Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

P.L.M. Discussion

2007-02-06T17:36:19Z

Mrplong:

P

2007-02-06T17:35:18Z

Mrplong:

'''Packer's Inn''' 
31;

'''Paco''' 
375; trumpet player

'''Padzhitnoff, Igor ("Padzy")''' 
123; Randolph St. Cosmo's "mysterious Russian counterpart". c.f. Alexy Pazhitnov, inventor of Tetris.

'''''Palacio del Cristal, El''''' 
378; in Guanajuato;

'''Palmer House''' 
30; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_House Wikipedia entry]

'''pantechnicon''' 
611;

'''Paramorphoscope''' 
"'induced paramorphism,'" 114; "paramorphic distortions," 249; 435; 436; ''paramorfico'', 570; used to view map of Shambhala, 609;

'''Paranoia''' 
33; "counter-transformer" 34; 54; 94; "Something" 132; 180; paranoia querulans ([[Paranoia Querulans|litigious paranoia]]), 455; Ostend as "western anchors of a continental system" 567; "silent army of operatives" from Hell, 586; 624; 681;

'''Paris Commune''' 
372;

'''Parry, Hubert''' 
49; Blake's ''Jerusalem'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Parry Wikpedia Entry]

'''Parsons-Short Auxetophone''' 
228; used to record "all T.W.I.T.-sanctioned sittings"

'''Patio Method''' 
374; silver extraction method

'''Pearls''' 
"Pearl Street," location of Vibe Corp, 333-34; "pearl-gray bowlers, 399;

'''Peary, Robert Edwin (1856-1920)''' 
149; Peary was an American explorer who claimed to have been the first person, on April 6, 1909, to reach the geographic North Pole; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Peary Wikipedia entry]

'''''pelota'' games''' 
7; Pelota (in Basque and Catalan, pilota; in French pelote, from Latin pila) is a name for a variety of court sports played with a ball using one's hand, a racket, a wooden bat (pala), or a basket propulsor, against a wall (frontón in Spanish, frontoi in Basque, frontó in Catalan) or, more traditionally, with two teams face to face separated by a line on the ground or a net.

'''Penhallow, Constance''' 
127; Iceland spar magnates, in Iceland; Hallow means to reserve as holy.

'''Penhallow, Hunter''' 
127; grandson of Constance; witnessing the destruction of the city, 154; "English painter type" 575; one of the Trespassers? 576; switch to nocturnes, 580; in Venice with Dally, 729; one of his paintings, "The Iron Gateway," hanging in Ca' Spongiatosta, 867; with Dally in London, 892;

'''''permanent siege''''' 
19;

'''perpetual-motion machine''' 
6; Perpetual motion refers to a condition in which an object continues to move indefinitely without being driven by an external source of energy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_motion Wikipedia entry]

'''Peter and Paul Fortress''' 
595; in Russia

'''''pétroleurs'' of Paris''' 
19;

'''P.E.T.N.''' 
182; PETN (''Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate'', also known as ''Penthrite'') is one of the strongest known high explosives, with a relative effectiveness factor (R.E. factor) of 1.66. It is more sensitive to shock or friction than TNT or tetryl, and it is never used alone as a booster; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PETN Wikipedia entry]

'''Peychaud, Monsieur''' 
368; It is said that the Sazerac drink was invented by Antoine Amadie Peychaud, a Creole apothecary who moved to New Orleans from the West Indies and set up shop in the French Quarter in the early 1800s. He dispensed a proprietary mix of aromatic bitters from an old family recipe, to relieve the ails of his clients (Peychaud's Bitters are still made in New Orleans and sold today, and are an essential component of any truly complete bar), and around the 1830s he became famous for a toddy he made for his friends. It consisted of French brandy mixed with his secret blend of bitters, a splash of water and a bit of sugar. According to legend he served his drink in the large end of an egg cup that was called a coquetier in French, and some say that the Americanized pronunciation of this as "cocktail" gave this type of drink its name (unlikely as that may be); ([http://www.gumbopages.com/food/beverages/sazerac.html From The Gumbo Pages. Read on...])

'''Philippe''' 
655; in Swiss Alps, drilling with Reef; alumnus of Petit Roquette child's prison, 658;

'''Philosopher's Stone''' 
77; The philosopher's stone, in Latin ''philosophi lapis'', is a legendary substance that supposedly could turn inexpensive metals such as lead into gold ("chrysopoeia") and/or create an elixir that would make humans younger, thus delaying death. It was a longtime "holy grail" of Western alchemy; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher's_stone Wikipedia entry]

'''Philosophic Mercury''' 
77; Mercury minus "everything not essential"

'''picnic'''
4; 82; 503;

'''Piggot's''' 
678;

'''Pigs''' 
Circe, 117; "pigs can fly" 427; "'''P'''itch '''I'''ntegrity '''G'''uard" 421;

'''Pike's Peak''' 
112; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike%27s_Peak Wikipedia entry]

'''Pinkerton, Allan (1819-1884)''' 
43; Allan Pinkerton was a U.S. detective and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton Agency, the first detective agency.; "The Unsleeping Eye" 51; 112; 171; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Pinkerton Wikipedia entry]

'''Piper, Leonora''' 
medium/psychic, 228; Leonora Piper's spiritualistic abilities (or extrasensory perception — the exact nature of her powers was, maybe naturally, unresolved) convinced William James of the truth in Spiritualism; James dubbed her "the white crow."

'''''Plafond Luminex''''' 
687;

'''plasmic hysteresis''' 
555;

'''Pluto''' 
"Chthonica, Princess of Plutonia," 117; "plutes," 93; "some Plutonian bargain," 154; "plutes," "some ruler of some underwoekd," 231; 362; see also, '''Satan'''

'''''podpol'niki''''' 
663; "underground men" in Russia

'''Polo, Marco (1254-1324)''' 
432; the Venetian, greatest of medieval travellers. Venetian genealogies and traditions of uncertain value trace the Polo family to Sebenico in Dalmatia, and before the end of the 11th century one Domenico Polo is found in the great council of the republic (1094). But the ascertained line of the traveller begins only with his grandfather.

Polo was the first traveller to trace a route across the whole longitude of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after kingdom which he had seen; the first to speak of the new and brilliant court which had been established at Peking; the first to reveal China in all its wealth and vastness, and to tell of the nations on its borders; the first to tell more of Tibet than its name, to speak of Burma, of Laos, of Siam, of Cochin-China, of Japan, of Java, of Sumatra and of other islands of the archipelago, of the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, of Ceylon and its sacred peak, of India but as a country seen and partially explored; the first in medieval times to give any distinct account of the secluded Christian Empire of Abyssinia, and of the semi-Christian island of Sokotra, and to speak, however dimly, of Zanzibar, and of the vast and distant Madagascar; whilst he carries us also to the remotely opposite region of Siberia and the Arctic shores, to speak of dog-sledges, white bears and reindeerriding Tunguses; [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Marco_Polo From the 11th Edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica]; 569;

'''Ponghill, Brad''' 
174; youngest brother of Burke

'''Ponghill, Buddy''' 
174; brother of Burke

'''Ponghill, Burke''' 
172; Editor of the ''Lodazal Weekly Tidings''

'''''Poussin''''' 
590;

'''Poutine''' 
468; little girl in Mayva's ice-cream parlor, Cone Amor; also the name of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine French-Canadian dish].

'''Prandtl, Ludwig''' 
603; Bavarian physicist (1875–1953) who made key contributions to aerodynamics, most famously the discovery of the "boundary layer" (an zone of still air around a moving object, the physical phenomenon behind the dust which accumulates on fan blades).

'''Priest, Judas''' 
656;

'''Prime Number Theorem''' 
590, 597; a theorem giving an approximation to the number of prime numbers less than any given integer ''N.'' The specific theorem most commonly invoked under this name is the result by Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855), who in an 1849 letter to Johann Franz Encke (1791–1865) proved that the number of primes less than ''N'' is approximately given by the integral from 2 to ''N'' of 1 over the natural logarithm of ''x.'' (Earlier, at the age of 15, Gauss had proposed that the number of primes less than ''N'' was approximately ''N'' divided by the natural logarithm of ''N.'') Jacques Hadamard (1865–1963) and Charles De la Vallée Poussin (1866–1962) both proved this result independently in 1896. Knowing this result, one can prove that the ''N''th prime number is roughly ''N'' log ''N,'' for sufficiently large ''N.'' The Riemann hypothesis is equivalent to the assertion that the difference between Gauss's later estimate and the true value is never greater than ''cN''1/2log ''N,'' for some number ''c.'' [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PrimeNumberTheorem.html Wolfram MathWorld entry]

'''''Princess Casamassima, The''''' 
6; an Italian Romance; ''The Princess Casamassima'' is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' in 1885-1886 and then as a book in 1886. It is the story of an intelligent but confused young London bookbinder, Hyacinth Robinson, who becomes involved in radical politics and a terrorist assassination plot. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Casamassima Wikipedia entry]

'''Privett, Nate''' 
24; White City Investigations, 43; in Denver, 179;

'''Propaganda of Deed''' 
81; Propaganda of the deed is an anarchist doctrine that promotes the practical application of anarchist ideas in hopes that such actions will set an example and inspire others. A violent variant of the concept was popular around the world in the late 19th century. According to the 19th century take, it was thought that a spectacular action, such as a political assassination, would ignite a revolutionary fervor among the working classes. Peter Kropotkin, an early proponent of propaganda by the deed, wrote that "A single deed is better propaganda than a thousand pamphlets." [http://www.infoshop.org/wiki/index.php/Propaganda_of_the_deed From the InfoShop Open Wiki]

'''Provecho, Dwayne''' 
379; in cell with Frank Traverse and Ewball; in Mexico, 642;

'''Provenance, Wren''' 
"girl anthropologist" 275; 922;

'''Psitticide''' 
387; the murder of a parrot: (Latin order Psittaciformes = parrot). "The commandante, sensing psitticide in the air, came hurrying up."

