Brat

Brat (pronounced brat)

(1) A child, especially one is ill-mannered, unruly, annoying, spoiled or impolite etc (usually used either playfully or in contempt or irritation, often in the phrase “spoiled brat”.

(2) As “military brat”, “army brat” etc, a child with one or more parent serving in the military; most associated with those moving between military bases on a short-duration basis; the derived form is “diplomatic brat” (child living with parents serving in overseas missions).

(3) In the BDSM (bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, sadism/masochism) community, a submissive partner who is disobedient and unruly (ie a role reversal: to act in a bratty manner as the submissive, the comparative being “more bratty”, the superlative “most bratty”).

(4) In mining, a thin bed of coal mixed with pyrites or carbonate of lime.

(5) A rough makeshift cloak or ragged garment (a now rare dialectal form).

(6) An apron fashioned from a coarse cloth, used to protect the clothing (a bib) (a now obsolete Scots dialect word).

(7) A turbot or flatfish.

(8) The young of an animal (obsolete).

(9) A clipping of bratwurst, from the German Bratwurst (a type of sausage) noted since 1904, from the Middle High German brātwurst, from the Old High German, the construct being Brāt (lean meat, finely shredded calf or swine meat) + wurst (sausage).

(10) As a 2024 neologism (technically a re-purposing), the qualities associated with a confident and assertive woman (along the lines of the earlier “bolshie woman” or “tough broad” but with a more overtly feminist flavor).

1500–1520: Thought to be a transferred use (as slang for “a beggar's child”) of the early Middle English brat (cloak of coarse cloth, rag), from the Old English bratt (cloak) of Celtic origin and related to the Old Irish brat (mantle, cloak; cloth used to cover the body).  The origin of the early Modern English slag use meaning “beggar's child” is uncertain.  It may have been an allusion, either to the contemporary use meaning “young of an animal” or to the shabby clothing such a child would have worn", the alternative theory being some link with the Scots bratchet (bitch, hound).  The early sense development (of children) may have included the fork of the notion of “an unplanned or unwanted baby” (as opposed to a “bastard” (in the technical rather than behavioral sense)) had by a married couple.  The “Hollywood Brat Pack” was a term from the mid-1980s referring to a grouping of certain actors and modeled on the 1950s “Rat Pack”.  The slang form “brattery” (a nursery for children) sounds TicTokish but actually dates from 1788 while the generalized idea of “spoiled and juvenile” became common in the 1930s.  The unrelated use of bratty (plural bratties) is from Raj-era Indian English where it describes a cake of dried cow dung, used for fuel.  Brat is a noun, verb & adjective, brattishness & brattiness are nouns, bratting & bratted are verbs, brattish & bratty are adjectives and brattily is an adverb; the noun plural is brats.

LBJ, the "Chicken Tax" and the Subaru BRAT

Subaru Brat, advertising in motion (US).

The Subaru BRAT was (depending on linguistic practice) (1) a coupé utility, (2) a compact pick-up or (3) a small four wheel drive (4WD) ute (utility).  The name was an acronym (Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter), the novel idea of “bi-drive” (4WD) being the notion of both axles being driven, something dictated by the need to form the acronym.  “Bi-Drive Recreational All-Terrain Transporter” certainly was more imaginative (if opportunistic) than other uses of BRAT as an acronym which have included: ”Behaviour Research And Therapy” (an academic journal), “Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast” (historically a diet recommended for those with certain stomach disorders), “Brush Rapid Attack Truck” (a fire-fighting vehicle), “Basenji Rescue and Transport” (a dog rescue organization), “Behavioral Risk Assessment Tool” (used in HIV/AIDS monitoring), Beautiful, Rich and Talented (self-explanatory), the “Bureau de Recherche en Aménagement du Territoire” (the Belgium Office of Research in Land Management (in the French)), “Beyond Line-Of-Sight Reporting and Tracking” (a US Army protocol for managing targets not in visual range) and “Battle-Management Requirements Analysis Tool” (a widely used military check-list, later interpolated into a BMS (Battle Management System).

Ronald Reagan on his Santa Barbara ranch with Subaru BRAT.  Like many owners who used their BRATs as pick-up trucks, President Reagan had the jump seats removed.

Built on the platform of the Leone (1971-1994) and known in some markets also as the MV Pickup, Brumby & Shifter, the BRAT was variously available between 1978-1994 and was never sold in the JDM (Japanese domestic market) although many have been “reverse imported” from Australia and the US and the things now have a cult following in Tokyo.  The most famous BRAT owner was probably Ronald Reagan (1911-2004; US president 1981-1989) who kept a 1978 model on his Californian ranch until 1988, presenting something of a challenge for his Secret Service detail, many of whom didn’t know how to drive a stick-shift (manual transmission).  That though would have been less frightening than the experience of many taken for a drive by Lyndon Johnson (LBJ, 1908–1973; US president 1963-1969) in the Amphicar 770 (1961-1965) he kept at his Texas ranch.  LBJ suddenly would turn off the path, driving straight into the waters of the dam, having neglected to tell his passengers of the 770’s amphibious capabilities.

Of physics.  Those familiar Sir Isaac Newton's (1642–1727) First Law of Motion (known also as the Law of Inertia: "An object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will continue in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced external force") can ponder the possibilities.

