Tchotchke

Tchotchke (pronounced chahch-kuh or chotch-kee)

(1) In Yiddish, an inexpensive, often showy trinket

(2) By adoption in English slang, an inexpensive souvenir, trinket, or ornament.

(3) In Yiddish, an attractive young woman (with variants).

(4) By adoption in English slang, an attractive young woman (now rare).

(5) In slang, objects of inferior quality (now rare US use of the word as a kind of alternative to schwag or swag (trinkets or promotional items given away at an event)) and used also of marijuana of low potency.

1950s: From the Yiddish טשאַטשקע (tshatshke) (ornament; trinket; toy and (figuratively) attractive girl or woman), from a Slavic language, perhaps the Russian цацка (tsatska) (toy or small ornamental object) or Ukrainian цяцька (tsatska (toy or trinket) but many etymologists think the Polish czaczko (trinket; knickknack) the most likely source and probably ultimately imitative of a baby’s utterances.  The Polish czaczko is long obsolete; the modern cacko exists in the same sense (originally dialect, of expressive origin).  Tchotchke is a noun; the noun plural is tchotchkes.

Classic tchotchke: Lindsay Lohan fridge magnet.  In US “tourist spots”, there are “tchotchke shops” (functionally equivalent to souvenirs shops in other places.

Quite what was tchotchke’s path through Slavic languages is not certain; no single root has ever been identified.  The sense of “a small ornament of minor value; a knick-knack, a trinket” seems first to have appeared in the 1950s while the figurative meaning “attractive girl or woman” had come into use by at least 1964.  Both are thought to have origins in Jewish communities in the north-eastern US (almost certainly New York City) from which use spread to cities in south-east Canada.  The time-line of the assumption of meanings (trinket: 1950s & attractive young woman: 1960s) are vague because tchotchke was circulating in oral use for some time before appearing in the written record; in the pre-online era, years could elapse between lexicographers acknowledging a word’s existence and its appearance in a printed volume of a dictionary (or one of the “supplements” issued between releases of revised editions).  That the transferred sense of “pretty girl” is listed as dating from 1964 reflects the publication date; not a verified first use.  With an origin in the Middle Ages, Yiddish is best imagined as beginning as a “concept”, assembled (variously and eventually) from over-lapping dialects, influenced mostly by West Germanic and Middle-Eastern languages.  Although by the 1950s (when tchotchke entered the lexicon) Yiddish was more codified, alternative spellings still were being listed, including chatchka, chachka, chatchke, chotchke, tsatske, tshatshke, tsotchke and tchotchkeleh.  The spelling tchotchke is an English transliteration of the Yiddish, not a form that follows ordinary English phonetic conventions although the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) notes consonant cluster “tch-” sometimes is used in English for “ch” (especially in foreign words) so the adaptation (with the silent “T”) is not unusual).

The dual meanings have survived despite the use to describe women being obviously sexist and sometimes derogatory (ie the latter sense transferred from “cheap trinket”) but it’s said now to be used with an emphasis on the “attractive” or “amusing” rather than any hint of “intellectually unsubstantial” with at least two Yiddish dictionaries adding “sometimes used affectionately”.  However, in many languages, with descriptors of women, there have been those who re-purpose even complimentary terms as pejoratives and documented uses of tchotchke have extended to what would in English be understood as “a kept woman”, “a manipulative minx” and “a bimbo”.  There can also be confusion with the Yiddish tsatskele (either “young woman who exploits her attractiveness to achieve her ends” or “one’s favourite daughter”, an explanatory note in Leo Rosten’s (1908–1997) The Joys of Yiddish (1968) explaining the meaning shift being effected by a change in the tone of voice).  In Yiddish, context matters much, regional uses also including “bruise”, “nobody”, “misfit” and “brat”.  That variety is emblematic of Yiddish because, unlike formal, structured Hebrew, Yiddish long grew without any sense of a “standard canon” and words used in one city district could convey a different meaning than those heard no more remotely than a few suburbs or blocks away.  Even today, not all entries in Yiddish dictionaries are necessarily comprehensive; the language varied by region and community with not every recorded sense universally understood.  If ever the term “melting pot” could be applied to languages, it was of the way Yiddish forms in the nineteenth & twentieth centuries swirled around New York City, entering (sometimes adapted but usually not) US English and the spreading.

Conservatory of Hitler's country house, Berchtesgaden: note wicker chair's incorporated swastika below armrest, “AH” in the embroidered throw and cushions in a variety of colors and designs, all gifts to the Führer from grateful German women.

There are those who inherit their tchotchkes, others acquire them while some have the thrust upon them.  Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945) had the typical upper-middle class distaste for kitschy stuff and in his (sometimes reliable) memoir Erinnerungen (Memories or Reminiscences; published in English as Inside the Third Reich (1969)) the presence of not a few tchotchkes in Adolf Hitler’s (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) country house, on Obersalzberg of the Bavarian Alps, some years before it was enlarged in the sprawling complex centred on the Berghof: “After Berchtesgaden came the steep mountain road full of potholes, until we arrived at Hitler's small, pleasant wooden house on Obersalzberg.  It had a wide overhanging roof and modest interior: a dining room, a small living room, and three bedrooms. The furniture was bogus old-German peasant style and gave the house a comfortable petit-bourgeois look.  A brass canary cage, a cactus, and a rubber plant intensified this impression. There were swastikas on knickknacks and pillows embroidered by admiring women, combined with, say, a rising sun or a vow of ‘eternal loyalty.’  Hitler commented to me with some embarrassment: ‘I know these are not beautiful things, but many of them are presents.  I shouldn't like to part with them.’”

