Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Chapter 11

2021-08-28T08:31:25Z

Stickburner: Added content

{{V PbP Top}}

307/337 - '''rhythms pulse regular and sinusoidal'''<br />
A sinusoidal waves's path, when plotted to a time base, is a sine wave (particles execute transverse vibrations of a simple harmonic type); [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinusoidal Wikipedia]

309/339 -- '''Hagiar Kim'''<br />
"Ħaġar Qim is a megalithic temple complex found on the Mediterranean island of Malta, dating from the Ġgantija phase (3600-3200 BC). The Megalithic Temples of Malta are among the most ancient religious sites on Earth, described by the World Heritage Sites committee as "unique architectural masterpieces." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%A6a%C4%A1ar_Qim?wprov=sfla1 Wikipedia]

313/345 -- '''marid b'mohhru'''<br />
Maltese for "sick of mind".

<div id="siege">318/351 - '''8th of June'''</div>
This date is incorrect. The bombing of Malta began on June 11, 1940. [http://www.octopus-garden.com/english/malta/history/default.aspx History of Malta]

316/348 - '''Valletta of the Knights''' <br />
Jean Parisot de la Valette (1494-1568), a member of the Knights of St. John, was the leadeader of the resistance against the Ottomans during the Siege of Malta in 1565, and later grand master of the Knights Hospitaller

318/351 - '''June Disturbances''' <br />
Two days of riots in Valletta, from June 7 to 8 of 1919, which British troops were called in to suppress, resulting in the deaths of several Maltese civilians.

321/354 - '''elephants'''<br />
There are no elephants on Malta, though there are fossilized remains of dwarf elephants at Ghar Dalam, near Birzebbuga. These remains prove that during the Pleistocene period the island was still connected to Sicily but cut off from North Africa. Apparently the animals got "trapped" on the island as they retreated towards warmer regions.

322/355 - '''v.'''<br />
After a discussion of the human zygote as matter without soul, shaped by the same mechanical forces that "dictate a bomb's trajectory, the death of stars, the wind and the water spout" we move to Fausto's "understanding" with God which comes down to, simply, "human law v. divine." In context "human law" seems to be a function of, among others, poets in creating metaphors and mothers in perpetrating a fictional mystery about motherhood -- see the "Great Lie" below (p.360). By contrast, the "divine" may simply be the laws of mechanical motion.

The "v." between human law and the divine -- the crux/cross of being animate in an inanimate world is yet another interpretation of the title.

322/355 -- '''hekk ikun'''<br />
Maltese for "so be it".

324/358 - '''the first bomb of 8 June 1940'''<br />
This date is incorrect. [[#siege|See above...]]

326/361: - '''catenary'''<br />
A catenary is the curve formed by suspending an ideal chain. The catenary resembles a parabola, the recurring curve of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Paraboloids ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. Unlike the parabola, the catenary is a transcendental curve, meaning a curve with a non-algebraic function.

The ''locus'' of an equation is the curve that plots the equation, so the "locus of the transcendental" is the graph of the catenary, whose shape is the "smile" in the poem. The final line of the poem is the catenary equation itself  appropriately enough for a poem by an engineer-poet.

327/361-2 '''The sun had almost achieved reality.'''<br/>
This line strikes to the core of the animate v. inanimate discussion. Of course the sun is inanimate, though very energetic! -- so in order to almost achieve reality implies the perception of the poet bringing the sun to a subjective-animate reality. "Shades" of Wallace Stevens, Proust, William Blake, here.

For example William Blake in 'A Vision of the Last Judgment' writes:

:I assert for My Self that I do not behold the outward Creation & that to me it is a hindrance & not Action; it is as the Dirt upon my feet, No part of Me. "What," it will be Questiond, "When the Sun rises do you not see a round disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea?" O no, no, I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty." I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative Eye any more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight: I look thro it & not with it.

