Subsidized Time instituted — the calendar sold to pay for the giveaway

pivotal · background, at the B.S.→Subsidized hinge

• When: background; the revenue scheme conceived (per dark legend) over a Chinese-zodiac placemat, instituted at the transition out of B.S. solar time
• What: To finance the Reconfiguration, the government auctions the calendar itself: each year is sold to a corporate sponsor (Subsidized Time). In the film, Gentle — facing the "Democratic Triple Bind" of demanded programs, forbidden taxes, and a required balanced budget — has the revenue "insight" at a college bowl game renamed for its accreted sponsors (the "Ken-L-Ration-Magnavox-Kemper-Insurance-Forsythia Bowl," Clemson downing Boston U. in Las Vegas), with the scheme legendarily worked out by Tine on a Szechuan-restaurant zodiac placemat — the Vienna VA steakhouse table at which the film also seats the Québécois fatale Luria P———, Tine's felt hand on her Popsicle-stick knee (087). Subsidized Time is O.N.A.N.'s signature institution and the novel's whole dating system.