Chapter 49: 476-483
Page 476
York
See page 393.
Gunpowder Creek
The Gunpowder River is a river in Maryland, United States. It is formed by the joining of Big Gunpowder Falls and Little Gunpowder Falls. Big Gunpowder begins in the extreme southern part of Pennsylvania's York County. From there, the "Big Gunpowder" flows in a generally southeast direction through the length of Baltimore County until it reaches Joppatowne where it is joined by the "Little Gunpowder" and the Bird River becoming simply the "Gunpowder River" once it passes the Amtrak train bridge that runs from Chase to Joppa. From WIKI
Page 477
"Ensign Cheer."
Is this Dixon making a sarcastic remark, implying Mason is being pessimistic or discouraging about his Fire-flies plans?
Quartz-scryer
Jonas Everybeet, first on page 442.
Torpedo
See page 426.
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. Keys or bars (usually made of wood) are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys to aid the performer both visually and physically. From WIKI
"Pepinazos"
Anthem of the Expedition. There is a translation on ThomasPynchon.com, that translates this as "Blows", however, I think the translation of "Bangs" is a bit better (as pepinazo is closer to an explosion or loud blast from a cannon, etc). To me, "Blows" brings to mind punches which isnt in line with the word's meaning. I had other translation differences as well. That in mind, the lyrics in English may read something like:
Bangs, never
Hugs, If I
Want, Yes
For real
Listen!-
Let yourself be,
The Ba-a-nngg--ss!
Is the song a play off of "Tree Hugger"? As the Line progresses, it's Bangs not Hugs? The Ax-men's persistent Banging, the Bangs of guns and cannons past & future, the Bangs of their mallets? Also, maybe this was a tune influenced by the Lightning strikes a number of pages previous?
Page 478
Codorus
Codorus Creek is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in York County, Pennsylvania in the United States. Codorus Creek (Native American for "rapid water"), formed by the confluence of the West and South branches approximately 0.8 miles (1.3 km) upstream of the Pennsylvania Route 182 crossing, flows for approximately 15.2 miles (24.5 km) to join the Susquehanna River near the community of Saginaw. From WIKI
Conewago
Conewago Creek is a 77.6 mile (125 km) long tributary of the Susquehanna River located in Adams and York Counties in Pennsylvania in the United States, with its watershed also draining a small portion of Carroll County, Maryland... The name of the creek comes from the Lenape, meaning at the rapids, although "the rapids are not at the Conewago". Instead, the rapids are the Conewago Falls beyond the creek's mouth in the Susquehanna River, which also give their name to the other Conewago Creek, whose mouth is on the east bank of the Susquehanna River in Dauphin and Susquehanna Counties, only 1.6 miles (2.6 km) north of the mouth of this Conewago Creek. From WIKI
Piney Run
Carroll County is bordered on the north by the Mason-Dixon Line. The Piney Run Reservoir is in the southern part of the county. From WIKI
Groat
Groat is the traditional name of an English silver coin worth four English pennies, and also a Scottish coin originally worth fourpence, with later issues being valued at eightpence and a shilling. From WIKI
Eyre Coote
Lieutenant-General Sir Eyre Coote, KB (1726 – April 28, 1783), was an Irish soldier who served time in India. See WIKI
Page 479
Kabbalists of the Second Century as Gematria
Gematria is a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like. The word "gematria" is generally held to derive from Greek geōmetriā, "geometry", which was used a translation of gēmaṭriyā, though some scholars believe it to derive from Greek grammateia, rather; it's possible that both words had an influence on the formation of the Hebrew word. It has been extant in English since the 17th century from translations of works by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Although ostensibly derived from Greek, it is largely used in Jewish texts of Tanakh and Talmud, notably in those associated with the Kabbalah... Many researchers connect the "Number of the Beast", referred to in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, with either Greek or Hebrew Gematria as used by the early Christians. According to such interpretations, the number in question, 666, was originally derived via Gematria from the name of the Roman Emperor of the time, Nero. From WIKI
Page 482
Epsilons usually. Miserable little sort of things. This exchange is a reference to mathematical analysis and the rigorous foundations of the calculus of limits. Typically epsilon denotes an arbitrary positive number which a certain quantity is shown to be smaller than, in order to show that this quantity is in fact zero. This allusion is anachronistic because this idea of a limit first appears only in the writings of Augustin Louis Cauchy in 1821, and was only formally stated by Karl Weierstrass some decades later. Any student of mathematics will no doubt fondly remember having to master the epsilon-delta argument.
