Miosótis

Miosótis (pronounced mahy-uh-soh-tis)

Any plant belonging to the boraginaceous (of the borage family) genus Myosotis, having basal leaves and pink or white flowers; known generally as the forget-me-not.

1700–1710: From the New Latin & Latin myosōtis from the Ancient Greek μυοσωτίς (myosōtís or muosōtis) (mouse's ear (in the context of botany)), the construct being myós (genitive of mŷs or muos (mouse)) + -ōt- (stem of oûs (ear)) + -is (the noun suffix).  The mouse-ear (Myosotis Arvensis (type species Myosotis scorpioides)) is also called mouse-lug and the original Hellenic name was based on the idea of the foliage have some resemblance to the rodent's ears.  In Portuguese, the plant is also known as the não-te-esqueças-de-mim (literally "do not forget about me" and thus akin to "forget me not") & orelha-de-rato (mouse ear).  Miosótis is a noun; the noun plural is miosótis.  The alternative spelling myosótis is obsolete.

The miosótis is a perennial flowering plant, the flowers having five sepals and petals, typically flat and less than a half-inch (1.25 mm) in diameter, the color range including pink, white, yellow & blue with yellow centres, sprouting in a scorpioid cluster.  Flowering happens almost in spring, coinciding with the melting of snow in alpine regions.  The genus was originally described by Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), famous for having systematized binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms and thus known as the "father of modern taxonomy".  The colloquial names in the northern hemisphere are "forget-me-not" and (less commonly "scorpion grass" (based on the spiraled clustering of the flowers) and Myosotis alpestris is the official flower of both Alaska and Dalsland, Sweden.  In other places, the common names vary and because of the vivid colors they are popular among amateur horticulturists, having spread to many of the Earth’s temperate regions where, outside of curated artificial environments, they prefer moist locations such as wetlands and riverbanks.

The “mouse’s ear” explained by Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried (b 1985)) in Mean Girls (2004).  Note the resemblance of the "mouse ears" to the petals of the miosótis flower

Empire

Empire (pronounced em-pahyuhr (sometimes om-peer if affecting to speak of things historically French)).

(1) A group of nations or peoples ruled over by an emperor, empress, or other powerful sovereign or government: usually a territory of greater extent than a kingdom, as the former British Empire, French Empire, Russian Empire, Byzantine Empire, or Roman Empire.

(2) As First Empire, the period of imperial rule in France under Napoleon Bonaparte, 1804-1815; as Second Empire, the period of Imperial rule under Napoleon III, 1852-1870 (a decadent period).

(3) A government under an emperor or empress.

(4) The historical period during which a nation is under such a government (often initial capital letter).

(5) Supreme power in governing; imperial power; sovereignty.

(6) Supreme control; absolute sway.

(7) A powerful and important enterprise or holding of large scope, especially one controlled by a single person, family, or group of associates.

(8) In horticulture, a variety of apple somewhat resembling the McIntosh.

(9) In fashion, of the style that prevailed during the first French Empire, in clothing being characterized especially by décolletage and a high waistline, coming just below the bust, from which the skirt hangs straight and loose (usually initial capital letter).

(10) As Empire State, a term for New York since 1834.

(11) In architecture and design, noting or pertaining to the style of architecture, furnishings, and decoration prevailing in France, emulated variously in various other places circa 1800-1830; characterized by the use of delicate but elaborate ornamentation imitated from Greek and Roman examples or containing classical allusions, as animal forms for the legs of furniture, bas-reliefs of classical figures, motifs of wreaths, torches, caryatids, lyres, and urns and by the occasional use of military and Egyptian motifs and, under the Napoleonic Empire itself, of symbols alluding to Napoleon I, as bees or the letter N (often initial capital letter).

1250–1300: From the Middle English empire (territory subject to an emperor's rule (and, in general "realm, dominion"), from the Anglo-French & Old French empire & empere (rule, authority, kingdom, imperial rule; authority of an emperor, supreme power in governing; imperial power), from the Latin imperium & inperium (a rule, a command; authority, control, power; supreme power, sole dominion; military authority; a dominion, realm) from inperare & imperāre (to command) from parāre (to prepare; to make ready; order).  The construct of the Latin imperare was in- (in) (from the primitive Indo-European root en (in)) + parare (to order, prepare) (from the primitive Indo-European root pere- (to produce, procure).  A doublet of empery and imperium.

