MD3PAD 364-366

[Toby G Levy]

        Wicks has been commissioned to join the crew of the Mason and
Dixon workers as "Party Chaplain."   Even though there will not be many
Anglicans in the party, the Royal Society wanted him there.

        The proprietor of the inn is Mr. Knockwood, described as a
trans-Elemental  Uncle Toby . As Richard Romeo commented: "Uncle Toby is
a character in Stern's Tristram Shanty; Tristram Shandy's Uncle Toby
resorted first to maps then to scale model earthworks, recreating the
siege of Namur, in order to explain to solicitous enquirers, regarding
where exactly he was wounded during the siege, the precise position,
location and angle of his injury. n.b. Uncle Toby was wounded in the
groin. Knockwood is described as trans-Elemental since he works with
water, not earth, the other two elements being air and fire."

        Mr. Knockwood tries to explain to people the impact of small
changes on the world, using a beaver moving a pebble in a stream and
causing the stream to move a mile out of the way.

        The snow storm continues to intensify.  One person complains
about the smoking and wishes there was a no smoking room. Two others,
Mr. Whitpot and Mr. Dimdown take offense to this idea.

        Mrs. Edgewise takes the heat off the argument by doing a magic
trick. People hear there is a magician in the vicinity and gather to
watch. Mr. Edgewise does not want her to accompany him while he gambles.

        Mitzi argues with her mother Luise Redzinger about how she wants
to style her hair.

vw#82: brumal -     Of, relating to, or occurring in winter.

Here's one of Pynchon's puns: Squire Haligast states "Tis a brumal
night, for behold it sweepeth by."

        When Mason and Dixon come across Mr. Knockwood, the proprietor
says that their time spent between the two transits of Venus could be
thought of as a sandwich. And he makes a joke that someone might eat it.
The sandwich had been invented only a couple of years earlier.

        The Chef of the inn bursts out of kitchen to complain that the
sandwich is an insult to the "Sacrament of the Eating." The chef is
Armand Allegre, about whom much more will be said in the coming pages.

Toby