Fartsdumper

Fartsdumper (pronounced farst-hoump-ah)

In Norwegian Nynorsk & Norwegian Bokmål, the indefinite plural of fartsdump (masculine or feminine), a road hump, speed bump or speed hump.

Mid twentieth century: The construct was fart + -s- + dump.  Fart was from the Middle Low German vart (speed, velocity; movement, motion; transport, transportation, traffic), from the From Old Saxon fard (traffic; journey) from the Proto-West Germanic fardi, from the Proto-Germanic fardiz (journey, voyage).  In the higher Germanic, the definite singular was farten, the indefinite plural fartar & the definite plural fartane.  The -s- was the genitival interfix indicating that the former part is a characteristic of the latter.  Dumper was from the German dumpf ((of a sound) dull (pain also), hollow, muffled; a thud (dull sound)), a gradation from the Middle High German dimpfen (to smoke, fume) and it’s speculated it may ultimately be derived from the same source as the English dank.  In fartsdump (masculine), the definite singular is fartsdumpen, the indefinite plural fartsdumpar & the definite plural fartsdumpane.  In fartsdump (feminine), the definite singular is fartsdumpa, the indefinite plural fartsdumper & the definite plural fartsdumpene.  The alternative form is the synonym fartshump (and derivatives).

The English Dank is a curious one, the conventional etymology suggesting it dates from the late fourteenth century, from the Middle English danke (wet, damp; dampness, moisture), probably from the North Germanic and related to the Swedish dänka & dank (marshy spot), the Norwegian dynke (to moisten), the Icelandic dökk (pool), the Old Norse dǫkk (pit, depression; water hole), from the Proto-Germanic dankwaz (dark).  The alternative etymology traces it to the a West Germanic source such as Dutch damp (vapor) or the Middle High German damph, both ultimately from the Proto-Germanic dampaz (smoke, steam, vapor).  Dank is an adjective & noun, dankly is an adverb, dankness is a noun and danker & dankest are adjectives.  The noun plural is danks.  Dank’s niche in the language is unique but words associated with the idea include chilly, damp, humid, muggy, steamy, sticky, wet, clammy, dewy, dripping, moist, slimy & soggy.

In other languages the evolution differed.  In Modern Dutch, dank (gratitude, a showing or token of recognition; reward, recompense) is from the Middle Dutch danc, from Old Dutch thank, from the Proto-Germanic þankaz.  In German, dank (thanks to, because of) was cognate with danken and the Dutch dank (and related to the Latin grātia) while in Lower Sorbian it came to mean "tax, fine, levy, duty".  In one Germanic quirk, in Luxembourgish, dank evolved as the second-person singular imperative of danken (to thank), from the Old High German thankōn, from the Proto-Germanic þankōną and cognate with the German danken, the Dutch danken, and the English thank.

Humps & bumps

In Norway, this advises a speed hump is ahead and drivers must not exceed 30 km/h (19 mph).

The terms speed hump and speed bump are, by most, used interchangeably because few of us realize there’s a difference, both appearing as tiresome, planned obstacles placed in a road. However, to traffic engineers, there is a difference.  A speed hump is intended to slow traffic to a speed in a 10-20 mph (16-32 km/h) range and is used in high volume areas such as residential streets, school zones, bus stops, the approaches to pedestrian crossings and around hospitals.  The construction and installation techniques vary depending upon the dimensions of the hump and the material used but the objective is gradually to reduce the speed of traffic, thus minimizing both the occurrence of incidents and reduce severity of injury in those which happen.  In design, a speed hump is a compromise between its purpose the need (1) to avoid damage to vehicles and (2) ensure emergency service vehicles are not unduly impeded.  Speed Bumps are more aggressive intent, designed to reduce the speed of vehicles to as slow as 2 mph (3 km/h) and generally no more than 5 mph (8 km/h).  Rising at a more acute angle and usually higher than a speed hump, speed bumps are used in areas where vehicle and pedestrians (or animals) share the environment such as parking areas, concourses or inner city streets.  The core purpose is a shock which induces a driver abruptly and rapidly to reduce speed.

Flink Fartsdumper (Smart Speed bumps): In high-tech & law-abiding Scandinavia, the smart-speed bump seems admired, only transgressors suffering while the obedient in their Volvos cruise on, their serenity undisturbed.

Fart Kontrol in Denmark.  The Fart Kontrol signs advise motorists of enhanced speed monitoring by the police including speed cameras.

The Nordic nations seem well-advanced in the art and science of speed humps & bumps, something not surprising, Sweden especially notorious for its onerous (and enforced) road-rules.  The new generation of Scandinavian smart speed humps & bumps are part of an integrated system of traffic management which permits speed limits in a given place to be varied according to defined conditions (time of day, visibility, weather conditions, day of the week etc), the signage changing automatically or by intervention in response to a specific event (road damage, accidents etc).  All this is accomplished by a combination of robotic devices which use sensors, artificial intelligence (AI) and centralized or distributed monitoring centres where humans react to information passed dynamically by the AI.  Part of the system is the smart speed hump or bump, one of the features of which is that the devices can be designed to be both depending on need and indeed even cease to exist, becoming a flat structure not protruding from the road’s surface.  Manually or automatically thus, at any time, a road may change from one with a speed hump, a speed bump or no obstruction at all.  The use of sensors monitoring the speed of traffic allows a speed hump or speed bum to be raised in response to a vehicle travelling above the limit while remaining flat for those not offending, sinners thus punished while the virtuous proceed serenely and slowly onwards. 