In English, the early understanding of the word was defined substantially by the knowledge (however imperfect) of the Persian and Roman (especially the latter) empires of Antiquity and though never etymologically restricted to "territory ruled by an emperor", for entirely logical reasons it did tend to be used that way.  The phrase "the Empire" (which in the UK and the British empire almost exclusively implied "the British Empire" (dating from 1772)) previously would have been supposed to be a reference to the Holy Roman Empire.  Officially, the British Empire devolved into "The Commonwealth" in 1931 because of the constitutional implications of the Statute of Westminster (and the changing world view) but opinion is divided on when it really ended, most dating it from Indian independence in 1947 (when George VI ceased to be George RI (Rex Imperator (king-emperor)) and became George R) while others claim (less plausibly) that in a sense it endured until Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997.  Nobody claims that still holding the Falkland Islands an empire makes.

Always a civilizing project, the Roman Empire stopped short of Ireland and Scotland.  One has to draw the line somewhere.

Despite the modern habit, etymologically, empire was never restricted to "territory ruled by an emperor" but has been used that way for so long a meaning-shift may have happened.  In political theory, an empire is an aggregate of conquered, colonized, or confederated states, each with its own government subordinate or tributary to that of the empire as a whole but history is replete with accidents and anomalies.  Japan’s head of state is an emperor although no empire exists and the most often quoted remark about the Holy Roman Empire has long been Voltaire’s bon mot that it was "...not holy, nor Roman, nor an empire".

Long pre-dating the era, the empire-line (sometimes called empire-silhouette) dress is most associated with the French First Empire (which lasted from 1804 when Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor, to his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815) and although the look endured longer than the political construct, beginning in the 1820s, skirts widened and waistlines lowered to an extent most were no longer identifiable as the style.  The look became linked to the First Empire because it was Napoleon's first Empress, Joséphine de Beauharnais (1763–1814) who popularized it in Europe and there are fashionistas who when speaking of the style, will pronounce it as a quasi-French om-pire.  In England, Emma, Lady Hamilton's ((1765–1815); mistress of Lord Nelson (1758-1805) and muse of the artist George Romney (1734-1802)) adoption of the style was much imitated, the cross-channel exchanges of fashion continuing uninterrupted even when a state of war existed between London and Paris.  The English or American fashions of this time tend respectively to be termed "Regency" (referring to the Regency of the Prince of Wales, 1811-1820) and "Federal" (referring to the decades immediately following the American Revolution).

Gisele Bündchen in Dior empire-line dress, Academy Awards Ceremony, Los Angeles, February 2005.

Empire-line dresses featured a waistline considerably raised above the natural level with skirts which vary from the slim and columnar to the swishy and conical.  In its pure form it was characterized by (1) a columnar silhouette without gathers in front, (2) some fullness over the hips, (3) a concentration of gathers aligned with a wide centre-back bodice panel and (4), a raised waistline which reached usually to just below the bust but (occasionally) as high as the armpits.  Mass-production of the design was possible only because the industrial revolution made available new fabrics and other materials at volume and an attainable cost.  Empire- line proved appealing to women without an ideal figure because, by adjusting the parameters of the various components, a seamstress could flatter a wide variety of body types, disguising and emphasizing as required, able to create also the illusion of greater height. 

The empire-line inherently needs a lot of fabric which offers designers the possibility of using bold patterns, especially florals, which can't be displayed to the same effect in styles with less surface area.

