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Heraldry, the science and the art that deal with the use, display, and regulation of hereditary symbols employed to distinguish individuals, armies, institutions, and corporations. Those symbols, which originated as identification devices on flags and shields, are called armorial bearings. Strictly defined, heraldry denotes that which pertains to the office and duty of a herald; that part of his work dealing with armorial bearings is properly termed armory. But in general usage heraldry has come to mean the same as armory.
The initial meaning of the term herald is disputed, but the preferred derivation is from the Anglo-Saxon here ("army") and wald ("strength" or "sway"). In the second half of the 12th century the men who supervised festivities and delivered invitations to guests were often the same minstrels who, after tournaments and battles, extolled the virtues and deeds of the victors. Heralds can be identified in the descriptions of tournaments from about 1170. The duties of minstrels and messengers appear then to have merged, and, as the minstrels recounted the deeds and virtues of their masters and their masters' ancestors, their interest in genealogy developed. That new skill was related to their tournament duties, which included the necessity to recognize the banners and shields of all those invited to attend. As heraldry developed its elaborate technical language and as armorial display expanded in subsequent centuries, so the importance and consequent status of heralds grew.
Heraldry originated when most people were illiterate but could easily recognize a bold, striking, and simple design. The use of heraldry in medieval warfare enabled combatants to distinguish one mail-clad knight from another and thus to distinguish between friend and foe. Thus, simplicity was the principal characteristic of medieval heraldry. In the tournament there was a more elaborate form of heraldic design. When heraldry was no longer used on body armour and heraldic devices had become a part of civilian life, intricate designs evolved with esoteric significance utterly at variance with heraldry's original purpose. In modern times heraldry has often been regarded as mysterious and a matter for experts only. Indeed, over the centuries its language has become intricate and pedantic. Such intricacy appears ridiculous when it is remembered that in the earlier periods swift recognition of a coat of arms or badge could mean the difference between safety and death, and some medieval battles were lost through a mistake over the similarity of two devices of opposing sides.
Like all other human creations, heraldic art has reflected the changes of fashion. As heraldry advanced from its utilitarian usages, its artistic quality declined. In the 18th century, for example, heraldry described new arms in an absurdly obtuse manner and rendered them in an overly intricate style. Much of the heraldic art of the 17th to 19th centuries has earned that period the designation "the Decadence." It was not until the 20th century that heraldic art recovered a feeling for aesthetic beauty. There are still, however, a few drawings of poor quality emanating from official sources.
The scope of heraldry
General considerations
In western Europe heraldic designs are found in general application from the second quarter of the 12th century. Elsewhere a similar system is found only in Japan, in the mon (emblems), also dating from the 12th century. Heraldic systems are often said to have been produced at other times and places—for example, the symbols of the 12 tribes in ancient Israel or the designs used by the Rajput princes in India. Those and similar instances, however, are more properly considered incipient heraldry, since they did not develop into the complex heraldic practice known in western Europe and Japan.
From 1150 to 1500 the use of heraldry in the West was utilitarian: on armour in warfare and on seals in peace and war. In the latter part of that period, it was used in peaceful ways and had much artistic value. Also, because from the beginning the use of arms had been associated with the higher feudal castes, heraldry acquired in later medieval times an identification with the concept of gentility that has persisted. To bear arms was the mark of a gentleman; therefore, to possess the desirable quality of gentility, a man needed to have armorial bearings. The great majority of those who seek to use coats of arms today are actuated by that motive. In the use of corporate arms, the motive of prestige operates. As long as the possession of arms confers any social distinction, arms will be sought and used. At no time before the present has there been so widespread an employment of heraldic devices.
The use of symbols has been universal among civilized communities, but symbols have not always assumed the character associated with heraldry. Seals, too, which have a prominent place in heraldic practice, are of an antiquity approaching that of the most ancient civilizations. They were in use in the states that from Sumer onward flourished in Mesopotamia. Their use in the Babylonian empire, for example, was the same as in medieval western Europe: to authenticate the documents (possibly of baked brick, later papyrus, later still parchment or vellum) on which they appeared or to which they were appended. All persons, literate and illiterate alike, were able to recognize the representation or symbol of a ruler or other potentate. In 12th-century Europe heraldry first appeared on seals in the representations of persons. There is a clear line of descent from the seals of Assyria and Babylonia to the modern company seal, which is often heraldic.
From its origins in the small half-continent of western Europe, heraldry has become universal, usually—but not only—by way of western European colonization. Heraldry has spread to a considerable degree in North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In the former British India, the hereditary princes adopted the use of heraldry. In the numerous independent states formed in Africa from British colonies, official armorial bearings are generally used, and the same is true of the states that were French colonies. In Russia in the 18th century the use of armorial bearings was adopted from the West, and state emblems were not unknown in communist eastern Europe. In the 13th century the Celtic princes of Wales and Ireland and the chiefs of the Scottish Highland clans took up the use of heraldic symbols from the example of the feudal lords and knights of other parts of Europe.
Other kinds of emblematic identification have some similarities with heraldry. An example is the totem system, found among the indigenous peoples of America and Australia, in which an animal, plant, or other object serves as an emblem of family or clan and is often regarded as a reminder of ancestry. Totemism varies greatly in different countries, as do the theories that have been advanced to explain it. The totem poles used by the Native Americans of the northwest coast of North America contain an heraldic element in their employment of a hereditary symbol for a family or tribe. They therefore come under the heading of approaches to heraldic designs and may be termed semi-heraldic in character.
The Japanese mon, or monshō, is very definitely an heraldic symbol, having many parallels in its use with the armorial bearings of Europe. It was used on helmets, shields, and breastplates but was never, as in Europe, large enough to identify the wearer of the armour at any considerable distance. When identification was desired, the mon was displayed on a flag. The mon has been wrongly equated in English with "crest" and in some European languages has been translated erroneously as "coat of arms," but "emblem" is a more accurate equivalent. It most closely resembles the heraldic badge (distinctive mark used by retainers), however, which in Europe often antedated armorial bearings. Further resemblances to European heraldry in the use of the mon include the decorative use of the symbol on clothes, furniture, and houses, the use on the clothes of retainers of great lords, the legal requirement of registration of the mon (dating from the 17th century), and the reservation of the chrysanthemum mon to the emperor, with junior members of the imperial family using a different variety of the flower. That last distinction corresponds exactly to the rules of heraldic precedence that apply to the European royal families. That areas so far removed from each other as western Europe and Japan should have developed a system of hereditary symbolism independently of one another is not surprising, for in both areas feudalism was the prevailing medieval political and social system. As in Europe, Japanese heraldry survived the obsolescence of armour and remains in widespread use today.
Despite some uninformed opinion to the contrary, tartan has no connection with heraldry. It is simply a pattern of weaving cloth that is by no means restricted to the Scottish Highlands. Armorial bearings were adopted by Highland chiefs in imitation of the Lowland chivalry from the 13th and 14th centuries. The badge of the chief was adopted and used extensively by the members of his clan.
Flags can be heraldic. That of the United Kingdom is certainly so, for it is formed by the amalgamation of the flags of England, Scotland, and Ireland, those showing respectively the Crosses of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick, all of which are displayed heraldically. The U.S. flag has a quasi-heraldic character and appears to owe its principal ingredients to the armorial bearings of the first president, George Washington. The flag representing the republic of France, by contrast, is not heraldic, being merely an arrangement of the national colours.
In addition to national flags, there are banners, rectangular pieces of cloth showing the armorial bearings of the owner, and standards, strips of cloth that taper gradually to the end and usually bear heraldic badges. In the hoist (the part of the flag nearest to the staff) a standard will bear either the national cross (e.g., that of St. George, St. Andrew, St. Patrick, or St. Denis) or the owner's arms.
An early development was the extension of heraldic design from its use by persons or families to its employment by institutions and associations of various kinds, an outgrowth of the concept that an assembly or body of people can be personified as an individual, much as a limited company or corporation is viewed as a legal "person." Medieval times provided numerous examples of arms borne by municipalities, churches, and colleges. The arms assumed by or granted to an individual are regarded as being a peculiarly personal possession; therefore caution must be used in speaking of family arms. That question can be best dealt with in connection with the royal arms of the sovereign of the United Kingdom.
