Hem

Hem (pronounced hemm)

(1) To fold back and sew down the edge of (cloth, a garment, etc.); form an edge or border on or around (short for hemline).

(2) To enclose or confine (usually followed by in, around, or about).

(3) An edge made by folding back the margin of cloth and sewing it down.

(4) The edge or border of a garment, drape, etc, especially at the bottom.

(5) The edge, border, or margin of anything.

(6) In architecture, the raised edge forming the volute of an ionic capital.

(7) In literature, a device (sometimes explicitly oral) to indicate hesitation or faltering.

(8) In textual transcription, a representation of the sound of clearing the throat, used to gain attention, express hesitation, etc (onomatopoeic).

Pre-1000: From the Middle English hemm, from the Old English hem (probably akin to hamm (enclosure)), from the Proto-Germanic hamjam, from the Old Norse hemja (to bridle, curb).  Related words included the Swedish hämma (to stop, restrain), the Old Frisian hemma (to hinder), the Middle Dutch and German hemmen (to hem in, stop, hinder), the ultimate root apparently kem (to compress) and it was concurrent with other, geographically distributed forms, hemo and haem.  Later, in the US there was briefly the variant haemo.  The same Germanic root yielded also the Old English hamm, common in place names where it means "enclosure, land hemmed in by water or high ground, land in a river bend".  In Middle English, hem also was a symbol of pride or ostentation.  The representation of the clearing of the throat, an imitative form, was first recorded in the 1520s.  The literary device, hem (and the now almost extinct haw) first recorded in 1786, haw being derived from hesitation.  The now common meaning of a border or fringe emerged in the late-fourteenth century, the variation of which “shut-in or confined”, dates from fifty years later.  Hem & hemming are nouns, verbs & adjectives, hemmer is a noun and hemmed is a verb; the noun plural is hems.

Hems: The importance of being weighted

Chanel’s original bouclé cardigan jacket with weighted hems (1955, left), Audrey Hepburn's (1929–1993) take on the LBD (little black dress, 1960, centre) and Brigitte Bardot (1934-2025) in a mini (Rome, 1963, right).

Coco Chanel (1883–1971) introduced weighted hems in 1955 as a feature of her bouclé cardigan jackets.  Paired usually with a straight skirt, and simple blouse made from fabric matching the jacket lining, its signature design innovation was the weighted hem, engineered with a small gilded chain.  A weighted-hem’s purpose is to add weight so the jacket or skirt hangs close to the body and sits properly when worn.  It also serves as a counterbalance if a jacket has large, potentially heavy, buttons which can cause the garment to pull forward on the shoulders.  The slight weight helps any wrinkles to hang out, especially if, like linen, the fabric is prone to them.

Ivanka Trump (b 1981) muses on the fashion sense of Narendra Modi (b 1950; Prime Minister of India since 2014), Global Entrepreneurship Summit, Hyderabad, India, 28 November 2017.

The idea proved helpful for photographers and film-directors.  They'd long been used to fashioning all sorts of ad-hoc structural devices (wire, cardboard, tape etc) to make hair or clothing sit exactly where was needed for a shot and, if sufficiently rigid, such superstructure could even withstand all but string winds.  The rakish swish of Audrey Hepburn's LBD was achieved with internal supports which ensured the wind-blown look could be both perfected and maintained; it was the weighted hem writ large.  To have garments made with channels for a metal chain proved very handy, the chain able quickly to be swapped for something less flexible when a skirt or jacket needed to be maintained in position while photographs were taken.  In this case the weighted hems were used as a structural member, providing the rigidity which lent the garment the desired shape.  By the time Brigitte Bardot was being photographed in Rome in the 1960s, for the adventurous, hem-lines were rising further above the knee so the functionality of the weighted hem assumed a new importance, particularly on windy days.  Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) of course made famous the dramatic possibilities the combination of a well-directed draft and billowing fabric could achieve but that was a staged "wardrobe malfunction" with a camera-crew assembled.  Weighted hems were helpful in avoiding unplanned malfunctions.

The hauntingly lovely Brigitte Bardot (1934-2025), Paris, France, 1961.  The car from which she's alighting is a Simca Chambord (1958-1961), powered by a French-built version of the old US Ford Flathead V8-60 with the displacement increased from 2.2 litres (136 cubic inch) to 2.4 (144) and rated at 84 HP (horsepower).  It was an example of the Europeans untypically getting a larger version of something than US buyers.

