Fix

Fix (pronounced fiks)

(1) To repair or mend; to rectify a fault.

(2) To put in order or in good condition; to adjust or arrange.

(3) To make fast, firm, or stable; to place definitely and permanently.

(4) To settle definitely; to determine (place, value etc); to make rigid; to mount or secure in place.

(5) To direct (the eyes, one’s attention, one’s gaze etc) steadily; To attract and hold (the eye, one’s attention, one’s gaze etc).

(6) To put into permanent form.

(7) To put or place the responsibility or blame for something upon a person or institution.

(8) To assign or refer to a definite place, time, event etc.

(9) To provide or supply with something needed or wanted, especially popular in narcotics transactions; the quantity supplied in that transaction; to inject oneself with a narcotic.

(10) In informal us, to arrange or influence the outcome or action of, especially privately or dishonestly (juries, sporting events, stock prices etc).

(11) To prepare a meal, snack, drink etc.

(12) In informal use, to put in a condition or position to make no further trouble.

(13) In informal use, to get even with; to visit vengeance upon (often as “fix right up).

(14) In informal use, to castrate an animal (used usually of domestic pets).

(15) In slang, to prepare or plan (followed usually by an infinitive as in “fixing to go”, (mostly US, south of the Mason-Dixon Line).

(16) In informal use, a position from which it is difficult to escape; a dilemma; a predicament (typically “in a fix”).

(17) In informal use, a repair, adjustment, or solution, usually of an immediate nature (sometimes in the form “quick & dirty fix”, expressed also in IT as “a Q&D”).

(18) In navigation, a charted position of a vessel or aircraft, determined by two or more bearings taken on landmarks, GPS location, stars etc.

(19) In navigation, the determining of the position of a ship, plane etc, by mathematical, electronic, or other means.

(20) A clear determination (often as “get a fix on”).

(21) A compulsively sought dose or infusion of something (such as “one’s morning caffeine fix”).

(22) In slang, a euphemism for the state of pregnancy (such as “she’s fixed-up”).

(23) In chemistry, to make stable in consistency or condition; reduce from fluidity or volatility to a more stable state.

(24) In photography, to render (an image) permanent by removing light-sensitive silver halides; in digital imaging, any form or correction.

(25) In microscopy, to kill, make rigid, and preserve for microscopic study.

(26) In cytology to kill, preserve, and harden tissue, cells etc for subsequent microscopic study.

(27) In industrial production, to convert atmospheric nitrogen into nitrogen compounds, as in the manufacture of fertilizers or the action of bacteria in the soil.

(28) In biology, to convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially carbohydrates, as occurs in photosynthesis in plants and some microorganisms.

(29) In foreign exchange (forex) trading, a benchmark exchange rate used to settle or fix the value of certain financial instruments or transactions.

1350–1400: From the Middle English fixen, from the Middle French fixer or the Medieval Latin fixāre, from the Latin fixus (fixed), past participle of fīgere (to fasten).  The sense of “to repair” may first have been used in the US in the eighteenth century but the first recorded used in England was in the early 1800s although, in the way of such things, it’s likely already to have been in oral use for some time.  The use to mean “to prepare” to plan ” is a uniquely American use, now heard mostly south of the Mason-Dixon Line (“feel like I’m fixing to die” etc) although linguistic anthropologists note that until the mid twentieth century was a common form throughout the US eastern seaboard states.  Forms (sometimes hyphenated) like overfix, defix & refix are created as required and fixt (an archaic form of fixed) is still sometimes used in SMS messaging, advertising etc.  Fix & fixer are nouns & verbs, fixed, fixated & fixing are verbs, fixable is an adjective, fixative is a noun & adjective and fixability, fixer, fixator & fixation are nouns; the noun plural is fixes.

Depending on the context the synonyms can include dilemma, plight, quandary, mess, install, secure, set, settle, stabilize, define, establish, limit, resolve, solve, specify, work out, adjust, correct, overhaul, patch, rebuild, regulate, amend, fasten, stabilize.  In idiomatic use the word often appears.  To “fix someone right up” means to visit vengeance upon them (including killing them, sometime on behalf of others).  A “fix up” can mean (1) wrongly to implicate someone in a crime or other wrong-doing, (2) corruptly to interfere with a jury, the outcome of a sporting event, the operation of a market, the level of an interest-rate etc.  “Been fixed up” can refer to a young lady with child (in or out of wedlock), often with the implication the state may be unplanned or undesired.  To say “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” is cautionary advice hinting that if something functionally fulfils its purpose, attempting to improve it may make things worse.  To be in a fix (often as “a bit of a fix”) is to find one’s self in a position from which it is difficult to escape; a dilemma; a predicament.  For someone to be “a fixture” is to be seemingly a permanent part of something (a squad, a sporting team etc); it’s used also of institutions.  The “fixer-upper” is something (typically a house or car) in dilapidated condition but usually still in a fit state to inhabit, drive etc so thus suitable for those able to make their own repairs.

Finger fix: In October 2016, during an Aegean cruise, Lindsay Lohan suffered a finger injury.  In this nautical incident, the tip of one digit was severed by the boat's anchor chain but details of the circumstances are sketchy.  It may be that upon hearing the captain give the command “weigh anchor”, she decided to help but, lacking any background in admiralty terms and phrases, misunderstood the instruction.  The detached piece was salvaged from the deck and soon re-attached by a micro-surgeon ashore.  Digit and the rest of the patient apparently made a full recovery and despite the gruesome injury Ms Lohan later managed to find husband and recently announced she’s “fixed up” in the sense of being with child so all’s well that ends well.