The Subaru BRAT is remembered also as a “Chicken Tax car”.  Tax regimes have a long history of influencing or dictating automotive design, the Japanese system of displacement-based taxation responsible for the entire market segment of “Kei cars” (a clipping of kei-jidōsha (軽自動車) (light automobile), the best known of which have been produced with 360, 600 & 660 cm3 (22, 37 & 40 cubic inch) engines in an astonishing range of configurations ranging from micro city cars to roadsters and 4WD dump trucks.  In Europe too, the post-war fiscal threshold resulted in a wealth of manufacturers (Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, BMW, Ford, Maserati, Opel et al) offering several generations of 2.8 litre (171 cubic inch) sixes while the that imposed by the Italian government saw special runs of certain 2.0 litre (122 cubic inch) fours, sixes & even V8s.  The US government’s “Chicken Tax” (a part of the “Chicken War”) was different in that it was a 25% tariff imposed in 1963 by the Johnson administration on potato starch, dextrin, brandy and light trucks; it was a response to the impost of a similar tariffs by France and the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany, the old West Germany) on chicken meat imported from the US.

Subaru BRAT in use.

The post-war development in the US of large scale, intensive chicken farming had both vastly expanded production of the meat and radically reduced the unit cost of production which was good but because supply quickly exceeded the demand capacity of the domestic market, the surplus was exported, having the effect in Europe of transforming chicken from a high-priced delicacy to a staple consumer protein; by 1961, imported US chicken had taken some 50% of the European market.  This was at a time when international trade operated under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (the GATT (1947)) and there was nothing like the codified dispute resolution mechanism which exists in the rules of the successor World Trade Organization (the WTO (1995)) and the farming lobbies in Germany, France and the Netherlands accused the US producers of “dumping” (ie selling at below the cost of production) with the French government objecting that the female hormones US farmers used to stimulate growth were a risk to public health, not only to those who ate the flesh but to all because nature of the substances was such that a residue enter the water supply.  The use of the female hormones in agriculture does remains a matter of concern, some researchers linking it to phenomena noted in the last six decades including the startling reduction in the human male's sperm count, the shrinking in size of the penises of alligators living in close proximity to urban human habitation and early-onset puberty in girls.

Subaru BRAT Advertising (US).

Eventually, the tariffs on potato starch, dextrin and brandy were lifted but the protection for the US truck producers remained, triggering a range of inventive “work-arounds” concocted between various engineering and legal offices, most of which involved turning two-seater trucks & vans into vehicles which technically could quality as four-seaters, a configuration which lasted sometimes only until the things reached a warehouse where the fittings could be removed, something which would cost the Ford Motor Company (one of the corporations the tax had been imposed to protect) over US$1 billion in penalties, their tactics in importing the Transit Connect light truck from Turkey (now the Republic of Türkiye) just too blatant.  In New Zealand, in the mid 1970s, the government found the “work-arounds” working the other way.  There, changes had been implemented to make the purchase of two seater light vans more attractive for businesses so almost instantly, up sprang a cottage industry of assembling four-door station wagons with no rear seat which, upon sale, returned to the workshop to have a seat fitted.  Modern capitalism has always been imaginative.

Subaru "Passing Lamp" on Leone 1600 GL station wagon (optional on BRATs, 1980-1982).

In Fuji Heavy Industries’ (then Subaru’s parent corporation) Ebisu boardroom, the challenge of what probably was described as the “Chicken Tax Incident” was met by adding to the BRAT two (the frame welded to the cargo bed) plastic, rear-facing jump seats, thereby qualifying the vehicle as a “passenger car” subject in the US only to a 2.5 and not a 25% import tax.  Such a “feature” probably seems strange in the regulatory environment of the 2020s but there was a time when there was more freedom in the air.  Subaru’s US operation decided the BRAT’s “outdoor bucket seats” made it an “open tourer” and slanted the advertising thus, the model enjoying much success although the additional seating wasn’t available for its final season in the US, the BRAT withdrawn after 1987.  Another nifty feature available on the BRAT between 1980-1982 was the “Passing Lamp” (renamed “Center Lamp” in 1982 although owners liked “Third Eye” or “Cyclops”), designed to suit those who had adopted the recommended European practice of flashing the headlights (on high beam) for a second prior to overtaking.  The BRAT was not all that powerful so passing opportunities were perhaps not frequent but the “passing lamp” was there to be used if ever an even slower car was encountered.  The retractable lamp was of course a complicated solution to a simple problem given most folk so inclined just flash the headlights but it was the sort of fitting with great appeal to men who admire intricacy for its own sake.

Brat: Charli XCX's Summer 2024 album

Charli XCX, BRIT Awards, O2 Arena,  London, February 2016; the "BRITs" are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards.

“Brat” has been chosen by the Collins English Dictionary as its 2024 Word of the Year (WotY), an acknowledgement of the popular acclaim which greeted the word’s re-purposing by English singer-songwriter Charli XCX (the stage-name of Charlotte Emma Aitchison (b 1992)) who used it as the title for her summer 2024 album.  The star herself revealed her stage name is pronounced chahr-lee ex-cee-ex; it has no connection with Roman numerals and XCX is anyway not a standard Roman number.  XC is “90” (C minus X (100-10)) and CX is “110” (C plus X (100 +10)) but XCX presumably could be used as a code for “100” should the need arise, on the model of something like the “May 35^th” reference Chinese Internet users used to use in an attempt to circumvent the CCP's (Chinese Communist Party) "Great Firewall of China" when speaking of the “Tiananmen Square Incident” of 4 June 1989.  In 2015, Ms XCX revealed “XCX” was an element of her MSN screen name (CharliXCX92) when young (it stood for “kiss Charli kiss”) and she used it on some of the early promotion material for her music.

Charli XCX with Brat album (vinyl pressing edition) packaging in "brat green".

