Rehab

Rehab (pronounced ree-hab)

(1) A clipping of rehabilitation.

(2) In slang (though also sometimes used formally), a programme or facility for treating substance abuse (those addicted to narcotics or alcohol.

(3) In slang (though also sometimes used formally), a programme or facility for treating those recovering from certain medical conditions:

(4) In slang, a building which has been renovated, usually in the context of urban renewal and re-development being.

(5) Of or relating to rehabilitation.

(6) In the vernacular of post-war New Zealand English, the informal short form for the Department of Rehabilitation, a government institution established to cater for the needs of injured military personnel.

(7) To rehabilitate (something, someone, a concept or idea).

(8) In political science, to restore an individual to their previous status (drawn from late medieval civil & canon law and associated particularly with Soviet-era Russia and undertaken to rectify those unpersoned).

(9) In environmental science, a defined area (land or aquatic) in which a programme of rehabilitation is being undertaken or has been completed.

1948 (as documented although there may have been previous ad-hoc use in various oral traditions):  The original form emerged in the vernacular of post-war New Zealand English NZ the informal short form for the Department of Rehabilitation, a government institution established to cater for the needs of injured military personnel.  It worked in conjunction with the civil organization the Rehabilitation League, formed in 1931 with similar aims.  By the early 1970s, the word as a slang term was used in relation to housing and urban renewal programmes.  The extension of the meaning to “an action of restoring anything to a previous condition” emerged in the mid-nineteenth century and was soon used of land, buildings, machinery etc and in the 1940s it began to be applied to programmes designed to re-educate & re-train criminals, addicts and such for a successful re-entry to society.  Rehab is a noun & verb, rehaber is a noun & rehabbed & rehabbing; the noun plural is rehabs.

The Collins Dictionary tracks patterns of word use and while the pre-modern statistics are neither comprehensive or exact to the extent revealed by analysis of the wealth of modern data, it's thought still usefully illustrative.  Clearly there was a trend of use in the eighteenth century but this is thought not indicative of "rehab" being treated as a stand-alone word but as a contraction to save space when printing legal and ecclesiastical documents, a required technique in an era when ink and paper were both expensive.  Rehab, as currently used, is very much a word of the twenty-first century.

The noun rehabilitation (act of reinstating in a former rank or standing) dates from the 1530s and was from the French réhabilitation or the Medieval Latin rehabilitationem (nominative rehabilitatio) (restoration), a noun of action from the past-participle stem of rehabilitare, the construct being re- (again) + habitare (make fit), from the Latin habilis (easily managed, fit).  At least some etymologists suspect the derived verb rehabilitate may have emerged concurrently but the earliest known citation is from 1583.  The process originally applied exclusively to those who, having earlier been punished for some transgression by being stripped for rank or status, were for whatever reason restored to their former position.  The verb was from the Medieval Latin rehabilitatus, the past participle of rehabilitare and the processes were at various times codified in both civil and canon law.  The process is now best remembered from the practices in the Soviet Union where comrades guilty of especially unworthy acts (or thoughts) could be “unpersoned” (ie erased from all records).  In some cases, circumstances could change and the unpersoned were rehabilitated.

Lindsay Lohan with broken wrist (fractured in two places in an unfortunate fall at Milk Studios during New York Fashion Week) and 355 ml (12 fluid oz) can of Rehab energy drink, Los Angeles, September 2006.  The car is a 2006 Mercedes-Benz SL 65 (R230; 2004-2011) which would later feature in the tabloids after a low-speed crash.  The R230 range (2001-2011) was unusual because of the quirk of the SL 550 (2006-2011), a designation used exclusively in the North American market, the RoW (rest of the world) cars retaining the SL 500 badge even though both used the 5.5 litre (333 cubic inch) V8 (M273).

Doubtlessly, substance abuse has existed ever since substances became available to be abused and just a certainly, over the millennia, individuals, families and societies have devised their own methods to rehabilitate those afflicted.  There was great variation in the approaches but in the West, most tended to be influenced by the dominant ethos that addiction was a moral failing and personal weakness, the literature suggesting punishment and abstinence were there preferred course of treatment; “drying out” has a long history.  It was in the late twentieth century that the notion of “rehab” being not only a process but one which could be treated in a permanent structure, an institutionalization of earlier ad-hoc approaches of which Alcoholics Anonymous, beginning in 1935 is probably the best known although it was by no means the first and much of its success in attracting followers has been attributed to it distancing itself from the religious affiliations which characterized many of its predecessors.

Lindsay Lohan in rehab center, Sundance, Utah, 2007.  It is possible to purchase alcohol in Utah although the regulatory environment is more restrictive so presumably the state is more suited than many to host rehab centers.

Even by the 1970s, there was still much stigma attached to rehabilitation programmes and it was probably the admission by Betty Ford (1918–2011; US First Lady 1974-1977) that she was an alcoholic which was most instrumental in lending some legitimacy to the concept.  After leaving the White House she would found her own rehab clinic which continues to operate.  In the years since, there’s been an attempt to re-classify addiction as a treatable medical condition rather than a moral failing or something worse which need to be treated punitively.  To an extent that has worked and there’s probably a general public perception that addiction is exactly that, a chemical relationship between the substances and the physical brain but in some jurisdictions, such is the volume of addiction that it’s simply not possible to provide rehab services on the scale required.  There’s a critique also of rehab as something which has come to be seen by the TikTok generation as something almost fashionable, presumably because of the frequency with which pop-culture celebrities are clients and even addiction can now thus be rationalized as one of the corollaries of the creative mind.  There’s also of course the link between rehab clinics and wealth, the association created because (1) they’re places where even short-stay programmes can cost tens of thousands of dollars and (2) the only time they’re attract publicity is when a celebrity or some other famous figure attends.  Criticism has been extended too because there’s often little sympathy for those who use an admission of addiction in mitigation (“excuse” in the popular imagination) when on trial for this or that and there’s a perception rehab is an attractive alternative to actual punishment.

