deep-ended: be in a situation where expertise or experience is required. [return to text]
emplacements: prepared positions for weapons or military equipment. [return to text]
Eternal, by the: used to express surprise or emphasis; the Eternal refers to God. [return to text]
flimdoodle, don’t give a: variation of “don’t give a hoot”; to not care about something at all. [return to text]
full astern: a naval order where the engines are reversed to bring the ship to a stop. Used here to mean “put a stop to.” [return to text]
G-men: government men; agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. [return to text]
gouts: masses. [return to text]
hackies: cab drivers. [return to text]
Japanese moon: refers to a time of the year when the moon is said to be the brightest and most beautiful, which is celebrated in Japan. [return to text]
K and D and C rations: military combat food introduced by the United States Army during World War II. K-ration: a field or combat ration designed for minimal preparation, using canned, precooked or freeze-dried foods, powdered beverage mixes and concentrated food bars. K-rations were intended to be used for only two or three days, but soldiers being forced to consume them for weeks at a time led to the ration’s lack of popularity. D-ration: bars of concentrated chocolate combined with other ingredients to provide a high-calorie content (intended as an emergency ration). C-ration: a complete meal in a can, ready to eat, requiring no special preparation or storage. [return to text]
lampblack: a black pigment made from soot. [return to text]
lewisite: a colorless or brownish oily poisonous liquid used in gaseous form in chemical warfare. [return to text]
lucite: a transparent or translucent plastic. [return to text]
Madrillon: the name of a supper club in Washington, DC, that featured Latin music and jazz. [return to text]
manifestos: public declarations of policies and aims. [return to text]
Mussorgsky: reference to the musical scores “Songs and Dances of Death,” written by Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881), a Russian composer of operas and orchestral works. He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music. [return to text]
Old Dutch cleanser: a white scouring powder used as a sink, stove and tub cleaner in the 1930s. [return to text]
Ole Mule: chewing tobacco. [return to text]
rills: narrow straight valleys on the moon’s surface. [return to text]
Scheherazade: the female narrator of The Arabian Nights, who during one thousand and one adventurous nights saved her life by entertaining her husband, the king, with stories. [return to text]
school solution: the authoritatively announced policies and practices of a group, such as the military way of doing things. Used humorously. [return to text]
SECNAV: Secretary of the Navy. [return to text]
Smyth report: report written at the end of World War II that told the official story of the making of the atomic bomb. Because it discussed what had been top-secret information, the material it represented was, by definition, no longer classified and could therefore be discussed openly. [return to text]
sotto voce: in a low, soft voice so as not to be overheard. [return to text]
sprites: small or delicately built people who are likened to elves or fairies. [return to text]
stroboscopic: the illusion of a moving or rotating object being stationery. [return to text]
toils: an entrapment; something that binds, snares or entangles one. [return to text]
Tommy gun: Thompson submachine gun; a light portable automatic machine gun. [return to text]
transit: a surveying instrument surmounted by a telescope that can be rotated completely around its horizontal axis, used for measuring vertical and horizontal angles. [return to text]
Trotskyite: a supporter of Trotskyism, the political and economic theories of communism as advocated by Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) usually including the principle of worldwide revolution. His politics differed sharply from those of Stalinism and after leading the failed struggle against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin in the 1920s, Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and deported from the Soviet Union. While in exile in Mexico, he was assassinated by a Soviet agent. [return to text]
Tycho: a prominent crater on the face of the moon about fifty-six miles in diameter. [return to text]
vassals: servants or slaves. [return to text]
Waldorf: The Waldorf=Astoria; a famous hotel in New York City known for its high standards and as a social center for the city. [return to text]
West Point: US Military Academy in New York. It has been a military post since 1778 and the seat of the US Military Academy since 1802. [return to text]
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