US rock band Tchotchke (Anastasia Sanchez (b 1999, drums, lead vocals), Eva Chambers (b 1999, bass, keyboards, backing vocals) and Emily Tooraen (b 1996, guitar, backing vocals).

Sanchez and Eva Chambers had been part of a number of musical aggregations and had released some material before in 2020 recruiting Tooraen as lead guitarist and adopting the name Tchotchke.  Most tracks on their eponymous album (2022) had been recorded prior to Tooraen’s arrival but their second release (Playin' Dumb) in 2025 included contributions from all three.  Working in what’s described as a “retro blend” of 1960s “pure pop” and the harder edge of “playlist-friendly power pop”, the band often collaborates with fellow New York outfit the Lemon Twigs, both in packaged recordings and undertaking tours.  Tchotchke’s emphasis on the use of harmonies (a nod to the “girl groups” of the 1960s) and analogue recording techniques produce a “vintage sonic aesthetic” (always, their material concurrently is available on vinyl) and reviewers have noted it works as well with a touch of “old time static” as it does in the crystal-clear digital version.  Despite the obvious commercial appeal of their “candy-coated” sound, definitely the trio belong somewhere in the “art house” genre.

Wish You Were a Girl (2022), official music video.

While tempting (for men at least) to assume the band’s name was chosen as an allusion to the photogenic qualities of the members, Ms Sanchez said the origin lay in the fondness she and Ms Chambers have for tchotchkes: “We like tchotchkes and have collections that are constantly growing.  Emily is more of a minimalist, which has been healing to our hoarding tendencies.”  Pleasingly though, an element of nominative determinism appeared in the in official music video of Wish You Were a Girl (2022) with many tchotchkes included as  verisimilitude.

Tchotchke with Volvo 240.  There may be a subliminal message or maybe the girls just like Volvos (sometimes, “a Volvo is just a Volvo”).

The Volvo 200 series, in production between 1974 and 1993, was the famously robust machine that more than any established the brand in the US with some 2.8 million built.  Available mostly as two & four doors sedans and a five-door station wagon, there were some low-volume variants including LWB (long wheelbase) limousines (supplied mostly to the GDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic; the old East Germany, 1949-1990)) and a distinctive two-door PLC (person luxury coupé) with a lowered roofline (the “chop-top” 262C (1978-1980) that, although designed in-house, was built by in Turin, Italy by Carrozzeria Bertone).  Unusually, although among collectors, as a general principle, desirability tends to rise as the cylinder-count and displacement increases, it’s the cars powered by Volvo’s (reputedly indestructible) four-cylinder engines that are preferred to those with the PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) “Douvrin” V6 that gained a reputation for thirst, sluggishness and fragility, even before it appeared in the tail of the stainless steel fiasco that was the doomed DMC DeLorean (1981–1983); production of the V6 260 ended in 1984.  In that aspect, the long-running 200 series differed from its predecessor.  The 140 Series was produced exclusively in four-cylinder form between 1966 and 1974 but in 1969 the companion 164 appeared, powered by Volvo’s 3.0 litre (182 cubic inch) straight-six.  The 164 was highly regarded (a lack of power one of the few complaints about the 140), the robust engine (used also in marine, military, industrial and other applications) a paragon of reliability.  Unexpectedly, the 164 remained in (limited) production for a season beyond the retirement of the 140, batches needed for certain markets (notably the US and Japan) while the PRV V6 was made compliant with their more onerous emission rules.  That made those PRV less toxic to the environment but further compromised its dubious reputation, the anti-emission plumbing further sapping the anyway modest power, increasing only the fuel consumption.  While to this day the 240 enjoys a following, few lamented the demise of the 260.

Tchotchke (while eating bananas) with Volvo 240.

The NNN designation system (N=Series; N=Cylinders; N=Doors) was in 1983 simplified so 242, 264, 245 etc was replaced by 240 & 260.  The predecessor of the 200 series is a footnote in diplomatic history as what Volvo calls the “biggest car heist in history”.  In 1974, a thousand Volvo 144s were ordered by the government of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)) and duly supplied, along with an invoice than went unpaid.  The factory got paid by the Swedish state because the transaction had been underwritten by SECA (Swedish Export Credit Agency) but, despite SECA periodically sending “reminder notices” to Kim Il-Sung (Kim I, 1912–1994; Great Leader of DPRK 1948-1994), Kim Jong-Il (Kim II, 1941-2011; Dear Leader of DPRK  1994-2011) and Kim Jong-Un (Kim III, b 1982; Supreme Leader of DPRK since 2011), the invoice remains in SECA’s BD (bad debts) ledger and not even the ownership of Volvo passing in 2010 to the Chinese Geely Group seems to have assisted in extracting money from Pyongyang (Beijing among the few “friends” of the “Hermit Kingdom”).  Adding insult to injury, some of the 144s are still in use and the Great Leader, Dear Leader & Supreme Leader never contested the bill; they just ignored the letters of demand.  With the accumulated interest of a half-century odd, the total payable is now some US$455 million.

