Pro-ana

Pro-ana (pronounced pro-anna)

(1) Of or relating to the position anorexia is a legitimate lifestyle choice.

(2) The on-line community advocating this view.  The most uncompromisingly pure among the community actively deny anorexia nervosa is a clinical condition.

(3) A movement for the promotion of behaviors related to anorexia nervosa. 

(4) A member of this movement or one of the related communities.

Circa 1998-2001:  The construct is pro + ana.  Pro was from the Classical Latin prō (in favor of, on behalf of), from the Proto-Italic por-, from the primitive Indo-European pr- & pro.  Ana is a clipping of of anorexia (an(orexi)a), a phonetic diminutive of the 1957 scientific term anorexia nervosa, the construct being the Ancient Greek ἀν (an) (without) + ὄρεξις (órexis) (appetite, desire) + the Latin nervōsa (nervous).  The clipping of "anorexia" was created both as verbal shorthand and coded language (so the matters of diet and related matters could be discussed without the risk of "outsiders" understanding.  "Ana" was thus a form of personification and a "cover", the outsiders hopefully assuming a young lady named Anna was being spoken of.  Pro-ana is a noun; the noun plural is pro-anas.

Only a matter of time: Lonaniana.

Ana in this context is thus obviously unrelated to the suffix -ana (familiar in forms such as “Victoriana” (of the era of the rein of Victoria (1819–1901; Queen of the UK 1837-1901)), “Americana” (of matters specific to US culture, politics etc), Holmesiana (memorabilia or writings related to the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes created by Sir Arthur ConanDoyle (1859–1930)) etc) that became popular after being adopted in continental literature.  It was from the Latin -āna (neuter plural of –ānus (feminine -āna, neuter -ānum) and was applied to create formations meaning “of or pertaining to”.  In English the specific sense originally was “a collection of things that relate to a specific place, person etc”; the suffices -ic & -ica now fulfil a similar function.  All formations created by appending –ana are pluralia tantum (from the Latin plūrāle tantum (plural as such; plural only); the term describes a noun (either in certain or all its senses) that does not generally have a singular form.  In his A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) defined the suffix thus: “Books so-called from the last syllables of their titles; as Scaligerara, Thuaniana; they are loose thoughts, or casual hints, dropped by eminent men, and collected by their friends.”  An early exemplar was Thraliana, something of a gallimaufry of diary entries, jokes, poems and anecdotes, complied between 1776-1809 by Dr Johnson's dear friend by Mrs Hester Thrale (1741-1821) although those wanting something meatier will more enjoy the two volume Addisoniana (1803), a two-volume biographical and anecdotal anthology of the writings and conversations of the English essayist politician Joseph Addison (1672-1719), compiled and edited by Sir Richard Phillips (1767–1840); it’s a fine relic of a troubled time.

Palindromic elements: A collection of material relating to pro-ana would properly be titled “Pro-anaiana”.

Dr Johnson’s notion of “loose thoughts, or casual hints, dropped by eminent men, and collected by their friends” is familiar also as “table talk”.  Table talk literally is conversation (especially if informal or gossipy) among a group seated together for a meal or other social activity.  The point about table talk is it’s held to represent an individual’s “true” thoughts in unvarnished form (ie not “sanitized” for public consumption and for that reason the table talk of the illustrious or infamous often attracts interest when assembled and published.  However, such collections rarely are true transcripts and even if not deliberately misleading in that what can appear can be a verbatim account of what was spoken and an accurate summary of views and opinion, much can be lost in the transcription.  Classic examples of the difficulties historians encounter in the absence of audio recordings are the several editions of Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier (Table Talks at the Führer's Headquarters), published between the 1950s and 1980s, containing what were alleged to be transcriptions of (mostly) monologues delivered by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) to guests at his lunches or dinners between 1941-1944.  As well as being edited at the time they were written, Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945) pointed out the printed copy omits so much of the repetition, pauses and linguistic stumbles that could make meals with Hitler “stiflingly boring” for “the regulars who’d heard it all, many times before”.

Etymologists are inclined insist the correct form can be only "pro-ana" and there are traditions in English which supports this but the community itself uses ana, pro ana and proana interchangeably, the most common form the short-form ana, following the practice with anorexia nervosa which is truncated to anorexia in all but formal academic or clinical work.  Over two-odd decades, pro-ana has also spawned words such as thinspiration (often clipped to thinspo) and thinology, used to describe specialized editorial content of the calling; the much less-used term pro-mia referring to bulimia nervosa.  Pro-anas are purists who maintain high-standards; those who aspire to the anahood but in some way fail are dismissed as wannarexics.

Lindsay Lohan wearing (non-ana) red wrist-string.

The ana's standard means of social identification is a simple, beaded red bracelet, the beading of some significance because variations of red bracelets, some as simple as a wrist-string, have long been used by many cultures, usually with some sort of link to the idea of a good-luck charm.  Famously, a חוט השני (the khutt hasheni, a thin scarlet or crimson string) is sometimes worn as Jewish folk custom as a way to seek protection from those misfortunes which may be aimed at one by the עין הרע (evil eye).  It's most associated with the Kabbalah sect and Kabbalic scholars say there's nothing in ancient Jewish texts about wrist-strings of any color and the "tradition" is a recent folk practice which seems to have begun in the north-eastern United States early in the twentieth century.  Anas thus need always to check for beading before reaching out.

Notes

Although at the time it never reached the critical-mass needed to coalesce into a movement, the pro-ana concept actually pre-dates the web.  Among the bulletin boards the nerdiest connected to with 1200 or 2400 baud modems in the 1980s and early 1990s were both anorexia support boards and those which celebrated the condition but, once the indexed www (world-wide-web) was "bolted-on" to the internet the spread was rapid and, by the mid-late 1990s, pro-ana was global.

Pro-ana content tends to be (1) victim stories, (2) images & clips where ribcages & shoulder blades are often seen and clavicles much admired and (3), lists of helpful tricks and techniques.  Politically, the accepted pro-ana world view is they are not suffering from an illness; ana is a human right, an essential part of their identity and just another lifestyle choice.  As pieces of design, the sites tend to use pre-defined templates and in that are unremarkable although the preponderance of monochromic (in gray-scale) imagery is noted.  The pro-ana sites began to attract wider attention early in the twenty-first century, the irony being that much of the criticism came from the very publications many suggest contribute to eating disorders.  Off and on since then, pressure from the public and anti-ana organizations has compelled many hosts to shut down pro-ana sites although these efforts are Sisyphean, the relocations usually quick.

Sixteen Pro Ana Tips & Tricks for Beginners

Role model skinnytoker Trindalyn Mackenzie.

If followed with sustained rigor, what's in this list should result in weight-loss and the ability to maintain a lower mass.  If adhered to, there should be no need to resort to using the new generation of GLP (Glucagon-Like Peptide) receptor agonists which, while effective, are (1) expensive, (2) introduce often novel chemicals to the body and (3) don't in all cases mean weight loss will be sustained once the course of treatment stops.  The GLPs should be regarded (like the various surgical options available) as "last resorts" because D&E (diet & exercise) is the better path to follow and the pro-ana path, though demanding, is straight, narrow and well-lit.  For thinspiration, on TikTok, a place spiritually pro-ana is the SkinnyTok community.  According to some modern conventions, the expected form would be “SkinnyTok” but typically they eschew the CamelCase (partial capitalization), preferring “skinnytok” because letters have a physical character, lower case denoting “thin” and upper case “fat”). An illustrative example of content is skinnytoker Trindalyn Mackenzie skinnysplaining: “skinny isn't owned, it's rented”.  Her concept is right, the phrase encapsulating the pro-ana world view.