Monster Rehab energy drinks.

According to the helpful site Caffeine Informer, Monster's Rehab energy drinks (Peach Tea, Raspberry Tea, Orangeade, Watermelon, Strawberry Lemonade & Tea + Lemonade) contain 160 mg of caffeine (except the watermelon flavor which weighs in at 150).  A cup of black coffee will typically contain between 55-70 mg.  According to the manufacturer, the Rehab drinks are "packed with electrolytes, vitamins, and botanicals that deliver on advanced hydration helping you reduce fatigue and increase concentration."  Their target market is those who wish to "refresh, recover & revive" and their staccato advertising copy captures the moment they'd like customers to visualize:

It’s 2 P.M. Still sleeping, but who’s banging on the door?  “Housekeeping!”  Your eyes open to see a mermaid scoot her ass across the floor.  The housekeeper screams and mutters a prayer.  This can’t be right.  Your eyes close.  It’s after 4 now.  Your head’s pounding.  So many questions.  You’ve got to meet everyone downstairs in an hour to do it all again.  Not a problem.  You’re a professional.  You crack open a Rehab Monster Tea + Lemonade and let the lemon-infused electrolytes, vitamins, and botanicals work their life-giving, hydration magic.  Congrats, You’re back from the dead.

Vegan

Vegan (pronounced vee-guhn or vey-guhn)

(1) A vegetarian who omits all animal products from their diet and does not use animal-based or sourced products such as leather or wool.

(2) Someone from Vega, towns in Scandinavia, the US or (mostly in fiction) other places so named.

(3) A collective name adopted in the 1980s by fans of the singer-songwriter, Suzanne Vega (b 1959).

1944: A modern English construct, veg (contraction of vegetable) + an, coined by Donald Watson (1910-2005) to distinguish those who abstain from all animal products (eggs, cheese, etc) from those who merely refuse to eat the animals.  The -an suffix occurred originally in adjectives borrowed from Latin, formed from nouns denoting places (Roman; urban) or persons (Augustan) but now productively forms English adjectives by extension of the Latin pattern.  The suffix an, and its variant ian also occurs in a set of personal nouns, mainly loanwords from French, denoting one who engages in, practices, or works with the referent of the base noun (historian; theologian); this usage especially productive with nouns ending in ic (electrician; logician; technician ).  Vegan is a noun & adjective, vegansexual is a noun and veganism, vegansexualism & veganist are nouns; the noun plural is vegans.

Donald Watson was an English animal rights advocate who founded The Vegan Society in 1944.  Although the actual establishment of the society was either 5 or 12 November (the records are contradictory), World Vegan Day is each year celebrated on 1 November.  In 1984, a dissident faction broke from the group and formed The Movement for Compassionate Living and ever since, veganism has been a contested space, the factions including (1) radicals who pursue direct action against the slaughter industry and its customers, (2) purists who exclude to whatever extent possible the presence of animal products in their lives while variously tolerating, ignoring or disapproving of those who don't and (3), vegetarians who can't resist nice handbags and shoes.  Latest vegan news here. 

The Sexual Politics of Meat

While still an undergraduate at the University of Rochester, Carol J Adams (b 1951) was instrumental in having women's studies courses added to the syllabus.  A long-time vegan, she later gained a masters from Yale Divinity School but her core interest remained feminism and in 1990, building on earlier essays, she published The Sexual Politics of Meat, an exploration of her vegetarian-feminist, pacifist, intersectional critical theory.

Her most novel concept was the "absent referent", used to explain the consumption of meat and the objectification of women in pornography, the referent literally absent in the case of the life of the dismembered beast being consumed; metaphorically in the oppression of the life of the subjects of pornography.  Adams constructed parallels within the patriarchal system, men’s sense of entitlement over animals similar to their varying expectations of the right to abuse, exploit, or degrade women in the use of their bodies.  Structurally she noted, language is replete with terms and phrases which interchangeably can be used to describe either women or animals with a hierarchy of use based on speciesism depending on men’s perceptions of degrees of female attractiveness.  All such use she claimed, regardless of how else it could be classified, is hate speech.

Most graphic was the notion of the pornography of meat which drew a visual comparison between meat advertised for sale on shelves and the portrayal of women in various media; two different forms of consumption which use the same techniques of production and distribution.  Within the western consumer model, Adams found a construct of white male supremacy which relegated all others, different races, non-human animals and women, to inferior roles or places.

Linder Sterling in meat dress (1982).

Linder Sterling (b 1954) is a radical feminist artist.  In November 1982, as part of a punk performance in Manchester’s Haçienda club, she appeared in a dress made from meat, while packages of leftover raw meat wrapped in pornography were distributed to the audience.  The performance culminated with a quite aggressive critique of the exploitation of women which, at the time, seems genuinely to have been confronting.

Lady Gaga in meat dress (2010).

By 2010, the "waves" had made feminism diffuse, the inherently post-modern platform of social media had imposed on pop-culture an inevitable equivalency of value and there was perhaps no longer a capacity to shock, just to be photographed.  Lady Gaga’s (b 1986) meat dress (asymmetrical, with cowl–neck), worn at the MTV Video Music Awards is now remembered as just another outfit, named by many as the fashion statement of 2010.  While there was cultural comment, the piece's place in history is as a frock, not for any meaning, implied or inferred.  Lady Gaga though remained phlegmatic, quoted later as saying, "... it has many interpretations.”  She later clarified things by saying the meat dress wasn't significant as a piece of clothing but was intended as a comment on the state of the fashion industry and the importance of focusing on individuality and inner beauty rather than superficial appearances.  One implication may have related to impermanence; because the garment was made wholly from raw meat, it had to be preserved with chemicals before and after the event but there are limits to what's chemically possible and the parts of the garment which had decomposed were discarded before the remains were dried and a permanent coating applied.  The preserved dress has since been displayed.  Lady Gaga no longer wears "meat-based" clothing.  

