Sling

Sling (pronounced sling)

(1) A (sometimes improvised) device for hurling stones or other missiles, constructed typically by the use of a short strap with a long string at each end, operated by placing the missile in the strap, and, holding the ends of the strings in one hand, whirling the instrument around in a circle and releasing one of the strings to discharge the missile; often called a slingshot (or sling-shot).

(2) A bandage used to suspend or support an injured part of the body, most commonly in an arrangement suspended from the neck to support an injured arm or hand.

(3) A strap, band, or the like, forming a loop by which something is suspended or carried, as a strap attached to a rifle and passed over the shoulder.

(4) As sling-back, a design used for woman’s shoes which uses an exposed, usually thin strap which wraps around the ankle.

(5) A rope, chain, net, etc, used for hoisting freight or other items or for holding them while being hoisted.

(6) An act or instance of slinging.

(7) In nautical use, a chain or halyard for supporting a hoisting yard (an in the plural (as slings), the area of a hoisting yard to which such chains are attached; the middle of a hoisting yard.

(8) To throw, cast, or hurl; fling, as from the hand.

(9) To place in or secure with a sling to raise or lower; to raise, lower, etc by such means; to hang by a sling or place so as to swing loosely.

(10) To suspend.

(11) An iced alcoholic drink, typically containing gin, water, sugar, and lemon or lime juice.

(12) In mountaineering, a loop of rope or tape used for support in belays, abseils, etc.

(13) A young or infant spider, such as one raised in captivity or those in labs used in scientific or industrial research (a shortening of s(pider)ling).

(14) In the sport of badminton, carrying the shuttle on the face of the racquet rather than hitting it cleaning (penalized as a foul).

1175–1225: From the Middle English noun slynge (hand-held implement for throwing stones) & verb slyngen (past tense slong, past participle slungen & slongen) (to knock down" using a sling (and by the mid-thirteenth century “to throw, hurl, fling, especially if using a sling), probably from the Old Norse slyngja & slyngva (to hurl, to fling), from the Proto-Germanic slingwaną (to worm, twist) which was cognate with the Middle Low German slinge (a sling), the Old High German slingan and the Old English slingan (to wind, twist) and etymologists speculate that while the Middle English noun may be derived from the verb, the sense of “strap, hoist” may be of distinct (an uncertain) origin.  The Old English slingan (to wind, twist) came from the same source and comparable European forms include the German schlingen (to swing, wind, twist), the Old Frisian slinge, the Middle Dutch slinge and the Danish and Norwegian slynge, from the primitive Indo-European slenk (to turn, twist) which may be compared with the Welsh llyngyr (worms, maggots), the Lithuanian sliñkti (to crawl like a snake) and the Latvian slìkt (to sink).  The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) approved the past tense slung but not slang.  Sling is a noun & verb, slinger is a noun, slinging & slung are verbs and slinged is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is slings.

The notion of the verb was doubtlessly that of the missile being twisted and twirled before it is released and the stone or piece of metal hurled was by the late fourteenth century known as a sling-stone, the older English word for which was lithere, from the Old English liþere (related to leather), the connection being the strips of tanned animal hide used in slings.  Etymologists note the likely influence of Low German cognates in the sense development in English, the use to describe a “loop for lifting or carrying heavy objects” documented since the early fourteenth century and the “leather shoulder strap for a musket or other long-arm” was in use by at least 1711.  As pieces of fabric used to support injured arms, there evidence of use dating back thousands of years but such things seem formally to have been called slings only after the 1720s, the earlier medical word in Middle English for a “sling or supporting loop used in treating dislocations”, although there was also the early fifteenth century stremb & suspensorie, from the Medieval Latin stremba.  The slingshot (also sling-shot or hand-catapult) dates from 1849 and although it seems likely to have previously been in oral use, it’s not documented as a verb until 1969.  The slung-shot, first recorded in 1848, was a rock wrapped in a sling, used as a weapon by the criminal class and those living in rough neighborhoods.

Separamadu Lasith Malinga (b 1983), a Sri Lankan cricketer and right-arm fast bowler who was known as "Slinga Malinga" because of his unusual delivery, often referred to as a "sling action".

As a battlefield weapon, the sling is ancient and has endured (often in improvised form) to this day because it’s simple, reliable and can readily be fashioned from whatever falls to hand.  As projectiles, rocks can be lethal if delivered with force and in many environments (include urban), ammunition is effectively limitless.  In Antiquity, the armies of Greece, Rome & Carthage all had units of slingers attached to their infantry formations and used continued into the sixteenth century when the first grenades were developed.  There’s a political aspect too, the Palestinian resistance fighters gaining notably more international sympathy when they restricted their weapons to stones and slings rather than guns and bombs.  The sweetened, flavored liquor drink known as the sling was a creation of US English, dating from 1792, the origin mysterious although it may have been from the notion of “throwing back” a drink or linked with the German schlingen (to swallow).  In the nineteenth century, it was used also as a verb in the sense “to drink slings”.  The noun gun-slinger, although now associated with the Hollywood version of the nineteenth century American west, is documented only since 1916 and sling hash was US slang for a waiter or waitress, especially one employed at a lunch counter or cheap restaurant. In Australian slang a sling was a (1) a part of one’s wages paid in physical cash, thereby avoiding taxation and (2) that part of a business’s turnover not entered in the transactional record, again as a form of tax evasion.  It picked up- on the earlier use of sling to mean “to sell, peddle, or distribute something (often drugs, sex etc) illicitly, e.g. drugs, sex, etc.).  A rare variation was undersling (to sell with an implication of illegality) and that presumably was for emphasis, being a blend of “under the table” and “sling”.

Lindsay Lohan in open-toed slingbacks, New York City, April 2006.

Slingback shoes are so-named for the distinctive ankle strap which crosses around the back and sides of the ankle and heel.  In this it’s a style distinct from a conventional arrangement in which a strap completely encircles the ankle.  Produced in a variety of heel heights and in open & closed-toe styles, most slingbacks are made with a low vamp little different from those with enclosed heels.  In a sense, the slingback shoe is related to the many types of sandal but is almost always more formal.  To accommodate different ankle sizes, slingback straps are almost always of adjustable length, typically with a buckle and such is the design that it’s rarely necessary for the wearer to re-buckle after the first fitting.  In that sense, slingbacks are effectively slip-ons.

Two Singapore Slings.

