Toothache

Toothache (pronounced tooth-eyk)

(1) In dentistry, a pain in or about a tooth.  Technical names are dentalgia or odontalgia.

(2) In informal diplomatic code, a term whereby a diplomatic snub may be conveyed as an expression of temporary displeasure and (usually) without serious consequence.

1400s: From the pre 1050 Middle English tothache, from the Old English tōthæce, tōthece, toðece & tōþeċe, the construct being toð or tōþ (tooth) +‎ eċe (ache).  Tooth was from the Old English toð or tōþ (plural teð), from the Proto-Germanic tanthu- (the source also of the Old Saxon, Danish, Swedish and Dutch tand, the Old Norse tönn, the Old Frisian toth, the Old High German zand, the German Zahn and the Gothic tunþus) from the primitive Indo-European root hdónts & dent- (tooth).  The plural form (teeth) is an example of i-mutation.  Ache was from the Middle English aken (verb), and ache (noun), from Old English acan (verb) (from Proto-Germanic akaną (to be bad, be evil)) and æċe (noun) (from the Proto-Germanic akiz), both from the Proto-Indo-European heg- (sin, crime) and represented also in Sanskrit and Greek and probably onomatopoeic: imitative of groaning.  It was cognate with the Low German aken, achen & äken (to hurt, to ache), the North Frisian akelig & æklig (terrible, miserable, sharp, intense), the West Frisian aaklik (nasty, horrible, dismal, dreary) and the Dutch akelig (nasty, horrible).  Historically the verb was spelled ake, and the noun ache and the pronunciation likewise varied until the turn of the eighteenth century under the influence of lexicographer Samuel Johnson who mistakenly assumed it derived from the Ancient Greek ἄχος (ákhos) (pain) due to the similarity in form and meaning of the two words.  The Greek was actually a distant relation of awe and ake was a rare alternative spelling which lasted until the 1800s.

Although it seems strange, the documentary evidence suggests it wasn’t until the 1520s tooth came to be applied to the tooth-like parts of devices like saws, the phrase “tooth and nail” appearing in the next decade.  Curiously contested is the origin of the mythical tooth fairy, some sources claiming it was unknown before 1964 or even 1977 but it's mentioned in a US newspaper in 1908 and in a way that suggests it was then no novelty.  Going back more than a thousand years, to Medieval Europe, the tradition of giving something of value to children in exchange for baby teeth (particularly the first which attracted a tand-fé (tooth-fee) and sometimes the sixth) is documented in Viking tradition.  Baby teeth seem to have been a concern in many cultures, some wanting them buried out of fear a witch would find them and gain power over the child, others insisting they should be burned otherwise, after death, children would spend eternity searching for them.  It's thus a long tradition but the linkage with a fairy does seem more recent, the most popular antecedent being a mouse who visited children in their sleep, replacing the baby tooth with a coin under their pillow.  In Spain and Latin America, adopted by Colgate for advertising, the rodent is called El Ratoncito Pérez or Ratón Pérez (Perez the Mouse) and the French equivalent was La Petite Souris (the little mouse).

Diplomatic toothache

The concept of the diplomatic snub pre-dates formal diplomacy, known probably in the earliest human interactions, but as diplomatic toothache, it entered the vocabulary of international relations during a 1959 official visit to Moscow by UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (1894–1986; UK prime-minister 1957-1963 (later the first Earl of Stockton, one of the few hereditary peerages created in the last few decades)).

Two actors who enjoyed the big stage: Harold Macmillan and comrade Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971; Soviet leader 1953-1964), on the tarmac at Moscow airport, February 1959.

Macmillan’s visit, the first mission to Moscow by a British prime minister since Winston Churchill's (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) wartime trips to parley with comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953), started with him making what he hoped would be a friendly gesture, wearing a Russian white fur hat (ushanka) but this was soon swapped for a black one because a Foreign Office (FO) advisor suggested the white, dating from his last visit to Russia during the Russo-Finnish War (the so-called "Winter War", 1939-1940) might cause offence, some aspects of the conflict not a happy memory in the Kremlin.  The FO was correct but (and this does happen with the FO) for the wrong reason, the white fur purely a fashion faux pas.  When Macmillan's predecessor (Anthony Eden, 1897–1977; UK prime-minister 1955-1957) in 1941 visited Moscow while foreign secretary, comrade Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986; USSR foreign minister 1939-1949 & 1953-1956), showing an untypical concern for the details of protocol, told Eden "Á Moscou, Excellence, on ne porte pas la casquette de fourrure blanche" (In Moscow, Your Excellency, you don't wear a white fur hat). 