Monica Lewinsky, pleased to see “big schmuck” Bill Clinton, 1996.

Yiddish has enriched English, the words often a “highlight” of the sentence in which they appear.  Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky (b 1973, with whom Bill Clinton (b 1946; POTUS 1993-2001) “did not have sexual relations") was a good Jewish girl and one of her emails (discussing gifts Mr Clinton had purchased from The Black Dog at Martha’s Vineyard and sent her through the office of his secretary Betty Currie (b 1939)) to college friend Catherine Davis (b 1973) was published in the “Starr report” (Referral from Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr in Conformity with the Requirement of Title 28, United States Code, Section 595(c) (1998) by Ken Starr (1946–2022; independent counsel investigating the Clinton-era Whitewater(gate) affair and other matters).  “Well, I found out from Betty yesterday that he not only brought me a t-shirt, he got me 2 t-shirts, a hat and a dress!!!!  Even though he's a big schmuck, that is surprisingly sweet – even that he remembered!”  Some other Yiddish words most frequently used in English include:

Bupkis (or bubkes): Emphatically nothing or a worthless amount (as a Jewish mother telling her daughter: “Your new boyfriend isn't worth bupkis”).

Chutzpah (pronounced hutz-pah): Impudent nerve, supreme self-confidence, or audacity.

Glitch: A minor technical malfunction or sudden error (as in “a glitch in the matrix”).

Klutz: A clumsy, uncoordinated person (from the Yiddish word for a wooden block or beam).

Kvell: To beam with pride and joy, especially over a child or family member.

Kvetch: To whine, complain, or squeeze out a grievance (a word that might have been coined for crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013).

Mensch: A good, honorable, and decent person of integrity (rarely used by most people).

Meshuggah (or meshugener): Crazy or senseless.

Nebbish: A timid, ineffectual, or unfortunate simpleton.

Nosh: To snack or nibble on food.

Oy vey: An interjection expressing dismay, exhaustion, or grief.

Plotz: To collapse, burst, or explode from overwhelming emotion (laughter, stress, or anger).

Schlemiel: A clumsy or chronically incompetent person.

Schlep: To drag, haul, or travel with great difficulty or heavy effort.

Schlimazel: A chronically unlucky person (often used in conjunction with “schlemiel”: “The schlemiel spills the soup; the schlimazel is the one on whom it lands”).

Schmaltz: Excessive sentimentality or melodrama (most of the reading list for women’s book clubs).

Schmooze: To chat in a friendly, conversational way, often to make social connections or gain an advantage.

Schmuck: A foolish, obnoxious, or contemptible person (although sometimes used affectionately of one loved despite their flaws).

Schmutz: Dirt, grime, or a smudge of filth.

Spiel: An elaborate, rehearsed, or persuasive sales pitch or story.

Verklempt: Choked up or overcome with emotion.

Yenta: A nosy, gossipy person or busybody.

Teaspoons.

There are words that can be synonyms of tchotchke including “trinket”, “ornament”, “kitsch”, “souvenir”, “knick-knack”, “gewgaw” and “bric-à-brac” but the significance of the Yiddish word is it’s so specific in meaning “small & inexpensive”.  In that, it differs from “ornament”, “kitsch”, “souvenir”, all terms that can be applied to stuff that can be large and costly (sometimes inexplicably expensive) and differs from “trinket” because there's not the same sense of the dismissive; a trinket intrinsically is “useless” while a tchotchke might fulfil some purpose, even if abstract.  Souvenirs, by definition, tended to be “location or event specific” and while tchotchkes certainly could be souvenirs, not all were.  In the US, tchotchke also entered the jargon of business, the small toys in breakfast cereal boxes and the stuff in bags handed out in conferences also described thus.  So, of all these words there’s a definite “evaluative undertone” and while none are exactly positive, as terms of derision all are fairly mild although “ornament” is an outlier in that ornaments can be both exquisite and expensive so are more like bibelots (by convention, used of stuff both beautiful and expensive).  Depending on the context (and item(s)), the term can have a connotation of worthlessness or disposability as well as tackiness: To say: “She’s a collector of porcelain figurines” is neutral whereas: “She collects tchotchkes” probably in the minds of most summons visions of clutter, perhaps a room full of lovingly curated teaspoon collections, all in wall-mounted display cabinets.

Centaur

Centaur (pronounced sen-tawr)

(1) In classical mythology, one of a race of monsters having the head, trunk, and arms of a man, and the body and legs of a horse (modern depictions in the age of the internet seem to prefer the upper body of a woman).  The synonym is hippocentaur.

(2) In astronomy, the constellation Centaurus (initial capital letter).

(3) In astronomy, any of a group of icy bodies with the characteristics of both asteroids and comets, orbiting the Sun in elliptical paths, mostly in the region between Saturn & Neptune.

(4) In modern slang, a skillful (male or female) rider of a horse.