'''Pugnax''' 
5; (Latin: ''pugnax'' = fond of fighting) sentient canine aboard ''The Inconvenience''; 17; Also, there's a bird called the Ruff (''Philomachus pugnax'') which is a medium-sized wader; cuisine, 111; 143; Buddha nature, 412; security of ''Inconvenience'' left to, 443; "sophisticated defensive system" 550;

'''Pullman Strike''' 
177; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_strike Wikipedia entry]

'''Pynchon, Edwin''' 
possibly inventor of an airship, the "Albatross"; [[Edwin Pynchon Discussion|DISCUSSION]]

'''Pythagoras''' 
500; Pythagoreans, 633; mathematician, philosopher and mystic (c. 569 BCE–c. 475 BCE). Born in Samos, Ionia, he traveled in Egypt and eventually founded a school in Croton, located in what is now southern Italy. He is the earliest person known to have given a systematic proof of the geometrical proposition now called the Pythagorean Theorem; he or his close followers discovered the irrational numbers and the three-dimensional shape called the [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dodecahedron/ dodecahedron]. Furthermore, Pythagoras coined the term ''cosmos'' to express the order and patterning of nature, was the first to give observations showing that the Earth is spherical, and performed significant early experiments in judging how humans perceive sound. Any of these accomplishments would have earned Pythagoras an honorable place in the history of science, but his behavior and that of his followers contained "deep ironies and contradictions," to use Carl Sagan's phrase. Pythagorean doctrine taught that knowledge should be kept secret from the masses, and moreover that the only way to understand the Cosmos was inner contemplation of mathematical ideas without observation or experiment. This attitude stands in stark contrast to the practical approach of Thales (c. 624 BCE–c. 547), Democritus (c. 460 BCE–c. 370 BCE) and other Ionians who grounded their speculations much more fully in observation. Elaborated and immortalized by Plato (c. 428 BCE–c. 348 BCE), the Pythagorean doctrine became a font of anti-rationalism. [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Pythagoras.html MacTutor biography]

{{ATD_Alpha_Nav}}

ATD 1000-1017

2007-02-05T21:11:45Z

Mrplong:

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page XX==

'''Sample entry''' 
Please format like this.

==Page 1000==

'''L.A.H.D.I.D.A''' 
la-di-da: pretentious

'''Their foolish music is about to stop''' 
Vibe using the same image as Professor Sleepcoat.

==Page 1001==

'''perfect ten-acre mesh''' 
Mutilation of the land by imposition of straight lines on it.

'''telpherage''' 
Cars suspended from overhead cables, or the system of cables.

==Page 1002==

==Page 1003==

==Page 1004==

'''Mother Jones''' 
Mary Harris Jones (1830-1930), labor organizer and advocate. A speech she made in Trinidad climaxed with: "Rise up and strike . . . strike until the last one of you drop into your graves. We are going to stand together and never surrender. Boys, always remember you ain't got a damn thing if you ain't got a union!"

==Page 1005==

==Page 1006==

==Page 1007==

'''John Chase . . . General''' 
Commanding state militia in the coal war; [http://www.du.edu/anthro/ludlow/cfhist3.html here is a summary of atrocities committed by his force.]

==Page 1008==

'''an inestimable edge both tactical and psychological''' 
The military, acting on behalf of the plutocrats, use a less-advanced form of the ''Interdikt'' weapon: light.

'''darkness . . . compassion''' 
Respite from the attack.

==Page 1009==

'''the Baldwin-Felts "detective" agency''' 
Run from Bluefield, West Virginia, the company acted outside the law on behalf of industrialists until federal law banned the use of such private armies. Significantly, its records were destroyed when the agency went out of business in 1930.

==Page 1010==

==Page 1011==

'''the 29 Luglio Saloon''' 
Italian: July 29th.

==Page 1012==

'''Balkan folks . . . their Easter or somethin''' 
In 1914, Orthodox Easter fell on April 19 in the western calendar. Chase's final attack began the morning of the 20th.

==Page 1013==

'''mercenaries called themselves "the American Legion"''' 
Not ''that'' American Legion. These soldiers of fortune enlisted under Pancho Villa. [http://www.netdotcom.com/revmexpc/fortune.htm This web site has numerous pictures of them.]

==Page 1014==

==Page 1015==

==Page 1016==

==Page 1017==

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

ATD 919-945

2007-02-04T19:31:12Z

Mrplong:

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page 919==

'''the recent battle''' 
Battle of Casas Grandes, March 5, 1911, defeat for Madero's army in the Mexican Revolution; the action of this chapter begins a few days later.

'''''novio''''' 
Spanish: boyfriend.

==Page 920==

'''''¿qué tal, amigo?''''' 
Spanish: What's up, my friend?

'''''brujo''''' 
Spanish: wizard.

'''''¿verdad?''''' 
Spanish: don't you?

'''José de la Luz Blanco''' 
Colonel, later general, in Madero's revolutionary forces.

'''''mucho gusto''''' 
Spanish: pleased to meet you.

==Page 921==

'''''Adiós, mi guapo''''' 
Spanish: goodbye, lover.

==Page 922==

'''laudanum, paregoric''' 
Laudanum is an alcoholic tincture of opium; paregoric, a camphorated tincture of opium.

'''Bloody Shirt''' 
Waving the bloody shirt, as a political tactic, dates back at least 1300 years. The demagogue compels listeners to a desired action by citing a wrong they cannot ignore or forgive.

'''Bolsón de Mapimí''' 
[[ATD 374-396#Page 395|See p.395]]

==Page 923==

'''...the mysterious ruins thought to have been built by refugees fleeing from their mythical homeland of Aztlan up north.''' 
An interesting anacronism here. From [http://www.ccha-assoc.org/Meso-sw04/rationale.html this website], we learn that

:At first, because of its Pueblo-like architecture, Paquime [aka Casas Grandes] had been regarded as a sort of southern extension of the ancient Pueblo world. But Charles Di Peso's excavations in the 1950's raised a "storm of controversy," revealing pyramid platforms mounds, ball-courts, and macaw breeding pens, leading him to conclude that what he had found was a major Mesoamerican "Gateway City," a 14th century urban trading center from whence Mesoamerican prestige items (macaw feathers, marine shells, copper bells) were exported to the American Southwest, bringing "higher" Mesoamerican culture with them.

So it seems that at the time Wren Provenance would have been part of a "semi-official" Harvard dig at [[Casas Grandes]], the original inhabitants wouldn't have been considered to be from Aztlan, unless they are (gasp!) Trespassers/visitors from the future. And on [[#Page 930|page 930]], this is supported.

Also, Pynchon seems to subscribe here to the theory that the actual geographical location of Aztlan was somewhere in what is now the southwestern United States. He refers to Aztlan being "up north" of [[Casas Grandes]]. This theory, held by some, seems to contradict a well-established consensus among scholars that these areas were inhabited by North American Indians who, as opposed to Aztecs, left enough artifacts in these areas to document their existence there, and that Aztlan would have been closer to Central Mexico.

==Page 924==

'''''tetas de muñeca''''' 
Spanish: doll-tits.

'''''pinga de títere''''' 
Spanish: puppet-pecker.

'''Frank found himself in a strange yet familiar City [...] nobody but the most senior Astrologers even being allowed to view the sky.''' 
An amazing sentence, perhaps the longest in the novel (more than a page in length), reminiscent of the opening dream sequence or that evensong service in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' a hallucinogenic cinematic pan. Awesome!

==Page 925==

'''swamp-beaver hides''' 
The nutria (called so in North America, coypu elsewhere) has the nickname swamp beaver.

'''Hallucinati''' 
Play on ''Illuminati,'' the Illuminated Ones, but the Hallucinati are lit by indigenous cacti and such.

'''''paseo'' time''' 
Spanish: time for strolling.

'''pamphlets''' 
These bear some similarity to the infamous "Tijuana Bibles" of the 20th century.

'''heliographs''' 
The [[ATD_849-863#Page_851|annotation to page 851]] defines the machine used for communication; here "heliograph" is an image produced by the action of sunlight. [http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/wfp/ See this remarkable page titled "The First Photograph."] [http://http://www.nicephore-niepce.com/ Nicephore Niepce] invented the process which used the very limited sensitivity of bitumen of Judea to light to create an image.

==Page 926==

'''trespassers..winged demigods''' 
Notice trespassers, non-capitalized, linked with beasts with wings--and gringos!-- we have seen earlier.

==Page 927==

==Page 928==

==Page 929==

==Page 930==

'''"The professors she works for return in September to the other side..."''' 
Aha, no wonder these professors "under semi-office Harvard auspices" know about the Casas Grandes/Aztlan connection which arose in the 1950s, but they're digging in the summer of 1911! They're from "the other side" visitors/Trespassers from the future!

==Page 931==

'''profitable weeks''' 
Because they are using Yashmeen's roulette system; see pages 862-3 [[ATD_849-863#Page_863|and annotations.]]

'''Biarritz''' 
Coastal city in France, on the shore of the Bay of Biscay.

'''Pau''' 
Inland city in France, east of Biarritz.

'''Yz-les-Bains''' 
Aix-les-Bains, pronounced EKS-lay-ban, is a city in southeastern France. (''Bains'' = baths.) The name Yz, probably pronounced like eece but ''just possibly'' like the letter Y or Wise, may be an allusion to that. But here are a couple of odd things. (1) Although it is too high in the mountains to be "near the foothills," there is a ski resort called Ax-les-Thermes (''Thermes'' = hot springs). And (2) scattered through the French foothills are a number of places whose names are letters of the alphabet: Ercé (R.C.), Port de l'Oo (O.), Les Eaux (O.), St. Béat (B.A.) and the excessively high peak Cembras d'Azè (A.Z., almost). There may be an intricate game of hide-the-spa going on here.

