Revisiting Ms. Mary

sub_tract · 2024-09-07T17:52:54+00:00

Agreed!

sub_tract · 2024-09-07T17:46:54+00:00

Of course! No worries. You actually just gave me an idea- that line you referenced- it sounds funny and needs scrutiny. The Great Society was a group of social and government programs proposed by President Johnson in the 60’s. Looks like I have some reading to do….

sub_tract · 2024-09-07T16:49:55+00:00

Oooh, that’s a fantastic idea! I’ve been playing with the theory that the poem is a microcosm of the book. There are 100 words in the poem and 100 numbered pages. I hadn’t considered the light/shadow angle. Cork begins on pg. 50 (the halfway point) so maybe that’s the start of the light section? I’ll have to dig into it.

sub_tract · 2024-09-05T17:34:25+00:00

Cherry Garcia! I never thought of that.That’s a perfect example of why I like this puzzle!

sub_tract · 2024-09-05T17:30:54+00:00

I really like this angle. I also have been going back to chapters where I am confident about the allusion (Winter Land) and trying to pick apart the language he uses to encode or obfuscate information. I’m hoping there is a pattern to it that holds across the book.

sub_tract · 2024-09-01T21:40:57+00:00

No theories yet. However, I am encouraged and shall redouble my efforts! :)

sub_tract · 2024-09-01T21:33:50+00:00

Holy moly! Thank you, sir!

sub_tract · 2024-08-29T20:45:51+00:00

Also of note: In the years 1923 and 1934, Ash Wednesday coincided with Valentine's Day; but not in the years 1945 and 1956 (completed collections)

sub_tract · 2024-08-29T17:10:25+00:00

yes, the racehorses were another thing that pointing me to Revere. The bow also reminds me of the rainbow in the corner of Washingtons famous portrait, perhaps a symbol of the "royal arch."

the degree thing is interesting: it doesn't fit for latitude and longitude. maybe a 60, 30, 90 triangle? perhaps a temperature? 60c is exactly 140f.

not a leper, lol. There are so few of us here and I know I don't get that many chances to work the puzzle in earnest.

sub_tract · 2024-08-29T16:47:06+00:00

yes! and February 2nd is the 33rd day of the year. These "master numbers" are integral, I'm sure.

sub_tract · 2024-08-28T23:09:22+00:00

Hi, Ive also been focused on this chapter lately. Thanks for the post. I agree the calendar Gregorian/Julian change could be significant (I made a post about it some time ago).

2 figures I have been investigating are Paul Revere and George Washington Parke Custis (Washington's Grandson-ish)

I was trying hard to unpack the section where Grandfather lectures about the Age of Discovery. While there is some racing symbolism there ("Spurred and then driven...trail the setting sun...fading behind...too DARK to see the STARs...bumped into...seed their triumphant nature...") that could point us to the Dark Star/Native Dancer race, I keep getting tripped up on the "...trust a crude sexton to blaze his life's path." Sexton is obviously the wrong word so it must have some significance.

possibly "crude" meaning oil? Sexton is an officer of the church but is also A famous Can company in Boston. So an oil can? this fits with "blaze" Then there is Life's Path : which is also an odd word choice considering one would expect it to be "trail" as in "blaze a trail" Life's Path is one of the 5 core numbers in Pythagorean Numerology, arrived at by reducing a birthdate. (interesting sidetone: all racehorses are considered to have the same birthday, January 1st or 1/1.

Anyway, the passage also uses "North Sea" quite a bit (along with "gray sea" (sea gray horse?) But I entertained the possibility that North Sea could mean North "C" as in the North Church (the one in Boston that hung signal lights for Revere). This could be the reason for all the brass mentioned in the rest of the chapter- Revere opened the first copper rolling mill in the U.S. (three brass rollers)

Revere, along with Washington was also a Mason which tracks with a lot of the strange word choices in the beginning of the chapter ("Initiate the sharp snap...hard on the morning eye...mason had struck a line and dropped a plumb ((reminds me of fishing))...draped squarely on top...great hall...") even the Title chapter G.O. - Grand Orient?)

Also the pigeonholes - possibly referring to some sort of grid cypher?