This is an aspect of the surveillance society which is becoming pervasive, the integration of which with AI has implications both reassuring and ominous.  The developments are most obvious (and most discussed) in China’s (People’s Republic of China; the PRC) Social Credit System (unrelated to CH Douglas's (1879–1952) mysterious theory of political economy).  The Chinese system began essentially as an exercise in database matching with the intention of ensuring those with a history of bad debts weren’t able to obtain credit from other institutions.  From there it grew to the point where the combination of big-machine databases and facial recognition software can mean someone crossing a road without waiting for the “Cross” sign to appear, might find their “social credit” score debited.  Presumably, if one jaywalks once too often, there can be consequences although whether that will be a text message suggesting a closer attention to road rules or a knock on the door at 2am informing one that one is to spend the next week in a “re-education centre” remains to be seen.  To the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) the social credit system must seem admirable because, after all, anyone who waits for the “Cross” sign has nothing to fear and pedestrian injuries & fatalities should greatly be reduced.  A win-win system then.

In the West, the pressure to adopt systems which pivot off the possibilities offered by facial recognition and database matching will be irresistible.  Corporations like the idea that someone wandering around a shop should see and hear content as tailored to their buying habits as that which is delivered to their screens at home or in their pocket.  They’ll be interested too in whether someone walking into the shop was once convicted (or even accused) of a property offence such as theft (especially shop-lifting it’s presumed) so matching a corporate surveillance system to law-enforcement databases offers obvious efficiencies in loss-prevention.  In commerce, the attraction of AI is that such systems, whether revenue generating or loss-preventing, run at essentially marginal cost.  Thus a “success” rate, in terms of additional sales may need to be as little as 3% because 3% of a store’s total customer movement should be still a big number.  Politically, it may be more of a concern because the possible implications of agencies of the state knowing (and recording) what a citizen eats, drinks, reads & watches and where they go with whom and what they buy or do when they’re there, remains substantially still speculative.  The possibilities will however emerge as the systems, gradually (and not necessarily obviously) are rolled-out, history suggesting we’ll be told about (1) the benefits and (2) if we’re doing nothing wrong we have nothing to fear.

Fart kontrol in the age of climate change.

Melissa Carone & Rudy Giuliani before the Michigan House Oversight Committee, Lansing, Michigan, 2 December 2020.

In Scandinavia, Fartkontrol is a familiar and well-understood road-sign but in the English-speaking world, at first glance it might summon thoughts other than of traffic management.  When Rudy Giuliani (b 1944; Mayor of New York City 1994-2001 & Donald Trump’s (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) personal attorney since 2018) appeared at a hearing conducted by Michigan House Oversight Committee in Lansing on 2 December 2020, there were so many memorable moments, it’s perhaps unfair to focus one but Mr Giuliani’s inability to maintain fartkontrol was so emblematic of the event that it’s as well remembered as his appearance in the mockumentary Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020).  Helpfully the precise moments of interest may be determined by the expressions of distaste shown by Jenna Ellis (b 1984), an attorney then attached to the Trump team and sitting to Mr Giuliani’s left.  The hearing was held to investigate allegation of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and focused both on aspects of the behavior of voters and the operations of electronic voting machines provided by Dominion Voting Systems.  Footage of the hearing provided some fun for viewers but the drama of the events of 6 January and more recently the coverage of the congressional committee investigating the involvement of others in the attempted insurrection diverted attention from what was in itself a serious matter.  That may soon change as the previously little-reported suit by Dominion (US Dominion Inc & Dominion Voting Systems Inc versus Fox Corporation & Fox Broadcasting (CA No N21C-11-082 EMD CCLD)) was recently cleared to proceed by the Superior Court in Delaware.  Dominion is, inter alia, suing Fox News for repeatedly broadcasting claims Dominion rigged and otherwise manipulated the 2020 election, even though it knew the claims to be demonstratively untrue.  Even if a final judgment doesn’t in quantum approach the US$1.6 billion headline damages Dominion have cited, the case may become interesting (1) as a marker on where the US mainstream media stands in relation to the First Amendment and (2) especially interesting if Fox is subject to discovery, the tantalizing prospect being the revelation of communications from Rupert Murdoch (b 1931; effective controller of News Corp & Fox News) himself.  Just what Mr Murdoch actually tells his editors to do and say has for decades been a matter of fascination among political junkies.

If Mr Giuliani’s inconsistent fartkontrol was a footnote, the appearance of his star witness was one of the better fifteen minutes of fame seen in recent years.  Ms Melissa Carone’s (b 1998) performance before the oversight committee was a smorgasbord of conspiracy theory, accusation and political polemic; of its genre, it was a tour de force.  Indeed, it seemed a star had been discovered and a career in politics or the theatre (it can be a fine distinction) seemed certain but unfortunately the Michigan Department of State recently disqualified the mercurial Ms Carone from contesting the Republican primary for a state Senate seat, the office saying she (and ten others who had nominated) had made false statements on an affidavit candidates were required to submit.  In the matter of Ms Carone, she had attested she had against her no unpaid fines for election law violations and all of her public campaign filings were up-to-date.  The department of state ruled this was not true and it was her second recent disqualification, the Macomb County Clerk & Register of Deeds having earlier barred her from participating in a primary for state representative.

Ms Carone knows a conspiracy when she sees and accused Republican election officials and the GOP leadership of plotting to keep her off the ballot.  “This is how our elected officials keep good candidates from getting elected” Ms. Carone said, adding that she was “…going to fight it. Even if I don’t end up on the ballot, my voice will be heard. I’m not going anywhere. I will still be exposing these establishment sellout RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) in the Michigan GOP.”  The office of the Macomb County clerk denied any political motivation, saying the disqualification was because “…she basically perjured herself” and that it was in Michigan “a felony to make a false statement on affidavits like those signed by candidates.”

