Talisman

Talisman (pronounced tal-is-muhn or tal-iz-muhn)

(1) A stone, ring, or other object, usually engraved with figures or characters supposed to possess occult powers and worn as an amulet or charm; believed to protect the wearer from evil influences

(2) Any amulet or charm.

(3) Anything or anyone, the presence of which exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings or actions.

(4) A trim option offered on the Cadillac Fleetwood (1974-1976).

1630–1640: From the French or Spanish talisman, partly from Arabic طِلَسْم‎ (ṭilasm), from the Late Greek télesmon (completion, performance, consecrated object), and partly directly from the Byzantine Greek τέλεσμα (télesma) (talisman, religious rite, completion), from τελέω (teléō), (to perform religious rites, to complete), from τέλος (télos) (end, fulfillment, accomplishment, consummation, completion”).  The Arabic word was also borrowed by Turkish, Persian & Hindi and the only explanation for the -n in western European languages is replicated error.  Derived forms are the adjectives talismanic & talismanical and the adverb talismanically.  Talisman is a noun & verb, talismaning & talismaned are verbs, talismanic is an adjective and talismanically is an adverb; the noun plural is talismans (talismen is non-standard).  Talismanique is a French and not an English adjective.

Lindsay Lohan wearing (non-Masonic) Evil Eye talisman, Los Angeles, March 2011.

The Evil Eye is a talisman (or amulet), or talisman which is said to afford the wearer protection against the forces of evil.  Examples of Evil Eye talismans have for some three-thousand years existed in many cultures and are documented in early examples of the art of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity, the forms including the Hebrew Ayin Ha’ra, the Turkish Nazar Boncugu, the Italian Mal Occhio, the Farsi Bla Band, the Arabic Ayin Harsha, the Scots Droch Shuil, the Spanish Mal Ojo (or El Oja), the French Mauvais Oeil, the German Busen Blick and the Roman Oculus Malus.  The imagery is particularly ingrained in the Republic of Türkiye where the symbolism is visible on symbol on currency, in architecture and interior design, one often hung from the necks of new-born children and even farm animals.

Freemason Evil Eye talisman.

Also known as the “Eye of Providence”, the symbol is not only part of Masonic ritualism but it appears on both the reverse of the US dollar bill (in a pyramid’s top cap) and the nation’s Great Seal.  Although many of the founding fathers of the US were confessed Freemasons, the official line is the unfinished pyramid was intended to symbolise “strength and duration”, with the 13 levels representing the original states which formed the US while the eye was there to acknowledge God’s sympathetic oversight of the fledgling nation.  It’s claimed the Freemasons had no involvement in these choices and that the cult didn’t begin publicly to display the evil eye until well into the eighteenth century.  Whether prior to that they used it in secret is of course unknown except to them and also a mystery is whether every member of the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or is required to wear a concealed Masonic talisman.  It’s never been denied and unless there’s a defection, that too may remain a secret.

The Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman, 1974-1976

1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman in Sable Black over Dark Blue Medici Cloth.

Even by the standards of the American automobile of the time, the 1971 Cadillac was big.  Replacing the previous range which had run from 1965-1970, engineering innovations were limited and the changes mostly cosmetic, much of the manufacturer’s attentions now devoted to conforming with the onrush of safety and pollution control legislation being imposed by governments (the Californian authorities, cognizant of the conditions (climatic & social) which made pollution in Los Angeles and San Francisco a particular concern, becoming more rigorous than Washington DC or the other 49 states).  In 1971 however, although somewhat detuned, the 472 cubic inch (7.7 litre) V8 was still rated at 365 gross horsepower and, with the emission controls still only rudimentary, retained the characteristics which by the early 1960s had meant Detroit’s full-sized were acknowledged to have the world’s most refined engine-transmission combinations.  Even though typically weighing over 5000 lbs (2300 kg) and built with few concessions to aerodynamic efficiency, 1971 Cadillacs had power enough for performance to be described usually as "effortless".

1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman in Cotillion White over Dark Blue Medici Cloth.

Production volumes dropped in 1971 but that was because of difficulties in industrial relations and once new agreements were in place, sales quickly rebounded, records set in 1972 and again in 1973, Cadillac for the first time, producing more than 300,000 cars.  There were however warning signs on the 1973 cars.  Although not yet the battering-rams later bolted on, the bumper bars had grown bigger and heavier and, for the first time, the emission controls began to be noticed, becoming intrusive by 1974, drivability suffering, power down and fuel consumption up.  The typical Cadillac owner might not have been much troubled by the gas (petrol) bill but they certainly noted, and complained about, the loss of power and occasionally stuttering engines; much worse was to come.  1973 would be the last good year for the “old” American economy which, sustained by the unusual circumstances of the post-war boom had, with the odd minor glitch, maintained an unprecedented general prosperity for over twenty years.  A generation now existed which knew no other world but the world shifted on 17 October 1973 when OAPEC (the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) imposed the first oil embargo, ending the boom which had been fed by cheap, limitless energy.  Suddenly, in the US, not only was gas more expensive, the cost of a barrel of oil having quadrupled overnight, but there were, at least briefly, genuine shortages.  Even Cadillac owners with money enough to pay for a tank of gas found themselves in long queues, sometimes not able to find any for sale.

1972 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency front compartment in Black.

