Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Chapter 21

2010-08-08T06:29:39Z

Dalbert: /* Page 366 */ CRT

{{Inherent Vice PbP Text}}

==Page 364==
'''. . . the Lakers would lose Game 7 of the finals to the Knicks''' 
Friday, May 8, 1970. The final score was Knicks 113, Lakers 99. This means that the novel ends on Pynchon's 33rd birthday, a nice way to underscore the semi-autobiographical nature of ''Inherent Vice''. Furthermore, this situates the ending of the novel just four days after the Kent State Massacre on May 4, 1970 - yet another way of telling us that the beach is being paved over and that the sixties have come to an end. Btw, it's working backwards from this certain time-marker of May 8th and using other time-markers noted in the Wiki chapter annotations that tells us that events in parts of chapter 16 and all of chapter 17 must take place during an "extra" day outside of chronological time in the novel (see chapter 16, p. 281 notes).

==Page 365==
'''Ones and zeros''' 
Binary code, the language of computers. Also mentioned in ''Vineland'' (pp. 90 and 115) and in ''Crying of Lot 49''.

==Page 366==
'''Tubular, dude''' 
A nice pun. "Tubular," in surfer slang, means something like "awesome" or "cool." It refers to the tubes or curls of the waves. But in the context here with Doc and Sparky, the tubes in question are vacuum tubes, which were used on computers (and radios and TVs and speakers) before transistors. An anachronism on Doc's part, no? For after 1947 and the invention of the transistor, vaccuum tubes were no longer common in computer design.

Computer monitors of that era often used cathode ray tubes (CRT's). Television sets also used them, which is why TV is called "The Tube".

'''Pizza Man''' 
[http://www.pizzamandelivers.com/ Pizza Man]--He Delivers - since 1964

'''for a while went through the exercise''' 
As Riggs Warbling drinks margaritas "without going through the exercise of pouring anything into a glass" on page 62.

==Page 367==
'''Doc got on the Santa Monica Freeway''' 
Doc Sportello isn't the only character taking a drive rather than turning in tonight. On May 8, 1970, Richard Nixon went public in a news conference about the war spreading to Cambodia. That night, at 4 A.M., the President called Manolo Sanchez, his valet, and asked him if he had ever seen the Lincoln Memorial at night. So, off went the (possibly a little unhinged) President, his valet, and a too-small Secret Service contingent. Nixon had an impromptu "rap session" with 8 protesters at the Memorial. As 8 turned to 30 and then 50 protesters, the Secret Service became "petrified". After about an hour, President Nixon took his valet on a tour of the Capitol. You can read about it (and get the text of Nixon's press conference)

[http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=2496 here in the italics at the bottom of the page.] 

Nixon's presence in this scene is even stronger if you consider Doc's drive to be a wormhole into the conclusion of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. In IV, '''Doc got on the Santa Monica Freeway, and about the time he was making the transition to the San Diego southbound.''' In GR, Richard M. Zhlubb (according to Steven Weisenburger in ''A Gravity's Rainbow Companion'', Richard Nixon "circa 1970") takes a reporter on a drive '''on the freeways. Near the interchange of the San Diego and the Santa Monica''' (GR p. 755). 
That makes two Nixons, one real and one fictional, out for a drive with Doc.

There is one passage in the speech that Nixon gave that day which can be read as Nixon announcing a domestic espionage program of the sort described in Vineland and intimated in Gravity's Rainbow and Inherent Vice. It surely would have borne scrutiny from any paranoid, professional or otherwise. Nixon is responding to a question about the Kent State killings:

"If there is one thing I am personally committed to, it is this: I saw the pictures of those four youngsters in the Evening Star the day after that tragedy, and I vowed then that we were going to find methods that would be more effective to deal with these problems of violence, methods that would deal with those who would use force and violence and endanger others, but, at the same time, would not take the lives of innocent people."

==Page 368==
'''Fapardokly's triple-tongued highway classic "Super Market," ordinarily ideal for driving through L.A.''' 
Better drive quick because the song is only a little over two minutes long. Listen to a clip at [http://www.amazon.com/Fapardokly/dp/B000003GYO/ Amazon] from Fapardokly's self-titled album. More info on the band leader at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fapardokly Wikipedia.] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonguing Triple-tonging] is a wind instrument technique used for playing rapid notes. I have no idea of the trumpet on the record is actually employing triple-tongue articulation, though the playing is pretty fast.

