Defenestration

Defenestration (pronounced dee-fen-uh-strey-shuhn)

(1) The act of throwing a person out of a window.

(2) In casual, often humorous use, to throw anything out of a window.

(3) A sardonic term in the business of politics which refers to an act which deposes a leader).

(4) In nerd humor, the act of removing the Microsoft Windows operating system from a computer in order to install an alternative.

1618: From New Latin dēfenestrātiō, the construct being dē (from; out) + fenestra (window) + -atio (the suffix indicating an action or process).  It was borrowed also by the Middle French défenestrer (which persists in Modern French) & défenestration.  The German form is Fenstersturz; the verb defenestrate formed later.  The related forms are defenestrate (1915) & defenestrated (1620).  Derived terms (which seem only ever used sardonically) include autodefenestration (the act of hurling oneself from a window), dedefenestration (the act of hurling someone back through the window from which recently they were defenestrationed and redefenestration (hurling someone from a window for a second time, possibly just after their dedefenestration).  Use of these coinings is obviously limited.

The de- prefix was from the Latin dē-, from the preposition dē (of; from)  It was used in the sense of “reversal, undoing, removing”; the similar prefix in Old English was æf-.  The –ation suffix is from the Middle English –acioun & -acion, from the Old French acion & -ation, from the Latin -ātiō, an alternative form of -tiō (from which Modern English gained -tion).  It was used variously to create the forms describing (1) an action or process, (2) the result of an action or process or (3) a state or quality.  Fenestra is of unknown origin.  Some etymologists link fenestra with the Greek verb phainein (to show) while others suggest an Etruscan borrowing, based on the suffix -(s)tra, as in the Latin loan-words aplustre (the carved stern of a ship with its ornaments), genista (the plant broom) or lanista (trainer of gladiators).  Fenestration dates from 1870 in the anatomical sense, a noun of action from the Latin fenestrare, from fenestra (window, opening for light).  The now rare but once familiar meaning "arrangement of windows" dates from 1846 and described a certain design element in architecture.  The related form is fenestrated.

Second Defenestration of Prague (circa 1618), woodcut by Matthäus Merian der Ältere (1593–1650).

Although it was already known in the Middle French, defenestrate entered English to lament (or celebrate, depending on one’s view of such things) the Defenestration of Prague in 1618, when Two Roman Catholic regents of Ferdinand II, representing the Holy Roman Emperor in the Bohemian national assembly, were tossed from a third floor window of Hradshin Castle by Protestant radicals who accused them of suppressing their rights.  All three survived, landing either in a moat or rubbish heap defending on one’s choice of history book and thus began the Thirty Years’ War.  The artist called his painting the "Second Defenestration" because he was one of the school which attaches no significance to the 1438 event most historians now regard as the second of three.

The defenestration of 1618 that triggered the Thirty Years’ War wasn’t the first, indeed it was at the time said it had been done in "…good Bohemian style" by those who recalled earlier defenestrations, although, in fairness, the practice wasn’t exclusively Bohemian, noted in the Bible and not uncommon in Medieval and early modern times, lynching and mob violence a cross-cultural political language for centuries.  The first governmental defenestration occurred in 1419, second in 1483 and the third in 1618, although the term "Defenestration of Prague" is applied exclusively to the last.  The first and last are remembered because they trigged long wars of religion in Bohemia and beyond, the Hussite Wars (1419-1435) associated with the first and the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) with the Third.  The neglected second ushered in the religious peace of Kutná Hora which lasted decades, clearly not something to remember.  The 1618 event is the third defenestration of Prague).

The word has become popular as a vivid descriptor of political back-stabbing and is best understood sequentially, the churn-rate of recent Australian prime-ministers a good example: (1) Julia Gillard (b 1961) defenestrated Kevin Rudd (b 1957), (2) Kevin Rudd defenestrated Julia Gillard, (3) Malcolm Turnbull (b 1954) defenestrated Tony Abbott (b 1957), (4) Peter Dutton (b 1970) defenestrated Malcolm Turnbull (although that didn’t work out quite as planned, Mr Dutton turning out to be the hapless proxy for Scott Morrison (b 1968)).  Given the recent history it's surprising no one has bother to coin the adjective defenestrative to describe Australian politics although given it's likely there are more defenestrations will be to come, that may yet happen.  Mr Dutton has never denied being a Freemason.

Some great moments in defenestration

King John of England (1166-1216) killed his nephew, Arthur of Brittany (1187-1203), by defenestration from the castle at Rouen, France, in 1203 (the method contested though not the death).

In 1378, the crafts and their leader Wouter van der Leyden occupied the Leuven city hall and seized the Leuven government.  In an attempt to regain absolute control, they had Wouter van der Leyden assassinated in Brussels. Seeking revenge, the crafts handed over the patrician to a furious crowd. The crowd stormed the city hall and threw the patricians out of the window. At least 15 patricians were killed during this defenestration of Leuven.

In 1383, Bishop Dom Martinho (1485-1547) was defenestrated by the citizens of Lisbon, having been suspected of conspiring with the enemy when Lisbon was besieged by the Castilians.

In 1419 Hussite mob defenestrates a judge, the burgomaster, and some thirteen members of the town council of New Town of Prague. (First defenestration of Prague).

Death of Jezebel (1866) by Gustave Doré (1832–1883).

