Rubricate

Rubricate (pronounced roo-bri-keyt)

(1) To mark or color with red; to adorn with red; to redden.

(2) To furnish with or regulate by rubrics.

(3) To write in the form of a rubric.

(4) In publishing, to print (a book or manuscript) with red titles, headings etc; to illuminate a manuscript with red letters.

1560–1570: Either from the perfect passive participle of the Latin verb rūbrīcō (to paint red) or from the Late Latin rūbrīcātus, past participle of rūbrīcāre (to color red), the construct being rūbrīc(a) (red ocher; red earth) + -ātus.  The Latin suffix -ātus was from the Proto-Italic -ātos, from the primitive Indo-European -ehtos.  It’s regarded as a "pseudo-participle" and perhaps related to –tus although though similar formations in other Indo-European languages indicate it was distinct from it already in early Indo-European times.  It was cognate with the Proto-Slavic –atъ and the Proto-Germanic -ōdaz (the English form being -ed (having).  The feminine form was –āta, the neuter –ātum and it was used to form adjectives from nouns indicating the possession of a thing or a quality.  Rubricate & rubricating are verbs, rubricated is a verb & adjective and rubrication & rubricator are nouns.

Rubic (rubrick the obsolete spelling) was from the Middle English rubriche & rubrike, from the Old French rubrique, from Latin rūbrīca (red ochre; red earth), the substance used to make red letters, from ruber (red), from the primitive Indo-European hrewdh.  Rubic came widely to be used, derived mostly from the sense of “giving emphasis or illumination to the text”.  In ecclesiastical printing, a “church text with rubrics” was one with the directions for a religious service printed in red.  This extended to secular publishing when used of a heading in a book or something highlighted in red which led to the general use as (1) a title of a category or a class, (2) an established rule or custom; a guideline.  By extension it came to describe (3) in education, a set of scoring criteria for evaluating a pupil’s work and the associated comments and (4) the flourish appearing after a signature.

The comparative is more rubricate and the superlative most rubricate.  Lindsay Lohan illustrates the nuances:

(1) Naturally rubricated.
(2) De-rubricated.
(3) Re-rubricated.
(4) Highly rubricated.

The popularity of red among Ferrari buyers has declined from the highs of the 1990s (and it was in this decade the phrase “resale red” was popularized) when fewer than two in ten were ordered in any other color but even today some 40% of Ferraris leave the factor finished in some shade of red.  Sliver, black, bright yellow and darker blues now attract buyers and noting this, the factory has in recent years launched new models in a variety of colors, the debut of the 488 Pista Spider at the 2018 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance using a white car trimmed in black in Alcantara and leather, an unfortunately neglected combination.

Ferrari 488 Pista Spider, 2018 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.

Recent trends notwithstanding, red probably still is lodged in the public imagination as the color of a Ferrari and the origins of that long pre-date the brand, the motor-car and perhaps even the Italian state.  Quite how red became the Italian national color is contested among historians but the tale most Italians prefer is that of Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882), an Italian nationalist general and politician.  Already famous for his exploits in Brazil, Uruguay and elsewhere in Europe, the legend of Garibaldi was created by his personal command of many of the military campaigns which led eventually to Italian unification in 1871 and his reputation as a romantic revolutionary has flourished because historians have seemed always anxious to present his military adventures as noble causes; unlike many pragmatic politicians of his time, Garibaldi longed for a united country and believed in miracles.

Portrait of Giuseppe Garibaldi (wearing garibaldino) during the landing of Thousand at Marsala (1860), oil on canvas by Induno, Gerolamo (1827-1890), Museo del Risorgimento, Turin.

Garibaldi’s part in the movement for Italian unification (known as il Risorgimento (Rising Again)) also added to the lexicon of paramilitary fashion.  His followers were known as the Garibaldini and in lieu of a uniform, they wore the red shirts he favored, the popular legend being it was to ensure they weren’t distracted from fighting were their blood to be spilled although it’s said that during his time in Uruguay, he wore the red shirts used by the butchers from a nearby slaughterhouse.  It was also an indication the campaign was a popular insurrection, not one fought by conventional military maneuvers or with traditional formations because, as the red-coated British soldiers had discovered, red wasn’t a good color to wear on a battlefield.  The word Garibaldino (plural Garibaldini) is used to refer to any volunteer soldier who served in the cause and the red shirts (which were never standardized in shade, style or cut) are often called garibaldino shirts or just garibaldinos.  From that point onwards, red began to be adopted as a symbol of many things Italian.

Le Mans 24-hour winning 1956 Jaguar D-Type in Ecurie Ecosse livery (known informally as Scottish Racing Blue)  In 2016 it sold at auction for US$22 million.