==Pages 368/369==

'''Gordita Beach Exit''' 
On the last two pages of ''Inherent Vice'', Doc Sportello is on the Santa Monica freeway which then merges onto the San Diego, heading south:

'''Doc figured if he missed the Gordita Beach exit he'd take the first one whose sign he could read and work his way back on surface streets. He knew that at Rosecrans the freeway began to dogleg east, and at some point, Hawthorne Boulevard or Artesia, he'd lose the fog.''' 

This series of street names and off-ramps points to Manhattan Beach where Pynchon wrote much of [http://gravitysrainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] while living in a tiny beach apartment in the north end of the city around between 1967-1971. The Manhattan Beach Boulevard exit to Doc house would Rosecrans . The Artesia exit is after Hawthorne. [http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&ei=JoxrSo7SGY2CsgPN_LSXBQ&resnum=0&q=Manhattan+beach+california&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us Google Maps]; [http://www.theaesthetic.com/NewFiles/pynchon.html Much more about Pynchon in Manhattan Beach...]

Though Doc Sportello shares some qualities with Zoyd Wheeler of ''Vineland'', contrast Doc's reaction to driving in fog with Zoyd's, when Zoyd and other members of the "Corvairs" "surfadelic" band "play motorhead valley roulette," speeding into patches of ground fog hoping that "the white passage held no other vehicles, no curves, no construction, only smooth, level, empty roadway to an indefinite distance--a motorhead variation on a surfer's dream" ([http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_4#Page_37 ''Vineland '' page 37]).

In addition to the tule fog just mentioned, ''Vineland'' also describes a gigantic fog bank in Hollywood caused when the film community simultaneously opens its refrigerators and flushes its drugs down the toilet in fear of the Reagan administration ([http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_15#Page_339 ''Vineland'' page 339]). All of these fogs signify the obscurity of the future.

'''For the fog to burn away, and for something else this time, somehow, to be there instead.''' 
The endings of Pynchon's novels have justifiably become famous, and these final paragraphs about driving through the fog, capped by this heart-breaking sentence-fragment, will be no exception.

Reminiscent of, and comparable to, the magnificent ending of James Joyce's "The Dead" ("snow was general all over Ireland...").

{{Inherent Vice PbP}}

Chapter 21

2010-06-15T20:59:30Z

Dalbert: /* Pages 368/369 */ More fog in Vineland

{{Inherent Vice PbP Text}}

==Page 364==
'''. . . the Lakers would lose Game 7 of the finals to the Knicks''' 
Friday, May 8, 1970. The final score was Knicks 113, Lakers 99. This means that the novel ends on Pynchon's 33rd birthday, a nice way to underscore the semi-autobiographical nature of ''Inherent Vice''. Furthermore, this situates the ending of the novel just four days after the Kent State Massacre on May 4, 1970 - yet another way of telling us that the beach is being paved over and that the sixties have come to an end.

==Page 365==
'''Ones and zeros''' 
Binary code, the language of computers. Also mentioned in ''Vineland'' (pp. 90 and 115) and in ''Crying of Lot 49''.

==Page 366==
'''Tubular, dude''' 
A nice pun. "Tubular," in surfer slang, means something like "awesome" or "cool." It refers to the tubes or curls of the waves. But in the context here with Doc and Sparky, the tubes in question are vacuum tubes, which were used on computers (and radios and TVs and speakers) before transistors.

'''Pizza Man''' 
[http://www.pizzamandelivers.com/ Pizza Man]--He Delivers - since 1964

'''for a while went through the exercise''' 
As Riggs Warbling drinks margaritas "without going through the exercise of pouring anything into a glass" on page 62.

==Page 367==
'''Doc got on the Santa Monica Freeway''' 
Doc Sportello isn't the only character taking a drive rather than turning in tonight. On May 8, 1970, Richard Nixon went public in a news conference about the war spreading to Cambodia. That night, at 4 A.M., the President called Manolo Sanchez, his valet, and asked him if he had ever seen the Lincoln Memorial at night. So, off went the (possibly a little unhinged) President, his valet, and a too-small Secret Service contingent. Nixon had an impromptu "rap session" with 8 protesters at the Memorial. As 8 turned to 30 and then 50 protesters, the Secret Service became "petrified". After about an hour, President Nixon took his valet on a tour of the Capitol. You can read about it (and get the text of Nixon's press conference)

[http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=2496 here in the italics at the bottom of the page.] 

