Especial

Especial (pronounced ih-spesh-uhl)

(1) Special; exceptional; outstanding.

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

(3) In commerce (as "special"), whatever an advertiser wishes it to mean.

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

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

Special relativity: Being especially special

Holden, the General Motors (GM) Australian subsidiary, for over a decade had it pretty easy, enjoying a fifty-percent market share despite by the early 1960s its products being, whatever their other virtues, outdated and underpowered.  GM would later respond but in the short-term, resorted to a bit of tarting-up (the term "bling" would come later but as early as the 1950s designers described add-on decorative bits as "gorp", creating a noun & verb from the acronym which stood for "granola, oats, raisins, peanuts", a popular nutritional mix carried by hikers, bush-walkers and such (the designers' notion being the adding of a bit of everything).  Holden had for ten years used the Special designation for their up-market offering but in 1962 added a new top of the range model called the Premier, meaning the Special was no longer so special.  Despite this, the name endured another six years before becoming the Kingswood which was no more special and the new name meant nothing in particular.  Confusing things still further, for most of the years it existed, the Special was actually the best-selling Holden, the other models, the Standard and the shorter-lived Business, enjoyed lower sales so in that sense, the Special was the standard model rather than the Standard.

So, by 1968, GM had in Australia ceased to call anything Special though much of their advertising continued to suggest everything they sold was special in some way.  In the US, GM's use of the Special badge started sooner and lasted longer, Buick using it first in 1936, curiously for their lowest-priced model, a placement similar to that seen sometimes in education where it was applied to classes or schools for those with learning difficulties (although that use has ceased, falling foul of the linguistic treadmill).  Buick of course no more wanted their customers to make a connection with "special education" any more than with Albert Einstein's (1879-1955) theory of special relativity which explains how space and time are linked for objects moving at a consistent speed in a straight line.  Buick's interest in relativity was probably limited to that between the models in its line-up and Special really meant nothing other than being a word thought to have generally positive associations.

With the introduction in 1962 of the Premier, Holden’s Special had ceased to be the most expensive of the line but as competition increased and rising prosperity overtook the land, it was clear “more special” names had to be concocted to convince the middle-class they were buying something for the “upper middle-class” and during the 1960s and 1970s Holden added “Brougham”, “Statesman” and “Caprice”, suffixes like “De Ville” & “SL/E” sometimes appended to versions a bit more special.  In 1971, when advertising the first Statesman De Ville, the company even neglected to include the “Holden” name anywhere in the copy, the corporate logo instead surrounded by a Cadillacesque wreath.  The approach didn’t last and between 1974 and the end of production in 2017, it was the “Holden Caprice” (sometimes as “Holden Statesman Caprice”) which was top-of the-range.

1953 Buick Special's 263 cubic inch straight-eight.  Although it didn't exactly live up to the implications in the "Fireball" name, the characteristics suited the profile of Buick buyers.

Then as now, Buick buyers didn’t like change but sometimes progress meant it was forced upon them.  The 1953 Buick Special was the last of the Buick overhead valve (OHV) straight-eights after a two decade run of legendary reliability and smoothness, and it existed to ensure the last stocks of the old engine were used, the new 322 cubic inch (5.3 litre) OHV "nailhead" V8 introduced that year for the rest of the range; the 1953 Special is a footnote also for the last appearance of 6-volt electrics in a Buick.  The straight-eight’s swansong was a bit low key because the big 320 (5.2) unit was dropped after 1952 so the 1953 Specials left the line with a the 263 (4.3) version which although labelled “Fireball”, was renowned for unobtrusive smoothness rather than high-performance and in that spirit Chrysler later adopted the name for V8s equally polite.  The technology of the time required two editions of the Special’s straight-eight, the one using the “Dynaflow” two-speed (semi) automatic transmission rated at 130 horsepower (HP) while the one coupled with the three-speed manual made 125, the only difference between the two the head gasket and valve lifters, the Dynaflow-equipped fitted with a thinner steel shim gasket & hydraulic lifters.  The thinner gasket raised the compression ratio from 7:1 to 7:6 although the consequent additional output was slight and not enough to compensate for the energy consumed by the Dynaflow’s operations.

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

After a brief hiatus, the Buick Special returned in 1938, its run in cars of various sizes almost uninterrupted until 1970.  In 1968 however, Buick must have had a moment of doubt that the Special may no longer be special enough and the range was renamed Special Deluxe, a change that lasted but two years.  In the 1970s and 1990s, there would be two half-decade long revivals but in 1996, the Special finally went extinct, not even Buick's entry into the Chinese market enough to encourage a revival, even though consumers in the Far-East respond famously well to bling.  Historically, Buick used the "Special" name in the sense a supermarket labels goods being sold at a reduced price (at least apparently although retailers have many tricks which render this often illusory) in that the Buick Special was almost always the lowest-cost line although mechanical specifications often matched more expensive models.  This approach differed from that used by Holden which (in pre-Premier days) used "Special" to designate "more expensive".