Il Risorgimento however can’t much in 1900 have occupied the minds of the members of the AIACR (the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (International Association of Recognized Automobile Clubs), predecessor of the FIA (the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (International Automobile Federation)) because, displaying an ineptitude the FIA has of late turned into a mission statement, the color red was allocated to the United States as the official shade to be used on their racing cars.  The Belgiums were granted yellow, the French blue, the Germans white and the British Green and it wasn’t until 1907 the Italians were able to claim the right to red and these colors would sometimes be an issue in the years to come.  In 1934, Mercedes-Benz cars appeared in raw aluminum and the myth developed that the mechanics had to work overnight scraping off the thick layers of white paint so the machines would comply with the formula’s weight limit but the truth is less romantic. The factory simply didn’t wish to apply paint and the cars appeared at the track unpainted well before the weight limit was imposed, the company successfully arguing that in heraldry, silver and white are the same tincture (color), known as Argent.  The Nazis having taken power, the attitude “don’t argue with the Germans” was settling over Europe and the authorities relented.  Thus was born the era of the “silver arrows”, the all-conquering, aluminum-skinned grand-prix cars which would dominate the circuits in the 1930s and return for two winning seasons two decades later and the idea that white could be silver may have inspired the Nazis who for years argued (with gradually diminishing returns) that black was white.  The FIA also didn’t push the point in the 1950s when the Edinburgh-based Ecurie Ecosse (Scotland Stable) requested to race in the blue and white livery of the flag of Scotland, noting the pre World War I precedent of a Scottish outfit which had competed under a blue tartan.  Notably darker than French Racing Blue, Ecurie Ecosse argued the color really was a variation of green (although the real reason was they thought British Racing Green (BRG) was too identifiably “English”) and the request was approved, proving that if white can be silver, blue can be green.  In 1968, the system began to be abandoned under pressure from teams which wanted to use the corporate colors of their sponsors and that proved the thin end of the wedge, almost unrestricted advertising appearing within years.

But even when adorned with the logos of sponsors, Ferrari stuck to red.  Ferrari has sold road-cars (initially without great enthusiasm) to customers since 1947 and it’s impossible to compile a definitive list of all of the shades of red used over the decades given (1) the changes in the composition of paint which subtlety have altered the exact tincture, even of colors which retained the same designation (2) the sketchiness of the factory’s early records of such things and (3) the number of vehicles painted to special order, some of which used one-off shades.  However, Rossoautomobili compiled an illustrated guide to a dozen-odd which are said to be representative of the variations in rosso (red), all being rubricated although some are more rubricated than others; their indicative list including:

Rosso Barchetta (Little Boat Red): A darker shade of red.  Barchetta is Italian for “little boat”, an allusion to the shape Ferrari’s early (late 1940s) race cars.

Rosso Berlinetta (Coupé Red): A recent addition which takes advantage of newer techniques, permitting a triple-layer finish which sparkles in direct sunlight.  On the options sheet it lists at €20.000 (US$21,200).  In translation, berlinetta is literally “a small saloon” but in the Italian way of things is to applied to coupés.

1965 Ferrari 275 GTB (short-nose) in Rosso Cina.

Rosso Cina (China Red): Another of the darker hues which many would think of as a burgundy or maroon.  Non-metallic, it was introduced during the 1960s, the era of the 275 and 330 series cars and was reputedly a tribute to the red used on some fine Chinese porcelain held in Italian museums.

Rosso Dino: Another artifact from the 1960s, this one was discontinued in the 1970s before being re-introduced early in the twenty-first century and it remains part of Ferrari’s historical colour palette.  It straddles that area between red and orange, the name a tribute to Alfredo Ferrari (nicknamed Alfredino or Dino) 1932-1956; son of il Commendatore, Enzo Ferrari (1898-1987).

Rosso Fiorano (Fiorano Red): A darker shade named after Ferrari’s test track Pista di Fiorano.

Rosso Magma (Lava Red): A very metallic shade which was originally a Maserati part-number, added through the factory’s "Tailor Made" programme for selected models.  The name summons the image of the red-hot lava which flows from the earth’s magma chambers during volcanic eruptions.

2014 Ferrari LaFerrari in Rossa Vinaccia.

Rosso Vinaccia (Red Wine): The factory insists this must be thought a red although most might at first sight think it a purple.  The link lies in the literal translation as “red wine” but rather than the drops, the inspiration came from the detritus, the remains of the grapes after the juice is extracted.

Rosso Maranello Opaco (Matte Maranello Red): Reflecting the fad in recent decades for matte-finish paints (which seems to date from the idea that the military’s stealth technology could be used to absorb rather than reflect the radar waves police use in speed-limit enforcement), this is based on the metallic triple-layer Rosso Maranello. 