Mademoiselle Bardot is wearing what the industry called a “fit-and-flare dress”, the first element an allusion to the closely-fitted “shirtwaist”, the latter referencing the exaggerated lairing of the skirt.  The garments were produced as dresses but the same look could be achieved on a mix & match basis with a top/skirt combo.  Either way, the defining features were (1) a fitted bodice (often structured or darted), (2) a nipped-in waist, a voluminous skirt (often with a lightweight internal structure or a similarly supportive petticoat and (3) a knee-length hemline.  Although there were many interpretations, on catwalks or in catalogues, the fashion houses presented them usually with short sleeves and vertical stripes were popular, a trick use to create a visual perception of height, counter-balancing the sheer width created by the flaring.  Even more than most styles, the “fit-and-flare” look really worked well only on the slender and preferably tall.  Historians of fashion regard “fit-and-flare dress” as a continuation of the silhouette defined by the “New Look–influenced day dress” associated with Christian Dior’s (1905–1957) late-1940s collections.  For the “fit-and-flare” motif, a form of weighted hems sometimes were fitted but they were part of a structure which maintained the flare, rather than “weighing things down”.

Brigitte Bardot posing with her 1954 Simca Type 9 Weekend Cabriolet at the family home, Louveciennes, France, 1955.  Whatever she wore, she wore with flair.

Mademoiselle Bardot for some years (apparently contentedly) drove a 1954 Simca Type 9 Weekend Cabriolet which was a fully-finished, pre-production prototype.  The factory provided her with the car to generate publicity and in what was apparently a rather loose contra-arrangement, she did some promotional work for Simca (such as being photographed adoring their cars) and after some six years in her hands, the car was passed (either sold or gifted, both tales appear) to her friend and neighbour, the French sculptor César Baldaccini (1921–1998).  The cabriolet still exists and is on permanent display at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.

Jaguar E-Type (XK-E), 1961-1974.

Jaguar devoted time and resources to testing the E-Type but one thing which slipped through the pre-production process was a buffeting the OTS's (open two seater, Jaguar's historic term for a roadster) fabric soft-top exhibited at certain speeds.  It seems an obvious thing not to notice but, like the Hubble telescope's mis-shaped mirror, it was just one of those things.  With the E-Type’s release date locked-in, it was too late to redesign the components and it was a hint at the machine's intrinsic unsuitability for mass-production.  The factory had not expected demand to exist in anything close to what instantly emerged (they'd expected to sell several hundred) but the world was seduced and to this day the E-Type remains the definitive Jaguar.  The consensus among the cognoscenti seems to be if Jaguar had anticipated what a huge seller the E-Type would become they might have (1) devoted a few more months to the development and (2) on the production line spent maybe another £40 per car, meaning many of the E-Type's inherent problems might have been solved and adding £40 to the price would likely not much have affected demand.    

The fix.

Jaguar's Q&D (quick and dirty) solution for the buffeting was to weigh-down the affected area with a chain of lead-shot, sewed into the fabric in effectively the same way weighted hems are used in fashion.  Just over a half inch (14 mm) in diameter, the lead-shot bag was wrapped in a sisal cord with two 12 inch (300 mm) draw-cords to permit it easily to be pulled through the pocket in the top.  It was such a rush-job Jaguar never allocated a part-number and it’s only ever been part of hood cloth assembly (#BD20582 for the Series 1; 159.854 for the Series 2).  Both the S1 (1961-1968) and S2 (1968-1971) E-Types had the lead-shot bag, even though the soft-top’s frame was re-designed for the later cars (the S1 with three, the S2 with two) and for the S2, the size of the shot-bag was reduced slightly to accommodate a change in placement, now beneath the centre strap between the bows.  Interestingly, despite presumably having at least slightly different aerodynamic properties, there seems to have been no difference in the buffeting suffered by the early cars with mohair fabric and the later which used Everflex (a tough, high quality synthetic used by Rolls-Royce during it's unfortunate "vinyl roof phase" in the 1970s although the factory never used the word "vinyl" always insisting it was "an Evereflex covering").  For the S3 E-Type (1971-1974), the top was again re-designed, this time in a way which rendered the lead-shot chains unnecessary.

Lindsay Lohan in red bubble hem dress, attending the twentieth anniversary party for Uno de 50, Grand Palacio de Saldaña, Madrid, June 2016.  Uno de 50 translates as "One of 50", an allusion to the company producing its jewelry pieces in small runs of no more than fifty.

A "hem dress" is one with a hemline with an edge of the fabric turned under and stitched, usually with a fold or seam to prevent the fabric from unravelling and the technique can be applied to a variety of styles, including empire-line, sheath, shift, wrap, and maxi dresses, and can be made from any number of fabrics including cotton, silk, chiffon, or lace.  The length of a hem dress varies according to the design and can be adjusted to suit individual preferences.  Often added a flourish, hem can be worn on formal occasions, in work settings or as everyday wear.  Although not a technically challenging project for a seamstress, making a bubble dress into a hem dress does demand a thoughtful design because it's all too easy to end up with something just too busy above the knee and, the bubble line being inherently "bubbly", they can end up looking untidy and even unfinished.  Designers recommend that where possible, the hem detail should be matched with a similar duplication of horizontal lines at the waist and above the bustline.  Visually, the hem dress can be hard to distinguish from the bubble dress and, at the margins, there is some overlap.

