Bacchanal

Bacchanal pronounced (bah-kuh-nahl, bak-uh-nal, bak-uh-nl (noun) or bak-uh-nl (adjective))

(1) A follower of Bacchus.

(2) A drunken reveler.

(3) An occasion of drunken revelry; orgy; riotous celebration.

(4) Of or pertaining to Bacchus; bacchanalian.

1530-1540: From the Latin Bacchānālis (having to do with Bacchus) & Bacchānālia (feast of Bacchus), plural of Bacchānal (a place devoted to Bacchus), from Bacchus (the god of wine), from the Ancient Greek Βάκχος (Bákkhos).  By extension, the meaning "riotous, drunken roistering or orgy" dates from 1711.  Bacchus, known also as Dionysus (Διόνυσος) (Dionysos) was in Greek Mythology the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy.  In Antiquity, most attention focused on wine and given consumption was both high and enthusiastic, the worship of Bacchus became firmly established.  A quirk of Bacchus’ place in the pantheon of gods is that, uniquely, he was born of a mortal mother.  The Romans adopted the name bacchanal (a woman given to such things was a bacchante) and named the behavior of those who had taken too much strong drink: bakkheia.  Bacchanal is a noun & adjective, Bacchanalia is a noun; the noun plural is bacchanals.

Bacchus and Ariadne

Bacchus and Ariadne (1717) by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675-1741).

In Greek mythology, Ariadne was the clever, though perhaps naïve, daughter of King Minos of Crete and she aided the hero Theseus in his mission to slay the Minotaur.  To say naïve might be understating things: poor sweet Ariadne was an emo and a bit of a dill.  On the island of Crete, there was a great labyrinth that housed a fearsome beast, the Minotaur, half human, half bull.  King Minos, in retaliation for his son's death at the hands of an Athenian, required the people of Athens every nine years to send seven young men and seven young virgins to be sacrificed to the beast, the alternative the destruction of their city.  One year, Theseus volunteered to be sent to Crete as part of the awful pact, planning to kill the Minotaur and thereby release his people from their plight.  When he stepped ashore in Crete, Ariadne spotted him and at once fell in love, as emos often do; running to Theseus, she offered to help him defeat the monster if he would marry her.  Theseus naturally agreed so Ariadne gave him a sword and a ball of red thread with which to mark his path so he could find his way out of the labyrinth.  The plan worked to the extent that Theseus slayed the Minotaur but certainly had no intention of marrying Ariadne.  While the couple traveled to Athens, during a brief stop on the island of Naxos, he sailed away, abandoning her while she slumbered on the beach.  Ariadne may have been an emo but Theseus was a cad.  Distraught by being deserted by the one she loved, Ariadne was still sobbing on the shore Bacchus appeared with a procession of his followers.  They spoke a few words and within moments had fallen in love, soon to marry.  In some tellings of the myths, after their wedding, Bacchus placed Ariadne's sparkling diadem in the sky as the constellation Corona, thus making her immortal.

A bacchante illustrating the consequences of what the Ancient Romans called bakkheia: Lindsay Lohan in a Cadillac Escalade, resting after dinner, Los Angeles, May 2007.

Ichthyology

Ichthyology (pronounced ik-thee-ol-uh-jee)

(1) In zoology, the scientific study of fishes.

(2) The study of the history, cultural & economic importance of fishes.

1640–1650: A compound word, the construction being ichthyo- + -logy.  Ichthyo- and ichthy- were from the Ancient Greek ἰχθύς (ikhthús) (fish), possibly from the primitive Indo-European dhghu and there may be a relationship with the Old Armenian ձուկն (jukn) & the Lithuanian žuvis and the suffix –logy was derived from the Ancient Greek λογία (logos) (to study).  The English -logy suffix originates with loanwords from the Greek, usually via Latin and French, where the -λογία is an integral part of the word loaned whereas the French -logie is a continuation of the Latin -logia, ultimately from Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía).  Within English, the suffix has long been productive, especially to form names of sciences or departments of study, analogous to names of disciplines loaned from the Latin, such as astrology from astrologia or geology from geologia. Original compositions of terms with no precedent in Greek or Latin become common by the early nineteenth century, sometimes imitating French or German templates; insectology (1766) after the French insectologie & terminology (1801) after the German terminologie.  By the twentieth century, English creations with no Greek or Latin origin (undergroundology (1820), hatology (1837) were frequent, sometimes in conjunction with –ism words.  Ichthyology is a noun, related forms include ichthyologic & ichthyological (adjectives), ichthyologically is an adverb; the noun plural is ichthyologists.

