‘The Unruly Calf’ by Winslow Homer (1875)

Glossary
Tombs
Concubinage
Diabetes
Mental Health
2012 Nostalgia

Glossary

70s vinyl (noun) – Vinyl flooring is made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It is durable, water-resistant and easy to install, and can be designed to mimic other materials. Its low cost makes it a popular option for public spaces like cafeterias.

8th Grade (noun) – The last grade of middle school, generally for students who are 13 at the start of the school year.

Aged (adjective) – Having acquired a desirable quality or undergone an expected and desired change with the passage of time. Especially used for wine and cheese.

Aquamarine (proper noun) – PG-rated 2006 film starring Emma Roberts, Sara Paxton, and JoJo about two teenage girls who befriend a mermaid. A “bright and breezy tween fantasy romantic comedy”.

Watch: Aquamarine trailer

Baloney (noun) – A smoked sausage made of veal, pork or beef.

Baruch Atah Adonai, Elo Heinu Melech Haolam, Asher Bachar Banu (Hebrew blessing) – This portion of the Aliyah blessing is recited before reading from the Torah. It begins with a common refrain in Jewish prayer meaning “Blessed are You, eternal God, ruler of the universe.” “Asher bachar banu” is the beginning of the next phrase that continues “You have chosen us from all peoples by giving us Your Torah.”

Baruch Atah Adonai, elo-heinu melech ha-olam, asher natan lanu Torat emet, v’cha-yei olam nata b’to-cheinu, Baruch Atah Adonai noten ha-Torah – (Hebrew blessing) – This portion of the Aliyah blessing is recited after reading from the Torah. It translates to “Blessed are You, eternal God, ruler of the universe, who has given us the Torah of truth, and has planted everlasting life in our midst. Blessed are You – the Lord, Giver of the Torah.”

Listen: Pronunciation and singing guide for the full Aliyah blessings (before reading and after reading)
Listen: Pronunciation and singing guide for “Baruch Atah Adonai, Elo Heinu Melech Haolam”

Bat mitzvah (noun) – A coming of age ritual in Judaism to mark a girl’s transition from childhood to adulthood, and to signify that the young person is now old enough to be held responsible for their own actions. The ceremony is performed around the celebrant’s 13th birthday in Reform, Reconstruction, and Conservative traditions, and is often followed by a big party.

Further Reading: What Every Bar/Bat Mitzvah Guest Needs To Know

Binge eating (verb) – Eating a large amount of food in a short time, often without actually being hungry.

Blue indigo (noun) – Blue wild indigo, also known as blue false indigo, is a flowering herb native to central and eastern North America.

Boarding rehab mental school (compound noun) – Likely a therapeutic boarding school for teens, such as Embark Behavior Health.

Brick face (noun) – Slang, a person that is so ugly that it looks like their face was beaten with a brick.

Butter face (noun) – Slang, derogatory term for a woman with an attractive body but an unattractive face. Derived from “but her face”.

Caligula (proper noun) – Emperor of Rome from 37-41 AD. Succeeded his father at the age of 24. He had a love of spectacles including gladiator contests, chariot racing, and the theatre, and had a reputation for a voracious and indiscriminate sexual appetite. He was accused of incest with his sisters, and thought to be an insane and murderous tyrant. He was assassinated by members of his imperial guard at the age of 28.

“The Care And Keeping Of You” (proper noun) – The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls by Valorie Lee Schaefer was published by American Girl in 1998 as an educational children’s book giving advice for navigating female puberty, health, and hygiene. It was written for girls ages 8 and older and does not discuss sex or sexuality, which made it a popular resource with many parents.

Concubine (noun) – Historically, a person who lives with and has sexual relations with another person (who may or may not be married) without being married to them. Used in the 21st century synonymously with “sex slave”.

Eating disorder (noun)- A mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that adversely affect a person’s health.

Girlboss (noun) – An ambitious and successful woman (especially a businesswoman or entrepreneur).

Grenadier Street (proper noun) – A grenadier (greh·nuh·deer) is a soldier armed with grenades.