(1) Keep track of your calories.  Set an absolute number and NEVER exceed it while trying always, gradually, to lower the number.  Within the calorie limit, aim for a diet which is 75% leafy-green vegetables & legumes, 20% tart fruit (as the whole item but NEVER just the juice) and 5% seeds & nuts.  Added sugar should be zero because enough is in the fruit but, if absolutely necessary (feelings of weakness or cravings), one daily barley-sugar boiled sweet (preferably early in the day) is OK.  After finishing barley sugar (don't chew, just let it gradually dissolve), brush teeth  as well as good oral practice this will diminish the possibility of the appetite being stimulated.  However do NOT brush teeth within about an hour of eating or drinking (especially acidic (citrus and such) or with a sugar content) because such things soften the teeth's enamel and brushing before the surface recovers can "scrub away" the weakened enamel.  What's recommended is rinsing with water or chewing sugar-free gum.  This diet mix can at the margins be varied but must stay vegan.  Nothing should be fried and while most vegetables can be eaten raw (carrot & celery sticks the preferred pro-ana snack), there are advantages in cooking some with steaming usually the best method; steam only to the point necessary (it will vary) and at that point there should still be crunchiness.  In most cases, don't peel vegetables because some of the most valuable nutritional content lies just under the skin and one highly recommended technique is to base your selection of fruits & vegetables on skin & flesh color; eat a variety of colors.  Herbs & spices add much flavor and if you use the ones you most enjoy, they will tend to train the yearnings of your taste buds away from fat, salt & sugar.  Salt intake is essential but the daily requirement is little more than a teaspoon, much of which will be obtained from food.  If adding salt, stick to the terms in the cookbooks: sprinkle & pinch.

(2) Drink lots of water; try to aim for seven litres a day but anything over five is OK.  Being hydrated is anyway healthy and drinking water before taking food helps fill your stomach faster so you’ll eat less.  Remember to not drink a lot of water at once; instead keep hydrated by drinking little amount after every few minutes.  Always drink it as cold as possible, it forces the burning of more calories to restore body temperature.  Unless operating in extreme conditions with high fluid loss, do not go over eight litres a day; water can in extreme case be toxic and death has been reported among those who have ingested around 20 litres (less may be fatal in certain individuals, especially those with a lower body mass, hence the 5-7 litre recommendation). 

(3) Place a full-length mirror in your bedroom and evaluate yourself on daily basis. This is one of the best ways to stay motivated and remember, you’re there to be critical as well as admire.  If you can arrange multiple mirrors to provide for a 360^o view that's even better because it makes it easier to focus on problem areas (these can persist even as overall weight is falling).  Hanging a thinspiration photograph next to the mirror is recommended.

(4) Have small meals.  It’s easier for the body to burn three 100 calorie meals than one of 300 and lends your body the illusion you’re eating enough to keep the stomach full, whereas you’re eating less.  Always eat slowly and chew thoroughly, it will hasten the digestive process.  After every meal, brush teeth (after waiting an hour!); again, this is good dental hygiene but with freshly brushed teeth, you'll be less inclined to eat.  

(5) Find an ana-buddy.  The pro-ana routine can be a harsh mistress so an ana-buddy with whom you can talk about your problems and diet-related stuff can be helpful but only if they're a kindred spirit.  This works not only by keeping each other motivated but you'll also teach each other new tricks or exercise routines.  You both must be 100% committed to the system and such noble souls are rare so, if need be, replace them with someone wholly committed.  You're in a war with weight so be harsh and accept only allies who will help in the fight.

(6) With the aggressive pro-ana diet, it’s very important to take vitamin pills.  Research suggests that for most people on what is the orthodox "balanced diet", vitamin supplements are probably unnecessary (some researchers suggest they can even be counter-productive) but because pro-ana doesn't include certain food groups, a daily multi-vitamin is recommended and usually adequate so resist the temptation to take two and do so only if you become light-headed or faint with any frequency; you may need specific additional supplements.  The most publicized deficiency associated with pro-ana is iron and it may thus be necessary greatly to increase the intake of leafy greens like spinach or peas, broccoli & string beans; seeds high in iron include pumpkin, sesame, hemp and flaxseeds.  One's family physician can obtain the tests to determine specific deficiencies and these should be dealt with by adjustment to diet.  Remember though that doctors are inclined to be dictatorial and the recommended technique to deal with their negativity is just to agree with whatever they say.  Try to appear sincere and be deferential; they like that.   

(7) Avoid butter and oils.  Treat them like sugar or drugs of dependency.

(8) Resist the temptation to smoke or vape.  While it's true some short-term weight loss often is achieved by smoking cigarettes, (1) in the medium-long term weigh-gain is the typical consequence, (2) the nicotine in cigarettes is addictive making it difficult to use tobacco as a short-term or occasional "quick-fix" and (3) it's a carcinogenic product which, on average, appears to reduce life-expectancy by around a decade.  Not enough is yet known about vapes but there are many reports of adverse outcomes, presumed to be a consequence of inhaling that many chemicals.       

(9) Sleep at least eight hours a day, preferably more.  Less sleep means tiredness and hunger and you can’t eat while asleep.  Try to avoid eating in the four hours before going to bed and ideally aim for at least twelve hours of fasting prior to the first food of the day (which may happen at a time later than a traditional "breakfast").  Pro-ana endorses the 4:3 diet plan (an intermittent fasting protocol in which each seven-day cycle includes three (non-consecutive) days of fasting) and there are many recommendations covering the composition of food intake on the non-fasting days (many with an emphasis on high-protein foods).  It's difficult to be prescriptive about the specifics of intake because, by definition, food interacts with human physiology and in that there's much individual variation, thus pro-ana recommending those adopting the 4:3 regime experiment to determine the most effective mix.  Individual experiences are likely to vary.

(10) Keep setting a target weight.  Because of fluid retention and other cyclical variations, it’s probably counter-production to set daily targets and a weekly goal is better although true obsessives will monitor at least once and maybe several times a day; this is not discouraged.  To stay motivated, hang on the wall thinspiration photographs of slender models to observe while weighing-in.  Many non-ana diet sites suggest avoiding weighing-in daily and clinically they may be right it achieves little but they just don't understand the nature of obsessions.  Record the weigh-ins so you can chart progress over weeks and months; this requires nothing more demanding than the most basic open-source spreadsheet but math nerds who enjoy such things can do it with pen & paper.  Although for most purposes pencils are better than pens, ink is permanent so it's harder to cheat.  You will be tempted to cheat but you must not; pro-ana does often demand you lie to others but you must never lie to yourself.

Example of a thinspiration photo: Model Lululeika Ravn Liep (b 1998), Cover magazine, February 2015.  Although the use of this image was condemned by the thought police, a true pro-anaite should think: “She could lose a few pounds.”

