WILL our hero SURVIVE?!?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So I’m in work, generating a document, 'cause I’m a temp and that’s the sort of grunt work I do, and I type in the heading “Part Number.” In my mind, I pronounce it with a silent “b.”

Which led to this scenario springing unbidden from monotony-fevered imagination:

(Imangine this in a Vincent Price-y voice)

"So, Flash Gordon, you’ve penetrated the defenses of my Fortress of Evil! But can even you put a stop to my diabolical plan once you’ve fallen prey to my…Atomic Part Number?

As the feeling drains from your extremities, know that Xaxxor the Superlative is the source of your doom!"

(Diabolical cackling, sinister gesticulation, and what have you ensues.)

Figured the above fit this forum pretty nicely, and Nyarlathotep knows the cretins around here wouldn’t have appreciated my obvious genius for pulp science-fiction.

“Are you frightened of snakes?”
“Only when they dress like werewolves.”
-Preacher

2

Lux do like like I do.
Don’t work at all, just post.

3

I saw that movie.

That’s the one he dies in…right?

Sex is like bridge: If you don’t have a good partner, you better have a good hand.
– Charles Pierce

4

Yep. Of course, it was never approved for distribution by the studio heads, since they didn’t believe that the public wanted to see Flash Gordon die. Every reel of film was destroyed, and all that survives to this day of the movie is the script, which was bought by singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson, who is legendary among “Gordonites” as a Flash Gordon buff of the first order, in 1967.

There is actually an exchange between Xaxxor and his Chancellor after Gordon dies, which, if we remember that Nilsson only had the script, and so (the corpus of Flash Gordon scholarship in 1967 being meager at best) was unaware of the silent “b,” sheds some light on an interesting bit of music history. The conversation, as it appears in the script, follows:

Xaxxor: “Deucedly effecient, these new sentient Atomic Part Numbers, eh, Greldax?”

Chancellor Greldax: “Indeed, m’lord. Except for the first one, who’s had a bit of a problem making friends with the other Numbers.”

X: “Number Number One? It does move a bit slowly, you’re right. That’s because it’s lonely, you say?”

CG: “It’s widely known around the Fortress of Evil, m’lord, that One is the loneliest Number.”

G’night, folks, you’ve been great! Don’t forget to tip your waitress!

“Are you frightened of snakes?”
“Only when they dress like werewolves.”
-Preacher

5

“As you feel your extremities draining, know that Xxor the Superlaxative is the source of your doom!”

Doesn’t work quite as well, I guess.

-BrainWeasel

Squeaks from BrainWeasel’s Cage
http://brainweasel.home.att.net

6

With your talent as an evil genius, I’m thinking Fiat is your middle name. Your real last name is Lethor, right?

By the way, I believe the Atomic Part Number was non-lethal by itself. Once it had incapacitated Flash, he was crushed by the Atomic Weight.

“If you prick me, do I not…leak?” --Lt. Commander Data

7

OK, I can’t take it anymore. I have to say something. Lux Fiat, it means the ‘light of faith’ or whatever…I think it should be spelled Fiat Lux. If you know and don’t care that’s fine.

8

Actually, far as I know, it means, “Let there be light.”

Lux Lethor. Hee hee…!

“Are you frightened of snakes?”
“Only when they dress like werewolves.”
-Preacher

9

It just occurred to me that this is doubly funny, given that I was defending Superman over in the Batman vs. Superman thread in GD.

10

Two things:

  1. Flash Gordon’s enemy is Ming the Merciless.

  2. Latin does not concern itself with word order. “Fiat lux” and “Lux fiat” both mean “let there be light”. The Fiat-first ordering just happens to be how it appears in the Vulgate bible.

11

tracer:

  1. Well, sure, I know that. I just wanted to make up a cool intergalactic warlord name like Xaxxor. Surely you can sympathize.

  2. Thanks for the vindication. I was sweating there for a bit. I was pretty sure I had it right, but it’s always nice to get confirmation.

“Are you frightened of snakes?”
“Only when they dress like werewolves.”
-Preacher

12

More Latin fun:

“Brutus Portiam amat” means Brutus loves Portia. “Portiam Brutus amat” also means Brutus loves Portia. It does not mean Portia loves Brutus. “Amat Portiam Brutus”, “Amat Brutus Portiam”, “Brutus amat Portiam”, and “Portiam amat Brutus” all, likewise, mean Brutus loves Portia, and not Portia loves Brutus.

However, “Brutum Portia amat” does mean Portia loves Brutus, and not Brutus loves Portia. The word order is irrelevant. The case endings on the nouns (“Brutus” vs. “Brutum,” “Portia” vs. “Portiam”) are everything. In these sentences, the nouns that end in “m” are in the accusative case (the direct object), whereas the nouns that don’t end in “m” are in the nominative case (the subject). There are a grand total of SEVEN cases that a noun (and its modifying adjectives) can be in in Latin.