Languages of Love

Gumshoe has always been drawn to Latin.  It probably originated with the beautiful sounds and harmonies of Gregorian Chants that echoed inside the chapel walls and it bounced inside the ears of young Gumshoe and planted itself firmly within his noggin.

Gumshoe at that time was an altar boy at St. Mark’s Seminary in Erie, Pennsylvania back in 1963.  The Latin chants resonated within Gumshoe’s metaphysical being.

Nope!  Gumshoe did not pursue the path to leading to the priesthood nor (due the grace of God) take the path leading to perdition. Please refer to “God’s Sense of Humor” by Gumshoe for background info dear readers.

Yes, Latin has been pronounced a “dead“ language although it is the basic foundation to the “Romance” languages of which the top five are Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Romanian.

Pregnant pause:  The top four listed languages do seem to be languages of love and romance.

BUT “Romanian”?  In Gumshoe’s opinion, Romanian doesn’t sound the least bit romantic unless you are Romanian and have a fellow hairy Romanian mate.  No offense, but Romanians appear pretty darn hairy to Gumshoe.

Partners Boris and Natasha’s conversations during “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle” animated cartoon TV shows did not sound the least bit romantic. Of course they were Russian; and it was still during the Cold War folks.  Their Russian accents could be confused with Romanian.

Bela Lugosi’s “Count Dracula” did not sound romantic either when he went for your neck. Yes, Mr. Lugosi was Hungarian and he probably preferred goulash rather than your esophagus. His Hungarian accent could be confused with mumbled Romanian as he munched away. Mmmmm! The the fictional “Count Dracula” was a confin-living-dead-denizen of the real Transylvania that is located Romania. Not exactly a popular honeymoon destination especially during full moons even with your garlic necklaces in tow.

Okay, enough about Romanian for now.

Come to think of it, Gumshoe was also drawn to Spanish when he heard the rapid-machine-gun- like delivery of the over excited Espanol-speaking sportscaster during a soccer match . . . GOOOAL!

Gumshoe would cordially invite readers to his past two posts dealing with his “Adventures in Espanol” and “More Adventures in Espanol” for further reference.

Now Gumshoe arrives back to Latin.  The very first Latin phrase that the priest wrote on the seminary classroom black board was:

“Salve, assinous plenae cerversiae!” (Hello, jackass full of beer!)

This was definitely NOT a Gregorian Chant.

Until next time dear readers, always remember to love the ones who love you and really try to love the ones who don’t.

Coram Deo!