The noun piscatology was an irregular (and jocular) formation dating from 1857, the construct being the Latin piscatus, past participle of piscārī (to fish), present active infinitive of piscor, from piscis, from the Proto-Italic piskis, from the primitive Indo-European peysḱ-, the cognates including the Old Irish íasc, the Gothic fisks and the Old English fisċ + -olgy.  The word piscatology has been used to mean “the study of fish” (and thus a synonym of ichthyology)) but not by scientists and the irregular form is now more correctly casually applied to fishing and those who fish.  In the 1990s, the idea behind the construction of piscatology begat piscetarian and pescetarian (a person who consumes no animal flesh with the exception of fish or other seafood), by analogy with “vegetarian”.

Reeling one in: Lindsay Lohan and Hofit Golan (b 1985) fishing off Sardinia, July 2016.  They would be considered piscatologists rather than ichthyologists although there are humorless purists who insist there's no such word as piscatologist.

In zoology, the modern conventions of taxonomy mean fishes are precisely categorized but the English word “fish” for centuries was used to describe a much wider range of species (although one discerning observer in the fifteenth century did concoct fishes bestiales (water animals other than fishes), presumably on the basis fishes proper should be limited to something like “a vertebrate which has gills and fins adapting it for living in the water”.  As still familiar names like starfish, jellyfish, shellfish & cuttlefish attest, just about any fully aquatic animal (including mammals like dolphins & whales) was thought some sort of fish and attempts by zoologists to rectify things (such as suggesting the starfish should retroactively be named sea star) have made little impact.  The difficulty with such a project is that historically, some fish were also misleadingly named.  The name seahorse (also as sea horse & sea-horse) encompasses dozens of small fish in the genus Hippocampus, from the Ancient Greek hippókampos (ἱππόκαμπος), the construct being híppos (ἵππος) (horse) + kámpos (κάμπος) (sea monster or sea animal).  To be consistent, these engaging creatures would presumably have to be named horsefish (risking confusion with one of Donald Trump’s alleged former associates) or something else less appealing than seahorse and that’s unlikely to attract much support.

Fish was from the Middle English fisch, from Old English fisċ (fish), from the Proto-West Germanic fisk, from the Proto-Germanic fiskaz (fish) and was related to the West Frisian fisk, the Dutch vis, the German Fisch, the Danish, Norwegian & Swedish fisk and the Icelandic fiskur.  The word was linked with both the Latin piscis and the Old Irish īasc although the actual root remains unknown.  Some have constructed the primitive Indo-European roots pisk & peysk- because of evidence gleaned from the Italic, Celtic, and Germanic but it remains speculative and one etymologist maintains that (on phonetic grounds), it may be a north-western Europe substratum word .  The verb fish (to harvest creatures living in water) was from the Old English fiscian ("to try to catch fish) was cognate with the Old Norse fiska, the Old High German fiscon, the German fischen and the Gothic fiskon and was directly from the noun; the related forms were fished & fishing.

Lindsay Lohan with catch.  To avoid cancellation, she posted on Instagram that “Bonding with nature. I let my little friend swim away after.”

In astronomy and (the then respectable) astrology, the constellation Pisces was so described from the late-fourteenth century.  From the mid eighteenth century, “fish” (with modifiers) came to be applied to people in a usually derogatory sense, a shift from the earlier use when it had been positive in the sense of someone being a good (romantic) “catch”.  The original figurative sense was of a “fish out of water” (person in an unfamiliar and awkward situation (usually social)) recorded in the 1610s and in the same vein the phrase “a fisshe out of the see” was noted in the mid-fifteenth century.  To “drink like a fish” was from 1744 and was applied to those over-fond of strong drink while “having other fish to fry” (other things demanding more immediate attention) dates from the 1650s.  In optics, the fish-eye lens was first sold in 1961, fish-and-chips became a staple of English cuisine in the 1870s and fish-fingers were first sold (in frozen form) from 1962, the earlier fish-cake known since the 1910s and especially popular during wartime rationing.

