Swifty Frisco
Swifty from Swift meaning fast and Frisco is a shortened version of
San Francisco
Alage Baron Lux Roth Chop
Presumably LRC makes some of his money from farming Algae in the sea
Lux definition
pl. lux·es or lu·ces (lsz) Abbr. lx
The International System unit of illumination, equal to one lumen per
square meter.
It comes from the Latin Lux meaning light
Roth could be a reference to the American writer
Philip Milton Roth . Born 1933.
American writer whose witty and ironic fiction, including the novel
Portnoy's Complaint (1969), concerns middle-class Jewish life.
Chop has quite a few meanings including
n 1: a small cut of meat including part of a rib
2: a tennis return made with a downward motion that puts backspin on the ball [syn: chop
shot]
3: a grounder that bounces high in the air [syn: chopper]
v 1: cut into pieces; "Chop wood" [syn: chop up]
2: move suddenly
3: strike sharply, as in some sports
4: cut with a tool [syn: hack]
5:hit sharply
Source
Lux Roth also reminds me of one of Superman's villains Lex Luthor
I will save futher explanation/speculation about Swifty and Lux
until we actually meet them in Book 2 Chapter 9 The Last Dance
Jazz Firpo
Definitions of Jazz
1. Music.
a. A style of music, native to America, characterized by a strong but
flexible rhythmic understructure with solo and ensemble
improvisations on basic tunes and chord patterns and, more recently,
a highly sophisticated harmonic idiom.
b. Big band dance music.
2. Slang.
a. Animation; enthusiasm.
b. Nonsense.
c. Miscellaneous, unspecified things: brought the food and all the
jazz to go with it.
Two musicians with the surname Firpo
Roberto Firpo (1884-1969)
Edoardo Firpo
Chop Towers no doubt named after Lux Roth Chop
Pseudo-Portugal - I wonder what happened to the real Portugal?
ESS Clara Pandy
SS used to stand for Steam Ship but in SF terms it stands for Star Ship
ESS could stand for
Expeditionary Support Ship
Pandy
The name `Pandy' means `fulling mill
It is the name of a town in Gwent, Wales.
But also
Chiefly British. To strike on the open palm of the hand with a cane
or strap for punishment at school.
From Latin pande to spread out, open (the palm)
It also reminds me of the childrens' TV show Andy Pandy
Link 1
Link 2
Traffax – Probably a shortened version of "traffic facts". It could have
been inspired by the BBC's teletext service Ceefax (a shortened version of
"see facts").
Ozjams for awesome [traffic] jams(?)
Or traffic jams on the under side of the hoop? Oz being a word used to
describe Australia (down under).
Possibly a reference to the satirical magazine OZ published in Britain in the 1970’s
Ozjams could also refer to the Wizard of Oz (flying monkey pile-ups?
On a purely speculative note, Mr Moore might have come up with the name
ozjam when looking at a recipe or a shopping list (e.g. 8oz jam, oz being
the abbreviation for an ounce).
Cloudniks:
People who live in the clouds? This may refer to sky commuters in general.
maybe an analogy to "beatnik" or "sputnik" (the suffix -nik exists in Russian as well as in Yiddish)
Manhattan Platform
I presume this is just a platform (where the ships dock) named after
Manhatten (just as pseudo-Portugal was named after Portugal). I presume a
few things on The Hoop are named after Earth locations, because that's where
the inhabitants originally came from way back when.
Krupp-Corona "S" Series
Krupp is a famous German enterprise (founded by Alfred Krupp in 1818 at Essen) which produced most of Germany's guns, bombs, tanks etc. in the 19th and 20th century. The Krupp enterprise is the model for Jules Verne's inhuman "steel city" in his novel "The 500 millions of the Begum" (Les 500 millions de la Begum).
"corona" means "crown" or "garland" in Latin. - I think Moore alludes to car builder Mercedes-Benz automobiles, cause there is a Mercedes "S" class.
Seeing as this is name of a class of starships I suspect he means corona in the astronomical sense:
corona (plural: coronae)
The uppermost level of a star's atmosphere.
Dissembler Yards
This is where the ships are disassembled (the opposite of an assembly yard
where ships are put together), presumably for salvage/recycling purposes
(there's a reference to a ship being scheduled for dissembly (a futuristic
shortening of disassembly) on page 2)
Bureau of Identities
This appears to be some government organisation that's been set up just to
keep track of people's names.
2) A Little Night Music
3) Consumer Protection
4) Vicious Circle
5) The Wild Brown Yonder
6) Fleurs du Mall
7) Home Again, Home Again, Jigety Jig
8) When the Music's Over
9) I'll take Manhattan
10) Going Out