Tash Peterson letting people know how sausages are made.

Something of a local legend in the world of vegan activism, Tash Peterson (b circa 1995) is an animal rights activist based in Perth, Australia.  Not actually in the militant extreme of the movement which engages in actual physical attacks on the personnel, plant & equipment of the industries associated with animal slaughter, Ms Peterson's form of direct action is the set-piece event, staged to produce images and video with cross-platform appeal, the footage she posts on social media freely available for re-distribution by the legacy media, her Instagram feed providing a sample of her work in various contexts. Ms Peterson is a vegansexual (a vegan who chooses to have sex or pursue sexual relationships only with other vegans).

Her events have included approaching people in the meat section of supermarkets, wearing a blood-soaked butcher's apron while carrying the simulated carcass of a chicken, donning a rather fetching cow-skin (presumably synthetic) bodysuit in front of a milk and yoghurt display while carrying a sign surmising the processes of industrial dairy farming in anthropomorphic terms, wearing bloodied clothing to fast food outlets while using a megaphone to address queues of customers, explaining the details of what's done to animals so they can enjoy their burgers and, eschewing even the sensible shoes she usually wears, adorned in nothing but a pair of knickers and liberally smeared with (what she claimed to be her own menstrual) blood, staging a protest in Perth's Louis Vuitton shop, shouting at the customers and calling them "animal abusers".

Tash Petersen on OnlyFans.

Ms Peterson was banned from all licensed venues in Western Australia after storming pubs and restaurants, her critique of course the content of the meals rather than their sometimes dubious quality; after that, she travelled briefly to the eastern states but has since returned to Perth.  She has an active and apparently lucrative account on OnlyFans with all that that implies but there is an element of animal rights activism even there so whether her two interests should be thought vertical or horizontal integration might be an interesting question for economic theorists.

Fellow club member Lindsay Lohan who remained a carnivore.

Veganism can be merely a personal choice and there are many who have adopted at least the dietary aspects simply because they believe there are benefits for their health but it can also be a political statement and political statements need publicity, the preferred modern form being the celebrity endorsement and if need be, one paid for.  In 2010, the animal rights organisation PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) offered to subsidize Lindsay Lohan's stint in rehab, on the condition she became a vegan.  For PETA, it was the chance to make the point that while undergoing treatment for substance addiction, Ms Lohan would be able also to rid herself "... of one more toxic substance: meat.", adding "As you know, a crucial part of any recovery is showing charity to others. One way to do this is to be kind to animals, the Earth, and your own body. You'll never regret it." 

Ms Lohan had previously attracted the attention of the organization, in 2008 making their "worst dressed list" after being photographed wearing fur.  According to E! Online, PETA offered to contribute US$20,000 towards the US50,000 cost of the court-ordered stay, half to be paid for adopting the vegan diet while in rehab, the remainder if the diet was followed for one year following her release.  The encourage acceptance of the offer, it was accompanied with a vegan-care pack including a DVD about the slaughter industry called Glass Walls (narrated by Paul McCartney (b 1942)) and a vegetarian/vegan starter kit.  While rehab went well, the offer apparently wasn't taken up and although she seems to now eschew fur, her Instagram feed continues to feature much leather (handbags & shoes) and meat (the odd recipe provided including a chicken pie and machboos, a favorite in the Middle East).

Frango

Frango (pronounced fran-goh)

(1) A young chicken (rare in English and in Portuguese, literally “chicken”).

(2) Various chicken dishes (an un-adapted borrowing from the Portuguese).

(3) In football (soccer) (1) a goal resulting from a goalkeeper’s error and (2) the unfortunate goalkeeper.

(4) The trade name of a chocolate truffle, now sold in Macy's department stores. 

In English, “frango” is most used in the Portuguese sense of “chicken” (variously “a young chicken”, “chicken meat”, “chicken disk” etc) and was from the earlier Portuguese frângão of unknown origin.  In colloquial figurative use, a frango can be “a young boy” and presumably that’s an allusion to the use referring to “a young chicken”.  In football (soccer), it’s used (sometimes trans-nationally) of a goal resulting from an especially egregious mistake by the goalkeeper (often described in English by the more generalized “howler”.  In Brazil, where football teams are quasi-religious institutions, such a frango (also as frangueiro) is personalized to describe the goalkeeper who made the error and on-field blunders are not without lethal consequence in South America, the Colombian centre-back Andrés Escobar (1967–1994) murdered in the days after the 1994 FIFA World Cup, an event reported as a retribution for him having scored the own goal which contributed to Colombia's elimination from the tournament. Frango is a noun; the noun plural is frangos.

The Classical Latin verb frangō (to break, to shatter) (present infinitive frangere, perfect active frēgī, supine frāctum) which may have been from the primitive Indo-European bhreg- (to break) by not all etymologists agree because descendants have never been detected in Celtic or Germanic forks, thus the possibility it might be an organic Latin creation.  The synonyms were īnfringō, irrumpō, rumpō & violō.  As well as memorable art, architecture and learning, Ancient Rome was a world also of violence and conflict and there was much breaking of stuff, the us the figurative use of various forms of frangō to convey the idea of (1) to break, shatter (a promise, a treaty, someone's ideas (dreams, projects), someone's spirit), (2) to break up into pieces (a war from too many battles, a nation) and (3) to reduce, weaken (one's desires, a nation).

A frangō in the sense of the Classical Latin: Lindsay Lohan with broken left wrist (fractured in two places in an unfortunate fall at Milk Studios during New York Fashion Week) and 355 ml (12 fluid oz) can of Rehab energy drink, Los Angeles, September 2006.  The car is a 2006 Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG (R230; 2004-2011) which would later feature in the tabloids after a low-speed crash.  The R230 range (2001-2011) was unusual because of the quirk of the SL 550 (2006-2011), a designation used exclusively in the North American market, the RoW (rest of the world) cars retaining the SL 500 badge even though both used the 5.5 litre (333 cubic inch) V8 (M273).