The Singapore sling cocktail said to have been invented in 1915, by a bartender at Raffles Hotel’s (named after Sir Stamford Raffles (1781–1826), a colonial official who under the Raj was a notable figure in the early development of Singapore) Long Bar.  Selling sometimes a thousand a day during the peak season, the current price of a Singapore sling (including taxes) is SGD$46 (US$34) so the Long Bar’s cash flow is usually positive.  The unusual story of its origin is also a tale of one of the Far East’s early contributions to women’s rights because although the European men in the Long Bar coped with the heat & humidity with gin & tonics or whisky & sodas, they didn’t approve of women drinking alcohol in public places so they were served iced teas or fruit juices.  However, although it’s not recorded where it was a product of feminist agitation or local initiative, a bartender created a drink visually indistinguishable from the fruit juices usually served but which was actually a cocktail infused with gin, cherry liqueur & grenadine, the latter chosen for the pinkish-red hue it produced, something said to lend it some “feminine appeal”.  Thus was born the Singapore Sling which, more than a century later remains a symbol of the city-state although there have been many variations over the years including the addition of ingredients such as lime, pineapple juice, Cointreau or Benedictine liqueur.

The Singapore Sling Chicane in its original form (left) and before & after (2012-2013, right).

Conducted on a street circuit the Singapore Grand Prix was added to the Formula One (F1) calendar in 2008 and is notable as the first ever night time Grand Prix, a wise move in the equatorial zone.  Although regarded as one of the more challenging of the street circuits, the city-state had previously staged motor-racing events and they were conducted on an a narrow and treacherous course called the Thomson Road Grand Prix circuit, created overnight from public roads which offered almost no run-off areas and featured monsoon drains, bus stops, and lampposts, all dangerously close to the racing line which itself was marked by the oil trails left by the cars, trucks and buses which usually percolated around.  More than one driver called the circuit the “most dangerous in the world”.  The racing however was good, the original Grand Prix on the course run in 1961 under Formula Libre rules (much more interesting than the current, dull Formula One cars) and the events between 1966-1973 were usually Formula Two (F2) events but by 1973 Singapore had developed to such an extent the organization was just too disruptive and the safety concerns about Thomson Road were not merely theoretical because there had been injuries and deaths.  However, in 2008 the Marina Bay Street Circuit was designed and despite being regarded as “difficult”, it conformed to all modern safety requirements.  Notably, it contained 23 corners, more than any other on the calendar and by far the most famous was turn 10 which attracted such interest it was divided by analysts into 3 smaller turns (10a, 10b, & 10c).  The corner was called the Singapore Sling Chicane.

Lindsay Lohan, 2009 Singapore Grand Prix.

It was well-named because between turns 9 & 10, F1 cars were travelling at around 170 mph (273 km/h) and the Singapore Sling was defined with raised kerbing which, it hit at speed would literally launch a car into the air if the driver varied by less than an inch (25 mm) from the ideal line.  One driver called them “little tortoises that would wreck the car if you get something wrong” and after many complaints from various drivers the height of the kerbing was reduced.  However, that only reduced the danger they posed and crashes continued so in 2010 Turn 10 was modified but there were still airborne adventures and broken cars still littered the chicane at every event.  Physicists even ran the number through one of the super-computers used usually to model the climate or simulate thermo-nuclear weapons and determined that if a F1 machine hit “a tortoise” at racing speed, it was guaranteed to hit the wall.  Accordingly, in 2013 Turn 10 became just a left-handed turn instead of the left / right / left format of the notorious Singapore Sling Chicane.  That in itself was unusual because the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation which is international sport’s dopiest regulatory body) has for decades adored chicanes to the point of fetishism, such is their desire to make racing as slow and processional as possible.  In recent seasons however, F1 has become so predictably processional, there have been calls to bring back the Singapore Sling Chicane and given nobody has come up with a better suggestion to make the competition interesting, it may be worth considering.  Of course, they could change the rules relating to the cars and the adoption of large capacity hydrogen-burning internal combustion engines would be a good start. 

Smite

Smite (pronounced smahyt)

(1) To strike or hit hard, with or as with the hand, a stick, or other weapon; to deliver or deal (a blow, hit etc) by striking hard.

(2) As acts of God, to strike down, injure, or slay (influenced by the use of the word in biblical translations); to kill or injure by the exercise of divine power.

(3) To afflict or attack with deadly or disastrous effect; violently to kill; to slay.

(4) In military conflict, to put to rout in battle; to overthrow.

(5) To afflict; to chasten; to punish.

(6) To feel mentally or morally afflicted with a sudden pang.

(7) Figuratively (now (as smitten) used only in passive), to strike with love or infatuation; to affect suddenly and strongly with a specified feeling; to impress favorably; charm; enamor.

Pre 900: From the Middle English smiten (to daub, smear, smudge; soil, defile, pollute) from the Old English smītan from the Proto-Germanic smītaną (to sling; throw), from the primitive Indo-European smeyd- (to smear, whisk, strike, rub).  It was cognate with Saterland Frisian smiete (to throw, toss), the West Frisian smite (to throw), the Low German smieten (to throw, chuck, toss), the Dutch smijten (to fling, hurl, throw), the Middle Low German besmitten (to soil, sully), the German schmeißen (schmeissen) (to fling, throw), the Danish smide (to throw) and the Gothic bismeitan (to besmear, anoint).  The alternative spelling smight is long obsolete.  Smite & smiting are nouns & verbs, smited (smit is archaic except in poetic use) & smote are verbs (the latter an adjective in Middle English), smiter is a noun and smitten is an adjective & verb; the (rare) noun plural is smites.

Smitten: Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) looking longingly at Kim Jong-un (Kim III, b 1982; Supreme Leader of DPRK (North Korea) since 2011).

Although before their eyes met in 2018, the two had exchanged such long-distance insults as "dotard" and "little rocket man", after meeting, things changed as Mr Trump would later explain: “I like him. He likes me. I guess that’s OK. Am I allowed to say that?  I was being really tough and so was he. And we would go back and forth.  And then we fell in love.  No, really.  He wrote me beautiful letters.  They were great letters.  And then we fell in love.”  Caught up in the magic of the moment, the two were clearly smitten but on substantive matters there was little progress and within a year the DPRK's highly productive news agency was releasing transcripts of the foreign ministry's statement in which it claimed Mr Trump's attitude "must really be diagnosed as the relapse of the dotage of a dotard".  Assuming both live to see the day, the only hope of a reconciliation would seem to be Mr Trump regaining the presidency in 2024.

