Frazz by Jef Mallett for April 23, 2015
Transcript:
Caulfield: It was an (A) or (B) question! You can't just add your own (C) answer! Frazz: aut viam inveniam aut faciam. Caulfield: All right... Frazz: Was that shackleton or patton? Caulfield: What? Neither. It was hannibal. Do not rub this in. Frazz: (A) Veni (B) Vedi...
homfencing over 9 years ago
Well played, Frazz….well played.
t_a_80111 over 9 years ago
Latin is NOT my native language. I do know (A) I came, (B) I saw, and not given © I conquered.
Nachikethass over 9 years ago
Hannibal would not have spoken in Latin about making a way to attack Rome – just saying!
peter over 9 years ago
Unfortunately for Frazz, he misspelled it.
pmmarion Premium Member over 9 years ago
From Google Translate: Either find a way or make one.
Enoi over 9 years ago
Wonder how many Google searches there have been for “aut viam inveniam aut faciam” in the last few hours.
Caldonia over 9 years ago
Ah, Latin! How foolish of my grade school and junior high school—all they taught was that darn Spanish!-That’s a humorous remark. In case someone misses that. Spanish is much more useful where I come from.
Strod over 9 years ago
Frazz’s argument is nonsense. Even though we learn it was a trap, Frazz’s question was worded as a genuine one, where the person asking actually doesn’t know or is not sure of the answer, and is expecting to be enlightened. For such a question, a third answer is not only acceptable but actually expected and welcomed, if it is the correct one. Caulfield’s question yesterday is not that type of question. It involved two hypothetical situations, and Frazz was asked to pick which he preferred. It is in a way similar to the question asked by the stewardess in an international flight: steak or chicken? You may want lobster, but that is simply not an acceptable answer. (A third type of question is the school test type, where the person asking actually knows the correct answer. But let’s not get into that.)
hippogriff over 9 years ago
Nachikethass: Except for official reports, most Roman frontier functionaries did not communicate in Latin, but the international language of the time, Koiné Greek..Caldonia: In the 18th century, John Wesley met Graf von Zenzendorf. Neither knew the other’s language, but being scholars, they conversed in Latin. Wesley started studying German and thus the Moravian influence on Methodism.
Vatican II was conducted entirely in Latin. Methodist observer, Albert Outler, was accused of speaking Latin with a Texas accent, but it was closer to his native Georgia.
Cannoneer over 9 years ago
My favorite translation is “We came, we saw, we kicked their ass!”.
Happy Tinkerbelle Premium Member over 9 years ago
I love the fact that this comic leads to such erudite comments.
paul brians over 9 years ago
“I will either find a way, or make one.”Latin proverb, most commonly attributed to Hannibal in response to his generals who had declared it impossible to cross the Alps with elephants.
Wikipedia
What we know about Hannibal consists entirely of accounts by Romans, so of course the speech is rendered in Latin.
Boise Ed Premium Member over 9 years ago
Amazing! Someone has added a reference to today’s Frazz in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inveniam_viam
Caldonia over 9 years ago
Yeah. Except I can’t even remember the last time I said a whole Latin or French phrase out loud. I’m pretty much lucky if I can mangle out my native tongue, English, on some occasions. -Occasionally I’ll whip out “je ne se sais quoi” (“I don’t know what”), though. What a handy phrase! “I know he’s not especially handsome, but that guy has a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’! I would totally go out with him!”-I wish I knew Spanish. I took some in college, but I didn’t remember much of it. It would come in handy in Texas, especially in the job market I think.
Caldonia over 9 years ago
Every day, in every way, Frazz teaches me I’m glad I’m not special. LOL
Goblinopolis over 9 years ago
History was written by the survivors, usually clergy cowering in their abbeys. The victors were too busy looting and pillaging to write anything down.
hippogriff over 9 years ago
Caldonia: Spanish in Texas: Not in all situations, but anywhere from a definite plus to totally essential in jobs dealing directly with the public. First (definitely) and second (to an increasing extent) generation Spanish speakers are refusing to become English only. Most third generations have largely lost the language. My congregation is officially bilingual, but less than half are fluent in Spanish, although a small majority are at least functional.
rickf1 over 9 years ago
As soon as I saw the comic yesterday it brought a smile to my face, because the saying was adopted by my high school from many years ago – Robert E Peary in Rockville, MD. I then edited Wikipedia to enter my high school and the comic :)
FrankTAW over 1 year ago
Q: Was that Shackleton or Patton. A: No.