My favorite Latin quotation this month is from Ovid's Ars Amatoria: Parva leves capiant animos. I have found the following translations.
Light minds are pleased with trifles.
Small things enthrall light minds.
Little minds are captured by trifles.
Small things affect light minds.
Small things amuse small minds.
I am often pleased, enthralled, captured, affected, and amused by trifles and small things. What should I conclude about this?
A foolish trifle: I noticed a large rack of greeting cards for Halloween at the supermarket today. Who would want to send a Halloween card? The greeting card industry must be desperate for business this year.
A pleasant trifle: I stumbled across a 2005 web posting of the talented writer and poet John M. Ford (1957-2006). This excerpt from his stone-age recipe for Hot Gingered Pygmy Mammoth shows the characteristic light humor of his frequent off-the-cuff contributions to the Making Light blog:
/-----
Preheat a giant turtle shell over a fumarole. A big giant turtle. Put some oil in there. Make sure no other giant turtles are around to see you do this.
On a flat rock, stirring with your Stick of the Dining God, dry cook the sesame seeds over medium heat until they are brown and smell good. Remove from the heat. Add the noodles to the turtle shell and fry fast until puffy and the color of sunrise. Remove from the oil and drain on non-itchy leaves. Throw salt. Set aside.
Sear the mammoth meat on the flat rock. Salt but don’t overdo it, you remember what happened to the Chest-Clutching Tribe of the Plains. Drain.
-----/