In the Bible, Jezebel was defenestrated at Jezreel by her own servants at the urging of Jehu. (2 Kings 9:33).  Jezabel is used today to as one of the many ways to heap opprobrium upon women although it now suggests loose virtue, rather than the heresy or doctrinal sloppiness mentioned in the Bible.

Jezebel encouraged the worship of Baal and Asherah, as well as purging the prophets of Yahweh from Israel.  This so damaged the house of Omride that the dynasty fell.  Ever since, the Jews have damned Jezabel as power-hungry, violent and whorish.  However, she was one of the few women of power in the Bible and there is something of a scriptural dislike of powerful women, an influence which seems still to linger among the secular.

In the Book of Revelation (2:20-23), Jezebel's name is linked with false prophets:

20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.

22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.

23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

Lorenzo de' Medici (circa 1534) by Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574).

On 26 April 1478, after the failure of the "Pazzi conspiracy" to murder the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent 1449–1492), Jacopo de' Pazzi (1423-1478) was defenestrated.  In 1483, Prague's Old-Town portreeve and the bodies of seven murdered New-Town aldermen were defenestrated.  (Second defenestration of Prague).  On 16 May 1562, Adham Khan (1531-1652), The Mughal emperor Akbar the Great’s (1542-1605) general and foster brother, was defenestrated (twice!) for murdering a rival general, Ataga Khan (d 1562).  Akbar was woken up in the tumult after the murder. He struck Adham Khan down personally with his fist and immediately ordered his defenestration by royal order. The first time, his legs were broken but he remained alive.  Akbar ordered his defenestration a second time, killing him. Adham Khan had wrongly counted on the influence of his mother and Akbar's wet nurse, Maham Anga (d 1562) to save him as she was almost an unofficial regent in the days of Akbar's youth.  Akbar personally informed Maham Anga of her son's death, to which, famously, she commented, “You have done well”.  After forty days and forty nights, she died of acute depression.  On the morning of 1 December 1640, in Lisbon, a group of supporters of the Duke of Braganza party found Miguel de Vasconcelos (1590-1640), the hated Portuguese Secretary of State of the Habsburg Philip III (1605-1665), hidden in a closet, killed and defenestrated him.  His corpse was left to the public outrage.  On 11 June 1903, a group of Serbian army officers murdered and defenestrated King Alexander (1876-1903) and Queen Draga (1866-1903).

Poster of Benito Mussolini (1883-1946, Duce of Italy, 1922-1943), Ethiopia, 1936.

In 1922, Italian politician and writer Gabriele d'Annunzio (1863-1938) was temporarily crippled after falling from a window, possibly pushed by a follower of Benito Mussolini.  The Duce might almost have been grateful had he suffered the illustrious fate of defenestration, the end of not a few kings and princes.   Instead, Italian communist partisans found him hiding in the back of a truck with his mistress Clara Petacci (1912-1945), attempting to flee to neutral Switzerland.  Taken to a village near Lake Como, on 28 April 1945, both were summarily executed by firing squad, their bodies hung upside down outside a petrol station where the corpses were abused by the mob.  When Hitler saw the photographs, he quickly summoned Otto Günsche (1917–2003), his personal SS adjutant, repeating his instruction that nothing must remain of him after his suicide.

On 10 March 10 1948, the Czechoslovakian minister of foreign affairs Jan Masaryk (1886-1948) was found dead, in his pajamas, in the courtyard of the Foreign Ministry below his bathroom window. The initial (KGB) investigation stated that he committed suicide by jumping out of the window.  A 2004 police investigation concluded that he was defenestrated by the KGB.  In 1968, the son of China's future paramount leader Deng Xiaoping (2004-1997), Deng Pufang (b 1944), was thrown from a window by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.  In 1977, as a result of political backlash against his album Zombie, musician Fela Kuti's (1938-1997) mother (Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, 1900-1978) was thrown from a window during a military raid on his compound.  In addition, the commanding officer defecated on her head, while the soldiers burned down the compound, destroying his musical equipment, studio and master tapes.  Adding insult to injury, they later jailed him for being a subversive.  On 2 March 2007, Russian investigative journalist Ivan Safronov (1956-2007), who was researching the Kremlin's covert arms deals, fell to his death from a fifth floor window.  There was an investigation and the death was ruled to be suicide, a cause of death which of late has become uncommonly common in Russia, people these days often falling from windows high above the ground.

Dominion Centre, Toronto.

On 9 July 1993, in a case of self-defenestration, Toronto attorney Garry Hoy (1955-1993) fell from a window after a playful attempt to prove to a group of new legal interns that the windows of Toronto’s Dominion Centre were unbreakable.  The glass sustained the manufacturer’s claim but, intact, popped out of the frame, the unfortunate lawyer plunging to his death.  Mr Hoy actually also held an engineering degree and is said to have many times performed the amusing stunt.  Unfortunately he didn’t live to explain to the interns how the accumulation of stresses from his many impacts may have contributed to the structural failure.

Talisman

Talisman (pronounced tal-is-muhn or tal-iz-muhn)

(1) A stone, ring, or other object, usually engraved with figures or characters supposed to possess occult powers and worn as an amulet or charm; believed to protect the wearer from evil influences

(2) Any amulet or charm.

(3) Anything or anyone, the presence of which exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings or actions.

(4) A trim option offered on the Cadillac Fleetwood (1974-1976).

