Saaremaa

From the Estonian Beer Guide:

MA VAATAN PAADIST KIIKRIGA

Ma vaatan paadist kiikriga,
Kui kaugel on see Saaremaa.
:,: Ei paremat ole kuskil maal,
Kui suisel ajal Saaremaal. :,:

Seal Saaremaal ei kasva muud,
Kui kadakad ja männipuud.
:,:

Mu pruut on valge nagu tui,
Ma nägin teda mullu sui.
:,:

Tal mustad juuksed, valge kael
Ja kaela ümber sametpael.
:,:

Tal roosipôôsas voodi ees
ja ööbik laulab selle sees.
:,:

Ma rüüpan merest soolast vett
Ja räägin armsamale tôtt:
:,:

Kui tahad naiseks tulla sa,
Pead Saaremaale sôudema!
:,:

Some of these verses differ from those I learned.

Medieval Writing

Medieval Writing

Pace

languagehat.com: PACE.:

I have always pronounced the preposition pace ('with due deference to' or 'despite,' from the ablative of Latin pax) in the traditional anglicized way, PAY-see, and assumed that was the universally accepted pronunciation. Now I discover, having seen the casual aside “Pace (that is to say, aloud, pa che)” in this Pepys Diary thread, that the Church Latin version, PAH-chay, is equally acceptable (the OED gives it second place for U.K. usage, first place for U.S.). So it's time for another Languagehat straw poll: if you use this slightly obnoxious Latinism, how do you say it?

You mean the right answer isn't "payss"? Good thing I've never pronounced it!

Civic Literacy Report - Civics Quiz

Yes, I took that Civics Quiz for American college students mentioned in the papers:

You answered 59 out of 60 correctly — 98.33 %
Average score for this quiz during September: 74.1%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 74.1%

You can take the quiz as often as you like, however, your score will only count once toward the monthly average.

Yes, I missed the bond question too.

Frankly, I found the test to be pretty hard. It had questions about some matters I didn't learn about until law school.

The Serendipity of a Sauce

I've always wondered how certain delicacies were devised in the first place. Here is the story of one from an article about the Roman garum, "Ancient ketchup":

The India-inspired English Worcestershire sauce is another. Worcestershire was invented quite by mistake in the 1830s, after a barrelful of an attempted anchovy sauce turned out too pungent and was left in a basement and forgotten. When it was finally opened years later, the liquid was discovered to be quite tasty, and Messrs Lea & Perrins (whose basement it was) marketed it very successfully.