Effeminate

Effeminate (pronounced ih-fem-uh-nit (adjective) & ih-fem-uh-neyt (verb))

(1) Of the human male, not manly, having traits, tastes, habits etc, traditionally considered feminine (softness, delicacy etc).  Historically it was usually used as a slur and use is now probably offensive except as a self-descriptor).

(2) Characterized by excessive softness, delicacy, self-indulgence etc (often as “effeminate luxury”) and now rare although “feminized product packaging designed to appeal to women remains common).

(3) By extension, of objects, concepts, literature etc, lacking firmness or vigor.

(4) To make or become effeminate.

1350-1400: From the Middle English, from the Latin effēminātus (womanish, effeminate), past participle of effēmināre (to make into a woman), from fēmina (woman), the construct being e(x)- (out-) + fēmin(a) + + -ātus.  In Italian, it became the feminine plural of effeminate.  The ex- prefix was from the Middle English, from words borrowed from the Middle French, from the Latin ex (out of, from), from the primitive Indo-European eǵ- & eǵs- (out).  It was cognate with the Ancient Greek ἐξ (ex) (out of, from), the Transalpine Gaulish ex- (out), the Old Irish ess- (out), the Old Church Slavonic изъ (izŭ) (out) & the Russian из (iz) (from, out of).  The “x” in “ex-“, sometimes is elided before certain constants, reduced to e- (eg ejaculate).  The Latin suffix -ātus was from the Proto-Italic -ātos, from the primitive Indo-European -ehtos.  It’s regarded as a "pseudo-participle" and perhaps related to –tus although though similar formations in other Indo-European languages indicate it was distinct from it already in early Indo-European times.  It was cognate with the Proto-Slavic –atъ and the Proto-Germanic -ōdaz (the English form being -ed (having).  The feminine form was –āta, the neuter –ātum and it was used to form adjectives from nouns indicating the possession of a thing or a quality.  Effeminate is a verb & adjective, effeminateness, effeminatization & effemination are nouns, effeminatize, effeminated & effeminating are verbs and effeminately is an adverb; the noun plural is effeminations.

Role model for aspiring effeminatizers: Lindsay Lohan on the Jimmy Fallon Show with guests including Vinny Guadagnino, Barrett Wilbert Weed, Ashley Park, Kate Rockwell, Bob the Drag Queen, Dusty Ray Bottoms, Monique Heart, Aquaria, Trinity ‘The Tuck’ Taylor and Monet X Change, January 2019.

Effeminate is probably now a word to be avoided because it’s difficult to use except as a slur and even if that’s achieved, such is modern sensitivity it will anyway be interpreted thus.  For a similar effect, the recommended alternative is the early seventeenth century effete (the alternative spelling effœte is obsolete), from the Latin effētus (exhausted (literally “that has given birth).  It used to convey the meaning “substances exhausted, spent or worn-out” but that is obsolete and it now means (1) weak, decadent, lacking strength or vitality; feeble, powerless and (2) someone or something (usually speech or writing) affected, over-civilized or refined to the point of absurdity.

Ladies 45 piece tool kit in pink with pink carry-case.

The verbs feminized & effeminized are sometimes confused and there was a time when them was some overlap of meaning but conventions of use have emerged.  In fields such demographics feminized is used to describe aggregate outcomes such as a preponderance of females in an occupational sector while in botany & zoology it’s a technical term which refers to instances of plant or animal life tending more to the feminine, the latter often suspected to have been induced by human-induced    environmental factors.  In thus refers to physiology though in medicine it’s used in fields like sex & gender-reassignment where it’s applied also in behavioral therapy.  By contrast, effeminized is used only of appearance and behavior.  It’s thus possible to feminize products yet not effeminize them.  Hardware stores every Saint Valentine's Day benefit from this adaptation by capitalism when sales spike of tool kits with tools finished in pink or purple.  There is nothing inherently effeminate about a pink hammer and the irony is that while pink classically is thought most to appeal to women, it appears the buyers of pink tool kits almost exclusively are men.

Dodge in 1955-1956 had advertising for men (horsepower, speed and V8 engines, left) and for women (everything pink, the paint, the rosebuds on the upholstery, the handbag, compact, lipstick case, cigarette case, comb, cigarette lighter, change purse, rain coat, rain-cap and umbrella, right).