The descendents from the Classical Latin frangō (to break, to shatter) included the Aromanian frãngu (to break, to destroy; to defeat), the Asturian frañer (to break; to smash) & francer (to smash), the English fract (to break; to violate (long obsolete)) & fracture ((1) an instance of breaking, a place where something has broken. (2) in medicine a break in a bone or cartilage and (3) in geology a fault or crack in a rock), the Friulian franzi (to break), the German Fraktur ((1) in medicine, a break in a bone & (2) a typeface) & Fraktion (2) in politics, a faction, a parliamentary grouping, (3) in chemistry, a fraction (in the sense of a component of a mixture), (4) a fraction (part of a whole) and (5) in the German-speaking populations of Switzerland, South Tyrol & Liechtenstein, a hamlet (adapted from the Italian frazione)), the Italian: frangere (1) to break (into pieces), (2) to press or crush (olives), (3) in figurative use and as a literary device, to transgress (a commandment, a convention of behavior etc), (4) in figurative use to weaken (someone's resistance, etc.) and (5) to break (of the sea) (archaic)), the Ladin franjer (to break into pieces), the Old Franco provençal fraindre (to break; significantly to damage), the Old & Middle French fraindre (significantly to damage), the Portuguese franzir (to frown (to form wrinkles in forehead)), the Romanian frânge (1) to break, smash, fracture & (2) in figurative use, to defeat) and frângere (breaking), the Old Spanish to break), and the Spanish frangir (to split; to divide).

Portuguese lasanha de frango (chicken lasagna).

In Portuguese restaurants, often heard is the phrase de vaca ou de frango? (beef or chicken?) and that’s because so many dishes offer the choice, much the same as in most of the world (though obviously not India).  In fast-food outlets, the standard verbal shorthand for “fried chicken” is “FF” which turns out to be one of the world’s most common two letter abbreviations, the reason being one “F” representing of English’s most unadapted linguistic exports.  One mystery for foreigners sampling Portuguese cuisine is: Why is chicken “frango” but chicken soup is “sopa de galinha?”  That’s because frango is used to mean “a young male chicken” while a galinha is an adult female.  Because galinha meat doesn’t possess the same tender quality as that of a frango, (the females bred and retained mostly for egg production), slaughtered galinhas traditionally were minced or shredded and used for dishes such as soups, thus: sopa de galinha (also as canja de galinha or the clipped caldo and in modern use, although rare, sopa de frango is not unknown).  That has changed as modern techniques of industrial farming have resulted in a vastly expanded supply of frango meat so, by volume, most sopa de galinha is now made using frangos (the birds killed young, typically between 3-4 months).  Frangos have white, drier, softer meat while that of the galinha is darker, less tender and juicer and the difference does attract chefs in who do sometimes offer a true sopa de galinha as a kind of “authentic peasant cuisine”.

There are also pintos (pintinhos in the diminutive) which are chicks only a few days old but these are no longer a part of mainstream Portuguese cuisine although galetos (chicks killed between at 3-4 weeks) are something of a delicacy, usually roasted.  The reproductive males (cocks or roosters in English use) are galos.  There is no tradition, anywhere in Europe, of eating the boiled, late-developing fertilized eggs (ie a bird in the early stages of development), a popular dish in the Philippines and one which seems to attract virulent disapprobation from many which culturally is interesting because often, the same critics happily will consume both the eggs and the birds yet express revulsion at even the sight of the intermediate stage.  Such attitudes are cultural constructs and may be anthropomorphic because there’s some resemblance to a human foetus.

Lindsay Lohan at Macy's and Teen People's Freaky Friday Mother/Daughter Fashion Show, Macy's Herald Square, New York City, August 2003.  It's hoped she had time for a Frango.

 Now sold in Macy’s Frangos are a chocolate truffle created in 1918 for sale in Frederick & Nelson department stores.  Although originally infused with mint, many variations ensued and they became popular when made available in the Marshall Field department stores which in 1929 acquired Frederick & Nelson although it’s probably their distribution by Macy's which remains best known.  Marshall Field's marketing sense was sound and they turned the Frango into something of a cult, producing them in large melting pots on the 13th floor of the flagship Marshall Field's store on State Street until 1999 when production was out-sourced to a third party manufacturer in Pennsylvania.  In the way of modern corporate life, the Frango has had many owners, a few changes in production method and packaging and some appearances in court cases over rights to the thing but it remains a fixture on Macy’s price lists, the trouble history reflected in the “Pacific Northwest version” being sold in Macy's Northwest locations in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon while the “Seattle version” is available in Macy's Northwest establishments.  There are differences between the two and each has its champions but doubtless there are those who relish both.

A patent application (with a supporting trademark document) for the Frango was filed in 1918, the name a re-purposing of a frozen dessert sold in the up-market tea-room at Frederick & Nelson's department store in Seattle, Washington.  The surviving records suggest the “Seattle Frangos” were flavoured not with mint but with maple and orange but what remains uncertain is the origin of the name.  One theory is the construct was Fr(ederick’s) + (t)ango which is romantic but there are also reports employees were told, if asked, to respond it was from Fr(ederick) –an(d) Nelson Co(mpany) with the “c” switched to a “g” because the word “Franco” had a long established meaning.  Franco was a word-forming element meaning “French” or “the Franks”, from the Medieval Latin combining form Franci (the Franks), thus, by extension, “the French”.  Since the early eighteenth century it had been used when forming English phrases & compound words including “Franco-Spanish border” (national boundary between France & Spain), Francophile (characterized by excessive fondness of France and all things French (and thus its antonym Francophobe)) and Francophone (French speaking).

