Pages 620-651

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!

620* · The AFR Acts

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

Gapers' Blocks
traffic delays caused by rubbernecking

Page 621

apotheosis
the process of being raised to godlike status

coprolaliac
abnormally disposed to using profanity

nucleic
pertaining to the nucleus of a cell, with its cohesion

PAs
public-address sytems

nostrums
patent medicines

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.
circa

sylvan
woodsy

Page 622

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
See one 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

5º C
41º Fahrenheit

appurtenances
apparatus or instruments

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

Page 624

metallurgy
the making and conducting of alloys

Mass Comm.
mass communications

Page 625

ICU
Intensive Care Unit

swart
swarthy, i.e., dark-skinned

half a house
a half-way house

M.D.C.
Metropolitan District Commission

hackysackers
players of a game (hackeysack) where people in a circle kick a small leather bag around to one another

Page 626

Autoteller
an ATM

moguls
bumps

627 · Mealtime at ETA

Page 627

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

fenestrated
having windows

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

mastication
chewing

Page 628

P.O.W.
Prisoner 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, sort of like perfume

connubial
marital

Birkenstock
a German brand of sandals and shoes

glutens
a mixture of wheat proteins

torpor
sluggishness

turrets
projections from a building where guns are placed

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, commonly believed to cause erectile dysfunction

Seldane
a brand-name of non-drowsy antihistamine

carminative
expelling gas

Page 631

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

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

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

Page 633

Grant's Tomb
The answer to the question is "no one." As the tomb is above ground, Ulysses S. Grant is technically "entombed" and not "buried."

Page 634

Endnote 261

offal
garbage, particularly rotting meat

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

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 Brother

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

Polycleitos
a Greek sculptor of the fifth century BC

Hermes
the messenger god of Greek mythology

Theseus
a hero of Greek mythology

Page 637

staccato
in music, notes sounded in a detached manner

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"

638 · Steeply and Marathe Discuss M*A*S*H

Page 638

Y.D.A.U.

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

Page 640

wens
a sebaceous cyst

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

Page 641

canned
pre-recorded

Bröckengespenstphänom
German: Boulder-ghost-phenomenon, as best I can tell; the umlauts are incorrect

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

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.

The Korean War lasted (until the cease-fire — technically the war is still going on) was actually over three years long.

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).

Ossified
turned to stone

plura
a misspelling (likely) of "pleura"

Page 648

648 · The Triangular Horror

Page 648

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Page 649

benign
harmless

anomaly
something like nothing else

Page 650

malevolent
intending harm

magna cum laude
Latin: with very high honors

Page 651

130-kilo
286.6 pounds