All Fall Down: Annotated

The following references to cultural and/or historical events or people in Eruption: All Fall Down occur during the novel.

Story Order

 * Page 12
 * "Better to stay quiet and be thought cynical ..." - This thought of Colin Ferguson's is a paraphrase of a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."


 * Page 23
 * Et tu, Brute - This line is uttered by Julius Caesar as he was assassinated in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Act 3, scene 1.


 * Page 24
 * ... sit in a cubicle next to Dilbert - Dilbert is an American comic strip satirize workplace issues. Rob Ferguson is favorably comparing Squirt Frog and the Evolving Tadpoles' limited success to being an office worker.


 * Page 36
 * {Dr. Travis Suzuki} reminded {Louise Ferguson} of Mr. Sulu from Star Trek - Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. Mr. Sulu was a character from the original series and one of the first Asian characters portrayed in a positive light by an Asian actor.


 * Page 41
 * Craigslist - Craigslist is a classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, items wanted, services, community, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums.


 * Page 43
 * monster.com - Monster.com is one of the largest employment websites in the world, owned and operated by Monster Worldwide, Inc.


 * Page 44
 * SAT - The SAT is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. It was first called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, then the Scholastic Assessment Test, but now SAT does not stand for anything.


 * Page 47
 * Holy Roman Empire - The Holy Roman Empire was a varying complex of lands that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.


 * Page 47
 * The Epic of Gilgamesh - The Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem from Mesopotamia, is amongst the earliest surviving works of literature.


 * Page 50
 * {Jackson, Wyoming} was as one with Pompeii and Herculaneum. - The cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were Roman towns partially destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.


 * Page 53
 * ... had an almost Jetson kind of cool. - The Jetsons is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera. The Jetsons live in the year 2062 in a futuristic utopia (100 years in the future at the time of the show's debut) of elaborate robotic contraptions, aliens, holograms, and whimsical inventions.


 * Page 59
 * Louise Ferguson felt as if she'd gone fifteen rounds with Mike Tyson ... - Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is a retired American professional boxer.


 * Page 64
 * And there, as Hamlet had said, was the rub ... - "There was the rub" comes from Hamlet's soliloquy from William Shakespeare's play of the same name Act 3, scene 1'''.


 * Page 69
 * ... cloth diapers and safety pins, right out of Ozzie and Harriet and The Lucy Show. - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is an American sitcom, airing on ABC from October 3, 1952 through March 26, 1966. I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957.


 * Page 71
 * ... make himself a sandwich. ... Blondie ... Dagwood Bumstead - Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. A running gag is the impossibly tall sandwiches made with a variety of meats, cheeses and condiments that Dagwood Bumstead (a character in the strip) fixes for himself.


 * Page 74
 * "Sharper than a serpent's tooth is an ungrateful child" - Quote from William Shakespeare's King Lear Act 1, scene 4. Patty incorrectly atributes it to the Bible.


 * Page 75
 * "the truth was out there" - This was a tagline in The X-Files, an American science fiction drama television series.


 * Page 81
 * "the times, they were a-changin" - The Times They Are a-Changin is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in January 1964 by Columbia Records.


 * Page 82
 * Not Thing One, and not Thing Two, either. ... The Cat in the Hat - The Cat in the Hat is a children's book by Dr. Seuss. Thing One and Thing Two are secondary characters from the story.


 * Page 98
 * Conan the Barbarian - Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films, television programs (cartoon and live-action), video games, role-playing games and other media.


 * Page 98
 * Currier and Ives - Currier and Ives was a successful American printmaking firm headed by Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888) and James Merritt Ives (1824–1895). Based in New York City from 1834–1907, the prolific firm produced prints from paintings by fine artists as black and white lithographs that were hand colored. The prints depicted a variety of images of American life, including winter scenes; horse-racing images; portraits of people; and pictures of ships, sporting events, patriotic and historical events.


 * Page 100
 * Justin made like Phil Collins... - Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist, and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist. One of Collins hit singles was "In the Air Tonight".


