The discussion on the Club motto intrigued me, so I wrote to Richard Stremski and asked if he would provide some background. The following is his reply: <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>As I pointed out in my book, the motto was adapted from the similar Etonian motto. In Eton's case it applied to a singular institution containing a collective number of members and the adaptation did not bother to differentiate. Had it been applied to the Collingwood Football Club itself rather than to the symbol of the club the singular tense would have been more appropriate. However, the originator of the term, Bob Rush, would not have thought about that presumably and there weren't many pedantic public school boys around the CFC to nitpick about it. I don't see it as a problem, both for the above reason and because it can be considered to apply as in the royal "we", even though the monarch is really only singular.
The matter has been raised on various occasions over the decades by people who wanted to display their knowledge or mock Collingwood. You have to remember that Collingwood was a heavily working class club that was succeeding far beyond expectations (4 flags in its first 19 years), and the natural inclination to brag led the early leaders to be a little pretentious in this instance. They may not have received an "A" in their Latin class, but that hardly mattered.
As for pica, it has nothing to do with the American pica pica, but rather is a term applied to black and white birds in general. Both pica and magpie were in 1910, and still are, used generically by non-ornithologists to apply to large black and white birds. That's the closest Bob Rush could find when he tried to discern how to say magpies in Latin, and he didn't bother nitpicking. It was the thought that mattered: an Australian working-class institution transposing the slogan of England's most prestigious public school. It was pretentious, audacious and just a little bit inaccurate.
Cheers, Richard<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
floreat pica
Moderator: bbmods
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Neil Appleby
Thanks for that Mike and Richard.
Pretentious, audacious,inaccurate and of course, guaranteed to get up the collective noses of the Establishment clubs (Melbourne and Geelong especially)and dare I suggest it, it still does...that's why I always use it.
Hundreds of Melbourne school children have had to study this motto over the last twenty years and I know of one teacher who won't allow his students to dismiss on a Friday afternoon until they say the motto.
Bob Rush's grandson now owns and runs the QPO
restaurant/bar/cafe in Kew and his great grandson is in my Junior Development Squad.
Pretentious, audacious,inaccurate and of course, guaranteed to get up the collective noses of the Establishment clubs (Melbourne and Geelong especially)and dare I suggest it, it still does...that's why I always use it.
Hundreds of Melbourne school children have had to study this motto over the last twenty years and I know of one teacher who won't allow his students to dismiss on a Friday afternoon until they say the motto.
Bob Rush's grandson now owns and runs the QPO
restaurant/bar/cafe in Kew and his great grandson is in my Junior Development Squad.