Hot Dog

Hot dog (pronounced hot-dawg)

(1) A frankfurter.

(2) A sandwich consisting of a frankfurter (or some sort of sausage of similar shape) in a split roll, eaten usually with (1) mustard, sauerkraut & relish or (2) mustard & ketchup.

(3) Someone who performs complex, showy, and sometimes dangerous manoeuvres, especially in surfing or skiing (hotdogging sometimes a defined class in competition).

(4) Someone thought a show-off, especially in sporting competition.

(5) In informal use, an expression of joy, admiration or delight (occasionally also used ironically in the manner of “that’s great”).

(6) In New Zealand, a battered, deep-fried sausage or saveloy on a stick (essentially the same concept as the US corn dog and the Australian Dagwood dog).

(7) In slang, the human penis, a variation of which is the “man sausage”.

(8) In slang, a sexually suggestive physical gesture involving hip movement (usually as hotdogging).

1894: A coining in US English for commercial purposes, the idea being the vague resemblance of the sausage to a dachshund dog, the “hot” from the traditional use of mustard as a condiment although there’s evidence the early suspicion some hot dogs included actual canine meat weren’t entirely without foundation.  The use as (1) an interjection expressing joy, admiration or delight was another US creation dating from around the turn of the twentieth century (the circumstances unknown) and (2) a descriptor of someone who performs showy, often dangerous stunts was also an Americanism from the same era.  It seems to have begin in sport and is still widely used but has become best known for its use in skiing and surfing where it’s institutionalized to the extent some competitive categories have been named thus.  The variation “hot diggety dog” (also clipped to “hot diggety” was used in the same sense as the interjection “hot dog”, the interpolated “diggety” there for emphasis and rhetorical effect.  The slang synonyms (mostly in the US and not applied exclusively to hot dogs) have included “tubular meat on a bun”, “frank”, “frankfurt”, “frankfurter”, “glizzy”, “pimp steak”, “tube steak”, “wiener”, “weeny”, “ballpark frank”, “cheese coney”, “cheese dog”, “Chicago-style”, “Chicago dog”, “chili dog”, “Coney Island”, “corndog”, “footlong”, “junkyard dog”, “not dog”, “pig in a blanket”, “steamie” “veggie dog” & “frankfurter in a bun”.  In informal use, both single word contractions (hotdog) and hyphenated forms (hot-dog, hot-dogger etc) are common and “hot dog!” as an interjection is heard in the US, especially south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Extra mustard: Lindsay Lohan garnishing her hot dog, New York, 2010.

The construct was hot + dog.  Hot was from the Middle English hot & hat, from the Old English hāt, from the Proto-Germanic haitaz (hot), from the primitive Indo-European kay- (hot; to heat) and was cognate with the Scots hate & hait (hot), the North Frisian hiet (hot), the Saterland Frisian heet (hot), the West Frisian hjit (hot), the Dutch heet (hot), the Low German het (hot), the German Low German heet (hot), the German heiß (hot), the Danish hed (hot), the Swedish het (hot) and the Icelandic heitur (hot).  Dog was from the Middle English dogge (source also of the Scots dug (dog)), from the Old English dogga & docga of uncertain origin.  Interestingly, the original sense appears to have been of a “common dog” (as opposed one well-bred), much as “cur” was later used and there’s evidence it was applied especially to stocky dogs of an unpleasing appearance.  Etymologists have pondered the origin:  It may have been a pet-form diminutive with the suffix -ga (the similar models being compare frocga (frog) & picga (pig), appended to a base dog-, or doc-(the origin and meaning of these unclear). Another possibility is Old English dox (dark, swarthy) (a la frocga from frog) while some have suggested a link to the Proto-West Germanic dugan (to be suitable), the origin of Old English dugan (to be good, worthy, useful), the English dow and the German taugen; the theory is based on the idea that it could have been a child’s epithet for dogs, used in the sense of “a good or helpful animal”.  Few support that and more are persuaded there may be some relationship with docce (stock, muscle), from the Proto-West Germanic dokkā (round mass, ball, muscle, doll), from which English gained dock (stumpy tail).  In fourteenth century England, hound (from the Old English hund) was the general word applied to all domestic canines while dog referred to some sub-types (typically those close in appearance to the modern mastiff and bulldog.  By the sixteenth century, dog had displaced hound as the general word descriptor. The latter coming to be restricted to breeds used for hunting and in the same era, the word dog was adopted by several continental European languages as their word for mastiff.  Unmodified, the English Hot Dog has been borrowed by dozens of languages.  Hot dog is a noun, verb & adjective, hotdoggery & hotdogger are nouns, hotdogging & hotdogged are verbs; the noun plural is hot dogs.

For the 2016 Texas State Fair, the manufacturer went retro, reviving the "Corny Dog" name although, in a sign of the times, vegetarian dogs were available.

