Sedevacantism

Sedevacantism (pronounced sed-ah- vey-kuhnt-niz-uhm)

In Christianity, the belief (maintained by a faction of conservative Roman Catholics) that the present occupant of the Holy See is not the true pope and the see has been vacant since the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II (1962-1965)).

Circa 1965: the construct was the Latin phrase sede vacante +‎ -ism.  The Latin phrase sede vacante (vacant chair) is from canon law term sedes vacans which describes the period during which there is no appointee to an episcopal see.  It thus applies to any vacant bishopric but is most associated with that of the Bishop of Rome (the Roman Catholic Pope) where it’s part of formal processes associated with any interregnum.  The construct of sedes (seat, chair (and used sometimes also to mean “place, residence, settlement, habitation, abode”)) was sedeō (I sit) +‎ -ēs (the suffix used to form a third-declension feminine abstract noun designating the result of an action from a verb root or conceived root form).  Etymologists note that like caedēs (slaughter) from caedō (I kill or cut), sedes is an outlier and like the proto-Italian, Latin tended not productively to form nouns from verbs by changing the vowel grade.  They consider the word's lengthened grade as similar to the Proto-Germanic sētiją (seat) and likely ultimately from a common source although the origin remains murky.  Vacante was the ablative (masculine, feminine & neuter) singular of vacāns (emptying, vacating; idling) (genitive vacantis), the present active participle of vacō.  The –ism suffix was from the Ancient Greek ισμός (ismós) & -isma noun suffixes, often directly, sometimes through the Latin –ismus & isma (from where English picked up ize) and sometimes through the French –isme or the German –ismus, all ultimately from the Ancient Greek (where it tended more specifically to express a finished act or thing done).  It appeared in loanwords from Greek, where it was used to form abstract nouns of action, state, condition or doctrine from verbs and on this model, was used as a productive suffix in the formation of nouns denoting action or practice, state or condition, principles, doctrines, a usage or characteristic, devotion or adherence (criticism; barbarism; Darwinism; despotism; plagiarism; realism; witticism etc).  Sedevacantism and sedevacantist are nouns; the common noun plural is Sedevacantists.

Pope Francis (b 1936; pope since 2013) is a very busy man and it not know if he has much time to open the Bible but it may be that recently he felt constrained to turn to Galatians 6:7 and ponder the passage in which Paul the Apostle in his Epistle to the Galatians wrote: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”  King James Version (KJV, 1611).  Francis certainly has been sowing.  Recently, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (the DDF, the latest name for the Inquisition) issued a statement confirming an adult who identifies as transgender can receive the sacrament of Baptism under the same conditions as any adult, as long as “there is no risk of causing scandal or confusion to other Catholics”.  To clarify the matter, the DDF added that children or adolescents experiencing transgender identity issues may also receive Baptism “if well prepared and willing”.  Within days of that announcement, Francis played host to a group of transgender women (many of them sex workers or migrants from Latin America) who were among the 1200 impoverished or homeless who attended a luncheon held in the papal audience hall (the Vatican Press Office noting the catering extended to “a full meal and dessert”) to mark the Church’s “World Day of the Poor”.  Apparently, the pontiff has been in contact with the transgender women since he organized assistance for the during the COVID-19 lockdowns when they were unable to practice their trade.  Meetings are said now to be monthly with His Holiness providing funds, medicine and shampoo.

A pope giving shampoo (and hopefully conditioner) to the needy need not be controversial but news of that largess came at a time when dissent was swirling about the DDF’s announcement (signed by Francis) which confirmed trans-men & women can also witness marriages and be named as godparents under certain circumstances.  In the tradition of the Inquisition, the DDF’s document was legalistic although many noticed a vague “clarification” which seemed rather to verge on the ambiguous: That for individuals with gender-identity afflictions to be baptized, it must not cause “scandal” or “disorientation”.  However, the very idea seemed to scandalize some bishops and theologians who noted there had apparently been no change to the Church’s traditional teaching that gender ideology and transgender lifestyles are a "grave disorder" in need of correction through spiritual and secular therapy.

The DDF issued its statement in response to a dubia (a respectful request for clarification regarding about certain established teachings), one of quite a few which have ended up in the Vatican’s post-box (dubias are always on paper) in this pontificate.  The most celebrated of these letters of dissent (the more searchingly serious of which are in exquisitely polite Latin) were signed by four cardinals and received in September 2016, asking (1) Whether those living in sin were now to be granted Holy Communion, (2) Whether the Church had overturned Saint John Paul II’s (1920–2005; pope 1978-2005) 1993 encyclical Veritatis splendor (The Splendor of the Truth) which laid down certain fundamentals of the Church's role in moral teaching, (3) Whether there were changes in what constituted certain sins, (4) Whether circumstances or intentions can now transform an act intrinsically evil by virtue of its object into an act subjectively good or defensible as a choice and (5), Whether the church no longer excludes any creative interpretation of the role of conscience and now accepts that conscience can be authorized to permit legitimate exceptions to absolute moral norms that prohibit intrinsically evil acts by virtue of their object?

Francis neither acknowledged nor replied to the cardinals' respectful dubia, perhaps wondering if the long tradition in the Church of England of hoping problems might go away if one pretends they don’t exist might be the best course to follow.  However, some months later a less deferential letter arrived in which several dozen Catholic theologians, priests and academics went further than the cardinals and formally accused Pope Francis of spreading heresy, a document the like of which hadn't been sent to a pope since the 1300s.  Stunningly, it was one step short of actually accusing the pontiff of being a heretic.