The human race has a long tradition of fixing broken stuff but in the twentieth century manufacturers devoted much attention to try to dissuade consumers from fixing things, preferring instead they purchase a new one.  The origins of this were identified by historians in the inter-war years (1918-1939) but the economic conditions of the 1930s limited the effects and it was in the long economic boom of the post-war years that the trend developed in conjunction with the concept of “planned obsolescence”, the beginnings of an era in which it became typically less expensive to replace a broken something than have it fixed, a phenomenon influenced by factors such as increasing unit labor costs, the substitution of parts made from metal, wood, leather etc with plastics and designs deliberately intended to make fixes difficult to effect.  In recent years, particularly in the field of consumer electronics, the tricks have included “sealing for life” (said to be a water-proofing measure) and the use of screws or other fasteners which can be opened only with a special tool (either unavailable to the public or sold as a prohibitively expensive part-number).  One interesting reaction to this has been the “right to repair” movement, an on-line cooperative community which publishes manuals, repair guides and tricks & tips for those who wish to fix.

Fluctuations: Eurodollar LIBOR rates 1 July 1989-28 April 2023 (chart by FedPrimeRate.com). The LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) is the average interest rate at which (a basket of major) banks borrow funds from other banks in the London market (as defined).  Globally, the daily LIBOR fix is a widely used benchmark (or reference) rate for short term interest rates.

In foreign exchange (forex) trading, the term “a fix” most often used to refer to a benchmark exchange rate used to settle (or fix) the value of certain financial instruments or transactions and it’s commonly heard in the context of determining the daily or hourly exchange rates for major currency pairs.  The rate is used as a standard for settling various transactions, such as corporate hedging, portfolio valuation, or derivatives contracts and there are also interest-rate fixes such as the LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) which gained infamy following revelations of the insider-trading some used to manipulate to point at which it was fixed.  Reflecting the city’s history as a financial centre, the “London 4 pm fix” (known also as the “WM/Reuters” or “London” fix) is probably still the best-known daily fix; used as a benchmark against which many forex-related instruments are valued, it’s calculated from the aggregate of physical trades executed during a specific time-window and, as the name implies, that’s usually some defined period either side of 16:00 London time.  As a general principle fixes are set by aggregating and averaging the transactional traffic generated by major banks and financial institutions which, in theory, should ensure a fair and transparent process but there have been instances of malpractice (of which the one associated with the LIBOR was merely the most publicized) which have seen fines imposed and regulatory scrutiny increased.  The principle of the fix as used in forex markets is typical but in other areas of finance, the mechanisms can differ.

The colonial fix

The term “colonial fix” is used to describe the various trick and techniques the European colonial powers used to maintain and extend control in their empires, all of which, sometimes for centuries, used a relative handful of personnel to rule over millions and the best remembered are those practiced under the Raj.  Raj refers to British rule in India prior to 1947 (historians debate just when it can be said to have begun because the project predated the legal construct which formalized things in 1858-1859 although some, for convenience, have applied it to the whole empire.  Raj was a proprialisation of the Hindi noun raj (reign, rule), from the Hindustani राज & راج‎ (rāj), (reign, rule; empire, kingdom; country, state; royalty), from the Pali & Prakrit rajja, from the Sanskrit राज्य (rājyá) (empire, kingdom, realm; kingship, royalty, sovereignty; country), from rājati (he rules), ultimately from the primitive Indo-European h₃reǵ- (to right or straighten oneself; to govern, rule; just; right (with derivatives meaning “to direct in a straight line” and thus “to lead, to rule”)), source also of the German Reich.

A classic colonial fix was the Great Council of Chiefs (Bose Levu Vakaturaga) in Fiji which the British administrators created in 1878.  While it's true that prior to European contact, there had been meetings between tribal chiefs (turaga) to settle disputes and for other purposes, all the evidence suggests they were ad-hoc appointments with little of the formality, pomp and circumstance the British introduced.  Still, it was a successful institution which the chiefs embraced, apparently with some enthusiasm because the cloaks and other accoutrements they adopted for the occasion became increasingly elaborate and it was a generally harmonious form of indigenous governance which enabled the British to conduct matters of administration and policy-making almost exclusively through the chiefs.  The council survived even after Fiji gained independence from Britain in 1970 until it was in 2012 abolished by the military government of Commodore Frank Bainimarama (b 1954; prime minister of Fiji 2007-2022), as part of reform programme said to be an attempt to reduce ethnic divisions and promote a unified national identity.  The commodore's political future would be more assured had he learned lessons from the Raj.

