Pages 27-63

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 32

"I want to tell you . . . My head is filled with things to say."
These are the first lines of the Beatles song "I Want to Tell You," written by George Harrison (1943-2001).

"I don't mind . . . I could wait forever."
more lyrics from "I Want to Tell You," though not the very next ones

Brandt
Another German name, most famously the nom de guerre of the future mayor of West Berlin and Kanzler of Germany, Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm (1913-1922).

Page 33

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

legation
a diplomatic office lower than an embassy

Libertine Statue
I.e., the Statue of Liberty, though calling it this implies sexual promiscuity, even if she is wearing a diaper

apposite
suitable or well adapted

Rub' al Khali
Arabic for Empty Quarter, this is another name for the Arabian Desert.

maxillofacial
pertaining to or affecting the jaws and face

Candida albacans
the Latin name for a fungal infection that causes, among other disorders, thrush

monilial
of or caused by fungus of the genus Monila

DeBakey
Michael Ellis DeBakey (born 1908) is a world-famous heart surgeon.

ad valorem
Latin: according to the value

nauseous
Correctly used here, this word means "tending to cause nausea." If one has nausea, they are "nauseated."

Page 34

Scottsdale
a suburb about 19 miles east-northeast of Phoenix

sufism
a mystic strain of Islam

Pir Valayat
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan (1916-2004) was a British-born Sufi.

kif
Arabic for marijuana in leaf form, as opposed to hashish

shari'a-halal
An Arabic term akin to the Jewish kosher, this means that food has been prepared in accordance with Islamic law.

Back Bay Hilton
This is a real hotel, with a Web site here.

nystatin
an anti-fungal drug

stiptics
A styptic is a chemical that stops bleeding.

Page 35

necrosis
a term for death of bodily tissue

Page 36

triptych
a three-part art display

O.N.A.N.M.A.
Organization of North American Nations Medical Assocation

actinomycete-class antibiotics
antibiotics effective against Gram-positive bacteria called actinobacteria

CBC/PATHÉ
CBC is the Canadian Broadcasting Company. PATHÉ is probably the French entertainment company Pathé Frères (Pathé Brothers).

Nass
Arabic for "text"

Page 37

Year of the Trial-Size Dove Bar

double dutch
a type of rope jumping where two ropes are used

Page 38

Brighton Projects
presumably high-rise, low-income housing in Brighton

Shedd Spread
a brand of margarine

wraithlike
A wraith is a type of ghost.

Page 39

nocturnal emitter
a boy who has a wet dream

anfractuous
full of twists and turns

Page 39

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Page 40

petulant
unreasonably irritable

Page 41

Tosca
The title of an opera by Italian composer Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (1858-1924), which premiered in 1900.

Page 42

agoraphobic
suffering from an irrational fear of going outside

portcullis
This is "a strong grating, as of iron, made to slide along vertical grooves at the sides of a gateway of a fortified place and let down to prevent passage" (Random House Unabridged Dictionary).

Page 42

2010h. on 1 April
The medical attaché has been watching for forty-three minutes.

Page 42

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Page 43

Ambush
a real perfume

Home with the team
It's already been mentioned that Orin plays professional football. He must play for the Arizona Cardinals.

Page 44

Blattaria implacblus
Blattaria is the order that contains the several genus and species of cockroaches. The Latin phrase really means "implacable cockroach."

Page 45

fantods
sudden outpourings of anger, outrage, or fear

Chalmette
an eastern suburb of New Orleans

Page 46

kippers
cured herring

Mrs. Avril M. T. Incandenza
Hal's mother is named for the first time.

phylacteryish
Remove "-ish" and you have the English word for tefillin.

imprimatur
sanction or approval

Page 48

Positron-Emission Topography
According to Wikipedia, this is "a nuclear medicine medical imaging technique that produces a three-dimensional image or map of functional processes in the body."

positrons
the sub-atomic particles that are the opposite of electrons

Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang (1890-1976) was a Viennese-born Austrian-American director, probably most famous for M.

Moment magazine
This is a Jewish-interest magazine.

Page 49

Pandora's box of worms
a mixed metaphor of "Pandora's box" and "can of worms," neither of which can be shut again once they're opened

Page 49

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

one-hitter
a small marijuana pipe that will provide one "hit" of marijuana per packing

Page 50

Partridge, KS
A town in Kansas about 55 miles north-northwest of Wichita

Charles Tavis
I.e., C.T.

gizzard
the digestive organ of a bird

Page 51

Bob Hope
Cockney rhyming slang for "dope"

neo-Georgian
modern-day architecture that approximates that of the Georgian period, from 1714 (accession of George I of the U.K.) to 1830 (death of George III)

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.

Page 51 (cont'd)

spherocubular
Another neologism, presumably meaning having characteristics of both a sphere and cube -- a three-dimension "squircle".

