Nunc pro tunc

Who uses it: Lawyers
What it means: "Now for then," when you're filing something late but back-dating it to meet a deadline that has passed.
How to use it: "Better late than never," which is actually one of the few things I remember how to say in Russian: "Luchi pozhna, tchem nikagda."

Thanks to Pam LaMarca and Paul Tomme for this phrase, which is endlessly useful for procrastinators like me.

This morning I had breakfast with Colette Mooney, Deputy Superintendent of the Maine Bureau of Financial Institutions and someone I have known, in a work capacity, for almost 20 years. I should have called Colette when I first got here, nearly a year ago... but nunc pro tunc. (See how easy it is?)

Walking down to the A-1, I saw my first fuzzy caterpillar of the season. They say you can tell how severe the winter will be by how fuzzy the caterpillars are; but how fuzzy is fuzzy? I can't remember how fuzzy last year's caterpillars were, or even if I saw any. Saving one of this year's caterpillars so I can compare it to next year's is a little too Hannibal Lecterish to contemplate.

Colette gave me another good story about the abandoned paper factory across the street from me. Back in the days when bank examinations were all on paper (now they're entirely electronic), the Bureau used to discard confidential examination reports by putting them into the paper factory's pulp vats. It's a great idea for a crime story: a resourceful factory worker who managed to retrieve a copy of a confidential examination report on a bank could use it for all kinds of blackmail. Of course, that could never have happened in real life, mainly because most of the information in examination reports is boring and incomprehensible to laymen. But I still like the idea.