January 30, 2004
From the desk of Jane Galt:A Day in the Life
Today, I have tasted sorrow.
I don't usually blog personal things, but the anguish of this is too great.
I found a couch, a floor sample marked down at a considerable discount. It was lovely. It was the right size. It was . . . too expensive. But not so expensive that I couldn't, by dint of skipping a few meals, afford it. Such a sacrifice is a mere bagatelle to the committed journalist.
Nonetheless, I hesitated. It was pricey. For two weeks, I pondered. Then yesterday I made a decision. I should have my lovely couch!
You know how this ends. I got to the store to find out that they'd sold the damn thing this morning.
There will be other couches, of course. But not this couch. Due to the slobbery nature of my dog, I was looking for leather. Leather couches, in my price range (excuse me, sir . . . do you accept food stamps? cigar bands? Franklin Mint collectibles?) generally come in one color: black. I hate black furniture. It is modern. It is masculine. It thoroughly resists personalization. Stick a pillow on it though you may, the couch resolutely rejects it. It fights the pillow. And given how much bigger the couch is, the couch usually wins. Eventually you get tired of looking at your lonely pillows, valiantly fighting the tide and yet still, after months and months of careful thought and arranging, looking as if they do not belong on the sofa . . . and you remove them to a safer location. The couch, triumphantly unadorned, dominates your living room with a glowering sulk.
I am bereft. I am beyond comfort. I hate to bother you with it, dear readers, but right now I can think of nothing else. Let this be a lesson to you: when you find something you love, don't ponder, buy. Carpe couch.
Posted by Jane Galt at January 30, 2004 3:28 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksScribbler,
Wouldn't a reasonable guess make "sofa" a feminine, first declension noun? Ie "sofa, sofae". In which case, "Carpe sofam."
If Jane had said "Carpe sofa", we could have hailed her as a Latin scholar by claiming "sofa" was one of those bizarre plural nouns. This actually makes sense, since a sofa seats multiple people. (Presumably "sofus", the singular, would refer to an armchair or something.) So we'd claim that "sofa" followed the lines of "castra": sofa, soforum. That gives us "Carpe sofa".
Fwiw, the actual Latin for couch is lectus (or the diminutive lectulus, meaning small couch), and both are masculine. Lectus can also mean bed, and can mean the sort of chaise longue that Romans dined from.
My Cassell's mentions a third Latin word for sofa, "grabatus", a low couch or camp-bed. (Also masculine, btw.) Which leads to the reciprocal of Jane's mixed-language exhortation: "Grab grabatum!"
For those of you who have long memories of Megan's past posts....does the fact that you're actually somewhat interested in the Greek first declension noun for "sofa" make you "doophae"?
Uh...I meant "Latin", not "Greek". Agricola sum.
For those of you who have long memories of Megan's past posts....does the fact that you're actually somewhat interested in the Greek first declension noun for "sofa" make you "doophae"?
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