lemniscate and bicycling

[Scott Badger]

Mary:
>       No. The straightness, the weaving, the repetition, the irregularity
> are what show that such a track is not a lemniscate-like pattern.

Maybe it's just me, but a bicylist riding in a figure-8, in the context of
the poem, doesn't make any sense. But the pattern left by the two tires,
while ridden in a relatively straight line, certainly resembles a chain of
linked, if poorly drawn, figure-8's. Are you saying that, mathematically,
these "figure-8's" don't qualify as lemniscates?

> >The less "deft" the rider, the more
> >pronounced the pattern.
>
>       And presumably the rider was deft, so the pattern less pronounced.

Might "nonchalantly deft Bicycle tires" allude to the "miracle" of a complex
pattern created by the tires without conscious effort on the part of the
rider? My "less deft" was meant to suggest Shade as the "rider", but given
the alternative definition I quoted, it works even better for Kinbote.

> >OED deft -- 1. Gentle, meek, humble; = daft 1. Obs. rare.

Scott Badger