Apparently unfazed, His Holiness has continued along a path of greater inclusiveness of which “shampoo diplomacy” is a part, dealing with dissenters as he goes.  In In November 2023, it was announced he had sacked (“removed from the pastoral care of the diocese” as the Holy See puts such things) US Bishop Joseph Strickland (b 1958; Bishop of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas 2012-2023) and appointed an interim apostolic administrator.  Bishop Strickland (appointed to his position in 2012 by Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022)) is said to be one of the WWJD (what would Jesus do?) school and on 12 May 2023 had tweeted (ie to the whole world) “I believe Pope Francis is the pope, but it is time for me to say that I reject his program of undermining the Deposit of Faith.  Follow Jesus."  The tweet was enough for the Vatican to launch an investigation, in response to which on more than one occasion Bishop Strickland asserted he would not voluntarily resign.  The investigation was remarkably quick by the standards of the Holy See and early in November a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston revealed the tribunal had advised His Holiness “the continuation in office of Bishop Strickland was not feasible.”  The pope requested the bishop resign but he declined, thus the rare sacking.  Strickland stating “I believe Pope Francis is the pope” was of some significance, a clear statement he was not a sedevacantist.  Sedevacantism is a belief maintained by a faction of conservative Roman Catholics that the present occupant of the Holy See is not the true pope and the see has been vacant since the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II (1962-1965)).  The sedevacantists disapprove of the changes in Church rituals, procedures brought about by Vatican II but the essence of their movement is that popes since the death of Pope Pius XII (1876-1958; pope 1939-1958) have espoused one or more heresies.

Pope Francis at the traditional Wednesday General Audience, St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, 8 March 2023.

Dissenters and sedevacantists are two problems facing the pope but he needs also to deal with rumblings from those who may well believe they are “working towards Francis” (or at least where they would like Francis to go).  What shampoo diplomacy seems to have done is unleash forces which would like to impose on the Church a “modernizing” beyond anything which would have been recognizable as an implication of Vatican II.  In late October 2023, the Vatican acted with rare decisiveness to block attempts by German prelates to change doctrine regarding homosexual relationships and female clergy.  Sedevacantism wasn’t mentioned by Rome by the other “S word” appeared, the German hierarchy warned they were “approaching schism” in their moves to diverge from the Catholic Church's teachings and that “radical propositions” such as the approval of homosexual relationships and the ordination of women priests must be abandoned.

What presumably also miffed Rome was that the objectionable German document was entitled “German Synodal Way”, something chosen deliberately as a reference to Pope Francis's global “Synod on Synodality”.  That was either cheeky or provocative but having sown the wind, Francis is reaping the whirlwind; having given the Germans ideas, he now has to draw the line and draw it he did, telling the bishops in Bonn that regarding the matters they are contesting: “there is no possibility of arriving at a different assessment”, adding it “…must be made clear from the outset that these issues are of varying relevance and cannot all be placed on the same level.”  Whether or not it much mollified the Germans, it was further noted that while some matters cannot even be discussed, other “…aspects can be subjected to joint in-depth discussion.”

Emeritus

Emeritus (pronounced ih-mer-i-tuhs)

One retired or honorably discharged from active professional duty, but retaining the title of one's office or position.

1785-1795:  1785–1795: From the Latin ēmeritus (having fully earned) (tus the past participle suffix), past participle of ēmerēre, perfect passive participle of ēmereō (earn, merit, the construct being ex- +‎ mereō (earn, merit, deserve).  The ex- prefix was from the Middle English, from words borrowed from the Middle French, from the Latin ex (out of, from), from the primitive Indo-European eǵ- & eǵs- (out).  It was cognate with the Ancient Greek ἐξ (ex) (out of, from), the Transalpine Gaulish ex- (out), the Old Irish ess- (out), the Old Church Slavonic изъ (izŭ) (out) & the Russian из (iz) (from, out of).  The “x” in “ex-“, sometimes is elided before certain constants, reduced to e- (eg ejaculate).  The adjective was a learned borrowing from the Latin ēmeritus (having been) earned, (having been) merited; (having been) served, having done one’s service”), the perfect passive participle of ēmereō (to earn, merit; to gain by service (and in military use "to complete one’s obligation to serve, to serve out one’s time”), the construct understood as ex- (the prefix meaning "away; out") + mereō (to deserve, merit; to acquire, earn, get, obtain; to render service to; to serve), probably from a Proto-Italic cognate of the Ancient Greek μέρος (méros) (share, portion), from the primitive Indo-European smer- & mer- (to assign, allot)) + -eo.   Related were the Classical Latin merx and the Ancient Greek μείρομαι (meíromai) (to receive as one's portion or due).  The female equivalent, ēmerita is occasionally used, but as often happens with loanwords, the use of the donor language's inflectional system faces limits in the recipient language; in English, emeritus is often unmarked for gender.  Emeritus is a noun & adjective (the noun derived from the adjective); the noun plural is emeriti (from the Latin ēmeritī) (the form emerituses is rare but, under the rules of English construction, a correct (if inelegant) alternative).