The phrase “plenty more fish in the sea” was a re-assuring line for those whose love was unrequited and like “cold fish” & “queer fish” (both alluding to qualities detected in those with some degree of social ineptitude) was a coining from the early twentieth century.  Usually applied to other soldiers, “queer fish” was a favourite of Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke (1883–1963; Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) 1941-1946), a perhaps unexpected choice for one of Britain’s more renowned ornithologists.  Why Sir Henry Channon (1897–1958) gained the nickname "Chips" is uncertain but it’s popularly attributed to a photograph taken of him standing on the stairs while at Oxford, next to a Mr Fysch.  Channon’s (almost) un-redacted diaries (1918-1957 (with gaps)), published in three volumes between 2021-2023 revealed him at his best and worst and are an indispensable companion while reading anything about mid-twentieth century British politics.

The plural of fish is an illustration of the inconsistency of English.  As the plural form, “fish” & “fishes” are often (and harmlessly) used interchangeably but in zoology, there is a distinction, fish (1) the noun singular & (2) the plural when referring to multiple individuals from a single species while fishes is the noun plural used to describe different species or species groups.  The differentiation is thus similar to that between people and peoples yet different from the use adopted when speaking of sheep and, although opinion is divided on which is misleading (the depictions vary), those born under the zodiac sign Pisces are referred to variously as both fish & fishes.

Garland

Garland (pronounced gahr-luhnd)

(1) A wreath or festoon of flowers, leaves, or other material, worn for ornament or as an honor or hung on something as a decoration; an accolade or mark of honor.

(2) To crown, adorn or deck with such an object.

(3) A representation of such a wreath or festoon.

(4) In publishing, a collection of short literary pieces, as poems and ballads; a literary miscellany.

(5) In nautical use, a band, collar, or grommet or ring of rope lashed to a spar for convenience in handling.

(6) In admiralty jargon, a netted bag used by sailors to store provisions.

(7) In mining, a metal gutter installed around the inside of a mineshaft, to catch water running down inside the shaft and funnel it into a drainpipe.

1275–1325: From the Middle English gerlande, gerelande, garlande & garland (used to mean both "wreath of flowers" & "crown of gold or silver), from the Old French garlande, garlaunde, gerlande & guerlande (from which Modern French gained guirlande) from the Frankish wierlōn & wieralōn, a frequentative form of the Frankish wierōn (to adorn, bedeck), from wiera (a gold thread), akin to the Old High German wieren (to adorn) & wiara (gold thread).  The Frankish forms alluded to the notion of "an ornament of refined gold" (most likely "of twisted gold wire"), from the Proto-Germanic wira- & wera-, a suffixed form of the primitive Indo-European root wei- (to turn, twist).  Variations of garland exist in many Romanic languages including the Old Spanish guarlanda, the French guirlande, the Italian ghirlanda and the Portuguese grinalda.  The verb in the sense of "to make a garland" or "to crown with a garland" emerged in the late sixteenth century.  Garland & garlanding are nouns & verbs, garlanded is a verb & adjective, garlander is a noun and garlandless is an adjective; the noun plural is garlands.

Commitment issues: Hamlet and Ophelia by Agnes Pringle (1853-1934)

Flowers appealed to William Shakespeare (1564–1616) as a literary device because their myriad of attributes, color, shape, fragrance, thorns, fragility et al, offered so many metaphors for the human condition.  In the plays, over two-hundred species of plants are mentioned and thirty-odd scenes are set in gardens or orchids.  In Hamlet (Act IV, scene 5), there’s a harvest in Ophelia’s garland speech to her brother Laertes:

There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember.  And there is pansies, that's for thoughts.  There's fennel for you, and columbines. There's rue for you, and here's some for me; we may call it herb of grace o' Sundays.  O, you must wear your rue with a difference.  There's a daisy.  I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. (Act IV, scene 5)

There were fantastic garlands did she come. Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies and long purples, that liberal shepherds give a grosser name, but our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them. (Act IV, Scene 7)

There were fantastic garlands did she come, Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies and long purples. (Act IV, Scene 7)

Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus or Rosmarinus officinalis (pre 2017).

