Clogs

Office anthropology™ →Go uptown Some clogs, yesterday. The JC puts on his pith-helmet, grabs his butterfly net and a rucksack full of marmalade sandwiches, and heads into the concrete jungleIndex: Click ᐅ to expand: Work anthropology Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

Clogs
/klɒgz/ (n.)

Stout wooden shoes originating in the low countries. Unfashionable in the courts of chancery, where one has always tried, where possible, to avoid clogs on the equity of redemption. Clogs — in French, les sabots — were more fashionable amongst 19th century Parisienne hand-weavers, but not for wearing so much as for throwing angrily into the gears of those new-fangled automatic looms invented by Joseph Jacquard with the goal of buggering them up, in a rather Cnut-like effort to save their livelihoods. Mischievous French clog-throwing became widespread for a time and was known as “sabotage”. Long-term, it didn’t do les saboteurs much good. You can’t fight progress.

See also

• Jacquard loom
• Equity of redemption