'''''gave''''' 
French: mountain stream, torrent.

'''more ''desperamus'' than ''laudamus''''' 
Latin: more "we despair" than "we praise."

==Page 932==

'''Sophrosyne Hawkes''' 
''Sophrosyne'' is Greek, used in philosophy: moderation, moral sanity.

'''the old dutch''' 
Rhyming slang: Duchess of Fife = wife.

'''treacle-and-brown-paper arrangement such as burglars use''' 
One of P.G. Wodehouse's stories gives a good summary. You want to break a windowpane without lacerating yourself and waking everybody in the house. Get some treacle (molasses, syrup) and brown wrapping paper. Smear the window with the treacle and stick the paper to it. Rap the paper smartly. The glass fractures but doesn't fall out. (But is this correct or the fantasy of some crime writer?) --[[User:Volver|Volver]] 14:38, 24 January 2007 (PST)

==Page 933==

'''plasmon biscuit''' 
An odd endearment. Plasmon biscuits, containing milk protein, salts and phosphates, were made as dog rations.

'''Holloway''' 
1852 U.K. prison in Islington, North London. Female only inmates since 1902.

==Page 934==

[[image:cayman_ball.jpg|thumb|100px|Brambled golf balls|right]]'''ancient brambled guttie''' 
A "guttie" golf ball has a solid gutta-percha core [ [[ATD_397-428#Page 403|See page 403 annotation]] ]; gutta-percha cores were invented in 1848. Modern golf balls have cores of titanium compounds, hybrid materials, softer shells and a more pressurized core. "Brambled" golf balls have hemispherical bumps molded into the surface to improve aerodynamics when the ball spins, the exact opposite of dimples which is what the surface of modern golf balls has. A brambled golf ball (sometimes called a Cayman ball) is specifically designed to fly true, but short. It is used on particularly short golf courses where space is at a premium. The brambles help it fly a trajectory that a normal golf ball would so that hooks and slices, fades and draws are possible.

==Page 935==

'''transform''' 
A mathematical operation that "maps" a relation from one domain to another.

==Page 936==

'''a bold horizontal line''' 
Again, a straight line imposed on natural terrain spells trouble.

'''the weight of a tank''' 
Um, battle tank development did not begin until 1915.

'''Coddington lens''' 
A hand lens used for close examination of objects.

==Page 937==

'''persistent long-standing nightmare''' 
McHugh's scenario for the beginning of the World War.

==Page 938==

'''Cæsars''' 
Both the German Kaiser and the Russian Tsar took their titles from the name Cæsar.

==Page 939==

==Page 940==

==Page 941==

'''Jurançon''' 
Town near Pau.

'''Paris Commune''' 
Revolutionary government in Paris for two months in 1871.

'''Bartók and Kodály in Hungary''' 
Béla Bartók (1881-1945) wrote music influenced in part by the Hungarian (Magyar) folk songs he collected after 1905. Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) incorporated some such music into works such as the "Dances of Marosszék."

'''Canteloube in the Auvergne''' 
Many songs Joseph Canteloube (1879-1957) collected found their way into his "Chants d'Auvergne."

'''Vaughan Williams in England''' 
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was one of a small corps of collectors in Britain. A highlight of his output is the "English Folk Song Suite" for military band.

'''Eugénie Lineff in Russia''' 
Publishing under this French form of her name, Evgeniya Lineva or Linyova (1853/4-1919) brought out collections of Russian and Ukrainian folk songs.

'''Hjalmar Thuren in the Farøe Islands''' 
Danish musicologist Thuren (1873-1912) collected in the Farøes, East Greenland and elsewhere.

==Page 942==

==Page 943==

'''Zagreb''' 
Capital of Croatia.

'''Beograd''' 
Usually "Belgrade" in English. Capital of Serbia, later of Yugoslavia.

'''massés''' 
A massé shot in billiards involves driving the cue down onto the white ball.

==Page 944==

'''''machos''''' 
Spanish: he-men.

'''Sofia''' 
Capital of Bulgaria.

'''Tsentralna Gara''' 
Bulgarian: Central (railway) Station.

'''Boulevard Knyaginya Mariya Luiza''' 
Bulgarian: Princess Marie Louise Boulevard. Named for Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma (1870-99), consort of Prince Ferdinand, who became Tsar of Bulgaria after her death.

==Page 945==

'''Arthur Symons''' 
1865-1945, poet and critic who visited Sofia in 1903.

'''kebabcheta''' 
Bulgarian: rissole (something resembling a meat-filled croquette or breaded cutlet). Two notes: (1) The ''-ta'' at the end is not part of the word but a definite article; (2) present-day spelling is ''kebapche.''

'''banichka''' 
Bulgarian: cheese patty.

'''palachinki''' 
Bulgarian: pancakes.

'''Transylvanian . . . ''kanástánc''''' 
In western Bulgaria he thinks he hears a Hungarian "swineherd's dance" from a part of northern Romania where Romanian and German are spoken. That song really would have done some traveling. (Should it be spelled ''kanásztánc''?)

'''Shop dialect''' 
Nothing to do with ateliers. Bulgarian ''shop'' refers to the Sofia district and specifically peasants living there.

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

ATD 864-891

2007-02-01T18:07:51Z

Mrplong:

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page XX==

'''Sample entry''' 
Please format like this.

==Page 864==

'''galleggianti''' 
Boathouses.

==Page 865==

'''cicerone''' 
Guide, especially for a single woman.

'''''Inglesi''''' 
Italian: Englishmen.

==Page 866==

'''Gorblimey''' 
Representing a Cockney pronunciation of "God blind me!"; in medieval times, people would curse using contractions rather than breaking the third commandment (Do not use the Lord's name in vain oaths). Compare strewth, zounds, 'sblood. -- Wiktionary

'''Jenny Invert''' 
This is not her first occurrence. Part of the printing of 1918 24-cent airmail stamps showed an inverted image of a Curtis JN-4 Jenny airplane. [http://www.afa.org/magazine/1990/0790jenny.asp It's a famous and valuable stamp.]

'''Nether Wallop, Hants''' 
NETHER WALLOP, a parish in the hundred of Thorngate, county Hants, 7 miles S.W. of Andover, and 3½ N.W. of Stockbridge, its post town. The parish is situated under Danebury Hill, on which are remains of a fortification with ramparts, strengthened on the western side by an outwork, and supposed to have been formed by Canute the Great. The surface is hilly and the soil chalky. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Winchester, value £350. The church, dedicated to St. Andrew, contains several old monuments and two brasses-one of an abbess, bearing date 1432, and the other of a mitred abbot. Gazeteer of Ireland and Great Britain. 
Great Pynchonian name.

'''Inanimate Bird Association''' 
Concerned with clay pigeons, i.e., trapshooting.

'''rather shirty''' 
typo for rather shitty? or some new slang?

Shirty: angry, irritated, huffy, stroppy.
Maybe from "Keep your shirt on!" (Don't get angry!)

'''''Oca ti jebem''''' 
Macedonian: I fuck your father.

'''Giles Piprake''' 
Is he aping Chico Marx? 
A small rake with women? See his remark about Ratty's wife.

==Page 867==

'''remember not to wear yellow''' 
Cyprian thinks he was seen hiding because he was wearing yellow?

'''''valletto''''' 
Italian: valet, attendant.

'''''Facciam' il porco''''' 
'lo, pig-face?

'''''Il mio ragazzo è molto geloso''''' 
Italian: My little guy is very jealous.

'''''Qualsiasi, Ciprianino''''' 
Italian: Whatever, little Cyprian.

'''The Iron Gateway''' 
an imaginary internal 'Symbolist' artwork embodying vivid hallucinatory visions within ATD? 
Also a real structure:
Iron Gateway & Draghut Mosque, Tripoli Medina
Iron Gateway, Tripoli Medina
Iron Gateway & Draghut Mosque, Tripoli Medina

'''Carlo Zen furniture''' 
Designed by Carlo Zen (Italian, 1851-1918)
Among the more prolific designers and cabinet-makers of the period was the firm of Carlo Zen. Some of his decorations suggest the strong influence of continental symbolism, while other objects reveal a keen awareness of geometric simplification.

'''Galileo Chini''' 
Galileo CHINI , famous italian painter and ceramist, was born in Florence on December 2nd 1873 and died on August 23rd 1956.
In 1896, he funded "The Art of Ceramics" (later called "Factory Fornaci S.Lorenzo). He introduced the Liberty style in Italy.
As a painter he took part at the"Biennale di Venezia" from 1901 till 1936.
In 1911 he was in Bangkok to decorate Siam King's palace.
He remained there till 1913: it was a triumph! Back in Italy, he taught at the "Accademia di Belle Arti"in Florence. Some of his beautiful works of Art can be found at the Modern Art Gallery in Rome, at the Uffizi in Florence and at the Modern Art Gallery in Palazzo Pitti.

'''Bugatti''' 
Carlo Bugatti (1856-1940), world-famous furniture designer from Milan.

==Page 868==

'''''corno''''' 
The "horned" cap worn by Doges of Venice.

'''''lo stato''''' 
The State.

'''penance''' 
incredible thematic paragraph that relates to revenge motif?

==Page 869==

'''''salizzada''''' 
Salizzada once meant a paved street, implying that all other, less important calles were once just dirt-packed alleyways.From a Venice Guidebook.

==Page 870==

'''Not by a long chalk''' 
This mainly British expression means “not by any means”, “not at all” and often turns up in conventional expressions such as they weren’t beaten yet, not by a long chalk.
It goes back to the days in which a count or score of almost any kind was marked up on a convenient surface using chalk. At a pub or ale house this might be a note of the amount of credit you had been given (often called the chalk in the early nineteenth century), which Charles Dickens refers to in Great Expectations: “There was a bar at the Jolly Bargemen, with some alarmingly long chalk scores in it on the wall at the side of the door, which seemed to me to be never paid off.”-- Yahoo answers.