Since Antiquity, rosemary has been associated with remembrance, Athenian students at study wore garlands of rosemary as a memory improvement tool.  The name is derived from the Latin rosmarinus (dew of the sea), a reference to its blue petals and habitat atop Mediterranean cliffs.  In Shakespeare's day, rosemary was in both the wedding bouquets carried by bridesmaids and the wreaths laid at funeral wreaths.  A contemporary poet, Robert Herrick (1591-1674) , wrote in a verse “Grow it for two ends, it matters not at all, Be it for my bridall or buriall."  In English folklore, a man who couldn't smell the fragrant shrub was thought incapable of loving a woman though in the same tradition, if rosemary was planted in front of a cottage, it was held to mean the woman was the head of the household.  That was one folk belief said to have caused the up-rooting of not a few plants.  Helpfully, it was said also to repel plague and witches while sleeping with a sprig beneath the pillow prevented nightmares.  But for Ophelia, distraught at her father's death and Hamlet's odd behavior, the mention of rosemary indicates to her brother and the Elizabethan audience her brittle feelings and lack of confidence: "Pray you, love, remember."

Daisy (Bellis perennis, bruisewort or woundwort).

The Daisy’s botanical name is friom the Latin bellis (pretty), the English from the Anglo Saxon daeges eage (day’s eye); poetically, that was because the petals open during the day and close at night.  Long associated with childhood and innocence, in Scotland and the north of England it’s known also as Bairnwort (bairn a dialectical word for child).  In Roman mythology, the daisy was the virginal nymph Belides who transformed herself into the flower to escape the sexual advances of the orchard god Vertumnus.  The flower was symbolic of the Greco-Roman goddesses Aphrodite and Venus as well as Freya, the Norse goddess of beauty and love for whom Friday is named. The legend is that daisies picked between noon and one can be dried and carried as a good luck charm and in English fields, to this day some children still make daisy chains although those who do grow up to become emos.  Unlike the other plants in Ophelia's garland, the daisy seems to possess only good connotations but Shakespeare has Ophelia announce the daisy but not hand it out, the implication being there’s no innocence or purity at court.

Pansy (Viola × wittrockiana).

The word pansy is from the French pensée (for thoughts), the botanical name tricolor a referece to the three main shades, white, purple and yellow, the heart shaped petals thought to help heal a broken heart, so it was known also as heartease.  Pansies, as Ophelia notes, are for thoughts and it was also used medicinally, a curative for cramps, hysteria and diarrhea in children.  In A Midsummer Night's Dream, the fairy King Oberon mixes a potion with the flower's juice: if dropped on the eyelids of a sleeper, it was said they would awake to fall in love with whatever they first see, hence the unfortunate Titania, Oberon's wife, falling in love with a donkey.

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare).

Apparently, fennel is among the vegetables children most dislike.  Pre-dating Shakespeare, Fennel was long regarded as an emblem of false flattery, noted famously in Robert Greene’s (1558-1592) Quip for an Upstart Courtier (1592), the link apparently being the seeds popularity as an appetite suppressant to aid fasting pilgrims, thus becoming symbolic of things that appear to give sustenance but have none.  Empty flattery to hunger.  Shakespeare used fennel often, Falstaff mentioning it in Henry IV, Part 2 and for Ophelia, it’s an allusion to her sterile love affair with Hamlet.

Columbine (Aquilegia or granny's bonnet).

The Columbine, known also as granny’s bonnet, was a wild flower but its beauty made it a popular Elizabethan garden flower, the botanical name from the Latin aquila (eagle) because the petals were thought to resemble an eagle’s talons.  In a more gentle avian vein, the English is derived from the Latin columba (dove), a reference to its nectaries being vaguely reminiscent of the heads of doves.  To Shakespeare, the columbine had a number of symbolic associations.  The poet George Chapman (1559-1634) suggested it was emblematic of ingratitude and William Browne (1590–1645) declared it stood only for forsaken and neglected love for in England it also symbolized cuckoldom as the nectaries did look like horns.  More helpfully, as the "thankless flower", the seeds, if taken with wine, were said to induce labor.