Colonial fixes took many forms, all designed to “fix” some tiresome local problem but they really can be reduced to two themes: (1) In any dispute between factions/tribes/families etc in the local population, always back the weakest, politically and militarily and (2) the most effective and efficient method of control is to align with a recognized and accepted local elite and strengthen their authority and status (knighthoods, visits to London to meet the queen, their own Rolls-Royce etc).  The idea of the colonial fix comes to mind when watching the squabble going on in Australia about the creation of a “Voice”, a institution of some kind (the structure uncertain, the details unclear) which would provide representatives (elected somehow, the details unclear) of the indigenous peoples of the continent (First Nations) now the preferred term) with a mechanism whereby they can make submissions to both the national parliament and executive government (where that begins and ends undefined, the details unclear) about matters which in any way involve or affect indigenous peoples (which is presumably everything, the details are unclear).  There will be a national referendum on the Voice late in 2023, required because of the desire to include the institution in the constitution.  That’s the only way to amend the constitution and the success rate of such referenda is low, only 8 of the 44 submitted gaining the necessary “double majority” of an absolute majority of “yes” votes nationally and a majority in each of the six states.  Because of the distribution of population, it’s possible to succeed in one but not the other in which case the proposal is rejected.  If the details of what’s proposed remain unclear, it’s possible still to predict the likely form a Voice will assume.

In the abstract it’ll be something like feminism in that most of the benefits will accrue to a small, urban, educated elite.  In the same way most female CEOs don’t give a lot of thought (or a pay rise) to the working-class women who serve their coffee and empty their trash bins compared with their efforts to secure quotas for women to be appointed to corporate boards, be given winnable seats in legislatures or seats in cabinet, those who serve on the voice will be most interested in cementing their own power and status and the most disadvantaged among the indigenous can expect little.  The phrase “First Nations” at least partly explains the dynamics of this because viewed from the comfort of the Voice, they’ll appear as inconveniently disparate as Karl Marx (1818-1883) found peasants who he compared to a sack of potatoes: “all the same, yet all different”.  Although the word is no longer fashionable (and is probably proscribed), the structure of the First Nations remains that of competing tribes with interests and priorities which sometimes conflict with others and the Voice cannot simultaneously advocate for both.  At that point, the government will back the weakest.  Practically, it will be a bureaucracy which the government will be sure richly to endow with the trappings of office (big cars, fancy titles, much business class travel and a dutiful secretariat which will produce mountains of reports few will read and those who do will ignore).

Quite why there’s such agitation in certain right-wing circles against the Voice is curious because the very existence of the body seems likely only to be one of their assets.  Although some are cautious, the constitutional lawyers have taken the view that there’s nothing in the amendment which would require a parliament or government to act upon the submissions a Voice might make, it saying only that the right to make them exists; they need to be heard and can be acted upon or ignored on a case-by-case basis.  Nor does there seem great potential that the Voice could seek judicial review if their proposals are declined although presumably the possibility does exist if a case can be made that the Voice is not even being listened to.  The concern about appeals to the courts was based on an earlier period in the life of the High Court of Australia (HCA; the nation’s final court of appeal which might in matters involving the relationship between the voice and the parliament & government be a court of first instance) when some judges were inclined to find that although some concepts weren’t written in the constitution, there was a construction under which they could be said to be “implied” and the court could thus proceed as if they were ink on paper.  That moment of judicial activism seems now to have passed although, even if it reappears, it would be quite a leap for a court to find a parliament or government is compelled to adopt a recommendation of an advisory body.  At the most, they would probably require a process which indicates the matter has been duly considered.  For the right-wing fanatics, the run-up to the vote has actually started well.  Already there’s dissention among the self-appointed elite of the First Nations, the view of the dominant faction being there’s only one permissible view and anyone who dares to express another view must be put down.  Politically that makes sense but it’d be better done behind closed doors.  Hopefully, the referendum will pass with a substantial majority so political junkies can enjoy watching the shark-feeding which will follow.  Unfortunately for the most disadvantaged of the indigenous peoples, the latest generations of those who have been marginalized and appallingly treated since white settlement, they can expect that a decade hence, things are likely to be much the same.  Still for those who can hop aboard the Voice gravy train, there’ll be expense accounts, five-star hotels and celebrity status when addressing the United Nations (UN) General Assembly so there’s that.

Epiphenomenon

Epiphenomenon (pronounced ep-uh-fuh-nom-uh-non or ep-uh-fuh-nom-uh-nuhn)

(1) In medicine, unexpected or atypical symptom or complication arising during the course of a disease (ie something historically or literally not connected to the disease).

(2) An activity, process, or state that is the result of another; a by-product, a consequence.

(3) In philosophy and psychology, a mental process or state that is an incidental by-product of physiological events in the brain or nervous system.

1706: The construct was epi- + phenomenon.  The epi- prefix was from the Ancient Greek ἐπί (epí) (on top of; in addition to (in a special use in chemistry, it denotes an epimeric form)).  Phenomenon was from the Late Latin phaenomenon (appearance), from the Latin phaenomenon (attested only in the plural form phaenomena), from the Ancient Greek φαινόμενον (phainómenon) (that which appears in one’s view; appearance; phenomenon), a noun use of the neuter singular form of φαινόμενος (phainómenos), the present middle or passive participle of φαίνω (phaínō) (to cause to appear; to reveal, show, uncover; to expound), from the primitive Indo-European beh- (to glow with light, to shine).  The alternative forms are epiphaenomenon (rare and apparently used only by some pathology journals and epiphænomenon (extinct except when cited in historic texts).  Epiphenomenon, epiphenomenalist & epiphenomenalism are nouns, epiphenomenalize is a verb, epiphenomenal, epiphenomenological & epiphenomenalistic are adjectives, and epiphenomenally & epiphenomenalistically are adverbs; the noun plural is epiphenomena or epiphenomenons.  A need to coin the nouns epiphenomenalization & epiphenomenalizationism seems not to have arisen but there’s still time.