'''gibanica''' 
Croatian: a rolled pastry filled with cheese or fruit.

'''kadulja''' 
Croatian, literally: garden sage.

'''coastal Čakavština''' 
Speech of a region in coastal Croatia.

==Page 870==

==Page 871==

'''''bàcari''''' 
???

'''formulæ''' 
Spells.

==Page 872==

'''''Altezza''''' 
Italian: Highness.

==Page 873==

==Page 874==

==Page 875==

==Page 876==

'''gentleman ops''' 
A tradition in thrillers. Bulldog Drummond and Tommy Hambledon are just two in the crowd.

'''dittoes''' 
"A suit of dittoes" is an outfit of coat, vest (waistcoat) and trousers from the same fabric.

==Page 877==

==Page 878==

'''''brisance''''' 
A French word now fully adopted in English. In the context of explosives it means "shattering power."

==Page 879==

'''the least ''clairvoyante''''' 
The (woman) friend least able to exercise occult powers such as seeing the future.

==Page 880==

'''Carnesalve''' 
If Carnevale means "goodbye to meat" (beginning of the Lenten fast), Carnesalve means "hello there, meat!"

'''Signori di Notte''' 
Italian: night lords.

==Page 881==

'''Parma violets''' 
A delicate variety of the flower produced in the Italian city. The blossoms are sometimes sold candied, too.

'''loggie''' 
Plural of ''loggia.'' Italian: theater box or similar feature in a formal room.

==Page 882==

'''''amoretti''''' 
Italian: "Cupids" used as space fillers or decorative elements.

'''''tesoro''''' 
Italian: treasure.

'''Quickly now ....''' 
The conception described here is technically immaculate: Reef fulfills the role of the Father, Yashmeen that of Mary, and Cyprian that of the Holy Ghost.

'''''fellatrice''''' 
Italian: fellatrix (denoting Cyprian's role, not his physiology).

==Page 883==

==Page 884==

==Page 885==

'''nasal intrusion''' 
Sticking one's nose into something.

'''''chavalitos''''' 
Spanish: kids.

==Page 886==

'''Grand Army of the Matrimonial Republic''' 
The Grand Army of the Republic comprised Union veterans of the American Civil War. Its heyday came around 1890-1910.

==Page 887==

==Page 888==
'''[T]he dream came and found him...''' 
Reef's contribution to the hallucination/dream motif previously referenced in the Traverse sections of the novel. The color yellow seems to be significant here and elsewhere, especially coded to Webb Traverse. [More forthcoming]

<blockquote>
          In the dream they were no longer in the ghostly canyons of the McElmo but in the city, not Venice but noplace American either, with an umappable operational endlessless (sic) to its streets, the same ancient, disquieting pictures engraved on its walls as back in the McElmo, spelling out a story whose pitiless truth couldn't be admitted officially by the authorities here because of the danger to the public sanity.... It was darker out here than he had any idea of. In the distance Reef caught sight of a procession of miners in their long rubber coats, only one of them, about halfway along, with the candle stub in his hat lit. Like postulants in habits, they proceeded single file down a narrow street like a humid drift lit back or front by a yellow lamp. As Reef came closer he saw the bearer of the light was Webb. 
        "Small victories," Webb greeted him. "Just to come away with one or two. To praise and to honor the small victories where and however they happen." 
        "Hasn't been too many of them lately, Pa," Reef tried to say. 
        "Not talking about yours, you numbskull." 
        Understanding that this was Webb's attempt to pass on another message, like up the séance in the Alps, Reef saw just for one lucid instant that this was the precise intelligence he needed to get him back to where he had wandered off the trail, so long ago. And then he was awake and trying to remember why it was important.</blockquote>

[[User:Bean|remy]] 13:15, 28 December 2006 (PST)

'''Bagni di Lucca''' 
Notable only because of the similarity in name to Banjaluka (or Banja Luka), Croatia, mentioned on page 834.

'''homeopathic principle''' 
Like cures like. To alleviate an allergy, according to homeopathic doctrine, administer the allergen in an exceedingly dilute form.

==Page 889==

'''Say surly topple''' 
You can't help thinking Reef does this on purpose. French ''C'est sur la table'': It's on the table.

'''pasta asciutta''' 
Pasta dish with potatoes and green beans.

'''pasta fazool''' 
Officially ''pasta e fagioli;'' "fazool" imitates the pronunciation in a regional dialect of Italian. Pasta with cannellini beans.

==Page 890==

'''''al dente''''' 
Italian, literally: resisting the tooth. Fully cooked but not yet rendered gluey.

'''''línea del fuego''''' 
Spanish: line of (the) fire. This may be a naive translation of "firing line" or "line of fire" (note the satisfying ambiguity); ''línea de tiro'' seems to be preferred.

==Page 891==

'''''bal musette''''' 
French: dance hall.

'''in some auxiliary sense . . . his own''' 
Review details of the encounter at Carnesalve (page 881).

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

ATD 792-820

2007-01-31T17:50:16Z

Mrplong: Tom Swift unpublished

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page XX==

'''Sample entry''' 
Please format like this.

==Page 794==

'''communicate with the explorer Peary, then in the Arctic'''
Robert Peary did not even leave New York City at the start of his polar expedition until July 6, 1908, 6 days '''after''' the Tunguska Event of 6-30-08, and did not reach Ellesmere Island until the summer of 1909.

'''Tom Swift''' 
Tom Swift is a fictional character in youths' books. He is an inventor
and adventurer. Not published until 1910.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift Wiki]

'''Semipalatinsk''' 
Town on the Irtysh River, a ''long'' way southwest of Vanavara. Soviet nuclear tests were administered from here.

'''''obstanovka''''' 
Russian: situation.

==Page 795==

'''''Zdorovo!''''' 
Russian: ''hel''lo!

'''Neutral Moresnet''' 
Tiny "country" between Belgium and Germany; existed 1816-1919; see, oh ''do'' see, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_Moresnet Wikipedia entry.]

'''''tchudak''''' 
Now transliterated ''chudak.'' Russian: crank.

'''Kiakhta''' 
Or ''Kyakhta,'' only two syllables. Town on Russian (Buriat)-Mongolian border south of Lake Baikal, a center of Russian trade with China.

'''Not even Russian army does that!''' 
And it cost them dearly in 1914 when intercepted "clear" radio traffic helped the Germans crush them at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1914_Battle_of_Tannenberg Battle of Tannenberg.]

==Page 796==

'''By dusk . . . running-lights''' 
An enigma. The ordinary way of analyzing it: Make a model, say a flashlight, an orange and a toothpick mooring line with a raisin balloon at the top. As the orange rotates toward the east and the flashlight appears to set in the [http://www.example.com link title]west, what gets dark first? The base of the toothpick, the shadow progressing upward. But the text says the raisin does, the shadow arc moving downward.

It's very curious that immediately following this apparently topsy-turvy paragraph Miles says "As above, so below." Significant?

Are the Chums watching from above?..."as the boys watched"..."as above,so below."?--[User: MKohut] January 28, 2007

:I suggest there's no error, and the "ordinary way" is not the right way to understand the text. It definitely is worth looking for a way that the narration--and Miles' benediction--can be technically as well as thematically correct. --[[User:Volver|Volver]] 14:27, 28 January 2007 (PST)

In wizardry (developed from shamanry) Hermes Trismegistus wrote an
Emerald Tablet on which he wrote his wisdom (9-14 precepts).
Sir Isaac Newton translated one precept as:
"That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below."

So, magic?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Tablet Wiki]

--[[User:mrplong]] 13:36, 31 January 2007 (AST)

'''Slowly as God's justice''' 
Must be noted given title and everything religious in ATD.

==Page 797==

'''upriver from Vanavara''' 
"Ground zero" of the Event was 40 miles north of Vanavara.

'''"simultaneity" . . . Special Relativity''' 
Einstein's special theory of relativity (1905) refutes the idea that two observers seeing two events can ever agree on whether the events were simultaneous. Adopters of the theory (and in 1908 they were all ''early'' adopters) would be asking one another if it applied to this phenomenon.

'''the error of the seismograph recordings . . . singularity''' 
"Error" doesn't mean mistake or wrongness. It measures the variability within each instrument; every measurement comes with a plus-or-minus figure. If the Event happened instantaneously, each of the charts would record it as a more or less spread-out peak. The energy released in a process is calculated from the area under the curve of intensity versus time; to get the power (rate of energy release), divide the energy by the duration of the process. Even though he states the math wrongly, Vanderjuice suspects the seismographs of the world have responded to a titanic release of energy that took place in essentially no time at all, so that power = energy divided by zero. When physicists see a ''real'' process apparently demanding division by zero, they call it a singularity and go looking for an explanation. --[[User:Volver|Volver]] 13:38, 4 January 2007 (PST)

'''Tchernobyl, the star of Revelation''' 
city in Ukraine where a nuclear meltdown occurred linked to Book of Revelation.

'''Circassian slave''' 
Common figure in European literature about the "Lustful Turk." Circassia is a region in the Caucasus.

'''teppisti''' 
Italian: hooligans, hoodlums, thugs

==Page 798==

'''''mala vita''''' 
Italian: evil life. With more specific reference to Mafia style criminal organizations like the Malavita del Brenta of Venice. There is also a genre of songs glorifying Mafia life called canto di Malavita.

'''brides picotees''' 
French: tickle straps

==Page 799==

'''"Bevis Moistleigh"''' 
Bevis Mostly? Bevis Wetly?
Cf. Sir Bevis from Lang's Red Romance Book around this time. or a Twilight Zone story, Bevis 1960. See Wikipedia. 
Or, see later in ATD, Bevis is an allusion to Beavis & Butthead. [Idiot]

'''Glagolitic alphabet''' 
See excellent annotation to [[ATD_243-272#Page_252|page 252]].