The corn-dog (a frankfurter dipped in cornmeal batter, fried, and served on a stick), although the process was patented in 1927, seems to have come into existence between 1938-1942 (the sources differ with most preferring the latter) but it received a lexicographical imprimatur of when it began to appear in dictionaries in 1949 and it was certainly on sale (then as the “corny dog”) at the 1942 Texas State Fair.  In Australia, the local variation of the US corn dog is the Dagwood dog (a batter-covered hot dog sausage, deep fried in batter, dipped in tomato sauce and eaten off a wooden stick), not to be confused with the “battered sav”, a saveloy deep fried in a wheat flour-based batter (as used for fish and chips and which usually doesn’t contain cornmeal).  The Dagwood Dog was named after a character in the American comic strip Blondie.  Dagwood, Blondie’s ineptly comical husband, did have a dog albeit not one especially sausage-like and it may simply have been it was at the time the country’s best known or most popular cartoon dog.

The hot dog as class-identifier: David Cameron showing how smart folk handle a hot dog while on the campaign trail, April 2015.

After leaving Downing Street, Harold Macmillan (1894–1986; UK prime-minister 1957-1963) visited Lyndon Johnson (LBJ, 1908–1973; US president 1969-1969) in the White House and was served lunch, a meal the former prime-minister found so remarkable that in his six-volume memoirs it warranted a rare exclamation mark: Hotdogs!  He didn’t comment further but it’s assumed his experience of the culinary treat must have been the Old Etonian’s first and last.  The hot dog certainly can be political, David Cameron (b 1966; UK prime-minister 2010-2016 and another Old Etonian) attracting derision after being photographed eating his hot dog with knife and fork, something declared “out-of-touch” by the tabloid press which, while usually decrying the class system, doesn’t miss a chance to scorn toffs behaving too well or chavs too badly.  Cameron had other problems with takeaway snacks, caught being untruthful about his history of enjoying Cornish pasties, another working class favourite.  So it would seem for politicians, hot dogs are compulsory but only if eaten in acceptable chav style.

Barack Obama (b 1961; US president 2009-2017) and David Cameron eating hot dogs (both in approved manner) at a college basketball game between Mississippi Valley State and Western Kentucky, Dayton Arena, Ohio, March 2012 (Western Kentucky won 59-56) (left) and UK Labour Party Politician Ed Miliband (b 1969) enjoying what came to be known as "the notorious bacon sandwich", May 2014 (right).  Mr Miliband didn't attend Eton and some of his high school education was undertaken in the US so presumably he knows how to handle a hot dog.  If not, he has no excuse. 

Curiously, Mr Cameron, had some three years earlier undergone "hot dog eating training", supervised by President Obama, noted for his expertise (both theoretical and practical) in the subject.  So he knew how it should be done and immediately there was speculation he resorted to knife & fork to avoid any chance of something like Ed Miliband's "notorious bacon sandwich" moment, something which had resulted in ridicule and a flood of memes after the photograph was published by the Murdoch tabloid The Sun on the eve of a general election.     

Peter Dutton (b 1970; leader of the opposition and leader of the Liberal Party of Australian since May 2022) enjoying a Dagwood dog in three aspects, Brisbane Exhibition (Ekka), Australia, 2022.  On seeing the photos, Mr Dutton observed of such things: "There is no good angle".  In Australia, it’s probably good for a politician to be known to eat Dagwood dogs but not necessarily be photographed mid-munch.  Interestingly, despite many opportunities, Mr Dutton has never denied being a Freemason.

The Dagwood dog was responsible for an amusing footnote in Australian legal history, a dispute from the 1949 Sydney Royal Easter Show played out in the Supreme Court of New South Wales in its equity jurisdiction, the press reports at the time noting one happy outcome being an “uninterrupted supply of hot dogs during the next few days.”  Hot dogs were one of the show’s big sellers but a dispute arose when allegations were made there had been breaches of letters patent for "improvements in sausage goods" giving the patentees (who sold “Pronto Pups”) "exclusive enjoyment and profit within Australia for sixteen years from September, 1946.  The plaintiffs (holders of the patent), sought an injunction against those who had begun selling “Dagwood Dogs" at the show, preventing them from vending or supplying any of the improvements in sausages described in the patent, the writ claiming Dagwood dogs embodied the patented improvements and that as a consequence of the infringement, the plaintiffs were suffering economic loss.  The trial judge, ordered a hearing for an assessment (a taking of accounts) of damages to be scheduled for the following April and issued a temporary order requiring the defendants undertook to pay into a trust account the sum of ½d (half a penny) for each for each axially penetrated sausage sold.  The culinary delight has since been a fixture at city and country shows around the country although the name Pronto Pup didn’t survive; after the judgment in the Supreme Court it was replaced by “Pluto Pup” which also didn’t last although whether that was a consequence of a C&D (a “cease & desist letter”) from Walt Disney’s lawyers isn’t known.  Anyway, since then it’s been Dagwood dogs all the way except in South Australia (proud of their convict-free past, they often do things differently) where they’re knows as “Dippy Dogs” (an allusion to the generous dip in the tomato sauce pot) which may be of Canadian origin, although there. in at least some provinces, they’re sold as “Pogos”.

Robert Mitchum (1917–1997) paying attention to Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962).

