Thomas Pynchon's "The Meaning of Life"

Admit It, I Fished You In
Although it was only there to get your attention, I do wonder what a $150 million film directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Ethan Hawke would be like.  It would, inevitably, feature Yoyodyne (Propulsion Systems), Pig Bodine, be principally set in the Cotswolds (Tom being a bit of an Anglophile) and feature intelligent plants trying to achieve Singularity.  There would be an incredibly long cast list, conspiracies galore, Paul Anderson on scriptwriting and pop culture references.

Paul T. Anderson, who has probably met <gibbers with excitement> Thomas Pynchon

     Which is where the blog really begins - the above is just a flight of whimsy.  Many months ago I re-read Tom's novel "Bleeding Edge" and noted down all the words or phrases that struck me as incongruous or unusual or just plain inexplicable.  Some of this would be due to date, as BE is set over a decade ago.  For others, Tom's meaning has to be dug out, mined out of teh interwebz, if you want a mining analogy*.
     So let the motley, with a new set of valves and go-faster stripes,  begin!

Bleeding Edge: Conrad's Explanations
I know, I know, I could just go look up the wiki for BE.  Where would the entertainment be in that?  You might as well have an electrically-powered gadget that rapidly heats water to boiling point, instead of hanging a cauldron over a log fire in the inglenook.
     Here are the terms and clarifications.
     "Stochastic Crossover":  This is predictive methodology used in stockmarket analysis, in order to determine whether the value of a stock is going to increase or decrease.  I think.  It's a complicated subject, but a real thing and  given that our heroine is an accountant, quite relevant.  And real.  You always have to check with Tom.

A stochastic, crossing over.

     "P.o.I.":  Person of Interest.  Not the excellent television series but a potential suspect, who hasn't quite got to being an actual suspect, if not for want of trying.  This is yet ANOTHER example of that swinish Coincidence Hydra sinking it's fangs into my fesse, as I wrote this down nearly a year ago and only posted about the programme earlier today.  Or it's a Hawaiian dish made from the taro root.

Reese.  No - hang on -

     "Papa Doble": This is a cocktail, a variation on a daiquiri, as consumed by Ernest "Papa" Hemingway in large amounts.  It consists of ice, rum, grapefruit juice, lime juice and cherry liquer.
     "Maven": I'd seen this word used before and never quite understood the context.  Well, it refers to a trusted expert in a specialism, who seeks to pass on their understanding to others.  It comes from the Yiddish "meyvn" which translates as "expert", which makes sense as our heroine is Jewish.
     Here endeth the lesson for today.

Close enough

A Film Review
I see that "Patriot Day" is now out at the cinemas, however, given the horribly unpleasant nature of the film, Conrad Is Not Going There.  Instead -
     "John Wick: Chapter 2": I've seen the first one and doubt this can hold a candle to it**.  What I liked about the first one is that Mr Wick is pretty damn dangerous but he's not superhuman.  At one point he gets injured badly enough to require ad hoc surgery, after which he ignores the advice given him by the sawbones ("choose a different line of work" would also be quite high on my list of good advice given).  He also manages to get caught, and requires a bit of deus ex machina third-party help to escape.

John!  You've lost so much weight ...

     "The Founder":  Oh my, once again Hollywood utterly fails to appreciate the requirements a blog author has in terms of generating content.  "The Founder".  Founder of what?  Where?  When?  There is Michael Keaton on the advert, which is good, I rate Mike - I can call him that as we're such terrific friends - and he did play that charming rogue Beetlejuice***.  BUT WHAT DID HE FOUND!  
     That's all for films today.  Is that a sigh of relief or disappointment that I hear?

"Look what I FOUND," said the Sandworm

Bart Gets Biffed
Conrad has less than zero time for the extremely silly Apollo hoax conspiracy theories that float around out there.  I know man went to the Moon because it's where I park my spaceship and I know the environment.  Bit of a commute, I agree, but it keeps it safe from nosey parkers^.  
     Anyway, Bart Sibrel.  Whilst working for a television station he trespassed on the property of an astronaut, and got fired for it.  You or I - okay, you - might think "Time to move on".  Not Bart.  Oh no.  He has since carried a grudge against all astronauts, although it's not clear if he also hates cosmonauts.  Probably, on the grounds that they all trespass beyond Earth's orbit.  He has a modus operandi of stalking and ambushing ex-astronauts, loudly declaring that they are thieves and liars and that they'd better swear on a Bible that they went to the Moon.

Buzz is back on my Christmas card list

     Well, he made a mistake picking on Buzz, who got extremely annoyed that his grand-daughter was also being harrassed; he hauled off and socked Sibrel a good one on the jaw.  (bear in mind that Buzz is twice the age and half the size of Bart).
     Now, the law may be an ass at times, and an idiot at others, but it came across for Buzz, because Bart's charge of assault was thrown out of court.  Way out of court.  221,500 miles out of court.  Which is far enough to reach the surface of -


*  As in "Against The Day"
**  Do you see - oh you do
***   Sandworms, eh?
^  UNIT, I'm looking at you.