Rosso Metallizzato (Metallic Red): Dark almost to the point of suggesting a hint of purple, it’s one of the darkest shades of red on the option sheet.

Rosso Mugello (Mugello Red): Named after the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello, this is both darker and a little more subdued than most reds.

Rosso Portofino (Portofino Red): Introduced as the signature shade of the Ferrari Portofino in 2017, it’s in the traditional vein and probably only experts can pick the difference.

1972 Dino 246 GT by Ferrari in Rosso Corsa.

Rosso Corsa (Racing Red): The classic Italian Racing Red, the original, and to many the definitive Ferrari color.

Rosso Scuderia (Factory Team Red): The especially bright Rosso Scuderia will be familiar to many as the exact color used by the Scuderia Ferrari (the factory racing team) for the Formula 1 cars.  In certain light conditions, it tend to orange.

Rosso Singapore (Singapore Red): Reflecting the increasing importance of the markets in the Far East, Rosso Singapore first appeared on a "Tailor Made" Ferrari commissioned by a dealer to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Singapore.

Rubino Micalizzato (Micalised Ruby): A dark and most subdued red (which is described as a “ruby”), it’s available only on request and doesn’t appear on the factory’s color charts.

Italian Racing Red: 1950 Ferrari 375 FI (left) & 1960 Ferrari 246 F1 (right).

The 375 was built to contest Formula One during the immediate post-war era when the rules permitted engines to be either 4.5 liters (275 cubic inch, naturally aspirated) or 1.5 litres (92 cubic inch, supercharged).  Although down on power compared with the supercharged BRM V16, the 4.5 litre V12 Ferrari proved more reliable and was the first in a series of classic front-engined roadsters which endured until 1960.  In 1960, a 246 F1 using a 2.4 litre (147 cubic inch) V6 was the last front-engined machine to win a Formula 1 grand prix, taking the checkered flag at the Italian Grand Prix (most of the mid-engined competition having withdrawn over safety concerns about the fast Monza circuit).

Cameo

Cameo (pronounced kam-ee-oh)

(1) A technique of engraving upon a gem or other stone, as onyx, in such a way that an underlying stone of one color is exposed as a background for a low-relief design of another color.

(2) A gem or other stone so engraved; a medallion, as on a brooch or ring, with a profile head carved in relief

(3) A literary sketch, small dramatic scene, or the like, that effectively presents or depicts its subject.

(4) As "cameo, "cameo role" or "cameo appearance", a minor part played by a prominent performer in a single scene of a production, originally un-credited yet deliberately obvious (a la Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980)).  In modern use, the sense has extended to any brief appearance, credited or not.

(5) In commercial use, a color of creamy neutral ivory, the name an allusion to the hue most associated with the jewelry.

(6) The industry slang for "cameo lighting", a technique used on stage or set usually by restricting the output of a spotlight to a narrower beam and the reverse effect of "silhouette lighting" (a complementary chiaroscuro technique).  

1375–1425: From the Italian cam(m)eo from the Old French camaieu, of uncertain origin; replacing late Middle English camew & cameu both direct borrowings from the Old French.  The ultimate root is held usually to be the Medieval Latin cammaeus (later camaeus), of unknown origin but both the Arabic qamaa'il (flower buds) and the Persian chumahan (agate) have been suggested as the source.  Cameo is a noun & verb and cameoed & cameoing are verbs; the noun plural is cameos or cameoes.

In the early fifteenth century, kaadmaheu, camew, chamehieux and many other spellings, all from the early thirteenth century in Anglo-Latin circulated, all meaning "engraving in relief upon a precious stone with two layers of colors" (such as onyx, agate, or shell and done so as to utilize the effect of the colors).  These fell soon from use as the words derived from the Medieval Latin cammaeus and the Old French camaieu prevailed.  By the nineteenth century, use extended to other raised, carved work on a miniature scale.  The transferred sense of "small character or part that stands out from other minor parts" in a plays etc is from 1928, a derivation from the earlier meaning "short literary sketch or portrait", first noted in 1851, a transferred sense from cameo silhouettes.  A cameotype was a small, vignette daguerreotype mounted in a jeweled setting, the first examples of which were produced in 1864.

Cameo & Silhouette

A classic, simple silhouette (left), a nineteenth century hardstone cameo in 18 karat yellow gold in the mid-nineteenth century Etruscan Revival style (centre) and a  silhouette with the detailing which became popular in the late 1700s (right).