Pink tool kits continue reliably to appear in prominent spots as Valentine's Day approaches and at least some women probably enjoy the joke.  However, more blatant attempts at feminized products seem no longer in vogue, the implication of condescension just too blatant.  Chrysler in 1955-1956 offered the La Femme package on certain Dodge models, a creation that was not a stylistic whim but a response to sociological changes in an unexpectedly affluent post-war US society in which women were found to be exerting a greater influence on the allocation of their family’s rising disposable income and of most interest to Chrysler was that those increasingly suburban families were buying second cars, women getting their own.  Adventurous color schemes were nothing new to Detroit, the cars of the art deco era noted for their combinations, though things had been more subdued in the years immediately after World War II (1939-1945) but that changed with the exuberance of 1950s experimentation.  However, sales of the La Femme proved disappointing and within a decade, the manufacturers would work out what women wanted was better designs, cars which were smaller, more manageable and with practical features, not the existing lines “feminized” with pink finishes and accessories.

Actually looking good: Men in lingerie in the PRC.

The economic and political systems of the modern PRC (People’s Republic of China) has many differences from those familiar in the West but, as the ruling CCP (Chinese Communist Party) increasingly is coming to realize, there are also many similarities, one of which is after when laws are passed and regulations promulgated, there are sometimes “unintended consequences”.  It was only in 2020 that the CCP’s Central Committee, having decided California’s most recent Republican governor (Arnold Schwarzenegger (b 1947; Governor of California 2003-2011)) was right in identifying “girly men” as a bit of a problem and cracked down, declaring a war on androgyny, young men deemed too effeminate banned from some very popular television programmes.  Aiming to eradicate the androgynous, the state’s regulator of television content ruled broadcasters must "resolutely put an end to sissy men and other abnormal aesthetics", telling them to ban from the screens the niang pao (derisive slang for girly men which translates literally as "girlie guns”).

That worked well and, presumably encouraged, the CCP decided to eliminate another form of deviance, women modeling underwear on on-line shopping live-streams.  The ban was imposed overnight and streamers were warned that any site flouting the ban would be shutdown, the regulator warning transgressors might be charged with disseminating obscene material.  The streamers of course complied because defying the rules of the CCP is a bad career move but they complied only with the letter of the law, the streams converting instantly to use male models, an appropriately androgynous group presumably in ample supply to meet demand after being banned from the TV shows.  A classic unintended consequence, in attempting to remove one form of behavior for some reason thought deviant (women wearing women’s underwear), the CCP have created a whole new mass-market genre (men in women’s underwear).  In the West, men in women’s underwear is just another niche segment on the web but for the CCP, truly it must be a ghastly thought that not only has this decadence reached the Middle Kingdom, but it’s all their fault.  Although not publicized, within the CCP's well-populated bureaucracy, heads would figuratively have rolled. 

April 2022: A new portrait (left) of a (then) slimmed-down Kim Jong-Un which analysts suggest was based on an earlier photograph (right).

Keen watchers of the endlessly entertaining antics of the DPRK’s (North Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) ruling family are a small industry; they don’t have a snappy title like “Kremlinologist” or “Vaticanologist” but in geopolitics it’s a genuine specialty and they deserve to be known as “Kimologists”.  Monitoring a dynasty that depends so much on symbolism and representational objects, one thing noted of late has been the increasing proliferation of new portraits of Kim Jong-Un (Kim III, b 1982; Supreme Leader of DPRK since 2011).  The portraits began to appear in 2021, coinciding with celebrations of the Supreme Leader’s first decade of rule and their widespread deployment seems a marker of a new energy in laying the building blocks of his cult of personality.  In the decade after he assumed office, the only portraits usually seen were those of father and grandfather: Kim Il-Sung (Kim I, 1912–1994; Great Leader of DPRK 1948-1994) & Kim Jong-Il (Kim II, 1941-2011; Dear Leader of DPRK 1994-2011).

Everywhere one looks, the Great Leader & Dear Leader are looking back at you.  Given the number that exist and their size (there are also paired statutes, many paid for by the imposition of a "metals tax"), it would be a big job to nationwide append the Supreme Leader's portrait because in many cases, it would not merely the hanging of another canvas, much architectural re-modeling would be demanded.  Still, whether in civil engineering or interior decorating, the Kims have never been afraid of projects at a grand scale and ideologically, it may be unavoidable, the DPRK operating under the G# (three generations) hereditary system.  What G3 does is (1) permit soldiers to wear the medals awarded to their fathers & grandfathers and (2) under the criminal justice system, provides for "three generations of punishment" in which individuals found guilty of a crime are sent to the labor camps with their entire family, the subsequent two generations of the family born in the camp, remaining locked up for life.  This includes those convicted of “unspecified offences” all of whom, although never quite sure of the nature of their offence, are certainly guilty.  The Kimologists are divided.  Some think it likely a third portrait may appear but that a variation of G3 will be established in that Kim Il-sung (already the DPRK's "Eternal President") will for G3 purposes be also the nation's "eternal grandfather", his portrait remaining forever while the other two will be the two most recent successors.  Thus there will never be more than three portraits.  Others think it's too early and it may be a third will be added only when (God forbid) the Supreme Leader dies.   