Twenty-odd years on however, the Soviets seemed either not to notice or be unconcerned, the white fur attracting no comment on arrival and the prime minister’s sartorial flourishes continued, choosing practical plus fours for his tour of collective farm, and, in a nice touch, his Guards Regiment tie when visiting a nuclear facility.  Lavish banquets followed around tables laden with "champagne" (a very sweet sparking wine from comrade Stalin's home of Georgia), vodka, caviar, salmon and Cuban cigars and all went well although, regarding the vodka, perhaps a little too well, as Macmillan would later note.

The appeal of the ushanka endures: Lindsay Lohan in Netflix's Falling for Christmas (2022).  One can imagine how comrade Molotov would have reacted to a pink ushanka.

While the prime minister was touring a Moscow research institute, comrade Khrushchev was in Berlin where he delivered a truculent speech intending use Macmillan’s visit to destabilize NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization).  The next day’s Anglo-Soviet discussions were “angry and fraught”, an atmosphere not helped by both delegations being “rather drunk”.  To express his displeasure with a snub, Khrushchev the next day issued a statement saying he was taking no part in that day’s activities because he had “toothache” and the Western press promptly, and gleefully, coined the phrase “diplomatic toothache”.  Just to add emphasis, despite being indisposed by his “toothache”, the Kremlin made it known comrade Khrushchev had spent the day in meetings with a visiting delegation from Iraq.  Macmillan rescued the situation with some typically cynical British diplomacy and quickly (and perhaps gratefully) comrade Khrushchev resumed his role of genial host, telling everyone his toothache had been cured “…by a British drill”.  Although achievements had been modest, both sides considered the visit a success, something in this field measured less by anything attained than unpleasantness avoided.

The ushanka never goes out of style: Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) admiring the headgear of Crown Prince Wilhelm (1882-1951), Tag von Potsdam (Potsdam Day), 21 March 1933.  Potsdam day was a ceremony conducted in Potsdam on 21 March, 1933 to mark the re-convening of the Reichstag (the rubber-stamp parliamentary assembly meeting in the Kroll Opera House), the fire which gutted the Reichstag building in Berlin on 27 February, 1933 never fully explained although conspiracy theories suggesting the act of arson was a Nazi plot have little support among mainstream historians, the consensus being the regime simply took advantage of the unexpected event to conduct the first of many purges of their opponents, suspend civil liberties and consolidate power.

Convicted of arson, the Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe (1909–1934) was the following year executed by guillotine but the conspiracy theories began before even the flames were extinguished and to this day there’s uncertainty about the details.  The van der Lubbe was known to be both mentally unstable and a political radical and the view long has been he was at least the principle arsonist, even if others were involved (as some of the forensic evidence can be interpreted as suggesting).  Certainly, although few believe the fire was the result of a plot by the Nazi command, there is a solid literature of the way lower-level functionaries would “work towards the Führer” by undertaking initiatives they thought in accord with his wishes but torching the parliament building, mere weeks after Hitler being appointed chancellor would have been ambitious, even for the notoriously opportunistic types in the SS (ᛋᛋ in Armanen runes; Schutzstaffel (literally “protection squadron” but translated variously as “protection squad”, “security section" etc), formed (under different names) in 1923 as a Nazi party squad to provide security at public meetings (then often rowdy and violet affairs) and later re-purposed as a personal bodyguard for Hitler.  As the Third Reich evolved, it would morph into a kind of “state within a state and encompass military formations (Waffen-SS (armed SS (ie equipped with military-grade weapons) almost a million-strong).  If ever there was a field in which the phrase “beyond a reasonable doubt” can be applied, it’s the various theories offered to explain the Reichstag fire.

Illusion

Illusion (pronounced ih-loo-zhuhn)

(1) Something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality.

(2) The state or condition of being deceived; misapprehension.

(3) An instance of being deceived.

(4) In clinical psychology, a perception, as of visual stimuli (optical illusion), that represents what is perceived in a way different from reality.

(5) A very thin, delicate tulle of silk or nylon having a cobwebbed appearance, for trimmings, veils and similar designs.

(6) The act of deceiving; deception; delusion (mostly obsolete).