 * Page 103
 * ... the second winter of our discontent. - "Winter of our discontent" is the opening line from William Shakespeare's Richard III. It is also the title of John Steinbeck's last novel and using the Shakespeare quote as its source. It is unclear which Jim Farrell was quoting although in Richard it is used to signify the end of winter, the opposite of what Farrell meant.


 * Page 103
 * ... eating long pig so we don't starve - European explorers brought home stories of cannibalism from the Marquesas Islands of Polynesia, where human flesh was called long pig.


 * Page 103
 * ... caviar to the general. - Caviar to the general is a good thing unappreciated by the ignorant; the phrase is originally a quotation from Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 2, scene 2.


 * Page 103
 * "If we don't hang together ..." - "We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." is attributed to Benjamin Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence.


 * Page 104
 * Kilkenny Cats - The term Kilkenny cat refers to anyone who is a tenacious fighter. The origin of the term is now lost so there are many stories purporting to give the true meaning.


 * Page 105
 * bully pulpit - President Theodore Roosevelt referred to the White House as a "bully pulpit", by which he meant a terrific platform from which to advocate an agenda.


 * Page 110
 * ... might not be true, it was definietly truthy. - "Truthy" derives from truth +‎ -y. First attested in early 19th century; reintroduced into modern use by Stephen Colbert in 2005 as truthiness and means "the quality of seeming to be true, even if this contradicts evidence or rational thought".


 * Page 114
 * Tom Clancy - Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War. Clancy is one of only three authors to have sold two million copies on a first printing in the 1990s.


 * Page 114
 * Bill Gates - William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate and philanthropist. Gates is the former chief executive and current chairman of Microsoft, the world’s largest personal-computer software company, which he co-founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people.


 * Pages 114-115
 * "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." - These are the last lines from the song "Won't Get Fooled Again" by the English rock band The Who.


 * Page 115
 * Animal Farm - Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917, and then on into the Stalin era in the Soviet Union.


 * Page 115
 * 1984 - Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984) is an English dystopian novel by George Orwell, written in 1948 and published in 1949. The main character, Winston Smith lives in a post-civil war United Kingdom ruled by the English Socialism (Ingsoc) Movement.


 * Page 118
 * He had a half pint of Southern Comfort ... - Southern Comfort is an American liqueur made from neutral spirits with fruit, spice and whiskey flavorings. Although the original product contained whiskey, the current formula for Southern Comfort only contains whiskey-tasting flavoring rather than actual whiskey.


 * Page 118
 * ... collection of Mad Magazine pieces ... - Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952.


 * Page 121
 * ... cubicle ... straight out of Dilbertland. - Dilbert is an American comic strip satirize workplace issues. Bryce Miller viewed his office space at the Department of Water and Power as being similar to the caricature in Dilbert.


 * Page 121
 * ... hard at it in the Skinner box ... - An operant conditioning chamber (also known as the Skinner box) is a laboratory apparatus used in the experimental analysis of behavior to study animal behavior. The operant conditioning chamber was created by B. F. Skinner while he was a graduate student at Harvard University. It is used to study both operant conditioning and classical conditioning.


 * Page 122
 * Theocritus meets the supervolcano - Theocritus, the creator of Ancient Greece bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC. Bryce Miller enjoyed writing poetry in this style.


 * Page 122
 * toe-to-toe with the Donald - Donald John Trump, Sr. (born June 14, 1946) is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He was No. 17 on the 2011 Forbes Celebrity 100 list.


 * Page 124
 * ... out of a Grant Wood painting. - Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 – February 12, 1942) was an American painter, born four miles east of Anamosa, Iowa. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly the painting American Gothic, an iconic image of the 20th century.


 * Page 128
 * ... something from a Mad Max movie. - The Mad Max franchise is based on a series of futuristic films, taking place in the "Mad Max Universe". The series has had a lasting influence on apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction ever since.


 * Pages 128-129
 * "Arma virumque camo" ... It's from Vergil - Publius Vergilius Maro usually called Virgil or Vergil in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid.


 * Page 143
 * As gas prices zoomed up like a Trident missile ... - The Trident missile is a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) equipped with multiple independently-targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV).


