- What obscure Italian card game was it that Charlie says he was up late playing with the President ("The cards are in Latin")? ["Disaster Relief"]
- Louis DeVito emailed us a link to information about Scopone, Scopa and its variations:
"Scopone is an Italian game - the principles are fairly simple but to play it well requires skill and a good memory.... An Italian 40 card pack is used, often the Neapolitan pattern with the Latin suits: swords (spade), clubs (bastoni), cups (coppe) and coins (danari)."
"Scopa is the game from which Scopone was developed."
"Scopa d'Assi is a version of Scopa where in addition to the normal rules of capture, playing an ace takes all the table cards."
- Why did the narrator's voice for the "fake" documentary that was the episode "Access" seem so familiar?
- The always informative West Wing Episode Guide identified the narrator as Will Lyman and sent us to TV Tome's page on him.
- What was that pathogen that was said to have infected the White House in "No Exit" and is it plague?
- "SpaceyCadet" posted on Television Without Pity's West Wing forum: "Tularemia is not Plague. Plague is caused by Yersinia pestis, and tularemia is caused by Franciscella tularensis. Tularemia is also highly treatable, and not uncommon. It is not carried by rodents, but rather by lagomorphs (i.e. rabbits), and landscape workers often catch it when they accidentally mow over rabbit nests.
- "Sophietje" posted on Television Without Pity's West Wing forum: "As part of my job, I work with Local and state health departments, and the CDC on bioterriorism and reportable diseases. I had just finished work on the Tularemia report earlier this week. This is the clinical description: 'An illness caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis, with a variety of clinical presentation including lymphadenopathy, with or without cutaneous ulceration, and with or without conjunctivitis, pharyngitis, sepsis, intenstinal signs, pneumonic disease, and a typhoidal illness.'"
- The CDC's website says, "Tularemia is a potentially serious illness that occurs naturally in the United States. It is caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis found in animals (especially rodents, rabbits, and hares)."
It goes on to say,
"Francisella tularensis is very infectious. A small number (10-50 or so organisms) can cause disease. If F. tularensis were used as a weapon, the bacteria would likely be made airborne for exposure by inhalation. People who inhale an infectious aerosol would generally experience severe respiratory illness, including life-threatening pneumonia and systemic infection, if they are not treated. The bacteria that cause tularemia occur widely in nature and could be isolated and grown in quantity in a laboratory, although manufacturing an effective aerosol weapn would require considerable sophistication."
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References to the Obscure
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