Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetaur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
The text above is “Lorem Ipsum” in its 16th century original form. It struck me as appropriate that these should remain the first words in my blog, as I’ve been staring at them for the last week or so while I’ve been designing this site.
The Guardian recently published an article about the Booker Prize website slipup – the site named the winner (correctly, as it turned out) a week before the decision was supposed to have been made. The article stated that “the announcement on the website also quotes the chair of the judges, Professor Lisa Jardine, speaking an incomprehensible form of Latin. One of the few bits that made sense was “dolore magna”, which translates as “in great sorrow”.“. It amused me that the authors seemed unaware of “Lorem Ipsum”
Oh dear, if only they had done a quick search on Google, they’d have found Lorem Ipsum pretty much top of the list. And there they’d have found all they ever needed to know about this particular piece of ‘bad’ Latin. I guess it wouldn’t have made as good a story, though.