Demand

Demand (pronounced dih-mand (U) or dee–mahnd (non-U))

(1) To ask for with proper authority; claim as a right.

(2) To ask for peremptorily or urgently.

(3) To call for or require as just, proper, or necessary.

(4) In law, to lay formal claim to.

(5) In law, to summon, as to court.

(6) An urgent or pressing requirement.

(7) In economics, the desire to purchase, coupled (hopefully) with the power to do so.

(8) In economics, the quantity of goods that buyers will take at a particular price.

(9) A requisition; a legal claim.

(10) A question or inquiry (archaic).

1250-1300: From Middle English demaunden and Anglo-French demaunder, derived from the Medieval Latin dēmandāre (to demand, later to entrust) equivalent to dē + mandāre (to commission, order).  The Old French was demander and, like the English, meant “to request” whereas "to ask for as a right" emerged in the early fifteenth century from Anglo-French legal use.  As used in economic theory and political economy (correlating to supply), first attested from 1776 in the writings of Adam Smith.  The word demand as used by economists is a neutral term which references only the conjunction of (1) a consumer's desire to purchase goods or services and (2) hopefully the power to do so.  However, in general use, to say that someone is "demanding" something does carry a connotation of anger, aggression or impatience.  For this reason, during the 1970s, the language of those advocating the rights of women to secure safe, lawful abortion services changed from "abortion on demand" (ie the word used as an economist might) to "pro choice".  Technical fields (notably economics) coin derived forms as they're required (counterdemand, overdemand, predemand etc).  Demand is a noun & verb, demanding is a verb & adjective, demandable is an adjective, demanded is a verb and demander is a noun; the noun plural is demands.

Video on Demand (VoD)

Directed by Tiago Mesquita with a screenplay by Mark Morgan, Among the Shadows is a thriller which straddles the genres, elements of horror and the supernatural spliced in as required.  Although in production since 2015, with the shooting in London and Rome not completed until the next year, it wasn’t until 2018 when, at the European Film Market, held in conjunction with the Internationale Filmfestspiele Berli (Berlin International Film Festival), that Tombstone Distribution listed it, the distribution rights acquired by VMI, Momentum and Entertainment One, and VMI Worldwide.  In 2019, it was released progressively on DVD and video on demand (VoD), firstly in European markets, the UK release delayed until mid-2020.  In some markets, for reasons unknown, it was released with the title The Shadow Within.

Video on Demand (VoD) and streaming services are similar concepts in video content distribution but there are differences.  VoD is a system which permits users to view content at any time, these days mostly through a device connected to the internet across IP (Internet Protocol), the selection made from a catalog or library of available titles and despite some occasionally ambiguous messaging in the advertising, the content is held on centralized servers and users can choose directly to stream or download.  The VoD services is now often a sub-set of what a platform offers which includes content which may be rented, purchased or accessed through a subscription.

Streaming is a method of delivering media content in a continuous flow over IP and is very much the product of the fast connections of the twenty-first century.  Packets are transmitted in real-time which enables users to start watching or listening without waiting for an entire file (or file set) to download, the attraction actually being it obviates the need for local storage.  There’s obviously definitional and functional overlap and while VoD can involve streaming, not all streaming services are technically VoD and streaming can also be used for live events, real-time broadcasts, or continuous playback of media without specific on-demand access. By contrast, the core purpose of VoD is to provide access at any time and streaming is a delivery mechanism, VoD a broad concept and streaming a specific method of real-time delivery as suited to live events as stored content.

The Mercedes-Benz SSKL and the Demand Supercharger

Modern rendition of Mercedes-Benz SSLK in schematic, illustrating the drilled-out chassis rails.  The title is misleading because the four or five SSKLs built were all commissioned in 1931 (although it's possible one or more used a modified chassis which had been constructed in 1929).  All SSK chassis were built between 1928-1932 although the model remained in the factory's catalogue until 1933. 

The Mercedes-Benz SSKL was one of the last of the road cars which could win top-line grand prix races.  An evolution of the earlier S, SS and SSK, the SSKL (Super Sports Kurz (short) Leicht (light)) was notable for the extensive drilling of its chassis frame to the point where it was compared to Swiss cheese; reducing weight with no loss of strength.  The SSKs and SSKLs were famous also for the banshee howl from the engine when the supercharger was running; nothing like it would be heard until the wail of the BRM V16s twenty years later.  It was called a demand supercharger because, unlike some constantly-engaged forms of forced-induction, it ran only on-demand, in the upper gears, high in the rev-range, when the throttle was pushed wide-open.  Although it could safely be used for barely a minute at a time, when running, engine power jumped from 240-odd horsepower (HP) to over 300.  The number of SSKLs built has been debated and the factory's records are incomplete because (1) like many competition departments, it produced and modified machines "as required" and wasn't much concerned about documenting the changes and (2) many archives were lost as a result of bomb damage during World War II (1939-1945); most historians suggest there were four or five SSKLs, all completed (or modified from earlier builds) in 1931.  The SSK had enjoyed great success in competition but even in its heyday was in some ways antiquated and although powerful, was very heavy, thus the expedient of the chassis-drilling intended to make it competitive for another season.  Lighter (which didn't solve but at least to a degree ameliorated the brake & tyre wear) and easier to handle than the SSK (although the higher speed brought its own problems, notably in braking), the SSKL enjoyed a long Indian summer and even on tighter circuits where its bulk meant it could be out-manoeuvred, sometimes it still prevailed by virtue of durability and sheer power.

