After introductions, Chick and Darby brought out folding camp chairs, the Bindlestiffs opened their baskets of delectables, and the colleagues settled down to an evening of gossip, shop talk, and sky-stories.
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"baskets of delectables"
If this had been written ten years later, Pynchon would definitely be referencing Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables" here. Although just seeing this phrase in print makes me appreciate Clinton's wordplay even more. Also, history has proven that Hillary was being kind when she only said half of Trump's followers were in the basket of deplorables. She went on to clarify who the other half were and why they might be voting for Trump and she was way too optimistic and forgiving of those people. Because a good percentage of those supposed people readily embraced the badge of "deplorable" and showed their true selves in their stupid righteous misplaced anger.
"folding camp chairs"
Here's an image of a Hecules folding camp chair that I found on eBay:
I don't know if this is the kind stored on the Inconvenience but at least it gives you an impression of how crappy things were in 1893. Also how dainty most people's posteriors were! I would crush this thing and I'm not even obese! At least that's what I tell myself.
Here's a picture of Teddy Roosevelt in a Tripolina folding chair patented in 1877. This is probably more like what the kids had on the ship because that other thing is terrible! I'm not editing it out though because it's actually pretty interesting. This design is still fairly common now even though Tripolina inventor Joseph Fenby's company went bankrupt in 1879. If you want a better look at a modern version, just Google it!
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