Rudy Giuliani.

Melissa Carone

Dank

Dank (pronounced dangk)

(1) Unpleasantly moist or humid; damp and, often, chilly.

(2) In slang, as dank weed, excellent; high quality marijuana.

(3) In slang (as a critique of an internet meme), passé or clichéd, out of touch; having missed the cultural moment.

(4) In slang, an adjective of generalized approval or disapproval depending on the practice of the user, the former using dank ironically, the latter literally.

(5) A small silver coin formerly used in Persia

(6) As the acronym DANK, the Deutsch Amerikanischer National Kongress (German American National Congress).

(7) As an intransitive verb, to moisten, dampen; used of mist, dew etc (obsolete).

1350-1400: From the Middle English danke (wet, damp; dampness, moisture), probably from the North Germanic and related to the Swedish dänka & dank (marshy spot), the Norwegian dynke (to moisten), the Icelandic dökk (“pool”), the Old Norse dǫkk (pit, depression; water hole), from the Proto-Germanic dankwaz (dark).  The alternative etymology traces it to the a West Germanic source such as Dutch damp (vapor) or the Middle High German damph, both ultimately from the Proto-Germanic dampaz (smoke, steam, vapor).  Dank is an adjective & noun, dankly is an adverb, dankness is a noun and danker & dankest are adjectives.  The noun plural is danks.  Dank’s niche in the language is unique but words associated with the idea include chilly, damp, humid, muggy, steamy, sticky, wet, clammy, dewy, dripping, moist, slimy & soggy

In other languages the evolution differed.  In Modern Dutch, dank (gratitude, a showing or token of recognition; reward, recompense) is from the Middle Dutch danc, from Old Dutch thank, from the Proto-Germanic þankaz.  In German, dank (thanks to, because of) was cognate with danken and the Dutch dank (and related to the Latin grātia) while in Lower Sorbian it came to mean "tax, fine, levy, duty".  In one Germanic quirk, in Luxembourgish, dank evolved as the second-person singular imperative of danken (to thank), from the Old High German thankōn, from the Proto-Germanic þankōną and cognate with the German danken, the Dutch danken, and the English thank.

Dank is also a surname.  Diana Dank (b 1989) is a Russian actress and graduate in international management from the Russian Foreign Trade Academy (Moscow).

Dank is not, as is sometimes supposed, a blend of “damp” and “dark” although, most associated with describing damp, dark basements, it’s a practical working definition although dank places are often thought of as humid too.  The seemingly curious evolution of dank as a slang term meaning either “very good” or “very bad” is actually derived from the literal meaning in the sense of “moisture” which can be bad (rising damp etc) or something good (nice moist buds of weed).  Dank weed, the much admired strain of marijuana is said to be really potent, the recommended processing involving a slow drying of the harvested plant material in a paper bag with the top folded and placed in another bag, thereby reducing exposure to light & air.  When retrieving, aficionados check to ensure it remains moist, green and sticky, the resin glands still intact and “sweating” (slightly excreting).  Dank is the sense of things in general which are good developed from here, much as “filth” as a term of approbation emerged from the sense of “dirty bitch”.

Pineapple

Pineapple (pronounced pahy-nap-uhl)

(1) The edible, juicy, collective fruit of a tropical, bromeliaceous plant (Ananas comosus), native to South America, consisting of an inflorescence clustered around a fleshy axis and surmounted by a tuft of leaves; the flesh is juicy, sweet and usually yellow.

(2) The plant itself, having a short stem and rigid, spiny-margined, recurved leaves, the flesh housing ovoid in shape.

(3) In military slang, a fragmentation hand grenade (originally applied to those devices with a resemblance to the fruit, later applied more loosely).

(4) In slang, the Australian fifty dollar (Aus$50) note (dated and probably archaic).

(5) A web burrfish (Chilomycterus antillarum (or Chilomycterus geometricus)).

(6) In commercial paint production, a light yellow colour, reminiscent of the flesh of a pineapple (also called pineapple yellow on color charts).

(7) A hairstyle consisting of (1) a ponytail worn on top of the head, imitating the leaves of a pineapple or (2) the whole hair gathered and assembled at the top, there to sit like the leaves of a pineapple.

1350-1400: From the Middle English pinappel (pine cone (literally “pine apple” or “pine fruit”)), the conifer cone (strobilus (plural: strobili)), the seed-bearing organ of gymnosperm plants so named as a jocular comparison with fruit trees).  After being introduced to Europe, the fruit of the pineapple plant picked up the name because of the resemblance to pinecones, this use noted from the 1660s (pine cone adopted in the 1690s to replace pineapple in its original sense except in so regional dialects.  Elsewhere, the forms included the Middle Dutch and Dutch pijnappel, the Middle Low German pinappel, the Old High German pīnapful, the Middle High German pīnaphel, and the early Modern German pinapfel (all developed from the same notion of the “pine cone”.  Related too were the post-Classical Latin pomum pini, the Old French pume de pin, the Middle French and French pomme de pin and the Spanish piña.  To describe the pine-cone, Old English also used pinhnyte (pine nut) and pine-apple appears in some late fourteenth century biblical translations for “pomegranate”.  Pineapple is a noun; the noun plural is pineapples.