Used for good and bad

Emeritus in its current usage, is an adjective used to designate a retired professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, or other person.  In some cases, the term is conferred automatically upon all persons who retire at a given rank, but in others, it remains a mark of distinguished service, awarded to only a few upon retirement.  It’s also used when a person of distinction in a profession retires or hands over the position, enabling their erstwhile rank to be retained in their title.  The term emeritus does not necessarily signify that a person has relinquished all the duties of their erstwhile position and they may continue to exercise some of them.  It seems first to have been used of retired professors in 1794, an American innovation.  It also attracts others.  Former Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin (Idi Amin Dada Oumee (circa 1925–2003; President of Uganda 1971-1979) styled himself:  His Excellency, President for Life, Professor Emeritus, Field Marshal Al Hadji, Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular.

Dr Rowan Williams (b 1950; Archbishop of Canterbury 2002-2012) and Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022) at prayer, Lambeth Palace, September 2010.

Meanwhile, back at the Vatican:

Upon retirement, Benedict became Pope Emeritus, creating an unusual situation for Pope Francis (b 1936, pope since 2013) and one for which there was no precedent in living memory.  The sudden radicalism in the positions taken by Francis since his predecessor's death does seem to suggest Benedict’s very presence in the Vatican exerted some influence in matters such as papal appointments, some of Francis’ choices being thought too liberal to proceed while Benedict lived.  The presence was literal, Benedict living in a sort of papal granny flat, close to the centre of the Vatican.  It’s was said he lived quietly but his door was always to be open to cardinals and others who might like to call in for a yarn.  While not quite the uneasy feeling some recent prime-ministers (the UK and Australia come to mind) must have felt, knowing their predecessors were down the corridor scheming against them, Francis must have felt just a little constrained.  Since Benedict's funeral, things have changed.

Benedict talking, Francis listening.

Rupert Murdoch, Chairman Emeritus

Whether or not the consequence of certain legal difficulties (or the anticipation of more to come), Rupert Murdoch (b 1931) in September 2023 announced that in November he would be “transitioning from” the positions of chairman of Fox Corporation and executive chairman of News Corporation, his son Lachlan (b 1971) assuming the chairmanship of both.  Mr Murdoch will evolve into “chairman emeritus”.  Some decades earlier, Mr Murdoch had found the “emeritus” title a convenient thing to have around.  After the scandal of the forged “Hitler Diaries” which were published by the UK’s Sunday Times, the editor (Frank Giles (1919–2019) was told he was no longer in that position and had been moved to the newly created job of “editor emeritus”.  When he asked Mr Murdoch what that meant he was told: “It's Latin, Frank; the “e” means you're out and the “meritus” means you deserved it.”

Rupert Murdoch reading The Sun (2012).  Year earlier, when he added the topless "Page 3 girls" to The Sun, it was observed "Rupert Murdoch has discovered a gap in the market; the oldest gap in the world".

The internet reacted to the announcement as it usually does to anything said by Mr Murdoch: a mix of cynical amusement with a variety of suggestions about hidden agendas and ulterior motives.  The consensus was that as chairman emeritus Mr Murdoch would be far from “out” and from Fox News and News Corporation's mastheads, we should expect more of the same.  Interestingly, without any apparent sense of irony, in his letter to staff, Mr Murdoch, whose approach to politics, industrial relations and such has for decades been well-known, claimed that he was a champion of those oppressed by “elites”, saying he would continue to be “…involved every day in the contest of ideas”, warning the “battle for the freedom of speech and, ultimately, the freedom of thought, has never been more intense.  For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change.  My father (Sir Keith Murdoch (1885–1952)) firmly believed in freedom, and Lachlan is absolutely committed to the cause. Self-serving bureaucracies are seeking to silence those who would question their provenance and purpose. Elites have open contempt for those who are not members of their rarefied class. Most of the media is in cahoots with those elites, peddling political narratives rather than pursuing the truth.  Our companies are communities, and I will be an active member of our community. I will be watching our broadcasts with a critical eye, reading our newspapers and websites and books with much interest, and reaching out to you with thoughts, ideas, and advice. When I visit your countries and companies, you can expect to see me in the office late on a Friday afternoon.”

Pyjamas

Pyjamas or Pajamas (pronounced puh-jah-muhz or Puh-jam-uhz)

(1) Night clothes, consisting usually of loose-fitting trousers and jacket.

(2) Loose-fitting trousers, usually of silk or cotton, worn by both sexes in Asia, especially in the East.

1799:  The plural of pyjama, a Hindi variant of pāyjāma, from the Persian paejamah (leg clothing); construct being pāy & pae (leg) from the primitive Indo-European root ped-(foot) + jāma or jāmah (garment).  The early forms were pajamahs & pai jamahs (loose trousers tied at the waist) describing the style worn by Muslims in India and adopted by Europeans, especially for nightwear.  Under the Raj, a variety of spellings in English were noted including pai jamahs (1800); pigammahs (1834), peijammahs (1840) and interestingly, none were geographically specific.  The modern US spelling was almost universal there by 1845; pyjamaed and pyjama are the adjectives, both rare.

Lindsay Lohan in pyjamas, The Canyons (IFC Films, 2013)

Under the Raj, the British adopted many local customs, including a fondness for the Sharia Courts where colonial administrators found it much easier to be granted a divorce than under English law, English judges usually as tiresome as English wives.  The traditional clothing of India, known as angarakha and suthan provided the model for the early forms of pyjamas and pai jamahs, worn by Muslims in India, soon found British favour, both as nightwear and comfortable clothing in the hotter months.  Pajamas, the modern spelling, was a US invention from 1845; British spelling is now split between that and pyjamas with the US form becoming more common.  Pyjamas, both word and garment, spread from the Raj to the wider Western world during the Victorian era, becoming fashionable sleeping attire for men circa 1870.  Unsuccessfully introduced in England in the early 1800s as lounging attire, they were re-branded as mogul's breeches when they were referred to with that term in The Fair Maid of the Inn but soon fell from fashion. Their popularity from the 1870s followed them being marketed as simple, functional, convenient nightwear.