 * Page 144
 * ... with delusions of Lance Armstrong. - Lance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist. Armstrong had won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times between 1999 and 2005.


 * Page 145
 * Like Popeye, he was what he was ... - Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television starting on January 17, 1929. His catchphrase is "I yam what I yam and tha's all what I yam."


 * Page 146
 * "You're only young once ..." - Quote is from Ogden Nash, an American poet well known for his light verse.


 * Page 151
 * ... they're dead as King Tut - Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (ruled ca. 1332 BC – 1323 BC in the conventional chronology), during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom. He is popularly referred to as King Tut.


 * Page 151
 * Al Capone - Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone (1899–1947), was an Italian American gangster who led a crime syndicate during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and 1930s. Although never successfully convicted of racketeering charges or murder, Capone's criminal career ended in 1931, when he was indicted and convicted by the federal government for income tax evasion.


 * Page 160
 * Hellenistic Greeks - The Hellenistic period or Hellenisitc civilization is the period of Ancient Greece history between the death of Macedonian king Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of ancient Rome.


 * Page 160
 * Frederick II - Frederick II (1194 –1250), was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous.


 * Page 167
 * ... fallen into the looking glass, just like Alice. - Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) is a work of literature by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865).


 * Page 167
 * And wasn't the style the man himself? - Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte of Buffon (1707 – 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author. From his Discourse on Style: "Writing well consists of thinking, feeling and expressing well, of clarity of mind, soul and taste .... The style is the man himself".


 * Page 174
 * ... dog returning to its vomit? - "As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly" is an aphorism which appears in the Book of Proverbs in the Bible — Proverbs 26:11.


 * Page 175
 * Here Be Dragons - "Here be dragons" is a phrase used to denote dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of the medieval practice of putting dragons, sea serpents and other mythological creatures in uncharted areas of maps.


 * Page 175
 * Jolly Green Giant - Green Giant and Le Sueur are brands of frozen and canned vegetables owned by General Mills. The mascot of Green Giant is the Jolly Green Giant.


 * Page 175
 * "All hope abandon, ye who enter here" - The quote is from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. It is inscribed over the gates of hell.


 * Page 176
 * World War II cartoon - Kelly Birnbaum is likely recalling the following Bill Mauldin cartoon: WWII CartoonTheJeep.jpg


 * Page 180
 * A billion here, a billion there - This quip on US Federal Government spending is attributed to Senator Everett Dirksen.


 * Page 181
 * "When sorrows came, they came not ..." - Quotation is from Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 4, scene 5.


 * Page 181
 * Dick Tracey wrist radio - Dick Tracy is a comic strip (debut October 4, 1931) featuring Dick Tracy, a hard-hitting, fast-shooting and intelligent police detective. Tracey had a 2-Way Wrist Radio from Jan. 1946 which he used to communicate with his fellow officers.


 * Page 186
 * something out of Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre.


 * Page 186
 * I want it to go "Nevermore" - From Edgar Allan Poe's narrative poem "The Raven", the eponymous raven says "Nevermore" when asked its name.


 * Page 186
 * Sherman was marching through Georgia - William Sherman's Savannah Campaign during the American Civil War was a march from Atlanta and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah. Sherman's forces destroyed military targets as well as industry, infrastructure, and other civilian property during the march.


 * Page 189
 * ... like comparing O'Doul's to Everclear - O'Doul's is a non-alcoholic (less than 0.5% alcohol) beer made by Anheuser-Busch. Everclear is the brand name of a colorless, unflavored, distilled beverage bottled at two different high strengths: 151-proof and 190-proof, meaning respectively 75.5% and 95% alcohol by volume.


 * Page 192
 * ... bull moose, sure as the ghost of Theodore Roosevelt - The Progressive Party of 1912 was an American political party. It was formed by former President Theodore Roosevelt, after a split in the Republican Party between himself and President William Howard Taft. The party also became known as the Bull Moose Party.


 * Page 196
 * "What doesn't kill me ..." - Quote is a paraphrase of Friedrich Nietzsche's "What does not destroy me, makes me stronger." from Twilight of the Idols.


