Drahtfunk

Drahtfunk (pronounced draat-fuenk)

The broadcasting of audio signals through wire or cable connections rather than airwaves.  Drahtfunk translates from the German as “wired radio”, the collective noun being Drahtfunkeinrichtungen (wired radio equipment).

1937: A German compound noun, the construct being draht (wired) + funk (radio).  The German Funk can also be translated as "wireless" so Drahtfunk can be understood as "wired wireless" so that's good.   Draht was from the Middle High German drāt (wire, thread), from the Old High German drāt or thrāt, from the Proto-Germanic þrēduz, from the primitive Indo-European treh- from terh- (rub, twist).  It was related to drehen (to turn, twist), with which it was still associated in early modern German (evidence for which is the insertion of the lengthening -h-, used only before sonorants or stem-finally).  It was cognate with the Dutch draad, the Low German Draat, the English thread, the Danish, Norwegian & Swedish trad and the Icelandic þráður.  The genitive is Drahtes, the plural Drähte and the diminutive, Drähtchen.  In Modern German, the sense of wire (thread of metal; conductor) remains but is obsolete for threads made from other materials.  Funk was from the Proto-Germanic funkô or fankô (spark), from the primitive Indo-European speng- or spheng- (to shine).  It was cognate with the Middle Low German funke & fanke (spark), the Middle Dutch vonke (spark), the Old High German funcho & funko (spark) and the German Funke (spark).  In the Middle English it existed as funke & fonke (spark) from the Old English funca & fanca (spark), from the same roots as the Germanic although some other meanings in English evolved independently.

Funk, stemming from funken (spark), came to mean “radio” in German, because some of the earliest wireless telegraphs used spark gap transmitters, thus creating the association with radio, and many compounds have been formed, added both at beginning (Funkspruch, Funkbearbeitung) and end (Mobilfunk, Bordfunk).  Drahtfunk is a masculine noun; in German, both the spelling of the word and the article preceding the word can change depending on whether it is in the nominative, accusative, genitive, or dative case.  Given the meaning, it exists as a masculine singular only; no plural form.  The nominative is der Drahtfunk, the accusative den Drahtfunk, the genitive des Drahtfunks and the dative dem Drahtfunk.

Radio technology under the Third Reich

Developed during the 1930s in Germany, wired radio was analogous with the technological dualism of ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line), the DSL technology which, beginning in 1998, was the first convenient and widely adopted domestic internet broadband.  Like ADSL, Drahtfunk ran (at a higher frequency than telephony) over the analogue copper pairs used for fixed line telephones, the attraction for both systems being the copper wires were usually existing infrastructure, thus making it faster and cheaper to deploy the new technology.  The mechanism of the physical connection would also be familiar to anyone who used an ADSL service: a crossover with two outputs (often called the "splitter box) connected to the telephone socket, one (input/output) feed connected to the handset, the (input only) to the radio's antenna socket.  Although Drahtfunk was first implemented at scale during the Third Reich (1933-1945), it was actually developed by the postal service (responsible for telephony) during the Weimar Republic (1918-1933).  Had it earlier been available there's little doubt the Nazis would have sought to use the medium because they understood the power of voice, part of their campaign material in the (many) elections they contested under the republic including gramophone records containing edited highlights of Adolf Hitler's (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) speeches.  Because the technology of the time permitted at most around 15 minutes per side of a disk, some editing was required.  Whether the authorities would have permitted the Nazis to broadcast in this way isn't known and the low take-up rate of phone-lines into homes would anyway have limited the value.         

The Nazis never explored the possibility of mass-market television as a platform for propaganda, simply because there were so few sets in the country.  Although in 1935, Berlin had been the site of the world's first electronically scanned television service which had conducted nation-wide live broadcasts of some events at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, the regime understood that with industry and armaments production being a higher priority than consumer goods, it would be at least a decade before the take-up rate of televisions in the home would achieve the critical mass required for the medium to be an effective propaganda tool.  The  Nazis were though enthusiastic about the use of radio for political indoctrination and Dr Joseph Goebbels (1897-1975; Nazi propaganda minister 1933-1945), who while evil, was a fair judge of such things, thought the success of the regime “…would have been impossible” without radio.  However, in the early 1930s, receiver sets were expensive, even when subsidized by the state so Drahtfunk was developed in the hope sets cheaply would be mass-produced and use existing phone lines.  Unexpectedly, advances in electronics made conventional radios cheaper and the installation of home telephone connections was slower than expected so Drahtfunk was barely used by households, adopted mostly by the military, the army and navy each (independently) running literally thousands of kilometres of telephone wires to ensure a independent means of communications between bases and to headquarters staff, the other attraction being that unlike any implementation of RF (radio frequency) transmission which passes through the air, wired messaging inherently was secret unless physically tapped.  Today, although regarded as archaic by many (women in particular seem to find tangles of cables inexplicable in the age of WiFi), true nerds will always plug-in given the choice.

Had the institution survived, the Wehrmacht (the German armed forces 1935-1945) would with hindsight have plugged-in more and broadcast less, such was the success of allied decryption of the German RF traffic.  Not until 1974 when former RAF (Royal Air Force) officer, FW Winterbotham (1897-1990) published The Ultra Secret was the extent of the "eavesdropping" documented and its role in the war effort better understood.  Although the book was at times misleading and details were criticised, what was revealed did compel a re-evaluation of some of the conclusions drawn by historians about political and military matters during the war.  The British actually had a long history in the ungentlemanly business of reading other chaps' mail.  During the 1898 Crise de Fachoda (Fashoda Crisis, an imperialist territorial squabble between Paris and London over control of the Upper Nile), the British Foreign Office had the priceless advantage of controlling the undersea cables through which French diplomatic traffic passed.  Not only was London able to read the French messages, they could, as desired, delay their passage or simply not pass them on.      

