Appartement: A New Word For Our Times

appartement.
noun: a real or imagined psychological discomfort caused by the expectation or anticipation of future political or socio-political events.  The term originated with specific reference to November 2010 elections but may also relate to future events (see further below under Extended Meanings).

Etymology
Appartement derives from the French word for apartment, and is preferably given a French pronunciation. The cognate English word apartment conveys the notion of "a set of private rooms in a building entirely of these".  The new word is derived from an older notion of separateness which ultimately manifests as solitary living. A paradox of appartement philosophy is an anti-communal spirit (preferring to abide alone) and this feature distinguishes adherents of appartement philosophy from earlier anti-establishment movements, for example, the hippies.

Extended Meanings
(1) Appartement philosophy began in the early 21st century as an earnest rebellion against what adherents viewed as increasingly materialist, amoral trends within United States social culture. Initially identified with a politically left-leaning philosophy, the appartement movement championed greener living, despite the need for more and more additional single person dwellings.  Appartement philosophy championed cultural diversity, indeed to the point of regarding everything and everybody as equal (but separate).  Adherents of appartement, notably white, young and affluent, actively despised cohabitation with opposite and even same sexed partners, especially if children instead of pets were involved, preferring the solitary "apart" lifestyle.

(2)  Appartement describes the existential angst of living alone in a big city surrounded by relative well being, yet having the feeling that that relative well being may unexpectedly vanish.  As a societal phenomenon, appartement sentiment first emerged as embodying independence and upward financial mobility, particularly amongst youths reaching or exceeding college age.  Appartement philosophy was best exemplified in the halcyon days of condominium speculation in the first decade of the 21st century.

(3) Appartement sentiment describes the feeling of willful detachment that adherents may feel when contemplating great swaths of fly-over-country where people live in actual family-based units which they consider archaic.

After the November 2010 elections, fictional and real portrayals in novels, films, and television began depicting appartement adherents with growing derision and scorn.  Adherents of appartement began to be seen as an isolated phenomenon.  Paradoxically, as world events incurred to unify the United States, the appartement movement smoothly blended into the fabric of greater American society.

[Added: appartement is exacerbated by modern social networking. To some degree, people "network" at the expense of forming older, more traditional social networks such as neighborhoods]
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I wrote that years ago on my blog here. You can check out the back and forth that blake I had at the time. Anyone remember blake?  I think I still have the power to summon him, but I won't at this time.

I dug this out for review because of very recent "social distancing" which certain universities are pushing. I'm predicting that "social distancing" will fail for very human reasons -- people are not geared to handle the existential angst of being alone. They will "safe cluster" instead.

Penis Ennui

Two great phenomena have swept politics in the last week or so: The Wolff book and the Oprah candidacy. My opinion is that they are foists by a bored media -- a media bored and at war with masculinity.

What's your opinion?

Le Vie En Roses

I transplanted several small roses today:

The previous owner loved roses and grew them here, there, and everywhere. I wanted them out of the area where I intend to grow herbs and vegetables. I dug holes, threw in some compost and transfered as much root ball as I could.

I gave away two to a woman up the street who makes bonsai. She really liked the look of the gnarly wood.

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KLEM FM

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I think that's a lovely song and video. But ugh, the original Truffaut film looks just dreadful. The storyline, at least. I've never seen Jules et Jim but after reading about it, I'm sure that I don't want to. Plus it's Stephen Hawking's all time favorite film. Double ugh.

KLEM FM

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Brussels killed the Singing Nun. Sure, it was the "Belgian" government which demanded all that money, but as we know, the "Belgian" Government smoothly morphed into the EU. Read her tragic story here.

KLEM TV

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As another Blue Bonnet commercial* from the time said: "En bread, en coo-King, no dif-fer-rance!"

Yet there was a difference, at the molecular level. Margarines were made from vegetable oils -- "hardened" by hydrogenation using catalysts which created trans-fats. You just can't say a bad word about trans these days unless you're a fat.
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*I have been unable to find that commercial to strengthen my point.