1340–1350: From the Middle English, from the Latin illūsiōn(em), stem of illūsiō, (irony, mocking), the construct being illūs(us), past participle of illūdere (to mock, ridicule) + lūd (play) + tus (past participle suffix) + iōn.  The suffic -ion was From the Middle English -ioun, from the Old French -ion, from the Latin -iō (genitive -iōnis).  It was appended to a perfect passive participle to form a noun of action or process, or the result of an action or process.  It was from the Latin lūd that English ultimately gained ludicrous, illudere meaning "to mock at" (literally "to play with").  The borrowing from Latin displaced the Old English dwimmer, from the Old English ġedwimor or dwimor (illusion, delusion, sleight, magic) and, as absorbed by both Medieval English & French, meaning tended towards “act of deception” rather than “mocking or irony” which was the Classical Latin form.  The English sense is reflected in the word’s use in Church Latin which is thought the source of the meaning-shift.  In modern English use, particularly since the rise of mass-market visual entertainment, to some extent the preponderant meaning has shifted back.  Illusion & illusionist are noun, illusionary, illusional and illusioned are adjectives; the noun plural is illusions.

English offers many variations on the theme; words like fantasy, hallucination and delusion all refer to false perceptions or ideas.  An illusion is either (1) a false mental image produced by misinterpretation of stuff that actually exists or (2) a deliberate creation in some form to create an impression of stuff in a way not real.  A mirage is a distortion of reality produced by reflection of light against the sky but in general use is widely deployed as a synonym for anything illusory. A hallucination is a perception of a thing or quality that is either wholly or partially unreal.  A delusion is a persistent false belief that need not have any basis.  A chimera is something which, while unreal, has many elements of the real and thus seems more plausible.  A fantasy is either (1) a fictional creation where one is aware of its untruth or (2) a fictional creation one believes.

The Illusion Panel

The illusion panel is a visual trick used by fashion designers which to some extent mimics the appearance of bare skin.  It’s done by using a flesh-colored fabric, cut to conform to the shape of wearer and the best known products are called illusion dresses although the concept can appear on other styles of garment.  Done well, the trick works, sometimes even close-up but it’s really intended for photo opportunities.  Lindsay Lohan illustrates the idea in a few examples:

At left is a gown from the Fendi Spring/Summer 2016 collection, worn at the Asian Awards, London, April 2016.  The gown was technically a different take on the illusion panel because the skin was real: Fashion faking itself.  It’s a playful take on the idea because above the modest cut at the midriff were translucent panels which created a nice effect, especially when in motion although opinion was divided on whether the geometric pattern was too busy for the concept, some suggesting a solid color or even some bold stripes might have lent better emphasis.

The centre image is of a Julien Macdonald green and blue sequin embellished mini dress with open neckline, accented with illusion panel & black hemline, from her Fall 2013 collection, worn at Gabrielle's Gala, Old Billingsgate Market, London, May 2014.  Some comment was provoked by the choice not to retain the black belt with which it was shown on its catwalk debut and it true that did work well with the hemline trim, width and shade of both matching.  However, a panel with quite that much illusion doesn’t demand accessories and probably is more effective with neither belt nor necklace to distract.

At right, dating from January 2013 is a black Dion Lee cocktail dress with illusion panels and an off-the-shoulder silhouette, the shoes Christian Louboutin peep-toe booties.  It’s a classic example of why it’s thought illusion dresses work best if tailored in solid colors with a marked contrast between material and skin tone.

Kylie Jenner (b 1997, left) in 2017 used the idea in what was (by the standards of her clan) quite subtle but trolls quickly realized the possibilities offered by digital editing (centre).  Swedish musician Tove Lo (Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson, b 1987, right) actually enhanced the illusion with a T-shirt which included shadow effects so the look would be consistent even in settings where ambient light was unhelpful.  Pairing the T-shirt with an oversized, double-breasted blazer was a nice touch.

As a garment, an illusion dress is not technically difficult to cut or assemble but for its effect it relies on a close congruence between the colors of panel and the skin.  Assuming such fabrics are either available or can be dyed to suit, that’s fine for bespoke creations but in the vastly bigger prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear) market, buyers are compelled to pick whatever is the closest match, the technique of choice being to alter the skin tone for the occasion, fake tanning product the usual choice which is fine if a darker hue is needed but when lightening that’s needed, the creams used temporarily to cover tattoos are said to work well, better even than the (now often controversial and in some cases dangerous) skin-lightening preparations popular in some markets.

The illusion industry also borrows motifs.  A cage bra is built with a harness-like structure which (vaguely) resembles a cage, encapsulating the breasts using one or more straps.  Few actually use the straps predominately to enhance support and the effect tends to be purely aesthetic, some cage bras with minimal (or even absent) cup coverage and a thin band or multi-strap back.  Some things about cage bras can be illusory but the skin on show is usually real whereas when used over a skin-toned panel, the straps exist to enhance the illusion although, there’s no reason why they can’t also be structural, functioning effectively as an external bra.  Ashley Graham (left) in cage bra with the focus on flesh and Ricki-Lee Coulter (right) in a dress with illusion panel under straps illustrate the difference.