1630–1640: From the French or Spanish talisman, partly from Arabic طِلَسْم‎ (ṭilasm), from the Late Greek télesmon (completion, performance, consecrated object), and partly directly from the Byzantine Greek τέλεσμα (télesma) (talisman, religious rite, completion), from τελέω (teléō), (to perform religious rites, to complete), from τέλος (télos) (end, fulfillment, accomplishment, consummation, completion”).  The Arabic word was also borrowed by Turkish, Persian & Hindi and the only explanation for the -n in western European languages is replicated error.  Derived forms are the adjectives talismanic & talismanical and the adverb talismanically.  The correct noun plural is talismans (talismen is non-standard).

Lindsay Lohan wearing "Evil Eye" talisman, Los Angeles, March 2011.

The Evil Eye is a talisman (or amulet), or talisman which is said to afford the wear protection against the forces of evil.  Examples of Evil Eye talismans have for some three-thousand years existed in many cultures and are documented in early examples of the art of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity, the forms including the Hebrew Ayin Ha’ra, the Turkish Nazar Boncugu, the Italian Mal Occhio, the Farsi Bla Band, the Arabic Ayin Harsha, the Scots Droch Shuil, the Spanish Mal Ojo (or El Oja), the French Mauvais Oeil, the German Busen Blick and the Roman Oculus Malus.  The imagery is particularly ingrained in the Republic of Türkiye where the symbolism is visible on symbol on currency, in architecture and interior design and one is often hung from the necks of new-born children and even farm animals.

Freemason Evil Eye talisman.

Also known as the “Eye of Providence”, the symbol is not only part of Masonic ritualism but it appears on both the reverse of the US dollar bill (in a pyramid’s top cap) and the nation’s Great Seal.  Although many of the founding fathers of the US were confessed Freemasons, the official line is the unfinished pyramid was intended to symbolise “strength and duration”, with the 13 levels representing the original states which formed the US while the eye was there to acknowledge God’s sympathetic oversight of the fledgling nation.  It’s claimed the Freemasons had no involvement in these choices and that they didn’t even begin publicly to display the evil eye until well into the eighteenth century.  Whether prior to that they used it in secret is of course unknown and also a mystery is whether every member of the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or is required to wear a concealed Masonic talisman.  It’s never been denied and unless there’s a defection from the cult, that too may remain a secret.

The Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman, 1974-1976

1971-1976 Cadillac Fleetwood

Even by the standards of the American automobile of the time, the 1971 Cadillac was big.  Replacing the previous range which had run from 1965-1970, engineering innovations were limited and the changes were mostly cosmetic, much of the manufacturer’s attentions now devoted to conforming with the onrush of safety and pollution control legislation being imposed by governments.  In 1971 however, although somewhat detuned, the 472 cubic inch (7.7 litre) V8 was still rated at 365 gross horsepower and, with the emission controls still only rudimentary, retained the characteristics which by the early 1960s marked Detroit’s full-sized cars as having the world’s finest engine-transmission combinations.  Even though typically weighing over 5000 lbs (2300 KG) and built with few concessions to aerodynamic efficiency, Cadillacs had power enough for performance to be described usually as effortless.  Production volumes dropped in 1971 but that was because of difficulties in industrial relations and once new agreements were in place, sales quickly rebounded, records set in 1972 and again in 1973, Cadillac for the first time, producing more than three-hundred thousand cars.  There were however warning signs on the 1973 cars.  Although not yet the battering-rams which would later be bolted on, the bumper bars had grown bigger and heavier and for the first time, the emission controls began to become intrusive, drivability suffering, power down and fuel consumption up.  The typical Cadillac owner might not have much noticed the additional fuel cost but they certainly noted, and complained about, the loss of power and occasionally stuttering engines.  Much worse was to come.

1973 would be the last good year for the “old” American economy which, sustained by the unusual circumstances of the post-war boom had, with the odd minor glitch, maintained an unprecedented general prosperity for over twenty years.  A generation now existed which knew no other world but the world shifted on 17 October 1973 when the first oil embargo was imposed, ending the boom which had been fed by cheap, limitless energy.  Suddenly, in the US, not only was gas (petrol) more expensive, the cost of a barrel of oil having quadrupled overnight, but there were genuine shortages.  Even Cadillac owners with money enough to pay for a tank of gas found themselves in long queues, sometimes even unable to find some for sale.

1972 Oldsmobile 98 Regency interior in tufted, loose pillow style

It was a short, sharp shock.  Oil supplies began again to flow within months but prices remained high.  Cadillac sales fell twenty-odd percent in 1974 but it was actually a good result, the company continuing to dominate its market sector, its results better than many.  The performance of the cars was less impressive, the bumpers ever bigger, the power lower and the driveability issues caused by the emission control devices worse.  At the time, there wasn’t much Cadillac could (or was prepared) to do about these things but resources were found to add even more luxury.  For years, the industry had been creating ever fancier versions of its lines, even the lower-priced being augmented with luxury versions, sometimes called “Brougham”, a moniker which came to be attached to the whole era.  Cadillac had long faced competition from Lincoln and Imperial but what must have been galling was the threat from within.  Oldsmobile, two notches down the GM pecking list from Cadillac, in 1972 introduced their “Regency” option, a package which essentially out-did Cadillac’s interiors with not just tufted velour upholstery but finished in a loose pillow style.  Cadillac had nothing like it but scrambled to respond, offering in 1973 the d'Elegance package, a US$750 option which included pillow-style velour seating as well as a more plush carpeting and bundled a few of the otherwise optional features.