Hollister (proper noun) – A brand owned by Abercrombie & Fitch selling apparel, accessories and fragrances. Markets itself as a teen lifestyle brand with a beachy, California style. Stores have a distinct California shack storefront and are known for their dark lighting and loud music. Their brand story claims that they were founded in 1922 by a fictitious adventurer and rubber plantation owner John Hollister Sr. They were in fact founded in 2000.

Insulin (noun) – A hormone created in the pancreas that helps move sugar through your blood to give you energy. Insulin for diabetes is often delivered through a needle, pen, or pump.

Iroquois (proper noun) – (irr·eh·kwoy or irr·eh·kwah) Indigenous confederacy made up of the Mohawk (moe·hawk), Oneida (oh·nye·duh), Onondaga (ah·nuhn·daa·guh), Cayuga (cai·yoon·guh), and Seneca (sen·ek·uh) tribes.

Jonestown (proper noun) – In 1978 in Guyana, over 900 members of the Peoples Temple settlement known as Jonestown, led by Rev. Jim Jones, drank fruit punch laced with cyanide and died. The fruit punch brand was actually “Flavor Aid” but in the popular imagination has become “Kool-Aid”, a more popular brand, and the event led to the idiom “drinking the Kool-Aid” to mean blindly following dangerous orders or ideology.

Further Reading: The Guardian: Remembering the Jonestown Massacre
Further Reading: Wikipedia: Drinking The Kool-Aid

Kids GAP (proper noun) – GapKids is a children’s clothing line owned by Gap, Inc., which provides widely appealing apparel that can be considered a little bland.

Further Reading: 2012 Casting Call for babyGap and GapKids
Further Exploration: GapKids Instagram

Kill Bill (proper noun) – R-rated two-part martial arts action film directed by Quentin Tarantino. Volume One released in 2003, Volume Two in 2004. Stars Uma Thurman as a former assassin seeking revenge on the assassins she used to work with after they try to kill her and her unborn child.

Watch: Kill Bill: Vol. 1 trailer

Liz Claiborne (proper noun)- Liz Claiborne was a fashion designer with her own brand of “practical clothes for working women”. She founded her company Liz Claiborne Inc. in 1976 and in 1986 became the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. In 2010, the Liz Claiborne brand was sold to J.C. Penney’s, where it lives on as one of their private brands.

Further Exploration: Current Liz Claiborne Collection at JC Penney’s

Lunchables (proper noun) – A popular brand of prepackaged kid’s meals, prominently featuring lunch meats. Owned by Kraft Heinz (of Chicago, IL) and marketed under the Oscar Meyer brand. A 2024 report by Consumer Reports found a high concentration of lead and phthalates (a chemical family known for causing hormone disruption) as well as high levels of sodium in Lunchables products. Consumer Reports asked the USDA to remove Lunchables products from the National School Lunch Program.

Nero (proper noun) – Emperor of Rome from 54-68 AD. Caligula’s nephew, he became emperor at the age of 16. His mother was a prominent political force in his early reign until he had her killed in 59 AD. He had a love of popular entertainment, and participated in music, chariot racing and theatre as a performer. He participated in the Olympics and “won every competition,” though his name was struck from the list of winners after his death. He was a notable persecutor of Christians and blamed them for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, which destroyed two-thirds of the city. Historians have speculated that he orchestrated the fires himself, after he controversially built a lavish building complex called the Golden House atop the ruins. The phrase “fiddle while Rome burns” describes his behavior during the crisis. He committed suicide at the age of 30 after senators rebelled and declared him a public enemy.

Nostalgia (noun) – A feeling of pleasure and also slight sadness when you think about things that happened in the past. The word nostalgia is a neoclassical compound derived from Greek, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), a Homeric word meaning “homecoming”, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning “pain”. Nostalgia was for centuries considered a potentially debilitating and sometimes fatal medical condition characterized by expressing extreme homesickness. Symptoms were also thought to include fainting, high fever, and death.