(11)  Do NOT drink any alcoholic beverages; for variety only soda-water or carbonated mineral water are acceptable.  Coffee and tea are good appetite suppressants so drink only black coffee or tea and NO milk or sugar.  Avoid caffeine drinks; they’ll contain either sugar or chemicals about which there exists no reliable research on how they affect the appetite.  Avoid the inherently sweet herbal teas; they do tend to stimulate the appetite in a way black tea and coffee don't.  Black tea and coffee are also useful in training the palette away from sweetness and towards the tart.  After a while, this will start to influence your choice of fruits and vegetables; as a general principle the darker and more bitter in taste, the better.  Care must of course be taken.  In its pure form, caffeine can be fatal in tiny quantities although in the form usually enjoyed (coffee), one would need to drink dozens of cups in a day to approach toxicity.  The French philosopher Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet; 1694–1778), often at the Café de Procope in Paris, drank a reputed 40-odd cups a day, enjoying it so much he ignored the advice of his doctors to stop.  He lived to 84 but there’s no evidence the often attributed quotation: “It may be poison, but I have been drinking it for sixty-five years, and I am not dead yet” was his.  The more likely source is French author Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657–1757) whose actual words were: “I think it must be [a slow poison], for I’ve been drinking it for eighty-five years and am not dead yet.”   Fontenelle died a month short of his hundredth birthday.  The sensible approach is to restrict yourself to one strong (ie short black and such) coffee at the start of the day and otherwise just have cups of weak (even decaffeinated) instant coffee; think of it not as a stimulant but a companion.

(12) Wearing short or revealing clothing can be very motivating and definitely such garments are helpful when looking in mirror because it will be obvious there's still work to do, something often disguised by what's worn in public.  Wear in private clothes you'd never dare to wear in public and make it a goal to be able to wear them without looking fat.    

(13) Drink the juice of a squeezed lemon in hot water first thing each morning and last thing each evening; it has the general effect of adding to the stomach acids which break up food.  Because of this acid, always brush teeth afterwards (allowing the essential 60 minute delay).

(14) If you have to eat in company (it can be unavoidable), wear baggy clothes with big pockets able to be lined with plastic bags.  Then, when no one is looking, you can dispose of food and people will think you eat normally.  It sounds a difficult thing surreptitiously to manage and to start with it will be but you’ll learn to adopt techniques like always sitting in a corner or at the end of the table and soon become an expert.  It's easier than it sounds.  However, prevention being better than cure, there are plausible excuses for NOT being able to eat (fasting prior to a blood test, having "upset tummy" etc) and that means social activities can still be enjoyed with intake restricted to water, black tea or black coffee. 

(15) Exercise every day.  Gyms are optional because you can do even better with ana-specific routines such as running up stairs or hills, both of which have an extraordinary multiplier-effect on whatever distance is achieved.  Unlike gyms, it's also free and never forget the goal is weight-loss, not abstractions like fitness or muscle tone; success is not looking fit & toned, success is looking thin & frail.  If possible, exercise in darkness to avoid sun exposure; if this is not possible (and there may be good reasons to restrict this to daylight hours) cover as much skin as possible with protective clothing and use the highest available SPF (sun protection factor) sun-block lotion, wear a wide brim hat and never forget the sunglasses.  Never use elevators and escalators; always take the stairs.  Wherever possible, replace travel by cars, trains and busses with walking or biking.  This is also good for the planet which is the only one we have.

(16) Eat ice; ice can be an alternative to a meal, it really works.  Shaved ice is best because it avoids dental damage; there are many things to consider when eating ice and curiously, sometimes it's advantageous to take more, sometimes less.  For a discussion on the mechanics of ice-eating: The eating of ice

Anorexia nervosa was included in the (1952) first edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as a psycho-physiological reaction. The DSM-II (1968) moved it to Special Symptoms–Feeding Disturbances and in 1980, a new eating disorders section was created for the DSM-III.  The most significant structural change came in 1994 when in DSM-IV the condition was afforded its own section.  The DSM-5 (2013) relaxed some of the diagnostic criteria including, for the first time, rendering it all entirely gender-neutral, a gesture to conform with practices elsewhere rather than anything suggesting clinical experience was noting a greater gender-spread in the patient count.  Announcing DSM-5, the board noted it wished to reduce the number of patients in the former EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) category, now reclassified as the OSFED (Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder) group.  Thus the psychiatrists staked their claim in this low-cal demarcation dispute by capturing the wannarexics.

Palindrome

Palindrome (pronounced pal-in-drohm)

(1) A word, line, verse, number, sentence etc, reading the same backward as forward.

(2) In biochemistry, a region of DNA in which the sequence of nucleotides is identical with an inverted sequence in the complementary strand.

1638: From the Ancient Greek παλίνδρομος (palindromos) (running back again; recurring, literally “literally "a running back”) the construct being πάλιν (pálin) (again, back) + δρόμος (dromos) (direction, running, race, racecourse).  Pálin was from the primitive Indo-European kwle-i-, a suffixed form of the root kwel- (revolve, move round) (kw- becomes the Greek p- before some vowels.  The word palindrome was first published by Henry Peacham (1578-circa 1645) in The Truth of Our Times (1638).  Although derived from the Greek root palin + dromos, the Greek language uses καρκινικός (carcinic, literally “crab-like”) to refer to letter-by-letter reversible writing.  The related palinal (directed or moved backward, characterized by or involving backward motion) dates from 1888.  The noun palinode (poetical recantation, poem in which the poet retracts invective contained in a former satire) dates from the 1590s and was from either the sixteenth century French palinod or the Late Latin palinodia, from the Greek palinōidia (poetic retraction), again from pálin; the related form were palinodical & palinodial.  The word palinode was sometimes applied to the apologies artists and others in the Soviet Union were compelled to publish, often after being accused of formalism or something just as heinous.  Palindrome & palindromist are nouns, palindromic is an adjective and palindromically is an adverb; the noun plural is palindromes.

Pierre Laval (1883–1945; Prime Minister of France 1931-1932, 1935-1936 & de facto prime minister in the Vichy Government 1942-1944).

Even before he spent the final years of his political career as a senior official in the collaborationist regime of Vichy France under Marshal Philippe Pétain (1856-1951), the palindromic Laval was already notorious for his dubious financial dealings while in government and being a party to the Hoare–Laval Pact (1935), concocted with the then British Foreign Secretary Samuel “Slippery Sam” Hoare (1880-1959) with which the pair sought to end the tiresome Second Italo-Ethiopian War (the last of the colonial land-grabs in the era of European colonization) because it was “bad for business”.  Something of a precursor to the 1938 Munich Agreement in which the UK and France acquiesced to the Nazi’s dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in exchange for what, delusionally, they believed would be Adolf Hitler’s (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) final territorial claim in Europe, what the Hoare–Laval Pact offered was a partition of Abyssinia, something that, in retrospect, would have been merely the first step to Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & Prime-Minister of Italy 1922-1943) absorbing the whole country as a colony of Imperial Italy.  Even for the by then jaded people of France and the UK the cynicism was too blatant and the reaction when the details were made public compelled the dismissal of both ministers.