Rudolf Caracciola (1901–1959) and SSKL in the wet, German Grand Prix, Nürburgring, 19 July, 1931.  Alfred Neubauer (1891–1980; racing manager of the Mercedes-Benz competition department 1926-1955) maintained Caracciola "...never really learned to drive but just felt it, the talent coming to him instinctively."    

Sometimes too it got lucky.  When the field assembled in 1931 for the Fünfter Großer Preis von Deutschland (fifth German Grand Prix) at the Nürburgring, even the factory acknowledged that at 1600 kg (3525 lb), the SSKLs, whatever their advantage in horsepower, stood little chance against the nimble Italian and French machines which weighed-in at some 200 KG (440 lb) less.  However, on the day there was heavy rain with most of race conducted on a soaked track and the twitchy Alfa Romeos, Maseratis and the especially skittery Bugattis proved less suited to the slippery surface than the truck-like but stable SSKL, the lead built up in the rain enough to secure victory even though the margin narrowed as the surface dried and a visible racing-line emerged.  Time and the competition had definitely caught up by 1932 however and it was no longer possible further to lighten the chassis or increase power so aerodynamics specialist Baron Reinhard von Koenig-Fachsenfeld (1899-1992) was called upon to design a streamlined body, the lines influenced both by his World War I (1914-1918 and then usually called the "World War") aeronautical experience and the "streamlined" racing cars which had been seen in the previous decade.  At the time, the country greatly was affected by economic depression which spread around the world after the 1929 Wall Street crash, compelling Mercedes-Benz to suspend the operations of its competitions department so the one-off "streamliner" was a private effort (though with some tacit factory assistance) financed by the driver (who borrowed some of the money from his mechanic!).

The streamlined SSKL crosses the finish line, Avus, 1932.

The driver was Manfred von Brauchitsch (1905-2003), nephew of Major General (later Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal)) Walther von Brauchitsch (1881–1948; Oberbefehlshaber (Commander-in-Chief) of OKH (Oberkommando des Heeres (the German army's high command) 1938-1941).  An imposing but ineffectual head of the army, Uncle Walther also borrowed money although rather more than loaned by his nephew's mechanic, the field marshal's funds coming from the state exchequer, "advanced" to him by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945).  Quickly Hitler learned the easy way of keeping his mostly aristocratic generals compliant was to loan them money, give them promotions, adorn them with medals and grant them estates in the lands he'd stolen during his many invasions.  His "loans" proved good investments.  Beyond his exploits on the circuits, Manfred von Brauchitsch's other footnote in the history of the Third Reich (1933-1945) is the letter sent on April Fools' Day 1936 to Uncle Walther (apparently as a courtesy between gentlemen) by Baldur von Schirach (1907-1974; head of the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) 1931-1940 & Gauleiter (district party leader) and Reichsstatthalter (Governor) of Vienna 1940-1945) claiming he given a "horse whipping" to the general's nephew because a remark the racing driver was alleged to have made about Frau von Schirach (the daughter of Hitler's court photographer!).  It does seem von Schirach did just that though it wasn't quite the honorable combat he'd claimed: in the usual Nazi manner he'd arrived at von Brauchitsch's apartment in the company of several thugs and, thus assisted, swung his leather whip.  Von Brauchitsch denied ever making the remarks.  Unlike the German treasury, the mechanic got his money back and that loan proved a good investment, coaxing from the SSKL a victory in its final fling.  Crafted in aluminum by Vetter in Cannstatt, the body was mounted on von Brauchitsch's race-car and proved its worth at the at the Avusrennen (Avus race) in May 1932; with drag reduced by a quarter, the top speed increased by some 12 mph (20 km/h) and the SSKL won its last major trophy on the unique circuit which rewarded straight-line speed like no other.  It was the last of the breed; subsequent grand prix cars would be pure racing machines with none of the compromises demanded for road-use.

Evolution of the front-engined Mercedes-Benz grand prix car, 1928-1954

1928 Mercedes-Benz SS.

As road cars, the Mercedes-Benz W06  S (1927-1928) & SS (1928-1930) borrowed unchanged what had long been the the standard German approach in many fields (foreign policy, military strategy, diplomacy, philosophy etc): robust engineering and brute force; sometimes this combination worked well, sometimes not.  Eschewing refinements in chassis engineering or body construction as practiced by the Italians or French, what the S & SS did was achieved mostly with power and the reliability for which German machinery was already renowned.  Although in tighter conditions often out-manoeuvred, on the faster circuits both were competitive and the toughness of their construction meant, especially on the rough surfaces then found on many road courses, they would outlast the nimble but fragile opposition.

1929 Mercedes-Benz SSK.

By the late 1920s it was obvious an easier path to higher performance than increasing power was to reduce the SS's (Super Sport) size and weight.  The former easily was achieved by reducing the wheelbase, creating a two-seat sports car still suitable for road and track, tighter dimensions and less bulk also reducing fuel consumption and tyre wear, both of which had plagued the big, supercharged cars.  Some engine tuning and the use of lighter body components achieved the objectives and the SSK was in its era a trophy winner in sports car events and on the grand prix circuits.  Confusingly, the "K" element in the name stood for kurz (short) and not kompressor (supercharger) as was applied to some other models although all SSKs used a supercharged, 7.1 litre (433 cubic inch) straight-six. 

