Hem

 Hem (pronounced hemm)

(1) To fold back and sew down the edge of (cloth, a garment, etc.); form an edge or border on or around (short for hemline).

(2) To enclose or confine (usually followed by in, around, or about).

(3) An edge made by folding back the margin of cloth and sewing it down.

(4) The edge or border of a garment, drape, etc, especially at the bottom.

(5) The edge, border, or margin of anything.

(6) In architecture, the raised edge forming the volute of an ionic capital.

(7) In literature, a device (sometimes explicitly oral) to indicate hesitation or faltering.

(8) In textual transcription, a representation of the sound of clearing the throat, used to gain attention, express hesitation, etc (onomatopoeic).

Pre-1000: From the Middle English hemm, from the Old English hem (probably akin to hamm (enclosure)), from the Proto-Germanic hamjam, from the Old Norse hemja (to bridle, curb).  Related words included the Swedish hämma (to stop, restrain), the Old Frisian hemma (to hinder), the Middle Dutch and German hemmen (to hem in, stop, hinder), the ultimate root apparently kem (to compress) and it was concurrent with other, geographically distributed forms, hemo and haem.  Later, in the US there was briefly the variant haemo.  The same Germanic root yielded also the Old English hamm, common in place names where it means "enclosure, land hemmed in by water or high ground, land in a river bend".  In Middle English, hem also was a symbol of pride or ostentation.  The representation of the clearing of the throat, an imitative form, was first recorded in the 1520s.  The literary device, hem (and the now almost extinct haw) first recorded in 1786, haw being derived from hesitation.  The now common meaning of a border or fringe emerged in the late-fourteenth century, the variation of which “shut-in or confined”, dates from fifty years later.  Hem & hemming are nouns, verbs & adjectives, hemmer is a noun and hemmed is a verb; the noun plural is hems.

The importance of weighted hems

Chanel’s original bouclé cardigan jacket with weighted hems (1955, left), Audrey Hepburn's (1929–1993) take on the little black dress (1960, centre) and Bridget Bardot (b 1934) in Rome (1963, centre).

Coco Chanel (1883–1971) introduced weighted hems in 1955 as a feature of her bouclé cardigan jackets.  Paired usually with a straight skirt, and simple blouse made from fabric matching the jacket lining, its signature design feature was the weighted hem, engineered with a small gilded chain.  A weighted-hem’s purpose is to add weight so the jacket or skirt hangs close to the body and sits properly when worn.  It also serves as a counterbalance if a jacket has large, potentially heavy, buttons which can cause the garment to pull forward on the shoulders.  The slight weight helps any wrinkles to hang out, especially if, like linen, the fabric is prone to them.

The idea proved helpful for photographers and film-directors.  They'd long been used to fashioning all sorts of ad-hoc structural devices (wire, cardboard, tape etc) to make hair or clothing sit exactly where was needed for a shot and, if sufficiently rigid, such superstructure could even withstand all but string winds.  The rakish swish of Audrey Hepburn's LBD was achieved with internal supports which ensured the wind-blown look could be both perfected and maintained; it was the weighted hem writ large.  To have garments made with channels for a metal chain proved very handy, the chain able quickly to be swapped for something less flexible when a skirt or jacket needed to be maintained in position while photographs were taken.  In this case the weighted hems were used as a structural member, providing the rigidity which lent the garment the desired shape.

By the time Bridget Bardot was being photographed in Rome in the 1960s, for the adventurous, hem-lines were rising further above the knee so the functionality of the weighted hem assumed a new importance, particularly on windy days.  Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) of course made famous the dramatic possibilities the combination of a well-directed draft and billowing fabric could achieve but that was a staged "wardrobe malfunction" with cameramen assembled.  Weighted hems were helpful in avoiding unplanned malfunctions.

Jaguar E-Type (XK-E), 1961.

Jaguar devoted a lot of time to testing the E-Type but one thing which slipped through the pre-production process was a buffeting the roadster’s fabric soft-top exhibited at certain speeds.  It seems an obvious thing not to notice but, like the Hubble telescope's mis-shaped mirror, it was just one of those things.  With the E-Type’s release date locked-in, it was too late to redesign the components.

