Henry Musikar asks: >Isn't "ento" some sorta italien suffix? Sorrento? Divertimento? >I think the P-man's making up words again. &-and that "sf" is a >rather unusual start for a word. Not so unusual. But as you say, Pynchon may have been inventing an Italian-sounding word to go with the "sfacim" joke. As far as I know, "sfacelo" is the Italian for "decay, ruin, decline." Vaska