Vegan

Vegan (pronounced vee-guhn or vey-guhn)

(1) A vegetarian who omits all animal products from their diet and does not use animal-based or sourced products such as leather or wool.

(2) Someone from Vega, towns in Scandinavia, the US or (mostly in fiction) other places so named.

(3) A collective name adopted in the 1980s by fans of the singer-songwriter, Suzanne Vega (b 1959).

1944: A modern English construct, veg (contraction of vegetable) + an, coined by Donald Watson (1910-2005) to distinguish those who abstain from all animal products (eggs, cheese, etc) from those who merely refuse to eat the animals.  The -an suffix occurred originally in adjectives borrowed from Latin, formed from nouns denoting places (Roman; urban) or persons (Augustan) but now productively forms English adjectives by extension of the Latin pattern.  The suffix an, and its variant ian also occurs in a set of personal nouns, mainly loanwords from French, denoting one who engages in, practices, or works with the referent of the base noun (historian; theologian); this usage especially productive with nouns ending in ic (electrician; logician; technician ).  Vegan is a noun & adjective, vegansexual is a noun and veganism, vegansexualism & veganist are nouns; the noun plural is vegans.

Donald Watson was an English animal rights advocate who founded The Vegan Society in 1944.  Although the actual establishment of the society was either 5 or 12 November (the records are contradictory), World Vegan Day is each year celebrated on 1 November.  In 1984, a dissident faction broke from the group and formed The Movement for Compassionate Living and ever since, veganism has been a contested space, the factions including (1) radicals who pursue direct action against the slaughter industry and its customers, (2) purists who exclude to whatever extent possible the presence of animal products in their lives while variously tolerating, ignoring or disapproving of those who don't and (3), vegetarians who can't resist nice handbags and shoes.  Latest vegan news here. 

The Sexual Politics of Meat

While still an undergraduate at the University of Rochester, Carol J Adams (b 1951) was instrumental in having women's studies courses added to the syllabus.  A long-time vegan, she later gained a masters from Yale Divinity School but her core interest remained feminism and in 1990, building on earlier essays, she published The Sexual Politics of Meat, an exploration of her vegetarian-feminist, pacifist, intersectional critical theory.

Her most novel concept was the "absent referent", used to explain the consumption of meat and the objectification of women in pornography, the referent literally absent in the case of the life of the dismembered beast being consumed; metaphorically in the oppression of the life of the subjects of pornography.  Adams constructed parallels within the patriarchal system, men’s sense of entitlement over animals similar to their varying expectations of the right to abuse, exploit, or degrade women in the use of their bodies.  Structurally she noted, language is replete with terms and phrases which interchangeably can be used to describe either women or animals with a hierarchy of use based on speciesism depending on men’s perceptions of degrees of female attractiveness.  All such use she claimed, regardless of how else it could be classified, is hate speech.

Most graphic was the notion of the pornography of meat which drew a visual comparison between meat advertised for sale on shelves and the portrayal of women in various media; two different forms of consumption which use the same techniques of production and distribution.  Within the western consumer model, Adams found a construct of white male supremacy which relegated all others, different races, non-human animals and women, to inferior roles or places.

Linder Sterling in meat dress (1982).

Linder Sterling (b 1954) is a radical feminist artist.  In November 1982, as part of a punk performance in Manchester’s Haçienda club, she appeared in a dress made from meat, while packages of leftover raw meat wrapped in pornography were distributed to the audience.  The performance culminated with a quite aggressive critique of the exploitation of women which, at the time, seems genuinely to have been confronting.

Lady Gaga in "meat dress" (2010).

By 2010, the "waves" had made feminism diffuse, the inherently post-modern platform of social media had imposed on pop-culture an inevitable equivalency of value and there was perhaps no longer a capacity to shock, just to be photographed.  Lady Gaga's (the stage-name of Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (b 1986)) meat dress (asymmetrical, with cowl–neck), worn at the MTV Video Music Awards is now remembered as just another outfit, named by many as the fashion statement of 2010.  While there was cultural comment, the piece's place in history is as a frock, not for any meaning, implied or inferred.  Lady Gaga though remained phlegmatic, quoted later as saying, "...it has many interpretations.”  She later clarified things by saying the meat dress wasn't significant as a piece of clothing but was intended as a comment on the state of the fashion industry and the importance of focusing on individuality and inner beauty rather than superficial appearances.  One implication may have related to impermanence; because the garment was made wholly from raw meat, it had to be preserved with chemicals before and after the event but there are limits to what's chemically possible and the parts of the garment which had decomposed were discarded before the remains were dried and a permanent coating applied.  The preserved dress has since been displayed although Lady Gaga has confirmed she no longer wears "meat-based" clothing.  

Tash Peterson letting people know how sausages are made.

Something of a local legend in the world of vegan activism, Tash Peterson (b circa 1995) is an animal rights activist based in Perth, Australia.  Not actually in the militant extreme of the movement which engages in actual physical attacks on the personnel, plant & equipment of the industries associated with animal slaughter, Ms Peterson's form of direct action is the set-piece event, staged to produce images and video with cross-platform appeal, the footage she posts on social media freely available for re-distribution by the legacy media, her Instagram feed providing a sample of her work in various contexts. Ms Peterson is a vegansexual (a vegan who chooses to have sex or pursue sexual relationships only with other vegans).