Sir Samuel Hoare ice-skating, October 1935.

An expert skater, Hoare broke his nose while skating in Switzerland at the time of the furore surrounding the Hoare-Laval Pact; in editorial offices around the world, photographs were captioned: “Hoare skating on thin ice”.  When told of the broken nose, Winston Churchill (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) responded: “Pity it wasn't his neck.”  Meeting his unhappy ex-minister after his dismissal, George V (1865–1936; King of the United Kingdom & Emperor of India 1910-1936) (who had urged the British government to endorse the pact) tried to cheer him up by repeating a joke doing the rounds of the London clubs: “No more coals to Newcastle, no more Hoares to Paris.”  He was disappointed when Sir Samuel didn’t laugh.

In the way things are done in politics, after serving their brief time in the penalty box (sin-bin in some sports), both made comebacks although Laval's ended not well.  Slippery Sam found a niche as the UK's ambassador to Spain (1940-1944) where his talents proved invaluable for his dual role (bribing generals and persuading Generalissimo Francisco Franco (1892-1975; Caudillo of Spain 1939-1975) not to get too involved in the war).  Created Viscount Templewood upon his return to the UK, he was an active member of the House of Lords and wrote a number of books but his later life was lived in the shadow of the 1930s, remembered always as one of the 15 “guilty men” portrayed in the 1940 book of the same name, co written by three politically-aligned journalists (Frank Owen (1905-1979, Liberal), Michael Foot (1913-2010, Labour) and Peter Howard (1908-1965, Conservative).  Hoare’s own memoir of the 1930s (Nine Troubled Years (1954)) was an apologia for the appeasement policies of the decade and although if sympathetically read (those were, as he said, “troubled years”) his “guilt” emerges somewhat mitigated, his reputation never recovered.

Otto Abetz (1903-1958; de facto German ambassador to Paris 1940-1944, left) shaking hands with Marshal Pétain (right), Paris, November 1941.

Pétain had little faith in the arrangements his regime negotiated with the Germans honored, telling colleagues after one meeting: "It will take six weeks to work out all the details and six months for the Germans to forget all about them."  Because Berlin didn't formerly created diplomatic relations with France after the defeat in 1940, Otto Abetz was never properly credentialed as ambassador but wholly he discharged the duties.  His great nephew is Eric Abetz (b 1958; Liberal Party senator for Tasmania, Australia 1994-2022, Treasurer of Tasmania since 2024).

Laval, sniffing the winds of French defeat in 1940, became a convinced fascist, serving in the Vichy regime between July 1940-August 1944 variously as vice-president of the Council of Ministers and head of government.  He fled to Spain after the Liberation of France but was extradited and put on trial for plotting against the security of the state and collaborating with the Nazis; found guilty, he was executed by firing squad in October 1945.  Old Marshal Pétain fared a little better.  Although also sentenced to death for his role during the occupation, Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970; President of France 1959-1969), then serving as Chairman of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, couldn’t bring himself to sign the death warrant for one of the country’s heroes of World War I (1914-1918) and commuted the sentence to life imprisonment, officially on the grounds of “age”.

Perhaps surprisingly, the longest known palindromic word is not German despite their fondness for lengthy compounds.  According to the Guinness Book of World Records the record is held by the 19 character saippuakivikauppias which is Finnish for “a travelling salesman who sells lye (caustic soda)”.  It’s said not often to come up in conversation and seems to exist only a curiosity used in lists of long palindromes where it's the undisputed number one.  In English, palindromes of a few characters are common but examples with more than seven letters are rare.  Tattarrattat (the sound made by knocking on a door), as it’s usually spelled, has 12 characters but is a bit of a fudge because it’s also an onomatopoeia so some lexicographers insist it doesn’t count.  Also cheating but clever is the 11 letter aibohphobia meaning a fear of palindromes, the construct being the suffix -phobia written in reverse + phobia.  Adding to the charm is that while doubtlessly a non-existent condition, it's suspected there are anyway a few of those in the literature of psychiatry; certainly there's a goodly number in the many "phobia lists".  From India, there's kinnikinnik, a smoking mixture of bark & leaves (but no tobacco).  English’s longest “real” palindrome appears to be detartrated, the past participle of detartrate (to remove tartrates (salts of tartaric acid)), especially from fruit juices and wines, in order to reduce tartness or sourness).  Not only is it a real word but it describes a common process in the industrial production of foods and beverages.

Announced on an auspicious date.

On 2 February 2020, Lindsay Lohan (b 1986), in a now deleted Instagram post, for the first time publicly acknowledged her relationship with Bader Shammas (b 1987), a group photograph from Dubai, including the couple and her sister Aliana (b 1993), captioned: "@aliana lovely night with sister and my boyfriend bader💗".  The couple would later marry.  2 February 2020 (02-02-2020) was the twenty-first century’s only eight-digit global palindrome (ie it works with either the MM-DD-YYYY or DD-MM-YYYY convention).  The last eight-digit global palindrome happened 908 years earlier on the even more numerically symmetrical 11 November 1111 (11-11-1111) and the next one will be 908 years hence on 3 March 3030 (03-03-3030).  Six and seven digit palindromes are more common.

Palindromic sentences are often created and these are judged not by length but by their elegance which is why “never odd or even” often is cited as an example.  Leigh Mercer (1893–1977) was a word nerd and recreational mathematician who devised the classic "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!" and this approach was in the 1980s taken to its logical extreme in two novels, Satire: Veritas (1980, 58,795 letters) by David Stephens and Dr Awkward & Olson in Oslo (1986, 31,954 words) by Lawrence Levine, both said to be palindromically perfect and wholly nonsensical.  Shorter, but of admirable clarity, are the many baptismal fonts in Greece and Turkey which bear the circular 25-letter inscription NIYON ANOMHMATA MH MONAN OYIN (Wash (my) sins, not only (my) face).  This appears also in several English churches.  Originally specific to poetry, a palindromic verse (one reading the same forwards or backwards) was in literary criticism described as cancrine, from the Latin cancer (crab) + -īnus (the suffix added to a noun base (especially a proper noun) to form an adjective in the sense of “of or pertaining to”), the notion being “cancrīnus”, the image based on most species of crab being able to walk sideways (both left & right).  In general use, by extension, the world came to be used to mean “reading something backwards”.

Sixteenth century German "oath skull" on which defendants swore their oaths in the Vehmic courts (the Vehmgericht, Holy Vehme or Vehm, the alternative spellings being Feme, Vehmegericht & Fehmgericht), a tribunal system established in Westphalia during the late Middle Ages.

Created essentially because of the inadequacies of the official justice system, they're now often referred to as "proto-vigilante" courts but for centuries they filled a niche before they came increasingly to be associated with injustice and corruption before finally being abolished in 1811, a half-decade after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the source of their original authority.

