Sad

Sad (pronounced sad)

(1) Affected by unhappiness or grief; sorrowful or mournful; depressed, glum, melancholy; feeling mentally uncomfortable, discomforted, distressed, uncomfortable.

(2) Expressive of or characterized by sorrow.

(3) Unfortunate; unsatisfactory; shabby; in poor condition.

(4) Of color, somber, dark, or dull; drab; lacking brightness.

(5) Of music, an identifiable set of characteristics in composition which humans (with some cultural variations) perceive as evoking melancholy; poignant, touching.

(6) In slang, unfashionable; socially inadequate or undesirable deplorably bad; lamentable (probably interchangeable with “lame”).

(7) In slang (New Zealand), strongly to express displeasure.

(8) In baking (pastry, cakes et al) not having risen fully; heavy, soggy (no rare except regionally).

(9) As SAD, seasonal affective disorder.

(10) Heavy; weighty; ponderous; close; hard (obsolete).

(11) Valiant, firm or steadfast (obsolete).

(12) Dignified, serious, grave (obsolete).

(13) Sated, having had one's fill; satisfied, weary (obsolete).

(14) Naughty; troublesome; wicked (obsolete).

Pre 1000: From the Middle English sad, from the Old English sæd (grave, heavy, weary (originally “sated, full; having had one’s fill of food, drink, fighting etc)), from the Proto-Germanic sadaz (sated, satisfied), the source also of the Old Norse saðr, the Middle Dutch sat, the Dutch zad, the Old High German sat, the German satt and the Gothic saþs (satiated, sated, full)), akin to the Old Norse sathr, the Latin satis (enough) & satur (sated), and the Greek hádēn (enough), from the primitive Indo-European seto or seh- (to satiate, satisfy) from the root sa- (to satisfy).  Synonyms include unhappy, despondent, disconsolate, discouraged, gloomy, downcast, downhearted, depressed, dejected & melancholy; the antonyms including happy, cheerful, gleeful, upbeat & joyous.  Sad & saddening are nouns, verbs & adjectives, sadness is a noun, saddenest, sadded & sadding are verbs, sadly is an adverb, sadder & sadest are adjectives and sadden is verb & adjective; the noun plural is sads.  The special noun use of sad (plural sads) is as an alternative form of saad (the letter ص in the Arabic script which is the 14^th letter of the Arabic alphabet).

In Middle English & early Modern English the prevailing senses were "firmly established, set; hard, rigid, firm; sober, serious; orderly and regular but such notions (except in dialect) survive only among some bakers where the word is used to describe anything which has failed to rise and remains soggy, heavy and lacking fluffiness.  Etymologists assume the sense development was based on a transference of the idea of “heavy, ponderous” to Being “full” mentally or physically (ie “weary; tired of).  By the early fourteenth century, the familiar modern use to suggest “unhappy, sorrowful, melancholy, mournful” was established although a less supported alternative path of the change traces a course through the common Middle English sense of “steadfast, firmly established, fixed” (sad-ware described some notably tough pewter vessels) and “serious” to “grave.”  In the way sad is most used in Modern English, ultimately it replaced the Old English unrot which was the negative of rot (which confusingly to modern ears, meant “cheerful, glad”.  By the mid fourteenth century, the dominant meaning was to express “sorrow or melancholy” while the meaning “very bad, wicked” dates from the 1690s; that use faded but re-emerged in the late twentieth century, use the same way “lame” is deployed to describe the unfashionable or socially lamentable, a variation on the slang sense of “inferior, pathetic”, documented since 1899.  The “sad sack” (a usually miserable person)” dates from the 1920s and was popularized by World War II (1939-1945) era cartoon character published in US military magazine Yank, assumed by all to be a euphemistic shortening of the alliterative armed forces slang phrase sad sack of shit.