Her events have included approaching people in the meat section of supermarkets, wearing a blood-soaked butcher's apron while carrying the simulated carcass of a chicken, donning a rather fetching cow-skin (presumably synthetic) bodysuit in front of a milk and yoghurt display while carrying a sign surmising the processes of industrial dairy farming in anthropomorphic terms, wearing bloodied clothing to fast food outlets while using a megaphone to address queues of customers, explaining the details of what's done to animals so they can enjoy their burgers and, eschewing even the sensible shoes she usually wears, adorned in nothing but a pair of knickers and liberally smeared with (what she claimed to be her own menstrual) blood, staging a protest in Perth's Louis Vuitton shop, shouting at the customers and calling them "animal abusers".

Tash Petersen on OnlyFans.

Ms Peterson was banned from all licensed venues in Western Australia after storming pubs and restaurants, her critique of course the content of the meals rather than their sometimes dubious quality; after that, she travelled briefly to the eastern states but has since returned to Perth.  She has an active and apparently lucrative account on OnlyFans with all that that implies but there is an element of animal rights activism even there so whether her two interests should be thought vertical or horizontal integration might be an interesting question for economic theorists.

Fellow club member Lindsay Lohan who remained a carnivore.

Veganism can be merely a personal choice and there are many who have adopted at least the dietary aspects simply because they believe there are benefits for their health but it can also be a political statement and political statements need publicity, the preferred modern form being the celebrity endorsement and if need be, one paid for.  In 2010, the animal rights organisation PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) offered to subsidize Lindsay Lohan's stint in rehab, on the condition she became a vegan.  For PETA, it was the chance to make the point that while undergoing treatment for substance addiction, Ms Lohan would be able also to rid herself "... of one more toxic substance: meat.", adding "As you know, a crucial part of any recovery is showing charity to others. One way to do this is to be kind to animals, the Earth, and your own body. You'll never regret it." 

Ms Lohan had previously attracted the attention of the organization, in 2008 making their "worst dressed list" after being photographed wearing fur.  According to E! Online, PETA offered to contribute US$20,000 towards the US$50,000 cost of the court-ordered stay, half to be paid for adopting the vegan diet while in rehab, the remainder if the diet was followed for one year following her release.  To encourage acceptance of the offer, it was accompanied with a vegan-care pack including a DVD about the slaughter industry called Glass Walls (narrated by former Beatles bassist Paul McCartney (b 1942)) and a vegetarian/vegan starter kit.  While rehab went well, the offer apparently wasn't taken up and although she seems to now eschew fur, her Instagram feed continues to feature much leather (handbags & shoes) and meat (the odd recipe provided including a chicken pie and machboos, a favorite in the Middle East).

Turban

Turban (pronounced tur-buhn)

(1) A man's headdress, associated particularly with Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs in South Asia (but with a long tradition of use in many places), consisting of a long lengths of silk, linen, cotton etc, swathed either about a cap-like base or directly around the head.

(2) Any headdress resembling this.

(3) In fashion, any of various off-the-face hats for women that are close-fitting, of a soft fabric, and brimless, or that have a narrow, sometimes draped, brim.

(4) In zoology, the complete set of whorls of a spiral shell.

1555-1565: From fifteenth century Middle French turbant, from the Italian turbante, from the Old Italian tolipante, from the Ottoman Turkish دلبند‎ (tülbent) (gauze, muslin, tulle), from the Persian دلبند‎ (dolband) (turban) (which was the source also of “tulip”.  The obsolete alternative forms were turbant & tulipant.  For reasons related presumably to traditions of pronunciation, the spelling change from “l” to “r” may have happened in Portuguese India and from there picked up in other European languages.  Long a men's headdress, in the late eighteenth century variations of the style became popular as women’s fashion.  The alternative spellings of turbaned & turbaning are turbanned & turbanning and there derived forms are enturban, enturbanment, enturbanning & beturbaned.  Turban is a noun; tubaned & turbanning are verbs and turban-& turbanesque are adjectives; the noun plural is turbans.

Lindsay Lohan in turban, in costume during the filming of Liz & Dick (2012).

Quite when and where the turban originated is unknown but few doubt it was one of the earliest forms of headwear, adopted presumably for warmth or protection from the elements, the link to matter of cultural significance or fashion emerging as societies developed.  The essence of a turban is that it’s a form of headwear created by swathing long lengths of silk, linen, cotton etc either about a cap-like base or directly around the head.  Although in the popular imagination it seems most associated with the cultures of South Asia (notably in Sikhism), the practice is neither geographically specific nor or necessity vested with religious meaning although for many, the wearing of a turban is certainly devotional.  The tradition can be found throughout much of Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus and in Asia.  A similar garment was the puggry (also spelled pagari, pagri, pugaree, puggaree, puggerie, puggery, puggree, puggri & pugree), from the Hindi.  It was a strip of cloth wound around the upper portion of a hat (particularly a pith helmet), and falling down behind to act as a shade for the back of the neck.  Some women do wear a classic turban but in fashion, the style called a turban is actually a spectrum of hats which to some extent emulate the appearance of a turban although they are “pre-wrapped” as it were, ready-to-wear and close-fitting, constructing using soft materials and either brimless or with a narrow (sometimes draped), brim.  In the industry jargon, they’re an “off-the-face” hat.