The meaning "to hit, strike, beat" is from the mid twelfth century, derived from the Old English smitan but that’s attested only as "to daub, smear on; soil, pollute, blemish, defile", the sense also of the Proto-Germanic smitan, the Swedish smita, the Danish smide, the Old Frisian smita, the Middle Low German and Middle Dutch smiten, the Dutch smijten, the Old High German smizan, the German schmeißen and the Gothic bismeitan.  The development of the various senses is unclear but most etymologists agree that of throwing is probably the original, more than one suggesting the semantic channel may have been “slapping mud on walls in wattle and daub construction", connected with the primitive Indo-European sme- (to smear).  The sense of "slay in combat" emerged circa 1300 from the Biblical expression “smite to death”, first attested circa 1200.  The meaning "visit disastrously" is mid-twelfth century, also of Biblical origin; "strike with passion or emotion" dates from circa 1300.

It varies with the translation but there’s much smiting in the Bible, most versions having well over a hundred instances including: 

And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them (Deuteronomy 7:2)

And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.  (Jeremiah 21:6)

 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. (Ezekiel 6:11)

And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am the LORD that smiteth. (Ezekiel 7:9)

Smitten: Lindsay Lohan and husband Bader Shammas (b 1987).

In its original sense (daub, smear, smudge etc), smite is close to obsolete.  In the late sense of “strike”, it’s rare except in Biblical scholarship, long supplanted in English by an array of synonyms including afflict, knock, hit, chasten, chastise, sock, defeat, visit, attack, buffet, dash, swat, smack, slap, wallop, strike, clobber, blast, whack & belt.  A noun form is smiter, the other verbs being smote, smit, smitten & smiting, all obsolete except smitten which has survived in a poetic niche, usually to describe the first, fine, careless rapture of love.

Narthex

Narthex (pronounced nahr-theks)

(1) In church architecture, a portico (enclosed passage) at the west end of a basilica or church, usually at right angles to the nave and located between the main entrance and the nave.

(2) In botany, a taxonomic genus within the family Apiaceae (umbelliferous plants), now included in Ferula, Narthex asafoetida and thus obsolete.

1665-1675: From the Medieval Latin narthex, from the Medieval Greek narthex (enclosed porch, enclosure (the earlier meaning was “box”), from the Ancient Greek νάρθηξ (narthēx) (giant fennel, scourge (and later “casket” (the Modern Greek νάρθηκας (nárthikas)), and, on the basis of the suffix, probably a pre-Greek word.  The connection between the giant fennel plant and boxes is that the fibre from the stems of the plant was used to make boxes.  In Greek, the word was linked also to νάρδος (nárdos) (nard plant, spikenard, nardin, muskroot).  The Modern Greek νάρθηκας (narthekas) long ago relinquished the early senses and now means either the feature in church architecture or the brace of a sprained wrist or sling of a broken arm.  The plant was well known in Greek mythology.  In the Θεογονία (circa 730–700 BC) (Theogonía (the genealogy or birth of the gods)), known in the West as The Theogony, an epic poem of a thousand-odd lines by the (8^th-7^th century BC) poet Hesod, it was in hollow fennel stalks that Prometheus conveyed fire from Heaven to Earth.  In Armenia the name for a narthex is gavit.  The adjectival form was narthecal and the plural either narthexes or narthices, the English form preferable for most purposes.

Narthexs were part of many early Christian and Byzantine basilicas and churches, located traditionally to the west of the nave and functioned (1) as a lobby area and (2) as the place where penitents were required to remain.  Although the archaeological record suggests there may have been some early churches with annexes or even small separate structures located nearby which fulfilled the latter function, narthexes seem quickly to have been integrated.  That means that structurally and architecturally, a narthex was part of the building but theologically was not, its purpose being to permit those not entitled to admission as part of the congregation (mostly catechumens and penitents) nevertheless to hear the service and (hopefully) be encouraged to pursue communion.

For ceremonies other than services, the narthex was otherwise a functional space, the church’s baptismal font often mounted there and in some traditions (both Eastern & Western) worshipers would sometimes anoint themselves and their children with a daub of holy water before stepping foot in the nave and some branches of the Orthodox Church use the narthex for funeral ceremonies.  There were also architectural variations in the early churches which persisted in larger building and cathedrals, the narthex divided in two, (1) an esonarthex (inner narthex) between the west wall and the body of the church proper, separated from the nave and aisles by a wall, trellis or some other means and (2) an external closed space, the exonarthex (outer narthex), a court in front of the church façade with a perimeter defined by on all sides by colonnades.

In the Western Church, reforms removed the requirement to exclude from services those who were not full members of the congregation which of course meant the narthex was rendered technically redundant.  However, the shape churches had assumed with a narthex included had become part of the tradition of the Church so architects continued to include the space, both as part of the nave structure and something semi-separated.  They attracted a number of names, borrowed mostly from secular buildings including vestibule, porch, foyer, hallway, antechamber, anteroom, entrance, entry, entryway, gateway, hall, lobby, portal & portico, the choice dictated sometimes by local tradition, sometimes by the nature of construction and sometimes, it seems to have been entirely arbitrary.  In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the esonarthex and exonarthex retained distinct liturgical functions, some rituals terminating in the exonarthex while services still exclusively penitential services are usually chanted in the esonarthex.  In dialectal northern English, the casual term for the penitents forced to remain in the narthex was “the narts”.

The NART Ferrari spiders

1966 Ferrari 275 GTS

Although Ferrari produced the 275 GTB (berlinetta (coupé)) (1964-1968) and 275 GTS (spider (roadster)) (1964-1966) in unison with substantially the same mechanical specification, the two had completely different coachwork, sharing not one external panel.  Styled by Pininfarina, the 275 GTS, elegant and well-proportioned, recalled the earlier 250 Cabriolets and buyers appreciated the sophistication of the improved specification but Luigi Chinetti (1901-1994), Ferrari's North American distributer, remembering the sensuous lines of the 250 California Spider (1957-1960), asked the factory for a run of spiders (roadsters) based on the 275 GTB.

1960 Ferrari 250 California Spider

Ferrari commissioned its traditional coachbuilder, Carrozzeria Scaglietti, to produce the series and in 1967, the first tranche of ten of a planned twenty-five was completed and delivered to the United States.  The spiders were based on the newly-released 275 GTB/4 which included a number of refinements to the original series, most notably the twin-cam heads, the factory rating the 3.3 Litre (201 cubic inch) V12 at 300 horsepower, a lift of 20 over the earlier single-cam engines.  Because Chinetti’s competition department was called the North American Racing Team (NART), the ten roadsters have always been referred to as the “NART Spiders” and although the factory never adopted the designation, Chinetti added to the tail of each a small cloisonné badge with the team's logo.  Interestingly, the factory also continued to list the cars as 275 GTB/4s, even though the usual naming convention would have been to designate them as 275 GTS/4s, a hint perhaps from Ferrari that it really wasn’t their idea.