There are a number of “hot dog” stories about the film star Robert Mitchum, all told in the vein of him arriving at a Hollywood fancy-dress party covered in tomato ketchup and when asked to explain replying: “I’m a hot dawg!”.  That was representative of the sanitized form in which the tale was usually published, the original apparently involved the ketchup being applied to something which, anatomically, more resembled the hot dog’s sausage.

Hotdog Stand color scheme, Microsoft Windows 3.1, 1992.

The industry legend is the “Hotdog Stand” color scheme Microsoft in 1992 shipped with Windows 3.1 was the winner of an informal contest between the designers to see who could concoct the worst possible combination.  Whether or not the idea of the competition was alcohol-fueled depends on which version of the story is told but all agree the winner based her entry on a vision of a hot dog, smothered in mustard and ketchup.  It’s doubtful many deliberately chose “Hotdog Stand” as their default scheme although there were certainly sysadmins (system administrators) who vengefully would impose it on annoying users, the more vindictive adding insult to injury by ensuring the user couldn’t change it back.  However, Hotdog Stand did briefly find a niche because it turned out to be the scheme which provided the best contrast on certain monochrome monitors, then still prevalent in corporations.  Windows 3.1 was the first version of the environment (it sat atop the PC/MS/DR-DOS operating system) to achieve wide corporate acceptance, whereas Windows 3.0 (1990) had tantalized while being still too unstable.  Windows 3.0 was unusual in being (apart from the short-lived 1.0) the only version of Windows released in a single version.  Although it ran in three modes: Real (on machines with only 640K RAM available), Standard (requiring an 80286 CPU & 1 MB RAM) and Enhanced (requiring an 80386 CPU & 2 MB RAM), it shipped as a single product, the user with a command line switch (/r, /s or /e respectively) able to "force" the mode of choice, depending on the hardware in use.

The Hotdog Stand didn’t survive the upgrade to Windows 95 but a quarter of a century on, someone may have felt nostalgic because a buyer of a 2016 Maserati GranTurismo MC Sport Line configured their car in bright yellow (Giallo Granturismo) over leather trim in red (Rosso Corallo).  As eye-catching in 2016 as Microsoft's Hotdog Stand had been in 1992, the Maserati’s recommended retail price was US$163,520.  Displayed first at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show, the GranTurismo (Tipo M145) remained in production until 2019, the MC Sport Line offered between 2012-2019.  It's not known how many buyers chose this color combination.

Joey Chestnut (b 1983) (left) and Miki Sudo (b 1986) (right) the reigning men's and women's world champions in hot dog eating.  The contest is conducted annually on 4 July, US Independence Day.

In July 2022, Mr Chestnut retained and Ms Sudo regained their titles as world champions in hot dog eating.  Mr Chestnut consumed 15 more than the runner-up so the victory was decisive although his total of 63 was short of his personal best (PB) of 76, set in 2021.  It’s his fifteenth title and he has now won all but one of the last sixteen.  Ms Sudo won her eighth championship, swallowing forty hot dogs (including the bun) in the requisite ten minutes, meaning she has now prevailed in eight of the last nine contests (in 2021 she was unable to defend her title, being with child and therefore thinking it best to avoid too many hot dogs).  That there are hot dog eating champions brings delight to some and despair to others. 

Otto von Bismarck (1815-1989; chancellor of the German Empire 1871-1890) famously observed that people "shouldn't see how laws or sausages are made".  The processes (now effectively institutionalized) which produce legislation are now more disturbing even than in the iron chancellor's gut-wrenching times but sausage production has (generally) become more hygienic.

BMW's venture into the "hotdog look", the K1.

Between 1988–1993, BMW produced almost 7,000 K1s.  It was a modest volume and lifespan but the appearance and specification were quite a departure for the company which for sixty-odd years had built its reputation with air-cooled flat twins, packaged in designs which were functionally efficient but offered few concessions to fashion.  That began to change in 1973 when the R90S appeared with a small bikini fairing in the style then favored by the “café racer” set but the rest of the machine remained in the sober Teutonic tradition, finished in a conservative silver (a more exuberant “Daytona Orange” would later be offered).  The fairings grew in size in subsequent models but never before the K1 did the factory produce anything so enveloping as was first seen at the 1988 Cologne Show, the effect heighted by the bold graphics and the choice of color schemes being blue & yellow or a hotdog-like red & yellow.  That attracted almost as much comment as the mechanical specification which used an in-line four cylinder, 987 cm³ (60 cubic inch) water-cooled engine, mounted in an unusual longitudinal arrangement with the crankshaft to the right, something which delivered a low centre of gravity and contributed to the drag coefficient (CD) of .34 (with the rider prone).

The original alternative to the hotdog, in blue & yellow, restrained by comparison.

