. . . and nine more words
Rape culture It isn’t a new term. But 2014 was the year when the general public seemed to grasp its meaning and its scope: that violence against women so rarely manifests itself as the stranger-in-the-night attacks of TV crime dramas. It’s more like a thick, silencing fog that envelops all women — yes, all of them — under the cover of which intimate-partner rapists, workplace harassers and everyday misogynists operate with impunity. It feels wrong to say there was an “upside” to the crimes (actual and alleged) of Elliot Rodger, Ray Rice, Jian Ghomeshi, Bill Cosby and innumerable campus rapists. But this year, popular thinking about sexual violence seemed to move from the realm of magical thinking into the cold, clear light of day.
Kate Allen
Mare Nostrum The term entered the international lexicon in a big way in 2014. The Italian words mean “our sea” and refer to Italy’s search and rescue efforts to save the lives of migrants fleeing North Africa via the Mediterranean. The program was triggered following a horrific disaster near the small Italian island of Lampedusa. There, in October 2013, a smuggler’s boat jammed with women, men and children caught fire and capsized. Some 366 people died within sight of land. The tragedy prompted an effective but expensive humanitarian effort that rescued more than 150,000 people.
Scott Simmie
Conscious uncoupling A previous generation might have simply called this divorcing or splitting up. When actress Gwyneth Paltrow and husband Chris Martin, lead singer of the band Coldplay, separated after 10 years of marriage, they announced it on Paltrow’s lifestyle website, Goop.com, in a post entitled: “Conscious Uncoupling.” And apparently it’s not just a pretentious way of stating the obvious. It’s a real thing describing how partners in a failing relationship look inside themselves and each other and, without blame, try to find a deeper truths and understanding as to why they’ve come to detest each other. The upside is that when the couple works through their differences without creating more animosity, it makes a co-parenting situation easier post-split. At least until the lawyers get involved.
Paul Hunter
Ice-bucket challenge It was cute, goofy fun — people getting buckets of ice water dumped on their heads in the name of charity — and it became hugely popular on social media, raising awareness and millions for the ALS Association. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neuromuscular illness without a cure. In the ice-bucket challenge, people poured an icy bath on themselves and dared others to do the same. A recipient of the challenge had 24 hours to either undertake the big chill or make a donation. It became so popular during the summer that many did both. The fundraiser, contributed to by more than 260,000 Canadians, raised $16.2 million for ALS Canada, with $10 million going to research and $6 million to programs for those with ALS. Ottawa said it would match the research funds dollar for dollar.
Paul Hunter
Bitcoin It’s been called the worst investment of 2014. Introduced in 2009, the virtual currency bitcoin, allowing electronic cash transactions over the Internet without a traditional bank as an intermediary, was a breakthrough. By April 2013, the collective value of all bitcoins in circulation topped $1 billion, and the currency attracted believers including Microsoft, which said it would accept bitcoins as payment for digital content. Bitcoins can also be found on the black market, with reports of illegal transactions, hacking and theft dating to its earliest days. Faith in the bitcoin was severely tested at the start of 2014 when an apparent theft at Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, then the largest bitcoin exchange, led to a run on the currency. That helped push the average bitcoin value below $500 (U.S.) after a surge to more than $1,200, and the currency still trades below a $400 average on the world’s currency exchanges, according to the website Bitcoin Value.
Michael Lewis
Normcore It had to happen. Dressing normal, or at least relatively bland and mainstream — think Tina Fey as Liz Lemon in 30 Rock — suddenly became “in” in 2014, perhaps as a backlash to pressure from the fashion industry. Or was it more than that? As the New York Times put it: “As envisioned by its creators, ‘normcore’ was not a fashion trend but a broader sociological attitude. The basic idea is that young alternative types had devoted so much energy to trying to define themselves as individuals, through ever-quirkier style flourishes like handlebar mustaches or esoteric pursuits like artisanal pickling, that they had lost the joy of belonging that comes with being part of the group. Normcore was about dropping the pretence and learning to throw themselves into, without detachment, whatever subcultures or activities they stumbled into, even if they were mainstream.” Chew on that next time you’re eating Timbits and sipping a doubledouble at the mall.
Paul Hunter
Polar vortex It sounded like a phrase made up by a bored meteorologist until you stepped outside and your hair froze. It was last winter’s buzz phrase to explain the bitter cold that gripped Toronto and other parts of North America. It felt like an Arctic blast, because that’s exactly what it was. The polar vortex is a pocket of very cold air that circulates around the North Pole in a counter-clockwise direction. Those winds tend to keep that cold air mass in the Arctic, but when that air gets displaced, it can push south and cause a deep freeze. Weather experts have long known about the polar vortex, but it became a commonly used and, they say, often misused term in 2014. Not every cold snap is a polar vortex. Sometimes it’s just damn cold.
Paul Hunter
Little green men They seized Crimea’s parliament in February, small units of brilliantly equipped crack troops with no national insignia whatsoever. Within weeks, the storied peninsula was severed outright, no longer part of Ukraine but annexed to the empire-reviving ambitions of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Out of the blue is what they were, but “little green men” is the name that stuck. And just kept sticking, as more mystery soldiers popped up in east Ukraine, Moldova and who-knows-wherenext? Putin had a good giggle about it all, noting anyone can go to their friendly neighbourhood military outfitters and buy “Russian-looking” uniforms. Of course, that was before the ruble lost half its value. Such ambitions will be far costlier in 2015.
Mitch Potter
Fenwick This was the year hockey revelled in its geeky side and terms such as Fenwick, Corsi and QualComp went mainstream. These “fancy stats” — essentially, objective attempts to analyze such things as puck possession and quality offensive zone time — are part of the hockey analytics revolution, loved by some, loathed by others. Those polar opposites often treated each other with contempt. Even the Leafs, never viewed as early adopters over the decades, jumped in with both skates. They hired a team of statistics gurus including Darryl Metcalf, the founder of a hockey analytics website, and installed
Kyle Dubas, a noted advocate of advanced stats, as their assistant GM.
Paul Hunter