The Great Illusion (1910) by Norman Angell (1972-1967) was first published in the United Kingdom in 1909 as Europe's Optical Illusion.  Angell’s theme was that the economies, financial systems, markets and supply chains of the world’s big industrial and military powers had become so inter-twined and inter-dependent that war had become impossible.  Angell proved that not only would war be unprofitable, in any big conflict, the victor would suffer at least as much as the vanquished so no nation would be so foolish as to start one.  Quickly, The Great Illusion was translated in eleven languages and in the optimistic world of early twentieth century Europe, it became a cult, its thesis a dogma.  The aristocrat commissioned to review the British Army after its disastrous performance in the Boer War (1899-1902) were understood instantly became an adherent to the idea that “new economic factors clearly prove the insanity of aggressive wars”, delivering lectures in which he pointed out that “a twentieth century war would be on such a scale… that its inevitable consequences of commercial disaster, financial ruin and individual suffering [would be] so pregnant with restraining influences” as to render the thought of war unthinkable.

Read even now, the wealth of examples he offered and the incontrovertibility of his argument seem convincing.  Unfortunately, Wilhelm II (1859–1941; Kaiser (Emperor) of the German Empire 1888-1918), although it’s known he received a copy of the book, was more influenced by one published in 1911 by the Prussian General Friedrich von Bernhardi (1849–1930) with the unambiguous title Deutschland und der Nächste Krieg (Germany and the Next War).  Bernhardi’s text is of great interest to students of military, diplomatic and political history but the casual reader can gain the necessary understanding merely by glancing at the table of contents, the uncompromising chapter headings including The Right to Make War, The Duty to Make War and World Power or Downfall.  In case anyone might have thought he had written a work of abstract theory, another chapter was titled Germany’s Historical Mission.   Describing war as a "divine business", his central two-pronged strategy was the one which would doom both the Second Reich and the Third: Wage wars of aggression and ignore treaties.

World War I (1914-1918) was something probably worse than even Angell had prophesized and in its aftermath the phrase “the war to end all wars” was popular although some of the delegates leaving Paris after the Treaty of Versailles (1919) weren’t so sanguine, reckoning all that had been gained was a truce.  Despite the cynicism however, the 1920s were the years in which the (now mostly forgotten) successes of the League of Nations included the notion that war had been made not only unthinkable (both because of Angell’s analysis and the shock of the World War) but actually unlawful.  It was a brief, shining moment and by 1933 Angell felt compelled to add to a revised edition of The Great Illusion the new theme of the need for collective defense.  Other things happened in 1933, the implications of which would mean that too would prove an illusion itself but that year, Angell was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Illusions however seem to be something to which men can’t help but be drawn and by the late twentieth century, as globalization 2.0 accelerated, another part of Angell’s conceptual framework gained a new audience.  Angell had noted the obvious: That the imperative of modern capitalism was profit, not romantic nationalism and that there was more to be gained from peaceful trade than attempts at conquest with its unpredictable outcomes.  By the 1990s, political commentator Thomas Friedman (b 1953) had reduced this to what came to be called the “Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention (the idea that countries with McDonalds restaurants didn’t go to war with each other) and while that’s since been proved untrue, the point he was making was the same as Angell: That democracies run according to the rules of market capitalism don’t go to war with each other because the it’s too threatening to the hegemonic class which owns the means of production and distribution.

By the time Mr Putin (Vladimir Putin, b 1952, president or prime-minister of Russia since 1999) began his special military operation (the invasion which started the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022), it’s doubtful there were many left in Europe with illusion about the nature of man.  Unfortunately, it may be that in the Kremlin the reading of Bernhardi may not have gone beyond those first few bellicose chapters because deeper into his book, the author moved beyond the justification of “necessity” to the nuts and bolts of “method” for once one convinces one’s self one has a duty to make war, one must ensure it is waged with success.  To be successful he explained, the state must begin a war at “the most favourable moment” of its own choosing, striking “the first blow” in a manner which guarantees victory.  Mr Putin had illusions of his own, about the people of Ukraine, about the West and about the state of his own military.