The engineering was innovative and the K1 garnered many awards but after some initial enthusiasm sales waned and in 1991 the color scheme was not so much toned-down as re-toned, a more Germanic black metallic with silver wheels offered which was not as eye-catching but also less controversial.  That solved one aesthetic challenge but others were more fundamental, the thing too big and heavy to be a “sports bike” in the accepted sense and all that fibreglass meant things could get very hot for both the components and the rider, a problem the factory, with some improvised tricks, ameliorated but never wholly solved.  What couldn’t be fixed was the lack of power, BMW at the time committed to the voluntary 100 horsepower (75 kW) limit for motorcycles sold in Germany at the time and while the industry leading aerodynamics made the machine a creditable high-speed cruiser, as a “super-bike” like the Japanese and Italian machines, it simply wasn’t competitive.

Ambergris

Ambergris (pronounced am-ber-grees or am-ber-gris)

The waxy, sometimes opaque (the color from ash-gret to jet black) morbid secretion of the sperm whale intestine, usually found floating on the ocean or washed ashore: used in perfumery and (historically), in cooking & folk medicine.

1375–1425: From the Old & Middle French ambre gris (literally gray amber) which replaced the Middle English imbergres.  The construct was thus amber + gris.  Amber was from the Middle English ambre & aumbre, from the Old French aumbre & ambre, from the Arabic عَنْبَر‎ (ʿanbar), (ambergris), from the Middle Persian anbar & ambar (ambergris).  The word displaced the Middle English smulting (from Old English smelting (amber)), the Old English eolhsand (amber), the Old English glær (amber), and the Old English sāp (amber, resin, pomade).  Most etymologists seem to conclude the Arabic anbar entered European languages via Medieval Latin.  Gris was from the Old French or the Old Occitan gris (grey), both from the Frankish grīs, from the Proto-Germanic grīsaz (grey) and was akin to the Old High German grīs (grey) (source of the modern German greis) and the Dutch grijs (grey).  The now largely obsolete spellings were amber-gris & amber gris and the latter was for centuries the usual form, the single-word spelling not predominate until the nineteenth century.  During the seventeenth century, folk etymologies interpreted the form as “amber grease” or “amber of Greece” and regionally both were for some time in common use.  Until the twentieth century, the clipping “amber” was also in use and this was the original form, the “grey” element appended in the fourteenth century as a point of differentiation after the adoption in Romance languages of “amber” as the term to describe Baltic amber (the resin associated with fossils) and gradually, that use came to replace “yellow amber” (ambre jaune).  In modern use, amber is understood as the color and the resin white ambergris is the whale secretion.  Ambergris is a noun; the noun plural is plural ambergrises (although ambergris is in common use).

Lindsay Lohan in an advertisement for FCUK (French Connection UK).  According to FCUK, their fragrances have never used ambergris in the mix.

Curiously, the knowledge of the origin of ambergris was for centuries lost to European science.  Notes about the relationship of the substance to whales were later found in the papers of the eleventh century physician Constantinus Africanus (a Muslim of North African origin who spent the latter part of his life practicing his profession in Italy) but as late as the eighteenth century the matter was still subject to speculation, some of the theories as bizarre as anything contemplated during Antiquity to explain the existence of the mysterious eel and others were also baffled; both the Malays and the Chinese attributed the source of ambergris to either sea-dragons or sea-serpents.  It was though prized for its scent and authors noted the relationship between color and fragrance: the darker the less pleasing one was to the nose.  However, chefs had to be cautious because as noted by the English poet & satirist Alexander Pope (1688-1744): A little whiff of it, by snatches, is very agreeable; but when a man holds a whole lump of it to his nose, it is a stink and strikes you down”.  It was thus much enjoyed but only in small doses and rather as a little truffle might be grated today over a plate of scrambled eggs, so was ambergris once used, eggs with a dusting said to be the favorite dish of Charles II (1630–1685; King of Scotland 1649-1651, King of Scotland, England and Ireland 1660-1685).

Chanel No.5 concentrate.

That a waxy substance which is a mixture of steroid derivatives (consisting mainly of cholesterol) and secreted by the intestinal tract of the sperm whale should be a prized ingredient of the most expensive scents amuses many, some of who enjoy telling those daubed with the stuff they’re wearing “whale shit”, “whale vomit” or “whale snot”.  That’s of course not correct and in some cases, there’s not even a direct connection with the big mammals, even some high-end perfume houses using a synthetic ambroxide rather than ambergris and recent research has determined a gene from balsam fir is a most efficient producer of ambroxide so use of the traditional ingredient might become more rare still.  There’s long been speculation about whether the famous Chanel No.5 even included ambergris and the conclusion of most is that certainly once it did but now nobody is quite sure; Chanel have always declined to comment.  Both the natural and synthetic compounds produce an apparently unique chemical called ambrein and while the fragrance is the most obvious property, the perfume houses prized it also as a fixative, something which extends the endurance of the potency of the fluid (and thus the appeal to the olfactory senses) by reducing the natural propensity to evaporate.  In some jurisdictions the trade in (and even the gathering of) ambergris is prohibited, a reflection of the practice applied to trade in the body parts of other threatened species but the ban has be criticized because no whale is harmed (or even approached) in the harvesting process.

Three shades of grey: White, brown & black ambergris.

