M&D/GR intersection (minor M&D spoiler)

[Tod Mahony]

>I noticed another character in M&D that makes somewhat of an appearance
in
>GR....
><scroll down, if interested>
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I haven't gotten that far in _M&D_, but Maskelyne was the Astronomer Royal
and is a key figure in that Dava Sobel book, _Longitude_.  Comes off as a
royal asshole, actually.  I'll join the other listerines who recommended
Sobel's book: it's entertaining and informative, only takes a day or two to
read -- good M&D background.

My Pynchon Moment Of The Day occurred a few minutes ago, when I searched
for "Maskelyne" in DejaNews, and pulled up a post discussing *Jasper*
Maskelyne's WWII camouflage antics (building a 3/4 scale mock-up of
Alexandria which the Germans bombed instead of the city, making the Suez
Canal "disappear", &c.).  The post then went on to describe how double
agents misreported V2 rocket landings, causing the Germans' targetting to
drift away from London.  

All roads lead back to the Zone.  

Tod

>  The astronmer Maskelyne whom the esteemed M&D meet has a crater on the
>moon named after him...
>
>  Franz's daughter while visiting him at the rocket complex (pretty much
>in the middle of GR, sorry I don't have the exact page handy at the
>moment) sez to her dad that she wants to live on the moon and picks a
>lovely crater on the edge of the Sea of Tranquility called "Maskelyne B."
>   I never would have noticed this had I not been midway through a reread
>of GR when M&D came out.  Anyone suppose this is anything more than a
MERE
>coincidence?
>
>  <not as exciting as the Cherrycoke/Bodine appearences, but I thought it
>was interesting>
>
>--will
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