GRGR(12)NOTES (4)

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

GR.251.17  WRAC secretaries ?

GR.252.4 S-Great, 11/00000 (black device)
All V-2 rockets were given five-digit serial numbers,
(Weisenburger, Huzel) The first number was apparently
17,001. 

GR.252.14 London Times
Weisenburger dates the Times London as Tuesday, April 24,
1945 and surmises that the scene takes place in late April,
perhaps the 30th. Pynchon apparently changes the Garland
film from  "Under the Clock" to "Meet me in St. Louis."
Tantivy is reported dead? "Closed up his file."

GR.253.10 to Nice
.down the Corniche through the mountains
A three-tiered system of scenic motor roads (called the
Corniches) runs
between Nice and the Italian frontier at Menton.
The highest is Grande Corniche, constructed by
Napoleon I, emperor of France, to replace the
Roman road; it passes the picturesque village of La
Turbie and overlooks Monaco from a height of
more than 1,400 feet (427 m). The lowest is
Corniche, built in the 19th century by a prince of
Monaco, which connects the coastal resorts. The
middle road, opened in 1939, was created for the
tourist industry and passes by the perched village of
Èze. Zoyd makes a similar escape on switchbacking roads in
VL.  

GR.253.15 black Citreon with a key left in
major French automobile manufacturer, the founder
of which, André-Gustave Citroën, introduced
mass-production methods to the French auto
industry. In France, three major firms-- Peugeot, Renault,
and
Citroën--emerged in the 1920s. Citroën accounted
for 40 percent of French automotive production in
1925, but had reached that dominating position at
the cost of financial stability. When André Citroën
died before the decade ended, his company came
into the hands of Michelin Tire.

GR.253.19 Place Garibaldi
Named for Guiseppe Garibaldi. Italian patriot and soldier of
the
Risorgimento, a republican who, by his conquest of Sicily
and Naples
with his guerrilla "Redshirts," contributed to the
achievement of Italian unification
under the royal House of Savoy.

GR.253.20 La porte Fausse
False or excavated port. Weisenburger notes the accuracy of
Pynchon's geographical references here.

GR.253.33 the Rue Rossini
Named for Gioacchino Rossini. Italian composer noted for his
operas, particularly
his comic operas, of which The Barber of Seville
(1816), Cinderella (1817), and Semiramide (1823)
are among the best known. Of his later, larger scale
dramatic operas, the most widely heard is William
Tell (1829). Rossini music is playing at the Casino earlier
and later will appear again vs Beethoven.

GR.254.33 braided leather sap
A weapon, sock with pebbles or sand

GR.254.38  Borsalini
Borsalino: a black felt hat

GR.257.35 Zurich, Hotel Nimbus
.Niederdorf, Limmatquai, 
Nimbus is probably fictional, Niederdorf is in central
Zurich.
in northeastern Switzerland, with an area of
668 sq mi (1,729 sq km), The terrain consists of shallow
river
valleys draining northward toward the Rhine and
separated by ridges trending northwest to southeast.
The most important valley is that of the Linth, which
expands into Lake Zürich and is continued as the
Limmat. East of the lake, separated by successively
higher ridges, are the valleys of the Glatt, which
flows through the lake called Greifensee, and the
more gorgelike Töss, separated from the
Toggenburg (valley) by a ridge along the east
boundary that reaches 3,717 ft (1,133 m) at the
Hörnli. West of the lake is the valley of the Sihl,
bounded farther west by the Albis Range, with
Albishorn (3,002 ft) as its highest point. 

GR.258.3 lieder 
Songs

GR.258.4 gentian brandy
French and Swiss liqueur distilled from the roots of gentian
plants; also called Enzian.

258.9 Moxie

Mass marketing is not new to the '90s. Long before
                Coca Cola and Pepsi dominated the world
market--114
                years ago, in fact--Moxie, a soft drink
whose
                popularity rivaled even our beloved colas of
today,
                was born. Moxie-mania infested the whole
country.
                Moxieland became a  major Boston tourist
                attraction. To "have a lot of Moxie" came to
mean
"to be spunky." 

                Legend had it that after the Civil War,
Lieutenant
                Moxie went down to the unexplored jungles of
South
                America. There, he discovered a starchy
plant known
                to locals to have great powers, which tasted
like
                asparagus. Despite the fact that there was
no such
                starchy plant, and never a Mr. Moxie, the
story became
                urban legend. The real story is that in
1884, Dr.
                Augustin Thompson of Union, Maine founded
the first
                Moxie plant. He said that whoever drank
Moxie would
                be overcome by a "durable, vigorous
feeling." Word
                soon began to spread regarding a
                strange new medicine that was
                guaranteed to cure almost any
                ailment, including loss of manhood,
                paralysis, and softening of the brain.
                By the early 20th century, the "Nerve Food"
was
                carbonated and merchandised so brilliantly
that
                "Moxie" not only became a household word,
but also
                became a precedent for successful marketing
scams for
                years to come.

                Moxie became synonymous with good times. The
                Moxie logo was slapped on every kid's toy,
piano roll,
                recording, and piece of silverware. There
was Moxie
                Candy, Moxie ice cream, Moxie collectibles,
and in
                the late '20s, Moxieland was built in
Boston.
                Moxieland became an overnight success, and
it was
                visited by celebrity spokespersons like Ted
Williams,
                George M. Cohan and Ed Wynn. After World War
II,
                Coca Cola erupted from the fountains of
America's
                soda shops. Moxieland closed, and the
company
                settled into New England obscurity. Today,
Moxie is
                made by only a few bottlers and can be found
only in
                local supermarkets. In "The Secret
Integration" the kids have 
a case of Moxie, well actually they 
	they used one bottle to christen their boat and they drank
one 
bottle to celebrate a secret integration, so they have a
case shy two.


GR.258.26-27  Ultra Lichtspiel, Straggeli
Fictional night-clubs. Grimm (934) notes that at "some place
in switzerland the straggeli goes about on the Ember Night,
Wednesday before Christmas, afflicting young girls that have
not finished their day's spinning." The word means
"specter," a "play of light" (or Lichtspiel); in the same
context, "Ultra" refers to the very high frequency light
waves in any spectrum of illumination. 

GR.258.32 rosti
German fired potato

Gr.258.37 seracs
Glacial ice pinnacles in the Swiss Alps

GR.261.4 indole people
Folks who work with indole, a white powdered coal-tar
derivative with various pharmacological uses-preparing LSD,
for example.  

GR.261.17 the Uetilberg
Sotheast of Zurich, an hour away by tram, a peak rising to
an altitude of 874 meters.

GR.261.29 the Gemuse-Bruke
The "Vegetable Gridge" but not named in Baedeker, did
Pynchon invent the name?

GR.262.5 William Tell Overture
See Rossini above, also Lone Ranger theme music

GR.262.11 the Luisenstrasse

Street in Northwest industrial center of Zurich

GR262.35 the Odeon
"singing place" Café hangout--Joyce, Trotsky, Einstein,
Tristan Tzara, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.