1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4

The addition of the badge, an unusual addition to anything from Scaglietti workshops, was not unreasonable given the spiders were very much a co-production, Chinetti receiving technical assistance and the precious benefit of official status from the factory but it was made clear that financial responsibility for the project lay exclusively with the US operation which would be required to pay for each prior to delivery.  On that basis things proceeded but, modified from production 275 GTB/4’s with (then typically Italian) labour-intensive coach-building techniques, the spiders were expensive and sales were slow, American buyers more seduced by Ferrari's new and more luxuriously trimmed and cheaper 330 GTS; even then air-conditioning was a persuasive inducement and the more spartan NARTs languished for some months in Chinetti’s showroom waiting for someone with a longing for the ways things used to be done.  As a consequence, it was only that first run of ten which was built but they’ve since become highly prized by collectors, NART #10709 in August 2013 selling at auction for US$27.5 million (including commission) at RM Sotheby's in Monterey, California.

1969 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 NART Spider

Daytona 24 Hours, 1967: First-Ferrari 330 P3/4 (#23; Chris Amon & Lorenzo Bandini), Second-Ferrari 330 P4 (#24; Mike Parkes & Ludovico Scarfiotti and Third-Ferrari 412 P (#26; Pedro Rodriguez & Jean Guichet.

However, despite the modest demand for the NART spiders, Ferrari must have been convinced the concept was viable with full factory backing and when, in 1968, the 275 GTB/4 was replaced with the 365 GTB/4 (1968-1973), a companion spider was listed as an official model, again built by Carrozzeria Scaglietti.  This model came to be known as the Daytona in recognition of Ferrari’s 1-2-3 finish in the 1967 24 Hours of Daytona even though the cars which contested the race were different models, the connection being some photographs from the race which were used in promotional material when the 365 GTB/4 was released.  It was the first new model since the 1-2-3 finish and the name stuck, an attachment about which Ferrari seemed never much enthused although views seem to have softened over the years and "Daytona" appears now even on the corporate website.  The V12 was now 4.4 litres (268 cubic inches) and generating some 340-355 horsepower (depending on market) although the figure on which many fixated was the claimed top speed of 174 mph (280 km/h), the need to out-pace the mark of 171 mph (275 km/h) set by the Lamborghini Miura P400 in 1966 said to be one of the design objectives.  Quite a few verified Ferrari’s claim; few attempted it in the somewhat trickier to handle Miura although contemporary reports confirmed the factory's number.  The Ferrari might actually have gone faster, given enough road.  Luigi Chinetti (1901–1994), who drove the competition version of the Daytona in the 1971 Le Mans 24 hour classic (the last year before the 3.7 mile (6 km) Mulsanne straight was spoiled by the chicanes the FIA imposed) reported than on Mulsanne it never actually stopped accelerating.  Remarkably, the Daytona finished fifth, even winning the mysterious Index of Thermal Efficiency.  Whatever it was, Ferrari must have been content with the thing's terminal velocity but Lamborghini wanted bragging rights and the more powerful Miura P400 S debuted in 1969 with a claim of 180 mph (290 km/h) which Autosport magazine in 1970 almost matched, clocking 288.6 km/h (179.3 mph).  That turned out to be the decade's high-water mark, the succeeding P400 SV more powerful still but a little slower because the aerodynamics were slightly compromised by the need to add a little width to accommodate some needed improvements and the use of fatter tyres which absorbed a surprising amount of energy.  It would be many years before a production car went faster than the P400 S.    

1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 (Daytona)

What was however learned from 275 NART experience was that the customers had become sybarites who wanted cars which looked like the austere roadsters of old but fitted with the accruements of modernity, air conditioning, power steering and electric windows.  On that basis the Daytona entered production and in what was by then a much more competitive market, the approach was vindicated, the Daytona close to doubling the sales of its predecessor, including 122 spiders.  Intriguingly, within a few years of the end of Daytona production ending, the realization hit that there wouldn’t again be something like the 365 GTS/4, the days of the big, front-engined V12s thought over and even if one returned, the feeling in the 1970s was that government regulations would be there would be no more roadsters and interest in Daytona spiders began to spike.  With only 122 produced, the math of the supply-demand curve was predictable and prices of spiders soared above the berlinetta, the factory having made more than ten times as many of them.

1971 Ferrari 365 GTS/4 (Daytona)

Thus stimulated was the roofectomy business which had long been part of the coach-building trade but few conversions were potentially as lucrative as a Daytona.  Done properly, the results could be satisfactory but, beyond the roof, there were a number of differences between the two and not all were done properly.  However it’s done, a genuine Scaglietti spider is going to be worth some multiple of a conversion in similar condition, which may now attract little premium over a berlinetta, originality now more of a fetish than it was in the 1970s and 1980s.  In 2013, the New York Times reported Ferrari, unhappy about what they regarded as fakes being traded, were going to try to pressure the high-end auction houses not to host such sales but the industry persists and there are a number of replica 275 NARTs although, not all were based on a twin-cam original, industry sources suggesting a premium above a berlinetta of 20% at most.  Other popular candidates for conversion include the Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 Coupés (1968-1971; on which an exact conversion is also very challenging), Maserati Ghiblis (1967-1973) and the early Jaguar E-Types, technically a simpler job especially in years gone by when suitable cars were both cheaper and more numerous.

1976 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 NART by Michelotti 

In a footnote to the Daytona’s history, either not discouraged by his experience with the 275 NART or impressed by the prices the ten were commanding, Luigi Chinetti commissioned the construction of five 365 GTB/4 Daytona NART Spiders, the design turned over to Giovanni Michelotti (1921–1980).  In the spirit of 1950s minimalism, Michelotti’s first design, shown at the 1974 Turin Motor Show featured cut-down doors and a removable targa top but the second, built for the 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans, was more a conventional race-car, its lines attuned to aerodynamic enhancement although it never made the event because of a dispute with the notoriously difficult stewards.  Still interested in the concept however, in 1976 Chinetti ordered three more NART Daytonas from Michelotti, configured this time as road-cars with air conditioning and electric windows, the target market the US.  Unlike the 275 NARTs, the three NART Daytonas really were used cars, production of the originals having ceased in 1973.  One of them has been a fixture on the show and auction scene for a while, Michelotti using it as a display piece and it spent two years as an exhibit at the Le Mans Museum before bouncing around the premium auction circuit where it’s exchanged between collectors at increasingly higher prices.  The wedge shape certainly marks the design as a product of the age but so did the detailing: instead of a delicate cloisonné on the tail, NART was printed in big, bold, upper-case letters.

Crapper

Crapper (pronounced krap-er)

(1) A proprietary trade name for a brand of loo; toilet; lavatory etc.