Hitler and Franco, photographed at their day-long meeting at Hendaye, on the Franco-Spanish border, 23 October 1940.  Within half a decade, Hitler would kill himself; still ruling Spain, Franco died peacefully in his bed, 35 years later.

Remarkably, the Frango truffles have been a part of two political controversies.  The first was a bit of a conspiracy theory, claiming the sweet treats were originally called “Franco Mints”, the name changed only after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) in which the (notionally right-wing and ultimately victorious) Nationalist forces were led by Generalissimo Francisco Franco (1892-1975; Caudillo of Spain 1939-1975) and the explanation was that Marshall Field wanted to avoid adverse publicity.  Some tellings of the tale claim the change was made only after the Generalissimo’s meeting with Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) at Hendaye (on the Franco-Spanish border) on 23 October 1940.  Their discussions concerned Spain's participation in the War against the British but it proved most unsatisfactory for the Germans, the Führer declaring as he left that he'd rather have "three of four teeth pulled out" than have to again spend a day meet with the Caudillo.  Unlike Hitler, Franco was a professional soldier, thought war a hateful business best avoided and, more significantly, had a shrewd understanding of the military potential of the British Empire and the implications for the war of the wealth and industrial might of the United States.  The British were fortunate Franco took the view he did because had he agreed to afford the Wehrmacht (the German armed forces) the requested cooperation to enable them to seize control of Gibraltar, the Royal Navy might have lost control of the Mediterranean, endangering the vital supplies of oil from the Middle East, complicating passage to the Indian Ocean and beyond and transforming the strategic position in the whole hemisphere.  However, in the archives is the patent application form for “Frangos” dated 1 June 1918 and there has never been any evidence to support the notion “Franco” was ever used for the chocolate truffles.

Macy's Dark Mint Frangos.

The other political stoush (a late nineteenth century Antipodean slang meaning a "fight or small-scale brawl) came in 1999 when, after seventy years, production of Frangos was shifted from the famous melting pots on the thirteenth floor of Marshall Field's flagship State Street store to Gertrude Hawk Chocolates in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, the decision taken by the accountants at the Dayton-Hudson Corporation which had assumed control in 1990.  The rationale of this was logical, demand for Frangos having grown far beyond the capacity of the relatively small space in State Street to meet demand but it upset many locals, the populist response led Richard Daley (b 1942; mayor (Democratic Party) of Chicago Illinois 1989-2011), the son of his namesake father (1902–1976; mayor (Democratic Party) of Chicago, Illinois 1955-1976) who in 1968 simultaneously achieved national infamy and national celebrity (one’s politics dictating how one felt) in his handling of the police response to the violence which beset the 1968 Democratic National Convention held that year in the city.  The campaign to have the Frangos made instead by a Chicago-based chocolate house was briefly a thing but was ignored by Dayton-Hudson and predictably, whatever the lingering nostalgia for the melting pots, the pragmatic Mid-Westerners adjusted to the new reality and with much the same with the same enthusiasm were soon buying the imports from Pennsylvania.

Macy's Frango Mint Trios.

Remarkably, there appears to be a “Frango spot market”.  Although the increasing capacity of AI (artificial intelligence) has made the mechanics of “dynamic pricing” (a price responding in real-time to movements in demand), as long ago as the Christmas season in 2014, CBS News ran what they called the “Macy's State Street Store Frango Mint Price Tracker”, finding the truffle’s price was subject to fluctuations as varied over the holiday period as movements in the cost of gas (petrol).  On the evening of Thanksgiving, “early bird” shoppers could buy a 1 lb one-pound box of Frango mint “Meltaways” for US$11.99, the price jumping by the second week in December to US$14.99 although that still represented quite a nominal discount from the RRP (recommended retail price) of US$24.00.  Within days, the same box was again listed at US$11.99 and a survey of advertising from the previous season confirmed that in the weeks immediately after Christmas, the price had fallen to US$9.99.  It may be time for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to open a market for Frango Futures (the latest “FF”!).

Catharsis

Catharsis (pronounced kuh-thahr-sis)

(1) The purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.

(2) In psychiatry, a form of psychoanalysis or psychotherapy that encourages or permits the discharge of repressed, pent-up, socially unacceptable affects.

(3) The discharge of pent-up emotions so as to result in the alleviation of symptoms or the permanent relief of the condition.

(4) In Aristotelian literary criticism, the purging or purification of the emotions through the evocation of pity and fear, as in tragedy.

(5) In medicine, purgation, especially of the bowels.

1770: From the New Latin catharsis, from the Ancient Greek kátharsis (a cleansing) equivalent to kathar, variant stem of kathaírein (to cleanse, purge, purify), from katharós (pure, clear of dirt, clean, spotless, open, free, clear of shame or guilt, purified) + sis.    Root was the Medieval Latin Catharī (the Pure), from the Byzantine Greek καθαροί or katharoí (the Pure), plural of καθαρός (katharós) (pure).  Most of the extended senses found in Modern English are of unknown origin, the original sense from 1770 being "a bodily purging" (especially of the bowels), then an important aspect of medical practice.  After 1872 it came to be applied to emotions when it was referred to as "a purging through vicarious experience"; the psychotherapy sense first recorded in 1909 in Abraham Brill's (1874–1948) translation of Sigmund Freud's (1856–1939) Selected Papers on Hysteria  (Dr Brill’s translation the first of Freud into English).  The alternative spelling cathartick went extinct in the mid-nineteenth century.  The adjective cathartic dates from its use in medical literature in the 1610s in the sense of preparations claimed to be "purgative; purifying"; more general use noted by the 1670s.  Presumably, the cures proved efficacious because the adjective cathartical soon emerged, existing also in the plural as the noun catharticals (laxatives).