As artistic representations, there's obviously some overlap between a silhouette and a cameo but they are different forms.  A silhouette is inherently a two dimensional rendering of a shape (typically a portrait but they can be of any scene or object) which classically were simple and of a solid colour (usually black) on a contrasting (usually white or cream) background.  Originally, there was no detailing of features but that soon became common.  Silhouette portraits were highly popular in the eighteenth & nineteenth centuries and the form was especially popular with untrained (indeed unskilled) amateurs because of the cheapness and simplicity of the form, a finished work requiring little more than two sheets of paper (black & white), a pair of scissors and a pot of glue.  A cameo differs in that it is three-dimensional, an embossed or raised piece, usually in relief.  The most prized antique cameos are those engraved on semi-precious gemstones, agate, forms of onyx, shells and lava but in modern use synthetic materials are not uncommon and, being small and able to be rendered in a single piece, can be 3D printed although the quality of these doesn’t (yet) match something hand-carved.

Cameo.com

Launched in March 2017, cameo.com is a US-based distribution & content-sharing website, its niche being a platform on which celebrities and others can sell personalized video messages to fans or anyone else prepared to pay, the site claiming more than thirty-thousand sources are available.  The price per clip is said to extend from US$5 to US$3000 and operates as a dynamic supply and demand curve, the price said to rise or fall in response to elasticity in demand, all determined by an AI algorithm which is predictive (able to anticipate a rise in demand and adjust prices accordingly).

For US$400 (or US$20 for a DM), one can receive a personalized video message from Lindsay Lohan.  The service limits the text to two-hundred and fifty (250) characters so economy of language is encouraged.  The client is able to request the theme and possible topics might include relationship counselling, fashion advice, career management & international relations.  In most cases, it seems not necessary to approach this with undue urgency, many of the celebrities available on Cameo.com "for a limited time!" have been listed for some years.

Lindsay Lohan at the Mean Girls (2024) premiere, New York, January 2024.

Lindsay Lohan’s cameo in the 2024 (musical) re-make of Mean Girls (2004) attracted comment for a number of reasons but what most impressed many was the fee, reported by entertainment industry magazine Variety as US$500,000.  While that sum is unverified, what has been confirmed is that her cameo (in the math competition scene) required four hours on set; given the simplicity of the math, Variety didn’t bother printing its calculation of the hourly rate but given the 2004 production was shot over three months for which Ms Lohan was paid a reputed US$1 million, it’s clear inflation alone doesn’t account for the differential.  Still, any commodity is worth only what a buyer is prepared to pay and it’s a specialized supply & demand curve because there’s only one Lindsay Lohan.

Dome

Dome (pronounced dohm)

(1) In architecture, a vault, having a circular plan and usually in the form of a portion of a sphere, so constructed as to exert an equal thrust in all directions.

(2) A domical roof or ceiling; a polygonal vault, ceiling, or roof.

(3) Any covering thought to resemble the hemispherical vault of a building or room; anything shaped like a hemisphere or inverted bowl.

(4) In water management, (usually in dam design), a semidome having its convex surface toward the impounded water.

(5) In crystallography, a form having planes that intersect the vertical axis and are parallel to one of the lateral axes.

(6) In geology, an upwarp (a broad anticline (a fold with strata sloping downwards on each side) caused by local uplift).

(7) In geology, a mountain peak having a rounded summit (a structure in which rock layers slope away in all directions from a central point).

(8) As vistadome, in passenger vehicles (usually railroad cars), a raised, glass-enclosed section of the roof of, placed over an elevated section of seats to afford passengers a full view of scenery (not usually truly in the hemispherical shape of a dome).

(9) In horology, the inner cover for the works of a watch which snaps into the rim of the case.

(10) A building; a house; an edifice (obsolete except as a literary device).

(11) As heat dome, a meteorological phenomenon in which the interplay of high & low pressure atmospheric systems interact to produce static, warm air over a large area.

(12) To cover with or as if with a dome; to shape like a dome.

(13) To rise or swell as a dome.

(14) In slang, a person's head (the form chrome dome used of the bald).

(15) In slang (both military and in some criminal classes), to shoot in the head (often in the form “got domed”).

(16) In African-American slang, to perform fellatio upon.

1505–1515: From the Middle French domme & dome (a town-house; a dome, a cupola) (which persists in modern French as dôme), from the Provençal doma, from the Italian duomo (cathedral), from the Medieval Latin domus (ecclesiae; literally “house (of the church)”), a calque of the Ancient Greek οἶκος τῆς ἐκκλησίας (oîkos tês ekklēsías).  Dome is a noun & verb, domed & doming are verbs and domelike, domical, domish & domesque are adjectives; the noun plural is domes.

