Tuesday, 31 August 2010

Fun Online Polls - Asil Nadir and NIMBYs

Last week's Fun Online Poll was possibly the least conclusive result I have ever had. The question was "What's the Latin for 'You let the bastards grind you down'?" (so's we can club together and have it engraved on a watch to give to Asil Nadir). Sixteen people (included me) voted "I have no idea" and a few people left suggestions as follows:

James D: nolite nothis permittere/sinere vos terere
James D: nolite facere terant vos nothi
Hektor: nothis permittuisti te terere
Derek: noli nothis permittere te terere
Derek: illegitimi carborundum permittis

Thanks for that, but I've no idea which one is best. Make up your own minds.
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This week's Fun Online Poll is nice and easy: "What motivates NIMBYs?"

Cast your vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

9 comments:

Derek said...

"Noli"/"Nolite" both mean "Don't". So you should exclude any sentence that starts with either. Those were our attempts to translate "Don't let the...".

Derek said...

Oh, and I vote for Hektor. His grammar is spot on, unlike mine and James D's. So better for a presentation watch.

Mark Wadsworth said...

D, thanks for input. Unless somebody has a better idea we'll go with Hektor's.

James Higham said...

"What motivates NIMBYs?"

In Latin?

Anonymous said...

Can I have "both of the above" for the poll?

;)

Mark Wadsworth said...

JH, why not?

AC, nope. It's one or t'other this time.

Derek said...

JH, the tricky item here is coming up with a Latin equivalent for NiMBYs. But the Romans had acronymns too, eg their equivalent of ''HMG'' was ''SPQR'', Senatus Populusque Romanus (the Senate And Roman People). So what would a Latin eqivalent of ''NIMBYs'' look like? Perhaps ''Non In Meo Horto'', giving ''NIMHensis''. If so we could translate ''What motivates NIMBYs?'' as ''Quid NIMHensibus causam dat''.

John said...

I looked at your poll, but you appear to have missed off the obvious answer ~ stasism (a la Postrel). Owning ones own house magically transforms one into a modern day folk singer, singing about how things were better in the olden days (the olden days having ended just after they built the house you now live in, of course)

Mark Wadsworth said...

John, there's an element of that.

MY house is part of the fabric of the town/village.
YOUR HOUSE is urban sprawl.