(2) A slang term for the loo; toilet; lavatory etc.

1920s: The construct was crap + er.  Dating from 1375-1425, crap was from the Middle English crappe (which at various times existed in the plural as crappen, crappies and craps) (chaff; buckwheat) from the Old French crappe & crapin (chaff; siftings, waste or rejected matter).  In the Medieval Latin there were the plural forms crappa & crapinum, apparently from the Old Dutch krappen (to cut off, pluck off) from which Middle Dutch gained crappe & crap (a chop, cutlet) and Modern Dutch krip (a steak); the most obvious modern relative is crop.  The Middle English agent suffix er was from the Old English ere, from the Proto-Germanic ārijaz and generally thought to have been borrowed from the Latin ārius.  The English forms were cognate with the Dutch er & aar, the German er, the Swedish are, the Icelandic ari and the Gothic areis.  Related are the Ancient Greek ήριος (ḗrios) and the Old Church Slavonic арь (arĭ).  Although unrelated, the development of er was reinforced by the synonymous Old French or & eor and the Angle-Norman variant our, all derived from the Latin (ā)tor, the ultimate root being the primitive European tōr.  Dating from 1846, crap was the English slang for the proper term crapping ken which is crap’s first documented application to bodily waste although etymologists suspect it had been in widespread use for some time prior.  In this context, crap was used in the earlier English and French sense of “siftings, waste or rejected matter” and ken was an existing term for a small building or house.

The urban myth is part-truth, part-crap

The brand-name Crapper was first applied to a toilet designed and by plumber Thomas Crapper (1836-1910) and manufactured by the company he founded, Thomas Crapper & Co, Licenced Plumbers & Sanitary Engineers.  In 1884, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII (1841–1910; King of the UK & Emperor of India 1901-1910)) purchased Sandringham House and asked Mr Crapper to supply the plumbing, including thirty flushing loos with cedarwood seats and enclosures.  Impressed with the quality, the prince granted the company their first Royal Warrant.  The occupational surname Crapper is a dialectal variant of cropper (harvester of crops, farmer).

It’s a linguistic coincidence that a Mr Crapper choose to become a plumber and begin manufacturing loos bearing his name which bore such similarity to both crap and crapping which had earlier been used to describe bodily and other waste.  Despite being a coincidence, decades before the internet spread fake news, the urban myth was well-established that the terms words crap and crapper, in their scatological sense, all derive from the efforts and products of Mr Crapper.  The myth is often fleshed-out with reference to US soldiers stationed in England during World War One popularizing the phrase "I'm going to the crapper", after seeing the name on barracks’ cisterns.  In the way army slang does, it was taken home when the servicemen returned to the US.  Despite this, most dictionaries cite the origin of the slang term to the 1920s with popular use becoming widespread by the mid 1930s.  It spread with the empire and was noted in the era to be in use in the Indian Army although, after 1947, the troops came often to prefer "I am going to Pakistan".

ride) and (4), spit out after brushing and do not rinse (this maintains the fluoride concentration level).

Selfie with crapper backdrop: Lindsay Lohan on the set of HBO's Eastbound & Down (2013), brushing teeth while smoking.  It's an unusual combination but might work OK if one smokes a menthol cigarette and uses a nurdle of mint toothpaste.  Other combinations might clash.

By one's name, one shall be remembered.

The long-standing urban myth that Mr Crapper actually invented the flushing loo seems to lie in the 1969 book Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper by New Zealand-born humorist Wallace Reyburn (1913–2001) which purported to be a legitimate history.  Reyburn later wrote a "biography" of an influential inventor who created another product without which modern life also (for half the population) would be possible but less comfortable.  His 1971 volume Bust-Up: The Uplifting Tale of Otto Titzling and the Development of the Bra detailed the life of the putative inventor of the brassiere, Otto Titzling.  Unlike Mr Crapper, Herr Titzling (Reyburn helpfully mansplaining that the correct pronunciation was "tit-sling") never existed.  In truth, the flushing loo has probably existed in a recognizably modern form since the 1400s but, although the designs were gradually improved, they remained expensive and it was not until the nineteenth century they achieved any real popularity and it was well into the next century with the advent of distributed sanitation systems that they became expected, everyday installations.  To mark the day of his death in 1910, 27 January is designated International Thomas Crapper Day.  Each year, on that day, at the right moment, briefly, all should pause, reflect and then with gratitude, proceed.

Lindsay Lohan mug shots on the doors of the crappers at the Aqua Shard restaurant.  Located on the 31st floor of The Shard in London, the view is panoramic.

Bikini

Bikini (pronounced bih-kee-nee

(1) A two-piece bathing suit for women.

(2) A style of brief fitted low on the hip or slightly below.

(3) The name of an atoll in the North Pacific; one of the Marshall Islands and the site of two-dozen odd US nuclear weapon tests between 1946-1958 (with initial capital).

(4) As Bikini State, the UK Ministry of Defence's alert state indicator (1970-2006).

(5) In the retail coffee trade, barista slang applied to smaller variations such as a demitasse (or demi-tasse (half cup), used traditionally to serve espresso).

(6) In engineering & design, a casual term used sometimes for any shape deemed even vaguely bikinilike. 

1946:  Although known as the Eschscholtz Atoll until 1946, the modern English name is derived from the German colonial name Bikini, adopted while part of German New Guinea and was a transliteration from the Marshallese Pikinni (pʲi͡ɯɡɯ͡inʲːi), a construct of Pik (surface) + ni (coconut or surface of coconuts).  Bikini is a noun and bikinied, bikinilike and bikiniless are adjectives (bikiniesque is non-standard); the noun plural is bikinis.

Highly qualified content provider Busty Buffy (b 1996) in powder blue seekini (a bikini fashioned from a semi-sheer fabric).

In medicine, the “bikini-cut” or “bikini line incision” is doctor’s slang for the “Pfannenstiel incision”, a surgical incision permitting access to the abdomen, the exact location chosen for the optimal aesthetic outcome; it was named after German gynaecologist Hermann Johannes Pfannenstiel (1862–1909), who in 1900 invented the technique.  The modern slang is a reference to the “bikini line” (the part of a woman's pubic region not covered by a swimsuit (the fashion being it’s usually waxed, lasered or shaved to be free of pubic hair)).  In the UK, the technique was popularized by Professor John Munro Kerr (1868–1960) who published his results in 1920 (having first applied the method in 1911) and that's why in the English-speaking world the terms “Kerr incision” and “Pfannenstiel–Kerr incision” both are sometimes used.  In the slang of fat-shaming, a “fatkini” is a bikini larger a certain size and regarding the cut-off point where bikini becomes fatkini, some critics are more uncompromisingly stern than others.