It was a short, sharp shock; oil supplies within months began again to flow but prices remained high.  Cadillac sales fell twenty-odd percent in 1974 but it was actually a good result, the company continuing to dominate its market sector, its performance better than many.  The performance of the cars was less impressive, the bumpers ever bigger, the power lower and the driveability issues caused by the emission control devices worse.  At the time, there wasn’t much Cadillac could (or was prepared) to do about these things but resources were found to add even more luxury.  For years, the industry had been creating ever fancier versions of its lines, even the lower-priced being augmented with luxury versions, sometimes called “Brougham”, a phenomenon which the website Curbside Classic dubbed "the great brougham era" and date from Ford's 1965 introduction of the "LTD" option for the Galaxie: to that Chevrolet responded with the Caprice and the bling race had begun.  Neither of those modest tart-up jobs troubled the thoughts of the Cadillac board but, although domestically, Cadillac had long faced competition from Lincoln and Imperial, what must have been galling in the milieu of the great brougham era was the threat which later emerged from within.  Oldsmobile, two notches down the General Motors (GM) pecking list from Cadillac, in 1972 introduced a special "anniversary" version of their top-of-the-range Ninety-Eight four-door hardtop, the package including not just tufted velour upholstery but finished it in the "loose pillow" style beloved by interior decorators.  In the Oldsmobile, the "pillows" were fixed rather than loose but the look was there. 

Regency at Tiffany's: Publicity shot for 1972 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency.  All the "anniversary" Regency models were four-door hardtops in a specially mixed shade of gold with the choice of a "Black" or "Covet Gold" velor interior.  In 1971-1976, the full-size Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs were all built on GM's shared C-Body platform, differing in external panels, internal trim, engines and detailing.  At a distance, many would have found it difficult to tell C-Body Oldsmobile from a Cadillac.  

By 1972, there were so many “Broughams” on the market Oldsmobile must have thought the tag was becoming a bit common so to mark the company’s 75^th anniversary, they called their new creation the “Regency”.  Vague as many Americans might have been about the origin of “brougham”, most probably assumed “regency” had something to do with royalty so as an associative pointer it was good.  The Ninety-Eight Regency in 1972 was however as audacious as the LTD had half-a-decade earlier been tentative because it was beyond Cadillacesque in its aspirations; nothing in Cadillac’s showrooms could match the conspicuous opulence of the Regency’s black or gold, “pillow effect”, tufted velour upholstery.  A run of 2,650 Ninety-Eight Regency cars was built and they were so well-received a (non-anniversary) model was in 1973 added to the range as a regular production model.  By 1982, Oldsmobile must have concluded the message needed again to be drummed into buyers so they introduced the Regency Brougham.

1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman rear compartment in Dark Blue Medici Cloth with optional pillows.  The pillows (which many would have described as "cushions") were also available on the Talismans trimmed in leather.  The world should have more leather pillows.

The Regency package was a US$372 option for the Ninety-Eight which had a base price of US$5097.60.  In Cadillac’s boardroom, as the brochure was passed around the table, it must have seemed act of impertinence and one which GM’s management once would not have tolerated.  The so-called “Sloan ladder of success” was conceived by Alfred P Sloan (1875–1966; president of General Motors (GM) 1923-1937 and chairman of the board 1937-1946)) and the idea was that as a customer’s wealth increased, they would take the “next step on the ladder”; by 1930 that ladder had nine rungs with Chevrolet at the bottom and Cadillac the top.  That meant the “middle class” had seven GM brands to choose from, all positioned at ascending “price points” and what this meant was a customer could advertise their increasing wealth and upward social mobility by moving up a rung, trading in their car for one a rung (or more) up in the hierarchy.  For the system to work, it was important the products of one division not trespass into the bailiwick of another and in Mr Sloan's time this discipline was maintained.

Of course, while one can climb a ladder, one can also climb down and a former Cadillac buyer finding themselves in circumstances so reduced as to have to visit the Chevrolet dealer might have been said to be on the “Sloan ladder of failure”.  Nor was it socially obligatory for the rich to ascend to the top rung.  Before her first husband became president, Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-1994; US First Lady 1961-1963) went to old Joe Kennedy (1888–1969) and told him she’d like to buy a Ford Thunderbird on the basis: “What could be More American than that?”  Promptly she was told: “The Kennedys drive Buicks!”  Actually even that wasn’t always true because the car Ted Kennedy (1932–2009) drove off a bridge in the “Chappaquiddick Incident” was a 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 (not even the most expensive Oldsmobile) which belonged to his mother.  The crash happened shortly before midnight on 18 July 1969, after the then senator had left a cocktail party in the company of Mary Jo Kopechne (1940-1969) who had worked on Robert F Kennedy’s (RFK, 1925–1968; US attorney general 1961-1964) presidential campaign in 1968.  Ms Kopechne died in the crash, Senator Kennedy not reporting the matter for more than ten hours after he left the scene.  The ladder was fully evolved by 1929, the rungs tagged thus:

Chevrolet: The entry-level range with the lowest price; a high volume “value for money” pitch using the concept perfected by Ford's Model T (1908-1927).

Pontiac: Introduced in 1926, the Pontiac would once perhaps have been called the “Chevrolet Deluxe” but it was in the 1920s the ages of mass-consumerism and modern marketing began; the creation of a separate nameplate was an indication of how the techniques of capitalism were evolving.