In linguistics, these “grid of letters” are called “acrostics”.  Acrostic was from the Middle French acrostiche & acrostique (persisting in modern French as acrostiche) and its etymon the Late Latin acrostichis, from the Ancient Greek ἀκροστιχίς (akrostikhís), the construct being ἄκρο- (ákro-) (the prefix indicating, inter alia, the extremity or tip of something) + στῐ́χος (stĭ́khos) (row or file of soldiers; line of poetry, verse) (ultimately from the primitive Indo-European steyg- (to climb, go)).  They remain still a popular form for the “word puzzles” appearing in the surviving newspapers and magazines.  In verse, an acrostic is a poem in which the initial letters of each line make a word or words when read downwards (the mesostich (middle) or telestich (final) letter of each line might also be used) whereas in prose the first letter of each paragraph or sentence might make up a word.  It’s speculated the earliest acrostic may have been created as a mnemonic device and used as a tool to aid oral transmission and most of the acrostics in the Old Testament are of the alphabetical or abecedarian (in this context “a work which uses words or lines in alphabetical order”) kind.  For poets however it may have been just an intellectual exercise (or perhaps “a gimmick” if not well-received by certain critics).  Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1344-1400) used a simple acrostic device in ABC, a twenty-four stanza poem in which the first letter of the first word in each stanza is the appropriate letter of the alphabet, from A to Z.  The dramatist Benjamin Jonson (circa 1572–circa 1637) in his Argument (prefacing The Alchemist (1610)) used an acrostic verse (“argument” a technical term meaning “the abstract” or “plot summary”).

The palindromic (or “all-round”) acrostic seen on the oath skull is known as the “Sator square” or the “Cirencester word square” because a copy was in 1868 discovered on a painted wall plaster in what is now Victoria Road in the English town of Cirencester in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire.  At the time of the inscription, during the Roman occupation of Britain, the settlement was called Corinium.  The best documented of the early examples was one etched onto a wall in the doomed city of Herculaneum, the conclusion of most being Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas should be understood as “The sower, Arepo, makes the wheel work”), the trick being it can be read vertically, horizontally, or in the diagonal.  Known also as pentacles, the “SATOR” was the most commonly found in the Western Esotericism of late antiquity, used by Kabbalists, Gnostics, alchemists and other pre-medieval mystics in the creation of magic spells, amulets, potions etc and were thus often seen in the shops of apothecaries.  For deconstructionists, the translations are:

sator: sower/planter
tenet: he/she/they/it holds/has/grasps/possesses
opera: work/exertion/service
rotās: wheels

There has been speculation about the meaning of this pentacle, some a little fanciful and it’s not impossible things were made up just to fit, rather as "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" was coined to use each letter in the alphabet and "DICK HOOD DID EXCEED" serves no purpose other than to appear the same if inverted and viewed in a looking glass.

ROTAS
OPERA
TENET
AREPO
SATOR

The one on the skull was a second form, copied from an Egyptian papyrus of the late fourth or early fifth century AD:

SATOR
AREPO
TENET
OPERA
ROTAS

Among professionals and amateurs alike, there has been much debate about the possible meaning(s) and although there are a number of permutations, most hint at something like “the sower Arepo holds the wheels carefully”, indicating the care required when sowing the seeds for next season’s crop.  The form may however in some places have been vested with magical or religious significance.  In sixth century Ethiopia, the five words (corrupted to Sador, Alador, Danet, Adera and Rodas), were used as the names of the five nails of Christ's Cross.  In France, the word square was known to have been used as a form of lucky charm and reputedly, one fortunate inhabitant of Lyon was cured of madness by eating three crusts of bread (each inscribed with the square) while making five recitations of the Pater Noster in remembrance of the five wounds of Christ and the five nails.  Presumably encouraged by such an event, Spanish and Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries took these charms to South America where they were said variously to protect folk from snake bites and aid childbirth.

Spider

Spider (pronounced spahy-der)

(1) Any predatory silk-producing arachnid of the order Araneae, having four pairs of legs and a rounded un-segmented body consisting of abdomen and cephalothorax, most of which spin webs that serve as nests and as traps for prey.

(2) In non technical use, any of various other arachnids resembling or suggesting these.

(3) A cast-iron frying pan with three legs or feet once common in open-hearth cookery (now rare and applied more loosely; still used by chefs).

(4) A trivet or tripod, as for supporting a pot or pan on a hearth.

(5) In digital technology. digitally to survey websites, following and cataloging their links in order to index web pages for a search engine.

(6) In engineering, a skeleton or frame with radiating arms or members, often connected by crosspieces, such as a casting forming the hub and spokes to which the rim of a fly wheel or large gear is bolted; the body of a piston head; a frame for strengthening a core or mould for a casting.

(7) In agriculture, an instrument used with a cultivator to pulverize soil.

(8) Any implement, tool or other device which is some (even if vague) was resembles or is suggestive of a spider (sometimes as spider-like or spideresque).

(9) In nautical use, a metal frame fitted at the base of a mast to which halyards are tied when not in use.

(10) A drink made by mixing ice-cream and a soda (a fizzy drink such as lemonade) (mostly Australia & New Zealand).

(11) An alcoholic drink made with brandy and lemonade or ginger beer (mostly Australia & New Zealand and probably extinct although it still appears in some anthologies of cocktails).

(12) In slang, a person spindly in appearance (dated); also a popular nickname for those with the surname Webb.

(13) In slang, a man who persistently approaches or accosts a woman in a public social setting, particularly in a bar (also as bar spider).

(14) In snooker & billiards, a stick with a convex arch-shaped notched head used to support the cue when the cue ball is out of reach at normal extension; a bridge.

(15) In bicycle design, the part of a crank to which the chain-rings are attached.

(16) In drug slang, one of the many terms for heroin (an allusion to the web-like patterns on the arms of addicts into which the needle is poked).

(17) In music, part of a resonator instrument that transmits string vibrations from the bridge to a resonator cone at multiple points.

(18) In fly fishing, a soft-hackle fly (mostly southern England).

(19) In the sport of darts, the network of wires separating the areas of a dartboard.

(20) In mathematics, a type of graph or tree.

(21) In passenger transport, a early type of light phaeton (obsolete) and latterly a descriptor for a roadster (also as spyder).

(22) In photography and film-making, a support for a camera tripod, preventing it from sliding.

1380s: From the Middle English spydyr, spydyr & spither (the forms from mid-century were spiþre, spiþur & spiþer), from the Old English spīþra & spīthra (spider), from the Proto-West Germanic spinþrijō, from the Proto-Germanic spinnaną & spin-thon (“to spin”).  The Old English forms were akin to spinnan (to spin) and cognate with the Danish spinder (literally “spinner”) and the German Spinne and (mostly) displaced attercop (spider, unpleasant person) which was relegated to a dialectal term.  The root of the European form was the primitive Indo-European spen & pen (to draw, stretch, spin) + the formative or agential -thro.  The connection with the root is more transparent in other Germanic cognates such as the Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, Middle High German & German spinne and the Dutch spin (spider).  The loss of -n- before spirants is familiar in Old English (such as goose or tooth).  Spider is a noun, spidery and spideresque are adjectives, spidering is a verb and spidered is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is spiders.

Lindsay Lohan with Spiderman and spideresque offspring, Harper’s Bazaar photo shoot, Los Angeles, 2007.