The verb sadden picked up the meaning “to make sorrowful” in the 1620s; until around circa 1600 it had meant “to make solid or firm” and the early verb was the simple sad, from the Middle English saden (become weary or indifferent (also “make (something) hard or stiff”, from the Old English sadian which may be the source of the modern verb but the history is tangled.  The intransitive meaning “to become sorrowful” dates from 1718.  The noun sadness developed from the early fourteenth century Middle English sadnesse (seriousness) and the reason it’s not entirely clear when the meaning shift to “sorrowfulness, dejection of mind” evolved is probably because there was such regional variation but it appears to have unfolded over the fifteenth & sixteenth centuries; throughout Middle English the word usually referred to “solidness, firmness, thickness, toughness; permanence, continuance; maturity; sanity”.  The adjective sadder (more sad) was from the Middle English sadder and saddest persist as the comparative & superlative forms.  The adverb sadly originally meant “heavily” & “solidly”, the use to convey “sorrowfully” emerging by the mid-fourteenth century.

Acronym Finder lists an impressive 104 acronyms or initialisms, some of the more memorable being Sex, Alcohol, Drugs; Social Anxiety Disorder; Search and Destroy; Seasonal Affective Disorder; Schizoaffective Disorder; Separation Anxiety Disorder; Stand Alone Dump; Single, Available & Desperate; Single Awareness Day (ie Valentine's Day); System Administrator (they prefer sysadmin or syscon); Scotland Against Drugs and Sullen, Angry, Depressed.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Avoiding SADness: Lindsay Lohan soaking up some sun in Prussian blue bikini with high-waist brief and halter-style top.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a particular instance of depression which is sometimes referred to as seasonal depression or winter depression.  SAD was first described in 1984 and included in the revision to the third edition (DSM-III-R (1987)) of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as a “seasonal pattern”, a modifier applied to recurrent forms of mood disorders, rather than as an independent entity.  In the DSM-IV (1994), its status as a standalone condition was changed, no longer classified as a unique mood disorder but instead a specifier (called “with seasonal pattern”) for the “recurrent major depressive disorder that occurs at a specific time of the year and fully remits otherwise”.  In the DSM-5 (2013), although there were detail changes in terminology, the disorder was again identified as a type of depression (Major Depressive Disorder with Seasonal Pattern).  The symptoms of SAD often overlap with the behaviors & mood changes noted in clinical depression, the novelty being the condition manifesting usually during the fall (autumn) & winter when temperatures and lower and the hours of sunlight fewer, the symptoms tending to diminish with the onset of spring.  While notably less common, there are those who experience SAD during the summer and in either case it’s seen more frequently in women. SAD appears to be possible at any age but is most typically suffered in the age range 18-30.  In the US, the dynamic of the condition is illustrated by the diagnosis of SAD ranging from 1.4% of the population in sunny Florida to 9.9% in often gloomy Alaska and, after some initial sceptism, the condition was accepted as legitimate by most of the profession although there has been some contradictory research.  Although in a sense SAD has for centuries been documented in the works of poets and artists, it wasn’t until the mid-twentieth century that structured research began and it has been linked to a biochemical imbalance in the brain prompted by exposure to reduced hours of daylight and a reduction in sunlight.  It’s thought that as the seasons go by, some experience a shift in their internal “biological clock” (circadian rhythm) which induces the mechanism to become asynchronous with their daily schedule.  SAD appears more prevalent among those living far from the equator where the conditions in winter are exaggerated.

Common symptoms of SAD include fatigue (even among those who increase their daily hours of sleep) and the weight gain associated with overeating and carbohydrate cravings.  The symptoms can vary from mild to severe and in many cases are little different to those associated with major depression including:

(1) Feeling sad or having a depressed mood.

(2) Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed.

(3) Changes in appetite; usually eating more, craving carbohydrates.

(4) Change in sleep patterns (usually sleeping too much).

(5) Loss of energy or increased fatigue despite increased hours of sleep.

(6) Increase in purposeless physical activity (eg inability to sit still, pacing, handwringing) or slowed movements or speech (to be clinically significant these actions must be severe enough to be observable to others).

(7) Feelings of worthlessness or guilt.

(8) Difficulty thinking, concentrating, or making decisions.

(9) Thoughts of death or suicide.

Risking SADness: Lindsay Lohan's strangely neglected film Among the Shadows (Momentum Pictures, 2019) was also released in some markets as The Shadow Within.  It's a gloomy piece, shot almost wholly in darkness and revolves around murderous werewolves and EU politicians (two quite frightening species).

