AtDTDA: 19 Temporary setback [520]

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

          "For a Teutonic of executive rank, the Captain of this 
          vessel appeared unusually indecisive, changing his 
          mind every few minutes. . . ."

. . . .Reminiscent of none other than Captain Wrong-Way Peach-Fuzz:

http://bullwinkle.toonzone.net/peachfuzz.htm

Mulai Ahmed er-Raisuli:

          Raisuli was a notorious brigand known as "Last 
          of the Barbary Pirates." But for his admirers, he 
          was a Robin Hood in white robes doing battle 
          with a corrupt sultan.

http://www.capitalcentury.com/1904.html

          In 1904, Perdicaris and his stepson were kidnapped 
          from their summer villa above Tangier by an Arab 
          tribal leader, known as the last of the Barbary pirates, 
          Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli. As the awe-struck household 
          staff watched, the handsome, black-bearded Moor 
          mounted Perdicaris's personal black stallion and, 
          before galloping off, thundered to the onlookers: 
          "I am the Raisuli!"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58289-2004Dec11.html

Agadir, Queen of the Iron Coast:

          "Sixty miles farther south lies Mogador, beyond which the 
          coast becomes more and more inaccessible and dangerous 
          in winter, being known to navigators as the " Iron Coast." 
          From Cape Sim (Ras Tagriwalt), to m. south of Mogador, 
          the direction is due south to Cape Ghir (Ighir Ufrani), the 
          termination of Jebel Ida u Taman, a spur of the Atlas. 
          Beyond this headland lies Agadir (Agadir Ighir), the Santa 
          Cruz Mayor or Santa Cruz de Berberia of the Spaniards, 
          formerly known as the Gate of the Sudan.' It is a little town 
          with white battlements three-quarters of a mile in circumference, 
          on a steep eminence 600 ft. high."

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_489-524#Page_520

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Morocco

The Pynchonwiki also has a cool link to old postcards fron Adagir:

http://www.rabat-maroc.net/marocautrefois/index.php?rep=AGADIR

This postcard gives you a sense of the art/advertisement scene at the turn of 
the century. We will be given quite the show of Belgian Art Nouveau once we 
are inside the Grand Hotel of the New Dyke.

http://tinyurl.com/22n7hb

Here's a fabulous link to the David Rumsey online collection of historic maps.
This vintage map can be viewed at various levels of detail, zoomed into for 
detail.:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/detail?id=1-1-24785-950049&name=Nordwest.+Africa.

http://www.davidrumsey.com/index.html

For some strange reason, I get Adagir jumbled up in my head with 
Shakespeare's "The Tempest":

http://www.shakespeare-literature.com/The_Tempest/index.html

I'm not certain if these echos are deliberate, but recall in particular:

          GONZALO 

              Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when we 
              put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of 
              the king's fair daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis. 

          SEBASTIAN 

              'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return. 

          ADRIAN 

              Tunis was never graced before with such a paragon to 
              their queen. 

          GONZALO 

              Not since widow Dido's time. 



Of course, we are speaking of the Barbary Coast here:

          The Barbary Coast, or Barbary, was the term used by 
          Europeans from the 16th until the 19th century to refer to 
          the coastal regions of what is now Morocco, Algeria, 
          Tunisia, and Libya. The name is derived from the Berber 
          people of north Africa. In the West, the name commonly 
          evokes the Barbary pirates and slave traders, based on 
          that coast, who attacked shipping coastal settlements in 
          the Mediterranean and North Atlantic and captured and 
          traded slaves from Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

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

. . . .and here:

          Barbary Coast was a neighborhood in San Francisco, 
          California. The neighborhood began as a popular hangout 
          for the rich during the California Gold Rush (1848 - 1858). 
          It was known for gambling, prostitution and crime. It is now 
          overlapped by Chinatown, North Beach, and the Financial 
          District.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California

. . . .and here:

          An intimate hotel, Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon (formerly the 
          Barbary Coast) boasts a great location (mid-Strip across from 
          Caesars Palace) and an extremely popular nightclub -- Drai's.

http://www.vegas.com/resorts/barbary/

. . . .but it appears we have been blown off-course again, sorry for the 
inconvenience.

Abdel Aziz:

          Dr. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi (October 23, 1947–April 17, 2004) 
          was the co-founder (with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin) of the militant 
          Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas. [1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdel_Aziz_al-Rantissi

Ooops! Sorry, blown further off course than I first Imagined, let 
me re-gauge the Tesla relay tensor sensor and vector control.

Abdul Aziz:

          Abdülaziz (February 9, 1830 – June 4, 1876) was the 32nd 
          sultan of the Ottoman Empire and reigned between June 25, 
          1861 and May 30, 1876. He was the son of Sultan Mahmud 
          II and succeeded his brother Abdülmecid in 1861.

          Born in Istanbul on February 9, 1830, Abdülaziz received an 
          Ottoman education but was nevertheless an ardent admirer 
          of the material progress that was made in the West. He was 
          interested in literature and was also a classical music composer. 
          Some of his compositions have been collected in the album 
          "European Music at the Ottoman Court" by the London 
          Academy of Ottoman Court Music

          The biggest achievement of Abdülaziz was to modernize the 
          Ottoman Navy. In 1875, the Ottoman Navy had 21 battleships 
          and 173 other types of warships, ranking as the third largest 
          navy in the world after the British and French navies.

http://tinyurl.com/32st3x

          The Canary Islands:

          The Canary Islands (28° 06'N, 15° 24'W) 
          are an archipelago of the Kingdom of Spain consisting 
          of seven islands of volcanic origin in the Atlantic Ocean. 
          They are located off the north-western coast of Africa 
          (Morocco and the Western Sahara). They form an 
          autonomous community of Spain.

          Etymology

          The islands' name is likely derived from the Latin term Insula 
          Canaria, meaning Island of the Dogs, a name applied originally 
          only to the island of Gran Canaria. It is thought that the dense 
          population of an endemic breed of large and fierce dogs, like 
          the Presa Canario, was the characteristic that most struck the 
          few ancient Romans who established contact with the islands 
          by the sea.

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

Note that Kit's temporary setback has him stuck on the Maximillian as it 
confusedly scuttles up and down the coast of North Africa

[1] It's hard to imagine that mere co-incidence connects the two names.