1931 Mercedes-Benz SSKL.

The French, British and Italian competition however also were improving their machinery and by late 1930, on the racetracks,  the SSK was becoming something of a relic although it remained most desirable as a road car, demand quelled only by a very high price in what suddenly was a challenging economic climate.  Without the funds to create anything new and with the big engine having reached the end of its development potential, physics made obvious to the engineers more speed could be attained only through a reduction in mass so not only were body components removed or lightened where possible but the chassis and sub-frames were drilled to the point where the whole apparatus was said to resemble "a Swiss cheese".  The process was time consuming but effective because, cutting the SSK's 1600 KG heft to the SSKL's more svelte 1445 (3185), combined with the 300-odd HP which could be enjoyed for about a minute with the supercharger engaged, produced a Grand Prix winner which was competitive for a season longer than any had expected and one also took victory in the 1931 Mille Miglia.  Although it appeared in the press as early a 1932, the "SSKL" designation is retrospective, the factory's extant records listing the machines either as "SSK" or "SSK, model 1931".  No more than five were built and none survive (rumors of a frame "somewhere in Argentina" apparently an urban myth) although some SSK's were at various times "drilled out" to emulate the look and the appeal remains, a replica cobbled together from real and fabricated parts sold at auction in 2007 for over US$2 million; this was when a million dollars was still a lot of money.  

1932 Mercedes-Benz SSKL (die Gurke).

The one-off bodywork (hand beaten from aircraft-grade sheet aluminum) was fabricated for a race held at Berlin's unique Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstraße (Avus; the "Automobile traffic and training road") which featured two straights each some 6 miles (10 km) in length, thus the interest in increasing top speed and while never given an official designation by the factory, the crowds dubbed it die Gurke (the cucumber).  The streamlined SSKL won the race and was the first Mercedes-Benz grand prix car to be called a Silberpfeil (silver arrow), the name coined by radio commentator Paul Laven (1902-1979) who was broadcasting trackside for Südwestdeutsche Rundfunkdienst AG (Southwest German Broadcasting Service); he was struck by the unusual appearance although the designer had been inspired by an aircraft fuselage rather than arrows or the vegetable of popular imagination.  The moniker was more flattering than the nickname Weiße Elefanten (white elephant) applied to S & SS which was a reference to their bulk and not a use of the phrase in its usual figurative sense.  The figurative sense came from the Kingdom of Siam (modern-day Thailand) where elephants were beasts of burden, put to work hauling logs in forests or carting other heavy roads but the rare white (albino) elephant was a sacred animal which could not be put to work.  However, the owner was compelled to feed and care for the unproductive creature and the upkeep of an elephant was not cheap; they have large appetites.  According to legend, if some courtier displeased the king, he could expect the present of a white elephant.  A “white elephant” is thus an unwanted possession that though a financial burden, one is “stuck with” and the term is applied the many expensive projects governments around the world seem unable to resist commissioning.

Avus circuit.  Unique in the world, it was the two long straights which determined die Gurke's emphasis on top speed.  Even the gearing was raised (ie a numerically lower differential ratio) because lower engine speeds were valued more than low-speed acceleration which was needed only once a lap.

The size of the S & SS was exaggerated by the unrelieved expanses of white paint (Germany's designated racing color) although despite what is sometimes claimed, Ettore Bugatti’s (1881–1947) famous quip “fastest trucks in the world” was his back-handed compliment not to the German cars but to W. O. Bentley’s (1888–1971) eponymous racers which he judged brutish compared to his svelte machines.  Die Gurke ended up silver only because such had been the rush to complete the build in time for the race, there was time to apply the white paint so it raced in a raw aluminum skin.  Remarkably, in full-race configuration, die Gurke was driven to Avus on public roads, a practice which in many places was tolerated as late as the 1960s.  Its job at Avus done, die Gurke was re-purposed for high-speed tyre testing (its attributes (robust, heavy and fast) ideal for the purpose) before "disappearing" during World War II.  Whether it was broken up for parts or metal re-cycling, spirted away somewhere or destroyed in a bombing raid, nobody knows although it's not impossible conventional bodywork at some point replaced the streamlined panels.  In 2019, Mercedes-Benz unveiled what it described as an "exact replica" of die Gurke, built on an original (1931) chassis.    

1934 Mercedes-Benz W25.

After building the replica Gurke, Mercedes-Benz for the first time subjected it to a wind-tunnel test, finding (broadly in line with expectations) its c_d (coefficient of drag) improved by about a third, recording 0.616 against a standard SSK's 0.914.  By comparison, the purpose-built W25 from 1934 delivered a 0.614 showing how effective Baron Koenig-Fachsenfeld's design had been although by today's standards, the numbers are not of shapes truly "slippery".  Although "pure" racing cars had for years existed, the W25 (Werknummer (works number) 25) was the one which set many elements is what would for a quarter-century in competition be the default template for most grand prix cars and its basic shape and configuration remains recognizable in the last front-engined car to win a Word Championship grand prix in 1960.  The W25 was made possible by generous funding from the new Nazi Party, "prestige projects" always of interest to the propaganda-minded party.  With budgets which dwarfed the competition, immediately the Mercedes-Benz and Auto Unions enjoyed success and the W25 won the newly inaugurated 1935 European Championship.  Ironically, the W25's most famous race was the 1935 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, won by the inspired Italian Tazio Nuvolari (1892–1953) in an out-dated and under-powered Alfa-Romeo P3, von Brauchitsch's powerful W25 shredding a rear tyre on the final lap.  However, the Auto Union's chassis design fundamentally was more farsighted; outstanding though the engine was, the W25's platform was, in many ways, eine bessere Gurke (a better cucumber) and because its limitations were inherent, the factory "sat out" most of the 1936 season to develop the W125.