There are several treatments for SAD including light therapy, antidepressant medications & talk therapy, sometimes used in combination.  Light therapy involves sitting in front of a light therapy box which emits a very bright light (while filtering-out harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays), usually for at least 20 minutes per day, typically first thing in the morning, during the winter months.  Most report some improvement after undergoing light therapy within 1-2 weeks of beginning treatment but the best results are obtained and relapse is most often prevented if the treatment is continued through the winter.  This is definitely a treatment rather than a cure and many re-start the therapy in the early fall to prevent any onset.  Talk therapy, particularly cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), has been used to treat SAD and the results appear to be similar to those suffering other forms of depression.  Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the anti-depressants most commonly used to treat SAD.

Rjukan's three-mirror array, reflecting the Sun's rays on the town square below.  Each mirror is 17²m (183 square feet).

The Norwegian town of Rjukan sits some 3 hours north-west of the capital, Oslo and is famously one of the darkest inhabited settlements on Earth, wholly without sun for five months of the year.  Some 3400 souls live in Rjukan, the town created by Norsk Hydro, the electricity company which built a hydro-electric plant on the nearby falls to generate large quantities of electricity.  The reason it spends so long in darkness is because it sits in a valley, surrounded by mountains which block the light.  In 1928, Norsk Hydro built a cable car to permit the town's residents to travel to the mountain top to enjoy some sunshine but recently, the town spent 5 million Norwegian Kroner (US$4.95 million) to install an array of moving mirrors to direct sunlight to the town square.  Solar-powered, the mirrors sit 450-metres up the slope and track the movement of the sun.  Not only has the innovation brought light into the lives of the locals but the motorized mirrors have become a tourist attraction.  The idea of such a mirror was actually not new and had been discussed since 1913 but one was installed only in 2013.

Citizens in the reflected Sunshine.

Zarf

Zarf (pronounced zahrf)

In the Levant, a holder with a handle, rendered traditionally in ornamental metal and used to hold a coffee cup without a handle.

1836: Adopted in English from the Ottoman Turkish ظرف‎ (zarf), from the Arabic ظَرْف‎ (ẓarf) (container, sheath).  An alternative spelling is zurf and in the Balkans: zȁlf & zȁf (Serbo-Croatian); zȁrf (за̏рф in Cyrillic).  Zarf is a noun; the noun plural is zarfs.

Ottoman era solid silver zarf (with a depiction of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), Turkey (now the Republic of Türkiye), circa 1890.

Zarf was a specialized adoption in Ottoman Turkish of the Arabic zarf which means “container”.  In Arabic, a zarf is also an envelope and the word is sometimes appended to various Arabic, English and international forms as required.  A Zarf-DL is the familiar DL envelope, a zarf değiştirmeyi is a change envelope and, specific to printers, a zarf yazıcı is an envelope feeder & zarf dönüş an envelope return.

Lindsay Lohan out getting the morning coffee fix.

The modern plastic zarf.  Modern zarfs are designed to accommodate most disposable coffee cups, made usually in a small-medium-large range which is not quite internationally standardized but with variations small enough not to matter.

Better to minimize the risk of an almost inevitable spillage and seldom seen without a most capacious handbag in which one might be carried, noted coffee fiend Lindsay Lohan really should invest in a modern, portable zarf although, how long single-use, disposable coffee cups will be permitted isn’t known.  Weather forecaster Greta Thunberg (b 2003) would probably suggest we should all carry our own cup but history suggests governments are unlikely to rely on environmental consciousness to induce behavioral change and consumers may soon be charged to use disposable coffee cups and wooden utensils.  The experiment with forcing supermarkets to charge for plastic bags proved yet again what increasing the cost of cigarettes had repeatedly demonstrated: that nothing changes behavior quite as well or as quickly as making the target more expensive.  Remarkably, since the UK government introduced their levy on plastic bags, consumption has dropped by over ninety percent, a good outcome which pleased the supermarkets too.  It meant a small but not insignificant cost of operating was shifted from retailer to consumer and the introduction of a relatively low-volume but highly profitable a new profit centre: plastic bags.  In Australia, the dominant duopoly, Coles and Woolworths, which once had to give away a combined 5.7 billion bags annually year at .3 cents per bag, costing them Aus$171 million, now sell 1.2 billion of the heavier bags, yielding an annual profit estimated to be about Aus$70 million; a turn round of Aus$240 million so a nice little earner and some handy green-washing to boot.

