Anadrome

Anadrome (pronounced an-uh-drohm)

(1) A word which forms a different word when spelled backwards.

(2) In pre-modern medical jargon, the upward path of various elements (pain, blood etc) (obsolete).

Circa 1961 (in this context): The construct was ana- +‎ -drome.  Ana was from the Ancient Greek ἀνα- (ana-), from ἀνά (aná) (backward in direction, reversed) and drome was from the Ancient Greek δρόμος (dromos) (running; racetrack); the surface analysis of anadrome thus can be understood as “going backwards”.  Confusingly however, the Greek prefix aná was appended also to convey the notion of “up, above, upward”, (2) “again”, (3) “thoroughly”, (4) “against”, (5) “distal, away from” and (6) “to grow or change in place; functionally similar”.  So, a deconstruction alone would not be definitive and the meaning is established through context.  The longest accepted anadrome in English is believed to be the pair desserts/stressed but among the dozens which exist, it is god/dog which seems most to amuse students.  The coining (or possibly a re-purposing of the earlier medical jargon) of anadrome was credited to Martin Gardner (1914–2010) who is said to have added it in a 1961 re-publication of Oddities and Curiosities of Words and Literature (1875) by Charles C. Bombaugh (1828-1906) but the word doesn't appear in at least some of the 1961 editions and at least the spike in use may better be attributed to the reclusive and eccentric Dmitri Borgmann (1927–1985) a German-American author regarded still as something of the “high priest of recreational linguistics”.  In his introduction, Mr Gardner does pay tribute to Mr Borgmann as one of the “outstanding creators of word puzzles”.  Anadrome & anadromy are nouns and anadromous & anadromic are adjectives; the noun plural is anadromes.

An young anadromous Atlantic salmon, still resident in the freshwater in which it was born.  The young salmon are called smolts after they gain a silvery hue and migrate to the ocean.

The adjectival form is used in ichthyology, the term “anadromous fish” describing those species born in freshwater rivers or streams that migrate to the ocean to mature and forage, subsequently returning to freshwater to spawn.  First appearing in scientific papers in 1753, the construct of anadromous was ana- (used here in the sense of “up, above, upward”) + dromos (a running), from dramein (to run).  Though the usual natural processes, anadromous fish have evolved with an environmental adaptation called osmoregulation which enables them seamlessly to adapt to changing salinities; that’s what makes it possible for them to live in both aquatic habitats (salt & freshwater).  The process is dynamic as it must be because while some notional freshwater species might move into a sea or ocean only for weeks, others can stay there for years because that’s where they undergo most of their growing cycle.  Remarkably, and using a mechanism not wholly understood (use of the Earth’s magnetic field an intriguing theory), after perhaps years the fish return to their exact natal streams to reproduce.  For freshwater ecosystems, the behaviour is not a mere zoological curiosity because as schools return from their time in saltwater, they bring with them marine-derived phosphorus & nitrogen, “topping up” the elements on which the health of the spawning grounds depends.  Anadromous fish are thus listed as keystone species, some salmon the best known examples.  An anadromic fish swimming to or from the ocean could be said to be proceeding anadromically but the adverb is non-standard.

A catadromous freshwater American eel, slithering out of a pipe, possibly heading back to the ocean, catadromically (again, a non standard adverb).

The companion term is “catadromous fish”, describing species born in salt water that mature in fresh water and return to the sea to spawn, certain eels the best known.  The mysterious European eel exerted a particular fascination upon the natural scientists of Antiquity, Aristotle (384-322 BC) writing the earliest known study although the findings truly were speculative, his novel idea being the creatures were born of “earth worms” which, he suggested, were formed of mud, growing from the “guts of wet soil”.  In the absence of any better theory or observational data, the notion for some time held sway and not for centuries was spontaneous generation disproven.  It wasn’t until the eighteenth century researchers perfected their techniques of dissection and confirmed eels really are fish although, while in recent years it has been possible to effect breeding of eels in captivity, because of the difficulty of replicating at scale the multi-aquatic environment needed for the life-cycle, it’s unlikely any time soon to become commercially viable.  Largely because of demand from the Far East (especially Japan) the European freshwater glass eel has become threatened with smuggling rife, the decline in availability encouraging a trade in the American eel, something which has created problems because of the involvement of transnational crime groups.

25 Franc postage stamp, issued to mark the independence of Upper Volta, 1960.

Although in a sense belonging to the discipline of structural linguistics, the word anadrome (in this context) seems in this context to have come into use (“re-invented” as it were) only in the mid twentieth century and it emerged not from academia but recreational wordplay: It was a “fun word” which migrated to reference books when editors and compliers noticed it appearing in published word games and puzzle culture.  While having no place in formal linguistic theory, it is used as a teaching aid, apparently on the basis of “training the mind to be flexible”, the model believed to be the better known “palindrome” (a word, line, verse, number, sentence, etc reading the same backward as forward), in use since the 1630s.  In logology (recreational linguistics, ie puzzles, word-games and such), there is a great satisfaction in having a coined word “succeed” in the sense of even a limited, specialized acceptance which is why the community has come up with synonyms including: (1) semordnilap (“palindromes” spelled backwards) (2) levidrome (the “Levi” element from the given name of the coiner), (3) reversgram and (4) heteropalindrome (the hetro- prefix a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἕτερος (héteros) (other, another, different).  There was a suggestion such words should be called a "volta" (from the Italian volta (which can be used to mean "to turn")) but the idea never caught on.

H.R. Haldeman (1926–1993; White House chief of staff 1969-1973 right) and Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US VPOTUS 1953-1961 & POTUS 1969-1974) doing paperwork (ie shredding evidence) in the White House.

The word did however find a place in geopolitical history.  Flowing south into the West African nation of Ghana from the highlands of Burkina Faso, the Volta River was in the late fifteenth century named by Portuguese gold traders.  Because it was their furthest extent of exploration before returning, the name was appropriate, volta being Portuguese for “turn” or “twist”, thus the common term “river of return”.  As part of the unravelling of the French colonial empire, the République de Haute-Volta (Republic of Upper Volta) was in 1958 created as a self-governing state within the French Community; previously it had been part of the French Union in West Africa as the French Upper Volta.  Independence was granted in 1960 and in 1984 the nation's name was changed to Burkina Faso.  When president, Richard Nixon sarcastically would use “Upper Volta” as a reference to any “unimportant country”, especially if compelled by the conventions of diplomacy to spend time exchanging “pointless pleasantries” with the dignitaries in their visiting delegations.  Sometimes, when someone from the State Department displeased him (a not infrequent happening), darkly he would mutter about having them posted as “ambassador to Upper Volta”, a place Nixon thought a kind of “diplomatic Gulag”.