Ambergris is expensive for the most obvious reason in a world of supply and demand: rarity.  For reasons not understood, it appears fewer than 2% of sperm whales produce the substance and chunks of it can drift for years in the ocean currents before washing ashore to be collected, either by a lucky beachgoer or (more probably) by professional harvesters who study tidal charts and the migration patterns of whale herds to determine the most likely spots for a crop.  It can certainly be a lucrative business, brokers or perfumers paying thousands of dollars a kilogram and it’s the color (there are three color-based grades) and quality which determines the value, not the volume.  The white ambergris is the highest grade and thus the most expensive, possessing what aficionados describe as a “well-rounded, delicately soft, sweet, marine scent” and one which intensifies with age, an ambergris left undiscovered for years will “cure” finally to mature as a dusty, bright white chunk.  While less exalted, brown ambergris is the most versatile of the three and adaptable for use in more variations of scent, straddling the qualities and characteristics of the white and black.  Brown ambergris is noted for its woodier, tobacco-like fragrance and is probably closest in nature to musk.  Black ambergris is said by some to be almost brutish but, lack the delicate tones of the light shades, this can be an advantage for those formulating something like an aromatherapy oil which will be dispersed over a large space.  Noted for a pungent smell, it uses are limited because to most it seems more faecal than brown or white ambergris, but it’s very primitiveness makes it attractive for the niche market it serves.  In a sense it’s just another commodity so the retail prices do bounce around but the lighter shades tend to sell for as much as US$35 a gram.

Meme

Meme (pronounced meem)

(1) Any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted orally or by repeated action (by imitation) from one mind to another, through generations, in a manner comparable to the transmission of genes; the synonym is culturgen

(2) On the internet, a cultural item in the form of an image, video, phrase etc, that is spread and often altered in a creative or humorous way.

(3) In Internet slang, a derogatory term to describe something not to be taken seriously (meme job, meme degree etc).

(4) To turn into a meme; to use a meme.

1976: From the Ancient Greek mīmeîsthai (to imitate, copy) and a shortening of mimeme, from the Ancient Greek μίμημα (mīmēma) (imitated thing) from μιμεῖσθαι (mīmeîsthai) (to imitate), from μῖμος (mimos) (imitation, copy; mime).  Structurally, the word was shortened (following the model of gene) from mimeme and anglicized to emulate the form of a noun derived from the Ancient Greek mīméomai with the deverbal suffix -μα (-ma), from μῖμος (mîmos).  The word was coined by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (b 1941) and used first in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene.  The construct was m(ime) +‎ -eme and Dawkins apologized to classical scholars for what they would think a most improper form, explaining he wanted something monosyllabic and if they preferred they could think of it as related to the French word même (“same or alike” although the meaning does shift with the context of use).  Helpfully, he added it should be pronounced to rhyme with “cream”.  In the way English forms proliferate (often with short lives) on the internet, meme has been the source of many coining including dank meme, memeable, memedom, memesque, memeable, memed, memeplex, meme-pool, memescape, memetic, memeworthy, memey, memome & memeable.

Barack Obama & crooked Hillary Clinton.

The more widely used concept of “a cultural fragment distributed on the internet” was created by lawyer Michael Godwin (b 1956) of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and was first documented in 1994, use beginning to spike in 1997.  Godwin was the author also of Godwin's law (rule) which states that the longer an online exchange lasts, the greater the probability that some comparison with Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) or the Nazi regime will be invoked.  There’s some evidence suggesting the rule may not (statistically) operate as described but it remains a useful tool for determining the point at which a discussion has passed a certain threshold.  The concept of the meme is very old, examples noted in the graffiti of Antiquity and anthropologists have cited prehistoric example; the pre-internet exemplar in the modern age being "Kilroy was here" which proliferated with extraordinary rapidity during World War II (1939-1945).  Many languages have adopted meme, some in the original sense from biological science, most in the more recent application used on the internet but there are other meanings.  There was the French même and the Turkish meme was from the Ottoman Turkish ممه‎ (nipple, breast (and described by most dictionaries as “a childish term”)), following the Ancient Greek μᾰ́μμη (mámmē) and the Persian ممه‎ (mame).  Meme is a noun, verb & adjective and meamed & meaming are verbs;the noun plural is memes.

Looking over her shoulder: Donald & Melania Trump voting.

Dawkins coined meme to describe the concept of the intra- and trans-generational cultural spread of ideas and cultural phenomena, his construct being analogous with the agent of evolutionary biology, the gene.  He didn’t claim the idea was new, noting the earlier work of geneticists & ethologists and as early as 1904 German zoologist Richard Semon (1859-1918) had published The Mneme and mneme in which he included his theory which explored a vaguely similar idea although one which was later disproved as understandings of genetics improved.  Closer to the thoughts of Dawkins was La Vie des Termites (The Life of White Ants (1926)), an entomological book by Nobel laureate in literature Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) which remains controversial because of the extent of the author’s plagiarism although he would later acknowledge a debt to the nineteenth century work of English biologist TH Huxley (1825–1895).

Memes can be self-generated for purposes of ambush marketing.  Lindsay Lohan risked going straight to Hell by purloining Pope Frances to promote Xanax.