In psychology an epiphenomenon is defined as a mere by-product of a process that has no effect on the process itself and within the discipline is most often used to refer to mental events considered as products of brain processes, the idea explored being the matter of an event secondary or incidental to another primary phenomenon (ie something that occurs as a byproduct or consequence of something else, without having any causal influence on the primary phenomenon).  In the abstract, consciousness or subjective experience is seen as an epiphenomenon of the brain's activity, meaning that it does not play an active role in influencing or causing physical events.  In both the clinical sciences and philosophy, the concept is often applied to a construct of pain, the argument being that the subjective experience of pain is an epiphenomenon of neural processes that are primarily responsible for generating behavioral responses to potential threats or injuries; the conscious experience of pain not directly contributing to behavior but instead accompanying it.  That doesn’t imply mental events are not real, just that they are not real in the sense of biological states and events.

In medicine, the word is used to describe symptoms or complications not directly causative of the relevant disease but occurring as a result of the underlying condition.  For example a patient suffering a chronic autoimmune disease may for a number of reasons be afflicted with inflammation in the joints and the casual relationship between the two is direct.  However, were the patient to react to the inflammation by lapsing into depression, this would be regarded as epiphenomenal because the symptoms are not the primary cause of the disease but arising as a consequence of the physiological and psychological impacts of living with a chronic illness.

Historians and social scientists use the word in the tradition of behaviorism.  In his controversial best-seller Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust (1996), then Harvard academic Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (b 1959) argued the “eliminationist antisemitism” which characterized the Nazi state (1933-1945) and culminated in the genocide of the Holocaust was not a product merely of the particular circumstances of the Third Reich but instead of a centuries-old virulent form of antisemitism which was uniquely and specifically German.  His point too was it was something almost endemic among non-Jewish Germans which necessitated him constructing a framework to explain the bulk of what criticism by Germans there was of the persecution of Jews.  This he did by suggesting the criticism… “was overwhelmingly directed at but certain aspects of the persecution [and] was epiphenomenal… in the sense that the criticism did not emanate from (and therefore does not signify) Germans’ departure from the two fundamental bedrock features relevant to the fate of the Jews at the hands of the Germans during the Nazi period, namely eliminationist antisemitism and its practical consequences”.  Goldhagen’s internal logic was of course perfect but it’s easy to see why the work was so controversial.  A best seller, it was well reviewed although there were professional historians who found fault with the scholarship and identified a number of technical issues but the author wasn’t discouraged and has in the years since published extensively in the same vein.

The word is not part of the Western legal vocabulary but it is related to the concepts of causation and foreseeability, both essential elements in determining liability in matters of negligence, their interaction a relatively recent development in common law.  For liability to be found, there must be (1) a causal relationship between the negligence and the injury suffered and (2) it must have been reasonably foreseeable that the negligent act might cause the injury suffered.  There’s no mathematical test to determine these things and each case is decided on the basis of the facts presented and even then a judge might find one way, their decision might be reversed 2-1 on appeal and then decided finally 4-3 by the highest appellate court.  So the scorecard of eleven eminent legal minds working with the same facts, in the same tradition can be 6-5 but that’s how the common law evolves.

Known as "The Twisted Tower", the the 28-storey PwC building in Midland, Johannesburg, South Africa, was designed by LYT Architecture.

Of late, causation, reasonable foreseeability and the epiphenomenological have been on the minds of some conspiracy theorists pondering revelations one of the arms of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC, one of the “Big Four” accounting companies (the others KPMG, EY & Deloitte) while acting as consultants to the Australian government in the development of legislation designed to ensure certain multi-national corporations would no longer be able to avoid paying tax on revenue generated within Australia, passed the relevant information to the PwC arm which was consulting with those very companies to design the legal and accounting mechanisms to avoid paying tax.  For PwC, this synergy (vertical integration taken to its logical conclusion) was an extraordinary example of efficiency and apparently a type of high-dollar insider trading which, depending on the chain of events, could disclose all sorts of potential wrongdoing, the obvious conflict of interest perhaps the least serious if it can be proven any involved personally gained from improper conduct.  That will play out, perhaps over years, but what intrigues the conspiracy theorists is whether it was reasonable foreseeable that if one hires the company working for the corporations one wishes to prevent avoiding tax and asks them to help develop a tax code to ensure that tax is paid, that the consultants might be tempted to exchange facts.  In other words, given that such a thing would appear to be reasonably foreseeable, what were the motives of the politicians in putting temptation in the way of PwC?  Theories have included (1) an ideological commitment to support global capitalism in ensuring big corporations pay as little tax as possible while appear to make every attempt to pursue them and (2) it being an example of crony-capitalism whereby politicians ensure big corporations aren’t too troubled by taxes in exchange for a nice sinecure upon retirement from the tiresome business of politics.  The cover of course would be the construct that the ongoing ability of multi-nationals to avoid tax would be something epiphenomenological rather than the reasonably foreseeable consequence of hiring the same accountancy firm as that hired by the multi-nationals.  There has been much muttering about Dracula & the blood-bank but after all, Dracula will do what Dracula does and the more interesting matter is the thoughts of those who thought it a good idea to hand him the keys.