Despite the ancient lineage, in the Old & Middle English there were more common words used when speaking of arachnids including lobbe (or loppe as Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1344-1400) would have it), atorcoppe (the Middle English attercop translates literally as “poison-head”), and (from the Latin aranea), renge.  Middle English also had araine (spider) which was picked up, via the Old French from the Latin word with the same spelling and, more poetically, in the Old English there was gangewifre (a weaver as he goes).  In literature, the spider was often a figure of cunning, skill, and industry as well as venomous predation.  In the seventeenth century, the spider figuratively represented venomousness and thread-spinning but also sensitivity to vibrations and the habit of solitary lurking, waiting for prey to fall into the web; quintessentially, the spider was an independent character.  The two-pack game of solitaire (patience) called spider dates from 1890 (still available in software), the choice of name thought owed to the resemblance of the layout of the decks in the original form of the game.  In zoology, the spider crab was first identified in 1710 (an applied to various species) while the spider monkey, so called for its long limbs, dates from is from 1764.  The noun spider-web in the 1640s replaced the more cumbersome spider's web from a century-odd earlier and the adjective spidery (long and thin) was first noted in 1823.

The Exorcist’s “spider walk” scene.

Based on the William Peter Blatty (1928-2017) novel The Exorcist (1971), the film version (1973) was directed by William Friedkin (1935-2023) and that it did not win the Best Picture Academy Award is a mystery explained only by the prejudices held at the time by those members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who cast ballots for The Sting (1973) a well-made but formulaic piece and hardly the a landmark like The Exorcist.  The “spider walk” scene was long the subject of speculation.  Not included in the original theatrical release, the director for years claimed it had never been shot and it was only when copies of the takes were found in the archives he admitted it had been done but that it couldn’t be used because the technology didn’t at the time exist to edit out the wires attached to a rail above which made the performance possible.  Subsequently, it was revealed the scene had been shot without use of the harness designed for the purpose because it was performed by an experienced stunt double with gymnastic training.  Apparently the director didn’t include it because he thought it appeared too early and disrupted the sequence which is interesting because structurally, The Exorcist is far from perfect.  The spider walk scene was included in the “director’s cut” editions released the next century.

Little Miss Muffet in Hell (left) and with MWC's (Motor Wheel Corporation) Spyder wheel (right).  Because the use by European manufacturers lent the spelling "spyder with a y" a tinge of the exotic, it was used in US commerce, MWC of Lansing Michigan dubbing one of their "jellybean style" wheels thus.  The wheel, produced in the early 1970s, used the then popular technique of combining a styled aluminun center with a chromed steel rim.  MWC's wheels were highly regarded for quality and the Spyder was produced for use with disc or drum brakes.  Note the latter day Little Miss Muffet's strategic positioning of the tip of the tongue. 

The 1550s noun tuffet (little tuft) was from the Old French touffel (the diminutive suffix -et replacing the French -el) which was a diminutive of touffe.  In English the word is obsolete except for the use in the nursery rhyme Little Miss Muffet which seems first to have appeared in print in 1805 although it (and variations) may have been circulating much earlier.  Etymologists believe Little Miss Muffet’s tuffet was a grassy hillock or a small knoll in the ground (a variant spelling of an obsolete meaning of tuft).  The latter-day use to refer to a hassock or footstool is an example of how (usually obscure) words can acquire meanings if erroneous definitions are often repeated and come to serve some purpose.  Tuffet for example became a favorite of antique dealers who are apt to call both footstools and low seats “tuffets”, a handy practice perhaps when provenance is doubtful.

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
There came a big spider,
Who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

Those whose fear of spiders (and other arachnids, such as scorpions and ticks) is so severe as to adversely affect normal life are said to be arachnophobic.  Although one of the most commonly described anxiety disorders, in the current edition (DSM-5-TR) of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), arachnophobia is not a diagnostic category but is classified as a sub-type of Specific Phobia, Animal Type, a clinical diagnosis typically described as “Specific Phobia, Animal Type (spiders)”.  The DSM’s criteria for a specific phobia include (1) marked fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation, (2) immediate fear response on exposure, (3) active avoidance or intense distress, (4) fear disproportionate to the actual danger, (5) persistence (typically 6+ months) and (6) and clinically significant impairment or distress.  So, one who merely is not fond of spiders would not meet the DSM’s criteria; the fear must be severe enough to impair functioning or cause substantial distress over at least six months.  The irony is that as well as most spiders being small, non-venomous and not at all anxious to attack humans, co-existing with them and their webs in most cases will improve quality of life by culling the insect population.  For those not convinced, arachnophobia can be treated by a number of therapies including (1) systematic desensitization (a gradual exposure to the source of the distress), (2) the adoption of “calming techniques” which can lower the distress response and (3) CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy), a structured, goal-oriented form of psychotherapy focusing on identifying and changing negative or dysfunctional thought patterns and behaviours.  The estimates vary but all research indicates well under 10% of the global population suffer arachnophobia to the extent a clinician would diagnose with women being significantly more affected.

Spider Phaeton, circa 1875, US.

There are cars called spider and spyder although, unlike many other natural or engineered creations which in some way resemble arachnids, these cars are almost always small roadsters which in appearance don’t look anything like their eight-legged namesakes.  The origin of the name lies in the horse & buggy era when a spider phaeton was a lightweight horse-drawn carriage intended for short-distance journeys and the design was intended to impress so there was often little protection from the elements beyond perhaps something to shade ladies from the sun.  Unlike some true “convertible” or “cabriolet” carriages, there were no side windows and the spider name was gained from the “spider”, a small single seat or bench for the use of a groom or footman, the name based on the spindly supports which called to mind an arachnid’s legs.  Quite where this style of coachwork was first seen isn’t known but they were certainly in use on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1860s and it’s not impossible the invention was both simultaneous and independent although there are sources which insist it was first seen in the ante-bellum US.  Historians of early transportation note also the similarity of the small seat with the "jump seat" and the later "rumble" or dicky (also as dickie or dickey) seats.

1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spider Monza.

As engines (steam, electric and predominately internal combustion) made possible horseless carriages, in the earliest days the body-styles were carried over as were the designations which is why berlinas, cabriolets and phaetons appeared in the catalogues of the early automotive coach-builders.  However, the spider nomenclature seems to have for decades been forgotten, because although the ancillary seats still existed, the terms “dicky”, “rumble” and “jump” came to be preferred, each with its own etymological tale.  The revival of the name had to await the interwar years, Alfa Romeo in 1931 introducing the 8C, powered by 2.3, 2.6 & 2.9 litre stright-8s, the line continuing until 1939.  Many were touring cars but the Spider version was a sports car built for road and track, and 8C 2300 Spiders won the 1931 & 1932 Targa Florio road-race in Sicily and it was victory in the 1931 Italian Grand Prix which the factory honored with the "Monza", the GP car a shortened, lightweight version of the Spider.

1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder, one of the few times the factory preferred Spyder to Spider.

To date, Ferrari's only Spyders have been the 250 GT California (1957–1963), the 365 California (1966) and the 365 GTS/4 (Daytona, 1971–1973).  Other than those, it's been Spiders (or Cabriolets for the 2+2s) all the way but the factory's website seems for all (two seat) purposes to have standardized on Spider and whatever the original designation, the coachwork now is listed as "two seat spider".

