Adjunct

Adjunct (pronounced aj-uhngkt)

(1) Something added to another thing but not essential to it; an appendage; something attached to something else in a subordinate capacity.

(2) A person associated with lesser status, rank, authority, etc., in some duty or service; assistant; things joined or associated, especially in an auxiliary or subordinate relationship.

(3) In higher education, a person working at an institution but not enjoying full-time or permanent status (exact status can vary between institutions).

(4) In systemic English grammar, a modifying form, word, or phrase depending on some other form, word, or phrase, especially an element of clause structure with adverbial function; part of a sentence other than the subject, predicator, object, or complement; usually a prepositional or adverbial group.

(5) In reductionist English grammar, part of a sentence that may be omitted without making the sentence ungrammatical; a modifier.

(6) In the technical language of logic, another name for an accident.

(8) In brewing, an un-malted grain or grain product that supplements the main mash ingredient.

(9) In metaphysics, a quality or property of the body or mind, whether natural or acquired, such as color in the body or judgement in the mind (archaic).

(10) In music, a key or scale closely related to another as principal; a relative or attendant key.

(11) In the syntax of X-bar theory, a constituent which is both the daughter and the sister of an X-bar.

(12) In rhetoric, as symploce, the repetition of words or phrases at both the beginning and end of successive clauses or verses: a combination of anaphora and epiphora (or epistrophe); also known as complexio.

(13) In category theory, one of a pair of morphisms which relate to each other through a pair of "adjoint functors".

1580-1590: From the Latin adjunctus (a characteristic, essential attribute), perfect past participle of adiungō (join to) & adjungere (joined to).  The construct of adiungō was ad- (from the Proto-Italic ad, from the primitive Indo-European haed (near, at); connate with the English at) + iungō (join); a doublet of adjoint.  The usual sense of "to join to" is now applied usually with a notion of subordination, but this is not etymological.  The first adjunct professor appears to have been appointed in 1826.  Adjunct is a noun, verb & adjective, adjunction, adjunctiveness & adjuncthood are nouns, adjunctive is a noun & adjective, adjunctivity is an adjective and adjunctively & adjunctly are adverbs; the noun plural is adjuncts.

Although the title has existed for almost two centuries, neither the duties or the nature of appointment of an adjunct professor have ever been (even variously) codified or consistently applied in a way that a generalised understanding of the role could be said to exist as it does for other academic ranks (tutor, lecturer, reader, professor etc).  The terms of appointment of adjunct professors vary between countries, between institutions within countries and even within the one institution.  In the academic swirl of titles there can also be adjunct lecturers, adjunct fellows etc and other adjectives are sometimes used; “contingent” and “sessional” applied sometimes to appointments which appear, at least superficially, similar to adjunct appointments elsewhere.  Beyond the English-speaking world however, the term adjunct, in the context of education, is often just another rung in the academic hierarchy, used in a similar way to “assistant” & “associate”.

In the English-speaking world, it’s probably easiest to understand the title in relation to what it’s not and, grossly simplified, the most important relationship between an adjunct appointment and one unadorned is whether or not the appointee is paid.  In institutions where adjuncts are paid, as a general principle, that’s indicative of an appointment where the emolument package is structured to provide lesser compensation (lower salary, no health insurance, no permanent term etc) and perhaps a limitation of duties (eg a teaching role only without the scope to undertake research).  If paid, an “adjunct” appointee is an employee.  Where the appointment is unpaid, while there are no set rules, there do seem to be conventions of use in that (1) a “visiting” professor is usually a eminent academic from another place granted to a short-term appointment on some basis, (2) an “honorary” professor is someone from outside academia (but whose career path is within the relevant scholastic field) and the title is granted, sometimes in perpetuity, in exchange for services like the odd lecture (often about some very specialised topic where expertise is rare) whereas (3), an adjunct professor can be entirely unconnected with any traditional academic path and may be appointed in exchange for consultancy or other services although, there’s often the suggestion donations to institutions can smooth the path to appointment.  If unpaid (even if able to claim “actual, defined or reasonable” expenses), an “adjunct appointee is not an employee.

Billionaire Adjunct Professor Clive Palmer (b 1954) counts some small change.  House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra, Australia, 2016.

More than one university bestowed the title adjunct professor on Australian businessman Clive Palmer.  Gold Coast’s Bond University noted the recognition was extended in recognition of "goodwill, positive endeavours and support" of the institution.  In answer to a critic who suggested styling himself as “Professor Palmer” in documents associated with his commercial interests might be not in the spirit of the generally accepted use of the title, he replied that they were suffering from “academia envy” and should “take a cold shower".

