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☽ (Mid-November, YDAU) - WYYY Engineer goes "sunning"

Page 620

carpal neuralgia, phospenic migraine, gluteal hyperadiposity, lumbar stressae
hand pain, migraines with flashing lights, fat buttocks, and lower back pain

"...all three O.N.A.N. time zones..."
Three is considerably fewer time zones than the five the U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii) currently span, plus the Atlantic Time Zone, in which some of Canada can be found.

genuflecting
bending the knee

'spect-ops'
Perhaps a play on the popularized military term 'spec-ops,' meaning 'special operation(s).'

Gapers' Blocks
traffic delays caused by rubbernecking, i.e., blocking or retarding traffic by stopping to gape at the scene of an accident

Page 621

apotheosis
the process of being raised to godlike status

coprolaliac
abnormally disposed to using profanity

nucleic
pertaining to the nuclear force, which binds protons and neutrons into atomic nuclei

PAs
public-address sytems

nostrums
patent medicines

Cultists in saffron with much percussion
members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna movement) in their distinctive saffron-colored (orange) robes, likely carrying hang drums and tambourines

bunting
loosely woven fabric in a generally half-circle shape; red-white-and-blue ones can be seen hung on podiums, porches, baseball stadiums, etc, especially on the 4th of July and other patriotic holidays

c.
abbreviation for circa, Latin for "around," used here in the sense of "approximately"

sylvan
woodsy

Page 622

phylogenic
From phylogeny, the study of changes and developments in organisms' lineages. Phylogenetic is the more common adjectival form.

möbiusizing
a neologism for taking on the shape of a Möbius strip

scopophile
someone who derives pleasure (usually sexual) from looking at something

dun
grayish brown

Gregg pen

Gregg is a phonetic shorthand writing system for stenographers, devised by John Robert Gregg and first published in 1888. The rights to Gregg shorthand were owned by the Gregg Publishing Company, founded in 1896. The Gregg company licensed pen manufacturers to produce pens to Gregg’s specifications and use the Gregg name; these pens are relatively thin and have very firm fine nibs. Some Gregg pens were fitted with an enameled Gregg emblem inlaid into the end of the cap, as shown at left on a Wahl pen from the late 1920s. here. Read more about Gregg shorthand here and Gregg pens here.

purview
scope of vision

Page 623

verdigrised
covered with grayish-green rust

Robert McCloskey
Robert McCloskey (1914-2003) was an American author and illustrator of children's books.

Make Way for Ducklings
Read about this book here.

greensward
stretch of grassy turf

...play a game with a small beanbaggy ball...
a reference to hacky sack (or "hackey sack")

5º C
41º Fahrenheit

appurtenances
apparatus or instruments

Bread & Circus
a small chain of health-food stores that first opened in Brookline, MA, in 1975 and acquired by Whole Foods Market in 1992

sepia
dark brown, as in the pigment used to make very early photographs

chanting very softly 'Smoke'
i.e., surreptitiously peddling marijuana

Page 624

metallurgy
the making and conducting of alloys

Mass Comm.
Massachusetts Community College(s)

Page 625

ICU
Intensive Care Unit

swart
swarthy, i.e., dark-skinned

Basilar
related to or situated at the base, especially the base of the skull (as with the basilar artery); capitalization could suggest a fictitious branding, perhaps a competitor of Otis

half a house
a half-way house

copless
without policemen

M.D.C.
Metropolitan District Commission, a former Massachusetts state agency that was responsible for maintenance of public parks and roads in the Metropolitan Boston area

hackysackers
players of a game (hacky sack) where people in a circle kick a small leather bag around to one another (see "game with a small beanbaggy ball" on page 623)

Page 626

Autoteller
an ATM (automated teller machine)

moguls
bumps of the kind often seen in snow on ski slopes

coruscant
glittering

November 11th, YDAU - Mealtime at ETA

Page 627

fenestrated
having windows

R.H.I.P.
Rank Has Its Privileges

mastication
chewing

Page 628

P.O.W.ish
greedily, in the manner of prisoners of war

Liberal KS
To be exact, it's three miles via Route 83 to the Oklahoma border.

C/W
Country & Western

Beefeater
a British brand of gin

clapboard
a long, thin board, thicker along one edge than the other, used in covering the outer walls of buildings (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)

nuptial
marital

Page 629

toilet-eau
eau de toilette (French: toilet water) is used mainly by women and is less concentrated than perfume, but more concentrated than eau de cologne, which is used more commonly by men

connubial
marital

Birkenstock
Birkenstock is a German brand of sandals and shoes (see right)

glutens
a mixture of wheat proteins

torpor
sluggishness

turrets
refers here to small towers of the kind seen on medieval castles and other fortifications, often built with battlement crenels (notches) for use by defensive archers

Page 630

"...like Roosevelt at Yalta..."
a reference to the supposed bullying by Stalin of FDR at the conference at Yalta in 1945 to cede Eastern Europe to Soviet control

saltpeter
potassium nitrate or nitre, an ingredient in gunpowder, it was (is) commonly believed to be used in food fed to prisoners and even military enlistees (or other predominantly male populations, such as boys' schools and Boy Scout troops) to curb libido; there is no evidence that it causes erectile dysfunction, but large amounts can have dangerous (poisonous) side effects

Seldane
a brand-name of non-drowsy antihistamine

carminative
expelling gas

Page 631

carb-caloric (from page 630)
Cranberry juice is higher in carbohydrates than other juices because of the larger amounts of sugar added to sweeten it, cranberries being less naturally sweet than, e.g., oranges or apples.

mammarial
resembling or having to do with breasts

lecithin
a mixture of fats found in milk and other foods

semicolonized
otherwise, it's a comma splice

autolysis
perhaps used here in the sense of digestion, although the term actually refers to self-digestion, the destruction of a cell through the action of its own enzymes

buttinskis
i.e., the right to butt into line

R.H.I. literal P.
Rank Has Its literal Priveleges (see R.H.I.P. on page 627)

Tryna
i.e., trying to

scooters
apparently a slang term for "dollars"

déjà vu
From French for "already seen," it's the sense that you're re-experiencing something.