Ashley Ferh's Pineapple Crisp

Pineapple Crisp is made with chunks of fresh pineapple, topped with a brown sugar streusel baked until golden.  It is served usually with vanilla ice cream or thickened cream.  The classic recipe uses only pineapple but variations are possible, most adding either mango or orange although where a contrast in taste is desired, it nan be made as pineapple & rhubarb crisp.  Preparation time is 15 minutes; cooking time 45 minutes and as described in this recipe, it will serve six.

Ingredients

4 cups chopped fresh pineapple about one average pineapple

2 tablespoons plus ½ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon corn starch

1/2 cup cold butter cubed

1 cup large oats

1/2 cup whole wheat flour for Gluten-Free: gluten-free all purpose flour or ground gluten-free oats

Instructions

(1) Preheat the oven to 350^o F (175^o C)

(2) Combine pineapple, 2 tablespoons brown sugar and corn starch. Place pineapple in an 8 x 8″ (200 x 200mm) baking pan, or in individual baking dishes if preferred.

(3) In a large bowl, combine butter, ½ cup brown sugar, oats and flour until combined.  The texture will be that of cookie dough (easily pressed and held together).  Crumble topping over the pineapple in baking dish and press down gently.

(4) Bake for 45 minutes or until bubbly around the edges and golden brown on top. Serve with vanilla ice cream or thickened cream as desired.

The pineapple hairstyle is distinctive and, once done, of low maintenance but the very wildness means it’s not suitable for all hair; those with perfectly straight hair will likely find it just too much trouble because while it can be done, it would demand a lot of product.  There are two variations, (1) a ponytail worn on top of the head, imitating the leaves of a pineapple (left) or (2) the whole hair gathered and assembled at the top, there to sit like the leaves of a pineapple (left).  The pineapple is ideal for those with curly hair and for others, is a less stylized, more naturalistic version of what hairdressers call “the spiky”.

The Mark II hand-grenade.

The military slang to describe hand grenades dates from World War I (1914-1918) and was coined because of the shape of the Mk II grenade (re-named Mk 2 in 1945 as the US military dropped all designations involving Roman numerals as part of the computerization project), a fragmentation-type anti-personnel hand grenade first issued to US armed forces in 1918.  In the Allied forces, it was standard issue anti-personnel device grenade until the end of World War II (1939-1945) and during the was replaced by the M26-series (M26/M61/M57), first used during the Korean War (1950-1953).  However, because supply contracts issued in 1944-1945 had envisaged the conflict with Japan lasting well into 1945, the production levels were such that the US stockpiles of the Mark 2 meant that the inventory wasn’t exhausted until late 1968, by which time the standard-issue item was the M33 series (M33/M67).  In the military way, the American slang was adopted by Japanese soldiers as パイナップル (painappuru).

Reasons to eat pineapple

A member of the bromeliad family, the pineapple is a genuine rarity in that it’s the only edible bromeliad which has survived into the modern era.  Traditionally, it’s eaten by cutting away the spiky casing, then slicing the flesh into bite-sized pieced but it’s actually a multiple fruit, one pineapple actually made up of dozens of individual flowerets that grow together to form the entire fruit.  Each scale on a pineapple is evidence of a separate flower and in a TikTok video which changed the life of some pineapple people, user Dillon Roberts showed how the flowerets can be pealed-off and eaten piece by pyramid-shaped piece, obviating any need to chop and slice.  Not all pineapples have a skim which permits the approach but for those which do, it’s most convenient.  Unlike many fruits, pineapples stop ripening the minute they are picked and no techniques of storage will make them further ripen and although there’s much obvious variation, color is relatively unimportant in assessing ripeness, pineapples needing to be chosen by smell; it the fragrance suggests something fresh, tropical and sweet, it will be a good fruit and, as a general principle, the more scales, the sweeter and juicier it will be.  For those who live in an accommodatingly tropical region, the top can be planted and in most cases it will grow.

Lindsay Lohan sleeping next to "pineapple" pillow, Zaya Nurai Island, Abu Dhabi, 2018.

Pineapple has always been prized because of the taste and texture but there are genuine health benefits and it has long be valued for easing the symptoms of indigestion, arthritis and sinusitis, the juice also offering an anthelmintic effect which helps rid the body of intestinal worms.  Pineapple is high in manganese, a mineral critical to bone development and connective tissue, a cup of fresh pineapple enough to provide some 75% of the recommended daily intake and it’s especially helpful to older adults, the bones of whom tend to become brittle.  The essential component of pineapple is bromelain, a proteolytic (literally breaks down protein”) enzyme known to be both an aid in the digestive process and an effective anti-inflammatory, a daily ingestion purported to relieve the joint pain associated with osteoarthritis.  In the Fourth Reich, bromelain is approved as a post-injury medication because of the documented reduction in swelling.  Fresh pineapple is also a good source in Vitamin which, combined with the effect of the bromelain, reduces mucous in the throat which is why it’s a common component in hospital food because it reduces the volume of mucous after sinus and throat surgery.

There is evidence to suggest pineapple consumption can assist with troublesome sinuses and for those who wish to experiment, pineapple is one of the safer fruits because it’s low-risk for allergies.  More speculative is a possible role in reducing a propensity towards blood-clotting which would make pineapple a useful dietary addition for frequent fliers or others at heightened risk from deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) but it may be that any increase in the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables would show similar benefits.  Also unproven is the efficacy of the old folk remedy which suggests pineapple juice is helpful in countering the symptoms of morning sickness.  Of late, there’s also the suggestion the effect is heightened if the juice is taken with a handful of nuts but at this stage that seems a new folk remedy added to the old.  Still, as long as one’s stomach has no great sensitivity to the acidic nature of the fruit, most can take it in small doses without any problems and, because the fresh juice discourages the growth of plaque, it’s makes for a healthier mouth.