1937 Mercedes-Benz W125.

Along with the dramatic, mid-engined,  V16 Auto Union Type C, the W125 was the most charismatic race car of the "golden age" of 1930s European circuit racing.  When tuned for use on the fastest circuits, the 5.7 litre (346 cubic inch) straight-eight generated over 640 HP and in grand prix racing that number would not be exceeded until the turbocharged engines (first seen in 1977) of the 1980s.  The W125 used a developed version of the W25's 3.4 (205) & 4.3 (262) straight-eights and the factory had assumed this soon would be out-performed by Auto Union's V16s but so successful did the big-bore eight prove the the Mercedes-Benz V16 project was aborted, meaning resources didn't need to be devoted to the body and chassis engineering which would have been required to accommodate the bigger, wider and heavier unit (something which is subsequent decades would doom a Maserati V12 and Porsche's Flat-16.  The W125 was the classic machine of the pre-war "big horsepower" era and if a car travelling at 100 mph (160 km/h) passed a W125 at standstill, the latter could accelerate and pass that car within a mile (1.6 km).

A W125 on the banked Nordschleife (northern ribbon (curve)) at Avus, 1937.  At Avus, the streamlined bodywork was fitted because a track which is 20 km (12 miles) in length but has only four curves puts an untypical premium on top-speed.  The banked turn was demolished in 1967 because increased traffic volumes meant an intersection was needed under the Funkturm (radio tower), tower and today only fragments of the original circuit remain although the lovely art deco race control tower still exists and was for a time used as restaurant.  Atop now sits a Mercedes-Benz three-pointed star rather than the swastika which flew in 1937. 

1938 Mercedes-Benz W154.

On the fastest circuits the streamlined versions of the W125s were geared to attain 330 km/h (205 mph) and 306 km/h (190 mph) often was attained in racing trim.  With streamlined bodywork, there was also the Rekordwagen built for straight-line speed record attempts and one set a mark of 432.7 km/h (268.9 mph), a public-road world speed record that stood until 2017.  Noting the speeds and aware the cars were already too fast for circuits which had been designed for, at most, velocities sometimes 100 km/h (50 mph) less, the governing body changed the rules, limiting the displacement for supercharged machines to 3.0 litres (183 cubic inch), imagining that would slow the pace.  Fast though the rule-makers were, the engineers were quicker still and it wasn't long before the V12 W154 was posting lap-times on a par with the W125 although they did knock a few km/h off the top speeds.  The rule change proved as ineffective in limiting speed as the earlier 750 KG formula which had spawned the W25 & W125.

1939 Mercedes-Benz W165.

An exquisite one-off, the factory built three W165s for the single purpose of contesting the 1939 Tripoli Grand Prix.  Remarkable as it may now sound, there used to be grand prix events in Libya, then a part of Italy's colonial empire.  Anguished at having for years watched the once dominant Alfa Romeos enjoy only the odd (though famous) victory as the German steamroller flattened all competition (something of a harbinger of the Wehrmacht's military successes in 1939-1940), the Italian authorities waited until the last moment before publishing the event's rules, stipulating the use of a voiturette (small car) with a maximum displacement of 1.5 litres  (92 cubic inch).  The rules were designed to suit the Alfa Romeo 158 (Alfetta) and Rome was confident the Germans would have no time to assemble such a machine.  However, knowing Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945), still resenting what happened at the Nürburgring in 1935, would not be best pleased were his Axis partner (and vassal) Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & Prime-Minister of Italy 1922-1943) to enjoy even this small victory, the factory scrambled and conjured up the V8-powered (a first for Mercedes-Benz) W165, the trio delivering a "trademark 1-2-3" finish in Tripoli.  As a consolation, with Mercedes-Benz busy building inverted V12s for the Luftwaffe's Messerschmitts, Heinkels and such, an Alfa Romeo won the 1940 Tripoli Grand Prix which would prove the city's last.      

 

1954 Mercedes Benz W196R Strómlinienwagen (literally "streamlined car" but translated usually as "Streamliner".

A curious mix of old (drum brakes, straight-eight engine and swing axles) and new (a desmodromic valve train, fuel injection and aerodynamics developed in a wind-tunnel with the help of engineers then banned from being involved in aviation), the intricacies beneath the skin variously bemused or delighted those who later would come to be called nerds but it was the sensuous curves which attracted most publicity.  Strange though it appeared, it was within the rules and clearly helped deliver stunning speed although the pace did expose some early frailty in road-holding (engineers have since concluded the thing was a generation ahead of tyre technology).  It was one of the prettiest grand prix cars of the post war years and the shape (sometimes called "type Monza", a reference to the Italian circuit with long straights so suited to it) would later much appeal to pop-artist Andy Warhol (1928–1987) who used it in a number of prints.

1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R.  In an indication of how progress accelerated after 1960, compare this W196R with (1) the W25 of 20 years earlier and (2) any grand prix car from 1974, 20 years later. 

