Saturday, July 26, 2008

Apathy Jack writes:

“Alright, let’s get this clear: If you go to university and spend time with a lot of educated people, then you will doubtlessly have many opportunities to discuss Roman epic poetry. However, if, as I suspect you will, you all end up working at McDonald’s, you will never have to talk about The Aeneid, so it won’t matter that some of you keep pronouncing Dido ‘Diddo’ and saying ‘Vir-Gil’ with a hard ‘G’ sound. However, let’s at least make sure we can spell them right for that credit-heavy end-of-year exam, alright?”
“What if McDonald’s introduces an Aeneid happy meal? Then we’d have to learn how to say them properly.”
“Well, in that unlikely event, you can correct all of the uneducated people who ask for a Diddo happy meal. I can just picture you in your McDonald’s uniform with a look of smug superiority on your face as you say ‘I think you’ll find it’s pronounced Dido’.”

3 comments:

llew said...

Timely piece (arguing with teenager the correct work/life (McDonalds job/school) at the moment.

I must tell her that she's in danger of missing the Aristophenes Frogs lecture which makes inventive use of a Kermit the Frog glove puppet.

llew said...

the word "balance" should have been in there somewhere. That'll teach me to waste my time in Classics lectures.

Rich said...

It's "Dye-Doh" right? You mean the English singer that Eminem sampled on Stan? Was there another one?