Slum

Slum (pronounced sluhm)

(1) A densely populated, run-down, squalid part of a city, now usually on the outskirts, inhabited by poor people (often used in the plural).

(2) Any squalid, run-down place, especially if used for human habitation.

(3) As slumming it, (1) to visit slums, especially from curiosity or (2), to visit or frequent a place, group, or amusement spot considered to be low in social status or (3), to use goods or services of lesser quality or cheaper than those to which one is accustomed.

(4) Slang for a shabbily dressed person, essentially the noun form of those slumming it (in sense of (3) above) and can be used (“the slums” or “those slums”) as a collective noun for groups of the poorly dressed (now rare).

1825 (noun) & 1884 (verb): A truncation of back slum (dirty back alley of a city, street of poor or low people (1825)), it was initially a slang or cant word meaning "room" and most especially "back room” (1812).  Slumscape, a use drawn from landscape to describe depressed urban housing was first noted in 1947 but never became a popular form although slum-lord (1899), from slum-landlord (1885) was in common use until well into the twentieth century, the use in England diminishing after housing and hygiene regulations began to impose standards improving the condition of rented housing.  Slum is of unknown origin, though there is support from some etymologists for the theory of the imperfect echoic, possibly from a foreign accent.  The most common related form now is used most often in the phrase “slumming it”, an expression indicating (sometimes voluntary) use of some service or product lower in standard than that to which one is accustomed.  The other related forms, slummy, slummily and slumminess are rare probably to the point of being archaic.

Gladstone.

The word first enjoyed popular use as a verb because it was popular in Victorian novels set in London’s East End, the negative association gained from the meaning "to visit slums for disreputable purposes or in search of vice" (1860).  The first modification of the verb form seems to date from 1884 in the sense of "visit slums of a city", especially as a diversion or amusement for the middle-class, often under guise of philanthropy.  Tempting though it is because of the timing, there’s nothing to suggest an etymological connection with the habit of William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898; variously the UK's chancellor of the exchequer or prime minister 1852-1894) of visiting slums, sometimes after midnight, for his "rescue work": meeting prostitutes on the street, recording their names in his little black book so that he might secure their salvation by arranging worthy and gainful employment.  Sometimes he would take them home for tea and readings from scripture.  Late in life, sensing perhaps the end was nigh, he clarified his role in a "Declaration" executed in his own hand on 7 December 1896.  Embossed with an embargo it was be unsealed only after his death, Gladstone wrote, "I desire to record my solemn declaration and assurance, as in the sight of God and before His Judgement Seat, that at no period of my life have I been guilty of the act which is known as that of infidelity to the marriage bed."  There’s some commendably Clintoneque precision there.

Slumming it: Lindsay Lohan with former special friend, Samantha Ronson, NYC subway, 2008.

Trench

Trench (pronounced trensh)

(1) In military (usually army (infantry)) use, an elongated pit for protection of soldiers and or equipment, usually perpendicular to the line of sight toward the enemy.

(2) A system of such excavations, with their embankments etc (usually in the plural).

(3) To dig or construct such a structure; to form a furrow, ditch, etc by cutting into or through something.

(4) In archaeology, a pit, usually rectangular with smooth walls and floor, excavated during an archaeological investigation; any deep furrow, ditch, or cut.

(5) In oceanography, a long, steep-sided, narrow depression in the ocean floor.

(6) To invade, especially with regard to the rights or the exclusive authority of another; to tend towards or encroach upon.

(7) A type of over coat.

(8) To have direction; to aim or tend.

(9) To cut; to form or shape by cutting; to make by incision, hewing, etc.

(10) In (mostly historic military) medicine, as trench foot, a type of foot damage caused by prolonged exposure to moisture.  Those most associated with the trench warfare of the First World War (from which it gained the name), the condition was first described by physicians attached to Napoleon Bonaparte's army during the retreat from Russia in the winter of 1812.