<div id="antiaircraft">328/363 - '''a/a'''</div>
anti-aircraft

<div id="stepfunction">331/366 - '''history is a step-function'''</div>
A "step function" is a single real variable that remains constant within each of a series of adjacent intervals, but changes in value from one interval to the next. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step_function Wikipedia] The graph of a step function looks like a series of small steps.[http://www.icoachmath.com/SiteMap/StepFunction.html]

335/371 '''acid-green'''<br />
"Acid-green" is a Pynchon favorite. Appears also in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_181-189 ''Gravity's Rainbow''] and [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#Page_15 ''Vineland''].

<div id="virgin-power">338/375 - '''unconscious identification of ones own mother with the Virgin...'''<br />

From Pynchon's short story ''Entropy'':

:Henry Adams, three generations before his own, had stared aghast at Power; Callisto found himself now in much the same state over Thermodynamics, the inner life of that power, realizing like his predecessor that the Virgin and the dynamo stand as much for love as for power; that the two are indeed identical; and that love therefore not only makes the world go round but also makes the boccie ball spin, the nebula precess. <ref>Pynchon, Thomas, ''Slow Learner'', Jonathan Cape, 1985, pp.84-85</ref>

==References==
<references />

{{V PbP}}

Chapter 11

2021-08-27T17:15:20Z

Stickburner:

{{V PbP Top}}

307/337 - '''rhythms pulse regular and sinusoidal'''<br />
A sinusoidal waves's path, when plotted to a time base, is a sine wave (particles execute transverse vibrations of a simple harmonic type); [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinusoidal Wikipedia]

309/339 -- '''Hagiar Kim'''<br />
"Ħaġar Qim is a megalithic temple complex found on the Mediterranean island of Malta, dating from the Ġgantija phase (3600-3200 BC). The Megalithic Temples of Malta are among the most ancient religious sites on Earth, described by the World Heritage Sites committee as "unique architectural masterpieces." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%A6a%C4%A1ar_Qim?wprov=sfla1 Wikipedia]

313/345 -- '''marid b'mohhru'''<br />
Maltese for "sick of mind".

<div id="siege">318/351 - '''8th of June'''</div>
This date is incorrect. The bombing of Malta began on June 11, 1940. [http://www.octopus-garden.com/english/malta/history/default.aspx History of Malta]

316/348 - '''Valletta of the Knights''' <br />
Jean Parisot de la Valette (1494-1568), a member of the Knights of St. John, was the leadeader of the resistance against the Ottomans during the Siege of Malta in 1565, and later grand master of the Knights Hospitaller

318/351 - '''June Disturbances''' <br />
Two days of riots in Valletta, from June 7 to 8 of 1919, which British troops were called in to suppress, resulting in the deaths of several Maltese civilians.

321/354 - '''elephants'''<br />
There are no elephants on Malta, though there are fossilized remains of dwarf elephants at Ghar Dalam, near Birzebbuga. These remains prove that during the Pleistocene period the island was still connected to Sicily but cut off from North Africa. Apparently the animals got "trapped" on the island as they retreated towards warmer regions.

322/355 - '''v.'''<br />
After a discussion of the human zygote as matter without soul, shaped by the same mechanical forces that "dictate a bomb's trajectory, the death of stars, the wind and the water spout" we move to Fausto's "understanding" with God which comes down to, simply, "human law v. divine." In context "human law" seems to be a function of, among others, poets in creating metaphors and mothers in perpetrating a fictional mystery about motherhood -- see the "Great Lie" below (p.360). By contrast, the "divine" may simply be the laws of mechanical motion.

The "v." between human law and the divine -- the crux/cross of being animate in an inanimate world is yet another interpretation of the title.

324/358 - '''the first bomb of 8 June 1940'''<br />
This date is incorrect. [[#siege|See above...]]

326/361: - '''catenary'''<br />
A catenary is the curve formed by suspending an ideal chain. The catenary resembles a parabola, the recurring curve of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Paraboloids ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. Unlike the parabola, the catenary is a transcendental curve, meaning a curve with a non-algebraic function.