Petting zoo (noun) – A zoo with domesticated and wild animals that are docile enough to touch and feed. Usually populated with animals like goats, sheep, chicken, rabbits, and donkeys.

Piedmont Credit Union (proper noun) – A piedmont (peed·mont) refers to a region of foothills in a mountain range. Piedmont can refer to plateau region in the United States between the Atlantic Plain and the Appalachian Mountains, which stretches from New York to Alabama. There are also 15 towns named Piedmont across the U.S. A credit union is a member-owned nonprofit cooperative financial institution that offers services similar to a commercial bank.

Supply chain (noun) – The companies, materials, and systems involved in manufacturing and delivering goods.

Tree plot (noun) – A strip of land between the sidewalk and the street. Also called a road verge, curb strip, or tree lawn.

Type one diabetes (noun) – A form of diabetes mellitus that usually develops during childhood or adolescence and is characterized by a severe deficiency in insulin secretion. It is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks insulin-producing cells, creating the deficiency.

Type two diabetes (noun) – A more common form of diabetes mellitus that develops especially in adults and most often in obese individuals and that is characterized by hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) resulting from impaired insulin utilization coupled with the body’s inability to compensate with increased insulin production.

Uggo (noun) – Slang, an ugly person.

Veal (noun) – Meat from a very young cow (usually 8 months or younger).

Vintage (adjective) – Of old, recognized, and enduring interest, importance, or quality. For wine, relating to the year of its production and quality.

“You were the gate and you were the sheep” (allusion) – Reference to 10:1-21 of the Gospel of John, in which Jesus says “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture” and “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.”

Tombs

As you may remember if you had an Egyptology phase as a kid, pharaohs’ tombs were filled with objects that represented their life and wealth and indicated what they wanted to bring with them to the afterlife. Wall art and figurines of servants carrying food and perfume represented literal goods and personnel they planned to have.

Egyptian tombs also often had curses above the entrance to scare away grave robbers. Many are elaborate in their threats (and have a real interest in wringing your neck like a goose):

Death will slay with his wings whoever disturbs the peace of the pharaoh

As for all men who shall enter this my tomb impure, I shall seize his neck like a goose.

His arm shall be cut off like that of this bull, his neck shall be twisted off like that of a bird, his office shall not exist, the position of his son shall not exist, his house shall not exist in Nubia, his tomb shall not exist in the necropolis, his god shall not accept his white bread, his flesh shall belong to the fire, his children shall belong to the fire, his corpse shall not be to the ground, I shall be against him as a crocodile on the water, as a serpent on earth, and as an enemy in the necropolis.

I am an excellent priest, knowledgeable in secret spells and all forms of magic, and as for anyone who enters my tomb impure or who does not purify themselves, I shall seize him like a goose and fill him with fear at seeing ghosts upon the earth.

And a couple more measured warnings:

As for anyone who will enter this tomb after he has eaten abominations or after he has copulated with women; I will be judged with him in the council of the Great God.

Look for a place worthy of yourselves and rest in it, and do not constrict gods in their own houses, as every man is happy in his place and every man is glad in his house.

A recently discovered Aztec tomb included many real animals, including a jaguar with its heart removed dressed in ceremonial clothes. In ancient China royalty were sometimes buried in suits made of jade, and paper money was burned to send it to the afterlife. 

Grave goods are still common today. For some contemporary examples, here are links to Funeral Director recommendations of what to put in a casket.

Concubinage

Concubine comes from Latin “con” (with) and “cubare” (to lie). Concubinage is a lower status relationship than marriage, and depending on the culture can exist in addition to or in place of a marital relationship. The concubine might be free or enslaved.