Rue (Ruta graveolens or herb-of-grace).

By Shakespeare’s time, rue had been for centuries a symbol of sorrow and repentance and it’s a long, fabled history. Rue was the plant that King Mithridates VI of Pontus (135-16 BC) imbibed to protect himself against poisoning and the Greek physician Hippocrates (circa 460-circa 370 BC) recommended it to relieve rheumatic pains, heart palpitations and menopausal symptoms.  The herb's name is derived from the Greek ruta (repentance) and the Athenians used it while dining with foreigners to ward off evil demons, spells and spirits whereas in Ancient Rome it was said to improve eyesight.  Its other names, Herb o' Grace or Herb o' Sundays, refers to the sorrow and resulting grace one feels after true repentance and the suit of clubs in a deck of cards was modeled after rue's fleshy, oblong leaves.  It remains a call to regret and repent past evil deeds; due to its strong aromatic smell and bitter taste, the plant has long been symbolic of sorrow, regret and repentance, hence the expression “you’ll rue the day”.  In Elizabethan England (1558-1603), it was carried around as protection against plague and witchcraft and even as an insect repellent. When Ophelia hands it to Queen Gertrude in Hamlet, it is a subtle rebuke of her faithlessness.  In moderation, rue was used to hasten labor but in larger doses, was known to be an abortifacient, hence the speculation that when Ophelia utters the lines "there's rue for you, and here's some for me", it’s a confession of unwanted pregnancy and another reason for ending her life.

Violet (Viola).

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) in his essay Of Gardens (1625) wrote the violet was “that which above all others yields the sweetest smell” and they’ve always been prized too for their beauty.  Despite this, there’s the association with melancholy and early death, expressed in Hamlet when Ophelia laments she has no Violets to give to the court because “they withered when my father died” and it’s Laertes’ wish that violets “may spring” from Ophelia’s grave.  There’s a duality of meaning in Ophelia’s statement; she’s lamenting not only the death of her father the lack of faithfulness and fidelity in the court.

Lindsay Lohan in sheer black gown with embroidered garlands, Francesco Scognamiglio's (b 1975) spring 2015 collection, Naples, June 2015.

Carpet

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Doppelganger

Doppelganger (pronounced dop-uhl-gang-er or daw-puhl-geng-er (German))

(1) In legend, a ghostly apparition of a living person, especially one that haunts such a person.

(2) A counterpart of a living person, identical in appearance; a person remarkably similar in appearance to another.

(3) In the pop-culture fantasy genre, a monster that takes the forms of people, usually after killing them.

(4) An evil twin (often as alter ego)

1826 (1824 as a German word in English): From the German Doppelgänger, literally "double-goer" or “double walker” originally with a ghostly sense.  Although now less common, it was once sometimes the practice to use the half-English spelling doubleganger.  Doppel was from doppelt (double), from doppeln (double (made up of two matching or complementary elements)), from the Old French doble (to double), from the Latin dūplus, from the Proto-Italic dwiplos, the construct being duo (two) +‎ plus, from the Old Latin plous, from the Proto-Italic plous, from the primitive Indo-European pleh- & pelhu- (many) and cognate with the Ancient Greek πολύς (polús) (many) and the Old English feolo (much, many).  It was influenced by the Ancient Greek διπλόος (diplóos) (double), the construct being δι- (di-), from δύο (dúo) (two), + -πλόος (-plóos) (-fold) and the Proto-Germanic twīflaz (doubt). A doublet of Zweifel.  Gänger was from Middle High German genger (to go, to walk), the construct being Gang +‎ -er.  Gang was from the Middle High German ganc, from the Old High German gang, from the Proto-Germanic gangaz (pace, step, gait, walk) and cognate with the English gang.  The synonyms in the various senses include double, lookalike, dead-ringer & alter ego.