Slope

Slope (pronounced slohp)

(1) To have or take an inclined or oblique direction or angle considered with reference to a vertical or horizontal plane; slant.

(2) To move at an inclination; obliquely to move.

(3) To direct at a slant or inclination; incline from the horizontal or vertical.

(4) To form or describe something with a slope or slant.

(5) A descriptor of ground or some aspect of the natural or built environment which has an incline, such as a hill.

(6) An inclination or slant, especially downward or upward; to lie or cause to lie at a slanting or oblique angle.

(7) Any deviation from the horizontal or vertical; an inclined surface.

(8) In mathematics, (1) the tangent of the angle between a given straight line and the x-axis of a system of Cartesian coordinates; (2) the derivative of the function whose graph is a given curve evaluated at a designated point.

(9) In slang, a disparaging and offensive term used to refer to a person of East Asian appearance.

(10) As slope off, a slang term (mostly UK, Australia & New Zealand) describing someone moving slowly, or furtively away, usually to avoid work or responsibility; a rare variation is “sloped-in”, used to describe to who arrive somewhere surreptitiously (those late for work etc).

(11) To follow an inclined course down a hillside (applied especially to natural features).

(12) In military use, as slope position, a drill command referring to the position in which a long-arm should be held.

1495–1505: From Middle English slope (go in an oblique direction), from the earlier adjectival meaning “slanting”, an aphetic variant of the Middle English aslope, from the Old English aslopen, past participle of āslūpan (to slip away), the construct being a- (away) + slupan (to slip).  From 1709 slope was used to mean "to be in a slanting position", the transitive sense "place in a slanting position" having been part of the language since circa 1600.  The derogatory slang meaning "oriental person" is attested from 1948.  Slopingly is an adverb, slopingness, sloper & slope are nouns, sloped & sloping are adjectives and sloped & sloping are verbs.

The slippery slope and the thin end of the wedge

Borrowed from political science, the terms “slippery slope” and “thin end (sometimes edge) of the wedge” are sometimes used interchangeably but, while both refer to similar processes, there are nuances which distinguish the two.  The idea is that a small, minor and perhaps innocuous change or innovation affecting something can trigger a chain of events which might result in unintended consequences; in that there are similarities with chaos theory but a slippery slope is much more specific and probably lineal.  There’s often overlap between the two and the distinctions are not always absolute but circumstances usually tends more to one than the other.  Both tend to be used in political discourse by extremists and fanatics and are often example of what is called the “slippery slope fallacy” such as the argument that if gay marriage is allowed, eventually the gay people will be allowed to marry their goats.  That argument really was raised by some who claimed it wasn't an extreme position to take, pointing out that two generations earlier, those who had been opposed to the decriminalization of homosexuality because it would put society on a slippery slope towards gay marriage had been accused of raising a “slippery slope fallacy”.  All things considered, goats seem safe.  The slippery slope is also a piece of imagery adopted sometimes by black-letter-law judges who oppose judicial activism.

The difference is essentially in the dynamics driving the process.  On a slippery slope, things happen because of the inherent inertia; the notion that of sitting on a slippery slope, the slide downhill an inevitable consequence of the physics of fluid dynamics and the force of gravity.  The downward path will happen naturally.  By contrast, the model of the thin end of the wedge is that of the wedge driven into the tree.  If left there nothing will happen but if the woodsman continues to hammer the edge into the trunk, at some point, the tree will fall.  An example of the thin end of the wedge was the deployment in the early 1960s by the Kennedy administration (1961-1963) of a small number of military advisors to support the government of South Vietnam.  It had never been intended that large-scale combat operations would be undertaken in Vietnam but, step-by-step, Washington increased the commitment.  An more familiar example of the slippery slope is to adopt a rigorous diet and then allow a weekly “cheat day”.  On the first cheat day, one might have just the one chocolate biscuit but the next week it’s a biscuit and a donut and within weeks it’s packets of both.

Anthony Trollope’s (1815-1882) 1857 novel Barchester Towers is set in a tranquil and leafy town but there are few novels which, without even a threat of bloodshed, so successfully and with such subtlety impart such feelings of incipient evil and a relentless undercurrent of dread.  In Victorian novels there were many characters of dubious virtue but few not actually homicidal managed to induce in readers such feelings of unease and distaste as the slimy Reverend Obadiah Slope.

Although said to be “tall and not ill made”, Slope was “saucer-eyed”, his hair “lank, and of a dull pale reddish hue… formed into three straight lumpy masses, each brushed with admirable precision, and cemented with much grease.”  His face, “perhaps a little redder” than his hair, not unlike beef “of a bad quality”, a “redeeming feature” his nose which was “pronounced, straight, and well-formed” although marred still by “a somewhat spongy, porous appearance, as though it had been cleverly formed out of red colored cork".  The description of the nose is not without significance for it had by some been asserted that he was of lineal descent from Dr Slop, “that eminent physician who assisted at the birth of Mr Tristram Shandy, and that in early years he added an ‘e’ to his name, for the sake of euphony.”  Shandy, the eponymous character from Laurence Sterne's (1713-1768) nine volume work (1759-1757), The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, was birthed by the “man-midwife” Dr Slop, who squashes Tristram's nose with forceps as he yanks the baby out.