Devout Sikh holy man Avtar Singh Mauni (b 1954) wears a turban consisting of 645 m (2120 feet) of fabric which the Guinness World Records has verified as the longest known to exist.  Weighing around 45 kg (100 lb) (the same length as 13 Olympic standard swimming pools or 1¼ quarter-mile (400 m) drag strips), it takes some six hours to wrap.  Mr Sauni added length to his turban for over a decade until the impressive length was achieved although it does necessitate certain lifestyle changes, doorways some time challenging and he can't fit inside a car, travelling usually by Royal Enfield motorcycle.  Most Sikh turbans use between 5-7 m (16-23 feet) of fabric but Mr Mauni says the principle of swathing are the same regardless of length, the wrapping proceeding “from top to bottom one layer at a time just like you would lay the storeys of a building.”

Baumkuchen

Baumkuchen (pronounced baun-kooch-en)

A kind of layered cake, traditionally baked on a spit, in which the layers resemble concentric tree rings.

Circa mid-1800s: From the Modern German baumkuchen (literally “tree cake”).  The construct was Baum (tree) +‎ kuchen (cake), so-named because the concentric-ring layers resemble tree rings.  The genitive was saumkuchens, the plural baumkuchen.

The tree cake

Although the word baumkuchen appears not to have been used before being noted in Bavarian menus and newspapers in the mid-nineteenth century, similar cakes were documented as early as 1581.  Both Germans and Hungarians have long claimed to have created the baumkuchen, the latter suggesting it a variation of a traditional Hungarian wedding cake, the pastry kürtőskalács (chimney cake).  In retaliation, the Germans cite the recipe in Max Rumpolt’s Ein new Kochbuch (A New Cookbook) (1581).  However, it may be a moot point because the method was already known in Antiquity, records for similar constructions found in the texts from both Ancient Greece and Rome.

Labour-intensive and thus costly, baumkuchen is made on a spit by assembling cakes of alternating sizes which are brushed evenly with thin layers of batter, the spit then rotated over heat, traditionally a wood fire.  Each layer must dry before another is poured so when the cake is sliced, each layer is divided from the next by a golden line, resembling the growth rings of a tree.  Modern baumkuchen may have only a few layers but the traditional method called for twenty or more, the most lavish of which could weigh over one hundred pounds (45+kg) and be 3-4 feet (1-1.25m) high.  Popular in Japan, as bāmukūhen (バームクーヘン), it’s often served to wedding guests because, when sliced, it recalls the shape of a ring.

Baumkuche, Horcher, Madrid.

Apart from the visual impact, a baumkuchen is an experience of intense taste and texture.  As bakers know, it’s the thin caramelized layer sticking to the bottom of the pan that is the best tasting part of a cake because that’s where the fats and sugars accumulate and a baumkuchen is a cake made wholly of layer upon layer of this richly flavored delicacy.  While it’s true a conventionally shaped cake can somewhat emulate this if baked in layers, the finer product is the cylindrical baumkuchen which can be made only on the rotating spit used usually for broiling roasts.  However, that very intensity of taste is because of density and for that reason, should be served in smaller slices than most cakes.  Famously, it's a signature offering at Horcher in Madrid.

Sliced baumkuche, Horcher, Madrid.

Horcher was opened in Berlin in 1904 by wine merchant Gustav Horcher (1873-1931), ownership passing to his son Otto after his death.  It began as a small, intimate restaurant offering simple, traditional dishes (notably game) but later evolved to cater to the upper end of the market.  Otto Horcher offered a good table and maintained connections with the Nazi hierarchy, the Horcher a favourite of Hermann Göring (1893-1946) and many Luftwaffe generals.  Those connections paid off.  After the Anschluss (the annexing of Austria by the German Reich in 1938), Otto Horcher acquired The Three Hussars in Vienna and, after the occupation of France in 1940, he took over Maxim's in Paris.

Horcher, Madrid.

Closure was forced on Horcher and many other restaurants in 1943 after the Nazi's propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945) attempted to shock the economy into total-war production.  Typically, this was opposed by Göring who retaliated by threatening to have Horcher re-opened as a Luftwaffe club but his star within the regime had long been waning and Goebbels ultimately prevailed.  Instead, he assisted Horcher to move to Madrid where it remains to this day, still in family ownership.  During the war, allied intelligence agencies identified as Horcher as a meeting point for German spies and overseas agents but it was one of many in both Madrid and Lisbon, both sides maintaining espionage operations in neutral nations.  After the war, the linkage continued, sometimes openly as Horcher remained popular with many former notables of the Third Reich but reports indicated it was also a place with at least passive involvement in activities such as arranging the escape of those wanted for war crimes and other matters, usually to more sympathetic régimes in South America.

