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The ONANtiad, cont.

Page 398

Page 399

LOVE CANAL
an area near Buffalo, N.Y., famous for its high amount of toxic waste and the effects it had on the residents there

EPA
Environmental Protection Agency

Berlin, NH
a town in New Hampshire very close to the Canadian border

Rumford, ME
Rumford is in Maine, less than 50 miles due east of Berlin, N.H.

MONTPELIER
the capital of Vermont

Lancaster NH
a city about twenty miles west of Berlin, N.H.

INFARCTION
tissue death owing to abrupt cessation of blood supply, a heart attack is a myocardial infarction, a stroke is a cerebral infarction

ANEURISM
a misspelling of "aneurysm," it's a bursting of a weakened dilated blood vessel, if within the skull, usually causing a subarachnoid hemorrhage (bleeding into the space in which the cerebrospinal fluid circulates)

SALEM MA
a city 15 miles up the coast from Boston

FROM SYRACUSE TO TICONDEROGA, NY
This line would go right through Adirondack Park in New York.

FROM TICONDEROGA, NY TO SALEM, MA
The lower corner of Vermont lies below this line.

Page 400

claque
a group of sycophants

hale
healthy

Kevlar
a synthetic fiber used in, among other things, bulletproof vests

Page 401

aspersion
a disparaging remark

Page 402

saprogenic
causing or caused by putrefaction or decay

Bôf
defined by the Cambridge Online French-English dictionary as an interjection "expressing a lack of interest or enthusiasm"

maroon
i.e., a moron

benighted
overtaken by darkness

cojones
Spanish for "testicles"

Page 403

faute-de-mieux
for lack of something better.

redemisement
see discussion of "redemised" at page 319

scenario
"Scenarios" is the correct plural.

Page 404

Tyrolean Hat

Tyrolean hats
The Tyrolean hat, named after the region of Tyrol, is associated with the Austrian Alps. Tyrolean hats have a cord wrapped around the base of the crown and a feather or brush on the side as trim. For an example, see right.

H.E.W.
the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare

rife
abounding

Eminent nondomain
"Eminent domain" is the right of the government to seize private property to serve a greater good. This would be the opposite, i.e., the right of the government to divest or cede private property to serve the greater good.

bien sûr
French: of course

U.S.O.
United States Organizations, an organization dedicated to entertaining troops at war

Page 405

coup de grâce
French: death blow

recalcitrant
hard to deal with or manage

¿Qué?
Spanish: What?

Yukon
a territory of northwest Canada that borders Alaska's western border

Brinksmanship
According to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, this is "the technique or practice of maneuvering a dangerous situation to the limits of tolerance or safety in order to secure the greatest advantage, esp. by creating diplomatic crises."

1/3-rpm
This is one-third of a revolution per minute. LPs go literally 100 times faster.

'Flight of the Bumblebee'
an interlude in The Tale of Tsar Saltan, an opera by Russian composer Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)

Page 406

IMBROGLIO
a misunderstanding or disagreement between persons or nations

SIN CITY
Las Vegas

F.E.C.
Federal Elections Commission

Page 407

S.A.C.
Strategic Air Command

BK
Burger King

catastatic
of or pertaining to the climax of a play, movie, etc

puppet-à-clef

A roman à clef is a novel based on a true story with the actual names of characters changed (similarly for film à clef). So, the puppet show has changed the names of the Clipperton story.

radon
a chemical element that contaminates homes in gaseous form

Page 408

Maddox OH
doesn't appear to be a real place

Hartford
the capital of Connecticut

Page 409

Elmer's
a brand of glue

Endnote 158

renumeration
Context indicates that the word should be remuneration.

Endnote 159

Durban
the second most populous city in S. Africa, on the country's southeast coast

Page 409 (cont'd)

Clipperton même
French: Clipperton himself

Page 410

transverse aberration
this is the aberration of light across a field

Endnote 159

testatory codicil

A testator is someone who has a will, and a codicil is a supplement to a will.

Page 410 (cont'd)

Sunkist
a brand of fruit and fruit drinks

Hal's History of Television Before Subsidized Time

Page 410

incipient
beginning to develop

Page 411

Szechuan
alternate spelling of Sichuan

Y.P.W.

Sherman statutes
a reference to the anti-trust act introduced by Sen. John Sherman of Ohio (1823-1900)

TCI
Tele-Communications, Inc. (now defunct)

Malone
John C. Malone (born 1941), now CEO of Liberty Media

TBS
Turner Broadcasting System, founded by Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born 1938)

CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Wikipedia)

Page 412

American Council of Disseminators of Cable
Look at the first letters of the capitalized words.

HDTV
High-Definition Television

Page 413

liposuction
a surgical procedure whereby fat is literally sucked out of the body

P.T.A.s
Parent-Teacher Associations

PACs
Political Action Committees

REM
Rapid Eye Movement

kabal
an alternate spelling of "cabal," meaning a small group of secret plotters

spinal camel-straw
the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back(bone)

b&w
black and white

Page 414

avuncular
suggestive of an uncle

Preparation H
a brand-name ointment for hemorrhoids

Überad
a super advertisement, using the German über ("super") as a prefix

MLB
Major League Baseball

Page 415

Ch. 11 protection
Chapter 11, a section of the bankruptcy code under which one could file for protection from creditors

Dow turned Grizzly
i.e., a bear (downward-moving) market environment began

'Happy Days'
a once-successful television series on ABC

La Honda CA
a tiny town in San Mateo County, California

Icarian
In the manner of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun with wings crafted from feathers and wax by his father Daedalus. The heat from the sun melted the wax, whereupon Icarus fell into the sea and drowned.

penultimate
next-to-last

mogulette
a minor mogul, or perhaps a female mogul

Blockbuster's Huizenga
the entrepreneurial company founder H. Wayne Huizenga

half-gainer
a type of dive

Tobin Bridge
the bridge that connects Charleston and Chelsea, Massachusetts, over the Mystic River

Page 416

ken
range of sight or vision

vox- and digitus-populi
Vox populi means "voice of the people" in Latin. Digitus populi would be "finger of the people."

Page 417

CPU
Central Processing Unit

tentacularly
as with tentacles

Baby Bells
the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) that came out of the Bell System divestiture, a result of the outcome of an antitrust lawsuit (1974) against the monopolistic AT&T

GTE
General Telephone and Electronics

Hobbesianly
in a way suggesting that people are very much in a state of nature, i.e., without rules or laws; derived from English philosopher Thomas Hobbes

!
Used in the 2 times the square root of area formula, the exclamation point denotes a factorial.
This formula becomes very complicated, if the factorial's argument is not an integer, which is likely to be the case when taking the square root of a random number (area).

mimetic
used here, meaning as close to reality as possible

equatorial
lying on the Equator

Page 418

mycological
regarding the study of mushrooms

ennui
listlessness or dissatisfaction through a lack of occupation or excitement

Endnote 168

Wagnerian
in the style or manner of Richard Wagner, the German operatic composer