Those arms are borne in their entirety only by the reigning king or queen. No other member of the royal family is permitted to bear the arms without introducing a "difference," a mark that will show without doubt that the bearer is not the reigning sovereign. By analogy, the same condition holds for all so-called family arms, which belong to the head of the family; all other members should strictly bear them differenced—that is, with some mark of cadency (a sign indicating the position of the bearer with respect to the head of the family). In Scottish heraldry that rule is very rigidly enforced, but in England and elsewhere it has been allowed to fall into decay, except in the case of the royal family.
Probably the next development in the scope of heraldry was its use by ecclesiastics. The bishops and the abbots of the monasteries used arms on their seals from the 12th century onward. In that variety of heraldic usage, the arms were not those of individuals but of the body they temporarily represented—as also with arms borne by political units such as nations and cities or by educational establishments, many of which date from the Middle Ages.
A great extension of medieval heraldry was connected with what came to be called the livery companies. Those were guilds or associations of men in trades whose object was to uphold high standards of craftsmanship. Most of them obtained charters from the crown and were granted arms. Among numerous examples in Britain are the Grocers, the Mercers, and the Glaziers companies. Membership in those still-existing companies no longer entails practice of their particular trades, but they possess property and have great charitable interests as well as considerable social esteem. Their armorial bearings are of great antiquity and are much displayed on their halls, letterheads, glass, silver, and so forth. Obviously, armorial bearings were assumed in the Middle Ages by such military bodies as the Knights Templar, the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, the Teutonic Knights, and the great Spanish orders. Military heraldry has continued to the present: the British military, for example, have badges and in some cases coats of arms, which are in the care of officers of the College of Arms. The newest of the British armed forces, the Royal Air Force, alone makes use of more than 1,000 armorial designs, both coats of arms and badges.
In the 20th century the development of corporate heraldry went far beyond anything known before. Throughout the world, banks, insurance companies, and many other great commercial concerns were using arms, as were an ever-increasing number of professional, educational, and trade associations. Two events that clearly illustrate the scope of contemporary heraldry are the grants made by the governments of the Republic of Ireland and the Kingdom of Denmark of armorial bearings to two presidents of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower, respectively. Because arms are hereditary and their owners are regarded heraldically as of noble status, the grants amounted to a recognition of the nobility of the head of one state by the head of another state.
The chief components of armorial bearings
The shield
The shield is the essential part of an armorial achievement; without it there can be no full heraldic display, except for those of ladies and some senior churchmen, distinctions that call for special treatment. The word shield can be used to describe the coat of arms but in modern times is seldom employed in that way, except in a poetic context. Armorial bearings are generally referred to more briefly as arms or as a coat of arms, a term derived from the surcoat of silk or linen worn over the armour to keep off the rays of the sun and to delay the formation of rust on the armour. The surcoat was a waistcoatlike garment on which were shown the same heraldic insignia as on the shield.
Every other object in a full heraldic achievement is dependent upon the shield or coat of arms. There can be, and quite often is, a coat of arms consisting solely of a shield without any other object, such as a crest surmounted. The heraldry of the Churchills of Muston, a branch of the family to which Sir Winston Churchill belonged, has no crest. The reason is that such families possessed arms before the crest became fashionable and its absence proclaims their ancient status.
In heraldic illustrations shields may be found in many shapes, some quite absurdly unfit for use in battle. The shape used in the illustrations accompanying this article is that of the classic "heater," the most elegant and, for a mounted knight, the most realistic.
The crest
A crest is the object placed on top of the helmet and bound to it by what is known as a "wreath of the colours," a twist of cloth (part of the mantling) of the two principal colours of the arms. Sometimes, instead of the wreath, the crest will use a coronet or a chapeau (a velvet cap of maintenance lined with ermine). Crests were at first made of leather, later of light wood, and yet later of more valuable materials. They were at first borne in tournaments, and they became general in families in England from the 16th century when the venal heralds of that period persuaded crestless families to acquire the addition for a payment. Today a crest is automatically included in any grant of arms made in England, Scotland, or Ireland.
When horse-drawn carriages were in use, it was the rule to show the whole heraldic insignia on the coach or carriage door. With the advent of motorcars and their smaller door space, the arms were usually omitted and only the crest and motto shown. That development may be the reason for the mistake frequently encountered in which the whole armorial achievement is described as a "crest." While a coat of arms can exist without a crest, the existence of a crest without a coat of arms is almost an impossibility (the one exception known having been caused by the death of a grantee whose crest had been approved but who still had outstanding when he died a query on a small detail of his arms).
The helmet
On top of the shield is placed the helmet, upon which the crest is fastened by a wreath, coronet, or chapeau. Originally everything in heraldry was strictly utilitarian. As armorial bearings were used with armour, there had to be a helmet. In later centuries rules for the depiction of the helmet were elaborated to show the rank of the bearer; some helmets were displayed in profile and some in full face, with different metals and accoutrements, to indicate status. The shape of the helmet has varied greatly in heraldic representation. While the basic features of heraldry remain unchanged, the modes in which the insignia are shown have been subject to change and to fashion. The barrel-shaped helmet was used in the 13th century. The tournament helmet, especially popular during the period known as "the Decadence," was of a different type altogether, its shape resembling that of a soup tureen and often drawn at an absurdly small size and with ridiculous proportions, impossible to wear.
The mantling
From the helmet hangs the mantling, or lambrequin. When worn, that was made of linen or other cloth and performed the useful function of shielding the wearer from the sun's rays; it also served to snare or deflect sword cuts. The mantling, or mantle, is painted with the principal colour of the arms, while its lining is of the principal metal. More elaborately styled mantles are used for kings and sovereign princes.
The mantling was one of the components to suffer most from the exaggerated effects of the decadent art of the 17th to 19th centuries, the modest slashing of earlier times being so exaggerated as to make the mantling resemble seaweed. Modern artists have reverted to the elegant and realistic mantling of the classical period.
Crowns and coronets
These are usually emblems of the rank of the bearer. With the abolition of most of the great European monarchies, the study of crowns has become principally of historical and antiquarian interest. The most famous royal crown remaining in use is that of the United Kingdom; it appears in the sovereign's arms upon the royal helmet and on the crest of the golden lion crowned. Coronets (small crowns specifying the bearer's rank in the peerage) are emblems of rank that are shown, when depicted, between shield and helmet. In Britain there are different coronets specified for the ranks of baron, viscount, earl, marquess, and duke. On the European continent a much wider use of coronets has prevailed. Among the relics of such usage is the crest coronet, a coronet that supports the crest either instead of the wreath or in addition to it and resting upon it. That is often a ducal coronet, but it does not indicate rank. Another relic is the chapeau, or cap of maintenance, a cap with ermine lining that was once worn on the helmet before the development of mantling and that is sometimes used instead of the wreath to support the crest. In Scotland the chapeau indicates the rank of a feudal baron.
Myths have grown around mottoes—time and again, a phrase or short sentence that began life as an inspiration or exhortation acquired a fantastic explanation. Most of those can be dismissed. Some mottoes are old war cries. Others are puns on the owner's name or title, such as the Seton war cry of "Set on." French and Latin are the most popular languages, but Gaelic and Greek also appear.
A motto is not a part of the arms and can be varied in most countries at the owner's pleasure, though it is included in a modern grant of arms. In Scotland a change of motto requires the approval of the Lord Lyon, the head of the Scottish heralds. More than one motto may be used by the same family, and many mottoes are used by more than one family. In Scottish arms the motto is usually shown above the crest, but in all other countries it appears beneath the shield and always on a scroll.
These are the figures on either side of the shield of arms and are borne (in English heraldry) by peers and by other bearers of orders of the highest class, such as Knights of the Garter, of the Thistle, and of St. Patrick and by Knights Grand Cross. In former times supporters were used more widely, and a few English families still claim the right. In Scotland their use is much more frequent, being allowed, for example, to the heirs of feudal barons who were liable to be called to Parliament before 1592 and to the chiefs of clans and old families.