Oldsmobile: Before the brand-name proliferation, Oldsmobile was GM’s classic “middle-class” car, sitting between Chevrolet and Buick.

Marquette: Marquette existed only between 1929–1930 and was a product of a gap existing in Mr Sloan’s price-point structure between Oldsmobile and Buick.  Again, the view was it was better to have a defined range in the segment rather than an “Oldsmobile Deluxe” or dilute the appeal of the next rung with a lower-cost Buick.

Oakland: Oakland was unusual in that it pre-existed Pontiac, the latter introduced as Oakland’s more expensive companion but, because Pontiac proved much more successful, it would survive the later cull while Oakland would be axed.

Buick: The classic upper-middle-class brand, offering luxury and performance but without the exclusivity of a Cadillac.

Viking: Another short-lived (1929–1930) venture, Viking was the premium companion to Oldsmobile and slotted between Buick and LaSalle.

LaSalle: Best thought of as cheaper Cadillac, it was another of the brands there to avoid diluting things with an “entry level Cadillac” which of course it was in all but name.

Cadillac: The top rung, competing not only high-end domestic brands like Packard, Duesenberg and Lincoln but also the best of the Europeans.

The effects of the Great Depression meant the experiment didn’t last and GM would soon to revert to six divisions, the newcomers Viking and Marquette axed while Pontiac, which had proved both more successful and profitable than the shuttered Oakland, survived, joining LaSalle which lingered until 1940 and then there were five.  Even then five was debatably at least one too many but the ladder survived into the post-war years when economic conditions suited the structure and by the mid-1950s both Ford and Chrysler were emulating the model although for both it proved a brief fling.  By the twenty-first century, GM was down to three (Chevrolet, Buick & Cadillac), Ford two (Ford, Lincoln) and Chrysler two (Dodge, Chrysler (although they separated the pickup business as RAM)).

1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman rear compartment in Medium Saddle leather.

Cadillac scrambled to respond to the implications of the Regency, offering in 1973 the d'Elegance package, a US$750 option which included a plusher interior and a bundle of otherwise optional features.  However, all the d'Elegance stuff did was match what others were doing and there was still the corporate memory of the Cadillac mystique, a hankering for the time when Cadillac had been the “standard of the world”, a reputation built in the 1930s on basic engineering such as 16-cylinder engines and maintained a generation later with cars such as the Eldorado Brougham, one time the term "Brougham" described something truly impressive.  By 1974 the world had changed and such extravagances were no longer commercially viable (in truth 400 Eldorado Broughams made for 1957 didn't make a profit either) but what could still be done was to add more "gingerbread" so for 1974, Cadillac announced the Talisman package (option code V4U).  Much more expensive than the d'Elegance and consequently that much more exclusive, the Talisman included an extended centre console, the front section housing an illumined writing tablet, the rear a storage compartment.  This had been done before but never with this opulence although it had the effect of reducing the huge car, a size which historically had been a six-seater, into something strictly for four and as a marketing strategy, that made sense, indifference to practicality a signifier of wealth.  The interior was available in four colors in "Medici crushed velour" at US$1800 or in two shades in leather at US$2450 at a time when the MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price) of a Chevrolet Vega (GM’s entry-level sub-compact) was US$2617; "Medici crushed velour" had about the same relationship with history as Chrysler's "fine Corinthian leather" had with geography.  The Talisman additionally gained matching deep-pile interior carpeting and floor-mats, a fully padded "elk grain" vinyl roof, exterior badge identifications, a stand-up, full-colour wreath & crest hood ornament and unique wheel-covers.  For those who needed more, for an additional US$85, a matching pillow and robe was available, the latter unfortunately not cut in leather.  Optioned with the leather package, a 1974 Cadillac Talisman cost about US$13,200, matching what the company charged for the even bigger Fleetwood 75 limousines.  The additional gingerbread wasn’t all that expensive to produce; what Cadillac was selling was exclusivity and the market responded, 1898 Talismans coming off the production line that year, all sold at a most impressive profit.  The interior trim choices in 1974 were:

510 Black Medici Cloth.
525 Dark Blue Medici Cloth.
546 Medium Amber Medici Cloth.
548 Dark Terra Cotta Medici Cloth.
565 Dark Blue Leather.
585 Medium Saddle Leather.

Most prized today are the relative handful trimmed in leather, the orthodoxy in the collector market that all were in Medium Saddle.  If any were sold with the Dark Blue leather, none appear now to exist and Cadillac’s records don’t list the production breakdown.

1975 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman front compartment in Dark Rosewood Medici Cloth.

The leather option didn’t survive beyond the first season, four colors of velour the only Talisman choices in 1975 and gone too was the rear-console extension, reportedly because of feedback from dealers who noted the comments from customers expressing a preference for the flexibility to carry an additional passenger.  It was an era of high inflation so the deletion of the hardware secured only a two-dollar reduction in price and in the gloomy economic climate of 1975, sales dropped to 1238.  The big platform, which had seemed so appropriate a half-decade earlier, was in its last days, a dinosaur unable to adapt to the shock of a strange new environment but for its final fling there were minor improvements.  Although engine size had been increased to 500 cubic inches (8.2 litres), output was down to 190 horsepower (although this was less of a drop than it may appear from the 365 of 1971 because of the change in quoting power from gross to net) but the addition of catalytic convertors and, later in the year, fuel injection, did allow some retuning, improving drivability.  The bumpers were the biggest yet and fuel economy, although improved, remained dire.  The interior trim choices in 1975 were:

19B Black Medici Cloth.
29B Dark Blue Medici Cloth.
51B Medium Maize Medici Cloth.
79B Dark Rosewood Medici Cloth.