In law, adjunct relief should not be confused with injunctive relief.  Commonly known as “an injunction”, injunctive relief is a legal remedy which may be sought in civil proceedings and it can be something in addition to, or in place of monetary damages and usually takes the form of a court order requiring a person or entity to do, or (more typically) to refrain from doing, certain things.  They are unusual in that even if a judge thinks an application for injunctive relief is without merit, the order will anyway be granted (lasting usually until the matter is resolved in a defended hearing) if the consequences of the act are irreversible and an award of damages would not be a remedy (such as demolishing a building, publishing something or euthanizing an animal).  Injunctive relief can however work in coordination with injunctive relief.  Adjunct relief is the term which describes a class of relief granted to a party in proceedings which is not the primary relief sought.  A typical example of adjunct relief is that in circumstances where the primary relief sought is the award of monetary damages, a plaintiff may also be awarded an injunction as a protection against future breaches.  In that sense,

The word adjunct is also used in contract law.  To be a legally correct contract which will be recognised and enforced by a court, it must contain a number of elements: (1) All parties must have the capacity to enter contracts and the purpose of the contract must be lawful, (2) An offer by one party, (3) Acceptance of the offer by another, (4) An intention between the parties that the agreement is intended to be legally binding, (5) Consideration (an exchange of value between the parties), (6) Certainty of terms which can extend only to acts which are not impossible.  Those principles are the same regardless of whether one is buying an apple at the market or a nuclear-powered aircraft-carrier but there can also be collateral contracts or adjunct clauses.

During her litigious phase, Lindsay Lohan became well-acquainted with the operation of the rules which apply when seeking injunctive relief.  In a brief few years, she sought injunctions against at least two stalkers (one said to be a Freemason), a company she claimed was basing on aspects of her life their "milkaholic" baby, a rap artist who mentioned her in his lyrics and a video game-maker she alleged had usurped her likeness for commercial purposes.  The courts granted relief against the stalkers but her record in seeking injunctive relief generally was patchy.

A collateral contract is a separate contract which exists only because the primary contract has been executed yet it remains separate from it although the two will tend usually to operate in parallel.  Typically, a collateral contract is formed between one party to the main contract and a third party and it arises because a one party has made a promise which has induced another to enter into the main contract.  Other circumstances can apply but the general principle is that a collateral contract relies upon the existence of a primary contract; the reverse does not apply.  If the main contract is breached, the injured party can seek remedies based on the collateral contract.  By contrast, an adjunct clause is a provision (which may only retrospectively be found by a court to be a clause) within the primary contract.  It’s thus not a separate contract and does not include the “essential terms” upon which the contract may stand or fall, adjunct clauses typically serving as a schedule of additional terms & conditions.  Importantly, if the subject of dispute, the violation of adjunct terms may attract some form of compensation or an order for specific performance but not an invalidation of the contract.

Amn't

Amn't (pronounced am-uhnt)

A non-standard (except in Irish & Scottish English) contraction of “am not”.

Circa 1600: Am is from the Middle English am & em, from the Old English eam & eom (am), from the Proto-Germanic immi & izmi (am) a form of the verb wesaną (to be; dwell), from the primitive Indo-European hiésmi (I am, I exist).  As a suffix, the contraction –n’t (not) negates the meaning of the clause in which it occurs (don’t, can’t et al).  In English, the suffix -n’t can be added only to auxiliary verbs (including dare and need in certain uses), as well as main verbs be (in almost all uses) and have (in some uses).  Indeed, in some dialects, not even all auxiliary verbs accept -n’t; for example, mayn’t is present in some dialects and absent in others.  Though verbs with -n’t are usually considered contractions of versions using the adverb not, grammatically they behave a bit differently; when subject and verb are inverted, "-n’t" remains attached to the verb, whereas "not" does not (compare: “Isn’t that difficult?” with “Is that not difficult?”)

Contractions

In English, other personal pronouns have two contracted forms that can be used in present-tense negative constructions, such as “we’re not” or “we aren’t”. The first person singular however has “I’m not” and “I amn’t” doesn’t exist.  That’s not wholly true because it’s long been in the dialectical English of Scotland and Ireland but it’s no longer part of Standard English because of shifts in pronunciation associated with a loss of favor generations ago.  Amn’t has a long history, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) citing an example from 1691, but it was almost certainly known earlier, it and many other shortened forms such as can’t, don’t and shan’t, seemingly arriving in the language circa 1600.  Amn’t however was never popular, most etymologists concluding there was some reluctance to “m” and “n” together in one syllable.  So, while centuries old, amn’t isn’t part of Standard English but is common in Ireland, used especially in colloquial speech though not limited to informal registers.  It’s also used in Scotland (alongside amnae and other variants) and, the OED notes, parts of northern England and the West Midlands with even the occasional instance in Wales.  How amn’t came to be so geographically limited is not clear.  Another variant, an’t, probably supplanted it in general usage, again because speakers wanted to avoid sounding an “n” immediately after a “m” so it was therefore a natural development to simplify the consonant cluster.  The final “t” made it more likely the simplification would go to “ant” rather than “amt”, and this is the form which emerged in eighteenth century texts, where it appears as an’t.

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

An’t (also spelt a’n’t), although said to be “phonetically natural and the philologically logical shortening”, fell from favour, but not before morphing in two significant ways. It gave rise to ain’t, famous in its own right for reasons good and bad and also began being spelt aren’t (by “orthographic analogy” in one etymologist’s memorable phrase), which is pronounced the same as an’t in non-rhotic accents.  This certainly explains “aren’t I” which would otherwise seem a grammatical anomaly and its irregularity does sometime offend the fastidious but it has become accepted in much of the English-speaking world.  In that sense, the Irish and Scottish dialects are the exception in retaining and favouring its ancestor, “amn’t I” which James Joyce (1882–1941) used in Ulysses (1922) and the younger Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) certainly liked it although, later in life, he would come to abhor just about every contraction.