Le Pen Is Mightier Than Das Schwert

Le Pen: "France Will Be Led by a Woman, Me or Mrs Merkel"

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May the 4th be with you

The French 75

Peter Marshall: A friend offers to give you a French 75. What is that?
Paul Lynde : Just a minute, that's 25 more than it was last time.

It's awards season again with the Golden Globes almost upon us. This year promises to be a doozy as far as political grandstanding. The Grammys will probably draw the most Trump-ire. In order to judge and umpire the speech-making, here's a suggestion: Get thee ye to a liquor store before Sunday and pick up the ingredients for the best awards-watching drink of all, the French 75:

The drink is merely a souped-up glass of bubbly. There are many variants. The version we use is:

1/2 oz Cointreau (or triple sec if you're on a budget)
1/2 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 oz of gin (or cognac)
Champagne to top

Mix and add to a champagne or wine glass. Top with champagne, prosecco, or any white sparkling wine. Briefly stir. Enjoy.

The drink's history dates back to the Lafayette Escadrille in WW I. The drink was named after the famous French 75mm artillery piece:

KLEM AM

Overheard at Lem's:

Dust Bunny Queen said....

Listen to this while contemplating.....Gloria en Excelsis Deo or a clunky rendition of Michael Row the Boat Ashore.
December 20, 2016 at 10:48 AM

The phrase Gloria in Excelsis Deo (glory to God in the highest) appears in a familiar traditional Christmas carol...the one with the long, melismatic vowel movement inside "gloria." You will recognize it:

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I put up the French/English video to recognize the original French carol -- no matter how Latin the refrain.

I also put up Van Morrison's "Gloria" to see if he had used a bit of melisma in his 1964 hit:

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I think he did. What do you think?

KLEM FM

linky

"Trompe le Monde" is French wordplay meaning "fool the world."

David Bowie explains what he saw in The Pixies:

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On Ne Passe Pas (They Shall Not Pass)*

Leaving Paris, the train to Luxembourg tracked the Marne River valley, rolling eastwards through the Champagne region and then veered north to Reims. I recall glimpsing the famous cathedral -- not at night but in harsh daylight. But what I remembered the most (and hadn't foreseen) were the haunted place names along that ride. The names confronted me through the train window one-by-one as stops along the way: place names like Verdun-sur-Meuse. This map shows how the train's route between Paris and Luxembourg crossed the Western Front of the First World War:

Link To Original

The French paid a costly human price at Verdun but prevailed. The great battle began 100 years ago today and raged until December, 1916. German artillery fired an estimated 1 million shells that first day alone. France and Germany lost around 300,000 men at Verdun over the course of the next 10 months -- a significant fraction of total war casualties.

Absinthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

Albert Maignan's "Green Muse" (1895): a poet succumbs to the Green Fairy

Absinthe has a long history which I've mostly ignored. I had an aunt who brought some back from Paris and let me try as a child. I thought it disgusting. The dominant flavors--anise and fennel--are two of my least favorite things. Fennel, called finocchio in Italian,* is particularly wretch-worthy in my book.

But, I bought some recently, in my quest to render and mimic adult beverages in plastic. Here is what raw absinthe looks like rendered in plastic:

Part 1 of a retail educational display

The silver utensil is called an absinthe spoon. It is used to hold a sugar cube over the spirit. Ice cold water is then slowly dripped onto the cube, dissolving the sugar. About midway through the process--the French call it making the louche--a distinct cloudiness ensues. The final result is milky green beverage that looks like this:

Part 2 of a retail educational tool

Clueless but curious, I looked into what is going on with this drink. Absinthe contains anethole, a molecule having the following structure:

The first thing to note is that the molecule is a trans alkene. It's also an ether, and an aromatic molecule. Anethole is very soluble in pure absinthe which is high in alcohol (around 110 proof); it is much less soluble in water--especially cold water--and adding water causes the anethole to precipitate. The precipitate is the louche. Ouzo uses the same molecule except that the anethole actually crystallizes and floats on the drink. Here is video showing the making of an absinthe louche:

Gotta wonder if Trooper York ever visited that Brooklyn joint featured in the video called Maison Premiere. Probably not. It sounds too French. Who wants to hang out at a place french-themed?