Marquisette

Marquisette (pronounced mahr-kuh-zet or mahr-kwuh-zet)

A lightweight open leno weave fabric of cotton, silk etc; very popular under the Raj.

1907: From the French, diminutive of marquise (a marchioness), from the Medieval Latin marchionissa (feminine form of marchion) from Late Latin marcha, from which Frankish picked up markōn (to mark, mark out, to press with the foot).  The Proto-Germanic was markō (area, region, edge, rim, border).  Marquisette fabric is constructed using a leno weave and was originally made only from silk for use in bridal wear and evening gowns.  More commonly nowadays, it is made from cotton, wool or synthetic fibres and is used for drapes and mosquito nets.  Marquisette, along with voile, was a robing fabric especially suitable for travel and for draping over other dresses.  Early in the twentieth century, Deliniator magazine adopted the light, limp fabric for the newly fashionable directorie look.

Marilyn Monroe, President Kennedy and the marquisette dress

In a marquisette dress, Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) sang happy birthday Mr President to President John Kennedy (JFK, 1917-1963; US president 1961-1963) at a Democratic Party fundraiser at New York's Madison Square Garden on 19 May 1962, ten days before his actual birthday.  Within three months, she would be dead.

An impressive piece of structural engineering (so body-hugging Ms Monroe had to sewn into it) and an eye-catching design, the dress was cut from a sheer, flesh-colored silk marquisette, adorned with 2500 hand-sewn (and intricately positioned) rhinestones and the famously sultry performance did nothing to dispel rumors the two might be having an affair.  In 1962 it cost US$1,440.33 (equivalent to some US$10,000 in 2022) and it remained part of Ms Monroe's estate until sold at auction by Christie's in 1999 for US$1.3 million.  Subsequently, it was purchased in 2016 for US$4.8 million by Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum in Florida. 

RFK, Marilyn Munroe & JFK.

The first conceptual sketch of the dress was the debut project of US fashion designer Bob Mackie (b 1939) who two years earlier had left the Chouinard Art Institute to work for French costume designer Jean Louis (1907-1997) and year later, he revealed to Vogue magazine that until the pictures of the Madison Square Garden performance were published, he had no idea of the use to which his sketch was to be put.  Marilyn Munro was certainly aware of the impact the translucent look would have and was seeking a “work-around” to the problem of her employer (Twentieth Century Fox) not permitting her to be dressed too revealing in films.  Having just lost weight and concluded she was looking better than ever, she wanted an outfit with what Mackie called “the wow factor” and that she certainly got.  Sixty years on, dresses which approach functional nudity are commonplace but in 1962 the clinging, shimmering creation which moved with her, caused a sensation.  The garment is also a reminder of the way history unfolds according to the chance interaction of events.  Had JKF not won the 1960 presidential election "by an electoral eyelash", the song would doubtlessly never have been performed.  Marilyn Munroe would not have dressed as she did to sing happy birthday Mr President to Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974).  

The two superstars of the 1950s.  Maria Callas and Marilyn Monroe, back-stage after the performance.

Remarkably, despite being in the limelight that evening, Ms Monroe purchased five tickets (at US$1000 each) to the event because it was the only way to guarantee her attendance at the private supper which followed.  At the after-party she enjoyed a number turns on the dance floor with the president’s brother, Robert Kennedy (RFK, 1925–1968; US attorney general 1961-1964) although it was reported she left with JFK via a basement corridor and a private elevator to his suite at the next-door Carlyle Hotel, returning the next day to Los Angeles.  There, according to her biographer, she was contacted by one of his aides telling her not to again contact him.  They would never meet again and within three months, she was dead.

Kim Kardashian, Met Gala, New York, 2020.

At the 2020 Met Gala, Kim Kardashian (b 1980) wore the famous marquisette dress.  It couldn’t be expected to cause quite the same stir as sixty years earlier because, cut from a sheer, silk marquisette that almost exactly matched Ms Monroe’s skin-tone, the 2500 hand-sewn rhinestones were intricately positioned to respond to the particular gait she chose for that evening and, under the limelight in the darkened amphitheater, as she moved, the crystals sparkled and the dress came alive.  It was quite a design.  In the hard, white light of the Met Gala’s red carpet, it couldn’t be expected to work the magic it did all those years ago and, not shimmering in the darkness, it seemed lifeless and perhaps it would have benefited from the contrast her lustrous natural hair would have lent but Ms Kardashian wore it well, attracting admiration (and criticism from the usual suspects) too for the reasonable achievement of shedding some 16 lbs (7¼ kg) in three weeks to ensure a comfortable fit.  Digesting the implications of that, keen-eyed fashionistas noted the vintage white coat which Ms Kardashian kept strategically positioned below the small of her back for the ritual walk to and up the staircase, some taking to Twitter to wonder if it was there to conceal that things were quite fully done-up.

Marilyn Monroe, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 19 May 1962.