According to Collins, the word “resonated with people globally”.  The dictionary had of course long had an entry for the word something in the vein of: “someone, especially a child, who behaves badly or annoys you”, but now it has added “characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude”.  In popular culture, the use spiked in the wake of the album's released but it may be “brat” in this sense endures if the appeal is maintained, otherwise it will become unfashionable and fade from use, becoming a “stranded word”, trapped in the time of its historic origin.  So, either it enters the vernacular or by 2025 it will be regarded as “so 2024”.  The lexicographers at Collins seem optimistic about its future, saying in the WotY press release that “brat summer has established itself as an aesthetic and a way of life”.

Lindsay Lohan in Jil Sander (b 1943) "brat green" gown, Disney Legends Awards ceremony, Anaheim, Los Angeles, October 2024.  For anyone wanting to describe a yellowish-green color with a word which has the virtues of (1) being hard to pronounce, (2) harder to spell and (3) likely to baffle most of one’s interlocutors, there’s “smaragdine” (pronounced smuh-rag-din), from the Latin smaragdinus, from smaragdus (emerald), from the Ancient Greek σμάραγδινος (smáragdinos), from σμάραγδος (smáragdos).

The “kryptonite green” used for Brat’s album’s packaging seems also to have encouraged the use in fashion of various hues of “lurid green” (the particular shade used by Ms XCX already dubbed “brat green” although some which have appeared on the catwalks seem more of a chartreuse) and an online “brat generator” allowed users replicate the cover with their own choice of words.  The singer was quite helpful in fleshing out the parameters of the aesthetic, emphasizing it didn’t revolve around a goth-like “uniform” and nor was it gender-specific or socially restricted.  In an interview with the BBC, Ms XCX explained the brat thing was a spectrum condition extending from “luxury” to “trashy” and was a thing of attitude rather than accessories: “A pack of cigs, a Bic lighter, and a strappy white top with no bra.  That’s kind of all you need.”  Although gender-neutral, popular use does seem to put the re-purposed “brat” in the tradition of the earlier “bolshie woman” or “tough broad” but with a more overtly feminist flavor, best understood as “the qualities associated with a confident and assertive woman”.  In its semantic change, “brat” has joined some other historically negative words & phrases (“bitch”, “bogan”, the infamous “N-word” et al) which have been “reclaimed” by those at whom the slur was once aimed, a tactic which not only creates or reinforces group identity but also weaponizes what used to be an insult so it can be used to return fire.

Lettrism

Lettrism (pronounced let-riz-uhm)

A French avant-garde art and literary movement established in 1946 and inspired, inter alia, by Dada and surrealism.  The coordinate term is situationism.

1946: From French lettrisme, a variant of lettre (letter).  Letter dates from the late twelfth century and was from the From Middle English letter & lettre, from the Old French letre, from the Latin littera (letter of the alphabet (in plural); epistle; literary work), from the Etruscan, from the Ancient Greek διφθέρᾱ (diphthérā) (tablet) (and related to diphtheria).  The form displaced the Old English bōcstæf (literally “book staff” in the sense of “the alphabet’s symbols) and ǣrendġewrit (literally “message writing” in the sense of “a written communication longer than a “note” (ie, something like the modern understanding of “a letter”)).  The –ism suffix was from the Ancient Greek ισμός (ismós) & -isma noun suffixes, often directly, sometimes through the Latin –ismus & isma (from where English picked up ize) and sometimes through the French –isme or the German –ismus, all ultimately from the Ancient Greek (where it tended more specifically to express a finished act or thing done).  It appeared in loanwords from Greek, where it was used to form abstract nouns of action, state, condition or doctrine from verbs and on this model, was used as a productive suffix in the formation of nouns denoting action or practice, state or condition, principles, doctrines, a usage or characteristic, devotion or adherence (criticism; barbarism; Darwinism; despotism; plagiarism; realism; witticism etc).  Letterism is listed by some sources as an alternative spelling but in literary theory it used in a different sense.  Lettrism and lettrist are nouns; the noun plural is letterists.

Letter from letterist Lindsay Lohan (2003).

A Lettrist was (1) one who practiced Lettrism or (2) a supporter or advocate of Lettrism.  Confusingly, in the English-speaking world, the spelling Letterist has been used in this context, presumably because it’s a homophone (if pronounced in the “correct (U)” way) and the word is “available” because although one who keeps as diary is a “diarist”, even the most prolific of inveterate letter writers are not called “letterists”.  The preferred term for a letter-writer is correspondent, especially for those who writes letters regularly or in an official capacity.  The Letterist International (LI) was a Paris-based collective of radical artists and cultural theorists which existed 1952-1957 before forming the Situationist International (SI), a trans-European, unstructured collective of artists and political thinkers which eventually became more a concept than a movement.  Influenced by the criticism that philosophy had tended increasingly to fail at the moment of its actualization, the SI, although it assumed the inevitability of social revolution, always maintained many (cross-cutting) strands of expectations of the form(s) this might take.  Indeed, just as a world-revolution did not follow the Russian revolutions of 1917, the events of May, 1968 failed to realize the predicted implications; the SI can be said then to have died.  The SI’s discursive output between 1968 and 1972 may be treated either as a lifeless aftermath to an anti-climax or a bunch of bitter intellectuals serving as mourners at their own protracted funeral.  In literary theory, while “Lettrism” has a defined historical meaning, the use of “letterism” is vague and not a recognized term although it has informally been used (often with some degree of irony) of practices emphasizing the use of letters or alphabetic symbols in art or literature and given the prevalence of text of a symbolic analogue in art since the early twentieth century, it seem surprising “letterism” isn’t more used in criticism.  That is of course an Anglo-centric view of things because the French Lettrists themselves are said to prefer the spelling “Letterism”.