 * Page 197
 * ... the Communist dictator, old nutty What's-his-name ... - Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918 – 1989) was a Romanian Communist dictator. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's last Communist leader.


 * Page 200
 * ... today's version of Vulgar Latin. - Vulgar Latin is any of the "nonstandard" (as opposed to "classical") forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. The word "Vulgar" in this usage comes from the Latin for "common," as Vulgar Latin was the spoken language.


 * Page 204
 * ... yahoo who didn't know what a yahoo actually was. - A Yahoo is a legendary being in the novel Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift. Swift describes them as being filthy and with unpleasant habits, resembling human beings far too closely for the liking of protagonist Lemuel Gulliver.


 * Page 209
 * Laphroaig - Laphroaig distillery is an Islay single malt Scotch whisky distillery. It is named for the area of land at the head of Loch Laphroaig on the south coast of the Isle of Islay.


 * Page 209
 * ... is Kermit's last name. - Kermit (the Frog) is puppeteer Jim Henson's most famous Muppet creation, first introduced in 1955.


 * Page 209
 * Red Trolley ale - Red Trolley Ale is a medium-bodied beer with heavyweight malts brewed by Karl Strauss Brewing Company.


 * Page 213
 * Ebenezer Scrooge - Ebenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol.


 * Page 215
 * John Donne's No man is an island ... - John Donne (1572 – 1631) was an English poet, satirist, lawyer and a cleric in the Church of England. He wrote a series of meditations and prayers published as Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. One of these meditations stated that "no man is an island".


 * Page 216
 * World of Warcraft - World of Warcraft (often abbreviated as WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Blizzard Entertainment.


 * Page 222
 * ... in J'accuse! tones ... - "J'accuse" was an open letter published on 13 January 1898 by writer Émile Zola and accused the government of anti-Semitism and the unlawful jailing of Alfred Dreyfus. As a result of the popularity of the letter, J'accuse! has become a common generic expression of outrage and accusation against someone powerful.


 * Page 231
 * Frederick II - See reference for Page 160 above.


 * Page 232
 * shillelagh - A shillelagh is a wooden walking stick and club or cudgel, typically made from a stout knotty stick with a large knob at the top, that is associated with Ireland and Irish folklore.


 * Page 232
 * ... charge of the Light Brigade - The Charge of the Light Brigade was a charge of British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War.


 * Page 232
 * Pixar - Pixar Animation Studios, or simply Pixar, is a computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio is best known for its CGI-animated feature films.


 * Page 241
 * some modern Mussolini - Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) was the fascist dictator of Italy during World War II. In the 1920s he claimed credit for getting Italy's trains to run on time.


 * Page 243
 * Sharper than a serpent's tooth ... - See reference for Page 74 above.


 * Page 245
 * Colin went through the Miranda warnings ... - The Miranda warning is a warning given by police in the United States to criminal suspects in police custody before they are interrogated to preserve the admissibility of their statements against them in criminal proceedings.


 * Page 245
 * Thank you, Willie Sutton ... - William "Willie" Sutton (1901 – 1980) was a prolific American bank robber. Sutton is known, albeit apocryphally, for the urban legend that he said that he robbed banks "because that's where the money is."


 * Page 251
 * "Meet George Jetson" - See reference for Page 53 above.


 * Page 254
 * ... men and women of the Fourth Estate - The Fourth Estate is a societal or political force or institution whose influence is not consistently or officially recognized. "Fourth Estate" most commonly refers to the news media; especially print journalism or "The Press".


 * Page 255
 * Schrödinger's cat - Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment, sometimes described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. The scenario presents a cat that might be alive or dead, depending on an earlier random event.


 * Page 255
 * ... going AWOL - In the United States, military personnel will become AWOL (Absence Without Leave) when they are absent from their post without a valid pass or leave.


 * Page 261
 * Tax Day - In the United States, Tax Day is a colloquial term for the day on which individual income tax returns are due to the federal government. Since 1955, Tax Day has typically fallen on April 15.