Nixon's presence in this scene is even stronger if you consider Doc's drive to be a wormhole into the conclusion of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. In IV, '''Doc got on the Santa Monica Freeway, and about the time he was making the transition to the San Diego southbound.''' In GR, Richard M. Zhlubb (according to Steven Weisenburger in ''A Gravity's Rainbow Companion'', Richard Nixon "circa 1970") takes a reporter on a drive '''on the freeways. Near the interchange of the San Diego and the Santa Monica''' (GR p. 755). 
That makes two Nixons, one real and one fictional, out for a drive with Doc.

There is one passage in the speech that Nixon gave that day which can be read as Nixon announcing a domestic espionage program of the sort described in Vineland and intimated in Gravity's Rainbow and Inherent Vice. It surely would have borne scrutiny from any paranoid, professional or otherwise. Nixon is responding to a question about the Kent State killings:

"If there is one thing I am personally committed to, it is this: I saw the pictures of those four youngsters in the Evening Star the day after that tragedy, and I vowed then that we were going to find methods that would be more effective to deal with these problems of violence, methods that would deal with those who would use force and violence and endanger others, but, at the same time, would not take the lives of innocent people."

==Page 368==
'''Fapardokly's triple-tongued highway classic "Super Market," ordinarily ideal for driving through L.A.''' 
Better drive quick because the song is only a little over two minutes long. Listen to a clip at [http://www.amazon.com/Fapardokly/dp/B000003GYO/ Amazon] from Fapardokly's self-titled album. More info on the band leader at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fapardokly Wikipedia.] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonguing Triple-tonging] is a wind instrument technique used for playing rapid notes. I have no idea of the trumpet on the record is actually employing triple-tongue articulation, though the playing is pretty fast.

==Pages 368/369==

'''Gordita Beach Exit''' 
On the last two pages of ''Inherent Vice'', Doc Sportello is on the Santa Monica freeway which then merges onto the San Diego, heading south:

'''Doc figured if he missed the Gordita Beach exit he'd take the first one whose sign he could read and work his way back on surface streets. He knew that at Rosecrans the freeway began to dogleg east, and at some point, Hawthorne Boulevard or Artesia, he'd lose the fog.''' 

This series of street names and off-ramps points to Manhattan Beach where Pynchon wrote much of [http://gravitysrainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] while living in a tiny beach apartment in the north end of the city around between 1967-1971. The Manhattan Beach Boulevard exit to Doc house would Rosecrans . The Artesia exit is after Hawthorne. [http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&ei=JoxrSo7SGY2CsgPN_LSXBQ&resnum=0&q=Manhattan+beach+california&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us Google Maps]; [http://www.theaesthetic.com/NewFiles/pynchon.html Much more about Pynchon in Manhattan Beach...]

Though Doc Sportello shares some qualities with Zoyd Wheeler of ''Vineland'', contrast Doc's reaction to driving in fog with Zoyd's, when Zoyd and other members of the "Corvairs" "surfadelic" band "play motorhead valley roulette," speeding into patches of ground fog hoping that "the white passage held no other vehicles, no curves, no construction, only smooth, level, empty roadway to an indefinite distance--a motorhead variation on a surfer's dream" ([http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_4#Page_37 ''Vineland '' page 37]).

In addition to the tule fog just mentioned, ''Vineland'' also describes a gigantic fog bank in Hollywood caused when the film community simultaneously opens its refrigerators and flushes its drugs down the toilet in fear of the Reagan administration ([http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_15#Page_339 ''Vineland'' page 339]). All of these fogs signify the obscurity of the future.

'''For the fog to burn away, and for something else this time, somehow, to be there instead.''' 
The endings of Pynchon's novels have justifiably become famous, and these final paragraphs about driving through the fog, capped by this heart-breaking sentence-fragment, will be no exception.

Reminiscent of, and comparable to, the magnificent ending of James Joyce's "The Dead" ("snow was general all over Ireland...").