Leith
A homonym of Lethe, the name of the river in Greek mythology whose water, if drunk, will erase one's memory.

Dr. James O. Incandenza
Hal's father's full name is given for the first time.

Page 52

dendriurethane
This substance does not actually exist. An educated guess is that it is a type of polyurethane that comes from trees, dendri being Greek for "tree."

twenty meters
almost twenty-two yards

unfenestrated
having no windows

two meter
a little over 6.5 ft

banshee
In Irish mythology, the banshee is female spirit, who acts as an omen of death. They are known for "keening," i.e., shrieking.

flange
a plate or ring to form a rim at the end of a pipe when fastened to the pipe

Page 53

post-latency
after the latency period that Freud posited in his four-stage theory of psychosexual development in children

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.

Endnote 7

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

Page 53 (cont'd)

mushrooms or X
psilocybin mushrooms or MDMA (called ecstasy)

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.

Page 53 (cont'd)

Interdependent regions
I.e., Canada

prorectors
members of a management body of a university, each managing his/her specific area

the Show
professional tennis

Page 54

Kodiak
a brand of chewing tobacco

quail
to shrink back in fear

Page 54

0020h
The medical attaché has now been watching for four hours and fifty-three minutes.

Page 54

filmic
having to do with motion pictures

Page 55

Page 55

Year of Dairy Products From the American Heartland

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.

Page 55 (cont'd)

élan
enthusiastic vigor or liveliness

Revere Holding
a jail, obviously -- probably the jail for Revere, Mass., just south of Boston

P.D.
public defender

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 55 (cont'd)

dictum
a maxim or saying

Page 56

Marblehead
A town in Essex County, Mass., home to a yachting resort. It's about 15 miles northeast of the city on the water.

Page 57

Endnote 17

datum
piece of information

Page 57 (cont'd)

International Affairs and Interdependent Affairs
The first magazine is real; the second is not.

teak chiffonier
a piece of furniture, one of which you can see here

Berkshires
the westernmost portion of Massachusetts, a popular vacation spot

van Dyke
a goatee

apocopes
losses of syllables from words, particularly unstressed vowels

Café au Lait
half coffee and half milk in a large cup, as drunk in France

gangrenously tight
I.e., so tight as to cause gangrene, i.e., death of tissue due to lack of blood

Page 58

grippe
flu

pre-British-takeover Québecois
The British took over Quebec on September 8, 1760.

grackles
passernine birds native to North America

Page 59

Endnote 19

French: A person of terrible importance

Page 59 (cont'd)

intercostal
pertaining to the ribs or the muscles around them

Montreal Tulip Fest
The Canadian Tulip Festival actually takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, and Gatineau, Quebec, which border each other.

Guillaume DuPlessis
A man by this name was one of the first French Calvinist settlers on the island of St. Kitts in the 17th century.

250 clicks due east
Clicks are kilometers. Two hundred fifty km is about 155 miles.

lividity
the change of color in skin brought on by livor mortis, an after-death phenomenon when blood settles in the body at low points of gravity

comme-il-faut
French: As is necessary

Page 60

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

932/1864
I don't know what the numbers mean, but the first is half of the second.

R.I.S.C.
reduced instruction set computer, i.e., a computer that takes a limited set of commands

Primestar
a direct broadcast satellite network active in the 1990s

D.S.S.
digital satellite system

pixel-free
smooth and not pixelated

baud
a unit equal to bits per second; a baud rate is the number of bits per second a modem can send/receive

couture
French for "fashion"

nanoprocessors
very small processors -- smaller than microprocessors

chromotography
Here misspelled, chromatography is "any of various techniques for the separation of complex mixtures that rely on the differential affinities of substances for a gas or liquid mobile medium and for a stationary adsorbing medium through which they pass, such as paper, gelatin, or magnesia" (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language).

carpal neuralgia
nerve pain in the bones of the hand

phosphenic migraine
the phenomenon of seeing lights accompanying a migraine

gluteal hyperadiposity
fat in the buttocks

lumbar stressae
back stress

Page 60

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Jim Troeltsch
The most famous person with this surname is Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923), a German Protestant theologian and philosopher of religion and history.

Narberth PA
a suburb of Philadelphia, on the famous Main Line from Philadelphia to Lancaster

meatus
a natural bodily opening

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 211

suborn
to bribe or induce someone to commit a crime or misdeed

Page 60 (cont'd)

OTC
over the counter

expectorants
drugs that induce phlegm-producing coughing

pertussives
cough suppressants

megaspansules
a combination of mega + span + capsule, these would be large, time-released capsules

Endnote 22

mucoid dessicators
drugs that dry up phlegm

Page 60 (cont'd)

Rader
If the name is pronounced with a "long a," as in the Oakland football team, a famous person with this last name was Erich Johann Albert Raeder (1876-1960), a World War II-era German grand admiral, sentenced to life at Nuremberg but served only nine years.