Watched approvingly by comrade Joseph Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) and Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893–1946; Nazi foreign minister 1938-1945), comrade Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986; Soviet foreign minister 1939-1949 & 1953-1956) signs the Nazi-Soviet Pact with its secret protocol, Moscow, August 1939 (left) and Dr HV Evatt (1894–1965; Australian attorney-general & foreign minister 1941-1949, and leader of opposition 1951-1960) with Winston Churchill (1975-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955), Downing Street, London, May 1942 (right).

Perhaps also of interest is that PwC has dozens of contracts with the Australian Department of Defence, generating in excess of Aus$200 million in revenue for the company.  There may be reasons that situation should anyway be reviewed but following recent revelations, the fact that PwC operates in the People's Republic of China (PRC) adds a layer of concern.  As the sharing of confidential information about tax matters indicates, whatever claims PwC make about the robustness of their "Chinese walls", it is clear that in at least some cases, once data is in the hands of PwC, there's no guarantee it will be kept confidential.  Whether PwC has contracts with the Chinese military might be an interesting question to ask but even if it does not, few would doubt that were the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to ask PwC to obtain what they could, cooperation would be forthcoming.  PwC make much of their operation being a collection of "independent" entities but given the company is often as opaque as the CCP, people should make of that what they will.  Still, when asked during Senate Estimates (a process whereby senators can ask questions of ministers and senior public servants) if he still had sufficient confidence in PwC for them to remain as his department's internal auditors (ie advising him, inter-alia, on matters of governance), the head of the Treasury indicated he was on the basis that PwC auditors has assured him of their integrity.  It recalled the moment in October 1955 when Dr HV Evatt, then leader of the opposition, informed the house all members could be assured a certain Russian document about spying was a forgery because he'd written to the Soviet foreign minister to ask and comrade Molotov had replied confirming it was.  Those reporting the exchange were either too polite to draw the comparison or, as seems the case with journalists these days, lacked knowledge of anything which happened more than ten years ago.

Glabella

Glabella (pronounced gluh-bel-uh)

(1) In human anatomy, a smooth elevation of the frontal bone just above the bridge of the nose: a reference point (as the craniometric point) in physical anthropology or craniometry; the most forward projecting point of the forehead in the midline of the supraorbital ridges; known also as the mesophryon.

(2) In zoology, the axial protuberance on the cephalon of certain arthropods (especially trilobites).

1590s: From the New Latin, either feminine singular or neuter plural of the adjective glabellus (without hair; smooth) from the Latin glaber (smooth, bald), from the Proto-Italic ɣlaðros, from the primitive Indo-European gladh (smooth).  The construct was glaber (without hair, smooth) + -lus, the diminutive adjective and noun suffix.  Use in medicine and pathology began in the 1820s, the use in zoology began with the study of the trilobite in 1849.  Glabella is a noun and glabellar is an adjective; the "correct" noun plural is glabellae but the more common modern alternative is glabellas.

#freckles: Lindsay Lohan’s glabella.

Demand

Demand (pronounced dih-mand (U) or dee–mahnd (non-U))

(1) To ask for with proper authority; claim as a right.

(2) To ask for peremptorily or urgently.

(3) To call for or require as just, proper, or necessary.

(4) In law, to lay formal claim to.

(5) In law, to summon, as to court.

(6) An urgent or pressing requirement.

(7) In economics, the desire to purchase, coupled (hopefully) with the power to do so.

(8) In economics, the quantity of goods that buyers will take at a particular price.

(9) A requisition; a legal claim.

(10) A question or inquiry (archaic).

1250-1300: From Middle English demaunden and Anglo-French demaunder, derived from the Medieval Latin dēmandāre (to demand, later to entrust) equivalent to dē + mandāre (to commission, order).  The Old French was demander and, like the English, meant “to request” whereas "to ask for as a right" emerged in the early fifteenth century from Anglo-French legal use.  As used in economic theory and political economy (correlating to supply), first attested from 1776 in the writings of Adam Smith.  The word demand as used by economists is a neutral term which references only the conjunction of (1) a consumer's desire to purchase goods or services and (2) hopefully the power to do so.  However, in general use, to say that someone is "demanding" something does carry a connotation of anger, aggression or impatience.  For this reason, during the 1970s, the language of those advocating the rights of women to secure safe, lawful abortion services changed from "abortion on demand" (ie the word used as an economist might) to "pro choice".  Technical fields (notably economics) coin derived forms as they're required (counterdemand, overdemand, predemand et al).  Demand is a noun & verb, demanding is a verb & adjective, demandable is an adjective, demanded is a verb and demander is a noun; the noun plural is demands.

Video on Demand (VoD)

Directed by Tiago Mesquita with a screenplay by Mark Morgan, Among the Shadows is a thriller which straddles the genres, elements of horror and the supernatural spliced in as required.  Although in production since 2015, with the shooting in London and Rome not completed until the next year, it wasn’t until 2018 when, at the European Film Market, held in conjunction with the Berlin International Film Festival, that Tombstone Distribution listed it, the distribution rights acquired by VMI, Momentum and Entertainment One, and VMI Worldwide.  In 2019, it was released progressively on DVD and video on demand (VoD), firstly in European markets, the UK release delayed until mid-2020.  In some markets, for reasons unknown, it was released with the title The Shadow Within.

