Organizational motto: Usually Prepared

[Gergus]

We are a specialized team that supports a number of very-high-stress stakeholders in their highest-stress-level responsibility. Even the smallest issue can quickly escalate, so our group cultivates extreme calm. We take inspiration from medical and aviation crisis management, where everyone knows panic leads to disaster.

One motto we like is from aviation writer Ernest Gann, who wrote: "In an emergency, wind your watch." Another refers to the heroic self-control of pilot Sully Sullenberger who landed a damaged jet in the Hudson River a few years back. We especially admire the Coast Guard motto--Semper Paratus--but when considering it we had some fun coming up with situations even the Coast Guard couldn't *always* be prepared for, involving non-zero probabilities, outlandish aliens, and so forth. There's also the Scout motto--Be Prepared--which is reasonable, but somehow less definitive and more wishful than would suit our purposes.

We prepare for what we can reasonably anticipate; for the unexpected we must be ready to calmly adapt and succeed. The following, admittedly inelegant, aligns closely with what we have experienced over many years, and incorporates the favorite mottoes mentioned above:

Usually prepared, but when not, still ready to land it in the river after winding our watches. ​

We are optimistic a rendering in Latin will give it the gravitas it deserves. In the interest of tidy parallel construction, it would be OK to say "land our flying machine in the river after winding our horological machines" (singular then plural, as it is always a group effort). We like the word "convolvera" (properly suffixed, of course) if it could work for "winding", but I may be off base with that.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

 

[cinefactus]

We are optimistic a rendering in Latin will give it the gravitas it deserves.

If it doesn't have gravitas in English, it probably won't in Latin either.

 

[Gergus]

… probably won't ...

Oh, it’ll suffice. Many people do not even read Latin, bro! We’ll be sure to gird ourselves for disapprobation from eminent latinophones such as yourself. Mille grazie for the heads-up.

 

[AoM]

Not sure about the whole thing, but for just the title (with "we" as the subject), maybe: plerumque parati

 

[scrabulista]

I was thinking saepe paratus (trying to echo the Marines' semper paratus).

I'd translate "ready" the same way as "prepared." Hmm...

Mike Lange quotes: A Pittsburgh Penguins secret language you need to know for the Stanley Cup Final

Pens fans call them Lange-isms, and you can expect to hear a lot of them during the next two weeks.

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“He doesn’t know whether to cry or wind his watch.” (Lange sometimes says that of the opposing goalie.)

Mike Lange was the announcer for the Pittsburgh Penguins, a professional hockey team, now retired. If the goalie was badly beaten, his options were to cry or wind his watch. I took it to mean that winding his watch meant "starting over." But that doesn't seem to fit your saying. If I had landed it in the river, I'd want to celebrate, not start over.

 

[cinefactus]

I don't think Sully wound his watch. He was decisive.

I would suggest something like:
saepe parati semper procincti
often prepared, always ready for action

 

[Gergus]

I don't think Sully wound his watch.

He totally did. When there's a checklist or plan for a particular emergency, absolutely, you immediately execute; when it's a novel situation with no existing steps, action before consideration is panic. A post-incident review found that if the plane had returned to the airport immediately after the bird strike, they would have made it. Sully famously pushed back on that assessment, reminding investigators that there *was no* preexisting plan for this particular emergency. The 35 seconds the crew took to think and respond put them outside that window, and landing in the river was the only viable remaining option.

When our plane lost thrust in both engines, the “startle factor” was huge, and my body reacted in normal physiological ways. I could feel my blood pressure shoot up and my pulse spike. But I had the discipline to compartmentalize these reactions and focus on the task at hand. In any high-stakes situation, it helps to create an oasis of calm in your mind and environment, so high performance can occur. Turn down the volume by lowering your voice, taking a deep breath and mentally hitting the reset button. -- https://www.sullysullenberger.com/five-tips-for-making-decisions-under-fire/​

I would suggest...

For the reasons explained, I would like to keep all of the pieces I enumerated. Each has a distinct and familiar meaning to my team.

saepe paratus

saepe parati

plerumque parati

- ________ Paratus - As Scrabulista noted, we seek to keep this express reference to the construction of the Coast Guard (Semper Paratus) and Marine (Semper Fidelis) mottoes. Is there consensus saepe is the right word? In dictionaries I am also seeing persaepe ("very often"), and soleo ("accustomed"). As a grammatical matter, can plerumque go with paratus similarly to how semper and saepe (and I assume persaepe) appear to be able to?

Once you settle on that, maybe the remaining parts will come together more easily.

- but when not, still ready to - In a situation not reasonably foreseeable, we are always prepared (there's the semper paratus, right?) to improvise.
- land it in the river - Channel Sully's sound judgment.
- after - Suppress panic.
- winding our watches - Consider calmly.