The ''locus'' of an equation is the curve that plots the equation, so the "locus of the transcendental" is the graph of the catenary, whose shape is the "smile" in the poem. The final line of the poem is the catenary equation itself  appropriately enough for a poem by an engineer-poet.

327/361-2 '''The sun had almost achieved reality.'''<br/>
This line strikes to the core of the animate v. inanimate discussion. Of course the sun is inanimate, though very energetic! -- so in order to almost achieve reality implies the perception of the poet bringing the sun to a subjective-animate reality. "Shades" of Wallace Stevens, Proust, William Blake, here.

For example William Blake in 'A Vision of the Last Judgment' writes:

:I assert for My Self that I do not behold the outward Creation & that to me it is a hindrance & not Action; it is as the Dirt upon my feet, No part of Me. "What," it will be Questiond, "When the Sun rises do you not see a round disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea?" O no, no, I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty." I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative Eye any more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight: I look thro it & not with it.

<div id="antiaircraft">328/363 - '''a/a'''</div>
anti-aircraft

<div id="stepfunction">331/366 - '''history is a step-function'''</div>
A "step function" is a single real variable that remains constant within each of a series of adjacent intervals, but changes in value from one interval to the next. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step_function Wikipedia] The graph of a step function looks like a series of small steps.[http://www.icoachmath.com/SiteMap/StepFunction.html]

335/371 '''acid-green'''<br />
"Acid-green" is a Pynchon favorite. Appears also in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_181-189 ''Gravity's Rainbow''] and [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#Page_15 ''Vineland''].

<div id="virgin-power">338/375 - '''unconscious identification of ones own mother with the Virgin...'''<br />

From Pynchon's short story ''Entropy'':

:Henry Adams, three generations before his own, had stared aghast at Power; Callisto found himself now in much the same state over Thermodynamics, the inner life of that power, realizing like his predecessor that the Virgin and the dynamo stand as much for love as for power; that the two are indeed identical; and that love therefore not only makes the world go round but also makes the boccie ball spin, the nebula precess. <ref>Pynchon, Thomas, ''Slow Learner'', Jonathan Cape, 1985, pp.84-85</ref>

==References==
<references />

{{V PbP}}

Chapter 11

2021-08-27T17:13:37Z

Stickburner:

{{V PbP Top}}

307/337 - '''rhythms pulse regular and sinusoidal'''<br />
A sinusoidal waves's path, when plotted to a time base, is a sine wave (particles execute transverse vibrations of a simple harmonic type); [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinusoidal Wikipedia]

309/339 -- '''Hagiar Kim'''<br />
"Ħaġar Qim is a megalithic temple complex found on the Mediterranean island of Malta, dating from the Ġgantija phase (3600-3200 BC). The Megalithic Temples of Malta are among the most ancient religious sites on Earth, described by the World Heritage Sites committee as "unique architectural masterpieces." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%A6a%C4%A1ar_Qim?wprov=sfla1]

313/345 -- '''marid b'mohhru'''<br />
Maltese for "sick of mind".

<div id="siege">318/351 - '''8th of June'''</div>
This date is incorrect. The bombing of Malta began on June 11, 1940. [http://www.octopus-garden.com/english/malta/history/default.aspx History of Malta]

316/348 - '''Valletta of the Knights''' <br />
Jean Parisot de la Valette (1494-1568), a member of the Knights of St. John, was the leadeader of the resistance against the Ottomans during the Siege of Malta in 1565, and later grand master of the Knights Hospitaller

318/351 - '''June Disturbances''' <br />
Two days of riots in Valletta, from June 7 to 8 of 1919, which British troops were called in to suppress, resulting in the deaths of several Maltese civilians.