The theory is plausible; it’s always been known that in 1962, Ms Monroe had to be “sewn-into” the dress just before the performance.  The day after the Met Gala, photographs circulated purporting to show Ms Kardashian with a generously sized, pear-shaped lacuna between the seams, accompanied with the accusation that the images showing things done up had been digitally modified and the haters were certainly out, one distressed soul lamenting that for Ms Kardashian to wear the dress "...was an absolute disgrace, a tacky photo opportunity" and that "...one of the most important items of clothing in history, is now tainted with the stain of the Kardashians."  There are people who do take pop-culture very seriously.  The green dress she changed into after her ascent had similar lines (and perhaps slightly more generous dimensions) but was certainly done-up and anyway, in either, she looked gorgeous.  The Marilyn Monroe cult shows no sign of losing its luster and it was her Lindsay Lohan channeled for both her photo-shoot by Bert Stern (1929–2013) for New York Magazine in 2008 and her appearance in the January/February 2012 issue of Playboy magazine.

Valhalla

Valhalla (pronounced val-hal-uh or vahl-hah-luh)

(1) In Norse mythology, a dwelling in Asgard, the Norse heaven, the hall of Odin, reserved to receive the souls of those who fell in battle and others who died heroic deaths.

(2) In casual use, by extension from the classic meaning, an abode of the gods or afterlife in general.

1696: From the New Latin Vahalla, from the Old Norse Valhöll, the construct being val(r) (the slain in battle (and cognate with the Old English wæl)) + höll (hall).  The heavenly hall in which Odin receives the souls of heroes slain in battle appears often in Norse mythology and the word Vahalla was introduced into English in Archdeacon William Nicolson’s (1655–1727) English Historical Library (1696).  Valr (those slain in battle) was from the Proto-Germanic walaz (source also of Old English wæl (slaughter, bodies of the slain)) from the Old High German wal (battlefield, slaughter), from the primitive Indo-European root wele (to strike, wound (source also of Avestan vareta- (seized, prisoner), the Classical Latin veles (ghosts of the dead), the Old Irish fuil (blood) & the Welsh gwel (wound)). Höll (hall) is from the primitive Indo-European root kel- (to cover, conceal, save).  Nicolson’s work was long known only to scholars and it wasn’t until the word was re-introduced in the eighteenth centuries by antiquaries there was any revival of interest but it was the work of Richard Wagner (1813–1883) in the next century that popularised the Norse myths and, in some circles, made Valhalla a cult.  The familiar figurative sense has been used since 1845.  Vahalla was also spelled Valhall, Walhalla & Walhall; the plural is Valhallas (and not always with the initial capital).

Hermann Burghart's (1834-1901) design of Valhalla and the rainbow bridge for the staging of Das Rheingold, Bayreuth, 1878.

Valhalla is the great hall where the god Odin houses the dead whom he deems worthy of dwelling with him.  In the Old Norse poem Grímnismál (The Song of the Hooded One), the architecture of Valhalla is described as honouring military tradition, the roof of the “gold-bright” Valhalla made from the shields of fallen warriors with their spears its rafters.  Around the many feasting tables are chairs made from breastplates and the gates are guarded by wolves, eagles circling above but there are different depictions and there's no one view of where Valhalla was.  In some Old Norse literature, it’s said to be located in Asgard, the gods’ celestial fortress yet other texts suggest it was underground, one of the many places of the underworld.

The dead who reside in Valhalla, the einherjar (the ɛinˌherjɑz̠, (those who fight alone, literally "army of one")), live on as warriors, fighting among each-other and enjoying vivid adventures during the day.  Yet every evening, their wounds are healed, and, restored to full health, they feat on roasted wild boar (Saehrimnir (from the Old Norse Sæhrímnir of unknown origin)) and a mead from the udder of the goat Heidrun (from the Old Norse Heiðrun of unknown origin), all the while waited on by the same beautiful Valkyries who circled the battlefields on which they were slain.  But the einherjar are doomed because Odin has recruited only the bravest soldiers for he wants them for his army in his struggle against the wolf Fenrir during Ragnarok, a battled which Odin and the einherjar are fated to lose.

Robert Lepage's (b 1957) design of Valhalla for the staging of Das Rheingold, Met Opera, New York, 2010.

Like the mythology of Greek and Roman antiquity, it’s possibly some of what was passed down during the middle ages is just one variation of the original myth(s) and it’s only in the poetry of Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241) that there’s a statement of the path of the fallen to Valhalla.  Snorri’s Prose Edda (circa 1220), a four-volume work drawn from many sources remains the most complete and extensive collection of the Norse mythology known still to exist but the author was also a lawyer and politician and scholars have noted he wrote long after the old Norse paganism had been replaced by Christianity; there’s the suspicion this may have been an influence in the way he synthesized strands from earlier traditions with Christian teaching.  Snorri said those who fell on the field of battle ascend to Valhalla, while those who die a less heroic death are consigned to hell, the underworld.  That does seem unfair (and probably bad public policy) and elsewhere in the Edda, he’s not above allowing the odd fudge, just as Roman Catholic theologians would invent limbo, their own medieval conjecture to tidy up the margins of God’s mysterious ways.  Snorri makes no attempt to justify his (actually quite blatant) contradictions and it’s thought what he wanted to achieve was a kind of lineal alignment between the pagan ways and the Christian, Valhalla and Hel the same diametric opposite as Heaven and Hell in Christian eschatology.  However, as many surviving fragments from earlier texts attest, the tidy, systematized paganism described by Snorri was not entirely that which had been practiced.