Jaguar's quick and dirty solution was to weigh-down the affected area with a chain of lead-shot, sewed into the fabric in effectively the same way weighted hems are used in fashion.  Just over half an inch (14mm) diameter, the lead-shot bag was wrapped in a sisal cord with two twelve inch (300mm) draw-cords to permit it easily to be pulled through the pocket in the top.  It was such a rush-job Jaguar never allocated a part- number and it’s only ever been part of hood cloth assembly #BD20582.  Both the Series 1 (1961-1968) and Series 2 (1968-1971) E-Types had the lead-shot bag, even though the soft-top’s frame was re-designed for the later cars, the S1 having three bows, the S2, two and for the S2, the size of the shot-bag was reduced slightly to accommodate a change in placement, now beneath the centre strap between the bows.  Interestingly, despite presumably having at least slightly different aerodynamic properties, there seems to have been no difference in the buffeting suffered by the early cars with mohair fabric and the later which used Everflex.  The top on the Series 3 E-Type (1971-1974) was again re-designed, this time in a way which rendered the lead-shot chains unnecessary.

Lindsay Lohan in red bubble hem dress, attending the twentieth anniversary party for Uno de 50, Grand Palacio de Saldaña, Madrid, June 2016.  Uno de 50 translates as "One of 50", an allusion to the company producing its jewelry pieces in small runs of no more than fifty.

A "hem dress" is one with a hemline with an edge of the fabric turned under and stitched, usually with a fold or seam to prevent the fabric from unraveling and the technique can be applied to a variety of styles, including empire-line, sheath, shift, wrap, and maxi dresses, and can be made from any number of fabrics including cotton, silk, chiffon, or lace.  The length of a hem dress varies according to the design and can be adjusted to suit individual preferences.  Often added a flourish, hem can be worn on formal occasions, in work settings or as everyday wear.  Although not a technically challenging project for a seamstress, making a bubble dress into a hem dress does demand a thoughtful design because it's all too easy to end up with something just too busy above the knee and, the bubble line being inherently "bubbly", they can end up looking untidy and even unfinished.  Designers recommend that where possible, the hem detail should be matched with a similar duplication of horizontal lines at the waist and above the bustline.

Ivanka Trump (b 1981) critiques fashion sense of Narendra Modi (b 1950; Prime Minister of India since 2014), Global Entrepreneurship Summit, Hyderabad, India, 28 November 2017.

Funicular

Funicular (pronounced fyoo-nik-yuh-ler)

(1) Of or relating to a rope or cord, or its tension.

(2) Worked by a rope or the like.

(3) In physics and geometry, the curve an idealized hanging chain or cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends (also known as a catenary).

(4) A type of cable car, usually described as a funicular railway which tends to be constructed on steep slopes and consist of a counterbalanced car sat either end of a cable passing round a driving wheel at the summit.

(5) Of or relating to a funicle.

(6) In medicine, of or pertaining to the umbilical cord.

(7) In botany, having a fleshy covering of the seed formed from the funiculus, the attachment point of the seed.

1655-1665: From the Latin funicle (a small cord) from the Latin funiculus (a slender rope), diminutive of funis (a cord, rope) of unknown etymology but possibly related to the Latin filum (thread), a doublet of file and (in anatomy), a filamentous anatomical structure.

The Funicular Railway

Castle Hill Funicular, Budapest, Hungary.  Opened in 1870, It ascends and descends 167 feet (51m) through a track of 312 feet (95m) in around ninety seconds.

A funicular railway employs (usually) two passenger vehicles pulled on a slope by the same cable which loops over a pulley wheel at the upper end of a track.  The vehicles are permanently attached to the ends of the cable and counterbalance each other. They move synchronously: while one is ascending, the other descends.  The use of two vehicles is what distinguishes funiculars from other types of cable railways although more complex funiculars have been built using four.  The first was built in 1874.

In 1943, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943) was deposed by a meeting of the Fascist Ground Council, a kind of senate he'd made the mistake of not dissolving when he had the chance.  In farcical circumstances, the Duce was arrested and spirited away and almost immediately, Fascism in Italy "burst like a bubble", a not inaccurate assessment but one which caused some embarrassment to Colonel-General Alfred Jodl (1890–1946; Chief of the Operations Staff OKW (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (high command of the armed forces)) 1939-1945) who made the mistake of blurting it out in the presence of  Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945).  Not wanting the contagion to spread, Hitler ordered Mussolini be rescued so he could be established as a "puppet Duce" somewhere to try to preserve the illusion the "pact of steel" between the two fascist states remained afoot.    

Seeking a place to imprison the deposed Duce secure from any rescue attempt, the new Italian government locked him up at the Hotel Campo Imperatore, a mountain resort in Abruzzo accessible only by a funicular railway, judged (correctly) by the military authorities to be easily defensible against ground troops and without the facilities to support landings by aircraft.  However, a rapidly improvised operation using glider-borne Waffen-SS troops and a STOL (short take-off & landing) airplane staged a daring raid and freed the captive though it proved a brief reprieve, the Duce and his mistress executed by a mob less than two years later.

Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, Gran Sasso d'Italia massif, Italy, during the mission to rescue Mussolini from captivity, 12 September 1943.  The Duce is sitting in the passenger compartment.

The German liaison & communications aircraft, the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch (stork) was famous for its outstanding short take-off & landing (STOL) performance and low stalling speed of 30 mph (50 km/h) which enabled it almost to hover when faced into a headwind.  It was one of the classic aircraft designs of the era and so close to perfect it remained in production for years after the end of hostilities and re-creations are still often fabricated by those attracted by its close to unique capabilities.  The Storch’s ability to land in the length of a cricket pitch (22 yards (20.12 m)) made it a useful platform for all sorts of operations and while the daring landing on for a mountain-top rescue-mission in northern Italy was the most famous, for all of the war it was an invaluable resource; it was the last Luftwaffe (German air force) aircraft to land in Berlin during the last days of the Third Reich.  In 1943, so short was the length of the strip of grass available for take-off that even for a Storch it was touch & go (especially with the Duce’s not inconsiderable weight added) but with inches to spare, the little plane safely delivered its cargo.

In one of the war's more obscure footnotes, it was the characteristics of the Fieseler Storch which led to what was may have been the first appearance (in writing) for centuries of an old piece of Middle English slang, dating from the 1590s.  In sixteenth century England, the ability of the Kestrel (a common small falcon) to hover in even a light breeze meant it came to be known (in certain circles) as "the windfucker" and the similar ability of the Storch was noted in one British wartime diary entry in which the folk-name for the bird was invoked to describe the little aircraft seemingly "hanging in the air".

Hooptie

Hooptie (pronounced hoop-dee or whoop-dee (contested))

In slang, an old, worn-out car.

Circa 1960s: The slang hooptie is used to describe an old, battered car.  The origin is uncertain but it’s thought to have originated in African American urban vernacular sometime in the second half of the twentieth century.  The most common explanation is that the word is a phonetic adaptation from Coupe de Ville, a model of Cadillac produced 1949-2005 (although the factory used the syntax Coupe De Ville only from 1959; prior to that they were Cadillac DeVilles with coupe bodies).  Coupé was from the French couper (to cut), from the Old French coper & colper (to cut off), probably from cop (blow) or colp (which endures as the modern coup), with sense derived from the notion of “cutting off with a blow”.  It may correspond to a Vulgar Latin verb colpāre, a syncopated form of colaphāre (blow, cuff), from the Latin colaphus (a blow delivered by a fist).  The alternative etymology suggests a link with the Vulgar Latin cuppāre (to behead), from the Latin caput (head) although this has never received much support.  The term de ville was from the French phrase de la ville which translated literally as de (of) la (the) ville (city) and in the eighteenth & nineteenth centuries a “sedanca de ville” was a type of small, horse drawn carriage popular for use in the tight streets of cities.  The carriages featured an enclosed compartment for usually two-three passengers while the driver sat outside.  That configuration was adopted in the early coachwork of some automobiles and although production declined as fully-enclosed bodies began to prevail, the style remained on the lists of many coachbuilders until the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945).  In the post-war years there was the odd sedanca de ville which coachbuilders would build on special request by the 1970s the style was thought extinct, a feeling which Bentley’s quixotic semi-revival with the production of a few dozen Continental Sedanca Coupés (SC) in 1999 did little to dispel.  The SC was actually just an appropriation of the name and really a variation of a targa, the rear passenger compartment covered but not enclosed.

Lindsay Lohan assessing her hooptie: Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005).

There have been five alternative theories for the etymology: (1) One suggests both hoopdie & hooptie were both used in the African American community in the 1920s to describe a run-down or dilapidated house (a use perhaps derived from “hovel”) and over time the term came to be was applied to old cars in some advanced state of disrepair.  There is little support for this.  (2) It may be onomatopoeic and a reference to the tortured sounds which emanate from a defective machine in need of repairs.  There is little support for this. (3) It may be related to the phrase “hope I die”, the anthropomorphic notion being the car would sooner be crushed than continue in its dilapidated state.  There is no support for this.  (4) It may be from Hupmobile, a popular brand of car early in the twentieth century, the linguist progress being from “Hupmobile” to “hup” and finally to "hoop", the theory being the use was originally specific to neglected Hupmobiles and later generalized.  There is little support for this.  (5) Hooptie may be from the West African Wolof xub (broken down), the connection being many African Americans are descended from those brought to the US during the slave trade.  It’s thought not impossible but linguistic anthropologists seem unconvinced.  The link with the Cadillac Coupe DeVille (Cadillac followed the usual US practice and never spelled Coupé with the l'accent aigu (acute accent) on the final "e") remains most convincing because for decades, the model was a byword for automotive prestige in the US and it (and similar long cars from the era) is still used in music videos by African Americans.  The song My Hooptie by Sir Mix-a-Lot (stage name of Anthony L Ray (b 1963)) was released in 1989 and included on his album Seminar.  The alternative spellings are hooptee & hoopty.  Hooptie is a noun; the noun plural is hoopties.