However, although pleasing to the eye, the W196R Strómlinienwagen was challenging even for expert drivers and it really was a machine which deserved a de Dion rear suspension rather than the swing axles (on road cars the factory was still building a handful with these as late as 1981 and their fudge of semi-trailing rear arms (the "swing axle when you're not having a swing axle") lasted even longer).  Of more immediate concern to the drivers than any sudden transition to oversteer was that the aluminium skin meant they couldn't see the front wheels so, from their location in the cockpit, it was difficult to judge the position of the extremities, vital in a sport where margins can be fractions of a inch.  After the cars in 1954 returned to Stuttgart having clouted empty oil drums (those and bails of hay was how circuity safety was then done) during an unsuccessful outing to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, a conventional body quickly was crafted and although visually unremarkable, the drivers found it easier to manage and henceforth, the Strómlinienwagen appeared only at Monza.  There was in 1954-1955 no constructor's championship but had there been the W196R would in both years have won and it delivered two successive world driver's championships for Juan Manuel Fangio (1911–1995).  Because of rule changes, the three victories by the W196R Strómlinienwagen remain the only ones in the Formula One World Championship (since 1950) by a car with enveloping bodywork.

Gerrymander

Gerrymander (pronounced jer-ee-man-duhr or gary-ee-man-duhr)

(1) The dividing of a state, county etc into election districts so as to give one political party a majority in many districts while concentrating the voting strength of the other party into as few districts as possible.

(2) To subject (a state, county etc) to a gerrymander.

(3) A generalized descriptor (though sometimes technically not gerrymanders in the technical sense) of distorted electoral systems (often non-US use).

1812: A portmanteau word and an Americanism, named after politician and diplomat Elbridge Thomas Gerry (1744–1814) who (as a Democratic-Republican), served as fifth vice-president of the United States.  Gerry was governor of Massachusetts at the time the electoral re-districting resulted in the map of Essex County gaining a salamander-like outline.  Gerrymander was coined by the editors of the Boston Gazette and published in the edition of 26 March 1812, the text likely written by Nathan Hale and Benjamin & John Russell, the accompanying a cartoon by Elkanah Tisdale (1768-1835).  Elbridge Gerry's surname was pronounced with a hard “G” (Gary) but gerrymander is almost always (and universally outside the US) pronounced with a soft “g” (jerry).  If, upon analysis by psephologists, a gerrymander is thought so ineptly drawn that it's likely to backfire and electorally disadvantage the gerrymandering party, it is dubbed a dummymander.  Gerrymander & gerrymandering are nouns & verbs and gerrymandered is a verb; the noun plural is gerrymanders.

Salamander scene in The Parent Trap (1998).

The construct was gerry + (sala)mander.  The surname Gerry is a patronymic of Geary, of medieval English origin, from a Germanic personal name.  The personal name is derived from "geri, gari", meaning spear, and is a short form of the various compound names with this first element.  The first recorded spelling of the family name is that of Richard Geri, listed in 1195, during the reign of King Richard I (The Lionheart, 1189-1199) although the name was doubtless in use prior to this entry, surnames becoming necessary only after governments introduced personal taxation (known in England as the Poll Tax).  Over the centuries, surnames in many countries have seen many variations of the original spelling evolve.  Salamander is from the Middle English salamandre, from the Anglo-Norman salamandre, from the Classical Latin salamandra, from the Ancient Greek σαλαμάνδρα (salamándra), of uncertain origin but thought probably pre-Greek and from the Persian سمندر‎ (samandar).

Salamanderish: The explanatory diagrams published by the Boston Gazette on 26 March 1812.  To the left is what was described by journalists Nathan Hale and Benjamin & John Russell as "The Gerry-mander".  A new species of Monster which appeared in Essex South District in January", the cartoon by Elkanah Tisdale.  The centre map is the original gerrymander, a Massachusetts State Senate district submission drawn in 1812.  To the right is the second Massachusetts congressional district for the thirteenth congress.

The essence of the gerrymander is to draw the divisions on electoral maps such that votes surplus to requirements (often called "wasted votes") in "safe districts" are moved to marginal or opposition-held districts to maximize the possibility of winning.  In some cases, such malapportionments are constitutionally entrenched such as the arrangements often seen for the election of upper houses (including the US and Australian Senates (US political scientists insist the US Senate isn't an upper house but the basis of its electoral principle is a malapportionment).  Gerrymander is used almost always as a derogatory term, suggesting some form of political corruption, even if usually, technically, lawful.  Strictly speaking, it refers only to bizarrely shaped boundaries drawn on maps of electoral districts to favor one political candidate over another but has come to be used also as a general descriptor of malapportionment (the creation of electoral districts with divergent ratios of voters to representatives).  This was how most electoral trickery was done in Australia, the practice not eradicated federally until the 1970s although constitutionally entrenched malapportionments (especially of the Senate and the "historically special case" of Tasmania) remain afoot.  It was most famously (though not uniquely) practiced until the 1990s in Queensland where it was known as the Bjelkemander or Johmander (named after Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen (1911–2005; premier of Queensland 1968-1987) because of the way in which some rural electorates in the state parliament contained sometimes as few as half the number of voters as urban seats.  The malapportionment in Queensland, although usually associated with Bjelke-Petersen’s Country Party administration was actually a tweak of a zonal system introduced by the Labor party in 1949 and wasn’t even the worst in the country, the most extreme being in South Australia where, at one point, the largest city electorate contained as many voters as seven rural electorates.

Goofy Kicking Donald Duck: The Seventh Congressional District in Pennsylvania, 2013-2018.