Dawkins' point was that evolution depended ultimately only a self-replicating unit of transmission which, in biological evolution, was the gene and by analogy, human behaviour and cultural evolution could helpfully be described, at least in part, by memes, subject as they were to the influences and pressures of evolution.  Also, just as genes don’t always replicate as exact duplicates, memes existed and replicated imperfectly, things being combined, refined and rejected, the interactions creating new memes and thus, over time, cultures in some ways stayed the same; in others, things changed.  The concept was well-received by cultural theorists and critics but less effusive were many scientists, some of whom felt the gene/meme analogy a bit strained because, unlike genetic material, memes couldn’t be studied by the scientific method nor reduced to mathematical description, there being nothing even vaguely similar to the DNA which is the definable code of the gene.

Objectum

Objectum (pronounced ob-jikt-tum or ob-jekt-tum)

(1) In the categorization of human sexuality (also as object sexuality or objectophilia), a form of interest focused on one or a number of particular inanimate objects.  It must not be confused with sexual objectification.

(2) In philosophy, a now mostly obsolete descriptor of that towards which cognition is directed, as contrasted with the thinking subject; anything regarded as external to the mind, especially in the external world.

Pre 1000:  From the Medieval Latin objectum (something thrown down or presented (to the mind)), noun use of the neuter of objectus (past participle of objicere) from obicere, the construct being ob- (against; facing (a combining prefix found in verbs of Latin origin)) + jec- (combining form of jacere (to throw)) + -tus (past participle suffix) and a gloss of the Ancient Greek ἀντικείμενον (antikeímenon).  From this Middle English gained objecten (to argue against), from the Middle French objecter & objeter from the Latin objectāre (to throw or put before, oppose) and later (circa 1325-1375), the more familiar object (something perceived, purpose, objection).  The sense of object describing a “tangible and visible thing” emerged in the late fourteenth century from the Old French object and directly from Medieval Latin obiectum (thing put before (the mind or sight)).  Objectum is a noun & adjective and objectism is a noun; the noun plural is objectums. 

The O in LGBTQQIAAOP

Objectum Sexuality (OS) and objectum romanticism (OR), both often clipped to "objectum", is the attraction to inanimate objects, a feeling which can be sexual, romantic or both and can be a form of tertiary attraction.  The objects to which an objectum individual is attracted are often called "beloved objects" and not infrequently have names and personalities given to them by their objectum lover.  Beloved objects have included buildings, light fittings, bridges, cars, statues, fences, water, musical instruments, articles of clothing, and amusement park rides although objects do not have to be tangible and can include logos or letters, thus the linking by some psychiatrists to synesthesia.  Some objectum people are poly-amorous, dedicated to many objects, some are devoted to a single thing and both may either be also attracted to people or drawn exclusively to objects.  Objectum sexuality is different from a sexual paraphilia as a paraphilia does not imply a devoted personal relationship, feeling mutual and reciprocal attraction, and usually does not include animistic beliefs.  Academic work has developed a spectrum defining the differences between object fetishism and objectum orientation, the most interesting interactions presumably at the margins.

The modern, somewhat opportunistic, adoption of objectum by the OS/OR community wasn’t widely embraced by the medical profession which preferred first objectophilia and later, object sexuality although, in American psychiatry, prior to the publication of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), objectophilia was regarded as just another example of "psychopathic personality with pathologic sexuality".  The DSM-I (1952) included sexual deviation as a personality disorder of a sociopathic subtype although objectophilia attracted little professional interest, probably, and quite reasonably, because the “victims” were inanimate.  The DSM-II (1968) and subsequent DSM editions, up to DSM-IV-TR (2000) continued this neglect of the topic, DSM-IV-TR noting a paraphilia is not diagnosable as a psychiatric disorder unless it causes distress to the individual or harm to others.  The DSM-5 (2013) formalised this approach, both the definitional and clinical distinctions now focused on harm to individuals rather than deviations from defined norms.

Some objects are so beautiful, people fall in love.  Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916-1993) looking at the Lamborghini Miura, Sant’Agata, Italy, 1966.

The Lamborghini Miura (1966-1973) first appeared (without the bodywork) at the 1965 Turin Motor Show when a rolling chassis was displayed, the packaging intriguing knowing onlookers, the mid-mounted transverse V12 engine the highlight of what was clearly a revolutionary design though even at the time, engineers speculated about how layout would affect its driving characteristics.  The interest at Turin however was nothing like the reaction the following year when the Miura was displayed at the Geneva Motor Show.  It had been at Geneva half-a-decade earlier when the Jaguar E-Type (XK-E) had created such a sensation but while the E-Type was the final stylistic evolution of the 1930s-1950s roadster, the Miura was a glimpse of the future, the influence of its lines seen still in the hypercars of the twenty first century.  Built in three distinct versions, the factory introduced changes designed to ameliorate some of the characteristics induced by the physics of unusual layout and while the behavior (laterally and at the very high speed of which it was capable) was to some extent tamed, a Miura at the limits was never a thing predictable in the manner of contemporary Ferraris.  None of that now much matters because the Miura is achingly beautiful and were it not contrary to the laws of man and God, there would be those who would marry one.

