MDMD(5): Funny expressions.

[Judy Panetta]

Bodkin...a hairpin, yes, but also: "a sharp slender instrument for making
holes in cloth, a blunt needle with a large eye for drawing tape or ribbon
through a loop or hem."  She is embroidering after all.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org]On
Behalf Of Dave Monroe
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 11:46 AM
To: Michel Ryckx; pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: MDMD(5): Funny expressions.


Okay, while I'm here ...

--- Michel Ryckx <michel.ryckx at freebel.net> wrote:
> Any reasonable answer welcome.

Reasonable?  Well, if you insist ...

> "What the Deuce!" is his gallant greeting. (65.1-2).

"What the Deuce!" is to "What the D_v_l!" as "Gosh
Darn!" is to "G_ddam!," hence its gallantry ...

> The Cape Fortification is described as a "Butter-Bag
> Castle" (69.33)

Butter-Bag Castle
69; "butter-bag" is slang for "female breast" and was,
like "butter-box", in the 16th-18th centuries,
somewhat derogatory slang for a Dutchman.

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/b.html

> Is a "Reverse Squint" possible? (73.33)

"each Eye, that is, doing the opposite of what it
usually does when he peers thro' a Telescope"?
Eminently so, of course, and a nifty way of putting it
given Mason's profession ...

> "Tenebrae holding a Bodkin in at least an advisory
> way." (75.29)

Bodkin
75; the stilletto pin worn by ladies in their hair

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/b.html

And I didn't even have to flip the page ...

> Michel.
> (who read in the paper today that a professor of the
> Antwerp University said mr. Pynchon deserved the
> prize more than mr. Naipaul.)

And I of course do not disagree ...

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