VL-IV p 44, 45, 46, 47

[Michael Bailey]

P 45

Vato - babelfish says this is Spanish for "I beat"

significance of the Edsel Escondido - fiik (f*cked if I know)

El Mil Amores - "the thousand loves"

"Zoyd wondered what script possibilities were tumbling through the
partners' heads."
introducing Vato and Blood as salvagers.  The term "script
possibilities" links them with the movie industry, although what is
becoming clear is that their legal claim to the vehicle is foggy.

"So Bigfoot bein' force majeure, we got the legal salvage rights"
to believe which, one really has to *want* to believe...

"and another story of twilight reconfiguration, soon to be the talk of
the business"
-- significance of this episode?
establishing Rick & Chick's as a shady business?
linking Vato and Blood with supernatural occurrences?
rounding out Zoyd's set of social/business contacts?

In any case, Zoyd makes these people, too, nervous, like he did the
people on his other stops


page 46

"this ain't him, Blood"
Blood, the individual, is using the generic term "Blood" to address Zoyd.
of the urban dictionary definitions
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blood
I choose number 4 - 	
	
Someone who's very close to you, like family.
" Waddup blood. "

though the other meanings are interesting, having to do with gangs & so forth.


"wondering if you were planning to sleep on the base tonight?"
the meaning is divulged in the text.
That they would use that meaning years later indicates that Vietnam
was a formative experience for them.  For Zoyd to know what it meant
indicates that he is indeed close to them.

Bodhi Dharma Pizza  Temple
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhi_Dharma
"....At that time there was a monk of the Western Region named
Bodhidharma, a Persian Central Asian. He traveled from the wild
borderlands to China. Seeing the golden disks [on the pole on top of
Yung-ning's stupa] reflecting in the sun, the rays of light
illuminating the surface of the clouds, the jewel-bells on the stupa
blowing in the wind, the echoes reverberating beyond the heavens, he
sang its praises. He exclaimed: "Truly this is the work of spirits."
He said: "I am 150 years old, and I have passed through numerous
countries. There is virtually no country I have not visited. But even
in India there is nothing comparable to the pure beauty of this
monastery. Even the distant Buddha realms lack this." He chanted
homage and placed his palms together in salutation for days on end."

(triggering some of them happy thotz: let's say Pynchon, though he was
from the mystic East, took to California like Bodhidharma to
China..."even in the Hamptons there is nothing comparable to the pure
beauty of rural California")

- somewhere, isn't Pynchon quoted as saying "even bad pizza is still
pretty good?"  at any rate, BDP isn't ready for prime time.  However,
one wonders how he knows so thoroughly and in what ways it is bad, if
he's never hustled even one slice?

a) Its sauce was all but crunchy with fistfuls of herbs only
marginally Italian and more appropriate in a cough remedy -
that would be thyme, wouldn't it?

b) the rennetless cheese reminded customers variously of bottled
hollandaise or joint compound - ...
joint compound being familiar to Zoyd from his various lines of work
and home improvement;
bottled Hollandaise's ingredients being somewhat prone to curdling

c) the options were all vegetables rigorously organic, whose high
water content saturated, long before it baked through, a stone-ground
twelve-grain crust with the lightness and digestibility of a manhole
cover
- well, thank goodness for the vegetable juices then...

"Zoyd happened to catch Prairie on a meditation break"
there is a little riff on theme parks vs ways of life here, isn't there?
He's got enough credibility with her (despite "all that shit you
smoke") to get off a good warning


"cash and some advice about a quick change of appearance"
luckily we've already covered the Marquis.
(The unionist read occurring in some alternate reality peeks thru here
and compels me to mention here that
a) if Elvissa worked in a union shop, there'd be enough coverage on
her shift to call in, plus her wages would cover new hoses for her car
in time to prevent head gasket trouble
b) Most of the Marquis' work is off the books, and by calling them
contractors he's able to avoid them organizing)

"her old marching days"
Elvissa, too, then, is a veteran of some kind of movement

Blodwen, harassed administrative professional for a small business, is
spot-on...


-
"Feliz Navidad"