Peak Cadillac Coupe DeVille is probably the 1968 model which, uniquely, combined the classic 1960s styling with the stacked headlamps with the new 472 cubic inch (7.7 litre) V8 which in the 1970s would grow to 500 cubic inches (8.2 litre) before shrinking in the post oil-shock world.  When, in 368 cubic inch (6.0 litre) form it was retired in 1984, it was the last of the old “big-block” V8s available in a passenger car.

Reflecting the etymology, the original use of coupé was to describe a horse-drawn carriage cut down to a smaller size to provide for greater speed & agility but by the time Cadillac released the Coupe de Ville in 1949, coupe had come generally to mean a two door car and DeVille was appended because it was known to be suggestive of something expensive or exclusive although presumably few were well acquainted with the literal translation.  That was probably just as well because the big Cadillacs weren’t ideal for use in densely populated and congested cities, even those of the late twentieth century US where the parking meters were further apart.  Adopting Cadillac’s usual conventions of nomenclature, the companion four-door models were called Sedan DeVille (It began in 1949 as de Ville and Cadillac published material with the spellings de Ville, De Ville & DeVille before standardizing the later) and the convertibles received no separate designation, labeled also Coupe DeVille.  Surprisingly, the two and four-door were the same length which must have helped with production-line rationalization.

My Hooptie by Sir Mix-a-Lot (Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group)

My hooptie rollin', tailpipe draggin'
Heat don't work an' my girl keeps naggin'
Six-nine Buick, deuce keeps rollin'
One hubcap 'cause three got stolen
Bumper shook loose, chrome keeps scrapin'
Mis-matched tires, and my white walls flakin'
Hit mickey-d's, Maharaji starts to bug
He ate a quarter-pounder, threw the pickles on my rug
Runnin', movin' tabs expired
Girlies tryin' to dis 'n say my car looks tired
Hit my brakes, out slid skittles
Tinted back window with a bubble in the middle
Who's car is it? Posse won't say
We all play it off when you look our way
Rollin' four deep, tires smoke up the block
Gotta roll this bucket, 'cause my Benz is in the shop
My hooptie - my hooptie
Four door nightmare, trunk locks' stuck
Big dice on the mirror, grill like a truck
Lifters tickin', accelerator's stickin'
Somethin' on my left front wheel keeps clickin'
Picked up the girlies, now we're eight deep
Cars barely movin', but now we got heat
Made a left turn as I watched in fright
My ex-girlfriend shot out my headlight
She was standin', in the road, so I smashed her toes
Mashed my pedal, boom, down she goes
Law ain't lyin', long hairs flyin'
We flipped the skeez off, dumb girl starts cryin'
Baby called the cops, now I'm gettin' nervous
The cops see a beeper and the suckers might serve us
Hit a side street and what did we find?
Some young punk, droppin' me a flip off sign
Put the deuce in reverse, and started to curse
Another sucker on the south side about to get hurt
Homey got scared, so I got on
Yeah my group got paid, but my groups still strong
Posse moved north, headin for the CD
Ridin' real fast so the cops don't see me
Mis-matched tires got my boys uptight
Two Vogues on the left, Uniroyal on the right
Hooptie bouncin', runnin' on leaded
This is what I sport when you call me big-headed
I pot-hole crusher, red light rusher
Musher of a brother 'cause I'm plowin' over suckers
In a hooptie
It's a three-ton monster, econo-box stomper
Snatch your girly, if you don't I'll romp 'er
Dinosaur rush, lookin' like Shaft
Some get bold, but some get smashed
Cops say the car smokes, but I won't listen
It's a six-nine deuce, so the hell with emissions
Rollin' in Tacoma, I could get burned
(Sound of automatic gunfire) Betta make a you-turn
Spotted this freak with immense posterior
Tryin' to roll smooth through the Hilltop area
Brother start lettin' off, kickin' that racket
Thinkin' I'm a rock star, slingin' them packets
I ain't wit' dat, so I smooth eject
Hit I-5 with the dope cassette
Playin' that tough crew hardcore dope
The tape deck broke
Damn what's next, brothers in Goretex
Tryin' to find a spot where we could hunt for sex
Found a little club called the N-see-O
Military, competition. You know.
I ain't really fazed, 'cause I pop much game
Rolled up tough, 'cause I got much fame
"How ya doin' baby, my name is Mixalot"
"Mixalot got a Benz boy, quit smokin' that rock"
Ooooh, I got dissed. But it ain't no thing
Runnin' that game with the home made slang
Baby got ished, Bremelo gip.
Keep laughin' at the car and you might get clipped
By a hooptie
Runnin' outta gas, stuck in traffic
Far left lane, throwin' up much static
Input, output, carbeurator fulla soot
"Whatcha want me to do Mix?"
Push freak, push
Sputter, sputter rollin' over gutters
Cars dip low with hard core brothers
Tank on E, pulled into Arco
Cops on tip for Columbian cargo
We fit a stereotype, that's what he said
Big long car, four big black heads
Cops keep jockin', grabbin' like 'gators
'Bout stereotypes, I'm lookin' nuthin' like Noriega
Cop took my wallet, looked at my license
His partner said "Damn, they all look like Tyson"
Yes, I'm legit, so they gotta let me go
This bucket ain't rollin' in snow
It's my hooptie

