Pages 785-808

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785 · A First-Time Visitor to Ennet House

Page 785

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Page 786

depose
ask questions of someone while under oath

A.T.E.
Hal is wearing his jacket inside out.

Page 787

787 (1) · Endnote 324

Page 787

Endnote 324

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Page 1066

moon
to spend time idly

camphonated
more like "camphorated," i.e., contained camphor

Endnote 324a

loamy
consisting of rich, arable soil

Y.T.M.P.

Page 1066 (cont'd)

whorl
a circular arrangement

funiculi
plural of "funiculus," i.e., part of the spinal cord

Page 1067

uncolloped
having no fat

latissimal
referring to the lattissimus dorsi muscles

Nordicular
i.e., Nordic, which is to say blond-haired and blue-eyed

armamentarium
an arsenal, particularly used by physicians to refer to drugs or treatments

callow
immature; inexperienced

dinkle
a euphemism for "penis"

Page 1068

three-setter
a tennis game ending in three sets, rather than five, because one player has gone up 3 to 0

cavalier
disdainful; unceremonious

burr
here used to mean "irritant"

Page 1069

canvas restraint-wrap
straitjacket

catgut
This is "a strong cord made by twisting the dried intestines of animals, as sheep, used in stringing musical instruments and tennis rackets, for surgical sutures, etc." (Random House Unabridged Dictionary).

"...his late great Da's..."
Clearly Pemulis has no idea that his brother was molested by their father.

rheumy
full of thin mucous

Page 1070

Bedouins
certain Arabs of the deserts of Arabia and the Levant

buggered
being on the receiving end of anal sex

b/w
Black and white

J. Gleason
Jackie Gleason (1916-1987) was one of the great comic actors of the 20th century.

Zoltan
actually a Hungarian name, which means "ruler"

cretinous
stupid

Page 1071

Endnote 324f

Orly
one of the airports serving Paris

Page 1071 (cont'd)

redoubted
formidable

"...When the boulder's slipped all the way back to the bottom..."
a reference to the myth of Sisyphus

Modus Tollens
a Latin logical term, meaning, roughly, "the means of denying"

Nucleic acids
DNA and RNA

A and G, T and C
adenine and guanine, thymine and cytosine, the compounds that make up DNA

Csíkszentmihályi
The name may be taken from Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (born 1934), a prominent Hungarian-American psychologist. His son Christopher is on the faculty at MIT.

lemma
a proven statement used as a step in a mathematical proof

Boardman MN
a town about 40 miles west-northwest of the Twin Cities

Page 1072

"...Peano, Leibniz, Hilbert..."
Giuseppe Peano (1858-1932) was an Italian mathematician. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a German polymath and one of the creators of calculus. David Hilbert (1862-1943) was a German mathematician.

"...Fourier, Gauss, LaPlace, Rickey..."
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768-1830) was a French mathematician and physicist. Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) was a German mathematician. Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (1749-1827) was a French mathematician and astronomer. Rickey would seem to refer to V. Frederick Rickey, though he is contemporary while the other named men are not.

"...Wiener, Reimann, Frege, Green..."
Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) was an American mathematician. Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866) was a German mathematician. Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) was a German mathematician and logician. Green is probably George Green (1793-1841), English mathematician and physicist.

787 (2) · The Molly Notkin Interview

Page 787

post-Marxist
an adherent school of thought that encompasses the arts as well as politics

Page 788

co-op
a co-operative, i.e., an apartment building that is jointly owned by the tenants

V or VI
The filmography of Incandenza presented in an earlier (lengthy) endnote would seem to indicate that there were only five versions of the film, although the fifth version was apparently reviewed, which would mean that the "entertainment" so desperately sought is actually a sixth version.

instantiation
a representation of an idea, here visual

anamorphosized
changed from one form to another as a step in evolution

Endnote 329

heuristic
serving to indicate or point out

Page 788 (cont'd)

Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad

Rube-Goldbergesque
Reuben Garret Lucius "Rube" Goldberg (1883-1970) was a Jewish-American cartoonist, famous for drawing incredibly complicated devices used to perform simple tasks.

Page 789

parturient
about to give birth

synecdoche
This complicated figure of speech is explained here.

venery
the gratification of sexual desire

keel
This word denotes "the principal structural member of a ship, running lengthwise along the center line from bow to stern, to which the frames are attached" (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language). Here it is used in the sense of "on an even keel," i.e., sane.

Page 790

interrment
a misspelling of interment, i.e., burial

thanatoptic
regarding a vision of death

Year of the Trial-Size Dove Bar

felo de self
a misspeaking of felo de se

Page 791

olla podrida
a type of stew popular in Spain

cerise
a vivid purplish red

malcathected
attached to emotionally in a negative way

Page 792

Liebestod
German: love of death

antinomically
in a manner suggesting opposition of laws

Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) was a French philosopher.