Because it’s so rarely heard outside of Scotland & Ireland, the form amn’t has never been as controversial as ain't (often written as aint and occasionally variously as ain', a'n't, arn't, & ar'n't).  According to the authoritative Etymology Online, the first known appearance in print dates from 1706 (in the sense of “am not”) and that’s how it was used until early in the nineteenth century when in the Cockney dialect it began to be used as a generic contraction for “are not”, “is not” etc.  That was the downfall of “ain’t” as respectable English because it was picked up by authors wanting to spice their text with the flavour of “authentic working-class speech” and in class-conscious England, that was enough to see ain’t “banished from correct English” though one interesting outlier was noted in the Dictionary of Americanisms (1848): “hain't” for "have not" recorded as “A contraction much used in common conversation in New England.”  However, while “ain’t lacked the support of the genteel, in the idioms of popular culture, it flourished: “it ain’t necessarily so”, “if it ain't broke, don't fix it” & “you ain't seen nothing yet”.

Henry Fowler (1858–1933) in his A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) had no doubts about ain’t, condemning it as “… merely colloquial, and as used for isn’t is an uneducated blunder and serves no useful purpose.”  Writing a century-odd ago, Henry Fowler long predated cultural relativism but one does wonder, were he writing today, noting the place ain’t has since claimed in popular song and idiomatic use, he might have been more forgiving.  He was however sympathetic to ain’t as a handy substitute for “am not” and lamented amn’t remained trapped in its Gaelic silo, decrying the “… shamefaced reluctance” of the English to adopt the form which “…betrays the speakers sneaking fear that the colloquially respectable and indeed almost universal “aren’t I” is “bad grammar” and that “ain’t I” will convict him of low breeding.”

Porte-cochere

Porte-cochere (pronounced pawrt-koh-shair, pawrt-kuh-shair, pohrt-koh-shair or pohrt-kuh-shair)

(1) A porch or portico-like structure attached to a building through which a horse and carriage (or now a motor vehicle) can pass in order for the occupants to alight under cover, protected from the weather.

(2) A gateway for carriages in a building, leading from the street to an interior court.

1690–1700: From the French porte-cochère, literally “gate for coaches”, the construct being porte (gateway) + cochère (the feminine adjectival form of coche (coach). Porte was from the Latin porta (a gate or entrance) from the Proto-Italic portā, from the primitive Indo-European porteha, from per- (to pass through/over). It was cognate with the Ancient Greek πόρος (póros) (means of passage).  Cochere was from coche (stage-coach), from the Hungarian kocsi, via the German Kutsche or the Italian cocchio (and a doublet of coach) + -ière.  The –French ière suffix was the feminine equivalent of –ier, from the Old & Middle French –ier & -er, from the Latin -ārium, accusative of –ārius.  It was used to form names in many diverse fields such as botany, architecture, ship-building and chemistry.

The Sublime Porte, photographed in 1904.

Later known as The Imperial Gate (Bâb-ı Hümâyûn), the structure leading to the outermost courtyard of Topkapi Palace, was, until the eighteenth century, known as The Sublime Porte.  Known also as the Ottoman Porte or High Porte (باب عالی‎, Romanized as Bāb-ı Ālī or Babıali), Sublime Porte was a synecdoche for the central government of the Ottoman Empire in the same manner as the White House (US), Number 10 (UK), the Élysée (France) or the Kremlin (Russia).

The linkage which made the term Sublime Porte synecdochic of the Ottoman regime in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) was an old procedure in which the ruler delivered official pronouncements and sometimes judicial judgments at the gate of his palace of the palace.  It had been a frequent practice of Byzantine Emperors and was later adopted by Orhan I (Orhan Ghazi 1281–1362; second bey of the Ottoman Beylik 1323-1362) and thus the sultan’s palace became known as the Sublime Porte (High Gate).  The named moved with the sultan so after Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, the mystique once attached to the palace in Bursa, moved to the new imperial capital where, leading to the outermost courtyard of the Topkapı Palace, it was known variously as the "High Gate", the "Sublime Porte" or the “Imperial Gate” (Bâb-ı Hümâyûn).  The old imperial practice endures in modern politics as the “doorstop interview” although it’s become popular with politicians because having a lockable door immediately to their rear means there’s an easy and safe path with which to beat a rapid retreat when lies are detected or questions become too difficult.

Although uncommon, the term remains in use.  Eric Trump (b 1984) in a tweet described the structure at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas under which, in January 2024, an explosion was triggered in a Tesla Cybertruck, as the "porte cochère".

In fourteenth century Europe, French was the most widely-spoken language and in 1539, the King’s Court declared French to be the official language of government.  It was in this era too that diplomacy began to assume a recognisably modern form with an increasingly consistent use of titles, conventions and institutions and this extended sometimes to architecture.  After Francis I (1494-1547; King of France 1515-1547) and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (Suleiman I (سليمان اول‎) 1494–1566; Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1520-1566) negotiated a treaty in 1536, the French emissaries walked through the al-Bab al-'Ali (High Gate) to meet with the Sultan’s ministers to place their seals on the document.  Because French was the language of diplomacy, the French translation “Sublime Porte” was immediately adopted in other European chancelleries and became not only the term for the structure but also the synecdoche which served as a metaphor for the government of the Ottoman Empire.  Among locals however, it was often referred to as the “Gate of the Pasha” (paşa kapusu).  Damaged by fire in 1911, the buildings are now occupied by the offices of the Governor of Istanbul.

