Hot Dog

Hot dog (pronounced hot-dawg)

(1) A frankfurter.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hotdog Stand color scheme, Microsoft Windows 3.1, 1992.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chocolate

Chocolate (pronounced chok-lit (U) chaw-kuh-lit, chok-uh-lit, chawk-lit)

(1) A preparation of the seeds of cacao, roasted, husked, and ground, often sweetened and flavored, as with vanilla.

(2) A beverage made by dissolving such a preparation in milk or water, served hot or cold.

(3) A sweet (sweetmeat (archaic), lolly or candy) made from such a preparation or an individual piece of this sweet.

(4) In the spectrum of commercially produced or described colors, a moderate to deep brown color.

Circa 1600: From the Mexican Spanish chocolate, from the Nahuatl (Aztecan) chocola-tl (chocolate) or cacahua-tl (chocolate, chocolate bean); the -tl meaning "water".   It’s thought the first element might be related to xocalia (to make something bitter or sour from xococ (sour; bitter)).  It was made with cold water by the Aztecs, whereas the Conquistadors mixed it with hot, hence the suggestion the European forms of the word might have been influenced by Yucatec Maya chocol (hot).  It was brought first to Spain in the 1520s and, predictably, spread quickly to the rest of Europe, gaining great popularity by the seventeenth century thought originally as drink made by dissolving chocolate in milk or water, the solid forms now familiar coming later.  The standardization in spelling must have come later because in an entry in his diary on 24 November 1664, Samuel Pepys noted “To a Coffee-house, to drink jocolatte, very good.”

There are those who contest the orthodox etymology, asserting that the Nahutal words upon which it depends didn’t exist in the language until the mid-eighteenth century.  The dissenters prefer chicolātl, a survivor in several modern Nahuatl dialects, as the original form, the chicol- element referring to the specially shaped wooden stick used to prepare chocolate.

Semi-solid forms were on sale by the 1640s in the form of a paste or cake made of ground, roasted, sweetened cacao seeds, the recognisably modern product, described as “chocolate candy" and later just “chocolate” widely available in the later nineteenth century, “chocolate milk” recorded since 1845.  Chocolate chips became available in pre-made form for the consumer market in 1940, having for some time been supplied in bulk to manufacturers for products such as chocolate chip cookies.  Use to describe a color, a dark reddish-brown, dates from 1771 in the forms “chocolate” and “chocolate-brown”.  The adjectival use in the sense of "made of or flavored with chocolate" is attested from 1723.

Although chocolatey (made of or resembling chocolate) apparently can’t be found in print before 1922 and choclatiness seems not to exist although chocolateness is used in commerce, often by specialised retailers which is a bit more imaginative than the eighteenth century “chocolate dealer” and it spawned variations such as chocorama, and chocology.  Devotees are said to be chocophiles while those who cheerfully admit an addiction are chocoholics.  The specialised occupation of chocolatier (maker of chocolate confections) was noted in French in 1865 and such jobs still exist.

In praise of dark chocolate

Made from cocoa solids, sugar and cocoa butter and without using milk, dark chocolate is rich, the degree of bitterness determined by the percentage of cocoa in the mix.  There’s no exact definition of how much cocoa needs to be present for a chocolate to be defined as dark with products available ranging from 50 to over 90%, the most popular being in the 70 to 80% range.

Nutritional content varies greatly because that’s determined by the quantities of cocoa butter and sugar used.  A 70% mix is a high-fat food, a 20g serving (six small squares in most blocks) contains just over 8g of fat, of which 5g is saturated and it’s high in sugar, with around 6g per 20g serving.  The off-set is that it’s a good source of fibre and protein, with approximately 2g of each per 20g serving.  By comparison, an 85% mix is higher in fat but lower in sugar, the protein and fibre content just a little higher and the salt content is negligible although there are variations with added sea-salt.

Lindsay Lohan slicing her chocolate birthday cake.

Although it should never be a high proportion of any diet, dark chocolate does offer some nutritional benefits, being naturally high in iron, magnesium, copper and manganese.  Iron is important in the production of red blood cells which carry oxygen around the body while copper triggers the release of iron to form haemoglobin, the platform which contains the oxygen.  Magnesium ensures the parathyroid glands work normally to produce hormones important in bone health and helps create and activate enzymes, including those which break down food.