{{Inherent Vice PbP}}

Chapter 9

2010-06-10T18:39:33Z

Dalbert: /* Page 138 */ Add Vineland ref

{{Inherent Vice PbP Text}}

==Page 124==
'''headed up to Topanga that afternoon''' 
Afternoon, the ninth day of the narrative, Wednesday, April 1, 1970.

'''Stone Turntable''' 
The name is presumably intended to be a jokey reference to Rolling Stone: a stone turntable being not a rolling stone, but a rotating one. It also suggests the phrase "no stone unturned", which is appropriate both to journalism and detective work.

==Page 125==
'''Jurgensen's''' 
Jurgensen's was an upscale, gourmet grocery store with locations in Beverly Hills, Pasadena, and throughout greater LA.

'''porte cochere''' 
Porch-like structure on the entrance of a building, large enough for vehicles, horses, and carriages to pass through, providing shelter from the weather.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porte-cochere Wikipedia]

[[File:Hokusai.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Great Wave off Kanagawa, image from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa Wikipedia]]]
'''Hokusai's famous ''Great Wave off Kanagawa''''' 
a famous woodblock print. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa Wikipedia]
<div style="clear:both"></div>

==Page 126==
'''uncountableth''' 
In mathematics, "uncountable" is used to describe the size of infinite sets larger than the set of natural numbers. Pynchon's use of the word here is deliberately oxymoronic. See also the reference to George Cantor further in the same paragraph.

'''the Boards...''' 
As the surf band that makes it big, the Boards suggest the Beach Boys. Pynchon himself once visited the home of Brian Wilson in Beverly Hills. See [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pynchon_and_Brian_Wilson Pynchon and Brian Wilson]. Perhaps this chapter drew some inspiration from that visit?

'''Cantor's Delicatessen''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Cantor Georg Cantor] (1845-1918) was a German mathematician who pioneered the subject of set theory, now at the foundation of all modern mathematics. He proved that there are different sizes of infinity - for example, the set of natural numbers is smaller than the set of real numbers, though both sets are infinite. The name of the restaurant is a play on the real [http://www.cantersdeli.com/ Canter's Deli] in Los Angeles, established 1931.

==Page 127==
'''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_dick Spotted Dick]''' 
Spotted Dick is a suet pudding served in England. Possibly a parody of British band Cream.

'''[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_762505728/general_pause.html General Pause]''' 
A musical rest during which the entire ensemble remains silent.

==Page 128==
'''''Dark Shadows''. . . The Collins family . . . parallel time''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Shadows ''Dark Shadows''] was an innovative TV show in the late 1960's and early 70's that focuses on the Collins family. The show included many Gothic elements, including vampires, zombies, and witches. It also played with time travel and parallel universes in which the same character would be played by different actors or the same actor would play different characters.

In both parallel time storylines (1970 and 1840), one or more characters went to a specific room in Collinwood which shifted periodically from one universe to the other, so if you were in the room at the wrong (right) time, suddenly you were surrounded by people who looked like the people you knew (played by the same actors), but had different personalities, different relationships, and sometimes different names.

If this is April 1, 1970, here's a plot summary of today's show from [http://www.darkshadows.com/cgi-bin/eplist.pl?ep=983 darkshadows.com], all in parallel time today:

:Daniel plans to drive Maggie out of Collinwood. Quentin tells Chris to make sure Bruno Hess, another loyal friend of Angelique, is kicked off the estate. Daniel frightens Maggie by having Amy hum a tune, making it sound like it was coming from Angelique's portrait; Amy later tells Daniel that she did not make the humming sound.

'''parallel time''' 
This paragraph ''may'' be a coded reference to Pynchon's own [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page Against the Day] and its reception. ''Against the Day'' features parallel universes/time (?) and confounded readers nation- (and world-)wide. This interpretation may be a stretch.

In [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''V.''] Pynchon talks about [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mirror_Time "Mirror Time"]:

:"Rachel was looking into the mirror at an angle of 45°, and so had a view of the face turned toward the room and the face on the other side, reflected in the mirror; here were time and reverse-time, co-existing, cancelling one another exactly out. Were there many such reference points, scattered through the world, perhaps only at nodes like this room which housed a transient population of the imperfect, the dissatisfied [...]" ([http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mirror_Time ''V.'', p.46])

'''Hanon''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanon Hanon] was a 19th-century French piano teacher and composer. He's most famous for developing exercises for piano students.

