Infinite Summer

p 386: "This segues into an entr'acte, with continent squeezed in for world in 'It's a Small World After All,' which enjambment doesn't do the rhythm section of doo-wopping cabinet girls a bit of good..."

(I also like how DFW uses 'which x' in this way; he does it a lot, and it's something I've not noticed in other, albeit limited, reading.)

The ONAN crest: a sombreroed eagle with a maple leaf in its mouth.

Another bit that especially tickled me was Marathe's explanation, and syntax therein, of the difference between the Quebecois and American attitudes toward sharing a coveted can of pea soup. Can't be arsed to find the page number at the moment, sorry.

p. 372 "...the speaker, who's also proud she says to be a member of a splinter 12-Step Fellowship, and Adult-Child-type thing called Wounded, Hurting, Inadequately Nutured but Ever-Recovering Survivors." My wife could hear me laughing from our porch when I took the time to form the acronym. We've certain all met those who cling to their wound(s) like a lifeboat. Only someone like DFW would have the audacity to create the W.H.I.N.E.R.S. support group.

I love the group names. My favorite so far has been the Tough Shit but You Still Can't Drink group.

there is an actual infamous AA group in the Framingham, MA area called Tough Shit Don't Drink. commonly know as TSDD. Men only. Aggressively macho.

I love the ONANtiad headline: "Canada 'Nuck'les Under." Makes me laugh every g.d. time.

There were a handful of anachronisms that made me laugh a little; "Purity Supreme" (a grocery store mentioned several times) went out of business right about the same time as the book came out. Oops! The reference to the "Auditorium" subway stop is even stranger, since it had been renamed several years earlier (possibly betraying the fact that DFW no longer lived in Boston when he was writing it?)

But the best was the repeated references to Seldane[1], everyone's antihistamine/decongestant of choice, because if the book had been written just a few years later, it probably would have ended up getting its own little footnoted anecdote involving a relative of some minor character in the novel. Seldane was the first allergy medicine that was as effective as Benadryl, but without knocking you unconscious. It was awesome. I loved it. Everyone with allergies loved it. Unfortunately, then the doctors noticed that if you mixed it with certain commonly-prescribed antibiotic and antifungal medications, it had the potential to cause fatal heart attacks in otherwise healthy people...


[1] Terfenadine, Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc., FDA approval withdrawn B.S. 1997