(5) In rocketry, a US-designed and built upper-stage (with re-startable liquid-propellant engine), used with an Atlas or Titan booster to launch satellites and probes.

(6) In chess, team comprising a human player and a computer.

(7) By extension, in AI (artificial intelligence), a human and some form or AI, working together.

1325–1375: From the Middle English, from the Old English, from the Latin centaurus, from the Ancient Greek, from Κένταυρος (Kéntauros), thought to mean “a member of a savage race from Thessaly” although some etymologists are sceptical.  Historically, Thessaly was known as Αἰολία (Aiolía (Aeolia in modern use)) and that’s how it was referred to in the Odyssey (Homer’s epic poem from the eighth or seventh century BC); the gentlemen in Athens were quick to describe those from elsewhere as savages or barbarians, .  The half-human, half horse Centaur from Greek mythology belongs in the class of mixtumque genus, prolesque biformis (a mixed or blended race, offspring of two forms), the phrase made famous when it appeared in the Roman poet Virgil’s (Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BC)) Aeneid (29-19 BC) description of the Minotaur, the mythical creature with the head of a bull atop a human body.  The most common use of the adjective centauric was a reference to the mythological creatures (resembling or of the nature of a centaur) but in the sometimes weird world of spiritualism it was defined as "characterized by an integration of mind and body for consciousness above the ego-self" (whatever that means).  When the adjective is used in SF (SciFi or science fiction) it's with an intital capital if referring to the residents or natives of the constellation Centaurus.  The case difference matters because there no reason why in SF half human, half-horse beasts can't be part of the ecosystem in Centaurus and they would have to be described as Centauric centaurs.  In fantasy fiction, a centauress was a female centaur (a she-centaur) and the term centaurette has also been used; it does not (as the -ette prefix might be thought to imply) mean a “a small centaur”).  Presumably, a centauress, while possessing the secondary sex characteristics of a human female could, anatomically, in the hind quarters either colt, stallion, filly or mare so it could be helpful if authors differentiated centauress & centaurette thus.  Centaur & centaurdom are nouns, centaurian is a noun & adjective and centauresque, centaurial & centauric are adjectives; the noun plural is centaurs.

In the sky

Judy Volker’s annotation of Sea & Sky’s sky-chart of the Centaurus constellation.

Centaurus is one of two constellations said to represent Centaurs and is associated primarily with Chiron (Cheiron), a wise, immortal being who was king of the Centaurs and said to be a scholar & prophet skilled in the healing arts.  In some of the myths, from his cave on Mount Pelion, he is said to have raised, tutored, or counselled several figures prominent in Greek mythology, including Jason, Heracles and Asclepius.  Of Chiron's association with the constellation, there are several tales.  In one legend, Chiron was the first to identify the constellations and teach them to mortal humans, placing an image of himself in the sky to help guide Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece.  A different story has Chiron placed in the sky by Zeus and of this telling there are variants but the most common element is Chiron being accidentally wounded by a poisoned arrow and giving up his immortality as a way to escape the never-ending pain.  A twist on this has Chiron simply bored with life and wanting it to be over and this came to the attention of Prometheus, the Titan undergoing permanent torture for stealing fire from the gods to give to humans.  For Prometheus to be released from his torture, an immortal had to volunteer to renounce eternal life and go to Tartarus in his place.  Someone (Zeus, Heracles, or Chiron himself depending on the author) suggested Chiron's offer be used to release Prometheus and for this Zeus honored Chiron with his place in the sky.  There’s even a tale in which the constellation represents the Centaur Pholus, honoured thus by Zeus for his skill in prophecy.

Centaurus, copperplate engraving by Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius (1611–1687) from Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia (1687), his atlas of constellations.

In English, the southern constellation of Centaurus has been so described since the 1550s but was known by that name to the Romans (to the Greeks it was Centaur).  The ninth largest constellation, visible in the far southern sky in the months around March, since classical times, it has been confused with Sagittarius.  In astronomy, a centaur is a small, icy celestial body orbiting the Sun in an in elliptical paths, most tracking between Jupiter and Neptune, the name gained from them typically having the characteristics of both asteroids and comets, that dual-nature the link with the half-human, half-horse from mythology.  Centaurs are considered transitional objects that may originally have been KBOs (Kuiper Belt Object) and often have unstable orbits due to gravitational interactions with the giant planets.  Orbiting mostly between 5.5-30 AU (an “astronomical unit”, the average distance between the Earth and Sun (about 150 million km (93 million miles)) from the sun, such is the gravitational effect of the big planets that most centaurs (which range in diameter between 100-400 km (60-250 miles) are expected over millennia to be sent into the inner solar system or even ejected into interstellar space.  Astronomers first became aware of the objects in 1977 with the discovery of Chiron but the technology of the time didn’t permit the structure fully to be understood and the body was thus initially classified both as a comet (95P/Chiron) and minor planet.  It was improvements in observational hardware which demonstrated that while appearing as asteroids, when closer to the sun the comet-like behavior of developing a coma or tail will manifest.  The largest known centaur is 10199/Chariklo.  Listed as a minor planet, it orbits the Sun between Saturn and Uranus and in 2014 it was announced it possessed two rings (nicknamed Oiapoque and Chuí after the rivers that define Brazil's borders), the existence confirmed by observing a stellar occultation.  One implication of the rings is it's likely it also has at least one shepherd moon and infrared images indicate the Chariklo is named after the nymph Chariclo (Χαρικλώ), the wife of Chiron and the daughter of Apollo.