Ferrari and the Speciale    

1966 Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale.  That translates as "special coupé" and probably everything sounds better in Italian than English.  To the ears of English-speakers, a reading in Italian from a lawnmower repair manual sounds like the words of a lyric poet.

The Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale was a design by Pininfarina shown in 1966 and was both a test bed for a racing project and an exploration of the possibility of a mid-engined V12 road car, the styling taking cues from the designer’s smaller Dino 206 Berlinetta Speciale, built in 1965.  Reflecting the origin of its race-car chassis, the 365 Speciale was configured with three-abreast seating and a central driving position, a layout seat McLaren would later adopt for their F1 (1992-1998).  In a nod to the seating, the car is sometimes referred to as the 365 Berlinetta Tre-posti (three seater).  Among coupés, the three seat configuration has been done, a handful of the early Lamborghini 350 GTs (1964-1966) having an unusual 2+1 arrangement with a centrally mounted rear bucket seat and the Matra-Simca Bagheera (1973-1980) used three-abreast seating.  Most dubious of the 2+1s was the surprisingly popular option of a transversely mounted rear seat Mercedes-Benz did for a while offer in the W113 Roadster (230, 250 & 280 SL, 1963-1971; the so-called "Pagoda").  Though it could accommodate an adult-sized human, the factory listed it as the Kindetsitz (child's seat, code 565) while German men sometimes preferred Schwiegermutterplatz or Schwiegermuttersitz (mother-in-law seat).  That the factory would offer (in a convertible!) a “child's seat” which sat sideways and was fitted with no restraint system is an indication of how things have changed.  Ferrari still use speciale as a name and over the years there have been some quite distinctive models including Pininfarina's 330 GTC Speciale.

Not all agreed all Italians sounded so mellifluous.  In the entry for 10 January 1927 detailing a journey on the Brindisi-Rome train, the novelist Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) noted in his diary (edited by Michael Davie (1924-2005) and published in 1976): “…a woman with the smile of a Gioconda and the voice of a parrot.  We seem to have stopped at every station in Italy, all decorated with grubby stencilled pictures of Il Duce [Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & Prime-Minister of Italy 1922-1943)] looking as if they were advertising Hassals[?] Press Art School.  All common Italian women have voices like parrots.”  By then, maybe the Duce had “made the trains run on time” so there would have been that.  The mention of “Giocondo” was an allusion to the Italian noblewoman Lisa del Giocondo (1479–1542); her name was given to the Mona Lisa, her portrait commissioned by her husband and painted by Leonardo.

A most uncommon Italian: The Mona Lisa (circa 1503), oil on white poplar panel by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519).

The John Hassall Correspondence Art School was a London art education institution established early in the 20^th century by the illustrator John Hassall (1868–1948) and Waugh, thinking himself both and “artist” and connoisseur of fine art, had little regard for “commercial art”.  In those years however, there was something of a boom in “poster art” and, with growing demand for graphic artists, the school filled a niche and its popularity (and profitability) increased as correspondence courses, were added, permitting students to learn via mail; conceptually, it was the same idea as “on-line education”.  What came to be called the “Hassall method” (characterized by the flat colors enclosed by thick black lines) would become an identifiable motif in early art deco.  Being quintessentially “upper middle class”, Waugh had to resort to terms like “common”, “lower class” or “lower middle class” to disparage those he thought socially beneath him; unlike members of the upper class (aristocrats, gentry, the genuinely rich etc), he couldn’t hardly use “middle class” as a slur as they could.  On 16 July 1956 he expressed his pleasure the woman buying his house was willing also “…to take over cows and peasants if required.”  Seldom did he miss an opportunity to make some mention of his superior tastes, his entry of 12 February, 1961 recording with obvious glee the “…great pleasure resulting from being rid of servants – one can throw away all the presents they have given one.”  Confident in the discernment of his readers, he didn’t bother to write “ghastly presents”.

1965 Dino 206 Berlinetta Speciale.

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

1965 Ferrari 250 LM Stradale.

The 365 Speciale was actually the second mid-engined V12 road car Ferrari built; in 1965, the 250 LM Stradale (road) had been displayed at the Geneva Motor Show.  Based on the Le Mans 24 Hour winning 250 LM, it was a prototype for what was planned to be a small batch of road cars but Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988), then anyway dubious about the very idea of mid-engined V12s with all-independent suspension falling into the hands of amateurs, vetoed the project, the Stradale still just too much a racing car to let the unskilled rich unleash one on the streets.  The 250 LM (1963-1965) was a contemporary of the Ford GT40 and the pair were among the last racing cars which, slightly civilized, were sold also as road-going versions.   