1970 Monteverdi Hai 450 SS.

The skimpiness of the fabric used in a bikini's construction meant it could be used as a point of emphasis.  When in 1970 the Swiss boutique manufacturer Monteverdi displayed the Hai (German for "shark"), one journalist acknowledged the stunning speed but noted the lack of practicality, storage space judged to be adequate for a “topless bikini” (a numokini or unikini in the modern parlance).  Peter Monteverdi (1934–1998) claimed the Hai was "a pre-production prototype" and listed it in his catalogue at a then hefty US$27,000 (more even than the coach-built two-door versions of the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and while they would have attracted a very different buyer-profile, the comparison was indicative of market relativities).  The consensus is Peter Monteverdi never intended series-production because the Hai was really just an impractical show-piece built to generate publicity (and in that it succeeded) though four eventually were made with only the first fitted with the charismatic 7.0 litre (426 cubic inch) Chrysler Street Hemi V8.  The other three, two of which were built shortly before Mr Monteverdi's death, used the less powerful but also less cantankerous 7.2 litre (440 cubic inch) unit.  As a footnote for trivia buffs, although it's accepted orthodoxy "the factory never installed air conditioning (A/C) in Street Hemi-equipped cars", Monteverdi did fit A/C to the first Hai so the true truism should read "No Chrysler factory ever..."          

Proliferation; variations on the theme of bikini

Bikinis: Samantha Ronson (left) admiring the black bikini of former special friend Lindsay Lohan (right), both with bare feet, Los Cabos, Mexico, October 2007.

The swimwear was first so named in 1946, the brief as a stand-alone garment adopting the term in 1960 while the trikini, dating from 1967, was a variation with separate bra cups fastened by Velcro.  A lack of structural integrity doomed the design for the mass-market but trikinis continue to be used by the fashion industry, mostly in static photography where movement is minimalized.  Trikini was at the time etymologically wrong because falsely it presumed bikini a compound with a bi prefix, an assumption not unreasonable because the English prefix bi is derived from the Classical Latin bi, which, like the Ancient Greek counterpart di, means “two”.  However, trikini is now etymologically correct because (1) bikini and its variations have been wholly been absorbed into English with compounds coined as needed and (2) progress in the fashion industry proved so prolific a new suffix (apparently first suggested by US author Bill Safire (1929–2009)), emerged: -kini.  Those thus far seen have included:

Monokini (a one-piece swimsuit in a variety of designs which tends to be variations on the notion of a bikini top and bottom in some way connected with (a usually minimal) piece of fabric although for the catwalks, designers have showed "bikinis" in which coverage is afforded to only one breast.

Bikini (a two-piece swimsuit with top & bottom)

Trikini (a type swimsuit which uses three, strategic-placed fabric triangles, sometimes achieved with the use of an adhesive)

Facekini (a piece of swimwear worn on the head and covering the face and head)

Burkini (a full body bathing suit which includes a hood; a kind of figure-hugging Burqa for swimming of which not all muftis & mullahs (and certainly no ayatollahs) approve)

Mankini (a kind of sling bikini for men)

Bandkini (a swimsuit consisting of strapless bandeau top and bikini bottom)

Halterkini (a swimsuit consisting of halter top and bikini bottom)

Tankini (a bathing suit composed of tank top and the lower half of a bikini)

Skirtini (a two-piece swimsuit consisting of top and short, skirted bottom)

Microkini (a very skimpy bikini)

Poligrill's helpful identification chart which illustrates the bikini's mix-and-match potential, wearers able to choose the styles best suited to different parts of the body and no longer is it expected (except by dictatorial types like Vogue's editors) the color or fabric of top need match bottom.

Nokini (an casual identifier for beach which permits toplessness for women)

Slingkini (a one-piece swimsuit resembling the Y-shape frame of a slingshot which is supported by fabric at the neck)

Stringkini (a two-piece swimsuit constructed with string-like cords that is scantier and more revealing than a regular bikini)

Sidekini (a swimsuit designed to optimize the side-boob effect (not suitable for all))

Camikini (a swimsuit consisting of thin-strapped camisole top and bikini bottom)

Flagkini (a swimsuit top informally created by the wrapping of a flag)

Duckini (a swimsuit made of a stick-on material (not to be confused with Kim Kardashian's endorsement of gaffer’s tape for use as ad-hoc corsetry))

Numokini (a bikini worn without the top (also called Unikini))

Underkini (a swimsuit designed to optimize the under-boob effect (not suitable for all))

Seekini (a translucent or semi-translucent swimsuit)

Hikini (a swimsuit with a higher-profile bottom)

Louis Réard with polka-dot bikini (left), an original 1946 Bikini (centre) and Mademoiselle Barnardini during the 1946 photo-shoot, clad in rather more fabric than previously she'd donned for her professional engagements.  

Louis Réard (1896-1984) was a French engineer who took over his mother's lingerie business, the bathing ensemble he designed debuting in 1946; as a concept it wasn’t new, such things documented by many cultures since antiquity but Réard’s design was minimalist by the standards of the time.  It was at the time suggested he choose the name because an exploding A-bomb was his preferred simile for the effect on men but in subsequent interviews he claimed his mind was focused on what he expected expected to be an "explosive commercial and cultural reaction" to his design.  That's a significant distinction but both were based on the detonated device.  Although originally Réard’s registered trademark (patent number 19431), "bikini" has long been generic. When first displayed at Paris's Piscine Molitor (a large swimming pool complex) in July 1946, so scandalous did the established catwalk models find the notion of exposed navels that all declined the job so Monsieur Réard was compelled to hire Mlle Micheline Barnardini (b 1927), then an exotic (ie not infrequently nude) dancer from the Casino de Paris.  For Mlle Barnardini even the skimpiest bikini was more modest than her usual professional lack of attire.  According to M Réard, his inspiration came when on a beach at St Tropez, he observed young ladies rolling up their bathing suits to get a better tan.

Model Adriana Fenice (b 1994) in olive green bikini.

Le Monde Illustré in August 1947 applied a little of their bourgeois intellectual thuggery in comparing the denuding of the surface of Bikini Atoll by the bomb’s blast wave with the near-elimination of flesh-covering material in the swimsuit:  “Bikini, ce mot cinglant comme l’explosion même... correspondait au niveau du vêtement de plage à un anéantissement de la surface vêtue; à une minimisation extrême de la pudeur”.  (Bikini, a word now of explosions, compares the effect of the state of the clothing at the beach to an annihilation of the dressed surface; an extreme minimization of modesty.)  Even then however it wasn't something all that novel, two-piece swimwear often seen since at least the 1930s and French fashion designer Jacques Heim (1899–1967) early in 1946 had staged a re-launch of his pre-war two-piece swimsuit which he named the Atome, (atoms then much in the public imagination as something very small yet possessing great power) advertising it as "the world's smallest bathing suit".  However, unlike Réard's creation, it covered the navel, most of the buttocks and more of the breasts, enabling M. Réard truthfully to claim the bikini was "smaller than the smallest bathing suit".  The rest is history.