==Page 800==

'''''fatkeqëse''''' 
Albanian: translated in the text as "disaster." Is this correct?

'''Irredentism''' 
A policy appealing to the idea that "our" lands are unredeemed, i.e., ruled by some outsider, and must be brought into our domain. See annotation to "Eurasia Irredenta" ([[ATD_748-767#Page_761|page 761).]]

'''''Bevis . . . the Story of a Boy''''' 
Theign taunts Bevis with the title of a popular novel, ''Bevis: the Story of a Boy'' (1882), by Richard Jefferies. From bits and pieces of the work quoted online (the book is apparently still in print), the narrative style and dialog writing appear similar to what we've seen in the early Chums passages. What's more, themes associated with this and other books by Jefferies (e.g., the beauty of the untouched countryside) align with some of the ''AtD'' themes. Jefferies also published a "post-Apocalypse" novel called ''After London.'' The Jefferies-Pynchon link may merit a closer look. --[[User:Volver|Volver]] 09:58, 30 January 2007 (PST)

==Page 801==

'''unprovided for in the future tense of any language''' 
I.e., we have no simple way to describe future events in a chaotic system. You can't say that Chinese butterfly '''will''' cause a windstorm in Brazil.

'''High susceptibility to primordial variables''' 
Chaos theorists talk about "extreme sensitivity to initial conditions."

'''"an emigration of reason itself".......Crusade"''' 
Notice war talk and natural destruction around the Event.

==Page 802==

'''croakers''' 
Slang: doctors, especially quacks.

Also: One who croaks, murmurs, grumbles, or complains
unreasonably; one who habitually forebodes evil.

"Croaker" is a long-established (slang) word for "doctor," and in this passage it is quite clear that the doctors (performing curative activities to earn their fees but not really curing anything) feel they are putting one over on everybody else.

Some online citations: 
:http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=19757 
:http://www.whysanity.net/monos/requiem.html 
:http://cancer.iu.edu/news/research/archives/2000/06.pdf ("In the Spotlight," 2nd graf) 
:http://www.classiccrimefiction.com/hardboiled-slang.htm 
:http://www.hobonickels.org/alpert04.htm 
:http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jcnewman/definition.html 
:In short, it wasn't the complainers who "thought they were putting one over," it was the quacks who administered expensive treatments for all ills.

:Slang, sic. I see. Another possible multiple TRP meaning, the complaining doctors, esp. quack "shrinks", relatively new at the time?

'''radioactive mud-bath slime''' 
Treatment with naturally radioactive waters from hot springs was thought to cure many ailments. An example of a radioactive hot spring resort in Austria is Badgastein.

'''Mariahilf''' 
The Sixth District of Vienna, known as a shopping district.

==Page 803==

'''midinettes''' 
salesgirls (of Paris).

'''Facharbeiter''' 
German: technician, specialist, skilled worker.

'''Gabika''' 
"Cute" double diminutive for the Hungarian male name Gábor (Gabriel) and also, more commonly, for the female name Gabriella. The ambiguity (also his looks) fits finely the subversion of gender roles in his relationship to Noellyn Fanshawe.

==Page 804==

'''eleven''' 
Vienna is 86 degrees west of the Event, more or less. Converting longitude to time at 15 degrees = 1 hour, we get a time difference of 5 hours 44 minutes. At 7:17 a.m. Event time, it was 1:33 a.m. in Vienna. Now, at 11:00 p.m. the same day, Vienna time, it is 21 hours and 27 minutes after the event. The atmospheric effect has propagated west (possibly against the high-level winds?) from Siberia to Central Europe in quite a short time. All these numbers are rough!

==Page 805==

'''prepare them against the day''' 
Here the phrase means "in anticipation of" or "to be ready for." 
And more. Thematic.

==Page 806==

'''coconut-shy''' 
A coconut shy (or coconut shie) is a traditional game frequently found as a sidestall at funfairs and fêtes. The game consists of throwing wooden balls at a row of coconuts balanced on posts. Typically a player buys three balls and wins each coconut successfully dislodged. In some cases other prizes may be won instead of the coconuts.
The origins of the game are unclear, although the term is first listed in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1903.
The word 'shy' in this context is a colloquial English term, meaning 'to throw' or toss. Wikipedia.

'''šlivovica''' 
One of the spellings of this word for plum brandy (also slivovica, slivovitz, etc.).

'''one to fifty million . . . mile-to-the-inch sheets''' 
Two extremes of mapmaking. A 1:50,000,000 map of the United States would fit comfortably on a page of ''AtD'' with most of Mexico and several Canadian provinces. Austria-Hungary at that scale would be about as big as your two thumbprints side by side.

The British Ordnance Survey produced a famous series of inch-to-the-mile sheets (1:63,360); the detail is about fine enough to show the left-turn lane of a city street. At this scale it would take some 200 unhandily large sheets to cover Austria-Hungary.

'''Decisions of the utmost gravity''' 
that lead to Gravity's rainbows'''

==Page 807==

'''Major B. F. Vumb''' 
Major Bum Fuck Vumb, as in Dumb? Another Pynchonian V-name
with the usual associations.

'''''Judensau''''' 
German: Jewish pig.

'''Christian Socialists . . . Dr. Karl Lueger''' 
Lueger (pronounced in three syllables, LOO eh ger) was a Viennese politician and founder of the anti-Semitic Christian Social Party.

'''Reichsrath''' 
Austrian parliament.

'''''Wer Jude ist, bestimme ich''''' 
German: as translated in text.

'''''der schöne'' Karl''' 
German: fine Karl. Deeply sarcastic.

==Page 808==

'''Murgasse''' 
Street in Graz. The Murgasse was first mentioned in a document from 1346. The part of town to the south was occupied by the farmers.
Murgasse
8490 Bad Radkersburg, Austria

==Page 809==

'''the vile Aerenthal''' 
Aloys (or Alois) von Aerenthal (1854-1912), Austrian foreign minister who engineered the annexation of Bosnia in 1908.

'''in three-quarter time''' 
Two plausible references: events driven by Vienna, the world's waltz capital, and a dark comic song recorded by the Kingston Trio in the 1960s: "Merry Minuet." In 3/4 time, it includes lyrics commenting on ethnic hatred, irredentism and inevitable nuclear catastrophe.

'''Isvolsky''' 
A.P. Izvolsky (Izvolski, Izvolskii) (1856-1919), Russian foreign minister who traded Bosnia-Herzegovina to Austria in exchange for Austria's help in opening the Bosporus and Dardanelles to Russian ships. Pynchon's spelling may well be from a contemporary source; consistent transliteration is a more recent fetish.

'''Grey''' 
Sir Edward Grey (1862-1933), British Foreign Secretary 1905-16.

==Page 810==

'''Vlado Clissan''' 
His name comes from his hometown of Clissa, but this is the Italian name of the place. In Serbo-Croatian it is ''Klis.'' A pseudonym?

'''Blutwurst Special''' 
German: blood sausage.

==Page 811==

'''"iron convergences and receding signal-lamps"''' 
our 'free choices' in...life; so ironic at this point.

'''Slavonian''' 
Today the name applies to the eastern part of Croatia, but a map will confirm that the route passes through the Slovenian plain. Writers before the World War must have had difficulty keeping Slovenia, Slovakia and Slavonia straight, especially since all were inhabited by Slavonic peoples.

==Page 812==

'''Mestre Bridge''' 
Mestre is a town in Veneto, northern Italy, a frazione of the comune of Venice. Located on the mainland,the city is connected to Venice by a large rail and road bridge, called Ponte della Libertà (Freedom Bridge).

==Page 813==

'''And England's far, and honour a name''' 
From the 1897 poem "Vitaï Lampada" ("They Pass the Torch") by Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938).

'''"honour"''' 
Cf. Falstaff on.

==Page 814==

'''Lateeners''' 
A lateener is a boat with a lateen sail: a triangular sail with one edge tied to a long spar, which is supported in the middle on a mast.

'''''Strichmädchen''''' 
German: streetwalker.

'''LLoyd Austriaco''' 
A ship line. Lloyd Triestino was formed in 1919 as the successor to Lloyd Austriaco following the incorporation of Trieste into the Kingdom of Italy on January 3rd 1919.

==Page 815==

'''"Nimrod" . . . from Elgar's ''Enigma Variations''''' 
"Nimrod" is the ninth section of this major 1899 work by English composer Edward Elgar (1857-1934). Like the other 13 sections, it characterizes a family friend; this one is A. J. Jaeger (whose name means "hunter" in German, hence "Nimrod," the name of a hunter mentioned in the Bible). [http://www.elgar.org/3enigma.htm Here is a very good description of the work and "Nimrod" in particular.]

'''"La Gazza Ladra"''' 
Overture by Rossini to an opera whose title means "The Thieving Magpie." It is as bright and impersonal as "Nimrod" is serious and sentimental.

'''"The Volga Boatmen" . . . "Auld Lang Syne"''' 
The puzzle in the "Enigma" Variations is this: Variations are based on a theme, but Elgar never states the theme; what is the melody? These are two of the popular guesses.

'''Δt''' 
Mathematical symbol used for a finite length of time.

'''co-conscious with the everyday''' 
again. Linked to creativity here.

'''Ramanujan's Formula''' 
an elegant hyperbolic summation, Ramanujan's formula for the Riemann zeta function evaluated at the odd positive integers.

==Page 816==

'''''dolce far niente''''' 
Italian: sweet doing-nothing.

'''the Karst''' 
Generic "karst topography" takes its name from this area of Slovenia and Italy (locally called ''kras'' and ''carso''). The terrain features limestone with fissures and cavities eroded by water. Caves as well as underground streams and lakes are common.

==Page 817==

'''quiet spaces between trams, unpredictable, even, she imagined, mathematically so''' 
Two familiar "rhythms" have this quality of chaotic intervals: the beating of the human heart and the sound of water dripping from a faucet. The second part of the phrase is subtle: the time of the next drip can't be mathematically predicted (to arbitrary accuracy), but it is possible to describe in mathematical terms the '''way''' in which it's unpredictable.

