Chapter 31

Page 338

remember those twin statues of the Buddha that I told you about?
That would be on page 31.

Page 339

Shawn, somebody I know, maybe dead, maybe not, enough with the zombies
Some kind of encrypted Shaun of the Dead joke? Sheer coincidence?

Page 340

diffident long-haired person . . . doing stand-up
Mitch Hedberg appeared on the NBC show Late Friday Oct. 12th, 2001 (season 1, episode 24).

Keenan and Kel
Spelled wrong. Should be "Kenan." Kenan & Kel was a sitcom on Nickelodeon 1996 to 2000. The episode in question was Season 1, episode 2 (1996). You can laugh along with Horst here.

Page 341

Global Consciousness Project
The Global Consciousness Project is a parapsychology experiment begun in 1998 as an attempt to detect possible interactions of "global consciousness" with physical systems. The project monitors a geographically distributed network of hardware random number generators in a bid to identify anomalous outputs that correlate with widespread emotional responses to sets of world events, or periods of focused attention by large numbers of people. The GCP is privately funded through the Institute of Noetic Sciences and describes itself as an international collaboration of about 100 research scientists and engineers. Skeptics such as Robert T. Carroll, Claus Larsen, and others have questioned the methodology of the Global Consciousness Project, particularly how the data are selected and interpreted, saying the data anomalies reported by the project are the result of "pattern matching" and selection bias which ultimately fail to support a belief in psi or global consciousness. Other critics, whilst disagreeing with GCP findings, have noted that the open operation of GCP "is a testimony to the integrity and curiosity of those involved." From WIKI.

Page 342

Guy's walking around holding a blazing hot coal
Buddhist Parable of the Burning Coal, from page 182.

coquilles Saint-Jacques
This is a loaded meal meaning here, for not only is the scallop shell the State shell of New York, but also a fertility symbol. The dish here being made by Horst, is a popular French dish, which prepares scallops in a cream sauce, and in some cases baked as a gratin. Also, the name of the dish alludes to the scallop shell being the traditional emblem of St. James.

daube de boeuf provencal
Provencal beef stew.

Page 343

Roomba Pro Elite

Here's a video of this vacuum robot:

Page 344

halo of Daffy Duck forth droplets
Fair number of halos in this book. There's the video game references scattered throughout, and then there's page 17's "halo of faded morality," and page 183's "paranoid halo." Nice line on page 183, by the way: A paranoid halo thickens around Maxine's head, if not a nimbus of certainty.

the ill-regarded Comet Cursor of the nineties
Comet Cursor was a software program manufactured by Comet Systems. It allowed users of the Microsoft Windows Operating System to change the appearance of their mouse's cursor and to allow websites to use customized cursors for visitors. The product was introduced as an enhancement to website design and to enable advertisers to use customized cursors for their campaigns. Companies using Comet Cursor for advertising included AT&T Corporation, Energizer, and Procter & Gamble. Wikipedia

Page 345

woowoo
X-Files theme song reference? Urban dictionary definition.

malloc(3)
From this page "The malloc() function allocates size bytes and returns a pointer to the allocated memory. The memory is not initialized. If size is 0, then malloc() returns either NULL, or a unique pointer value that can later be successfully passed to free()."

Page 346

little tiny people who come out from under the radiator...with little brooms, and dustpans
A reference back to page 333: the hallucinatory effects of Ambien causing Eric & Driscoll to mistake Maxine's children for "small people running around doing a variety of household tasks."

Harry Potter House Elf?
Elves and the Shoemaker fairy tale, keeping with the foot fetish?

Chapter 1 pp. 1-7	Chapter 2 pp. 8-19	Chapter 3 pp. 20-29	Chapter 4 pp. 30-40	Chapter 5 pp. 41-52
Chapter 6 pp. 53-67	Chapter 7 pp. 68-79	Chapter 8 pp. 80-86	Chapter 9 pp. 87-95	Chapter 10 pp. 96-111
Chapter 11 pp. 112-120	Chapter 12 pp. 121-133	Chapter 13 pp. 134-144	Chapter 14 pp. 145-159	Chapter 15 pp. 160-171
Chapter 16 pp. 172-184	Chapter 17 pp. 185-197	Chapter 18 pp. 198-210	Chapter 19 pp. 211-218	Chapter 20 pp. 219-229
Chapter 21 pp. 230-238	Chapter 22 pp. 239-246	Chapter 23 pp. 247-255	Chapter 24 pp. 256-264	Chapter 25 pp. 265-273
Chapter 26 pp. 274-287	Chapter 27 pp. 288-300	Chapter 28 pp. 301-313	Chapter 29 pp. 314-326	Chapter 30 pp. 327-337
Chapter 31 pp. 338-346	Chapter 32 pp. 347-353	Chapter 33 pp. 354-364	Chapter 34 pp. 365-382	Chapter 35 pp. 383-394
Chapter 36 pp. 395-407	Chapter 37 pp. 408-422	Chapter 38 pp. 423-438	Chapter 39 pp. 439-447	Chapter 40 pp. 448-462
		Chapter 41 pp. 463-477