Pages 17-19

This page-by-page annotation is organized by sections, as delineated by the seven squares (sprockets) which separate each section. The page numbers for this page-by-page annotation are for the original Viking edition (760 pages). Editions by other publishers vary in pagination — the newer Penguin editions are 776 pages; the Bantam edition is 886 pages.

Contributors: Please use a 760-page edition (either the original Viking edition with the orange cover or the Penguin USA edition with the blue cover and rocket diagram — there are plenty on Ebay for around $10) or search the Google edition for the correct page number. Readers: To calculate the Bantam edition use this formula: Bantam page # x 1.165. Before p.50 it's about a page earlier; as you get later in the book, add a page.

Finally, profound thanks to Prof. Don Larsson for providing the foundation for this page-by-page annotation.

Page 18

18.22-23 "Johnny Doughboy Found a Rose in Ireland"
Song by Al Goodhart and Kay Twomey, composed for the 1942 film Johnny Doughboy, starring Jane Withers and Henry Wilcoxon. Apparently a popular tune, it lasted 16 weeks on the 1942 Hit Parade and was recorded by Kay Kyser and Guy Lombardo, among others.

See note above at 9.05. Formby was extraordinarily popular in recordings and films in Britain in the 1940s. Weisenburger claims that Formby’s voice was a "high screech," but it was actually a not-unpleasant baritone. Weisenburger may be confusing Formby with the ukulele-strumming 1960s singing phenomenon Tiny Tim. On the other hand, his singing voice did have a rather whiny Lancastrian accent, similar to his speaking voice. You might like to judge for yourself from his own song ["When I'm Cleaning Windows" on YouTube] taken from his 1936 film Keep Your Seats Please.

18.30 the skin of a Flying Fortress
Correspondent Stephen Remato adds the following comment: "While detailing the debris on Slothrop's desk, Mr. W. suggests that the bomb which explodes over Hiroshima was dropped from a Flying Fortress. While also made by the Boeing company, it was the B29 Super Fortress, not the B17 Flying Fortress, which was the atomic bomber of WW2. The well-known B29 'Enola Gay' dropped the Hiroshima bomb, while the lesser-known B29 'Bock's Car' dropped the Nagasaki bomb. To those unaware, the superficial similarity in name between these types of aircraft is the main similarity only; they are not variations of the same aircraft but quite distinct."

18.38 a News of the World
The NOTW was not a daily paper but a highly sensationalistic British weekly tabloid published every Sunday, with virtually no serious news (still being published, and now owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation). That "Slothrop is a faithful reader" says much about his intellectual pursuits. The paper's current website.

Page 19

Weisenburger gives this as "a bazaar in Victorian London," but a more fitting setting for Tantivy’s story of "Lorraine and Judy, Charles the homosexual constable and the piano" would be a warehouse or furniture van. See 537.16-17.