By the 1650s, the formalized use in architecture ensured the meaning was (more or less) standardized as “a round, vaulted roof, a hemispherical covering of a building” and thus the ultimate specialized evolution from the Greek dōma (a house, housetop (used especially of those with a roof “in the eastern style”), from domos (house), from the primitive Indo-European root dem- (house, household).  The medieval use of the German dom and Italian duomo as verbal shorthand for “cathedral” (essentially a clipping from “house of God”) was picked up in the imperfect way so many words entered English to describe architectural features in the style of hemispherical cupolas, the domes at the intersection of the nave and the transept, or over the sanctuary, characteristic architectural feature of Italian cathedrals.  The sense in English of “a building, a house” had been borrowed in English as early as the 1510s and was used mostly of stately homes and it endures but only as a literary device and it’s rarely seen outside of poetry.

The shape occurs to one degree or another in nature and is common in man-made objects and the built environment so dome is an often seen modifier (cake dome, pleasure dome, lava dome; onion dome et al) and appears in the opening lines of one of the most cherished fragments of English verse: Kubla Khan (1797) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834).

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

Some of the use has also been opportunistic and not especially domical.  Vistadomes were raised, glass-enclosed sections built into the roofs of railway carriages, placed over an elevated section of seats to afford passengers a better view of the scenery.  The idea was picked up by General Motors, the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon (1964-1977), the Buick Roadmaster Estate (1991-1996) and the Scenicruiser busses (1954-1956 and made famous in the Greyhound livery some wore until the 1970s) all used raised, partially-windowed sections although none were officially described as “domes”.

The Hagia Sophia, now the main mosque in Istanbul; the minarets were added after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and there are many architectural critics who maintain visually they improve the balance of the structure.  The illustration on the right shows how the Byzantine engineers used pendentives to make the construction of domes possible.     

Domes however are most associated with grand-scale, representational architecture (although quite a few builders of McMansions found them hard to resist).  One intriguing aspect of structural engineering upon which the integrity of a dome depends on what are called pendentives (the triangular segments of the lower part of a hemispherical dome left by the penetration of the dome by two semicircular vaults intersection at right angles).  Dating from 1727, pendentive was from the mid-sixteenth century French pendentif, from the Latin pendentem (nominative pendens) (hanging and the source of the English “pendulous”), the present participle of pendere (to hang) from the primitive Indo-European roots pen & spen- (to draw, stretch, spin).  What pendentives permit is the use of a circular dome over a square void square room or an elliptical one over something rectangular room.  Pendentives, (geometrically the triangular segments of a sphere), taper to points at the bottom and spread at the top to establish the continuous circular or elliptical base as required.  As structural supports, pendentives distribute the bulk of a dome’s weight to the four corners (the strongest points) and ultimately to the piers and the foundations below.  The classic example is the Hagia Sophia, the sixth century Byzantine cathedral at Constantinople (modern day Istanbul).  It was converted into a mosque when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and, after a century-odd as a museum, is again a mosque.

Scale model of Germania.  Hitler would spend hours pondering the details but in 1945, he spent even longer looking at the model of what was planned for the Austrian city of Linz where he'd decided to have his tomb installed.

Domes have long been a favorite of emperors, dictators and those other megalomaniacs: architects.  A truly monumental one would have been the Volkshalle (People's Hall and known also as the Große Halle (Great Hall) & Ruhmeshalle (Hall of Glory), the centerpiece of Adolf Hitler’s (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) never realized plan to re-built Berlin as Germania, a worthy Welthauptstadt (world capital) of his “thousand year Reich”.  Although Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945) was Germania’s chief architect, in some aspects he was really a glorified draftsman, correcting the technical errors in the drawings passed to him by the Führer who had be sketching parts of the design since the early 1920s.

Even by the standards of the super-dimensionality which was characteristic of the Third Reich, the domed hall would have been extraordinary.  The oculus would have been 46 m (151 feet) in diameter which would have accommodated the entire rotunda of Hadrian's Pantheon and the dome of St Peter's Basilica.  The  250 m (820 feet) diameter of the dome was (and this was a signature of Speer’s approach), bigger even than Hitler had requested and he was much displeased to learn of a rival architect’s plans for a dome 15 m (49 feet) greater in diameter to sit atop the city’s new railway station.  As things turned out, none of the grandiose structures were ever built and although a tinge of regret can be found in Speer’s post-war thoughts, even he admitted the designs were a failure because of “their lack of human scale”.

Berlin's rebuilt Reichstag with steel & glass dome.