Deadline

Deadline (pronounced ded-lahyn)

(1) The time by which something must be finished or submitted; the latest time for finishing something.

(2) A line or limit that must not be passed; a time limit for any activity.

(3) Historically, a boundary around a military prison beyond which a prisoner could not venture without the risk of being shot by the guards.

(4) A guideline marked on a plate for a printing press, indicating the point beyond which text would not be printed (archaic).

(5) Historically, a fishing line that has not for some time moved (indicating it might not be a productive place to go fishing).

(6) In military use, to render an item non-mission-capable; to remove materiel from the active list (available to be tasked); to ground an aircraft etc.

1864: The construct was dead + line.  Dead was from the Middle English ded, from the Old English dead (having ceased to live (also “torpid, dull” and of water “still, standing, not flowing”), from the Proto-Germanic daudaz (source also of the Old Saxon dod, the Danish død, the Swedish död, the Old Frisian dad, the Middle Dutch doot, the Dutch dood, the Old High German & German tot, the Old Norse dauðr and the Gothic dauþs), a past-participle adjective based on dau-, which (though this is contested by etymologists) may be from the primitive Indo-European dheu- (to die).  Line (in this context) was from the Middle English line & lyne, from the Old English līne (line, cable, rope, hawser, series, row, rule, direction), from the Proto-West Germanic līnā, from the Proto-Germanic līnǭ (line, rope, flaxen cord, thread), from the Proto-Germanic līną (flax, linen), from the primitive Indo-European līno- (flax).  The development in Middle English was influenced by the Middle French ligne (line), from the Latin linea (linen thread, string, plumb-line (also “a mark, bound, limit, goal; line of descent”)).  The earliest sense in Middle English was “a cord used by builders for taking measurements” which by the late fourteenth century extended to “a thread-like mark” which led to the notion of “a track, course, direction; a straight line.  The sense of a “limit, boundary” dates from the 1590s add was applied to the geographical lines drawn to divide counties.  The mathematical sense of “length without breadth” (ie describing the line drawn between points (dimensionless places in space)) was formalized in the 1550s and in the 1580s the “equatorial line was used to describe the Earth’s equator."  Other languages including Dutch, Finnish, Italian & Polish picked up deadline from English in unaltered form while the word also entered use in many countries for use in specific industries (journalism, publishing, television, printing etc).  Deadline & deadliner are nouns; deadlining & deadlined are verbs and postdeadline is an adjective; the noun plural is deadlines.

In the oral tradition, a deadline (which probably should be recorded as “dead line”) was a fishing line which for some time after being cast, hadn’t moved, indicating it might not be a productive place to go fishing.  The source of the first formalised meaning (a line which must not be crossed) was a physical line, the defined perimeter boundary line of prisoner of war (PoW) caps during the US Civil War (1861-1865): Any prisoner going beyond the “deadline” was liable to being shot (and thus perhaps recorded as “SWATE” (shot while attempting to escape).  Despite the name, the Civil War records indicate the deadline was rarely marked-out as a physical, continuous line but was instead defined by markers such as trees, signposts or features of the physical environment.  However, the word appears not to have caught on in any sense until 1917 when it was used to describe the guideline on the bed of printing presses which delineated the point past which text would not print.  It seems that the word migrated from the print room to the news room because by 1920 it was used in journalism in the familiar modern sense of a time limit: Copy provided after a specified time would not appear in the printed edition because it has “missed the deadline”.  From this use emerged “postdeadline” (after the deadline has passed) which sometimes existed on a red stamp an editor would use when returning copy to a tardy journalist, “deadliner” (a journalist notorious for submitting copy only seconds before a deadline) and the “deadline fighter” (a journalist who habitually offered reasons why their postdeadline copy should be accepted for publication).  Writers often dread deadlines but there are those who become sufficiently successful to not be intimidated.  The English author Douglas Adams (1952–2001), famous for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979-1992) wrote in the posthumously published collection The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time (2002): “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by”.  Few working journalists enjoy that luxury.  Other similar expressions include “zero hour”, “cut-off date” and the unimaginative “time limit”.  Deadline was unusual in that it was one of the few examples of the word “dead” being used as a word-forming element in its literal sense, another being “deadman”, a device used mostly in railways to ensure a train is graceful brought to a controlled stop in the event of the driver’s death on incapacitation.

The meaning shift in deadline was an example of an element of a word used originally in its literal sense (dead men SWATE) changing into something figurative.  Other examples of the figurative use of the element include “dead leg”, deadlock, dead loss, dead load, dead lift, dead ringer, dead heat and dead light.  The interesting term “dead letter” has several meanings.  In the New Testament it was used by the Apostle Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 3:6) to contrast written, secular law with the new covenant of the spirit.  Paul’s argument was that legal statutes, without the Spirit, were powerless to bring about salvation and were therefore “dead letter” whereas the new covenant, based on the Spirit, brings life:  “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6).  So, law devoid of the power of the Holy Spirit to interpret and apply it is a “dead letter” that can never be transformative, unlike the new covenant which is based on a living relationship with God through the Holy Spirit.

