The title would be more accurate as Arf'a'mo' representing the Esturine pronounciation of 'half a moment', a request to pause (often for reflection).

The picture is from Entertainment Weekly, #762/763 April 30, 2004 Page 7.

And a general Note (16 Dec 04) from the arthurnet list's Goddess and Mom, Judy Shoaf:
The problem of the runic inscription on the sword was apparently dealt with by the experts once they arrived on set, and a sword with proper Ogham inscription reading "Defender of the Land" was used.
See the short article by John Matthews in Arthuriana 14.3 p. 114

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¹ Oh Dear! (King Arthur Movie)
"... Oh! Dear!... there's another thing! It's the disappointment" Lest you think that I'm holding this high budget movie to standards that are even higher and of a ridiculous nature, consider this from the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This screen shot is from a dream sequence in which a lesbian is painting on her girl friend's back. Someone must have put in the effort to make sure that she has written out, in Greek uncials, the beginning of the hymn to Aphrodite attributed to Sappho of Lesbos, as a remarkably appropriate and historically informed decoration.
Though, of course, some of us might question the Atticising tendency of the script (rather than Aeolic), I suspect that she can be forgiven for merely following Dionysos of Halicarnassos.

• <gh>, /f/ as in laugh, /læf, læːf, laːf/;
• <o>, /ɪ/ as in women, /ˈwɪmɪn, ˈwɪmən/; and
• <ti>, /ʃ/ as in nation, /ˈneɪʃən/.

Ghoti is often cited to support English spelling reform, though it completely ignores etymology and the normal rules of English spelling.
The grapheme <gh> never represents the phoneme /f/ at the beginning of a word and <ti> never represents /ʃ/ at the end of a word. The pronunciation of the word women is the only word in English where <o> represents the sound /ɪ/ and this is partly due to the Great Vowel Shift.

¹ Pete Townshend
"... the birthday of Pete Townsend" is, of course, on the 19th May.

² Ecclesiastical History
"... Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Speaking Peoples" This viciously conflates the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People) by the Venerable Bede with Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples to the ultimate detriment of each. Sorry about that.

³ Cædmon
"... famous story of Cædmon"

Quod dum tempore quodam faceret, et relicta domu conuiuii egressus esset ad stabula iumentorum, quorum ei custodia nocte illa erat delegata, ibique hora conpetenti membra dedisset sopori, adstitit ei quidam per somnium, eumque salutans ac suo appelans nomine "Caedmon," inquit, "canta mihi aliquid." At ille respondens "Nescio" inquit "cantare; nam et ideo de conuiuio egressus huc secessi, quia cantare non poteram." Rursum ille qui cum eo loquebatur "At tamen" ait "mihi cantare habes." "Quid" inquit "debeo cantare?" Et ille "Canta" inquit "principium creaturarum." Quo accepto responso, statim ipse coepit cantare in laudem Dei Conditoris uersus quos numquam audierat, quorum iste est sensus: "Nunc laudare debemus auctorem regni caelestis, potentiam Creatoris et consilium illius, facta Patris gloriae: quomodo ille, cum sit aeternus Deus, omnium miraculorum auctor extitit, qui primo filiis hominum caelum pro culmine tecti, dehinc terram Custos humani generis omnipotens creauit." Hic est sensus, non autem ordo ipse uerborum, quae dormiens ille canebat; neque enim possunt carmina, quamuis optime conposita, ex alia in aliam linguam ad uerbum sine detrimento sui decoris ac dignitatis transferri. Exsurgens autem a somno, cuncta quae dormiens cantauerat memoriter retenuit, et eis mox plura in eundem modum uerba Deo digni carminis adiunxit.

On one such occasion when he did so, he left the place of feasting and went to the cattle byre, as it was his turn to take charge of them that night. In due time he stretched himself out and went to sleep, whereupon he dreamt that someone stood by him, saluted him, and called him by name: "Caedmon," he said, "Sing me something." Caedmon answered, "I cannot sing; that is why I left the feast and came here because I could not sing." Once again the speaker said, "Nevertheless, you must sing to me." "What must I sing?" said Caedmon. "Sing," he said,"about the beginning of created things." Thereupon Caedmon began to sing verses which he had never heard before in praise of God the Creator, of which this is the general sense: "Now we must praise the Maker of the heavenly kingdom, the power of the Creator and his counsel, the deeds of the Father of glory and how He, since he is the eternal God, was the Author of all marvels and first created the heavens as a roof for the children of men and then, the almighty Guardian of the human race, created the earth." This is the sense but not the order of the words which he sang as he slept. For it is not possible to translate verse, however well composed, literally from one language to another without some loss of beauty and dignity. When he awoke, he remembered all that he had sung while asleep and soon added more verses in the same manner, praising God in fitting style.

¹ Nyghtegale
"...When þe nyghtegale singes..."
The beginning of a forteenth century love poem from the Harley Lyrics.

'When the nightingale sings, the woods grow green.
Leaf and grass and flowers sprout in April, believe me'

or something like that.

¹ Coelacanth
"... a reasonably competent coelacanth" A primitive fish (Latimeria chalumnae)---the one you always see on the left those cartoon evolutionary sequences that have fully upright modern men on the right. So if they can do it anyone can. Here is a site on them.