Cathar (religious puritan (implied in Catharism)), dates from the 1570s and was from the Medieval Latin Cathari (the Pure), the name taken by the Novatians and other Christian sects, from the New Testament Greek katharizein (to make clean), from the Ancient Greek katharós (pure).  It was applied particularly to the twelfth century sects (Albigenses et al) in Languedoc and the Piedmont which denied and defied the authority of the pope.  The feminine proper name Catherine is from the French Catherine, from the Medieval Latin Katerina, from the Classical Latin Ecaterina, from the Ancient Greek Aikaterine.  The -h- was introduced in the sixteenth century, probably a tribute in folk etymology from the Greek katharos (pure).  Familiar in Modern English also as Katherine, Kate, Cate and other variations, the initial Greek vowel preserved in the Russian form Ekaterina.  For reasons unknown, Catherine began to be used as a type of pear in the 1640s.

The term “Catherine wheel” was originally from the early thirteenth century and described a torture device, the spiked wheel on which (according to some versions of what is thought to be a most dubious tale) the legendary virgin Saint Catherine of Alexandria was in 307 tortured and martyred by the pagan Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius (circa 283–312; a Roman emperor, 306-312), thus becoming, in the associative way the Church did these things, patron saint of spinners.  She was a most popular saint in medieval times and popularized the name Catherine (and its variations), the favor enduring to this day.  It was applied from 1760 to a kind of firework which shot flame from a revolving spiral tube, creating the shape of a spinning wheel.

Of the Cathars: Catharism

With origins in Persia and the Byzantine Empire, Catharism was a dualist (or Gnostic revival) fork of Christianity, the movement most active during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in what is now northern Italy and southern France.  It was not a good time to be promoting the notion of two Gods, one good, the other evil; this dualism was however the essential core of Cathar beliefs.  The good God was the God of the New Testament and the creator of the spiritual realm, contrasted with the evil Old Testament God, creator of the physical world whom many Cathars, and not a few of their persecutors, identified as Satan.  It was an exacting creed which meant all visible matter, including the human body, was created by the evil god and therefore tainted with sin.  Taint might be an understatement; Cathars thought human spirits were the lost spirits of angels trapped within the physical creation of the evil god, destined to be reincarnated until they achieved salvation through what they called the consolamentum, a highly ritualized form of baptism.

The Holy See's foreign policy when the pope did have a few divisions: The papal army, the Cathars & the Albigensian Crusade.

All this was heresy to the monotheistic Roman Catholic Church, founded on the fundamental principle of one God, the creator of all things temporal and spiritual.  The Church’s crackdown got serious during the pontificate of Innocent III (circa 1160-1216; pope 1198-1216), initially by means of political and theological persuasion but with the assassination of his emissary, Innocent abandoned diplomacy, declared his dead ambassador a martyr and launched a military operation, the twenty-year (1209-1229) Albigensian Crusade.  It was the beginning of the end of Catharism.  After 1244 when the great fortress of Montsegur near the Pyrenees was razed, the Cathars became an underground movement, many fleeing to Italy where the persecution was milder.  The hierarchy faded but the heresy lingered until it finally it vanished early in the fifteenth century.

Simone Weil.

Simone Weil (1909-1943) was a French philosopher and political activist who, in a manner unusual among left-leaning intellectuals of the era, returned to the religion ignored in her youth and became attracted to the mystical.  Remembered for her political writings and active service in both the Spanish Civil War and occupied France, she died tragically young in the self-sacrificial manner she had lived her life.  Among the more delicate historians, (typified by Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975)), there’s often an undisguised preference for Greek over Roman but few went as far as Weil who could find no virtue in the latter and was barely less dismissive of the medieval Church.  By contrast, in the Cathars, she found exemplars of goodness although she offered few reasons and fewer still shreds of evidence for this.  Most convincing is the notion that what Weil called affliction (malheur) goes beyond merely describing suffering and makes of it, if not a fetish, then certainly a calling.  Weil felt there were only some able truly to experience affliction: those least deserving of suffering.  Seduced by the lure of the tragic and having trawled history, she found in the Cathars the doomed victims with whom she could identify, drawn to them as Sylvia Plath was to Ted Hughes.

Simone Weil Agitprop.

Although her readership remains substantially limited to those clustered around a number of academic and feminist circles, Weil’s influence on literature has been profound.  She wrote neither fiction nor poetry but in her prolific output, existing mostly in letters and notebooks which in her lifetime were almost entirely unseen and edited for publication only posthumously, lay an extraordinary exploration of the contradictions and confusion of the modern world.  One gains much from reading Weil for despite her tone there’s pleasure in enjoying the lucidity and discovering an uncompromising critique of a world poisoned by the exclusivity of Christianity and its damnation of progress as heresy.  But guilt tinges the pleasure.  This tortured soul lived and died in anguish and dark despair because she knew she deserved no more in a world of where injustice had triumphed and probably forever would.  One fears that in all her brief years, she may never have felt a moment’s joy.

The modern catharsis is a public event, best enjoyed after emerging from rehab.  Lindsay Lohan and Oprah Winfrey, 2013.  

Fracture

Fracture (pronounced frak-cher)

(1) The breaking of a bone, cartilage, or the like, or the resulting condition.

(2) The act of breaking; state of being broken.

(3) A division, break, breach, or split.

(4) The characteristic manner or appearance of breaking.

(5) In mineralogy, the characteristic appearance of the surface of a freshly broken mineral or rock; the way in which a mineral or rock naturally breaks

(6) To cause or to suffer a fracture in (a bone, etc).

(7) As Fraktur, a typeface of German origin.

Early 1400s: From the Middle English fracture (a breaking of a bone), from the fourteenth century Old French fracture, from the Latin fractūra (a breach, fracture, cleft), from fractus, past participle of frangere (to break), from the primitive Indo-European bhreg (to break) and a doublet of fraktur.  The sense of "a broken surface" dates from 1794.  As a transitive verb meaning “cause a fracture in”, use appears to have begun in the 1610s (implied in fractured) and the intransitive meaning "become fractured" is from 1830.  Fracture & fracturer are nouns, fractured & fracturing (used with an object) are verbs, fracturable, fractured & fractural are adjectives.

