C of L49 host finishes with a glass of dandelion wine on Sunday morning.

[Robin Landseadel]

On Jun 14, 2009, at 6:59 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:

> That's AAALLL Folks...Next UP!

I picked one hell of a day to quit sniffing glue. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr4lB942U48

Thanks Mark for your detailed investigative hosting of chapter 4 of  
CoL49. My take on chapter four is that its 16 pages serve to highlight  
the mystery novel conventions at play in CoL49. In chapter 4, Oedipa's  
quest becomes the center of her life.  She now thinks of the Tristero  
as a grand cabal, perhaps The Grand Cabal of American Empire.

Yes, dandelion wine...grown in a cemetery—just one more of those  
displaced/disinherited things that becomes unearthed in CoL49. That  
unearthing, that wasting of what was once fat and fallow, is the  
greater inheritance of Pierce Inverarity.

Most likely I'll be focusing more on the disinherited than those  
plotting to disinherit  them. Oedipa does not yet  know that she is  
becoming one of the disinherited. But little signs & signal that  
emerge in Oedipa's errand into the wilderness now take center stage in  
her upcoming journey into the nightown of San Francisco, c. 1964. When  
it's all over we will be left with far more questions than answers:

	"It's clearer now," he said, rather formal. "A few months ago it
	got quite cloudy. You see, in spring, when the dandelions begin
	to bloom again, the wine goes through a fermentation. As if they
	remembered."

	No, thought Oedipa, sad. As if their home cemetery in some
	way still did exist, in a land where you could somehow walk,
	and not need the East San Narciso Freeway, and bones still
	could rest in peace, nourishing ghosts of dandelions, no one to
	plow them up. As if the dead really do persist, even in a bottle of
	 wine.
	PC 79

	Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation.
	 Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me,
	strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence
	after death.
	Wernher von Braun

Note that Genghis Cohen is a compound pun, or at least is further  
developed into a compound pun by virtue of the Grand Cohen Nicholas  
Nookshaft in Against the Day, where much of CoL49 is expanded &  
extended, if not exactly explained. If The Crying of Lot 49 is a  
mystery [and it is], I volunteer that the GC knows full well what's  
going on & is in on the plot, perhaps is the center of those plots.

	"An 800-year tradition of postal fraud. Not to my knowledge."
	Oedipa told him then all about old Mr Thoth's signet ring, and
	the symbol she'd caught Stanley Koteks doodling, and the
	muted horn drawn in the ladies' room at The Scope.

	"Whatever it is," he hardly needed to say, "they're apparently
	still quite active."

	"Do we tell the government, or what?"

	"I'm sure they know more than we do." He sounded nervous, or
	suddenly in retreat. "No, I wouldn't. It isn't our business, is it?"
	PC 79

====================================================

A Recipe for Dandelion Wine:
	
	The title refers to a wine made with dandelion petals and other
	ingredients, commonly citrus fruit. In the story, dandelion wine,
	as made by the protagonist's grandfather, serves as a metaphor
	for packing all of the joys of summer into a single bottle.

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

	Dandelion Wine (1)

	• 3 qts dandelion flowers
	• 1 lb white raisins
	• 1 gallon water
	• 3 lbs granulated sugar
	• 2 lemons
	• 1 orange
	• yeast and nutrient

	Pick the flowers just before starting, so they're fresh. You do not
	need to pick the petals off the flower heads, but the heads
	should be trimmed of any stalk. Put the flowers in a large bowl.
	Set aside 1 pint of water and bring the remainder to a boil. Pour
	the boiling water over the dandelion flowers and cover tightly
	with cloth or plastic wrap. Leave for two days, stirring twice
	daily. Do not exceed this time. Pour flowers and water in large
	pot and bring to a low boil. Add the sugar and the peels (peel
	thinly and avoid any of the white pith) of the lemons and
	orange. Boil for one hour, then pour into a crock or plastic pail.
	Add the juice and pulp of the lemons and orange. Allow to
	stand until cool (70-75 degrees F.). Add yeast and yeast
	nutrient, cover, and put in a warm place for three days. Strain
	and pour into a secondary fermentation vessel (bottle or jug).
	Add the raisins and fit a fermentation trap to the vessel. Leave
	until fermentation ceases completely, then rack and add the
	reserved pint of water and whatever else is required to top up.
	Refit the airlock and set aside until clear. Rack and bottle. This
	wine must age six months in the bottle before tasting, but will
	improve remarkably if allowed a year. [Adapted recipe from
	C.J.J. Berry's First Steps in Winemaking]

	http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelion.asp