[added] In the comments, ricpic mentions a painting by Degas--"The Absinthe Drinker"

"The Absinthe Drinker" Degas (1876)

According to the Wiki:

The woman in the painting was derided as a whore and the entire image was seen as a blow to morality and the degradation of society due to absinthe. 

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*Absinthe is also known as "The Green Fairy."  I'll bet there's a story behind that.

Plus Ça Change, Plus C'est La Même Choisi

link to source

As 1967 drew to a close there seemed little indication that the required massive efforts from the total American society would be toward meeting the Negroes' demands for full equality and participation, and a decent life, in an affluent society. Rather, it seemed more probable that the violent unrest in the black ghettos would be met with even more stringent police action designed to maintain 'law and order' and 'national security.' It seemed a pity that all concerned could not heed what might have been a warning by the late George Bernard Shaw. 'Security, the chief pretense of civilization, cannot exist where the worst of dangers, the danger of poverty, hangs over everyone's head,' Shaw wrote. 'All other crimes are virtues beside it...It degrades the poor and infects with its degradation the whole neighborhood in which they live. And whatever can degrade a neighborhood can degrade a country and a continent and finally a whole civilization.' Hoyt W. Fuller, The Black Temper (1968)

Fuller, who was black, wrote that piece about American race riots up to 1967, the year before Time's chosen date of similitude, 1968. The unrest did get worse the next year but then it got better.

Fuller quotes George Bernard Shaw, from a play called Major Barbara. The play is a polemic, and probably relevant today, especially for those arguing for a general redistribution of wealth, like George Bernie Sanders. The fuller Shaw quote is:

Security, the chief pretence of civilization, cannot exist where the worst of dangers, the danger of poverty, hangs over everyone's head, and where the alleged protection of our persons from violence is only an accidental result of the existence of a police force whose real business is to force the poor man to see his children starve whilst idle people overfeed pet dogs with the money that might feed and clothe them. Link

I had the oddest thought while reflecting on this. Most of the nation's worst race riots have occurred under  Democratic Administrations: the 1943 riots in Detroit; the 1964 riots in Harlem; the Watts riots in 1965; the Chicago and Cleveland riots in 1966; the Boston, Newark, and Detroit riots in 1967; and finally, riots in the aftermath of MLK's assassination. To borrow a page from the President's approach to Cuba:

In the most significant changes in our policy in more than fifty years, we will end an outdated approach that, for decades, has failed to advance our interests, and instead we will begin to...

Nous Sommes Tous Charlies

Sans la liberté de blâmer, il n'est point d'éloge flatteur; et qu'il n'y a que les petits hommes qui redoutent les petits écrits.

~ Pierre Beaumarchais

Translation: "Without freedom to criticize, there is no flattering praise; and only small men are afraid of small writings." link

The Wiki link gives an incorrect translation, reciting "If censorship reigns, there cannot be sincere flattery."

But "sincere flattery" is an oxymoron.  In the original sense of the word, flattery means praise that is not sincere but is intended to get you something that you want.

What Beaumarchais was trying to say is that in a censored world, all praise will be fake praise. Think North Korean "Dear Leader" worship. Think of the intolerance of criticizing our POTUS. Some Muslims seem unable to tolerate anything but flattering praise.

La Mème Choisi

I like that video because the people (tourists? Strasbourg townies?) seem so bemused.

