MDMD(1): Questions

[andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk]

MDMD(1) Questions

5.12 `sawbuck table' trestle table? (sawbuck = sawhorse)

5.13 `Second-Street'?

7.23 `Philadelphia Pudding' ?

8.16 `a parsonickal Disguise' implying that Wicks is not really a
clergyman? Note how he claims that he should have been hanged and
resurrected to justify his current `parsonickal' appearance. Perhaps
the suggestion is that the only person fit to give moral, spiritual
and/or religious guidance is Christ.

12.18/20 `Mr Dollond' `Mr Eldicot' `Sector by your Mr Bird' any idea
who these are?  Also what is a Sector?

15.10 `The Bridport Dagger' Bridport is a coastal village in
Dorset. Any idea why it has a dagger?

15.31 `Motrix' = matrix (this spelling is repeated several times)

21.19 `Cooch Girls' from couche? Or couch? Or are they hoochie-coochie
girls!

22.14 `'Tis the Age of Reason, rrrf? There is ever an explanation at
hand, and no such thing as a talking Dog.' Maybe but we don't get an
explanation. `What there are, however, are Provisions for Survival in
a World less fantastick.' Does this imply that Mason & Dixon is a
survival manual? Or does it mean that the function of Rationalism is
to ensure survival at the cost of fantasy?

24.17 `Portsmouth Polls' prostitutes?

25.8 `Three-Threads' ???

25.14 `Euphroe' ???

25.15 `Hepsie' `Pythoness' latter after oracle at Delphi the former is
a traditional name for a witch, no?

25.21 `Hyperthrenia' P's invention Threnos/Threne = song of
lamentation (as in Lamentations of Jeremiah)

27.8 `Hawke' `Quiberon Bay' reference to war against French in Canada
perhaps?  Anyone know the full details

28.1 Mast-Pond Brigade' ???

28.8 `Paoli's revolt' ???

31.15 `the great Selim' any idea who this horse was?

32.18/20 `Mr Mead' `Mr White' members of the Royal Society?

38.33 `Ancestor of Troubles' meaning the C of E? any source for this

38.36 `Fox's Advice' John Fox?

39.25 `France is not at war with the sciences' is this a real or
made-up quote? Any source

41.1 `I have not yet begun to fight' `There's something wrong with our
damn'd ships today, Chatfield' real or made up? Sources?

41.13 `Where I less of a cheery Lad [. . .]' `It has occured to me.'
Justifiable paranoia?  (if that is not a contradiction in terms)