ATDTDA (14) references p 380

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

380 - (OT) has anybody else heard the phrase,
"a buck three eighty?" as in, how much does it cost?
- a buck three eighty?
or was that just a local thing among a certain crowd?
guess not - http://www.slangsite.com/slang/A.html

"polyrhythms as conducive to sleep as the constant
flow of sea to a crewman bunking below the waterline"
- that must be nice!  I still cherish the memory
of a night spent in a friend's basement with a weird
minor plumbing problem that made a polyrhythm very
conducive to sleep.

"the edges of sleep's blessed vegetable patch"
(sweet Lord, that's apt!)

nickelodeon, or actually, centavodeon
(didn't catch that before)

(was just going back to the tab where I had the
Guanajuato wikipedia article open, in order to
type in "grifa", but my eye lit on this sentence:
"The name "Guanajuato" comes from the Tarascan 
(P'urhépecha) word, "Quanax-juato", 
which means "place of frogs"."
-- so Guanajuato has nothing to do with "guano" (bat doo-doo))

grifa - grifa 
    marijuana (whence the US slang word "reefer"; 
derived from "grifo")
grifo -- (lit. "faucet") marijuana addict; 
someone who is always "prendido", or "lit"

--- "faucet"???????

"the underground equivalent of a balcony"
able to picture this but not work out the details...

"...given the national politics at the moment
unfolding, the other detainees here seemed more like,
what would you call them, honest working stiffs
with a dangerous light in their eyes."
-- like the New York City jail system in August-
September 2004?

rogue cientificos - not generic mad scientist,
but an actual movement (like the Technocrats in USA)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cientificos

Amparo - spanish for "shelter"
also a city in Brazil near Sao Paulo,
in a region famous for waterfalls

hidalgo - nobility "hijo de algo", "son of somebody" 
(ie somebody important) - but here, currency I guess
with Miguel Hidalgo's picture on it:
http://www.nndb.com/people/816/000095531/

(OT this nndb site is new to me, I like the formatting
on the article: though some people, like, for instance,
my sister, hate colonated itemization,
I find it easy to assimilate)

Born: 8-May-1753
Birthplace: Corralejos hacienda, Pénjamo, Guanajuato, Mexico
Died: 30-Jul-1811
Location of death: Chihuahua, Mexico
Cause of death: Execution
Remains: Buried, El Ángel de la Independencia, Mexico City, Mexico

Gender: Male
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: Hispanic
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Religion, Activist, Military

Nationality: Mexico
Executive summary: Father of Mexican independence

Military service: Generalissimo of rebel army (1810-11)
Father: Cristóbal Hidalgo y Costilla 
(administrator of Corralejo hacienda, creole)
Mother: Ana Maria Gallaga
Daughter: (two, illegitimate)

Theological: BA Theology, 
College of San Nicolas, Valladolid, New Spain (1773)
Teacher: College of San Nicolas, Valladolid, New Spain (1776)

Excommunicated 24-Sep-1810
Shot: Firing Squad 30-Jul-1811
Portrait on Mexican currency 1000 Peso Note, 10 Peso Coin (1950s)
Asteroid Namesake 944 Hidalgo
Creole Ancestry 

---
"Women.  You ever run into one that no money changed hands?"

this says more about where Frank & Ewball are at,
than about P's attitude (imho) - just like Dennis Flange
thinks about having enough money to buy any of the
women walking down the street (in P's shortstory "Lowlands")
and then gets a (yeah, so what it's escapist, call me
a perv for calling it thrilling) woman-gift
no money could buy
trading eights, from the attributed lines:
"Look out, now," muttered Frank....
"Oh, I don't know," said Ewball.  "I think she likes us."
"Likes all 'em hidalgos you're 
throwing around, 's more likely." (Frank)
"Damn.  You're really consistent." (Ewball)
"Thanks.  Or do I mean, 'How's that?'" (Frank)
"Women.  You ever run into one that 
no money changed hands?" (Ewball) 
-------- now that's weird, if "you're consistent"
is Ewball castigating Frank for cycinism, why is
Ewball the one asking this (as if for the exception 
to a rule he's noticed)  - Maybe he is actually
wondering if Frank's experience has omitted something
that he (Ewball) has in fact noticed????
...but apparently, anyway, Frank hasn't:
"Give me a month or two, I could probably
come up with somethin' ran under a dollar somehow."
or, I guess, given the context, their location,
and their obvious enjoyment of the flirtation with
Amparo, a grudging, hyperbolically niggling
admission of a soft spot in his cynicism.

"...they could do anything they had the payback for,
as long as they remembered to ask her about it 
first" this isn't a terrible term of imprisonment...