Just wait until they get a load of the minaret planned for the Grand Mosque in their town:

Questions For Chip

The chart below is a precursor to the modern periodic table. The chart dates from 1718 according to Wiki. It teaches how the then-known "elements"* combined with each other. The top row identifies an element and the columns contain those elements with which it combines. Note that sulfur (middle column, the one with the triangle and the dangling cross) was considered the most promiscuous element, consistent with its primacy as the "soul" of matter according to alchemy:

Click to enlarge or see link above

I wondered whether Chip recognized any of these symbols as Egyptian in origin and if so, to which words and concepts are they related?
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*Here are my translations of the "elements" from the French in the chart.  Feel free to correct me:

Esprit acides : Acidic (acerbic) spirits

Acide du sel marin: Lit. acid of sea salt, HCl (which was thought to contain oxygen until Davy showed otherwise: link)

Acide nitreux: Nitric and nitrous acids, HNO₃, HNO₂

Acide vitriolique: Sulfuric and sulfurous acids, derived from oleum & vitriol.

Sel alcali fixe: Sodium & potassium hydroxides and carbonates.

Sel alcali volatil: Sal ammoniac, NH₄Cl, which sublimes and was endlessly fascinating.

Terre absorbante: Silicates (sand) and diatomaceous earth.

Substances metalliques: Metallic substances

Mercure: Mercury was considered to be the spirit of matter.

Regule d'Antimoine: Regulus of antimony -- metallic antimony. Regulus means "little King"

Or: Gold

Argent: Silver

Cuivre: Copper

Fer: Iron

Plomb: lead

Etain: Tin

Zinc

Pierre Calaminaire: Lit. calamine stone, i.e., calamine ore. Note the French place name.

Soufre mineral: Sulfur or brimstone.  This material held a special place in alchemy, along with mercury and salt.

Principe huileux ou Soufre: The oily essence of organic substances from plants, also called the "sulfur." See the interesting discussion under Spagyric.

Esprit de vinaigre: Vinegar or acetic acid

Eau: water

Sel: Salt held a special place in alchemy along with mercury and sulfur.  

Esprit de vin et Esprit ardents: Any of the flammable alcohols derived from fermentation, e.g., ethanol, methanol, etc.

KLEM FM

They're rioting in Ferguson...

...there's strife in Iran...

Plus ça hope et change, plus c'est la chosen meme.

French Politics

The state -- friend of all, enemy of each one. ~ Paul Valéry 

To govern is to foresee. ~ Émile de Girardin 

Every nation has the government it deserves. ~ Joseph de Maistre 

The powerful man commands. Public opinion governs. ~ Henry de Montherlant 

The tyrant never corrects himself because he hears only flatterers. ~ André Maurois 

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"Fem" was a southern Wisconsin middle and high school put down when I was growing up there: "Don't be such a fem!" It could have been more widespread -- I still don't know -- does anyone?

The Violent Femmes were from Milwaukee which is just a short drive away from Madison. When I first heard about them I remember thinking "that's a weird spelling of 'fem'."  But it was brilliant: it "frenchified" the spoken word, adding another layer of nuance.

The French first explored Wisconsin, but the Germans, Poles, Italians, Cornish, Norwegians, Swedes, Icelanders, Dutch, Swiss, & Irish, etc., settled the state.  Later on came the African Americans, the Hmong, and the Mexicans. Milwaukee and Chicago were the points of entry for many -- but not every -- family. Mine wandered there from PA much earlier on and never set foot in Milwaukee or Chicago.

Such hegemony...how many native American tribes were in Wisconsin first? My white guilt is for what happened to them.

Bits of French Wit and Wisdom

In a society of equals, the individual acts against equality. In a society of unequals, the majority works against inequality. ~ Paul Valéry 

Equality is less beautiful but more just than inequality. ~ Alfred de Vigny 

Reflections on equality: It isn't at all in the natural order of things. The strongest and most intelligent animal rules. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 

A society where equality of conditions would become strictly guaranteed and maintained would become passive. ~ Jules Romaines 

Our social personality is a creation of the thought of others. ~ Marcel Proust 

Society always has a share of responsibility in the bad behavior of its members. ~ Pierre Delore