Video on Demand (VoD) and streaming services are similar concepts in video content distribution but there are differences.  VoD is a system which permits users to view content at any time, these days mostly through a device connected to the internet across IP (Internet Protocol), the selection made from a catalog or library of available titles and despite some occasionally ambiguous messaging in the advertising, the content is held on centralized servers and users can choose directly to stream or download.  The VoD services is now often a sub-set of what a platform offers which includes content which may be rented, purchased or accessed through a subscription.

Streaming is a method of delivering media content in a continuous flow over IP and is very much the product of the fast connections of the twenty-first century.  Packets are transmitted in real-time which enables users to start watching or listening without waiting for an entire file (or file set) to download, the attraction actually being it obviates the need for local storage.  There’s obviously definitional and functional overlap and while VoD can involve streaming, not all streaming services are technically VoD and streaming can also be used for live events, real-time broadcasts, or continuous playback of media without specific on-demand access. By contrast, the core purpose of VoD is to provide access at any time and streaming is a delivery mechanism, VoD a broad concept and streaming a specific method of real-time delivery as suited to live events as stored content.

The Mercedes-Benz SSKL and the Demand Supercharger

The Mercedes-Benz SSKL was one of the last of the road cars which could win top-line grand prix races.  An evolution of the earlier S, SS and SSK, the SSKL (Super Sports Kurz (short) Leicht (light)) was notable for the extensive drilling of its chassis frame to the point where it was compared to Swiss cheese; reducing weight with no loss of strength.  The SSKs and SSKLs were famous also for the banshee howl from the engine when the supercharger was running; nothing like it would be heard until the wail of the BRM V16s twenty years later.  It was called a demand supercharger because, unlike some constantly-engaged forms of forced-induction, it ran only on-demand, in the upper gears, high in the rev-range, when the throttle was pushed wide-open.  Although it could safely be used for barely a minute at a time, when running, engine power jumped from 240-odd horsepower to over 300.  The number of SSKLs built has been debated and the factory's records are incomplete but most historians suggest it was either four or five, all completed (or modified from earlier builds) between 1929-1932.  The SSK had enjoyed success in competition but even in its heyday was in some ways antiquated and although powerful, was very heavy, thus the expedient of the chassis-drilling intended to make it competitive for another season.  Lighter (which didn't solve but at least to a degree ameliorated the high tyre wear) and easier to handle than the SSK (although the higher speed brought its own problems, notably in braking), the SSKL enjoyed a long Indian summer and even on tighter circuits where its bulk meant it could be out-manoeuvred, sometimes it still prevailed by virtue of sheer power.

Sometimes too it got lucky.  When the field assembled in 1931 for the Fünfter Großer Preis von Deutschland (fifth German Grand Prix) at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, even the factory acknowledged that at 1600 kg (3525 lb), the SSKLs, whatever their advantage in horsepower, stood little chance against the nimble Italian and French machines which weighed-in at literally less than half that.  However, on the day there was heavy rain and most of race was conducted on a soaked track and the lightweight, twitchy Alfa Romeos, Maseratis and the especially skittery Bugattis proved less suited to the slippery surface than the truck-like but stable SSKL, the lead built up in the rain enough to secure victory even though the margin narrowed as the track dried.  Time and the competition had definitely caught up by 1932 however and it was no longer possible further to lighten the chassis or increase power so the factory had aerodynamics specialist Baron Reinhard von Koenig-Fachsenfeld (1899-1992) design a streamlined body, the lines influenced by wartime aeronautical experience.  This coaxed from the SSKL, one last successful season.  Crafted in aluminum by Vetter in Cannstatt, it was mounted on Manfred von Brauchitsch's (1905-2003) race-car and proved its worth at the at the Avus race in May 1932; with drag reduced by a quarter, the top speed increased by over 12 mph (20 km/h) and the SSKL won its last major trophy on the unique circuit which rewarded straight-line speed like no other.  It was the last of the breed.  Subsequent grand prix cars would be pure racing machines with none of the compromises demanded for road-use.

Evolution of the front-engined Mercedes-Benz grand prix car, 1928-1954

1928 Mercedes-Benz SS

1929 Mercedes-Benz SSK

1931 Mercedes-Benz SSKL

1932 Mercedes-Benz-SSKL Streamliner

1934 Mercedes-Benz W25

1937 Mercedes-Benz W125

1938 Mercedes-Benz W154

1939 Mercedes-Benz W165

1954 Mercedes Benz W196R Streamliner

1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R

Egregious

Egregious (pronounced ih-gree-juhs)

(1) Extraordinary in some bad way; glaring; flagrant.

(2) Extraordinary in some good way; distinguished or eminent (archaic).