The compartment
The ground or foundation on which the supporters stand is called the compartment. In Scotland it is usually a rock or piece of ground and is often strewn with some heraldic object. In England the compartment ought to be shown in the same way, and today it often is, with the scroll of the motto beneath it; but in the debased heraldic art of the 18th and 19th centuries the supporters were generally shown as standing on a piece of ironwork or on the scroll.
The achievement
The term achievement, properly armorial achievement, means the whole display showing shield, helmet, crest, mantling, wreath, and, if appropriate, additaments such as a motto and supporters. In addition, an achievement may include representations of various knightly orders or companionships of knightly orders to which the owner of the arms is entitled. For example, Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, British field marshal and World War II military leader, could show the symbol of the Order of the Garter around his shield; persons with lesser distinctions such as the Distinguished Service Order, the Military Cross, and the Order of the British Empire may have the decorations shown pendent from their shields. As distinctions of that kind are not hereditary, on the death of the bearer the successor to the arms must not use representations that show those honours.
The badge
The badge is older than the heraldic system. Such a symbol identifying a person, a body, or an impersonal idea can be found from ancient times. The eagle of Rome was one of the state's symbols and was the special device of the legions. Many such symbols bring to mind the country they represent; e.g., winged bulls with human faces at once recall Assyria. On Trajan's Column in Rome, devices sometimes bear resemblance to later heraldic designs. On Etruscan vases are seen what reasonably could be described as demi-boars or bulls' heads caboshed (facing the viewer and cut off behind the ears). Nearer to heraldic times, the planta genista, or broom plant, which gave its name to the Plantagenet dynasty of England (1154–1485), was a badge of the counts of Anjou before that family had armorial bearings. With the growth of heraldry, badges naturally assumed an heraldic character. They could be varied at the will of the holder, who often had more than one. Badges persist to the present and sometimes accompany grants of arms.
Commonly seen examples of heraldic badges today are those identifying property or institutions of the British government and those worn by Scottish clansmen. The former are usually royal badges many centuries old and include the portcullis, now used by both houses of Parliament, the broad arrow stamped on items of government property, and the crowned harp of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Scotsmen take the crest from the achievement of their chief and encircle it with a strap and buckle, on which is blazoned the chief's motto or the clan war cry, to form a badge worn on the bonnet or plaid.
Banners and standards
Arms in the Middle Ages were often displayed on fork-tailed pennons attached to lances. If the forked ends were cut away, the resulting flag was similar in shape to a small banner. Especially valorous conduct could be recognized in that way, and the knight thus distinguished was known as a knight banneret. The banner bears its owner's arms as if it were a square shield, and today most jurisdictions allow anyone who possesses arms to have an heraldic flag in that form. Those can sometimes be seen in Great Britain flying over a house. No banner is mentioned in the grant of arms made to U.S. President Kennedy, but in due course an armorial banner was made for the occasion when his brother, Senator Robert Kennedy, carried it to the top of a mountain in Yukon named Mount Kennedy by the Canadian government in memory of the president. The banner bore the Kennedy arms. The maker of the banner added a long white streamer on which he placed a badge based on the Kennedy crest.
On the standard, the principal colours of the arms are shown with the owner's badge or badges, and in the hoist (the part next to the staff) is shown either the owner's national cross or the owner's arms.
Occasionally are seen square flags bearing a full achievement. Those are heraldic flags, but they are not banners or standards. The flag popularly known as the British Royal Standard is really the Royal Banner, and, if it is to be called a standard, then technically it is a square standard. The Royal Standard is a very long, narrow flag whose minimum length of eight yards is laid down by statute. Queen Elizabeth II does not have a royal standard.
In England flags are often seen flying above churches. When those show the flag of St. George (England's patron saint), white with a red cross, they may carry on a canton the arms of the diocese in which the church is situated. Heraldic flags also fly in some countries in Continental Europe in a similar manner. With the disestablishment of heraldic offices in most European countries, contemporary flags became for the most part nonheraldic.
The elements and grammar of heraldic design
Provided that a few elementary principles are grasped, enough knowledge of heraldry can be acquired in a relatively short time to enable the student to understand the structure of coats of arms. The multitude of terms used in heraldry need not be worrisome: once the rudiments are learned with some 50 of the terms, the meaning of the large remainder can be ascertained as the occasion arises. For example, when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned, some beautifully carved figures were made of the different badges that had been used by her ancestors, figures now displayed at Hampton Court Palace. They include one very rare badge—a yale. The yale is a mythical heraldic animal. Anyone unfamiliar with it could easily ascertain its meaning from the various heraldic glossaries. It is therefore unnecessary to burden the memory with hundreds of terms (an heraldic glossary generally contains about 800 terms).
The language of heraldry has a curious look. Azure three wheat sheaves or has been known to prompt the question, "Or what?" When it is remembered that or is the French for gold, the difficulty diminishes. Much heraldic terminology is a quasi-French, archaic language. In the Middle Ages the French language was used by the ruling class in much of western Europe, so it was not unnatural that heraldic terms should be French. In England by about 1400, English words usually were used in preference. Much modern heraldic terminology, however, is so obscure that it seems purposely designed to puzzle the uninitiated.
The terms dexter and sinister mean merely "right" and "left." A shield is understood to be as if held by a user whom the beholder is facing. Thus the side of the shield facing the beholder's left is the dexter, or right-hand side, and that opposite it is the sinister, or left-hand side.
The field
In a blazon (verbal description) of the arms, their field, or background layer, appears first. It may be one of the metals or (gold) or argent (silver), one of the colours gules (red), azure (blue), vert (green), purpure (purple), or sable (black), or one of the furs ermine (a white field with black spots), ermines (a black field with white spots), erminois (gold field with black spots), pean (black field with gold spots), or vair (alternating blue and white figures mimicking the fur of a species of squirrel). Two other colours appear occasionally in British heraldry, murrey (a tint between red and purple) and tenné (orange-tawny). Gold and silver may be represented by yellow and white.
That background layer may be composed of a mixture of metals, colours, and furs. It may be divided by a line—straight, curved, or jagged—and have perhaps silver on one side of the line and red on the other or blue on one side and ermine on the other. A field of one tincture bearing a single charge of, for example, a lion rampant could be blazoned argent a lion rampant azure, meaning a silver field on which is placed a blue lion standing on one hind leg with its forepaws raised and its head in profile. (Those were the arms used by the first of the Bruce family.)
A colour is very rarely placed upon a colour, a metal upon a metal, or a fur upon a fur. The arms of the kingdom of Jerusalem (argent a cross potent between four crosses or) are the most famous exception to the rule, and the very small number of other known exceptions date from very early times when the error occurred through ignorance rather than, as is sometimes claimed, because the placement was not then thought to be an error. The principle on which that rule is based is one of visibility, and that rule, which bans combinations that are difficult to see, was known before heraldry's rules came into force.
The charges on the field
The field is said to be "charged" with an object. Heraldic objects are of a large and increasing variety; as more arms are devised, new objects appear as charges—telescopes, aircraft, rolls of newsprint, and so on. Charges have been divided into two classes: the honourable ordinaries and other geometric shapes that belong to their subdivision the subordinaries, and what might be described as the other charges. It is best to recognize immediately that the distinction is not of much more than academic interest save in one respect—the ordinaries are the rectilinear figures that have precedence in blazon. So, for example, if a blue shield has a thick golden horizontal strip across its centre and two silver stars above the strip and one below it, the blazon would read azure a fess or between three mullets argent and not azure three mullets argent 2 and 1 a fess or. The fess is an honourable ordinary; the adjective alludes to the ordinary's precedence, the noun to its geometric simplicity. The division containing the other charges is relatively large, comprising animals, birds, and monsters, human bodies and human parts, reptiles, and an unending list of inanimate objects. Individual commentators seldom agree on the contents of the classifications. A bordure (border) is an ordinary in England, but in Scotland it is never a charge, being reserved for cadency (see below). Some count the roundel as a subordinary, while others consign it to the "others" category as a simple charge.