In 2014, an illusion outfit attracted much comment when the Colombian women’s cycling team uniform was first seen at an event in Italy, held in honour of former Italian champion Michela Fanini (1973–1994).  Despite the appearance, it wasn’t a two-piece, the otherwise standard strip augmented by a flesh-coloured section across the lower torso and upper hips.  The photographs caused a stir and the unusual degree of international attention must have pleased the team’s sponsor, the city government of Colombia's capital, Bogota.  Innovations like this might be one way to redress the imbalance in the media coverage afforded to women's sport.

Stucco

Stucco (pronounced stuhk-oh)

(1) A weather-resistant mixture of dehydrated lime, powdered marble, and glue, mixed with water and laid on wet, used in buildings to create decorative moldings or wall finishes.

(2) Any of various fine plasters for decorative work, moldings.

(3) Any of various finishes made with cement, plaster, or mortar, as albarium.

(4) A wall, facing, molding, or other work made of such materials.

1590–1600: From the Italian stucco (fine plaster used as wall coating; coating made of pulverised gypsum, plaster), from the Lombardic (or Langobardic, an extinct West Germanic language was spoken by the Lombards (Langobardi), the Germanic people who settled in Italy in the sixth century. It was already in rapid decline by the seventh century because the invaders adopted the Latin vernacular spoken by the local Roman population) stucchi and related to the Old High German stucki & stukki (crust; piece; fragment) from the Proto-Germanic stukkjam & stukkiją (stump, piece), ultimately from the primitive Indo-European (s)teu- & (s)tewg- (to push, stick, knock, beat, shock, butt, impact) which evolved also into stock.  It was akin to the German Stück (piece), the Old Saxon stukki (piece, fragment) and the Old English stycce.  The Germanic form survives in Modern German as Stück.  Stucco and stuccoer are nouns, the noun plural being stuccoes or stuccos.  The verb (used with object) is stuccoed or stuccoing, a form attested from 1726.

In English, the meaning of stucco diverged from the Italian and Germanic sense from which it was borrowed.  Whereas in Italian when speaking of stucco, one might be referring either to the raw material or the finished product, in English, it means exclusively the latter.

Stucco relief panel from early Imperial Rome, dated to the second half of the first century AD, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The female figure is thought to represent a maenad, one of the female followers of Dionysos.  She’s depicted floating, her garment opened to the waist, her left leg revealed.  She holds a long, thin wand-like stick over her left arm, a garland with ribbons in her right hand.  Dionysus was the love child of Zeus and Semele and a rarity among the gods, his mother being a mortal.  While the parentage is certain, there are two different versions regarding the birth, which, in the way of Greek mythology involve infidelity, jealousy, infanticide (by Zeus’ bitter wife) and reincarnation and it’s the idea of re-birth which saw him adopted as a god by several religions.  Still his troubles didn’t end even after being re-born.  Zeus, an early example of the absent father, entrusted the upbringing of Dionysus to the rain-nymphs who proved so diligent they were rewarded by being turned into a star-cluster but this failed to impress Zeus’s wife, Hera, who remained angry the evidence of her husband’s unfaithfulness was still alive and in vengeance, inflicted madness upon the child.  In this state, for years and years he roamed the earth until rescued and cured by the goddess Cybele who instructed him in her rituals and he began to travel, teaching those he met how to make wine.  In symbology Dionysus is thus the god of wine and the grape harvest and, because of his difficult youth, also of ritual madness & religious ecstasy.  He’s depicted usually with a dual nature, the Greek’s cautionary tale about the good and evil of wine for Dionysus was known to bring happiness and joy to those around him but if angered, there could also be rage and brutality.

Stucco finish on Art Deco house, circa 1935.

In architecture, most building materials and methods of construction were easily adapted to structures designed with straight lines and predictable angles but stucco was especially suited to the shapes and curves of art deco.  Stucco is made from a mix of Portland cement, sand, limestone, water and chemical additives to increase material’s strength and flexibility.  It creates a rigid and durable material and, being fire and pest-resistant, it’s always been popular in residential buildings.  It’s regarded as low-maintenance but shouldn’t be treated as maintenance-fee, cracks can appear, even in high quality installations and, despite appearances, can’t be dismissed a merely cosmetic and should immediately be re-sealed.  Stucco is porous, so may not be suitable to use in a tropical climate, the proneness to moisture absorption meaning mold can appear, either on the surface or underneath and once there, can spread to framing.  The vapor barrier, usually of tar paper, which should be applied prior to installation, does act as a protective layer but in some conditions isn’t all that ameliorative.

Lindsay Lohan’s former residence (2011-2012), 419 Venice Way, Venice, California 90291.  417 & 419 Venice Way are a pair of mirror-image stucco buildings, built in 2007.  Lindsay Lohan lived in the one on the right (419) while the left (417) was occupied by former special friend Samantha Ronson.

