Maria

Your post brought back memories of my high school Latin teacher (a nun)and her lecture that despite what we read or heard, "don't let the bastards get you down" was NOT a Latin phrase and even if it were, it would not be Illegitimi non carborundum. It sounds right and even has the gerund as a perphrastic of obligation According to her, illegitimi was not the Latin word used for bastards in a perjorative sense, instead it was spurii (if the father was not known) or nothii (if the father was known0. This phrase is the best example of Mock Latin that almost everyone thinks is real Latin, because they translated each word out of context.

Sort of like the mistake that beginning Spanish students make when they cobble together words from the dictionary and come up with "Como Mucho" for "I eat a lot" when in fact, it is an idiom meaning "How much" (does it cost?). Our Spanish teacher (also a nun) used to love telling the story about a woman in a Spanish resturant getting frustrated when instead of telling her the menu item cost, all the waiters kept smiling and saying Si. Si.

Don't mind my pedantry, but with 8 years of Classical Latin and Greek, I tend to get picky about Pig Latin & Mock Latin in popular culture. Plus it was a very good memory that I had forgotten.
Charm