...a group of car batteries had collected, all but one dead. (pg. 46) -- A pile of dead car batteries in their living space, plus one recharged by a solar cell? Hydrogen gas, anyone?
For a moment there was no sound in the room, except for a vague humming from the battery. (pg. 52) -- I don't like the sound of that!
The girls wore stretch-fabric bike shorts...(pg. 139) Were they PADDED bike shorts? Sorry, pet peeve,
He reach the rebar ladder leading up into the chapel... (pg. 184) -- I thought in was STEPS back on page 169.
Mrs. D. could then buy them two of same make and model [radio], allowing them to listen in on everything said between the staff. (pg. 212) -- As long as they are set to the same frequency, which could be one of AT LEAST dozens. Not that hard to figure out with a scanner and frequency counter, but then one wouldn't need the same brand and model now, would one? Or just use a scanner!
"Do you have any clue what we're supposed to be doing in Boston?", he asked. (pg. 289) -- Boston? BOSTON? First I've heard of it!.
Elegiac (pg. 44 ) -- expressing sorrow often for something now past.
Otiose (pg. 116 ) -- 1. being at leisure; idle; indolent. 2. ineffective or futile. 3. superfluous or useless.
Plangent (pg. 176 ) -- Having an expressive and especially plaintive quality.
MIke Magnuson (pg. ) -- Author of Lummox.
Valsalvian reaction (pg. ) -- "When a person forcefully expires against a closed glottis, changes occur in intrathoracic pressure that dramatically affect venous return, cardiac output, arterial pressure, and heart rate. This forced expiratory effort is called a Valsalva maneuver." From Cardiovascular Physiology Concepts by Richard E. Klabunde, Ph.D.
Thurls (pg. ) -- The hip joint in cattle.
Baudelaire (pg. 233) -- French poet/writer, symbol of literary decadence.
Derrida (pg. 242) -- French philosopher, founder of deconstruction. Died 2004.
Ameliorism (pg. 251) -- "Meliorism" is the belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid its betterment, so adding an "a" must make it the opposite.
Sequelae (pg. 254) -- A secondary result, sequel.
Smoked redhorse (pg. 273) -- A kind of fish.