Absinthe or Absinth

Absinthe or Absinth (pronounced ab-sinth)

(1) A green, aromatic liqueur (alcohol content 45-74%), made with wormwood and other herbs, it has a bitter, liquorice flavour; has from time-to-time been banned in many Western countries.  Technically, because of the high wormwood content, it’s a gin.  The colloquial name was green fairy.

(2) An alternative name for the herb Artemisia absinthium (grande wormwood); essence of wormwood which correctly should be spelled only absinth).

(3) Bitterness; sorrow (archaic except for poetic use).

(4) A shade (a spectrum from yellow-green to a quite bright hue),labeled on color charts as “absinthe green”.

(5) A rare alternative name for the sagebrush (US).

1350-1470: From the French absinthe (essence of wormwood (short for extrait d'absinthe)), from the Latin absinthium (wormwood and a doublet of absinthium), from the Ancient Greek ἀψίνθιον (apsínthion) (wormwood) of uncertain origin although its speculated the source may be a Persian root (spand or aspand, or the variant esfand) which meant Peganum harmala, also called Syrian Rue which, while not actually a variety of rue, is another famously bitter herb.  The alternative etymology is that the genus was named after Queen Artemisia, the wife and sister of Mausolus, ruler of Caria 377–353.  When Mausolus died, he was buried in the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and traces of the ruins can still be seen at Bodrum in modern-day Turkey.  In the Hellenic myths, Ἄρτεμις (Artemis) was  goddess of the hunt, and protector of the forest and children; her equivalent in Roman mythology was Diana.  Absinthe & absinthism are nouns and absinthic is an adjective; the noun plural is absinthes.

The highly alcoholic, anise-flavored liquor originally made from grande wormwood, anise, and other herbs was first distilled in 1842, lending its name to the yellow-green color which became commercially available in the late 1800s.  The early spelling was absinth (which survived longer than absynthe and absenta) and although extinct in English use, absinth is the spelling variant most commonly applied to varieties of the spirit produced in Central and Eastern Europe and is specifically associated with Bohemian-style absinthes.  The wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) plant itself has long been figurative of "bitter" sorrow and was known in English as absinth in English from circa 1500; the earlier tradition, drawn from the Old English, used the word in the Latin form.  The drink first gained popularity in Europe after being consumed in some abundance by French soldiers in Algiers.  In North Africa, there was a long fascination with absinthe, historians noting it had been associated with “magical properties” as far back as ancient Egypt.

Before being outlawed in many Western countries in the early twentieth century, it was known colloquially as the green fairy, a “green muse” who would visit to liberate the visions of poets and artists.  The health authorities fretted over the alleged hallucinogenic qualities and, after a bit of a moral panic, imposed a ban.  Historians of such things suspect the spirit probably generally didn't induce hallucinations to anywhere near the extent of the legends of the era suggest and that its reputation was probably gained from excessive consumption of mixes with unusually high concentrations of wormwood being sold, the regulation of the content of strong drink paying little attention to anything except the taxable component (alcohol).  However, absinthe is again available in Australia; a 750 ml (25 oz) bottle of Vedrenne Elie Arnaud Denoix Mythe including a drip-spoon (sugar cubes not included) is available at Aus$100.00.