Pamphlet issued by the Allied Control Commission explaining the operation of Drahtfunk, Berlin, January 1946.

Interest in Drahtfunk was revived in 1943 when it was realized allied bomber fleets were using radio transmissions to hone in on targets, something especially significant at night when urban areas were subject to blackouts, thus depriving aircrew of easy reference points for visual navigation and bomb-aiming.  As a counter-measure, conventional radio signals were switched off when enemy aircraft were approaching, listeners advised to switch to the Drahtfunk by plugging their set into a splitter-box wired to the telephone cable, the process the same principle as an ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) connection which plugs two lines (voice & data) into a line-splitter (or filter.)  In the post-war years, US occupation forces continued to use the system in their Berlin occupation zone after being unable to reach agreement with the Russians to share the conventional broadcast system, all the infrastructure physically in the Soviet zone.  Thus, after it was estimated the installation of medium and long wave transmitters in the American sector would take months, beginning in December 1945, Drahtfunk services were resumed under the name DIAS (wire radio in the American sector (later renamed RIAS)).  Other German radio programming was available through the system in other parts of the country including the BFN (British Forces Network) program and it wasn't until 1963 the use in most of the FRG (the Federal Republic of Germany, the old West Germany) was discontinued, the service maintained in West Berlin for a further three years.  Elsewhere in Europe, wired radio was adopted because because it was simple, reliable and delivered fine reception unaffected by atmospheric conditions, Switzerland ceasing transmission only in the 1990s because of incompatibilities when ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines were introduced for telephony.  In Sweden, the system proved especially useful because of (1) the peculiarities in the behavior of radio waves at the more northern latitudes and (2) the demands in terms of physical broadcast infrastructure (towers & transmitters) required to service a narrow, elongated landmass.  Because of the high penetration of telephone lines in Sweden by the late 1940s, wired radio was able to provide a high-quality service to the sparsely populated north and it was extensively deployed until advances in technology in the 1960s rendered it redundant.

Turquoise

Turquoise (pronounced tur-koiz or tur-kwoiz)

(1) A fine-grained secondary opaque mineral, a basic hydrous copper aluminum phosphate often containing a small amount of iron, sky-blue to greenish-blue in color (also as the rare form turquois).  It occurs, usually in reniform (kidney-shaped) masses with surfaces shaped like bunches of grapes, especially in aluminum-rich igneous rocks such as trachyte.  In its polished blue form (it occurs also in a yellowish-green hue) it is prized as a gem.  Formula: CuAl₆(PO₄)₄(OH)₈·4H₂O.

(2) A color in the blue spectrum, described usually as bluish green or greenish blue and known also (for commercial purposes) as turquoise blue.

(3) A gemstone (categorized as a semi-precious) made of the mineral, the hues tending to blue traditionally more valuable than the greens.

(4) One of the birthstones for the month of December and associated with the zodiac signs Sagittarius and Capricorn.

1300s or 1600s:  The origin is contested.  Some etymologists trace it from the seventeenth century when it was picked up from the Middle French turquoise, from the Old French (pierre) turquoise (Turkish (stone)), the construct being turc (Turk) +‎ -oise (the feminine of -ois and the suffix used to form adjectives related to a particular country, region or city, their associated inhabitant names, and the local language or dialect), simply because the mineral ( mined near Nishapur in the Khorasan region of Persia) first reached Europe in the hands of the Turkish traders (from the modern-day Republic of Türkiye) of the Ottoman Empire (thus essentially the same manner in which the bird known as the Turkey gained its name) .  Others claim it dated from the fourteenth century as an adaptation of the Middle English turkeis & turtogis (Turkish) which in the 1560s was replaced by the French turqueise.  Those supporting the later etymology claim the gemstone was first brought to Europe from Turkestan or another Turkic territory.  Pliny the Elder (24-79) called the mineral callais (from the Ancient Greek κάλαϊς) and to the Aztecs it was chalchihuitl.  It was cognate with the Spanish turquesa, the Medieval Latin (lapis) turchesius, the Middle Dutch turcoys, the German türkis and the Swedish turkos.  Adjectival use began in the 1570s and it came to be used a colour name in the 1850s.  The use of the spelling turkies is archaic and turquois is rare.  Turquoise is a noun & adjective ane turquoisish, turquoisey, turquoisy¸ turquoised & turquoiselike are adjectives; the noun plural is turquoises.

Turquoise and diamond cluster dangle earrings (circa 1890) in 14 karat gold with cabochon cut sky blue Persian turquoise surrounded by 24 cut diamonds (total 3 carats).

Turquoise is often used in jewelry although some pieces sold as “turquoise” can be artificial and actually only turquoise-colored (with the dual meaning of the word it’s essential to read the small print).  Turquoise used in jewelry is often cut in the form of a cabochon (an oval shape polished but not faceted) and these, in a variety of sizes, are popular for pendants, broaches and earrings.  Turquoise was mentioned in the writing of the Venetian merchant Marco Polo (circa 1254–1324) who saw examples while in China and in the US, turquoise jewelry is especially associated with Native American artisans, particularly from tribes of the south-west including the Navajo & Hopi.

Lindsay Lohan rendered with turquoise hair (left), in turquoise blue waters (centre) and wearing turquoise blue (right).