The Dürers Fraktur typeface.

The noun fraktur (German black-lettering) dates from 1886 from the German Fraktur (black-letter, Gothic type), also "a fracture, a break", again from the Latin fractūra and so- called because of the styles angular (ie “broken") letters.  Fraktur became a common style in German printing from circa 1540 and was later exported to the Pennsylvania German arts that incorporate the lettering.  Scholars consider Fraktur a fusion of the Textur and Schwabacher letter-forms, the characteristics of Textur evident in the Fraktyr minuscules.  Schwabacher, another black-letter form, was widely used in early German print typefaces and was still in use until the mid twentieth century by which time use was entirely supplanted by Fraktur, an extensive variety of these fonts carved.  The first Fraktur typeface was designed when Maximilian I (1459–1519; King of the Romans 1486-1519 & Holy Roman Emperor 1508-1519) commissioned a series of books and ordered a new typeface created specifically for this publication; this first iteration of Fraktur was designed by Hieronymus Andreae (circa 1490-1556), a craftsman noted also for his woodcuts.  

Fonts in transition: Nazi Party poster advertising a “Freedoms Rally” (the irony not apparent at the time), Schneidemuhl, Germany, (now Pila, Poland) in 1931 (left), Edict issued by Martin Bormann (1900–1945) banning the future use of Judenlettern (Jewish fonts) like Fraktur (the irony of the letterhead being in the now banned typeface presumably didn’t disturb the author) (centre) and (in modern Roman script), an announcement in occupied that 100 Polish hostages had been executed as a reprisal for death of two Germans in Warsaw, 1944 (right).

Sometimes, the message was the typeface itself; it imparted values that were separate from the specific meaning in the text.  The Nazi regime (1933-1945) in Germany was always conscious of spectacle and although in matters of such as architecture customs there was a surprising tolerance of regional difference, in some things it demanded uniformity and one of those was the appearance of official documents.  Early in his rule their rule, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader), German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) decreed that “German Black Letter” should be used for all official purposes (and it was used in the cover art of most early editions of Mein Kampf); Hitler, who to the end thought himself an “artist”, liked the heavy, angular form for its encapsulation of the Germanic.  Fraktur is probably the best known of these although it’s but one of a number of variations of the typeface and such was the extend of the state support for the font that the party was critical of newspapers, publishers & magazines which used more modern (and easier to read) forms (and they were used by the German military and civil service when legibility was important), a frequent criticism being the “Roman characters” somehow represented a “Jewish influence”.  In one of the ironies of history however, when it became apparent that when used in letters and notices distributed to enforce rule in the occupied territories the use of the font was counter-productive because it was so hard to read, the Nazis suddenly declared that Fraktur had become contaminated wand was thus proscribed as Judenlettern (Jewish letters), official documents thereafter rendered in modern Roman type.  Martin Bormann's edict was issued thus:

I announce the following, by order of the Führer:

It is false to regard the so-called Gothic typeface as a German typeface. In reality, the so-called Gothic typeface consists of Schwabacher-Jewish letters. Just as they later came to own the newspapers, the Jews living in Germany also owned the printing presses… and thus came about the common use in Germany of Schwabacher-Jewish letters.

Today the Führer… decided that Antiqua type is to be regarded as the standard typeface. Over time, all printed matter should be converted to this standard typeface. This will occur as soon as possible in regard to school textbooks, only the standard script will be taught in village and primary schools. The use of Schwabacher-Jewish letters by authorities will in future cease. Certificates of appointment for officials, street signs and the like will in future only be produced in standard lettering…

Broken bones, fractured bones

There’s a widespread perception among lay-people that when it comes to broken bones, there’s a difference between a fracture and a break, a fracture being a kind of crack which doesn’t result in a clear separation whereas in a break, there’s a visible gap between the two broken pieces.  However, to physicians, the two mean the same thing, the only difference being that “fracture” is the preferred medical jargon, whereas a “break” is just a term sometimes used casually with customers (whom they prefer to call patients).  Anatomists list fourteen distinguishing characteristics of fractures, adding that injuries may result in some overlap in the categorization and (at least) a duplication of terminology in any description.

(1) Avulsion fracture: A muscle or ligament pulls on the bone, fracturing it.

(2) Comminuted fracture: An impact shatters the bone into many pieces.

(3) Compression, or crush, fracture: This generally occurs in the spongy bone in the spine. For example, the front portion of a vertebra in the spine may collapse due to osteoporosis.

(4) Fracture dislocation: This occurs when a joint dislocates, and one of the bones of the joint fractures.

(5) Greenstick fracture: The bone partly fractures on one side but does not break completely, because the rest of the bone can bend.

(6) Hairline fracture: This is a thin, partial fracture of the bone.

(7) Impacted fracture: When a bone fractures, a piece of the bone may impact another bone.

(8) Intra-articular fracture: This occurs when a fracture extends into the surface of a joint.

(9) Longitudinal fracture: This is when the fracture extends along the length of the bone.

(10) Oblique fracture: An oblique fracture is one that occurs opposite to a bone’s long axis.

(11) Pathological fracture: This occurs when an underlying condition weakens the bone and causes a fracture.

(12) Spiral fracture: Here, at least one part of the bone twists during a break.

(13) Stress fracture: Repeated stress and strain can fracture a bone. This is common among athletes.

(14) Transverse fracture: This is a straight break across the bone.