1967 Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100, 1963-1981) under the porte-cochere, Stamford Plaza Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Leverage

Leverage (pronounced lev-rij, lev-er-ij or lee-ver-ij)

(1) The action of a lever, a rigid bar that pivots about one point and that is used to move an object at a second point by a force applied at a third.

(2) The mechanical advantage or power gained by using a lever.  A force compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot.

(3) The power or ability to act or to influence people, events, decisions etc, based on position, personality, reputation etc (an applied to both institutions & individuals); sway.

(4) In finance, the use of a small initial investment, credit, or borrowed funds to gain a very high return in relation to one's investment, to control a much larger investment, or to reduce one's own liability for any loss (in some places known also as “gearing” and often used to express the “debt to equity” ratio).

(5) To use (a quality or advantage) to obtain a desired effect or result:

(6) To provide with leverage.

(7) To invest or arrange (invested funds) using leverage.

(8) To exert power or influence on:

1724: The construct was lever + -age.  Lever (a rigid piece which is capable of turning about one point, or axis (the fulcrum), and in which are two or more other points where forces are applied (used for transmitting and modifying force and motion)) was from the Middle English lever, levore & levour, from the Old French leveor & leveur (a lifter, lever (also Old French and French levier)), from the Latin levātor (a lifter), from levō (to raise).  The suffix -age was from the Middle English -age, from the Old French -age, from the Latin -āticum.  Cognates include the French -age, the Italian -aggio, the Portuguese -agem, the Spanish -aje & Romanian -aj.  It was used to form nouns (1) with the sense of collection or appurtenance, (2) indicating a process, action, or a result, (3) of a state or relationship, (4) indicating a place, (5) indicating a charge, toll, or fee, (6) indicating a rate & (7) of a unit of measure.  Leverage is a noun & verb, leverage is a noun, leveraged & leveraging are verbs and leverageable is an adjective; the noun plural is leverages.

The original meaning was to describe the action of a lever, the meaning “the power or force of a lever” emerging in 1827 while the figurative sense of an “advantage for accomplishing a purpose” dates from 1858.  The use in financial matters seems first to have appeared in writing in 1933 and was a creation of US English, in use as a verb by at least 1956.  The synonyms and related terms when describing the physics of the mechanical effect include mechanical advantage, strength, multiplier effect & force multiplier; in the figurative sense the usual alternatives are clout, influence & pull.  In the world of limited liability companies, leveraged financial arrangements (such as the “leveraged buyout”) are so common that when the mechanism is not used, the adjectives non-leveraged & unleveraged often appear.  The word is so embedded in the slang of those in business where leveraged transactions are common that as a transitive verb, it’s commonly used generally to suggest “to use; to exploit; to manipulate in order to take full advantage of someone or something.  The word has also entered the language of international relations (though used more often by commentators than diplomats) to describe what is known casually as “hostage diplomacy”.  The taking of hostages for ransom or some other purpose is not new and has probably been practiced since human societies first interacted and many cases over the centuries have been documented but historically, the tactic was once blatantly admitted, the gangsterism unconcealed.  Now, states which use hostages for leverage usually gloss things with the pretence of legality, the hostage convicted of something and given a sentence disproportionately long and while none seem yet to have been sufficiently cynical to have used a charge of "unspecified offences" that may yet happen.  The leverage sought tends to be political (the release of prisoners held by the hostage’s country of origin or some other concession) and the expert practitioners are the usual suspects: the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea)), the PRC (People’s Republic of China) and the Russian Federation.

Lever porn: 1972 Mercedes-Benz Unimog w1416.  The multiple levers were required because of the many drive and gearing combinations available.  In vehicles of this type, this may be close to peak-lever because it's become common to use electronic controls for activation but the attraction of mechanical levers is their robust reliability and, for those who remember the way things used to be done, the tactility can be compelling.

The surname Lever is English and of Norman origin; it was a nickname for a fleet-footed or timid person, from the Old French levre (hare), from the Latin lepus (genitive leporis) although it’s not impossible that at least in some instances, it was a metonymic occupational name for a hunter or trapper of hares.  In some regions it may also have been a topographic name for someone who lived in a place thickly grown with rushes, the link the Old English lǣfer (rush, reed, iris).  Great & Little Lever in Greater Manchester are (collectively) named with this word and if there was a habitational origin to any names it would have come from such places.  Although rare in Germany, where Lever exists it is a descendent of the medieval personal names Lever (a variant of Liever and Levert, a variant of Lievert.  In Slovenia, it’s an altered form of Levar.  English cricketer John Lever (b 1949) between 1976-1986 played 21 tests, scoring 306 runs at an average of 11.76 and took 73 wickets with an average of 26.72, his best figures being 7/46, on debut in the first test against India at Deli in 1976.