In a post office, a “dead letter” (which can be a “dead parcel”) is an item of mail which can neither be delivered to its intended recipient nor returned to the sender, usually because the addresses are incorrect or the recipient has moved without leaving a forwarding address.  Within postal systems, there is usually a “dead letter office” a special department dedicated to identifying and locating the sender or recipient.  If neither can be found and the item is unclaimed after a certain time (and in many systems there are deadlines), it may be opened and examined for any identifying information that could be used to identify either and if this proves unsuccessful, depending on its nature, the item may be destroyed or sent to public auction.  Beyond the Pauline and the postman, “dead letter” is a phrase which refers to (1) a law or regulation which nominally still exists but is no longer observed or enforced and (2) anything obsolescent or actually obsolete (floppy diskettes, fax machines etc).  In law, some examples are quite famous such as jurisdictions which retain the death penalty but never perform executions.  There have also been cases of attempting to use the “dead letter” law as an expression of public policy: In Australia, as late as 1997, the preferred position of the Tasmanian state government was that acts of homosexuality committed by men should remain unlawful and in the Criminal Code but that none would be prosecuted, the argument being it was important to maintain the expression of public disapproval of such things even if it was acknowledged criminal sanction was no longer appropriate.  There may have been a time when such an approach made political sense but even before 1997, that time had passed.  As is often the case, law reform was induced by generational change.

Founded in 2009 (an earlier incarnation Deadline Hollywood Daily had operated as a blog since 2006), deadline.com is a US film and entertainment news & gossip site now owned by Penske Media Corporation.

Limelight

Limelight (produced lahym-lahyt)

(1) In the lighting systems of live theatre, prior to the use of electricity, a lighting unit for spotlighting the front of the stage, producing illumination by means of a flame of mixed gases directed at a cylinder of lime and having a special lens for concentrating the light in a strong beam.

(2) The light produced by such a unit (and subsequently by lights using other technology.

(3) In theatre slang (1) a lighting unit (also clipped to “limes”), especially a spotlight & (2) by extension, attention, notice, a starring or central role, present fame (source of the general use of the word).

(4) The center of public attention, interest, observation, or notoriety.

1826:  The construct was lime + light.  Lime (in this context) was from the Middle English lyme, lym & lime, from the Old English līm, from the Proto-Germanic līmaz, from the primitive Indo-European sley- (smooth; slick; sticky; slimy).  It was cognate with the Saterland Frisian Liem (glue), the Dutch lijm, the German Leim (glue), the Danish lim (from the Old Norse lím) and the Latin limus (mud).  In chemistry, the word described any inorganic material containing calcium (usually calcium oxide (quicklime) or calcium hydroxide (slaked lime).  In literary or poetic use, it was used of any gluey or adhesive substance, usually in the sense of “something which traps or captures someone” and sometimes as a synonym for birdlime.  It was used as a verb to mean (1) to apply to some surface a coasting of calcium hydroxide or calcium oxide (lime) & (2) to smear with birdlime or apply limewash.

Light (in this context) was from the Middle English light, liht, leoht, lighte, lyght, & lyghte, from the Old English lēoht, from the Proto-West Germanic leuht, from the Proto-Germanic leuhtą, from the primitive Indo-European lewktom, from the root lewk- (light).  It was cognate with the Scots licht (light), the West Frisian ljocht (light), the Dutch licht (light), the Low German licht (light) and the German Licht (light) and related also to the Swedish ljus (light), the Icelandic ljós (light), the Latin lūx (light), the Russian луч (luč) (beam of light), the Armenian լույս (luys) (light), the Ancient Greek λευκός (leukós) (white) and the Persian رُخش‎ (roxš).  The early uses (in this context) all were related to the electromagnetic radiation in the spectrum visible to the human eye (ie what we still commonly call “light”).  Typically, the human eye can detect radiation in a wavelength range around 400 to 750 nanometers and as scientific understanding evolved, the shorter and longer (ultraviolet light and infrared light) wavelengths, although not visible, were also labeled “light” because, as a matter of physics, they are on the spectrum and whether or not they were visible to the naked eye was not relevant.  “Light” in the sense of illumination was literal but the word was also productive in figurative and idiomatic generation (the “Enlightenment”; “leading light”; “negative light”; “throw a little light on the problem”; “bring to light”; “light the way” etc).  Limelight is a noun & verb, limelighting is a verb, limelighted & limelit are adjectives and limelighter is a noun; the noun plural is limelights.