A long known benefit of dark chocolate is as a source of antioxidants and flavanols, helpful in maintaining vascular endothelium function (the cells that line the insides of blood vessels) which reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease.  Because of the density, the concentration of these phytonutrients is actually higher than in blueberries and pomegranates, fruits recommended as sources of antioxidants.  There may also be some neuro-protective effects, offering some protection against Alzheimer’s disease but the research is far from conclusive although there does seem to be a small anti-inflammatory effect which helps those with digestive conditions such as inflammatory bowel syndrome.

However, like the much-quoted, but often misunderstood, findings about the health benefits from drinking red wine, there’s nothing from any research to suggest a heavy consumption of dark or any other chocolate is anything but bad.  All the research seems to say is that if one is going to eat chocolate, dark is preferable and consumption should be no more than 20g (typically six small or two large squares, depending on the cut of the block) no more frequently than daily and only as part of a balanced diet.  As a general principle, the darker the better so a chocolate with 90% cocoa offers more benefits than one with less, remembering the flavored products (orange, caramel, raspberry et al) will be higher in sugar.

Ghirardelli Intense Dark 92% Cacao Chocolate.

Making dark chocolate is a relatively long process.  Cacao beans are picked when ripe, cleaned and left to ferment for two to nine days, using naturally present yeasts or a yeast-based starter, depending on bean and manufacturer.  The beans are then covered by banana leaves or put in wooden sweating boxes, temperature, humidity and aeration all adding to the flavor.  Once fermented, the beans are dried and roasted, using a process not greatly different from that used for coffee, this darkens them to a rich brown, enhancing the depth and complexity of the flavor and aroma.  The roasted beans are winnowed (removing the bean’s outer shell, or hull) and the inner bean (or nibs) are then ground or milled at high pressure to produce the cocoa mass (known also as chocolate liquor) and cocoa butter.

The cocoa mass and cocoa butter are then mixed with sugar, producing a paste for conching (a sequence of rolling, kneading, heating and aerating the mixture under heat until it becomes smooth and creamy).  The longer the conche, the smoother will be the chocolate so some premium products can be conched for a week whereas dark chocolate for cooking or the industrial production of food will be processed for only a few hours.  Once conched, a stabiliser such as soy lecithin is added, along with any additional flavors, such as sea salt or vanilla, after which the mix is tempered, a process in which chocolate is brought slowly to the necessary temperature before being poured into molds.  Once cooled, it’s then in its final form: stable, solid and edible.

Foodies, noting the intensity, suggest Cabernet Sauvignon works best with the darkest of dark chocolate, recommending Grenache, Malbec, Merlot, Tawny Port, Shiraz and Zinfandel for anything with a cocoa content under 75%.

There are many spreadable cheeses and those nutty and dense which combine well with chocolates up to 80%.  For the darkest strains, triple cream or blue cheeses work best but, of course, blue cheese goes with anything.

Winds of change.

The noun xocolatophobia describes the exceedingly rare condition in which a patient displays an irrational or disproportionate fear of chocolate.  There are even product-specific instances of the syndrome, the authoritative PhobiaWiki listing M&Mphobia (also known as Mumuphobia and Moukaimouophobia) while noting "not much is known about this phobia".  There’s little to suggest the mental health community has devoted much attention to M&Mphobia and the condition has never appeared in the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).  It’s speculated that M&Mphobia may be linked to the anthropomorphism Mars Wrigley use in their marketing material and perhaps even related to achondroplasiaphobia (fear of little people).  Mars Wrigley appears never to have addressed the issue but in early 2022 did announce a “multi-pronged approach” to "creating a world where everyone feels they belong and society is inclusive", the first innovation a makeover for each of the colorful M&M characters.  The manufacturer indicated the changes were to give each of the six characters a "fresh, modern take" on their traditional look and "more nuanced personalities to underscore the importance of self-expression and power of community through storytelling."