1976 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman front compartment in Black Medici Cloth.

The end of the line came in 1976, the final year for the big Cadillacs which had evolved over three quarters of a century.  With so much corporate energy devoted to the new, smaller cars, on the dinosaurs changes were restricted mostly to trim and detailing although the newly-lawful rectangular headlights, adopted throughout the industry to permit lower hood (bonnet) lines and thereby (slightly) slipperier aerodynamics, were spliced in.  Inside, new interior colors were offered and simulated Rosewood replaced the equally fake distressed pecan vinyl appliqués on the instrument panel, doors, and rear quarter trim.  Inspired by the Oldsmobile Regency which had caused such a stir in 1972, soft, thickly pillowed seats were now standard and the d'Elegance package with its accoutrements could still be added but bowing out after 1976 would be both the 500 cubic inch V8 and the Talisman package, available for its swansong in five colors at US$1813.  GM made no secret this was the last year of the big Cadillacs and sales spiked, a new record of 309,139 cars of which 1200 were Talismans.  Befitting the funereal atmosphere, the interior trim choices in 1976 were restricted to somber black & blue:

19E Black Medici Cloth.
26E Dark Blue Medici Cloth.

1976 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman.

Elite

Elite (pronounced ay-leet (U) or e-leet (non-U))

(1) The choice or best of anything considered collectively, as of a group or class of persons (often used with a plural verb).

(2) Historically, persons of the highest class (used with a plural verb).  Once associated mostly with high birth or social position (the aristocratic or patrician), it’s now a much applied and contested concept.

(3) A group of persons exercising the major share of authority or influence within a larger group.

(4) A typeface, approximately 10-point in printing-type size, widely used in typewriters and having 12 characters to the inch and now included in many digital font sets.

(5) Representing the most choice or select; best; of, relating to, or suitable for an elite; exclusive

1350–1400: From the Middle English (in the sense of "a person elected to office"), from the Middle French e(s)lit (chosen), feminine past participle of e(s)lisre & e(s)lire (to choose), from the Latin ēligere (to elect), the past participle electus; the source of the modern elect, election & related forms.  Variations are created as required such as anti-elite, global-elite, non-elite, power-elite & super-elite.  Words in a similar sense include exclusive, silk-stocking, aristocracy, celebrity, establishment, society, choice, cool, crack, elect, noble, pick, super, top, best, cream & gentility.  The alternative spelling is the French élite and use of the French pronunciation the "U" ay-leet rather than the "non-U" e-leet is one of the "class-identifiers" on which readers of publications like Country Life focus when meeting folk.

Use in English became more frequent after 1823 in the sense of "a choice or select body, the best part".  Earlier, in fourteenth century Middle English it had been borrowed from French with the meaning "chosen person" (and was used much in ecclesiastical documents to describe a bishop-elect) but had died out by the middle of the next century.  Elite was re-introduced to general use when it appeared by in Lord Byron's (1788-1824) epic poem Don Juan (1819-1824); it caught on and was by 1852 an adjective.  The noun elitism (advocacy of or preference for rule or social domination by an elite element in a system or society; attitude or behavior of persons who are or deem themselves among the elite) dates from 1951 and is an early example of the development of the language of critical theory which emerged, encouraged by the vast increase in the social sciences in the expanded universities of the post-war years.

IBM 12 Point Pitch 96 character "Golf Ball" Prestige Elite font for Selectric III Typewriter.

Introduced in 1961, the IBM Selectric (a portmanteau of select(ive) + (elect)ric)) was a landmark of modern industrial design and the last major advance in desktop document production before the word processor.  Built to the high standard for which IBM was once renowned, it allowed users to change font sets within seconds, simply by swapping the "element" which everybody except IBM staff (always in blue suits and white shirts) called "golf balls".  At the time the concept of a swappable character set was actually decades old and systems using flat, rotating "wheels" were the usual alternative approach but the Selectric did it best and in the 1960s there was still a enticing allure to the IBM name.  The most popular of the early fonts were Elite, Gothic & Courier (all available in several variations.  The first Elite typeface was released in 1920 and used by both typewriters and hot metal typesetting.  Prestige Elite (usually referred to as “Prestige” or “Elite”), was a monospaced typeface, created in 1953 for IBM and among the most popular of those available for the Selectric.  Optimized for the particular technology of the typewriter, Prestige Elite was characterized by the large x-height and moderate stroke thickness suitable for ribbon-based impact printing.  Unlike the similar Courier, the Elite sets did not transition to the digital age although TrueType, PostScript and other formats of variations of Elite are commercially available.

