ATDDTA (6) 157 - 158
bekah
bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net
Sun Apr 1 10:13:37 CDT 2007
On these pages, my question might regard the nature of "the look"
(158:12) that Scarsdale gives Kit - (see below) Other highlights:
Vectorism is mentioned but there's no real math. Colfax Vibe is
given some space. For the most part, these first few pages are
background and set-up pages for the next 15 or so; they're a break
from the recent excitement in the City.
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157:1 "... by the way of the ancient Sanskrit krimi and the
later Arabic qirmiz, both names for the insect from which the color
was once derived, 'crimson' is cognate with 'worm.'"
<http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Worm>
*The Sanskrit word is krimi, which has given kermes, the cochineal
insect, whence "crimson."
Crimson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimson
Much more
<http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003873.html>
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157: 13
"... there's no professional football, for his career would be assured..."
(relates to "Corinthianism" below)
But there were professional football players since 1892
<http://www.profootballhof.com/history/general/birth.jsp>
and teams since 1896:
<http://www.nfl.com/history/chronology/1869-1910>
but first attempt at a pro football league was in 1902
<http://www.nfl.com/history/chronology/1869-1910#1902>
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157: 14
Colfax
Cold facts? Coal factories?
Schuyler Colfax was a vice president (under Ulysses S. Grant) so it's
a pretty common name for towns and streets.
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157:16
From Scarsdale, "... the aptitudes that matter most, such as a head
for business, can't be passed on."
reminded me of Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann. (I mentioned this in
the ATDDTA - (5), I think.)
Colfax Vibe is not up to his Dad's standards because he's not quite
sneaky enough, too naive.
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157:20
"Pearl Street Offices"
New York City Financial District, crossing Wall St. near the New
York Stock Exchange, the headquarters of the Scarsdale Vibe business
and where Scarsdale tried to set Colfax up in business.
Wall Street 1908: <http://www.dwinnell.com/business/ws1908.gif>
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157:21
"...50 cents an hour, far more than he deserved."
Colfax's pay on summer vacations
<http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/compare/result.php>
In 2005 that $0.50 was worth $12.00 using the Consumer Price Index.
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157:29
"... I brought in the police ... He would still be languishing in the
Tombs today..."
I guess Scarsdale let young Colfax spend some time in jail to shake
him into the "World of Reality," because the "The Tombs" probably
refers to the largest jail in New York at the time.
<http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/nycdoc/html/histry3a.html>
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158:2 Kit to Vibe: "... -more likely be spending the rest of my
life in courtrooms fighting off the turkey buzzards..."
<http://www.fsbcanisteo.com/turkey_buzzard_page.htm>
greedy, carrion-eating, bird
****************************
158:7
Kit thinking about alternatives for life with the bad Vibes.
Tesla
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla>
<http://www.tfcbooks.com/articles/tws8b.htm>
(this has been covered pretty well by this group)
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158:9
Willard Gibbs
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_Gibbs>
preeminent American theoretical physicist and chemist
A Yale professor, in 1902. Gibbs contributed to crystallography and
applied his vector methods to the determination of planetary and
comet orbits. Gibbs was an inventor of vector analysis. Kit could
easily have met him at Yale.
****************************
158:12 "... The man had been looking at him strangely. Not a
fatherly or even foster-fatherly expression. No, it was - Kit almost
blushed at the thought - it was desire. He was desired, for reasons
that went beyond what little he could make of this decadent East
Coast swamp of lust in idleness to begin with."
To continue the theme of homoeroticism. "How can we distinguish
among homoerotic, homosocial, and homosexual?" "Homoerotic Bonding
as Escape from Heterosexual Responsibility"
<http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-70396388.html>. "That is, how
can we differentiate among kinds of same-sex bonding other than by
taking the problematic position that discriminates only on the basis
of genital activity?"
See the Chums, Mason & Dixon, Captain Blicero, Slow Learner, et al.
..."lust in idleness" a play on "love in idleness" one of the
many old names for the pansy, a flower, but pansy is also a
derogatory term for homosexual
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love-in-idleness>.
Shakespeare had Puck go pick a, "love in idleness," in A Midsummer
Night's Dream.
<http://www.answers.com/topic/love-in-idleness-1>
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158:21
Chapel Street
<http://tinyurl.com/2mdbg8> (map of Yale area)
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158:22
Vectorism, Gibbsian (an inventor of vector analysis), Hamiltonian
William Rowen Hamilton is known for his discovery of quaternions in
1843. see
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rowan_Hamilton#Quaternions>
* Time is said to have only one dimension, and space to have
three dimensions. ..."
and --
3+1 = 4
"The mathematical quaternion partakes of both these elements; in
technical language it may be said to be "time plus space", or "space
plus time": and in this sense it has, or at least involves a
reference to, four dimensions. And how the One of Time, of Space the
Three, Might in the Chain of Symbols girdled be." - William Rowan
Hamilton (Quoted in Robert Percival Graves' "Life of Sir William
Rowan Hamilton" (3 vols., 1882, 1885, 1889))
* "He used to carry on, long trains of algebraic and arithmetical
calculations in his mind, during which he was unconscious of the
earthly necessity of eating; we used to bring in a 'snack' and leave
it in his study, but a brief nod of recognition of the intrusion of
the chop or cutlet was often the only result, and his thoughts went
on soaring upwards." - William Edwin Hamilton (his elder son)
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158: 34 "(Colfax) Vibe had already developed into a
classic "Corinthinian" of the day, recognized as an expert -
occasionally champion - skier, polo player, distance runner,
depressing indeed to any observer with merely everyday skills."
Corinth is a port in Greece home of the Olympics and the Corinthian
ideal refers to the idea of amateurism in sport - there are lots of
Corinthian clubs in the world.
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