SLPAD - 72

[Michael Bailey]

Little Buttercup and Levine do a sedentary courtship dance, featuring a
prolonged gaze.


Her date who she thought went home turns up in a cord coat.

I think this means corduroy. There are a variety to be seen on the www, but
no individual one seems to be canonical.

I wouldn’t think that it’s a very heavy coat, though, in July in Louisiana.

The addition of the word “rebel” in the description of the lad may be yet
another media reference (“Rebel Without a Cause” (1955))


So, semi-ironically, Levine is put into a similar situation as that of
Baxter (which had driven Levine to invoke deity in a disaffected way) -
with his desired date’s date untidily in the picture* - although Levine’s
made the date actually for the next night & the guy obviously doesn’t own
her…

Still, the guy clumsily tries to drape an arm & knocks over Picnic’s beer -
sparking Picnic to suggest to Levine that they initiate fisticuffs (perhaps
their readiness for belligerent action isn’t as far from their mindset as
I’d thought) - but before Levine can weigh in with a yea or a nay, Baxter,
trying to pitch in, inadvertently (or maybe not so inadvertently?) knocks
Picnic out & they take him back “home.”

(Oops I’m onto the next page, but it’s Nook pagination anyway & I had
momentum)

* & the implicit threat involved in “cutting in”

As the Anarchosyndicalist says in “Monty Python & the Holy Grail”:

Now you see the violence inherent in the system.