As a descriptor of color, turquoise is commonly used but it’s inexact, even by the standards of commercial color charts and what some call turquoise others might describe as teal or cyan and the mineral itself exists in quite a range.  The various shades of blue anyway exist in quite a spectrum including: Alice blue, aqua, aquamarine, azure, baby blue, beryl, bice, bice blue, blue green, blue violet, blueberry, cadet blue, Cambridge blue, cerulean, cobalt blue, Copenhagen blue, cornflower, cornflower blue, cyan, dark blue, Dodger blue, duck-egg blue, eggshell blue, electric-blue, gentian blue, ice blue, lapis lazuli, light blue, lovat, mazarine, midnight blue, navy, Nile blue, Oxford blue, peacock blue, petrol blue, powder blue, Prussian blue, robin's-egg blue, royal blue, sapphire, saxe blue, slate blue, sky blue, teal, turquoise, ultramarine, Wedgwood blue & zaffre.

Lindsay Lohan in turquoise wetsuit during filming for “jet ski scene” in Freakier Friday (2025), Malibu, California, August 2024.

The vivid color range of turquoise must have attracted the eyes of humans as soon as they discovered the stone; it is one of the gems with the longest history of decorative use and while it’s not certain how ancient is the tradition, the archaeological record has revealed the upper classes of ancient Egypt wore turquoise jewelry more than 4000 years ago and it’s clear Chinese artisans were carving objects from the stone by at least 1000 BC.  The national gem of Tibet, it has long been valued as a stone which will bring the wearer wealth, health and protection from evil.  It assumed also some military significance because certain tribes of the Apache in what is now the south-western United States believed turquoise attached to a bow or firearm increased a hunter’s (or warrior’s) accuracy of fire.  More pragmatically, the stone also was used as a medium of exchange for among many Native American tribes although being relatively plentiful, as a form of currency its utility was limited and it was valued more for its attractiveness.

Being relatively soft turquoise can be easy to carve but that very attribute can also induce fragility so the selection of a stone for this purpose is best allocated to an expert.  Like most materials, it's a patchwork of strengths and weaknesses: With a Mohs hardness typically between 5-6 it's softer than quartz (rated at 7) but harder than most organic materials like bone or ivory.  That means most standard lapidary tools can be used for carving but does render it susceptible to scratching.  Additionally, many turquoise deposits are porous and often contain inclusions or matrix (ie the host rock) which makes it prone to chipping, crumbling, or breaking along weak spots if too much pressure is applied.

1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB (short wheelbase) California Spider.

In March 2023, at the annual auctions on Amelia Island, Florida (the old four-day Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance) a 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider sold for US$18,045,000, passing under Gooding & Co’s hammer.  The SWB Spiders have for years be prized but this one attracted a premium because of aspects which attested to its particular rarity, being one of only 37 (some say 47) of the 106 made with the (soon to be unlawful) Perspex-covered headlights and the only one the factory finished in azzurro metallizzato, an eye catching turquoise.  In the way the Italian language manages like no other, azzurro metallizzato sounds much better the the literal translation “metallic sky blue”.  The car was prepared especially for the 1962 New York International Auto Show and remarkably, after being damaged in an accident in 1971, was sold the following year for US$2400 (around US$18,000 adjusted for inflation), so in fifty-odd years it has appreciated around a thousand-fold.  There was of course a repair and restoration bill to be paid in 1972 and the many costs of ownership since but however it’s analyzed, the thing has proved a good investment (although there will be accountants anxious to prove the same US$2400 invested in the right stock index or whatever would have been more lucrative still).  While in the public imagination Ferraris are most associated with red (and the classic rosso corsa (racing red) is just one of many reds the factory has offered), shades of blue have always been popular and over the years there have been dozens.  

Ms Justine Haupt with custom rotary-dial cell phone in turquoise.

Ms Justine Haupt (b 1987), an astronomy instrumentation engineer at New York’s Brookhaven National Laboratory took a step backwards (or perhaps sideways, some might suggest) and built a rotary-dial cell phone from scratch because of her aversion to what she describes as “smartphone culture and texting”, something to which many will relate.  In what proved a three year project, Ms Haupt used a rotary-dial mechanism from a Trimline telephone (introduced in 1965 and produced by Western Electric, the manufacturing unit of the Bell System), mounted on a case 4 x 3 x 1 inches (100 x 75 x 25 mm) in size with a noticeably protuberant aerial; it used an AT&T prepaid sim card and had a battery-life of some 24-30 hours.  Conforming to the designer’s choices of functionality, it includes two speed-dial buttons, an e-paper display and permits neither texting nor internet access.  

Designer colors: Available in black, white, turquoise, beige and the wonderful Atomic Hotline Red.

“Atomic Hotline Red” is an allusion to the Moscow-Washington DC “hotline” installed in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962). In truth, despite frequently appearing in popular culture, there never was a “red phone” and the US connection terminated not on the POTUS’s desk in the Oval Office but in the Pentagon (now HQ of the Department of War) in Arlington County, Virginia.  The first implementation in 1963 used a version of Telex while it was an analogue facsimile service (ie fax machines) between 1986-2008.  Since 2008 the data has travelled over a secure digital link, decrypted into text at each end.

Although she intended the device as a one-off for her own use, Ms Haupt was surprised at the interest generated and in 2022 began selling a kit (US$170) with which others could build their own, all parts included except the rotary-dial mechanism which would need to be sourced from junk shops and such.  Unfortunately, Ms Haupt encountered many difficulties (bringing to market a device which connects to public telephony networks involves processes of greater complexity than selling mittens and such) but the project remains afoot.

Promulgate

Promulgate (pronounced prom-uhl-geyt or proh-muhl-geyt)

(1) To make known by open declaration; publish; proclaim formally or put into operation a law, decree of a court, etc.

(2) Publicly to set forth or teach a creed, doctrine, etc.

(3) To make widespread.

