"Beware the Ides of March"

yes, it is today, Thursday, March 15th!!

Can't really say "Long Live Caeser!!" can we?

(since we celebrated Pi day yesterday, we have to celebrate the Ides of March)

Yes, we do!!

et tu skittles!

I wonder why we sould beware?
I'm sadly underinformed on the rites and beliefs of the roman empire!

If I remember Julius was given a prognostication that something 'bad' was going to happen to him on the Ides of March, hence HE had to beware.

OK! I thought it maybe had something to do with any mid-month... :-)

I come not to bury skittles but to praise him. Excellant thread. I try to use the phrase Ides of March at least once a year. This year I had a bet with a co-worker that something would happen by the Ides of March. Sadly he is a gen Y-er and I had to explain it to him.

Well, I'm technically gen-x (40ish by now) but did not know anyway. Not part of what we learn of in Sweden, apparently, or I've repressed it ;-)

Well it's not real roman history just Shakespear's play.

Oops. Didn't mean to offend. I think I was typing when you asked your question. Julius Ceasar was the first Shakespeare I read and it has always stuck with me.

Thanks, now I feel better *not* but I've only read Hamlet and it sure isn't in that one ;-)

No offense taken!

#9 umm, it is real roman history, haha

Julius Caesar was Romes greatest millitary comander, expanded the empire by like 1/3 or something insane, he also wrote the Gallic Wars AND added 67 days to the calendar to make the years the correct length, naming JULY after himself ;P

Though he aws named the first roman emperor for life and thus people became skeptical of his power and assasinated him.

Real history that Shakespeare decided to write about and stick in some funky seer that said "Beware the ides of March OOOooooOOOooOOO" lol

Yes Julius was assinated but the crone who warned him about the "Ides of March" was made up by Shakespeare and that is what I was refering to...

Yes, i wrote that in me post ^

Now we all know about Julius Caesar!! :D

...originally pronounced (Kay-zar) by the way.

Amazes how many people look at me strangely when I say this. And it's not just Gen-x or y. sigh.

Seventeen years ago I was very aware, if not beware, of the Ides of March. I was giving birth to a 9lb. 15 1/2 oz. baby boy! One of the best days of the year around here. His name is not Julius. Or Caesar.

This Ides of March, I'm home sick.

Spent three hours last night, praying to the porcelain gods. Wasn't fun. Did end up getting a day off today though, so I guess it turned out alright, right?

Happy March 15th, all! (and happy birthday to your son, MrsLee!)

Thanks bookmasterjmv, and stay out of the food fight room if your tummy is still unsettled! Be well soon.

For those of you who don't know, I am currently a high school sophomore. In my honors English class we are currently reading Julius Caesar. My teacher tried to get the test to fall on the Ides of March (today), but due to a multitude of snow days, it didn't happen. We ended up having a test over Of Mice and Men, which we read after we started JC, today instead.

sjjtitan, I work with teens & out of a group of 25 (& who have studied WS) they looked at me as if I was weird (I am, but that's a different story)...

Someone actually thought I said the "EYES" of March!!

skittles...you work with some wierd teens ;P

littlegeek - people look at you wierd when you say what exactly?

For those of us still alive...we survived the ides of march!!!! :D

>#21 - Skittles

Ugh, on Yahoo yesterday there was a little one paragraph "article" explaining that it wasn't the "eyes" of march but the "Ides." And I was like, "Oh, the humanity!"

>#22 - Tasozel

I'm really a very nice person (I promise!), but I have to correct your spelling of "weird." It's EI, not IE. I'm sorry! I had to do it!

dressagegrrrl, if you try to correct all of the misspellings on the Internet or on forum postings, you won't have time for a life....

I gave up a LONG time ago... I just grimace!! and go on.

Trust me, skittles. I am definitely one to usually let misspellings go (because gosh knows, I'm not a perfect speller). I think that's an important one though because it's so common, and it was used twice in one post.

Tasozel, pheel phree 2 kerrect ma spelin noww.

well lets all get on my case huh?

haha, to be honest its a typo, and i make billions every day (i.e. "Liek" for "Like" or "Jsut" for "Just") but i dont go through all that i type and search for them, that would be horribly tedious and boring, haha.

sorry for upsetting you and skittles, perhaps i just wont post anymore

#26- sorry for upsetting you and skittles, perhaps i just wont post anymore

Heee heee, that'll learn 'em. I noticed that more and more I'm inverting middle letters in a word when I type. Sometimes I catch them, sometimes I don't.

I make typing errors too... I'm human & I don't get on anyone's case for errors, especially in a forum setting where we are typing as we think... well in most cases people are thinking as they type.

The websites I get really mad at the spelling/grammar mistakes are ... SCHOOL WEBSITES!! Why should we trust our children to a school where they can't even correct the errors on the website (even if produced by the students). The website is a showcase of how great the school is... and unless the school wants the public to think that the school doesn't care about quality then...

The other place I dislike errors are news organization & governmental websites. They are supposed to be authoritative, not "oh, this is the "nues u need"

**climbing down off of virtual soapbox**

oh yes I spotted an error on my old school website, I was appalled that means they are still turning out students like me.

I recently spotted a typo (it's/its) on a teacher's college website. We might as well abandon all hope now....

Any website that's made by someone older than about 16 should really be free of basic spelling and grammar errors. I am totally unimpressed when I go to a website and see mistakes like that, because they're the first thing I notice.

Even crappy websites should at least have good spelling, sheesh. Spellcheck and proofreading (i.e. having someone else proofread) should be automatic.

I usually put "Beware the ides of March" on my board at school. Of course, in 8th grade, precious few of them know anything about Shakespeare or Caesar or Rome or anything else. They look at me weird and roll their eyes every year on this day.