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

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

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

Urning & Urningin

Urning & Urningin (pronounced ern-ing & ern-ings)

A male homosexual person (obsolete, and when used should be in the historic context of the original meaning, a technically differentiated sense of homosexuals as a “third sex” rather than a variation of the spectrum within the (then) existing two).  The equivalent feminine form was urningin.

1864: From the German Urning (a male homosexual constructed as a third sex (Uranian), the related form being Urnigtum (homosexuality), referring Aphrodite (Ūrania), coined by the German writer Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825–1895) in 1864.  By the early twentieth century, except among some writers in German, the word in this sense had largely been supplanted by homosexual.  The link to Aphrodite lies in Plato’s Symposium (circa 385–370 BC), where the goddess Aphrodite, in her heavenly aspect (Ūrania), is described as inspiring a noble form of affection between older and younger men.  In Greek and Roman mythology, what’s described as "the heavenly aspect of Aphrodite", the Greek goddess of beauty and love, Ūrania (and her Roman counterpart Venus) is contrasted with the earthly aspect known as Aphrodite.  Ūrania is also the muse of astronomy.  Originally used by astrologers and astronomers, uranian is now rare, used only poetically.  It was from the Latin Ūrania (the muse of astronomy in Greek mythology) +‎ -an (the suffix forming agent nouns).  Ūrania was from the Ancient Greek Οὐρᾰνῐ́ᾱ (Ouraníā) (muse of astronomy), from οὐράνιος (ouránios) (of or relating to the sky, celestial, heavenly) (from οὐρανός (ouranós) (the sky; heaven, home of the gods; the universe) and probably ultimately from the primitive Indo-European hwers- (rain) + -ιος (-ios), the suffix forming adjectives meaning (pertaining to).  Uranical is equally rare.

When writing now of homosexuality, uranism should be described as a particular historical construct.  The suggestion in 1864 was that the Urning (male) and the Urningin (female) homosexuals should be regarded as a third sex, not on any spectrum within the then-accepted binary division of gender.  Despite that, it was an interesting anticipation of the later notion(s) of gender fluidity in that it it encompassed the idea of something feminine inherently within the male body and vice versa.

Psychopathia Sexualis

In English, urning seems to have become widely discussed in the medical profession after it appeared to be in Charles Chaddock's (1961-1936) 1892 translation of the impressively titled Psychopathia Sexualis: eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie (Sexual Psychopathy: A Clinical-Forensic Study, also known as Psychopathia Sexualis, with Especial Reference to the Antipathetic Sexual Instinct: A Medico-forensic Study), published in 1886, a book by an Austro-German psychiatrist with a name of similarly imposing length, Richard Fridolin Joseph Freiherr Krafft von Festenberg auf Frohnberg, genannt von Ebing (1840–1902), work and author respectively cited usually as the more manageable Psychopathia Sexualis by Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing.  In his translation, US neurologist Dr Chaddock set a couple of landmarks in English, one being apparently the first instance in print of the word “bisexual” being used in the sense of humans being sexually attracted to both women and men.  Prior to that "bisexual" was used either to refer to hermaphroditic plants (ie those with both male and female reproductive structures), or to mixed-sex schools (ie co-ed(ucational)) or other institutions, an instance of how meaning-shifts in language can make difficult the reading of historic texts.

Psychopathia Sexualis wasn’t the first publication to explore the topic but the scale and breadth of approach to sexual pathology makes it one of the seminal works in the field.  Although covering a wide range of paraphilias, it was notable for a then quite novel focus on male homosexuality (hence the "antipathetic instinct" in the subtitle).and introduced the newly coined terms "sadism and masochism".  Very much a book of its time, von Krafft-Ebing writings reflected the views of the medical mainstream, distilling Karl Ulrichs' Urning (1825–1895) theory with Bénédict Morel's (1809–1873) theory of degeneration (a handy, all-purpose model for frustrated psychiatrists, degeneration theory held there were psychological which were genetic and could not be cured by a psychiatrist; it could be used to explain any psychological condition).

Nor was there any unanimity of opinion within the profession but the book was influential in psychiatry for decades and it wasn’t until 1973, in preparation for the publication in 1974 of a seventh printing of the second edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) (DSM-II (1968)) that homosexuality ceased to be listed as a category of disorder although the revision was less than activists had hoped, the diagnosis instead becoming a "sexual orientation disturbance".  In the DSM-III (1980), it was again re-classified but it wasn’t until that volume was revised (DSM III-R) in 1987 that homosexuality ceased to be a treatable condition, a position which, in the West, would not everywhere for some years be reflected in legislation.

Aphrodite (1887), oil on canvas by Robert Fowler (1853–1926).

