jane dark's sugarhigh!

"France imposing curfews under emergency law as rioting spreads to nearly 300 cities and towns"

Here we must recall the etymology of curfew: Middle English curfeu, from Old French cuevrefeu : covrir, to cover + feu, fire.

And while we're delving, the headline that gives this entry its title deserves another annotation: "The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the 'state of emergency' in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a conception of history that is in keeping with this insight." — Walter Benjamin