321/354 - '''elephants'''<br />
There are no elephants on Malta, though there are fossilized remains of dwarf elephants at Ghar Dalam, near Birzebbuga. These remains prove that during the Pleistocene period the island was still connected to Sicily but cut off from North Africa. Apparently the animals got "trapped" on the island as they retreated towards warmer regions.

322/355 - '''v.'''<br />
After a discussion of the human zygote as matter without soul, shaped by the same mechanical forces that "dictate a bomb's trajectory, the death of stars, the wind and the water spout" we move to Fausto's "understanding" with God which comes down to, simply, "human law v. divine." In context "human law" seems to be a function of, among others, poets in creating metaphors and mothers in perpetrating a fictional mystery about motherhood -- see the "Great Lie" below (p.360). By contrast, the "divine" may simply be the laws of mechanical motion.

The "v." between human law and the divine -- the crux/cross of being animate in an inanimate world is yet another interpretation of the title.

324/358 - '''the first bomb of 8 June 1940'''<br />
This date is incorrect. [[#siege|See above...]]

326/361: - '''catenary'''<br />
A catenary is the curve formed by suspending an ideal chain. The catenary resembles a parabola, the recurring curve of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Paraboloids ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. Unlike the parabola, the catenary is a transcendental curve, meaning a curve with a non-algebraic function.

The ''locus'' of an equation is the curve that plots the equation, so the "locus of the transcendental" is the graph of the catenary, whose shape is the "smile" in the poem. The final line of the poem is the catenary equation itself  appropriately enough for a poem by an engineer-poet.

327/361-2 '''The sun had almost achieved reality.'''<br/>
This line strikes to the core of the animate v. inanimate discussion. Of course the sun is inanimate, though very energetic! -- so in order to almost achieve reality implies the perception of the poet bringing the sun to a subjective-animate reality. "Shades" of Wallace Stevens, Proust, William Blake, here.

For example William Blake in 'A Vision of the Last Judgment' writes:

:I assert for My Self that I do not behold the outward Creation & that to me it is a hindrance & not Action; it is as the Dirt upon my feet, No part of Me. "What," it will be Questiond, "When the Sun rises do you not see a round disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea?" O no, no, I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty." I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative Eye any more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight: I look thro it & not with it.

<div id="antiaircraft">328/363 - '''a/a'''</div>
anti-aircraft

<div id="stepfunction">331/366 - '''history is a step-function'''</div>
A "step function" is a single real variable that remains constant within each of a series of adjacent intervals, but changes in value from one interval to the next. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step_function Wikipedia] The graph of a step function looks like a series of small steps.[http://www.icoachmath.com/SiteMap/StepFunction.html]

335/371 '''acid-green'''<br />
"Acid-green" is a Pynchon favorite. Appears also in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_181-189 ''Gravity's Rainbow''] and [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#Page_15 ''Vineland''].

<div id="virgin-power">338/375 - '''unconscious identification of ones own mother with the Virgin...'''<br />

From Pynchon's short story ''Entropy'':

:Henry Adams, three generations before his own, had stared aghast at Power; Callisto found himself now in much the same state over Thermodynamics, the inner life of that power, realizing like his predecessor that the Virgin and the dynamo stand as much for love as for power; that the two are indeed identical; and that love therefore not only makes the world go round but also makes the boccie ball spin, the nebula precess. <ref>Pynchon, Thomas, ''Slow Learner'', Jonathan Cape, 1985, pp.84-85</ref>

==References==
<references />

{{V PbP}}

Chapter 11

2021-08-27T17:03:32Z

Stickburner: Added content

{{V PbP Top}}

307/337 - '''rhythms pulse regular and sinusoidal'''<br />
A sinusoidal waves's path, when plotted to a time base, is a sine wave (particles execute transverse vibrations of a simple harmonic type); [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinusoidal Wikipedia]

313/345 -- '''marid b'mohhru'''<br />
Maltese for "sick of mind".