In Europe, one stream of the dissent against prevailing orthodoxy is traced to the mid-nineteenth century writings of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, a proto gay rights activist trained in law, theology, and history.  Using the nom-de-plume Numa Numantius, during the 1860s, he issued a number of political pamphlets asserting something with strands of the modern view: that some men were born with the spirit of a woman trapped in their bodies, these men constituting a third sex which, in 1864, he named urnings and that those who might now be called lesbians were urningin, a man’s spirit trapped in the body of a woman.  His theories gained little public support but he wasn’t entirely isolated.  In 1869, Hungarian journalist Károli Mária Kertbeny (1884-1882) coined the terms “homosexual” and “homosexuality” in a political treatise against the Prussian penal code which criminalized the behavior among men, arguing the condition was inborn and unchangeable, one of many normal variations in the human condition.

Richard von Krafft-Ebing, reviewed the literature and synthesised.  Describing homosexuality as a “degenerative” disorder, he adopted Kertbeny’s terminology, but not his notion of the normal; in Psychopathia Sexualis he viewed unconventional sexual behaviors through the lens of nineteenth century Darwinian theory: non-procreative sexual behaviors, masturbation included, were forms of psychopathology and his most intriguing mix of ancient and modern was that in being born with a homosexual predisposition ("born like this" in the 21C vernacular), the victim was a victim of congenital disease.  His views of homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder were influential but even those who disagreed cemented the linguistic legacy, term “homosexual” quickly adopted as the standard term in the medical lexicon.  After the publication of Psychopathia Sexualis, views on the mater coalesced but prevailing opinion shifted little.  In opposition von Krafft-Ebing, German psychiatrist Magnus Hirschfeld (1868–1935) emerged as a neo-Urlichian, publishing and lecturing in support of a normative view of homosexuality and underground movements existed in many cities, some tolerated. 

Stable Diffusion's AI generation of Lindsay Lohan as Aphrodite, rising from the foam.

It was the founder of psychoanalysis, Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), who offered the theory which would capture the popular imagination.  Disagreeing with both Hirschfeld’s theories of normal variation and Krafft-Ebing’s of pathology, Freud believed all were born with bisexual tendencies and therefore manifestations of homosexuality could be a normal phase of heterosexual development and an innate bisexuality allowed no possibility of a separate “third sex” constructed by Hirschfeld.  Nor could the “degenerative condition” described by von Krafft-Ebing be maintained because, inter alia, it was “found in people whose efficiency is unimpaired, and who are indeed distinguished by specially high intellectual development and ethical culture”.  That may amuse some now but, within Freudian theory, the internal logic is perfect, manifestations of adult homosexual behavior being caused by “arrested” psychosexual development, a theory of immaturity.

Yet, despite the interest aroused, after Freud’s death in 1939, most psychoanalysts came to view homosexuality as pathological and, in the massively expanded universities of the post-war years, research in the field exploded and sexology evolved from a professional niche to a well-funded discipline, the academic work increasingly augmented by popular publications aimed at the general reader as well as the profession.  By the mid-twentieth century, the intellectual centre of psychiatry had shifted from Europe to the United States and it was there that published what would quickly become the most influential publication in the field, the APA's DSM.  When the first edition (DSM-I) was released in 1952, homosexuality was classified as a “sociopathic personality disturbance” and this was the orthodoxy until revised in the DSM-II (1968) when the term changed to “sexual deviation”, a nuance probably better understood by the profession than the patients although "sexual deviant" became a popular phrase (even a cheerful self-descriptor among certain consenting adults) and one applied to many activities.  So pervasive was it the phrase was used even in legislation passed in the mid 1980s by a National Party government in the Australian state of Queensland, a place which for gay men didn't at the time live up to the name.  Just as in the US there was an identifiably distinct political culture south of the Mason-Dixon Line, so things were different north of the New South Wales (NSW) border.

Aphrodite Urania: A casting of the Trono Ludovisi, displayed in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia.

Discovered in 1887 in Rome's Villa Ludovisi, the Trono Ludovisi (Throne of Ludovisi) is a carving in Parian marble in the severe style of the early classical period and dates from 490-450 BC.  The still-used description as a “throne” is a relic of the belief by nineteenth century archaeologists the three-sided relief was from the seat of a statue of a colossal god but the contemporary view is it was probably a fender in front of an altar.  There is also controversy about the creation, most experts taking the view it was carved by a Greek master sculptor who worked in Italy, one perhaps of the Neo-Attic school, while the alternative theory suggest it may be of Ionian origin.  What all agree is it seems to depict the birth of the goddess Aphrodite, born from the foam of the sea on the beaches of Cyprus, the pebbles & sand visible beneath the feet her attendants.  On the side panels, other women sit playing pipes and burning incense, befitting the arrival of a goddess.  However, what clouds that is that representations of the birth of Aphrodite are almost unknown in Classical art and even the depiction of semi-nude female figures was, in the era, also unprecedented in large-scale Greek sculpture.  Trono Ludovisi is now on permanent display in the National Museum, Palazzo Altemps, Rome.

