In 1992, Queen Elizabeth II gave a speech in which she referred to the previous year as her “Annus Horribillis”, her horrible year. As Halloween decorations take over store displays that had once promoted grills, and yellow leaves cover our carefully tended green lawns, Americans have a right to look back on this past summer and think of it as our very own “atrox aestas”, horrible summer.
For those of you not familiar with Latin, let me apologize for using it so indiscriminately; but I had 16 years of Catholic schooling and many of those years involved learning Latin. It’s Continue reading →