<div id="siege">318/351 - '''8th of June'''</div>
This date is incorrect. The bombing of Malta began on June 11, 1940. [http://www.octopus-garden.com/english/malta/history/default.aspx History of Malta]

316/348 - '''Valletta of the Knights''' <br />
Jean Parisot de la Valette (1494-1568), a member of the Knights of St. John, was the leadeader of the resistance against the Ottomans during the Siege of Malta in 1565, and later grand master of the Knights Hospitaller

318/351 - '''June Disturbances''' <br />
Two days of riots in Valletta, from June 7 to 8 of 1919, which British troops were called in to suppress, resulting in the deaths of several Maltese civilians.

321/354 - '''elephants'''<br />
There are no elephants on Malta, though there are fossilized remains of dwarf elephants at Ghar Dalam, near Birzebbuga. These remains prove that during the Pleistocene period the island was still connected to Sicily but cut off from North Africa. Apparently the animals got "trapped" on the island as they retreated towards warmer regions.

322/355 - '''v.'''<br />
After a discussion of the human zygote as matter without soul, shaped by the same mechanical forces that "dictate a bomb's trajectory, the death of stars, the wind and the water spout" we move to Fausto's "understanding" with God which comes down to, simply, "human law v. divine." In context "human law" seems to be a function of, among others, poets in creating metaphors and mothers in perpetrating a fictional mystery about motherhood -- see the "Great Lie" below (p.360). By contrast, the "divine" may simply be the laws of mechanical motion.

The "v." between human law and the divine -- the crux/cross of being animate in an inanimate world is yet another interpretation of the title.

324/358 - '''the first bomb of 8 June 1940'''<br />
This date is incorrect. [[#siege|See above...]]

326/361: - '''catenary'''<br />
A catenary is the curve formed by suspending an ideal chain. The catenary resembles a parabola, the recurring curve of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Paraboloids ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. Unlike the parabola, the catenary is a transcendental curve, meaning a curve with a non-algebraic function.

The ''locus'' of an equation is the curve that plots the equation, so the "locus of the transcendental" is the graph of the catenary, whose shape is the "smile" in the poem. The final line of the poem is the catenary equation itself  appropriately enough for a poem by an engineer-poet.

327/361-2 '''The sun had almost achieved reality.'''<br/>
This line strikes to the core of the animate v. inanimate discussion. Of course the sun is inanimate, though very energetic! -- so in order to almost achieve reality implies the perception of the poet bringing the sun to a subjective-animate reality. "Shades" of Wallace Stevens, Proust, William Blake, here.

For example William Blake in 'A Vision of the Last Judgment' writes:

:I assert for My Self that I do not behold the outward Creation & that to me it is a hindrance & not Action; it is as the Dirt upon my feet, No part of Me. "What," it will be Questiond, "When the Sun rises do you not see a round disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea?" O no, no, I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty." I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative Eye any more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight: I look thro it & not with it.

<div id="antiaircraft">328/363 - '''a/a'''</div>
anti-aircraft

<div id="stepfunction">331/366 - '''history is a step-function'''</div>
A "step function" is a single real variable that remains constant within each of a series of adjacent intervals, but changes in value from one interval to the next. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step_function Wikipedia] The graph of a step function looks like a series of small steps.[http://www.icoachmath.com/SiteMap/StepFunction.html]

335/371 '''acid-green'''<br />
"Acid-green" is a Pynchon favorite. Appears also in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_181-189 ''Gravity's Rainbow''] and [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#Page_15 ''Vineland''].

<div id="virgin-power">338/375 - '''unconscious identification of ones own mother with the Virgin...'''<br />

From Pynchon's short story ''Entropy'':

:Henry Adams, three generations before his own, had stared aghast at Power; Callisto found himself now in much the same state over Thermodynamics, the inner life of that power, realizing like his predecessor that the Virgin and the dynamo stand as much for love as for power; that the two are indeed identical; and that love therefore not only makes the world go round but also makes the boccie ball spin, the nebula precess. <ref>Pynchon, Thomas, ''Slow Learner'', Jonathan Cape, 1985, pp.84-85</ref>

==References==
<references />

{{V PbP}}

Chapter 5

2021-08-27T16:55:35Z

Stickburner: Added content

{{V PbP Top}}
111/115 -- '''Alligator'''<br />
Alligators are often symbolised by a sideways "V", ie a "<".

