The sportive lensman introduced himself as Merle Rideout.
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"sportive"
This description of him was garnered either from the style of dress described in the Chums' first encounter with him or because he must be "playful and lighthearted" to be out in the field photographing a naked woman while surrounded by descending balloons full of children. Either "sportive" or "filthily disgusting."
"lensman"
He's a photographer, Spellcheck. Is it that hard to understand? Spellcheck needs a common sense adapter.
"Merle Rideout"
To "ride out" something is to successfully survive some unstoppable catastrophe. As family names go, you couldn't get a better one that points to some amazing story from your ancestors' past. Although I'm sure the surname is meant to expressly describe something about Merle himself (although this is Pynchon so we might get a full chapter on Rideout's great-great-great-grandparents who endured some kind of invasion by unknown foreigners who cannibalized half of their village while they hid in barrels at the bottom of a well).
A "merle" is a blackbird. Blackbirds are sometimes thought of as spirit messengers. If the boys of the Inconvenience are angels or ghosts, Merle could be their liaison with the "National Office." Obviously they don't know each other and are just meeting. I mean he could be an unwitting liaison, carrying a message he doesn't know he's to deliver. It's like giving a kid the name of Malachi Constant! He's just going to think it's a name but if he looks into it even a little bit, he might start believing he's some kind of grand messenger of God!
Merle could also be thought of as a "spirit messenger" in that he's a photographer. He "captures" the spirits of people and the spirit of the times, locked in still images for all eternity. Perhaps his photographs "ride out" the finite moment in which they're created.
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