B

Bad Priest

306; lives in an old villa past Sliema in Malta; children "assigned the Bad Priest no opposite number" 339; disassembly, 341-44; "girls he advised to become nuns [...] boys he told to find strength in--and be like--the rock of their island" 340; glass eye in the shape of a clock, 388; See also V.

Baedeker, Karl (1801-1859)

64; the first Baedeker guidebook was published in 1839; Baedeker land, 70, 71; 74; 78; 89; Visitor's Guide, 159; 190; distrust of "South" 229 ("soiled South" - 75); Karl Baedeker of Leipzig, 408; 475; pencil-sharpener salesman who had seen every territory in the country and could give you interesting information on any city," 35

Bakunin, Mikhail (1814-1876)

405; Russian anarchist who believed that communism, with its "withering away of the state," was an essential step toward anarchism

balloons

"on the fourth limb from the top there is a red balloon [golden-screwdriver dream]," 40; "a sturdy green balloon with a great Z printed on it [Fergus' way of indicating consciousness]" 56; "The sunburned face bobbed like a balloon," 65; "Up goes the balloon [slang: war, action, etc. had begun]," 67; Yusef's love of, 67; "A balloon-girl." 67; "Soon he was daydreaming again of balloons." 68; "So the balloon's gone up," 232; "the balloon had gone up", 308; "slow as a balloon," 329; "the most bouyant balloon-girl," 331; "fire-balloon," 335; "gay balloon-lungs," 343; V. "handed swords, balloons and colored handkerchiefs to Ugo Medichevole, a minor magician," 388; "The jolly, jolly balloon [...] Going up" 434; "leery like any Maltese of the Balloon's least bobbing," 448; 474; "Wasn't she the same balloon-girl who'd seduced him on a leather couch," 488; See also Cher Ballon; hothouse

Barkhausen, Heinrich Georg (1881-1956)

230; German physicist who taught at Technische Hochschule in Dresden; discovered sferics during WWI

Bartholomew

119; rat in Fairing's Parish

Basilisco

379; cop in Profane's old neighborhood

Basilisk, Maynard

419; "escapee from Devil's Island [...] on route to Vassa [...] to teach beekeeping" at party in Washington, DC

Batignolles, Le

401; where Porcépic lives

Battista (1901-1973)

353; Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar was president of Cuba 1940-44; 1952-59; he ruled as dictator until his overthrow by Fidel Castro in January 1959.

Bay of Biscay

388; bay in the Mediterranean between France and Spain

Beatrice

11; barmaid at Sailor's Grave; [Etymology]

Belinda Sue

130; subject of hillbilly tune; she ran off with an "itinerant propeller salesman"

Bella Gigogin, La

477; song sung by rollickers in the street in Valletta

Bellevue

362; psychiatric hospital in New York City; 364; 416

Ben-Gurion, David (1886-1973)

225; prime minister of Israel 1949-53, 1955-63

Benguela Current

266; brings wind and sand to harbor in Südwest; 274

Berg-Damaras

245; Südwest tribe; they were serfs of the Hottentots and Hereros and lived in the mountainous regions

Bergomask, Oley

217; of Anthroresearch Associates; 284

Beukes, Tim

232; Bondelswaartz leader in Südwest during uprising of 1922

bierhalle

88; north of the Ezbekiyeh Gardens in Cairo

Big One, The

226; "the century's master cabal"; See also paranoia

Bight of Benin

271; bay in Gulf of Guinea on west coast of Africa

Birth of Venus

178; Botticelli painting coveted by Mantissa; 209; 212; [IMAGE]

Bismarck, Otto (1815-1898)

239; first chancellor of the German Empire 1871-90

Bizerte

459; Tunisian port on the Mediterranean

Black Maria

31; Navy slang for paddy wagon

Black Mass

167; a sacrilegious mass in which the Devil, rather than God, is invoked, with various obscene rights; 394; 398; 401; 402; acolytes, 402; Host, 403; 413

bluejackets

16; Navy enlisted men

Board of Inquiry

191; looked into Godolphin/Vheissu matter; 197; 491

Bobbsey Twins, The

436; Dahoud and Leroy Tongue ("the midget storekeeper") in Valletta, as cops

BOC

See British Officers' Club

Bodine, Pig

14; AWOL former shipmate of Profane's on USS Scaffold; voyeur, 17; looking for Paola, 129; 217; "The Green Door. One night Dolores, Veronica, Justine, Sharon, Cindy Lou, Geraldine and Irvine decide to hold an orgy." 218; wants Paola, 221; 283; Whole Sick Crew party, 287; 352; "life is the most precious possession you have." (see also p. 12), 361; attempted rape of Paola, 370; Pig also figures prominently in Gravity's Rainbow; Pig's ancestor, Fender-Belly Bodine, shows up in Mason & Dixon.

Boeblich

88; owner of bierhalle north of Ezbekiyeh Garden in Cairo

Bofors

309; British anti-aircraft (a/a) guns; 317; 328-29

Bondelschwaartz

231; aka "Bondel" - rebel Hottentots in Südwest - led by Abraham Christian, their chief; [MORE]

Bongo-Shaftsbury, Eric

55; Egyptologist and father of H. Stencil's acquaintance; acts as Wrens' guide in Alexandria and environs; murdered Porpentine (?) 93-94; "A certain Porpentine, one of his father's colleagues, had been murdered in Egypt under the duello by Eric Bongo-Shaftsbury, the father of the man who owned this apartment." 63; aka "Hugh" (?), 74; "He saw a flicker of communication between [Bongo Shaftsbury and Lepsius]" 75; "Odd: neither Porpentine nor Bongo-Shaftsbury spoke. Each had bent a close eye on his own man, keeping expressionless." 75; "An electro-mechanical doll," 80; "Humanity is something to destroy." 81

Bongo-Shaftsbury, Hugh

55; son of Eric; 74

Boone, Pat (b. 1934)

19; "white-bread" American popstar in 50s. Made tunes by rockers (often black artists) palatable to white audiences; Gene Vincent's "Be Bop A Lula" is an example; 418; 420

Bop Kings

144; street gang in New York City and rivals of the Playboys

BOQ

269; Bachelor Officers' Quarters; 305

Borgo

464; According to Baedeker, one of the Three Cities "Opposite Valletta, on the three central creeks of the Grand Harbour [...] also called Vittoriosa since the great Turkish siege"; [MAP]

Borgo di Greci

175; street in Florence

Borracho

202; member of Figli d'Machiavelli in Florence

Botticelli, Sandro (1444-1510)

201; Florentine painter; his The Birth of Venus is in the Uffizi in Florence; 212; See also Birth of Venus

Boulevard Haussmann

394; in Paris

Brad

58; frat on periphery of Whole Sick Crew with whom Esther flirts

Breguet

97; French reconnaisance plane built in 1914 and used in World War I

Brennessel cabaret

241; mentioned by Weissman to Mondaugen as being in Munich in Schwabing quarter

Brindisi

75; Italian port city where Lepsius has been before turning up in Cairo

Bristol Fighters

97; WWI British fighter plane

British Officers' Club (BOC)

431

Brody

128; a Brodie is a suicidal leap, named after Steve Brodie, an American newsboy who, in 1886, claimed to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge; 436

Brunelleschi, Filippo (1377-1446)

201; Italian architect, goldsmith and sculptor. Main claim to fame is the dome of the Florence Cathedral (Duomo) erected between 1420 and 1461

Buffo, Beatrice

11; barmaid at Sailor's Grave

Bung

116; foreman of rat patrol in New York City sewers; 139

Butte

412; in Paris