Where conditions are suitable, stucco is a good choice for either flat surfaces or creating curves.  Applied with a smooth or textured finish, it can be tinted across a wide spectrum or can be painted although, because of the porousness, many architects recommend against painting because it better to allow the building to “inhale and exhale”.  Stucco is durable, properly maintained stucco buildings over a hundred years old are common, many from the nineteenth century, the survival rate influenced as much by the prevailing climate as the quality of the installation.  The dampness which can cause mold through moisture transfer can also induce cracking in places prone to sub-zero temperatures, severe damage possible during freeze and thaw cycles.  Cracks can happen too in places subject to wide variations in temperature because, being rigid, as a structure expands and contracts, the forces of push and pull will stress the material.  For this reason, it’s ideal also to build in places of known geological stability, stucco more prone to fracture during movement than some other materials.  Cracks in stucco are not uncommon yet should be infrequent, repaired most often with a flexible exterior caulk and most are now elastomeric and thus both strong and very flexible.  Chips can be fixed with either a traditional stucco patch or, if large, set back in place using the acrylic caulk as a glue.

Vaporetto

Vaporetto (pronounced vap-uh-ret-oh or vah-paw-ret-taw (Italian))

A steam-powered public transit canal-motorboat used as a passenger bus along the canals in Venice, Italy.

1926: From the Italian, the construct being vapor(e) (steamboat) + -etto.  Vaporetto is a diminutive of vapore (steam) from the Latin vapor & vaporem.  The origin of vapor is uncertain but may have been related to the Ancient Greek καπνός (kapnós) (smoke) and the primitive Indo-European keawp (to smoke, boil, move violently), via the older form quapor, the pronunciation of which softened over time.  The etto- suffix was used to forms nouns from nouns, denoting a diminutive.  It was from the Late Latin -ittum, accusative singular of –ittus, and was the alliterative suffix used to form melioratives, diminutives, and hypocoristics  and existed variously in English & French as -et, in Italian as Italian -etto and in Portuguese & Spanish as -ito.  With an animate noun, -etto references as male, the coordinate female suffix being -etta, which is also used with inanimate nouns ending in -a.  It should not be confused with the homophonous suffix -eto (grove).  In Italy, steam-powered vessels were quickly dubbed vapori in the way similar ships were in English known as steamers. The noun plural is vaporettos in English or vaporetti in Italian although in Venice, the locals call them batèlo or vaporino.

Vaporettos long ago were converted to run on diesel engines but the name (derived from vapore (steam)) had assumed its own identity and was retained.  Venice’s first vaporetto company was founded by a prominent member of the city’s Jewish community, the lawyer & councilor Amedeo Grassini (1848-1908) and businessman Giuseppe Musatti (1796-1877) who created a holding company which was instrumental in the transformation of the Lido into a tourist destination.  The vaporetto was the vessel which made mass-market tourism possible among the canals, offering what was by historic standards a system of mass-transit which operated with the economies of scale necessary for financial viability.  The first vaporetto service was launched in 1881 and despite the fears of the boatmen operating the gondoliers which also plied the routes, their business was stimulated and they remain essential to this day for the transport system to function, their narrow boats able to sail along the narrower, tighter waterways.  With dimensions dictated by the size of infrastructure such as bridges and docks, vaporettos were built to be as large as possible so that the passenger load could be maximized.

Amedeo Grassini is also noted as the father of Margherita Sarfatti (1880-1961), one of the Italy’s most renowned art critics of the early twentieth century and the mistress & first biographer of Benito Mussolini (1883–1945; Prime Minister of Italy (and Duce) 1922-1943)).  She was interested in politics from a young age and was a left-wing activist during World War I (1914-1918), one of many who noted with dissatisfaction what little Italy gained from the Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920) although to what extent this influenced her change of political direction has never been certain.  Her affair with Mussolini began in 1911 and was tolerated her husband Cesare Sarfatti (1866-1924) (who these days newspapers would describe as a “colorful character”) but Rachele Mussolini (1890-1979) was not best pleased, something with which the Duce had learned to cope.  Husband and Duce remained friends.

Lindsay Lohan disembarking from vaporetto, Venice Film Festival 2006.