62¢ postage stamp issued in 2015 by Deutsche Post (The German post office, now a brand of DHL Group) to mark the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Otto von Bismarck (1815-1989; chancellor of the German Empire (the “Second Reich”) 1871-1890).

Among politicians, the phenomenon of an at least affected indifference to the affairs of countries in which no matters of national interest seem obvious is well documented.  His eyes darting east & west, Otto von Bismarck claimed he “never troubled to read the mailbag from Constantinople” although he of course at least glanced at every paper.  While the famous phrase attributed to him: “I shall not live to see the Great War, but you will see it, and it will start in the East.” is likely apocryphal, what is verified he did say: “One day the great European war will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans.”  Confidently it may be asserted he read the telegrams from the embassy in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul in the Republic of Türkiye (Turkey)).  While predicting squabbles in the Balkans hardly demanded great statesmanship, his vision of a “big” European war was remarkably prescient although the chain of events which in 1914 triggered the spread of what could have been yet another localized Balkan war was a consequence of the legacy of inter-locking treaties he'd crafted, his successors less adept in their handling.  Lord Moran (Charles Wilson, 1882-1977; president of the Royal College of Physicians 1941-1949, personal physician to Winston Churchill 1940-1965) in his diary (The Struggle for Survival, 1940–1965 (1966)) on more than one occasion noted Winston Churchill’s (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) unconcern about places which had never piqued his interest.  An entry from April 1953 recorded him saying: “‘I have lived seventy-eight years without hearing of bloody places like Cambodia.’  With a whimsical look he strung out half a dozen strange-sounding names.  ‘They have never worried me, and I haven’t worried them.'”  A year on, revisiting his thoughts, when told of troubles in Central America he thought tiresome, Churchill complained: “I’d never heard of this bloody place Guatemala until I was in my seventy-ninth year.” 

Google Ngram

Google Ngram (a quantitative and not qualitative measure): Because of the way Google harvests data for their Ngrams, they’re not literally a tracking of the use of a word in society but can be usefully indicative of certain trends, (although one is never quite sure which trend(s)), especially over decades.  As a record of actual aggregate use, Ngrams are not wholly reliable because: (1) the sub-set of texts Google uses is slanted towards the scientific & academic and (2) the technical limitations imposed by the use of OCR (optical character recognition) when handling older texts (typically a scanner might misread an “f” for a long “s” or a “u” for an “n”) of sometime dubious legibility (a process AI (artificial intelligence) should improve).  Where numbers bounce around, this may reflect either: (1) peaks and troughs in use for some reason or (2) some quirk in the data harvested.

As Google’s Ngram attests, “anadrome” was in use in the nineteenth century, the earliest citation dating from 1840, the use a classic illustration of “lexical overlap” a phenomenon which delights word nerds (an easily delighted lot).  In the mid-late 1800s, anadrome (often written as anadromé, reflecting both the Greek roots and the backgrounds of those using the word) was a technical term seen mostly in botanical and medical publications; it was direct borrowing of the Ancient Greek anadromē (ἀναδρομή) (“an ascent”; “running up”).  Medical dictionaries in the era weren’t new but revised editions were common because advances in observational technologies and techniques meant new entries constantly were required and anadrome seems first to have been used of a variety of “physiological ascents” including (1) Ascending Pain: physical pain starting in the lower limbs or torso and migrating upward, (2) The “upward determination of blood: A rush of blood toward the head or upper body and, best of all (3) Globus Hystericus: The “lump in the throat” sensation described at the time also as the “ascent of the womb”.  While scientifically inaccurate, it was memorable and dated from the era (which lasted well into the twentieth century) when the condition “hysteria” was part of the diagnostic toolkit for physicians assessing female patients.  In botanical use, the meaning was most analogous with the idea of blood flow, botanists describing “upward sap flow” (the ascent of sap through a plant’s vascular system).  What the Ngram has in this case captured is a genuine heteronym (a word that looks the same but has a completely different meaning and subtly different lineage).

Between consenting players only: More than 11 points but don’t try insisting on it in competition or you’ll be blackballed; the Scrabble crew neither forgive nor forget.

The proliferation of synonyms of a word which is little more than a curiosity is an example of why the English language has so many words, most of which are never or rarely used.  The estimates notoriously are vague because there exists no consensus on just what is the definition of a “real word” (which sounds silly but in language there’s no concept like the “real number” in mathematics and, at the margins, disputes are legion).  If one is most accommodating of the definitional spectrum, there may in English be as many as a million words but only 15-20% are thought to be in regular or occasional use.  However, although it has appeared in many lists (often of the strange or obscure), "anadrome" has not received the imprimatur of the major sanctioning bodies setting the rules for the game of competitive Scrabble.  It never appeared in the Collins SOWPODS (an anagram of the two abbreviations OSPD (Official Scrabble Players Dictionary) & OSW (Official Scrabble Words)) or the replacement CSW (Collins Scrabble Words) and nor is it in the NASPA’s (North American Scrabble Players Association) NWL (NASPA Word List).  Quite why Collins replaced the wonderful "SOWPODS" with the dreary "CSW" remains a mystery; more than most, they would know English speakers usually will be pulled to a word with two syllables if the alternative is one of five.  The NASPA Dictionary Committee does accept submissions so anadrome advocates can pursue that course but as a non-standard form, the adverb anadromically definitely has no good prospects.  Those playing at home can of course tolerate a bit of linguistic promiscuity and, provided all players agree, if used, "anadrome" would yield a face value of 11 points (before any double/triple letter or word bonuses) but because there are not eight sequential blank squares on a standard Scrabble board, at least one letter always will attract a multiplier.  For word nerd dissidents unhappy with the dictatorial ways of Scrabble’s ruling ancien régime, there is the scrabblesque (also not a “real word”) “Anadrome the Game” in which "anadrome" is lawful and welcomed.

A brunette era Lindsay Lohan wearing Nahol dress in a black and white rose print by Masai of Copenhagen, rendered as a line drawing by Vovsoft.  The anadrome of “Lohan” is “Nahol”.

