SLPAD - 46 - like a vaudeville team

[Michael Bailey]

- Picnic & Levine - the lieutenant said, “Levine, you’re with Picnic.” If
Levine were the go-getter that the Lieutenant wants him to be, it would’ve
been, “Picnic, you’re with Levine,” right?

“[heading for] Radio section’s barracks. They trudged across the sand,
sweating in the windless air and the hot yellow sun. “Never a dull moment,
Benny,” Levine said. “Oh Jesus,” Picnic said. They went in the barracks
doing the stockade shuffle and when Capucci asked what was happening they
gave him the finger, simultaneously and precisely, like a vaudeville team.”


Once again, Jesus is invoked.

Radio section - it is the 131st Signal Battalion, so of course there’s a
Radio section.

The stockade shuffle - could be that Picnic’s also familiar with the
stockade and its prisoners’ characteristic walk.

“Never a dull moment, Benny” ?!? - wait, Profane’s a sailor…never mind

Lieutenant’s name is Pierce - but I think that Pierce, not Inverarity, is
his surname. But it’s a good name for an officer, at least it’s handy in
command to have a piercing gaze (-;

While talking of names - “Levine” (can’t believe I had to look this up)
means “descendant of Levi” in Hebrew.


Levine packs quickly

“…got his laundry bag out and started throwing fatigues, skivvies and socks
into it. He put his shaving kit in last and then as an afterthought wedged
an old blue baseball cap down the side.”

- Wondering if there’s a team name on it…could it be a remnant of his old
life in New York? The shaving kit might also be one.


He announces his different plans for the weekend, conferring briefly with
Picnic, who helps him think through to the rather obvious conclusion that
the two of them should head for the dining area in order to eat, and also
for Levine to remind the Lieutenant, who’s probably also eating, about his
scheduled leave.