foci and matrices

Because of Jimbo’s girlfriend’s son’s recent auto accident, the opportunity to do some shopping for cars has presented itself to us. As a master negotiator one would think that would fall right into Jimbo’s sweet spot, and that it would be something in which his intellectual capital could best be invested. It could be argued that dickering for an automobile would be in the very heart of his core competencies. The truth be known, however, I haven’t negotiated for a car in twenty-five years. My brother-in-law has an automobile dealership and when I want a new car, I go visit him and he gives me the family discount. The most negotiating I have done with him is once, I asked if he could give me a little more for my trade-in, which he did, but I would have made the deal even if he hadn’t.

Friday night, on a foggy, freezing automobile lot, along with her son, my girlfriend and I looked at a wide variety of used cars and this sunny, but below freezing Saturday morning with a wind-chill factor that would have frightened an Eskimo, we walked around my brother-in-law’s lot and priced some new cars, and saw more than one Toyota Matrix. In the dark Friday night, Jimbo’s girlfriend’s son told her that she probably could only afford a Ford Focus and we looked at several of them that were on the lot. She was less than impressed; I was confused why Ford would give their car a Latin name. I had a similar thought Saturday morning as to why Toyota would do the same thing. We have, in the English language, imported a number of words from other tongues, including a large number of Latin words. In general, in English, when there is more than one of something we put an “s” on the end of the word to make it plural. However, when using a word imported from Latin, we pluralize it the same way the Romans did. Having taken three years of Latin in High School, I know there are numerous rules to pluralizing Latin words and I think all of you would probably appreciate it if I didn’t go into them at this time. Just suffice it to say they didn’t, as a rule, just add an “s.”

Jimbo’s son’s girlfriend bought a Matrix from my brother-in-law and as far as I’m concerned it is a really superior car, but a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet. I’m certain a lot of thought went into naming the car, as well as the Ford Focus, but the people that named these cars didn’t seem to take into account that someday, there would be more than one of them in a particular location or in a conversation. Whenever there would be two of the Fords, they would be Foci. Whenever two of the Toyotas met, they would be Matrices.

Now, I know you are thinking, “Jimbo, you are definitely off your rocker this time.”

If you don’t believe me, look up the words in your dictionary. For those who don’t use the dictionary as much as I do, the plural of the word appears right after the pronunciation.

The reason I am so cognizant of this is that in college I had a professor who was a major influence upon me. His name was John B. Bremner and the good professor had the pleasure of knowing me in my youth, when I was somewhat feisty-- more of a young firebrand that I am now. He and I would duke it out verbally and usually he was right, but that didn’t stop me from taking him on occasionally, because he would occasionally say something that was not true, just to test us and evoke a challenge. He was a large man with a booming voice, gray hair and beard, and in a small class (I believe there were only fifteen students in the class) he would give everyone very personal attention. He would be in your face whenever you made the grievous mistake of making a grammatical error. His pet peeve was using the plural of Latin words as if they were singular. The ones that got under his skin the most were data (more than one datum) or media (the plural of medium). Despite the fact the dictionary gives the option of using datums and mediums, the professor didn’t believe them to be proper usage in the Queen’s English, and especially in his English.

When any student started a sentence with “the data shows” or “the media is,” the kindly old professor became less kindly and he boomed out “data are” or ‘media are.” Professor Bremner used to correct sentences by articulating the punctuation. He might, for example, say this:

He might, comma, for example, comma, say this, period.

I read in the magazine I receive quarterly from the school a few years ago that the professor had passed away. The story about his passing mentioned a phrase with which he used to end class frequently. The phrase was, “and meanwhile, comma, peace, period.”

Jimbo is in the process of moving and he has a large number of books. We have set up several of my large bookcases in the living room of chez Jimbo’s girlfriend, the house into which Jimbo is moving. Last week I was boxing up some of my books to bring over to put in the bookcases and I came across a number of my old textbooks which I sat aside, not sure whether to bring them with me. One of the textbooks was written by Professor Bremner and I remember packing it and bringing it over. It now rests in the bookcase in the living room. I doubt that I would ever throw it away. It’s like a souvenir-- an artifact that helps to connect to something in the past that needs to be remembered.

A day in ones life is like a matrix of the hours, minutes and seconds, and the focus is on the current moment. Life is a series of matrices and foci, and it is good to think back on the good times and bad-- whom one was with at a certain period and the time spent with them.

In Jimbo’s world we like to think back, sometimes, and think ahead frequently. In the Professor’s absence, we’d say, “and meanwhile, peace.”