The differences were subtle and many may not notice but the most commented upon was the green M&M trading her signature white go-go boots for a pair of "cool, laid-back sneakers to reflect her effortless confidence".  Brown, the other female M&M probably will also be breathing a sigh of relief because after strutting in stilettos since 1940, she gets a pair of more comfortable kitten-heeled pumps.  Further to empower feminist solidarity, Mars Wrigley confirmed the brown & green M&M’s combative days were over and they’re now card-carrying members of the sisterhood, “together throwing shine and not shade".  The changes were well received by some.  National Public Radio’s (NPR) political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben (b 1983) seemed pleased the green M&M had been liberated from her white boots (with all that they imply) and discussed social reproduction theory, “how patriarchy and capitalism violently reinforce each other”, and what a sexy female M&M “says about gender as a construct”.

The other M&M characters also received slight adjustments to their personalities, notably the eternally morose orange M&M who, while still hardly ebullient, has learned to "embrace his true self, worries and all".  The orange M&M’s condition should now be considered cognizant of the latest edition of the DSM (DSM-5-TR, March 2022) which introduced the diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).  Details of all the changes are available on a Q&A page on the Mars Wrigley website and Cathryn Sleight (b 1964, then Chief Growth Officer at Mars Wrigley) issued an explanatory press release:

"M&M’S has long been committed to creating colorful fun for all, and this purpose serves as a more concrete commitment to what we’ve always believed as a brand: that everyone has the right to enjoy moments of happiness, and fun is the most powerful way to help people feel that they belong."

It’s not the first time the characters have been adjusted.  Between 1976-1987 the red M&M was actually banished from the packet in reaction to public disquiet about a synthetic red dye (FD&C Red No 2, also known as amaranth) used in the industrial production of food and linked to cancer in a 1971 Russian study.  Amaranth had been widely used in the US, included in products as diverse as ice-cream and hot dog casings and although tests by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) produced inconclusive results in humans, it was found the dye caused malignant tumors in female rats.  The FDA thus concluded amaranth could not be presumed safe for human consumption and in 1976 issued a ban.  Red M&Ms had never actually been colored using the agent but, aware of the controversy, the red M&M was removed from production, not returning until 1987 by which time the usual amnesia had overtaken the land.

Cutter

Cutter (pronounced kuht-er)

(1) A person employed to cut something, applied especially to one who cuts fabric for garments.

(2) A machine, tool, knife or other device for cutting.

(3) In nautical use, a single-mast sailing vessel, very similar to a sloop but having its mast set somewhat farther astern, about two-fifths of the way aft measured on the water line.

(4) In nautical use, a ship's boat having double-banked oars and one or two lugsails.

(5) In nautical use, a lightly armed government vessel used to prevent smuggling and enforce the customs regulations (known also as a revenue cutter).

(6) In psychiatry & psychology, a patient who repeatedly inflicts self-injury by cutting their flesh, a behavior traditionally associated with negative emotions.

(7) A person employed as a film editor, the titled derived from when physical film stock was physically cut with blades and re-joined.

(8) A small, light sleigh, usually single-seated and pulled by one horse.

(9) In construction, a brick suitable for cutting and rubbing, traditionally yellow and used for face-work (also called a rubber and now mostly obsolete but still use in restoration work).

(10) In industrial meat production (in the US government’s grading of beef), a lower-quality grade between utility and canner, used mostly in processed products such as hot dog sausages.

(11) In industrial meat production, a pig weighing between 68-82 kg (150-181 lb), from which fillets and larger joints are cut.

(12) In industrial meat production, an animal yielding inferior meat, with little or no external fat and marbling.

(13) In baseball, a variation of the fastball pitch.

(14) In cricket, as "leg cutter", a ball bowled by a fast bowler using finger spin to move the ball from leg to off (when delivered to a right-handed batsman); unrelated to the cut shot ("leg cut" & "off cut") except in the adjectival sense whereby a batsman might be described as “an expert cutter”, “an inept cutter” etc.  The "off cutter" is a delivery which moves in the other direction. 

(15) In dental classification, a foretooth; an incisor.

(16) In UK prison slang, a ten-pence (10p) piece, so named because it is the coin most often sharpened by prison inmates to use as a weapon.

(17) In medical slang, a surgeon (also modified to reflect specialties, neurosurgeons being “head cutters”, thoracic surgeons “chest cutter” etc).

(18) In the slang of criminology, an offender who habitually uses balded weapons to inflict injuries (also known as “slashers”).

(19) In film & television production, a flag, plate or similar instrument for blocking light.

(20) An officer in the exchequer who notes by cutting on the tallies the sums paid (obsolete).

(21) In slang, a disreputable ruffian (obsolete).