Interestingly, at one of the events conducted under a portrait of the Supreme Leader, a forty-minute long televised series of speeches marking the tenth anniversary of him becoming first secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), in addition to being praised for (1) leading the DPRK through the worst hardships, (2) completing the project of acquiring nuclear weapons and (3) ending the history of threats of nuclear war or invasion by imperialists, he was referred with a previously unknown title: Great Guardian.  Whether that’s of any significance isn’t clear but after the death of his father, Kim Jong-un was briefly known as the “Great Successor” so title changes in the third generation of the dynasty are not unknown.  Among the Pyongyangologists, there’s no consensus about whether the authorities are likely to add the portrait to all or any of the thousands of pairs featuring the Great Leader and the Dear Leader.  Such a move would clearly place the Supreme Leader on the same level as his late predecessors and currently, no painted portraits or statues of Kim Jong-un are known to be displayed in the country and artists are not permitted to paint his likeness.

Among those looking forward to a new series of portraits of the Supreme Leader were the meme-makers who found the contours of his soft, fleshy features made him ideally suited to effeminatization.  At top left is an official photograph issued by DPRK Foreign Ministry, the other five are digitally modified. 

Shuttle

Shuttle (pronounced shuht-l)

(1) In weaving, a device in a loom for passing or shooting the weft thread through the shed from one side of the web to the other, usually consisting of a boat-shaped piece of wood containing a bobbin on which the weft thread is wound (ie the tool which carries the woof back and forth (shuttling) between the warp threads on a loom).

(2) In a sewing machine, the sliding container (thread-holder) that carries the lower thread through a loop of the upper thread to make a lock-stitch.

(3) In transport, a public conveyance (bus, train, ferry, car, limousine aircraft), that travels back and forth at regular intervals over a particular route, especially a short route or one connecting two transportation systems; the service provided by such vehicles.

(4) In badminton, as shuttlecock, the lightweight object, built with a weighted (usually rubber-covered) semi-spherical nose attached to a conical construction (historically of feathers but now usually synthetic) and used as a ball is used in other racquet games. Shuttlecock was also once widely used as the name of the game but this is now rare.

(5) As space shuttle, vehicle designed to transport people & cargo between Earth and outer-space, designed explicitly re-use with a short turn-around between missions (often with initial capital letters).  The term shuttlecraft is the generic alternative, “space shuttle” most associated with the US vehicle (1981-2011).

(6) To cause (someone or something) to move back and forth by or as if by a shuttle, often in the form “shuttling”.

(7) Any device which repeatedly moves back and forth between two positions, either transporting something or transferring energy between those points.

(8) In electrical engineering, as shuttle armature, a H-shaped armature in the shape of an elongated shuttle with wires running longitudinally in grooves, used in small electrical generators or motors, having a single coil wound upon a the bobbin, the latter usually formed in soft iron.

(9) In diplomacy, as shuttle diplomacy, the practice of a diplomat from a third country shuttling between two others countries to conduct negotiations, the two protagonists declining directly to meet.

Pre 900: Shuttle was a merge from two sources. From (1) the Middle English shutel, shotel, schetel, schettell, schyttyl & scutel (bar; bolt), from the Old English sċyttel & sċutel (bar; bolt), the notion being shut +‎ -le.  Shut was from the Middle English shutten & shetten, from the Old English scyttan (to cause rapid movement, shoot a bolt, shut, bolt), from the Proto-Germanic skutjaną & skuttijaną (to bar, to bolt), from the Proto-Germanic skuttą & skuttjō (bar, bolt, shed), from the primitive Indo-European skewd & kewd- (to drive, fall upon, rush). The -le suffix was from the Middle English -elen, -len & -lien, from the Old English -lian (the frequentative verbal suffix), from the Proto-Germanic -lōną (the frequentative verbal suffix) and was cognate with the West Frisian -elje, the Dutch -elen, the German -eln, the Danish -le, the Swedish -la and the Icelandic -la.  It was used as a frequentative suffix of verbs, indicating repetition or continuousness.  From (2) the Middle English shitel (missile; a weaver's instrument), shutel, schetil, shotil, shetel, schootyll, shutyll, schytle & scytyl (missile; projectile; spear), from the Old English sċytel, sċutel (dart, arrow) (related to the Middle High German schüzzel and the Swedish skyttel), from the Proto-Germanic skutilaz, (related to the Middle High German schüzzel and the Swedish skyttel) and cognate with the Old Norse skutill (harpoon), the idea akin to both shut & shoot.  Shuttle is a noun, verb & adjective, shuttling is a noun & verb and shuttled and shuttles are verbs; the noun plural is shuttles.  The adjectival form shuttle-like is more common than the rare shuttlesque (which is listed as non-standard by the few sources to acknowledge its dubious existence).

A Lindsay Lohan advertising mural on the back of one of the airport shuttle buses run by Milan Malpensa International Airport in northern Italy.