1350-1400: From the Middle English trenche (track cut through a wood or path made by cutting (later long, narrow ditch)) from the Old French trenche (a slice, cut, gash, slash; defensive ditch), from the verb trecncier (to cut, carve, slice), possibly from the Vulgar Latin trincāre (cut into three parts), from the Classical Latin was truncāre (to maim, mutilate, cut off), from truncus (maimed, mutilated).  Truncus also had the meaning "trunk of a tree, trunk of the body" and is of uncertain origin, perhaps from the primitive Indo-European root tere (cross over, pass through, overcome).  The first use by the military for trench in the modern sense was noted circa 1500 with trench foot mentioned in reports in 1915 although the condition had been documented since 1812 and doubtlessly had been long existed.  The trench coat dates from 1916 and, perhaps surprisingly, "trench warfare" didn’t appear in print until 1918.  Trench is a noun & verb, trenching is a noun, verb & adjective and trenched is a verb; the noun plural is trenches.  Forms such as detrench, retrench, entrench et al are coined as needed.  The adjective trenchant once had the meaning "fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp" but this is long obsolete; in figurative use it now conveys "keen; biting; vigorously articulate and effective; severe".

The trench coat

Winston Churchill (1875-1965, right), commanding the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers, with his deputy, Sir Archie Sinclair (1890–1970, right), Armentieres 11 February 1916.  Both are wearing trench coats, Churchill in a French M15 Adrian helmet.

One often-repeated story of the origin of the trench coat is it was created as a khaki-colored overcoat to offer protection to soldiers suffering in the muddy, sometimes water-logged trenches on the western front during the First World War.  That was certainly where it picked up the name but, (like the medical condition trench food which had been known to army physicians for over a hundred years) the garment long pre-existed the conflict.  It was descended from waterproof coats created by Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh (1766–1843) and self-taught English engineer Thomas Hancock (1786–1865) in the early 1820s.

Macintosh and Hancock’s rain-repellent garment was called the “mac” or “macintosh" names which became generic for the type of product, a usage which, in parts of the UK endures to this day.  Created from a rubberized cotton, the mac was outerwear offering protection from rain or the elements in general, the target market wide in the age of horse-drawn transport and included anyone for whom outdoor activities were a part of the day.  The mac proved popular among those in horse racing, farming and the whole hunting, fishing and shooting set as well as the military officers with which it would later be so associated.  Macintosh continued to refine the material, the fabric by mid-century breathable, and more water-resistant and in 1853, Regent Street tailor John Emary (b circa 1810, his date of death unknown), designed an improved raincoat, which he produced under the name of his company, Aquascutum (from the Latin aqua (water) + scutum (shield).  Aquascutum’s success attracted the attention of Hampshire draper Thomas Burberry (1835–1926) who would, in 1856, found his eponymous company.  Burberry’s innovation in 1879 was the weatherproofing of individual strands of cotton and wool fibres using a coating of lanolin, rather than something applied to a finished textile, Burberry’s gabardine (a borrowing of a word from the 1590s which described a number of garments, all variations of protective, enveloping cloaks) fabric so superior to anything else available that it was instantly successful.

Lindsay Lohan in trench coat, out shopping.

Over the years, both the recently much-troubled Aquascutum and Burberry have taken credit for having invented the trench coat but both were popularisers of a pre-existing product, Burberry’s re-writing of history more successful to the point where the Burberry Trench Coat is definitive of the type, most others imitative even in variation.  The style too remains class-associative, worn during the Great War only by the officer class and thus gentlemen (though as the death-toll of them rose, it came to be worn also by “temporary gentlemen” a wartime necessity of the British class-system).  The genuine Burberry and Aquascutum trench coats were expensive, but their image and utility attracted other manufacturers which soon had more affordable imitations on the shelves; that remains the market segmentation today.

Burberry Long Chelsea Heritage Trench Coat (US$2450.00).

The variation Burberry created for military use was released in 1912, the term “trench coat” appearing in print first in 1916 in a tailoring trade journal.  The classic wartime trench coat was double-breasted, tailored to the waist, and flared to a below-the-knee hemline, the belt equipped with D-rings for hooking accessories.  It was a functional design with a caped back so water to drip off while the storm flap at the shoulder provided ventilation, the pockets were deep, cuffs could be tightened, and the buttons at the neck, although there for traditional reasons, provided valuable protect against poison gas when that began to be used in 1915.  Some coats even came with a warm, removable liner, which could be used as bedding and the emblematic shade of khaki so identified with the Burberry Trench was part of the War Office specification, just a standard British Army color.  According to Burberry, although advances in technology and the introduction of new machinery has meant the patterns for their trench coats have been changed, some stitching methods have been updated and metric dimensions are now used, were a garment now to be fashioned from the originals, it would be visually indistinguishable for the current range.      