1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman rear compartment in Medium Saddle leather

However, all the d'Elegance stuff did was match what others were doing and there was still the corporate memory of the Cadillac mystique, a hankering for the time when Cadillac had been the “standard of the world”, a reputation built in the 1930s on basic engineering such as unique sixteen cylinder engines and maintained a generation later with cars such as the Eldorado Brougham, times when the name stood for something truly impressive.  But the world had changed and such extravagances were no longer possible.  What could still be done was to add more gingerbread and for 1974, Cadillac announced the Talisman package.  Much more expensive than the d'Elegance and consequently more exclusive, the Talisman included an extended centre console, the front section housing an illumined writing tablet, the rear a storage compartment.  This had been done before but never with this opulence although it had the effect of reducing the huge car, a size which historically been a six-seater, into something strictly for four.  The interior was available in four colors in "Medici" crushed velour at US$1800 or in two shades in leather at US$2450 at a time when the Chevrolet Vega, GM’s entry-level automobile of the era cost US$2087.  The Talisman additionally gained matching deep-pile interior carpeting and floor-mats, a fully padded elk grain vinyl roof, exterior badge identifications, a stand-up, full-colour wreath and crest hood ornament and unique wheel-covers.  For those who needed more, for an additional US$85, a matching pillow and robe was available although the robe unfortunately wasn't cut in leather.  Optioned with the leather package, a 1974 Cadillac Talisman cost about US$13,200, matching what the company charged for the even bigger Fleetwood Seventy-Five limousines.  The additional gingerbread wasn’t all that expensive to produce; what Cadillac was selling was exclusivity and the market responded, 1898 Talismans coming off the production line that year, all sold at a most impressive profit.  Most prized today are the relative handful trimmed in leather, the urban legend being all were in medium saddle with none in the dark blue which was listed on the option list.  If any were sold with the blue leather, none appear now to exist and Cadillac’s records don’t record the breakdown.

1975 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman front compartment in rosewood velour

The leather in either color didn’t anyway survive to the new model year, four colors of velour the only Talisman choices in 1975 and gone too was the rear-console extension, reportedly because of feedback from owners who either didn’t see the point or would have preferred the flexibility to carry an additional passenger.  It was an era of high inflation so the deletion of the hardware secured only a two-dollar reduction in price and in the gloomy economic climate of 1975, 1238 were sold.  The cars themselves were in their last days, huge dinosaurs unable to adapt to the shock of the new world they found around them though there were minor improvements.  Although engine size had been increased to 500 cubic inches (8.2 litres), output was down to 190 horsepower (although this was less of a drop from the 365 of 1971 because of the change in quoting power from gross to net) but the addition of catalytic convertors and later in the year, fuel injection, did allow some retuning, improving drivability.  The bumpers were the biggest yet and fuel economy, although improved, remained dire.

1976 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman rear compartment in light smoke grey velour

The end of the line came in 1976, the final year for the big Cadillacs which had evolved over three quarters of a century.  With so much corporate energy devoted to the new, smaller cars, little time was devoted to the dinosaurs, changes restricted to trim and details although the newly-legal rectangular headlights, adopted throughout the industry to permit lower bonnet lines and thereby slipperier aerodynamics, were spliced in.  Inside, new interior colors were offered and fake Rosewood replaced the simulated distressed pecan vinyl appliqués on the instrument panel, doors, and rear quarter trim.  Inspired by the Oldsmobile Regency which had caused such a stir in 1972, soft, thickly pillowed seats were now standard and the d'Elegance package with its accoutrements could still be added but bowing out after 1976 would be both the 500 cubic inch V8 and the Talisman package, available for its swansong in five colors at US$1813.  GM made no secret this was the last year of the big Cadillacs and sales spiked, a new record of 309,139 cars of which 1200 were Talismans.

Obsolete & Obsolescent

Obsolete (pronounced ob-suh-leet)

(1) No longer in general use; fallen into disuse; that is no longer practiced or used, out of date, gone out of use, of a discarded type; outmoded.

(2) Of a linguistic form, no longer in use, especially if out of use for at least the past century.

(3) Effaced by wearing down or away (rare).

(4) In biology, imperfectly developed or rudimentary in comparison with the corresponding character in other individuals, as of a different sex or of a related species; of parts or organs, vestigial; rudimentary.

(5) To make obsolete by replacing with something newer or better; to antiquate (rare).

1570–1580: From the Latin obsolētus (grown old; worn out), past participle of obsolēscere (to fall into disuse, be forgotten about, become tarnished), the construct assumed to be ob- (opposite to) (from the Latin ob- (facing), a combining prefix found in verbs of Latin origin) + sol(ēre) (to be used to; to be accustomed to) + -ēscere (–esce) (the inchoative suffix, a form of -ēscō (I become)).  It was used to form verbs from nouns, following the pattern of verbs derived from Latin verbs ending in –ēscō).  Obsoletely is an adverb, obsoleteness is a noun and the verbs (used with object), are obsoleted & obsoleting; Although it does exist, except when it’s essential to covey a technical distinction, the noun obsoleteness is hardly ever used, obsolescence standing as the noun form for both obsolete and obsolescent.  The verb obsolesce (fall into disuse, grow obsolete) dates from 1801 and is as rare now as it was then.

Although not always exactly synonymous, in general use, archaic and obsolete are often used interchangeably.  However, dictionaries maintain a distinction: words (and meanings) not in widespread use since English began to assume its recognizably modern form in the mid-1700s, are labeled “obsolete”.  Words and meanings which, while from Modern English, have long fallen from use are labeled “archaic” and those now seen only very infrequently (and then in often in specialized, technical applications), are labeled “rare”.