Page 61

nebulizer
something that turns a liquid into a spray

fugue-state
According to Wikipedia, a fugue state is "a state of mind characterized by abandonment of personal identity, along with the memories, personality and other identifying characteristics of individuality."

prolix
extended to a great, unneedy length

Page 61

Page 62

matte
as an adjective, having a dull or lusterless finish

snuff-white
Snuff is grayish to yellowish brown in color; snuff-white must be that color, but lighter.

reglets
narrow, flat moldings

rheostats
continuously variable electronic resistors

shank
part of the leg between the knee and ankle

Page 63

As of Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
Which is to say, as of 2009

pre-Method actor
He was an actor before the dawn of the Method.

dipsomaniacal
alcoholic

Endnote 23

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

Page 63 (cont'd)

G. Ford - early G. Bush
roughly 1974 to 1989

S.A.C.
Strategic Air Command

neutron
a subatomic particle with no charge

gamma-refractive
referring to a certain index of refraction, i.e., a measure of how much the speed of light is slowed down under certain conditions

lithium-adonized
made more beautiful with lithium

Page 64

cold annular fusion
Cold fusion is a low-energy nuclear reaction. That it is annual means it is ring-shaped.

Tableaux
This is the French pluralization of "tableau," a striking scene.

homolosine-cartography
This is map-making based on an equal distribution of land, created by John Paul Goode (1862-1932), an American geographer. Goode did this to replace the Eurocentric Mercator projection.

optative
expressing a wish or choice

U.S.T.A.
United States Tennis Assocation

après-garde
French for "rear guard," it's the opposite of avant-garde.

Endnote 24

Page 64 (cont'd)

Macdonald Chair
possibly named for Dwight Macdonald (1906-1982), American writer, editor, and social critic

Royal Victoria College of McGill University
now an all women's residence at McGill University in Montreal

Reflective vs. Reflexive Systems
These are two systems of cognition, the former is associative, rapid in processing, and subconcious, while the latter is rule-based and thus slower.

Personnes à Qui On Doit Surveiller Attentivement
French: People Whom We Must Watch Closely

Throppinghamshire Provincial College, New Brunswick, Canada
There is no such college, though New Brunswick is a province of Canada.

recondite
dealing with complex subject matter

mordantly
in a caustic manner

feck
efficacy; force; value

Page 65

F.C.
Perhaps "formerly Canadian"

A.E.C.
Atomic Energy Commission

ARPA-NET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, development by the U.S. Dept. of Defense, was a forerunner of the Internet.

L'Islet County
a county of Québec at the northern end of the Appalachian Mountains

hyperfloration
overgrowth of flowers or plants

festschrift
In German, a Festschrift is a celebratory monograph dedicated to a person.

anticonfluential
against things coming together

chiaroscuro
distribution of light and shade in a photo or painting

annulation
the formation of rings

hypertrophied
grown exceeding large

Page 65

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

tacks
follows a zigzag course

Mile-High
the stadium in which the Denver Broncos play

100 meters over the 40
I.e., the 40-yard line on the football field. One hundred meters is slightly longer than the length of the field.

nongarish
not garish, i.e., not excessively ornate

Page 66

zither
a harp-like instrument, hand-held, associated with angels

water-drops
being dropped into water, presumably because the football team in Seattle is the Seahawks

Oiler
the former football team of Houston, now the Tennessee Titans

Brown
The Browns are the football team of Cleveland.

Page 66

organopsychedelic
a substance naturally producing a psychedelic effect

isoxazole-alkaloid
Isoxazole is explained here; an alkaloid is a naturally occurring, nitrogen-containing, plant-produced compound.

Page 67

methoxylated
Wikipedia redirects here or "methoxylation."

phenylkylamine
possibly a made-up substance

rock and bob Hasidically
A Hasid or Chasid is an Orthodox Jew who wears sidelogs, dark clothes, etc. The bobbing is a nod to what Hasidim do when praying or studying religious texts.

titrated
To titrate is "to ascertain the quantity of a given constituent by adding a liquid reagent of known strength and measuring the volume necessary to convert the constituent to another form" (Random House Unabridged Dictionary).

As used here, a doper expression meaning to try a bit of the drug to ascertain its effects before taking the whole thing (eg one hit of pot, half a tab of acid/LSD).

Page 67

Endnote 26

enkephalin
a type of painkiller

Page 67 (cont'd)

psychodysleptic
a drug that negative effects the take psychologically

in medias
Latin: in the middle of

oblique
neither perpendicular nor parallel

deliquesce
to become liquid by absorbing moisture from the air