October 10, 2004
The Secret Lives of Words
ANTIMACASSAR
This cloth covered the backs of chairs from the nineteenth century on to protect them from greasy hair, unwashed or pomaded or both. The oil was Macassar, a proprietary brand made by Rowland and Son, supposedly from ingredients found in Makassar, part of the island Sulawesi, once Celebes, in Indonesia. Some folk still have antimacassars in their possession, but the need seems not to have survived World War One, not that men began using less oily hair creams, although there was a distinct shift in men's pomade from the brilliantines of yesteryear to less perfumed lotions such as Brylcreem, easily squeezed from a tube and stably perched on the palm. Brylcreem left the hair feeling tight and rigid, with no need of antimacassar behind the recliner's head. Another name for Makassar was Mangkasra, hardly commerically concise.
From the Secret Lives of Words, a hit-or-miss endeavour by Paul West.
I recollect that in Flight 714, the millionaire Laszlo Carreidas is kidnapped while flying his new aeroplane over Sulawesi; the last radio contact is with Macassar tower.