The rise in use of the adjective elitist (advocating or preferring rule or social domination by an elite element in a system or society; deeming oneself to be among the elite) is noted from the same era, the original adjectival examples including Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), and Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881).  The nous use quickly followed although some dictionaries insist it’s not attested until 1961.  The concept attracted much attention from sociologists exploring structures of power and the relationships between them, much discussed in Michael Young’s (1915-2002) The Rise of the Meritocracy (1958) although, while intended as a critique of a society increasingly divided between a skilled power-holding elite and a disenfranchised underclass of the less qualified, meritocracy, to the author’s disquiet, meritocracy (and meritocratic) evolved into a word with at least neutral and often positive connotations.

Shoes for elite feet: Lindsay Lohan in Isabel Marant Poppy Elite Suede Pumps in beige, New York City, August 2015.  Jeans for the elite now can affect the look of the tatterdemalion ("distressed" the industry term) which once was a mark of the clothing of the poor but they should include a label confirming their US$800 + cost, a particular art of "implied price-taggery". 

Charles Wright Mills (1916–1962 and usually styled C Wright Mills) was an American sociologist who published the much criticized but also influential The Power Elite (1956) which appears to have introduced the term to political criticism.  Mills took a structuralist approach and explored the clusters of elites and how their relationships and interactions works to enable them to exert (whether overtly or organically) an essentially dictatorial control over US society and its economy.  Mills, while acknowledging some overlap between the groups, identified six clusters of elites: (1) those who ran the large corporations, (2) those who owned the corporations, (3) popular culture celebrities including the news media, (4) the upper-strata of wealth-owning families, (5) the military establishment (centred on the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff) and (6), the upper echelons of government (the executives, the legislatures the judges, the senior bureaucracy and the duopoly of the two established political parties.  The overlaps he noted did not in any way diminish the value of his description, instead illustrating its operation.

Although criticized as being more a left-wing polemic than conventional academic research (something from which Mills really didn’t demur), The Power Elite aged well and influenced many, the famous caution President Eisenhower (1890–1969; president of the US 1953-1961) issued in his valedictory address warning of the “military-industrial complex” was quite Millsian and a helpful contribution to the library of structuralism.  Generations of sociologists and others would develop his idea of the new and shifting construct of a ruling class and culture.  In recent years, elite has become a term used (usually between elites) as an accusation; elite populists finding their base responsive to the label being applied to those of whom they're anyway most suspicious: journalists, scientists, academics etc. 

The Lotus Elite

1959 Lotus Elite S1.

The design of the Lotus Elite (Type 14, 1957-1963) was a catalogue of innovation, some of which would have an immediate effect on the industry though some would proved too difficult to implement in mass-production and, except for the most expensive, impossible profitably to pursue on a smaller scale.  Most distinctive was a technique borrowed from aviation, the stressed-skin glass-fibre unibody which obviated entirely the need for a chassis or space-frame, the body an integrated, load-bearing structure.  The only substantial steel components were a sub-frame supporting the engine and front suspension and a hoop to which was attached the windscreen, door hinges and jacking points.  In an indication of how much things have changed, the hoop was the extent of passenger protection.

Club sandwich: The Elite's triple-layer monocoque.

Even had all the components been produced in accordance with the specification, many parts of the structure were so close to the point of failure that some revisions to the design would anyway have been necessary but the early cars were far from perfect.  The contact for the fabrication of the bodies had been won by a boat-builder, then one of the few companies with much experience in molding fibreglass.  However, the Elite was a more complex design than a boat hull and fibreglass was still a novel material, even Chevrolet in the United States, with access to the financial and engineering resources of General Motors, found early in the production of the Corvette there were lessons still to be learned.  After the first 250-odd were built, Lotus became aware there were problems, the need for a fix urgent.  Cleverly, the body consisted of three stressed-fiberglass layers which, when joined in a monocoque, created the bulkheads and eight torsion boxes gave the structure its strength and stiffness although the success was something of a surprise.  The designer, working in the pre-CAD era and with no experience of the behavior of fibreglass, had doubted the material would be strong enough so had the first prototype built with some steel and aluminum plates sandwiched between the layers with mounting brackets bonded in points at the rear to support the suspension and differential mountings.  In subsequent tests, these proved unnecessary but so poorly molded were many of the layers that structural failures became common, the resin porings of inconsistent thickness creating weaknesses at critical points, suspension struts and differentials known to punch themselves loose from mountings or even tear away chunks of the supposedly supporting fibreglass.

1962 Lotus Elite S2.

Needing an operation more acquainted with the tight tolerances demanded in precision engineering, Lotus switched suppliers, the molding contract granted to the Bristol Aeroplane Company. This transformed quality control and the remaining 750-odd Elites carried an S2 designation, the early cars retrospectively (but unofficially) dubbed S1.  Even so, despite the improved, lighter and stiffer shell, it would be another generation before the structural implications of fibreglass would fully be understood and the flaws inherent in the design remained, suspension attachment points sometimes still prone to detachment, Lotus content to the extent it now happened only under extreme loading rather than habitually.

Coventry Climax FWE, 1962 Lotus Elite S2 SE.

Improbably, the power-plant was the 1.2 litre Coventry Climax FWE (Fire-Water-Elite), an all-aluminum inline four cylinder engine which began life as the FWA (feather weight automotive), derived from a water-pumping unit for the UK Government’s fleet of fire-trucks but, small, light and robust, when tuned, it proved ideally suited to motorsport.  The first derivative for competition was the FWB, the unexpected fork prompting Coventry-Climax to rename to versions still used on fire-trucks to FWP (P=Pump).  The FWE was produced especially for the Elite but its qualities attracted a number of specialist race-car builders and in historic racing, the little powerhouse remains competitive to this day.

