Day two of driving 55

That crazy driver behind me was really up my tailpipe this morning. I looked back in the rear-view mirror and she made a rude, condescending gesture with the back of her hand, fingers splayed out beneath and sweeping forward a few times, as if I were a cat who needed to be shooed out of her way. I made another gesture, then followed it up with a leftward jerk of my thumb to tell her to go ahead and pass me if she were in a hurry. But she stuck to my bumper like I had a trunk full of neodymium magnets, and as soon as I was boxed in by a passing semi, she sped up to intimidate me. Honestly, I was tempted to use my brakes to get her to back off me, but I realized that my car was much smaller than her school bus. Ahem. I'm glad I got her bus number before she turned onto I-4.

Seriously. I expect a certain amount of aggression from my fellow drivers, but I also expect people to refrain from aggressive, intimidating, and dangerous driving when their vehicle is full of children. And I believe that Hillsborough County Schools expects the same.

Photo: "School Bus Top" by Todd Klassy
 

Never go in against a Sicilian...

I got an answer from a complete stranger thanks to our mutual friend poppinjaye:

Hmmm. This is tricky.

It's highly idiomatic English, and can probably only be rendered by equally idiomatic Latin. There is certainly no way to do this literally.

My first instinct is something like "Noli Sicano adversari de morte" (literally - "Don't oppose a Sicilian concerning death."). It doesn't feel quite right, though.

Perhaps the person who wrote this was on the right track. For "when death is on the line" might well be something like "cum de morte res agatur" ("When the situation is conducted concerning death" might be the closest idiom to "when death is on the line"). But I'm still not sure about "Never go in against a Sicilian" . . . The Romans don't have a command "never!" There is a word for "never," "numquam," but it isn't used in commands, really.

I suppose one could phrase it "Numquam debes" ("You should never," "you ought never to").

Perhaps "Cum res de morte agatur, Sicano adversari numquam debes." ("When the situation concerns death, you ought never to oppose a Sicilian.")

Hope that helps,
Colin Brodd

Teacher of Latin and Classical Humanities
Plymouth North High School
Plymouth, MA

"Qua(e) patres difficillime
adepti sunt nolite
turpiter relinquere" - Bradford Monument,
Plymouth, MA