Lost in Translation...

From the Guardian.co.uk: Charlotte Higgins "On Culture" blog The oddest classical etymologies ever? Saturday 4 April 2009 In Glasgow, at the joint conference of the Classical Association/Classical Association of Scotland, the Guardian's rather timely leader in praise of Cicero (in this morning's paper) has not gone unnoticed. I ran into Professor Mary Beard during the conference coffee break – who last night was bigging up Cicero as antiquity's greatest wit. She noted archly that Cicero was, in her view, rather an unpleasant man. A great man, but a thoroughly nasty one. I suspect we can expect Beard to air her views more fully on her brilliant blog. Anyway, over at Comment is Free (the bit of our network where leaders live), there's a bit of Ciceronian discussion underway already. And, if it's not too much of a personal plug (OK, it probably is) – I'm on the BBC2 programme we mention (Yes We Can: The Lost Art of Oratory). The show is worth watching – and not because of me! There are some great contributors, including Bill Clinton and Gore Vidal. Finally, if you are suddenly feeling desperate to learn or brush up your Latin, here is a useful page of links and resources, hosted by the brilliant Iris Project, a charity that aims to get Latin teaching into state schools. It's nice and short, so I reproduce the full text of the leader here (rest of article).