Leverage began its life meaning “to use a lever or some similar tool to gain a mechanical advantage, typically in the context of lifting or moving heavy objects”, the idea generally thus one of “effective force multiplication”.  From here it came variously to be used figuratively, notably sine the 1930s in structured financial transactions.  Financial Leverage is the use of various financial instruments or borrowed capital to increase the potential return of an investment, the attraction the magnification of profit; the risk in increase in potential losses.  Social leverage is not new but it’s assumed a new significance in the age of social media because the proliferation of access afforded by the platforms has removed the “gatekeeper” role the legacy media once fulfilled and a presence, once established in one context can be leveraged into a position in other, lucrative fields.  Fame itself seemed to be enough: Lindsay Lohan’s forays into music and fashion might seem related to her career in film but wouldn’t appear obviously to be linked with her more recent activities promoting cryptocurrency.  That doesn’t matter because notoriety (for better or worse) is enough; her choice of a certain dress to wear to one of her many court appearances saw the garment sell-out within hours.  Nor is this multi-directional leverage a creature only of pop culture, a number of Nobel laureates wryly observing that having won the prize for their accomplishments is a certain branch of science, they end up on the “commentator lists” of media organizations and are asked for their thoughts on things hardly related to their field.

In the matter of Grand Theft Auto (GTA5): Lindsay Lohan v Take-Two Interactive Software Inc et al, New York Court of Appeals (No 24, pp1-11, 29 March 2018)

It’s of course routine for leverage to be weaponized but sometimes, there’s the suggestion the leverage of others can be appropriated and misused, the essence of many an ambush marketing campaign.  Lindsay Lohan in 2014 sued a software house, alleging one of the characters in the game Grand Theft Auto V (GTA5) was based on a likeness of her and thus an invasion of her privacy: “an attempt to leverage her public profile to boost sales of the latest instalment of the series”.  The game’s producers responded, labelling the suit a “publicity stunt” and in private discussions they may also have called it a cunning one.  It took an unremarkable four years from filing for the case to reach New York’s highest appellate court where it was dismissed, six judges of the Court of Appeals finding the “actress/singer” in GTA5 merely resembled a “generic young woman” rather than anyone specific.  Concurring with the 2016 ruling of the New York County Supreme Court which, on appeal, also found for the game’s makers, the judges, as a point of law, accepted the claim a computer game’s character “could be construed a portrait”, which “could constitute an invasion of an individual’s privacy” but, on the facts of the case, the likeness was “not sufficiently strong”.  The “… artistic renderings are an indistinct, satirical representation of the style, look and persona of a modern, beach-going young woman... that is not recognizable as the plaintiff” the judgment read.  Ms Lohan’s lawyers did not seek leave to appeal.

Paramount

Paramount (pronounced par-uh-mount)

(1) Chief in importance or impact; supreme; pre-eminent; of the highest importance.

(2) Above others in rank or authority; superior in power or jurisdiction.

(3) A supreme ruler; overlord (now rare thought often in historic texts).

(4) In law (in a hierarchy of rights), having precedence over or superior to another.

1525-1526: From the Anglo-Norman paramount & paramount (pre-eminent; above), the construct being the Old French par & per (by) + amont & amunt (upward).  Par was from the Latin per (by means of, through), from the primitive Indo-European per- (to go through; to carry forth, fare).  Amont & amunt were from the Latin ad montem (to the mountain; upward), the construct being ad (up to), ultimately from the primitive Indo-European héd (at; to) + montem (the accusative singular of mōns (mount, mountain), ultimately from the primitive Indo-European men- (to stand out, tower).  Synonyms include predominant, preeminent, outstanding, capital, cardinal, chief, commanding, controlling, crowning, dominant, eminent, first, foremost, leading, main, overbearing, predominate, premier, preponderant utmost & prevalent while the most common antonyms are insignificant, secondary & unimportant (in historic land law, the antonym paravail was from the Old French par aval (below), the construct being par + aval (down), the construct being the Latin a(d) + val (a valley), from the Latin vallis; of feudal tenants, it referred to those at the bottom of the hierarchy of rights).  Paramount is a noun & adjective, paramountcy, paramountship & paramountness are nouns, paramountly is an adverb; the noun plural is paramounts.

Paramount logo of the Viacom era.

Introduced in 1914 and now the oldest Hollywood film studio logo still in use, the Paramount Pictures “mountain peak” was based on a sketch of Ben Lomond, Utah (elevation 9716 feet (2961 m); a peak in the northern portion of the Wasatch Mountains) by William Wadsworth "W.W." Hodkinson (1881-1971), the founder of Paramount Pictures.  Many versions have appeared over the years and the text used in conjunction with the image has varied with the company’s ownership structure.  The semi-circles of stars partially encircling the peak originally numbered 24, an allusion to the two-dozen film stars then signed to Paramount under the Hollywood studios’ “star system” (a restrictive contractual arrangement that, in much diminished form, lasted until the 1960s).

Paramount (1986), oil on canvas by Dario Campanile (b 1948, pictured).

