What is Ad Hoc?

What does "ad hoc, ad loc and quid pro quo so little time so much to know" mean?

• It sounds like, For this instance, at this place, you get what you give, so little time so much to know? but I don't get it please explain it to me completely. Thanks

• Answer:

  these words are spoken by jeremy, the nowhere man, in the beatles film 'yellow submarine' (though in fact the beatles had almost nothing to do with it). jeremy as a character (both in the film, and in the original song on the 'revolver' lp) is an example of someone who is so determined to show off how knowledgeable he is that he never finds any time to actually learn anything. jeremy means well, but he is a likeable idiot - loquacious but ineffectual. what jeremy actually means here is contained in the english part of his sentence (english is the only language jeremy can really understand) 'so little time, so much to know'. this has very little meaning on its own (why would anyone want to know things simply for the sake of knowing them?) - but it sounds 'deep'. the beatles were relatively uneducated boys from liverpool who became the darlings of the intelligentsia of their day - and then found that many 'educated' people were really no cleverer than they were. the beatles were always amused by pretension, and jeremy is among their most durable buffoons. jeremy has peppered up his banale observation with near meaningless bits and pieces of latin. 'ad hoc' means something which is fit for the purpose ('ad hoc' is latin for 'just for this'). it usually has an overtone of something improvised. if i need to drive in a screw and i use a kitchen-knife for the purpose my knife is an ad-hoc screwdriver. 'ad loc.' is not even a latin phrase at all - just part of a latin phrase. 'ad loc. op. cit.' is a phrase you get in latin texts and latin textbooks meaning 'look this up in the place i already mentioned'. if you were to ask me 'where is the phrase 'ad hoc ad loc and quid pro quo' first used, i should probably tell you to go back and read the start of this answer again. or, in latin, ad loc. op. cit. 'quid pro quo' means 'a something for something else', an 'i'll scratch your back and you scratch mine' arrangement. the phrase has no relevance to what jeremy is saying - but it sounds good. if i explain to you what this phrase means, and you then think: 'o wow, that garwy sure knows his beatles films!' this would be a quid pro quo of a sort. you get your explanation, i get the kudos. yellow submarine is a fascinating film: a cartoon in which the characters are more believable than they were in most of the straight films made at the time. but then this is frequently the problem with real people:- they are so very badly drawn.