Traditionally, most clothing had relied on the shape of the human body but new forms of corsetry, including strong yet delicate shoulder straps to provide the necessary structural integrity, combined with materials such as mull, a  soft, sheer Indian white muslin, allowed designers to create wearable outfits in which the neoclassical influence was obvious, the silhouette imitating the Classical statutes of Antiquity.  Such constructions had before existed for the rich but they were heavy, hot, rigid, uncomfortable and very expensive.  Sadly, the relative freedom women enjoyed proved short lived, evolving by the 1820s into something less simple and notably more restrictive, the hourglass Victorian styles much more prevalent in high-fashion by the mid-nineteenth century, a trend which lasted until the First World War.  The ideas of empire-line were revived for the less-constricting clothing popular in the 1920s and, although coming and going, it’s never gone away and, being somewhat hippie in its look, gained a new following in the 1960s.

Empire-line wedding dresses (left to right) by Dana Harel, Savannah Miller, Two Birds & LoveShackFancy.  Although the design and structural details differ between these, all four can be reduced to the same mathematics.  The wedding dress business seems to be one part of the industry where blonde models seem not to enjoy their usual natural advantage, photographers preferring dark hair, better to contrast and define the edges of all that white fabric.  

Lindsay Lohan in empire-line dress, Paris, 2011.

Today, empire-line dresses are still often worn and the style gained a new audience from their used in the Mad Men television series, set in upper-middle class US society during the 1960s.  One place where they've long inhabited a stable niche has been the Western wedding dress where the technical aspects of the design, the fitted bodice, high waist, and loose-fitting skirt allow the creation of silhouette that’s flattering and forgiving for a wide range of body shapes, once a genuine selling feature for brides with child who, in less accepting times, wished to conceal the bump.  However, even though the empire- line is almost uniquely  ideal at shifting focus from the waistline, it can be cut in a way to complement the slender, delivering a cinched waist.  In either case, the same mathematics are at work, the goal being to elongate and define and by creating the visual effect of the narrowest point appearing just under the bust, it can either (1) trick viewers into seeing a longer torso, diverting attention from the midriff and hips or (2) emphasise the waistline of the truly slender, making it perfect also for the petite or short.

Oracle

Oracle (pronounced awr-uh-kuhl)

(1) As used especially in reference to Ancient Greece, an utterance, often ambiguous or obscure, given by a priest or priestess at a shrine as the response of a god to an inquiry.

(2)  The agency or medium giving such responses.

(3) A shrine or place at which such responses were given (classically the oracle of Apollo at Delphi).

(4) A person who delivers authoritative, wise, or highly regarded and influential pronouncements.

(5) A divine communication or revelation; a prophecy, often obscure or allegorical, revealed through the medium of a priest or priestess at the shrine of a god

(6) Any person or thing serving as an agency of divine communication.

(7) Any utterance made or received as authoritative, extremely wise, or infallible.

(8) The English translation for The Holy of Holies, the term in the Hebrew Bible which refers to the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle where God's presence appeared.

(9) In computer science theory, a theoretical entity capable of answering some collection of questions.

1350–1400: From the Middle English oracle (a message from a god expressed by divine inspiration through a priest or priestess (in answer to a human inquiry, usually respecting some future event)) via the twelfth century Old French oracle (temple, house of prayer; oracle) from the Latin ōrāclum & ōrāculum (divine announcement, oracle; place where oracles are given), the construct being ōrare (to pray to, plead to, beseech (from which Modern English gained orator)) + the instrumental suffix -culo- (as -culum (a re-bracketing of diminutive suffix -lus on nouns ending in -cus, used freely in Latin)).  Ōrāculum was the alternative form with similar forms also in Hittite where it meant either “to worship; revere” or “to consult an oracle”.  In Attic Greek the equivalent was ἀρά (ará) (prayer) and in the Sanskrit it was आर्यन्ति (āryanti) (praise).  Ōrō is from the primitive Indo-European hzer- (to pronounce a ritual). The diminutive suffix culum was from -culus, from the Proto-Italic -klom, from the primitive Indo-European -tlom, from -trom.  Interestingly there is stabulum which comes from a similar suffix (-dhlom) but, despite the resemblance, osculum (which is never found in the form osclum) and other diminutive nouns do not contain this suffix.  Oracle is a noun & verb, oracularity is a noun and oracular is an adjective; the noun plural is oracles.