The honourable ordinaries and subordinaries may be generally agreed as numbering about 20. Among them are: the chief, being the top third of the shield; the pale, a third of the shield, drawn perpendicularly through the centre; the bend, a third of the shield, drawn from the dexter chief to sinister base (when drawn from the dexter base to sinister chief, it is a bend sinister); the fess, a third drawn horizontally and taking up the centre of the shield; and the chevron, resembling an inverted stripe in the rank badge of a noncommissioned officer. It should be noted that the bar is a diminutive of the fess, of the same shape, and can be placed in any part of the shield. The term bar sinister is often incorrectly used in fiction as a symbol for illegitimacy. It has no such significance, illegitimacy being denoted heraldically in several other ways, and a bar, being horizontal, cannot be either dexter or sinister. Since the European nations were Christian when heraldry was invented, the cross appears in many forms in heraldry. The cross in a coat of arms does not imply, however, that the original bearers were Crusaders (although it appears probable that some returning alive added small crosses to their arms to record their gratitude to the specific saints to whom they had prayed).
The border, or bordure, is in Scotland used as a mark of difference, and in English heraldry since the mid-18th century a bordure compony (alternating sections of two tinctures) has been used to signify illegitimacy. The orle is an inner border, not touching the sides of the shield; the field is seen within and around the orle, giving it the appearance of a shield with the middle cut out (voided, in heraldry). The tressure, much used in Scottish heraldry, is an orle gemel, which suggests twins, and it may indeed be described as an orle divided into two narrow orles set closely together. The small shield used as a charge is an inescutcheon and often is used to bear the arms of an heraldic heiress (a daughter of a family of no sons). The quarter occupies one-fourth of the shield; the canton, smaller than the quarter, is one-third of the chief. Checky, or chequy, describes the field or charge divided into squares of two tinctures, like a checkerboard. Billets are oblong figures. If their number exceeds 10 and they are irregularly placed, the field is described as billetté. The pall, or shakefork, is the upper half of a saltire (St. Andrew's cross) with the lower half of a pale, forming a Y-shape. The pile is a triangle pointing downward. The flaunch, or flanch, is a segment of a circle drawn from the top of the shield to the base. The lozenge is a parallelogram having equal sides and two acute and two obtuse angles, and a mascle is a lozenge voided. Lozengy is the field divided by diagonal lines intersecting to give the appearance of alternate small lozenges, and the fret is a mascle interlaced with a saltire. The roundel is circular in form and is given different names according to its colour (gold is a bezant, silver is a plate, red is a torteau, blue is a hurt, etc., and if of alternate silver and blue wavy lines it is a fountain).
Other charges
A field is said to be powdered or semé when strewn with minor charges; when charged with drops of liquid, it is gutté. Partition lines divide the shield. The most common ones are straight. Impalement means the division of the shield into two equal parts by a straight line from the top to bottom. That method is used to show either the arms of husband and wife, the arms of the husband being in the dexter half, or certain types of official arms, as the arms of a bishop's see impaled with his family arms, those of the see being in the dexter half. When dimidiated, the dexter half of the husband's arms are placed to dexter and the sinister half of the wife's arms are placed to sinister, the result sometimes producing such charges as the front of a lion joined to the rear of a boat (the arms of the Cinque Ports), while at others producing new arms that appear to be those of a single man. The practice of dimidiation was discontinued. The shield is divided into four quarters when one coat of arms is quartered with another, as when the children of an heraldic heiress use their mother's arms with their father's.
Other divisions of a shield are: party per pale (or, simply, per pale), division of the field into two equal parts by a perpendicular line (that resembles the impalement just mentioned but does not serve the same purpose of combining arms); party per fess, division into two equal parts by a horizontal line; party per bend; party per chevron; party per saltire; and gyronny of eight. When the partition lines are not straight, they can be of several varieties.
The nature and origins of heraldic terminology
Fanciful explanations have been advanced to account for heraldic colours and charges: for example, argent to denote purity, the bend derived from the military cross belt—the cross a sign of a Crusading ancestor—and so on. Since no one wrote about heraldry until it had existed for more than 200 years, those explanations of its symbolism can be discounted. With very few exceptions, the origin of the charges is unknown. One of those exceptions is the Stourton arms (sable a bend or between six fountains), which refer to the six springs in the park of the ancestral estate that are the source of the River Stour. An heraldic fountain does not resemble a real fountain but is put in the form of roundel wavy argent and azure (a silver and blue circlet of wavy lines), unless it is expressly stated that the fountain is proper—i.e., a natural fountain. The word proper is always used to denote a charge shown in its natural colours or natural form.
The derivation of heraldic charges is more easily discerned in the augmentations of honour, as they are called, when something has been added to a coat of arms by the (British) crown in recognition of services rendered. The arms of the British naval hero Admiral Horatio Nelson show new heraldic charges added to his ancestral arms as his victories were won. Within the past 300 years, augmentations have generally been recorded. An example is the augmentation granted by Queen Victoria to commemorate the discovery by the English explorer John Hanning Speke of the sources of the Nile. The honour, granted posthumously, consisted of the addition to the existing arms of a chief azure upon which appeared a representation of flowing water proper superinscribed with the word Nile in gold lettering. Numerous historical instances of augmentations of honour occurred in continental Europe, especially in connection with the Holy Roman emperors. Frederick II, for example, granted to Conrad Malaspina an augmentation of a chief of the empire, thereby adding an eagle displayed sable to the Malaspina arms of per fess gules and or overall a thorn branch vert with five flowers argent in pale.
Heraldic descriptions are called blazons. The term is derived from the French blason, the etymology of which is uncertain. Originally it denoted the shield of arms itself and still retains that meaning, but it is now generally used in a derivative sense as meaning the description of the arms. Blazon is thus a noun, and there is also the verb to blazon—i.e., to describe a coat of arms.
There are four generalizations that are useful in the deciphering of blazons. First, early coats of arms are simple because they were original and there were so few of them that elaborate differentiation was not required. As time brought many more coats of arms into being, simple coats became more rare, and the passing of warlike usage allowed arms to become much more complex. Second, punning, or canting, arms are very common as, for example, trumpets for Trumpington, or a spear for Shakespeare. It is notable, however, that many armorial allusions that were formerly obvious now require research for elucidation. Other allusions have been lost entirely. Third, in grants of arms to people bearing the same name but having no relationship with each other, difference marks were included. Again, in consequence, blazons have become much more complicated. Finally, in the course of centuries and frequent intermarriages among arms bearers, many quarterly and grandquarterly coats have appeared. Quarterly and grandquarterly coats are more difficult to describe than the simple coats.
Apart from the ordinaries and those other charges that here have been mentioned incidentally, there are some peculiarities of heraldic charges that need to be noted. Mythical birds and animals are much used, the product of ancient and medieval natural history—or the lack of it. Such are the dragon, griffin, wyvern, harpy, phoenix, and martlet. In addition, there are some creatures bearing the names of real animals but not resembling them in all respects. The heraldic tiger is more like a lion or a wolf in some features. When the real tiger became known to heraldry, it was described as a Bengal tiger. The heraldic description of animals is very important. Rampant means on the hind legs with the head in profile, while rampant guardant is the same posture but full-faced. Reguardant means looking back; passant, walking. Combattant signifies two animals fighting on hind legs. Couchant is lying down; dormant, sleeping; and sejant, sitting. A beast of the hunt is called at gaze when looking full-face, trippant when at trot with one foot raised, and statant when standing. Part of an animal may be a charge, e.g., a demilion or demiwolf or the gamb (foreleg) of a lion or bear. Heads are described as erased when cut off by a jagged line, couped when cut by a straight line, and caboshed when the severed head looks straight forward out of the shield and has no neck. A bird shown with wings expanded is said to be displayed. Creatures placed back-to-back are addorsed. A fabulous bird, the phoenix, is known to heraldry; also known is the legendary pelican that fed her young on her own blood and was then called "in her piety," being considered an emblem of Jesus Christ, who fed or redeemed his flock with his own blood. The martlet is another fabulous bird, widely known outside heraldry because of John Milton's reference to the herald's martlet, which has no legs or beak. It is a frequent charge, resembling a swallow, and is used in cadency to denote the fourth son. Other terms have special heraldic significance. Armed is used of the horns, teeth, or claws of a beast, or the beak or talons of a bird, and of the human being when in armour. The term slipped applies to flowers and fruit when the stalk is seen. Counterchanged refers to arms with a field of two tinctures, a metal and a colour, when one is the background for charges of the other tincture on one side of the shield but the relationship is reversed on the other side. An example is the Warner arms: per bend argent and gules two bendlets between six roses all counterchanged, where the three roses on argent will be gules and the three on the gules will be argent.