Nürburgring 1000 km, May 1962 (Hunt / Buxton (DNF)).

The combination of light-weight, a surprisingly powerful engine and a degree of aerodynamic efficiency which few for decades would match delivered a package with a then unrivalled combination of performance and economy.  On the road, point-to-point, it was able to maintain high average speeds under most conditions and only in then unusual places like the German autobahns with their unlimited speeds could heavier, more powerful machines assert their advantage.

Le Mans 24 Hour, June 1959.  Lotus Elite #41 leads Ferrari 250TR #14. The Ferrari (DNF) retired after overheating, the Elite finishing eighth overall, winning the 1.5 litre GT class.

On the circuits, it enjoyed an illustrious career, notable especially for success in long-distance events at the Nürburgring and Le Mans.  The frugal fuel consumption was an important factor too, as well as claiming five class trophies in the Le Mans 24 hour race, the Elite twice won the mysterious Indice de performance (an index of thermal efficiency), a curious piece of mathematics actually designed to ensure, regardless of other results, a French car would always win something.

Lotus Elite (Leo Geoghegan), Phillip Island, 1960.  That year an Elite would win the Australian GT Championship, contested on the Mount Panorama circuit at Bathurst. 

One problem however was never solved: profitability.  It was something which would plague the UK’s low-volume manufacturers throughout the 1960s, for, whatever the design and engineering prowess available, there was often a lack of financial acumen and accounting skills, many companies never fully evolving from their cottage-industry origins in a back shed, their administrative structures still close to the family business they had once been.  Whether Lotus lost quite as much per Elite as the legend suggests isn’t known but it certainly wasn’t profitable.  Those lessons were learned and the replacement, while less intriguing a design, would be easier to build, more reliable in operation and, compared to the Elite, mass-produced.  The replacement was called the Elan.

1975 Lotus Elite 503 (Type 75).

The Elite name was reprised.  Between 1974-1982, the Elite (Types 75 & 83) was one of a number of the then fashionable wedge-shaped designs which would litter the decade.  Effectively replacing the Elan +2, the new Elite was big and heavy by earlier standards, its performance in some aspects inferior to the Elan but it was a difficult era and many manufacturers with more resources did worse.  Later variations of this were called the Eclat and Excel but, like much of what was done in the 1970s, none are remembered with great fondness.

Lotus Elite Concept, 2010.

More promising was the Elite Concept, shown in 2010.  Hardly original, and actually derivative in just about every way, it nevertheless tantalized all with a specification list including Toyota’s fine 5.0 litre Lexus V8 but any hope of a production version vanished after one of the many corporate restructures undertaken in the wake of the global financial crisis (GFC, 2009-2011).

Polka

Polka (pronounced pohl-kuh or poh-kuh)

(1) A lively couple dance of Bohemian origin, with music in duple meter (three steps and a hop, in fast duple time).

(2) A piece of music for such a dance or in its rhythm.

(3) To dance the polka.

(4) As polka dot (sometimes polka-dot), a dot or round spot (printed, woven, or embroidered) repeated to form a pattern on a surface, especially textiles; a term for anything (especially clothing) with this design.

1844: From the French polka, from the German Polka, probably from the Czech polka, (the dance, literally "Polish woman" (Polish Polka), feminine form of Polak (a Pole).  The word might instead be a variant of the Czech půlka (half (půl the truncated version of půlka used in special cases (eg telling the time al la the English “half four”))) a reference to the half-steps of Bohemian peasant dances.  It may even be influenced by or an actual merger of both.  The dance first came into vogue in 1835 in Prague, reaching London in the spring of 1842; Johann Strauss (the younger) wrote many polkas.  Polka was a verb by 1846 as (briefly) was polk; notoriously it’s often mispronounced as poke-a-dot.

Lindsay Lohan in polka dot dress, Los Angeles, 2010.

Polka dot (a pattern consisting of dots (usually) uniform in size and arrangement) is used especially on women’s clothing (men seem permitted accessories such as ties, socks, scarves, handkerchiefs etc) and is attested from 1851 although both polka-spot and polka-dotted are documented in 1849.  

Why the name came to be associated with the then widely popular dance is unknown but most speculate it was likely an associative thing, spotted dresses popular with the Romani (Roma; Traveller; Gypsy) girls who often performed the polka dance.  Fashion journals note that, in the way of such things, the fad faded fast but there was a revival in 1873-1874 and the polka dot since has never gone away, waxing and waning in popularity but always there somewhere.

In fashion, it’s understood that playing with the two primary variables in polka dot fabrics (the color mix and the size of the dots) radically can affect the appeal of an outfit.  The classic black & white combination of course never fails but some colors just don’t work together, either because the contrast in insufficient or because the mix produces something ghastly.  Actually, combinations judged ghastly if rendered in a traditional polka dot can successfully be used if the dots are small enough in order to produce something which will appear at most angles close to a solid color yet be more interesting because of the effect of light and movement.  However, once dots are too small, the design ceases to be a polka dot.  It’s not precisely defined what the minimum size of a dot need to be but, as a general principle, its needs to be recognizably “dotty” to the naked eye at a distance of a few feet.