Berlin did however eventually get a new dome, albeit it one rendered not in granite but the glass and steel the Führer thought was fine for factories and warehouses but which would have appalled him as a method of construction for public, representational architecture.  Plonked atop the rebuilt Reichstag, it was said to symbolize the reunification of Germany although quite how it managed that has never really been explained although the distinctive structure has become a city landmark and people seem to like it.  A clever design, it sits directly above the chamber of the Bundestag (the lower house of the bicameral federal parliament) and permits public observation, the clever design also reducing energy use by optimizing the input of natural light while moving shrouds minimize glare and heat-soak.

Cinerama Dome, Los Angeles in 1965, the year of its greatest commercial success.

The Cinerama Dome movie theatre sits on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard.  Opened in 1963, the Cinerama Dome introduced a new concept for film projection, a curved screen which sat inside a geodesic dome based on the design developed by US systems theorist & architect Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983), one attraction of which was such things could be built at lower coast and in much less time than a conventional theatre building.  Intended to be the first of perhaps thousands around the planet, it was built in a still remarkable four months but it remains the only concrete geodesic on the planet and while it has operated intermittently since being closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, its future is uncertain and although it will probably be preserved as a historic building, it’s likely to be re-purposed as retail or restaurant space.

Lindsay Lohan at the Scary Movie V premiere, Cinerama Dome, April 2013.

The end of the line for Cinerama is another marker in the evolution of the technology which underpinned the evolution of the US economy from one based on agriculture, to one increasingly industrial to one geared around the military & entertainment.  In the 1950s, cinema’s greatest challenge came from television and the film studios fought back by creating differentiation in their products.  The venture into 3D proved a cul-de-sac for a number of reasons but one thing cinemas could do was make their big screens huge and during the 1950s the wide-screen Cinemascope enjoyed a boom.  However, there was a limit to how much screens could grow, hence the interest in Cinerama which projected onto a curved screen designed to take advantage of the way the human eye sees and processes images, the system at its best when provided by three synchronized projectors.  The idea lives on in the curved screens which have become popular among gaming freaks who enjoy the sense of “envelopment”.  It was also the era during which populations moved further from city centres into suburbs and thus, cinemas also needed to move, more of which (but often smaller) would be required.  Thus the attraction of the geodesic dome came which, largely pre-fabricated, was cheap to produce and quick to assemble.  However, Cinerama was expensive to film, to print, to produce and the sheer size and weight of the prints meant it was costly even to ship the material to venues and the conversion process to something which could be used with conventional projection.

Heat Domes

July 2023 Global heat map from the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, USA.  For those unconvinced, Fox News continues to provide alternative facts.

The “heat dome” is a weather phenomenon, the physics of which has for decades been understood but of late the term has entered general use as much of the northern hemisphere has suffered from prolonged, unusually high temperatures, July 2023 measured as the hottest month ever recorded.  A heat dome occurs when a large, high-pressure system traps and concentrates hot air in a specific region, leading to prolonged and extremely high temperatures. Under a heat dome, the atmospheric pressure aloft prevents the hot air from rising and dissipating, effectively acting as a lid or cap over the area, thus the image of a dome sitting over the land.

The UK's Royal Meteorological Service's simple illustration of the physics of a heat dome.  Heat domes are also their own feedback loop.  A static areas of high pressure which already contains warm or hot air trapped under the high will become hotter and hotter, creating a heat dome.  Hot air will rise into the atmosphere, but high pressure acts as a lid and causes the air to subside or sink; as the air sinks, it warms by compression, and the heat builds. The ground also warms, losing moisture and making it easier to heat even more.

Ash

Ash (pronounced ash)

(1) The powdery, nonvolatile products and residue formed when matter is burnt; that which remains after burning; any of certain compounds formed by burning.

(2) In geology, finely pulverized lava thrown out by a volcano in eruption (technically volcanic ash).

(3) In chemistry, the non-aqueous remains of a material subjected to any complete oxidation process.

(4) Human (or animal) remains after cremation and either buried, scattered or stored in a crypt or container (usually styled as an “urn” regardless of style (always in the plural).

(5) Figuratively, mortal remains in general (always in the plural).

(6) Figuratively, the residue of anything (structures, institutions, movements, ideas, hopes etc), especially following disasters or catastrophes.

(7) In arboreal classification, any of the various oleaceous trees of the genus Fraxinus, of the olive family (especially F. excelsior of Europe and Asia or F. americana (white ash) of North America), having opposite, pinnate leaves, winged seeds and purplish flowers in small clusters.

(8) In arboreal classification, any of several trees resembling the ash, such as the mountain ash (and in Australia, any of several trees resembling the ash, especially of the eucalyptus genus).

(9) The tough, straight, close-grained wood of any of these trees, highly valued as timber because of its durability, widely used for the handles of tools (shovels, pick-axes etc) and once the choice material for the frames of many early automobiles.