1520-1530: From the Middle English promulgate (make known by open declaration, publish, announce (a law or decree, news, an event etc), from the Latin promulgatus, past participle of promulgō & prōmulgāre (bring to public knowledge, make publicly known; propose openly, publish), thought perhaps altered from provulgāre (the construct being pro (forth) + vulgāre (make public, publish); root of the latter being vulgus (the common people).  Alternatively, there’s a minority view the second element might be from mulgere (to milk), here used metaphorically in the sense of "cause to emerge or bring fourth" as the milkmaid might squeeze from the udder.  The earlier verb in English was the late fifteenth-century promulge; it’s long been archaic.  The noun promulgation (publication, open declaration) emerged early in the seventeenth century, from the fourteenth century French promulgation, from the  Latin promulgationem (nominative promulgatio) (a public announcement), the noun of action from the past-participle stem of prōmulgāre.Promulgate, promulgated & promulgating are verbs, promulgater, promulgator & promulgation are nouns and promulgatory is an adjective; the noun plural is promulgations.  The form promulgative is non-standard.

Early promulgations were issued sometimes on clay tablets.  Moses descends from Mount Siniai with the Ten Commandments (1662), oil on canvas by Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680).

In law, the act of promulgation is a formal announcement that legislation or some other act of the state has passed into law.  In some jurisdictions, this is merely procedural but in others is a necessity for laws to take effect.  Historically, in English law, an act of parliament, or some other legislative body, was promulgated by ceremonies in designated places when the words were variously read out or posted in writing.  That’s changed and promulgations in the UK now follow royal assent, either by the sovereign appearing in the House of Lords or announcements by Lords Commissioners who announce the act(s), the ceremony held almost always at the Palace of Westminster.  However, this has not been a common practice since the eighteenth century and royal assent is usually granted by the issue of letters patent.

Modern promulgations are posted on Instagram.  Lindsay Lohan & Bader Shammas (b 1987) announce the birth of their first child, July 2023.

In Australia, the process of promulgation is almost always the publication of the details in government gazettes and websites, a process still called gazetting.  The significance of gazetting law is important because of the legal principle ignorantia legis neminem excusat (ignorance of law excuses no one) which hold a person unaware of a law may not escape liability for violating that law merely because they were unaware of its content.  Courts don’t uphold this principle absolutely (as some local government entities which changed by-laws essentially in secret found out) but certainly tend to if things have in some way been appropriately gazetted.  In rare circumstances, promulgation can still be done in the old way: Following the sacking of Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam (1916-2014; prime-minister 1972-1975) in 1975, the governor-general's secretary read the proclamation of dissolution from the steps of old Parliament House.

Etymologists seem generally to find Google's ngrams "interesting but not wholly reliable".  Google note a late-twentieth century resurgence in the use of promulgate after a long decline but since then, it has become rare.

Racialism

Racialism (pronounced rey-shuh-liz-uhm)

(1) The belief that humans can be categorized as belonging to distinct races, each race being characterized by fixed and heritable traits (obsolete).

(2) In technical use, any system of categorization which uses race (however defined); in technical use, what used to be called scientific racialism (and later race realism) is still practiced but the term is no longer applied except as a critique.

1882: The construct was racial + -ism (the adjective racial dating from 1862).  Race (in this context) was from the French racisme, dating from 1902, from the mid sixteenth century Middle French race from the early fourteenth century Italian razza of uncertain origin.  The word gained the various senses of (1) a group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or physical characteristics (most notably skin color or tone), (2) an identifiably distinct group of people distinguished from others on some basis (which could be cultural or religious).  Noted first in 1928, use of the word racism became common by the mid-1930s and was widely applied to the legal and social systems in some countries by at least 1940.  The –ial suffix from the Middle English, from the Old French, from the Latin -ālis (the third-declension two-termination suffix (neuter -āle) used to form adjectives of relationship from nouns or numerals) and was used to form adjectives from nouns.  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).  Racialism & racialist are nouns & adjectives and racialistic is an adjective; the noun plural is racialisms.  Racism & racist are nouns and adjectives; the noun plural is racisms.

The word was coined in 1882, based on the existing use of "race" as a synonym of "nation, tribe, ethnic group"; the later senses emerged from circa 1890 from the use of "race" for racial categories.  The use in 1882 was essentially neutral and descriptive and referred to “tribalism” but in less than a decade it assumed the meaning “political system advocating superiority and exclusive rights based on race” but that would come later to be replaced by the more overt “racism” & “racist”.  The later attempt to repurpose the word for (allegedly) scientific purpose with a meaning closer to the 1882 original (including as race-realism) was unsuccessful.  In the West, expressions of racism became first unfashionable in polite society and later unacceptable.  This change in attitude unfolded over decades in the twentieth century and progress was socially and geographically varied, the clustering of populations by class, education and ethnic diversity (the formalization as DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) came early in the 2000s) probably the most significant factors accounting for the difference.  Racism does seem to be endemic in the human condition and while it can be suppressed by collective social disapprobation or rendered unlawful, apparently everywhere when people with recognizably different features or characteristics (in appearance, linguistically, culturally etc) degrees of conflict ensue.  This can be something so low-level it’s usually imperceptible such as the interactions between the Italian, French, German & Romansh speakers in Switzerland or more violent, as recent events in Sudan and Tunisia demonstrate.  It’s not going to go away and the management of it varies from place to place between the multi-cultural policies in the West and the “ethnic cleansing” (something of a euphemism in that it included mass-murder) associated with the wars in the Balkans in the early 1990s.  The most obvious modern manifestation of racialism is “racial profiling” which ranges from filtering processes which exclude certain applicants from the employment selection process to police selecting for “stop & search” only those perceived to be of a certain ethnicity to persons of middle-eastern appearance receiving heightened levels of attention from airport security staff.

Winsor Newton Black Indian Ink.