Many thanks again for all your efforts. -G

 

[Gergus]

I don't know how long things usually take around here, so I had a go. All from dictionaries and other resources only (Dickinson, Lewis & Short, UK National Archives, Wiktionary, etc.), no machinae. I did my best with the vocabulary, suffixes, grammar, word order, and so forth. I have no Latin background at all and I'm sure it's all kinds of wrong. Just trying to keep the ball rolling.

Original phrase...

Usually prepared, but when not, still ready to land it in the river after winding our watches ​

Conceptually simplified to this...

Usually prepared, but when not, ​

we guide our flying machines to the surface of the river ​

after winding our timekeeping machines​

Translation attempt, thus...

Plerumque paratus, sed quandoque non, ​

dirigimus nostra machina volatica ad superficiem flumen ​

post convolverimus nostra machinae horologii​

 

[Avunculus H]

- ________ Paratus - As Scrabulista noted, we seek to keep this express reference to the construction of the Coast Guard (Semper Paratus) and Marine (Semper Fidelis) mottoes. Is there consensus saepe is the right word? In dictionaries I am also seeing persaepe ("very often"), and soleo ("accustomed"). As a grammatical matter, can plerumque go with paratus similarly to how semper and saepe (and I assume persaepe) appear to be able to?

But that doesn't work here. Semper paratus / fidelis are mottos that are valid for each single member of the organisation; they are short for "(I am) always ready / faithful". That doesn't fit with the following "we / our".

 

[Gergus]

valid for each single member

OK, so how would it read if the whole thing was made singular?

I am usually ready…
I am able to land it in the river…
After winding my watch

How would it read if all plural? Plerumque paratum?

 

[cinefactus]

For plural what about:
Plerumque parati, si non, in promptu sumus horologiis circumvolutis aeronavem in flumen devolare

 

[Gergus]

what about

Thanks. I’m Latin-zero though. Gies a wee haun, aye?

Here’s my fractured guess: We are usually prepared, but if not, we are ready to wind our watches and swoop our airplane into the river.

Is it tricky to say “landing in the river” first, and then “after winding our watches”? This fits better with our narrative. If we *knew* it needed to be a river landing, we wouldn’t have to wind our watches first. Checklists. Brevity is subordinate to clarity for this exercise.

Is quandoque no good here? I like how it sounds in proximity to plerumque. Can circumvolutis and convolverimus play too?

Safari isn’t letting me do italics

 

[cinefactus]

we are ready to land our plane on the river after winding our watches
it would look strange to put horologiis circumvolutis at the end.

 

[Gergus]

But it still translates to English at the end like that? That is unexpected!

Is circumvolutis “winding”? Why did I think it went with the airplane and meant “swooping”? Was convolverimus close?

Thank you for sticking with this, btw

 

[Gergus]

A friend with some Latin from years ago proposed this, mediating between “good” language and “optics”. Thanks, Bill! (Be kind to Bill, I was somewhat heavy handed.)

Plerumque paratus;
quandocunque non sumus
dirigimus nostra machina volantica ad superficium flumen
post convolverimus nostra machinae horologii

 

[cinefactus]

Be kind to Bill, I was somewhat heavy handed.

It is OK Bill, we all make mistakes.

 

[scrabulista]

With sumus you would expect parati.
You could drop sumus entirely (as Cinefactus did), so it would work for either singular or plural.
nostra machina volantica needs to be accusative: nostras machinas volanticas.
convolverimus can be either future perfect ("will have wound") or present subjunctive ("may wind"--there are other ways subjunctive can be translated).
I'm thinking you want convolveramus (past perfect) and dirigimus (present) is fine.

My dictionary has horologium as "clock/sundial" -- maybe it can serve as an adjective but I'm thinking mechanica horologia would be better.

Wait for other opinions.

 

[cinefactus]

superficies is 5th declension so it would have to be superficiem. flumen should be fluminis
but it is unnecessary, in flumen would be better. ad means towards

 

[Gergus]

So...

Plerumque paratus;​

si quandocunque non​

dirigimus nostras machinas volanticas in flumen​

post convolveramus nostra mechanica horologia​

It looks so odd to me (zero Latin, some French and Italian) that for the *singular* airplane, everything ends in "s", but for the *plural* watches nothing does. When in Rome ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also, why are planes "machina" and watches "mechanica"? Is it the difference between a machine and a mechanism? They are not, equivalently, machines of time and of flying? We are winding the mechanism but landing the machine?

Do we have a winner here^?

 

[cinefactus]

Do we have a winner here^?

No, it is still wrong.