Alexander and Nicholas Humez have fashioned an easy-going and satisfying introduction to the language that is the wellspring of the mother tongue. Their brief history of Classical and Vulgar Latin, explanation of the language's grammatical and sound systems, translation exercises, synopsis of grammar, and glossaries of Latin-English and English-Latin will enhance our understanding of every aspect of literature and the world of ideas. In addition, Latin for People contains two closing chapters, hailed as 'invaluable' by The Classical Outlook: one that translates all the readings in the book...

Did you ever wonder why a stitch in time saves nine and not, say, four, or why the number seven is considered the luckiest, or what number the word googol refers to? Well, the Humez brothers, along with Joseph Maguire, have answered all of these questions and more. In "Zero to Lazy Eight," they take us on a wacky and enlightening trip up the linguistic number scale from zero to thirteen and back by way of infinity, showing us just what numbers can tell us about our culture's past, present, and future. Whether it be numerical maxims, mathematical theory, or numeric etymology, there is...

Despite the humble origins of its name (Anglo Saxon for "the speck at the head of a boil"), the dot has been one of the most versatile players in the history of written communication, to the point that it has become virtually indispensable. Now, in On the Dot, Alexander and Nicholas Humez offer a wide ranging, entertaining account of this much overlooked and minuscule linguistic sign.
The Humez brothers shed light on the dot in all its various forms. As a mark of punctuation, they show, it plays many roles--as sentence stopper, a constituent of the colon (a clause stopper), and the...