BEER Ch. 4 Quality-of-Life Issues

[Dave Monroe]

   "'No homeless people on the target list,' Fiona assures her. 'No
kids, babies, dogs, old people—never. We're out after yup, basically.'
   "'What Giuliani would call quality-of-life issues,' adds Ziggy."
(BE, Ch. 4, p. 34)


"If Looks Could Kill"

In chapter XVI of Bram Stoker's Dracula in a diary entry of Dr.
Seward, he notes about the undead Lucy Westerna that "If ever a face
meant death--if looks could kill--we saw it at that moment."

An ellipsis (anapodoton) for an expression such as "If looks could
kill, her look would have led to a murder of the person she was
looking at."

A possible origin of the phrase comes from the legend of Medusa, who
had the power to turn anyone who looked at her into stone.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/if_looks_could_kill


"'What Giuliani would call quality-of-life issues'"

As Mayor, Rudy Giuliani has returned accountability to City government
and improved the quality of life for all New Yorkers....

http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/rwg/html/bio.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Giuliani#Law_enforcement

Giuliani Internalized

The next mayor will inherit a city where the left is dead, capitalism
is embraced and residents have made their peace with bourgeois values.
But then you never really believed those squeegee guys had rights, now
did you?

http://partners.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20010211mag-giuliani.html

Vitale, Alex S.  City of Disorder:
   How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics.
   New York: NYU Press, 2009.

http://nyupress.org/books/book-details.aspx?bookId=1327
http://www.wnyc.org/story/56530-giulianis-quality-of-life-campaign/

"'their lives from then on are worry-free'" ...


"valentine to the Big Apple"

http://iloveny.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_New_York


Lucas

English form of the Greek name Λουκας (Loukas) which meant "from
Lucania", Lucania being a region in Italy. Saint Luke, the author of
the third Gospel and Acts in the New Testament, was a doctor who
travelled in the company of Saint Paul. Due to his renown, the name
became common in the Christian world (in various spellings). As an
English name, Luke has been in use since the 12th century. A famous
fictional bearer was the hero Luke Skywalker from the 'Star Wars'
movies.

http://www.behindthename.com/name/luke
http://www.behindthename.com/name/lucas

George Lucas

http://www.lucasfilm.com/inside/bio/georgelucas.html


Christers

Cf., e.g.,  ...

"red Christer pins" (VL, 339)
"born again Christer" (AtD, p. 1004)
"Capitalist Christer Republicans" (AtD, 1058)
"Capitalist/Christer gridwork" (AtD, 1075)


Rapture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture#Doctrinal_history


"'Actually, sort of fun.'"

Cf., e.g. (SPOILER ALERT) ...

"His hands, murderer's hands, are gripping her forcefully by the hips,
exactly where it matters, exactly where some demonic set of nerve
receptors she has been till now only semi-aware of have waited to be
found and used like buttons on a game controller ... impossible for
her to know if it's him moving or if she's doing it herself ... not a
distinction to be lingered on till much later, of course, if at all,
though in some circles it is held to be something of a big deal..."
(BE, Ch. 24, 258)

Pynchon, sex and power? Pynchon and complicity with power?  Cf., e.g.,
V., GR, VL, AtD ...
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l