>>While we're at the ATM subject - why are these guys called "tellers"? Aren't they supposed to specifically not tell anyone what business you had with them?
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>You've heard the expression "untold millions died"?

You think they would still be alive if someone had told them? :)


>While on that subject, why do aliens always come from a planet with latin roots to its name, such as "Arboria"?

That's an entirely different subject, and my take is that it comes from the lack of cultural breadth. Most of the Western literature (and pretty much the whole culture) has circled its wagons and accepts very little from outside. So the young writers, which then become old writers, keep recycling the same ideas, same plots, and yes, same algorithms for composing names in SF, simply because the whole cultural landscape kept them inside. Star Trek has done a worthwhile effort to step out, at least as far as the names go.

>Still on Latin, you're a scholar, I'd always understood that latin adjectives agreed with their nouns, such as "Bigus Dicus". And Magnus is very typical, being of the 3 main declensions: "us", "a" and "um".
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>Why is it then that they refer to artists' "Magnum Opus"? Shouldn't that be "Opus Magnus"?

There are five declensions in Latin that I learned, and opus goes by fourth, which is neutral nouns ending on -l, -en, -t, -ar, -ur, -us (not all nouns with these endings, though - just the neutral ones).