(22) As Cutter Expansive Classification (CEC), a library classification system, now obsolete although the core structure remains the basis for the system used by the US Library of Congress.

1375–1425: From the Middle English kittere & cuttere, the construct being cut(t) + -er.  Cut was from the Middle English cutten, kitten, kytten & ketten (to cut) (the Scots form was kut & kit), of North Germanic origin, from the Old Norse kytja & kutta, from the Proto-Germanic kutjaną & kuttaną (to cut), of uncertain origin, though there may be links with the Proto-Germanic kwetwą (meat, flesh) (related to the Old Norse kvett (meat)).  It was akin to the Middle Swedish kotta (to cut or carve with a knife) (the Swedish dialectal forms were kåta & kuta (to cut or chip with a knife)), the Swedish kuta & kytti (a knife), the Norwegian Bokmål kutte (to cut), the Norwegian Nynorsk kutte (to cut), the Icelandic kuta (to cut with a knife), the Old Norse kuti (small knife) and the Norwegian kyttel, kytel & kjutul (pointed slip of wood used to strip bark).  It displaced the native Middle English snithen (from the Old English snīþan) although the German schneiden survives still in some dialects as snithe or snead.  The –er suffix was from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ere, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, thought most likely to have been borrowed from the Latin –ārius where, as a suffix, it was used to form adjectives from nouns or numerals.  In English, the –er suffix, when added to a verb, created an agent noun: the person or thing that doing the action indicated by the root verb.   The use in English was reinforced by the synonymous but unrelated Old French –or & -eor (the Anglo-Norman variant -our), from the Latin -ātor & -tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.  When appended to a noun, it created the noun denoting an occupation or describing the person whose occupation is the noun.

A glove cutter at his bench at Omega srl Gloves (the Omega Glove Factory), Rione Sanità district, Naples, Italy.  In American Pastoral (1997), Philip Roth (1933–2018) wrote that no one was able to make gloves as well as “some small factory in Rione Sanità in Naples.”  In the 1980s, most glove production moved from Europe to the Far East and it's believed there are now fewer than a hundred master-certified glove cutters left in the world, the title formalized in seventeenth century France and conferred only after years of mentorship.

Night Suspect, a British Coast Guard Cutter in Pursuit (1958), oil on canvas by Montague Dawson (1890-1973). 

As a surname derived from occupation, Cutter emerged in the late twelfth century, based on the agent noun cutter (“one who cuts something” or “one who shapes or forms by cutting") from the verb cut From the 1630s it came to be used to describe an "instrument or tool for cutting", the use spreading as specialized tools and machines were developed.  In nautical use, beginning in 1792, it was applied to a range of small, single-mast vessels, a borrowing from the earlier use for a “double-banked boat belonging to a ship of war”, noted since 1745 and the rationale is unrecorded but it may have been either because of the similar lines of the hull or the more romantic idea of “cutting through” (moving quickly) the water.  The original ships were the “revenue cutters", lightly-armed government vessels commissioned for the prevention of smuggling and the enforcement of the customs regulations.  The use was therefore for some time restricted to vessels cutter-rigged, but the name has survived to transcend the original specification, almost all revenue ships now powered while the handful of sailed-ships are schooner-rigged.  Modifiers are used to describe various specialized tools used for cutting including biscuit cutter, cigar cutter, bolt cutter, box-cutter, gem cutter, glass cutter, leaf-cutter et al.  The original box cutters, dating from 1871, were those employees with the task of “cutting boxes” while the installed box cutters were pieces of large industrial plant, first noted in 1890; the familiar modern box cutter (hand-held bladed tool for cutting cardboard) first sold in 1944.  A cookie cutter is literally a device used to cut shapes from a sheet of pastry dough but is also used figuratively to describe to things which are un-original or un-imaginative.  Cutter is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is cutters.

Cutters: Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI)

What cutters do.

