Chapter 1: Section 2: Page 20: Lines 171-174 (276-279)

 "Nowadays," Penny said, "they'll fly wherever they're needed, far above fortress walls and national boundaries, running blockades, feeding the hungry, sheltering the sick and persecuted . . . so of course they make enemies everyplace they go, they get fired at from the ground, all the time. But this was different. We happened to be up with them that one day, and it was just the queerest thing. Nobody saw any projectiles, but there was . . . a kind of force . . . energy we could feel, directed personally at us. . . ."

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"they'll fly wherever they're needed"
The "they" here are the Garçons de '71. Remember them?! Penny mentioned them earlier when she began this story of the Bindlestiffs over Mount Etna last spring. Apparently the Aeronautic Clubs aren't direct descendants of the Garçons de '71 like I thought. The Garçons de '71 are still out there floating their balloons twenty years after the Siege of Paris, going where they need to go to help out all the besieged people of Earth.

"they make enemies everyplace they go"
Of course they do! Nothing like helping out the oppressed by interfering with a nation's subjugation of people they've "othered" through national campaigns of propaganda to invoke that nation's wrath!

"Nobody saw any projectiles, but there was . . . a kind of force . . .energy we could feel, directed personally at us. . . ."
Whoa! This is the kind of thing Leonard Nimoy's "Mr. Spock" would have stood at attention for! On tonight's episode of In Search Of . . . "Invisible Forces." This is the kind of stuff that would have gotten its own edition in the Time/Life series Mysteries of the Unknown. This is the stuff I would have read about and believed in like a good little Fox Mulder wannabe in elementary school (before Fox Mulder existed so, really, he's just a pale imitation of me).
    This invisible force didn't harm anybody though so why might it have been directed at them? Penny sets it up as if it were an attack, seeing as how the Garçons de '71 have made so many enemies. But nobody gets hurt so it must have been a . . . probe! The aliens were out there probing these kids!

Well, Penny, that's one hell of a sky-story! I think you win this round of frightening tales around the campfire!

Chapter 1: Section 2: Page 19: Line 168 (273)

 For Chick's benefit, Darby explained that this outfit had first been formed over twenty years ago, during the Sieges of Paris, when manned balloons were often the only way to communicate in or out of the city.

* * * * * * * * * *

"For Chick's benefit"
And for the reader's benefit as well! Thanks, Darby!

"this outfit"
The Garçons de '71! The boys of 1871! The boys of summer! I mean, the boys of autumn! Or winter? I don't know exactly when the boys first manned their balloons in Paris. Maybe they used pigeons in autumn and then the pigeons flew south for the winter so they needed ballons at that point. Then the Garçons de '71 took over in their balloons. I'll learn more when I get to the "Sieges of Paris" section and actually read the Wikipedia on it. I have no idea what it was! I know a lot of people on the Internet have trouble admitting when they don't know something because it's so easy to learn about something between postings in a heated flame thread on whether Dave Sim is or is not a misogynist and then to pretend you've always known that fact. But I know so little facts that it's simply easier to admit I'm an idiot than to try to keep straight all the ways I'm pretending to be smart.

"over twenty years ago"
Yeah, do the math! 1893 - 1871 = over twenty years ago!

"Sieges of Paris"
Oh! This took place during that Franco-Prussian War my high school history teacher, Mr. Bush, kept going on and on about. It's sad that thirty years later, I only remember a few clear things about that class. One was that he put pictures of all the Civil War generals on the chalkboard's chalk tray and we took a quiz where we had to name them. Second was taking a quiz on Watergate and me being the only student to pass. And not just pass but to get a perfect score while nobody else came close. Granted, I was doing my semester report on Watergate. And the third and main one was when he chastised Laurie Zitzer while giving a lesson by saying, "What are you blind?" and she erupted, "Yes, actually, I am!" She wore the thickest glasses I've ever seen and was almost certainly legally blind at the time. Mr. Bush was a fairly pale man but that day he would have been mistaken for a tomato. Fucking kudos to Laurie for that response, by the way!
    What I learned reading about the Siege of Paris is that I'm easily bored by accounts of historical battles. But the important part of what I read was how balloons were used to get letters in and out of Paris while it was under siege by the Prussians. But more importantly than even that, I learned that the balloons carried pigeons out of the city so that the pigeons could be used to return messages back to France. So it was a cooperative mission between balloons and pigeons!
    When I was Darby's age, I never could have explained to a friend of mine any important events that took place twenty years before I was born. I was too busy learning the lyrics to the theme of The Gummi Bears cartoon.
    

Chapter 1: Section 2: Page 19: Line 167 (272)

 "Well we were over by Mount Etna there back in the spring," Penny said, "and you remember those Garçons de '71, I expect."

* * * * * * * * * *

I don't know where Penny is going with this story but this is a heck of a way to begin it. Doesn't she know the old comic book adage, "Every comic book is somebody's first"? She needs to clear this story up quick because what is she talking about?! Mount Etna? Spring? Garçons de '71?! I certainly don't remember any of that!

"Mount Etna"
A volcano in Sicily, Italy. But you knew that. The Bindlestiffs visited in April or May. Maybe March. Or June.

"those Garçons de '71"
The boys of 1871! Now my brain is singing at me "After the boys of summer Garçon!" I don't know who the Garçons de '71 are. Probably an aeronautic club. But I don't have to speculate because, like Chick Counterfly, we, the readers, are new to this group. Darby knows this and he'll be explaining this reference so we don't have to do any work trying to figure it out.
    I wish Darby were a character in Gravity's Rainbow.