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Incommunicado

Introduction: From an unnamed article in No1 Magazine written by Debbie Voller on 30 May 1987, sent to me by Kristie English:

Fish: "This is a necessary diversion from 'Russians' and it's a sort of macho-gung-ho approach! Torch really wants to be famous but he doesn't want the responsibilities that go with fame. 'Incommunicado' is another word for 'pissed'!"

Dr. Peter Niedermueller said: "'Incommunicado' is a Spanish word. It has no direct correspondence in English (and in German either). Fish's translation 'pissed' is quite a bad metaphor. Mostly 'incommunicado' means the status of prisoners not being allowed to communicate with the outer world. But in a more verbal sense it can also refer to somebody (as Torch) not being able or not willing to communicate with people." (I think what Fish meant was that he was using the word as an euphemism for being pissed, in the same way that we sometimes say 'tired and emotional' as a euphemism for the same thing - Ed)

'handprints in the concrete on Sunset boulevard'
trevorw@ms.kallback.com said: "Speaking of Los Angeles and lyrics, did you know there are no 'handprints on Sunset Blvd'? They are in front of the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard."

'Legoland'
Legoland being the theme park in Denmark, dedicated to the best toy a child (or adult) could have. Lego is a plastic building block toy. It now has gone advanced with lights and sounds, but when I were a lad, you just built your train and pushed it yourself...

There are now several Legolands, including one in the UK.

'Fleet Street Afficiaonados'
'Fleet Street' is shorthand for the British newspaper industry. In reality, even back in 1987, a large part of the press had moved out to places like Wapping where they could house both editorial and printing sides of the operation under one roof. 'Afficiaonados' is a rather appalling pun on Fish's name, and is referring to the paparazzi brigades of rags such as the Sun and Mirror.

Dr. Peter Niedermueller added: "'Afficinado' is also Spanish. 'Afficinados' are fans of bull fights. But an 'afficinado' is much more than a mere fan, the bull fight is the only thing he believes in. Quite a long passage on 'afficinados' can be found in Ernest Hemingway's 'The Sun Is Also Rising'."

'Tussauds'
Madame Tussauds. Brewers: "The widely known London exhibition on wax models of prominent as well as notorious people established by Marie Tussard in 1802. She was born in Berne in 1760 and was taught the art of Wax modelling at Paris and in due course gave lessons to Louis XVI's sister Elizabeth. After a short imprisonment during the French Revolution, she came to London to practice her art. She died in 1850."

'Marquee'
Cf. Cinderella Search

'Peter Pan'
Compton's Interactive Encyclopaedia says: "James M. Barrie's best-known play, 'Peter Pan', was first presented in 1904. It is the story of a boy who refuses to grow up and creates his own world of Indians, pirates, and fairies. It was adapted as a play with music (1950), and as a musical comedy (1954, revived in 1979) that was also performed on television. 'Peter Pan' was also made into a silent film (1924) and a feature-length animated cartoon (1952). Barrie retold the play in narrative form as 'Peter and Wendy' (1911). Because he wanted his creation to benefit youngsters as much as possible, Barrie donated his rights to 'Peter Pan' to a London children's hospital." (Great Ormond Street Hospital - Ed.)

'Taking the point... patrol fraternity'
To 'take the point' was an expression used by soldiers. I've not encountered the phrase used before Vietnam, but I'm sure it must be older than that. It was a nasty position to take in a patrol. The point man would go several metres ahead of the patrol and check the path for danger. Usually the one to tread on a mine, fall down a punji pit, shot by a sniper or napalmed by his own side. To 'take the point 'means to feel out where other will follow.

'Synchronicity'
Pear's Cyclopaedia: "An attempt by the Psychologist Carl Gustav Jung to explain the apparently significant relationship between certain events in the physical universe which seem to have no causal link. This rather involved concept is easily understood if one realises that almost all scientific and philosophical beliefs are based on a principle known as 'causality'. We can express this in another way by saying that an object moves because it has been pushed or pulled by another. We see because light strikes the retina and signals pass up the nervous system to the brain. A stone falls to the ground because the earth's gravity is pulling it towards its' centre etc. For all practical purposes, every event can be looked upon as being 'caused' by some other prior event and this is obviously one of the most important principles of the operation of the universe.

"Jung, however, felt that there is a sufficiently large body of evidence to suggest that events may be linked in a significant (i.e. non chance) way without there being any true causal relationship between them. The classic example he held to be the supposed predictive power of astrology by which there appears to be a relationship between the stellar constellations and the personality and life patterns of people on earth. Jung was scientist enough to realise that there could be no causal relationship between the aspect of the stars and the lives of people billions of years from them, yet felt that the evidence for astrology was sufficiently strong to demand an alternative, non-causal explanation.

"The trouble with synchronicity, which has not made much of an impression on the world of physics or psychology, is that it is not really an explanation at all, merely a convenient word to describe some puzzling coincidences. The real question, of course, is whether there really are events occurring which are significantly but not causally linked, and most scientist today would probably hold that there are not. Still, it was typical of the bold and imaginative Jung to tackle head-on one of the principle mysteries of existence and come up with a hypothesis to attempt to meet it."

'Deja Vu'
The sense that one has experienced an event before and is recollecting it in the same instant as the instance is actually taking place. Many scientists believe that deja vu (literally French; 'already seen') is an incredibly fast feedback loop where information is somehow stored and retrieved far more quickly than usual. Others disagree, pointing out that they have specific knowledge of when they first became aware of the deja vu information, though this is strictly-speaking precognition.

Songs with a link have explanations.

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