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virtuoso_Pianist_in_60_Exercises exercises], rather than the guy who wrote them, are the primary focus of the reference. These are the basic finger exercises that almost everyone who took piano played for some period, and almost everyone who has had a family member who took piano listend to over and over for seemingly endless periods. They're basically short, hurried, unmelodic scales that work up and down the keyboard without any regard for key. The more advanced exercises feature 4th- and 5th-finger repetitions and trills that are about as pleasant to listen to as a skipping record. They would sound particularly silly on a portable Farfisa, and practicing them on a Farfisa would be strange, as the instrument, unlike a piano, has soft organ keys with virtually no action.

An [http://www.upload-mp3.com/files/84678_nuehq/HanonFarfisa.mp3 MP3] of Hanon's Exercise 1 played on a Farfisa (actually a synthesizer emulating a Farfisa).

'''Farfisa''' 
One of the first electric keyboards/organs used in rock 'n' roll. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farfisa Wikipedia entry...] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkvK638yKuY "Ninety-six Tears" by ? & the Mysterians] is a classic example of the Farfisa sound, as is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O6x_m4zvFs&feature=fvw "Light My Fire" by the Doors].

==Page 130==
'''George Formby''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Formby,_Jr. George Formby, Jr.] performed "Leaning on a Lamppost" (written by Noel Gay) which Herman's Hermits covered. Tyrone Slothrop, protagonist of ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is described as "sort of an American George Formby, if you can imagine such a thing." Obvious influence on "The Bonzo Dog Band." Here's a video of George Formby singing [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEymZ3rXOmc Leaning On A Lamp Post.]

==Page 131==
'''Donna Lee''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Lee Donna Lee], way more than Coy's usual 1 or 2 note solos.

'''abrazo''' 
Spanish for hug.

==Page 132==
'''third ballet position''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positions_of_the_feet_in_ballet here]

'''louche''' 
Of questionable taste or morality; decadent.

==Page 133==
[[File:Example.jpg|thumb|right|1949 Mercury Woodie [http://www.pbase.com/xl1ken/image/3748891 © Ken Leonard] used with permission]]
'''1949 Mercury woodie''' 
''The Mod Squad'' drove a Mercury woodie, either a '49 or '50.

==Page 134==
'''no longer saw the headlights''' 
Evening, the ninth day of the narrative, Wednesday, April 1, 1970.

==Page 135==
'''hoddible''' 
The way an old-movie society lady might pronounce "horrible"

==Page 138==
'''van Houten, Leslie''' 
b. 1949. A former member of Charles Manson's "Family" who was convicted of the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. She remains imprisoned at the California Institution for Women in Chino, San Bernadino County, California.

'''did he happen to catch the game with Phoenix''' 
Daytime, the tenth day of the narrative, Thursday, April 2, 1970. Doc is probably referring to the second game of the Western Conference playoffs. The Lakers beat Phoenix 114-101 on March 29. Again, Pynchon has anchored the text in real time by referring to an NBA playoff game.

This is probably as good a time as any to mention that the 69-70 NBA season was a big one for Lakers fans. Bill Russell had just retired as a player, after leading the Celtics to 11 of the last 13 championships. Finally, other teams would have a shot at the title. The Lakers thought that the title would be theirs. Unfortunately for Lakers fans, so did the Knicks.

Pynchon also uses Lakers games in [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_15#Page_377 ''Vineland'']. He depicts the 1984 NBA Finals via a TV-movie rather than live, in keeping with ''Vineland's'' themes and its late summer 1984 timeline.

'''Upstairs, Bigfoot, strangely jumpy today''' 
The '''today''' is what identifies this as Daytime, the tenth day of the narrative, Thursday, April 2, 1970.

==Page 140==
'''a hippie belief of the moment''' 
I don't know about the magazine articles, but this rumor was making the rounds at just about this time. It is odd, however, that Bigfoot's addiction to, and supply of, chocolate-covered frozen bananas is described in such detail here, and then is never mentioned again in the novel.

