Difference between revisions of "Pages 198-219"

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198 · ETA Weight Room

Page 198

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Kornspan
German: corn chip

isometrics
While this is just another name for isometric exercise, it's not clear how Pemulis would be making his face stronger.

Page 199

Bacon's Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X

like one of Bacon's popes
Francis Bacon (1909-1992) was an Irish artist. His portrait of Pope Innocent X can be seen to the right.

Page 200

rosin
another spelling of "resin," this resin being used to provide a better grip in weightlifting

mesomorphic
having a muscular, study body

200 · Facts About Addiction and Tattoos

Page 200

D.S.S.
Department of Social Services

papular
having papules, i.e., inflamed, raised elevations on the skin not filled with pus

tecato gusano
a worm from Tecate, Mexico, a small city in Baja California, bordering the U.S.

Page 201

Flents
a brand name of earplugs

subsonic
of a speed less than that of sound

arpeggio
in music, a chord played in parts (i.e., one note at a time) rather than together

pace
a very loose translation from Latin would be "with due reference to"

Page 202

Human Immuno-Virus
HIV, i.e., the virus that causes AIDS

datum
a piece of information; usually used in its plural, i.e., data

nexus
a means of connection

glans
the end of the penis

D.E.C.
Digital Equipment Corporation, now a part of Hewlitt-Packard

Endnote 70

N.R.A.
National Rifle Association

including 12-Step fellowships themselves
See Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club.

Page 202 (cont'd)

'Texas Catheter'
This is "a condom-like device with a plug where the condom's reservoir tip would be, and an adhesive at the base. This device allows for urinary catheterization without the insertion of a true catheter" (Wikipedia).

Page 203

colloquia
Plural for "colloquium," these are akin to academic conferences, albeit slightly less formal.

50 proof
i.e., 25 percent alcohol

unalloyed
pure

O.C.D.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

insipid
without any interesting qualities

Page 204

Billerica
a town in Massachusetts, about 25 miles northwest of Boston

vig
short for "vigorish"

argot
slang

Page 205

pancreatitis
inflammation of the pancreas

Page 206

Sauvignon
one of two types of wine made from two related sorts of grapes

Purple-Hearted
A soldier receives a Purple Heart when s/he is wounded

Page 207

200 kilos
over 440 pounds

Gothic script
Click here to see examples.

undulating
moving in a wavelike motion

necrotic
dead

Page 208

hyperemic
erect

palmate
having four or more leaves emanating from a single point

Watertown
a suburb of Boston, ten miles to the west

half-m.-long
a half-meter, or nearly 20 inches

gonfalonish
resembling a gonfalon

mucronate
having a projecting point

St. Vitus's dance
a nickname for the disease chorea

HOW DO YOU LIK YOUR BLUEYED BOY NOW MR DETH!?
Misspelling and slight misquotation of the last line of the poem "Buffalo Bill's/defunct," by e.e. cummings: "how do you like your blueeyed boy/Mister Death". The full poem appears here: [1]

gestalt
Gestalt is "a configuration, pattern, or organized field having specific properties that cannot be derived from the summation of its component parts" (Random House Unabridged Dictionary).

Page 209

crocodilic
presumably resembling a crocodile, probably due to wrinkled skin

St. Columbkill
a place name here, named for an actual Irish saint

St. Elizabeth's Hospital
Its Web site is here.

cantankerous
disagreeable, argumentative

Rita Hayworth
The era of Rita Hayworth would be the '30s and '40s.

SUBIKBAY'62USN4-07
SUBIKBAY is probably Subic Bay. USN would be U.S. Navy.

SEMPER FI
Short for Semper fidelis ("always faithful"), motto of the U.S. Marine Corps

autolyzed
having undergone autolysis, i.e., the breakdown of tissue over time

BLTN
Better Late That Never

Page 210

phylum
A taxonomical term just below Kingdom (in humans, Animal), the phylum of mammals is Chordata, which means they have a spinal cord.

foment
the proper word would be "ferment"

M.D.C.
Massachusetts Department of Corrections

Talwin
brand name of pentazocine, a narcotic painkiller

Page 211

cribbage
a card game

canted
set at an oblique angle

211 · The Incredibly Potent DMZ

Page 211

film-noir
According to Wikipedia, film noir (French for "dark film") is "a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s."

psychosensual
Where as psychosensual would have a more sexual connotation...

psychosensory
...psychosensory would be the more correct word, as it would apply to sensory stimulation, not necessarily sexual.

Page 212

CIA-era military experiments
probably a reference to MKULTRA

hydrangea
several species of flowering plants

gistless
having no essential heart of the matter

Decoct
as opposed to "concoct"

spectrometer
an optical instrument used to conduct spectroscopic analysis on matter to determine its constituent elements

Ram Das
This is probably a reference to Baba Ram Dass (born 1931 as Richard Alpert), an American-Jewish spiritual leader, author of Be Here Now, and large influence on Pete Townshend.

Page 213

frustum
A frustrum is "the part of a conical solid left after cutting off a top portion with a plane parallel to the base" (Random House Unabridged Dictionary).