Mutual hatred.

William F Buckley (1925–2008, left) & Gore Vidal (1925–2012, right) and in one of their infamous ten debates during the 1968 US presidential campaign, August, 1968.  Their exchanges, with phrases like "you queer" and "crypto-Nazi", captured the spirit of acrimony but structurally, the debates were influential in the way the television networks would package politics as entertainment, the legacy visible today and not just on Fox News.

One implication of sexologists becoming more numerous and active was a change to the very nature of research.  Whereas psychiatrists and other clinicians drew conclusions from a skewed sample of patients seeking treatment for homosexuality or other difficulties, sexologists undertook field studies for which were recruited large numbers of subjects in the general population, most of whom had never presented for psychiatric treatment.  The most famous of the reports published both generated headlines and became best-sellers.  The Kinsey Reports (of men (1948) and women (1953)), with sample sizes in the thousands, found homosexuality to be more common in the general population than the psychiatrists had claimed although the still oft-quoted 10% “statistic” is now discredited and thought a significant over-estimate.  Ford and Beach, looking at both diverse cultures and animal behavior, confirmed Kinsey’s view homosexuality was more common than psychiatry historically has maintained and that it was found regularly in nature.  In a number of smaller surveys (of which US psychologist Evelyn Hooker’s (1907–1996) 1956 paper The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual was representative in concept if not detail), no evidence was found to suggest gay men were any more prone to severe psychological disturbances than anyone else although some did concede the perception they were "highly strung" and "dramatic" was supported by observational studies but that may be influenced by depictions in popular culture and thus perhaps even "learned or imitative".  Still, even by the twenty-first century and among liberal circles it wasn't always something one wished to be defined by.  When in 2009 the author Gore Vidal (in the language of an earlier age "a confessed homosexual") was referred to in a gathering by a well-meaning society lady as: "one of the great homosexuals of our time.", his response was to ask:  "Will someone please get this cunt out of my sight?"

The wealth of research, coupled with an increasingly strident gay activism and generational change within the APA induced a shift, the awareness now that the real psychological damage being done might be the stigma caused by the “homosexuality” diagnosis rather than the dynamics of the predilection.  Nevertheless, in 1973 when the APA met to discuss the matter, planning both for a revised DSM II and the new DSM-III, it was pondered whether “homosexuality” should be included in the APA nomenclature.  Implicit in this was the very question of what could be said to constitute a mental disorder so it was a matter of importance beyond the immediate issue.  Not wishing fundamentally to change the parameters of diagnosis, the APA came up with a masterful fudge, issuing a statement saying it had “reviewed the characteristics of the various mental disorders and concluded that, with the exception of homosexuality and perhaps some of the other 'sexual deviations', they all regularly caused subjective distress or were associated with generalized impairment in social effectiveness of functioning”.  Happy with the elegance of the loophole, the APA’s Board of Trustees (BoT) voted to remove homosexuality from the DSM.

Less happy were many clinicians who insisted on a vote of the whole membership.  The APA agreed and the decision to remove was upheld by a 58% majority of 10,000 voting members although technically, the question on which they voted was not whether homosexuality should remain a diagnosis but whether to support or oppose the BoT’s decision and, by extension, the scientific process created to make the determination.  It seemed a fine distinction and the BoT’s decision did anyway not immediately end psychiatry’s pathologizing of some presentations of homosexuality.  Instead, a revision to the DSM-II text contained a new diagnosis: "Sexual Orientation Disturbance" (SOD).  SOD (one does wonder if the condition was so-named as some sort of in-joke among the DSM's editors) defined homosexuality as an illness if an individual with same-sex attractions found it distressing and wished to be "cured", an important difference which changed the emphasis from condition to consequence.  That of course implied a future for what came to be known as sexual conversion therapy which has consequences of its own and, presumably, meant anyone unhappy with being heterosexual could seek treatment in an attempt to become homosexual; the literature is silent of that so presumably there was no demand.

SOD was replaced in DSM-III (1980) by a new category called “Ego Dystonic Homosexuality” (EDH) but it was increasingly obvious both SOD and EDH were political fudges to fix an immediate problem and it was not sustainable to maintain a diagnostic criteria under which any identity disturbance could be considered a psychiatric disorder.  The generational shift had happened and EDH was deleted from the revised DSM-III-R, in 1987.  Officially, the DSM now regarded homosexuality as a normal variant of the human condition, essentially what was thought in 1973 but couldn’t then be said.  It didn’t mean the end of debate but did mean those individuals and institutions determined still to discriminate could no longer cite the DSM in any claimed medical or scientific rationale.