Lindsay Lohan in sheer trench coat from DKNY's anniversary collection, Esquire DKNY official opening party, One Embankment, London, June 2014.

The coats became especially popular after the Second World War.  Although the price differential for the genuine article is striking (it can be ten times the cost of a knock-off), the difference is certainly discernible, each coat made from gabardine in Castleford and said to take some three weeks to complete.  A Burberry check, a signature combination of camel, ivory, red and black has lined the coats since the 1920s.  A fashion convention emerged in the late 1960s: Whereas the military tradition was always to use the buckle to secure the belt, true fashionistas prefer to tie.

Legion

Legion (pronounced lee-juhn)

(1) In the army of Ancient Rome, a military formation which numbered between 3000-6000 soldiers, made up of infantry with supporting cavalry.

(2) A description applied to some large military and paramilitary forces.

(3) Any great number of things or (especially) as persons; a multitude; very great in number (usually postpositive).

(4) A description applied to some associations of ex-servicemen (usually initial capital).

(5) In biology, a taxonomic rank; a group of orders inferior to a class; in scientific classification, a term occasionally used to express an assemblage of objects intermediate between an order and a class.

1175–1225: From the Middle English legi(o)un, from the Old French legion (squad, band, company, Roman military unit), from the Latin legiōnem & legiōn- (nominative legiō) (picked body of soldiers; a levy of troops), the construct being leg(ere) (to gather, choose, read; pick out, select), from the primitive Indo-European root leg- (to gather; to collect) + -iōn   The suffix –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.  Legion is a nou, adjective & verb and legionnaire & legionary are nouns; the noun plural is legions.

The generalized sense of "a large number of persons" emerged circa 1300 as a consequence of its use of legion in some translations of the Bible (my name is Legion: for we are many (Mark 5:9; KJV)).  It was used to describe various European military formations since the 1590s and had been applied to some associations of ex-servicemen since the American Legion was established in 1919.  The French légion d'honneur (Legion of Honor) is an order of distinction founded by Napoleon in 1802, the légion étrangère (French Foreign Legion) was originally a unit of the French army officially made up of foreign volunteers (Polish, Belgian etc) which traditionally served in colonies or on distant expeditions although French nations soon appeared in Foreign Legion colours “for a number of reasons”.  The noun legionnaire from the French légionnaire dates from 1818.  The most famous modern association is Legionnaires' Disease, caused by Legionella pneumophilia, named after the lethal outbreak in July 1976 at the American Legion convention in Philadelphia's Bellevue Stratford Hotel, Legionella thus becoming the name of the bacterium.  The cause of the outbreak was traced to water used in the building’s air-conditioning systems.

The Bellevue Stratford and Legionella pneumophilia

The origin of Legionnaires’ disease (Legionella pneumophilia) was in the bacterium resident in the air-conditioning cooling towers of the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia which in July 1976 was hosting the Bicentennial convention of the American Legion, an association of service veterans; the bacterium was subsequently named Legionella.

The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, 1905.

The Legionella bacterium occurs naturally and there had before been outbreaks of what came to be called Legionella pneumophilia,(a pneumonia-like condition) most notably in 1968 but what made the 1976 event different was the scale and severity which attracted investigation and a review of the records which suggested the first known case in the United States dated from 1957.  Like HIV/AIDS, it was only when critical mass was reached that it became identified as something specific and there’s little doubt there may have been instances of Legionella pneumophilia for decades or even centuries prior to 1957.  The increasing instance of the condition in the late twentieth century is most associated with the growth in deployment of a particular vector of transmission: large, distributed air-conditioning systems.  Until the Philadelphia outbreak, the cleaning routines required to maintain these systems wasn’t well-understood and indeed, the 1976 event wasn’t even the first time the Bellevue Stratford had been the source two years earlier when it was the site of a meeting of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows but in that case, fewer than two-dozen were infected and only two fatalities whereas over two-hundred Legionnaires became ill thirty-four died.  Had the 1976 outbreak claimed only a handful, it’s quite likely it too would have passed unnoticed.

