BEER - chapters 1 and 2 - questions and notes

[Thomas Eckhardt]

Questions, the answers to some of which may be painfully obvious to 
native speakers and U.S. citizens, and some observations, which may be 
painfully obvious...

page 1: "drifts into a pick" - - is this a common expression? What does 
it mean?

page 3: "plastic monarch butterfly earrings" -- is/was this common 
jewelry? I am asking because of the alleged Project Monarch (very much 
unsupported and probably, hopefully, never in existence) which is made 
direct reference to, if not by name, on page 243 by the cold war 
colonel's avatar during Maxine's sojourn in the deep web.

page 6: "the Tri-State-Area", sez Wiki, is comprised of New York, New 
Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. How come?

page 6: "gates of Danbury" -- this seems to be a prison. The only one 
Wiki comes up with is the FCI Danbury, exclusively for female inmates 
since 1993. A mistake? In the "Sopranos", a Mafia boss is "folding 
laundry in Danbury."

page 6: "become Angela Lansbury" -- this should be Jessica Fletcher, no? 
Let me add that Lansbury played a career-defining role in "The 
Manchurian Candidate" (1962).

page 6: Crazy Eddie -- just wikied. Interesting.

page 9: "Post-postmodern art form", "neo-Brechtian subversion of the 
diegesis" -- poking fun at academics who have to somehow make sense of 
what these people --  artists!-- create off the cuff. Like. A-and this 
sounds to Reg "like a pitch for a Christian weight-loss program"? Love.

pages 9/10: Paraphrase: If you want an asset search, just go on the 
Internet. End of paraphrase. If you want to know about the accounting of 
a firm, you just go on the internet? How's that? This information is not 
public, or is it?

page 10: "p/e ratio" -- Price-Earnings-Ratio.

page 12: Fraudbusters. Invented, modelled on Ghostbusters.

page 12: "Hungarian tramp container vessel M/V Aristide Olt" -- Sorry, 
if this has been mentioned: "After the war Bela began to receive roles 
in silent movies, and made twelve of them in Hungary under the name 
Aristide Olt." (sez 
http://biographies.knoji.com/bela-lugosi-the-man-who-brought-dracula-to-life/) 
M/V is the prefix for a motor ship.

page 14: "Bill Gross" -- founder of PIMCO.

page 14: "Robert Steiner" -- invented, no?

page 14: "DSM" -- has this been mentioned before?

page 15: Saks -- designer store on Fifth Avenue.

page 16: yaniqueques -- fried crunchy tortillas

page 16: chimichurros -- an Argentinian sauce, it seems.

page 19: "Bad Accountant" -- modelled on "Bad Lieutenant"?

Thomas















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