Cutters are the best known example of self-harmers, the diagnosis of which is described in the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI).  NSSI is defined as the deliberate, self-inflicted destruction of body tissue without suicidal intent and for purposes not socially sanctioned; it includes behaviors such as cutting, burning, biting and scratching skin.  Behaviorally, it’s highly clustered with instances especially prevalent during adolescence and the majority of cases being female although there is some evidence the instances among males may be under-reported.  It’s a behavior which has long interested and perplexed the profession because as something which involves deliberate and intentional injury to body tissue in the absence of suicidal intent (1) it runs counter to the fundamental human instinct to avoid injury and (2) as defined the injuries are never sufficiently serious to risk death, a well-understood reason for self-harm.  Historically, such behaviors tended to be viewed as self-mutilation and were thought a form of attenuated suicide but in recent decades more attention has been devoted to the syndrome, beginning in the 1980s at a time when self-harm was regarded as a symptom of borderline personality disorder (BPD) (personality disorders first entered DSM when DSM-III was published in 1980), distinguished by suicidal behavior, gestures, threats or acts of self-mutilation.  Clinicians however advanced the argument the condition should be thought a separate syndrome (deliberate self-harm syndrome (DSHS)), based on case studies which identified (1) a patient’s inability to resist the impulse to injure themselves, (2) a raised sense of tension prior to the act and (3) an experience of release or at least partial relief after the act.  That a small number of patients were noted as repeatedly self-harming was noted and it was suggested that a diagnosis called repetitive self-mutilation syndrome (RSMS) should be added to the DSM.  Important points associated with RSMS were (1) an absence of conscious suicidal intent, (2) the patient’s perpetually negative affective/cognitive which was (temporarily) relieved only after an act of self-harm and (3) a preoccupation with and repetitiveness of the behavior.  Accordingly, NSSI Disorder was added to the DSM-5 (2013) and noted as a condition in need of further study.

KEIBA Side Cutters.

Although interest in the cutters spiked in the 1990s, papers had been published as early as the 1930s and the literature suggests something of a consensus among clinicians it should be regarded a matter of self-mutilation, such acts a form of attenuated suicide.  Accordingly, all non-fatal and deliberate forms of self-injury tended to be viewed as suicide attempts, regardless of whether there was any expressed suicidal intent and it wasn’t until the 1960s that any volume of doubt emerged.  That was significant, not only because self-injury was coming to be understood as something distinct from attempted suicide but that it implied the instance of attempted suicide was significantly overstated, something of interest to many.  This led to the coining of the novel word “parasuicide”, perhaps an indication the profession still preferred to think cutting a sub-set rather than anything distinct.

Cutters' scars, fresh & fading.

For clinicians, NSSI can at the margins be a difficult diagnosis.  To fit the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5, NSSI must be intentional and deliberate but acts sometimes occurs during dissociative episodes so a judgment needs to be made determining whether an act can be held to be intentional if the patient is detached from reality.  As a definitional matter. there’s also the issue that if the motivation is to “feel something” some degree of intentionality seems at least implied but these examples do illustrate why NSSI among those suffering an episode of dissociation need even more carefully to be assessed before a diagnosis is decided.  There’s also a threshold criterion for the injury suffered, wounds needing to be “moderately intense” to qualify, thus the exclusion of such as lip-biting, scab & skin picking, hair pulling and nail-biting, even if these injuries might demand clinical care in another context (and may well be relevant in assessment measures).  Some extent of a “destruction of body tissue” is thus required and the current DSM-5 definition specifies bleeding or bruising.  However, it’s noted in cases studies that while minor and highly normative behaviors such as lip-biting, skin picking and hair pulling are excluded: (1) When severe they may be indicative of another specific condition such as trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder) or excoriation (skin-picking disorder) rather than NSSI and (2) repeated and obsessional instances of behavior that might otherwise be considered mild and normative might appropriately be diagnosed as NSSI.

Case Fatality Rates by Suicide Method (8 indicative US states, 1989-1997)

Although the instances of death resulting from cutting are low, it’s clear many patients engage in NSSI behaviors while experiencing thoughts of suicide and while the evidence suggests many report being resigned to death as a consequence of cutting, actual suicidal thoughts and hopes for death are markedly higher in those exhibiting suicidal behaviors.  Intriguingly, it seems some may engage in NSSI as a way to avoid acting on thoughts of suicide; NSSI for these patients serving to regulate and reduce suicidal thoughts and intentions.  So it’s clear that in both thought and behavior, there’s some overlap between NSSI and suicidal thoughts meaning that even if a cutter’s injuries are (medically) minor, the condition should not be thought trivial although, for practical purposes, NSSI and suicidal behaviors need still to be categorized separately.  Cutting is also special in that it is so overt, unlike other forms of self-harm such as alcohol & drug abuse, risky behavior or neglecting to follow a prescribed treatment for a chronic condition.  There does however seem to be a pronounced co-morbidity between NSSI and eating disorders, the obvious link being a patient’s relationship with their body, NSSI being in some sense a compensatory behavior and form of self-punishment.  Data is clearly accumulating but the APA’s editorial committee seem not yet ready to make major structural changes: in the DSM-5-TR (Text Revision, 2022) although codes were included both suicidal behavior and NSSI, Suicidal Behavior Disorder (SBD) and NSSI Disorder remained in the section “Conditions for Further Study”.