Jacques Derrida smoking pipe.

The French literary movement Lettrism was founded in Paris in 1946 and the two most influential figures in the early years were the Romanian-born French poet, film maker and political theorist Isidore Isou (1925–2007) and his long-term henchman, the French poet, & writer Maurice Lemaître (1926-2018).  Western Europe was awash with avant-garde movements in the early post-war years but what distinguished Lettrism was its focus on breaking down (deconstruction was not yet a term used in this sense) traditional language and meaning by emphasizing the materiality of letters and sounds rather than conventionally-assembled words.  Scholars of linguistics and the typographic community had of course long made a study of letters, their form, variation and origin, but in Lettrism it was less about the letters as objects than the act of dismantling the structures of language letters created, the goal being the identification (debatably the creation) of new forms of meaning through pure sound, visual abstraction and the aesthetic form of letters.  Although influenced most by Dada and surrealism, the effect the techniques of political propaganda used during the 1930s & 1940s was noted by the Lettrists and their core tenent was an understanding of the letter itself as the fundamental building block of art and literature.  Often they would break down language into letters or phonetic sounds, assessing and deploying them for their aesthetic or auditory qualities rather than their conventional meaning(s).  In that sense the Lettrists can be seen as something as precursor of post-modernism’s later “everything is text” orthodoxy although that too has an interesting origin.  The French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) made famous the phrase “Il n'y a pas de hors-texte” which often is translated as something like “there is no meaning beyond the text” but “hors-texte” (outside the text) was printers’ jargon for those parts of a book without regular page numbers (blank pages, copyright page, table of contents et al) and Derrida’s point actually was the hors-texte must be regardes as a part of the text.  There was much intellectual opportunism in post modernism and for their own purposes it suited may to assert what Derrida said was “There is nothing outside the text” and what he meant was “everything is part of a (fictional) text and nothing is real” whereas his point was it’s not possible to create a rule rigidly which delineates what is “the text” and what is “an appendage to the text”.  Troublingly for some post modernists, Derrida did proceed on a case-by-case basis although he seems not to have explained how the meaning of the text in an edition of a book with an appended "This page is intentionally left blank" page might differ from one with no such page.  It may be some earnest student of post-modernism has written an essay convincingly exactly that.

The Lettrism project was very much a rejection of traditional language structures and the meanings they denoted; it was a didactic endeavor, the Lettrists claiming not only had they transcended conventional grammar & syntax but they could obviate even a need for meaning in words, their work a deliberate challenge to their audiences to rethink how language functions.  As might be imagined, their output was “experimental” and in addition to some takes on the ancient form of “pattern poetry” included what they styled “concrete poetry” & “phonetic poetry”, visual art and performance pieces which relied on abstraction, the most enduring of which was the “hypergraphic”, an object sometimes describe as “picture writing” which combined letters, symbols, and images, blending visual and textual elements into a single art form, often as collages or as graphic-like presentations on canvas or paper.  This wasn’t a wholly new concept but the lettrists vested it with new layers of meaning which, at least briefly, intrigued many although it was dismissed also as “visual gimmickry” or that worst of insults in the avant-garde: “derivative”.  Despite being one of the many footnotes in the history of modern art, Lettrism never went away and in a range of artistic fields, even today there are those who style themselves “lettrists” and the visual clues of the movement’s influence are all around us.

Chrysler’s letterism: The Chrysler 300 “letter series” 1955-1965.

The “letter series” Chrysler 300s were produced in limited numbers in the US between 1955-1965; technically, they were the high-performance version of the luxury Chrysler New Yorker and the first in 1955 was labeled C-300, an allusion to the 300 hp (220 kW) 331 cubic inch (5.4 litre) Hemi V8, then the most powerful engine offered in a production car.  The C-300 was well received and when an updated version was released in 1956, it was dubbed 300B, the annual releases appending the next letter in the alphabet as a suffix although in 1963 “I” was skipped when the 300H was replaced by the 300J, the rationale being it might be confused with a “1” (ie the numeral “one”), the same reasoning explaining why there are so few “I cup” bras, some manufacturers filling the gap in the market between “H cup” & “J cup” with a “HH cup” but there’s no evidence the corporation’s concerns ever prompted them to ponder a “300HH”.  Retrospectively thus, the 1955 C-300 is often described as the 300A although this was never an official factory designation.  While in the narrow technical sense not a part of the “muscle car” lineage (defined by the notion of putting a “big” car’s “big” engine into a smaller, lighter model), the letter series cars were an important part of the “power race” of the 1950s and an evolutionary step in what would emerge in 1964 as the muscle car branch and the most plausible LCA (last common ancestor) of both was the Buick Century (1936-1942).  The letter series was retired after 1965 because the market preference for high-performance car had shifted to the smaller, lighter, pony cars & intermediates (neither of which existed in the early years of the 300) though the “non letter series” 300s (introduced in 1962) continued until 1971 with an toned-down emphasis on speed and a shift to style.