The original sense in English is long obsolete, supplanted by the senses gained from the weaving instrument, so called since 1338 on the notion of it being “shot backwards and forwards” across the threads.  The transitive sense (move something rapidly to and fro) was documented from the 1540s, the same idea attached to the shuttle services in transport, first used in 1895 (although the intransitive sense of “go or move backward and forward like a shuttle” had been in use by at least 1843) in early versions of what would come to be known as intra-urban “rapid transit systems” (RTS), the one train that runs back and forth on the single line between fixed destinations (often with intermediate stops).  This was picked up by ferry services in 1930, air routes in 1942, space travel in 1960 (in SF (science fiction)) and actual space vehicles in 1969.  Shuttle in the sense it evolved in English is used in many languages but a separate development was the naming of the weaving instrument based on its resemblance to a boat (the Latin navicula, the French navette and the German Weberschiff).  The noun shuttlecock dates from the 1570s, the “shuttle” element from it being propelled backwards and forwards over a net and the “cock” an allusion to the attached anti-aerodynamic construction (originally of feathers) which resembled a male bird's plume of tail feathers.  The term Shuttle diplomacy came into use in the 1970s thanks to tireless self-promotion by Dr Henry Kissinger although the practice (of “good offices”) dates back centuries.

The Abbotsleigh class of 2020 pondering time flying faster than a weaver’s shuttle.  This was the first of the "Covid generation" so the lack of social distancing must be explained by them all having "tested negative".

The motto of the Sydney girl’s school Abbotsleigh is tempus celerius radio fugit (Time flies faster than a weaver's shuttle), the idea behind that said to be: “As the shuttle flies a pattern is woven, with the threads being the people, buildings and events. The pattern is Abbotsleigh as it continues to grow in complexity and richness each year”.  Quite whether a weaver’s shuttle (said by some detractors to have been chosen as symbolic of the "proper" place of women being in a state of domestic servitude for the convenience of men) is appropriate for a girls’ school in the twenty-first century has been debated.  The motto came from the family crest of Marian Clarke (1853-1933), Abbotsleigh’s first headmistress (principle) and was maintained using the family’s grammatically dubious form tempus fugit radio celerity until 1924 when the correct syntax was substituted.  It’s an urban myth the mistake was permitted to stand until 1924 as a mark of respect while Ms Clarke was alive; she lived a decade odd after the change although the family’s heraldry was apparently never corrected.

The US (left) and USSR (centre) space shuttles compared with a badminton shuttlecock (right).  The shuttlecock is rendered in a larger scale than the shuttles.

The US Space Shuttle was operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) between 1981-2011 as the low Earth orbital vehicle which was the platform for its Space Transportation System (STS).  The plans, based on ideas first explored in science fiction a decade earlier, for a (mostly) reusable spacecraft system were first laid down in 1969 and despite intermittent funding, test flights were first undertaken in 1981.  Five Space Shuttles were eventually built to completion and between 1981-2011, there were over a hundred missions.  The stresses imposed on the craft were considerable which meant both the mission turn-arounds were never as rapid as had been hoped and the extent to which components could be reused had to be revised.  There was controversy too about the failures of NASA’s procedures which resulted in the two accidents in which all seven crew aboard each shuttle were killed.  The programme was retired in 2011.

Three of the greatest landmarks of the analogue era: Space shuttle Enterprise (OV-101, the first orbiter, used for atmospheric test flights and never flew in space) atop NASA 905 SCA (Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, one of two modified Boeing 747s used to ferry shuttles from landing sites back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and a BA (British Airways) Concorde taking off, Paris Air Show, 1983.

Lindsay Lohan getting off the NAPA Shuttle, The Parent Trap (1998).

Common in the early days of civil aviation, the term "to disembark" (get off) was borrowed from nautical use and was the companion of "embark" (get on).  Of late "to deplane" has entered English which seems unnecessary but the companion "to disemplane" was more absurd still; real people continue to "get on" and "get off" aircraft.

The Soviet Union’s space shuttle, construction of which began in 1980, unsurprisingly, was visually very similar to the US vehicle, there being only so many ways optimally to do these things.  The USSR’s effort was the Буран (Buran) (Snowstorm or Blizzard), the craft sharing the designation with the Soviet spaceplane project and its spaceships, known as "Buran-class orbiters".  Although more than a dozen frames were laid down, few were ever completed to be flight-ready and the Buran’s only flight was an un-crewed orbital mission in 1988 which was successful.  The deteriorating economic and political situation in the Soviet Union meant the programme stalled and in 1993 it was abandoned by the new Russian government.  The striking similarity between the profile of the US & Soviet space shuttles and a badminton shuttlecock is coincidental but not unrelated.  The space craft are designed as aerodynamic platforms because, although not of relevance in the vacuum of space, they did have to operate as aircraft while operating in Earth’s atmosphere whereas the shuttlecock is designed deliberately as an anti-aerodynamic shape.  The shuttle’s shape was dictated by the need to maximize performance whereas a shuttlecock is intentionally inefficient, the shape maximizing air-resistance (drag) so it slows in flight.