US Coast Guard Legend Class National Security Cutter.

Cynophagia

Cynophagia (pronounced)

The practice of eating dog meat.

Late 1700-early 1800s: The construct was cyno- + phagia.  Cyno was a combining form of the Ancient Greek κύων (kúōn or kýon) (dog) and the suffix –phagia was from the Ancient Greek -φαγία (-phagía) (and related to -φαγος (-phagos) (eater)), corresponding to φαγεῖν (phageîn) (to eat), infinitive of ἔφαγον (éphagon) (I eat), which serves as infinitive aorist for the defective verb ἐσθίω (esthíō) (I eat).  In English, use is now most frequent in mental health to reference the consumption of untypical items.  Being a cynophagist (a person who engages in cynophagia) is not synonymous with being a cynophile (a person who loves canines) although it’s not impossible there may be some overlap in the predilections.  The construct was cyno- +‎ -phile.  The –phile suffix was from the Latin -phila, from the Ancient Greek φίλος (phílos). (dear, beloved) and was used to forms noun & adjectives to convey the meanings “loving”, “friendly”, “admirer” or “friend”.  In the context of metal health, the condition would be described as cynophilia.  The -philia suffix was from the Ancient Greek φιλία (philía) (fraternal) love).  It was used to form nouns conveying a liking or love for something and in clinical use was applied often to an abnormal or obsessive interest, especially if it came to interfere with other aspects of life (the general term is paraphilia).  The companion suffix is the antonym -phobia. The related forms are the prefixes phil- & philo- and the suffixes -philiac, -philic, -phile & -phily.  Cynophagia, cynophagy, cynophagism & cynophagist are nouns and cynophagic is an adjective; the noun plural is cynophagists.

The word cynophagia was coined as part of the movement in European scholarship in the late eighteenth & early nineteenth centuries which used words from classical languages (Ancient Greek & Latin) as elements to create the lexicon of “modern” science & medicine, reflecting the academic & professional reverence for the supposed purity of the Ancient world.  The reason there was a cynophagia but not a “ailourphagia” (which would have meant “the practice of eating cat meat”) is probably because while the reports from European explorers & colonial administrators would have sent from the orient many reports of the eating of dogs, there were likely few accounts of felines as food.  The construct of “ailourphagia” would have been ailour-, from the Ancient Greek αἴλουρος (aílouros) (cat) + phagia.  The Greek elements of ailouros were aiolos (quick-moving or nimble) & oura (tail), the allusion respectively to the agility of cats and their characteristic tail movements.  There are of course ailurophiles (one especially fond of cats), notably the "childless cat ladies" and disturbingly, there's also paedophage (child eater). 

Historically, east of Suez, consuming dog meat was not uncommon and in some cultures it was a significant contribution to regional protein intake while in other places it was either unlawful of taboo.  Carnivorism (the practice of eating meat) is an almost universal human practice but what is acceptable varies between cultures.  Some foods are proscribed (such as shellfish or pig-meat) and while it’s clear the origin of this was as a kind of “public heath” measure (the rules created in hot climates in the pre-refrigeration age) but the observance became a pillar of religious observance.  Sometimes, a similar rule seems originally to have had an economic imperative such as the Hindu restriction on the killing of cattle for consumption, thus the phrase “sacred cow”, the original rationale being the calculation the live beasts made an economic contribution which much outweighed their utility as a protein source.  So, what is thought acceptable and not is a cultural construct and that varies from place-to-place, the Western aversion to eating cats & dogs attributable to the sentimental view of them which has evolved because of the role for millennia as domestic pets.  Over history, it’s likely every animal in the world has at some point been used as a food source, some an acquired taste such as the “deep fried tarantula” which, long a tasty snack in parts of Cambodia, became a novelty item in Cambodian restaurants in the West.  There are though probably some creatures which taste so awful they’re never eaten, such as parrots which ate the seeds of tobacco plants, lending their flesh a “distinctive flavor”.  The recipe for their preparation was:

(1) Place plucked parrot and an old boot in vat of salted water and slow-cook for 24 hours.
(2) After 24 hours remove parrot & boot.
(3) Throw away parrot and eat old boot.

