V2nd, C3

[Michael Bailey]

** apologies, this is all very basic stuff but interesting to me **

where the heck IS Malta anyway:

consists of an archipelago situated centrally in the Mediterranean, 93
km south of Sicily and 288 km east of Tunisia, with the Strait of
Gibraltar 1,826 km to the west and Alexandria  1,510 km to the east
>(wikipedia)

I have no feel for this place.  It never makes the news;  I like the
sound of the name, though.

you would think a nice small country without a bunch of armies and
stuff would be all peaceful, but apparently the aged parent of Stencil
was intriguing there.

Real bummer of a postcard his dad sent him btw.
a bunch of I guess kilted Scots wheeling a wounded German on a
stretcher, there's an interesting image.  German with a big grin.
And the text, the dad feels like a sacrificial virgin...

the fireside talks these 2 must've had, oh my



ok, there's this cafe with Aieul lounging near it, thanks alice for
the meaning of that

Aieul is a native, he's a waiter, he's a watcher - that has a meaning
in some religions, right?

1) (62) (Harper Perennial) the guy sitting there alone in the cafe.
tweeds, ulster and expectation
So he's Tweed!

2) (63) Another fat Englishman (so the first guy is also fat, but we
think of him as Tweed.  Maybe not AS fat)

Hat fingan bisukkar, ya weled.

WTF say I?  he's roaring, so he must be angry  And he came in roaring
the name Porpentine.

So Porpentine must be the guy sitting at the table.

(63) "This fat one was out to seduce the girl..."
-- which fat one?   The guy who comes in roaring.

"...Victoria Wren, another tourist traveling with her tourist father."
and they'll be at dinner at the consulate, presumably

"But was prevented by the lover, Bongo-Shaftsbury."

So fricken Bongo-Shaftsbury, who I know is going to kill somebody,
isn't there right now.  He's somewhere else, mysteriously preventing
the fat guy, fatter, that is, than Porpentine, but whose name I do not
yet know, from getting jiggy with VW.

Now VW is traveling with her tourist father - but is it safe to assume
that the said Tourist Father (TF) = Sir Alastair Wren.  It's like a
goldang logic puzzle and it gets more complex.  Need coffee!






-- 
Yippy dippy dippy,
Flippy zippy zippy,
Smippy gdippy gdippy, too!
- Thomas Pynchon ("'Zo Meatman's Gone AWOL")