Masai describes the Nahol as “a loose, oversized, and comfortable midi-dress, characterized by a V-neck, ¾-length length sleeves, side pockets and an elasticized hem creating a slight balloon effect.”  That it has pockets may be enough of a selling point for women, many designers loath to include them in women’s clothing because any additional bulk might “spoil the line”.  Made with what the manufacturer describes as a “sustainable” (a word that has become the industry’s “new black”) mix of 15% polyamide blend & 85% viscose (said “often” to be FCS (Forest Stewardship Council) certified), the material had a “crinkled” finish in black or printed designs.  It does look comfortably accommodating and, on the move, would "swish" nicely.

Nahol as a proper noun (surname): Dalia Nahol.

While not a recognized word in English or other European languages, Nahol is a proper noun and the village of Nahol (bp) (नहोल (bp)) is in the Shimla District of Himachal Pradesh State, India.  In the anthropological record, it seems most often mentioned as used a name in PNG (Papua New Guinea) and East Africa although many of those texts were derived from oral histories so what was recorded as a phonetic “Nahol” may in some cases have been variants.  Whether there’s any link in origin between the uses in PNG & East Africa isn’t known and as a relatively simple (five letter, two syllable) form, it is likely Nahol came independently to be used as a name in more than one place.  The best documented origin is from Ethiopia where the name Naol often was transliterated as Nahol, Nawol or Naoll; it’s a masculine form from Oromo culture meaning “one who brings the peace” or “peaceful”. 

Nahol as a proper noun (surname): Isaac Amu Nahol.

There is an ancient linkage between Jewish traditions and Ethiopia but there’s no evidence the surname Nahols (most prevalent in Eastern Europe, notably among Jewish communities in Poland and Ukraine) has any connection with the Oromo culture; the similar form Nahal (or Nahaul) from the Hebrew (נחל) (nahal) meaning “stream, brook, valley” (and, by extension, “inheritance” (the idea of an estate “flowing” to the descendants)).  Nahols may have been derived from a Yiddish or Hebrew personal name (on the model of English names such as Stevenson (ie the son of Steven)).  In Arabic, the cognate root yielded Nahel & Nahil which although often understood as “generous” or “successful”, was linked also to “bees & honey”, the latter perhaps accounting for why one Bangladeshi (the old post-partition East Pakistan) source cited the name Nahol meaning “the queen of bees”.

Nova Sky: Yasdnil, Star Of (2021) by Yasdnil (Lindsay Ferraro).

The anadrome of “Lindsay” is “Yasdnil”.  As a surname, Yasdnil is astonishingly rare, the genealogy sites listing only a few dozen instances with the origin, although uncertain, thought to be Persian and from the Yazd region (in modern, Central Iran).  The name is thought drawn from Yas, a type of desert flower, thus the symbolic link of the name with beauty and nature.  Genealogists note the rarity and suspect at least some names with similar spellings may be variant forms.  In the Actinobacteriophage Database, Yasdnil is listed as an Actinobacteriophage (viruses that infect bacteria) in the phylum Actinobacteria; it was found in North Texas in 2018 “…in a soil sample that was dark, dry and had organic material (wood-chips, branches etc).”  The researcher reported the phage was named after “…an individual who was important to me, a lot of time was invested into the phage just as a lot of time was invested into that individual.  Naming the phage after them seemed appropriate as it commemorates commitment and good memories.”  It wasn’t revealed whether the inspiration was a “Yasdnil” or an anadromic “Lindsay”.  Yasdnil is also used as a pseudonym (presumably usually as an anadrome of Lindsay) and the best known may be author and advocate Lindsay Ferraro, who published the poetry collection Nova Sky: Yasdnil, Star Of (2021).  Less encouragingly, NRS (normally reliable source) Urban Dictionary has a listing for yasdnil as meaning “the Devil’s daughter”.

Bang

Bang (pronounced bhang)

(1) A loud, sudden, explosive noise (such as the discharge of a firearm).

(2) A resounding stroke or blow.

(3) In informal, use, a sudden movement, show of energy or instance of something suggesting great value, energy, vitality or spirit (source of many idiomatic forms such as “started with a bang”, “went off with a bang”, “great bang for the buck” etc).

(4) Suddenly and loudly; abruptly or violently.

(5) In figurative use, precisely; directly; right (such as “bang on” or “bang in the middle” (ie exactly correct” or “bang to rights” (caught red-handed; guilty as sin).

(6) In informal use, a sudden or intense pleasure; thrill or excitement (now less common).

(7) In slang, various senses of precision such as “bang off” (instantly; right away) or “bang on” (marvelous; perfect; just right).

(8) In vulgar slang, the act or instance of sexual intercourse (with many variants, the most infamous the gangbang).

(9) In the jargon of mining, civil engineering etc, the physical explosive product.

(10) In the slang of drug users, an injection or other form of dose of a narcotic; a shot of heroin which proved lethal.

(11) In US criminal class clang, to participate in street gang criminal activity.

(12) In the slang of typology & the printing trade, an exclamation point, a variant being the interrobang (a punctuation mark (‽) which merges the question mark (?) and the exclamation mark (!) to indicate a query made as an interjection).

(13) In Irish slang, a strong smell (often used of halitosis (chronic bad breath)).

(14) In regional slang (limited apparently to the New England region in the US), an abrupt left-turn by a road-user (Boston, Massachusetts) or a left, right or U-turn (more generalized); the typical use is “bang a left/right/uey”. The equivalent use in Australia & New Zealand is “hang a left/right/uey” although there a U-turn is known also as a “U-bolt”.

(15) In regional slang (limited apparently to urban areas in Nigeria), to fail an exam.

(16) In mathematics, a factorial (on the basis the factorial of n is often written as n!)

(17) In the jargon of financial markets, rapidly or in high volumes suddenly to sell (an equity, commodity, currency etc), causing prices to fall.

(18) In the jargon of hairdressing, as bangs, a number of variants of the fringe.

(19) In reggae music, an offbeat figure played usually on guitar and piano.

(20) In vulgar slang, to have sexual intercourse with (sometimes with the implication of “without consent”.

(21) To strike or beat resoundingly; to pound; to strike violently or noisily.

(22) To hit or painfully to pump.

(23) To throw or set down roughly; to slam.