Racialism and racism are not unrelated concepts, but have different meanings and implications.  Racialism is practiced as a spectrum and explores the existence of differences between racial groups (as defined) and this can be in genetics, specific capabilities, traits, or characteristics.  It can be merely descriptive (even down to the cellular level) bit inevitably comes often to be used to suggest there might be races which are superior or inferior to others based on these differences.  Racism however, takes a belief system (usually of racial superiority) and imposes systemic oppression, discrimination, prejudice, and unequal treatment of individuals or groups based on their race, ethnicity, or nationality.  The most obvious examples involve the exercise of power and privilege by one racial group over others, leading to social, economic, and political disparities.  So seriously corrosive has race come to be seen in the West that some guides now recommend race never be mentioned by white people although there is a convention words & phrases using proscribed terms can be used the those in the group referenced, hence the ongoing popularity of the infamous N-words among the African American community.  That doesn’t however mean it’s now permissible for white people to use the phrase “white trash”, even as a self-descriptor because of its origins which essentially equated whites of the lowest socio-economic status with that of blacks although it does continue to be used both as a term of disparagement and one of group identity.  Helpfully, the guides suggest “Chinese whispers” should become “telephone whispers” and “Indian Ink” is best called “carbon-based ink” although under the original name it remains widely available.  In cricket, the “chinaman” delivery is no longer mention and if one is sent down, it’s correct to call it “left-arm unorthodox spin” or “left-arm wrist spin”, both of which are by comparison a bit of a mouthful but the sport seems to cope with the fielding position known as “deep backward square leg” so most should adapt.  The “French cut” seems to have survived.

Racialism can however still, with caution, be used.  Geneticists for example have determined the only “pure” human beings left are the black Africans while the rest of the planet’s population is a result of human Neanderthal interbreeding and that’s an example of racialism (the once current terms “race realism” and “scientific racism” have long been proscribed because they became tainted by a number of pseudo-sciences which (unsurprisingly) all supported notions of white superiority).  Also racialist is another discovery from the DNA labs: a genetic mutation found in Africans, the possession of which offers some degree of protection from malaria and that would have been a product of natural selection among those who live in places where the disease was endemic.

Viscacha or vizcacha

Viscacha or vizcacha (pronounced vi-skah-chuh)

A gregarious burrowing hystricomorph rodent (Lagostomus maximus), of the genera Lagidium and Lagostomus, within family Chinchillidae, about the size of a groundhog, inhabiting the pampas of Paraguay and Argentina and allied to the smaller chinchilla, also from the family Chinchillidae.  It’s known also at the mountain viscacha, a related rodent of the genus Lagidium (of the Andes), about the size of a squirrel, having rabbit-like ears and a squirrel-like tail.

1595–1605: From the Spanish viscacha from Quechua wisk’acha or Quechuan wiskácha.  The Spanish Quechua is from qhichwa (literally “temperate valley”).  With use depending on prevailing practice, both the spellings viscacha & vizcacha are used in various branches of biology and zoology, the older alternatives biscacha, biscacho & bizcacha now rare except in historic citation.  The noun plural is viscachas and the derived term is viscachera (plural viscacheras) which describes a warren inhabited by viscachas.

Vizcacha moments: Time for the world weary to take a nap; Lindsay Lohan joining a viscacha in a yawn.

The viscachas or vizcachas, of which there are five extant species, are rodents of the genera (Lagidium and Lagostomus) within the family Chinchillidae.  Native to South America, despite looking similar to rabbits or hares, they’re not related to either and are thus of interest to evolutionary biologists because they’re an example of convergent evolution.  When biologists first saw the viscacha they noted the question of heritage: mammals part of the Leporidae family (rabbit) or the Chinchillidae family (Chinchilla)?  Sharing the large ears, powerful hind legs, and small front paws, Vizcachas do bear a striking resemblance to the rabbit family but are distinguished by their long bushy tail, a trait unique to the Chinchillidae family.  Helpful for biologists as a species indicator, for the small rodent, it’s a marker of their state of mind, the tail is extended when distressed and curled when at ease.

Residing throughout southern and western South America, they tend to stay close to their underground burrows but possess surprising dexterity as climbers, able to jump from rock to rock so effortlessly and with such alacrity observers report their progress is hard to track with the naked eye.  They live in colonies that can be barely a dozen or number in the hundreds and have acquired an extensive repertoire of vocalizations used in social interactions.  Small they may be but Vizcachas are voluble and, belying their sleepy appearance, are noted for their gregarious behavior.

Up to two feet (.6 m) in length and weighing typically around 3.5 lbs (1.6 kg), Vizcachas are relatively large by rodent standards but are small compared to their carnivorous neighbors, the Puma and Culpeo Fox.  These two are fierce predators but the fast, agile Vizcacha has the advantage of inhabiting a mountainous environment littered with boulders and rocks which is difficult hunting ground so doesn’t suffer greatly from predation induced population decline.  The main threat is humans, less from the habitat loss which threatens some species but because of illegal hunting for their meat and fur, luxury items in some markets.

There are spiritual traditions in which exists the concept of the spirit animal, a creature the spirit of which is said to help guide or protect a person on a journey and the characteristics of which that person shares or embodies.  The apparently ancient concept is prominent in a number of indigenous (notably Native American) religions and cultures and was embraced by Pagan and Wiccan communities as recently as the 1990s and the term totem was sometimes used.  Totem was from the Native North American Ojibwe ᑑᑌᒼ or ᑑᑌᒻ (doodem) and referred to a sacred object, symbol or spirit and in a sense can be thought of as the equivalent of a flag (in the case of a tribe) or coat of arms (in the case of a clan).  The word totem became widely used by anthropologists when discussing cultural practices in many places (and not just in North America).  In academic use where it's a neutral descriptor this is usually not controversial but in general use it can be a form of cultural misappropriation.  In the West, the idea of spirit animals was picked up in the weird world of the new age, dolphins and other charismatic creatures predictably popular.  The concept turned out also to have appeal to some among the less spiritual who adopted the viscacha as their spirit animal because there is seemingly no living thing on earth with an appearance which so encapsulates the qualities of the melancholic, world-weariness and the need to take a nap.