 * Pages 261-262
 * ... hoist the Stanley Cup. - The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff winner after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. Winning players traditionally skate around holding (or hoisting) the trophy above their heads after the end of the final game.


 * Page 262
 * ... EPA toxic-waste site ... - The U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is an agency of the United States federal government which was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment.


 * Page 263
 * Eminem - Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. He is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is the best selling artist of the 2000s.


 * Page 263
 * ... demented Darwinian amphibians - Darwinian is of or relating to Charles Darwin or his theories especially of evolution. Jim Farrell is referring to the "Evolving" part of the Squirt Frog and the Evolving Tadpoles band name.


 * Pages 263-264
 * ... with the greatest of ease. - "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" is a 19th-century popular song about a flying trapeze circus performer, Jules Léotard. The refrain states: "He'd fly through the air with the greatest of ease, That daring young man on the flying trapeze".


 * Page 264
 * ... Reagan's attorney general ... - Edwin "Ed" Meese, III (born December 2, 1931) is an attorney, law professor, and author who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan White House (1981–1985) and eventually rising to hold the position of the 75th Attorney General of the United States (1985–1988).


 * Page 265
 * "I'm shocked, Professor. Shocked, I tell you!" ... Casablanca - In the film Casablanca, Police Captain Renault closes Rick's Cafe on the grounds he is "shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here". He then pockets his winnings that a waiter hands him.


 * Page 265
 * Herodotus - Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria (modern day Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the fifth century BC (c.484 – 425 BC). He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative.


 * Page 266
 * Thucydides - Thucydides (c. 460 – c. 395 BC) was a Greek historian and Athenian general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history", because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work.


 * Page 267
 * "California, here I come" - Opening line of the chorus of an Al Jolson song of the same name. It was written for the 1921 Broadway musical Bombo and is often called the unofficial state song of California.


 * Page 270
 * ... call luck? The residue of design ... - "Luck is the residue of design". This quote is attributed to Branch Rickey (1881 – 1965), a Major League Baseball executive elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967. He was known for breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing African American player Jackie Robinson.


 * Page 274
 * Stephen Foster - Stephen Collins Foster (1826 – 1864), known as the "father of American music", was an American songwriter primarily known for his parlour and minstrel music.


 * Page 274
 * Irving Berlin - Irving Berlin (1888 – 1989) was a Russian-born American composer and lyricist, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.


 * Page 274
 * John Lennon - John Ono Lennon MBE (1940 – 1980) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a founder member of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music.


 * Page 274
 * Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941) is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades.


 * Page 274
 * Stephen Sondheim - Stephen Joshua Sondheim (born March 22, 1930) is an American composer and lyricist known for his contributions to musical theatre. He is the winner of an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award.


 * Page 282
 * ... he looked a little like Nicolas Cage ... - Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964) known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor, producer and director.


 * Page 298
 * ... Jack London to mush past ... - Jack London was an American author, famous for several works, including The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Iron Heel.


 * Page 298
 * ... a sled pulled by White Fang and Buck. - White Fang is the titular character and a novel by American author Jack London. The story details a wild wolfdog's journey to domestication. Buck is the main character in London's The Call of the Wild. He was a domesticate dog snatched from a pastoral ranch and sold into a brutal life as a sled dog in the Yukon.


 * Page 300
 * ... factory in Elbonia ... - The Republic of Elbonia is a fictional country in the comic strip Dilbert. Elbonia is supposedly located somewhere in the former Soviet bloc and is an extremely poor, "fourth-world" country.


 * Page 301
 * Shogun - Shogun is a 1975 novel by James Clavell. Beginning in feudal Japan some months before the critical Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Shogun gives an account of the rise of the daimyo "Toranaga".


 * Page 301
 * Tai-Pan - Tai-Pan is a novel written by James Clavell about European and American traders who move into Hong Kong in 1842 following the end of the First Opium War.


 * Page 301
 * King Rat- King Rat is a 1962 novel by James Clavell. Set during World War II, Clavell's literary debut describes the struggle for survival of British, Australian, Dutch, New Zealand and American prisoners of war in a Japanese camp in Singapore.