It was the novelty of the amphibianesque shape in Massachusetts which gave the name to dodgy re-drawing of electoral boundaries but early in the twenty-first century, a new height (or depth) in the state of the art was reached in the Seventh Congressional District in Pennsylvania which spanned some 50 miles (80 km) from the outer suburbs of Philadelphia to the distant farmland of Lancaster County.  Existing between 2013-2018, the new shape, looking something like ink spilled on a map and drafted under the auspices of the state’s Republican party, was dubbed “Goofy Kicking Donald Duck” and one glance at the contorted shape meant no further explanation was required.  Carved from the predominantly black, low-income city of Chester, black, south of Philadelphia, the lines meant next-door neighbours found themselves suddenly with different representatives in the House, a violation of the long-established principle of “communities of interest” in which boundaries follow “natural borders”.  What “Goofy Kicking Donald Duck” did was “slice & dice” pieces of five counties and 26 municipalities, tosses them together in what political scientists called “a tossed electoral salad”.  The Republican Party’s objective was of course to link up identified pockets of conservative voters to ensure that the Republican would keep the seat, however obviously absurd or illogical might have been the tactic.  Neither of the parties has clean hands in this dirty business and the Democratic Party has also created its own gerrymanders although none has ever resulted in the artistic achievement of “Goofy Kicking Donald Duck”.

The SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) long ago ruled that gerrymandering to divide voters by race was unconstitutional but it has remained silent on whether doing it on the basis of voting patterns by party was also a violation.  In Pennsylvania, it was not a federal court but the State Supreme Court which in February 2018 declared the map unlawful and ordered it redrawn, something welcomed not only by Democrats but by also what are now called the “threatened species” of “moderate Republicans” (the ones derided by the MAGA (Make America Great Again) base as RINOs (Republicans in Name Only).  The MAGA crowd knows this is a war in which the shooting has not yet started and whatever dirty tricks need to be done are justifiable.  Because the practice of gerrymandering has of late become more prevalent, the SCOTUS is expected soon to have to make some sort of ruling.  Ever since Warren Burger (1907–1995; Chief Justice of the US 1969-1986) in Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533 (1964) made his classic statement: “Legislators represent voters, not trees and acres”, the principle has existed that single-seat electoral districts of state legislative chambers must be roughly equal in population but gerrymandering is a way to achieve a distorted electoral outcome while respecting exactly that.  What the court, inter alia, will be asked to consider is the matter of the degree of correlation between one’s ethnic identity and their tendency to vote for one party or the other and whether the recent spate of gerrymandering is “racialism in disguise”.  In the political climate of today, few are predicting how the court will deal with that.

Beret

Beret (pronounced buh-rey)

A soft, visor-less cap, made usually of a soft wool material or felt, styled with a close-fitting headband and a wide, round top, often with a tab at the center.

1827: From the French béret (round, flat, woolen cap), from the dialectal form béarn, from the Occitan (Gascon) & Old Provençal berret (cap), from the Medieval Latin birrettum (a flat woollen cap that was worn by peasants), a diminutive of the Late Latin birrus (a large hooded cloak), a word perhaps of Gaulish origin but the ultimate root probably was the Proto-Celtic birros (short) and related to the Welsh byr and the Middle Irish berr.  The similar clerical variation is called a biretta and in Spanish, the spelling is boina.  Some military units are associated with the color of their berets (green berets; blue berets etc).  Beret is a noun; the noun plural is berets,

A rendering of the famous photograph of Che Guevara (1928–1967) at the La Coubre memorial service by Alberto Korda (1928-2001), 5 March 1960.

Long culturally associated with France, its popularity as a fashion-piece may bounce around but the beret has never gone away, examples found by archaeologists in bronze age tombs and the headwear has appeared in art since Antiquity, notable especially in European sculpture from the twelfth century.  The floppiness certainly varied, a quality seemingly close to a direct relationship with size, suggesting all were made, as they appeared, from felt or some material with  similar properties.  One of the oldest forms of processed cloth, felt was a serendipitous creation by shepherds who, for warmth and comfort, filled their shoes with tufts of wool; as they walked and worked, they sweated and felt was made by the pressure of the foot pressing the the wool against the leather.  Berets were adopted first by Basque peasants, then royalty, then the military and then artists but in the twentieth century, they gained an anti-establishment association, influenced by French existentialists and the famous photograph of Che Guevara.

Lindsay Lohan in beret, promotional image for Saturday Night Live, episode 37-16, March 2012.

The military, the counterculture and the fashionistas have shared the once humble cap since.  One aspect of it however proved as vulnerable as any object of mass-manufacture to the arithmetic of unit-labour costs and world trade.  In France, early in the post-war years, there had been fifteen beret factories in the district of Oloron-Sainte-Marie in the Pyrénées where most French berets were made yet by the late 1990s, there was but one and it catered for only for the upper reaches of the market, supplying those few who simply didn’t wear clothes made east of Suez and Laulhère is the last remaining historic beret-maker still operating in France.  Dating from 1840 when the Laulhère family opened its first factory, such was the struggle to survive the national textile industry crisis as well as the erosion of its market by low-priced products of dubious quality that in 2013 the decision was taken by Laulhère finally to end production.  However, just as Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970; President of France 1959-1969) had une certain idée de la France, upon hearing the news of the closure, the industry decided there was une certaine idée de la mode française and a rescue package was organized by the Gascon-based Cargo Group and its sister company, Blancq-Olibet.  In a press release issued almost immediately after the new broke, Cargo Group confirmed they had acted because the beret was “…such an important part of our history and patrimoine (cultural heritage).  Clearly, the beret is as important to the French as the baguette, and croissant, both items being traditional products which have survived to co-exist with cheaper, industrially manufactured "imitations".  Cargo’s business model was simultaneously to use Laulhère’s expertise and skilled workforce to introduce new, more modern lines but maintain the availability of the traditional styles and it appears to have been successful, the classic berets still on sale.  It’s one of those dependable industry staples which can just about every year be promoted by a label, publication or stylist as one of the trends to watch in the next season.  Unlike something like the polka-dot which tends to be cyclical with sometimes a decade between spikes, the classic, timeless beret is always there, running the gamut from revolutionary chic to French-girl accessory, something able to be worn in all four seasons and is the ultimate mix & match fall-back; it can work with spots or stripes and vivid or subdued solids.  It's rare that a catwalk doesn't include at least one beret.