1540-1550: From the Middle English bangen, from the Old English bangian or borrowed from the Old Norse banga (to pound, hammer), both from the Proto-Germanic bangōną (to beat, pound), from the primitive Indo-European ben- (to beat, hit, injure).  It was cognate with Scots bang & bung (to strike, bang, hurl, thrash, offend), the Icelandic banga (to pound, hammer), the Old Swedish bånga (to hammer (from which modern Swedish gained banka (to knock, pound, bang), the Danish banke (to beat) & bengel (club), the Low German bangen, & bangeln (to strike, beat) (the German dialect banken may originally have been imitative), the West Frisian bingel & bongel, the Dutch bengel (bell; rascal) and the German Bengel (club) & bungen (to throb, pulsate).  Bang is a noun, verb & adverb, banged is a verb & adjective, banger is a noun, banging is a noun, verb & adjective; the noun plural is bangs.

Of the universe

The origin of the term “Big Bang Theory” (which describes a model accounting for the origin and most of the dynamics of the (present) universe during the last 14 billion years-odd) is traced to a chance remark by English astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle (1915–2001) on BBC Radio in 1949 but it wasn’t until the late 1960s it came widely to be used in scientific circles and a few more years before it was part of the common public language.  Hoyle always denied he’d intended to be disparaging of what was then a theory some 30 years old and this most historians came to accept although certainly he was unconvinced of the idea’s soundness and for some decades clung to his preferred “steady state” model of the universe.  The steady state position is sometimes misunderstood as something like “twas ever thus” but is better understood as “constant process”, the crucial difference that while the steady staters held matter constantly was being created as the universe expands, the big bangers believed the distance between the matter which came into existence a fraction of a second after the big bang increased as the universe expanded from its one-time singularity.  Hoyle never quite became a big banger but as the evidence mounted, he modified his model to become what was dubbed “a quasi steady stater” although his increasingly convoluted explanations forcing observations to somehow fit his belief convinced few.  The criticism of Hoyle was he made cosmology into a kind of theology.

Noted golfer Paige Spiranac (b 1993) is active on Instagram and recently posted a “Life update” to her four million followers, advising “I have bangs now”.  Hopefully, she will keep us informed and there will be more to come.  For golfers, she has posted a set of invaluable short clips called Paige Quickies which are guides for both the experienced wishing to hone their techniques and those taking up the sport.  Being highly qualified, she filled one gap in the instructional market with a collection of tips for “busty golfers” (specific weight distribution a significant element as the body pivots when swinging a club).  On Instagram, in less than 24 hours, the clip garnered over 2.6 million views.

Hoyle's use of the term “big bang” while it did graphically emphasise the difference of opinion between the two schools of thought, was unfortunate as a contribution to public understanding because of the connotations of the words  “big” & “bang”, most imagining the origins of the universe as starting with a huge, noisy explosion whereas what was envisaged by the theorists was a sudden “cosmic inflation” (of space), a process which continues and was in the 1990s found to be accelerating although not everywhere equally.  The big bang theory is now the orthodoxy in the mainstream scientific community though some questions remain unanswered including the mystery of why, based on a number of calculations which explain many other things, over 90% of the universe’s matter is “missing” (or at least can’t be observed).  The fudge to “explain” that has been the twin concepts of “dark matter” and “dark energy” which are more “speculative concepts” than a theoretical model and best understood as an elegant way of saying “don’t know”.  There have been a number of suggestions to account for the “missing matter”, the most intriguing being the notion the calculated “matter number” might be too high because of “drag effect” created by the operation of time itself.  Time obviously is important otherwise everything would happen at the same time and who knows what else it does; recently, particle physicists reported having witnessed pinpricks of darkness moving faster than the speed of light without breaking the laws of relativity so there's much still to be understood.

Of cars

Big banger and old banger: John Greenwood (1945-2015) in “Spirit of ’76” Chevrolet Corvette, Le Mans 24 Hour, June 1976 (left) and a despondent Lindsay Lohan with Herbie while in “old banger” state, Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), the Corvette an “8-banger” and the Beetle a “4-banger”.  The Corvette was powered by a 427 cubic inch (7.0 litre) big-block V8 and although forced to retire after a failure in the fuel delivery system, while it was running, nothing in the field could match the mark of 222 mph (354 km/h) it set thundering down the then 6 km (3.7 mile) Mulsanne straight.  In 1976, Mulsanne had yet to be distorted by the silly chicanes added in 1990 at the behest of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the International Automobile Federation, world sport's dopiest regulatory body)).

With cars, “banger” proved productive.  Because an ICE (internal combustion engine) always includes a “power stroke” (or its equivalence), in which the fuel-air mix explodes (the combustion causing “a bang” which sequentially is the sound from the exhaust system; to aficionados sometimes a pleasing tone, sometimes not), in slang, vehicles came to be described by the cylinder count thus (most frequently “4-banger”, “6-banger” or “8-banger”).  However, a car could also be a “big banger” (one with a large displacement ICE, usually a V8 with the appellation coming from the “big-block” era of the post-war years when Detroit mass-produced engines with pistons the size of paint cans) or an “old banger” (one old, worn out or battered”.  Old banger was synonymous with “clunker”, “beater”, “hooptie”, “jalopy”, “wreck”, “crock”, “shitbox”, “rustbucket” etc and the dubbing came either from the appearance (“banged up” in the sense of being dented or damaged) or the “banging” noise (backfiring, a damaged exhaust system etc) the dilapidated machines emanated.

Of sausages and such

Bangers & Mash by the Daring Gourmet.  Not everyone garnishes their B&M with chopped parsley.

Unrelated to ICEs, a banger could be (1) one who bangs (in any sense (sex, violence etc), (2) the penis (3) a sausage (the use reputedly based originally not on any resemblance to a penis but, dating from the time when they were produced by encasing the contents in the intestine casings of slaughtered animals (often sheep), the combination of excess water in the mix and the impervious skin making them susceptible to exploding if not punctured prior to being cooked), (4) the breasts of a female (and thus usually in the plural) and (5) in popular music a highly rated song (some of which would be enjoyed by (6) headbangers (that subset of music fans who “dance” by violently shaking their heads in time to the music)).