Death in the afternoon

Death in the Afternoon, also called The Hemingway or Hemingway Champagne, is a mix of absinthe and Champagne, invented by Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) himself.  The concoction shares its name with a novel from his “bullfighting, bull-slinging, & bullshit” period (Death in the Afternoon (1932)), the recipe published in a 1935 anthology of cocktails with contributions from noted authors. 

(1) Pour one jigger of absinthe into a Champagne glass.

(2) Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness.

(3) Drink three to five of these, slowly.

Traditional French Method

(1) Pour a shot (1oz/30ml) of absinthe into a tall, wide rimmed glass.

(2) Rest specially slotted absinthe spoon across top of the glass.

(3) Place a sugar cube atop absinthe spoon.

(4) Slowly drizzle ice-cold water over sugar cube so water is evenly displaced into absinthe until drink is diluted to a ratio between 3:1 and 5:1.

(5) Stir gently and enjoy.

Bohemian Method

(1) Pour a shot (1oz/30ml) of absinthe into a tall, wide rimmed glass.

(2) Put lump of sugar on a spoon and dip it in the absinthe until cube is saturated.

(3) Hold spoon over glass and set the cube alight; it will bubble and caramelize.

(4) When flame has died down, stir sugar into absinthe.

(5) Add iced-water until drink is diluted to a ratio between 3:1 and 5:1.

(6) Stir gently and enjoy.

French purists disapprove of these Bohemian ways, claiming the caramelizing of the sugar impairs the true flavor of absinthe.

Ernest Hemingway wasn’t the only one fond of the green fairy.  Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) is claimed to have said “After the first glass of absinthe you see things as you wish they were. After the second you see them as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.”  He applied his empirical research into the spirit’s psychoactive and degenerative properties in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890-1891) in which the eponymous protagonist takes those staples of decadent Victorian hedonism, opium and absinthe, in seedy places among London's Docklands.

The French poet Paul Verlaine (1844–1896) was famously fond of absinthe, his lust for the spirit shared with his lover and fellow poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), the pair having a drunken tiff during which Rimbaud was shot, sustaining a minor wound.  After that, Verlaine’s alcoholism worsened and he died in poverty, on his deathbed damning as “the green witch” which governments should ban.  Rimbaud may have been more open-minded, one of his works containing the line: “Wise pilgrims, let us reach / The Absinthe with its green pillars.”  Shortly after being shot, he renounced poetry, briefly serving in the military before deserting to take up a life in commerce.

Le Buveur d'absinthe (The Absinthe Drinker (1859)) by Édouard Manet (1832-1883).

The first major painting by the French painter Édouard Manet was Le Buveur d'absinthe, a study of an alcoholic rag-picker who frequented the area around the Louvre.  The work caused a stir in polite society because of its seedy realism and the concern at the time about the corrosive effects of absinthe among Parisian bohemians and although there’s nothing to prove Manet was even an occasional drinker of the stuff, he did among some gain the reputation on the basis of "guilt by association".  Very few in the art establishment liked the painting and even Manet would later admit the earliest version of the work contained technical flaws but it was the content which so offended and there was something of the "shock of the new" in that it was one of the first depictions of Absinth drinking in representational art.  Manet submitted Le Buveur d'absinthe for inclusion in the Paris Salon in 1859 and almost unanimously the selection committee voted "non".  The establishment may not have wanted moral  degeneracy hanging in their galleries but the avant garde wanted little but and Manet's painting was among the first admitted to the Salon des Refusés (literally "exhibition of rejects") in 1863.  

A Le Buveur d'absinthe (The Absinthe Drinker) (1901) by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973).

A Le Buveur d'absinthe would be also be painted by Pablo Picasso, competed in the autumn of 1901, just as his “blue period” was beginning.  Although nowhere near as monochromatic as later blue period works such as Femme aux Bras Croisés (Woman with Folded Arms (1901-1902)) or La Vie (Life (1903)), the work is an early example of the themes associated with this phase, melancholy, alienation & desolation.  The blue period began after Picasso became depressed over the suicide of a close friend and for some years he would explore aspects of human misery.  For someone who looks this unhappy absinthe might be a good choice but it disn't suit everyone.  The French symbolist writer Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) was renowned for his particularly erratic and eccentric behavior, often indulged in while drinking in Paris’s absinthe cafes and it’s said, with his face painted green, he once rode his bicycle through a village to celebrate the joy of the spirit.  He died of consumption, the severity of his condition aggravated by drug and alcohol use.

Absente Absinthe Refined.