Bones are (substantially) rigid organs that support and protect many organs as well as producing red and white blood cells and storing minerals.  While there are variations, a typical adult human has 206 separate bones which, although tough and sometimes slightly flexible to absorb stress, if the pressure sustained is beyond a certain point, the bone will fracture.  In casual use, this is called a “broken bone” but to physicians it’s always a fracture which means simply there’s a break in the continuity of the bone. Symptoms vary, including pain, bones protruding through the skin, swelling, distortion in the appearance of body parts (especially limbs & digits) and loss of function.  Generally, bone fractures are either traumatic or pathological.  A traumatic fracture is where blunt force trauma has been applied such as the impact injuries sustained by falling or hitting something hard.  Pathological fractures are those which are the result of diseases such as Osteoporosis, chronic kidney or liver conditions, rickettes and hypovitaminosis D.

Fractures are sub-classified by anatomical location (skull fracture, rib fracture etc (an in casual use broken arm, broken leg etc)).  Physicians further refine their descriptions by mapping on an orthopaedic schematic in which fractures are defined by their state such as open fracture (bone is visible and the skin ripped), closed fracture (skin is intact), compression fractures, incomplete fracture, linear fracture etc.  Bone fractures are now most often diagnosed through imaging, most commonly with X-rays and treatment consists of pain management, keeping bones intact with splints or screws (or surgery depending on severity).  In extreme cases, amputation may be required if an infection can’t be controlled.

Break was from the Middle English breken, from the Old English brecan (to divide solid matter violently into parts or fragments; to injure, violate (a promise, etc), destroy, curtail; to break into, rush into; to burst forth, spring out; to subdue or tame), from the Proto-West Germanic brekan, from the Proto-Germanic brekaną & brekanan (to break), from the primitive Indo-European bhreg- (to break) and a doublet of bray.  Etymologists list the brecan as a (class IV) strong verb; past tense bræc, past participle brocen), the Proto-Germanic brekanan source also of the Old Frisian breka, the Dutch breken, the Old High German brehhan, the German brechen and the Gothic brikan), all ultimately from the primitive Indo-European root bhreg- (to break).

It was related closely to the nouns breach, brake & brick. The old past tense brake is obsolete or archaic and while still sometimes erroneously used, it’s long been an irregular form.  The past participle is broken but the shortened form broke is attested from the fourteenth century and the Oxford English Dictionary reported it was "exceedingly common" in the seventeenth & eighteenth century.  The meaning in the Old English applied to bones but formerly had been used also of also of cloth, paper and other fabrics, the meaning "escape by breaking an enclosure" dating from the late fourteenth century whereas the intransitive sense "be or become separated into fragments or parts under action of some force" was known by the late twelfth and the sense of "lessen, impair" was noted in the late fifteenth.  

Forks in the meaning emerged continuously: "make a first and partial disclosure" is from early 1200s and "destroy continuity or completeness" in any way is from 1741.  As applied to physical legal tender (coins or bills), break was being used to describe “converting a larger unit into smaller units of currency" by 1882 although the oral tradition may have long predated this.  That favorite of authors and poets, the “break her heart” is an intransitive verb from the fourteenth century.  To break bread (share food with someone) is from the late 1300s while to break ground (to dig or plough) was noted first in 1674 while the now rare figurative sense "begin to execute a plan" is from 1709.  To break the ice in the sense of "overcome the feeling of restraint in a new acquaintanceship" is from circa 1600, the reference an allusion to the "coldness" found sometimes in encounters with strangers.  To break wind was first attested in the 1550s although it may have been long used as one of the many way of describing this ancient practice.  To break (something) out is though probably is an image from dock work, of freeing cargo before unloading it and it is documented from the 1890s.

Lindsay Lohan with broken left wrist (fractured in two places in an unfortunate fall at Milk Studios during New York Fashion Week) and 355 ml (12 fluid oz) can of Rehab energy drink, Los Angeles, September 2006.  The car is a 2006 Mercedes-Benz SL 65 (R230; 2004-2011) which would later feature in the tabloids after a low-speed crash.  The R230 range (2001-2011) was unusual because of the quirk of the SL 550 (2006-2011), a designation used exclusively in the North American market, the RoW (rest of the world) cars retaining the SL 500 badge even though both used the 5.5 litre (333 cubic inch) V8 (M273).

While the ironic theatrical good luck formula “break a leg” appears not to have been documented until 1948, it’s thought to have been in use since at least the 1920s and has a parallels in the German Hals- und Beinbruch (break your neck and leg) and the similar Italian in bocca al lupo. (into the wolf's mouth), the standard response to which is crepi il lupo! (may the wolf die), truncate usually as simply crepi! (may it die) although, in a sign of the times, the animal welfare lobby has suggested viva il lupo! (may the wolf live) but this is said not to have caught on with the thespians.  According to one dictionary of etymology, the expression “break a leg” was in the seventeenth century used euphemistically, of a woman, "to have a bastard" although whether this had any relationship to the traditions of theatre isn’t noted.

The noun break (act of breaking, forcible disruption or separation) was derived from the verb circa 1300 and the break of day "first appearance of light in the morning" dates from the 1580s, that senses extended by 1725 to mean any "sudden, marked transition from one course, place, or state to another".  The sense of a "short interval between spells of work" applied originally between lessons at school and was from 1861, enduring to this day in concepts such as the notorious “spring breaks”.  The “lucky break” meaning "stroke of good luck" is attested by 1911, thought to be drawn from the game of billiards (where the break that scatters the ordered balls and starts the game is attested from 1865). The now archaic meaning "stroke of mercy" is from 1914 and the use in Jazz music to describe an "improvised passage, solo" is from 1920s.  Broadcasting adopted the term in 1941 and applied it variously to handle the intervals between programmes although it was later augmented by the “sting”, a short piece of music to cover any break.  The "mini-break" is a (UK) colloquial term for a short "holiday" of 2-3 days; it was popularized in Helen Fielding's (b 1958) 1996 novel Bridget Jones's Diary and is used sometimes as a euphemism for a dirty weekend.