The dualism of the oracle as (1) the agency or medium of a god and (2) the place where such divine utterances were given dates from antiquity and was another of those things which wasn't always appreciated by Medieval translators which accounts for some of the misleading documents (presumably the work of more than one scribe) in which the senses shift which in some way anticipated (however inadvertently) Marshall McLuhan's (1911–1980) distinctly twentieth century construct of "the medium is the message" the influential phrase from his Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964).  The notion of the oracle as a physical place entered English in the early fifteenth century, the extended sense of "uncommonly wise person" developed by the 1590s.  The adjective oracular (of or pertaining to, or of the nature of, an oracle or oracles) emerged in the 1670s, the construct being from the Latin ōrāculum (see oracle) + -ar ((from the Latin -āris (of, pertaining to) and was appended to nouns to create adjectives).  The now extinct (although it has of course been seen in the odd literary novel) was oraculous, dating from the 1610s.

The GHD Oracle

Art of the possible: A post GHDed young lady (GHD promotional image).

Claimed by the GHD corporation (which really is an initialism of Good Hair Day) to have taken six years and absorbed some Stg£5.2 million (US$6.3m) in research & development (R&D), the Oracle styling tool was in 2019 simultaneously launched with the Platinum+, an upgrade of the Platinum styler, first introduced in 2015.  The Platinum+ was an evolution from its predecessor, featuring enhanced heat management to maintain a hair-safe temperature and new sensors which recognise the thickness of hair, the section size and the speed at which hair is passing through, adjusting the power to suit.  Importantly, the Platinum can be used in exactly the same way as previous GHD stylers.  In the way that sometimes happens in English, because in the 1970s the term "hair straightener" achieved critical mass, it remains something of a generic and modern multi-function devices (which curl and wave as well as straighten) still are often casually referred to as such.  

Progress: A young lady having her hair ironed (left), Queens, New York City, 1964 and a GHD Oracle (GHD promotional image) (right).  Advances in engineering and technology over the last 60-odd years have transformed the lives of most of the planet’s population and the availability of first hair strengtheners and later styling wands is one small aspect of this phase of modernity.  The devices mean girls no longer have to have their hair ironed.

The Oracle is different in both design and use, featuring a U-shaped clamp, with one cooling plate on top and ceramic heater plates on each arm to maintain the temperature at 365˚F (185˚C), the innovation in the heated hair being cooled before leaving the styler which GHD said helps set curls in place.  However, the design does demand a different technique in use because there's a defined “curl-zone” and the positioning of the hair in relation to this space is critical: the Oracle must exactly be positioned.  GHD’s manual instructs that to achieve what they describe as zig-zaggy, energetic, beachy curls, the styler needs first to be vertically adjacent to the head, then turned 90˚, then, with the logo facing outwards, moved in a gentle gliding action along the hair at a 45˚ angle.  Given the dexterity demanded, perhaps unsurprisingly, users in GHD’s test-labs reported the right-handed found the right-side easier to style, left-handers preferring the left.  Using the Oracle does necessitate movements of wrists and arms very different from those used with GHD’s traditional products.  For this reason, the Oracle is available only in hair salons with the purchase price  including an instructional session from a stylist.

Suspected GHD Oracle user Lindsay Lohan who over the years has done more with her hair than most.

Outlandish

Outlandish (pronounced out-lan-dish)

(1) Freakishly or grotesquely strange or odd, as appearance, dress, objects, ideas, or practices; bizarre.

(2) Having a foreign appearance (archaic).

(3) Remote from civilized areas; out-of-the-way (archaic).

(4) Being actually foreign; alien (archaic).

Pre 1000: From the Middle English outlandisch, from the Old English ūtlendisc (of a foreign country, not native) from the Proto-Germanic ūtlandiskaz and related to ūtland (foreign land, literally "out-land").  The meaning in the sense of unfamiliar, strange, odd, bizarre (such as the customs of foreigners may seem to natives) dates from the 1590s and may be compared with the German ausländisch and the Danish udenlandsk.  The Old English utland could also mean "land lying beyond the limits of occupation or cultivation," a sense that survived into Modern English.  The noun outlander (a foreigner, a person who is not a native) came into parallel use in the 1590s as a direct back-construction from outland (foreign land), almost certainly on the model of the Dutch uitlander and the German ausländer.  In South African English, by 1892 it acquired the specific sense of "not of Boer birth" which was a loan-translation of South African Dutch uitlander.  In Old English utlanda meant "an exile", a status which was known in many Medieval legal systems (or at least common practice).  In the Middle English, outland was simply a descriptor for "foreigners" and was a verbal shorthand of straungeres outlondes.  Outlandish is an adjective, outlandishly is an adverb and outlandishness is a noun.