1955 Chrysler C-300 (300A).

The 1955 C-300 typified Detroit’s “mix & match” approach to the parts bin in that it conjured something “new” at relatively low cost, combining the corporation’s most powerful Hemi V8 with the New Yorker Series (C-68) platform, the visual differentiation achieved by using the front bodywork (the “front clip” in industry jargon) from the top-of-the-range Imperial.  The justification for the existence of the thing was to fulfill the homologation requirements of NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) that a certain number of various components be sold to the public before a car could be defined as a “production” car (ie a “stock” car, a term which shamelessly would be prostituted in the years to come) and used in sanctioned competition.  Accordingly, the C-300 was configured with the 331 cubic inch Hemi V8 fitted, with dual four barrel carburetors, solid valve lifters and a high-lift camshaft profiled for greater top-end power.  Better to handle the increased power, stiffer front and rear suspension was used and it was very much in the tradition of the big, powerful grand-touring cars of the 1930s such as the Duesenberg SJ, something that with little modification could be competitive on the track.  Very successful in NASCAR racing, the C-300 also set a number of speed records in timed trials but it was very much a niche product; despite the price not being excessive for what one got, only 1,725 were made.

1956 Chrysler 300B (left) and Highway Hi-Fi phonograph player (right).

The 300B used a updated version of the C-300s body so visually the two were similar although, ominously, the tailfins did grow a little.  The big news however lay under the hood (bonnet) with the Hemi V8 enlarged to 354 cubic inches (5.8 litres) and available either with 340 horsepower (254 kW) or in a high- compression version generating 355 (365), the first time a US-built automobile was advertised as producing greater than one horsepower per cubic inch of displacement.  It was a sign of the times; other manufacturers took note.  The added power meant a top speed of around 140 mph (225 km/h) could be attained, something now to ponder given the retardative qualities of the braking system but also of note was the season's much talked-about option: the "Highway Hi-Fi" phonograph player which allowed vinyl LP records to be played when the car was on the move; the sound quality was remarkably good but on less than smooth surfaces, experiences were mixed.  Success on the track continued, the 300B wining the Daytona Flying Mile with a new record of 139.373 MPH, and it again dominated NASCAR, repeating the C-300’s Grand National Championship.  Despite that illustrious record, only 1,102 were sold.

1957 Chrysler 300C.

The 1955-1956 Chryslers had a balance and elegance of line which could have remained a template for the industry but there were other possibilities and these Detroit choose to pursue, creating a memorable era of extravagance but one which proved a stylistic cul-de-sac.  The 1957 300C undeniably was dramatic and featured many of the motifs so associated with the US automobile of the late 1950s including the now (mostly) lawful quad-headlights, the panoramic “Vista-Dome” windshield, the lashings of chrome and, of course, those tailfins.  The Hemi V8 was again enlarged, now in a “tall deck” version out to 395 cubic inches (6.4 litres) rated at 375 horsepower (280 kW) and for the first time a convertible version of the 300 was available.  By now the power race was being run in earnest with General Motors (GM) offering fuel-injected engines and Mercury solving the problem in the traditional American (there’s no replacement for displacement) way by releasing a 430 cubic inch (7.0 litre) V8 although it was so big and heavy it made the bulky Hemi seem something of a lightweight; the 430 did however briefly find a niche in in power-boat racing.  For 300C owners who wanted more there was also a high-compression version with more radical valve timing rated at 390 horse power (290 kW) and this was for the first time able to be ordered with a three-speed manual transmission.  Few apparently felt the need for more and of the 2,402 300Cs sold (1,918 coupes & 484 convertibles), only 18 were ordered in high-compression form.

1958 Chrysler 300D.

Again using the Hemi 392, now tuned for a standard 380 horsepower (280 kW), there was for the first time the novelty of the optional Bendix “Electrojector” fuel injection, which raised output to a nominal 390 horsepower (290 kW) although its real benefit was the consistency of fuel delivery, overcoming the starvation encountered sometimes under extreme lateral load.  Unfortunately, the analogue electronics of the era proved unequal to the task and the unreliability was both chronic and insoluble, thus almost all the 21 fuel-injected cars were retro-fitted with the stock dual-quad induction system and it’s believed only one 300D retains its original Bendix plumbing.  Also rare was the take-up rate for the manual transmission option and interestingly, both the two known 300Ds so equipped were ordered originally with carburetors rather than fuel injection.  The engineers also secured one victory over the stylists.  After testing on the proving grounds determined the distinctive, forward jutting “eyebrow” header atop the windscreen reduced top speed by 5 mph (8 km/h), they managed to convince management to authorize an expensive change to the tooling, standardizing the convertible’s compound-curved type “bubble windshield”, a then rare triumph of function over fashion.  Although the emphasis of the letter series cars was shifting from the track to the roads, the things genuinely still were fast and one (slightly modified) 300D was set a new class record of 156.387 mph (251.681 km/h) on the Bonneville Salt Flats.  Production declined to 810 units (619 coupes & 191 convertibles).

1959 Chrysler 300E.

With the coming of the 1959 range, the Hemi was retired and replaced by a new 413 cubic inch (6.8 litre) V8 with wedge-shaped combustion chambers.  Lighter by some 100 lb (45 kg) and cheaper to produce than the Hemi with its demanding machining requirements and intricate valve train, the additional displacement allowed power output to be maintained at 380 horsepower (280 kW) while torque (something more significant for what most drivers on the street do most of the time actually increased).  The manual transmission option was also deleted with no market resistance and despite the lower production costs, the price tag rose, something probably more of a factor in the declining sales than the loss of the much vaunted Hemi and, like the 300D (and most of the rest of the industry) the year before, the economy was suffering in the relatively brief but sharp recession and Chrysler probably did well to shift 390 units (550 coupes & 140 convertibles).

