Saturday, September 22, 2018
Have a Happy Day
Libanius, Declamations 26.7 (tr. D.A. Russell):
A friend writes from Europe:
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And there's another thing calculated to drive a man out of the agora: it's the practice, that has somehow come into our lives, of greeting people by saying 'have a happy day'. I don't for the life of me see the advantage in this. Nobody in a painful situation is any the better for being told to 'have a happy day'.In America, it's "Have a nice day," or in the Bible Belt where I live, "Have a blessed day."
καὶ μὴν κἀκεῖνο δεινὸν ἐξελάσαι τῆς ἀγορᾶς τὸ τῆς προσρήσεως οὐκ οἶδ' ὁπόθεν εἰς τὸν βίον εἰσελθὸν τὸν δεῖνα χαίρειν. οὐ γὰρ ἔγωγε, μὰ τοὺς θεούς, ὁρῶ τοῦ ῥήματος τὸ κέρδος. οὐ γὰρ ᾧ γε λύπης ἀξίως ἔχει τὰ πράγματα, βελτίω παρὰ τὸ χαίρειν ἀκοῦσαι γίγνεται.
A friend writes from Europe:
In Arizona last year I was subjected a couple of times to "Have a good one" but never summoned up the courage to ask "Do you mean wank or crap?".