Glass-blowing, the Royal Navy and coal

Many trees required: The architecture of the seventeenth century English ship-of-the-line (the battleships of their day).

In English common law, outlandish retained its original, literal, meaning in as late as the 1690s.  The often persecuted Huguenots, an ethno-religious group of French Protestants had lived in an uneasy relationship with the French state for many years until their rebellions in the 1620s prompted the abolishment of most of their political and privileges and persecution increased, culminating in the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685), effectively outlawing them and forcing them to flee France.  Many ended up in England, including a large number of artisans involved in glass and steel production, both of which demanded much energy.  Within a decade, it became apparent the forests of England were rapidly being depleted to provide fuel for furnaces, a matter of concern to a small island dependent for its trade and security on the Royal Navy and merchant marine, both with fleets of ships made from wood; each big warship (known as ship of the line or man-O-War) required the felling of several-thousand trees during its construction.  The government acted and banned the outlandish (foreigners) from leasing, owning or harvesting forests.  Designed to avoid a threat to the supply of timber, the law had the far reaching effect of accelerating the shift of Britain’s source of energy for industrial production from wood to coal, something that would endure almost three-hundred years and it wouldn't be until the early twentieth century that the the Royal Navy's big ships began to switch from coal to oil-fired power.

An outlandish combination which recalls the dazzle camouflage schemes used by several admiralties in the world wars: Lindsay Lohan dressed for ABC network television, Good Morning America, New York City, November 2022.

The interesting ensemble included an Akris color-blocked suit by Law Roach (b 1978) and shoes in gloss burgundy by Giuseppe Zanotti (b 1957).  The flared cut of the trousers hid the shoes' 2-inch (50 mm) soles and 6-inch (150 mm) heels which was a neat stylist's trick but they certainly deserved to be seen.

Arhat

Arhat (pronounced ahr-huht)

(1) In Buddhism, a Buddhist (most usually a monk) who, through rigorous discipline and ascetic practices, has attained enlightenment and upon death passes to Nirvana.

(2) In Buddhism, a title accorded to sanctified Buddhists; a Buddhist saint.

(3) In Jainism, one of the stages of the ascetic's spiritual evolution, when all passions (anger, ego, deception, greed, attachment, hatred and ignorance) are destroyed (the derived terms are arhantam, arhathood & arhatship.

1865–1870: A transliteration of the Sanskrit अर्हत् (arhat) (arahant in Pāḷi) (worthy of worship; meriting respect), from arhati (he merits; he deserves), the construct being the verbal root arh (to deserve), from arah (meriting, deserving of), ahrana (having a claim; state of entitlement) & the past participle arhita (honored, worshipped); a doublet of arahant and the alternative spelling was Arhant (pronounced ahr-huhnt).  Arhat and Arhatship are nouns; the noun plural is Arhats.

A related state in Buddhism (notably Mahayana Buddhism) was Bodhisattva (pronounced boh-duh-suht-vuh).  The word was from the Sanskrit and Pāḷi, translating literally as “one whose essence is enlightenment”, the construct being bodhi (enlightenment) + sattva (essence).  Dating from the early nineteenth century, a Bodhisattva is a person who has attained prajna (Enlightenment) but who postpones Nirvana (ie remaining in earthly existence) in order to help others attain Enlightenment.  In some Buddhist sects, certain Bodhisattvas are treated as living saints and are the subjects of devotion, represented sometimes as divine in artworks (the practice controversial in some Buddhist circles).