Winter Evening, Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, circa 1910 by Charles Cushing (b 1959).

That the 1976 outbreak was on the scale it was certainly affected the Bellevue-Stratford.  Built in the Philadelphia CBD on the corner of Broad and Walnut Streets in 1904, it was enlarged in 1912 and, at the time, was among the most impressive and luxurious hotels in the world.  Noted especially for a splendid ballroom and the fine fittings in its thousand-odd guest rooms, it instantly became the city’s leading hotel and a centre for the cultural and social interactions of its richer citizens.  Its eminence continued until during the depression of the 1930s, it suffered the fate of many institutions associated with wealth and conspicuous consumption, its elaborate form not appropriate in a more austere age.  As business suffered, the lack of revenue meant it was no longer possible to maintain the building and the tarnish began to overtake the glittering structure.

The Bellevue Hotel Ballroom.

Although the ostentation of old never quite returned, in the post-war years, the Bellevue-Stratford did continue to operate as a profitable hotel until an international notoriety was gained in July 1976 with the outbreak of the disease which would afflict over two-hundred and, ultimately, strike down almost three dozen of the conventioneers who had been guests.  Once the association with the hotel’s air-conditioning became known, bookings plummeted precipitously and before the year was out, the Stratford ceased operations although there was a nod to the architectural significance, the now deserted building was in 1977 listed on the US National Register of Historic Places.

The Bellevue Hotel XIX Restaurant.

The lure of past glories was however strong and in 1978-1979, after being sold, a programme described as a restoration rather than a refurbishment was undertaken, reputedly costing a then impressive US$25 million, the press releases at the time emphasizing the attention devoted to the air-conditioning system.  The guest rooms were entirely re-created, the re-configuration of the floors reducing their number to under six-hundred and the public areas were restored to their original appearance.  However, for a number of reasons, business never reached the projected volume and not in one year since re-opening did the place prove profitable, the long-delayed but inevitable closure finally happening in March 1986.

The Bellevue Hotel Lobby.

But, either because or in spite of the building being listed as a historic place, it still attracted interest and, after being bought at a knock-down price, another re-configuration was commenced, this time to convert it to the now fashionable multi-function space, a mix of retail, hotel and office space, now with the inevitable fitness centre and food court.  Tellingly, the number of hotel rooms was reduced fewer than two-hundred but even this proved a challenge for operators profitably to run and in 1996, Hyatt took over.  Hyatt, although for internal reasons shuffling the property within their divisions and rebranding it to avoid any reference to the now troublesome Stratford name, benefited from the decision by the city administration to re-locate Philadelphia’s convention centre from the outskirts to the centre and, like other hotels in the region, enjoyed a notable, and profitable, increase in demand.  It’s now called simply: The Bellevue Hotel.

The Bellevue Hotel.

Understandably, the Bellevue’s page on Hyatt’s website, although discussing some aspects of the building’s history such as having enjoyed a visit from every president since Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919; US president 1901-1909) and the exquisitely intricate lighting system designed by Thomas Edison (1847-1931) himself, neglects even to allude to the two outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease in the 1970s, the sale in 1976 noted on the time-line without comment.  In a nice touch, guests may check in with up to two dogs, provided they don't exceed the weight limit 50 lb (22.67 kg) pounds individually or 75 lb (34 kg) combined.  Part of the deal includes a “Dog on Vacation” sign which will be provided when registering; it's to hang on the doorknob so staff know what's inside and there's a dog run at Seger Park, a green space about a ½ mile (¾ km) from the hotel.  Three days notice is required if staying with one or two dogs and, if on a leash, they can tour the Bellevue's halls but they're not allowed on either the ballroom level or the 19^th floor where the XIX restaurant is located.  A cleaning fee (US$100) is added for stays of up to six nights, with an additional deep-cleaning charge applicable for 7-30 nights.

Lindsay Lohan with some of the legion of paparazzi who, despite technical progress which has disrupted the primacy of their role as content providers in the celebrity ecosystem, remain still significant players in what is a symbiotic process.

Conjunction

Conjunction (pronounced kuhn-juhngk-shuhn)

(1) In grammar, any member of a small class of words distinguished in many languages by their function as connectors between words, phrases, clauses, or sentences, as and, because, but, however.