Henry Kissinger, shuttling between dinner companions (left to right), Dolly Parton (b 1946), Diane von Furstenberg (b 1946), Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-1997) and Carla Bruni (b 1967).

The term shuttle diplomacy describes the process in which a mediator travels repeatedly between two or more parties involved in a conflict or negotiation, in circumstances where the protagonists are unable or unwilling to meet.  Ostensibly, the purpose of shuttle diplomacy is to facilitate communication between the parties and reach a resolution of the dispute(s) but, being inherently political, it can be used for other, less laudable goals.  The practice, if not the term, has a long history, instances noted from antiquity and the Holy Roman Empire was renowned for the neutral diplomats who would travel back and forth between kings, princes, dukes and cardinals.  During both the Conference of Vienna (1814-1815) and the Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920) the negotiations were marked by sometimes intransigent politicians sitting in rooms while a notionally disinterested notables shuttled between them, oiling the machinery by giving and taking until acquiescence was extracted.  A celebrated example of the process played out between 1939-1940 when Swedish businessman Birger Dahlerus (1891-1957) played a quixotic role as amateur diplomat, shuttling between London and Berlin in what proved a doomed attempt to avoid war.  It long seen as something noble (if misguided) and it was only years later (when the UK Foreign Office’s papers on the matter were declassified) the extent of the Swede’s conflicts of interest were revealed.

Richard Nixon (left) meets Henry Kissinger (right).

The term entered the language in 1973 when Dr Henry Kissinger (1923-2023; US national security advisor 1969-1975 & secretary of state 1937-1977) used it to refer to his efforts to negotiate an end to the Yom Kippur War between Israel and its Arab neighbors.  Kissinger shuttled between Tel Aviv, Cairo and other Middle Eastern capitals in an attempt to broker a ceasefire and improve diplomatic relations, enjoying some success, achieving a bilateral peace between Egypt and Israel as well as a number of disengagement agreements.  Some historians and foreign policy scholars however, while acknowledging what was achieved, have suggested that it was the Kissinger’s approach to the region in the years leading up to the war which contributed to the outbreak of hostilities.

Kissinger has also been criticized on the basis that shuttle diplomacy was never anything more than him playing a game of realpolitik on a multi-dimensional chessboard rather than an attempt to imagine a regional architecture which could produce a comprehensive peace plan in the Middle East, his emphasis on securing something in the interest of the US (a treaty between Egypt and Israel) meaning the vital issue of Palestine and its potential to assist in securing long-term peace in the region was not just neglected but ignored.  Cynics, noting his academic background and research interests, compared his shuttle diplomacy with the travels of emissaries in the Holy Roman Empire who would travel between the Holy See, palaces and chancelleries variously to reassure the troubled, sooth hurt feelings and cajole the diffident.  There was also the idea of Henry the self-promoting celebrity who could bring peace to Vietnam and Nixon to China, the political wizard who solved problems as they arose.  Certainly, the circumstances in which Kissinger was able to use shuttle diplomacy as a political narrative were unique.  He’d first undermined and then replaced William Rogers (1913–2001; US secretary of state 1969-1973) as secretary of state and even before becoming virtually the last major figure still standing from Richard Nixon’s (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) first term as the Watergate affair took its toll, essentially took personal control of the direction of US foreign policy.  As he put it “…one of the more cruel torments of Nixon’s Watergate purgatory was my emergence as the preeminent figure in foreign policy”.

Elizabeth Holmes in black gown with cleavage slit.

So, opportunistic his initiatives may have been but there were after all real problems to be solved and it seems unfair to criticize Kissinger for doing what he did rather than constructing some counter-factual grand design which might have created a permanent, settled peace in the Middle East.  However, among realists (and Kissinger was dean of the school), even then there were few who believed such a thing was any longer possible possible (certainly since the conclusion of the six-day war in 1967) and Kissinger certainly achieved something and to do that it’s necessary to understand there are some problems which really can only endlessly be managed and never solved.  Some problems are insoluble, something lost on many US presidents infected more than most by the diminishing but still real feelings of optimism and exceptionalism that have for centuries characterized the American national character.  Until he met Elizabeth Holmes (b 1984; CEO of US biotech company Theranos 2003-2018), nothing fooled Henry.

Socle

Socle (pronounced sok-uhl or soh-kuhl)

(1) In architecture, a low, plain part forming a base for a column, pedestal, or the like; a plinth or pedestal.

(2) In architecture, A plain face or plinth at the foot of a wall.

(3) In furniture design, as applied to tables, a large, full-width support used as an alternative to table legs.

(4) In cooking, the use of bread, rice, potato or similar as a (sometimes only decorative) base onto which other ingredients are laid.