Slope was the domestic chaplain to Bishop Proudie at Barchester and began as a protégé of the Bishop’s wife (a truly ghastly woman) but later became her enemy as he attempted when he endeavored to wrest the control of the diocese from her hands by becoming an eminence (pâle) rouge, a kind of vicarage Richelieu controlling the Bishop.  The plots and schemes of the calculating chaplain, conducted with much obsequiousness, play out in the novel as a part of a struggle between those of the high church and the evangelicals, a struggle not resolved to this day.  The Trollope aficionados don’t regard Barchester Towers as his best work but few deny it’s one of the most enjoyable and anyone who wishes to sample Trollope should start here.

On the slopes: Lindsay Lohan in Gstaad, Switzerland, 2016.  The experience on skis may have come in handy in 2022 during filming for Netflix's Falling for Christmas.

Redux

Redux (pronounced ri-duhks)

Brought back; resurgent.

1650-1660: From the Classical Latin redux (that leads or brings back; led or brought back (as from war or exile)) a noun derivative (with passive sense) of redūcere (to bring back) from redūcō (to bring back).  Modern use tends to be post-positive, especially of an artistic work, presented in either a novel or different way.  It has been used in the titles of books and other literary works since at least 1662 since John Dryden’s (1631-1700) Astraea Redux (A Poem on the Happy Restoration and Return of His Second Majesty Charles II (1660)).

The literary use of redux as a post-positive adjective meaning "brought back, restored" began with John Dryden’s (1631-1700) Astraea Redux (A Poem on the Happy Restoration and Return of His Second Majesty Charles II (1660)) and other notable examples include Anthony Trollope's (1815-1882) Phineas Redux (1873), the sequel to Phineas Finn (1867); and John Updike's (1932-2009) Rabbit Redux (1970), the second in his sequence of novels about the character Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom.  Perhaps rather cynically, it was adopted too by film producers who noted the unused footage of many commercially many successful products (the industry phrase being “left on the cutting room floor”) and worked out it’d be a cheap exercise to create “director’s cuts”, marketed as a “new interpretation” of an existing work.

Dexfenfluramine, a serotonergic anorectic drug, was an appetite suppressant marketed as dexfenfluramine hydrochloride under the name Redux.  It worked by increasing extracellular serotonin in the brain and was structurally similar to an amphetamine but without the psychologically stimulating effects.  In September 1997, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked the manufacturer voluntarily to withdraw dexfenfluramine (Redux) and fenfluramine (Pondimin) from the market.  It was an unusual request and one necessitated because of a high incidence of cardiac valvular abnormalities found in patients who were taking the drugs.  Dexfenfluramine had been approved by the FDA in 1996 and had been widely used for the treatment of obesity while Fenfluramine had been available for 20 years but gained wide notoriety only when it was coupled with phentermine in the "fen-phen" combination.  Phentermine was not implicated in the heart valve abnormalities and is still available.  Dexfenfluramine and fenfluramine produced a distal axotomy of brain serotonin neurons in experimental animals, a toxicity which resulted in reduced brain serotonin axonal markers that persisted for months and, in one primate study, as long as one year after discontinuing the drug.  The doses of drug that produce this effect are similar to those used in humans although this effect has never been demonstrated in humans.  The demise of Redux thus ended the "fen-phen" era in diet pills but was soon replaced with a new fad combining fluoxetine (Prozac) with phentermine.

Cracker

Cracker (pronounced krak-er)

(1) A thin, crisp biscuit, sometimes flavored and salted (less widely used in North America).

(2) A firework (a clipping of firecracker).

(3) A small paper roll used as a party favor, that usually contains candy, trinkets etc which separates with a n induced pop when pulled sharply at one or both ends; also called a Christmas cracker or bon bon.

(4) A nickname for a native or inhabitant of the US states of Georgia or Florida (initial capital letter) which is neutral when used in a self-referential manner by inhabitants (also as Cracker State) but can be disparaging and offensive if applied by outsiders (and among certain communities in Florida, a derogatory term for a police officer).

(5) As disparaging and offensive slang, a contemptuous term used to refer to a white person in the South, especially a poor white living in some rural parts of the south-eastern US.

(6) Slang for a black hat or a boastful man (both archaic).

(7) As an onomatopoeic form, a person or thing that cracks.

(8) In chemistry, a chemical reactor used for cracking, often as the refinery equipment used to pyrolyse organic feed-stocks (if catalyst is used to accelerate the process, it’s informally called a cat-cracker).

(9) In the plural (often with a modifier), an informal term to describe someone mad, wild, crazy etc.

(10) In (chiefly UK) slang a thing or person of notable qualities or abilities (often in the form crackerjack).

(11) In Australian & New Zealand slang, something or someone thought worthless or useless (often in the form “not worth a cracker).

(12) In computing senses (as cracker, crack, and cracking), terms suggested in the 1980s as an alternative to “white-hat hacker” in an attempt to create a more positive public image of certain activities.

(13) In cryptology, as code-cracker (synonymous with code-breaker), one who decodes, analogous with the previous safe-cracker but often without the pejorative associations.

(14) A short piece of twisted material (often string) tied to the end of a whip that creates the distinctive sound when the whip is thrown (or cracked); the crack is the sonic boom as the material passes through the sound barrier.

(15) In zoology, a northern pintail, species of dabbling duck.

(16) In materials processing, a pair of fluted rolls used for grinding (obsolete).

(17) In Czech slang, a drug user.

(17) In botany, as crackerberry, The Canadian bunchberry (Cornus canadensis).

