Et tu, Aesop?

 ”We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.”

                                                                ~Aesop

And a related fable:

The Man, the Boy and the Donkey 

 A man and his son were going with their donkey to market. As they were walking along beside the beast, a countryman passed by and said: “You fools, what is a donkey for but to ride upon?”

So the man put the boy on the donkey and they went on their way

But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he [....]

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Me Either

“I guess I’m just an old mad scientist at bottom. Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee and I care not who writes the nation’s laws.” 

And, more portentously:

“The fact is that all of us have only one personality and we wring it out like a dishtowel. . . . You are what you are.”

                                         –S.J. Perlman

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Political Acts As Well…

“Contemplating any business act, an employee should ask himself whether he would be willing to see it immediately described by an informed and critical reporter on the front page of his local paper; there to be read by his spouse, children and friends.”

                                                               – Warren Buffett

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A Rare Moment of Self-Awareness?

 ”Never have so many gathered for so little.”

  — Gov. Jerry Brown, welcoming reporters to a Dec. 27, 2011 press availability

(It’s a riff, of course, on Winston Churchill’s line about the heroics of Royal Air Force pilots during the Battle of Britain in 1940.)

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Sage Advice from the Oracle of Omaha

“Rule No. 1: Never lose money.

“Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1″

                                                  — Warren Buffett

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Today’s Latin Lesson Is What Everyone in the Capitol Seeks: “Quaesitum”

“The Solution to a Problem”

(Literally: “That Which is Sought”)

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A Word With a Higher, Certainly Broader, Meaning Than It Appears: “Crotcheteer”

“One who fixes the mind too exclusively on one subject.One given to some favorite crochet or hobby.”

– Daniel Lyons’ Dictionary of the English Language, 1898

(Editor’s Note: A “crotchet” is an “odd, whimsical or perverse notion.”  Hence the word ” crotchety” — someone with a lot of crotchets.)

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Today’s Latin Lesson Is How the Senate Rules Committee Meets in Executive Session: “Januis Clausis’

“In Secret”

(Literally: “With Closed Doors”)

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These Might Be Hard to Use During Testimony

Patzer

Merriam-Webster: An inept chess player.

***** 

Pomerium

Merriam-Webster: A narrow strip of land marked off around an ancient Roman town or city and held sacred.

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Pyx

Merriam-Webster: 1. A container in which the consecrated bread of the Eucharist is kept. 2. Used in a mint for deposit of sample coins reserved for testing weight and fineness.

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Today’s Latin Lesson is a Type of Argument Never Heard in the Capitol: “Ad Hominem”

“Appealing to feelings or prejudices rather than intellect. Marked by being an attack on an opponent’s character rather than an answer to the contentions made.”

(Literally: “At the Man.”)

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