1960 Chrysler 300F (left) and 300F engine with Sonoramic intake in red (right).

Although the rococo styling cues remained, underneath now lay radical modernity, the corporation’s entire range (except for exclusive Imperial line) switching from ladder frame to unitary construction.  The stylists however indulged themselves with more external flourishes, allowing the tailfins an outward canter, culminating sharply in a point and housing boomerang-shaped taillights.  Even the critics of such things found it a pleasing look although they were less impressed by the faux spare tire cover (complete with an emulated wheel cover!) on the trunk (boot), dubbing it the “toilet seat”.  The interior though was memorable with four individual bucket in leather with a center console between extending the cockpit’s entire length and there was also Chrysler’s intriguing electroluminescent instrument display which, rather than being lit with bulbs, exploited a phenomenon in which a material emits light in response to an electric field; the ethereal glow was much admired.  Buyers in 1959 may have felt regret in not seeing a Hemi in the engine bay, but after lifting the hood (bonnet) of a 300F they wouldn’t have been disappointed because, in designer colors (gold, silver, blue & red) sat the charismatic “Sonoramic” intake manifold, a “cross-ram” system which placed the carburetors at the sides of engine, connected by long tubular runners.  What the physics of this did was provide a short duration “supercharging” effect, tuned for the mid-range torque most used when overtaking at freeway speeds.  Also built were a handful of “short ram” Sonoramics which had the tubes (actually with the same length) re-tuned to deliver top-end power rather than mid-range torque.  Rated at a nominal 400 (300 kW) horsepower, these could be fitted also with the French-built Pont-a-Mousson 4-speed manual transmission used in the Chrysler V8-powered Facel Vega and existed only for the purpose of setting records, six 300Fs so equipped showing up at the 1960 Dayton Speed Week where they took the top six places in the event’s signature Flying Mile, crossing the traps at between 141.5-144.9 mph (227.7-233.3 km/h).  The market responded and sales rose to 1217 (969 & 248 convertibles) and the 300F (especially those with the “short ram” Sonoramics) is the most collectable of the letter series.

1961 Chrysler 300G.

The 300G gained canted headlights, another of those styling fads of the 1950s & 1960s which quickly became passé but now seem a charming period piece.  There was the usual myriad of detail changes the industry in those days dreamed up each season, usually for no better reason that to be “different” from last year’s model and thus be able to offer something “new”.  As well as the slanted headlights, the fins became sharper still and taillights were moved.  Mechanically, the specification substantially was unaltered, the Sonoramic plumbing carried over although the expensive, imported Pont-a-Mousson transmission was removed from the option list, replaced by Chrysler’s own heavy-duty 3-speed manual unit, the demand for which was predictably low.  The lack of a fourth cog didn’t impede the 300G’s performance in that year’s Daytona Flying Mile where one would again take the title with a mark of 143 mph (230.1 km/h) and to prove the point a stock standard model won the one mile acceleration title.  People must have liked the headlights because production reached 1617 units (1,280 coupes & 337 convertibles).

1962 Chrysler 300H.

Perhaps a season or two too late, Chrysler “de-finned” its whole range, prompting their designer (Virgil Exner (1909–1973)) to lament his creations now resembled “plucked chickens”.  For 1962 the 300 name also lost some of its exclusivity with the addition to the range of the 300 Sport series (offered also with four-door bodywork) and to muddy the waters further, much of what was fitted to the 300H could be ordered as an option on the basic 300 so externally, but for the distinctive badge, there was visually little to separate the two.  Mechanically, the “de-contenting” which the accountants had begun to impose as the industry chase higher profits (short-term strategies to increase “shareholder value” are nothing new) was felt as the Sonoramic induction system moved to the 300H’s option list with the inline dual 4-barrel carburetor setup last seen on the 300E now standard.  However, because of weight savings gained by the adoption of a shorter wheelbase platform, the specific performance numbers of 300H actually slightly shaded its predecessor but the cannibalizing of the 300 name and the public perception the thing’s place in the hierarchy was no longer so exalted saw sales decline 570 (435 coupes & 135 convertibles), the worst year to date.  The magic of the 300 name however seemed to work because Chrysler in the four available body styles (2 door convertible, 2 & 4 door hardtop & 4 door sedan) sold 25,578 of the 300 Sport series, exceeding expectations.  Since 1962, the verbal shorthand to distinguished between the ranges has been “letter series” and “non letter series” cars.

1963 Chrysler 300J.

Presumably in an attempt to atone for past sins, a spirit of rectilinearism washed through Chrysler’s design office while the 1963 range was being prepared and it would persist until the decade’s end when new sins would be committed.  Unrelated to that was the decision to skip a 300I because of concerns it might be read as the wholly numeric 3001.  The de-contenting (now an industry trend) continued with the swivel feature for the front bucket seats deleted while full-length centre console was truncated at the front compartment with the rear seat now a less eye-catching bench.  The 413 V8 was offered in a single configuration but the Sonoramics were again standard and the manual transmission remained optional, seven buyers actually ticking the box. The 300J was still a fast car, capable of a verified 142 mph (229 km/h) although the weight and gearing conspired against acceleration but a standing quarter mile (400 m) ET (elapsed time) of 15.8 was among the quickest of the cars in its class.  Still, it did seem the end of the series might be nigh with the convertible no longer offered and the sales performance reflected the feeling, only 400 coupes leaving the showrooms.

The BUFF: The new version of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (replacing the B-52-H) will be the B-52J, not B-52I or B-52HH.   

