Ambassador

Ambassador (pronounced am-bas-uh-dawr)

(1) A diplomatic official of the highest rank, sent by one sovereign or state to another as its resident representative (ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary).

(2) A diplomatic official of the highest rank sent by a government to represent it on a temporary mission, as for negotiating a treaty.

(3) A diplomatic official serving as permanent head of a country's mission to the United Nations or some other international organization.

(4) An authorized messenger or representative.

(5) A term for a corporate representative, often the public face(s) of the company, mush favoured by fashion houses etc.

1325-1375: From the Middle English ambassadore, from the Anglo-Norman ambassadeur & ambassateur, from the Old Italian ambassatore (ambassador in the dialectal Italian), from the Old Occitan ambaisador (ambassador), a derivative of ambaissa (service, mission, errand), from the Medieval Latin ambasiator, from the andbahti (service, function), from the Proto-Germanic ambahtiją (service, office), a derivative of the Proto-Germanic ambahtaz (servant), from the Gaulish ambaxtos (servant) which was the source also of the Classical Latin ambactus (vassal, servant, dependent).  The early Proto-Celtic ambaxtos (servant), was from the primitive Indo-European ambhi (drive around), from ambi- (around) + ag- (to drive).  The adjective ambassadorial (of or belonging to an ambassador) dates from 1759.

The spellings ambassador and embassador were used indiscriminately until the nineteenth century, the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) curiously continuing, well into the twentieth century, to insist the later was the preferred form in US English long after it had there been abandoned everywhere except in the halls of the State Department.  In diplomatic use, the US government had an interesting history of nomenclature, neither sending nor accrediting foreign ambassadors, having only “ministers”.  The reason for this lies in the origins of the United States as a revolutionary state freeing itself from monarchical tyranny; it thus insisted only on ministers who represented states, not ambassadors who historically were the personal emissaries of sovereigns.  Functionally there was no difference and not infrequently, in in casual use ministers were styled as ambassadors with neither offence or declaration of war following and, having made the political point for a century, after 1893, every minister became instead an ambassador.

Margaret Qualley (b 1994), Venice Film Festival, August 2019, Brand Ambassador for French fashion house Chanel.

Diplomatic ranks since 1961

Diplomatic rank is the system of professional and social rank used in the world of diplomacy and international relations. A diplomat's rank determines many ceremonial details, such as the order of precedence at official processions, the seat at the table at state dinners, the person to whom diplomatic credentials should be presented and the title by which they should be addressed.

The current system of diplomatic ranks was established by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) and the modern ranks are a simplified version of the more elaborate system established by the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815).  There are now three senior ranks, two of which remain in use:

Ambassador. An ambassador is a head of mission who is accredited to the receiving country's head of state. They head a diplomatic mission known as an embassy, which is usually headquartered in a chancery in the receiving state's capital, often clustered with others is what’s often styled a “diplomatic quarter”, a feature of town-planning especially associated with cities where physical security is a concern.  A papal nuncio is considered to have ambassadorial rank, and they preside over a nunciature and often, in predominantly Roman Catholic countries are, ex officio, appointed dean of the diplomatic corps.  Between Commonwealth countries, high commissioners are exchanged; they preside over a high commission and enjoy the same diplomatic rank as an ambassador.

Minister. A Minister is a head of mission who is accredited to the receiving country's head of state. A Minister heads a legation rather than an embassy. However, the last legations were upgraded to embassies in the late 1960s, and the rank of Minister is now obsolete.  An envoy or an internuncio was also considered to have the rank of Minister; they’re now granted status ad-hoc but tend to be regarded as being on the level of consular appointments.

None of this should be confused with the long and tangled history of the resident minister, appointments sometimes political, sometimes diplomatic and sometime administrative.  At different times and in different places, it’s meant different things, used essentially to mean whatever the immediate situation demanded and, being outside any formal rules or conventions of diplomacy, flexibility was possible.

A chargé d'affaires en pied (usually styled as chargé d'affairs in everyday use) is a permanent head of mission, accredited by his country's foreign minister to the receiving nation's foreign minister, in cases where the two governments have not reached an agreement to exchange ambassadors.  A chargé d'affaires ad interim is a diplomat who temporarily heads a diplomatic mission in the absence of an ambassador.