In 1986, to mark the company’s 75^th anniversary, Paramount Pictures commissioned Italian artist Dario Campanile to paint the famous corporate symbol.  Technology in 1986 was not as capable as later it would become (Intel’s 32-bit 80386 chip had just been released) and, as the artist later explained: “Paramount could not use my painting in video, but they constructed a three-dimensional model of it and filmed that.”  Now of course, anyone with a smartphone can prompt generative AI (artificial intelligence) to create such a video in less than a minute but forty years ago it demanded the skills of a film studio’s model-makers and editing production crew laboring for several days; over four decades there has been good and bad but also much progress.  Born in Rome, Dario Campanile wholly was “self-taught” but if one wants to learn to the craft of the painter, there are few better places because, hanging in the Eternal City’s churches, museums and galleries are the works by masters dating back to Antiquity.  Talent and aptitude are of course still required, but the collections in Rome are a fine “school of fine art” and in summing up his training, Sig Campanile said: “I studied by visiting the churches and museums in Rome.  I used to just stare for hours.  That was my school.”

Land law and freehold title

Paramount Pictures promotional poster for Mean Girls (2004).  Then part of Viacom, it was one of the rare occasions the Paramount logo was rendered in pink (probably described by most as "hot pink" or "fuchsia". 

Paramount was originally a term in feudal land-title law.  It described the lord paramount, the one who held absolute title to his fiefdom, not as a grant dependent upon (or revocable by) a superior lord.  A paramount lord was thus superior to a mesne lord (a landlord who has tenants holding under him, while himself the subject of the holding of a superior lord (a kind of sub-letting), mesne being the general legal principle of something intermediate or intervening) whose title to a fief existed ultimately at the pleasure of a superior. The concept endures in modern land law where titles are listed in documents and, even today, there exist jurisdictions where land, said to enjoy an indefeasible title, can still be subject to “paramount interests” which, despite being unregistered, can prevail over those formalized.  In land law, a lord paramount could be male or female but in a charming quirk, in the sport of archery, the noun "lady paramount" (the plural being ladies paramount) is the title awarded to the woman who achieves the highest score.

In Australia, the lord paramount is not the abstraction of "the Crown" but the person of the sovereign.  In the strict legal sense, the king or queen (of Australia) “owns” all the land & waters that constitutes the nation of Australia and those who “own” their own little piece by virtue of holding a valid freehold title (in "fee simple"), in the narrow technical sense, actually hold only a revocable grant from the crown (via some instrument of the state) exercising rights delegated by the king or queen.  Although of no practical significance, it’s not a legal fiction and the position of Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022; Queen of the UK and other places, 1952-2022) as lord paramount in the system of land tenure in Australia was affirmed by the HCA (High Court of Australia) in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992), one of the landmark cases entrenching in Australian law the concept of native title.

What the judgment in Mabo did was overturn the old doctrine of terra nullius (an old precept from the Legal Latin terra nūllīus (literally “nobody's land”) meaning "land belonging to no one") that European governments during the colonial era had used to justify annexation of lands inhabited by peoples either indigenous to the place or long in occupation.  The legal basis of that was if there was no formal (ie structured, written documents) system of land title there could be no concept of "ownership of land" (in the Western sense) and, widening the implications of this, the colonizers decided that meant often there was no "sovereign government" and thus sovereignty could be claimed and asserted by any power with the firepower to subdue any contesting of that decision.  Noting claims by colonizers, missionaries and such that because the "natives" did not "use" or "own" the land in any "civilized" way (structured agriculture, permanent settlements etc), when asked what was the "purpose" of the British Empire, the author George Orwell (1903-1950, who had served as a colonial policeman in Burma (in 1886 annexed to the British Raj by Lord Randolph Churchill (1849–1895 and then Secretary of State for India) who had triggered the not especially bloody but ultimately costly Third Anglo-Burmese War (1885)) replied: "Theft".  It was the Mabo decision in 1992 that recognized (1) the continent's  indigenous inhabitants had, prior to European settlement, existed in societies in which something recognizable as a form of "collective tribal ownership" (source of the modern term "first nations") prevailed and (2) except where extinguished by modern freehold titles, that "native title" could in certain circumstances endure and continue to co-exist with forms of title overlaid since the beginning of colonial settlement.

Portrait of Victor Christian William Cavendish, ninth Duke of Devonshire (1868–1938) (1928), oil on canvas by Anglo-Hungarian painter Philip Alexius László de Lombos (1869–1937 and known professionally as Philip de László).  Famed for his abilty to produce a "flattering result", de László was the leading "society portraitist" of his time.

In the history of colonial oppression, the dispossession of the indigenous inhabitants of Australia was one of many wrongs were done but, at least in the heart of the empire, there was occasionally an indication the “white man’s burden” should be discharged in a manner owing something to the Christian traditions colonists liked often to invoke and impose on their new subjects.  Although a Conservative, the ninth Duke of Devonshire was at heart a Liberal and, in mind, really a Whig and while serving as Secretary of State for the Colonies (1922 to 1924), in 1923 he left his Whiggish mark in the Colonial Office’s timber-lined corridors by issuing his “Declaration of Paramountcy”, known at the time as the “Devonshire White Paper” or “Devonshire Declaration”.  What this did was clarify the status of the rights of natives settlers in the Kenya Colony and (because of the way the administration there operated) East Africa generally:

“Primarily, Kenya is an African territory, and His Majesty's Government think it necessary definitely to record their considered opinion that the interests of the African natives must be paramount and that if, and when, those interests and the interests of the immigrant races should conflict, the former should prevail. Obviously the interests of the other communities, European, Indian or Arab, must severally be safeguarded.... But in the administration of Kenya His Majesty's Government regard themselves as exercising a trust on behalf of the African population, and they are unable to delegate or share this trust, the object of which may be defined as the protection and advancement of the native races.”