Thermal

Thermal (pronounced thur-muhl)

(1) Of, relating to, or caused by heat or temperature (also thermic); of, relating to, or of the nature of thermae.

(2) As (both noun and adjective) thermal blanket or thermal underwear (as a noun, always referred to in the plural (thermals) even if describing a single item), items designed to aid in or promote the retention of body heat.

(3) In meteorology, a column of rising air caused by local unequal heating by the sun of the land surface, especially such a current when not producing a cloud; widely used in aviation and of especial importance in gliding, a borrowing of the techniques used by birds. The air usually rises until it is in equilibrium with the surrounding atmosphere.

(4) In stonemasonry, a rough finish created with a blowtorch.

1756: From the French thermal (buffon), from the New Latin thermalis, from the Ancient Greek θέρμη (thérmē) (heat; feverish heat), from the primitive Indo-European gwher (to heat, warm).  The construct was therm + -al (from the Latin adjectival suffix -ālis, or the French, Middle French & Old French -el, -al; used mostly but not exclusively with word of Latin origin).  The sense of "having to do with heat" is first recorded 1837; the noun meaning "rising current of relatively warm air" was first noted in 1933 in the context of aviation.  Geothermal first used in 1875; hydrothermal in 1855, exothermal in 1874; athermanous in 1839, hyperthermia in 1878, isotherm in 1850, endothermic in 1869 (1947 as applied in biology) and thermometer as early as the 1597 although the most familiar (pre-digital) version with mercury encased in glass, was invented by Fahrenheit in 1714.  Thermal is adjective in the singular and a noun in the singular or plural, thermally is the adverb.  The most common derivations are the adjectives hyperthermal and the adverb hyperthermally but in engineering and science there’s also therm, therma, thermacogenesis, thermae, aerothermal, thermometric, thermometrical & thermaesthesia.  Thermal is a noun, verb & adjective; the noun plural is thermals.

Thermal Reactive Nail Polish

Thermal reactive nail polishes change color depending on both body and ambient temperature.  Nail polish is especially suitable for thermal reactivity because the extremities of the body (fingertips, toes, ears & nose) vary in temperature much more than parts closer to the core.  Usefully, they work with even the thickest base and top-coats which affords additional protection for the thermal-reactive chemicals, the color-changing properties affected not at all if multiple coats are applied.

The process is entirely heat-dependent and thus constantly variable.  In this example the reaction produces purple in reaction to cold and aqua to warmth; because the temperature of the nail greatly can vary between base and tip, the ombré effect (colors blending from one hue to another) will fluctuate.  The chemical reaction does rely on the top coat being fully dry and, depending on manufacturer, this can take up to an hour.  The special properties don't last forever but, if correctly sealed, stored in a dark place and not exposed to extremes of heat and cold, the liquid will for months continue to be reactive.

Chemically, the thermal reactivity works because the polish is infused with a leuco (“white” in Ancient Greek) dye, the word a little misleading in this context because leuco dyes have two forms: one clear, the other colored. The reversible transition between the two colors may be caused by heat (thermochromism), light (photochromism) or pH (halochromism) and in other (often industrial) applications, it’s possible irreversibly to change colors, usually from a redox reaction.

For thermal nail polish, the dye comes packaged in tiny spheres called microcapsules, each only 1-10 microns in diameter but containing three chemicals: (1) leuco dye which changes color reversibly, the color depending on the dye which, when combined with a proton or hydrogen ion, becomes colorless.  (2) A weak acid which acts as a catalyst, donating the hydrogen ion.  (3) A solvent which induces a color change at a desired temperature.  When cool, the solvent solidifies, the hydrogen remaining stuck to the acid and thus not interacting with the colored dye.  When hot, the solvent melts, the weak acid dissociates, the hydrogen ion binds to the dye, and the dye is colorless.  The temperature-shift range is about 5ºF (3ºC).

Those not content with the commercially available color combinations easily can brew their own thermal reactive polish.  Leuco dyes are available in many colors and come as a powder, slurry, epoxy, or water-based ink but only the powder is suitable and the transition range should hover 88ºF (31ºC) because nails are cooler than body temperature.  The choice of polish color dictates the result.  A white polish will produce a pastel result, a pale color will switch between the original and the combination of the leuco and the color so a mix of pink polish and a blue leuco dye yields a color shift from pink to purple.

To mix, place 1-2 small ball bearings in empty nail polish bottle and fill with polish to about half-way.  Add leuco dye to achieve desired color (about ⅛ teaspoon) and, if ambient temperature is high, chill the bottle to see result.  When mixing, cap bottle and gently roll it; do not shake because this will cause cavitation, the formation of air bubbles which impede the blending.  If the polish is too thick, add a few drops of nail polish thinner or clear top-coat but never acetone or other nail polisher remover because these chemicals ruin the mix.  Glitter or holo may be added according to taste.