The US Air Force also opted to skip “I” when allocating a designation for the updated version of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (1952-1962 and still in service).  Between the first test flight of the B-52A in 1954 and the B-52H entering service in 1962, the designations B-52B, B-52C, B-52D, B-52E, B-52F & B-52G sequentially had been used but after flirting with whether to use B52J as an interim designation (reflecting the installation of enhanced electronic warfare systems) before finalizing the series as the B-52K after new engines were fitted, in 2024 the USAF announced the new line would be the B-52J and only a temporary internal code would distinguish those not yet re-powered.  Again, the “I” was not used so nobody would think there was a B521.  Although the avionics, digital displays and ability to carry Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM, a scramjet-powered weapon capable exceeding Mach 5) are the most significant changes for the B-52J, visually, it will be the replacement of the old Pratt & Whitney TF33 engines with new Rolls-Royce F130 units which will be most obvious, the F130 promising improvements in fuel efficiency of some 30% as well as reduction in noise and exhaust emissions.  Already in service for 70 years, apparently no retirement date for the B-52 has yet been pencilled-in.  In USAF (US Air Force) slang, the B-52 is the BUFF (the acronym for big ugly fat fellow or big ugly fat fucker depending on who is asking).  From BUFF was derived the companion acronym for the LTV A-7 Corsair II (1965-1984, the last in active service retired in 2014) which was SLUFF (Short Little Ugly Fat Fellow or Short Little Ugly Fat Fucker).

1964 Chrysler 300K.

Selling in 1963 only 400 examples of what was intended as one of the corporations “halo” cars triggered management to engage in what the Americans had come to call an “agonizing reappraisal”.  The conclusion drawn was the easiest way to stimulate demand was to lower the basic entry price to ownership of the name and if buyers really wanted the fancy stuff once fitted as standard, they could order it from an option list; it was essentially the same approach as used for most of Chrysler’s other ranges.  Accordingly, the leather trim and many of the power accessories joined air-conditioning on the option list.  The base engine was now running a single four barrel carburetor although for and additional US$375, the Sonoramic could be ordered and combined with Chrysler’s new, robust four-speed manual transmission.  Surprising some observers, the convertible coachwork made a return to the catalogue.  All that meant the 300K could be advertised for US$1000 less than the 300J and the market responded in a text book example of price elasticity of demand, production spiking to 3647 (3,022 coupes & 625 convertibles).

1965 Chrysler 300L (four speed manual).

Despite the stellar sales of the 300K, even before the release of the 300L, the decision had been taken it would be the last of the letter series.  The tastes of those who wanted high performance had shifted to the smaller, lighter pony cars and intermediates which hadn’t even been envisaged when the C-300 had made its debut a decade earlier.  Additionally, the letter series had outlived their usefulness as image-makers for the corporation now they were no longer the fastest machines in the fleet and production-line rationalization meant it was easier and more profitable to maintain a single 300 line and allow buyers to choose their own combination of options; in other words, after 1965, it would still be possible to create a letter series 300 in most aspects except the badge and the now departed Sonoramics of fond memory.  When the last 300L was produced it was configured with a single four barrel carburetor and had it not been for the badges, few would have noticed the difference between it and any other 300 with the same body.  The lower price though continued to attract buyers and in its final year 2845 were sold (2,405 coupes & 440 convertibles). 

Heterochromatic

Heterochromatic (pronounced het-er-uh-kroh-mat-ik or het-er-oh-kruh-mat-ik)

(1) Of, having, or pertaining to more than one color (especially as related to relating to heterochromia (in medicine & ophthalmology, the anatomical condition in which multiple pigmentations or colorings occur in the eyes, skin or hair).

(2) Having a pattern of mixed colors.

(3) Of light, having more than one wavelength.

(4) In genetics, of or relating to heterochromatin (in cytology, tightly coiled chromosome material; believed to be genetically inactive).

1890–1895: The construct was hetero- + chromatic + -ic.  The hetero- prefix was from the Ancient Greek ἕτερος (héteros) (the other (of two), another, different; second; other than usual) and was itself an ancient compound, the first element meaning "one, at one, together", from the primitive Indo-European root sem- (one; as one, together with), the second cognate with the second element in the Latin al-ter, the Gothic an-þar and the Old English o-ðer "other."  It's familiar in constructs such as “heterosexual”, “heterogeneity” et al.  In Classical Greek, there was quite a range of application including Heterokretes (true Cretan (ie one bred from the old stock)), heteroglossos (of or from a foreign language), heterozelos (zealous for one side (ie “one-eyed” in the figurative sense)), heterotropos (of a different sort or fashion (literally “turning the other way”) and the useful heterophron (raving (literally “of other mind” (ie “he’s barking mad”))).  The adjective chromatic dates from the turn of the seventeenth century and was used first of music in the sense of “involving tones foreign to the normal tonality of the scale, not diatonic” and was from the Latin chromaticus, from the Ancient Greek khrōmatikos (relating to color, suited for color) (which was applied also to music), from khrōma (genitive khrōmatos) (color, complexion, character (but used mostly metaphorically of embellishments in music); the original meaning was “skin, surface”.  In the Greek, khrōma was used also for certain modifications of the usual diatonic music scale but quite why it came to be used of music remains unclear, the most supported speculation being the influence of the extended sense of khrōma ("ornaments, makeup, embellishments) via the idea of it being “characteristic” of a musical scale or speech.  The -ic suffix was from the Middle English -ik, from the Old French -ique, from the Latin -icus, from the primitive Indo-European -kos & -ḱos, formed with the i-stem suffix -i- and the adjectival suffix -kos & -ḱos.  The form existed also in the Ancient Greek as -ικός (-ikós), in Sanskrit as -इक (-ika) and the Old Church Slavonic as -ъкъ (-ŭkŭ); A doublet of -y.  In European languages, adding -kos to noun stems carried the meaning "characteristic of, like, typical, pertaining to" while on adjectival stems it acted emphatically; in English it's always been used to form adjectives from nouns with the meaning “of or pertaining to”.  A precise technical use exists in physical chemistry where it's used to denote certain chemical compounds in which a specified chemical element has a higher oxidation number than in the equivalent compound whose name ends in the suffix -ous; (eg sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) has more oxygen atoms per molecule than sulphurous acid (H₂SO₃).  Heterochromatic, heterochrome & heterochromous are adjectives, heterochrony, heterochromia & heterochromatism are nouns and heterochromatically is an adverb; the noun plural is heterochromias.

