NPPF Comm 3: C.90-121 notes (2)

[Jasper Fidget]

pg 116
"misprint": Kinbote has no knowledge of baseball, so he thinks "Red Sox Beat
Yanks 5-4 On Chapman's Homer" is a misprint, completely missing the joke.
He says parenthetically that the Keats' poem is "often quoted in America."
Was that the case in the 50s?  (It sure isn't now.)  See also 117 where
Kinbote confuses "bounced a ball or swung a bat" for soccer and cricket.  He
seems eminently qualified to comment on the work of this American poet, no?

pg 116
"No free man needs a God"
See p 89 for Shade as "agnostic friend," p. 223 for Kinbote's Christian
polemic and belief system.

p. 116
"iridule"

Kinbote believes Shade invented this term, yet the Zemblan language has a
word for it?

p. 116
"peacock-herl", "alder"

The owner of Kinbote's motor court is right -- it's artificial bait for fly
fishing (cost you $1.27 at iflyshop.com) that can form the body for an alder
fly (among others).  It's often used to tie "nymphs" (a kind of lure).

http://www.about-flyfishing.com/library/flyswap2/blbeadnymph.htm
http://www.alaskaflyfishingonline.com/afb/princenymph.html

pg 117
"Sutton", "recombination of letters taken from two names, one beginning in
'Sut,' the other ending in 'ton.'"

See p. 236 where K notes that "real-life characters, except members of the
family, of course, are pseudonymized in the poem" (with the exception of
Prof. Starover Blue).  Presumably this is the case with Dr. Sutton, although
I'm curious if there's enough evidence here to piece together the actual
names of the "two distinguished medical men" represented as Sutton.

p 117 
"In the Middle Ages and hour was equal to 480 ounces of fine sand or 22,560
atoms"

More merging of time and space in measurement.  Has anyone been able to
verify this assertion of 480 ounces and 22,560 atoms?  

There are 480 grains in one troy ounce (based on the supposed weight of the
barley grain), so 480 is an important number when it comes to measuring
precious metals like gold -- one troy ounce of gold equals 480 grains
(compute the value of gold grains by dividing its current market value by
480).

p. 117
"Gradus the Gunman was getting ready to leave Zembla for his steady
blunderings through two hemispheres"

Trying to connect this with some famous villain.  Anyone?  This one's
admittedly tenuous (but interesting for the obvious reasons):

John Francis (yes!) attempted to shoot Queen Victoria in 1842 while she rode
in an open carriage.  He failed (like Gradus he was a blunderer) but managed
to escape.  Victoria's police chief, Sir Robert Peel, convinced Victoria to
travel along the same route at the same time in case Francis decided to try
again.  Francis did try again and this time was caught.  Victoria wanted him
hanged but Peel had him shipped off to Australia (sending the gunman across
two hemispheres).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/society/deary_gallery_08.shtml

Jasper Fidget

(I'll hold off on the big C.130 note for a few days out of respect for the
revised schedule)