There’s also the sexual politics of the polka dot, Gloria Moss, Professor of Marketing & Management at Buckinghamshire New University and a visiting professor at the Ecole Superieure de Gestion (ESG) in Paris exploring the matter in her book Why Men Like Straight Lines and Women Like Polka Dots: Gender and Visual Psychology (Psyche Books, 2014, pp 237).  An amusing mix which both reviews the academic literature and flavors the text with anecdotes, Dr Moss constructs a thesis in which the preferences of men and their designs lie in the origins of modern humanity and the need for hunters to optimize their vision on distant horizons while maintaining sufficient peripheral vision to maintain situational awareness, threats on the steppe or savannah coming from any direction.  So men focus of straight line, ignoring color or extraneous detail unless either are essential to the hunt and thus survival, perhaps of the whole tribe.  By contrast, women’s preferences are rooted in the daily routine of the gatherer those millions of years ago, vision focused on that which was close, the nuts and berries to be picked and the infants with their rounded features to be nurtured.  From this came the premium afforded to responsiveness to round shapes, color contrasts and detail.  Being something of an intrusion into the world of the geneticists and anthropologists, reaction to the book wasn't wholly positive but few can have found reading it dull or unchallenging.  Of course, it won't surprise women that in men there is still much of the stone age but, for better or worse, Dr Moss concluded some of them belong there too. 

Compromise

Compromise (pronounced kom-pruh-mahyz)

(1) A settlement of differences by mutual concessions; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles etc by reciprocal modification of demands.

(2) The result of such a settlement.

(3) Something intermediate between different things:

(4) An endangering, especially of reputation; exposure to danger, suspicion.

(5) To expose or make vulnerable to danger, suspicion, scandal etc; to jeopardize; to be placed in such a position (usually as "compromising" or "compromised") and applied particularly to "hacked" electronic devices.

(6) To bind by bargain or agreement.

(7) To make a dishonorable or shameful concession

(8) To prejudice unfavorably (obsolete).

(9) Mutually to pledge (obsolete).

1400–1450: Late Middle English borrowed from the Anglo-French compromise, from the Middle French compromise From the Old French compromis.  Root was the Medieval Latin comprōmissum (a joint promise to abide by an arbiter's decision) from comprōmittere (to make a mutual promise).  Construct was com (together) + prōmittere (to promise).  The most common modern sense of "a coming to terms" is from extension to the settlement itself and dates from the late fifteenth century.  The other meanings followed and there’s some variation in use within the English speaking world, it being a word which, depending on context, can imply something positive, neutral or negative so it needs to be considered in a cultural context.  During the Anglo-Irish negotiations in the 1990s which (at least to an extent) ended the "troubles", London learned the word "compromise" (which they thought something positive in the sense of "give & take to reach resolution) was vested in Ireland with the sense of "surrender".  Quickly, the texts were changed.  Compromise is a noun & verb, compromiser & compromisation are nouns, compromised & compromising are verbs & adjectives, compromisable is an adjective and compromisedly is an adverb; the common noun plural is compromises.  The most frequently seen derived form is uncompromising

Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

Compromise is close to inevitable in human interaction; those with the luxury of enjoying an uncompromising life are rare.  The concept was in 1943 explained by Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Charles Portal (1893-1945; later Viscount Portal of Hungerford, Chief of the Air Staff 1940-1945) when discussing the allocation of finite resources between a military operation the British wished to undertake and one they were compelled by an earlier agreement to conduct in concert with the Americans: “We are in the position of the man writing his will who wishes to leave as much as possible to his mistress but for reasons of respectability must leave enough to his wife as would be thought honorable”.

Strictly speaking, not all hacked devices are merely "comprised"; for some it's worse.

The now familiar use of compromise in the field of cybersecurity as a blanket term to cover in general the hacking of devices needs some nuance.  The use draws from the earlier idea of people “being compromised” or “placed in a compromising position” by some act, the implication being that while life goes on, their situation has changed in that they’re now in a kind of “middle ground” between life as normal and consequences much worse.  Some hacking activity is designed to induce something similar: the device continues to function, often without the user being aware anything nefarious having happened but they may suffer the consequences.  The user’s device is thus in a state of vulnerability, a “middle ground” between it functioning normally and securely and total inaccessibility or failure.  For that reason, it’s really not correct to suggest “ransomware” attacks which completely disable system are “compromised”; it’s beyond that.  Despite that, the term seems to have become the standard term to describe the state of a hacked device, whatever might be details.

The Missouri Compromise

It’s a quirk more of history than language that in popular use, it’s the Mason-Dixon Line rather than the one drawn in The Missouri Compromise which symbolizes the cultural boundary between North and South in the United States, a thing explained probably by the Mason-Dixon Line coming first, thus gaining linguistic & cultural critical mass.  The Mason-Dixon Line is the official demarcation defining the boarders of what would become the US states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia (which was until 1863 attached to Virginia).  The line was determined by a survey undertaken between 1763-1767 by two English astronomers Charles Mason (1728–1786) & Jeremiah Dixon (1733–1779), commissioned because the original land grants issued by Charles I (1600–1649; King of England, Scotland & Ireland 1625-1649) and Charles II (1630–1685; King of Scotland 1649-1651, King of Scotland, England and Ireland 1660-1685) were contradictory, something not untypical given the often outdated and sometimes dubious maps then in use.  Later, "Mason-Dixon Line" would enter the popular imagination as the border between "the North" and "the South" (and thus "free" & "slave" states) because the line, west of Delaware, marked the northern limit of slavery in the United States.  Even though the later abolition of slavery in some areas rendered the line less of a strict delineation for this purpose, both phrase and implied meaning endured.