So, under this ministerial edict, whenever the interests of native Africans clashed with those of Asian, European or Arab settlers, those of the native Africans should prevail and thus be treated as “paramount”.  Because of shifts in political feeling in London, the view hardly was revolutionary although a “codification” of the hierarchy of rights in such explicit language was unexpected.  While there were many idealists (some even in the Conservative Party) who welcomed the statement, there were also realists who understood it was likely to “frighten the horses” in East Africa and there were fears what would happen were such a notion to spread throughout the empire.  However, despite much lobbying by those with a vested interest in “maintaining flexibility in matter of colonial administration”, the duke stood firm and neither amended nor withdrew the declaration.  Viewed at the time as a “liberal” position, critics subsequently have re-characterized the Declaration of Paramountcy as a “classic colonial fix”, designed to mediate between the claims of European and Indian interests although it’s conceded it did have the effect of somewhat ameliorating the living conditions of native East Africans and did ensure the Colonial Office retained control of Kenya, ensuring white minority rule (achieved and enforced by “the splutter of musketry”) wasn’t imposed, as happened in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia.  So, unlike some colonial fixes, there were at least some benefits for the native population although, as the post-war “winds of change” blew across Africa, in Kenya too, things ended badly.  As a footnote, the author of the famous “Winds of Change” speech was Harold Macmillan (1894–1986; UK prime-minister 1957-1963), the duke’s son-in-law.

Winds of Change, 1914-1939 (1966) by Harold Macmillan.

Macmillan’s Winds of Change speech (1960) was about the mood for decolonization growing among native populations in what remained of the European empires but he re-purposed the phrase as the title for the first of his six volumes memoirs.  It covered the period between the outbreak of World War I (1914-1938) and that of World War II (1939-1945), describing how the blast of war had ended the pre-1914 world that had seemed (at least to those of his class) so stable and hopeful, the 1920s & 1930s both more troubled.  In an example of the way in which the effect of a speech can be determined as much by time and place as content, Macmillan had delivered the Winds of Change speech in Ghana without it attracting much comment but when, on 3 February, 1960, he read the same text to those assembled in the Parliament of South Africa, it echoed around the world.  In little more than a year, South Africa's white minority government had left the Commonwealth and the country had become a republic.

Mirror

Mirror (pronounced mir-er)

(1) A reflecting surface, originally of polished metal but now usually of glass with a silvery, metallic, or amalgam backing; used casually, any reflective surface.

(2) Such a surface set into a frame, attached to a handle, etc and used usually for viewing oneself or as an ornament or architectural feature.

(3) In music (of a canon or fugue), capable of being played in retrograde or in inversion, as though read in a mirror placed beside or below the music.

(4) In computing, a disk (often as part of an array), website or other resource containing replicated data.

(5) Historically, a kind of political self-help book, advising kings, princes, etc on how to behave.

(6) In zoology, as mirror carp (known regionally as the Israeli carp) a type of domesticated fish commonly found in Europe but widely introduced or cultivated elsewhere (the name based on the creature’s appearance).

(7) In mathematics & geometry, to create the “mirror image” of a shape across a point, line or plane.

(8) To reflect in or as if in a mirror.

(9) To reflect as a mirror does.

(10) To mimic, replicate or imitate something.

(11) To be or give a faithful representation, image, or idea of something.

1175-1125: From the Middle English mirour, from the Old French mireor (mirror (literally “looker, watcher”)), from mirer (look at), from the Latin mīror (wonder at) & mīrārī (to wonder at), from mīrus (wonderful), from the primitive Indo-European smey- (to laugh, to be glad).  The construct of the Middle English mirour was the Latin Mir(er) + -eo(u)r, from the Latin -ātor, a noun suffix of agency; it displaced the native Old English sċēawere (literally “watcher”), which was also the word for “a spy”.  According to Nancy Mitford's (1904–1973) Noblesse Oblige: An Enquiry Into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy (1956), "looking glass" is the "U" (upper-class) term while "mirror" is used by the "non-U" (everyone else).  The alternative spelling mirrour is obsolete.  The verb mirror (to reflect) dates from the 1590s and developed from the noun; the related forms mirrored & mirroring soon followed.  The early fifteenth century Middle English verb mirouren meant “to be a model” in the sense of one’s conduct or behavior while the mid-fourteenth century miren (from the Old French mirer) meant literally “to look in a mirror”.  Mirror & mirroring are nouns & verbs, mirrored is a verb, mirrorlike & mirrorless are adjectives and mirrorful is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is mirrors.

In idiomatic use, the phrases “done with mirrors” and “smoke & mirrors” are used to describe things accomplished within the laws of physics but appear in some way the product of “magic”, smoke and mirrors sometimes used by stage magicians in their tricks.  Mirror is used also to refer to a thing that reflects or depicts something else: a website or a political part might claim to “mirror of public opinion” and a student in search of a high grade might do well to “mirror the lecturer’s opinions”.  To “hold up a mirror to” is used to mean: (1) “to represent and by resemblance provide insight into and (2) To elucidate; to make explicit some aspect of.  Historically, a “mirror” was a kind of political self-help book, advising kings, princes etc on how to behave.  Mirrors have appeared in more than a dozen folkloric superstitions, the best-known of which is the seven years bad luck which will accrue to anyone breaking a mirror, the notion first documented in the 1770s and the Queen’s question “Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?” was from the German fairy tale Snow White, first publish in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 as Sneewittchen and subsequently revised for later editions.