Arhat appears in the Ṛigveda with in the sense of "deserving”.  Rigveda (or Rig Veda, Rgveda, Rg Veda & Rug Veda) was from the Sanskrit ऋग्वेद (ṛg-vedá) (veda of praise), the construct being ऋच् (ṛ́c) (praise, verse) + वेद (véda) (knowledge).  It was an ancient Indian Veda and sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (sūktas) and one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (śruti) known as the Vedas and today, apart for the largely extant Śakalya Shakha, only fragments remain.  The Rigveda is the oldest known of the Vedic Sanskrit texts which date from 1700-1100 BC.

In prayer: A Buddha statue and Lindsay Lohan.  In translation, arhat is sometimes rendered in English as arahat while in the Far East, the transliteration was often phonetic and in the Chinese 阿羅漢 (āluóhàn) it was often shortened to 羅漢 (luóhàn) and, via the Raj, this was picked up in English as Lohan or luohan whereas in Japanese the pronunciation of the Chinese characters was arakan (阿羅漢) or rakan (羅漢).

Gaffer & Duct

Gaffer (pronounced gaf-er)

(1) The chief electrician on the set of a movie or television show.

(2) In informal use, a boss, supervisor, or manager.

(3) In informal use, an old man, especially one living in the country (often used affectionately or patronizingly).

(4) A foreman or overseer in charge of a group of physical laborers; the coach or manager of a sports team.

(5) In glassmaking, a master glassblower responsible for shaping glassware.

(6) Slang for boy or youth (unique to Ireland); used in maritime regions to refer to the baby of the house.

(7) A type of tape used usually as a safety device to tape-down cables to reduce the risk of tripping hazards (technically gaffer’s tape).

(8) A boat's crew member whose duty is to gaff (a tool consisting of a large metal hook with a handle or pole, especially the one used to pull large fish aboard a boat) a (large) fish once the angler has reeled it in.

(9) In slang, as “to gaff”, “gaffered” or ”to gaffer”, a description of some temporary or roughly improvised repair using gaffer tape or some other quick and dirty method; “to make a gaff” as a description of a mistake is a variation of this.

1565–1575: Thought likely to be a contraction of godfather, but with the vowels influenced by grandfather.  The use to describe “an elderly rustic" was apparently based on continental analogies (compare gammer and the related French compère and German Gevatter).  It seems originally to have been a term of respect, also applied familiarly; from "old man" and was by 1841 extended to foremen and supervisors generally.  In UK police forces, it’s common slang to describe the officer in charge of a particular section or squad and in Association Football (soccer), the head coach or manager.  In the early twentieth century, it was carried over to the electrician or technician in charge of lighting on a film set because the natural lighting on early film sets was adjusted by opening and closing flaps in the tent, these cloths called gaff cloths or gaff flaps.  Because the technician used a long pole with a hook known as a “gaff hook”, he came to be known as a “the gaff hooker” and, as English does when users find there are too many syllables, this was truncated to “the gaffer”.  The tape later used for electrical cables was almost exclusively in the gaffers' toolboxes and thus became “gaffer’s tape”.  Now it’s known almost always as “gaffer tape”.  Gaffer is a noun; the noun plural is gaffers.

Ad-hoc wrap: 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais two door coupe, "duct tape" version.

Duct (pronounced duhkt)

(1) Any tube, canal, pipe, or conduit by which a fluid, air, or other substance is conducted or conveyed.

(2) In anatomy and zoology, a tube, canal, or vessel conveying a body fluid, especially a glandular secretion or excretion.

(3) In botany, a cavity or vessel formed by elongated cells or by many cells.

(4) In the infrastructure of electricity, a single enclosed runway for conductors or cables.

(5) In a printing press, the reservoir for ink.

(6) Guidance; direction; quotation (obsolete).

1640-1650: From the Latin ductus (conveyance of water; a leading, a conduit pipe), noun use of the past participle of ducere (to lead) from dūcō (I lead, draw), from the primitive Indo-European root deuk (to lead).  Use has endured in the Medieval Latin aqueduct and the high rank of aristocracy, duke, drawn from the past participle of ducere (to lead); the construct was duc (variant stem of dūcere (to lead)) + tus (suffix of verbal action).  The meaning in an anatomical sense (vessel of an animal body by which blood, lymph etc, are conveyed) was first noted in the 1660s while that of a "conduit or channel" dates from 1713.  Use in a variety of architectural and engineering contexts to describe "tubes in a structure" developed after the use to describe an "air tube" in 1884.  Duct & ducting are nouns & verbs, ducted is a verb & adjective and ductal is an adjective; the noun plural is ducts.