Lindsay Lohan on skis in fuchsia, Falling for Christmas (Netflix (2022)), her thermal base layer unknown.

When skiing or mountain climbing, thermal underwear is usually the ideal choice for what is called the “thermal base layer”, a combination which consists usually of a top and a pair of leggings.  Outer layers of ski clothing perform better when a thermal base layer is worn because the moisture from the body rapidly is wicked away in a capillary action, permitting the breathable fabrics of the outer garments more efficiently to dissipate the moisture more efficiently.  It’s often thought the only purpose of thermal underwear is to increase body temperature but it’s the symbiosis between the thermal base layer and the outer coverings which regulate body temperature, maintaining comfort in both colder and warmer conditions.  By volume, most thermal underwear is made from Polyester (a type of plastic called polypropylene), often augmented with Lycra and all these garments are produced in a very tight weave which delivers good thermal qualities and what the manufacturers call a high “breathability factor”.

Also used is fine wool which, being a natural fibre, is preferred by many and it does posses the virtues of offering both comfort and efficient thermal qualities.  The choice between the types of construction is less about specific differences in thermal performance than how one’s skin reacts and sometimes this is something which can be judged only after prolonged exposure in a variety of temperatures.  All types are available in both short and long (sleeves & legs) versions and because the material is so thin, the longer cuts intrude not at all upon the fit of gloves and boots and the choice is again one of personal preference although, in extreme conditions, the full-versions should always at least be packed.

Fabulous

Fabulous (pronounced fab-yuh-luhs)

(1) Exceptionally good or unusual, wonderful or superb; fashionable, glamorous (which pedants insist is informal but it’s long been the standard meaning).

(2) Almost impossible to believe; incredible.

(3) In slang or as a euphemism, gay or pertaining to gay people; camp, effeminate ("a fabulousity" suggested as a collective noun for gay men but it never caught on) .

(4) In slang, fashionable, glamorous.

(5) Of or about fables; stories wholly or substantially of the imaginary and known of through myth or legend; something in the record known to be unhistorical.

Circa 1550: From the Late Middle English fabulous & fabulose, from the Latin fābulōsus (celebrated in fable; rich in myth), the construct being fābul(a) (a story, a tale) + -ōsus (the adjectival suffix).  The –ōsus suffix (familiar in English as –ous) was from Classical Latin from -ōnt-to-s from -o-wont-to -s, the latter form a combination of two primitive Indo-European suffixes: -went & -wont.  Related to these were –entus and the Ancient Greek -εις (-eis) and all were used to form adjectives from nouns.  In Latin, -ōsus was added to a noun to form an adjective indicating an abundance of that noun.  As a literary genre (and some fables came from oral traditions) fables were stories told usually to make some moral point or illustrate the consequences of one’s actions and while they could sometimes involve fantastical creatures like winged stallions or unicorns, sometimes they involved fictional characters who were mere flesh & blood and even a multi-volume, epic-length novel like Don Quixote (1605-1615) by Miguel de Cervantes circa 1547–1616) can be thought a fable.  Fabulous is an adjective, fabulousness & fabulosity are nouns and fabulously is an adverb; the use is the plural is rare but both fabulousnesses & fabulosities exist.  There is some evidence of use in the gay community of fabulous as a (non-standard) noun, sometime in the form “uber-fabulous” although that construction is also used generally as an adjective of especial emphasis.

Looking fabulous: Lindsay Lohan Fabulous magazine, August 2010.

The original sense was “of or pertaining to fable” and dates from the 1550s.  The now familiar meaning shift began as early as the turn of the seventeenth centuries when the word was recorded to convey the sense of “incredible” which soon extended to “enormous, immense; amazing” and by the mid-twentieth century it was used almost exclusively to mean “marvelous; wonderful, superb”.  The clipping to create the slang “fab” was in used by at least 1957 and use spiked after 1963 when the alliterative “fab four” was used to describe the pop group, The Beatles.  When in 1965 revising Henry Fowler’s (1858–1933), A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), Sir Ernest Gowers (1880–1966) maintained his predecessor’s disapproval of much that was a bit too modern, noting that correctly fabulous meant “…mythical, legendary, but was long ago extended to do duty as an adjective for something that is real but so astonishing that you might not think it was legendary if you did not know better.”, adding that it had “…become fabulously popular as a term of eulogy or allure.”  He seemed though to suspect it might be a “fad word”, noting it and its contracted forms “fab” & “fabs”, like “fantastic”, were perhaps the latest “…in that long list of words which boys and girls use for a time to express high commendation and then get tired of, such as, to go no farther back than the present century, topping, spiffing, ripping, wizard, super, posh, smashing.”  Decades on however, fabulous seems to have endured in its contemporary uses and even the portmanteau adjective fantabulous (the construct being fanta(stic) + (fa)bulous) has survived in its niche.  Fabulous probably gained a new lease of life when it was in the late 1960s picked up by the gay community which has used it even as a noun and it remains an essential element in the camp vocabulary.  Unless it’s between scholars, those wishing to convey the original meaning should probably use terms such as “fabled” or “mythological” rather than fabulous and even “legendary” can be ambiguous because it’s now often used to mean something like “famous” or “very well-known”.