1400-1450: Crack was from the Middle English crakken, craken & craker, from the Old English cracian (to resound, crack), from the Proto-West Germanic krakōn, from the Proto-Germanic krakōną (to crack, crackle, shriek), ultimately from the primitive Indo-European gerhz (to resound, cry hoarsely).  It was cognate with the Scots crak (to crack), the West Frisian kreakje (to crack), the Dutch kraken (to crunch, creak, squeak), the Low German kraken (to crack), the German krachen (to crash, crack, creak), the Lithuanian gìrgžděti (to creak, squeak), the Old Armenian կարկաչ (karkačʿ) and the Sanskrit गर्जति (gárjati) (to roar, hum).  The meaning “to break” is thought related to the Latin crepare (to rattle, crack, creak), and the secondary, figurative meaning of that “boast of, prattle, make ado about” gave rise to the Elizabethan era meaning of “a braggard”, which, after reaching southern North America in the 1760s, gained new interpretations.

The sense of a cracker as a hard bread dates from the fifteenth century but the use to describe a thin, crisp biscuit was first attested in 1739.  The most common modern understanding of a cracker is a dry, thin, crispy baked biscuit (usually salty or savory, but sometimes sweet, as in the case of graham crackers and animal crackers.  Being thin and crisp they crack easily (hence cracker (literally "that which cracks or breaks", agent noun from the verb crack)) and are often sold with a modifier added to the name (cream cracker, saltine cracker, soda cracker, water cracker etc).  The meaning in agricultural milling (instrument for crushing or cracking) is from 1630s and in various forms of engineering, chemistry & physics, the descriptor was adopted over the centuries, the best known the steam-powered coal cracker (machinery that breaks up mined coal (1857)) although the term (apparently since 1853) the tem had been applied to people manually doing the same job.  The original Cracker-barrel dates from 1861 and was literally a "barrel full of soda-crackers for sale" and came to be associated with general stores in rural areas which influenced the development by 1905 of the adjectival sense “cracker barrel” to suggest something or someone "emblematic of unsophisticated ways and views".  The noun wisecracker dates from 1906 an was an invention of American English meaning someone boastful (from wise + crack (in the sense of "boast") and though wisecrack survived, the use wisecracker, wisecracking and cracker in this general sense declined as “wise guy” came to be preferred.  The idea of crackers referring to someone mad or exhibiting unstable behavior emerged in the late nineteenth century and was based on the imagery of something “cracked up”; crackpot was of similar origin, the idea of boiling water in a pot with a crack being unwise.

The noun nut-cracker (also nutcracker) (hand operated instrument for cracking hard-shelled nuts) dates from the 1540s although there is evidence similar devices had been fabricated centuries earlier.  The term was applied to the "toy having a grotesque human head, in the mouth of which a nut is placed to be cracked by a screw or lever".  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's (1840-1893) two-act "fairy ballet" The Nutcracker was first performed in 1892; it was based on Alexandre Dumas' (1802–1870) rendition of ETA Hoffmann's (1776-1822) story Nussknacker und Mausekönig (The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816)).

The noun cracker-jack (also crackerjack) (something excellent) was a US colloquialism from 1893, said to be a fanciful construction, the earliest use in reference to racing horses and the first evidence of the caramel-coated popcorn-and-peanuts confection is from the World's Columbian Exposition of that year, the (unverified) connection being someone using the then popular expression "that's a cracker-jack" when tasting some; the name was trademarked 1896, the "Prize in Every Box" introduced 1912.  The noun firecracker (also fire-cracker) (exploding paper cylinder) dates from 1830, a coinage of American English for what is elsewhere in the English-speaking world called a cracker, but the US use distinguishes it from the word related to thin biscuits.  The noun safecracker (also safe-cracker) was first used in 1897, a reference to thieves who used dynamite.

Cracker (and Cracker State) is used as a neutral or affectionate nickname by inhabitants of the US states if Georgia and Florida.  However, when applied by outsiders, it’s often used with disparaging intent and perceived as an insult.  Cracker is always disparaging and offensive when used to refer to a poor white person in the South; the word in this sense often implies that the person is regarded as ignorant or uneducated (and thus vaguely similar to redneck, hillbilly, chav bogan etc used in various places).  However, when used by people of color, cracker can refer to a white racist or white supremacist and be unrelated to whether the target is poor or rural; in that it’s in the long and unsuccessful tradition of trying to coin descriptors (honky, peckerwood, redneck, trailer n-word, trailer trash, white trash, whitey, wonderbread etc) which white people find offensive.

The origin of cracker as a racial slur against poor white Southerners is uncertain.  One theory suggests it began (as corn-crackers) with impoverished white corn and wheat farmers who cracked their crops rather than taking them to the mill for processing.  An alternative explanation is that it was applied because Georgia and Florida settlers (the original Florida crackers) cracked whips to drive herds of cattle; the related speculative etymology references the whip cracking of plantation slave drivers.  Both may be correct yet may have run in parallel with the inherited use of cracker in use since the Elizabethan era to describe braggarts, the link being the sense (attested from the early sixteenth century) of "a boaster, a braggart", thought related to the Latin crepare (to rattle, crack, creak), the secondary figurative sense of which was "boast of, prattle, make ado about".  It’s argued the US form emerged to suggest a boastful person was “not all he was cracked up to be”.