 * Page 301
 * Peloponnesian War - The Peloponnesian War (431–413 BC) was an Ancient Greek military conflict, fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta.


 * Page 301
 * Thucydides - See reference for Page 266 above.


 * Page 301
 * Melian Dialogue - The Melian dialogue, contained in Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War, is an account of the confrontation in 416–415 BC, between the Athenians and the people of Melos, a small island in the southern Aegean Sea.


 * Page 303
 * Herodotus - See reference for Page 265 above.


 * Page 303
 * ... pledge of the Persian Empire's couriers ... - "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor darkness of night prevents these couriers from completing their designated stages with utmost speed" as attributed to Herodotus and thought as the US Postal Service creed.


 * Page 306
 * Marianas Trench - The Marianas Trench is the deepest part of the world's oceans. It is located in the western Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands and reaches a maximum-known depth of 10.911 km.


 * Page 311
 * Titanic - The RMS Titanic was a British Olympic class passenger liner that became famous for her collision with an iceberg on April 14, 1912 and her dramatic sinking on April 15, 1912.


 * Page 311
 * Lusitania - The RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner and briefly the world's biggest ship. In 1915 she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat, with heavy loss of life.


 * Page 312
 * James Michener - James Albert Michener (1907 – 1997) was an American author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which were sweeping sagas. On his death, Michener left an estimated $10 million estate.


 * Page 312
 * George Carlin - George Denis Patrick Carlin (1937 – 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, actor, and writer/author who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums.


 * Page 312
 * Bill Cosby - William Henry "Bill" Cosby Jr., (born July 12, 1937) is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist.


 * Page 315
 * Norman Rockwell - Norman Percevel Rockwell (1894 – 1978) was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture.


 * Page 315
 * Currier and Ives - See reference for Page 98 above.


 * Page 315
 * Python routine - Monty Python (sometimes known as The Pythons) were a British surreal comedy group that created Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969.


 * Page 316
 * The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show - The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC television networks.


 * Page 322
 * Fourth Estate - See reference for Page 254 above.


 * Page 331
 * Ustasha - The Ustaše (Croatian Revolutionary Movement) was a Croatian nationalist far-right movement. It was founded in 1929 and sought to create an independent Croatian state.


 * Page 343
 * "you can't always get what you want" - "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is a song by the Rolling Stones on their 1969 album Let It Bleed. The title comes from the first line of the chorus.


 * Page 343
 * ... thought of the Stones song. - The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962.


 * Page 344
 * Henry Kissinger - Henry Alfred Kissinger (born May 27, 1923) is a German-born American bureaucrat, diplomat, and 1973 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations.


 * Page 349
 * ... Shakespeare ... doing it quickly ... - "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well / It were done quickly:", from William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act 1, scene 7.


 * Page 349
 * Reefer Madness - Reefer Madness is a 1936 American propaganda exploitation film revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try marijuana.


 * Page 351
 * "To be or not to be?" - From William Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 3, scene 1.


 * Page 355
 * $64,000 question - The $64,000 Question is an American game show broadcast from 1955–1958, which became embroiled in the scandals involving TV quiz shows of the day.


 * Page 356
 * three guys can keep a secret ... - “Three men can keep a secret if two of them are dead” is attributed to Benjamin Franklin.


 * Page 357
 * Halle Berry - Halle Maria Berry (born August 14, 1966) is an American actress and former fashion model. Berry was ranked No. 1 on People's "50 Most Beautiful People In The World," in 2003.


 * Page 364
 * Shylock - Shylock is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. He is a Jewish moneylender who lends money to his Christian rival, Antonio, setting the security at a pound of Antonio's flesh.


 * Page 366
 * ... the law west of the Pecos - Phantly Roy Bean, Jr. (c. 1825 – 1903) was an eccentric US saloon-keeper and Justice of the Peace in Val Verde County, Texas, who called himself "The Law West of the Pecos".


 * Page 368
 * Michael Jackson - Michael Joseph Jackson (1958 – 2009) was an American singer-songwriter, entertainer, dancer, arranger, music producer, choreographer, actor, businessman, musician, and philanthropist.