The reading of heraldry
A method has been devised to indicate heraldic colours in black-and-white illustrations. Known as the system of Sylvester Petra-Sancta, an Italian herald, it makes use of the following equivalents: argent is denoted by a plain field, or by dots or points, gules by perpendicular lines, azure by horizontal lines, vert by lines from dexter chief to sinister base, purpure by lines from sinister chief to dexter base, and sable by crossed lines horizontal and perpendicular. Furs are depicted with black or white spots on the appropriate ground; vair and countervair are shown by alternate lines and plain surfaces.
The describing, or blazoning, of arms must always begin with an identification of the field of the shield, such as argent or gules or ermine. For a lady who is not married, the arms normally appear on a lozenge, not a shield, but the field or ground in that instance, too, must be the start of the blazon. Then come the charges. A typical blazon is thus: sable a chevron ermine between three lions rampant argent crowned or (arms ascribed to a man of the name of Hinstoke). The field is black, the chevron is a fur, and the lions are silver, appear above and below the chevron, and have gold crowns. One important feature in heraldic writing is economy of words. Technically it should be possible to avoid punctuation marks, thus azure a fess between three stags trippant or (Hind). Here both fess and stags are in gold. When three beasts are depicted, they are shown in the most convenient way around the main charge—that is to say, two in the upper part of the shield and one below. A straightforward coat with only one charge on the field is that of the Italian Segni family of Agnani, which gave to the church the Popes Innocent III, Gregory IX, and Alexander IV: gules an eagle displayed chequy sable and or. Economy, however, may confuse the student, as in the following: azure a lion rampant double queued barry of ten argent and gules armed and langued of the last crowned or, within a bordure of the second and third (Mountbatten). Here is an example of a usage that grew up in past centuries and was designed to avoid repetition of the name of a tincture but may be difficult for the newcomer. Of the last means that the lion's claws and tongue are in red, or gules. Of the second and third means simply argent and gules, the second and third tinctures to be mentioned.
The helmet is the next item to be characterized, although in blazons it is usually taken for granted and left undescribed. When it is mentioned, it is said to be befitting his degree. Although the helmet need not appear in written descriptions, it always should be depicted in illustrations of a man's arms. It is bad heraldry when the helmet is absent and the crest is airborne above the shield, unsupported. In formal blazons the wreath (also called the torse) is given as well; thus, crest—on a wreath of the colours, a wolf passant proper (Trelawny). The wreath is not usually mentioned, however, because like the helmet it is always assumed to be there. The term colours refers to the two principal colours of the arms. As with the shield, the older the crest, the simpler it will be. Most people can envisage on a knight's helmet the figure of a wolf walking, but it is difficult to picture someone in armour wearing on his head the stern of a Spanish man-of-war on waves of the sea all proper thereon inscribed "San Josef" with the motto above, "Faith and Works" (Nelson). That latter example belongs to the period of decadent heraldry in the late 18th century and 19th century in England.
The mantling, or lambrequin, is mentioned in formal descriptions but not in general usage. The supporters and compartment pertain only to a few classes of arms bearers, and in descriptions the supporters are blazoned after the crest (or crests). The compartment is not usually described but sometimes has to be, as in the arms of the earl of Perth: supporters (two savages, which means two ancient Caledonians) stand on a compartment strewn with caltraps (from caltrops, iron instruments designed to maim horses' feet and used by the Scots with great effect in 1314 at the Battle of Bannockburn).
The motto comes at the end of the description. The badge is rarely found, except among very ancient families (and, by a strange inversion, in some 20th-century grants), but when it occurs it, too, comes at the end of the blazon. It can be very simple, as with that of Lord Mowbray, Segrave, and Stourton—a sledge or. It may be very elaborate, as with Constantine—a hurt (i.e., a blue roundel) charged with a leopard's face and surmounted upon the edge with two fleurs-de-lis in pale or, and as many roses in fess, argent, barbed and seeded proper. In that example the roses are silver but the leaves are proper (lifelike). Coronets of rank are not usually mentioned in English or Scottish heraldry, but caps of maintenance and crest coronets must be blazoned with the crest. Banners and standards are not as a rule mentioned in blazons, though they may be when they occur in a modern grant.
Manipulation of heraldic design
Cadency is the use of various devices designed to show a man's position in a family, with the aforementioned basic aim of reserving the entire arms to the head of the family and to differentiate the arms of the rest, who are the cadets, or younger members. Heraldic works in the 16th century refer to cadency marks as: a label for the eldest son during his father's lifetime; a crescent for the second son; a mullet (five-pointed star) for the third; a martlet (a mythical bird), the fourth; an annulet (a small ring), the fifth; a fleur-de-lis, the sixth; a rose, the seventh; and so forth. Those marks were not always used in the Middle Ages. Differences might be shown instead by a change of tincture, by adding small charges to the field, or other alterations. Both on the Continent and in England, rules of cadency have long ceased to be used. It is customary for all members of a family to use the entire arms of the head. There are, however, two exceptions. Very occasionally a crescent is used for difference by a noble family showing descent from a second son. The other exception occurs in the arms of the British royal family, in which the cadency system is strict. The reason is that the royal arms are arms of sovereignty and cannot be shared. The sovereign alone can have the whole undifferenced arms. Nor does any member of the royal family—not even the Prince of Wales—have any right to the use of arms until they have been granted to him by the sovereign. A label of difference with marks is placed on the arms; a three-pronged label for the children of the sovereign, a five-pronged label for grandchildren. The Duke of Windsor, after his abdication as Edward VIII in 1936, was granted arms with a label.
In Scotland the position on cadency is very different. Since heraldry is regulated in Scotland by acts of the Scottish Parliament before the Union in 1707 with England and is confirmed by the British Parliament, the regulation of arms is very precise. The strict observance of cadency is probably because the Celtic clans formed the original social system in Scotland before the advent of feudalism. Thus only the chief of the name can have the entire arms. He matriculates, or enters his arms, in the registers of the Lord Lyon King of Arms (whose court has jurisdiction over armorial bearings in Scotland). That registration also applies to his eldest son (subject to suitable differencing of the arms), who inherits them in due course. The younger sons must petition for a matriculation of the paternal arms with a suitable difference indicating the position of each in the family. As families from the descendants of the original grantee continue to be established, so there is matriculation and rematriculation, in a carefully prescribed manner.
Arms of ladies
Arms of ladies are shown during spinsterhood or widowhood on a lozenge or an oval (not on a shield), without a crest (except in Scotland, where a lady who is chief of a clan and head of the name, such as the late Dame Flora MacLeod of MacLeod, is allowed a crest). A lady divorced and not remarried also uses a lozenge or oval, and she reverts to her paternal arms. The current rules allow a married lady to display her arms (either her own arms, if she is a peer in her own right, or her paternal arms) on a shield in any of the following ways: (1) her arms in conjunction with her husband's by impalement, the division of the shield into two equal portions, the husband's arms on the dexter and his wife's on the sinister, (2) her husband's arms alone on a shield, with the addition of a small lozenge to indicate that they are his arms, or (3) her arms alone on a shield, with a small escutcheon to show that they are her arms. Should she be a heraldic heiress, the arms of her family are placed upon an inescutcheon of pretence (a small shield whose position at the fess point of the husband's shield gives it precedence over all other parts of the shield). The only exception to those rules for ladies is that of a queen regnant such as Elizabeth II, who, being sovereign and thus herself the source of honour for all her subjects, possesses the full arms of sovereignty of her royal house and kingdom.
Canada, Ireland, and South Africa all allow ladies to display arms on shields, whether they are married or not.