The comedy The Fair Maid of the Inn was an early seventeenth century stage play attributed to the Jacobean playwright John Fletcher (1579–1625).  It was originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio (1647) although uncertainties have always surrounded the work’s date and even authorship, making it among the most widely disputed works in English Renaissance drama.  Fletcher is remembered for his many collaborations with the dramatist Francis Beaumont (circa 1585-1616), the two working together for almost a decade.  Whether it was true or bitchy theatre gossip, the legend was the two men lived together, sharing clothes (possibly pyjamas) and having "one wench in the house between them."  A "wench" could of course be a housemaid there to do the cooking & cleaning and such or she may have included "added value" services.  If ever it existed, this modern-sounding domestic arrangement was sundered upon Beaumont's marriage in 1613 and their professional partnership ended after he suffered a stroke later that year.

Pink pots & pans.  Paris Hilton (b 1981, left) and her mother Kathy Hilton (b 1959) in Christmas themed pyjamas, promoting Paris' new line of kitchenware, December 2022.

Usurp

Usurp (pronounced yoo-surp or you-zurp (US))

(1) Forcibly or illegally to seize and hold a throne, an office, institution or position. 

(2) To use without authority or right; wrongfully to employ.

(3) To encroach or infringe upon another’s rights.

(4) To make use of quotations (obsolete except for historic reference).

1275–1325: Middle English, borrowed from the Old French usurper from the Latin ūsūrpāre (to take possession through use), the Latin origin of which is undocumented but thought to be a construct of ūsus (use) + rapere (to seize).  There forms such as nonusurping, unusurped, unusurping, usurpingly and nonusurpingly exist but are so rare as to be practically extinct.  The seemingly strange but inventive strange verb selfusurp (or self-usurp) seems to have picked up the modern meaning that it applies to things happening between one and one’s digital avatar.  Usurp is a verb, usurper & usurpation are nouns, usurpative & usurpatory are adjectives,  usurpatively is an adverb, usurped is a verb and usurping is a noun & verb; the noun plural forms usurpers & usurpations are both in use in historic documents and are sometimes used of those involved in a modern coup d'état.

Manchester Corporation v Manchester Palace of Varieties Ltd [1955] 1 All ER 387

Lindsay Lohan usurping the escutcheon of the Secret Society of the Les Clefs d’Or (digitally altered image).

In London, in December 1954, the High Court of Chivalry was summoned for the first time in two centuries to hear the case of a city council claiming their coat of arms had been usurped by a private company displaying it on their theatre.  Before substantive matters were introduced, the judge had to rule whether the ancient court still existed and if so, if it was the appropriate body to hear the case.  The judge found the court extant and with valid jurisdiction, his reasons a succinct sketch of the UK’s unwritten constitution in operation and a tale of how law and language interacted over several centuries.  The important principle established was to confirm, even in the modern era, there existed an enforceable law of arms and the law takes as much notice of bad heraldic manners as it does of more violent discourtesies, the judge disapproving of the “prevalent” notion that something cannot be unethical if it’s lawful.  That theme has of late been noted by royal commissioners though perhaps not politicians; in the judgement, the temptation to comment on whether chivalry was dead was resisted.

The Manchester Corporation won and the court has not since sat but in 2012,  the council of the Welsh town of Aberystwyth issued a statement that they were prepared to lodge a writ against a Facebook page they alleged was usurping its coat of arms.  Before the council made clear whether they were intending to sue facebook.com or the author(s) of the page, the offending image had been removed.  As one of the findings in 1955 had been the High Court of Chivalry could be abolished only by an act of parliament, because New Labour’s judicial reforms didn’t do this, it appears the court would have to be convened in some form to hear similar matters although it's thought the marvellously flexible British constitution would allow a judge at an appropriate level to declare that their court was "sitting as the Court of Chivalry for the purposes of this case".

Baguette

Baguette (pronounced ba-get)

(1) In ad-hoc application, a descriptor (based on baguette in the sense of “stick” , “rod” or “wand”) for an object with a narrow, relatively long rectangular shape (applied in the past as baguette magique (magic wand), baguettes chinoises (chopsticks) & baguette de direction (conductor's baton)).

(2) In jewelry design, a small gem-stone in a rectangular shape, achieved by cutting & polishing.

(3) A gem-stone in this shape (used especially for diamonds).

(4) In architecture, a small convex molding (a narrow, relatively long rectangular shape, especially one in a semi-circular section.

(5) In zoology, one of the minute bodies seen in the divided nucleoli of some infusoria after conjugation.

(6) As an ethnic slur (can be mildly offensive, but also used neutrally or affectionately as an alternative to “frog”), a French person, or a person of French descent.

(7) A type of French bread, actually defined in law by the ingredients and methods of production but most associated with the long, narrow shape.

