What began as an endnote of examples of the communication between Orin and The Moms quickly degraded into a full-length telephone conversation with Hal. However, it seems that since it hijacked an endnote with relevance, it's actually another tantalizing taste of the plot pie Wallace has cooling on the over-large window sill that is the introductory matter of Infinite Jest.
Up to now, things like O.N.A.N. (One North American Nation) and the Great Concavity/Convexity (a shift in the US/Canada border) have been bandied about, but Orin's questions nail down their importance. Quebec is rife with separatist extremists in the world of the novel, and what can be drawn from the phone call in this endnote is that these extremists are making the rest of Canada look like it doesn't want to be a part of O.N.A.N.
Apparently, or so the theory goes, this is just a ruse by said separatists so that they can later blackmail Ottawa into letting them separate and take the Great Convexity with them. Said convexity currently being a large garbage dump, essentially. But since this ruse is fuelled by extremist action, it's necessary for it to continue. It doesn't get mentioned, but again, it can be deduced that the unfinished TP cartridge James O. Incandenza left the world is one means of these extremist attacks.
At this point, all that's really left, is some main text confirmation. And then, things can finally get under way.
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