Vizcacha moments: Jiang Zemin (1926–2022; General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) (and thus paramount leader) 1989-2002 & President of the People's Republic of China (PRC) 1993-2003), yawning (left) and resting his eyes (right) during one of the less interesting speeches delivered as part of the otherwise riveting proceedings of the nineteenth congress of the CCP, Beijing, October 2017.  It’s said Mr Jiang, sometime during his second term as paramount leader, adopted the viscacha as his spirit animal.

Gasoline

Gasoline (pronounced gas-uh-leen)

(1) A volatile, flammable liquid mixture of hydrocarbons, obtained from petroleum and used as fuel in internal-combustion engines or as a solvent.

(2) In the slang of drug users, marijuana, especially if notably potent (also as gas and there’s evidence both gas and gasoline have been used of other drugs).

(3) In slang, a cocktail made by mixing a spirit with an energy drink (the original believed to be a combination of vodka & Red Bull).

As used to describe the “light, volatile liquid obtained from distillation of petroleum”, gasoline dates from 1864 and was a variant of Gasolene which in the UK had been trade-marked the year before.  The word gasolene was from a trade-marked brand of petroleum-derived lighting oil, registered in 1862 which was based on the surname of English publisher and tea & coffee merchant John Cassell (1817–1865) who branched out into lighting fuel, marketed as both Cazeline & Cazzoline.  His publishing house Cassell & Co endures today as an imprint of the Octopus Publishing Group.  The surname Cassell was from the Anglo-Norman castel (a cognate of the English castle), from the Old French castel, from the Latin castellum, a diminutive of castrum.  The -eline suffix was from the Ancient Greek ἔλαιον (élaion) (oil, olive oil), from ἐλαία (elaía).  Etymologists speculate the spelling of gasolene (and thus gasoline) may have been influenced by Gazeline, an Irish product which was a clone of Cazzoline, either the promoters liked the assumed association with “gas” or simply they found it a more attractive word.  It’s though the general construct gas-o-line was built with the “o” representing the Latin oleum (oil) and the ending a borrowing from the chemical suffix -ine.  The alternative form gasolene is extinct in every market except Jamaica.  Gasoline is a noun & adjective and gasolinic is an adjective; the noun plural is gasolines.

Moderne BV-Aral Tankstelle (modern BV-Aral gas station), Bochum, FRG (Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)), 1958.  The cars are an Opel Rekord (left), a Volkswagen Type 14 (Karmann Ghia) coupé (centre) and a Volkswagen Type 1 (Beetle) (right).  In the background stands the head office of the oil company BV-Aral AG.

In the US, the shortened form “gas” was in common use by at least 1897 but on the pattern of use typically found in other words, it’s likely it was around almost as soon as gasoline went on sale.  The “gas station” (place to fill up one’s automobile (“gassing up”) with gasoline by use of a “gas pump”) was recorded in California in 1916 and was in national use by the early 1920s.  The “gas pedal” (the accelerator) was first recorded in 1908 and is still used even in markets where the term petrol is preferred, as in the phrase “step on the gas” (depress the accelerator (ie go faster)) which is used generally to suggest increasing speed or effort and is not confined to automobiles.  The term gas-guzzler (a car with a high fuel consumption) was coined in 1973 after the first oil shock and in 1978 the US federal government imposed the first stage of its long-running “gas-guzzler tax”.  The noun gasohol (a gasoline with a small percentage of ethanol was coined in 1975; the mix was another reaction to the increase in the oil price and occasional shortages in the era.  To “pour gasoline on the fire” is a suggestion some action is making an already bad situation worse.  The term Avgas (the construct being av(iation) + gas) was coined during the First World War (1914-1918) when it was found the mix used in automobiles was unsuitable for aircraft which needed a mixture with higher specific energy (ie high octane).  The use in North America (and a handful of other places) of “gas” to refer to what is otherwise generally known as “petrol” sometimes mystifies because in many markets the usual distinction for road transport is between vehicles fueled by diesel, petrol & gas (usually liquid petroleum gas (LPG) or compressed natural gas (CNG).

Entertainment Tonight (ET) deconstructs Lindsay Lohan’s dance moves at a New Jersey gas station, October 2019.  According to ET, the routine was executed between gas pumps 3 & 4.

In chemistry, gas is matter in an intermediate state between liquid and plasma that can be contained only if it is fully surrounded by a solid (or in a bubble of liquid, or held together by gravitational pull); it can condense into a liquid, or can (in care cases) become a solid directly by deposition. The common synonym is vapor (also as vapour).  The word was a borrowing from the Dutch gas which was coined by chemist Brussels-based chemist & physician Jan Baptist van Helmont (1580–1644), from the Ancient Greek χάος (kháos) (chasm, void, empty space) and there may also have been some influence from geest (breath, vapour, spirit).  More speculatively, there were also the writings of the Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance Theophrastus von Hohenheim (circa 1493-1541 and known usually as Paracelsus) who wrote of kháos in the occultist’s  sense of “proper elements of spirits”" or "ultra-rarified water”, both of which accorded with van Helmont's definition of gas which he introduced to the world in Ortus medicinae, vel opera et opuscula omnia (The Origin of Medicine, or Complete Works (1648)) with the words Hunc spiritum, incognitum hactenus, novo nomine gas voco (“This vapor, hitherto unknown, I call by a new name, ‘gas’”).

Lindsay Lohan gassing up her Porsche, Malibu, California, April 2020.