In the spirit of the rainbow banner which began as the symbol of the gay liberation movement (though it's now used generally by a number of the sub-sets in the LGBTQQIAAOP aggregation), the objectum community has its own flag.  Blue represents physical objects, whether man-made or nature based; gray references abstract or non-tangible inanimate objects; yellow is eye catching and bright, representing public objects; purple is muted and calming, representing personal objects; white represents the animistic belief held by many of the OS & OR; the red circle represents the objectum community and is filled in with the flag’s core color of white to represent the spirit the objectum sense in their beloved objects.

A tactile relationship: Mr & Mrs Eiffel.

Erika Eiffel (née LaBrie) was probably the woman who brought objectum sexuality to a wider (if not wholly receptive) audience when in 2008 the documentary Married to the Eiffel Tower appeared online.  It "celebrated" a long-term relationship which dated back a decade although Mrs Eiffel changed her surname only in 2007 after a commitment ceremony and she heads Objectum Sexuality Internationale (OSI), a 400-strong association of object-oriented individuals.  The documentary might have been interesting had it not focused on the least interesting aspects of OS & OR: The sexual nature of the relationships and the notion that the inclination is a quest for control attributable to prior abuse and mental illness.

Just good friends: Lindsay Lohan in polka dots with la tour Eiffel, Paris Fashion Week, 2019.

Being click-bait, that was of course as inevitable as the ferocity of the reaction but whatever the feelings of YouTube viewers, the profession has moved on and for some time has not diagnosed objectum sexuality as a psychiatric disorder and both the definitional and clinical distinctions now focus on harm to individuals rather than deviations from defined norms.  The basis for the change in view appears to be that OS & OR should be thought of as just another fork of the human condition, the logical (if not commonly pursued) conclusion for those (like Henry Ford (1863-1947) and others) happy to admit they are at their most content when alone with a machine.  That was certainly Mrs Eiffel’s profile.  A world-class recurve archer, while never attracted to romantic associations with people in her lifetime there have been many significant relationships with inanimate objects including a Japanese sword, her archery bows, a bridge, machinery she’s operated and of course, la tour Eiffel.

Especial

Especial (pronounced ih-spesh-uhl)

(1) Special; exceptional; outstanding.

(2) Of a particular kind, or peculiar to a particular one; particular.

1350-1375: From the Middle English especial, from the Old and Middle French especial (pre-eminent, important) from the Latin speciālis (pertaining to a particular kind or species) from species (appearance, form, beauty), from specere (to look).  In French, the forms differed: Latin words with initial sp-, st- and sc- usually acquired an e- when borrowed by Old French whereas Modern French has restored the word to spécial.  The adverb especially emerged in the late fourteenth century, shortly after the adjective.  Especial is an adjective and (in commerce with an initial capital) a proper noun, the rare especialness is a noun and especially is an adverb; the proper noun plural is Especials.

Meanings of special and especial are essentially the same yet usage differs.  Special is common, especial rare, specially is rare, especially common.  Most dictionaries however maintain especial and especially should have a more limited use than special and specially.  Special is always used in preference to especial when the sense is one of being out of the ordinary.  Special is also used when something is referred to as being for a particular purpose.  Where an idea of pre-eminence or individuality is involved, either especial or special may be used,  In informal English however, special is usually preferred in all contexts but especially tends to prevail, probably because it’s a sound which more easily rolls of the tongue.  Special is by far more common than especial; the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) claims special is used some six-hundred times for every time especial is used.  It’s more economical too for unlike especial, special does not demand to be followed by a noun.  However, all of this applies to English and in Spanish the adjective especial is common.  To purists, use of especial should be rare and use confined to particular contexts where it collocates with particular nouns and especially where it avoids conflicts with other specific meanings: An especial interest or an especial value meaning something different than a special interest or special value.  In A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), Henry Fowler (1858–1933) observed the characteristic sense of especial & especially was "pre-eminence of the particular as opposed to the ordinary" whereas special & specially were used to convey the idea of the "particular as opposed to the general".  However, he proceeded to acknowledge modern practice which tended to use such special for all such purposes, leaving it for the recipient to pick up the meaning from the context, something he seemed to concede was "possible" if not "preferable" and he noted the continuing popularity of especially, lamenting only that it appeared to encourage tautology, constructions like "more especially" condemned.      

Special relativity: Being especially special

Holden, the General Motors (GM) Australian subsidiary, for over a decade had it pretty easy, enjoying a fifty-percent market share despite by the early 1960s its products being, whatever their other virtues, outdated and underpowered.  GM would later respond but in the short-term, resorted to a bit of tarting-up.  Holden had for ten years used the Special designation for their up-market offering but in 1962 added a new top of the range model called the Premier, meaning the Special was no longer so special.  Despite this, the name endured another six years before becoming the Kingswood which was no more special, the new name meaning nothing in particular.  Confusing things still further, for most of the years it existed, the Special was actually the best-selling Holden, the other models, the Standard and the shorter-lived Business, enjoyed lower sales so in that sense, the Special was the standard model rather than the Standard.