1720–1730: From the French baguette (or baguet) (a type of architectural ornament, based on the sixteenth century sense of the word as “a wand, rod, stick”), from the Italian bacchetta (literally “a small rod” and the diminutive of bacchio (rod), from the Latin baculum (a stick or walking-stick (and linked to the later bacillus)).  The construct was bacch(io) + -etta.  The –etta suffix (the feminine of –etto), as well as indicate the feminine was used also with inanimate nouns ending (usually ending in –a) to create a literal diminutive (such as with boteca (shop, store), rendering botechetta (small shop).  The term was first used in gem-stone cutting in 1926 and in countries where the French colonial history left some linguistic trace, baguette is applied to some items such as the gun-stick (the rod for forcing ammunition into the barrel of a gun and in Louisianan Cajun, it referred to the barrel itself).  Like English, Danish, German, Spanish and Swedish adopted the French spelling which in other languages the variations included the Czech bageta, the Greek μπαγκέτα (bagkéta), the Hebrew בגט‎ (bagét), the Norwegian (Bokmål & Nynorsk) bagett, the Portuguese baguete, the Romanian baghetă, the Russian баге́т (bagét) and the Turkish baget.  Baguette & baguet are nouns; the noun plurals are baguettes & baguets.

Beware of imitations: The baguette de tradition française.

The origin of the baguette (as it's now understood) is truly a mystery and there are so many tales that it's recommended people choose to believe which ever most appeals to the.  In France, a true baguette (Baguette artisanale) is made from ingredients and with a method defined in law while the famous shape is a convention.  Typically, baguettes have a diameter between 50-75 mm (2-3 inches) and are some 610-710 mm (24-26 inches) in length although the 1 m (39 inch) baguette is not unusual, popular especially with the catering trade.  It’s a little misleading to suggest the baguette was invented because for centuries loaves in the shape existed in many places around the world and recipes for the mixing of dough were constantly subject to changes imposed by the success of harvests, economics, supply-chain disruptions and simple experimentation.  The baguette instead evolved and its popularity was a thing of natural selection; it survived because people preferred the taste, texture and convenience of form while other breads faded from use.  It seems clear that the long, stick-like direct ancestors of the baguette began to assume their recognizably modern form in French towns and cities in the eighteenth century although doubtless there was much variation between regions and probably even between bakers in the same place.  The daily bread being the classic market economy, bakers would be influenced by losing sales to a more popular shop and so would adjust their mixes or techniques to attract customers back.  In this way a standardized form would have emerged and, in the French way, by 1920 the assembly had passed a law codifying the critical parameters (weight, size and price), formalizing the popular name baguette.  In 2003, the jocular slang "freedom bread" emerged to describe the baguette, an allusion to the "Freedom Fries" which replaced "French Fries" in US government staff canteens while there was tension between the White House and the Élysée Palace over France's attitude to the proposed invasion of Iraq.   

Lindsay Lohan in promotion for @lilybakerjewels, 2020.  The Rainbow Baguette Ring (centre) using stones cut in a true “baguette” rectangle whereas the Rainbow Bracelet used squares.

Globalization and modern techniques of mass production however intruded on many aspects of French lives and bakeries weren’t immune from the challenge of the cheap “baguette” sold by supermarkets.  Even among the boulangerie (a French bakery in which the bread must, by law, be baked on-premises) there were some who resorted to less demanding methods of production to compete.  As a matter of cultural protection, the assembly in 1993 enacted Le Décret Pain (The Bread Decree) which stipulates that to be described as pain maison (homemade bread), a bread needs to be wholly kneaded, shaped, and baked at the place of sale.  To limit the scope of the supermarkets (some of which were importing frozen, pre-prepared dough), rules also defined what pain traditionnel français (traditional French bread) may be made from and banning any pre-made components from baguettes.  Also retained was the relevant provision of the 1920 labor legislation which prohibits the employment of people in bread and pastry making between ten in the evening and four in the morning.  So, when visiting a boulangerie, it’s recommended to ask for a baguette de tradition française (usually as baguette de tradition) which is made from wheat flour, water, yeast, and common salt (reflecting modern practice, one may contain up to 0.5% soya flour, up to 2% broad bean flour and up to 0.3% wheat malt flour) and the dough must rest between 15-20 hours at a temperature between 4-6^o C (43-46^o F).  The less exalted baguettes ordinaires, are made with baker's yeast and a less exacting specification.

The French Ministère de la Culture’s (Ministry of Culture) L'inventaire national du Patrimoine culturel immatériel (National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage) in 2018 added the baguette to its index and in 2022, the artisanal know-how and culture of the baguette was added to UNESCO’s (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.  Already preserving the information about some 600 traditions from more than 130 countries, UNESCO noted the addition by saying it celebrated the French way of life, something of which the baguette, as a central part of the French diet for at least 100 years, was emblematic.  With some 16 million consumed in France every day, the “…the baguette is a daily ritual, a structuring element of the meal, synonymous with sharing and conviviality", a statement from UNESCO read, concluding it was “…important that these skills and social habits continue to exist in the future."

Scum

Scum (pronounced skuhm)

(1) A film or layer of foul or extraneous matter that forms on the surface of a liquid as a result of natural processes such as the greenish film of algae and similar vegetation on the surface of a stagnant pond

(2) A layer of impure matter that forms on the surface of a liquid as the result of boiling or fermentation

(3) A low, worthless, or evil person.

(4) Such persons collectively.

(5) An alternative name for scoria, the slag or dross that remains after the smelting of metal from an ore.

