No Spoiler Here

[David Casseres]

davemarc sez
>"You may recall the Henry C. Work song: "Grandfather's Clock", in which a
>great deal of personality is ascribed to the clock."

Wow, this makes you the third person I actually know by name who has 
heard of Henry Clay Work.  (The other two are a friend who educated me 
about HCW, and myself).  Maybe he's well-known in some academic circle I 
never ran into?  Work's songs are some of the truest popular Americana of 
the 19th century.  Work's "Year of Jubilo" was handed down to me by my 
grandfather, who said he got it from his grandfather who fought in the 
Civil War -- but my grandfather, a vastly well-read man in many things, 
had no idea who wrote it.  "Grandfather's Clock" is probably his only 
song to remain well-known today, though back in the late 40's Burl Ives 
recorded "Nicodemus the Slave" and it had some popularity among folkies.

Nope, no Pynchon relevance unless someone else provides it.  Except to 
remark that Work is the sort of figure I wouldn't be surprised to find 
somewhere, some way, in some future Pynchon novel (or even a past one 
that I thought I had read thoroughly).


Cheers,
David