The bikini and the land yacht

Land yachts: 1972 Imperial LeBaron two-door hardtop (left) and 1978 Chrysler New Yorker two-door hardtop (right).  Although even at the time derided by critics as wastefully absurd, for those inside they were a cosseting cocoon and for many that had much appeal.

The term “land yacht” came into use in the 1970s to describe the huge, luxury automobiles which the major US manufactures all produced and they were strong sellers in early Nixon-era America, surviving the first oil shock (1973-1974) to remain a profitable segment until late in the decade driven extinct by the government edict, the CAFE (corporate average fuel efficiency) dooming the breed.  The Cadillacs and Lincolns were the most emblematic and numerous of the breed but on the basis of length, at 235¼ inches (5975 mm), the 1973 Imperial was actually the biggest.  All were highly inefficient and, despite the dimensions, frequently were transport only for one or two although, once inside, passengers enveloped by leather or velour and the driving experience, although not fast by the standards of today was truly effortless, smooth and quiet.  So isolated from the outside world were occupants from that a frequent comment was they seemed “to float down the road”, hence the term “land yacht”.

Ford Australia advertisement for Landau (1974).  By the time of its release in August 1973, nobody else in Australia did make anything quite like it and the industry's consensus (wishing it the best of luck) was Ford was welcome to the uncontested market sector.

In the US, the term “land yacht” tended to be applied derisively by those who disapproved of the excess, inefficiency and general environmental thuggery the ownership of such things was thought to convey.  It was only in the twenty-first century when they were close to a vanished species the term became almost affectionate as their dubious qualities meant they came to be thought charming nostalgia pieces.  While they were in production however, in promotional material, the manufacturers never called them “land yachts”, preferring words like “luxury” or “exclusive” but in Australia, Ford did run one such associative advertisement for its take on the land yacht: the Landau (manufacturer’s code JG70, 1973-1976).  The advertisement with juxtaposition of Landau and yacht ran in 1974 and there’s nothing to suggest the agency’s idea was anything other than wishing to associate the car with another product on the shopping lists of the rich (or at least the “lease list”, the tax accountant’s tending to provide clients with the “3F Rule” (“If it flies, floats or fornicates, rent or lease, don’t buy.”).  Still, unlike some other cars which might have appealed to the “yacht demographic”, once fitted with a tow bar, the Landau would have been better than many at towing a decent-sized boat.

1973 Ford Landau (front) and 1975 Ford LTD (rear).

The bright colors were not typical of the usually "formal" colors (white, navy blue, maroon etc) chosed by LTD & Landau buyers and only six Landaus were finished in Wild Violet (paint code Z, Shade 13305).  Most of the more lurid hues manufacturers offered during the early 1970s vanished from the color charts when lead was banned from paint, not returning until the next century when new chemical mixes were concocted to replicate what the lead did. 

With only some 1400 made, commercially, the Landau was impressively unsuccessful although the companion four door model (LTD) enjoyed not only solid sales but high profitability because, structurally, it was little more than an elongated Falcon laden with gorp (the word “bling” not then in use).  Dating from the late 1950s, the pleasing “gorp” was a re-purposing (as a noun & verb) by US car designers of the acronym GORP which stood for “granola, oats, raisins, peanuts”, a popular nutritional mix carried by hikers, bush-walkers and such (the designers' notion being the adding of a bit of every decorative thing).  In that spirit, like the LTD, the Landau gained lashings of velour or real leather, fake wood, hidden headlights, a coat of arms of dubious provenance, the novelty of a 24-hour analogue clock and a padded vinyl roof (one of the high points of 1970s fashion).

Ford LTD (P5 & P6) and Landau (ZG70) air-conditioning controls.

Actually, the padding was a really bad idea because the foam tended to trap moisture (especially in the country’s more tropical northern regions) and rust thus became inevitable.  On the Landau, the use of a vinyl roof was particularly cynical because it was cheaper to glue one on than it would have been properly to finish the “plugs” crudely welded in to reduce the size of the rear side windows, rendering a more “formal” roof-line.  Unwanted for years, the Landau is now a collectable and some owners have removed the vinyl roof and properly finished the metalwork beneath, greatly enhancing the aesthetics.  The LTD and Landau did though have some worthwhile features including four-wheel disc brakes (a first for Australia and they were world-class) and a set of aviation-style sliding controls for the air-conditioning, dismissed by some as “an affectation” but really quite fetching and a tactile pleasure.  Surprisingly, although built on the “compact” (in US terms) 111 inch (2819 mm) wheelbase rather than the full-sized platforms of the US land yachts which could have a wheelbase almost 18 inches (457 mm) longer, except in width, the Landau’s interior space was little different.  The dinosaurs of the 1970s however weren’t the first of the species, a bikini-themed US-French hybrid the MRCA (most recent common ancestor).  Despite also using nautical nomenclature, the "boat-tailed" roadsters of the inter-war years belong to a different genus.    

Land yacht: 1948 Le Yacht de la Route "Bikini" by Henri Chapron on the chassis of a 1937 Packard Super Eight.

Before in 1940 taking over his mother’s lingerie business, Louis Réard was an automobile engineer for Renault and one with a flair for publicity so to promote his new swimsuit, he in 1948 commissioned coach-builder Henri Chapron (1886-1971 and in the 1960s to become famous for his various lines of Citroën DS, DW & ID coupés & cabriolets) to build what he called Le Yacht de la Route (the yacht of the road).  Chapron’s design included an actual boat bow, a cabin with portholes, a mast from a yacht and a rear deck where models would pose in bikinis when the car was driven around France on promotional tours.

1937 Packard Super Eight with Formal Sedan coachwork (left) and a 1939 example of the sturdy chassis and straight-eight.  The big Packards of this era were the favored transport of comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953), a fair judge of such things.  In the post-war years, Soviet engineers would reverse-engineer the Packard and produce a copy, a common practice the regime (mostly unlawfully) applied to aircraft, military weapons, electronics and much else.  Walt Disney (1901–1966) drove a Packard of this generation and while, on paper, his political philosophy differed greatly from that of comrade Stalin, between them, an organization behaviorist might find more similarities than differences.  More reassuringly, both Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) and Mae West (1893–1980) at times had big Packards in their garages.

