Gradatim ferociter revisited

It’s a funny thing, this Web we weave. I was startled today to see visits to this blog suddenly jumping up from the usual 30 or so a day to (at last count) 260. The last time something like this happened was when Kate at small dead animals linked to a column on curling.

So I checked the referral stats. It seems that everyone has been hitting here after searching for “gradatim ferociter,” the motto of Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space tourism project. For some reason–don’t ask me why–my blog post by that name is currently the top link when you Google that phrase. Blue Origin’s website, which one might reasonably expect to be first, comes up second.

And, of course, if I understand the way Google works, the more people click on that blog post while searching for that phrase, the more likely it is that that blog post will remain number one.

Now if only a few of them would buy my thrilling science fiction novel Lost in Translation or any of my other books…

P.S. I think a lot of those hitting Hassenpfeffer are looking for a translation. That’s not surprising, since Latin/English online translators, and the only person I know who actually studied Latin in school, tell me that “Gradatim” is not a recognized part of the Latin vocabulary. My “translation” of it as “bit-by-bit–ferociously” is just a paraphrase of “step-by-step–courageously” which was the translation given by Alan Boyle at his Cosmic Log.

Permanent link to this article: https://edwardwillett.com/2007/01/gradatim-ferociter-revisited/

2 comments

    • Edward Willett on January 12, 2007 at 5:01 pm
    • Reply

    I had the same reaction. Rocket ships are supposed to take off and land like that! Wings are for sissies. 🙂

    • Mike on January 12, 2007 at 4:54 pm
    • Reply

    Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Much more interesting to read a comment than read domain names.

    Yes,like you I wondered about slipping gradatim ferociter into all my posts! But the number of people searching boldly seems to have dropped off.

    Perhaps the next time they have a test flight; like The Goddard my stats will rise again.

    I’ll have to keep watching Blue Origin. I had a peek on Google Earth to see if I could find the launch site, but I could never be sure that I was looking in the right place.

    Watching the video of the launch, reminded me a little of the covers of the science fiction reading of my youth. Heinlein’s Waldo or the Doc Smith Lensman series, which is strange for the reviews tell me that I would enjoy “Lost in Translation” I’ll look out for it.

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