Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
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Drift glass : glass that has literally been adrift (after having been thrown into the ocean, for instance) and eventually washes up to shore, discolored by algae and the like
Piers : intermediate structural supports (pillars) for bridges, also buildings that extent into navigable water (for use as a landing place, etc)
Registered: Nov 1999
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The rosin is the same stuff as used w/ violins. It's used on the hands when playing pool in order to better handle the cue. I could be wrong about this part, but I think it's used so tat he cue slides across the fingers of the hand that's on the table without sticking.
Registered: Mar 1999
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TORI
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thanks...
(Ch 1 – p. 1) He winces, violently, as a fashionable young matron, features swathed in Chanel micropore, rolls over his toes with an expensive three-wheeled stroller. Blurting a convulsive apology, Yamazaki glimpses the infant passenger through flexible curtains of some pink-tinted plastic, the glow of a video display winking as its mother trundles determinedly away. ???did she have a micropore mask or a sort of micropore bandage (made by Chanel) wrapped around her face?
p. 1. Yamazaki sighs, unheard, and limps toward the cardboard shelters. He wonders briefly what the passing commuters will think, to see him enter the carton fifth from the left. It is scarcely the height of his chest, longer than the others, vaguely coffin-like, a flap of thumb-smudged white corrugate serving as its door. ??? corrugate – was it plastic? or cardboard? or what?
31 Tessa was Australian, a media sciences student at USC and the reason Chevette was out here now, couching it. ???couching it
34 - No light here now but a couple of telltales and the methodical flicker as the security system flipped from one external night-vision camera to the next. ???telltales
ch4 p16 - The blade's angled tip, recalling a wood carver's chisel, inclines toward the dark arterial pulse in the pit of his arm, as if reminding him that he too is only ever inches from that place the drowned girl went, so long ago, that timelessness. That other country, waiting. He is by trade a keeper of the door to that country. ??? by trade – like: his business is to be a keeper of …?
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I'm thinking the "micropore" was a shawl or scarf.
"Corrugate" probably refers to the cardboard of the cardboard shelters mentioned a few lines up. Corrugated cardboard is a common material to make boxes out of.
I'm not sure if "couching it" has some meaning I'm not aware of in context, but I would assume it means, "sleeping on the couch."
"Telltales" are indicator lights, in this case, LEDs that show that a camera is operational.
And yes, "by trade" means "by trained profession." It usually implies a skill, rather than any old job.
posted
I think that Chanel micropore probably refers to an entire outfit rather than just a scarf. Swathe means to envelop or to wrap. A big shawl, maybe, or some kind of cape-like thing, sort of like those "futuristic" Japanese parachute material fashions from the 1980s.
-------------------- When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum
Registered: Oct 1999
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TORI
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OK, thanks...
p42 The boy reaches out. Two fingers touch the watch the man wears on his left wrist. He opens his mouth as if to speak. "The time?" Something moves in the affectless brown depths of the boy's eyes. The watch is very old, purchased from a specialist dealer in a fortified arcade in Singapore. It is military ordnance. It speaks to the man of battles fought in another day. It reminds him that every battle will one day be as obscure, and that only the moment matters, matters absolutely. ??? – literally some shopping arcade that was fortified?
p44 It was an old building, in the kind of area where buildings like that were usually converted to residential, but the frequency of razor wire suggested that this was not yet gentrified territory. There were a couple of Universal square badges controlling entry, a firm that mostly did low-level industrial security. They were set up in an office by the gate, watching Real One on a flatscreen propped up on a big steel desk that looked like someone had gone over every square inch of it with a ball peen hammer. Cups of take-out coffee and white foam food containers. It all felt kind of homey to Rydell, who figured they'd be going off shift soon, seven in the morning. Wouldn't be a bad job, as bad jobs went. "Delivering a drive-away," Rydell told them. ???square badge ???ball peen – typo? Should have read “ball pen hammer” meaning very small hammer? ???drive-away
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I think a fortified arcade means one completely enclosed. Ie, a shopping mall. But I'm not sure.
No idea about the others. "Square Badge" I thought could mean a swipe card, but it seems to be referring to actual people. And drive-away too confuses me. Could it possibly be "take-away", as in food being delivered?
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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TORI
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drive-away - speaking of a car (forgot to point this out).
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Hmm. Could it be slang for "getaway car"? The car used to escape from the scene of a crime?
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
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A drive-away is a service where, in exchange for delivering a vehicle someplace, the driver gets free transportation. Useful if you've totalled your car and need a quick ride.
Registered: Nov 1999
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We'd better get acknowledgments. Or some form of lady.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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TORI
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CC: thanks, that's what I thought... And just for the record (and for funny people like Vogon Poet) - the book is almost finished...
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A ball peen hammer is a type of hammer with a ball (instead of a claw for pulling nails) opposite the face which is used to shape metal, etc. So, this desk is old and covered with small, round indentations.
A fortified arcade is what you guessed, a shopping mall that's fortified (with guards and fences) to keep out undesirable people. Sort of like the "gated communities" where rich people live.
A "square badge" seems to refer both to the standard ID/security badges and, in this case, to the security guards themselves. (In a similar way, the girl in Idoru refers to people as "mesh-backs" because of the cheap giveaway mesh-back baseball caps they wear.)
-------------------- When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum
Registered: Oct 1999
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TORI
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OK, thanks everyone, I moved my questions to the alt.cyberpunk news. (In case anyone is interested...) Thank you all for your hints.
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