Manhattan Project, Los Alamos, New Mexico, July, 1945.

Canadian physicist Louis Slotin (1910–1946, left) and US electronics technician Herb Lerh (1922-2018, right) with the partially assembled “Gadget”.  The small, strapped-down cylinder at the bottom-right is the tamper plug cylinder that would be inserted into the bomb’s housing.  Slotin died in an accident involving the “Demon Core” which picked up its dark nickname because, in an earlier accident, it had also claimed the life of US physicist Haroutune Krikor “Harry” Daghlian (1921-1945).

Gadget was the first nuclear device, detonated in the Trinity test in New Mexico on 16 July, 1945, some three weeks before the A-bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.On learning nuclear fission had been mastered, Winston Churchill (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) observed: “fire was the first discovery, this is the second.”  Despite that feeling, after this photograph was de-classified and published, what much amused some was that even with state-of-the-art nuclear physics, duct tape was apparently still essential.  Like the third bomb (dropped on Nagasaki) the Gadget was a “plutonium implosion fission” bomb whereas the one used against Hiroshima attack was “uranium gun-type fission” design.  By the standards of nuclear physics, the “gun-type” design was relatively simple and so confident were the scientists it was thought not necessary to conduct a test prior to operational use.  However, the design could be used only with a uranium core and, at the time, it was difficult and time-consuming to produce in the required volume uranium of the correct type.  By contrast, weapons-grade plutonium could more quickly be produced but the method to trigger the detonation was wholly a new theory, thus the need for the Trinity test.  The Hiroshima bomb was a genuine one-off, all subsequent nuclear weapons using a plutonium core (although some have speculated one or more of the tests conducted by the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea) may have had uranium cores.

Duct and Gaffer Tape

Duct tape scene: Lindsay Lohan as Tess Conway in Freaky Friday (2003).

Duct tape was in 1894 originally sold under the name duck tape, long, non-adhesive strips of plain cotton duck cloth used in various mechanical processes.  The name was transferred to a plastic-coated adhesive tape used by U.S. soldiers in World War II, probably because of its waterproof qualities (ie the sense of "water off a duck's back").  It continued in civilian use after the war, and the name shifted to duct tape by 1958, perhaps because the most common use was in air ducts, which also accounts for its still standard silver-gray color. Often casually regarded as interchangeable, duct and gaffer tapes are constructed differently because they’re intended for different purposes.  Indeed, using one for the intended application of the other can cause messy or worse results.  They’re similar in that both are hand-tearable, conform well to uneven surfaces and tend to be sold in the same packaging and sizes.  Duct tape is constructed with a polyethylene (PE) cloth backing, a material that makes it waterproof and contains an aggressive, rubber-based glue, allowing it easily to adhere to many of surfaces.   Duct tape has (1) a shiny, reflective backing, (2) is for semi-permanent or permanent applications and (3) tends to leave an adhesive residue when removed.  A specialized variation is a heat-resistant foil (not cloth) duct tape, useful for sealing heating and cooling ducts.  For decades silvery gray, it’s now available in colors and even printed designs.

Duct tape fashion: Lindsay Lohan in duct tape cocktail dress.  Tape is 3M Utility Duct Tape 2929 (Silver) and the shoes are Jimmy Choo Patent Leather Sandals.

