The "Fully Functional Phil" meeting: Tine chairs the counter-Entertainment kids'-PSA

timeline_event

texture · 20 Nov YDAU

When: 20 November YDAU (the weather-delayed State House Annex meeting)
What: In a partial transcript, "MR. RODNEY TINE SR., CHIEF OF UNSPECIFIED SERVICES & WHITE HOUSE ADVISER ON INTERDEPENDENT RELATIONS" chairs a meeting with InterLace, Glad, and Viney & Veals to green-light a public-service ad warning children against the samizdat — the countermeasure arm of his manhunt: "Fully Functional Phil," the prancing burro who tells kids to fetch a policeman if a parent sits pithed before the viewer. Tine works his weatherman's pointer; the running gag ties directly to event 6's ruler-fixation — he snaps at his son's incessant ruler-tapping ("Shut up, Rodney. And quit with the ruler-tapping"; "You're close to losing that hand, bucko"). (TINE JR. DISTINCTION — "MR. R. TINE JR., DEPUTY REGIONAL COORDINATOR," is the ruler-tapper the Chief keeps silencing.) Last attestation of Tine in the novel; his loyalty and fate remain open.