What Caesar told Brutus on the Ides of March

My posting on Friday took a dig at a book extolling civil and courteous behaviour among lawyers.

The book was launched by the Chief Justice and The Straits Times today carried an edited excerpt of his speech (which took up the entire no-ad page save for the editorial column). I thought that an amusing ancedote in the speech is worth putting up here:

"An Australian criminal lawyer, Colin Lovitt QC, was defending an accused before a Brisbane magistrate. When the magistrate made an evidentiary ruling against him, he turned to the press box and said in a false whisper: 'This bloke's a complete cretin." Later, when the magistrate made a ruling in his favour, Mr Lovitt turned to the press box again and said: 'I take it back. He is not a complete cretin.'

"Mr Lovitt was cited for contempt of court, and fined A$10,000 and ordered to pay costs. Apparently, Mr Lovitt is known to prosecutors as 'the Cowboy' and 'the Embarrister'. I think we have embarristers in our midst, but perhaps not cowboys."

[Hmm... I wonder what the CJ meant by that last line? Also, for Mr Lovitt -- a QC no less -- to acquire the reputation he had, he must have paid up a few fines at least!]

Incidentally, today is the Ides of March, made famous by the assassination of Julius Caesar. As told by Shakespeare, Caesar had been warned by a soothsayer to "beware the Ides of March" (which simply means the 15th of March in the Roman calendar). But the emperor ignored him and went into the Senate where he was stabbed to death by a cabal of senators. Among the conspirators was Marcus Brutus, Caesar's close friend and confidante. Brutus was the last one to twist his dagger into Caesar.

The emperor's last words before falling down dead, since immortalised, was: "Et tu, Brute?" (You too, Brutus?).

The irreverant version of that encounter, which I heard when I was a schoolboy studying Julius Caesar as a literature text, goes like this:

Brutus, as he stabs his friend: "Great Caesar, how many eggs did you have for breakfast?"
Caesar: "Et tu, Brute!" (then he falls and dies).

Hey, that was a schoolboy joke, okay!

Last item today is the link below to an interesting science article, "No Face, but Plants Like Life Too", in the New York Times.       

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/science/15food.html?emc=eta1

If you are a vegan or vegetarian, though, be forewarned that the article says plants do not like to be eaten, and provides the scientific evidence. Otherwise, go ahead, and order that Caesar's salad for lunch.