Originally the "Bikini's" coachwork (perhaps "hull" might be a better word) was mounted on the chassis of a 1948 Hotchkiss Artois but its 3.5 litre (212 cubic inch) straight-six proved inadequate to propel to heavy load so it was swapped for that of a 1937 Packard Super Eight, the torquey 6.3 litre (384 cubic inch) straight-eight able effortlessly to cope.  It may have been someone in Detroit was smitten by the portholes because in 1956 a pair appeared (as a “delete option”) on the 1956 Ford Thunderbird’s fibreglass hard-top.  On the Thunderbird they were added to enhance rearward visibility but by the 1970s, reshaped first as ovals before assuming other shapes, they were re-named “opera windows” and became an almost inevitable addition to Detroit's land yachts.  Like the vinyl roof, the fad took an unconscionable time a-dying.

Model Adriana Fenice in another bikini, created ad-hoc with a neon-green & black combo.  Note the difference in the fabric of the two pieces, the mix-and-match "ensemble" approach often taken by bikini-wearers because when, sold in sets, the size which accommodates one part, isn't always a good fit for another.

The curiously named "Bikini State" was the system by which an alert state was defined by the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) to warn of non-specific forms of threat, including civil disorder, terrorism or war.  Introduced in 1970, it was in use until 2006 and the MoD's official position has always be "bikini" was a code name selected at random by a computer; those who accept that story are presumably not familiar with the long military tradition of providing misleading answers, either to amuse themselves or confuse others.  There were five Bikini alert states: (1) White which meant essentially there was no indication of a specific or general threat, (2) Black which referred to a situation in which there was heightened concern about internal or external threats, (3) Black Special which indicated an increased likelihood of the conditions which triggered a Black Alert, (4) Amber which confirmed the existence of specific threats or the higher probability of entering a state of armed conflict and (5) Red which covered everything from a specific threat (including the target(s) to actually being in a state of war and at risk of a nuclear strike.

Lindsay Lohan models the MoD's Bikini State alert system rendered as cartoons by Vovsoft, left to right: White, Black, Black Special (string), Amber and Red.  

The need for a system which was better adapted to providing advice to the whole population rather than just the military & civil service was acknowledged after the 9/11 attacks in the US when it was recognised the threat environment had shifted since the Cold War and that the whole country should be regarded as "target rich" in much the way the security services treated Northern Ireland.  Accordingly in 2006, the Government adopted a new five layer system: (1) Low, last seen in the brief, optimistic era between the end of the "troubles" in Northern Ireland (1998) and the week of the 9/11 attacks, (2) Moderate which is about as close to "normal" as anyone now reasonably aspires to achieves and suggests folk should be "alert but not alarmed", (3) Substantial which indicates some event is likely, (4) Severe which indicates a heightened level of threat beyond the substantial and (5) Critical which suggests there is intelligence to indicate an imminent attack and security precaution should be elevated to their highest level.

Many countries have similar systems in place although most maintain different arrangements for civilian & military purposes, the latter always tied to specific protocols and procedures.  Some are trans-nation such as those used by the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and five-layers used to be the preferred option although this has changed.  In the US the military's DEFCON (defense readiness condition) uses five color-coded levels ranging effecting from "stand easy" to "global thermo-nuclear war is imminent or already begun".  The now defunct civilian Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS; 2002-2011) used a five-level approach but it was much criticized and since 2011 the US has used National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) which is event specific and defined by start and end dates, rather than maintaining the country in some nominal state of alert.

Sala delle Dieci Ragazze (Room of the Ten Girls), a first century AD mosaic in Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily.  For whatever reason, it was a later addition, added atop what's thought to be a conventional geometric mosaic.  

The bikini might in the popular imagination be thought a symbol of Western freedom and something which liberated women from the demands they remain as invisible as possible but the concept of the garment is truly ancient.  Some 2 miles (3.2 km) from the Sicilian town of Piazza Armerina lie the ruins of what would once have been the impressive Roman villa, Villa Romana del Casale.  A UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site thought to have been built early in the fourth century AD, it contains one of the most extraordinary collections of ancient Roman mosaics, all thought the works of African artists and artisans.  One creation which has proved of great interest is that which sits in what is popularly known as the Sala delle Dieci Ragazze (Room of the Ten Girls), depicting ten women, nine of whom wearing something in the style of two-piece bathing suits, archeologists suggesting the bottom being a loincloth made cloth or leather and known as a subligaculum, a scanty version of the male perizoma worn both as underwear and sometimes by athletes and slaves.  It was a design which is thought to have spread throughout the empire because archaeologists in Britain discovered during the dig of an old well a leather “thong” that was found to date from shortly after the time of Christ.  Its size and shape was exactly that of a modern bikini bottom and it’s now an exhibit at the Museum of London.

The top part was essentially a breast-band, known also to have been worn in Greece where the garment was known as a mastodeton or apodesmos (a strophium to the Romans).  In deference to comfort, mastodetons are thought often to have been made from linen and they were in essence the "sports bras" of Antiquity.  The contribution to fashion is one thing but what interested historians was that the women are clearly participating in sports, their “bikinis” activewear and not swimwear.  Some of the activities are ambiguous but it’s obvious some are running, another is in the throes of throwing a discus while two are engaged in some form of ball sport.  Interestingly, the ball is multi-colored but whether this reflected the nature of sporting equipment in Antiquity or was a piece of artistic license isn’t known.  Of political interest are the young ladies with crowns of roses and palm-fronds, traditionally the prizes awarded to those victorious in athletic competitions so the events were, to some degree, apparently structured.  It’s a myth women in the Roman Empire were always banned from sport although there were restrictions in that men and women competed separately and while, in Athenian tradition, men generally competed naked (something outside the home not permitted for women), the ancient “bikinis” were a compromise which afforded comfort while avoiding unduly exciting any man whose glance might fall upon female flesh.

That the US nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll made the swimsuit a world-wide success was noted by one Australian entrepreneur who, after the British conducted their own tests in October 1952 in the Montebello Archipelago, some 60 miles (100 km) off the north-west coast of Western Australia, attempted to promote his own variation: the Montebello suit (actually a bikini under another name.  The tests, known as Operation Hurricane, came about because the British, fearful of (1) a nuclear-armed Soviet Union, (2) a possibly resurgent Germany and (3) a one-day un-interested United States, were anxious to possess their own independent nuclear deterrent.  The British project proved a success and the UK to this day maintains a boutique-sized but strategically significant array of nuclear weapons and a delivery system which permits them to be aimed at any target on the planet.  The Montebello swimsuit of the early 1950s was not a success but the name has be revived and bikinis using the name are now available.