VLVL(6) Ch 11 Notes & Questions 3

[Peter Petto]

206.31  the tallest person in his vicinity - I think this is a reference to
George Washington,-- I'm a big Thomas Jefferson fan, and on excursions with
some of my friends who favor our nation's first father would hammer on what
I see as an important fact: the only reason people followed George around
was because he was very tall (in my mind there is nothing else to recommend
him),-- and it appears that in this case Weed has the same thing going for him

207.16  Yosemite - Yosemite National Park, park in east central California,
established in 1890. Located in the Sierra Nevada range and 3079.3 sq km
(1188.9 sq mi) in area, the park is famous for its spectacular scenery.
Most notable is the magnificent Yosemite Valley, a narrow gorge about 11 km
(about 7 mi) long and 1.6 km (1 mi) wide, through which passes the Merced
River. A group of cataracts plunges from the great precipices of granite
that rise about 1220 m (about 4000 ft) from the valley floor. In addition
to the attractions of Yosemite Valley, the park contains many lofty peaks
of the Sierra Nevada, including Mount Lyell (3997 m/13,114 ft). Yosemite
has a great diversity of vegetation and wildlife.

207.19  Las Nalgas Beach - I couldn't find a beach with this name, and a
assume it's a joke since "las nalgas" is Spanish for "the buttocks"

207.25  Bolshevik Leninist Group of Vietnam - I found a number of Bolshevik
Leninist groups, but none in Vietnam; I'm not conversant with the finer
points of Marxist analysis, but it's my impression that BL means
Trotskyist. I won't say anything about "group" but if it's any help, the
other three words:

Bolshevik: 1.a. A member of the left-wing majority group of the Russian
Social Democratic Workers' Party that adopted Lenin's theses on party
organization in 1903. b. A member of the Russian Social Democratic Workers'
Party that seized power in that country in November 1917. c. A member of a
Marxist-Leninist party or a supporter of one; a Communist. Also called
Bolshevist. 2.Often bolshevik An extreme radical: a literary bolshevik.
[Russian Bol'shevik, from bol'she comparative of bol'shoi, large.]

Leninism: The theory and practice of proletarian revolution as developed by
Lenin.

Vietnam: A country of southeast Asia in eastern Indochina on the South
China Sea. Ruled by China from 221 B.C. to A.D. 939 and from 1407 to 1428,
it was occupied by the French in the 19th century. After the fall of the
French garrison at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, it was partitioned into North
Vietnam and South Vietnam. The country was reunited in July 1976 after the
end of the Vietnam War. Hanoi is the capital and Ho Chi Minh City the
largest city. Population, 52,741,766.

207.26  the Fourth International - a multinational body composed of
Trotskyist organizations that was first formed in opposition to the
policies of the Stalin-dominated Third International, or Comintern. The
idea of a Fourth International was first presented in the late 1920s by
various opponents of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, particularly the
followers of Leon Trotsky. Trotsky at first opposed the idea, but by July
1933, with the victory of Nazism in Germany, he called for a Fourth
International, because he opposed the Comintern's condoning of fascism.
Trotsky also intended the Fourth International to unite the various
anti-Stalinist splinter groups from communist parties around the world. The
formation of the new International was difficult, though, because Stalin's
secret police killed many potential Trotskyists in the period 1934-38, so
that the ranks of the Trotskyist movement were thin. Nevertheless, a
founding conference was held in Périgny, Fr., in 1938; it proclaimed the
Fourth International and adopted a program calling for a broad range of
goals between those of minimum reform (e.g., higher wages, better working
conditions) and those of the maximum program (i.e., the overthrow of
capitalism and the transition to socialism). Trotsky died in 1940, and
after World War II the Fourth International's leadership fell to Michel
Pablo and Ernest Germain, two Belgian Trotskyists. When in 1949 Pablo
predicted "degenerated workers' states for centuries" and, consequently,
called for the dissolution of the International, a factional fight erupted,
culminating in 1953 in the Fourth International's split into two
factions--the International Committee and the International Secretariat,
which supported Pablo. The chief importance of the Fourth International
lies in disseminating information to the many extreme left-wing groups
affiliated to one or another of its fragments. 

207.27  Trotskyist - Follower of the political and economic theories of
Communism advocated by Leon Trotsky and his followers, usually including
the principle of worldwide revolution. The people on the corner selling
Young Spartacus refer to it as "permanent revolution."

207.28  Ho Chi Minh - Vietnamese leader and first president of North
Vietnam (1954-1969). His army was victorious in the French Indochina War
(1946-1954), and he later led North Vietnam's struggle to defeat the
U.S.-supported government in South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh died before the
reunification of Vietnam (1976). Real name Nguyen Tat Thanh.

207.36  lost tribe - The Lost Tribes in Jewish history were ten tribes that
inhabited the kingdom of Israel. Many of the tribes' members were exiled
after Assyria conquered Samaria, capital of Israel, in 722 BC. The fate of
these people is unknown and has been the subject of speculation by
historians and biblical scholars. The speculation has led to theories that
the tribes traveled to prehistoric North and South America, or that they
became the ancestors of various Hindu castes. Other theories have located
the lost tribes in Ethiopia, Afghanistan, China, and Japan. Some scholars
maintain that the tribes were assimilated with their captors.

208.14  Talleyrand - Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord 1754-1838
French politician and diplomat known for his capacity to survive political
change. He held a variety of public offices during the French Revolution,
Napoleon's reign, the Bourbon restoration, and the reign of Louis Philippe.

208.17  the notorious XERB - sixties border radio station broadcasting into
the US from Tijuana, Mexico with 50,000 watts (FCC illegal); "You could
drive coast to coast across America and never lose the music, an eclectic
mix of rock, rhythm-and-blues, and just plain weirdness. They introduced an
entire generation to free form, no-holds-barred radio."; one of the early
homes of Wolfman Jack (although he did his raunchier stuff from XERF,
across the river from Del Rio, Texas -- love potions and roach clips;
currently the station is broadcasting as XPRS(?)

208.21  innocent festivity ruled...not much by Berkeley or Columbia
standards - a reference to student uprisings at the University of
California at Berkeley (Mario Savio & the free speech movement?) and
Columbia University in NYC (Mark ??),-- covering both coasts

209.13  the one constant they knew they could count on never to die, The
People's Republic of Rock and Roll - a comic reference to another slogan:
"rock and roll will never die" -- a retort by the young to the parents'
dismissal of this music as a flash in the pan