On four hooves

Front (left) and rear (right) of the gatefold cover of the album Ride a Rock Horse (1975) by The Who's lead singer Roger Daltrey (b 1944).  The artwork was the work of his cousin Graham Hughes who produced a number of album covers during the 1970s.  Until the early 1980s when the CD (compact disc) reduced the size of packaging, the album cover was the most distributed form of pop-art. 

Things rarely were consistent in the evolution of the myths from Antiquity and the mythical centaurs were described variously as being wholly equine from (human) torso down or with the from parts of the legs also human, the latter a popular depiction during the Medieval period while in Classical era, they had four horses' hooves and two human arms.  Living on raw flesh and inhabiting mountains and forests, they were descended either from Centaurus (the son of Apollo & Stilbe) or of Ixion & Nephele although the Centaurs Chiron and Pholus were of a different descent lineage: Chiron was the son of Philyra & Cronus while Pholus was fathered by Silenus and born of an unnamed Nymph; what distinguished that pair was that unlike the other herds, they were hospitable and non-violent.  The cooking of food being a marker of civilization, it was recorded that when Heracles was hunting the Erymanthian boar, he visited Pholus who received him hospitably, giving him cooked meat whereas Pholus himself ate exclusively raw food.

When Heracles asked for wine, Pholus told him that there was only one jar, which either belonged communally to the Centaurs or had been a gift from Dionysus who had told them to open it only if Heracles should be their guest.  Telling his host not to be afraid, Pholus broke the seal but when the Centaurs smelled the wine they galloped from the mountains, armed with rocks, fir trees and torches to attack the cave.  The first two Centaurs to attack were Anchius and Agrius (killed by Heracles) but Pholus was killed in the aftermath of the fight: while burying a fallen Centaur he drew one of Heracles' poisoned arrows from a wound but it fell from his grasp, piercing his leg and almost instantly he died.  Heracles drove off the remaining Centaurs and pursued them to Cape Malea where they took refuge with Chiron.  In the ensuing battle Heracles shot Elatus in the elbow, but Chiron either dropped one of Heracles' arrows on his foot or was shot in the knee by Heracles.  The wounds of Heracles' arrows could not be healed and the immortal Chiron begged the gods to make him mortal.  It was Prometheus agreed to take on his immortality, and Chiron died, leaving most of the Centaurs to take refuge in Eleusis.  Their mother (Nephele) aided them by summoning a rain storm but that didn’t deter Heracles who slaughtered a dozen including Daphnis, Argeius, Amphion, Hippotion, Oreius, Ispoples, Melanchaetes, Thereus, Doupon, Phrixus & Homadus.

Wedding reception gone bad: Rape of Hippodamia (The Lapiths and the Centaurs) (1636-1637), oil on canvas by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain.  The painting was one of a large cycle of mythologies by Rubens for the Torre de la Parada, Philip IV's (1605–1665; King of Spain 1621-1665 and (as Philip III) King of Portugal 1621-1640) newly built hunting lodge on the outskirts of Madrid.  One of Rubens’ oil sketches for the work is on display at Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique in Brussels, Belgium and is of interest to art students and critics because of the detail differences in the final composition.  On the basis of content shared on the internet, wedding receptions these days are sometimes torrid affairs. 

Lindsay Lohan AI generated as a centaur by EnjoyLingerie on DeviantArt.

The Centaurs also fought a legendary battle against the Lapiths (a Thessalian people who originally inhabited Pindus, Pelion and Ossa; they drove out the native people, the Pelasgians).  Pirithous invited the Centaurs (who regarded themselves as his parents) to his wedding feast and it went well until, unaccustomed to the effects of wine, the Centaurs became drunk and one of them tried to rape (in the classical sense of "abduction") Deidamia (Pirithous' bride and more commonly known as Hippodamia), resulting in a violent brawl which ended with the Lapiths driving the Centaurs out of Thessaly after killing many.  Containing so many wonderful subjects (Centaurs, a feast, a rape scene, a brawl), the disrupted wedding reception (which came to be known as “the Centauromachy”) for centuries drew artists to the theme.  In Antiquity, the Centaurs got a bad press because they appear in so many legends involving rape, abductions and violence.  In many ways the myths can be deconstructed as violent soap operas with an undercurrent of licentiousness, typified by the tales of Eurytion attempting to rape Hippolyta or Mnesimache, the daughter of Dexamenus.  In one version Dexamenus had betrothed his daughter to Azan (an Arcadian) and Eurytion (again as a guest at the wedding feast) attempted a kidnapping but she was saved by the hero Heracles arrived in time to kill him, returning bride safely to groom.  Most scribes were members of the Heracles admiration society and there also the story of how Heracles, on his way to Augias, seduced the girl, promising to marry her upon his return.  While he was away, forcibly she was betrothed to Eurytion but just as the wedding ceremony was about to begin, Heracles stormed in, killed the Centaur and had himself declared her husband.