Page 632

saltire
the Cross of St. Andrew

tektitic
referring to fossils formed by meteoric impacts

foist
to insert deceitfully

Page 633

Grant's Tomb
The trick answer to the question is "no one." As the tomb is above ground, Ulysses S. Grant is technically "entombed" and not "buried." The obvious answer is Grant himself, and, in fact, he and his wife Julia are both entombed there. The General Grant National Memorial overlooks the Hudson River, in Riverside Park in Manhattan (New York).

the one about what do Canadian girls put behind their ears to attract boys
Presumably a reference to this old riddle: Q: What does a blonde put behind her ears to make her more attractive? A: Her ankles.

cubist
suggestive of Cubism, the early-20th-century avant-garde (not après-garde) art movement

Crohn's Disease
also regional enteritis, an inflammatory disease of the bowels

Page 634

Endnote 261

offal
garbage, particularly rotting meat

Page 634 (cont.)

tantric
referring to a particular branch of Hinduism, but very particularly to the sexual aspect of this branch, which emphasizes long sessions of sexual intercourse

Twister
a parlor game produced by Hasbro that involves contorting the body

cataract
waterfall

reticent
tending to keep one's thoughts to oneself

colposcope
a scope used to examine the internal female reproductive organs

Combat Zone
an area of Boston known for prostitution and sex shops

Page 635

bussed
cleaned up

B.B.
Big Buddy

asexual
not sexually active or not attracted to either sex

Page 636

nascent
beginning to develop

Sapphic
i.e., lesbian, the reference being to Sappho, the ancient Greek poet from Lesbos

Penal Matron
in other words, a female prison warden

Polycleitos
a Greek sculptor of the fifth century BC

Hermes
the messenger god of Greek mythology

Theseus
a hero of Greek mythology

swart
i.e. swarthy - of dark complexion or color

Page 637

staccato
in music, notes sounded in a detached manner

acerbic
sharp or biting

hick
a person from a rural area

spitter
a spitball, in baseball

tsunami
tidal wave

Page 638

olla
a pot for making stew, or stew itself

tsimmes
a fruit and vegetable casserole

riches nouveaux
French: new riches; here an inversion of nouveaux riches, i.e., "newly rich"

Amway
the American-based international direct-sales retailer

Pet-Rockish
inane, like the fad phenomenon of the small stones marketed as live "pets," requiring care and feeding, in the silly '70s

May 1st, YDAU - Steeply & Marathe discuss an obsession with M*A*S*H

Page 638

Page 639

acronym
MASH stands for "Mobile Army Surgical Hospital."

prima facie
Latin: at first sight

Troy, New York
a college town about ten miles from the state capital of Albany

wens
harmless cysts on the scalp or face

Page 640

Canadiens of the N.L. of H.
the Montreal Canadiens, a team in the National Hockey League

Page 641

canned laughter
prerecorded laughter used on the soundtracks of some filmed comedies (which are not "filmed before a live studio audience"), but also a reminder of the incident involving the can of macadamia nuts

Bröckengespenstphänom
German: Brocken is a German mountain and the brockengespenst refers to the large shadow an observer on the mountain casts in a certain lighting. This is an allusion to a scene from Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel Gravity's Rainbow.

Page 642

Marsh or Swamp
The principal male characters in M*A*S*H* lived in the same tent, which they called "the Swamp."

Endnote 263

Betamax
the smaller format of videotape that was eventually pushed out of the market by VHS

Page 642 (cont'd)

transperçant
French: penetrating across

Major Burns
a "villain" character played by Larry Linville

Page 643

inveterate
habitual

Maury Linville
There is no such actor.

'In the South Korea of history.'
sort of implying that in the time of the novel, there's only one Korea again

'You are not meaning your sister was a goat.'
bearing in mind that "kid" also means a baby goat

Page 644

Korean Police Action of the U.N.

this in reference to the Korean War, which involved military support from (in defense of South Korea from the invading North) United Nations member nations. The war actually lasted three full years.

baroquoco
This would seem to be a mix between "baroque" and "rococo."

augured
predicted for the future

Page 645

Page 646

Alda
a reference to M*A*S*H star Alan Alda

transmural infarction
heart attack

ventricle
one of two of the four chambers of the heart

Page 647

mesquite
a spiny shrub with bean pods

Dick Willis
There was a spy named Richard Willis (1613-1690) active during the English Civil War (1642-1660). This is also the name of a professional peer of Steeply in the novel, first mentioned earlier.

Ossified
turned to bone

plura
a misspelling (likely) of "pleura," which is a thin membrane enclosing the lungs

Page 648

November 13th, YDAU - Kate Gompert & Geoffrey Day discuss It

Page 648

Page 649

benign
harmless

anomaly
something like nothing else (i.e. an outlier)

Page 650

malevolent
intending harm

magna cum laude
Latin: with very high honors

Page 651

130-kilo
286.6 pounds