'''''Svr šavam!''''' 
Croatian/Serbian: I'm finishing. Also, implausibly, written ''Svršavam.''

'''Velebit''' 
A ridge that runs parallel to the Croatian Adriatic coast a few tens of miles south of Trieste. Lying a short distance inland, it is made up of limestone karst.

==Page 818==

'''persisted from day to day''' 
The image again of the storm that retains its identity over a long time.

'''Stationary waves''' 
Crests and troughs that don't move. Seen more often where water is flowing (up/downstream of rocks in rapids), but also where waves coming onshore interact with those reflected from the shore.

'''Uskok''' 
Serbian/Croatian: fugitive. Writers even in antiquity noted that piracy was a main economic activity along this coast.

'''Clissa''' 
Town from which Vlado Clissan takes his ''nom de guerre.'' Locally called Klis.

==Page 819==

==Page 820==

'''''John of Asia''''' 
John of Asia, also called John of Ephesus, was a 6th-century church leader and historian. The ruins of Ephesus are located in western Asia Minor, now in Turkey.

'''coastline approaching infinite length''' 
Another reference to the "crisis" in mathematics. The closer you look at the coastline, the longer it gets. If you could view it from infinitely close up, it would become infinitely long.

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

ATD 792-820

2007-01-31T17:39:26Z

Mrplong: Above/Below Hermes Magic

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page XX==

'''Sample entry''' 
Please format like this.

==Page 794==

'''communicate with the explorer Peary, then in the Arctic'''
Robert Peary did not even leave New York City at the start of his polar expedition until July 6, 1908, 6 days '''after''' the Tunguska Event of 6-30-08, and did not reach Ellesmere Island until the summer of 1909.

'''Semipalatinsk''' 
Town on the Irtysh River, a ''long'' way southwest of Vanavara. Soviet nuclear tests were administered from here.

'''''obstanovka''''' 
Russian: situation.

==Page 795==

'''''Zdorovo!''''' 
Russian: ''hel''lo!

'''Neutral Moresnet''' 
Tiny "country" between Belgium and Germany; existed 1816-1919; see, oh ''do'' see, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_Moresnet Wikipedia entry.]

'''''tchudak''''' 
Now transliterated ''chudak.'' Russian: crank.

'''Kiakhta''' 
Or ''Kyakhta,'' only two syllables. Town on Russian (Buriat)-Mongolian border south of Lake Baikal, a center of Russian trade with China.

'''Not even Russian army does that!''' 
And it cost them dearly in 1914 when intercepted "clear" radio traffic helped the Germans crush them at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1914_Battle_of_Tannenberg Battle of Tannenberg.]

==Page 796==

'''By dusk . . . running-lights''' 
An enigma. The ordinary way of analyzing it: Make a model, say a flashlight, an orange and a toothpick mooring line with a raisin balloon at the top. As the orange rotates toward the east and the flashlight appears to set in the [http://www.example.com link title]west, what gets dark first? The base of the toothpick, the shadow progressing upward. But the text says the raisin does, the shadow arc moving downward.

It's very curious that immediately following this apparently topsy-turvy paragraph Miles says "As above, so below." Significant?

Are the Chums watching from above?..."as the boys watched"..."as above,so below."?--[User: MKohut] January 28, 2007

:I suggest there's no error, and the "ordinary way" is not the right way to understand the text. It definitely is worth looking for a way that the narration--and Miles' benediction--can be technically as well as thematically correct. --[[User:Volver|Volver]] 14:27, 28 January 2007 (PST)

In wizardry (developed from shamanry) Hermes Trismegistus wrote an
Emerald Tablet on which he wrote his wisdom (9-14 precepts).
Sir Isaac Newton translated one precept as:
"That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below."

So, magic?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Tablet Wiki]

--[[User:mrplong]] 13:36, 31 January 2007 (AST)

'''Slowly as God's justice''' 
Must be noted given title and everything religious in ATD.

==Page 797==

'''upriver from Vanavara''' 
"Ground zero" of the Event was 40 miles north of Vanavara.

'''"simultaneity" . . . Special Relativity''' 
Einstein's special theory of relativity (1905) refutes the idea that two observers seeing two events can ever agree on whether the events were simultaneous. Adopters of the theory (and in 1908 they were all ''early'' adopters) would be asking one another if it applied to this phenomenon.

'''the error of the seismograph recordings . . . singularity''' 
"Error" doesn't mean mistake or wrongness. It measures the variability within each instrument; every measurement comes with a plus-or-minus figure. If the Event happened instantaneously, each of the charts would record it as a more or less spread-out peak. The energy released in a process is calculated from the area under the curve of intensity versus time; to get the power (rate of energy release), divide the energy by the duration of the process. Even though he states the math wrongly, Vanderjuice suspects the seismographs of the world have responded to a titanic release of energy that took place in essentially no time at all, so that power = energy divided by zero. When physicists see a ''real'' process apparently demanding division by zero, they call it a singularity and go looking for an explanation. --[[User:Volver|Volver]] 13:38, 4 January 2007 (PST)

'''Tchernobyl, the star of Revelation''' 
city in Ukraine where a nuclear meltdown occurred linked to Book of Revelation.

'''Circassian slave''' 
Common figure in European literature about the "Lustful Turk." Circassia is a region in the Caucasus.

'''teppisti''' 
Italian: hooligans, hoodlums, thugs

==Page 798==

'''''mala vita''''' 
Italian: evil life. With more specific reference to Mafia style criminal organizations like the Malavita del Brenta of Venice. There is also a genre of songs glorifying Mafia life called canto di Malavita.

'''brides picotees''' 
French: tickle straps

==Page 799==

'''"Bevis Moistleigh"''' 
Bevis Mostly? Bevis Wetly?
Cf. Sir Bevis from Lang's Red Romance Book around this time. or a Twilight Zone story, Bevis 1960. See Wikipedia. 
Or, see later in ATD, Bevis is an allusion to Beavis & Butthead. [Idiot]

'''Glagolitic alphabet''' 
See excellent annotation to [[ATD_243-272#Page_252|page 252]].

==Page 800==

'''''fatkeqëse''''' 
Albanian: translated in the text as "disaster." Is this correct?

'''Irredentism''' 
A policy appealing to the idea that "our" lands are unredeemed, i.e., ruled by some outsider, and must be brought into our domain. See annotation to "Eurasia Irredenta" ([[ATD_748-767#Page_761|page 761).]]

'''''Bevis . . . the Story of a Boy''''' 
Theign taunts Bevis with the title of a popular novel, ''Bevis: the Story of a Boy'' (1882), by Richard Jefferies. From bits and pieces of the work quoted online (the book is apparently still in print), the narrative style and dialog writing appear similar to what we've seen in the early Chums passages. What's more, themes associated with this and other books by Jefferies (e.g., the beauty of the untouched countryside) align with some of the ''AtD'' themes. Jefferies also published a "post-Apocalypse" novel called ''After London.'' The Jefferies-Pynchon link may merit a closer look. --[[User:Volver|Volver]] 09:58, 30 January 2007 (PST)

==Page 801==

'''unprovided for in the future tense of any language''' 
I.e., we have no simple way to describe future events in a chaotic system. You can't say that Chinese butterfly '''will''' cause a windstorm in Brazil.

'''High susceptibility to primordial variables''' 
Chaos theorists talk about "extreme sensitivity to initial conditions."

'''"an emigration of reason itself".......Crusade"''' 
Notice war talk and natural destruction around the Event.

==Page 802==

'''croakers''' 
Slang: doctors, especially quacks.

Also: One who croaks, murmurs, grumbles, or complains
unreasonably; one who habitually forebodes evil.

"Croaker" is a long-established (slang) word for "doctor," and in this passage it is quite clear that the doctors (performing curative activities to earn their fees but not really curing anything) feel they are putting one over on everybody else.

Some online citations: 
:http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=19757 
:http://www.whysanity.net/monos/requiem.html 
:http://cancer.iu.edu/news/research/archives/2000/06.pdf ("In the Spotlight," 2nd graf) 
:http://www.classiccrimefiction.com/hardboiled-slang.htm 
:http://www.hobonickels.org/alpert04.htm 
:http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jcnewman/definition.html 
:In short, it wasn't the complainers who "thought they were putting one over," it was the quacks who administered expensive treatments for all ills.

:Slang, sic. I see. Another possible multiple TRP meaning, the complaining doctors, esp. quack "shrinks", relatively new at the time?

'''radioactive mud-bath slime''' 
Treatment with naturally radioactive waters from hot springs was thought to cure many ailments. An example of a radioactive hot spring resort in Austria is Badgastein.

'''Mariahilf''' 
The Sixth District of Vienna, known as a shopping district.

==Page 803==

'''midinettes''' 
salesgirls (of Paris).

'''Facharbeiter''' 
German: technician, specialist, skilled worker.

'''Gabika''' 
"Cute" double diminutive for the Hungarian male name Gábor (Gabriel) and also, more commonly, for the female name Gabriella. The ambiguity (also his looks) fits finely the subversion of gender roles in his relationship to Noellyn Fanshawe.

==Page 804==

'''eleven''' 
Vienna is 86 degrees west of the Event, more or less. Converting longitude to time at 15 degrees = 1 hour, we get a time difference of 5 hours 44 minutes. At 7:17 a.m. Event time, it was 1:33 a.m. in Vienna. Now, at 11:00 p.m. the same day, Vienna time, it is 21 hours and 27 minutes after the event. The atmospheric effect has propagated west (possibly against the high-level winds?) from Siberia to Central Europe in quite a short time. All these numbers are rough!

==Page 805==

'''prepare them against the day''' 
Here the phrase means "in anticipation of" or "to be ready for." 
And more. Thematic.