The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology gives four distinct forms of concubinage:

• Royal concubinage, where politics was connected to reproduction. Concubines became consorts to the ruler, fostered diplomatic relations, and perpetuated the royal bloodline. Examples of this included imperial China, the Ottoman empire and the Sultanate of Kano.
• Elite concubinage offered men the chance to increase social status and satisfy desires. Most such men already had wives. In East Asia this practice was justified by Confucianism. In the Muslim world, this concubinage resembled slavery.
• Concubinage as common-law relationship that allowed a couple who did not wish to marry to live together. This was prevalent in medieval Europe and colonial Asia. In Europe, some families discouraged younger sons from marriage to prevent division of family wealth among many heirs.
• Concubinage as sexual enslavement of women in a patriarchal system. In such cases the children of the concubine could become permanently inferior to the children of the wife. Examples include Mughal India and Joseon Korea.

In Ancient Roman law, concubinage was monogamous and identical (and alternative) to marriage. The only difference was the lack of marital affection (that is, it did not affect marital status, which confers social rank and property/inheritance rights). Concubinage was practiced most often in couples when one partner belonged to a higher social rank, especially the senatorial order, who were penalized for marrying below their class.

In Imperial China, royals had many concubines who existed in a ranked hierarchy that determined the lifestyles of the concubines and the inheritance order of their sons. The specifics of these ranks changed over the centuries, but the ranks had some really evocative titles, including:

• Lady of Handsome Fairness
• Lady of Cultivated Deportment
• Lady of Humble Accomplishments 
• Lady of Sufficient Splendidness
• Lady of Mediocre Talent
• Lady Who Can Safeguard a Multitude

There is a long wikipedia page with more examples here.

It was also not uncommon for concubines to be sacrificed (either by their own hand or someone else’s) and buried with their lover or master.



Health

Diabetes

Approximately 37.3 million people in the United States have diabetes, which is about 11% of the population. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form, representing 90% to 95% of all diabetes cases.

Symptoms of Diabetes:

• Increased thirst (polydipsia) and dry mouth
• Frequent urination
• Fatigue
• Blurred vision
• Unexplained weight loss
• Numbness or tingling in your hands or feet
• Slow-healing sores or cuts
• Frequent skin and/or vaginal yeast infections

When untreated, even for a day or two, type one diabetes can lead to Diabetes-Related Ketoacidosis (DKA), which can create severe complications including:

• Very low potassium levels (hypokalemia)
• Brain swelling (cerebral edema)
• Fluid inside of your lungs (pulmonary edema)
• Cardiac arrest
• Damage to your kidneys and other organs
• Coma or death

Type One Diabetes is managed by:

• Monitoring blood sugar levels (often daily or hourly)
• Synthetic insulin injections
  • The four methods of insulin intake are shot, pen, pump, or inhaler
  • Usually multiple injections are required per day
• Controlling diet and exercise

Further Reading: Cleveland Clinic: Diabetes
Further Reading: Cleveland Clinic: Diabetes-Related Ketoacidosis

Mental Health

Listen: Long Shadows: Trauma and Delusions (15 minutes)

Walking Corpse Syndrome

Cotard’s syndrome, also known as Cotard’s delusion or walking corpse syndrome, is a rare mental disorder in which the affected person holds the delusional belief that they are deceased, do not exist, are putrefying, or have lost their blood or internal organs. A mild case is characterized by despair and self-loathing, while a severe case is characterized by intense delusions of negation, and chronic psychiatric depression.

Further Reading: Wikipedia: Cotard’s Syndrome

Listen: Cotard: the ‘Walking Corpse Delusion’ (13 minutes)

Eating Disorders

An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that adversely affect a person’s health. There are many kinds of eating disorders and they have many causes. Body image may or may not be a factor. One common impulse of eating disorders is the need for coping mechanisms to deal with other stressors, including abuse, bullying, and anxiety.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia is often triggered by negative feelings, and is often a coping mechanism for dealing with the hardships of the present. Loneliness can make a person nostalgic for a time they were more socially connected, which can help them feel less lonely.

Nostalgia can be useful for improving mood, increasing social connectedness, preserving cultural heritage, enhancing positive self-regard, providing existential meaning, and promoting psychological growth.

People are often inclined to remember the past more positively than it really was (rosy retrospection), but can also remember their negative experiences being worse than they really were (blue retrospection).