(5) In algebraic ring theory (a branch of abstract algebra that studies rings, which are algebraic structures that generalize the properties of integers) the sum of the minimal normal sub-modules of a given R-module of a given ring R.

(6) In group theory, the sub-group generated by the minimal normal subgroups of a given group.

1695–1705: From the French socle, from the Italian zoccolo (wooden shoe; base of a pedestal) from the Latin socculus (small shoe (literally "small sock" (soccus)).  Socle is a noun; the noun plural is socles.

The Valkyrie plot: 20 July 1944

The Valkyrie Plot was an attempt, one of many but one also of a handful actually brought to fruition, to kill Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945).  The conspirators were mostly Prussian aristocrats, senior army officers (a bit of overlap there) and a smattering of liberal politicians, all of whom ultimately demonstrated their ineptitude at staging a coup d'état but, on 20 July 1944, they did succeed in detonating an explosive device they had smuggled into the Wolfsschanze (the Wolf’s Lair, one of the Führer's heavily guarded military headquarters on the Eastern Front).  Previous opportunities to use a bomb for this purpose had been aborted because the conspirators had wanted as many leading Nazis as possible also killed and those circumstances never arose but after the Allies successfully established a beachhead in Normandy (the 6 June 1944 D-Day landings), it was decided to delay no longer.  The bomb used at the Wolf's Lair was actually of British origin, obtained by the Abwehr (literally "resistance" or "defence" but in a military context used by Germans to mean "counterintelligence"), the military-intelligence service for the Reichswehr & Wehrmacht between 1920-1945 (ironically it was for most of the war one of the centres of anti-Nazi activities) and chosen because its fuse operated with complete silence device.  Ultimately the blast four, seriously injuring another thirteen but Hitler survived for three reasons (although he would claim it was "providence").

(1) Hot, sultry weather.  The plan was for the assassination to be carried out by planting explosives in an underground bunker built with reinforced concrete which had just one steel door and no windows.  Designed to be bomb-proof in that it was built expressly to protect occupants from the energy of outside explosions, in an inside explosion, the occupants would be hit by several blast waves as a consequence of the resonant conditions of high-energy fluid dynamics; ideal conditions to stage an explosion with lethal intent.  However, with unpleasantly high temperature and humidity on the day, the meeting was moved to an above-ground building with several windows which offered ventilation to provide relief.  Thus, when the device exploded, both energy from the blast wave and shrapnel, instead of being contained and ricocheting around the room, dissipated partially outside.

(2) The furniture: The table under which the bomb was planted was supported by two stout, heavy socles rather than legs.  This wouldn’t have been critical except that minutes before detonation, the briefcase containing the device was moved from one side of the socle to the other so that the heavy timber stood between Hitler and the bomb, the structure now at the perfect angle to absorb much of the blast before it reached him.  Had the briefcase been left in its original position, the socle which ultimately absorbed or re-directed much of the energy would instead have increased the lethality of the energy directed towards Hitler. 

(3) Bad luck: Because of circumstances on the day, the plotters were able to arm only one of the two bombs they had intended to use.  Had both been detonated, in either room, the blast would have been much greater although opinion remains divided over whether even this would have been enough to guarantee Hitler’s death.  As it was, he escaped with non-life threatening injuries (curiously for some time after the blast, the shaking of his limbs (symptoms which may have indicated Parkinson's Disease) vanished) and was well enough to conduct social activities the same afternoon (after changing his trousers which had been shredded by the blast), meeting with the by now much diminished Duce (Benito Mussolini,1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943).  After that, they would never meet again.  

Aftermath: The Führer shows the Duce the effects of the blast, telling him he'd been saved "by providence".  Mussolini agreed with Hitler but of course, he always said he did, even when suffering his not infrequent doubts.

The popular television show Mythbusters, run by past masters at blowing-up stuff, did test whether the blast, if using both devices instead of one, would have killed Hitler in either the above-ground conference room or the sealed, underground bunker.  Their tests were conducted using full-scale emulations of both the conference room in which the attack took place and the the underground bunker from which the meeting had been moved.  In both, the intended explosive power was deployed rather than that generated by the single device used on the day.  Explosives experts who examined the data tended to agree that while not definitive, it was plausible Hitler could have survived even a more powerful blast in the conference room but that everything was still dependent on the placement of the briefcase.  However, because the second test didn't exactly replicate the sealed, underground bunker (the test structure was only partially buried) with its walls of think, reinforced concrete, the experts were less convinced by the Mythbusters' conclusion that too would have been survivable.  They further noted the significance of the socle in deflecting the blast, this something which happened only by chance on the day and all agreed that had the bomb been placed close to Hitler, as intended, the blast in either room probably would have killed or severely injured him.

Tables with soles (for prosecution and defence counsel), Lindsay Lohan in court, Los Angeles, January 2013.