Analysts had expected “more of the same” from Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) in his debate with Kamala Harris (b 1964; US vice president since 2021): the southern border, illegal immigrants, inflation et al.  What none predicted was that so much of the post-debate traffic would be about Mr Trump’s assertion Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio (one of literally dozens of localities in the country so named, one factor which influenced it becoming the name of the town in the Fox cartoon series The Simpsons) were eating the pets of the residents (ie their cats & dogs).  As racist tropes go, it followed the script in terms of the “otherness, barbarism, incompatibility” etc of “outsiders in our midst” although there seemed to be nothing to suggest there was any tradition of such consumption in Haiti.  Still, at least it was something novel and it wasn’t the first time pet cats had been mentioned in the 2024 presidential campaign, Mr Trump’s choice of running mate as JD Vance (b 1984; US senator (Republican-Ohio) since 2023) bring renewed attention to the latter’s 2021 interview then Fox News host Tucker Carlson (b 1969) in which he observed the US had fallen into the hands of corporate oligarchs. Radical Democratic Party politicians and “…a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

Eventually, that would be answered by the childless cat ladies, notably the most famous: the singer Taylor Swift who posted an endorsement of Kamala Harris, posing with Benjamin Button, the Ragdoll she adopted in 2019.  Benjamin Button was no stranger to fame, the seemingly nonplussed puss appearing of the cover announcing Ms Swift as Time magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year.

Childless cat lady Taylor Swift with ragdoll Benjamin Button (as stole).  Ragdoll cats make good stoles because (apparently because of a genetic mutation), they tend to "go limp" when picked up.  

Ms Swift is of course a song-writer so well accustomed to crafting text to achieve the desired effect and one word nerd lawyer quickly deconstructed, much taken by the first three paragraphs which interlaced the first person (“I” & “me/my”) and the “you” while avoiding starting any sentence with “I” (a technique taught as a way of conveying “objectivity”) until the she announces her conclusion:

 “Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight. If you haven’t already, now is a great time to do your research on the issues at hand and the stances these candidates take on the topics that matter to you the most. As a voter, I make sure to watch and read everything I can about their proposed policies and plans for this country.”

“Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”

“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”

So, a classic example of a technique which might be used by someone disinterested: two premises which lead to a conclusion, the rhythm of the lyric being “I, I, you, you, you.”  Then, after the “you, you, you” of the “discussion” has made it clear where her focus is, every sentence in the third paragraph begins with “I”, emulation a cadence which might appear in a musical track: “I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make.”  One can see why her songs are said to be so catchy.

The intervention of Ms Swift and Benjamin Button produced reactions. 

Newspapers haven’t always been effective in changing voting intentions or nudging governments in particular public policy directions.  During the inter-war years the Beaverbrook (the Daily & Sunday Express and the less disreputable Evening Standard) press in the UK ran a long and ineffective campaign promoting “empire free trade” and the evidence suggests the editorial position a publication adopted to advocate its readers vote one way or the other was more likely to reflect than shift public opinion.  One reason is that in the West, while politics is very interested in the people, the people tend not to be interested in politics and most thoughtful editorials are barely read.  People are however rabid consumers of popular culture and one opposition leader would later claim an interview a woman’s magazine conducted with his (abandoned) ex-wife did him more political damage than anything written by political or economics reporters, however critical.  With 283 million followers on Instagram (Ms Harris has 18 million), Ms Swift’s intervention may prove decisive if she shifts just a few votes in the famous “battleground states”.

Celebrity endorsements are not unusual; some successful, some not.  In 2016, Lindsay Lohan endorsed crooked Hillary Clinton (who did win the popular vote so there was that).