Kim Jong-un, 2019-2020.

Rumors that Kim Jong-un (b circa 1994, Supreme Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea, the DPRK) since 2011) was incapacitated with (unspecified) health problems spiked in late 2021 when he appeared looking notably thinner than in his appearances only months earlier, the conspiracy theory hinging on the idea the part of the Supreme Leader was being played by a doppelganger.  Most speculation centered on Mr Kim’s apparently chronic obesity, chain smoking and legendarily enthusiastic intake of his favorite Swiss cheese, some suggesting the doppelganger would fulfill the role until a team of foreign doctors working in secret restored the Supreme Leader to good working order while others opined he may actually be dead and the elite of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (the WPA, a kind of cross between the a communist party and the Kim family’s holding company) was just buying time while they worked out what to do next.

Noted DPRK watchers, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the Republic of Korea's (South Korea, the ROK) spy agency, dismissed the idea and said the new, sexy, slimmed-down Supreme Leader was real, their findings based on a comparison using facial recognition software, weight-tracking models and analysis of high-resolution video.  According to the NIS, Mr Kim’s weight which by 2019 had reached 142 kg (313 lb), less than a year later had further ballooned to around 146 kg (322 lb) while his appearances in late 2021 indicated a loss of between 20-25 kg (44-55 lb).  They added he appeared to be in rude good health.

Kim Jong-un, 2021.

If that’s true, the weight-loss could be accounted for either by Mr Kim’s desire to slim down for reasons of health or may be political, the DPRK facing one of its worst food shortages in many years and he may wish to convey the impression he’s sharing in the deprivations being suffered by his people.  Various seasonal factors would anyway have squeezed the food supply but the COVID-19 measures taken certainly exacerbated the problem, the closure of the borders inducing the sharpest economic contraction since the loss in the early 1990s of economic assistance from the Soviet Union.  The DPRK’s trade with its main trading partner, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), dropped by between 80-90% from pre-pandemic levels and the NIS noted it was the “mismanagement” of the economy which had caused inflation rates to surge beyond that afflicting all but a few other countries but, with a chronic shortage of ink and paper, the DPRK was unable to resort to the short-term expedient of printing money.  Still, things appear not actually on the point of collapse, ballistic missile tests continuing and the COVID-19 policy has, as stated by official DPRK propaganda, proved an outstanding success, Pyongyang confirming the country has suffered zero cases since the pandemic began.  It does seem to prove a “shoot to kill” border policy works, something a few Western politicians have long suspected and probably longed for.

Kim Jong-un looking at morning tea.

Targeted sanctions imposed in response to the regime’s nuclear weapons recalcitrance had already resulted in some humanitarian suffering but the closure of the PRC-DPRK border and has increased this by blocking shipments of grain, fertilizer and farming equipment.  Severe flooding caused by powerful typhoons in 2020 which so lowered that year’s harvest also had effects which lingered, crop yields again very low in 2021.  It had become so bad that in a rare public admission, Mr Kim in 2021 told a Worker’s Party meeting that the “people’s food situation is now getting tense” and his immediate policy switch was to order all citizens to devote all their effort to farming, making sure to secure “every grain” of rice.  With apparently all NGO and UN staff having left the country, most sources of foreign aid have evaporated and the DPRK is more dependent on its own resources than at any time since the end of the Korean War (1950-1953).  All this might explain Mr Kim’s weight-loss, although not yet obviously malnourished, he’s at least setting an example.

Manchu Tuan, Shenyang, PRC (left) and the Supreme Leader (right).

In general circulation, Kim Jong-un doppelgangers are not actually rare, at least two known to be available for hire from talent agencies.  Regardless of what happens in the DPRK, it may be a good gig because in 2012, satirical site The Onion named Kim Jong-un the world’s sexiest man, either because he was, in their words, “devastatingly handsome” or a nod to Henry Kissinger’s (b 1923; US secretary of state 1973-1977) claim (actually probably a boast) that “power is the ultimate aphrodisiac”.  The Onion’s winner in 2011 had been Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad (b 1965; president of Syria 2000-) so the editors may have found Dr Kissinger persuasive.  Manchu Tuan sells kebabs in the north-eastern Chinese city of Shenyang and says business has boomed since this resemblance to Mr Kim appeared on social media and he has hired another cook to prepare the kebabs, much of his time now absorbed with customers taking selfies with him.