 * Page 368
 * Fred Astaire - Fred Astaire (1899 – 1987) was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer, musician and actor.


 * Page 370
 * ... too big to fail - "Too big to fail" is a colloquial term in describing certain financial institutions that are so large and so interconnected that their failure is widely held to be disastrous to the economy, and which therefore must be supported by government when they face difficulty.


 * Page 370
 * e pluribus unum - E pluribus unum — Latin for "Out of many, one" (alternatively translated as "One out of many" or "One from many") — is a phrase on the Seal of the United States.


 * Page 371
 * Craigslist - See reference for Page 41 above.


 * Page 373
 * Beyoncé - Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (born September 4, 1981 in Houston, Texas), is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress.


 * Page 378
 * Edward Gibbon - Edward Gibbon (1737 – 1794) was an English historian and Member of Parliament. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788.

Contemporary Figures and Things

 * ... with delusions of Lance Armstrong. - Lance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist. Armstrong had won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times between 1999 and 2005.


 * ... going AWOL - In the United States, military personnel will become AWOL (Absence Without Leave) when they are absent from their post without a valid pass or leave.


 * Halle Berry - Halle Maria Berry (born August 14, 1966) is an American actress and former fashion model. Berry was ranked No. 1 on People's "50 Most Beautiful People In The World," in 2003.


 * Beyoncé - Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (born September 4, 1981 in Houston, Texas), is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress.


 * ... he looked a little like Nicolas Cage ... - Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964) known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor, producer and director.


 * George Carlin - George Denis Patrick Carlin (1937 – 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, actor, and writer/author who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums.


 * Tom Clancy - Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War. Clancy is one of only three authors to have sold two million copies on a first printing in the 1990s.


 * Justin made like Phil Collins... - Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist, and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist. One of Collins hit singles was "In the Air Tonight".


 * Bill Cosby - William Henry "Bill" Cosby Jr., (born July 12, 1937) is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist.


 * Craigslist - Craigslist is a classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, items wanted, services, community, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums.


 * Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941) is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades.


 * Eminem - Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. He is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is the best selling artist of the 2000s.


 * ... EPA toxic-waste site ... - The U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is an agency of the United States federal government which was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment.


 * ... like comparing O'Doul's to Everclear - Everclear is the brand name of a colorless, unflavored, distilled beverage bottled at two different high strengths: 151-proof and 190-proof, meaning respectively 75.5% and 95% alcohol by volume.


 * Bill Gates - William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate and philanthropist. Gates is the former chief executive and current chairman of Microsoft, the world’s largest personal-computer software company, which he co-founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people.


 * Justin made like Phil Collins... - Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist, and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist. One of Collins hit singles was "In the Air Tonight".


 * Michael Jackson - Michael Joseph Jackson (1958 – 2009) was an American singer-songwriter, entertainer, dancer, arranger, music producer, choreographer, actor, businessman, musician, and philanthropist.


 * Henry Kissinger - Henry Alfred Kissinger (born May 27, 1923) is a German-born American bureaucrat, diplomat, and 1973 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations.


 * Laphroaig - Laphroaig distillery is an Islay single malt Scotch whisky distillery. It is named for the area of land at the head of Loch Laphroaig on the south coast of the Isle of Islay.


 * John Lennon - John Ono Lennon MBE (1940 – 1980) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a founder member of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music.


 * Marianas Trench - The Marianas Trench is the deepest part of the world's oceans. It is located in the western Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands and reaches a maximum-known depth of 10.911 km.


 * ... Reagan's attorney general ... - Edwin "Ed" Meese, III (born December 2, 1931) is an attorney, law professor, and author who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan White House (1981–1985) and eventually rising to hold the position of the 75th Attorney General of the United States (1985–1988).


 * James Michener - James Albert Michener (1907 – 1997) was an American author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which were sweeping sagas. On his death, Michener left an estimated $10 million estate.


 * Colin went through the Miranda warnings ... - The Miranda warning is a warning given by police in the United States to criminal suspects in police custody before they are interrogated to preserve the admissibility of their statements against them in criminal proceedings.