Obsolescent (promounced ob-suh-les-uhnt)

(1) Becoming obsolete; passing out of use (as a word or meaning).

(2) Becoming outdated or outmoded, as applied to machinery, weapons systems, electronics, legislation etc.

(3) In biology, gradually disappearing or imperfectly developed, as vestigial organs.

1745–1755: From the Latin obsolēscentum, from obsolēscēns, present participle of obsolēscere (to fall into disuse); the third-person plural future active indicative of obsolēscō (degrade, soil, sully, stain, defile).  Obsolescently is an adverb and obsolescence a noun.  Because things that are obsolescent are becoming obsolete, the sometimes heard phrase “becoming obsolescent” is redundant.  The sense "state or process of gradually falling into disuse; becoming obsolete" entered general use in 1809 and although most associated with critiques by certain economists in the 1950s, the phrase “planned obsolescence was coined” was coined in 1932, the 1950s use a revival.

Things that are obsolete are those no longer in general use because (1) they have been replaced, (2) the activity for which they were designed is no longer undertaken.  Thing that are considered obsolescent are things still to some extent in use but are for whatever combination of reasons, are tending towards becoming obsolete.  in fading from general use and soon to become obsolete. For example, the Windows XP operating system (released in 2001) is not obsolete because some still use it, but it is obsolescent because, presumably it will in the years ahead fall from use.

Ex-Royal Air Force (RAF) Hawker Hunter in Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ) livery; between 1963-2002 twenty-six Hunters were at different times operated by the AFZ.  Declared obsolete as an interceptor by the RAF in 1963, some Hunters were re-deployed to tactical reconnaissance, ground-attack and close air support roles before being retired from front-line service in 1970.  Some were retained as trainers while many were sold to foreign air forces including India, Pakistan and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe since 1980).

Despite the apparent simplicity of the definition, in use, obsolescent is highly nuanced and much influenced by context.  It’s long been a favorite word in senior military circles; although notorious hoarders, generals and admirals are usually anxious to label equipment as obsolescent if there’s a whiff of hope the money might to forthcoming to replace it with something new.  One often unexplored aspect of the international arms trade is that of used equipment, often declared obsolescent by the military in one state and purchased by that of another, a transaction often useful to both parties.  The threat profile against which a military prepares varies between nations and equipment which genuinely has been rendered obsolescent for one country may be a valuable addition to the matériel of others and go on enjoy an operational life of decades.  Well into the twentieth-first century, WWII & Cold War-era aircraft, warships, tanks and other weapon-systems declared obsolescent and on-sold (and in some cases given as foreign aid or specific military support) by big-budget militaries remain a prominent part of the inventories of many smaller nations.  That’s one context, another hinges on the specific-tasking of materiel; an aircraft declared obsolescent as a bomber could go on long to fulfil a valuable role as in transport or tug.

In software, obsolescence is so vague a concept the conventional definition really isn’t helpful.  Many software users suffer severe cases of versionitis (a syndrome in which they suffer a sometimes visceral reaction to using anything but the latest version of something) so obsolescence to them seems an almost constant curse.  The condition tends gradually to diminish in severity and in many cases the symptoms actually invert: after sufficient ghastly experiences with new versions, versionitis begins instead to manifest as a morbid fear of every upgrading anything.  Around the planet, obsolescent and obsolete software has for decades proliferated and there’s little doubt this will continue, the Y2K bug which prompted much rectification work on the ancient code riddling the world of the main-frames and other places unlikely to be the last great panic (one is said to be next due in 2029).  The manufacturers too have layers to their declaration of the obsolete.  In 2001, Microsoft advised all legacy versions of MS-DOS (the brutish and now forty year old file-loader) were obsolete but, with a change of release number, still offer what's functionally the same MS-DOS for anyone needing a small operating system with minimal demands on memory size & CPU specification, mostly those who use embedded controllers, a real attraction being the ability easily to address just about any compatible hardware, a convenience more modern OSs have long restricted.  DOS does still have attractions for many, the long-ago derided 640 kb actually a generous memory space for many of the internal processes of machines and it's an operating system with no known bugs.  

XTree’s original default color scheme; things were different in the 1980s.

Also, obsolescent, obsolete or not, sometimes the old ways are the best.  In 1985, Underware Sytems (later the now defunct Executive Systems (EIS)) released a product called XTree, the first commercially available software which provided users a visual depiction of the file system, arranged using a root-branch tree metaphor.  Within that display, it was possible to do most file-handling such as copying, moving, re-naming, deleting and so on.  Version 1.0 was issued as a single, 35 kb executable file, supplied usually on a 5.25" floppy diskette and although it didn’t do anything which couldn’t (eventually) be achieved using just DOS, XTree made it easy and fast; reviewers, never the most easily impressed bunch, were effusive in their praise.  Millions agreed and bought the product which went through a number of upgrades until by 1993, XTreeGold 3.0 had grown to a feature-packed three megabytes but, and it was a crucial part of the charm, the user interface didn’t change and anyone migrating from v1 to v3 could carry on as before, using or ignoring the new functions as they choose.