Rolling Stone magazine No.169, September 12, 1974.  Rolling Stone and Playboy magazine in the 1960s & 1970s attracted a large audience of the market segments attractive to advertisers and alongside the content with which both most were associated, they attracted respectable authors to write about politics and interview subjects such as celebrity philosophers and Nazi war criminals.

As well as being a noun plural “Bangs” is also a proper noun as a surname, the most noted being Lester Bangs (1948–1982) who in the late 1960s began to write reviews of popular music, prompted by an advertisement in Rolling Stone magazine inviting reader submissions.  He wouldn’t have thought what he criticized was “pop” and Rolling Stone magazine (first published in 1967) was one of a number of titles that created an ecosystem in which classifications proliferated with clear “hierarchies of respectability” evolving among those who regarded “pop” as a serious musical form and Bangs definitely was one of them; before the mid-1960s, popular music usually wasn’t written about with the tone of reverence afforded to jazz, opera, the avant-garde and such.  Bangs died a drug-related death although not the traditionally “messy” one associated with the field he critiqued.  Having contracted influenza, he was self-medicating with an opioid analgesic and a benzodiazepine; his overdose was ruled “accidental”.

Of hair

In hairdressing, the noun “bangs” is used to describe a number of variants of the fringe (or sections of hair) cut straight across the forehead, the derived verb used as “to bang the hair”.  Sometimes there are “left and right” bangs but even when a style wholly is a conventional fringe the convention is to speak of “bangs”, although hairdressers, especially when constructing something asymmetric, will refer to the “left” or “right” bang.  Although there are on the internet claims the use is based on the notion of a clipped hair “bursting out” (ie “explosively” in a figurative sense and thus based on “bang” in the sense of something sudden), verified evidence confirms “bangs” joined the rich jargon of hairdressing late in the nineteenth century as a clipping (get it?) of “bang-tail”, a term then used for decades in used in equestrian circles to described a horse’s tail being allowed to grow long and then cut (docked) straight across (the painless cut called a “bang-off”).  Apparently with origins in Scotland before spreading south and across the Atlantic, it joined “gee-up” as a phrase with equine roots enjoying a re-purposing for wider use.  The OED cites the first use of “bang” for the cutting of human hair to 1878 and within half-a-decade US newspapers and periodicals had adopted the plural form “bangs” when referring to a straight-across cut of hair on the forehead.  It was in the late 1880s the imaginative use “lunatic fringe” was coined (a century later to become a popular name for hairdressing salons) and “fringe” remained the dominate use in the UK and much of the Commonwealth while the US opted for the punchier “bangs”.  As a tool of US linguistic imperialism, the internet in the twenty-first century did its job and throughout the English-speaking world, bangs now peacefully co-exists with fringe with youth tending to the former.

Takes on Cleopatra with bangs long & short.

Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011) in Cleopatra (1963, left) and Lindsay Lohan (b 1986) in Liz & Dick (2012).  Based on period sculptures, it seems likely the queen had curly hair but because of the prevalence of their appearance on women in surviving art from Ancient Egypt, bangs became entrenched in the public’s imagination of Cleopatra and film directors accordingly complied.  While it's true that the look (on men and women) does appear on much surviving imagery from Ancient Egypt it must be remembered that then, as now, public art was not necessarily representative of the appearance of the wider population although it probably did align with that of the elites.  Also, the as the archaeological records make clear, the consistency of style (straight-cut bangs (ie a horizontal fringe) across the forehead with hair apparently perfect (often shoulder-length and symmetrical) which appears dense, geometric, and highly regular was achieved with the use of wigs of human hair, wool, or plant fibres.  Carefully constructed and styled into clearly repeatable forms, the blunt bangs, at least among certain parts of society, must have been an enduring fashion statement.

The “bang” technique with origins in equine grooming is used with ponytails and is called the “straight blunt cut”; for this purpose the only substantive difference between a “pony's tail” and a “ponytail” is scale.

While, whether of human fringes or horses' tails, “bangs” might be a nineteenth century coining, the hair style is as ancient as humanity, the prehistoric origins doubtlessly a simple expedient to keep the hair from dangling in the eyes, the trim presumably a tiresome task in the era before scissors.  From that humble beginning evolved eventually the array of styles now available, at least some of which allegedly have been a political statements of group solidarity.  A fine “brief history of bangs” is maintained by Odele Beauty (their “Rinse Blog” an indispensable source of technical information) and there it’s claimed Cleopatra’s (Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (Κλεοπάτρα Θεά Φιλοπάτωρ (“Cleopatra father-loving goddess” in the Koine Greek); circa 69 BC–circa 10 BC, Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51-30 BC and the last active Hellenistic pharaoh) “famous fringe is apparently a myth” although on the basis of surviving art, it seems likely Ancient Egyptians “wore blunt-cut bang wigs as early as 3000 BC” and whether or not they were the “influencers”, the look spread north to the Greece and Rome of Antiquity, Odele Beauty noting Augustus (Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (known also as Octavianus (Octavian)); 63 BC-14 AD, founder of the Roman Empire (27 BC-476 AD) and first Roman emperor 27 BC-14 AD) “wore his hair combed into a short, forehead-framing fringe, setting a new trend (later dubbed the “Caesar cut”) that future emperors would follow.”  

Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc, 1901), oil on canvas by Albert Lynch (1860–1950).  The short bangs were always present in older paintings of Joan of Arc but it wasn't unusual for modern artists to be influenced by contemporary trends.  Monsieur Lynch left no notes so it's not known if he had in mind the circa 1901 style what of what later would come to be known as a “bloshie young woman”.  Joan of Arc (circa 1412–1431) sometimes was depicted bangs blunt and not but artists had her variously blonde or brunette and with hair wild or coiffed and their images may reflect what male artists thought such a woman should look like.