1200–1250: From the Middle English scume, derived from the Middle Dutch schūme (foam, froth) cognate with German schaum, ultimately of Germanic origin, drawn from the Old High German scūm and Old French escume.  In Old Norse word was skum, thought derived from the primitive root (s)keu (to cover, conceal).  By the early fourteen century, the word scummer (shallow ladle for removing scum) had emerged in Middle Dutch, a borrowing from the Proto-Germanic skuma, the sense deteriorated from "thin layer atop liquid" to "film of dirt," then just "dirt" and from this use is derived the modern skim.  The meaning "lowest class of humanity" is from the 1580s; the familiar phrase “scum of the earth” from 1712.  In modern use, the English is scum, French écume, Spanish escuma, Italian schiuma and Dutch schuim.  Scum is a noun & verb and scumlike & scummy are adjectives; the noun plural is scums.

The Society for Cutting Up Men: The S.C.U.M. Manifesto

S.C.U.M.  Manifesto (1968 Edition).

Although celebrated in popular culture as the summer of love, not everyone shared the hippie vibe in 1967.  The S.C.U.M. Manifesto was a radical feminist position paper by Valerie Solanas (1936-1988), self-published in 1967 with a commercial print-run a year later.  Although lacking robust theoretical underpinnings and criticized widely within the movement, it remains feminism’s purest and most uncompromising work, an enduring landmark in the history of anarchist publishing.  In the abstract, S.C.U.M. suggested little more than the parlous state of the word being the fault of men, it was the task of women to repair the damage and this could be undertaken only if men were exterminated from the planet.  The internal logic was perfect. 

The use of S.C.U.M. as an acronym for Society for Cutting Up Men existed in printed form from 1967 (though not in the manifesto’s text) although Solanas later denied the connection, adding that S.C.U.M. never existed as an organization and was just “…a literary device”.  The latter does appear true, S.C.U.M. never having a structure or membership, operating more as Solanas’ catchy marketing label for her views.  Calling it a literary device might seem pretentious but, given her world-view, descending to the mercantile would have felt grubby.  That said, when selling the original manifesto, women were charged US$1, men US$2.

While perhaps not as elegant an opening passage as a Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) might have penned, Solanas’ words were certainly succinct.  "Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and eliminate the male sex.”  Ominously, “If S.C.U.M. ever strikes” she added, “it will be in the dark with a six-inch blade.”  No ambiguity there, men would know what to expect.

On set, 1967, Andy Warhol (1928-1987) & Nico (1938-1988).

Author and work were still little-known outside anarchist circles when in 1968 Solanas attempted to murder Andy Warhol, firing three shots, one finding the target.  Despite her comments in the aftermath linking the manifesto to the shooting, her motive was a dispute between the two over copyright and money rather than anything political or artistic.  In hospital for months, Warhol never fully recovered; Solanas, although found to be a paranoid schizophrenic, was judged fit to stand trial and served three years for "reckless assault with intent to harm".  Warhol died in 1987, Solanas a few months later.  Her fame lasted beyond fifteen minutes and in certain feminist and anarchist circles she remains a cult figure although, it takes some intellectual gymnastics to trace a lineal path from her manifesto to the work of even the more radical of the later-wave feminists such as Andrea Dworkin (1946-2005), Susan Brownmiller (b 1935) and Catharine MacKinnon (b 1946).

Rendezvous: David Low's (1891-1963) famous take on the 1939 Ribbentrop-Molotov (Nazi-Soviet) Pact.  Although Low at the time couldn't have known it, comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) was sensitive to public opinion and when presented with the draft text of the pact, decided the rather flowery preamble extoling German-Soviet friendship was just too absurd, telling the visiting delegation that "...after years of pouring buckets of shit over each-other...", it'd be more convincing were the document to be as formal as possible. 

Spook

Spook (pronounced spook)

(1) In informal use, a ghost; a specter; an apparition; hobgoblin.

(2) A person whose appearance or conduct is thought “ghost-like”.

(3) In philosophy, a metaphysical manifestation; an artificial distinction or construct.

(4) In slang, a ghostwriter (one who writes text (typically columns, autobiography, memoir) published under the name of another,

(5) In slang, an eccentric person (now rare).

(6) In disparaging and offensive slang, term of contempt used of people of color (historically African-Americans).

(7) In slang, a spy; one engaged in espionage.

(8) In slang, a psychiatrist (originally US but now more widespread under the influence of pop culture.

(9) In the slang of blackjack, a player who engages in “hole carding” by attempting to glimpse the dealer's hole card when the dealer checks under an ace or a 10 to see if a blackjack is present.

(10) In southern African slang any pale or colorless alcoholic spirit (often as “spook & diesel”).

(11) To haunt; inhabit or appear in or to as a ghost or spectre.

(12) To frighten; to scare (often as “spooked”).

(13) To become frightened or scared (often as “spooked”); applied sometimes to animals, especially thoroughbred horses.

1801: A coining of US English, from the Dutch spook (ghost), from the Middle Dutch spooc & spoocke (spook, ghost), from an uncertain Germanic source (the earliest known link being the Middle Low German spōk (ghost), others including the Middle Low German spôk & spûk (apparition, ghost), the Middle High German gespük (a haunting), the German Spuk (ghost, apparition, hobgoblin), the Danish spøg (joke) & spøge (to haunt), the Norwegian spjok (ghost, specter) and the Swedish spok (scarecrow) & spöke (ghost).  The noun spook in the sense of “spectre, apparition, ghost” seems first to have appeared in a comical dialect poem, credited to “an old Dutch man in Albany” and printed in Vermont and Boston newspapers which credited it to Springer's Weekly Oracle in New London, Connecticut.  The regional diversity in language was then greater and evolutions sometimes simultaneous and the word also appeared in US English around 1830 as spuke & shpook, at first in the German-settled regions of Pennsylvania, via Pennsylvania Dutch Gschpuck & Schpuck, from the German Spuk.  Spook & spooking are nouns & verbs, spooker & spookery are nouns, spooktacular is a noun & adjective, spooktacularly is an adverb, spooked is a verb & adjective, spookery is a noun, spooky, spookiest & spookish are adjectives; the noun plural is spooks.