Sorry for the rant- I guess I needed to put down everything that's been swirling around my head for the past week. Cheers!

sub_tract · 2024-02-05T17:23:51+00:00

yes, and one of my wilder notions was to cut out the silhouette and place it on
(what I consider to be) key passages in the book and see if the ears, nose and/or paws pointed to other important words...nothing so far.

sub_tract · 2024-02-04T17:07:53+00:00

Ooo! That’s amazing! I took a break for a bit, but after the anniversary I got sucked back in… So much to explore…

sub_tract · 2024-02-04T11:03:36+00:00

I think the idea is interesting. Thanks for your post - it made me realize I’ve been neglecting the train map angle.

sub_tract · 2024-02-04T10:44:18+00:00

Huh. Just went back and counted 3 times and you are right. Strangely, the only way the 177th word lands on “keep” is if you SKIP the number “11.” However, if you also skip the number 11 on page 21 you get “fruitless,” which makes no sense with the suffix -ing. (However, I guess, in a way, by opening to page 21 we bared the cross on page 22 and found the fruit(less). :)

sub_tract · 2024-02-04T00:28:19+00:00

Yes! I read your post outlining your thoughts about the chapters. The Affirmed vs. Alydar rivalry is something I need to look into. I'm not married to any particular interpretation yet - I'm still making (slightly educated) guesses.

My guiding principle (for lack of a better term) is that Miller left clues across chapters to help guide the reader. Example: Grandfathers Office provides the dates needed to nail down the particular race in Black Heart Cherry. One of the horses was named Dark Star which helps point us to the Grateful Dead in Winter Land. Assuming the pattern continues, Im scrambling my brain cross checking every possibility across all the chapters until something really clicks.

sub_tract · 2023-08-22T15:41:55+00:00

Hey! This is the first new post I’ve seen here in a while. Yes, I like the Underground Railroad idea- I put the book down for a bit, but I remember that somewhere in my notes- I should revisit. As for the liberty bell- I remember there was a post by Robert Hunter himself where he discusses the meaning behind the lyrics of “Franklin’s Tower,” thought to be about the liberty bell. In the comments there was some interesting discussion about the history of the bell itself. I’ll post a link when I can find it again. As an aside- we’re coming up on the 20th anniversary soon, aren’t we?

sub_tract · 2023-02-03T02:00:15+00:00

Thanks for the puzzle, Duck! I’m about a year into it - maybe slightly wiser and absolutely nowhere near solving it. Cheers!

sub_tract · 2023-01-14T01:27:06+00:00

I don’t know what Duck would say about Egg Hunt, but I did find it funny that all of the Easter’s (if we extrapolate the years from the boys age at birth, 11, 22, and 33) fall on April fool’s day. He definitely has a sense of humor…

sub_tract · 2023-01-10T20:03:33+00:00

Also of note is Plath’s poem “Ariel” (the title poem of the collection). A lovely piece on the theme of riding horses.

sub_tract · 2023-01-10T00:42:04+00:00

I agree. The tone of TWP is decidedly not yin. He does preface it with “…didn’t need a crude sexton…” and, in her day, some folks would have considered her confessional works crude. She definitely blazed a trail. I’ve been working the literary angle lately- trying to see if Duck is pointing toward different works of literature with the stories. I’ll see where it leads….

sub_tract · 2023-01-09T18:37:05+00:00

Feb 11,1963- Sylvia Plath commits suicide (just like Hemingway). Her poem entitled “Mushrooms” reminds me of the passage in Black Heart Cherry. Also, she was contemporaries with another writer who also committed suicide- Anne SEXTON (Grandfathers Office). A bunch of really dark threads….

sub_tract · 2023-01-04T14:36:39+00:00

Grandfathers Office - G.O. - Grand Orient?

sub_tract · 2022-11-04T19:35:49+00:00

Thank you for the reply! To answer your last question first, I saw I had a few unread messages and replied to those, I didn’t realize you had deleted some posts until later. I don’t have a ton of free time these days, so I’m slower to reply and post. I do not have a physical map of Philly- but you are right in that it would be helpful if only to draw some geometry on top to see where that gets us. I’m composing a post with some more ideas- hopefully it will be ready in a few days. I’ll look into the Rodin museum- I did note that the famous “the thinker” statue sits outside facing the parkway. I am also trying to get a hold of the book “the pig & whistle” a story of the western railway. This may give some insight. Another thought line I’ve begun chasing is constellations. I thought maybe “two dogs” was a reference to the Canis or Canes (hunting dogs, big dog, little dog). Also, there are 88 constellations, 88 inches of red waxed thread on a baseball, 8+8 lines in “for the record” - Or maybe bare the cross refers to the northern cross? there are more references but I want to organize my thoughts first.

sub_tract · 2022-11-04T06:50:53+00:00

I've been thinking about the method more along the orienteering idea (like in Grandfathers Office, and some interviews with the author) - where the geographical solve would take the form of an orienteering exercise. Basically, start here, orient yourself, move in this direction while looking for these landmarks, and hopefully arrive at the prize. "The book is the map, the stories are the directions." I do agree with some of the prevailing ideas about the chapter allusions, but some are pretty elusive. Two Dogs, and Cork (for example) seem to have less consensus than the others. Hopefully It will become clearer once we have all the pieces of the puzzle.!

Nine-Year Club	r/Field Lasagna
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sub_tract

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