Surviving European art from the Medieval to Modernity confirms bangs seem never to have gone away and the emergence of the word late in the 1800s suggests they must then have been a quite a thing.  By then, bangs had survived seventeenth century disapprobation of the church, priests finding fashion trends symbols of ungodly vanity and inappropriate for modest, pious women.  However what cemented bangs in their cultural place seems to have been the social ripples from World War I (1914-1918), the so called flappers of the “roaring twenties” taking to them as an adjunct to the other forms of fashion minimalism they adopted as earlier, restrictive conventions were shrugged-off.  Although it had earlier also enjoyed some less pleasing connotations, “flapper” in the sense of the “bright young things” of the era is thought a re-adaptation of the nineteenth century Northern English slang meaning “teen-age girl” and it referenced the hair not routinely being “put-up” in the adult manner and instead kept in plaits or braids, left to “flap about” as she moved.  The 1920s re-cycling of “flapper” retained the connection with “lively young girl” and had nothing to do with hair; bangs had been around for millennia before the flappers but they made them one of their signature looks.  Since the 1920s, trends have ebbed and flowed in the cyclical way fashion works and bangs variously have been softened, blunted, gained wispy curls (not to be confused with the dreaded “fly-away bits”), bulked up as “bumper bangs”, trimmed back to be the “baby bangs” of pixie cuts and evolved in the twin streams of the “curtain bangs” which seductively would drape over the eyes and the dramatic, “set piece installations” made famous by Farrah Fawcett (1947-2009) which for years provided hairdressers with a solid income stream as young ladies everywhere demanded the same thing.

Although it’s not uncommon to see headlines like “Bangs are back”, that’s misleading because they never went away; like hairdressers, headline writers have their own methods of operation.  It would be more accurate were the sites to headline which bangs are trending and that’s now a global thing because it matters not whether a trend is noted as happening in Seoul, Sydney, Seattle and Santiago because on the internet everything is happening at the same time and looks now wax, wane or die in global unison and while the imaginative can doubtless describe some variants, beyond than the basic, self-explanatory forms (short, straight, blunt), there are really five distinct bangs:

Air bangs (seen here in conjunction with long side bangs also favored by goths).

(1) Air bangs are characterized by being light and sparse.  First defined as an element of K-beauty (the aesthetic of South Korea which encompasses hair, clothes, cosmetics music) etc these are known also as “Korean bangs” but their alternative name (see-through bangs) better describes the look.  Despite the name, they are not ideally suited to those with thin or wispy hair and like just about every style, work best with thick locks which provide a better contrast and more scope for styling.  Professional stylists caution those at home crafting air bangs from a conventional fringe to do the process slowly because it's easy to over-estimate to much need to be cut (specialized tools are available).  One advantage of air bangs compare with a straight cut is that in using unequal-length strands, that aspect of precision is avoided but the look does work best if there's a perception of consistency in the spacing. 

Baby bangs: On Pinterest, this was described as a “statement cut” and on that the content provider didn't expand but one suggested statement might be: “admission of guilt”.  Still, the bangs do mean attention is drawn to her lovely sanpaku eyes so there's that.

(2) Baby bangs are short, straight or blunt-edged bangs which are used usually in coordination with the shorter flavours of bob, the reason for that being that if paired with more voluminous cuts, the bangs tend to “get lost” or worse, look like mistakes.  Micro bangs are also “bangs writ small” but differ in that the look is used with styles other than bobs and is identified by being ; not usually considered conventionally attractive, it appears more on catwalks and in photo-shoots than on the street although some do (unwisely) pick up the look.  Baby bangs really suit only a tiny sub-set of the population (most of whom are aged under 15) and should be thought the Pontiac Aztec (2001-2005) of hair-styles in that they're functional, offer good visibility and undeniably are distinctive but are ugly.  All that can be said for both is that on the inside, looking out, one doesn't have to see them. 

Lindsay Lohan with curtain bangs, done in the “twin-hemispheric” or “double polyspheric mode”.

(3) Curtain bangs are long bangs, parted in the centre (although there have been asymmetric interpretations) and designed to resemble a two-drape curtain tied at the side, partially to reveal the face.  The leading edges of the most artfully styled sit just at the point where the eye color is visible and devoted fashionistas wear them with a “curtain reveal top” in which the curve of the garment matches that of the bangs, something which can be as hard to achieve as it sounds.  With a change of as little as a half inch (12.5 mm), stylists can use curtain bangs to change the perception of the shape of a face, the most popular visual trick being elongation, making a “round” face appear something more sought (heart, diamond or inverted triangle).  Combined with skilfully applied makeup, the transformation can be dramatic. 

An emo selfie with classic emo bangs.  The expression is emoesque but the vibrancy of the colors on clothes and bandana is untypical, emos tending more to goth-flavored looks with black and gray although purple seems now less of an emo thing.

(4) Emo bangs are less concerned with shape and symmetry, the important thing being the sweep of hair from the forehead fully covering at least one eye and maybe partially obscuring the other.  Amateur psychiatrists and other students of the emo (a distinct sub-set of humanity) probably have their own thoughts on whether the emo’s goal is to limit what they see of the world or to limit how much others see of them.  Emos are however pragmatic and although their have the honor of an eponymous style, they're also sometimes seen with various bangs. 

There seems little to suggest bangs are a reliable marker of TERFdom and those wishing to assert where they stand on TERFness should probably don an appropriate T-shirt.

(5) Not all agree TERF bangs should be thought a distinct class but they are short, straight, blunt-edged bangs seen usually with shorter cuts (not necessarily bobs).  The term is said to have originated on the microblogging platform Tumblr (which vies with MySpace for as the social media site to have suffered the greatest loss between its high-valuation and most recent sale) when in 2014 a user posted the suggestion such bangs seemingly were exclusive to TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists).  That obviously was impressionistic and it was never clarified whether the suggestion was intended humorously but if not, it’s an example of a gaboso (pronounced gah-boh-so).  A gaboso (Generalized Association Based On Single Observation) (also as the verb gabosoed) is the act of taking one identifiable feature of someone or something and using it as the definitional reference for a group; it ties in with logical fallacies.  While it’s doubtful many professional hairdressers have TERF bangs in the lexicon, it seems novel enough to warrant a mention.

Foxbat

Foxbat or fox-bat (pronounced foks-bat)

(1) As Foxbat, the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) reporting name for the Soviet-era MiG-25 (Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25) high-altitude supersonic interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft.

(2) A common name for members of the Megachiroptera (the Pteropus (suborder Yinpterochiroptera), a genus of megabats), some of the largest bats in the world.

Fox is from the Middle English fox, from the Old English fox (fox), from the Proto-West Germanic fuhs, from the Proto-Germanic fuhsaz (fox), from the primitive Indo-European púḱsos (the tailed one), derive possibly from puḱ- (tail).  It was cognate with the Scots fox (fox), the West Frisian foks (fox), the Fering-Öömrang North Frisian foos, the Sölring and Heligoland fos, the Dutch vos (fox), the Low German vos (fox), the German Fuchs (fox), the Icelandic fóa (fox), the Tocharian B päkā (tail, chowrie), the Russian пух (pux) (down, fluff), the Sanskrit पुच्छ (púccha) (source of the Torwali پوش‎ (pūš) (fox) and the Hindi पूंछ (pūñch) (tai”).