1525–1535: From the Middle English, from the Latin ēgregius (preeminent; outstanding, literally “standing out from the herd”), the construct being ē- (out (and in Latin an alternative to ex-)) + greg-, stem of grēx (flock, herd) + -ius.  Grēx was from the primitive Indo-European hzger- (to assemble, gather together) which influenced also the Spanish grey (flock, crowd), the Lithuanian gurguole (mass, crowd) and gurgulys (chaos, confusion), the Old Church Slavonic гроусти (grusti) (handful), the Sanskrit गण (gaṇá) (flock, troop, group) and ग्राम (grā́ma) (troop, collection, multitude; village, tribe), and the Ancient Greek ἀγείρω (ageírō) (I gather, collect) (from whence came ἀγορά (agorá)).  The link to the Proto-Germanic kruppaz (lump, round mass, body, crop) is contested.  The English –ous was a Middle English borrowing from the Old French -ous and –eux from the Latin -ōsus (full, full of) and is as doublet of -ose in unstressed position; it was used to form adjectives from nouns and to denote possession or presence of a quality in any degree, most commonly in abundance.  Egregious is an adjective, egregiously is an adverb and egregiousness is a noun; the noun plural is the delicious egregiousnesses.

Meaning adaptation & shift

There are many words in English where meaning has in some way or to some degree shifted but egregious is one of the rarities which now means the opposite of what it once did.  There are others such as nice which used to mean “silly, foolish, simple”; silly which morphed from referring to things “worthy or blessed” to meaning “weak and vulnerable” before assuming its modern sense; awful which used to describe something “worthy of awe” and decimate, once a Roman military term to describe a death-rate around 10% whereas it implies now a survival rate about that number.  In English, upon its sixteenth century adoption from Latin, egregious was a compliment, a way to suggest someone was distinguished or eminent.  That egregiously clever English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was flattering a colleague when he remarked, "I am not so egregious a mathematician as you are…" which would today be thought an insult.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that in 1534, egregious unambiguously meant "remarkable, in a good sense" but as early as 1573, people were also using it to mean "remarkable, in a bad sense."  The documentary evidence appears sparse but the OED speculates the meaning started to switch because people were using the word sarcastically or at least with some gentle irony.  In the linguistically democratic manner in which English evolves, the latter prevailed, presumably because people felt there were quite enough ways to compliment others but were anxious always to add another insult to the lexicon.  Shakespeare, with his ear for the vernacular, perhaps helped.  Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) employed it in the older sense in his Tamburlaine (1590), writing of “egregious viceroys of these eastern parts…” but within a generation, William Shakespeare (1564–1616) has Posthumus condemn himself in Cymbeline (1611) in the newer condemnatory sense: “egregious murderer”, echoing his earlier use in All's Well That Ends Well (1605).  Both meanings appear to have operated in parallel until the eighteenth century which must have hurt a few feelings or perhaps, in an age of dueling, something more severe.

Imogen Sleeping (from Shakespeare's Cymbeline), circa 1899 by Norman Mills Price (1877–1951).

In southern Europe however, the bard’s words failed to seduce the Romance languages.  The Italian formal salutation egregio is entirely reverential, as are the both the Spanish and Portuguese cognates, egregio and egrégio.

Cardigan

Cardigan (pronounced kahr-di-guhn)

(1) A usually collarless knitted sweater or jacket that opens down the front, usually with buttons (sometimes a zip); in some places also called a cardigan sweater or cardigan jacket.

(2) The larger variety of corgi, having a long tail.

1868: Adopted as the name for a close-fitting knitted woolen jacket or waistcoat, named after James Thomas Brudenell (1797-1868), seventh Earl of Cardigan, the English general who led the charge of the Light Brigade (1854) at Balaklava during the Crimean War (1853-1856) although the account of him wearing such a garment during the charge is certainly apocryphal.  The place name Cardigan is an English variation of the Welsh Ceredigion, (literally “Ceredig's land”, named after an inhabitant of the fifth century).  The most usual contraction is now cardi displacing the earlier cardie (cardy the rarely seen alternative). Cardigan is a noun; the noun plural is cardigans.

The cardigan is said to be modelled after the knitted wool waistcoat worn by British officers during the Crimean war but the origin of the design is contested, one story being it was an invention of Brudenell inspired by him noticing the tails of his coat had been accidentally burnt off in a fireplace although the more common version is it was simply something to keep soldiers warm in the depths of a Crimean winter.  Cardigans usually have buttons but zips are not unknown and there are modern (post-war) variations which have no buttons, hanging open by design and reaching sometimes to the knees.  These sometimes have a tie at the waist and the fashion industry usually lists them as robes but customers seem to continue to call them cardigans.  From its military origins, the term originally referred only to a knitted sleeveless vest, the use extending to more familiar garments only in the twentieth century.  Coco Chanel (1883-1971) popularized them for women, noting they could be worn, unlike a pullover, without messing the hair.

Lindsay Lohan in twinset cardigan, Los Angeles, January 2012.

Twinset is the term used when a cardigan is worn with a matching sleeveless or short-sleeved pullover sweater.  Historians note that although the twinset, attributed to both Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973), was a fashion innovation first seen during the 1920s, it didn’t achieve widespread popularity until the early post-war years.  The mildly disparaging term twinset and pearls references both the perceived social class and conservatism of those characterised as especially fond of the combination though it has been reclaimed and is now often worn without any sense of irony.  Fashion advisors note also that the classic mix of twinset and skirt can be leveraged: One set of the garments provides one outfit but if one buys two of each in suitability sympathetic colors, then six distinct combinations are produced while if another skirt and twinset is added, suddenly one's wardrobe contains eighteen.  It's the joy of math.

Kendall Jenner (b 1995), Paris, March 2023.