Gaffer tape is made with a coated cloth backing and a synthetic, rubber-based glue.  Because it doesn’t have the PE backing, gaffer tape is not waterproof but the barrier properties in the backing make it moisture resistant in most cases.  This means it shouldn’t be used for waterproofing but is suitable for temporary use in high-humidity and moist environments. The adhesive on gaffer tape is less aggressive than duct tape, rendering it more easily removed when temporary need is over.  Because of its origins in the theatre, gaffer tape traditionally had a matte white or black backing to reduce the reflection of light but is now available in colored gloss finishes.  It's important gaffer tape be (relatively) easy to remove because in most cases its use intrinsically is temporary, typically to render cables run here and there safe, ensuring they['re not a trip hazard.  Unfortunately, because the adhesive used needs still to be strong enough to stick to surfaces as long as is required, a residue can be left on some surfaces, notably carpets and this is more apparent on some colors.  Many techs have been shouted at by those upset at what's been done to their carpets.

Piet Mondrian’s 1941 New York City 1 as it (presumably correctly) sat in the artist's studio in 1944 (left) and as it has since 1945 been exhibited (upside-down) in New York and Düsseldorf (right).  Spot the difference. 

The term “duct tape fashion” seems to have become a generic, possibly because of the dark association of the stuff with kidnappings and abductions but many of the products so described actually use different types of tape, such as the New York City series of abstract works created in the 1940s with multi-colored paper tape by the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian’s (1872-1944).  The critics responded well to the works although one version, first exhibited at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in 1945, has since 1980 hung upside down in the Düsseldorf Museum as part of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen’s collection.  The revelation critics and curators for 80 years discussed and interpreted Mondrian’s meaning despite it being upside down was greeted with glee by those sceptical of modern art but the piece was unsigned, sometimes an indication the artist deemed it unfinished but he left no notes.

On the catwalk: The Black Tape Project at Miami Swim Week, July 2023.

Predictably, the “duct tape bikini” was, in terms of publicity generated, the highlight of Miami Swim Week in July 2023 but for some it was a surprise to see the return of the (trademarked) Black Tape Project because in New York, not six months earlier, Joel Alvarez (creator of the project), announced the brand had staged its “final show”.  Stories duly were written but at Swim Week it transpired the “brand” being discontinued was “Joel Alvarez” and that having “…buried Joel Alvarez on that stage in front of the world”, henceforth he’d be known as “Drakhan Blackhart” and nobody denied that was a wonderful name.  On Instagram (@thekingoftape), Mr Blackhart informed the world he was the “…creator of the Black Tape Project™.  I am the world's only body tape expert, founder and pioneer of the Body Tape Art Genre.  Because of my concepts, I've been able to travel to over 42 countries and counting.”

Nice work if you can get it: An artist dedicated to his craft, Mr Blackhart “hand-applies” the black tape and studs.

Less became more during Mr Blackhart’s half-year hiatus from tape shows because what showed up on the Miami catwalk was even skimpier than what had been seen before; always minimalist, the results were now tending to the minuscule so as well as creating much interest, production costs were lowered because less tape was now required.  Of course, reducing the volume of tape brings artistic challenges because there’s less scope to introduce differences in the designs but it’s not for no reason the imaginative Mr Blackhart describes himself as the “King of Tape”: While conceptually all the installations (that does seem the right word) on the models were by definition “variations on a theme of black tape”, there was enough variety in the placement to keep the audience’s attention.  What the approach does mean is that the point must soon be reached where the possibilities have been exhausted so it may not be long before Black Tape Project models appear adorned with tapes of different colors and that could create a whole new language although there seems not reason why colors can't appear under the "Black Tape" brand.

The language of catwalk tape: From the Black Tape Project (left) and Miami Art Body Tape (right), Miami Swim Week, 2023.

The “duct tape fashion” business is also becoming crowded, Miami Art Body Tape presenting its debut show at a Miami Swim Week event in June.  While he discussed the aesthetic, brand founder Andrei Stamate also revealed interesting technical aspects about the use of the technique, explaining the tape is more difficult to apply than it is to remove and the peeling off “…doesn’t hurt as much as you’d think”; it’s assumed he was speaking from the models’ point of view.  The “body tape” used is of course different in construction and adhesive quality from industrial types such as gaffer or duct-tape but nor was it quite the same as medical grade tape or the famous “Hollywood tape”, the latter better known by the colloquial term “tit tape”.  Body tape “…sticks very well but if the models sweat it could come off” Mr Stamate revealed and has a better grip than the metallic types which he described as “sensitive”.