whose entire rationale depends on being outraged.”

I guess that’s why I’ve been getting no where with Ben.

[Ben_]

What on Earth are you talking about?. That would never happen. Stop the "paranoid delusions" !!!!

(This time I am sort-of joking. It should be obvious, but reading comprehension can’t be assumed.)

[LawTalkingGuy]

No I understand your point. Your point is ridiculous.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

If people can work up faux-outrage and nearly cancel a professor for pretending to misunderstand his Chinese, they can damn well do the same for jokes.

[LawTalkingGuy]

But it didn’t happen. It’s in your head. You and Ben are getting outraged about an imaginary scenario you made up.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

You don't remember the Chinese-speaking professor? If that's what you mean, say so. If you do remember it, and deny the similarity, you must be a lawyer with a losing case.

[LawTalkingGuy]

I remember it. I fail to see the similarity to this post.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

No, it isn't. Pretending to misunderstand a Chinese work which only a fool would think sounds like a prohibited word, they can do the same with a Latin word, especially when they have other reasons to want that professor punished.

[Ben_]

Appreciating the absurdities of these situations doesn’t help the victims of them.

[LawTalkingGuy]

This situation that is in your head. Because no one is getting cancelled over making a blog post about Latin.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

That other professor almost got canceled for speaking Chinese.

[LawTalkingGuy]

So? This isn’t Chinese. This isn’t that professor. You so desperately want someone to oppress you you’re making up fan fiction about a different professor being shunned by society for making a joke about the word “consul.”

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

You deny the similarity of the two instances? Man, they are close enough to qualify as a QI precedent.

[LawTalkingGuy]

There is no similarity. One is a blog post about a typo using a Latin word that doesn’t sound like anything offensive. The other thing was a professor at a different school with a batshit admin that completely overreacted.

No one is going to come for EV because of Latin puns. They couldn’t even get rid of him for his n word enthusiasm. Stop trying to be hypothetically oppressed by proxy. It’s embarrassing.

[Gandydancer]

I don't know this "Chinese" example, but I do remember the black prof who made a big fuss over "niggardly". Is this like that?

[LawTalkingGuy]

It’s not obvious with you, because you rarely joke and have over the top reactions to pretty much everything.

[Ben_]

You’re like the guy who ignores his lawyer's advice because he’s optimistic that things will turn out fine.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"He developed this recommendation solely from my home address."

Nah. He probably saw you from behind.

[David Nieporent]

In retrospect, he was right, though.

[Ben_]

No one is angry and no one made up anything.

[Gandydancer]

Scenario where attempted cancellation over innocent word or phrase happens: "Trap house".

[LawTalkingGuy]

“These sorts of posts are risky”

You absolutely made up this risk.

“Someday the person making the error will be one of the very special people and you will be declared guilty of something for highlighting it.”

You are absolutely Angry at the existence of the hypothetical people oppressing you.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I once watched someone sling a similar crack at Keith Richards, who paused, took a long drag from his cigarette, exhaled, looked me in the eye, smiled conspiratorily, and said something along the line of: 'Well, this wee lad just might have a point there, eh? Who's to say, really?'

In this case, Mr. Nieporent: What Keith said.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

He made a point of confirming precisely where I lived before offering his guidance.

I wonder what he thought as he watched my careers develop in the newspapers and on television. Maybe he thought 'why is that plumber always on my TV -- or did he become a television repairman?'

[Ben_]

"You absolutely made up this risk."

No, risks are real. You can look up the definition of the word "risk" if you need help understanding that risk doesn’t mean a specific future is guaranteed.

"… hypothetical people oppressing…"

People aren't hypothetical. I’m against double standards. Would you like to claim that applying punitive double standards isn’t oppressive?

[LawTalkingGuy]

Some risks are real. Some are made up. Like the risk of being eaten by Bigfoot is made up. So too is the risk of being canceled for making a pun on the word “consular.” You completely made that up.

And the people you’re talking about are hypothetical. There are no “special people” out there who would get offended by a pun on the word “consular.”

[Sarcastr0]

The only double standard here is between real life and stuff you made up.

[Ben_]

There are special people. They get to decide to be offended by whatever they want. This specific pun is safe until it's not. The next one might not be safe. There's no way for anyone to know.

[Gandydancer]

Therer are a lot of assholes on TV, but I don't believe any of them are you. Given the amount of time you spend stalking EV it's a lock that you have no other life.