Spooked: Lindsay Lohan in I Know Who Killed Me (2007).

A “spook show” (frightening display) was a term in use by 1880 and in the sense of a “popular exhibition of legerdemain, mentalism or staged necromancy” it was documented by 1910.  The spook house (abandoned house) was in use in the 1850s, the expression meaning “haunted house” emerging in the 1860s.  The meaning “superstition” had emerged by 1918, presumably an extension from the earlier sense of “a superstitious person”, documented around the turn of the century although it probably existed longer in oral use.  In the 1890s, “spookist” (described variously as “jocular” and “a less refined word” was used to refer to spiritualists and medium (and in those years there were a lot of them, their numbers spiking after World War I (1914-1918) when many wished to contact the dead.  Spooktacular (a pun on “spectacular” developed some time during World War II (1939- 1945).  The meaning “undercover agent” or “spy” dates from 1942 (inducing “spookhouse” (haunted house) to pick up the additional meaning “headquarters of an intelligence operation”, a place presided over by a “spookmaster” (“spymaster” the preferred modern term).  In the same era, in student slang a spook could be an unattractive girl or a quiet, diligent, introverted student (something like the modern “nerd” but without any sense of a focus of technology).

Senator Rebecca Ann Felton (1835–1930, left) and Senator Mitch McConnell (b 1942; US senator (Republican-Kentucky) since 1985; Senate Minority Leader since 2021).  The spooky resemblance between Senator Fulton (who in 1922 served for one day as a senator (Democratic-Georgia), appointed as a political manoeuvre) and Senator Mitch McConnell has led some to suggest he might be her reincarnated.  Some not so acquainted with history assumed the photograph of Senator Felton was Mitch McConnell in drag.

The sense of spook as “a black person” is listed by dictionaries of US slang as being documented by 1938 (the date of origin uncertain) and it seems to have begun in African-American (hep-cat) slang and it was not typically used with any sense of disparagement, nor was it thought in any way offensive word.   However, by 1945 it had picked up the derogatory racial sense of “black person”, defined specifically as “frightened negro” and it became a common slur in the post-war world, probably because that even by then the “N-word” was becoming less acceptable in polite society.  That was the “linguistic treadmill” in practice but spook had also deviated earlier: In 1939 it is attested as meaning “a white jazz musician” and is listed by some sources as a disparaging term for a white person by 1947.  Spook also developed a curious fork in military aviation although one probably unrelated to the informal pilot’s jargon of the 1930s, a “spook” a “novice pilot” of the type who “haunt the hangers”, hiring air-time and learning to fly for no obvious practical purpose other than the joy of flying.  During the early 1940s, the US Army Air Force (USAAF) began the recruitment of black athletes for training as pilots, conducted at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama; the group (1940-1948) was known as the Tuskegee Airmen and during World War II (1939-1945) they gained a fine reputation when deployed as combat units.  However, they also suffered prejudice and when first posted to Europe were often called the “Spookwaffe” (a play on Luftwaffe, the name of the German air force) although as happened decades later with the by then infamous N-word, some black pilots “re-claimed” the name and used it as a self-referential term of pride.

Left to right: Spook, the Bacterian ambassador, Benzino Napaloni, Diggaditchie of Bacteria (a parody of Benito Mussolini), Adenoid Hynkel (Adolf Hitler) and Field Marshall Herring (Hermann Göring).  The satirical film The Great Dictator (1940) was very much a personal project, Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) writing, producing & directing as well as staring as Adenoid Hynkel, Phooey of Tomainia.  The rather cadaverous looking Spook was the Bacterian ambassador.

Seventy years of spooks.

On 9 September 2019, the Royal Australian Mint released a 50 cent coin to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the domestic spy agency (similiar in function to the UK's MI5 (Security Service)).  The issue was limited to 20,000 coins and each featured an encrypted code, similar in structure to those used by spooks during the Cold War.  At the time of the release, the Mint ran a competition inviting attempts to "solve the code", the prize the only proof commemorative coin in existence.  The competition was won by a fourteen year old who is apparently still at liberty, despite having proved him or herself a threat to national security.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) gave the word a few memorable phrases but one of the most evocative is a calque of the German spukhafte Fernwirkung (rendered by Einstein as spukhafte Fernwirkungen (spooky actions at a distance) in a letter of 3 March 1947 to the physicist Max Born (1882–1970)).  Einstein used “spooky actions at a distance” to refer to one of the most challenging ideas from quantum mechanics: that two particles instantaneously may interact over a distance and that distance could be that between different sides of the universe (or if one can’t relate to the universe having “sides”, separated by trillions of miles.  Known as “quantum entanglement”, it differs radically from some of the other (more abstract) senses in which everything in the universe is happening “at the same time”.