A variety of titles exist beneath the formal three such as counsellor, first secretary, second secretary, third secretary, attaché and assistant attaché.  The actual roles discharged vary, indeed, some of these jobs are actually covers for spies or other political operatives and, just as ambassadorships are used often as a rewards for helpful services (such as large campaign donations) or as a temptingly lucrative sinecure to get a potential rival out of the country, the lower appointments have been a dumping ground for troublesome public servants when, for whatever reason, they can’t be sacked.  The diplomatic appointment also determines the description of the architecture.  An ambassador works from (and usually lives in) an embassy where other diplomats (except Commonwealth high commissioners who operate from high commissions) tend to be housed in consulates.  Like ambassador and embassador, the terms ambassy and embassy used to be interchangeable but in each case one prevailed and the other went extinct.  Etymology has no explanation for either case except it was just a pattern of use which emerged and that’s how English evolves.

The word embassy evolved in another way.  It now, institutionally and architecturally, refers to something permanent but, until the late nineteenth century was more often a temporary mission and described a delegation which would return home when its business concluded.  The history is reflected in some terms still used in diplomacy such as "Head of Mission".

Uncle Otto and nephew Eric

Uncle Otto, saluting, Paris 1940.

Because the Third Reich never concluded a peace treaty with Vichy France, diplomatic recognition was not possible so no ambassador was accredited.  However, there was a de-facto ambassador, Hitler appointing Otto Abetz (1903-1958) to the German Embassy in Paris in November 1940, a post he held until July 1944 when diplomatic conditions changed a bit.  As the letters patent made clear, he acted with full ambassadorial authority.  In July 1949 a French court handed Abetz a twenty-year sentence for crimes against humanity; released in 1954, he died in 1958 in a traffic accident on the Cologne-Ruhr autobahn and there are conspiracy theorists who suspect the death was an "assassination".

Nephew Eric, taking tea, Canberra 2018.

Otto Abetz was the great uncle of Eric Abetz (b 1958; Liberal Party senator for Tasmania, Australia 1994-2022, member of the Tasmanian House of assembly since 2024).  Because of the coincidence of one being born in the same year death visited the other, there was speculation about the transmigration of uncle Otto’s soul to nephew Eric.  Spiritualists however generally agree this would have been impossible because the senator was born on 25 January 1958, his old Nazi relative living until 5 May the same year.  Transmigration was known also as metempsychosis and was an idea most associated in the West with pre-Ancient (archaic) Greece but which may (perhaps concurrently) have origins in Egypt and India.

The American Motors Corporation (AMC) Ambassador was produced in eight generations between 1957-1974 although the name had since 1927 been used by a company which would become part of the ultimately doomed AMC conglomerate.  Emblematic of AMC's unsuccessful attempt to compete with Detroit's big three (General Motors, Chrysler & Ford), the Ambassador was in those years offered variously as an intermediate and full-sized car and this unfortunately culminated it's largest ever iteration being sold as the first oil crisis struck in 1973; the universe shifted and the Ambassador was axed in little more than year.  One footnote in the story is that in 1968, AMC's advertising made much of the Ambassador being the only car in the world, except those from Rolls-Royce, which fitted air-conditioning as standard equipment.  That was a bit of a fudge in that at the time a number of European manufacturers fitted air-conditioning (optional in Europe) to all of at least some of the models they shipped to the US but technically, AMC was correct.

Lindsay Logan, nueva embajadora de Allbirds (the new Allbirds ambassador), possibly on a Wednesday.

In 2022, Allbirds appointed Lindsay Lohan as an ambassador for its "Unexpected Athlete" campaign, focusing on her for the new limited edition of its most successful running shoe to date, the Tree Flyer.  The promotional video issued for the announcement was nicely scripted, beginning with Ms Lohan’s perhaps superfluous admission that as an ambassador for running “I am a little unexpected" before working in a few references to her career in film (showing again a rare sense of comedic timing), fondness for peanut butter cookies and the odd social media faux-pas, many of which she's over the years embraced.  The feature shoe is the "Lux Pink" which includes no plastics.  As a well-known car driver and frequent flyer who has for years lived in an air-conditioned cocoon in Dubai, it’s not clear how far up the chart of conspicuous consumption Ms Lohan has stamped her environmental footprint but US-based footwear and apparel company Allbirds claims its design, production & distribution processes are designed to make its products as eco-friendly as possible.  It is a certified “B Corporation”, a system of private certification of for-profit companies of their "social and environmental performance" conferred by B Lab, a non-profit organization which aims to provide consumers with a reliable way to distinguish the genuinely environmentally active from those which cynically “greenwash”.

Lindsay Lohan, Allbirds “Unexpected Athlete Ambassador”.

Aphorism

Aphorism (pronounced af-uh-riz-uhm)

An original, laconic phrase conveying some principle or concept of thought.

