Pages 63-87

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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 annular means it is ring-shaped. Cold fusion is highly controversial. Regular fusion experiments take place in a tokamak, which is shaped like a taurus (donut).

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 Association.

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 subconscious, 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. In sailing, tacking is a change of direction through the direction of the wind.

Mile-High
The stadium in which the Denver Broncos played until 2001.

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
An organic molecule which, when ingested, produces a psychedelic effect.

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

Page 67

methoxylated
Addition of a methoxy group. 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 (and some Jews of other traditions) 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 (e.g. one hit of pot, half a tab of acid/LSD, test shot of heroin).

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.

68* · Kate Gompert in the Psych Ward

Page 68

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Watteau
Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) was a French painter.

Yevtuschenko's Field Guide to Clinical States
This book does not exist. The famous famous person with the name Yevtuschenko (sic) is Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko (born 1933), Russian poet most famous for his composition Babi Yar, about the mass murder of 35,000 Jews by the Nazis at this location in Ukraine during World War II.

Page 69

hypocapnia
Reduced carbon dioxide in the blood as a result of hyperventilation.

emery board
A disposable nail file.

Wellesley Hills
A section of the town of Wellesley, Mass., 15 miles west-southwest of Boston.

Newton-Wellesley Hospital
A real hospital.

Parnate
A brand name of tranylcypromine, a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) antidepressant that is among the oldest class of antidepressants and that have a load of serious side effects. Usually used as a last resort.

dysphoria
A mental state of feeling horrible.

diurnal
During the day. Opposite of nocturnal.

w/w/o
With and without.

CO
Carbon monoxide, often used from engine exhaust for suicide.

hemotoxicity
Poisonous blood level.

Page 70

Librium
Brand name of chlordiazepoxide, the oldest benzodiazepine and used for cocaine and alcohol withdrawal.

Dretske
Perhaps Fred Dretske (born 1932), a philosopher of the mind.

Mydol
A misspelling of Midol.

trepidation
Hesitancy caused by fear.

facial affect
Emotions expressed on the face.

Lithonate
A brand name of lithium.

Page 71

plestor
Another name for a pleximeter.

plangent
Loud and resounding.

Page 72

Page 73

carpopedal
Involving both the hands and feet.

tetanic
Pertaining to tetanus, a kind of lockjaw caused by contamination of a wound, usually.

Page 74

Page 75

circumorals
Muscles around the mouth.

thigmotactic
Having to do with thigmotaxis, i.e., the movement or an organism as a response to a mechanical stimulus.

dentate
Having teeth.

synclinal
Sloping downward from opposite directions, so as to meet at a single point, like this: \ /.

Sinse
Short for sin semilla, Spanish for "without seeds," it's a type of marijuana.

duBois
Fake etymology for "doobie," a term for a marijuana cigarette.

Page 76

uremic
Smelling like urine, because of a condition whereby waste products normally excreted in the urine are retained in the blood.

Endnote 30

boric acid
Also used as a detergent and a barrier against insects.

Page 77

the T
Local public transit in the Boston metro area.

Page 78

"That old cartridge, Nicholas and the big Indian..."
She's referring to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; "Nichols" is Jack Nicholson.

78 · Medical Attaché Update #3

Page 78

0145h.
It's been six hours and eighteen minutes since the medical attaché put the cartridge in his player.

Page 79

rictus
A gaping grimace.

79 · Schtitt & Mario

Page 79

Nick Bolletieri
A real tennis coach.

epaulets
Military shoulder decorations on clothing.

a philosopher instead of a king
Although Plato stresses, in the Republic, that kings should be philosophers (and vice-versa), this is obviously rarely the case.

Lebensgefährtins
Wallace's endnote 31(p. 994) claims this "means technically 'soulmate' or 'spouse'", but a more accurate translation would be 'life partner'. NB: 'Lebensgefährtin' is the feminine form of the noun. NB2: Schtitt's use of '-s' to indicate plural is incorrect for 'real' German; it is difficult to claim whether or not it is intentional on Wallace's part.

F.R.G.
Federal Republic of Germany, which is the technical name for Germany today, but referred to West Germany in the days of divided Germany (1945-1989).

leptosomatic
Having a slender, frail build.

pedagogical
Having to do with teaching.

Page 80

post-prandial
Following a meal.

calliopsis
Another name for Plains correopsis.

quincunx

The arrangement of five units in the pattern corresponding to the five-spot on dice (see right).

briers' yeasty musk
The yeasty smell arising from the brier patches.

bradykinetic
Describing abnormally slow movement.

varicocele
a varicose condition of the spermatic veins of the scrotum

plosivity
Referring to a plosive or linguistic stop, i.e., a sound in a language characterized by the stopping of the breath: examples include not only the phonemes /p/ and /b/, but /t/, /d/, etc..

Euclid
Euclid of Alexandria was a 4th century BC Greek mathematician and "father of geometry."

Page 81

tympana
Plural for the Latin tympanum, i.e., "drum," here it is a drum-shaped architectural design.

TE OCCIDERE POSSUNT SED TE EDERE NON POSSUNT NEFAS EST

The euphemistic translation aside, this literally means (in Latin): They can kill you but they cannot eat you; it's a crime.

discursive
Rambling in speech.

wonk
A wonk is "a person who studies a subject or issue in an excessively assiduous and thorough manner" (Random House Unabridged Dictionary).

Page 82

simpatico
In agreement.

Hopman
Either Henry ("Harry") Christian Hopman Harry or Nell Hopman.

Endnote 34

Mandelbrotian
Referring to Benoît B. Mandelbrot (born 1924), French-American-Jewish mathematician.

post-Gödelian
Coming after Kurt Gödel (1906-1978), Austrian-American mathematician and philosopher.

Page 82 (cont'd)

van der Meer
Probably Simon van der Meer (born 1925), Dutch Nobel laureate in physics.

fractal
A fractal is "a geometrical or physical structure having an irregular or fragmented shape at all scales of measurement between a greatest and smallest scale such that certain mathematical or physical properties of the structure, as the perimeter of a curve or the flow rate in a porous medium, behave as if the dimensions of the structure (fractal dimensions) are greater than the spatial dimensions" (Random House Unabridged Dictionary). Wikipedia entry...

aleatory
Of or pertaining to accidental causes.

Lieber Gott nein
German: Dear God, no.

Gymanasium
The equivalent of a U.S. college-preparatory high school.

appetitive will
That part of the will that desires physical things.

Page 83

palestra
An ancient Greek school of wrestling.

experialist
Like "imperialist," but rather than incorporating outside things into itself, an experialist entity exports things outside itself that are not wanted; in the case of O.N.A.N., toxic waste.

Verstiegenheit
Literally German for "eccentricity."

Platz
German: a public square.

Page 84

pirouetting
Whirling on the toes.

Page 85

85 · Tiny Ewell in Detox

Page 85

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

D.T.
Used here as a verb, the acronym refers to delirium tremens.

Page 86

12°C
~54°F

Page 87

skallycap
another name for a tam

87 · Medical Attaché Update #4

Page 87

Seventh Day Adventist
a Protestant denomination marked (in its name) by the fact that they observe their sabbath on Saturday, i.e., the "seventh day"

87* · Marathe & Steeply

Page 87

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

payloaders
a type of construction equipment