The use in science in the modern sense dates from 1779 and it was adopted for specific applications as technologies emerged or were commercialized: To describe a “combustible mix of vapors” the term “coal gas” was first used in 1794; the use in medicine for the anesthetic nitrous oxide was from 1794 (made famous in dentistry as “laughing gas” although the laughter was induced by impurities introduced in the early production processes rather than the inherent properties of N₂O); “Poison gas” was from 1900" (1900).  The meaning “intestinal vapors” emerged in 1882 while the not unrelated sense of “empty talk” was from 1847 (meaning something like “hot air”) although more positively, by 1953 “it’s a gas” meant “something exciting or excellent”, “a gasser” in 1944 meaning much the same.  James Joyce (1882–1941) in Dubliners (1914) used gas to mean “fun, a joke”, an Anglo-Irish form thought linked to the use of laughing gas in dentistry.  In drag racing “gassers” (so named because they were fueled by gasoline rather than methanol or nitromethane) were the most common of the highly modified road cars in the early days of the sport but the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) retired the category in 1972 and split the participation of gasoline-powered units into a number of classes.

Art Deco gas station, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, 1931.

The “gas-works” was first described in 1914 and was a little misleading because they were actually bulk-storage facilities from which gas was distributed either by fixed lines or cylinders delivered to the premises.  The kitchen appliance the “gas-oven” was mentioned first in 1851 although “gas-stove” by then had been in use for three years.  The notorious “gas chambers” used by the Nazis in their mass-murder programmes are most associated with the attempt to exterminate the Jews of Europe but the first were actually built in 1939, as part of Aktion T4 which involved the killing of those with physical and intellectual disabilities.  These early facilities used carbon monoxide and were built within Germany and served also to murder other prisoners and although by later standards inefficient, were adequate for the numbers involved.  As territories to the east were occupied, similar structures were built and there were ever experiments with “mobile chambers”, large air-tight van coachwork added to truck chassis into which the exhaust gasses were ducted.  Again, these worked but by 1941 the Nazis now wished to exterminate millions and the most efficient method was found to be scaled-up chambers (disguised as shower rooms) into which the hydrogen cyanide-based anti-vermin fumigant Zyklon B was introduced, permitting a throughput at the most productive death camps of some 5500 at day, sometimes for months at a time.  The term “gas chamber” was widely used during the post-war hearings conducted by the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg (1945-1946) but as a method of judicial execution, many nations had by then used them at various times and the US only recently abandoned use of the method.

Roadsters line up to gas up, Gasoline Alley, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, May 1960.  This was one of the official postcards sold in the speedway's shop.

Gasoline Alley is the name of the garage area at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  That wasn’t the original name but in the 1920s, “gasoline alley” was the drivers’ slang for the forecourt at the back of the garages where the cars were taken to refuel.  Whether linked or not, there was in the era a popular newspaper comic strip called Gasoline Alley and the use of the name soon extended to the strip dividing the two rows of garages.  It caught the public imagination and the facility managers in the early 1950s added signage which meant the whole garage area became associated with the term.  As a result of the reconstructions necessitated by fires, modernization & expansion, Gasoline Alley is not recognizable compared to its original appearance but the name remains, even thought actual gasoline is now rarely pumped, the open-wheel cars switching first to methanol (1965) and later (2006) ethanol and it’s only when other categories use the track that gasoline is in the tanks.  If the sport is compelled to convert to electric (or hopefully hydrogen) propulsion, the name is unlikely to change.

Rod Stewart (b 1945), Gasoline Alley (1970).

Muliebrity

Muliebrity (pronounced myoo-lee-eb-ri-tee)

(1) The condition of being a woman.

(2) Femininity; womanly nature or qualities.

(3) Effeminacy, softness

(4) In physiology, the state of puberty in the human female (rare).

1585–1595: From the Late Latin muliēbritās (womanhood) from muliēbris (womanly) from mulier (woman).  The original meaning in the 1590s was "womanhood, state of puberty in a woman", this corresponding to virility in men.  The Latin source mulier (a woman) has for centuries been held to be comparative to the stem of mollis (soft, weak) to which there have long been phonetic objections, but no alternative theory has been offered.  This was the source also in the oldest known customary and common law texts of the sense of mulier being "a woman; a wife" and, as an adjective, "born in wedlock."  Related was muliebral (of or pertaining to a woman) and muliebrious (effeminate), both documented from the 1650s.  The later mulierosity (an excessive fondness for women) is perhaps a more attractive term than those many would prefer.  In pre-modern medicine, in early anatomy and medical texts, the pudenda muliebria was euphemistic for "vagina"; in later use in physiology it came to refer simply to the state of puberty in a female.  In early literary use it had the sense of “the state of attainment of womanhood following maidenhood” but well before the twentieth century had come instead to be a general expression of youthful feminine beauty.  The –ity suffix was borrowed from the French -ité, from the Middle French -ité, from the Old French –ete & -eteit (-ity), from the Latin -itātem, from -itās, from the primitive Indo-European suffix –it.  It was cognate with the Gothic –iþa (-th), the Old High German -ida (-th) and the Old English -þo, -þu & -þ (-th).  It was used to form nouns from adjectives (especially abstract nouns), thus most often associated with nouns referring to the state, property, or quality of conforming to the adjective's description.  Muliebrity is a noun and muliebral & muliebrile are adjectives, the noun plural is muliebrities.  Muliebrity long ago shifted in meaning from its late sixteenth century origins and is now probably most seen (or un-seen) in the diary entries of young ladies who read Wuthering Heights at a young age and never quite recovered.