1975 BMW 2002 Turbo.  1975 BMW 2002 Turbo (Italian market version).  The ½-clear & ½ amber turn signals were exclusive to the Italian market versions, the sort of quirky detail collectors adore. 

The 1973 Frankfurt Motor Show was held in September in an atmosphere of (mostly) untroubled optimism, one indication of which was the debut of the BMW 2002 (E20) Turbo.  In road cars, supercharging had faded from popularity in the post-war years as improvements in technology made it possible to deliver the required output with conventional aspiration and in an era of rising prosperity and low energy costs, increased displacement was an easier path to power and while turbochargers had for decades been widely used in aviation and heavy diesel transports, in cars they were still a rare novelty.  The 2002 Turbo delivered a significant lift in performance so expectations were high, something which seemed justified by the reception the car received at the show and those enchanted by its pace seemed prepared to overlook that as well as enjoying the benefits of turbo-charging, the 2002 suffered also the foibles which afflicted the early implementations of the technology, notably the combination of “lag” (the lapse of time between opening the throttle and the expected response) and the sudden delivery of power (and thus acceleration).

1974 BMW 2002 Turbo (left) and as it would appear in a rear-view mirror (right)

However, within three weeks of the Frankfurt show closing, the first OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) oil embargo was declared, the price of oil increasing four-fold in the wake, something which curbed customer enthusiasm for fast, thirsty machines and while plenty were more affected, between 1973-1975, only 1672 were built but the car is now recognized as a pioneer of the template which European (and later other) manufacturers would adopt and over the decades refine to the point where the dreaded “turbo-lag” became (mostly) a memory.  The survival rate was high and although the performance level was later much surpassed (without any need for turbo-charging), they became sought after by those wanting to enjoy what could be an exciting, if sometimes demanding, experience.  They’re now a collector’s item bought more to admire and trade than drive and prices in excess of US$200,000 are not unknown.  When first announced, the cars allocated to the press fleet had “2002” and “turbo” written in reverse lettering on the front spoiler, just to let drivers glancing in their rear-view mirrors know one was coming up fast although in the six months following the release, a 100 km/h (60 mph) was imposed on the autobahns as a fuel-saving measure so opportunities to overtake were limited.  The message implied in the graphics attracted the interest of the authorities in some German Länder (state governments) which claimed the concept was “aggressive” and cars with the lettering might not be registered.  Aggression has been a sensitive topic in Germany since 1945 and BMW made the graphics and option but apparently nowhere in the country was registration denied and like the originally optional blue strips on Shelby American Mustangs, many 2002 Turbos have since had the graphics retrospectively applied.

Colors: Over two seasons, production of the BMW 2002 Turbo ran to 1672 units, all but eight finished in either Polaris Metallic Silver (060) or Chamonix White (085).

There was at the time nothing unusual about a specific model being offered with a restricted color range (or even a single shade); in 1974, the final 50 Jaguar E-Types (1961-1974) were all black except a single example in BRG (British Racing Green) ordered by a “customer of long-standing”.  Clearly, in 1974 and 1975 there were eight BMW customers of long standing (or possibly friends of the family, WAGs (wives & girlfriends) etc) who wanted their 2002 Turbo in other than the otherwise obligatory Polaris Metallic Silver (060) or Chamonix White (085).  White and silver were Germany's original racing colors, the former allocated in the earliest days of the sport, the latter adopted in the 1930s in circumstances less romantic than Mercedes-Benz had long suggested was the truth.  Although there were many reasons Mercedes-Benz came to prefer to be evasive about much in did in that decade, "paintgate" had nothing to do with the Nazi regime (1933-1945). 

Selfie expert Lindsay Lohan, well acquainted with the properties of mirrors.

In computing, the concept of “mirroring” exists in several contexts but the best-known and most widely practiced is in data storage and management.  “Disk mirroring” describes the replication of data stored on one volume onto a physically separate volume, sometimes in the one physical array, sometimes onto media far away.  The attraction of mirroring is that in the event of disk failure, data losses are limited (often eliminated) because the system can continue to use one disk until the failed unit is replaced.  One of the most widely used (and simplest) implementations is RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) Level 1 which in which two disks operate in unison although users only ever see one volume.  Various methods of writing data are used, described usually as synchronous, asynchronous and semi-synchronous and the choice is dictated both by cost and what’s technically possible.  The ideal approach is synchronous writing under which, at most, data losses related to disk failure should be measured in minutes or even seconds.  The industry standard for corporations using mirroring has long been the “hot-swap” which means a failed disk can be pulled from a system while running and a replacement inserted, the RAID software re-mirroring (re-building) the new disk.  A less often seen configuration includes a standby disk which sits in a system, remaining unused until notified of failure in which case it assumes the role of the failed media, re-mirroring beginning as soon as it is found to be on-line.