Fellow AWAD person Rubrick has cleverly combined the name of a building at Trinity with a nod to the beautiful red brick of said building. Which got me to thinking: "rubric" originally coms from the Latin for red, doesn't it?

I checked. It does. Very cool.
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=rubric

Which brings me to the expression "sub rosa," which far as I remember, means "between me and thee." I'm having trouble looking that one up. As I recall, it coms from some English monarch (Tudor = rose?) who liked to receive visitors in his bed, on the wall above which was painted a rose. This is bugging me, can someone set me straight on the origin?

Most of our monarchs (pre Victoria) have been very happy to receive visitors in their beds - we might need to think about that one.

Oh, dear, and I did try to word that so carefully... even went back and replaced "entertain" with "receive." [crestfallen]

Hey, I'm a member now! Where's that party?

Under the rose (sub rosa). In strict confidence. Cupid gave Harpocrates (the god of silence) a rose, to bribe him not to betray the amours of Venus. Hence the flower became the emblem of silence. It was for this reason sculptured on the ceilings of banquet-rooms, to remind the guests that what was spoken sub vino was not to be uttered sub divo. In 1526 it was placed over confessionals. The banquet-room ceiling at Haddon Hall is decorated with roses. (French, parler sous la rose.)

credit to THE DICTIONARY OF PHRASE AND FABLE BY E. COBHAM BREWER

> Most of our monarchs (pre Victoria) have been very happy to receive visitors in their beds - we might need to think about
that one.

Damn! I wish I hadn't left so early on Friday. You beat me to it, Jo!

Oh, don't forget Edward VII - 'Bertie the bounder!'

> Fellow AWAD person Rubrick has cleverly combined the name of a building at Trinity with a nod to the beautiful red
brick of said building.

Nice to see a thread about me, Anna (it is about me, isn't it?) . To quote Oscar (again) 'There is only one thing worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about'.