- The prismatic lens worn by the old woman on the obsidian island may be a reference to the Fresnel lenses used by lighthouses.
- Noir Galway 1831 may actually be a reference to the activities of a secret agrarian society originating in County Clare known as the Terry Alts. The Terry Alts were responsible for 19 homicides in 1831 starting with the land manager, William Blood, near Corofin, who had carried out several large scale evictions on his lord’s property. They came out of County Clare, but in 1831 they challenged the English army in the area of Kinvara, in County Galway, but dispersed before the military arrived to accept their challenge. They’d also unsuccessfully attacked a regiment which resulted in the death of one of their members. Most of their activity fell in County Clare, but it did bleed into Galway at times. 119 members were eventually convicted in trials out of Limerick and Ennis.
- Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, was a cooper in Scotland before imigrating the the United States.
- The mathematical symbol for thermodynamic entropy is a capital "S." Entropy was not really understood until the 19th century when figures like Lazare Carnot and his son, Sadi Carnot started to gain an understanding of the loss of heat or useful energy in machinery. Sadi Carnet published a paper in which he uses an example of a water wheel, 1824. The understanding of entropy and thermodynamics were critical in the development of the steam engine and, later on, the development of the internal combustion engine.
- The younger Carnet was a schoolmate of Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis (Thanks Mystimus!!!). We also have an indirect link to Henry Ford, as his company might not have been possible without an understanding of entropy and thermodynamics.
- The Jorge Luis Borges short story, The Threshold, mentions Amritsar.
- After getting about halfway through Don Quixote, I'm pretty sure it's relevant to the search.
- Saint Crispin is the patron saint of cobblers, curriers, tanners, and leather workers. His demise came from beheading after he survived from being thrown into a river with a millstone around his neck. He is also known for the Battle of Agincourt (Pas-de-Calais) as depicted by Shakespeare in his play, Henry V.
- It appears that “vevoda” in Czech is related to the Slavic terms “vojevoda” and “voivode.” The original – vojevoda – means war-lord or war-leader. Voivode does come from vojevoda and means what it does in Czech: prince or duke.In Russia, the vojevoda might have a scribe (pismenny golava) or clerks (a dyak was a head clerk and the Podyachy or underclerk). Also interesting is that four Serbs held the title of Voivode in a military capacity and were around when the Apis and his Black Hand were fomenting Serbian nationalism (and assassinating royalty). Uh, and there seems to be some confusion on the internets, some say Apis is bee and others say Apis is bull, of which there is a Egyptain god of the same name and animal form.
- If the Slavic variation of the word vevoda can also mean prince, then the person referred to Little Vevoda may mean or Little Prince. And Little Prince is the title of a LOST episode and the title a book by Saint-Exupery.
- Mark 9:42: But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.
- The word “stove” (as found in the alternate Chapter 10) is the past tense of the verb “stave.” Stave as a noun can be the musical staff, one of the thin strips of board used to create barrels, or a long piece of wood, such as would be used to kill a vampire.
- I was going through a book called The Vulgar Tongue which is slang dictionary from the 19th century and and the term "Ambassador of Morocco" is a slang term for a shoemaker. Don’t know if relates to the whoistraka.com website with its coordinates to the French Embassy in Tangiers, but it amused me enough that I'm including it here.