The Missouri Compromise line, although representing a much clearer geographic correlation to slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War, never entered the language in the same way as "south of the Mason-Dixon Line".

The Missouri Compromise was the legislation passed in 1820 to admit as states of the United States (1) the free state of Maine and (2) the salve state of Missouri, thus preserving the balance of power between North and South in the senate.  A part of the law was that slavery was prohibited north of the 36°30′ parallel, excluding Missouri and this extension of the Mason-Dixon Line became the Missouri Compromise line.  Controversial even at the time, there were predictions a formal division along sectional lines would institutionalize the political divide and might lead to conflict.  Although effectively repealed in the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 and declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1857, those warnings would, within a generation, be realized in the US Civil War (1861-1865).

Serpent

Serpent (pronounced sur-puhnt)

(1) A literary or dialect word for snake.

(2) A wily, treacherous, sly, deceitful, unscrupulous or malicious person.

(3) In the Old Testament, a manifestation of Satan as a guileful tempter (Genesis 3:1–5).

(4) A firework that burns with serpentine motion or flame.

(5) An obsolete wooden wind instrument, bass form of the cornet, with a serpentine shape and a deep, coarse tone.

(6) In astronomy (with initial capital letter), the constellation Serpens.

1250-1300: From Middle English and Middle French, from the Latin serpent (stem of serpēns (a creeping thing)).  Latin root was serpentem (nominative serpens) from serpere (to creep), related to the Greek herpein (to crawl) and herpeton (serpent).  In Old French, sarpent was used interchangeably for snake and serpent as was does in the Sanskrit sarpati and the Albanian garper.  The figurative use dates from its early days, influenced by the Biblical association with Satan while the use to express spiral or sinuous shapes (such as the musical instrument) was first noted in 1730.  Use of the phrase “serpent's tongue” as figurative of venomous or stinging speech is from mistaken medieval notion that the serpent's tongue was its sting and name was also given to fossil shark's teeth circa 1600; use faded as scientific techniques improved.  Serpent is a noun & verb, serpentine is a noun, verb & adjective and serpentlike is an adjective; the noun plural is serpents.

The serpent and the downfall of man

Serpents appear frequently in the Bible.  In Exodus, sticks become snakes and the devil appears in serpent form in Psalms, Genesis and Revelation.  Leviathan is a serpent in Isaiah and a sea-going beast exists in Amos and the prophet Jeremiah compares, perhaps unfairly, the King of Babylon to a serpent.  The word viper is used as a term of disparagement by both John the Baptist and Jesus although the latter also expresses the Hebrew notion of serpents as symbols of wisdom.  Best known is when, in the Old Testament (Genesis 3:1-20), it’s a serpent slithering around the Garden of Eden which tempts Eve to taste the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The Garden of Earthly Delights (circa 1505), a triptych in oil on oak panels by Hieronymus Bosch (c 1450-1516), Museo del Prado, Madrid. 

The fruit has always attracted interest.  It was in the early texts only ever described as forbidden "fruit" but centuries of speculation followed discussing which fruit the serpent may have chosen; most popular has always been the apple but suggestions have included grapes, figs, dates, pomegranates, bananas and even psychoactive mushrooms.  Because of the nature of the allegory in the Book of Genesis, the banana is probably the most obviously tempting of fruits to link to the tale and during the Middle Ages the notion appeared in several places.  In 1277, Nathan HaMe’ati translated the Pirkei Moshe (The Medical Aphorisms of Moses) by influential medieval Sephardi Jewish philosopher and Torah scholar Maimonides (1138–1204) from Arabic into Hebrew.  In the section detailing the medicinal effects of the banana HaMe’ati calls it the “apple of Eden”, a use echoed by the sixteenth-century Rabbi Menachem de Lonzano, in his Ma’arich (a work explaining foreign words in rabbinic literature), who documented the banana as a well-known fruit in Syria and Egypt known to the Arabs as “the apple of Gan Eden”.  Today, some bananas are known by the Latin names Musa paradisiaca (fruit of paradise) and Musa sapientum (fruit of knowledge).  Identifying the Tree of Knowledge with the banana appears to be a Christian tradition from at least the twelfth century that enjoyed popularity but was never adopted by rabbinic sources.  So it tends still to be the apple which is most associated with the tree but were a modern translator to seek a younger audience, they might be tempted by cherries.  Theologically, it’s sterile speculation, the type of fruit mattering not at all.  The purpose of the allegory is to explain (1) there are consequences if one disobeys God, (2) that all are guilty of sin and (3), the downfall of mankind was all Eve’s fault.  From this came the orthodoxy which has for two thousand years sustained the Church: "Everything bad is the fault of women". 

Not wholly improbable as an Eve for the third millennium, while on holiday in Thailand, just after Christmas 2017, Lindsay Lohan was bitten by a snake and while said to have made a full recovery, there was never any word on fate of serpent.  The syndicated story on the internet attracted comment from the grammar Nazis who demanded it be verified the snake really was on holiday in Thailand.