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) was known to drink absinthe, not anything unusual at the time and while he suffered from what would now be called “mental health issues” (then it was simply “went mad”), what part the drink played in his breakdown isn’t known although in letters to friends, he did note the effect it had on his work.  The mere connection however was enough for Crillon Importers to collaborate with Absente to produce the Van Gogh themed packaging for Absente Absinthe Refined when in 1999 it was the first brand to offer the green fairy in the US since it was banned in 1912.  Absente made much of its spirit being “authentic” by which they meant it was distilled from wormwood and therefore contained thujone, the fabled and allegedly psychoactive substance naturally present in the herb and the reason for the original ban although cautiously, when permitting sales in 1999, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives limited the thujone content to 10 milligrams per liter.

Lindsay Lohan in absinthe green, 2019.

Once one of France’s most famous poets and essayists, Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was probably no more fond of absinthe than any other strong drink but he certainly didn’t avoid the green fairy, even writing the poem Enivrez-vous (Get drunk) in which its mentioned.  For years he drank heavily and used a variety of opioids before suffering a massive stroke in 1866, lingering in a semi-paralysis for almost a year before dropping dead.

Whirlwind

Whirlwind (pronounced wurl-wind)

(1) Any of several relatively small masses of air rotating rapidly around a more or less vertical axis and advancing simultaneously over land or sea, as a dust devil, tornado, or waterspout.

(2) Anything resembling a whirlwind, as in violent action or destructive force; an impetuously active person

(3) Any rush or violent onward course.

(4) As “like a whirlwind” as in speed or force; to move or quickly travel.

1300-1350: From the Middle English whirlewind & whirlewynde, the construct being whirl +‎ wind.  Source was probably the Old Norse hvirfilvindr which was cognate with the German wirbelwind.  From the Old Norse came the Icelandic hvirfilvindur, the Norwegian Nynorsk kvervelvind, the Norwegian Bokmål virvelvind & the Norwegian Nynorsk virvelvind.  Whirly-wind was (probably now extinct) nineteenth century Australian slang for a whirlwind, cyclone, tornado or dust devil and was from the Yindjibarndi wili wili (and it may have existed also in other First Nations languages in north-west Australia).  Whirlwind is a noun& adjective and whirlwindy & whirleindish are adjectives; the noun plural is whirlwinds.

Whirl was from the Middle English whirlen, contracted from the earlier whervelen, possibly from the Old English hweorflian, a frequentative form of the Old English hweorfan (to turn), from the Proto-Germanic hwerbaną (turn) or possibly the Old Norse hvirfla (to go round, spin).  It was cognate with the Dutch wervelen (to whirl, to swirl), the German wirbeln (to whirl, to swirl), the Danish hvirvle (to whirl), the Swedish virvla (the older spelling of which was hvirfla) and the Albanian vorbull (a whirl).  It’s related to the modern whirr and wharve.  Wind was from the Middle English wynd & wind, from the Old English wind (wind), from the Proto-Germanic windaz, from the primitive Indo-European hwéhn̥tos (wind), from the earlier hwéhn̥ts (wind), derived from the present participle of hweh (to blow). It was cognate with the Dutch wind, the German Wind, the West Frisian wyn, the Norwegian and Swedish vind, the Icelandic vindur, the Latin ventus, the Welsh gwynt, the Sanskrit वात (vā́ta), the Russian ве́тер (véter) and, more speculatively, the Albanian bundë (strong damp wind).  It’s related to the modern vent.

The phrase, "They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind", comes from the Old Testament (Hosea 8:7).  It means that for all of us, one’s choices and decisions have consequences; one’s actions will one day return to haunt one.  Cynics tend to phrase it as: “For everything you do there’s a price to be paid”.  It’s sometimes confused with the Epistle to the Galatians (6:7) in the New Testament: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”.  Whirlwind is thus popular in figurative use and in saying she had a "whirlwind of garbage around" herself, Lindsay Lohan conveyed the image of a life made difficult by a swirling vortex of undesirable baggage.  In noting her problems were of her own creation she added she was "my own worst enemy" but, at the time, that may have been unfair to Paris Hilton.    

RAF Westland Whirlwind (1939-1943).