112/116 -- '''Walter Reuther'''<br />
Walter Philip Reuther (September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was a labor leader with the UAW & CIO.

<div id="113">113/117 -- '''Mikolaj Rej'''</div>
Renaisance era Polish poet, one of the founders of Polish literature. An article by the ''Finish Maritime Index'' (Brzoza, K. "Finish Maritime Sisters" 04-05) lists a cargo ship of the sizable ''Wihuri'' class under just such a name, operated by Polish Ocean Lines of Gdynia.

113/117 -- '''the Great Sewer Scandal of 1955'''<br />
From the June 10, 1955 edition of ''The New York Times'':
:5 IN QUEENS GUILTY IN SEWER SCANDAL; CASE RAN 202 DAYS; 5 Guilty in Queens Sewer Case; 202-Day Trial Believed Record Clemente and Son Convicted With 3 Borough Employes on Laurelton Project ONE ENGINEER CLEARED 3 Could Be Fined $800,000 Each--Two-Mile Sewer Had to Be Replaced. [...] Five defendants were found guilty yesterday of conspiracy and fraud in a Laurelton, Queens, sewer scandal. A sixth was acquitted. Twelve male jurors had deliberated two and a half days.

At the time, it was the nation's longest criminal trial, at 14 months.

115/119 -- '''his AF of L way of running things'''<br />
A reference to the American Federation of Labor - a national federation of unions founded in 1886 and dissolved in 1955 when it merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The AFL was the largest union federation in the USA in the first half of the 20th century. The AFL was founded and dominated by craft unions. <ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Federation_of_Labor]</ref>

123/128 -- '''killed and boiled a catechumen'''<br />
A catechumen is a "learner," one who is being instructed in the Christian faith. In the early church, a catechumen was one who underwent rigorous instruction in preparation for Holy Baptism. The word comes from the Greek and means "to echo" or "sound in the ear." Catechumens were traditionally taught through question and answer, with the answer echoing back what was first taught. A catechism is a book of instruction, often in the form of questions and answers. <ref>[http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=3714 Lutheran Church Liturgical Glossary]</ref>

<div id="magdalen">123/129 -- '''Mafia'''<br />
According to Molly Hite in ''Ideas of Order in the Novels of Thomas Pynchon'', "Mafia is a parody of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand Ayn Rand], whose influence was at its peak in the early sixties when ''V.'' first appeared." Ayn Rand (1905-1982) was an American novelist and philosopher widely known for her best-selling novels [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead ''The Fountainhead''] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged ''Atlas Shrugged''], and for developing a philosophical system called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivism_(Ayn_Rand) Objectivism]. <ref>Hite, Molly, ''Ideas of Order in the Novels of Thomas Pynchon'', Ohio State University Press, 1983p.162, fn.13</ref>

<div id="volkswagens">124/129 -- '''Volkswagens'''</div>
Sick Dick and the Volkswagens also appears in ''The Crying of Lot 49.''

127/133 '''"All quite mysterious and Dashiell Hammettlike"''' <br />
Referring, of course, to the author of detective novels such as ''The Maltese Falcon''.

128/135 '''Taken a Brody''' <br />
This colorful term refers to Steve Brody, 1st man to survive a jump off the Brooklyn Bridge in 1885.

133/140 '''alter kocker''' <br />
Jewish phrase of German origin, literally "old defecator" but describes someone who is "inept at everything they do" (see [http://members.tripod.com/talk_jewish/id19.htm Talking Jewish])

==References==
<references />

{{V PbP}}