Funny how “lingua franca” doesn’t mean French anymore. English is weird.

Few people know what Aramaic sounds like. It might be good for books (the Laundry Files uses Enochian, and nobody knows what that sounds like), but for a media with sound Latin checks all the boxes.

You are very much in the minority as someone who has studied Latin. Very few non-Catholic high schools even offer it, much less make it mandatory.

And sure, Catholic mass was held in Latin back in the day. Personally, I suspect that’s a reason it’s associated with rituals and magic. What is a priest doing, if not invoking mystical powers beyond the understanding of man? What language would someone use to invoke the powers of Satan?

Outside the anglosphere, I have no idea.

If English had been a dead language for fifteen hundred years and was only used by people who talk about things only a tiny subset of the population understands?

Yeah, it would seem pretty mystical.

Depends if it turned her finger green or not.

I’m not talking about vulgar Latin or the romance languages.

For about a millenia and a half, everything that could be considered scholarship was written in Latin. Newton’s Principia Mathematica? Latin. Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium? Latin. Kepler’s Astronomia nova? Latin.

Almost every educated person in the western world learned Latin. That’s how they communicated with their colleagues in other countries - letters written in Latin. That’s why it was a lingua franca.

I’m sure there’s an optimal amount of air to balance space and protection.

But I was responding to the “no one ever complained about broken chips,” which is patently false. I’ve complained.

That the banana is proof of creationism because it’s perfect for the human hand.

Problem with that argument is that bananas aren’t natural. They’ve been bred and cloned to get to the shape they have. The original fruit wasn’t very friendly.

An entire bag? Never. A bag with more than half the chips broken into pieces too small for dipping? More often than I’d like.

OK, first off - gatekeep corn chips? You need to get off the internet more often.

Second, you enjoy nachos made of tortilla crumbs?

Makes as much sense as the banana argument.

Latin was the lingua franca for the educated western world for centuries. Texts on alchemy, mysticism, and religion were all written in Latin. Church rituals were performed in Latin.

Most magic in fiction has its roots in the past. What language would be more fitting?

Let me guess - you don’t make your own nachos, do you?

I’d wind up with an acre of goat heads. No thanks. Even with mowing and dragging a carpet behind the tractor our dogs still track them in for us to step on on the way to the bathroom at 3AM.

General Sherman was a union general during the American civil war. His approach to warfare was to a bit unconventional for the time - he focused on destroying the enemy’s infrastructure and supply lines and burned down nearly everything flammable he came across. It was very effective.

Especially inverse psoriasis. When I carpool I have to tell my coworkers, “yes I shower, no I can’t do anything about the smell.” Fortunately it doesn’t smell bad so much as weird.

Depends where you lived. Where I spent most of the 90s, the worst you could reasonably expect would be some kid yanks out your ashtray looking for loose change.

You’re trying to pick a fight with the entire state of Oklahoma there, buddy.

The guy appears to be Hispanic, which is considered “white.”

Why do you care, anyway?

That image is older than dirt. It’s the traditional “Chad” image.