ATDTDA (14) references p 379

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

headnote: mining as a metaphor for various things, 
obviously, but it is really starting to mess with my head
- fiction as an exploration of the potentials for 
different associations of things, a mining and refining of
experience, different methods of amalgamation
(uh oh, starting to go meta on a reference post,
and with so little provocation...)

slop-bucket - primitive toilet facilities would be
one of the worst things about jail although "rats
[which] took their time crossing open areas" (374)
is also a strong contender

corn-husk mattresses - remember in grade-school
reading frontier books, and references to "corn-husk
tick" (maybe Mark Twain)?  "tick" being some kind 
of bedding?  Talk about your lumpy mattress...

Chinches - bedbugs 
(there's a really evocative passage in M&D about one
of the guys lying in bed with inescapable bugs -
people still say "don't let the bedbugs bite" - must've
made a very strong impression...having pets, have had
to deal with fleas sometimes; it is pure misery 
(but survivable)

"if we're going to be sleeping for eternity, I mean..."
Ewball makes a point here that makes sense, but
has never worked for me either.  Like the T-shirts
that say "I'll sleep when I'm dead."  Frank and I
go by a different value system, catching the z's
is one of the primo pleasures of life.


Dwayne Provecho with his secret tunnels
and eschatological speculations 
"This last time across, riding out of Tucson,
you could hear it in the air..."
I think he's sleep-deprived

they get money in jail, but Ewball won't tell
Frank where it's coming from.
maybe "Regular as payday and safe as the Morgan Bank"
is a hint?

however, it makes the jail "...just a dream, so peaceful..."