"Total Loss Weekend" by Don Delillo

In this age of fantasy football pools and Super Bowl side bets on whether the opening coin toss will come up heads, the dark side of sports gambling can often be obscured. Prescient as ever, 41 years ago Don Delillo gave us a full exploration of this underbelly. Here are 25 words to help you follow every last frustrating moment of "Total Loss Weekend." Originally published in Sports Illustrated, available here
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. subterranean
    being or operating under the surface of the earth
    There is a second level of weather here, subterranean and dangerously mild.
  2. siege
    an action of an armed force that surrounds a fortified place
    He appears eager enough for the siege of events but, as always in times like this (the beginning of ordeals), his very flesh reflects a pale stain of trepidation and doubt.
  3. trepidation
    a feeling of alarm or dread
    He appears eager enough for the siege of events but, as always in times like this (the beginning of ordeals), his very flesh reflects a pale stain of trepidation and doubt.
  4. misgiving
    uneasiness about the fitness of an action
    Misgivings and dread.
  5. dread
    fearful expectation or anticipation
    Misgivings and dread.
  6. cavalcade
    a procession of people traveling by foot, horse, or vehicles
    "Hi, sports fans, it's Saturday, Oct. 7th and this is Chuck White with Bud Brown alongside me bringing you a daylong sports cavalcade of misery, paranoia, bitterness and defeat."
  7. auxiliary
    furnishing added support
    The auxiliary set isn't working well and a note of cubism is introduced into the baseball game.
  8. situate
    determine or indicate the place or limits of
    An infielder's upper torso is situated at a 45-degree angle to the rest of his body.
  9. omen
    a sign of a thing about to happen
    With 70 yards to go a horse named Siberian Native threatens to take the lead from CJ's selection, Early Judgement, but the 3-horse holds on to win by a head, and CJ has his double—a sign, an omen, an early-warning signal.
  10. negligible
    so small as to be meaningless; insignificant
    He dials from WCBS to WINS and back, hoping the announcers on duty will realize the Cubs-Padres game is not just another negligible event played before a few thousand people and of interest to absolutely no one in the whole world, hoping they'll realize that someone out there is really listening, someone is interested, someone really cares what they say, these affable babbling fools whose voices circulate through the mortal sadness of Yonkers.
  11. affable
    diffusing warmth and friendliness
    He dials from WCBS to WINS and back, hoping the announcers on duty will realize the Cubs-Padres game is not just another negligible event played before a few thousand people and of interest to absolutely no one in the whole world, hoping they'll realize that someone out there is really listening, someone is interested, someone really cares what they say, these affable babbling fools whose voices circulate through the mortal sadness of Yonkers.
  12. tout
    advertise in strongly positive terms
    6) A tout sheet.
  13. prelude
    something that introduces what follows
    On the black-and-white set we see a drum-and-bugle corps in Oakland, prelude to the Tigers-A's playoff game.
  14. dispel
    cause to separate and go in different directions
    They lose two on a sweep and it is fourth and goal at the eight, and if there are any lingering doubts about whether or not betting on college football is a form of Armenian water torture, they are quickly dispelled when Notre Dame calls time out.
  15. prolong
    lengthen in time; cause to be or last longer
    Ten years ago: CJ discovers a way to prolong the glorious agony of checking results in the newspaper.
  16. void
    declare invalid
    Past action is voided matter, to be discussed only when it includes elements of the fabulous or legendary, and even then only after a suitable amount of time has passed.
  17. premonition
    an early warning about a future event
    The gambler's life is a rhythmic tale of numbers, premonitions, symbols and dreams.
  18. delirium
    a usually brief state of excitement and mental confusion
    In the past, when CJ gambled much more heavily than he does now, when it was getting away from him and threatening to lead to a form of nondrinker's delirium tremens, when he was afraid of seeing pterodactyls come flying out of his TV set—yes, in those days of superstition and bad acid magic, it finally came to him that he was traveling beyond action and into the realm of the unreal.
  19. parlay
    exploit a skill or resource in order to get something of greater value
    He has action on six other pro games (all 20 times) and the Bears and 49ers in a $60 parlay.
  20. repel
    force or drive back
    As time passes CJ becomes so repelled by the Saints that he switches to the Jets-Dolphins, even though he has no action on this game—an almost unprecedented move.
  21. fleeting
    lasting for a markedly brief time
    This is never very pleasurable, and compared with CJ's classical discovery of moving a matchbook across a line score, the electronic method is too fleeting.
  22. desolate
    providing no shelter or sustenance
    He feels sure the underdog will come through for him because he knows, he has always known, it has been basic knowledge for many years that bad weather favors the underdog because it is a neutralizer of ability, experience and talent, an atomizer and equalizer, and he is ready to wire his mind into the desolate roar of Kansas, for a full night if need be.
  23. moor
    come into or dock at a wharf
    Kool lives in a remote part of New Jersey, where he walks the moors in a half-trance before making his betting selections for the week.
  24. vigil
    a purposeful surveillance to guard or observe
    With the blinds drawn, two televisions tuned and a radio fitfully broadcasting game scores, the tense vigil begins
  25. chassis
    the skeleton of a motor vehicle
    "Insert the free end of the yoke through the large chassis cutout and insert the octal plug in the socket marked YOKE."
Created on Sun Nov 10 19:17:29 EST 2013 (updated Tue Apr 09 14:32:04 EDT 2019)

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