And Frederick II was a colorful guy. Have I ever shown you how, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he is the 666 referred to in the Apocalypse?

Chris, I think you're right. The animal is asinus. Besides, Henry Beard translates "cover your ass" as protege tuam pugam.

Osculamini is beyond me. I know osculum as a noun and basiare as a verb, but that's all.

James, why do I experience a mild sense of alarm whenever you offer to prove something "beyond the shadow of a doubt"?

Is Hohenstaufenin a plural formation in some other language?

Teresa, I don't know how good a Latinist I am. I am really just a geek who for some reason carries grammar and dictionary around with me, and have the skill to read the dictionary. As for what language 'Hohenstafenin' might be, your guess is as good as mine. Greek was popular in the Roman world, but isn't really right for the period.
I can suggest clunis for the kissing object, though...

I don't understand what the author was thinking of: "-in" isn't a Latin ending; and, though, in German it is, making a noun feminine (example: "Lehrerin", female teacher) why use it in the context of an otherwise all-Latin sentence?

By the way, I read dictionaries too. But I had exactly one semester of Latin, plus whatever I've been able to pick up since, so my grasp of its grammar is a tad oversimplified.

Jon, I'm not entirely comfortable admitting conjectural typographical errors to the discussion, but if the creators of that action figure wavered between Hohenstaufenis and Hohenstaufenen but didn't double-check their corrections, they could have come up with an inadvertently hybridized form. Then again, if we admit conjectural typographical errors, anything could have happened.

And if sunday wasn't a day of rest, he'd kick it twice.

This -- along with Mr. Brun's comment on "filii" being indeed the plural "sons," and his later comment that "Hohenstaufenin" is probably a typo for the singular genitive "Hohenstaufenis," which makes as much sense as any pseudo-Latin form for that proper name -- would give us "Sons of the Hohenstaufen, you are kissing my donkey."

Which, for all I know, may be an incredibly erudite historical joke that I don't have the Middle Ages chops to get. Or it could just be a sloppy translation.

Except that "-mini" can also be a plural imperative, as noted above. That reading makes more sense here.

Lara,
undoubtedly your Jesus action figure carries an inscription that says Innocens, fili meus, pugilare asinum tuum omni diebus hebdomadis possum

(By the way, I really wish they would put the instructions for using Latin dictionaries in the dictionaries themselves, rather than in the grammar. It puzzled me greatly back when I was young and clueless.)

Dr. Paisley

There are several Latin expressions for "buttocks": clunes, nates, or puga/pyga. So you can say "kiss my ass" as "osculamini meas clunes/meas nates/meam pugam." My personal fave is "clunes"; I have translated "pulled out of my ass" as "e clunibus tractum" for the obvious parallel. It's as good a motto in these times as any.

Is there a Doctrine of Papal Action Figure Infallibility?

Pulling out of one's ass clearly implies the anus to me, rather than the buttocks -- possibly okay to use metaphorically, but Latin metaphors in our current society are two steps removed from what most people might actually comprehend.

Ah, anatomical pedantry -- can you tell I'm a massage therapist with a degree in Zoology?

Cheers,
Tom

Jon: No such thing, thank goodness. All I had in mind was that admitting conjectural typographical errors hugely expands the latitude of interpretation.

Is anyone going to have a go at James Murray's "shiny metal ass"?

The first part just means "kiss my ass" simpliciter, as fans of the band FKA the Pogue Mahones will be aware. There's no good alternative to the boring loan-word "miotal" for metal - while the word for brass was often used to mean metals in general, the adjectival form now means a slapper. "Lonnrach" primarily means glittering, but the main alternative "soilseach" implies beaming out light.

http://www.ceantar.org/ has some online searchable dictionaries in all three Gaelic languages for anyone who wants to amuse themselves further.

The only things one can (literally) pull out of one's buttocks are things like arrows, needles, hair etc. I'm unclear on what the metaphor would mean in that case. Can you explain?

Teresa, what shop is it? Where? What other oddities would they have?

Much debate on what Heinlein movies SHOULD be made, with several dismissed as "too much talk." I spoke up for "My Dinner with Andre" and my wife wondered where we could buy "My Dinner with Andre Action Figures"... Starship Troopers II predicted (by me) to be ultraviolent, as directed by Phil Tippett. Live reading from Heinlein Biography, too.

Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving.

In any past century, who are, say, the 10 people you'd most like to hang out with and talk to at a party?

Using the 20th C as a marker -- TNH, who everyone here has heard of. Carol Ladas-Gaskin. R. Lionel Fanthorpe. Ted Sturgeon (okay, he's pretty well known). Jane Robinson. Rich Dutcher. Elise Matthesen (also known here). Candy Soderstrom Davis (the for-fee editor I alluded to earlier on Open Thread 12). Laurie Gottlieb Edison. If I want to add someone famous, Gregory Bateson.

People I've never met are likely to have significantly different interests, in terms of party and hanging, than those I have met. Crafting a group of 10 people who would have a conversation that would be likely to knock my socks off -- that's a much more fun exercise, and one that feels more achievable.

Who are the ten people you've met, or feel you know the most about, who you'd love to have a 4 hour conversation with?

Cheers,
Tom

You countergamingly ask: "Who are the ten people you've met, or feel you know the most about, who you'd love to have a 4 hour conversation with?"

One-on-one conversation can be heaven, but I think that an intimate party of N people can have N! conversations, sparking off each other... Or at least N(N-1)/2, So maybe heaven-squared.

Well, to start with someone from your list that I co-wrote with, and continue with others I met and conversed with repeatedly and miss continuing conversation, all of whom knew more than a little about, all now passed on, alas:

(1) Theodore Sturgeon;
(2) Dr. Timothy Leary [spent time with him at Hacker 2.0 or Hackers 4.0, remember introducing my wife to him at a Norman Spinrad party);
(3) Dr. Herman Kahn [head of Rand, founded Hudson Institute; dated his daughter];
(4) Prof. Richard Feynman [co-author with, many wonderful days together];
(5) Jerry Garcia (amazingly intelligent, insightful, picked my vrain for hour about Astrronomy; and I actually saw him decline an offer of free narctoics, backstage once);
(6) Dr. Carlos Castenada (discussed the problems he had with his first book as Ph.D. dissertation: his committee demanded his field notes];
(7) Allan Ginsberg [again, many times together, corresponded; on stage together; alternately extremely funny & profound];
(8) Poul Anderson [vastly well read, consummate gentleman; many times together, always kind];
(9) Prof. Isaac Asimov [bought stories from me for anthology, I brought him on as my Guest of guest" on the NBC-TV Todat Show; life of the party, yet, I thought, always sad inside];
(10-tie) Marianne Moore, poet, neighbor of mine;
(10-tie) Prof. Claude Shannon, founder of Information Theory, [several times in conversation with him and, once, his wife].

I am an arrogant, egotistical person in many ways, yet I know that I am clearly lesser than any of these 10, yet all were generous with their time and attention. I'd almost be content to be silent in that imaginary party, and yet I know that I could quote any one to any other and provoke a fascinating thread...

I still have many friends, but these indicate how deep the void in my life from notable people I knew, now gone, before I even get into my immediate family, once so large, now so diminished. I think I would go mad without the love of my wife and son, and the conversations with smart, empathetic people on-line and through literature.

But the people from other centuries... That's maybe heaven-cubed. And why, sometimes late in life, we enjoy reading History, or at least Historical Novels...