AtDDtA1: Medicinal Use Only

[Dave Monroe]

   ""My Great-Aunt Petunia!' exclaimed Chick, 'what is that smell?'
   "'Say, it's cubebs.  Medicinal use only.  No tobacco allowed on
board, as you might recall from your Chums of Chance Membership Oath.'
   "'Did I swear off?  I must have been out of my mind.  No tobacco!
Say, it's the goldurn Keeley Cure around here.  How do you people get
through your day?'
    "Suddenly what sounded like a whole kennelful of dogs began to
bark furiously...." (AtD, Pt. I, Ch. 2, p. 17)


"My Great-Aunt Petunia!"

Catchphrases

"It's clobberin' time!"
"Wotta revoltin' development."
"I'm the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing."
"...Aunt Petunia's favorite nephew..."
"I'm the idol o' millions."
"... my Aunt Petunia."
"You lose,cupcake!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thing_(comics)#Catchphrases

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thing_(comics)

Ben has also kept in touch with his uncle Jake, who married a new
wife-the much younger Petunia "Penny" Grimm-after Alyce died. Ben took
a great liking to Petunia, whom he often jokingly described as a
little old lady until the FF actually got to meet the beautiful Mrs.
Grimm in person....

http://www.marvel.com/universe/Thing_(Benjamin_Grimm)

Petunia Grimm

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/grimmpet.htm

Floundering Four, the
674-80; (1) Myrtle Miraculous - performs miracles--"love is the only
miracle that's beyond her"; (2) Maximilian - Negro with natural
rhythms ("all rhythms, up to and including the cosmic")--"never. . .go
any further into danger than its dapperness"; (3) Marcel - "a
mechanical chessplayer" ("exquisite 19th-century brainwork")--"much
too literal with humans"; (4) Slothrop. Each is gifted and flawed by
his gift. Mission: rescue the Radiant Hour.

http://hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/f.html

http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F

The Floundering Four

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/zak_smith/675.htm

H. Brenton Stevens, "'Look! Up in the Sky! It's a Bird! It's a Plane!
It's ... Rocketman!': Pynchon's Comic Book Mythology in Gravity's
Rainbow" (1997)

http://pcasacas.org/SPC/spcissues/19.3/stevens.htm




cubebs

Cubeb (Piper cubeba), or tailed pepper, is a plant in genus Piper,
cultivated for its fruit and essential oil....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubeb

Cf. ...

"Under its tamarind glaze, the Mills bomb turns out to be luscious
pepsin-flavored nougat, chock-full of tangy candied cubeb berries, and
a chewy camphor-gum center."  (GR, Pt. I, p. 118)

http://foner.www.media.mit.edu/people/foner/Fun/gravity.html


"medicinal use only"

The modern employment of cubeb in England as a drug dates from 1815.
There were various preparations of cubebs including oleum cubebae (oil
of cubebs), tinctures, fluid extracts, oleo-resin compounds and
vapors, which was used for throat complaints. A small percentage of
cubebs were commonly included in lozenges designed for use in
bronchitis, in which the antiseptic and expectoral properties of the
drug are useful. But the most important therapeutic application of
this drug was in gonorrhea, where its antiseptic action was of much
value. William Wyatt Squire wrote in 1908 that cubebs "act
specifically on genito-urinary mucous membrane. (They are) given in
all stages of gonorrhea" [15]. As compared with copaiba in this
connection cubebs has the advantages of being less disagreeable to
take and somewhat less likely to disturb the digestive apparatus in
prolonged administration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubeb#Medicinal

Cf., however, also, say, "Kentucky hemp suit," or ...

"'If you must use the latter, do not inhale.'" (M&D, p. 8), et soforthiam ...


The Keeley Cure

Kee·ley cure
n :  a method of treatment for alcoholism that was formerly used

Keeley, Leslie E. (1832-1900), American physician. Keeley is
remembered for implementing a kind of institutional care as a
treatment method for chronic alcoholism and drug addiction. Around
1879 he developed his treatment which consisted chiefly of injecting
institutionalized patients with a chloride of gold and allowing them
unlimited access to liquor. Keeley claimed a very high rate of success
with only a few relapses. The medical establishment dismissed him as a
charlatan.

http://www.fasthealth.com/dictionary/k/Keeley_cure.php

And see as well, e.g., ...

http://www.photoscotland.com/keeley/index.htm

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761978,00.html