In the Middle Ages, arms for ladies were often shown on shields, and those such as Joan of Arc who bore arms in battle may have used crests.
Quarterings and marshaling
In the quarterings and the marshaling (arrangement of more than one coat of arms on the same shield), the position of heiresses must be considered first. The children of an heraldic heiress are entitled on her death to quarter her arms with their father's (the arrangement is to show the shield divided into four quarters so that quarters 1 and 4 are the father's arms, 2 and 3 the mother's). Such positioning of the quarterings is also used in England when an additional surname and arms are taken, almost always in obedience to a will. That is the "name and arms" clause peculiar to British law. Its operation over the past 200 years is responsible for the double- or triple-barreled surname found in England and also in Scotland. Thus in Salusbury-Trelawny, the original Trelawny arms appear in quarters 1 and 4 and the assumed additional arms for Salusbury in 2 and 3. A famous historical case is that of King Edward III of England, who in 1340 claimed the throne of France in right of his mother, daughter and eventual heiress of King Philip IV. He then quartered the lilies of France (the fleurs-de-lis) with the lions (leopards) of England. England might have been placed in 1 and 4, but Edward gave that position to France, recognizing its seniority as a kingdom. In that form, the royal arms continued until 1800, when the empty title of King of France was dropped and the lilies went out with it.
When quarters are inherited from a lady in England, no crest is transmitted with them, because a lady cannot pass on a crest. (The situation in Scotland is different.) The matter alters, however, when additional arms are taken in obedience to a will; then a double crest is likely. There is no reason why a further assumption may not occur, so that triple or quadruple hyphenated names are found: for example, the English county family Sawbridge-Erle-Drax has quarterly arms, 1 and 4 Drax, 2 Erle, and 3 Sawbridge. That type of quartering is not difficult to follow, but a real problem in marshaling several coats in one shield arises when more than one heraldic heiress occurs in the same family. Some families of long descent have often married heraldic heiresses in several generations, acquiring many quarters. A splendid instance of quartering occurred in the achievement of the Holy Roman empress Maria Theresa. Before her accession to the imperial throne she was Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and by marriage Grand Duchess of Tuscany. As a sovereign in her own right she bore a shield on which there were 29 quarters.
A case that may be unique in English heraldry is illustrated here. A coheiress of the Earl of Louth married the Earl of Howth as his first wife and gave him four daughters, of whom one survived to marry, becoming the first wife of the Earl of Annesley, and to give him one daughter. After parting from their wives (one through her death, one through divorce), the two Earls remarried, and their next wives provided them with heirs male. The daughters of those two Earls thus were heiresses of their maternal lines and could transmit their mothers' arms to their offspring but not their fathers' arms. The first of the three lozenges bears the arms of the Earl of Louth as his daughter and coheiress bore them as a maiden. As a wife she placed those arms on an escutcheon of pretence in the centre of her husband's shield. The second lozenge shows the arms of her daughter as she would bear them after her mother had died and while she was still a maiden. Her father's arms may be seen on a canton. After her marriage the contents of the lozenge were placed on an escutcheon of pretence on her husband's shield. The third lozenge shows the arms of the granddaughter after her mother's death and while a maiden. Her father's arms may be seen on a second canton.
Sometimes a hundred or more quarters are attributed to the head of a family, but such displays are artificial in that they claim only to show marriage connections over a period of several centuries, and arms in those many quarters are the arms of wives, not of heiresses. That type of display belongs principally to ex libris bookplates of the 19th century but may occasionally be seen engraved on silver.
Even without very large numbers of arms to place, the marshaling of quarterings may still be complicated. An interesting example is the marshaling of several coats of arms for the Cameron-Ramsay-Fairfax-Lucy family of baronets. The arms are said to be quarterly with the arms of Lucy in 1 and 4. Then in 2 the blazon begins grandquarter counterquartered. That means that quarter 2 is itself a quarterly coat, 1 and 4 of which are for Fairfax, 2 for Ramsay, and 3 itself yet another quarterly coat of which 1 and 4 are for Montgomery, 2 and 3 for Edmonstone (and with a crescent for difference at the fess point). The third grandquarter is for Cameron. In the centre of the shield the small inescutcheon bearing the red hand of Ulster indicates that the owner is a baronet.
Nonfamilial heraldry
In modern times in some countries the granting of arms to private persons has ceased, although grants of corporate arms are frequent. Historically it was an easy passage from the arms of individuals to those of corporate bodies. That is particularly evident in the military sphere, where the great Crusading orders led to the creation of important orders of chivalry in the principal European countries. The Elephant of Denmark, the Golden Fleece of Spain and of Austria, the Holy Spirit of France, the Garter of England, and the Thistle of Scotland were all preceded by the orders of military monks, and all have insignia that contain heraldic features and that feature in many armorial illustrations. Most of the older bishops' sees have official arms; in the Anglican church the missionary bishops as well as the diocesan bishops have arms. In the Roman Catholic church the episcopal sees all have arms; new arms are granted by the Pope, who, as head of the Vatican state, is a temporal sovereign as well as spiritual head of the church. The arms of the popes sometimes contain charges that are added to their personal arms after their election to the papacy or to earlier ecclesiastical office.
Dominion and colonial arms are necessarily linked to royal arms, since the British crown in each country is or was the fount of honour and must have granted arms to its various territories. Because of the vast extent of the British Empire, the richest collection of arms of dominion is to be found in the numerous members of the Commonwealth. Canada, for instance, has arms for the sovereign of Canada as authorized by George V in 1921, and the 12 provinces of Canada have similar arms approved by the sovereign. Much the same is true of the former French colonies, though there was no sovereign to grant the arms. The arms of political units are used throughout the Western world. The cities and boroughs of the United Kingdom, for example, have their heraldry, as do the U.S. states.


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Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (US)
Release: Z.1 Financial Accounts of the United States
The FRED series Total Credit Market Debt Owed by Domestic Financial Sectors - Government-Sponsored Enterprises is now known as Government-Sponsored Enterprises; Credit Market Instruments; Liability.
The source series id is FL404104005.Q.
The series previously appeared in Table L.1. For further information see the assistance provided in the guide to the Financial Accounts at http://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/fof/.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (US), Government-Sponsored Enterprises; Credit Market Instruments; Liability, Level [GSETCMDODFS], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GSETCMDODFS, May 22, 2019.

subset: commoncrawl


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Naysayers Wring Hands Over Comcast-TWC Merger
Feb 13, 2014 1:47 PM PT
After months of being courted by both Comcast and Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable has agreed to be purchased by Comcast for US$45.2 billion in stock.
The deal, if approved by the United States Department of Justice and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, will create the biggest broadband provider in the country, with 33 million customers.
The agreement is unusual in that there's no provision for a break-up fee.
Consumers will get a superior video experience, higher broadband speeds, and the fastest in-home WiFi, TWC said. The deal will create operating efficiencies and economies of scale and "generate multiple pro-consumer and pro-competitive benefits."
Those claims generally have been met with skepticism.
"The No. 1 cable company combining with the No. 2 -- I don't see how this will help consumers or smaller businesses or competition," Michael Copps, former FCC commissioner and special adviser to the Common Cause Media and Democracy Reform Initiative, told the E-Commerce Times.
"It raises questions of consumer choice, competition and program access -- and prices will rise," Copps continued. "It's also bad for programming, for news and information, and for journalism, and that's bad for our democracy."
The Terms of the Deal
Comcast will swap 2.875 of its shares for each of TWC's roughly 285 million outstanding shares. That will give TWC shareholders about 23 percent of Comcast's common stock.
The transaction will generate about $1.5 billion in operating efficiences, TWC said. The companies will merge their products and services, as well as their advertising platforms and channels.
Comcast will get TWC's 11 million managed subscribers and will divest about 3 million of them.
"It's a complex situation that doesn't really lend itself to being boiled down to some simple issues," Barry Randall, Covestor model manager at Crabtree Asset Management, told the E-Commerce Times.