However, with the release in 1990 of Microsoft’s Windows 3.0, the universe shifted and while it was still an unstable environment, it was obvious things would improve and EIS, now called the XTree Company, devoted huge resources to producing a Windows version of their eponymous product, making the crucial decision that when adopting the Windows-style graphical user interface (GUI), the XTree keyboard shortcuts would be abandoned.  This mean the user interface was something that looked not greatly different to the Windows in-built file manager and bore no resemblance to the even then quirky but marvelously lucid one which had served so well.  XTree for Windows was a critical and financial disaster and in 1993 the company was sold to rival Central Point Software, themselves soon to have their own problems, swallowed a year later by Symantec which, in a series of strategic acquisitions, soon assumed an almost hegemonic control of the market for Windows utilities.  Elements of XTree were interpolated into other Symantec products but as a separate line, it was allowed to die.  In 1998, Symantec officially deleted the product but the announcement was barely noted by the millions of users who continued to use the text-based XTree which ran happily under newer versions of Windows although, being a real-time program and thus living in a small memory space, as disks grew and file counts rose, walls were sometimes hit, some work-arounds possible but kludgy.  The attraction of the unique XTree was however undiminished and an independent developer built ZTree, using the classic interface but coded to run on both IBM’s OS/2 and the later flavors of Windows.  Without the constraints of the old real-time memory architecture, ZTree could handle long file and directory names, megalomaniacs now able to log an unlimited number of disks and files, all while using the same, lightning-fast interface.  The idea spread to UNIX where ytree, XTC, linuXtree and (most notably), UnixTree were made available.

ZTree, for those who can remember how things used to be done.

ZTree remains a brute-force favorite for many techs.  Most don’t often need to do those tasks at which it excels but, when those big-scale needs arise, as a file handler, ZTree still can do what nothing else can.  It’ll also do what’s now small-scale stuff; anyone still running XTree 1.0 under MS-DOS 2.11 on their 8088 could walk to some multi-core 64-bit monster with 64 GB RAM running Windows 11 and happily use ZTree.  ZTree is one of the industry’s longest-running user interfaces.

The Centennial Light, Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department, Livermore, California.  Illuminated almost continuously since 1901, it’s said to be the world's longest-lasting light bulb.  The light bulb business became associated with the idea of planned obsolescence after the revelation of the existence of a cartel of manufacturers which had conspired to more than halve the service life of bulbs in order to stimulate sales.

As early as 1924, executives in US industry had been discussing the idea of integrating planned obsolescence into their systems of production and distribution although it was then referred to with other phrases.  The idea essentially was that in the industrial age, modern mercantile capitalism was so efficient in its ability to produce goods that it would tend to over-produce, beyond the ability to stimulate demand.  The result would be a glut, a collapse in prices and a recession or depression which affected the whole society, a contributing factor to what even then was known as the boom & bust economy.  One approach was that of the planned economy whereby government would regulate production and maintain employment and wages at the levels required to maintain some degree of equilibrium between supply and demand but such socialistic notions were anathematic to industrialists.  Their preference was to reduce the lifespan of goods to the point which matched the productive capacity and product-cycles of industry, thereby ensuring a constant churn.  Then, as now, there were those for and against, the salesmen delighted, the engineers appalled.

The actual phrase seems first to have been used in the pamphlet Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence, published in 1932 by US real estate broker (and confessed Freemason) Bernard London (b circa 1873) but it wasn’t popularized until the 1950s.  Then, it began as a casual description of the techniques used in advertising to stimulate demand and thus without the negative connotations which would attach when it became part of the critique of materialism, consumerism and the consequential environmental destruction.  There had been earlier ideas about the need for a hyper-consumptive culture to service a system designed inherently to increase production and thus create endless economic growth: one post-war industrialist noted the way to “avoid gluts was to create a nation of gluttons” and exporting this model underlies the early US enthusiasm for globalism.  As some of the implications of that became apparent, globalization clearly not the Americanization promised, enthusiasm became more restrained.

Betamax and VHS: from dominant to obsolescent to obsolete; the DVD may follow.

Although the trend began in the United States in the late 1950s, it was in the 1970s that the churn rate in consumer electronics began to accelerate, something accounted for partly by the reducing costs as mass-production in the Far East ramped up but also the increasing rapidity with which technologies came and went.  The classic example of the era was the so-called videotape format war which began in the mid 1970s after the Betamax (usually clipped to Beta) and Video Home System (VHS) formats were introduced with a year of each other.  Both systems were systems by which analog recordings of video and audio content cold be distributed on magnetic tapes which loaded into players with a cassette (the players, regardless of format soon known universally as video cassette recorders (VCR).  The nerds soon pronounced Betamax the superior format because of superior quality of playback and commercial operators agreed with it quickly adopted as the default standard in television studios.  Consumers however came to prefer VHS because, on most of the screens on which most played their tapes, the difference between the two was marginal and the VHS format permitted longer recording times (an important thing in the era) and the hardware was soon available at sometimes half the cost of Betamax units.

It was essentially the same story which unfolded a generation later in the bus and operating systems wars; the early advantages of OS/2 over Windows and Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) over ISA/EISA both real and understood but few were prepared to pay the steep additional cost for advantages which seemed so slight and at the same time brought problems of their own.  Quite when Betamax became obsolescent varied between markets but except for a handful of specialists, by the late 1980s it was obsolete and the flow of new content had almost evaporated.  VHS prevailed but its dominance was short-lived, the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) released in 1997 which within half a decade was the preferred format throughout the Western world although in some other markets, the thriving secondary market suggests even today the use of VCRs is not uncommon.  DVD sales though peaked in 2006 and have since dropped by some 80%, their market-share cannibalized not by the newer Blu-Ray format (which never achieved critical mass) but by the various methods (downloads & streaming) which meant many users were able wholly to abandon removable media.  Despite that, the industry seems still to think the DVD has a niche and it may for some time resist obsolescence because demand still exists for content on a physical object at a level it remains profitable to service.  Opinions differ about the long-term.  History suggests that as the “DVD generation” dies off, the format will fade away as those used to entirely weightless content available any time, in any place won’t want the hassle but, as the unexpected revival of vinyl records as a lucrative niche proved, obsolete technology can have its own charm which is why a small industry now exists to retro-fit manual gearboxes into modern Ferraris, replacing technically superior automatic transmissions.

