# Cougarfng, what are you saying? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 16, 2001, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cougarfng-what-are-you-saying/87838 "2001-10-16T22:47:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BigGiantHead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b4bc9f/32.png) [@BigGiantHead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigGiantHead)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cougarfng-what-are-you-saying/87838/61 "2001-10-21T19:38:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Marvel \* > “…but i figured that since i made Charybdin/Charybidis into Crunchy Frog, i may as well make Scyllam to Scylla.” > > /Lurk mode off/ > Aren’t these two creatures mentioned in “Wrapped Around Your Finger” by The Police, as in being caught between them is to be stuck between a rock and a hard place? > /Lurk mode on/ > > Patty \*\* Okay, since no one else has yet pointed out the classical reference here, I’ll go ahead and do it. Scylla and Charybdis were actually characters in Homer’s _Odyssey_, two of the many dangers he had to face on his twenty-year journey home. (This is referenced in **Scylla** ’s [profile](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php?action=getinfo&userid=4005), as well, although he currently claims to be waylaying “tavelers” [sic]). Scylla, the classical figure, was a ferocious six-headed monster, and female at that. She was large and fearsome enough to scarf up one member of Odysseus’s crew in each mouth as they passed by, skirting close to avoid Charybdis. Charybdis, also depicted as being female, was on the other side of the Strait of Messina from Scylla, no more than a bowshot away. Thrice daily she sucked down all the water in a giant swirling maelstrom, then spewed it back up again. Odysseus’s crew was well-advised by Circe to sail closer to Scylla’s side, and sacrifice a few members rather than lose the whole vessel. So, clearly, a rock and a hard place got nuthin’ on these two bitches. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cougarfng-what-are-you-saying/87838/62 "2001-10-21T20:03:27Z")
> [@](#): > > _hands **Ranam Masticatum** a brain mop_ Gaudere’s Law strikes again. In making a post correcting noun case, I make an error in noun case. That should obviously be the dative, “ **Ranae Masticato** ”, not the accusative. And no, I’m not going to even try to translate “Gaudere’s Law”… How the heck do you decline a verb? To Crunchy: Case tells you what role a noun is playing in a sentence. In English, this is indicated by word order, while in Latin, it’s done with word endings. The subject is put into the nominative case, so if I wanted to say you were doing something, I’d refer to you as “Rana” (“Frog”). Vocative is what I’d use to address you, and is almost always the same ending as nominative, so “O Rana” would translate to “Hey, Frog!”. Accusative means that something is being done to you, and would be “Ranam”. Dative means that something else is the direct object (the mop, in my quote above), but I’m doing it to or for you (“ranae”). Undoubtedly, you already knew some of this from the centurions’s lecture. ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cougarfng-what-are-you-saying/87838/63 "2001-10-21T21:15:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > \*\*How the heck do you decline a verb? \*\* The polite way is to simply say, “No, thank you. I’m all stocked up on verbs at the moment.” The impolite, but still effective, way is to say, “Piss off verb.” ---
**Author:** ![toshirodragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e68b1a/32.png) [@toshirodragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toshirodragon)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cougarfng-what-are-you-saying/87838/64 "2001-10-21T21:45:18Z")
DAMN YOU CRUNCHY FROG! I just inhaled a hunk of chocolate! that was just too funny… _wanders off giggling hysterically_ ---
**Author:** ![crazy\_nut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2bfe46/32.png) [@crazy\_nut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazy_nut)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cougarfng-what-are-you-saying/87838/65 "2001-10-22T11:13:07Z")
latin is a confusing language. im so happy i dont have to tkae it next year (Cougarfang, we dont, right?) threadspotting- i noticed, and i’m stuck with Cougarfang calling me up on a exam day to tell me to go check. Although it is sort of cool… ok- this is MY favorite latin phrase:_Bene qui latuit, bene vixit._ ---
**Author:** ![InutilisVisEst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d2c977/32.png) [@InutilisVisEst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InutilisVisEst)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cougarfng-what-are-you-saying/87838/66 "2001-10-23T19:12:00Z")
Dang. The posts aren’t even trickling in anymore and we still haven’t heard **astraeus** ’s snazzy Latin version of _Baa Baa Black Sheep_. ---
**Author:** ![BPBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/59ef9b/32.png) [@BPBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BPBob)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cougarfng-what-are-you-saying/87838/67 "2001-10-23T20:09:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by crazy\_nut \* > \*\*latin is a confusing language. im so happy i dont have to tkae it next year (Cougarfang, we dont, right?) threadspotting- i noticed, and i’m stuck with Cougarfang calling me up on a exam day to tell me to go check. Although it is sort of cool… > > ok- this is MY favorite latin phrase:_Bene qui latuit, bene vixit._ \*\* OK, what does _that_ translate as, “If you’re laying around, rent “Vixens””?? How about: “Benny broke it, so Benny fixes it”?? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cougarfang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c67d28/32.png) [@Cougarfang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cougarfang)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2001, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cougarfng-what-are-you-saying/87838/68 "2001-10-24T09:17:37Z")
**Crazy\_nut**! SHHHHHHHH!!! oh, too late. it simply means, “one who lives well lives unnoticed”, which pretty much sums up **Crazy\_nut**. 😛 _ducks_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cougarfng-what-are-you-saying/87838.md?page=3)