Encouraged by the image Alfa-Romeo gained from the illustrious 8C Spiders, a few other cars emerged from Europe in the 1930s but it was in the post-war years the name became really fashionable, the economic boom and the availability of chassis suitable to carry the imagination of carrozzerias meant there was a concurrence of supply and demand for stylish roadsters, many of which carried the magic of the spider name.  Seemingly more glamorous still must have been “Spyder” because it was in the 1950s that roadsters called Spyder began to appear.  Quite why the “y” sometimes was preferred to the “i” has over the years attracted comment and speculation but the reason for the adoption remain obscure.  The idea it was to avoid legal action from Alfa-Romeo was soon discounted because, spider being a historic generic from coach-building (like sedan, limousine, cabriolet etc), it couldn’t be trade-marked or otherwise protected and Alfa-Romeo seems anyway never to have tried.  There was however a quasi-legal status granted to the spelling “spider” because in 1924, the (the apparently now forgotten) Milan-based National Federation of Body makers declared that was how it should be written, the speculation being that Il Duce (Benito Mussolini, 1883-1945; Duce (Leader) & Prime-Minister of Italy 1922-1943) wanted to make everything as Italian as possible and, there being no "y" in the alphabet, spider it was.  Of whether such matters much occupied the fascist mind, there seems no documentation and it does seem dubious; X, Y, W, J not appearing in the Italian alphabet either although many words in the languages include them.

1964 Chevrolet Corvair Monza Spyder Coupe.  Although it looks frumpy compared with the most accomplished re-styling of 1965, the original Corvair (1990-1965) was a modernist take on the US design language of the late 1950s and was restrained compared with some of what came off the drawing boards in the era.

In 1962 Chevrolet chose “Spyder” as the name for the high-performance version of the rear-engined Corvair, introduced in 1960 as a compact car with an emphasis on economy of operation with no pretentions of sportiness (although drivers would soon discover the sometimes quirky handling characteristics could make the things feel rather like certain racing cars).  Adopting the name for the turbocharged Spyder made sense because GM (General Motors) had from the state positioned the Corvair as a more “European” type of car although the irony was it made its debut at a time when across the Atlantic many manufacturers were for their next generation of mass-market machines pondering a switch from RE-RWD (rear engine-rear wheel drive) to FE-FWD (front engine, front wheel drive).  In the way Detroit was rather loose in the handling of nomenclature, the “Spider” package was available for the Monza versions both as a coupe and convertible; notably, it made the Corvair only the second passenger vehicle in series production to have been fitted with a turbo-charger, Oldsmobile F-85 Turbo Jetfire having been released a few months earlier.  The Oldsmobile venture was brief because the early implementation of the technology demanded rather more of drivers than US buyers had become accustomed to giving and anyway, despite the specification (turbocharged, all aluminium, 215 cubic inch (3.5 litre) V8) sounding tempting, on the road it was less than exciting and GM soon abandoned the engine (whether with forced aspiration or not).  The corporation came to regret that decision because the light, compact V8 would have proved a useful augmentation to their ranges in the troubled decades to follow.  As it was, in 1965 it sold the rights and tooling to Rover and the V8 would until 2006 provide stellar service to the UK industry.  Chevrolet in 1965 retired the “Spyder” name from the Corvair and replaced it with “Corsa”.

1965 Chevrolet Corvair Corsa Coupe (left) and 1967 Chevrolet Corvair 500 Sport Sedan (right).  The almost Italianesque lines of the second generation Corvair (1965-1967) were as fine as anything from Detroit in the 1960s but the damage to the car's reputation was done.  The four-door version was notable for being the only compact four-door hardtop the industry produced and uniquely, there was no companion model with a B-pillar. 

As an evocative name for a car, the Latin corsa (from the Ancient Greek κόρση (kórsē) (variously (1) in building, the uprights on the gate of a temple, (2) in anatomy the sides of the forehead (ie the temples) or (3) the hair on the temples)) wasn't encouraging as a noun because it meant “the outer strip in the molding about a door (a girder)”.  However, the Latin adjective corsa could (in the feminine) be used to mean “a Corsican” or “of or relating to Corsica” and that obviously was very European.  To emphasise that, “Corsa” exists in a number of Romance languages including Asturian, Catalan, French, Galician, Italian, Latin, Portuguese & Spanish.  There is nothing to suggest there was in the mid-1960s and market resistance to the name “Spyder”, the switch to “Corsa” made just to create the aura of “newness” at the time so important.  In 1965 that was a quality especially important for the second generation Corvair, the reputation of which (rightly) had suffered after the publication of Ralph Nader’s (b 1934) Unsafe at Any Speed (1965) which was a devastating critique on the safety standards of US-made automobiles, the dubiously implemented swing-axles on the very early Corvairs the emblematic case study.  Ironically, as well as being one of the loveliest designs of the era, the revised Corvair greatly was improved but by them the damage was terminal and the project doomed, the model lingering until 1969 only because GM didn’t wish it thought Nader had claimed a scalp.

Advertising was different in the 1970s.

MWC may not have wanted customers to associate its Spyder with the then recently cancelled Corvair but may have been encouraged by FoMoCo (Ford Motor Company) which as early as 1958 had borrowed the French spelling Galaxie for the top-trim option for its then full-sized Fairlane, the company in 1966 adding the 7 Litre option to the range.  Even then liters were not unknown in US English (especially among scientists and engineers) but they tended not to use the French spelling (although Pontiac used it to emphasize the distinctly "European" flavor of its short-lived (1966-1969) OHC (overhead camshaft) straight-six).  FoMoCo's marketing staff wouldn’t have deluded themselves by imagining use of “litre” would suggest to buyers there was anything remotely “French” about the Galaxie's biggest engine option (by 1966, French cars certainly weren’t built with 7 litre V8 engines) but it avoided a linguistic clash with Galaxie and anyway such things were then anyway part of the zeitgeist of commerce.  Then as now, New York City was no more representative of life in the US than were things south of the Mason-Dixon Line but cars were named for the whole country and just as wild creatures (cougar, mustang, barracuda etc) suited some segments, “Galaxie” in 1958 had been chosen because, post-Sputnik, it was the dawn of the “space age” with rockets and satellites suddenly part of the cultural milieu.  So it was a deliberate exercise in branding and not a linguistic accident, just as litre appealed because more than any other European nation, France was thought redolent with connotations of modernity and sophistication, making "Galaxie 7 Litre" a happy combination.

1971 Ford LTD Convertible with MWC's Spyder wheels.  The proliferation of smaller ranges (the pony cars and intermediates) meant the demise of the "sporty" versions of the full-size lines; among the Fords, the last big block V8 / 4-speed manual transmission combo was built in 1969 and the last LTD convertible would appear in 1972. 

