ATDTDA Eisvogel's; 700

[Michael Bailey]

Yes, there was an Eisvogel's right near the Riesenrad.

As noted on the Pynchonwiki, this site
http://www.prater.at/GalleryDisplay.php?Id=2
has pictures.  Haven't found a way to link directly to an individual pic,
but the 1st thumbnail of the Giant Wheel opens up
to show a view with the sign for "Zum Eisvogel" clearly visible

There's also one directly of the Eisvogel.

German restaurant nomenclature for some reason often
indicates motion toward animals: zum Loewen, zum Adler,
or here, "to the Ice-Bird".
Not un-apt, considering the ice-monster a few hundred pages
back; and the "wing of desolate absence" right here...

700: so Misha and Grisha act as touts for the Colonel
(who, the Pynchonwiki notes, _might_ be Max Khautsch,
Lew's Chicago and London acquaintance, a possibility
strengthened by the mention in both cases of Oriental planes
to the face) ---
first vetting him, inspiring him to cruise less, read the paper more,
as he gets used to being watched and meeting them,
until finally the summons comes...

but have they vetted him thoroughly?  Do they really think he is
just a "butterfly"?

Maybe he is, but the old school tie shows up in the strangest places!
Ratty -- (as in The Wind in the Willows.  Who, then, is Mole?)
hears Cyprian's apologia out politely.
Ratty apparently scholarship, working-class, "my
alternatives were Whitehall or Blackpool" - nice black/white
contrast; Whitehall meaning civil service, Blackpool apparently
even then a popular gay destination?

Derrick Theign -- I've cast him as Leo G Carroll (Mr. Waverly)



"...there are not only landmarks, but also anti-landmarks - for every
beacon, an episode of intentional blindness." (Professor Svegli, p248)