Mason

Mason (pronounced mey-suhn)

(1) A person whose trade is building with units of various natural or artificial mineral products, as stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or tiles, usually with the use of mortar or cement as a bonding agent.

(2) A person who dresses stones or bricks.

(3) A clipping of Freemason (should always use an initial capital but frequently mason and variations in this context (masonry, masonism etc) appear; a member of the fraternity of Freemasons.

(4) To construct of or strengthen with masonry.

1175–1225: From the Middle English masoun & machun (mason), from the Anglo-Norman machun & masson, from the Old French masson & maçon (machun in the Old North French), from the Late Latin maciō (carpenter, bricklayer), from the Frankish makjon & makjō (maker, builder; to make (which may have some link with the Old English macian (to make)) from makōn (to work, build, make), from the primitive Indo-European mag- (to knead, mix, make), conflated with the Proto-West Germanic mattijō (cutter), from the primitive Indo-European metn- or met- (to cut).  Etymologists note there may have been some influence from another Germanic source such as the Old High German steinmezzo (stone mason (the Modern German Steinmetz has a second element related to mahhon (to make)), from the primitive Indo-European root mag-.  There’s also the theory of some link with the seventh century Medieval Latin machio & matio, thought derived from machina, source of the modern English machine and the medieval word might be from the root of Latin maceria (wall).    From the early twelfth century it was used as a surname, one of a number based on occupations (Smith, Wright, Carter etc) and the now-familiar use to denote “a member of the fraternity of freemasons” was first recorded in Anglo-French in the early fifteenth century Mason is a noun & verb, masonry & masonism are nouns, masoning is a verb, masoned is an adjective & verb and masonic is an adjective; the noun plural is masons.

The noun masonry was from the mid-fourteenth century masonrie, (stonework, a construction of dressed or fitted stones) and within decades it was used to describe the “art or occupation of a mason”.  It was from the fourteenth century Old French maçonerie from maçon.  The adjective Masonic was adopted in the 1767 in the sense of “of or pertaining to the fraternity of freemasons” and although it was early in the nineteenth century used to mean “of or pertaining to stone masons”, that remained rare, presumably because of the potential for confusion; not all stonemasons would have wished to have been thought part of the order.  The stonemason seems first to have been used in 1733.  An earlier name for the occupation was the fifteenth century hard-hewer while stone-cutter was from the 1530s (in the Old English there was stanwyrhta (stone-wright).  The US television cartoon series The Simpsons parodied the Freemasons in well-received episode called Homer the Great (1995) in which the plotline revolved around a secret society called the “Stonecutters”.  Dating from 1926, Masonite was a proprietary name of a type of fiberboard made originally by the Mason Fibre Company of Mississippi, named after William H. Mason (1877-1940 and a protégé of Thomas Edison (1847-1931) who patented the production process of making it.  In 1840, the word enjoyed a brief currency in the field of mineralogy to describe a type of chloritoid (a mixed iron, magnesium and manganese silicate mineral of metamorphic origin), the name honoring collector Owen Mason from Rhode Island who first brought the mineral to the attention of geologists.

The Mason jar was patented in 1858 by New York-based tinsmith John Landis Mason (1832–1902); it was a molded glass jar with an airtight screw lid which proved idea for the storage of preserves (usually fruits or vegetables), a popular practice by domestic cooks who, in season, would purchase produce in bulk and preserve it using high temperature water mixed with salt, sugar or vinegar.  The jars were in mass-production by the mid-1860s and later the jars (optimized in size to suit the quantity of preserved food a family would consume in one meal) proved equally suited to the storage and distribution of moonshine (unlawfully distilled spirits).  Much moonshine was distributed in large containers (the wholesale level) but the small mason jars were a popular form because it meant it could be sold in smaller quantities (the retail level) to those with the same thirst but less cash.

A mason jar (left), Mason jar with pouring spout (centre) and mason jar with handle (right).

For neophytes, the classic mason jar can be difficult to handle either to drink from or to pour the contents into a glass.  Modern moonshine distillers have however stuck to the age-old jar because it’s part of the tradition and customers do seem to like purchasing their (now lawful) spirits in one.  South of the Mason-Dixon Line, “passing the jar” is part of the ritual of the shared moonshine experience and, being easily re-sealable, it’s a practical form of packaging.  To make things easier still, lids with pourers are available (which true barbarians put straight to their lips, regarding a glass as effete) and there are also mason jars with handles.

The Mason-Dixon Line and the Missouri Compromise Line.  

