Chapter 14

2009-08-27T06:11:01Z

Echokilo2:

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==Page 235==
'''Kismet'''
means Fate or fortune, but note also the other meanings below connected both to the history of the Vegas strip detailed here and to a certain earlier novel by Mr. Pynchon with "Lot" in the title: 
''Turkish, from Persian qismat; from Arabic qisma, lot; from qasama, to divide.''

'''"page right out of history," as the Flintstones might say''' 
''The Flintstones'' is animated American television sitcom that ran from 1960 to 1966 on ABC, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. ''The Flintstones'' theme begins:

:Flintstones. Meet the Flintstones. 
:They're the modern stone age family. 
:From the town of Bedrock, 
:They're a page right out of history.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s13X66BFd8 Have a listen on YouTube...]

==Page 237==
'''Qiana minidress''' 
Qiana: silky nylon made by DuPont that swept the fashion world in the 1970s.

==Page 238==
'''lines of latitude''' 
Impossible not to think of ''Mason & Dixon'' here.

'''Aimee Semple McPherson-type''' 
Evangelist, very popular in the 20's and 30's, founder of the Foursquare Church.
She's mentioned here because she was allegedly abducted, only to escape several days later and stumble out of the Arizona desert. But her stories had some holes and raised a lot of questions. Read more [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aimee_Semple_Mcpherson#Reported_abduction here].

==Page 244==
'''Casey Kasem's Saturday-morning Shaggy voice''' 
That's right. Legendary radio host [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Kasem Casey Kasem] was the voice of Shaggy on the original ''Scooby Doo'' cartoon, which premiered in 1969. How many Scooby Doo references does this make?

==Page 247==
'''tiptoein through no tulips''' 
Another reference to Tiny Tim.

==Page 248==
'''et cetera et cetera, and so forth as the King of Siam always sez''' 
A reference to the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ''The King & I''.

==Page 251==
'''more space, judging from the outside, than there could possibly be in here.''' 
Remember the house and the carriage from Mason & Dixon?

==Page 254==
'''...Toobfreex at play in the video universe...stubbing it out for good.''' 
Possible statement of the Inherent Vice that closed "this little parenthesis of light", the Psychedelic Sixties?.

'''the tropic isle''' 
"Gilligan's Island" leads, of course, this list of '50s & '60s TV shows

'''the Long Branch Saloon''' 
"Miss Kitty" Russell's saloon in Dodge City, KS in the long-running "Gunsmoke" [http://www.jamesarness.com/gunsmoke.htm more info here]

'''the Starship Enterprise''' 
Captain Kirk's ship on "Star Trek", the cancellation of which sparks protests earlier in the book

'''Hawaiian crime fantasies''' 
"Hawaii Five-0"
[http://www.mjq.net/fiveo/ more info here]

'''cute kids...with invisible audiences''' 
Is there anything more more of a "low level bummer" about television than the laugh track? In later decades, it was sometimes replaced by a live audience, and more recently by comedies with neither.
[http://www.tvparty.com/laugh.html for a defense of the "laugh track"]

'''a slave girl in a bottle''' 
Barbara Eden as Jeannie in "I Dream of Jeannie"
[http://www.idreamofjeannie.com/ coming 11/09 on DVD]

'''and Arnold the Pig''' 
Fred and Doris Zifel's pig on "Green Acres"
[http://www.maggiore.net/greenacres/ more info here]

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Chapter 14