Upon being widowed in 1924, signora Sarfatti wrote a biography of Mussolini (published in Italy as Dux (Leader) and in English language editions as The Life of Benito Mussolini).  In Italy, the book was of course a great success but it was translated into seventeen languages and internationally was well-received and widely read, reflecting the positive image many had of Italian fascism in the 1920s and 1930s when the system appeared dynamic and modern.  However, as the influences of the Nazis began to affect the Duce, even signora Sarfatti began to harbor doubts although she continued to maintain there was no “Jewish question” in Italy and declared the fascist regime would never follow Hitler’s anti-Semitic policies.  However, on Bastille Day 1938, The Manifesto of the Race appeared in the Roman daily Il giornale d’Italia.  Written mostly by the Duce himself, the document condemned the corruption of the Italian Aryan race through intermarriage with Jews and marked the point at which the Rome-Berlin axis (signed in 1936) ceased to be merely symbolic and became emblematic of Italy’s vassal status.  At this point, signora Sarfatti, who had ended the affair two years earlier because of unhappiness with the Duce’s colonial adventures and the implications of his dalliances with the Nazis, left Italy for Argentina in 1938, not returning until 1947.  Despite it all, her memoir Acqua Passata (Water under the bridge (1955)) was unapologetic.

Giorgia Meloni.

Although it has exercised the minds of many in chanceries around Europe, the specter of Mussolini (the younger or older) seems not to have disturbed enough of the 64%-odd of the Italian electorate which in the election of 22 September delivered a majority in both houses to a coalition of right-wing parties, described by some, fairly or not, as “neo-fascist”.  Giorgia Meloni (b 1977) seems set to become Italy’s first female prime-minister, heading a coalition including former prime-minister (and aspiring president) Silvio Berlusconi’s (b 1936) Forza Italia and aspiring prime-minister Matteo Salvini’s (b 1973) League.  Actually, the F-word was never far from the election campaign, signora Meloni in her youth having been a member of Italy's neo-fascist movement although it may have been a youthful indiscretion (perhaps something like the flirtation of Liz Truss with republicanism) because she claimed in her book Io sono Giorgia (I am Georgia (2021)) not to be a fascist and her 2022 campaign was more about getting trains to run on time than anything which overtly recalled the fascist past.  Despite that, she continues to use an old fascist slogan "God, fatherland and family" and during electioneering repeated "I have taken up the baton of a 70-year-long history".  The coalition’s margin of victory wasn’t as great as some of the polls had suggested but there are unlikely to be any surprises in upcoming public policy, signora Meloni having long campaigned against LGBT rights, advocated a naval blockade of Libya and has warned against allowing Muslim migrants.  Although unlikely to match the Duce’s two-decade tenure (although things for him ended badly), she’s promising Italy’s seventieth government since his fall from office will be stable and durable.  Given her partners’ reputation for intrigue and willingness to pursue their own agendas, all wish her well.

Vaporetto passing under Rialto Bridge.

Although on occasions rebuilt since the twelfth century, the Ponte di Rialto (Rialto Bridge, Ponte de Rialto in Venetian) across the Grand Canal is the oldest in Venice and now a noted tourist attraction.  It was once even more important for the city, for three centuries the only way to cross the waterway, something of great commercial value to the butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers who surrounded it in medieval times.  The Rialto district was the origin of Venice, the ninth century settlement there the first in the area and it gained the advantage from its early establishment by emerging as the financial and commercial hub, the Rialto Bridge the gateway to the main market which, by the eleventh century, was claimed (perhaps optimistically) to be the finest south of the Dolomites. 

Il Ponte di Rialtoby (circa 1877) by Antonietta Brandeis (1848–1926).

The original structures to accommodate crossings were made of wood which, between occasionally collapsing under the weight of humanity and burning down, for centuries provided their vital link but in the sixteenth century, the decision was taken build in stone and in 1591, after three years of construction, Ponte de Rialto was opened to the public.  In an example of a cultural phenomenon that persists to this day when anything startlingly new is built, not all admired the appearance, some thinking it jarringly out of place; history has been kinder to the architect, Antonio da Ponte (1512–1597).  More concerning perhaps were the opinions of some engineers who had little faith in the mathematics used in the design, doubting whether the then radical structure would long survive the stresses the weight of the passing traffic would impose but it’s stood now for over four centuries, during which, many others have tumbled.

Ponte de Rialto design by Antonio da Ponte (1512–1597).

The bridge is built with two inclined ramps, each with its own row of shops, an important revenue-generating aspect of the design and access to the pinnacle of the archway is through a staircase at each end.  The arch is, by Venetian standards, tall and the vaporetti could be higher and still comfortably pass underneath but the arches of most of the city’s bridges are lower so the boats are built low.  Some twelve-thousand wooden pilings provide support and proved adequate, if the local legend is to be believed, to withstand the stress of the canons said to have been fired from atop the bridge during the riots of 1797.