Cupid and Centaur (1992), photograph by US photographer Joel-Peter Witkin (b 1939).

Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, recurring themes in Mr Witkin’s work includes death and corpses (or dismembered body-parts), often artfully arranged for staged photo-shoots, his subjects including dwarfs, transgender and intersex persons.  As might be imagined, his images sometimes attracted controversy although some in the disabled community did praise his depictions of those living with a range of physical features not often documented in art.  Witkin claims his elaborate creations are not at all exploitative and are intended to “honor and elevate” those often neglected and “hidden from view”, rarely presented in an artistic context, motifs sometime drawn from paintings in both the sacred and secular traditions.  In an interview, Mr Witkin recalled his interest in what would many would think macabre was trigged when, as a child, he saw the decapitated head of a young girl killed in an automobile accident.

On four wheels

1976 Chrysler Centura GL.  Despite the visual resemblance, the (optional) styled steel wheels were unrelated to those used on Oldsmobiles between 1966-1987.

Whatever processes led to Chrysler Australia adopting the name “Centura” for their local version of the European Chrysler 180 (1970-1982) may still exist in the corporation’s archives but it seems the details have never been published though it can be assumed it was not an Anglicized adaptation of the Romanian centură (belt, girdle).  In Latin centum meant "one hundred" and the term centuria referred to (1) a unit of the Roman army, nominally consisting of 100 soldiers (historians suggest in practice the establishments varied between 60-160) and headed by a centurion, (2) in real estate a unit of area, equal to 100 heredia or 200 iugera (circa 125 acres (50  hectares)), (3) a group of citizens eligible to vote, the system apparently one of the reforms introduced by Servius Tullius (king of Rome 578-535 BC) and based on the ownership of land, one of the many systems which, over millennia, have codified a relationship between ownership of property (usually land) with a right to in some way participate in the polity (usually by voting) and (4) figuratively or literally, things in some way related to "100".  In modern Romance languages, things of course evolved: the Romanian centura (belt or girdle) was from the French ceinture (belt), from the Latin cinctura (girdle, belt), thus by extension used also to refer to the to beltways (ring roads) around cities.  In Spanish & Portuguese, the related cintura (waist; belt) is from the same Latin root cingere (to gird; surround).

The name of the short-lived Chrysler Centura (1975-1978) may have been an allusion to the Centaurs of myth because, like them it had a dual nature, combining the platform of a European four-cylinder with a much more powerful (and heavier) Australian built six.  That had been a concept Holden (GM's (General Motors) Australian outpost) in 1969 introduced when they installed their six-cylinder engine in a modified Vauxhall Viva and called it the Torana.  It proved a great success and Ford Australia in 1972 responded by fitting still larger displacement sixes to the Cortina which, being longer than the Viva, didn’t need the four inch (100 mm) stretch of the wheelbase required for things (tightly) to fit in the Torana.  Given the way local journalists would within a few years decry the inherently unbalanced Cortina six, it is remarkable how well the press received the thing upon debut.

1975 Chrysler Centura brochure shot (GL left; XL right).

Had the Centura been released in 1973 as planned, it might have found success but the timing was unfortunate, the decision by the French government of Georges Pompidou (1911–1974; President of France 1969-1974) to conduct tests of nuclear weapons in its South Pacific territories, prompting the leadership of Australian trade unions to blacklist French goods arriving in ports (Australian trade unions in those days running an independent foreign policy and the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions) a kind of co-government).  As a consequence, it wasn’t until 1975 the Centura arrived in showrooms and by then the market had moved on, competition rather more intense.  Although the Centura offered class-leading performance (indeed, in a straight line it was quicker than many V8s) by virtue of its optional 4.0 litre (245 cubic inch) straight-six (even the 215 (3.5) version could run with the 4.1 (250) Cortinas), increasingly buyers were more tempted by the equipment levels and perceptions (sometimes true) of superior build quality and economy of operation offered by vehicles with origins in the Far East.  As it was, Chrysler in 1976 began local production of the Japanese Mitsubishi Sigma and it proved a great success, even without the six cylinder engine once thought such a selling point.  Tellingly, although a prototype Centura with a 5.2 (318) V8 was built, the project rapidly was abandoned.  Officially, the explanation was the body lacked the structural rigidity to handle the additional torque, the same reason Ford never contemplated their V8 Cortina entering production; engineers familiar with the structures of both platforms agree that was true of the Cortina but maintain the Centura was robust enough and suspect both companies, having observed the subdued demand for the V8 Holden Toranas (1974-1978) decided Holden was welcome to its exclusive presence in the niche sector.  Fewer than 20,000 Centuras were built during its dismal three year run, a fraction of what was projected as its annual production.

On three wheels

Rupp Super Sno-Sport, 1969.  If an object moves (or can be made to move), the chances are high an American will at some point have installed a V8.

