things that make me happy

I sat in Paleography, listening to Prof. Mantello lecture:

"...and this style reaches its perfection in 112-113 A.D. with the Column of Trajan...oops. I guess I should correct that..."

I cringe. Because this has been done probably a million times in a thousand schools in the past 10 years: a professor says "such-and-such A.D." and catches himself, and changes it to the politically correct "such-and-such CE." It's happened even more in books, articles, and scholarly writings of all kinds: Anno Domini is out, and the Common Era is in--though they trace their origins to the same event. It's stupid. I hate CE.

"...I guess that should be..."

I roll my eyes. Here it comes.

"A.D. 112-113."

This correction, on the other hand, has probably been made less than a dozen times in the world in the last 10 years. Apparently, Dr. Mantello is no more a fan of CE than I am. But he is a stickler on Latin and, I assume, all other forms of grammar, and Anno Domini 112 is correct, while 112 Anno Domini is a little unseemly.

And this makes me happy.