==Page 806==

'''coconut-shy''' 
A coconut shy (or coconut shie) is a traditional game frequently found as a sidestall at funfairs and fêtes. The game consists of throwing wooden balls at a row of coconuts balanced on posts. Typically a player buys three balls and wins each coconut successfully dislodged. In some cases other prizes may be won instead of the coconuts.
The origins of the game are unclear, although the term is first listed in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1903.
The word 'shy' in this context is a colloquial English term, meaning 'to throw' or toss. Wikipedia.

'''šlivovica''' 
One of the spellings of this word for plum brandy (also slivovica, slivovitz, etc.).

'''one to fifty million . . . mile-to-the-inch sheets''' 
Two extremes of mapmaking. A 1:50,000,000 map of the United States would fit comfortably on a page of ''AtD'' with most of Mexico and several Canadian provinces. Austria-Hungary at that scale would be about as big as your two thumbprints side by side.

The British Ordnance Survey produced a famous series of inch-to-the-mile sheets (1:63,360); the detail is about fine enough to show the left-turn lane of a city street. At this scale it would take some 200 unhandily large sheets to cover Austria-Hungary.

'''Decisions of the utmost gravity''' 
that lead to Gravity's rainbows'''

==Page 807==

'''Major B. F. Vumb''' 
Major Bum Fuck Vumb, as in Dumb? Another Pynchonian V-name
with the usual associations.

'''''Judensau''''' 
German: Jewish pig.

'''Christian Socialists . . . Dr. Karl Lueger''' 
Lueger (pronounced in three syllables, LOO eh ger) was a Viennese politician and founder of the anti-Semitic Christian Social Party.

'''Reichsrath''' 
Austrian parliament.

'''''Wer Jude ist, bestimme ich''''' 
German: as translated in text.

'''''der schöne'' Karl''' 
German: fine Karl. Deeply sarcastic.

==Page 808==

'''Murgasse''' 
Street in Graz. The Murgasse was first mentioned in a document from 1346. The part of town to the south was occupied by the farmers.
Murgasse
8490 Bad Radkersburg, Austria

==Page 809==

'''the vile Aerenthal''' 
Aloys (or Alois) von Aerenthal (1854-1912), Austrian foreign minister who engineered the annexation of Bosnia in 1908.

'''in three-quarter time''' 
Two plausible references: events driven by Vienna, the world's waltz capital, and a dark comic song recorded by the Kingston Trio in the 1960s: "Merry Minuet." In 3/4 time, it includes lyrics commenting on ethnic hatred, irredentism and inevitable nuclear catastrophe.

'''Isvolsky''' 
A.P. Izvolsky (Izvolski, Izvolskii) (1856-1919), Russian foreign minister who traded Bosnia-Herzegovina to Austria in exchange for Austria's help in opening the Bosporus and Dardanelles to Russian ships. Pynchon's spelling may well be from a contemporary source; consistent transliteration is a more recent fetish.

'''Grey''' 
Sir Edward Grey (1862-1933), British Foreign Secretary 1905-16.

==Page 810==

'''Vlado Clissan''' 
His name comes from his hometown of Clissa, but this is the Italian name of the place. In Serbo-Croatian it is ''Klis.'' A pseudonym?

'''Blutwurst Special''' 
German: blood sausage.

==Page 811==

'''"iron convergences and receding signal-lamps"''' 
our 'free choices' in...life; so ironic at this point.

'''Slavonian''' 
Today the name applies to the eastern part of Croatia, but a map will confirm that the route passes through the Slovenian plain. Writers before the World War must have had difficulty keeping Slovenia, Slovakia and Slavonia straight, especially since all were inhabited by Slavonic peoples.

==Page 812==

'''Mestre Bridge''' 
Mestre is a town in Veneto, northern Italy, a frazione of the comune of Venice. Located on the mainland,the city is connected to Venice by a large rail and road bridge, called Ponte della Libertà (Freedom Bridge).

==Page 813==

'''And England's far, and honour a name''' 
From the 1897 poem "Vitaï Lampada" ("They Pass the Torch") by Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938).

'''"honour"''' 
Cf. Falstaff on.

==Page 814==

'''Lateeners''' 
A lateener is a boat with a lateen sail: a triangular sail with one edge tied to a long spar, which is supported in the middle on a mast.

'''''Strichmädchen''''' 
German: streetwalker.

'''LLoyd Austriaco''' 
A ship line. Lloyd Triestino was formed in 1919 as the successor to Lloyd Austriaco following the incorporation of Trieste into the Kingdom of Italy on January 3rd 1919.

==Page 815==

'''"Nimrod" . . . from Elgar's ''Enigma Variations''''' 
"Nimrod" is the ninth section of this major 1899 work by English composer Edward Elgar (1857-1934). Like the other 13 sections, it characterizes a family friend; this one is A. J. Jaeger (whose name means "hunter" in German, hence "Nimrod," the name of a hunter mentioned in the Bible). [http://www.elgar.org/3enigma.htm Here is a very good description of the work and "Nimrod" in particular.]

'''"La Gazza Ladra"''' 
Overture by Rossini to an opera whose title means "The Thieving Magpie." It is as bright and impersonal as "Nimrod" is serious and sentimental.

'''"The Volga Boatmen" . . . "Auld Lang Syne"''' 
The puzzle in the "Enigma" Variations is this: Variations are based on a theme, but Elgar never states the theme; what is the melody? These are two of the popular guesses.

'''Δt''' 
Mathematical symbol used for a finite length of time.

'''co-conscious with the everyday''' 
again. Linked to creativity here.

'''Ramanujan's Formula''' 
an elegant hyperbolic summation, Ramanujan's formula for the Riemann zeta function evaluated at the odd positive integers.

==Page 816==

'''''dolce far niente''''' 
Italian: sweet doing-nothing.

'''the Karst''' 
Generic "karst topography" takes its name from this area of Slovenia and Italy (locally called ''kras'' and ''carso''). The terrain features limestone with fissures and cavities eroded by water. Caves as well as underground streams and lakes are common.

==Page 817==

'''quiet spaces between trams, unpredictable, even, she imagined, mathematically so''' 
Two familiar "rhythms" have this quality of chaotic intervals: the beating of the human heart and the sound of water dripping from a faucet. The second part of the phrase is subtle: the time of the next drip can't be mathematically predicted (to arbitrary accuracy), but it is possible to describe in mathematical terms the '''way''' in which it's unpredictable.

'''''Svr šavam!''''' 
Croatian/Serbian: I'm finishing. Also, implausibly, written ''Svršavam.''

'''Velebit''' 
A ridge that runs parallel to the Croatian Adriatic coast a few tens of miles south of Trieste. Lying a short distance inland, it is made up of limestone karst.

==Page 818==

'''persisted from day to day''' 
The image again of the storm that retains its identity over a long time.

'''Stationary waves''' 
Crests and troughs that don't move. Seen more often where water is flowing (up/downstream of rocks in rapids), but also where waves coming onshore interact with those reflected from the shore.

'''Uskok''' 
Serbian/Croatian: fugitive. Writers even in antiquity noted that piracy was a main economic activity along this coast.

'''Clissa''' 
Town from which Vlado Clissan takes his ''nom de guerre.'' Locally called Klis.

==Page 819==

==Page 820==

'''''John of Asia''''' 
John of Asia, also called John of Ephesus, was a 6th-century church leader and historian. The ruins of Ephesus are located in western Asia Minor, now in Turkey.

'''coastline approaching infinite length''' 
Another reference to the "crisis" in mathematics. The closer you look at the coastline, the longer it gets. If you could view it from infinitely close up, it would become infinitely long.

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

P.L.M. Discussion

2007-01-23T18:48:23Z

Mrplong: P.L.M. DISCUSSION

P.L.M.

Politico-Legal-Media complex.

In Michael Crichton's State of Fear, (p. 456) it is
suggested that as it was with cold-war nation-sates
being dominated by the Military-Industrial complex,
post cold war nation-states have been under the control
of the P.L.M.

The P.L.M. is dedicated to promoting fear in society
(under the guise of promoting safety).

P

2007-01-23T18:38:43Z

Mrplong: P.L.M. Entry

'''Packer's Inn''' 
31;

'''Paco''' 
375; trumpet player

'''Padzhitnoff, Igor ("Padzy")''' 
123; Randolph St. Cosmo's "mysterious Russian counterpart". c.f. Alexy Pazhitnov, inventor of Tetris.

'''''Palacio del Cristal, El''''' 
378; in Guanajuato;

'''Palmer House''' 
30; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_House Wikipedia entry]

'''pantechnicon''' 
611;

'''Paramorphoscope''' 
"'induced paramorphism,'" 114; "paramorphic distortions," 249; 435; 436; ''paramorfico'', 568; used to view map of Shambhala, 609;

'''Paranoia''' 
33; "counter-transformer" 34; 54; 94; "Something" 132; 180; paranoia querulans ([[Paranoia Querulans|litigious paranoia]]), 455; Ostend as "western anchors of a continental system" 567; "silent army of operatives" from Hell, 586; 624; 681;

'''Paris Commune''' 
372;

'''Parry, Hubert''' 
49; Blake's ''Jerusalem'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Parry Wikpedia Entry]

'''Parsons-Short Auxetophone''' 
228; used to record "all T.W.I.T.-sanctioned sittings"

'''Patio Method''' 
374; silver extraction method

'''Pearls''' 
"Pearl Street," location of Vibe Corp, 333-34; "pearl-gray bowlers, 399;

'''Peary, Robert Edwin (1856-1920)''' 
149; Peary was an American explorer who claimed to have been the first person, on April 6, 1909, to reach the geographic North Pole; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Peary Wikipedia entry]

'''''pelota'' games''' 
7; Pelota (in Basque and Catalan, pilota; in French pelote, from Latin pila) is a name for a variety of court sports played with a ball using one's hand, a racket, a wooden bat (pala), or a basket propulsor, against a wall (frontón in Spanish, frontoi in Basque, frontó in Catalan) or, more traditionally, with two teams face to face separated by a line on the ground or a net.