"The cable-TV pricing model is probably going to blow to bits in the next couple of years as everything is delivered in an Internet model," Randall continued. "In this transaction, Comcast is simply appropriating a move from the football playbook: The best defense is a good offense."
You Gotta Have Faith?
"Companies seeking to justify mergers almost always claim that economies of scale will increase efficiency and provide better service," said T. Barton Carter, chairman of the mass communications, advertising & public relations department in the Boston University College of Communication.
"In reality, however, they often reduce competition and thus the incentive to provide better, more affordable service," he told the E-Commerce Times.
The merger "would increase Comcast's ability to squeeze out smaller companies," Carter pointed out. "It would also give Comcast greater leverage in the programming market where they are both buyer, as a cable company, and seller, through NBC Universal."
The deal will let Comcast "wield unprecedented gatekeeper power in several important markets," said John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney at Public Knowledge.
Regulators should review the effect on market power for content providers and consumers; the impact on innovation and market structure in the industry; and the effect on jobs, consumer costs and options; suggested the Communications Workers of America.
Individual consumer choice won't really be limited because "there will still be a cable operator, two satellite TV choices, and maybe a telco TV option if that's available, Greg Ireland, a research manager at IDC, told the E-Commerce Times.
"The difference is far fewer cable operators," he said.
"The deal still has to go through, which will take a long time," Dan Rayburn, a principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan, told the E-Commerce Times. "Until then, we're all just speculating."


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I made you my
wallpaper so
you can't break my heart
I made you my
wallpaper so
you can't break my heart
Conquering my world one glass of wine at a time
Multi-passionate, Investigative Creatress (aka artist)
survival is triumph enough ~harry crews
Sexuality, Spanking, Spirituality
My attempt to listen to every song I own
Transient Guests We Are
All Content Copyrighted. All Rights Reserved.
little bits of words swirling
Becoming the Artist I Want to Be - Fiction, Poetry, and Essays
Kicking and Screaming
Problems, Solutions, and Near Escapes
Obsessively Making and Breaking Form Poetry
Steve Shultz
Mysteries: Love, Sexuality, Spirituality and Life
giving myself a good talkin to


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CX cable routing debate
So Miguel and I are having a debate over this topic. I am fairly strongly opinionated and as he is designing his new CX frame, this topic is rearing its head again. I figured I's reach out to y'alls: the officianados.
Q: How do you, crossers, prefer your cables for the front dérailleur to be routed?
A: Across the top of the top tube! (or so is my heavy opinion).
Where this gets into all kinds of hairy debate revolves around the need for a pulley as most (if not all) road dérailleurs are bottom-pull-actuated. So to circumvent this (unless you are using an MTB dérailleurs if it can provide enough clearance for your cross needs to the rear tire) frame designers have long worked up a system that routes the cable over the top tube, down the seat stay (a la MTB's) and around this pulley which is affixed to the seat tube sending the cable back up to the front dérailleur. Just like you see on this Sycip below:You can see this on the Ridley image I posted to the right as well. I think Sven's Colnago is the same but I have no solid pictures.
The problem is, you guessed it, mud.
The routing debate relates to lots of things but primarily is is rider feel believe it or not in addition to humping the geometry by needing to lengthen the wheelbase too much for that precious extra clearance if you need a pulley and need it to clear mud. I've ridden Felt's, Scott's and Kelly's with cable routing which sent the front dérailleur (and rear in some cases! (see Kona pic below) down the down tube and when grabbing the down tube (which is the style I use versus top tube unless its REALLY muddy) to shoulder/port, it always felt shitty. Often, you get your gloves caught between the cable and the frame and it just doesn't feel right.
When I switched a couple-a years ago to a single 42 or 44 up front, this all changed and I am cable-less on all my down tubes (so it moots the debate), but I have been considering going back to double rings because of the non technical/roadie courses out here. So I am stuck in this debate....and trying to help out my bro.
Thoughts on this? Any builders out there? Any photos of Sven's set up? Sacha goes down tube, Jeremy and Jay go top/pully.
Anywhoo, opinions would be great and help Mike out.
References (1)
Response: Coupon code guyCyclocross Bikes, Photos, Videos and Culture | Mud and Cowbells - Mud and Cowbells Blog - CX cable routing debate


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How exciting!!! To say I am thrilled to be starting at 7 Dots Studio as a Design Team member is an understatement! I LOVE this manufacturer and I LOVE their papers so much! I have been using them a while and some of my favourite collections EVER are the older collections like the one I have used here called Domestic Goddess.
Please check out the 7 Dots Studio website HERE
and please check out the stockists for your country HERE
I am so excited to start my term at 7Dots Studio with one of my all time favourite collections Domestic Goddess. Of course this collection has nothing to do with my sweet little baby Sofia featured in the photo but I picked it especially because its rustic colours match the colours in the photo perfectly.
I started by adhering some squares from the 12x12 Tags on the background and overlapping them to create a layer and texture.
I have then used a Memory Box stencil on my background together with some embossing paste.
I paired some gorgeous gold and black mist to create contrast.
And added some stamping with the Prima Square Stitches stamp before adding some more texture with the Prima trim and Prima flowers.
I used some more 12x12 Tag pieces to mat my photo on .
7 Dots Studio Supplies List
7 Dots Studio Domestic Goddess - Women's Talk
7 Dots Studio Domestic Goddess Stickers 6 x 12
7 Dots Studio Domestic Goddess Stickers 12 x 12
7 Dots Studio Domestic Goddess Tags 12x12


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Image 1 of 1
Bronx eco arts project series 23.jpg
This series entitled Bronx eco arts project is a compilation of eco recycle workshops. I had the opportunity to teach and photograph these classes.
- Copyright
- copyright star Nigro
- Image Size
- 911x781 / 502.3KB
- Keywords
- Contained in galleries
- . recycle arts documentary on going


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Br. Ed Coughlin, O.F.M., Ph.D., is sharing his expertise with the world.
St. Bonaventure University's vice president for Franciscan mission has just released a five-disc series — available in video DVD and audio CD or MP3 formats — titled "Enkindling Love: The Spiritual Journey of St. Francis according to Bonaventure."
Through 12 scholarly lectures, Br. Ed gives particular attention to the image of St. Francis in "The Major Legend of St. Francis," written by St. Bonaventure. His lectures explore the powerful question posed by Bonaventure: Do we wish to admire or to imitate Francis?
Br. Ed previously served as director of the Franciscan Institute, located at St. Bonaventure University, and as secretary of Holy Name Province. He earned a Ph.D. from Catholic University in 1975, an M.A. from Boston College in 1981, and a B.A. from St. Bonaventure in 1970.
Br. Ed is an expert on both Francis and Bonaventure and lectures in the areas of human-spiritual formation, spiritual direction, organizational development and Franciscan spirituality.
The five-disc set, which includes an electronic study guide, is available at https://www.nowyouknowmedia.com (search for Coughlin).
About the University: The nation's first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University cultivates graduates who are confident and creative communicators, collaborative leaders and team members, and innovative problem solvers who are respectful of themselves, others, and the diverse world around them. We are establishing pathways to internships, graduate schools and careers in the context of our renowned liberal arts tradition. Our students are becoming extraordinary.
Application forms, procedures and additional information
There are many ways to experience
St. Bonaventure for yourself
Learn more about the programs that interest you


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Mission Overview
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'Headless' Chosen for Attempt to Move a Martian Rock
A rock informally named "Headless," on the north side of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, has been selected for an attempt to slide the rock aside with the lander's robotic arm.
Moving rocks is not among the many tasks the arm was designed to do, but if the maneuver can be accomplished, scientists on the Phoenix team hope to check whether the depth to a subsurface ice layer is any different underneath the area where the rock now sits.
Headless is about 19 centimeters (7 inches) long, 10 centimeters (4 inches) wide, extends 2 to 3 centimetes (about 1 inch) above the surface.
This image, originally posted on Aug. 27, 2008 without the label on Headless, is a mosaic of images taken by the Surface Stereo Imager on Phoenix, showing the workspace reachable with the robotic arm. The camera took the images during the early afternoon of the mission's 90th Martian day, corresponding to overnight Aug. 25 to Aug. 26.