Few motifs draw the fashionista's eye like asymmetry and in March 2023, model Kendall Jenner (b 1995) wore an all-gray ensemble which combined the functionality of a cardigan, dress, skirt & sweater.   Designed by Ann Demeulemeester (b 1959) and fashioned in a wool knit with a draped neckline and an asymmetrical leg slit, it was worn with a pair of the Row’s Italian-made Lady stretch napa leather tall boots with 2½” (65 mm) stiletto heels.  Despite the extent of the exposed skin, the cut means it possible still to wrap for warmth and being a wool knit, it’s a remarkably practical garment.

Glasnost & Perestroika

Glasnost (pronounced glaz-nost, glahz‐nost or glahs-nuhst (Russian))

Openness in the context of politics.

1985 (English adoption): A modern English borrowing from the Russian гла́сность (glásnost) literally meaning “publicity” or “fact of being public” but usually translated as “openness” or something in the vein of what is now referred to as “transparency”.  Although entering English use in 1985, the word had been in the Russian language for centuries and appears in the earliest Russian dictionaries.  Glasnost is a noun, the adjectival forms are glasnostian & glasnostic.

Among Kremlinologists in the West, the word had been familiar since the Glasnost Rally, staged by the embryonic Soviet civil rights movement in December 1965 and appeared in 1972 in reference to a 1969 letter by dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.  The word is ultimately from the Old Church Slavonic glasu (voice) from the primitive Indo-European galso-, from the root gal- (to call, shout).  It was first used in a socio-political sense by Lenin and popularized in English after Mikhail Gorbachev used it several times in his speech in March 1985, accepting the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (USSR).

Perestroika (pronounced per-uh-stroi-kuh or pyi-ryi-stroi-kuh (Russian))

Structural economic reform.

1985 (English adoption): A modern English borrowing from the Russian Перестройка (perestróĭka) literally meaning “rebuilding”, “reconstruction” or “reorganization” and gaining currency as an expression of an intent by government to initiate structural economic reform.  Perestroika is a noun, the other noun (and adjectival) form being perestrokian.  It also begat Salinastroika (a blend of Salinas- +‎ -(peres)troika, which referred to the programme of liberalization (which didn’t end well) under Carlos Salinas de Gortari, President of Mexico (1988-1994).

Perestroika is an ancient Russian word but was rare and in only technical use until the 1980s.  It was constructed from pere- (re-) from Old Russian pere- (around, again) from the Proto-Slavic per- from the primitive Indo-European root per- (forward) (hence "through, around, against”) + stroika (building, construction) from the Old Russian stroji (order) from the primitive Indo-European stroi-, from the root stere- (to spread).  Entering general use in English in 1985, in the USSR, use in the now familiar context actually pre-dated the Gorbachev era, being discussed during the twenty-sixth Party Congress in 1981.

Decline and fall, 1953-1991

After comrade Stalin's (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) death in 1953, the USSR entered a period of economic stagnation relative to the West, a situation not wholly understood at the time, disguised as it was by secrecy, Sputnik and the (often over-estimated) strength of the Soviet nuclear arsenal.  After the decade-long, idiosyncratic rule of Comrade Khrushchev (1894–1971; Soviet leader 1953-1964) gave way to twenty years of increasingly geriatric government, in 1985, the relatively youthful comrade Gorbachev (1931–2022; Soviet leader 1985-1991) assumed the leadership.  He announced to the party and the world that the USSR’s society and economy were in dire need of reform, the words he chose to describe the necessary processes were respectively glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).

Glasnost under the gaze of comrade Lenin (1870–1924; head of government of Russia or the Soviet Union 1917-1924).  One of the fruits of reform was that in 1988, the USSR staged its first ever government-approved beauty contest, the Miss Moscow title won by sixteen year-old Maria Kalinina (b 1971) who was later crowned Miss USSR.

Glasnost & perestroika captured imaginations in the West and comrade Gorbachev became something of a political rock star but while the reforms had profound geopolitical consequences, they weren’t what had been intended, the forces unleashed destabilizing the USSR and its satellite states.  In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall triggered a chain-reaction of political upheaval which saw the overthrow of the Moscow-aligned régimes of the Warsaw Pact and in 1991 the USSR was itself dissolved, ending both the cold war and an empire which had endured almost four decades after comrade Stalin’s death.

After glasnost, during Putin: Lindsay Lohan in Moscow, June 2015.

The era of glasnost & perestroika was followed by the frequently chaotic years of the 1990s during which the old Soviet empire fragmented into its historic component states and Russian society and its economy what transformed into what is usually understood as "capitalism with Russian characteristics" with much of what that implies.  However, the 1990s were genuinely a period of glasnost (openness) and in those years Western historians were granted their first access to the Soviet archives and some long held suppositions were confirmed while others were overturned and many books were updated, the revised editions including for the first time original source documents from Moscow.  It was a brief opening of the vault which didn't long stay ajar and what Russia has become under (former) comrade Vladimir Putin (b 1952; president or prime minister of Russia since 1999) represents his view that what Gorbachev did was a mistake and handled differently, the USSR might well have endured to this day.  Mr Putin was under no illusions about the failure of the Soviet economic model and he would have preferred the reforms of the 1980s to have moved towards the Chinese model of state capitalism under the supervision of the Communist Party.