1520s: From the late Middle English aphorism (concise statement of a principle (especially in reference to the Aphorisms of Hippocrates)), from the Middle French aphorisme, from the (mistaken) fourteenth century Old French aufforisme, from the Late Latin aphorismus (definition), from the Ancient Greek ἀφορισμός (aphorismós) (definition; short, pithy sentence containing a general truth), from aphorizein (to mark off, divide), from from ἀφορίζω (aphorízō) (I define, mark off or determine), the construct being ἀπό (apó) (off) + ὁρίζω (horízō) (I divide, bound), from ὅρος (hóros) (boundary) (from which English gained horizon). Aphorism is a noun & verb, aphorist is a noun, aphorismic & aphorismatic are adjectives and aphoristically is an adverb; the noun plural is aphorisms.

The idea of the aphorism as a “short, pithy statement containing a truth of general application” gained currency in English from the 1580s.  Despite the long history, some confusion seems always to accompany aphorisms, axioms, theories, epigrams and maxims.  An aphorism is a short, pithy statement containing a truth of general import; an axiom is a statement of self-evident truth; a theorem is a demonstrable proposition in science or mathematics; an epigram is like an aphorism, but lacking a generalized application.  Maxim can be often used as a synonym for aphorism while saying applies to just about any generally used piece of text.

Hippocrate refusant les présents d'Artaxerxès (1792), oil on canvas by Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson (1767–1824), Museum of the History of Medicine, Paris.

The word became widely known in the sixteenth century when a translation was published of the Hippocratic Corpus (the Hippocratic Collection), a compilation of some dozens of medical texts with some association with the physician Hippocrates (circa 460–370 BC), the sayings remembered as the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, a series of propositions about medicine.  His opening aphorism (which flavors the whole) was:  Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience deceptive, judgment difficult.

Handy Aphorisms

The second half of a man’s life is made up of nothing, but the habits he has accumulated during the first half.  Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881)

Man must be disciplined, for he is by nature raw and wild.  Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)

The more I know the nature of men, the more I seek the company of dogs.  Frederick the Great (1712–1786)

In the natural state of nature, the life of man will be nasty, solitary, brutish and short.  Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)

For everything you do, there’s a price to be paid.  Epictetus (circa 50–135 AD)

The nice thing about being a celebrity is that when you bore people, they think it`s their fault.  Henry Kissinger (b 1923)

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.  Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527)

The more I see the face of the German cavalry officer, the more I admire his horse.  Ferdinand Foch (1851–1929)

We mustn't count our chickens before they're hatched.  Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.  Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

I'm my own worst enemy and I know that.  I live without regrets. When someone tells me not to do something, I'll do it more.  There are certain things I have done, mistakes that I made, that I would change, but I don't regret them at all, because I've learnt from them.  Lindsay Lohan (b 1986)

When you say that you agree with a thing in principle you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.  Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898)

To know the character of a man of forty, look at the world he knew when he was twenty.  Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

Don’t worry about avoiding temptation... as you grow older, it will avoid you.  Winston Churchill (1875-1965)

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 no novelty of use.  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 predates 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)).

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 to Russia by a British PM since Winston Churchill's (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) wartime trips, 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 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, the conflict not a happy memory in the Kremlin.  The foreign office 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), visited Moscow in 1941 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 Russians 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, a Guards Regiment tie when visiting a nuclear facility.  Lavish banquets followed around tables laden with champagne, 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).

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 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 comrade Khrushchev quickly 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 on March 21, 1933 in Potsdam to mark the re-convening of the Reichstag, the fire which gutted the building 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.

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.

Sunroof

Sunroof (pronounced suhn-roof)

(1) A section of an automobile roof (sometimes translucent and historically called a moonroof) which can be slid or lifted open.

(2) In obstetrics, a slang term used by surgeons to describe the Caesarean section.

1952: A compound word, the construct being sun + roof.

Sun was from the Middle English sonne & sunne, from the Old English sunne, from the Proto-West Germanic sunnā, from the Proto-Germanic sunnǭ, from the heteroclitic inanimate primitive Indo-European sh₂wen-, oblique of the Proto-Indo-European sóh₂wl̥ (sun).  The other forms from the Germanic included the Saterland Frisian Sunne, the West Frisian sinne, the German Low German Sünn, the Dutch zon, the German Sonne and the Icelandic sunna.  The forms which emerged without Germanic influence included the Welsh huan, the Sanskrit स्वर् (svar) and the Avestan xᵛə̄ṇg.  The related forms were sol, Sol, Surya and Helios.

