Defacto lingo est igpay atinlay

OK, call me simple-minded, but this snippet (from the blog templates area of the blogger.com site) cracks me up.

For those of you who aren't students of typography and/or the art of the book, allow me to wax informative for a moment. Samples of type faces and page layouts are often produced using Latin. The idea being, I suppose, that the Roman alphabet was designed for Latin, so it's the perfect showcase for type designs. (As opposed to, say, German, where Nouns are capitalized, and many Consonants are heaped together in big, visually-unattractive Chunks only lightly relieved by Vowels.)

Also, since so few people can actually understand Latin anymore, a person can get a good idea of the design without being sidetracked by the meaning of the text.

Except the gibberish I quoted as my title basically translates to "The default language is Pig Latin." Now, again--I'm simple-minded--but this is amusing. What's next in typography, Ubba Dubba?

Also, so much for the design trumping the meaning of the text. I mean, as a serious proponent of Wasting Time Frivolously (WTF) I can foresee a whole new area of time-wasting--heading over to blog template sites and reading the gibberish to find various hidden jokes and other idiocies, then posting about them in my blog. I'm beginning to understand how stout Cortez felt when he gazed at the Pacific with all his men.

Although why I should waste precious time-wasting time looking for hidden idiocies when I'm constantly surrounded by big fat obvious idiocies eludes me. Although I supposed figuring out that minor conundrum is good for a bit of time wasting, as well.

Of course, this is the sort of thing that is best handled by a professional, like me. I've seen amateurs attempt it, and the results aren't pretty. Don't try this at home, kids. You need to be A.B.D. in a doctoral degree in the Humanities to even begin to do justice to this level of time-wasting.

Thank goodness I'm qualified for the asktay atay andhay.

--P.