Notes and Errata - Pages 983-1079

Editors: Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel. And please pay attention to formatting and grammar. Preview your changes before saving them. Thanks!

Page 983

Endnote 3

cardioid
In geometry, a cardioid is a plane curve produced by tracing the path of a chosen point of a circle which rolls around a fixed circle. The cardioid shape of E.T.A. has one cusp, i.e., a point on the curve that is not smooth. The r referred to by the narrator here is the radius of the moving circle.

Übermensch
German for "superhuman"

Brandeis
Brandeis is a Jewish-founded university in Waltham, Mass., about nine miles west of Boston, named for Louis Dembitz Brandeis (1856-1941) the first Jewish Supreme Court justice.

Endnote 5

N.B.
abbreviation for Latin nota bene, i.e., "note well," stated before an important example or corollary point

Endnote 5a

nystagmus
involuntary eye movement

entrepôt
French for "warehouse," this is where foreign merchandise can be purchased duty-free

loquacity
talkativeness

Endnote 6

Halcion (still available in Canada, unbelievably, still)
It's also still available here, though the U.K. has banned it since 1991.

984

Endnote 7

bevelling
Here meaning "smoothed out" and misspelled, beveling is the making of 45º angles where perpendiculars meet.

Endnote 8

Endnote 8a

Muscimole
another mushroom-based hallucinogen, like psilocybin

DDMS
dibromododecenyl methylsulfimide

DMSO
dimethylsulfoxide

Endnote 8 (cont'd)

dickies
As a dickie is designed to give the appearance of wearing a tie, Wallace uses this word here to deal with drugs that mimic the effects of other drugs.

MMDA, DMA, DMMM, 2CB, para-DOT I-VI
You can read about MMDA here, DMA here, 2CB here, DOT here (apparently). DMMM appears to be made up.

CNS
central nervous system

gamma hydroxybutric acid
now more commonly known as GHB

DMZ/M.P.
DMZ is another made-up drug. M.P. is probably Michael Pemulis.

Endnote 12a

"...Continental Controlled Substances Act of Y.T.M.P., O.N.A.N.D.E.A.'s hierarchy of analgesics/antipyretics/axiolytics..."
There is no such act, obviously. Y.T.M.P. is Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad. The second acronym is Organization of North American Nations Drug Enforcement Agency. Analgesics are painkillers. Antipyretics are fever-reducing drugs, and anxiolytics are anxiety-reducing drugs.

Endnote 13

Quo Vadis
Latin: Where are you going? Famously asked of Jesus by Peter when the former was on his way to be crucified. See here. Also a novel and film by that name were made.

Page 985

Endnote 17

datum
piece of information

Endnote 19

French: A person of terrible importance

Endnote 21

Q.v.
Latin abbreviation for quod vide ("which see"), used to direct a reader elsewhere in a book. Here we are directed to...

Endnote 23

U.S.D.D.
United States Department of Defense

Page 1035

Endnote 211

suborn
to bribe or induce someone to commit a crime or misdeed Endnote 234 · Excerpts From Orin's Interview With Moment

Page 1038

Rafferty
Terrence Rafferty was a film critic for the New Yorker magazine.

NPR
National Public Radio

Page 1039

dun
make repeated demands on

Madison Avenue
the street in New York famous for its advertising firms

traversion
Orin probably means "introversion."

T-square
a drafting tool

Page 1040

Prussian
here used to mean "very strict"

schizogenic
produced or formed by fission

pathogenic
capable of producing disease

Page 1041

antidote
Orin means "anecdote."

Quelquechose
French: something

Page 1042

pièce
as in "pièce de resistance," the punchline or main point

Page 1043

four horsemen
as in the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation

BPL
Boston Public Library

Page 1044

Page 1047

Y.D.A.U.

J.O.I.
James O. Incandenza

guile
insidious cunning

larval
immature in its kind

codpieces
a pouch at the crotch of tight-fitting breeches, popular during the Renaissance

Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) was a British poet whose work had themes of homosexuality and sadomasochism.

prenominate
aforementioned

Page 1048

fairly high-sodium way
i.e., with a grain (or more) of salt

purposive
serving some purpose

cross-sectioned cow
Cornell University apparently has a cow whose stomachs you can see in action.

anaclitic
denoting psychologic dependence

Page 1049

prevarication
lying

"...as if from the Rose Garden..."
like the President of the U.S. answering a question from a reporter

monilial
having to do with vaginal yeast infection

S. Johnson
probably a reference to Dr. Samuel Johnson, the lexicographer

Page 1050

Steeples
Bain has become to get Steeply's name wrong.

Steeley
ditto

ACOAs
Adult Children of Alcoholics

AlaTeens
a support group for teenage children of alcoholics

ACONAs
Adult Children of Narcotics Anonymous

ACOGs
American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology

aspic
meat jelly

Page 1051

Starkly
Bain gets Steeply's name wrong yet again.

univocal
unambiguous

furcated
branching or forking

albatross
a burden, from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Starksaddle
another mistake with Steeply's name

perspicuous
clearly expressed

Page 1052

multivalent
having various meanings

Bainbridge
This isn't even close to Steeply's name.

Endnote 321

(1063-1066)

Y.D.A.U.

Rise Over Run
The rise (amount the line increases) of a line divided over the run (length of the line) give you the slope of the line, which is also equal in calculus to the first derivative.

tangent
This concept is explained here.

Differentiation
the process by which one determines the first derivative of a mathematical function

inexorably
relentlessly

covers
songs written by other people than yourself

Digestive-Flora
bacteria that live in the intestine and aid in digestion

Verdun Protestant Hospital
now called Douglas Mental Health Institute

tu-sais-qué
really bad French for "you know what"

Human Hatchet
i.e., Axford

Blue Flames
apparently some sort of drug

O₂
oxygen

Jiminy Cricket
a character from Pinocchio

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.

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