Although it seems now the company’s best-remembered product, the Rupp Centaur was built only during 1974-1975 with production reaching barely four figures.  A fibreglass-bodied, wheeled tricycle available in red, white, blue, and yellow, the Centaur was something of a departure from Rupp’s traditional lines and its existence was a product of (1) climatic conditions, (2) a downturn in the economy and (3) the sharp increase in the price of gas (petrol), induced by the first oil-shock of 1973-1974.  Rupp Manufacturing had in 1959 been founded in Mansfield, Ohio by Herbert Edward “Mickey” Rupp (1936–2023), initially as a small-scale operation producing Dart Go-Karts but the venture proved successful enough for the company to expand and in 1960 a line of mini-bikes was introduced.  Simple to manufacture and sold with an attractive margin, the cash–flow enabled further development and by 1964 Rupp’s prototype snowmobiles had been sufficiently refined to be suitable for mass production, an encouraging 500 sold the following year, demand steadily increasing.  By the end of the decade, Rupp Manufacturing had a staff of over 400 and a catalogue of RVs (recreational vehicles) including mini-bikes, small ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) and a signature range of Sno-Sport snowmobiles, by then available in five models.  This being the US, there was also the sport of “snowmoble drag-racing” and Mickey Rupp fabricated the “Super Sno-Sport”, a genuinely exotic entrant using a special 308 cubic inch (5.0 litre) V8 from Ford’s racing research department with braking provided by a combination of disk brakes on the drive axle and a parachute, activated by a cable-release mechanism.  Whether it ever attained its theoretical maximum speed (150 mph (241 km/h)) isn’t clear but, in 1969, it was recorded at 95.5 mph (153.7 km/h) during a run at West Yellowstone.

Rupp advertising, 1970.

While the V8 Super Sno-Sport was a useful publicity tool, Rupp Manufacturing’s core business was more modestly powered snowmobiles and the company entered the 1970s as one of the industry’s most successful, annual production in 1970-1971 reaching almost 40,000 units.  However, while the economy was beginning to slow, what really affected things was two successive seasons of poor snow conditions, Rupp especially suffering because it had borrowed money to expand production and built up a large inventory of product to meet an anticipated strong demand,  With falling sales and rising debt-servicing costs, the rapidly dwindling profits of 1972 quickly became unsustainable losses and, in 1973, facing imminent bankruptcy, a controlling interest was sold to a investment group (what would now be called a PE (private equity) company).  The takeover provided the necessary injection of cash but of course involved also the inevitable “restructuring” (lay-offs and cost-cutting), leading to a market perception was of reduced quality and the possibility of Rupp being closed once the new owners worked out an asset-strip would likely be more lucrative than on-going production.  However, defying expectations, product development continued and in 1976 Rupp introduced its “Nitro” line of snowmobiles, now with liquid-cooled Xenoah power-plants.  These were a considerable technical advance and reviews were glowing but development costs had been high and the sector had become crowded; although sales were encouraging, profits became marginal as the machines often had to be sold at a discount.  In 1977, despite the publicity generated by the Rup 440 Nitro being capable of a genuine 80 mph (130 km/h), the company filed for bankruptcy, even a joint venture with the more stable Arctic Cat operation unable to stave off the inevitable.  In 1978, Rupp was wound up.

1974 Rupp Centaur (single seater).  Based on the photographic record, most buyers seemed to have chosen red.

The change in ownership and troubled history of the early 1970s explains the existence of the Centaur.  With an existing product line rendered unsuitable by the sudden decline in the snowmobile market, Rupp needed a new offering that could (1) quickly be developed, (2) be produced using existing assembly lines and (3) be sold at a price acceptable to its market segment and for that roll of the dice, planners settled on a powered-tricycle, a configuration familiar to customizers and specialist applications (police forces, postal services etc).  Rupp was targeting not commercial operators but the recreational market and that the machine would offer better fuel consumption than even small economy cars was an attraction, the project conceived when gas  had become not only suddenly expensive but also often scarce.  Unfortunately for Rupp, the scarcity didn’t last and in retrospect, even if it had, the Centaur’s many impracticalities might anyway have been enough to see it doomed (it was very much a “fun machine” for fine weather and the original version was strictly a single seater; in the recession year of 1974, it was not a compelling formula).  Although priced at US$1,700, for what one got, the cost-breakdown didn’t make sense for most because a small Toyota or Datsun could the leave the showroom for as little as US$2,800 and for that buyers got something that could seat five under a roof with a radio and heater.  Fun came at a cost and too few were prepared to pay the price.

1975 Rupp Centaur (two seater).

There was also the Centaur’s mechanical specification.  Designed originally to use the Volkswagen Type 1’s (Beetle) 1,285 cm³ (78 cubic inch) flat-four engine & transmission, the two companies couldn’t agree to terms so the tricycles were released with a 336 cm³ (21 cubic inch) two-stroke Kohler twin from the snowmobile line.  The fuel consumption certainly was low but while in the lightweight Centaur the VW engine would have delivered sparkling performance with an entertaining ability to cruise at 75 mph (120 km/h and by 1974 anyway unlawful because of a 55 mph (88 km/h) speed limit imposed nationally in as a “fuel-saving measure” by Richard Nixon (1913-1994; VPOTUS 1953-1961 and POTUS 1969-1974)), with the little two-stroke, only (a claimed) 55 mph was possible and at that speed the engine was very busy (and noisy), one reviewer remaking “one can almost hear it wearing out”.  Compounding the problem, the centrifugal clutch for the automatic transmission (an apparatus that had been a paragon or reliability in snowmobiles) proved troublesome when handing the greater weight and forces transmitted by the relatively wide contact area of the tyres.