(10) The largely archaic æsc (the symbols Æ & æ) (ash) from the Old English (the plural æscas).  The digraph æ represents a front vowel approximately like that of the “a” in the Modern English “hat” and the character is used also used to represent this sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

(11) A light silvery grey colour, often with a brownish tinge.

(12) As the ash-blonde hair color, a spectrum expressed in solid and variegated forms which blends or interpolates various classic blondes, silver-greys, and the lighter shades of brown.

(13) The acronym for Action on Smoking & Health, non-governmental organizations (NGO) in eth UK, Ireland & New Zealand, chartered as a charities (though through interaction with government they function sometimes in a way similar to QANGOs).

(14) To removed the burned tobacco from the end of a burning cigar or cigarette (usually by “flicking”, “tapping” or tapping the unburned section on the rim of an ashtray  The used to describe emptying the ask from the bowl of an extinguished pipe is less common.

(15) In agriculture, to cover newly-sown fields of crops with ashes.

Pre 950: From the Middle English asshe & aisshe (powdery remains of fire), from the Old English asce & æsce, from the Proto-West Germanic askā, from the Proto-Germanic askǭ, from the primitive Indo-European hes-.  It was cognate with the Frisian esk, the Dutch asch, the Swedish aska, the Danish & Norwegian aske, the Old Norse & Old High German aska (from which German gained German Asche) and the Gothic azgo (from the unattested Germanic askōn- (though the evolution of the Gothic is murky).  It was akin to the Latin ārēre (to be dry) (from which English ultimately gained arid) and āra (altar), the Oscan aasaí (on the altar), the Tocharian ās- (dry out; to get dry), the Sanskrit ā́sa- (ashes) and the Hittite hassi (on the hearth), from the primitive Indo-European root as- (to burn, glow).  The Spanish and Portuguese ascua (red-hot coal) are Germanic loan-words.  Ash is a noun & verb, ashiness is a noun, ashed is a verb, ashing is a noun & verb, ashen is an adjective & verb and ashless is an adjective; the noun plural is ashes.  The UK dialectal plural axen was from the Middle English axen & axnen, from the Old English axan & asċan (ashes) and was the plural of the Old English axe or æsċe (ash).  Some dictionaries do list it as rare but for (non-historic) purposes it’s archaic.

The various trees gained the common name ash from the Old English æsc, which was related to the primitive Indo-European word for the tree, while the generic name originated in Latin from a primitive Indo-European word for birch.  Both words were also used to mean “spear” & “shaft” in their respective languages because the straight, tough and durable timber was ideal for such purposes.  From the Old High German asc was derived the German Esche, with an altered vowel from the adjectival derivative eschen (which in Middle High German was eschîn.  It was akin to the Latin ornus (wild mountain ash), the Welsh onnen, the Ancient Greek ὀξύα (oxúa) (beech), the Old Armenian հացի (hacʿi), the Russian yáseń, the Polish jesion, the Czech jasan, the Lithuanian úosis, the Armenian hatsi and the Albanian ah (beech), all ultimately from the primitive Indo-European ōs (ash (tree)).  Although the close-grained timber of the ash is tough, it also has outstanding elasticity which allows it to be formed into shapes so was the preferred wood for spear-shafts and later came to be favored by coach-builders, many of the early automobiles also constructed with ash frames.

Forms have been coined as needed (as a portmanteau or with or without the hyphen) including ash-gourd, ash-pan, ashtray, ashcan, ash-pit fly-ash, ash-borer, pearl-ash, pot-ash & soda ash.  Potash (a class of potassium minerals of similar applicability to potassium carbonate and widely used in the production of fertilizers) is one of the most extensively mined minerals in the world.  One inventive use was noted in 1945 when the US military designated their internment camp for suspected Nazi war criminals as “Ashcan”; impressed, the British dubbed their holding facility “Dustbin”.  The ash-bin (receptacle for ashes from a fire and other refuse) seems not to have been recorded until 1847 although such devices would have been in use for centuries.  Similarly, the word ash-tray (reusable receptacle for the the ashes of the tobacco of smokers) first appears only in 1851 although they were doubtlessly among the first companion products after tobacco was introduced to the Western world after the early European exploration of the Americas in the late fifteenth century.  The ash-heap (stack or pile of ashes or other refuse) dates from the 1640s and seems to have been invented by foundry workers, who presumably produced more ash than most, at a time when their processes were mostly wood-fired.  The ash-pit (repository for ashes, especially in the lower part of a furnace) was first recorded in 1797 and reflected the increasing size of furnaces technological progress made possible; it was the “big brother” to the earlier ash-hole, in use since the 1640s, which continued to be used to describe the architecture of smaller installations.  It’s not known if regional variations in pronunciation meant “ash-hole” sometimes cause problems.

