Glossary

Aperture: An opening.

Sally
Buddy said he run you off with a shotgun.

Matt
He had a large two-barreled weapon, yes, with apertures about like so.

Emma Goldman:

Goldman immigrated to the United States from Russia in the early twentieth-century and was subsequently (and frequently) incarcerated for her anarchist and feminist politics.  Her crimes included distributing information concerning birth control and “inducing persons not to register for the draft.”  A prominent speaker at political rallies, Goldman also wrote prolifically on topics such as atheism, capitalism, and sexuality.  She co-founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth, which circulated from 1906-1917. 

Sally
Everyone is always saying what a crazy old-maid Emma Goldman I'm becoming, I wanted to show them how conservative and ignorant I really am.

Matt
You are not conservative, you are not ignorant, and Emma Goldman, believe me, was no old maid.

Fibber McGee:

The brainchild of married vaudeville performers Jim and Marian Jordon, Fibber McGee and Molly is an example of classic American radio programming.  Enjoying an impressive run from 1935-59, the wildly popular and emphatically patriotic Fibber frequently referenced World War II and dedicated entire segments to encouraging their listeners to purchase war bonds.  

Matt
Hey, come on, you'll drown out Fibber McGee.

Folly:

A decorative, often extravagant, building constructed without a functional purpose. 

Matt
We have a genuine Victorian folly here. A boathouse. Constructed of louvers, and lattice and geegaws.

Funicular:

A type of railway that facilitates trains’ progress up and down severe inclines with a cable; ascending and descending trains balance one another’s weight.

Matt
The Kaiser sent the Prussian and the Uke and the Lat and the Probable Lit to study engineering wonders: many months in the Swiss mountains to watch the building of a funicular, yes?

Geegaw:

A trinket.

Matt
We have a genuine Victorian folly here. A boathouse. Constructed of louvers, and lattice and geegaws.

Goyim:

Although the translation from Hebrew literally means “nation” or “people,” goyim is most commonly employed as a synonym for Gentiles. Can be used perjoratively.

Matt
My hand is bleeding. Where did you hide the alcohol? [He goes to the gin bottle, keeping an eye on her.] I called my uncle and my aunt. Seventy years old. They say, Matt, don't get mixed up with the goyim. They have my cousins call me; old neighbors I haven't heard from in years. I say I must live my own life. I come down here protected from tetanus; I am getting rabies from an alte moid.

Gregarious:

Desiring the company of others.

Matt
The irony turned out to be that the German government reasoned that this gregarious Prussian engineer knew something vital to the interest of the Kaiser––

Jack Sprat:

The title character of an English nursery rhyme who “could eat no fat” and whose “wife could eat no lean.” 

Matt
So now I read like a madman, and I retain nothing at all.  But I read like lightning.

Sally
I read very slowly and practically memorize every word.

Matt
Jack Sprat. Am I okay?

Lambent:

Gently gliding over a surface.

Stage Directions
Lighting and sound should be very romantic:  the sunset at the opening, later the moonlight slants through gaps in the ceiling and walls reflecting the river in lambent ripples across the inside of the room. 

Louvers:

Slotted frames which admit light and air into buildings while preventing the entrance of rain and noise. 

Stage Directions
A Victorian boathouse constructed of louvers, lattice in decorative panels, and a good deal of Gothic Revival gingerbread.  

Miss Fanny Brice:

A Jewish entertainer whose over-the-top, highly ethnicized performances of Jewish femininity propelled her to stardom in Broadway revues such as The Zigfield Follies.  On the radio, she starred as “Baby Snooks”.  Brice enjoyed radio fame until her death in 1951.  Contemporary audiences are perhaps most familiar with Brice through Barbara Streisand’s performance in the film adaptation of the 1964 Broadway musical, Funny Girl. 

Sally
They're all listening to the radio.

Matt
Saved by Miss Fanny Brice.

Prussian:

Prussians are a group of Europeans closely related to Lithuanians and Latvians who populate what is now Northern Germany.  Under the leadership of Frederick the Great, Prussia was a major European power throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  At the end of World War I (and the Hohenzollern monarchy), Prussia joined the Weimar Republic as a free state in 1919.  The Nazi regime revoked Prussia’s practical claim to statehood in 1934 before the Allied Powers of World War II abolished its independence in 1947. 

Matt
I know, I know. [Pause. Finally decides.] Very well, Miss Sally Talley. There was a Prussian and a Uke (Ukrainian, yes?). A Prussian and a Uke and a Lat and a Probable Lit, who all traveled over Europe.

Ratiocination:

The process of thinking methodically, logically.

Matt
Puzzles don't waste my time, Sally. I'm very good at puzzles. I have great powers of ratiocination. I'm a regular Sherlock.

Rationing: 

During World War II, items such as sugar, milk, meat, and gasoline were high in demand and short in supply.  In response, the government “rationed” these supplies: families were only allowed to purchase them in small quantities, regardless of how much they could afford.  While various types of rationing existed—from the uniform rationing of sugar to the rationing of typewriters, for which one needed to show a certificate demonstrating need—all rationed items were purchased with “ration coupons” or “ration coins,” rather than conventional money. 

Sen-Sen:

A brand of licorice-scented breath freshener. 

Matt
You have Sen-Sen for your breath? [She opens her purse.] No, no. [He takes a cigarette, offers her one. She sighs, takes it. He gets a lighter from his pocket. It doesn't work. She opens her purse, produces a lighter, and lights his and hers. Looking around.]

Thorstein Veblen

An early twentieth-century economist who helped found “institutional economics,” a movement now referred to as “evolutionary economics.”  His book, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), is one of the first polemical critiques of consumerism. 

Matt
I like it better the way she told me. The preacher told you you were supposed to be teaching from the Methodist reader, not from Thorstein Veblen.

Sally
They were having problems with union organizers at the garment factory.

Matt
Some of the kids' mothers work there.

Sally
They asked me what was happening.

Matt
I like that. So you read to them from ... ?

Sally
The Theory of the Leisure Class.

Una furtive Lagrima:

In Donizetti’s Italian opera L’elisir d’amour (The Elixir of Love), Nemorino sings “Una furtive Lagrima” (“A Furtive Tear”) when he realizes that his love potion has successfully seduced Adina, the woman he desires.

Matt
Poor Whistler. He should see what is happening to his boathouse. He'd sing "Una furtiva Lagrima.”

USO:

The United Services Organization is a non-profit dedicated to fostering the morale of US military troops and their families.  During World War II, there existed more than 3,000 USO Clubs where troops could dance, witness legendary performances by famed entertainers, and attend other social events. 

Matt
So the future is pug dogs and apartments and USO get-togethers and drinking with the girls.

Whirligig:

A spinning toy.

Sally
Why does everything have to be cynical? He was not in the least frustrated. He was a happily married man with seven kids. He made toys. Tap-dancing babies and whirligigs. He got pleasure out of making things for people.