From dlupher@ups.edu Fri Mar 10 10:16:49 2000 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id KAA37222 for ; Fri, 10 Mar 2000 10:16:48 -0800 Received: from mail.ups.edu (mail.ups.edu [192.124.98.111]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id KAA06816 for ; Fri, 10 Mar 2000 10:16:48 -0800 Received: from [10.80.1.53] (howarthdhcp53.ups.edu [10.80.1.53]) by mail.ups.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id KAA15426 for ; Fri, 10 Mar 2000 10:16:43 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 10:18:30 -0800 To: classics@u.washington.edu From: David Lupher Subject: Re: Oxymoron of the day Peter Green posted this interesting "titbit from GreekWeb": >1. The STOPNATO discussion list is an openmind list where everybody can >express their oppinion about NATO's role in "New World Order". There may be quasi-classical ore to be mined here. I once got one of those phone calls that allow us to justify our miserable existence on the flimsy grounds of "community service." A gruff old gent rasped, "Say, perfesser, I need to know something. On the back of the dollar bill there's a Latin phrase 'Novus Ordo Seclorum.' Is it true that that could be translated 'New World Order'?" Well, I hemmed and hawed for a bit, drawing his attention to "magnus saeclorum ordo" in Vergil Ecl. 4.5 and pointing out that another phrase on the Great Seal, "annuit coeptis," is also Vergilian, but ultimately I had to concede that, yes, I guess you *could* translate "novus ordo seclorum" as "New World Order" if you really wanted to. "Thanks!" he barked, "That's all I needed to know," and hung up. I never did get my certificate of appreciation from the local Posse Comitatus. David Lupher Classics Dept. Univ. of Puget Sound .