Bat in the context of the animal was a dialectal variant (akin to the dialectal Swedish natt-batta) of the Middle English bake & balke, from the North Germanic. The Scandinavian forms were the Old Swedish natbakka, the Old Danish nathbakkæ (literally “night-flapper”) and the Old Norse leðrblaka (literally “leather-flapper”).  The Old English word for the animal was hreremus, from hreran (to shake) and it was known also as the rattle-mouse, an old dialectal word for "bat", attested from the late sixteenth century.  A more rare form, noted from the 1540s, was flitter-mouse (the variants were flinder-mouse & flicker-mouse) in imitation of the German fledermaus (bat) from the Old High German fledaron (to flutter).  In Middle English “bat” and “old bat” were used as a (derogatory) term to describe an old woman, perhaps a suggestion of witchcraft rather than a link to bat as "a prostitute who plies her trade by night".  It’s ancient slang and one etymologist noted the French equivalent hirondelle de nuit (night swallow) was "more poetic".  To “bat the eylids” is an Americanism from 1847, an extended of the earlier (1610s) meaning "flutter (the wings) as a hawk", a variant of bate.  Fox-bat is a noun; the noun plural is fox-bats.  When used of the MiG-25 (as "Foxbat", the NATO reporting name), it's a proper noun and thus used with an initial capital.

Fox-bat in flight.

The term fox-bat or flying fox, (genus Pteropus), covers some sixty-five bat species found on tropical islands from Madagascar to Australia and north through Indonesia and mainland Asia.  Most species are primarily nocturnal and are the largest bats, some attaining a wingspan of 5 feet (1.5 m) with an overall body length of some 16 inches (400 mm).  Zoologists list fox-bats as “Old World fruit bats” (family Pteropodidae) that roost in large numbers and eat fruit and are thus a potential pest, many countries restricting their importation.  Like nearly all Old World fruit bats, flying foxes use sight rather than echolocation, a physiological process for locating distant or invisible objects (such as prey) by means of sound waves reflected back to the emitter by the objects) to navigate, despite the largely nocturnal habit of most species.  In the database maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), about half of all flying fox species are listed as suffering declining populations, 15 said to be vulnerable and 11 endangered. The fox-bats were previously classified in the suborder Megachiroptera, but most researchers now place them in the suborder Yinpterochiroptera, which also contains the superfamily Rhinolophoidea, a diverse group that includes horseshoe bats, trident bats, mouse-tailed bats, and others.

MiG-25 (Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25).

Once the most controversial fighter in the skies, there was so much mystery surrounding the MiG-25 that US, British and NATO planners spent years spying on it with a mixture of awe and dread.  Conceived originally by Soviet designers to counter the threat posed by Boeing’s B-70 Valkyrie bomber, development continued even after the B70 project, rendered redundant by advances in missile technology, was cancelled.  First flown in 1964 and entering service in 1970, nearly 1200 were built and were operated by several nations as well as the USSR.  Able (still) to outrun any other fighter, only the US Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird was faster but fewer than three dozen of those were built and those were configured only for strategic reconnaissance.  When first the West became aware of the Foxbat, it caused quite a stir because, combining stunningly high speed with high altitude tolerance and a heavy weapons load, it did appear to be the long-feared platform which would render Soviet airspace immune from US penetration.  It was the threat the Foxbat was thought to pose which was influential in the direction pursued by US engineers when developing the McDonnell Douglas F15.

A brunette-phase Lindsay Lohan in MiG-25 Foxbat T-shirt, rendered by Vovsoft as pen drawing.

The Foxbat however never realized its apparently awesome implications. Because the original design brief was to produce a device which could combat the fast, high-flying B-70, many of the characteristics desirable in a short-range interceptor were neglected in the quest for something which could get very high, very quickly.  At that it was a breathtakingly successful but there were compromises, the fuel burn was epic and, with a very high take-off and landing speed, it could operate only from the longest runways.  Still, at what it was good at it was really good and its very presence meant the US had to plan any mission within range of a Foxbat, cognizant of the threat it was thought to present.  Unbeknown to the West, at lower altitudes it presented little threat and was no dog-fighter; it was essentially a dragster built for the skies, faster in a straight line than just about anything but really not good at turning.  Its design philosophy was essentially the same as the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, a US supersonic interceptor which first flew in 1954 with over 2,500 built and supplied to many air forces, the last of which wasn’t retired from active service until 2004.  An uncompromising machine built for speed, pilots dubbed it the “winged missile” and that assessment was not unrelated to it later gaining the nickname “widow-maker”; those who flew the thing described the characteristics it exhibited in low speed turns as: “banking with intent to turn”.

It wasn’t until 1976 when a Soviet defector landed a new Foxbat in Japan in 1976 that US engineers were able to examine the airframe and draw an understanding of its capabilities.  What their analysis found was that the limitations in Soviet metallurgy and manufacturing techniques had resulted in a heavy airframe, one which really couldn’t maneuver at high speeds, and handled poorly at low altitudes. The surprisingly primitive radar was of limited effectiveness in conventional combat situations against enemy fighters, which, combined with the low altitude clumsiness meant that its drawbacks tended to outweigh the advantage it had in sheer speed at altitude, something which meant less to the US since missiles had replaced the B-70 strategic bomber (which never entered production).

In its rare combat outings, those advantages did however confer the occasional benefit.  In 1971, a Soviet Foxbat operating out of Egypt used its afterburners to sustain Mach 3 for an extended duration, enabling it to outrun three pursuing Israeli F4-Phantoms and one downed a US Navy F/A-18 Hornet during the first Gulf War (1991).  During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), the Iraqi Air Force found them effective against old, slow machinery but sustained heavy losses when confronted with the Iran’s agile F-14 but most celebrated was probably the Foxbat’s success during the Gulf War in claiming both of the last two American aircraft lost in air-to-air combat.  Otherwise, the Foxbat has at low altitude proved vulnerable, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) shooting down several in the war over Lebanon (1981) although they have of late been used, most improbably, in a ground attack role in the Syrian Civil War, the Syrian Arab Air Force, lacking a more appropriate platform, pressing the Foxbats into a ground support role, in at least one case using air-to-air missiles to attack ground targets.  The Soviet designers took note of the operating environment when developing the Foxbat’s successor, the MiG-31 (NATO reporting name Foxhound), a variant which sacrificed a little of the pure speed and climb-rate in order to produce a better all-round fighter.