Lindsay Lohan in an unusual cage cutout top, the lines assuming or relaxing from the orthogonal as the body moves (maybe an instance of "a shifting semiorthogonal"), The World's First Fabulous Fund Fair in aid of the Naked Heart Foundation, The Roundhouse, London, February 2015.  An opportunity was missed by not adding a sympathetic clutch purse.

George W Bush, Condoleezza Rice & Colin Powell.

The phrase “the fabulous invalid” refers to live theater & stage productions generally, the use derived from a 1938 stage play of that name by George S Kaufman (1889-1961) and Moss Hart (1904-1961) which traced the that follows the seesawing fortunes of a fictitious Broadway theater between 1900-1930.  In a touching irony, while the play was barely a modest success and not highly regarded by its authors, the title has endured as a synonym for the theatre.  George W Bush (George XLIII, b 1946; US president 2001-2009) who (admittedly unwittingly) contributed more than most to coining new words & novel grammatical structures, probably wasn’t deliberately alluding the original meaning of fabulous when he used it to describe the performance of his first foreign minister, Colin Powell (1937–2021; US secretary of state 2001-2005) but if considered thus it certainly reflected his view that the general’s favorable public image reflected more myth than reality and he’d prefer a secretary of state who both ticked a few boxes and was more attuned to his brutish world-view.  In Dr Condoleezza Rice (b 1954; US secretary of state 2005-2009) he certainly got that but in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, whatever might have been his better judgment, the general did his job because, as Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel (1882–1946; head of Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), the Nazi armed forces high command) put it at the Nuremberg Trial (1645-1946): “For a soldier, orders are orders.”  His flirtation with politics is a fable and story of Condoleezza Rice’s career in government even more so: a cautionary tale of what can happen when a nice young lady from a good family gets mixed up with an unsavory crowd (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al).

White House transcript of press conference assembled when the president met with Colin Powell and Richard Armitage (b 1945; US deputy secretary of state 2001-2005) at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Wednesday, 6 August 2003:

THE PRESIDENT: First, it's been my real privilege and honor to welcome the Secretary of State back to Crawford. He and Dick Armitage came, and we spent yesterday evening and this morning talking about our country's desire to promote peace and freedom, our obligations as a prosperous and strong nation to help the less fortunate. And we had a good strategy session, and now we're about to go out and brand some cows -- well, not exactly. (Laughter)

QUESTION: Sir, you've seen the report that Secretary Powell and Secretary Armitage are going to leave at the end of this administration. Do you expect them to stay on if there is a second Bush administration? Would you like them to?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first things first, we hope there is a second Bush administration. And I will work hard to convince the American people that their confidence in me is justified. And we'll deal with it at the right time.  Listen, this guy has done a fabulous job. Washington, particularly in August, is a dangerous period -- a dangerous time, because there's a lot of speculation. And all I can tell you is, the man flies to Crawford and we spend a good 24 hours talking about how we're going to work together to make the world a better place.

QUESTION: But, Mr. President, you said, we'll deal with it…

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Elizabeth.

QUESTION: We'll deal with it at the right time. That isn't "yes".

THE PRESIDENT: Deal with what at the right time?

QUESTION: With whether Secretary Powell will serve in a second term. Is that, "yes" or "no"? I mean, are you going to offer him a spot in the second term?

SECRETARY POWELL: I don't have a term. I serve the President. (Laughter)

QUESTION: No, but the President…

THE PRESIDENT: Elizabeth, look, first things first, and that is, we've got a year-and-a-while during my first term to make the world a more peaceful place and we'll deal with it. Washington loves speculation. Clearly, you love speculation. You love it. You love to speculate about…

QUESTION: It wasn't my story. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Let me finish, please; let me finish. You love to speculate about whether so-and-so is going to be a part of the administration or not. And I understand the game. But I have got to do my job, and I'm going to do it. And I'm going to do it with the Secretary of State. And the fact that he is here in Crawford, Texas, talking about issues of importance, should say loud and clear to the American people that he's completely engaged in doing what he needs to do, and that is, serve as a great Secretary of State.

QUESTION: Do you want to serve more than four years, Mr. Secretary?

SECRETARY POWELL: I serve at the pleasure of the President, and this is all August speculation with no basis in fact. There was no basis for this story to begin with, and we're doing our jobs together.

THE PRESIDENT: All right. We're going to get a burger. Thank you.