Chapter 16

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'85 Sassicaia
Tenuta San Guido is an Italian wine producer in the DOC Bolgheri in Toscana, known as a producer of "Super Tuscan" wine. Its wine Sassicaia is considered one of Italy's leading Bordeaux-style red wines. Tenuta San Guido is member of the Primum Familiae Vini. From WIKI.

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riyals
Unit of currency in the Middle East.

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Eternal September
A foreboding name. The Eternal September started September 1993, the month that internet service provider America Online (AOL) began offering Usenet access to its (very many) members . Before then, every year in September, a large number of new university freshmen acquired access to Usenet for the first time, and thongs took some time to calm down as they become accustomed to Usenet's standards of conduct. After Eternal September the calm never came as more and more people came on line.

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"Up to whom they must never miss a chance to suck"
Perhaps Pynchon is riffing on Winston Churchill's alleged marginal note of 27 February 1944, to a priggish civil servant's memo objecting to the ending of a sentences with prepositions: "This is the kind of tedious nonsense up with which I will not put!"

Motor City psychobilly Elvis Hitler
Yes. There really is a band called Elvis Hitler. And they're from Detroit (a.k.a., the "Motor City").

singing the Green Acres theme to the tune of "Purple Haze"
And yes, Elvis Hitler really did a version of the Green Acres theme to the tune of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze." You can hear it here.

The bizzaro song in question is called "Green Haze, Parts 1 and 2," from their 1988 album "Disgraceland." Is Maxine feeling nostalgia from this particular song, or for "Green Acres" and/or "Purple Haze"? Maxine doesn't strike me as a psychobilly person, but maybe. Also, "Green Haze" is the name of an early Miles Davis tune, YouTube, found on "The Musings of Miles." Who knew?

zaftig body
Slightly fat in an attractive way.

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Jules and Jim
a 1962 French film by François Truffaut, a classic film about a love triangle. Wikipedia.

hours on the LIE
Long Island Expressway

money shot
In film-making usage the shot that cannot be repeated (or only at great costs); in porn movies naturally the "cum shot"

"sub-vaudville routine"
So bad, it's not even up to vaudeville's corny standards

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Tanger Outlets
An outlet mall with locations throughout the US.

"Where could this tape have come from?"
Recalls the mysterious film reels in Gravity's Rainbow that are used to convey hidden messages to certain characters.

Mrs. Grundy
A figurative name for a holier-than-thou, self-righteous person, a goody-two-shoes. Named after a minor character in Thomas Morton's play Speed the Plough (1798).

According to Wiki, she (Pynchonesquely?) never makes an appearance in the play, and is merely talked about.

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begins idly to channel-surf. A form of meditating.
Interesting to note the shift from Vinelands 80's Tube addicts to Bleeding Edges 00's new form of meditating. Could it have to do with the availability of channels?

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Homer strangling Bart . . .
Refers to characters from the animated TV show The Simpsons, in which the father (Homer) often gets angry and strangles his son Bart. Pynchon himself (well, his voice, at least) has appeared a couple of times on this television program.

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Buddhist Parable of the Burning Coal
Some musings on this Buddhist story and similar ones on a "Fake Buddha Quotes" site. Follow the link to see how coal relates to sensuality and excrement. Where have you gone, Brigadier Pudding?