Fount

Fount (pronounced phont)

(1) A spring of water; fountain (now mostly poetic use).

(2) A receptacle in church for holy water.

(3) A receptacle for oil in a lamp.

(4) In metal typesetting, a set of type sorts in one size.

(5) In phototypesetting, a set of patterns forming glyphs of any size, or the film on which they are stored; in digital typesetting, a set of glyphs in a single style, representing one or more alphabets or writing systems, or the computer code representing it.

(6) In computing, a file containing the code used to draw and compose the glyphs of one or more typographic fonts on a computer display or printer (now always with the spelling font).

(7) A source or origin; often used in a mystical sense such as a “fount of wisdom”.

1250-1300: A back formation (as a shortened form) from fountain, from the Old English font, a borrowing from the From Middle French fonte, feminine past participle of verb fondre (to melt), from the Latin fons (fountain)  It came from a primitive Indo-European root cognate with the Sanskrit धन्वति (dhanvati) (flows, runs), possibly dhenhz- (to flow).  The Old French fonte (a founding, casting), came apparently from the (unattested) Vulgar Latin funditus (a casting), from the Latin fundere (to melt). Fount is a noun; the noun plural is founts.

Fount:  Baptism Fount, Christ Church Cathedral, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.

The two meanings are unrelated.  The sense of font (and fount) as a "complete set of characters of a particular face and size of printing type" dates from the 1680s and such things have been referred to from the 1570s as a "casting" (now more commonly as "typeface".  The meaning in mechanical printing became attached because of the link with the Middle French fonte (a casting), noun use of feminine past participle of fondre (to melt) from the fundere (past participle fusus) (to melt; cast; pour out) from a nasalized form of the primitive Indo-European root gheu- (to pour).  The fount became so-called because all the letters in a given set were cast at the same time; fonte is also the root of foundry (the places where metal for the typefaces was melted) and, because of the melting cheese: fondue.  In modern use, the preferred convention is for font to be used when referring to digital typefaces and fount for metal and other older systems of typesetting.  Fount should be used for all other senses although many US dictionaries do suggest font may be used for all purposes.

Font: One font even has a biography.

While the long-running operating system (OS) wars and the bus wars of the 1980s & 1990s were landmark events in the digital revolution and followed with great interest by nerds, they were barely noticed by most consumers.  By contrast, the font wars of the early 1990s were little more than brief skirmishes but their implications proved immeasurably greater for most users.  In the 1980s, for all but a handful of computer users, the font used was almost always whatever was an application’s default and most wouldn’t have known its name, features like “italics” or “bold” sometimes possible but usually key-stroke intensive selectively to apply.  The sub-set using graphical interfaces such as Apple’s Macintosh (1984; it didn’t become the “Mac” until 1999) and the fondly-remembered Amiga Workbench (1985) enjoyed a wider range and more control but even then what a font looked like on a screen and how it appeared when printed didn’t always align and for those who needed professional-standard output, high-quality fonts were expensive.  For most, even if there were fonts available, there were many limitations including frequent limitations on the number which could be included in a single document.

The industry standard then was Adobe’s PostScript but that nice, profitable niche was upended when Apple and Microsoft cross-licensed their technologies, the breakthrough being the bundling of a number of TrueType fonts (emulating some publishing stalwarts) with Windows 3.1, released to general availability in March 1992.  Not best pleased, Adobe’s CEO called a press conference at which tearfully he announced Adobe’s Type 1 format was now in the public domain; now not best pleased were those many customers who’d recently paid Adobe’s high prices.  Adobe also circulated a document explaining why PostScript was better than TrueType, something with which analysts agreed but the almost all also agreed it was the latter to which consumers would flock.  They were right and within weeks the bulletin boards were offering dozens of TrueType character sets, some derivative, some fanciful and many exactly what the market wanted.  There are now thousands of TrueType fonts.

During her campaign (which she actually won!) for the Democratic nomination for the 2016 presidential election, crooked Hillary Clinton's Burn Book probably would have been referred to internally as her "Bern Book" because it would have been so filled with tactics designed to sabotage the campaign of Bernie Sanders (b 1941; US senator (Independent, Vermont) since 2007) (digitally altered image).  In Mean Girls (2004), the Burn Book's cover used the "ransom note" technique which involved physically cutting letters from newspapers & magazines and pasting them onto a page, a trick of the pre-DNA analysis age which left no identifiable handwriting.  There are a number of "ransom" fonts which emulate the appearance in software.