Published in Darwin since 1949, the NT News serves readers in Australia’s Northern Territory and, purchased in 1960, was one of Rupert Murdoch’s early acquisitions, published to this day by News Corp.  Rather than the journalism within, it’s noted for its award winning front pages, many of which feature large crocodiles, double entendres, or a combination of the two and the most famous remains WHY I STUCK A CRACKER UP MY CLACKER.  The onomatopoeic clacker in most places means (1) in music a percussion instrument that makes a clacking noise and (2) by extension, any device which makes a clacking noise but in the slang of Australia & New Zealand it also means (3) “the anus” (the etymological connection hopefully obvious).  Helpfully, the NT News did explain why the firework was so placed (and detonated) and, unsurprisingly for anyone acquainted with Northern Territory culture, it involved alcohol.  Firecrackers remain available for sale in the Northern Territory on specific occasions, long after most jurisdictions in the country banned “cracker nights”, the origins of which lay in the “Gunpowder Plot”, the attempt on 5 November 1605 by Guy Fawkes (1570–1606) to blow up the English houses of parliament.  Guy Fawkes' plot was thwarted and although the Luftwaffe did some damage, the UK's parliament has, with the odd interruption, kept going as a place of "low skulduggery" and the occasional "pursuit of noble causes", one often disguised as the other.

Boris Johnson & Liz Truss discussing policy.

That the members of the British Conservative & Unionist Party (the Tories) voted to replace Boris Johnson (b 1964; prime-minister 2018-2022) as leader with Liz Truss (b 1975; prime-minister since 2022) was predicted by the polls, her margin of 57.4% was less decisive than recent contests (Boris Johnson (2019, 66.4%), Davis Cameron (2005 67.6 %) & Ian Duncan Smith (2001 60.7%)) and some had suggested a better number was expected.  One interesting aspect of the succession is the Tories have chosen to replace one madman with another.  Under the compelling system of characterization suggested by former Labour Party notable Tony Benn (1925-2015; aka Anthony Wedgwood Benn & the second Viscount Stansgate), those who ascend the greasy pole to the premiership are either: (1) madmen (2) fixers or (3) straight men.  Madmen change people, institutions and history, if necessary blowing up whatever stands in their way (figuratively, unlike Guy Fawkes and the Luftwaffe although prime-ministers, madmen, fixers and straight men alike, have shown little reluctance literally to blow up small parts of other people's countries if there's political advantage to be had); fixers are those who do deals and strike bargains to gain the consensus needed to make the system work better; straight men are incrementalists who seek to maintain the existing system and their place within  Politics does tend to be cyclical and though the three types don’t always operate in sequential rotation, it is unusual for one madman to replace another as Tory Party leader whereas there have in the past been successions of straight men or fixers.  US political scientists have also explored the idea of political cycles, described usually with labels something like conflict, consensus & idealism, the concept similar to Benn's idea.

Liz Truss in pantsuit.

Most observes seem to agree Liz Truss is a madman in the sense Benn used but while few suggest she’s actually barking mad (or even unstable to whatever degree a clinician might delicately describe her state of mind), most enjoyed the thoughts of Dominic Cummings (b 1971; political strategist and adviser to Boris Johnson 2019-2020).  Cummings is hardly an impartial observer but in branding Ms Truss “about as close to properly crackers as anybody I’ve met in parliament”, he did strike a chord in finding a way succinctly to express what many thought but couldn’t quite put into words.  Crackers is such a good word and in the world of the early 2020s, for a head of government, it might be more a qualification than a diagnosis; desirable but not essential.

Number 10: Coming and going.

Of course what's more interesting than Ms Truss being elected to an office once held by Sir Robert Peel (1788–1850), Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881), Lord Salisbury (1830–1903), Winston Churchill (1874–1965) & Harold Macmillan (1894–1986) was that although she may be crackers, all alternatives were clearly thought worse still.  It may seem not a desirable time to take Number 10 but the chance doesn’t occur that often (although there’s of late been a bit of churn) and, regardless of the circumstances, Ms Truss must think it still "something to be prime-minister of England" so should be wished the best of British luck.  If it works out then all’s well that ends well but one who will be watching with particular interest is Mr Johnson because, recalling Disraeli’s words that “finality is not the language of politics” he’ll not have abandoned hope but whether he comes back will be dependent wholly on events.  If the circumstances align so the Tories think only he can win them an election (or at least limit the loss of seats) then they'll take him back and so marvelously unprincipled is Mr Johnson that if need be, he'd campaign on the basis of re-joining the EU.  People still don't seem to realize how much he enjoyed being PM and principles will be blown up if they stand in the way.  His affectionate biography of Churchill added little to the historical record but he'll no doubt be re-reading the bits which covered "the wilderness years" between 1929-1939 although the millions he'll make from the public-speaking circuit and other lucrative dabbles should soften the blow; it's doubtful he'll be reduced to a diet of locusts and wild honey.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus Called from the Plow to the Dictatorship (circa 1707), oil on canvas by Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734)

Barely out the door, already he’s missed.  Comparing himself to a spaceship's booster rockets falling back to Earth after their usefulness ended was a nice touch but not un-noticed in Mr Johnson's valedictory address was his allusion to the Roman dictator Cincinnatus (circa 519–circa 430 BC) who, after a brief rule, retired to his farm only later to return to solve a crisis no one else could master.  It's worth noting too that booster rockets, fished from the water after "splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific" are now designed to be returned to the shop to be refurbished, refueled and re-fitted for re-launch.

Although he has a lifetime's history of carelessness in such matters, on this occasion, one suspects Mr Johnson chose his words with rare care and nobody would deny he has a way with words.  Mixing his classical allusions with quotes from pop culture lent his speeches a vividness often lacking in politics and his farewell phrase uttered in PMQs (prime-minister's questions) in the House of Commons was borrowed from the second Terminator movie: "Hasta la vista baby! (see you later!)"  It was going down with guns blazing but what was probably on his mind was the punchier phrase made famous in the first film: "I'll be back!"