Incest and the Life of Death in Capitalist Entertainment
There is no such title.

malefic
having a bad influence

menses
menstruation

Pap smears
screenings for female reproductive cancers, named for Georgios N. Papanikolaou (1883-1962), a Greek oncologist

Putti
Italian: statues of human babies

Page 793

tines
prongs of a fork

beau
boyfriend

Page 794

bell-jar
a type of laboratory glassware -- also the title of a novel by Sylvia Plath

itinerant
traveling from place to place

pointers
A pointer is a breed of hunting dog

Page 795

Lucille Duquette
Molly is lying about Joelle's real name, but this name means something like "Light of the Collection."

795 (1) · Endnote 332

Page 795

Endnote 332

Page 1073

Y.D.A.U.

jury-rigged
a corruption of "jerry-rigged" (a pejorative term about Germans), which basically means rigged in a makeshift, ad hod manner

Page 1074

castigations
criticisms; reprimands

Page 1075

"may the road rise up to meet you..."
part of an old Irish blessing

Page 1076

incubus
a male demon that seduces female humans

glycerine
another name for glycerol

795 (2) · Hal's First Meeting

Page 795

Endnote 333

exurbs
towns too far away from cities to be called "suburbs" but not far enough to be rural

Nantucket
an island of Massachusetts about 30 miles south of Cape Cod

Page 795 (cont'd)

Route 27
a Massachusetts highway running from Route 106 in Kingston to Route 4 in Chelsmfold

Page 796

condonation
overlooking of an offense

Abandoned All Hope
In Dante's Inferno, the sign above Hell reads, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

shunpike
a side road to avoid taking a turnpike

Rte. 9
a Massachusetts highway running from US-20 in Pittsfield (western Massachusetts) to Route 28 in Boston

I-90
an interstate running from Seattle to Boston

NPR
National Public Radio

George Will
George Frederick Will (born 1941) is a conservative American columnist. wallace implies that he has had his voicebox removed and now speaks with a prosthetic voicebox.

Cleveland Circle
a neighborhood of Boston

Page 797

Æolic
an ancient Greek dialect spoken between 800 and 300 BC

Thynne
This is probably a reference to Francis Thynne (1544-1608), an English administrator at the College of Arms in London.

taproot
something that provides a central source for growth

Cynewulf
probably a reference to the Anglo-Saxon poet by that name

penumbra
a shadowy, gray area

gneiss
a form of metamorphic rock

Quabbin
the name of a reservoir in Massachusetts

Burma-Shave
an old brand of shaving cream that advertised with consecutive road signs that rhymed

Lombardy
a region of northern Italy with its capital at Milan

quoins
cornerstones

Page 798

deignition
shutting down of an engine

lintel
a horizontal piece of architecture supporting the weight above a window or door

puce
dark or brownish purple

'Seated Harlequin'
You can see this painting here.

Page 799

Rubikular
referring to Rubik's cube

scrip
paper money

São Paulo
the capital of Brazil

altruistic
tending to do good things for their own sakes

"...the color of Thousand Island dressing..."
sort of light orange

Page 800

bereft
deprived, especially by a death

Page 801

diglobular
consisting of two lumps of fat

Page 802

treacly
having the quality of molasses

Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born 1937) is an American composer and pianist.

Page 803

inguinal
situated in the groin

lachrymucus
mucus flowing as a result of crying

Dedham
a town in Massachusetts about 12 miles southwest of Boston

Wharton
the business school of the University of Pennsylvania (in Philadelphia)

Endnote 336

sudoriferous
sweaty

Page 804

Humboldt County
probably the county in far-north California

Year of Dairy Products from the American Heartland

pizzicato
the musical effect of the plucking of strings on a classical instrument

civety
A civet is a small carnivorous mammal that emits a strange smell.

Page 805

Fred MacMurray
Fredrick Martin MacMurray (1908-1991) was an American actor who starred as a father in the television show My Three Sons

in loco parentis
Latin: in the place of parents

Page 806

widow's peak
a hairline that comes to a point in the center of the forehead

narcosis
tendency to cause sleep

Addis Ababa
the capital of Ethiopia

American Falls
the American part of Niagara Falls

Page 807

imperial
a small pointed beard beneath the lower lip

vivisecting
cutting up while still alive

timpani
large drums used in orchestras

Appian Way
an ancient Roman road

cannoli
an Italian pastry stuffed with sweetened ricotta cheese

Page 808

'I Don't Know (How to Love Him)'
a song from the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, sung by the character of Mary Magdalene

cytological
like microscopic cells