Roof was from the Middle English rof, from the Old English hrōf (roof, ceiling; top, summit; heaven, sky), from the Proto-Germanic hrōfą (roof).  Throughout the English-speaking world, roofs is now the standard plural form of roof.  Rooves does have some history but has long been thought archaic and the idea there would be something to be gained from maintaining rooves as the plural to avoid confusion with roof’s the possessive never received much support.  Despite all that, rooves does seem to appear more than might be expected, presumably because there’s much more tolerance extended to the irregular plural hooves but the lexicographers are unimpressed and insist the model to follow is poof (an onomatopoeia describing a very small explosion, accompanied usually by a puff of smoke), more than one poof correctly being “poofs”.

Lindsay Lohan standing through sunroof: Promotional photo-shoot for Herbie Fully Loaded (2005)

1973 Lincoln Continental Mark IV with moonroof.

Sunroofs existed long before 1952 but that was the year the word was first adopted by manufacturers in Detroit.  The early sunroofs were folding fabric but metal units, increasingly electrically operated, were more prevalent by the early 1970s.  Ford, in 1973, introduced the word moonroof (which was used also as moon roof & moon-roof) to describe the slinding pane of one-way glass mounted in the roof panel over the passenger compartment of the Lincoln Continental Mark IV (1972-1976).  Moonroof soon came to describe any translucent roof panel, fixed or sliding though the word faded from use and all such things tend now to be called a sunroof.  Manufacturers in the 1970s devoted sizeable resources to develop the sunroof because of an assumption US safety regulations would soon outlaw convertibles but the election of Ronald Reagan (1911–2004; US president 1981-1989) in 1980 changed the regulatory climate.  Reagan, not fond of dopey rules which impinged freedom, assured Detroit there’d be no ban and the first American convertibles since 1976 soon appeared, one consequence of which was legal action brought by some who had purchased (and stored with expectations of profit) 1976 Cadillac Eldorados, claiming they had been induced to buy because of the promotional campaign by General Motors (GM) using the phrase "the last American convertible”.  The cases were dismissed on the basis that GM's statements were “reasonable at the time, based on advice from government”.  No action was possible against the government on several grounds, including the doctrines of remoteness and unforeseeability.

The highlight of the ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was the military parade, held in Beijing on 1 October 2019.  Said to be the largest military parade and mass pageant in Chinese history, the formations reviewed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping (b 1953; paramount leader of the PRC since 2012).  Held a few weeks before the first outbreak of COVID-19, the assembled crowd was said without exception to be “enthusiastic and happy”.  His particularly well-cut Mao suit was a nice touch.

Two generals of the Belarus Army in Hongqi L5 four-door convertible parade cars, take the salute during the parade to mark Independence Day of the Republic of Belarus, 3 June 2017.  Belarus is the only known operator of the L5 outside the PRC, the other matter of interest the debate in military circles about whether the hats worn by generals in Belarus are bigger than those of the army of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea)).

Hongqi L5.The car carrying President Xi is the Hongqi L5, the state limousine of the PRC, the coachwork styling a deliberately retro homage to the Hongqi CA770, the last in the line (dating from 1958) of large cars built almost exclusively for use by the upper echelons of the CCP.  Most of the earlier cars were built on the large platforms US manufacturers used in the 1960s and were powered by a variety of US-sourced V8 engines but the L5 is wholly an indigenous product which has been built with both a six-litre (365 cubic inch) V12 and four-litre (245 cubic inch) V8 although neither configuration is intended for high-performance.  Interestingly, although Hongqi L5 have produced a version of the L5 with four-door convertible coachwork as a formal parade car and they have been used both in the PRC and in Belarus, the general secretary conducted his review in a closed vehicle with a sunroof.

US President Richard Nixon (1913-1994, US president 1969-1974) with Anwar Sadat (1918–1981; President of Egypt 1970-1981) in a 1967 Cadillac Fleetwood convertible, Alexandria, Egypt, June 1974; on that day, the motorcade was 180-strong.  Within two months, Nixon would resign.

The CCP didn’t comment on the choice of a car with a sunroof and it may have been made on technical grounds, the mounting of the microphone array presumably easier with the roof available as a mounting point and given the motorcade travelled a higher speed than a traditional parade, it would also have provided a more stable platform for the general secretary.  It’s not thought there was any concern about security, Xi Jinping (for a variety of reasons) safer in his capital than many leaders although heads of state and government became notably more reticent about travelling in open-topped vehicles after John Kennedy (1917–1963; US president 1961-1963) was assassinated in 1963.  Some, perhaps encouraged by Richard Nixon being greeted by cheering crowds in 1974 when driven through Cairo’s streets (a potent reminder of how things have changed) in a Cadillac convertible, persisted but after the attempt on the life of John Paul II (1920–2005; pope 1978-2005) in 1981, there’s been a trend to roofs all the way, sometimes molded in translucent materials of increasing chemical complexity.

Military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC), Beijing, China, 1 October 2019.