The shadow of the the camera itself, atop its mast, is just left of the center of the image and roughly a third of a meter (one foot) wide.
The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.
Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University
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Two Kids Die After Being Ripped From Mom's Arms In Hurricane
The mom of two Staten Island boys begged neighbors for help after her boys were swept away by Hurricane Sandy — only to have the door slammed in her face. Read on for the tragic details.
After searching for Brandon Moore, 2, and his brother Corey Moore, 4, police found the bodies of the two boys just yards from where they went missing. Their mother Glenda Moore, 39, spent 12 hours screaming for help after they were ripped from her arms during the hurricane — and no one would help.
Just before 6 p.m. on Oct. 29, Glenda's car got stuck in the road right as the hurricane was hitting Staten Island. The floodwaters overpowered her vehicle, and even though Glenda tried to hold on to her boys, they got sucked away by the rushing water.
When they disappeared, the frantic mom kicked on a neighbor's door for help — but was turned away.
"I can't believe the way she was treated by the people she went to for help," Glenda's cousin Nancy Jean told NBC.
"The first person she knocked on, she begged them and said, 'please call 911. They told her: 'I don't know you,' and closed the door. She tried another door but they turned the lights off," she said. "I can't imagine what she was thinking then. She sat down for 12 hours and was just screaming. She was out of it. When it got to morning she went and found a police car and told him what happened."
After the storm cleared and police could search for the bodies, they found the brothers just 30 yards from where they went missing, buried under water and covered in trees in debris.
"Terrible, absolutely terrible," police commissioner Ray Kelly said. "It just compounds all the tragic aspects of this horrific event."
Such a tragedy. Our thoughts are with Glenda and her family during this difficult time.
What do YOU think of what happened to Glenda and her boys HollyMoms?
— Christina Stiehl
More Hurricane Sandy news:


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Savannah Metro police are searching for a shooter.
Around 12:30 a.m. Friday morning investigators found a man shot several times on 62nd Street and Meding Street. The man was taken to the hospital but there is no word on his condition at this time.
Police say shell casings were found in the street, but they don't know exactly where the victim was shot.
If you know anything about this shooting, please call police or CrimeStoppers at 234.2020.


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The Avatar wrote:Wait, what would the charges do on the CO item?
No clue, but it could be anything... Some percent of erosion (you learned to curse them back)? Damage resistance 1% every X stacks removed? Whatever works!
And the cauldron positively HAS to work this way, as the way it currently works has too many problems - everything but the weakening and the corrosion falls off too easily. The only problem is how to deal with the potential halpmeh exploit? Because if it wasn't for HALPMEH in heavy plant levels, you would get stacks from:
Drinking health and mana potions, dringking burn salve and fortitude potions, GG's curse removal, Chaos Avatar and thats basicaly it. And that is probably manageable.
------------------On topic:
I had a flaming CO and a PQI in Slime Pits. Then I did the flaming CO, so I got a PQI somewhere where I had the class and badge and a flaming HARD Gaan'Telet. Then I did the Gaan'Telet and guess what - now I have a flaming Slime Pits and a PQI CO. Big whoop!


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Furi is at 1,867 m – easily reached by lift or on foot. In the hamlet far above Zermatt, a wide variety of mountain adventures are scheduled: grilling at the Dossen glacier garden. Or checking out the dizzying heights from the suspended bridge. The view 90 m down into the abyss is fascinating. Or a side trip into Gorner gorge – an experience that will ring in the ears for some time to come. A glance into the Ricola herb garden near Blatten reveals which ingredients are used to make these famous bonbons.
Furi Adventure World
The mountain world around the hamlet of Furi offers families variety, games, fun and excitement. Here one can immerse oneself deep into the mountain world – far away from the daily routines. The ideal place for a day excursion.


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NEW YORK (AP) ? A gunman used homophobic slurs before firing a fatal shot point-blank into a man's face on a Manhattan street alive with a weekend midnight crowd, a killing New York's police commissioner called an "anti-gay" hate crime.
NEW YORK (AP) ? A gunman used homophobic slurs before firing a fatal shot point-blank into a man's face on a Manhattan street alive with a weekend midnight crowd, a killing New York's police commissioner called an "anti-gay" hate crime.
Before opening fire early Saturday, the gunman confronted the victim and his companion in Greenwich Village and asked if they "want to die here," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
The shooting follows a series of recent bias attacks on gay men in New York, but this was the first deadly one.
About 15 minutes before the bloodshed, the gunman was seen urinating outside an upscale restaurant a few blocks from the Stonewall Inn, a birthplace of the gay rights movement, according to Kelly. He then went inside the restaurant and asked if someone was going to call the police about him.
Police said the gunman, identified later as 33-year-old Elliot Morales, told both the bartender and the manager, "if you do call the police, I'll shoot you" and opened his sweatshirt to reveal a shoulder holster with a revolver and made anti-gay remarks, Kelly said.
Morales has a previous arrest for attempted murder in 1998, police said. Details of that arrest weren't immediately clear.
Out on the street minutes later, the gunman and two others approached the 32-year-old victim, identified by police as Harlem resident Marc Carson, and a companion on Sixth Avenue. One of the three men yelled out, "What are you, gay wrestlers?" according to Kelly.
The two men stopped, turned and, according to Kelly, said to the group taunting them, "What did you say?" ? then kept walking.
"There were no words that would aggravate the situation spoken by the victims here," the commissioner said. "This fully looks to be a hate crime, a bias crime."
Two of the men kept following the victim and his companion, Kelly said, adding that witnesses saw the pair approach from behind while repeating anti-gay slurs.
The gunman asked the men if they were together and when he got an affirmative answer, Kelly said, "we believe that the perpetrator says to the victim, 'Do you want to die here?'"
That's when suspect produced the revolver and fired one shot into Carson's cheek, Kelly said.
The gunman fled to 3rd Street, where an officer who had heard a description on his radio spotted him and ordered him to stop, Kelly said. The suspected gunman threw his revolver to the ground and was arrested on the edge of the New York University campus.
Police found the mortally wounded victim on the pavement. He was pronounced dead at Beth Israel Hospital.
Authorities said they could not immediately identify Morales because he was carrying forged identification. But investigators learned his name after the forged ID was submitted to the department's Facial Recognition Unit.
Of the other recent New York bias attacks on gay men, one was reported last week on nearby Christopher Street, where a 35-year-old man told police he was beaten up and heard anti-gay words after leaving a bar.
On May 10, two men trying to enter a billiards hall on West 32nd Street were approached and beaten by a group shouting homophobic slurs, police said.
And on May 5, a man and his partner were beaten near Madison Square Garden after a group of men wearing Knicks shirts hurled anti-gay slurs at them.
The commissioner said Saturday that police were looking into possible links between the incidents.
Multiple lawmakers have condemned the violence.
"I am horrified to learn that last night, a gay man was murdered in my district after being chased out of a Greenwich Village restaurant and assailed by homophobic slurs," New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said. "I stand with all New Yorkers in condemning this attack."
The Democratic mayoral candidate said there was a time in New York when hate crimes were common ? when two people of the same gender could not walk down the street arm in arm without fear of violence and harassment.
But "we refuse to go back to that time," she said. "This kind of shocking and senseless violence, so deeply rooted in hate, has no place in a city whose greatest strength will always be its diversity."
New York State Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Democrat whose district includes Manhattan's West Side, called on New Yorkers "to unite against hate and gun violence."
And State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick declared that "New York is not open for bigotry."
The New York City Anti-Violence Project plans to gather on Friday night for what it calls a "Community Safety Night."


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It's all systems go for the season of giving, and if you're bailing on the shopping festivities this weekend, we don't blame you. You've still got plenty of time to find the perfect gift for everyone on your holiday list. Here at R29, we all about gifting (and receiving) totally unique gifts that'll make the recipient gasp — in a good way! So, we've rounded up our go-to L.A. gift-gifting meccas that are sure to have something to please even the pickiest person on your list. Plus, this way, you can skip setting foot in any mall altogether!). Hell, even Scrooge wouldn't say no to some of these options.
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