The Mason-Dixon Line was named after English astronomers Charles Mason (1728–1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733–1779) who between 1763-1767 surveyed the disputed boundary between the colonial holdings of the Penns (Pennsylvania) and the Calverts (Maryland), one of the many boarders (New South Wales & Victoria in Australia, Kashmir in the sub-continent of South Asia et al) in the British Empire which were ambiguously described (or not drawn at all) which would be the source of squabbles, sometimes for a century or more.  The line would probably by history have little been noted had it not in 1804 become the boundary between "free" and "slave" states after 1804, New Jersey (the last slaveholding state north of the line) passed an act of abolition.  In popular use “south of the Mason-Dixon Line” thus became the term used to refer to “the South” where until the US Civil War (1861-1865) slave-holding prevailed although, in a narrow technical sense, the line created by the Missouri Compromise (1820) more accurately reflected the political and social divisions.

A mason’s mark etched into a stone (left) and and image created from one of the registers of mason’s marks (right).

A mason's mark is literally a mark etched into a stone by as mason and historically they existed in three forms (1) an identifying notch which could be used by those assembling a structure as a kind of pattern so they would know where one stone was to be placed in relation to another, (2) as an mark to identify the quarry from which the stone came (which might also indicate the type of rock or the quality but this was rare within the trade where there tended to be experts at every point in the product cycle) and (3) the unique identifying mark of the stonemason responsible for the finishing (rather in the manner of the way the engineer assembling engines in companies like Aston Martin or AMG stamp their names into the block).  With the masons, these were known also bankers’ marks because, when the payment was by means of piece-work (ie the payment was by physical measure of the stone provided rather than the time spent) the tally-master would physically measure the stones and pay according to the cubic volume.  Every mason, upon their admission to the guild would enter into a register their unique mark.

Reinhard Heydrich (second from left, back to camera) conducting a tour of the SS Freemasonry Museum, Berlin, 1935.

Freemasonry has always attracted suspicion and at times the opposition to them has been formalized.  As recently as the papacy of Pius XII (1876-1958; pope 1939-1958), membership of Freemasonry was proscribed for Roman Catholics, Pius disapproving of the sinister, secretive Masons about as much as he did of communists and homosexuals.  In that he was actually in agreement with the Nazis.  By 1935, the Nazis considered the “Freemason problem” solved and the SS even created a “Freemason Museum” on Berlin’s Prinz-Albrecht-Palais (conveniently close to Gestapo headquarters) to exhibit the relics of the “vanished cult”.  SS-Obergruppenführer (Lieutenant-General) Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942; head of the Reich Security Main Office 1939-1942) originally included the Freemasons on his list of archenemies of National Socialism which, like Bolshevism, he considered an internationalist, anti-fascist Zweckorganisation (expedient organization) of Jewry.  According to Heydrich, Masonic lodges were under Jewish control and while appearing to organize social life “…in a seemingly harmless way, were actually instrumentalizing people for the purposes of Jewry”.  That wasn’t the position of all the Nazis however.  Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945 and Reichsmarschall 1940-1945) revealed during the Nuremberg Trial (1945-1946) that on the day he joined the party, he was actually on his way to join the Freemasons and was distracted from this only by a “toothy blonde” while during the same proceedings, Hjalmar Schacht (1877–1970; President of the German Central Bank (Reichsbank) 1933–1939 and Nazi Minister of Economics 1934–1937) said that even while serving the Third Reich he never deviated from his belief in the principles of “international Freemasonry”.  It’s certainly a trans-national operation and the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or has never denied being a branch of the Freemasons.

In an indication they'll stop at nothing, the Freemasons have even stalked Lindsay Lohan.  In 2011, Ms Lohan was granted a two-year restraining order against alleged stalker David Cocordan, the order issued some days after she filed complaint with police who, after investigation by their Threat Management Department, advised the court Mr Cocordan (who at the time had been using at least five aliases) “suffered from schizophrenia”, was “off his medication” and had a "significant psychiatric history of acting on his delusional beliefs.”  That was worrying enough but Ms Lohan may have revealed her real concerns in an earlier post on twitter in which she included a picture of David Cocordan, claiming he was "the freemason stalker that has been threatening to kill me- while he is TRESPASSING!"  Being stalked by a schizophrenic is bad enough but the thought of being hunted by a schizophrenic Freemason is truly frightening.  Apparently an unexplored matter in the annals of psychiatry, it seems the question of just how schizophrenia might particularly manifest in Freemasons awaits research so there may be a PhD there for someone.

The problem Ms Lohan identified has long been known.  In the US, between 1828-1838 there was an Anti-Mason political party which is remembered now as one of the first of the “third parties” which over the decades have often briefly flourished before either fading away or being absorbed into one side or the other of what has for centuries tended towards two-party stability.  Its initial strength was that it was obsessively a single-issue party which enabled it rapidly to gather support but that proved ultimately it’s weakness because it never adequately developed the broader policy platform which would have attracted a wider membership.  The party was formed in reaction to the disappearance (and presumed murder) of a former Mason who had turned dissident and become a most acerbic critic and the suspicion arose that the Masonic establishment had arranged his killing to silence his voice.  They attracted much support, including from many church leaders who had long been suspicious of Freemasonry and were not convinced the organization was anything but anti-Christian.  Because the Masons were secretive and conducted their meetings in private, their opponents tended to invent stories about the rituals and ceremonies (stuff with goats often mentioned) and the myths grew.  The myths were clearly enough to secure some electoral success and the Anti-Masons even ran William Wirt (1772-1834 and still the nation’s longest-serving attorney-general (1817-1829)) as their candidate in the 1832 presidential election where he won 7.8% of the popular vote and carried Vermont, a reasonable achievement for a third-party candidate.  Ultimately though, that proved the electoral high-water mark and most of its members thereafter were absorbed by the embryonic Whig Party.