This aspect of quantum mechanics has for a century-odd been one of the most contested but the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three scientists who designed experiments which tested the theories, their results contradicting Einstein and discovering the seriously weird phenomenon of quantum teleportation.  Quantum entanglement is a process in which two or more quantum particles are in some way connected so any change in one causes a simultaneous change in the other, even if they are separated by vast distances.  Indeed those distances could stretch even to infinity.  Einstein was one of many physicists not convinced and he didn’t like the implications, calling the idea “spooky action at a distance” and preferred to think the particles contained certain hidden variables which had already predetermined their states.  This was neat and avoided the need for any teleportation.  However, what the 2022 Nobel Laureates found that the fabric of the universe should be visualized as a sea of wave-like particles that affect each other instantaneously, distance as conventionally measured being irrelevant.  What that seems to mean is that nothing has to travel between the two particles (the speed of light therefore not a limitation) because the two are in the same place and that place is the universe.  The English physicist Sir Arthur Eddington (1882–1944) was surely correct when he remarked “…not only is the universe queerer than we imagine, it is queerer than we can imagine.”

Saint

Saint (pronounced seynt)

(1) Any of certain persons, said to be of exceptional holiness of life, formally recognized as such by churches by act of canonization (with doctrinal and procedural differences between denominations).

(2) In secular use, figuratively, a person of extraordinary virtue or who performed acts of extraordinary virtue (often as secular saint).

(3) As patron-saint, the founder, sponsor, inspiration or patron, as of a movement or organization (used formally by churches and informally otherwise).

(4) A religious icon or relic (archaic).

Pre 1000; A borrowing from the Old French, it existed in English as seint, sainct, seinct, sanct & senct, derived from the Latin sānctus (sacred; holy), adjectival use of past participle of sancīre (to hallow; to consecrate), the construct being sanc (akin to sacer (sacred)) + tus (past participle suffix).  The French borrowing replaced the Old English sanct which had been drawn from the Latin.  Variations were adopted by most Germanic languages; it was sankt in the Old Frisian, sint in Dutch and sanct in German; the Italian is santa.  As a verb in the sense of "to enroll (someone) among the saints", use was common by the late fourteenth century and the adjectival forms saintly & saintliness emerged in the 1620s.  Universal abbreviation is St and now often without full-stop, a welcome reduction in clutter.  One quirk in English is the name St John (Christian or surname) is properly pronounced sin-jin.

Originally an adjective prefixed to the name of a canonized person, by circa 1300 it had become a noun.    Saint Bernard, to describe the breed of mastiff dogs, was used first in 1839, the name adopted because the monks of the hospice of the pass of St Bernard (between Italy and Switzerland) sent them to rescue snowbound travelers.  The term secular-saint remains in wide use, the first known example being St Elmo's Fire (named for the patron saint of Mediterranean sailors, a corruption of the name of St Erasmus (fuoco di Sant'Elmo in the Italian), an Italian bishop martyred in 303) in the 1560s.  The phenomenon of weather is known also as corposants or corpusants, from the Portuguese corpo santo (holy body), and was described as long ago as Antiquity, mentioned in Os Lusíadas (The Lusiads (1572), a Portuguese epic poem written by Luís Vaz de Camões (circa 1524-1580) and earlier alluded to by the Greek poet Xenophanes of Colophon (circa 570–circa 478 BC).

The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

Unlike many of the buildings usually included in the standard tourist itinerary of Rome, the Cornaro Chapel (1626), at Santa Maria della Vittoria, close to the Repubblica metro station, is tiny.  In this intimate space is an elevated aedicule on which sits the little church’s famous installation, L'Estasi di Santa Teresa (The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa; sometimes called The Transverberation of Saint Teresa), a sculptural group in white marble, carved by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) in 1652.

The interior of the church, also the work of Bernini, is sumptuously decorated, gilded stucco and multi-colored marble arranged so that barely a surface or crevice is left naked, this lushness the best setting imaginable for this masterpiece of high Roman baroque.  Bernini dismissed the suggestion he use an enclosed chapel and instead presented his composition as a theatre, cleverly lit by a window hidden by the pediment with, on the flanking walls, two opera-boxes containing sculptured representations of the family of his patron, the Venetian Cardinal Federico Cornaro (1579–1653). 

Bernini had reason to be grateful to the cardinal.  The work was completed during the pontificate of Innocent X (1574–1655; Giovanni Battista Pamphilj, pope 1644-1655) and Bernini had been the court architect of the previous pope, Urban VIII (circa 1568–1644; Maffeo Barberini, pope 1623-1644), regarded by Innocent as profligate.  With papal patronage withdrawn, Bernini was again an artist for hire and the cardinal granted the commission.  Teresa of Ávila, the Spanish founder of the Discalced Carmelite nuns, is depicted seated on clouds as if on a bed.  She is captured during the ecstasy she described in her mystical autobiography, experiencing an angel piercing her heart with a dart of divine love, causing both immense joy and pain.  Considering the long tradition of statuary in the Roman Catholic Church, that of Saint Teresa is quite a departure, her contorted posture and the ambiguous smile of the angel lending the scene a rare mix of passion and voluptuousness.  It’s reputed also to be the only Roman Catholic church with a painting depicting a battle scene above the alter and soldiers instead of angels holding up the organ, a legacy of the celebrations at the end of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648).

Saint Teresa in white marble, 1652 (left) and Lindsay Lohan resting in a Cadillac Escalade, Los Angeles, May 2007 (right).  The striking similarity between the two saintly souls inspired one of 2007's most widely-shared memes.