Usually unrelated: 1957 Morris Minor Traveller (left) and 1960 Jaguar XK150 FHC (right).  Stations wagons with wood frames (real and fake) are in the US called "woodies" but the spelling "woody" also appears in UK use.  Although between 1968-1973, there were “badge-engineered” Versions of the Minor’s commercial derivatives sold as the Austin 6cwt & 8cwt Van & Pick up, all the “woodies” were Morris Travellers.

Although for the whole of the Jaguar XK150’s production run (1957-1961) the Morris Minor Traveller (1952-1973) was also being made in factories never more than between 20-60 odd miles (32-100 km) distant, so different in form and function were the two it’s rare they’re discussed in the same context.  One was powered by an engine which had five times won the Le Mans 24 hour endurance classic while the other was one of several commercially-oriented variants of a small, post-war economy car, introduced in the austere England of 1948.  The Traveller did however have charm and it was also authentic in its construction, the varnished ash genuinely structural, an exoskeleton which provided the strength while the panels behind were there just to keep out the rain.  By contrast, by the mid-1950s, the US manufacturers had abandoned the method and produced “woodies” with a combination of fibreglass (fake timber) and DI-NOC, (Diurno Nocturna, from the Spanish, literally “daytime-nighttime” and translated for marketing purposes as “beautiful day & night”) appliqué, an embossed vinyl or polyolefin material with a pressure-sensitive adhesive backing produced since the 1930s and perfected by Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (3M).

In phased releases over 1957-1958, Jaguar made available the usual three versions of its XK sports car, the DHC (drophead coupé, a style which elsewhere was usually called a cabriolet or convertible) and FHC (fixed head coupé, ie coupé), later joined by the more minimalist OTS (open two-seater, a roadster) and the line was a link between flowing lines of the inter-war years and the new world, celebrated by the E-Type (1961-1974) which created such a sensation upon debut at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show.  One sometimes unappreciated connection between the XKs (XK120: 1948-1954, XK140: 1954-1957 & XK150: 1957-1961) and E-Type is neither was envisaged as the long-term model both became.  The XK120 had been shown at the 1948 London Motor show with the purpose of drawing attention to the new XK straight-six (which would serve in vehicles as diverse as racing cars, limousines and fire engines until 1992) but such was the public response it was added to the factory catalogue, the early models hurriedly built in aluminium to satisfy demand.  Later, Jaguar hadn't believed there would be a market for more than a few hundred E-Types so it was not designed in a way optimized for mass-production which was embarked upon only because demand was so high.  Many of the car's quirks and compromises remained part of the structure until the end of production more than a decade later.   

Minor modification: 1960 Jaguar XK150 3.4 Shooting Brake (“Foxbat”).

The Morris Minor Traveller was the last true woodie in production and is now a thing in the lower reaches of the collector market but there's one less available for fans because of a sacrifice to a project by industrial chemist and noted Jaguar enthusiast, the late Geoffrey Stevens, construction undertaken between 1975-1977. He wanted the Jaguar XK150 shooting brake the factory never made so blended an XK150 FHC with the rear compartment of a Morris Minor Traveller of similar vintage.  Mr Stevens in 1976 dubbed his creation “Foxbat” because, just as a MiG-25 landing in Japan was an event so unexpected it made headlines around the world, he suspected that in the circles he moved, a timber-framed XK150 shooting brake would be as much a surprise.  In that he proved correct and the unique shooting brake has been restored as a charming monument to English eccentricity, even the usually uncompromising originality police among the Jaguar community (mostly) fond of it.  In a nice touch (and typical of an engineer’s attention to detail), a “Foxbat” badge was hand-cut, matching the original Jaguar script.  Other than the hybrid coach-work, the XK150 is otherwise “matching-numbers” (chassis number S825106DN; engine number V7435-8).   

On the Wings of a Russian Foxbat: Deep Purple bootleg, 1977.

The origin of the term “bootlegging” dates from the late eighteenth century when it was used by British customs and excise officers to describe the trick smugglers used hiding valuables in their large sea-boots.  Since then, it’s been applied variously including (1) the distilling, transporting and selling of unlawful liquor (2) unlicensed copies of software and (3) unauthorized recordings of music and film.  In music, bootleg recordings began to appear in some volume in the 1960s and originally were often from live performances.  Often created from tapes of dubious quality with little or no editing, these bootlegs generally were tolerated by the industry because they tended to circulate among fans who anyway purchased the official product and were thought of just a form of free promotional material.  Later, when things became more organized and bootleggers began distributing replicas of official releases, the attitude changed and for decades the software industry fought ongoing battles against bootleg copies (which in some non-Western markets represented in excess of 90% of installations).

On the Wings of a Russian Foxbat, re-released (in re-mastered form with bonus tracks) in 1995 as Live in California, Long Beach Arena, 1976.

Taken from a performance by the English heavy metal band Deep Purple at the Long Beach Arena, Los Angeles on 27 February 1976, the bootleg On the Wings of a Russian Foxbat was released in 1977 and was another example of the effect on popular culture of the Soviet pilot’s defection.  The link with the event in Japan was that the quality of the band’s performance was unexpectedly good, their reputation at the time not good (they would break-up only weeks after the Long Beach show).  Additionally, the sound quality was outstanding (certainly by the usual bootleg standards), something not then easy to achieve in an outdoor venue with a raucous audience.  Curiously, the original On the Wings of a Russian Foxbat bootleg used for the cover art a picture of unsmiling soldiers from the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) from the Republic of China (then usually called “Red China” or “Communist China); presumably the bootleggers decided the star on the caps was “sufficiently Russian”.  In 1995, re-mastered, the recording (with a few bundled “extras”) was re-issued as an “official” release, the fate of many a bootleg with a cult-following.  With memories of the diplomatic incident in 1976 having faded, although On the Wings of a Russian Foxbat still appeared on the cover, the album was marketed as Live in California, Long Beach Arena, 1976.