'''Penhallow, Constance''' 
127; Iceland spar magnates, in Iceland; Hallow means to reserve as holy.

'''Penhallow, Hunter''' 
127; grandson of Constance; witnessing the destruction of the city, 154; "English painter type" 575; one of the Trespassers? 576; switch to nocturnes, 580; in Venice with Dally, 729; one of his paintings, "The Iron Gateway," hanging in Ca' Spongiatosta, 867; with Dally in London, 892;

'''''permanent siege''''' 
19;

'''perpetual-motion machine''' 
6; Perpetual motion refers to a condition in which an object continues to move indefinitely without being driven by an external source of energy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_motion Wikipedia entry]

'''Peter and Paul Fortress''' 
595; in Russia

'''''pétroleurs'' of Paris''' 
19;

'''P.E.T.N.''' 
182; PETN (''Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate'', also known as ''Penthrite'') is one of the strongest known high explosives, with a relative effectiveness factor (R.E. factor) of 1.66. It is more sensitive to shock or friction than TNT or tetryl, and it is never used alone as a booster; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PETN Wikipedia entry]

'''Peychaud, Monsieur''' 
368; It is said that the Sazerac drink was invented by Antoine Amadie Peychaud, a Creole apothecary who moved to New Orleans from the West Indies and set up shop in the French Quarter in the early 1800s. He dispensed a proprietary mix of aromatic bitters from an old family recipe, to relieve the ails of his clients (Peychaud's Bitters are still made in New Orleans and sold today, and are an essential component of any truly complete bar), and around the 1830s he became famous for a toddy he made for his friends. It consisted of French brandy mixed with his secret blend of bitters, a splash of water and a bit of sugar. According to legend he served his drink in the large end of an egg cup that was called a coquetier in French, and some say that the Americanized pronunciation of this as "cocktail" gave this type of drink its name (unlikely as that may be); ([http://www.gumbopages.com/food/beverages/sazerac.html From The Gumbo Pages. Read on...])

'''Philippe''' 
655; in Swiss Alps, drilling with Reef; alumnus of Petit Roquette child's prison, 658;

'''Philosopher's Stone''' 
77; The philosopher's stone, in Latin ''philosophi lapis'', is a legendary substance that supposedly could turn inexpensive metals such as lead into gold ("chrysopoeia") and/or create an elixir that would make humans younger, thus delaying death. It was a longtime "holy grail" of Western alchemy; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher's_stone Wikipedia entry]

'''Philosophic Mercury''' 
77; Mercury minus "everything not essential"

'''picnic'''
4; 82; 503;

'''Piggot's''' 
678;

'''Pigs''' 
Circe, 117; "pigs can fly" 427; "'''P'''itch '''I'''ntegrity '''G'''uard" 421;

'''Pike's Peak''' 
112; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike%27s_Peak Wikipedia entry]

'''Pinkerton, Allan (1819-1884)''' 
43; Allan Pinkerton was a U.S. detective and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton Agency, the first detective agency.; "The Unsleeping Eye" 51; 112; 171; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Pinkerton Wikipedia entry]

'''''Plafond Luminex''''' 
687;

'''plasmic hysteresis''' 
555;

'''P.L.M.''' 
381; possibly Politico-Legal-Media complex; [[P.L.M. Discussion|DISCUSSION]]

'''Pluto''' 
"Chthonica, Princess of Plutonia," 117; "plutes," 93; "some Plutonian bargain," 154; "plutes," "some ruler of some underwoekd," 231; 362; see also, '''Satan'''

'''''podpol'niki''''' 
663; "underground men" in Russia

'''Polo, Marco (1254-1324)''' 
432; the Venetian, greatest of medieval travellers. Venetian genealogies and traditions of uncertain value trace the Polo family to Sebenico in Dalmatia, and before the end of the 11th century one Domenico Polo is found in the great council of the republic (1094). But the ascertained line of the traveller begins only with his grandfather.

Polo was the first traveller to trace a route across the whole longitude of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after kingdom which he had seen; the first to speak of the new and brilliant court which had been established at Peking; the first to reveal China in all its wealth and vastness, and to tell of the nations on its borders; the first to tell more of Tibet than its name, to speak of Burma, of Laos, of Siam, of Cochin-China, of Japan, of Java, of Sumatra and of other islands of the archipelago, of the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, of Ceylon and its sacred peak, of India but as a country seen and partially explored; the first in medieval times to give any distinct account of the secluded Christian Empire of Abyssinia, and of the semi-Christian island of Sokotra, and to speak, however dimly, of Zanzibar, and of the vast and distant Madagascar; whilst he carries us also to the remotely opposite region of Siberia and the Arctic shores, to speak of dog-sledges, white bears and reindeerriding Tunguses; [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Marco_Polo From the 11th Edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica]; 569;

'''Ponghill, Brad''' 
174; youngest brother of Burke

'''Ponghill, Buddy''' 
174; brother of Burke

'''Ponghill, Burke''' 
172; Editor of the ''Lodazal Weekly Tidings''

'''''Poussin''''' 
590;

'''Poutine''' 
468; little girl in Mayva's ice-cream parlor, Cone Amor; also the name of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine French-Canadian dish].

'''Prandtl, Ludwig''' 
603; Bavarian physicist (1875–1953) who made key contributions to aerodynamics, most famously the discovery of the "boundary layer" (an zone of still air around a moving object, the physical phenomenon behind the dust which accumulates on fan blades).

'''Priest, Judas''' 
656;

'''Prime Number Theorem''' 
590, 597; a theorem giving an approximation to the number of prime numbers less than any given integer ''N.'' The specific theorem most commonly invoked under this name is the result by Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855), who in an 1849 letter to Johann Franz Encke (1791–1865) proved that the number of primes less than ''N'' is approximately given by the integral from 2 to ''N'' of 1 over the natural logarithm of ''x.'' (Earlier, at the age of 15, Gauss had proposed that the number of primes less than ''N'' was approximately ''N'' divided by the natural logarithm of ''N.'') Jacques Hadamard (1865–1963) and Charles De la Vallée Poussin (1866–1962) both proved this result independently in 1896. Knowing this result, one can prove that the ''N''th prime number is roughly ''N'' log ''N,'' for sufficiently large ''N.'' The Riemann hypothesis is equivalent to the assertion that the difference between Gauss's later estimate and the true value is never greater than ''cN''1/2log ''N,'' for some number ''c.'' [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PrimeNumberTheorem.html Wolfram MathWorld entry]

'''''Princess Casamassima, The''''' 
6; an Italian Romance; ''The Princess Casamassima'' is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' in 1885-1886 and then as a book in 1886. It is the story of an intelligent but confused young London bookbinder, Hyacinth Robinson, who becomes involved in radical politics and a terrorist assassination plot. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Casamassima Wikipedia entry]

'''Privett, Nate''' 
24; White City Investigations, 43; in Denver, 179;

'''Propaganda of Deed''' 
81; Propaganda of the deed is an anarchist doctrine that promotes the practical application of anarchist ideas in hopes that such actions will set an example and inspire others. A violent variant of the concept was popular around the world in the late 19th century. According to the 19th century take, it was thought that a spectacular action, such as a political assassination, would ignite a revolutionary fervor among the working classes. Peter Kropotkin, an early proponent of propaganda by the deed, wrote that "A single deed is better propaganda than a thousand pamphlets." [http://www.infoshop.org/wiki/index.php/Propaganda_of_the_deed From the InfoShop Open Wiki]

'''Provecho, Dwayne''' 
379; in cell with Frank Traverse and Ewball; in Mexico, 642;

'''Provenance, Wren''' 
"girl anthropologist" 275; 922;

'''Psitticide''' 
387; the murder of a parrot: (Latin order Psittaciformes = parrot). "The commandante, sensing psitticide in the air, came hurrying up."

'''Pugnax''' 
5; (Latin: ''pugnax'' = fond of fighting) sentient canine aboard ''The Inconvenience''; 17; Also, there's a bird called the Ruff (''Philomachus pugnax'') which is a medium-sized wader; cuisine, 111; 143; Buddha nature, 412; security of ''Inconvenience'' left to, 443; "sophisticated defensive system" 550;

'''Pullman Strike''' 
177; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_strike Wikipedia entry]

'''Pynchon, Edwin''' 
possibly inventor of an airship, the "Albatross"; [[Edwin Pynchon Discussion|DISCUSSION]]

'''Pythagoras''' 
500; Pythagoreans, 633; mathematician, philosopher and mystic (c. 569 BCE–c. 475 BCE). Born in Samos, Ionia, he traveled in Egypt and eventually founded a school in Croton, located in what is now southern Italy. He is the earliest person known to have given a systematic proof of the geometrical proposition now called the Pythagorean Theorem; he or his close followers discovered the irrational numbers and the three-dimensional shape called the [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dodecahedron/ dodecahedron]. Furthermore, Pythagoras coined the term ''cosmos'' to express the order and patterning of nature, was the first to give observations showing that the Earth is spherical, and performed significant early experiments in judging how humans perceive sound. Any of these accomplishments would have earned Pythagoras an honorable place in the history of science, but his behavior and that of his followers contained "deep ironies and contradictions," to use Carl Sagan's phrase. Pythagorean doctrine taught that knowledge should be kept secret from the masses, and moreover that the only way to understand the Cosmos was inner contemplation of mathematical ideas without observation or experiment. This attitude stands in stark contrast to the practical approach of Thales (c. 624 BCE–c. 547), Democritus (c. 460 BCE–c. 370 BCE) and other Ionians who grounded their speculations much more fully in observation. Elaborated and immortalized by Plato (c. 428 BCE–c. 348 BCE), the Pythagorean doctrine became a font of anti-rationalism. [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Pythagoras.html MacTutor biography]

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