(2) Any other word or expression of similar function, as in any case.

(3) The act of conjoining; combination.

(4) The state of being conjoined; union; association.

(5) A combination of events or circumstances.

(6) In formal logic, a compound proposition that is true if and only if all of its component propositions are true.

(7) In formal logic, the relation among the components of such a proposition, usually expressed by the ∧ (∧) operator.

(8) Sexual intercourse (obsolete except for historic or poetic use).

(8) In astronomy, the coincidence of two or more heavenly bodies at the same celestial longitude; also called solar conjunction (the position of a planet or the moon when it is in line with the sun as seen from the earth. The inner planets are in inferior conjunction when the planet is between the earth and the sun and in superior conjunction when the sun lies between the earth and the planet).

(9) The state of two or more such coinciding heavenly bodies.

(10) In astrology, the coincidence of two or more heavenly bodies at the same celestial longitude, characterized by a unification of the planetary energies; an astrological aspect (an exact aspect of 0° between two planets, etc, an orb of 8° being allowed).

1350–1400: From the Middle English conjunccio(u)n, a borrowing from the Anglo-French and Old French conjonction, from the Latin conjunctiōn- (stem of conjunctiō (joining) from coniungere (to join), the second-person singular future passive indicative of coniungō.  Conjunction is a noun, conjunctive is a noun & adjective and conjugate is a noun, verb & adjective; the noun plural is conjunctions.

Beginning a sentence with a conjunction

Unlike French, which has the Académie Française, English has no central authority; assessments of correctness can be made by anyone, judgments of whom others can make of what they will; it's something like the concept of the fatwa in Islam and from this linguistic free-for-all emerged the “rule” a sentence shouldn’t begin with a conjunction.  In English, there’s actually no rule against a sentence beginning with a coordinating conjunction like and, but or yet but the mistaken belief in some sort of prohibition is widespread.  In the literature, thoughts on the origin of this are all conjecture but the theme of most suggestions is the practice is somehow inelegant (although harsher critics describe it as lazy and sloppy) and with a little effort, a more complex and pleasing construction might emerge.  That said, the prohibition has no historical or grammatical foundation and examples exist in the Magna Carta (1215), the United States Constitution (1787), judgments from the US Supreme Court (since at least 1803) and Abraham Lincoln's (1809–1865; US president 1861-1865) Gettysburg Address (1863) and Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage traced instances of use even in Old English.  That one is allowed to do something doesn’t mean one should do something and even then, it can be done too often.  A work like however doesn’t have the same feel as but; it’s in a higher register so the choice of which to use to start a sentence may be dictated by style as much as meaning.  So while beginning a sentence with and is permissible English, if overused it makes for dull and repetitive text.

The Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, 21 December 2021.

In an alignment dubbed the “Christmas Star”, Jupiter and Saturn, the solar system’s two largest planets, appeared on 21 December 2021 to be closer together than they have in nearly 400 years.  From the earth, the giant planets appeared a tenth of a degree apart although they are hundreds of millions of miles apart.  Also, as NASA confirmed, it’s been some 800 years since the planets aligned at night, timing that gave almost everyone on planet Earth the chance to observe the astronomical event known as a “Great Conjunction”, a similar alignment not due until 2080, with the next close conjunction following 337 years later, in 2417.  The event was unusual also because it fell on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, a “rare coincidence,” NASA advised because “the date of the conjunction is determined by the positions of Jupiter, Saturn, and the Earth in their paths around the Sun, while the date of the solstice is determined by the tilt of Earth’s axis.”

Lindsay Lohan (2011).

Screened in conjunction with the 54^th international exhibition of the Venice Biennale (June 2011), Lindsay Lohan was a short film the director said represented a “new kind of portraiture.”  Filmed in Malibu, California, the piece was included in the Commercial Break series, presented by Venice’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture and although the promotional notes indicated it would include footage of the ankle monitor she helped make famous, the device doesn't appear in the final cut.

Directed by: Richard Phillips & Taylor Steele
Director of Photography: Todd Heater
Costume Designer: Ellen Mirojnick
Creative Director: Dominic Sidhu
Art Director: Kyra Griffin
Editor: Haines Hall
Color mastering: Pascal Dangin for Boxmotion
Music: Tamaryn & Rex John Shelverton