What does "low-waisted" even mean, character-logically ?

[Mark Kohut]

Among other things, I am now reading *War & Peace* in the early morning
stillness.
it has brought back this memory first. Edmund Wilson in *Upstate*, which I
back- asswords read before
*War & Peace* even the first time, all alone in upper New York state and of
an age now,
writing that Tolstoy was great to read in absolute stillness because all
those voices; all that
socializing; the drawing room conversations; the balls.....so full of
life..he wrote, I believe, he could almost
hear them. I've been listening too. (you know he learned Russian to read
him and Dostoevsky and the others?)

but after that introduction, I want to report on a young woman in the novel
described as of
the average height of other girls her age but with very noticeable short
legs. Which would mean
low-waisted, right?

On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 1:57 AM peterthooper at juno.com <peterthooper at juno.com>
wrote:

> this girl, Lori, in 8th grade co-Ed gym class, hanging by her knees on the
> chinning bar, and I was looking at her and thinking, “Is she low-waisted?
> Oh definitely!”
>
> Chronology’s a little iffy. That would’ve been 1968 or 9.
> My folks did give me Ayn Rand’s little double paperback for Christmas
> 1970, though. Must’ve read the novels earlier.
>
> ---------- Original Message ----------
> From: Raphael Saltwood
>
> C) there is a strong temptation to post stuff that asks for devout
> attention without doing the editing to earn it. I struggle with this myself.
>
> — sometimes it’s just fun to write, isn’t it? (Challenge: write something,
> anything, without posting it. You start!)
>
>
> E) so a danger of viral infections is for the immune system to overreact?
>
> — yeah, check this on melatonin:
> https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464619302452 (Flu
> in mice, but the point is that melatonin worked against the ARD)
>
> “overreaction of the host immune responses may...be involved in the
> pathogenicity of the influenza virus in mice....An aberrantly aggressive
> innate inflammatory response was a key contributor to the morbidity of the
> 1918 influenza outbreak....studies suggest that a “cytokine storm” may be
> an important factor leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)
> and respiratory failure in infected patients....“
>
> ...Yada yada more medical verbiage than you can shake a stick at...
>
> “ previous study has shown that melatonin treatment significantly reduces
> the population of Th1 CD4 lymphocytes and increases the expression of
> anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 as well as the population of
> IL-10-producing CD4 T cells (Lin et al., 2009). We also found that
> melatonin treatment significantly inhibits inflammation in situ and reduces
> the severity of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in mice
> (Chen et al., 2016). Thus, in this study we investigated the therapeutic
> potential of melatonin in influenza virus infection based on the previously
> reported anti-oxidant and immune modulatory effect of melatonin. We found
> that both high-dose melatonin pretreatment and treatment significantly
> improved the survival of influenza virus-infected mice. Melatonin treatment
> significantly increases the expression of IL-10 and TGF-β. The induction of
> IL-10 by melatonin occurs via the upregulation of IL-27 expression in
> dendritic cells (DCs). Melatonin also significantly inhibits the production
> of TNF-α by CD8 T cells in virus-infected Balb/c mice. Furthermore,
> co-treatment of melatonin and ribavirin significantly increases the
> survival rate of virus-infected mice compared to that of mice treated with
> ribavirin alone. Our study suggests that melatonin possesses therapeutic
> potential in influenza-induced pneumonia and as an adjuvant treatment with
> anti-viral drugs.”
>
>
> (Who am I kidding? I plucked this reference from among 102 references
> below an article -
>
> namely,
> https://www.evolutamente.it/covid-19-pneumonia-inflammasomes-the-melatonin-connection/
> -  much more readable, though still pretty dense -
>
> by the great science writer Doris Loh, which the OMNS (Orthomolecular News
> Service) pointed me to)
>
> what is potential p-list content?
> Anything, right?
>
> But what is quality p-list content?
> I think these:
>
> a subset that not only mentions Pynchon but engages some aspect of the
> oeuvre
>
> Or that one can imagine particular or generic p-listers enjoying
>
> Or schtuff that one thinks is really cool and wants to share
>
> Ymmv. I think that the occasion of a plague for societal power shifts
> (such as yet more status and money accruing to the medical sector, as if
> they need that) is Pynchonian. The details of the virus are also Pynchonian
> grist, in the same way that arcana of the V-2 would be.
>
>  And sharing that vitamin c and melatonin make me feel better is just good
> manners, but of course not going on and on about it is also good manners.
>
> Anybody have some research on how weed might affect Covid? Asking for a
> friend -
>
>
>
> f) But how do you think Mafia Winsome in V. provides a useful critique (or
> other kind of helpful thought-form) applicable to Ayn Rand? Do you actually
> have some notions about it?
>
> Yes, and...
> That’s a good occasion for me to write up a few drafts and shut up for
> awhile. If you don’t hear from me by May, write it yourself!
>
>
>
>
>
> ____________________
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>