Donald Trump doppelganger: Dolores Leis Antelo, a farmer from Nanton, La Coruna, Spain.  The two are reportedly not related and have never met.

Shao Jianhua Changsha, Hunan, PRC and his queue of selfie-requesting customers.

Shao Jianhua, who five years ago moved from his native Zhejiang to Changsha, makes and sells meat pies with dried and pickled vegetables, a dish associated with costal Zhejiang.  His shop operates from a cluster near the university halls of residence and the students, although very fond of his highly-regarded pies, also request selfies, business having expanded since word spread of his resemblance to PRC president Xi Jinping (b 1953; PRC president 2013-).  Mr Shao, whose pies sell for 3.5 yuan (US$0.55) has increased production to 1,600 a day during peak season and the queues are frequently long.

The conspiracy theorists do apply some science to their subjects.  Of particular interest are ears, cosmetic surgeons noting that ears are so difficult to modify to match those of another person and that latex versions attached with surgical glue are the best solution for these purposes although even with these there are limitations.  It’s not the first time a head of government’s ears have attracted interest.  In 1939, Adolf Hitler (1889–1945; Führer of Germany 1933-1945) sent his court photographer Heinrich Hoffmann (1885–1957) with the party which in 1939 went to Moscow to execute the Nazi-Soviet Pact, his task, inter alia, to get a good shot of Comrade Stalin’s (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) ear-lobes, the Führer wishing to be reassured his new (and temporary) ally’s lobes were “separate and Ayran” and not “attached and Jewish”.  He was satisfied with Hoffman’s evidence but that didn’t stop him later double-crossing Stalin.

Front and back of blood sample of prisoner #7 (Hess), “Spandau #7 Pathology SVC Heidelberg MEDDAC 1139.

The flight to England by Rudolf Hess (1894–1987; Deputy Führer 1933-1941) in 1941, an attempt to persuade the British to conclude the war on the eve of the invasion of Russia, was one of the strangest episodes of the war and whether or not his flight was approved by Hitler remained a matter of conjecture for decades although the available evidence does suggest the Führer was as shocked as everyone else.  Another conspiracy theory ran for years, that of whether the Hess the British produced for trial in Nuremberg (1945-1946) and who was subsequently imprisoned in Spandau until his suicide (other conspiracy theories explore this) in 1987 was actually a doppelganger.  Books with various explanations about why the British might have done this were written, including one by a doctor who examined Hess while a prisoner and couldn’t reconcile his physiology with the injuries he’s suffered while serving in the Imperial Army in the First World War.  Eventually even the suspicious authors conceded the incarcerated Hess was the real one and in 2019, after one of Hess’s hermetically sealed blood samples was discovered and subjected to a DNA analysis which found a 99.99% likelihood of a match with one of Hess’s living relatives.

Lindsay Lohan and body double Aoife Bailey during filming of Irish Wish (Netflix, 2024).

The most obvious doppelgangers are "body doubles", actors used when filming scenes when, for whatever reason, the lead actor can't be used.  Such are the tricks and techniques of film production, the body doubles don't have to be even close to exact doppelgangers, they need only be vaguely similar though they often share some distinctive characteristic (such a long red hair).  Generally, body doubles are used for three reasons:

(1) Dangerous stunts: Body doubles with specific expertise are often hired to perform dangerous scenes, such as car chases, fight scenes, or jumps from great heights.

(2) Time constraints: In some cases, the lead actor or actress may not be available to film certain scenes due to scheduling conflicts.  In these situations, a body double can be used to film the scene in their place, allowing production to continue without delay.

(3) Privacy: In some instances, actors may not wish to appear in certain scenes, typically those involving nudity.  Sometimes contractual clauses include these stipulations.

What stunt doubles do, Lindsay Lohan and body double Aoife Bailey during filming of Irish Wish (Netflix, 2024).  The car is a 1965 Triumph TR4A.