The obvious synonym is monochromatic (although is modern use that’s come often to mean “black & white” rather than “a single color”.  The -mono- prefix was from the Ancient Greek μόνος (mónos) (alone, only, sole, single), from the Proto-Hellenic mónwos and the ending may be compared with οἶος (oîos) (only, single) from óywos.  The etymology of the initial element remains murky but may be from the primitive Indo-European men- (small) and it may be compared with the Ancient Greek μανός (manós) (sparse, rare), the Armenian մանր (manr) (slender, small) and even the Proto-West Germanic muniwu (small fish, minnow).  The sense it’s understood in photography dates from 1940 when (presumably almost instantly), the verbal shorthand became “mono”, exactly the same pattern of use when the need arose to distinguish between color printers and those using only black consumables.  The word was used as an adjective after 1849 although monochromatic (of one color, consisting of light of one wavelength and probably based either on the French monochromatique or the Ancient Greek monokhrōmatos) had been used thus since at least 1807 (presumably it pre-dated this because the adverb monochromatically is documented since 1784).  The alternative forms are both self-explanatory: unicolour used usually single solids and monotint, rare and used mostly as a technical term in art-production where, properly, it describes a reproduction of a multi-color image using just shades of a single color.  Monochrome is a noun & adjective, monochromaticity, monochromy & monochromist are nouns, monochromic is an adjective and monochromatically is an adverb.

Sectoral heterochromia.

In medicine & ophthalmology, heterochromia describes a coloration variously of hair, skin and the eyes but it’s used most commonly of eyes.  At the cellular level, heterochromia is a function of the production, delivery, and concentration of the pigment melanin and the condition may be inherited or caused by genetic mosaicism, chimerism, disease, or injury.  It is not uncommon in certain breeds of domesticated animals (notably those subject to breeding programmes which tend to reduce the gene pool and cats with a predominantly white coat).  In clinical use heterochromia of the eye is known as heterochromia iridum or heterochromia iridis and can be complete, sectoral, or central.  The complete heterochromia is the best known by virtue of being the most photogenic for Instagram and other purposes: it exists when one iris is a wholly different color from the other.  In sectoral heterochromia, part of one iris is a different color from the rest while in central heterochromia, typically there is a ring around the pupil (less commonly seen as spikes radiating from the pupil) in a different color.

Ms Amina Ependieva (b 2008, left) was born in Grozny, the capital city of Chechnya, Russia; she has two rare, genetic conditions: (1) albinism which reduces the quantity the pigment melanin in the skin and (2) heterochromia, the latter manifesting as her having with one blue and one brown eye.  Ms Ependieva was photographed in 2019, aged eleven.  Alkira (b 2015, right) is a Persian cat with heterochromia, felines with predominately white coats the most prone to the condition; in domestic cats, it's most common for them to have one yellow and one blue eye.  The condition does not affect vision.

Bilateral gynandromorphs: butterfly (left), bird (centre) & lobster (right).  The visually related phenomenon is gynandromorphism (an organism (most typically an insect, crustacean or bird) with both male and female attributes & characteristics, the construct being the Ancient Greek γυνή (gynē) (female) + ἀνήρ (anēr) (male) + μορφή (morphē) (form).  In Western science it was first extensively documented in (notably where it was most obvious: in Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)) but it has since been identified in literally dozens of species.

Lindsay Lohan likes the heterochromatic look, whether in the vertical (Mercedes-Benz Fall 2004 Fashion Week, Smashbox Studios, Culver City, California, September, 2003, left), the horizontal (Maxim Hot 100 Party, Gansevoort Hotel, New York, May 2007, centre) or the variegated (ABC’s Good Morning America studios, New York, November 2022, right).

1985 BMW 635CSi (E24, 1976-1989) with heterochromatic headlights.

In Europe and beyond, yellow headlights are still seen because although few jurisdictions still mandate their use, for some they’ve become an aesthetic choice.  Between 1936-1993, French law required all vehicles to have yellow headlights, the intent being to reduce glare and improve visibility in foggy or rainy conditions, the science being the belief yellow light (which has a longer wavelength) reduced eye strain and made driving at night safer by “cutting through” mist and fog more effectively than white light.  The German philosopher Goethe (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)) was said to be heterochromatic and he was interested in eyes & color, in 1810 publishing a 1,400-page treatise on the topic, asserting he was the first to questioned the validity of Sir Isaac Newton’s (1642–1727) ideas about light and color: “That I am the only person in this century who has the right insight into the difficult science of colors, that is what I am rather proud of, and that is what gives me the feeling that I have outstripped many.”  Goethe did misinterpret the results of some of Newton’s experiments, thinking he was explaining their invalidity but he did reformulate the topic of color in an entirely new way.  While Newton had viewed color as a physical “process” in which light entered the eye after striking and reflecting off an object, Goethe was the first to explain the sensation of color is shaped also by our perception (the mechanics of human vision and by the way our brains process information (the eyes being an out-growth of the brain).  So, explained Goethe, what we see is a construct of (1) the properties of the object, (2) the dynamics of lighting and (3) our perception.