Canadian-American singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell (b 1943) in beret on the cover of Hejira (1976), the image a collage of photographs by Dr Norman Seeff (b 1939) and Joel Bernstein (b 1952).

Hejira is one of the less frequently used transliterations (the others being Hijrah, Hidjra & Hegira) of the Arabic هِجْرَة (hijra) (departure, exodus), a word used to refer to the Prophet Muhammad’s (circa 570-632) flight with his companions in 622 from Mecca to Medina.  It was from the verb هَجَرَ (hajara) (emigrate, to abandon).  When interviewed, Ms Mitchell said she was attracted to the word because of the “attractiveness” of the “dangling j”; presumably, musicians “hear” in words musical properties in the way a synesthete might “see” colors.

Bridget Bardot (b 1934) in beret.

The beret certainly has a long history, floppy head coverings appearing in archaeological record of the Early Bronze Age (circa 3300-2000 BC) and they have remained a feature in European clothing ever since.  At least partially, this was technological determinism in action: felt was the material constantly used and, being non-woven, it is one of the easiest materials to produce without complex machinery or skills.  Felt is made by matting and pressing wet natural fibres (classically wool) and its is famously versatile and durable, peasants favouring it for the linings of jackets, footwear and of course hats, as valued for its warmth as its capacity to resist moisture.  In the severe Russian winter of 1941-1942, one of the most prized possessions to be taken by the Germans from dead or captured Red Army soldiers were their felt-lined boots.  Because of the hubristic assumption the Russians would be defeated before the onset of winter, the Wehrmacht (the German armed forces) had made little attempt to build-up stocks of suitable clothing but, even had they been more cautious, there was nothing in their inventory to match the effectiveness of the Soviet felt-lined boot.  By the seventeenth century, black felt hats (less a fashion choice than it simply being the most simple colour to produce) were virtually an item or uniform among the French working class, farmers and artisans although it wasn’t until 1827 the industry coined béret, from the Medieval Latin birretum (a flat woollen cap worn by peasants).

Bridget Bardot and Andre Bourvil (1917-1970) in Le Trou Normand (Crazy for Love, 1952); it was her first feature film.

This being pre-EEC (European Economic Community (1957), the predecessor of the European Union (1993)) Europe, the beret of course became a political statement and as tensions grew in the mid-nineteenth century between France & Spain, the fashion lines were drawn: French berets were blue and Spanish red although in a gesture which might have pleased the Marxists, the working class everywhere continue to wear black although they were drawn by the price rather than international solidarity (although that too vindicates Marxist economic theory).  However, it’s from the early twentieth century that historians of fashion trace the ascent of the black beret as an essentially classless chic accessory which could be worn by men & women alike although such are the memories of Bridget Bardot and Catherine Deneuve (b 1943) that about the only men remembered for their berets are revolutionaries, Che Guevara, the Black Panthers and such.  One political aspect of the beret definitely is a myth: it’s not true the Nazis banned the hat during the occupation of France (1940-1944).  The origin of that tale seems to lie in the publication in the 1970s of a number of propaganda suggestions by the SOE (Special Operations Executive, the UK government's department of “dirty tricks” with a mandate to “set Europe ablaze”), one of which was to spread in France the story the Germans were going to “ban the beret”, something with some basis in fact because there was, briefly, a local campaign to deprive Alsatians of the hat, on the basis it was a (Basque) manifestation of Frenchness.  Strange as it sounds, such things had been done before, the UK parliament in 1746 responding to the failure of the Jacobite rising of 1745 by passing the Dress Act which in Scotland restricted the wearing of tartan.  Quickly, Berlin put a stop to the wacky scheme and there's no evidence the SOE's plan was ever used although the organization remained active in the disinformation business.  One curiosity of the crackdown on berets was it didn't extend to onion sellers although that wasn't enough to save Robert Wagner (1895–1946; civil administrator of Alsace during the Nazi occupation) who, an unrepentant Nazi to the end, was sentenced to death by a French court and executed.  

Pagophagia

Pagophagia (pronounced pag-off-faghia)

(1) The excessive and constant eating of ice, often as part of extreme dieting.

(2) A craving to eat ice, sometimes associated with iron-deficiency anemia.

Pre 900: A compound word, the construct being págo(s) + -phagia.  Págos is from the Byzantine Greek, the perfective stem of ἔφαγον (éphagon) (I ate; I devoured), singular first-person aorist active indicative form (by suppletion) of ἐσθίω (esthíō) (I eat; I devour).  Phagia is from the Ancient Greek πάγος- (phag-) (stiff mass; frost; ice) from pēnunai, (to stick, stiffen), from the primitive Indo-European root pag.  It was used also in a derogatory, figurative sense to describe a cold, unfriendly person (in the sense of one metaphorically cold like ice).  The nouns pagophile & pagophily and the adjective pagophilic reference species which prefer (ie are adapted to) ice as a habitat.  Pagophagia is a noun and pagophagic is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is pagophagics.

