Hurricane I

If you don't read Andrew Sullivan, you should. But in case you don't, I'm shamelessly lifting an entry of his that made me laugh out loud. As you may or may not have heard, some archelogoists have claimed they found the toilet where Martin Luther pondered his famous theses (thesises? thesiss?). I did not know that Martin Luther was supposed to have figured that something was wrong with the Church on the toilet, but then, as I am techincally not Christian, my theological education is perhaps a bit lacking (understatement.) And I thought it was funny that anyone was even looking for a toilet. But wait! There's more to this joke yet:

Having mis-spent my youth in grad school studying late medieval and early modern European intellectual history, I can now -- 20 years after leaving academia -- shed some valuable light for you and your readers (as well as for the BBC News).

When Luther said he made his discovery "in cloaca" (literally translated "on the toilet"), he was using one of a long list of late medieval theological-scatological phrases that meant 'in deepest humility' or in a state of profound "worthlessness" (i.e., like shit).

So when Luther described arriving at his big theological conclusion "in cloaca", he (like hundreds of other theologians of the time) was not making a literal reference to his bathroom routine.

If this sounds strange strange today, it shouldn't. The English language still uses lots of scat lingo (e.g., "up shit creek without a paddle") to express extreme emotions or for emphasis. ("No shit!", you might say).

So once again, on major matters of import, the BBC News doesn't know "shit from Shinola" or its "ass from a hole in the ground."

Oh, those crazy Brits! (India's tip: it's also funnier if you read it aloud in your best British accent. Especially if I am in the room.)