² Vacuum
"...Nature abhors a vacuum" François Rabelais (c. 1494­1553), French monk, humanist, satirist, physician. Gargantua and Pantagruel, bk. 1, ch. 5 (1534), trans. by J.M. Cohen (1955).
There is also the Latin proverb, "Natura abhorret vacuum." I seem to remember that the idea appears in Aristotle too.

Note on the Title
It is such a pity that 'roads' isn't an anagram of 'doors'!
I suppose If I ever did anything on noticing smells I could use 'The Odors of Perception', and I'm certain that if I used 'The Roods of Perception' I'd make at least some of you cross. And anyway we don't want no references to drug-crazed intellectuals around here, thank you very much. So maybe I'd better just change this week's title and I would now having thought about it, but it's too late: so sod it!

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¹ Slougherly
"... slougherly despondent" "The name of the slough was Despond. Here, therefore, they wallowed for a time, being grievously bedaubed with the dirt;..." Bunyan: Pilgrim's Progress, part i. which can be found here at Project Gutenberg.

² Springtime for Hitler
"... extras from a high-school production of" In Mel Brooks movie 'The Producers' there is a sure-fire flop that doesn't.
Here are the words:
Germany was having trouble, what a sad, sad story
Needed a new leader to restore its former glory
Where oh where was he? Where could that man be?
We looked around, and then we found, the man for you and me,
And now it's ...
Springtime for Hitler and Germany,
Deutschland is happy and gay.
We're marching to a faster pace,
Look out, here comes the master race.
Springtime for Hitler and Germany,
Winter for Poland and France.
Springtime for Hitler and Germany,
Come on, Germans, go into your dance ...

I was born in Dusseldorf, and that is why they call me Rolf.
Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party.
Springtime for Hitler and Germany
(Gun fires)
Goose-step's the new step today
(Machine gun fires)
Bombs falling from the skies again,
(Bomb falls and explodes)
Deutschland is on the rise again
Springtime for Hitler and Germany
U-boats are sailing once more
[woman's voice]: "Well! Talk about bad taste!"
Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Means ... that ... soon we'll be going ... We've got to be going ... You know we'll be going to ... WAR!

¹ Authorities
"... according to all the Authorities" These ones!
And here is what they were saying at the time the essay was written:
             

² English Oak
"... they can't be English Oaks" '(Quercus robur), ornamental and timber tree of the beech family (Fagaceae) that is native to Eurasia but also cultivated in North America and Australia.

The tree has a short, stout trunk with wide-spreading branches and may grow to a height of 25 m (82.5 feet). The short-stalked leaves, 13 cm (5 inches) or more long, have three to seven pairs of rounded lobes; they are dark green above and pale green beneath and retain their colour into winter. Many varieties are cultivated as ornamentals, including a popular columnar form. The tree's heavy heartwood was once extensively used in Great Britain for shipbuilding and carving.'
                                              "English Oak." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2004. 10 Apr. 2004 Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service
They are of course nothing to do with the famous and mighty Quercus maximus bambergascoinii!

³ Live Oak
"... Live Oaks---an American species" 'any of several species of North American ornamental and timber trees belonging to the red oak group of the genus Quercus in the beech family (Fagaceae).
Specifically, the term refers to the southern live oak (Quercus virginiana), a massive evergreen tree native to Cuba and the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains. It often grows to a height of 15 metres (50 feet) or more on hummocks and ridges but may be shrubby on barren coastal soils. The trunk divides near the ground into several limbs that may extend horizontally as much as two to three times the height of the tree.

The elliptical leaves, usually unlobed, are dark green and glossy above, whitish and hairy below. A valuable timber tree, southern live oak is also planted as a shade and avenue tree in the southern U.S. It grows rapidly on good soil but is not as long-lived as was once thought: the oldest known specimens range in age from 200 to 300 years. Live oak derives its name from the fact that it is evergreen and durable...'
                                         "Live Oak." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2004. 10 Apr. 2004 Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service

...and not (as we all thought) from its wild sex life.

Not Angels but Anglicans
"Non Angeli sed Anglicani" is a reference to Gregorii Magni (Pope Gregory the Great's) comment, found in Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (Book II Ch i), usually given as "non Angli sed angeli" but (of course) really being that when he was told that some boy slaves (who probably weren't either boys or slaves) were "Angli"replied "...angelicam habent faciem, et tales angelorum in caelis decet esse coheredes" (they have the faces of angels and should be the co-heirs of the angels in heaven).

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¹ Survey
"... a survey that found that in America" it was from a new survey by Harris Interactive of 2,306 adults
"Who worships at a religious service?

Just over half (55 percent) attend a religious service a few times a year or more. Thirty-six percent attend once a month or more often, and just 26 percent say they attend every week. Forty-one percent of women and 31 percent of men attend once a month or more. Protestants (47 percent) are more likely to go to church once a month or more often than are Roman Catholics (35 percent). Jews are least likely to go with 16 percent saying they go to synagogue once a month or more. Church attendance is highest in the Midwest and lowest in the West."