They can't spell either, but they're under 16. I have a list at school of some interesting misspellings I have seen in papers I've graded. The only one I can think of at the moment is "sewercide". I promise I'm not making this up!

Sometimes a misspelling can be the best part of a post. Sort of like a Freudian Malaprop. Those are rare though.

I'm a terrible speller, I love the little red lines under my words that tell me to check my spelling. I don't mind being corrected though. I figure if I get corrected enough, maybe I'll start getting it right. Finally learned how to spell spaghetti and mayonnaise. Grammar gives me fits though.

#33 - Sometimes a misspelling can be the best part of a post. Sort of like a Freudian Malaprop. Those are rare though.

Absolutely! On my Groo The Wanderer mailing list we once had a guy misspell donut (alternately doughnut) as dognut.

This was in 2000, and seven years later we still make dognut jokes!!!

ON the juxtaposed letters within a word I tend to find that my right hand is just fractionally faster than my left, so any inverted letter pairs are RH before LH when it should be the other way around. Anyone else notice this? Lefthanders notice the opposite?

I've NEVER thought of it but now when you mentioned it...

*checking how I type and how the errors are distributed*

...yes, that's the pattern!

I think my right hand is more than fractionally faster than the left, though ;-)

That's very clever of you reading_fox. You're right! I'd never noticed that before but I do believe my right hand if just a tick faster than my left - very interesting....

I'm always hasseling my daughters about their spelling in emails. They just look at me blankly, say "yes Mum" and go on their merry, terribly spelling way. I attribute their atrocious spelling to the instant texting they do on their phones and in chat rooms. Do you think our language will evolve to incorporate thoughts like "c u" or "lol" or will these examples always remain in the texting/chat room arena?

I hope hope hope they stay in the chat room, but I've started occasionally hearing people say textspeak/chatspeak out loud. It's disturbing.

"hearing people say textspeak/chatspeak out loud. It's disturbing."

Of course I'm sure your grandparents were saying the same thing baout the youth of their day, and the world hasn't ended yet. Changed beyond all recognition, but not yet ended.

Language mutates. Almost by definition of what language is. Providing the speaker is understood by the speakee then everything is fine. Of course speakers need to remember that not all speakee's share their current vocabularly.

I'm currently reading Snow crash which has a big issue with whether languages are diversifying or not. Will be all be speaking mandarin in 100yrs time, or a million fractured englishs?

#39 - ...as I remembers it Snow Crash also has some interesting thoughts in how ideas travel - that was my entry to the writings of Neal Stephenson, and I really think his writing has evolved in a positive way since back then :)

I agree 1000% on language. I know words I used frequently when a kid which no longer means anything to anyone. Also there are words and similies no longer valid as no one has to know the specific name of the blade of a scythe, etc.

#35 - YES! I think you are right! I tend to type "recieve" when I know it's "receive", but not "peice" for "piece"!!!

Eureka!!!

If you had a Mac it would correct for you (in all honesty must admit the "others" have a spell-check prograsm too). Esta1923

why do my entries always have a pencil and an X when others do not? Esta1923

#43 - One of the best features here as far as I'm concerned. The pencil allows you to edit your own messages after you have posted them, and the X allows you to delete your message.

#42 - I do have a Mac but it doesn't autocorrect everything at all times. I actually hate autocorrect because it always wants to correct things that aren't always wrong.

I have turned autocorrect off. Spellcheck and grammar check is on though, even if it annoys me - I always get the "elderly or bureaucratic" note.

As for MrGrooism I'm not always as wrong as the software thinks I am ;-)

Autocorrect - if only it could have an english setting rather than an american one! I like my humour as it is!

#40 - I don't. I'm enjoyign snow crash and loved The Diamond Age but Quicksilver really didn't agree with me at all. I came very close to not finishing it, and was very glad to move onto something else afterwards. I've no inclination to read the rest of the trilogy, and will select future works by Neal Stephenson with great care.

#47 - Initially Snow crash was a concept for a graphic novel, and I think that is reflected in the imagery of the text! A great novel.

I wasn't that happy with The Diamond Age, even though I have read it more than once, but I LOVED Cryptonomicon and think Quicksilver and its sequels are even better. I know his work is not widely appreciated but I really enjoy the convoluted stories he writes. He connects closely with the areas of history of ideas, science and economics, and all three areas interests me. Maybe that's why I find the books interesting - not as works of art but as discurses on topics I find intriguing.

He's no good at endings, though, I get disappointed every time.

Well I should find them interesting I enjoy the history of science and idea concepts and enjoy novels which turn into discourses along those lines. Its one of Stephen Donaldson's strongest points, and makes Snow crash fun. I've nearly finished it and I still haven't decided which "side" is a "good" aspect of our modern society.

But for me there is no spark in Quicksilver It started just about ok, I was wondering where it was going to go, answer nowhere really, by halfway through I was bored, and fed up with the characters. Maybe he just needs a really strong editor, now that he's "famous". I've never been really taken by alternative history though. I suspect I'll give crytonomican a miss unless I find a really cheap copy when I've a long journey to make.

#49 - Yes, he COULD do with a strong editor. Most writers do. But I enjoy the alternate history stuff, and then maybe that's why I liked it and you didn't :-)

Cryptonomicon is easier, and not really alternate - it retells/appropriates a couple of RL WWII incidents, places and persons and he uses them in a way that is surprisingly close to what really happened (I have a nonfic book on crypto and WWII partly retelling the same events - The Battle of Wits).
The part of the storyline set in the present is maybe not as intriguing as the historical one, but I found it good none the less.

If you find a cheap copy I think you could maybe be surprised ;-)