A fine, if complex, airframe and a design ahead of its time, the Whirlwind never achieved its potential because of problems, essentially those of the doomed engine around which it was designed.  It was the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) first single-seat, twin-engined fighter, a layout explored by many air forces as a means of fielding a machine with sufficient range, armament and speed to counter the new generation of twin-engined bombers which, by the mid-1930s had proved able to out-pace most fighters then in service.  The prototype flew first in 1938 and had seemed promising, with many innovative features anticipating later designs, the radiators housed in the leading edges of the slim wings and the pilot’s afforded outstanding visibility by virtue of a large, clear bubble canopy.  Intended as a long-range escort fighter, the Whirlwind's firepower was impressive, boasting four 20mm cannons clustered in the nose which made it at the time the most potent fighter in the world.  Test pilots reported excellent handling characteristics, the only deficiencies noted as a lack of power and a very high landing speed which limited the number of airfields from which it could operate.

The Whirlwind was designed to use two Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines, a development of the well-regarded Kestrel but the manufacturer, absorbed with the refinement and production of the much more promising Merlin, was unable to devote sufficient resources and development of the Peregrine first stagnated and then ceased, the demand for the Merlins (used by the strategically vital Spitfire & Hurricane) so great that all of Rolls-Royce's productive capacity had to be dedicated to their supply.  As a result, there existed sufficient engines to build only 112 Whirlwinds which equipped two squadrons where they saw limited service between 1940-1943, mostly in a ground-attack role after being converted to (Mark 1A specification) fighter-bombers.  They were used in an escort role on a low-level raid to Cologne in August 1941 but the unsuitability of the then available bombers to undertake daytime operations was exposed when the attacking force lost almost a quarter of their aircraft, an unsustainable rate of loss.  Not suitable as a night-escort and hampered by the underpowered Peregrines which meant they couldn’t be deployed against single-engined fighters in a defensive role, the Whirlwinds were instead allocated to low-level sorties across the Channel, opportunistically attacking shipping, trains and physical infrastructure.

RAF de Havilland Hornet, 1946.

Interestingly, the fine high-altitude characteristics reported by the test pilots when flying the prototypes didn't translate to the production versions but in 1940, such was the urgency of the military situation the Whirlwinds were pressed into service without any attempt at rectification.  Blamed at the time either on the engines or the wing design, it was only years later that private research revealed it was a change in propeller specification which affected the performance, the prototype using Rotol units while the production aircraft were fitted with de Havilland propellers designed for a different aircraft, such mixing and matching far from unusual in wartime conditions.  The replacement propellers were thicker, the issue being that a rotating propeller blade pushes air aside and the thicker a blade, the more air needs to be moved and, all else being equal, that means that the air has to move faster and at a certain point, the air has to move faster than the speed of sound.  At that point (the sound barrier), shock waves are created which induces massive drag.  Propellers are designed to compensate for this effect but on the de Havilland units, the constant speed mechanism would react to the slowdown in airspeed caused by drag by altering the pitch of the blade which would create a feedback loop in the Peregrine, inducing erratic performance and the higher the altitude, the lower the speed of sound, thus the more unsatisfactory the performance of the Whirlwind at altitude.  On the engine for which they were designed, the de Havilland propellers worked well but the Peregrine had different characteristics.

Gloster Meteor (1944-1984).

The end of Peregrine production meant the Whirlwind was a cul-de-sac, the design of the airframe so tied to the characteristics of the engine that thoughts entertained in 1941 of a re-design with Merlin engines were abandoned as the extent of the engineering required became quickly apparent.  It would have been a time-consuming and labor-intensive task and, recovering from the losses incurred in the Battle of Britain, every Merlin-engined Whirlwind would have meant two fewer Spitfires or three fewer Hurricanes.  Westland pursued the idea, later producing a few dozen Welkins which performed well but by then the allies were well-supplied with long-range, high-speed interceptors.  However, the basic concept had proved impressive and the potential was realized in the later de Havilland Hornet (1946), the lineage visible too in the Gloster Meteor, the UK’s first Jet fighter which, having learned lessons from the Whirlwind, used a very different wing shape to lower the landing speed without compromising other aspects of performance.  Although popular with pilots, the Whirlwinds were retired from active service in 1943 before being declared obsolete and scrapped the following year.

Yugoslav Air Force Westland Whirlwind, 1959.

Between 1953-1966 Westland revived the Whirlwind name for a version of the Sikorsky S-55/H-19 Chickasaw, built under license from the US company.  Over four-hundred were produced and they were used by military and civilian operators in a dozen countries.  Although the early versions were underpowered, a switch to turbine engines transformed the Whirlwind and robust, easy to maintain and reliable, it enjoyed a long service with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm as both a carrier-based anti-submarine platform during the High Cold War and latterly in air-sea rescue, the ability to transport six fully-configured stretchers unique in the UK's military inventory.  In Royal Air Force (RAF) service, the last Whirlwinds weren't retired until 1982.