A 1971 LTD is an improbable resting place for a set of MWC Spyders which presumably enjoyed an earlier life on another vehicle or perhaps several, certainly they were never a FoMoCo factory option.  The LTD began in 1965 as just another option for the Galaxie; it was a "luxury package" (ie letting the Galaxie fulfil the role for which in 1939 Mercury had been created).  Although in the 1930s & 1940s there had been various "Deluxe" & "Super Deluxe" Fords, it was when the Edsel venture played out over two and a bit seasons (1958-1960) that the real intra-corporate cannibalization began with Ford in the 1960s increasingly trespassing on what in marketing theory should have been Mercury's fenced-off turf.  Even when Mercury stumbled on its one bona fide hit (the 1967 Cougar), it wasn't long before there was a Ford emulating it and, to add insult to injury, at a lower cost.  Mercury did well to last until 2011 when FoMoCo grasped the excuse of the GFC (global financial crisis, 2008-2012) to shutter the brand.

The alpha-numeric juxtaposition also simplified the administration of the badgework because in 1966 & 1967, FoMoCo actually offered two very different versions of their 7 litre FE V8, the 427 (a famously powerful & robust beast with a stellar reputation on the circuits which was expensive, noisy, prone to being cantankerous and an oil burner) or the 428 (mild-mannered, smooth, quiet, cheap to build and offering prodigious low-speed torque), the choice at the dealership just a tick on the box for those with the cash of credit rating to afford the 427.  The market spoke, the sales breakdown between the 427/428 in 1966/1967 being 11035/38 and 1056/12.  So the 427 was retired from the full-sized line for 1968, a run 350-odd of a curious version with hydraulic valve lifters (intended originally for the Mustang) used in the Mercury Cougar, coupled exclusively to an automatic gearbox; for the 1968 Cougars, Ford decided there were just 427s & 428s and didn't bother with litres or liters.  Strangely, by then, the corporation would have had an excuse to stick with the French because in 1968 FoMoCo had three different 7 litre V8s in the showrooms, the 427 & 428 from the FE family and the 429 from the 385 series.  Fortunately, another 7 litre (the 430 from the MEL family) had been retired in 1966 after being enlarged to 462 cubic inches (7.5 litres).            

1955 Lancia Aurelia B24S Spider.

In Italy, the naming trend really took off in 1954 when Lancia introduced the B24 Aurelia Spider and soon Ferrari and other from Italy would follow although spyders would appear too, (including some from Ferrari & Lancia), and General Motors (GM), noted scavengers of European nomenclature (GTO, Grand Prix etc) shamelessly tacked Spyder onto the doomed Corvair, even for versions with a fixed roof.  North of the Brenner Pass, spyder has found favour, used by Porsche, Audi and BMW while in the Far-East, companies like Toyota and Mitsubishi, arch-imitators in style and perfectionists in execution have rolled out their own spyders.  Alfa-Romeo and Fiat however have stuck to spider, Lancia and Ferrari too seeming to have forsaken their youthful indiscretions and only using the original.

1967 Alfa Romeo 1600 Spider Duetto.

Although in continuous production between 1966-1993, it was only during the first three years the bodywork featured the memorable Osso di Seppia (Round-tail, literally "cuttle fish") coachwork.  After 1970, the Spider gained a Kamm-tail which increased luggage capacity and apparently also conferred some aerodynamic advantage but purists have always coveted the cigar-shaped original, despite it violating a few rules in the design handbook.  The Duetto name was the winning entry in a competition Alfa Romeo in 1965 conducted and in those days that meant running advertisements in newspapers (which people actually paid for and read) to which readers responded by cutting out and filling in the coupon, writing in their suggestion, putting it in an envelope on which they wrote the address, buying and affixing a stamp and putting envelope in mailbox.  Then, entering a competition took effort and commitment.  The company's directors liked "Duetto" because it summed up the romantic essence of a machine definitely built for a couple but unfortunately, for some legal reason relating to an existing trademark, it couldn't officially be used but for decades, among the cognoscenti,  the little roadsters have always been called Duettos.  To keep the tiresome lawyers at bay, when released at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1966, the car was released as the Spider 1600.

1980 (left) and 1978 (right) Lancia Beta Zagato Spiders.

Whatever its dynamic qualities, the Lancia Beta (1972–1984) tends to be remembered only for its extraordinary predilection for rusting, vying with the early Alfa Romeo Alfasuds (1971-1989) for the title of “most susceptible”.  The coupé (1973-1984) and shooting brake (1975-1984 and named HPE (High-performance Estate)) appear less affected by body-rot but the tainted reputation has meant these models have never attained the desirability of earlier Lancias like the exquisite Fulvia (1963-1976).  Tellingly, although convertibles tend in the collector market to attract a premium, not even the Beta Zagato Spider enjoys much of a following despite almost 10,000 having been produced in an era when new convertibles were becoming a rarity.  The Zagato Spider was more of a targa than a true convertible but was a clever design with both a removable targa-top atop the front seats and a folding rear-section, al la the early Porsche “soft window” Targas of the late 1960s.  The coach-building and design house Zagato has operated in Italy since 1919 and although there have been some nice creations, the operation has often been associated with the angular and the quirky, some designs simply weird.  Despite that, more than a century on, Zagato remains while others responsible for many sensuous shapes have come and gone. 

Robert the Bruce, colored engraving by an unknown artist (1797).

Robert I (Robert the Bruce, 1274–1329; King of Scots 1306-1329) was crowned King of Scots in 1306 and led Scotland to victory in the First War of Scottish Independence against the English.  Earlier though, he’d had his defeats and his spirits were said to be at a low ebb when after one disastrous battle, he was forced to take refuge in a cave.  Sitting in the cold, dark space, he noticed a small spider attempting to weave a web and time and time again, the little creature failed.  However, each time the spider fell, it climbed back up to try again until finally, the silk took hold and the web was spun.  From this, Robert was inspired to return to the fight and was victorious in the Battle of Bannockburn (1314), a triumph which turned the tide of the war and ultimately, in 1328. the independence of Scotland was won.

Bruce and the spider, by Bernard Barton (1784-1849)

FOR Scotland's and for freedom's right
The Bruce his part has played;--
In five successive fields of fight
Been conquered and dismayed:
Once more against the English host
His band he led, and once more lost
The meed for which he fought;
And now from battle, faint and worn,
The homeless fugitive, forlorn,
A hut's lone shelter sought.
 
And cheerless was that resting-place
For him who claimed a throne;--
His canopy, devoid of grace,
The rude, rough beams alone;
The heather couch his only bed--
Yet well I ween had slumber fled
From couch of eider down!
Through darksome night till dawn of day,
Absorbed in wakeful thought he lay
Of Scotland and her crown.
 
The sun rose brightly, and its gleam
Fell on that hapless bed,
And tinged with light each shapeless beam
Which roofed the lowly shed;
When, looking up with wistful eye,
The Bruce beheld a spider try
His filmy thread to fling
From beam to beam of that rude cot--
And well the insect's toilsome lot
Taught Scotland's future king.
 
Six times the gossamery thread
The wary spider threw;--
In vain the filmy line was sped,
For powerless or untrue
Each aim appeared, and back recoiled
The patient insect, six times foiled,
And yet unconquered still;
And soon the Bruce, with eager eye,
Saw him prepare once more to try
His courage, strength, and skill.
One effort more, his seventh and last!--
The hero hailed the sign!--
And on the wished-for beam hung fast
That slender silken line!
Slight as it was, his spirit caught
The more than omen; for his thought
The lesson well could trace,
Which even "he who runs may read,"
That Perseverance gains its meed,
And Patience wins the race.