Latin "informants" wanted at the Daily Show! Yes, that would be "wanted" in the sense of "needed"....In the fore-math of the election of Joseph Ratzinger to the post of pontifex maximus, Jon Stewart's late-night TV cohort Stephen Colbert brought out a spoof attack ad with text in "Latin" [video clip here]--and it's been ripping up a portion of the Classical side of the blogosphere! I'm not finding any mainstream media attention except for this, in the Sacramento Bee:
Q: Have any cardinals campaigned for the job?
A: Last week, a spoof on "Saturday Night Live" showed the cardinals campaigning for the papacy as if it were an American election - the show even had one of its troupe portraying the Rev. Al Sharpton as a papal candidate. "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" satirized the conclave by showing the cardinals attack ads in Latin.
But the cardinals - and the church - take the conclave and their duties seriously. Discussion prior to the death of a pope is forbidden. Cardinals can discuss their candidates before the conclave, but open campaigning is frowned upon.
Clint Hagen of "House of Hagen" posted his transcription of the Latin text, and his correction (and now also has an audio link of the original); and Angelo Mercado (Sauvage Noble) tightened it up stylistically and commented at length; meanwhile, there's also a LiveJournal thread on the subject, which also came up at Language Log, Open Book and Lawyers, Guns & Money. So, click some links if you want to find out how to say "sausage-eating bastard" in Latin (and Greek)
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