AtDTdA: (9) 247

[Jasper]

247 The Chums in Venice (continued)

Page 247:
tacchino in pomegranate sauce
turkey in pomegranate sauce and, presumably, the "Purple Thanksgiving" 
to which Miles refers above.
*wiki*

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/dum vivimus, bibamus/
While we live, let us drink. Paraphrase of "Dum vivimus, vivamus".
*wiki*

Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
See also Isaiah 22:13, I Corinthians 15:32, Ecclesiastes 8:15, etc.

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Prosecco
A white sparkling wine made from the Prosecco grape in the Veneto region 
of Italy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecco

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Valpolicella
The wine known as Valpolicella is typically made from three grape 
varietals: Corvina Veronese, Rondinella, and Molinara. Most 
Valpolicella's are light, fragrant table wines in flavor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valpolicella

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vini frizzanti
sparkling wine.
*wiki*

Lindsay making a bit of an ugly Rosé here by combining red and white 
wines. This seems to be some kind of Chums tradition or ritual though, 
given Randolph's toast: "Red blood, pure mind"

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a glowing parison
parison par"i*son, n. (Glassworking)
An intermediate stage or shape of a glass object which is produced in 
more than one stage.
http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict

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SANGUIS RUBER, MENS PURA
Latin: Red blood, clean mind.
*wiki*

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Shadow-Doge-in-Exile
A shadow government is a "government-in-waiting" that remains in waiting 
with the intent to take control of the government in response to some event.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_government

A government in exile is a political group that claims to be a country's 
legitimate government, but for various reasons is unable to exercise its 
legal power, and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in 
exile usually operate under the assumption that they will one day return 
to their native country and regain power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_in_exile

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Sfinciuno
Also /Sfincioni/, means "old woman's face" in Sicilian. It's a kind of 
stuffed pizza or Italian flatbread.
http://www.nola.com/food/t-p/recipes.ssf?anchovy_bread.html
http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sfinciuno_Itinerary

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1297
The year of the /Serrata del Maggior Consiglio/ (closing) in which the 
Great Council both increased in size and barred entrance to any new 
families. This event more or less signaled a transition from Republic to 
Aristocracy. There were many rich families like Sfinciuno's who were 
less than thrilled with being shut out of the government.

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the Great Council
Venetian governing body composed of members of the most influential 
families. It appointed all public officials and elected the Senate. The 
Senate chose the Council of Ten, a secretive group which held the utmost 
power in the administration of the city. One member of the Great Council 
was elected Doge.
http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/renaissance1/section5.rhtml

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the Dogedom of Venice
For some thousand years, the chief magistrate and leader of the Most 
Serene Republic of Venice was styled the Doge, a rare but not unique 
Italian title derived from the Latin Dux, as the major Italian parallel 
Duce and the English Duke. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the 
city-state's aristocracy. Commonly the person selected as Doge was the 
shrewdest elder in the city. The Venetian combination of elaborate 
monarchic pomp and a republican (though 'aristocratic') constitution 
with intricate checks and balances makes La serenissima Venice a 
textbook example of a crowned republic.

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

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Pietro Gradenigo
Doge from 1289–1311

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Serrata del Maggior Consiglio
Great Council Lockout, 1297. Link to the "Maggior Consiglio" entry on 
Reference.com:
http://www.reference.com/browse/all/Maggior%20Consiglio
*wiki*

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Napoleon's abolition
1797. Wikipedia
*wiki*

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Polos' return
Marco Polo together with his father and uncle returned to Venice in 1295 
from their travel to China started in 1271.

Marco Polo (1254-1324), a Venetian traveller. Was born of a nobel family 
at Venice, while his father and uncle had gone on a mercantile 
expedition by Constantinople and the Crimea to Bokhara and to Cathy 
(China). The Mongol prince commissioned them as envoys to the Pope, a 
commission they tried in vain to carry out in Italy (1269). The Polos 
started again a new trip to China in 1271, taking with them young Marco, 
and arrived at the court of Kublai Khan in 1275 by way of Kashgar, 
Yarkand, and Khotan to Lop Nor, then across the Gobi desert to Kansu and 
Shang-tu. Marco Polo entered the diplomatic service of Kublai Khan and 
was sent on missions to various parts of the Mongol empire. The Polos 
left China on 1282 and returned by way of Sumatra, India, and Persia to 
Venice (1295). In 1298 Marco was in command of a galley at the battle of 
Curzola, where the Venetians were defeated by the Genoese, and he was a 
prisoner for a year at Genoa. Here it was thought that he dictated to 
another captive an account of his travels, published under the title of 
Divisamemt dou monde. (English title: The Travels of Marco Polo.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo

Kublai Khan (1214-94), Mongol khan, emperor of China, grandson of 
Jenghiz Khan. He completed the conquest of northern China and became the 
first foreigner ever to rule China. An enegetic prince, he suppressed 
his rivals, adopted the Chinese mode of civilisation, encouraged men of 
letters and made Buddhism the state religion. But his attempt to invade 
Japan ended in disaster. His dominions extended from Arctic Ocean to the 
Strait of Malacca, and from Korea to Asia Minor and the confines of 
Hungary. The splendor of his court inspired the graphic pages of Marco 
Polo. (from Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 1984 edition.)
*wiki*

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Case Vecchie
The "old houses" of Venice, as opposed to the "new houses" (Case Nuove)

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So there arose in Inner Asia a string of Venetian colonies
See 242: "Control Inner Asia, therefore, and you control the planet"

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Venetian colonies
The first was established on Crete in the early 13th century, later 
decreed by the Doge Marino Morosini as "an ensemble of public official 
structures and Latin churches that were closely related to the state". 
Later colonies were settled along the coast of the Adriatic, the Ionian, 
and the Aegean Seas. Eventually the list of colonies ran: Zara (Zadar), 
Ragusa (Dubrovnik), Corfu (Kerkyra), Cephal-lonia, Zante (Zakynthos), 
Modon (Methoni), Coron (Koroni), Cerigo (Kythera), Crete, Negroponte 
(Euboea), many of the Aegean islands (Cyc-lades), and eventually Cyprus

http://assets.cambridge.org/97805217/82357/sample/9780521782357ws.pdf [PDF]