ATDDTA (6) 157 - 158

[bekah]

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.


****************************
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>

****************************
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>


****************************
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.


****************************
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.

****************************

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> 


****************************
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.


****************************
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>

****************************
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)

****************************
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>

****************************

158:21
Chapel Street
<http://tinyurl.com/2mdbg8> (map of Yale area)


****************************

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)


****************************

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.


*****************************************