Lime (chemical formula: CaO) is composed primarily of calcium oxides and hydroxides (typically calcium oxide and/or calcium hydroxide) and the origin of the word lies in its early use as building mortar (because of its qualities of sticking or adhering).  It was the interaction of lime with other substances which lent the concrete mixed in Ancient Rome (known to engineers as “Roman concrete”) unique properties that made it remarkably durable and long-lasting (though despite the legend, it was no more “sticky” that other concrete using the same quantity of lime).  A critical ingredient in Roman concrete was a type of volcanic ash called pozzolana (abundant in the environs of Rome) which was mixed with lime and small rocks or rubble to create a paste that could be molded into various shapes and sizes.  What created uniqueness was the chemical reaction between pozzolana and lime when the mix was exposed to water, this creating a mineral called calcium silicate hydrate, the source of Roman concrete’s durability and strength.  Unusually, it was able to harden underwater and for centuries resist the effects of saltwater (indeed such exposure triggered a kind of “self repair reaction), making it ideal for building structures like harbors and aqueducts and in a happy coincidence, the easy accessibility of pozzolana meant Roman concrete could be produced at a lower cost than other building materials.

The term “limelight dress” was coined to describe a garment designed to attract the eye, making the wearing the “centre of attention” in the manner of a stage performer in the limelight: Rita Ora (left), Ariel Winter (centre) and Lindsay Lohan (right) illustrate the motif.  It's become something less easy to achieve because of the emergence in the past two decades of the "nude dress" and it may be that a more modest cut, if well executed, might work better for clickbait purposes, just because of the novelty.  Of late, “limelight” has also been used in mainstream fashion to refer to dresses made with neon-like fabrics which resemble a color under a bright light.

In the limelight: In a marquisette dress, Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) sang happy birthday Mr President to President John Kennedy (JFK, 1917–1963; US president 1961-1963) at a Democratic Party fundraiser at New York's Madison Square Garden on 19 May 1962, ten days before his actual birthday.  Within three months, she would be dead.

Limelight was the common name for the Drummond light (or calcium light), a lamp of then unprecedented luminosity created by the burning of calcium oxide (lime).  The process of creating light by burning lime augment by oxygen & hydrogen had been invented in the early 1920s and, generating an intense white light, it was developed in 1925 for use in mining and surveying by Scottish army engineer Captain Thomas Drummond (1797-1840) and soon adopted for lighthouses although it became famous from the use in live theatre where directional spot-lights were used to illuminate the principal actors on stage and although the technology has moved on, in theatre, film & television production, catwalks etc, “limelight” is still often used to describe both the physical lighting equipment and the effect produced.  In popular entertainment, limelight came into use in the UK in the mid-1830s and, cheap to produce and easily exported, were soon in use around the world, even the military finding them useful, the army to assist the targeting of artillery (an early example of applying technology to fire-control systems) and the navy found they were vastly more effective than any other spotlight.  Limelights remained in widespread use until replaced by electric devices in the late nineteenth century but in some far-flung outposts of the British Empire, they were still in use even after World War II (1939-1945).

Lindsay Lohan (1) in the limelight, on stage with Duran Duran, Barclays Center in New York, April 2016 (left) and (2) in the glare, arriving at LA Superior Court, Los Angeles, February 2011 (right) during her "troubled Hollywood starlet" phase.  Although the glare doesn’t carry quite the cachet of the limelight, Ms Lohan illustrated how the catwalk was but a state of mind, pairing a white bandage dress (it’s not clear if wearing the color the Bible associates with purity influenced the judge but channelling the fashion choice of the 24 elders in Revelation 4:4 and the pope may have helped) with a pair of Chanel 5182 sunglasses.  Speculatively, it’s at least possible a strut under the limelight on the catwalk wouldn’t have had the same simulative commercial effect as the stroll to an arraignment, the the US$575 Glavis Albino dress from Kimberly Ovitz's (b 1983) pre-fall collection selling-out worldwide that very day.

From the idea of the character on stage being highlighted by the limelight came the figurative use of the phrase “in the limelight” (noted since 1877) to refer to anyone on whom attention is focused.  This begat the related phrases “steal the limelight”, “bask in the limelight” & “hog the limelight”, all from the world of theatre but later adopted as required just about anywhere (in sport, corporate life etc).  “In the limelight” tends to be used only positively; those who are the focus of attention for reasons such as being accused of committing crimes or some transgression which might lead to cancellation are usually said to be “in the glare”.

1970 Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda in Limelight (left) and 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Jailbreak in Sublime (right). 

Like the other manufacturers, Chrysler had some history in the coining of fanciful names for colors dating from the psychedelic era of the late 1960s when the choices included Plum Crazy, In-Violet, Tor Red, Limelight, Sub Lime, Sassy Grass, Panther Pink, Moulin Rouge, Top Banana, Lemon Twist & Citron Yella.  Although it may be an industry myth, the story told is that Plum Crazy & In-Violet (lurid shades of purple) were late additions because the killjoy board refused to sign-off on Statutory Grape.  Plymouth called their lime green Limelight while Dodge used Sub Lime.  The lurid shades so associated with the era vanished from the color charts in the mid-1970s, not because of changing tastes but in response to environmental & public health legislation which banned the use of lead in automotive paints; without the additive, production of the bright colours was prohibitively expensive.  Advances in chemistry meant that by the twenty-first century brightness could be achieved without the addition of lead so Dodge revived psychedelia for a new generation although Sub Lime became Sublime.  There was still a price to be paid however, Sublime, Red Octane, Sinamon Stick and Go Mango all costing an additional US$395 while the less vivid shades listed at US$95.