'''--not logical, Captain''' 
Star Trek reference, a phrase often spoken by Spock to Kirk.

==Page 141==
[[File:Triumph_Bonneville_T120.jpg|thumb|right|Triumph Bonneville T120, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Bonneville_T120 Wikipedia]]]
'''Triumph Bonneville T120'''

[[File:Kawasaki_Mach_III.jpg|thumb|right|Kawasaki Mach III, photo by [http://www.flickr.com/photos/optikalblitz/2447598991/ optikal / Creative Commons]]] 
'''Kawasaki Mach III'''

==Page 142==
'''Around lunchtime, next day''' 
Midday, the eleventh day of the narrative, Friday, April 3, 1970.

'''Sinvergüenza''' 
Spanish for "scoundrel" or "rogue."

==Page 143==
'''SS396''' 
[http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Cars_mentioned_in_Inherent_Vice#SS396 Photo]

==Page 144==
'''esta gente no sabe nada''' 
Spanish for "these people know nothing."

==Page 145==
'''hijo de puta''' 
Spanish for "son of a bitch."

'''otra vez''' 
Spanish for "again/one more time."

'''Looking forward to a peaceful morning in the office''' 
Morning, the twelfth day of the narrative, Saturday, April 4, 1970.

==Page 146==
'''"Cootie food!'''" 
What Doc means is "le coup de foudre," aka "bolt of lightning." This echos Reef's 'rounder Italian'; "Say surly topple!" he would scream..." (page 889) from [[Against the Day]]. 
The English meaning, if it has one, and the explanation for Clancy Charlock's response to Doc, is unclear. It may perhaps refer to the childish fear of being infected by a sort of imaginary germ borne by the opposite sex and known as "cooties," which - possibly - makes a member of the opposite sex whom you touch "cootie food." Or, it could just be a very idiosyncratic reference to oral sex. 

Another possibility is that Doc, whose French is likely weaker than his Spanish, memorized the phrase phonetically as "cootie food", since he would not have known the spelling when it was told to him. Assuming Clancy understands French, or at least this particular idiom, her reply is fairly natural.

The phrase is apparently used - at least in the South, and not commonly - to refer to unappetizing or unclean food.

Cooties is slang for crabs or lice.

==Page 147==
'''Now, Voyager (1942)''' 
from Wikipedia: Now, Voyager is a 1942 American drama film directed by Irving Rapper. The screenplay by Casey Robinson is based on the 1941 novel of the same name by Olive Higgins Prouty, who borrowed her title from a line in the Walt Whitman poem "The Untold Want," which reads in its entirety, "The untold want by life and land ne'er granted, / Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find." Bette Davis' portrayal garnered her an Academy Award nomination, and the film continues to be popular not only due to its star power but also the "emotional crescendos" engendered in the storyline.

The film includes the line: "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon... we have the stars."

The film's romantic smoke sequence, repeated during the film and much parodied, featured Paul Henried placing two cigarettes in his lips, lighting them both, then handing one to Bette Davis. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-KGiwGn1d8 YouTube]

==Page 148==
'''That night Doc met Clancy''' 
Evening, the twelfth day of the narrative, Saturday, April 4, 1970.

'''Zubin Mehta''' 
A famous conductor, Zubin Mehta was the Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, 1962-1978. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zubin_Mehta]

'''massé shots''' 
In billiards, a massé shot is when a player strikes a ball with the cue at a sharp angle and causes the ball to curve drastically or even eventually reverse direction. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ly8Ee_7jM Here's an example.] Some pool halls (like this one) forbid this kind of shot because it often leads to scratching or tearing of the felt.

==Page 151==
'''forget the Smith''' 
Doc is presumably referring to the revolver in his ankle holser, which Boris rather obviously noticed a few lines earlier ("glancing quickly down in the direction of Doc's ankle rig"). "Smith" is short for "Smith & Wesson."

==Page 153==
'''"Happy Trails to You"''' 
Besides the reference to Roy Roger's theme song, this phrase is a favorite double entendre among those who use psychedelic drugs. "Acid trails" are a common hallucination produced by LSD.

Also the title (and last track) of the 1968, "live", genre-defining, acid-rock album by the Quicksilver Messenger Service [http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1108947/a/Happy+Trails.htm]

{{Inherent Vice PbP}}