Chapter 1: Section 2: Page 12: Line 22 (127)

 "Not now!" screamed Randolph, flinging off the young mascotte's importunate grasp and frightening him nearly out of his wits.

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One (and by "one" I mean "I") often thinks that other languages (especially German and maybe Japanese) have all the words that describe actions or conditions to such a specific degree that they demand to be used as loaner words. But sometimes English surprises you (I mean, me, really. I'm the one surprised. I know you're not because you're smarter than I am) with a word like "importunate" which describes perfectly the actions of a young boy demanding some nonsense from a person of authority. "Persistent to the point of annoyance." It practically describes me at thirteen! The difficult part of expressing oneself to such a fine degree of accuracy is that you actually have to learn and remember so many words! How does one do that? I know that reading helps but I've read a lot and I would never have thought to use the word "importunate." Also I never would have thought of writing a novel about the A-4 Rocket as some kind of metaphor for life.

Maybe I was just reading all the wrong books as a kid? Dungeons & Dragons modules taught me words like "dais" and "alcove" and "adjacent" but I never ran into the word "importunate." Maybe that word was in the one Choose Your Own Adventure book I missed out on? Or maybe I should have simply grown up reading the Oxford English Dictionary. But even then, I never would have remembered much of it.

How does Susie Dent do it?! If you don't know who I'm talking about, you're not British. But you should Google her because she's amazing.

Chapter 1: Section 2: Page 12: Line 21 (126)

 "You see, you see?" squealed Darby, "going after a fellow's mother—"

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How far back do "Your mom!" jokes go? Is Oedipus a really elaborate "Your mom!" joke? It may be an easy and unimaginative joke to simply reply "Your mom!" to some statement but I have to admit that it probably makes me laugh at least 40 percent of the time. I was never smart enough to think up or ambitious enough to remember or memorize really good your mom insults (although maybe I should commit Lindsay's to memory from the previous line. It's a knockout!). For some reason, most of those revolved around a person's mother being fat. I only had one friend whose mother was obese and I would never have said to him, "Your mother is so fat that when she wears a red dress, people yell, 'Hey, Kool-Aid!'" I would have been more apt to say, "How's your mom, Ron? I hope she's doing well?"

Anyway, I liked all my friends' moms! Why would I want to insult them when I could just call my friend a dumb ugly bastard?!

What's great about this whole bit is simply how Pynchon acknowledges how some things never really change.

Do girls have "Your Dad!" jokes? Or does every young person just seem to agree that insulting your mother is terrible because they love their mothers while insulting their dad barely registers because he never shows his love anyway?

Chapter 1: Section 2: Pages 11-12: Line 20 (125)

 "Insubordinate drivel, Suckling," sternly declared Lindsay, "will earn you someday what is known among the lower seafaring elements as a 'Liverpool Kiss,' long before you ever receive one of the more conventional variety, save perhaps for those rare occasions upon which your mother, no doubt in some spell of absentmindedness, has found herself able to bestow that astonishing yet, I fear (unhappy woman), misplaced, sign of affection."

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Look, you can both despise and admire a person at the same time! How many levels of shade is this? And it's all because he's been called out, accurately, by a lower ranking crewman! The testicles on this mother-doer!

First, Lindsay claims Darby's going over his head to tattle to Randolph is "insubordinate drivel." That might be but what is Darby supposed to do? Complain to Lindsay himself?! Then he threatens to headbutt the kid. Not directly, of course, but hypothetically! "Oh, someday, kid, somebody less classy and refined than me is going to take physical actions against you for criticizing them fairly and accurately!" Then he calls him a virgin whose only possibility of getting a kiss might be from his mother! And not a motherly kiss but a kiss from an unwilling (and depressed! Geez!) mother who doesn't actually like her son but accidentally gave him one anyway!

It's just a truly phenomenal insult! I still hate Lindsay but, as I think the kids used to say but almost certainly don't say anymore because old people like me now know what they mean when they might say it, "Game recognize game!"

Did I get that right? Does it mean what I think it means? Are the kids still flossing to Fortnite?