Lorem ipsum

A bit ago Katie and Savanna got a note from their friends, Pam and Nicky, asking if we could use some tickets to a Museum in Monterrey, MA called the Bidwell House Museum. It is an 18th century farmhouse that has been preserved and restored and is open to the public. We went on-line to learn more about it, and I downloaded their most recent newsletter. In the letter was a box which said, "Thanks to our Volunteers." But below, instead of list of people's names, there were eight lines of the words, "Lorem ipsum." This puzzled me. I did recall seeing Latin in another document on-line once and wondered about that. So I looked it up, and what I learned is fascinating and also oddly relevant to what is going on right now concerning the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and the women who are accusing him of sexual assault.

So, "Lorem ipsum" is a fake Latin phrase, the first two words of a longer fake Latin "essay" which is used by typesetters as a placeholder when they are designing the layout of a document. It has been in use for 500 years or more (so why was I ignorant of it?).  The idea is that when you are designing a document you need some kind of words to work with in order to figure out columns, lines, spaces, headings, etc., but you don't want to use actual text that would be distracting. So you use  Latin words that don't even make much sense in Latin. They fill the space so you can design the document and eventually you put in the real text you want to use. Apparently a typesetter back in the 1500's had to do this and he chose a passage from Cicero and sort of scrambled it, and typesetters have been using the same text ever since.The Bidwell House Museum Newsletter editor needed a box for Volunteer Recognition, but she did not have the volunteer names yet, so she put in "Lorem ipsum" as a placeholder. 

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Here is the larger "Lorem ipsum" document that typesetters use when they want to fill in a lot of space to design a layout:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

This "lorem ipsum" text is a scrambled section of De finibus bonorum et malorum, a 1st-century BC Latin text by Cicero, with words altered, added, and removed to make it nonsensical, improper Latin.

Here is the actual quote from Cicero, with the bold type showing how the "fake Latin" text relates to the original:

[32] Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam eaque ipsa, quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt, explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem, quia voluptas sit, aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos, qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt, neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit amet consectetur adipisci[ng] velit, sed quia non-numquam [do] eius modi tempora inci[di]dunt, ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit, qui in ea voluptate velit esse, quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum, qui dolorem eum fugiat, quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

[33] At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus, qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti, quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint, obcaecati cupiditate non-provident, similique sunt in culpa, qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio. Nam libero tempore, cum soluta nobis est eligendi optio, cumque nihil impedit, quo minus id, quod maxime placeat, facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus. Temporibus autem quibusdam et aut officiis debitis aut rerum necessitatibus saepe eveniet, ut et voluptates repudiandae sint et molestiae non-recusandae. Itaque earum rerum hic tenetur a sapiente delectus, ut aut reiciendis voluptatibus maiores alias consequatur aut perferendis doloribus asperiores repellat

And here is an English translation of the Cicero:

[32] But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing of a pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?

[33] On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse.

When  I read this, these words stood out:

"On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue." 

In other words, if you are offered an appointment to the Supreme Court by Donald Trump, you might be so blinded by desire that you cannot forsee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue.

Judge Kavanaugh was warned by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse during the hearings in words to this effect, "Judge, I ask you to think seriously about this: being appointed to this position by President Trump could have a profound negative effect on your life." (I don't have a transcript of the hearings but that is what I remember the impact of his words to have been).

Thus, if his life is ruined by the accusations he is facing, Cicero would say he has no one to blame but himself. 

Cicero