Lindsay Lohan imagined as an ash-blonde.

The phrase “ashes to ashes” is from the Church of England’s (Anglican) burial ritual, mentioned first in the Book of Common Prayer (1549) as part of the service's committal: “Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother [or sister] here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”  It’s an echo of biblical passage from Genesis 3:19: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”  Over time, “ashes to ashes” transcended its religious origin and has come to be used to allude to the cyclical nature of life and the inevitability of death.  Long pre-dating Christianity, ashes, as a reminder of finality, had been an ancient symbol of grief or repentance, their presence a part of pagan rituals and the early Church picked this up, the tradition beginning when Pope Gregory I (circa 540–604; usually styled Saint Gregory the Great, pope 590-604) sprinkled ashes on the heads of penitents on the first day of Lent although it wasn’t formalized in the ecclesiastical calendar until the fourteenth century, “ashes” having come to mean “the mortal remains of a person” by at least the late thirteenth century and alluded to the ancient custom of cremation.  The use to refer to the finely pulverized lava ejected from volcanoes dates from the 1660s.

Craftspersons (and some these days are other than male) in the Morgan factory at Malvern Link, Worcestershire in the UK, fashioning & fabricating ash frames (left) and 1973 Morgan +8 (right).

With only detail changes, the appearance of the roadsters (and the underlying ash frame, the patterns for which haven’t changed since 1937) in 2023 has little changed since the 1950s and the ancestry of the machines from the 1930s is obvious, the similarities out-numbering the differences.  It’s a persistent myth that under the skin, the Morgan’s platform is made entirely of wood but the truth is the chassis has always been rendered in steel & aluminum onto which is mounted the ash frame, to which the aluminum external panels are attached.  Each roadster takes three weeks to complete.

The “Ashes obituary”, 1882.

The Ashes is the (usually biannual) test cricket series conducted between Australia and England (who toured as the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) until 1970).  The term “The Ashes” dates from a satirical obituary published in a UK newspaper in 1882, the day after Australia recorded its first test victory on English soil.  The “obituary” noted the death of English cricket and that “the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia”.  The idea caught on and as a prelude to the MCC’s next tour of Australia in 1882–1883, the press frequently mentioned the importance of regaining “those ashes”.  This the MCC’s captain vowed to do and after taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series the job was done and some ladies presented him with a small urn (of unknown provenance although it may have been used for scent) said to contain the ashes of a wooden bail, humorously referred to as “the ashes of Australian cricket”.  Although it took some years before the contest between the teams was institutionalized as “the Ashes” since the 1920s that’s how they’ve been known.

Former England captain Mike Brearley (b 1942) with the Ashes urn, 1977.

The actual “ashes”, the original urn which has rarely left the MCC Museum at Lord's Cricket Ground in London since being presented to the club in 1927, is tiny, just over four inches (105 mm) high which is remarkable for a trophy which is of such significance to both nations.  It’s something like the sense of English understatement expressed when one compares No 10 Downing Street to something like the Élysée Palace which isn’t a wholly fair juxtaposition but they are, in a sense, comparable national symbols.  Certainly, the modest Ashes urn (originally a mass-produced, terracotta item little different from the thousands sold at the time in seaside souvenir shops) has about it noting of the grandeur of something like the America’s Cup (known as the Auld Mug; 1.1m (43 inches) high and weighing in at a hefty 14 kg odd (30+ lb) or any number of trophies in sports like rugby, football, tennis et al.  As a consolation for the original remaining locked up the MCC, in recent series, larger trophies with designs which acknowledge the little urn are now awarded to the victorious team.

Sir Lewis Hamilton contemplating a "plastic" trophy, Silverstone, 2014.

So trophies don’t have to be imposingly large or obviously expensive to be sought after as long as they’re vested with an appropriate history.  However, there can be some expectation of bling for those won by those contesting one-off events of some significance and Formula One driver Sir Lewis Hamilton (b 1985), prompted apparently by being awarded a “plastic” trophy after winning the 2014 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, later suggested it looked like it might be worth about £10, rather less than the traditional RAC (Royal Automobile Club) Gold Cup (he was subsequently presented with the cup at a press conference).  Warming to the topic though, Sir Lewis said he’d noted an obvious decline in the quality of the trophies awarded to Grand Prix winners and that he’d brought the matter to the attention of the then head of the F1 Bernie Ecclestone (b 1930).  It’s estimated the Ashes urn in 1882 would have been purchased for less than whatever was the equivalent then of £10 in 2014 so history and aura can be worth more than bling.

Lindsay Lohan with some trophies.  Sir Lewis might reflect things could have been worse.