Nostalgia is an inherently social emotion. One of main triggers for the feeling is conversation (other classic triggers are smell, music, keepsakes, loneliness, and cold temperatures).Nostalgic memories are most likely to be about social situations, and remembering them makes you feel closer to the people you share the memories with, both in the past and present. Nostalgic conversation builds a sense of continuity between the past and the present, both for yourself and the other person.

The positive social feeling created by nostalgia can create a positive feedback loop, encouraging you to be more social in the present by maintaining old relationships and being more open to new ones. The greatest predictor of an individual’s nostalgia-proneness is their need to belong. Nostalgic memories do not need to be positive, and can even be about traumatic events.

Nostalgia engages the areas of the brain related to personal (autobiographical) memory, self-reflection, emotional regulation and reward processing. That reward processing area is why it feels so good, even addictive. Engaging your autobiographical memory is why long-forgotten memories can resurface.

Physical spaces can be a nostalgic trigger, but when people feel nostalgic for a place they are more likely to be physically far away from it. Blue landscapes are the most connected to nostalgic feeling. When people were asked to place chairs in a room while thinking about a nostalgic memory, they were more likely to place the chairs close together. Nostalgia literally makes you feel warmer and less sensitive to pain, and also more aware of potential threats.

There are promising studies looking into using nostalgia and specifically nostalgic conversation to treat depression, anxiety and dementia, but also acknowledgement that nostalgia can be used unhealthily as a coping mechanism to avoid the present.

Read: The Atlantic: Why People Feel Nostalgic for Terrible Times

Notalgia paresthetica (note the difference in spelling) is a neurological condition that causes an intense itching, burning or a tingling sensation between your shoulder blade and spine. “Notalgia” means “pain in the back,” and “paresthetica” means “burning pain, tingling or itch.” Researchers don’t know if it’s caused by a pinched nerve coming from your back (radiculopathy) or a malfunctioning or injured nerve in your skin (neuropathy).

2012 Nostalgia

Music

Listen: Spotify Playlist of Top Hits of 2012

Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 Songs

• “Call Me Maybe” – Carly Rae Jepsen (9 weeks)
• “Diamonds” – Rihanna (3 weeks)
• “Locked Out of Heaven” – Bruno Mars (2 weeks in 2012, 4 weeks in 2013)
• “One More Night” – Maroon 5 (9 weeks)
• “Part of Me” – Katy Perry (1 week)
• “Set Fire to the Rain” – Adele (2 weeks)
• “Sexy and I Know It” – LMFAO (2 weeks)
• “Somebody That I Used to Know” – Gotye feat. Kimbra (8 weeks)
• “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” – Kelly Clarkson (3 weeks)
• “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” – Taylor Swift (3 weeks)
• “We Are Young” – fun. feat. Janelle Monáe (6 weeks)
• “We Found Love” – Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris (2 weeks in 2012, 8 weeks in 2011)
• “Whistle” – Flo Rida (2 weeks)

Other Notable Songs

• “What Makes You Beautiful” – One Direction
• “Gangnam Style” – Psy
• “Thrift Shop” – Macklemore
• “Boyfriend” – Justin Bieber
• “Die Young” – Kesha
• “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” – Taylor Swift
• “Ho Hey” – The Lumineers
  • This is after the 2010 hit “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes kicked off the “stomp clap” folk music craze, which is having a bit of a discourse resurgence right now.

Movies

Top 10 Highest Grossing Movies

• The Avengers
• Skyfall
• The Dark Knight Rises
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• Ice Age: Continental Drift
• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2
• The Amazing Spider-Man
• Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
• The Hunger Games
• Men In Black 3

Other Notable Movies

• Pitch Perfect
• Brave
• The Lorax

Other 2012 Events

• “The Fault In Our Stars” by John Green published
• Gossip Girl season finale
• 2012 Summer Olympics in London
• Re-election of Barack Obama, defeating Mitt Romney
• iPad mini released by Apple (the first iPad became available in 2010)
• Wii U console released by Nintendo (the original Wii became available in 2006)
• Kony 2012