Ice, diet and the DSM

Pagophagia (the excessive consumption of ice or iced drinks), is often regarded as a recent phenomenon and a novel manifestation of pica (a disorder characterized by craving and appetite for non-edible substances, such as ice, clay, chalk, dirt, or sand and named for the jay or magpie (pīca in Latin), based on the idea the birds will eat almost anything) but in texts from Classical Greece are warnings in the writings of both the physician Hippocrates (circa 460–circa 370 BC) and the polymath Aristotle (384–322 BC) concerning the dangers of the excessive intake of cold or iced water.  The cause of the death of Theophilus (Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Emperor 829-842) was officially dysentery but, based on the original texts of Byzantine historians and chroniclers of the era, modern researchers speculate the cause of death may have been related to Theophilus' pagophagia (snow eating), a long-time habit he indulged to relieve the symptoms of gastric inflammation.  In the medical literature, from the sixteenth century on, there are discussions and illustrative case histories about the detrimental effect of immoderate usage of cold water, ice and snow, frequently in the context of eating disorders, another range of conditions with a long history.

A noted feature of the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5 (2013)), was the more systematic approach taken to eating disorders, variable definitional criteria being defined for the range of behaviours within that general rubric.  What may have appeared strange was including the ice-eaters within the psychological disorder Pica which is characterized by the manifestation of appetite for non-nutritive substances including sharp objects (acuphagia), purified starch (amylophagia), burnt matches (cautopyreiophagia), dust (coniophagia), feces (coprophagia), sick (emetophagia), raw potatoes (geomelophagia), soil, clay or chalk (geophagia), glass (hyalophagia), stones (lithophagia), metal (metallophagia), musus (mucophagia), ice (pagophagia), lead (plumbophagia), hair, wool, and other fibres (trichophagia), urine (urophagia), blood (hematophagia (sometimes called vampirism)) and wood or derivates such as paper & cardboard (xylophagia).  DSM-5 also codified the criteria for behaviour to be classified pica.  They must (1) last beyond one (1) month beyond an age in infancy when eating such objects is not unusual, (2) not be culturally sanctioned practice and (3), in quantity or consequence, be of sufficient severity to demand clinical intervention.  Interestingly, when the text revision of DSM-5 (DSM-5-TR, 2022) was released, the sentence “individuals with atypical anorexia nervosa may experience many of the physiological complications associated with anorexia nervosa” was added to the description of the atypical anorexia nervosa example to clarify that the presence of physiological consequences during presentation does not mean that the diagnosis is the (typical) anorexia.  However, it must be remembered the DSM is a tool for the clinician and, while it can be a useful source document for the lay-reader, there are other publications better suited to those self-diagnosing or informally assessing others.  An individual for whom the only symptom of pica is abnormally high and persistent ice consumption doesn’t of necessity need to be subject to the treatment regime imposed on more undiscriminating consumers.

One of the reasons pagophagia is one of the more-researched and better-documented examples of pica is its strong association with iron deficiency anemia (the word in modern use unrelated to ischemia (local disturbance in blood circulation) which well into the twentieth century was sometimes a synonym), something which manifests especially in women as one of the consequences of the menstrual cycle.  The research has established there’s a high prevalence of pagophagia in patients with iron deficiency which tends to disappear once treated although the mechanism isn’t fully understood.  One theory is chewing ice temporarily increases alertness in those with iron-deficiency–related fatigue, possibly by improving cerebral blood flow or nerve conduction.  Pagophagia is thus unusual among the picas in that it’s a “red-flag symptom” in hematology whereas the others tend to be of interest to nutritionists and the psychiatric community.  The correlation is not absolute because not all pagophagics suffer an iron deficiency; for some it’s the pleasure or the crunch, the oral stimulation or merely a habit but if the craving is strong or compulsive, the usual recommendation is the use of supplements (ferritin, serum iron, transferrin saturation, hemoglobin).

One cube at a time.

The pro-ana community does recommend the eating of ice, not merely as a food substitute but because the body needs to burn energy both to melt the ice and subsequently restore the body to its correcting operating temperature.  With frozen water, this effect is greatest in negative calorie terms but the discount effect applies even to iced confections.  If a frozen confection is listed as containing a calorie content of 100 (25 grams of carbohydrate @ 4 calories per gram), this does not include the energy the body expends to melt the ice and the net consumption is actually around 72 calories.

All things in moderation: Lindsay Lohan enjoying ice-cream and (an allegedly virgin) iced mojito, Monaco 2015.

Pro-ana does NOT however approve of frozen confections, the preferred one litre of frozen water containing zero calories yet demanding of the body a burn of around 160 calories to process, the energy equivalent of running one mile (1.6 km).  The practical upper limit per day appears to be between 3-5 litres (.67 / .8-1.1 / 1.3 (US / Imperial) gallons) depending on the individual and it’s speculated a daily intake much over eight litres may approach toxicity, essentially because the localized symptoms would be similar to hypothermia and some organs fail optimally to work when body temperature drops too much.  Paradoxically, pro-ana also notes, ice shouldn’t be eaten when one is too hot.  After running, the body actually exerts energy through the active effort of dissipating excess heat and if one were to ingest large amounts of ice as one was cooling off, some of the heat generated would be neutralized by the coolness of the ice, minimizing some of the energy burning benefits.  There’s also the need to avoid dental damage; pro-ana recommending it be allowed to melt in the mouth or consumed as shaved ice.