Lamb's Breath cannabis
a type of potent marijuana

20-g.
a 20-gram amount (about .7 ounces)

Sierpinski gasket
Wacław Franciszek Sierpiński (1882-1969) was a Polish mathematician and one of the innovators of set theory. The Sierpinski gasket is a fractal, also called the Sierpinski triangle.

mullioned
having separate panes, when used for a window

philatelic forceps, a loupe
Philatelic refers to stamp collecting. A loupe is used primarily by a jeweler to view flaws in diamonds.

Bunsen burner
a laboratory burner invented in part by Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (1811-1899), a German chemist.

titration
the process of determining the strength of a compound

WATS
Wide Area Telecommunications Service: "bulk-rate telephone service that enables a subscriber to make an unlimited number of long-distance telephone calls within a given service area for a fixed monthly charge or to receive calls from given areas with no charge to the caller" (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)

cross-key
to type in at the same time as search terms on a computer

Page 214

monograph
a scholarly study on a particular subject, usually published as a book

Leavenworth
the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Leavenworth, Kan.

Ethel Merman
an American actress, also known for Broadway roles

AWOL
Absent Without Leave, a military term

Page 215

Motrinish
I.e., like Motrin, the original brand name of ibuprofen

fools-rush-in
A reference to An Essay on Man, a length poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744), a British poet of great renown: No Place so Sacred from such Fops is barr'd, Nor is Paul's Church more safe than Paul's Church-yard: Nay, fly to Altars; there they'll talk you dead; For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.

Zen
referring to Buddhism ultimately, although here is applies more to perfection or transcendence

Nuck
a pejorative term for a French-Canadian, presumably shortened from "Canuck"

dumbshow
Here it means sign language or mime, but the term has a longer history in theater, where it refers to a preview of a part of a play done without lines.

Page 216

Tenuate Dospan
Tenuate is a brand name of diethylcathinone, an appetite suppressant and mild amphetamine; Dospan is used for the time-release pills.

otiose
superfluous or useless

"... the way W. Penn in his Quaker Oats hat in like the 16th century must have felt trading a few trinkets to babe-in-the-woods Natives for New Jersey..."
William Penn (1644-1718) was the British-born founder of the colony (and later state) of Pennsylvania. For the hat, see right. Penn obviously lived later than the 16th century and he had no involvement in the founding of New Jersey, which Pemulis seems to be conflating with the purchase of Manhattan by the Dutch for about $24 worth of jewelry.

opportunity-cost
In economics, this is what one loses in income, pleasure, etc., from engaging in another activity rather than the one that would have paid said income, pleasure, etc. Wallace (or Pemulis) is using the term incorrectly.

rotator cuff
the group of muscles and tendons that stabilize the shoulder

stolid
unemotional or impassive

contre-pied
Literally French for "against-foot," this term is used to apply to a direction taken by dogs in pursuit of an animal they are no longer chasing.

purgatorial
referring neither to heaven nor hell

128-256 Alphabetville
Because of his injury, Schacht was ranked in the lower 128 seeds in the tournament just after his hurt his knee. Alphabetville could refer to a ranking convention. A common 'Equal Point Score' guideline for when two or several players have the same Ranking point score decides the position according to the player with most tournament participation within four years, and if these conditions should apply with both or several players then the Ranking position is arranged alphabetically after the surname.

11/5
November 5th, Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

arachnodactylic
having fingers like spiders

Page 217

Order but not the same Family
Like "phylum," these are also taxonomical terms. Human beings are Homo sapiens, with Homo being the genus and sapiens being the species. Dogs and cats are in the same order: Carnivora (meat-eaters); but they are in difference families: Dogs are in Canidae and cats in Felidae. However, the hyena, which resembles a dog, is actually in the Felidae family. Q.e.d.

Acton
town in Massachusetts about 25 miles west-northwest of Boston

the Xerox Inc. of North American tennis academies
This demonstrates that Port Washington Academy is big, but Xerox is far from the biggest corporation in the U.S.

Port Washington
It's made clear here that this is the town on Long Island. This is the "East Egg" of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, in Nassau County on the north shore of Long Island, very close to New York City.

vivisected
cut apart while still alive

Page 218

twins Siamese
The Vaught twin-sister tennis players are actually conjoined at the head.

Akron
a city in Ohio and rubber capital of the world

Charleston
the dance, not the city

bell-lap
a term from track, this is the final lap of a race

12/12's Boards
probably SATs or something like them

meninges
the tissues that encase the brain

glade
a clearing in a forest

Endnote 76

Attention Deficit Disorder
old terminology for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD. Hal's objective symptoms describe the Inattentive Type.

port or starboard
left or right

bell curve
the curve formed by the normal distribution of IQs -- a concept fraught with problems of political correctness, racism or racialism, and different concepts of what "intelligence" is

glabrous
having a surface devoid of hair

RAM
Random Access Memory

Page 218 (cont'd)

halcyon
prosperous, happy

Year of the Perdue Wonderchicken

Page 219

Endnote 77

Y.P.W.

H. Bosch's triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights
Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) was a Dutch painter. You can view the aforementioned triptych here.