Elvis Presley with 1975 Rupp Centaur, Memphis, Tennessee, 1975.  Keeping a cigarette burning while riding a motorcycle is a reasonable achievement.

Additionally, despite the minimalism of the body structure, flaws in the design (apparently a miscalculation of lateral loadings) meant the fibreglass had a tendency to crack, leading buyers unhappy and Rupp with expensive warranty claims.  It took not long for Rupp to work out the Centaur was not going to be the company's saviour but while a re-design was impossible and Volkswagen refused to lower the price of its engines, some adaptation was possible and in 1975 a two-seat version was released, obviously doubling the seating capacity but further adding to the weight and thus the load on the anyway hard-working engine and its vulnerable clutch.  Given all that Rupp probably did well to sell some 1,200 of the things over two years (although some are documented as lingering (discounted) on dealers’ lots as late as 1977).  One discerning buyer with a taste for the unusual was Elvis Presley (1935-1977) who purchased his in the summer of 1975 (it’s on display at Graceland) but he found the performance unsatisfactory (he was by then quite bulky which wouldn’t have helped) and after a few weeks replaced it with Super Cycle Stallion tricycle, powered by a Volkswagen flat-four.  It’s not known whether Elvis’s dissatisfaction with his Centaur was ever so intense he shot the thing (as he did when his De Tomaso Pantera refused to start) but his feelings were not unique because a number of the surviving Centaurs have been re-powered with Volkswagen engines and at least two have been converted to electric propulsion.

In art

Stormy Daniels (2019) drawing in ink, correction fluid & graphite on paper, by Robert Crumb (b 1943).  The image is available on the “Stormy Tee Shirt” (in black or pink) from Platform Art with 10% of sales revenue going to Safe Horizon, a New York-based organization supporting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. 

It’s not known if  Donald Trump (b 1946; POTUS 2017-2021 & since 2025) is a student of Greek mythology (stranger things have happened) but he did provide us with his unique vision of the half-horse, half-human beast, labeling content provider, actress & director Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Gregory Clifford; b 1979) “horse face”.  In May, 2024, the memorable phrase returned to the news as matters came before court related to “hush money” allegedly paid to Ms Daniels (on behalf the of the President) in exchange for her maintaining a silence about a certain “intimate encounter” they had shared, their apparently brief tryst including her spanking him on the butt with a rolled-up magazine featuring his picture on the cover.  Mr Trump denies not only the spanking but the very encounter, claiming it never happened.  To give a flavor of the proceedings, at one point counsel asked Ms Daniels: “Am I correct in that you hate President Trump?” to which she replied: “Yes.”  No ambiguity there and although not discussed in court, her attitude may not wholly be unrelated to Mr Trump’s rather ungracious description of her as “horse face”.  Really, President Trump should have been more respectful towards a three-time winner of F.A.M.E.'s (Fans of Adult Media and Entertainment) much coveted annual “Favorite Breasts” award.

Death of a Centaur (1912), oil on canvas by Arthur Lemon (1850–1912).  For Lemon, the Centaur was what would now be called his "spirit animal" and the work was painted when he was close to death. 

Born on the Isle of Mann, Arthur Lemon spent his childhood in Rome before moving to California to work as a cowboy; there he became a devotee of what he would call en plain air (by which he meant “an outdoor life”).  Later he would return to Europe to study art and for the rest of his life he would travel between Italy and England where regularly he staged exhibitions at London's Royal Academy; his work most associated with scenes of the Italian countryside and the daily lives of the rural peasantry.  Lemon's fine eye for painting a Centaur was a thing of practice.  He became close friends with English artist Henry Scott Tuke (1858–1929), noted for his prolific output of works in the Impressionist tradition focused on nude adolescent boys and during the 1880s the pair for a time lived Florence where they “spent time sketching male nudes in the Italian sunshine.”  

The Wooing of Daphnis (exhibited 1881), oil on canvas by Arthur Lemon.

Daphnis possessed the youthful beauty of the kind idealized by Tuke and the many nymphs who so adored him.  A victim of that beauty, his life ended badly.  The artistic approach of Lemon and Tuke was interesting in that their nude youths often were shown in a contemporary setting and in that they differed from the many paintings and sculptures of Ancient Greek gods and mythological which, historically, enabled an exploration of the male nude without upsetting public decency; what Lemon and Tuke especially did was eroticise their young subjects.  From his time as a cowboy, Lemon was well acquainted with the physicality of the horse and knew from his studies that in Greek art Centaurs often were depicted as highly sexed figures; being not wholly human, Centaurs could be treated as creatures able to ignore the strict moral expectations of society and accordingly, formed their own community.  Lemon and Tuke in their own ways noted this and both took the Centaur as something of a model although while Lemon devoted much of his energy to painting horses, Tuke’s attention on the nude male youth was obviously his obsession.  After decades of little interest, in the more permissive atmosphere of the 1970s, Tuke emerged as a cult figure among those collecting gay-themed art but Lemon remained a footnote as a minor artist of rural life.