Whether Ms Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris will shift many opinions isn’t known (many analysts concluding the electorate long ago coalesced into “Trump” & “anti-Trump” factions) but the indications are she may have been remarkably effective in persuading to vote those who may not otherwise have bothered, the assumption being most of these converts to participation will follow her lead and it’s long been understood that to win elections in the US, the theory is simple: get those who don’t vote to vote for you.  In practice, that has been difficult to achieve at scale (the best executions in recent years by the campaign teams of George W Bush (George XLIII, b 1946; US president 2001-2009) in 2004 and Barack Obama (b 1961; US president 2009-2017) in 2008.

However, in including a custom URL which directed people to vote.gov where they could register to vote produced a spike in voter registration, the US General Services Administration (GSA) revealing an “unprecedented” 338,000-odd unique visits to their portal in the hours after Ms Swift’s post.  Although the “shape” of the hits isn’t known, most seem to be assuming that (as well as some childless cat ladies), those who may be voting for the first time will tend to be (1) young and (2) female, reflecting the collective profile of Ms Swift’s “Swifties”.  They are the demographic the Democratic Party wants.  The GSA called it the “Swift effect” and added that while in the past there had been events which produced smaller spikes, they were brief in duration unlike the Swifties woh for days kept up the traffic, the aggregate numbers dwarfing even the “intensity and enthusiasm” in the wake of the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) overturning Roe v Wade (1973) prior to the 2022 mid-term congressional elections.

In an interview with JD Vance, Fox News asked what he thought might be the significance of Ms Swift mobilizing the childless cat lady vote and he responded: “We admire Taylor Swift’s music. But I don’t think most Americans, whether they like her music, or are fans of hers or not, are going to be influenced by a billionaire celebrity who I think is fundamentally disconnected from the interests and problems of most people.  When grocery prices go up by 20 per cent, it hurts most Americans. It doesn’t hurt Taylor Swift. When housing prices become unaffordable, it doesn’t affect Taylor Swift, or any other billionaire.”  Fox News choose not to pursue the matter of whether self-described “billionaire celebrity” Donald Trump could be said to be “…fundamentally disconnected from the interests and problems of most people.”

In “damage-limitation” mode, the Trump campaign mobilized generative AI in an attempt to re-capture the childless cat lady vote.  After the debate, Mr Trump had added geese to the alleged diet of Springfield’s Haitian residents.

Mr Trump may have himself to blame for Ms Swift’s annoying endorsement because he’d earlier posted fake, AI-generated images on his social media platform, Truth Social, suggesting she’d urged her the Swifties to vote for him.  Such things were of course not foreseen by the visionary AI (artificial intelligence) researchers of the 1950s, the genie is out of the bottle and given that upholding the “freedom of speech” guaranteed by the First Amendment to the constitution is one of the few things on which the SCOTUS factions agree, the genie is not going back.

The meme-makers have really taken to generative AI.

So while generative AI doesn’t allow mean the meme makers can suddenly create images once impossible, it does mean they can be produced by those without artistic skills or specialized resources and the whole matter of the culinary preferences of Haitians in Ohio is another blow for the state.  It was only in May 2024 that a number of schools in issued a ban on Gen Alpha slang terms including:

Ohio: It means “bad” with all that implies (dull, boring, ugly, poor etc).  Because of the way language evolves, it may also come to mean “people who eat pet cats & dogs”.  The implication is it’s embarrassing to be from Ohio.

Skibidi: A reference to a viral meme of a person’s head coming out of a toilet; it implies the subject so described is “weird”.

Sigma: Unrelated to the 18^th letter of the Greek alphabet, it’s been re-purposed as a rung on the male social hierarchy somewhat below the “alpha-male”.

Rizz: This one has a respectable pedigree, being the the Oxford English Dictionary’s (OED) 2023 word of the year.  It’s said technically to be a “Gen Z word”, short for “charisma”.  It has been banned because Gen Alpha like to use it in the negative (ie “lacking rizz”; “no rizz” etc).

Mewing: A retort or exclamation used to interrupt someone who is complaining about something trivial.  Gen Alpha are using it whenever their teachers say something they prefer not discuss.

Gyatt: A woman with a big butt, said originally based on the expression “goddam your ass thick.”

Bussin’: “Good, delicious, high quality” etc.

Baddie: A tough, bolshie girl who “doesn’t take shit form no one”.  It’s a similar adaptation of meaning to a term like “filth” which means “very attractive”.