Shakespeare on difficult women

There is in William Shakespeare (1564–1616), much to be found, one modern critic said even to have claimed him as “the noblest women’s rightist of them all”.  There may be something in this and Shakespeare created some memorably defiant women who asserted themselves in ways we don’t, erroneously or not, associate with the social mores of his age but, while some flourish, not all go unpunished for their transgressive behavior, although some didn’t need to be that difficult to be punished; few who try to map proto-feminism onto Shakespeare mention Katherine (The Taming of the Shrew; circa 1590) who apparently suffered her fate just for being a funny, fierce man-hater.  Seemingly, at least sometimes in Shakespeare, the more muliebrious the better.

Olivia Hussey (b 1951) as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's (1923-2019) film of Romeo and Juliet (1968).

He certainly didn’t stick to the defined role-models of his time, Helena (All's Well That Ends Well; circa 1600), although she spends most of her time moping about in anguish at the indifference of a man she wants, was a talented doctor who delicately repairs the king's anal fistula.  So, in Shakespeare, there’s sometimes ambivalence.  Juliet (Romeo & Juliet; circa 1595) got equal billing with Romeo and while they’re both equally vital to the plot, Juliet, while head over heels in love, at least remains a bit more grounded than the poetic Romeo, a bit of an emo who likes talking about the moon.  Romantic she may be but it’s Juliet to whom the bard gave the long soliloquy about how much she lusts for sex with her lover-to-be and there’s no sense she’s demonized for having normal womanly, human longings.

Crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947).

Lady Macbeth (The Tragedie of Macbeth; 1606) draws actresses like few other characters of the stage; Shakespeare’s most fierce female, it’s not hard to see the attraction.  Lady Macbeth is childless, probably less a statement of proto-feminism or a rejection of societal expectations than the bard constructing her as one noted more for manipulation than muliebrity and just so the audience gets it, there’s her monologue (Act 1, scene 5) imploring the spirits to “Stop up the access and passage to remorse” (gender dysmorphia and commitment issues) and “Come to my woman’s breasts, and take my milk for gall” (less succorance; more bile).  Without these womanly distractions, Lady Macbeth knows she’ll have the strength herself to murder King Duncan even if her husband does not.  Though it is Macbeth who murders Duncan, it was the wife who put the blade in his hand and in the end, Shakespeare punishes her too.

Imogen Stubbs (b 1961) as Viola in Trevor Nunn's (b 1940) film of Twelfth Night (1996).

Although both survive a shipwreck, Viola (Twelfth Night; circa 1601) and her twin brother Sebastian each believe the other dead and, once ashore, everyone thinks she is her brother and her brother is her.  Making the best of a bad situation Viola, in an act of feminist temerity, anticipates changes in the nature of female workforce participation (which won’t be seen for centuries) by, rather than enduring the misery of domestic servitude, dresses as a boy and goes to work for the Duke of Orsino (with whom she falls in love).  That’s where it gets complicated because the duke sends Viola to court the Countess Olivia on his behalf but Olivia falls for Viola and, with the twin Sebastian having shown up, a flood of mistaken identity ensues, and, after a few shenanigans, Sebastian and Olivia wed.  Viola then reveals she really is a girl and marries the duke.  If Shakespeare hadn’t had something else in mind, he might have called Twelfth Night, All’s well that ends well.

Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) as Cleopatra in Lloyd Kramer's (b 1947) made-for-TV Liz & Dick (2012).

Although Cleopatra (The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra; circa 1607) was another of Shakespeare’s women who ended up dead, while she lived she was quite something, a woman with her own bank account who ruled a nation.  Complex, strong and vulnerable, she’s another one actresses like to play, her tragedy in death offering a bit more scope that Portia’s triumph in victory.  Cleopatra explored Mediterranean sexual realpolitik too, toying with an Antony who is just one of the many men she outsmarts; no stereotypes of subservience there.  Still, things do end badly for her, even if in her noble death she denies Caesar Octavius one more triumph, his primacy assured is by the play’s extraordinary death-toll and, with no political foes left standing, he sails for Rome to be crowned Emperor.

Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) as Portia in American Shakespeare Theatre's production of The Merchant of Venice (1957).

Portia (The Merchant of Venice; circa 1597) seems at first an improbable feminist model, the first scene one in which the heiress watches potential suitors sit the tests devised by her father to find one worthy of her hand in marriage.  But the patriarchy is no match for Portia who twists the tests to ensure the winner is her preferred beau, one who would never otherwise have attracted her father’s approval; Portia is smart and tough.  She undermines gender-stereotyping and the patriarchy beyond the family too, cross-dressing to appear in court at a time when women weren’t permitted to be counsel.  For feminist anti-Semites too there’s a strong role-model, Portia’s legal sophistry rescuing good Christian Antonio from the grim fate demanded by the Jewish money-lender.

Elisabeth Bergner (1897-1986) as Rosalind in Paul Czinner's (1890-1972) film of As You Like It (1936).

After being exiled, strong-willed Rosalind (As You Like It ;circa 1599) adopts the disguises of the male shepherd Ganymede and goes to live in the Arcadian forest of Ardenne.  There, inter alia, she becomes a sort of life-coach, focused on teaching men to be more progressive in their attitudes towards women; not exactly making them metrosexuals but certainly less late-medieval.  It works for her too for the previously uncouth Orlando learns better how to woo her and they wed in the happy group marriage at play’s end and in being taught by Rosalind to get in touch with his female side, Orlando takes part is what is probably Shakespeare’s most overt deconstruction of gender roles.  There is however an undercurrent of class awareness in the allocation of happiness.  Of the four couples, it’s the peasant pair, Phoebe & Silvius, who end up married even though his love for her remains surely unrequited; Shakespeare may have felt his clever women of the better classes deserved happiness more than peasant shepherdesses.  Structurally it’s interesting too for in As You Like It, it’s Rosalind who delivers the play’s epilogue, a thing Shakespeare traditionally reserved for a man and that may be Rosalind’s most post-modern transgression.