So, by 1968, GM had in Australia ceased to call anything Special though much of their advertising continued to suggest everything they sold was special in some way.  In the US, GM's use of the Special badge started sooner and lasted longer, Buick using it first in 1936, curiously for their lowest-priced model, a placement similar to that seen sometimes in education where it was applied to classes or schools for those with learning difficulties (although that use has ceased, falling foul of the linguistic treadmill).  Buick of course no more wanted their customers to make a connection with "special education" any more than with Albert Einstein's (1879-1955) theory of special relativity which explains how space and time are linked for objects moving at a consistent speed in a straight line.  Buick's interest in relativity was probably limited to that between the models in its line-up and Special really meant nothing other than being a word thought to have generally positive associations.  Additionally, Buick buyers didn’t like change then any more than now.

The 1969 Buick GS Sport Wagon was much more special than that year’s rather mundane Special Deluxe.  Like the similar model from Oldsmobile, the Sport Wagon was notable for the roof-mounted skylights.

After a brief hiatus, the Buick Special returned in 1938, its run in cars of various sizes almost uninterrupted until 1970.  In 1968 however, Buick must have had a moment of doubt that the Special may no longer be special enough and the range was renamed Special Deluxe, a change that lasted but two years.  In the 1970s and 1990s, there would be two half-decade long revivals but in 1996, the Special finally went extinct, not even Buick's entry into the Chinese market enough to encourage a revival.

1966 Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale.  Probably everything sounds better in Italian than English.  To the ears of English-speakers, a reading in Italian from a lawn-mower repair-manual sounds like the words of a lyric poet.

The Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale was a design by Pininfarina shown in 1966 and was both a test bed for a racing project and an exploration of the possibility of a mid-engined V12 road car, the styling taking cues from the designer’s smaller Dino 206 Berlinetta Speciale, built in 1965.  Reflecting the origin of its race-car chassis, the 365 Speciale was configured with three-abreast seating and a central driving position, a layout seat McLaren would later adopt for their F1 (1992-1998).  In a nod to the seating, the car is sometimes referred to as the 365 Berlinetta Tre-posti (three seater).  Ferrari still use speciale as a name.

1965 Dino 206 Berlinetta Speciale.

The Dino Speciale would influence the later Dino 206 & 246 road cars, produced by Ferrari between 1967-1974.  The relationship with the 365 is obvious but, being scaled up to accommodate the big V12, the lines aren’t as harmonious as the dainty V6 Dino, reflecting the difficulties stylists had applying the layout when using bulky engines.  Still, the 365 P Speciale provided the factory with valuable experience in the then novel concept and traces of the shape are evident in what did in 1971 emerge as the 365 GT/4 Berlinetta Boxer, the prototype which would become Ferrari’s first mid-engined twelve-cylinder car to reach production.  The Boxer's svelte shape was however made possible by flattening the vee to 180^o, something which proved a more satisfactory solution to the problem than the transverse location of the 60^o V12 Lamborghini used in 1966 for the Miura.  Achingly beautiful though the Miura was, its behaviour at speed could be tricky, exactly the reason Ferrari chose not to make the Stradale.       

1965 Ferrari 250 LM Stradale.

The 365 Speciale was actually the second mid-engined V12 road car Ferrari built; in 1965, the 250 LM Stradale (road) had been displayed at the Geneva Motor Show.  Based on the Le Mans winning 250 LM, it was a prototype for what was planned to be a small batch of road cars but Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988), then anyway dubious about the very idea of mid-engined V12s with all-independent suspension falling into the hands of amateurs, vetoed the project, the Stradale still just too much a racing car to let the unskilled rich unleash one on the streets.

Mean Girls Special Collector's Edition (2004) on DVD, Paramount Pictures (part number D341604D).

There’s no defined standard for what is included in “special” editions of commercially released films but unlike “director’s cut” versions which to some extent change the actual content of the original releases (cinema, optical, TV or streaming), “special editions” tend to be the original plus a bundle of “extras”.  Assembled usually as “featurettes”, typically, the additional content will consist of interviews with the cast, director or writers, out-takes, bloopers, deleted scenes, advertising and other promotional material and sometimes commentaries from critics or commentators with expertise in some issue of interest.  For nerds, there’s sometimes even content about technical aspects of production, an addition most often seen with product made with much use of special effects but discussions about matters such as fashion or history might also appear.

The Mean Girls Special Collector's Edition included (1) discussions about casting, (2) an interview with Rosalind Wiseman (b 1969), author of Queen Bees and Wannabes (2002) on which the Mean Girls screenplay was based, (3) commentary by the writers and producers, (4) “Word Vomit” (the Blooper Reel), (5) deleted scenes with commentary, (6) “Plastic Fashion” (a discussion about costume design and the use of clothing as a metaphor for character development), (7) interstitials (advertising material created with original material not used in the final cut) and (8) promotional trailers for other Paramount films.