 * monster.com - Monster.com is one of the largest employment websites in the world, owned and operated by Monster Worldwide, Inc.


 * ... like comparing O'Doul's to Everclear - O'Doul's is a non-alcoholic (less than 0.5% alcohol) beer made by Anheuser-Busch.


 * Pixar - Pixar Animation Studios, or simply Pixar, is a computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio is best known for its CGI-animated feature films.


 * Red Trolley ale - Red Trolley Ale is a medium-bodied beer with heavyweight malts brewed by Karl Strauss Brewing Company.


 * ... thought of the Stones song. - The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962.


 * SAT - The SAT is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. It was first called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, then the Scholastic Assessment Test, but now SAT does not stand for anything.


 * shillelagh - A shillelagh is a wooden walking stick and club or cudgel, typically made from a stout knotty stick with a large knob at the top, that is associated with Ireland and Irish folklore.


 * ... hard at it in the Skinner box ... - An operant conditioning chamber (also known as the Skinner box) is a laboratory apparatus used in the experimental analysis of behavior to study animal behavior. The operant conditioning chamber was created by B. F. Skinner while he was a graduate student at Harvard University. It is used to study both operant conditioning and classical conditioning.


 * Stephen Sondheim - Stephen Joshua Sondheim (born March 22, 1930) is an American composer and lyricist known for his contributions to musical theatre. He is the winner of an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award.


 * He had a half pint of Southern Comfort ... - Southern Comfort is an American liqueur made from neutral spirits with fruit, spice and whiskey flavorings. Although the original product contained whiskey, the current formula for Southern Comfort only contains whiskey-tasting flavoring rather than actual whiskey.


 * ... hoist the Stanley Cup. - The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff winner after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. Winning players traditionally skate around holding (or hoisting) the trophy above their heads after the end of the final game.


 * Tax Day - In the United States, Tax Day is a colloquial term for the day on which individual income tax returns are due to the federal government. Since 1955, Tax Day has typically fallen on April 15.


 * As gas prices zoomed up like a Trident missile ... - The Trident missile is a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) equipped with multiple independently-targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV).


 * toe-to-toe with the Donald - Donald John Trump, Sr. (born June 14, 1946) is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He was No. 17 on the 2011 Forbes Celebrity 100 list.


 * Louise Ferguson felt as if she'd gone fifteen rounds with Mike Tyson ... - Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is a retired American professional boxer.

Fictional Works

 * Animal Farm - Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917, and then on into the Stalin era in the Soviet Union.


 * ... make himself a sandwich. ... Blondie ... Dagwood Bumstead - Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. A running gag is the impossibly tall sandwiches made with a variety of meats, cheeses and condiments that Dagwood Bumstead (a character in the strip) fixes for himself.


 * ... a sled pulled by White Fang and Buck. - Buck is the main character in Jack London's The Call of the Wild. He was a domesticate dog snatched from a pastoral ranch and sold into a brutal life as a sled dog in the Yukon.


 * "I'm shocked, Professor. Shocked, I tell you!" ... Casablanca - Casablanca (1942) is an American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.


 * Not Thing One, and not Thing Two, either. ... The Cat in the Hat - The Cat in the Hat is a children's book by Dr. Seuss. Thing One and Thing Two are secondary characters from the story.


 * Conan the Barbarian - Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films, television programs (cartoon and live-action), video games, role-playing games and other media.


 * Currier and Ives - Currier and Ives was a successful American printmaking firm headed by Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888) and James Merritt Ives (1824–1895). Based in New York City from 1834–1907, the prolific firm produced prints from paintings by fine artists as black and white lithographs that were hand colored. The prints depicted a variety of images of American life, including winter scenes; horse-racing images; portraits of people; and pictures of ships, sporting events, patriotic and historical events.


 * Dick Tracey wrist radio - Dick Tracy is a comic strip (debut October 4, 1931) featuring Dick Tracy, a hard-hitting, fast-shooting and intelligent police detective. Tracey had a 2-Way Wrist Radio from Jan. 1946 which he used to communicate with his fellow officers.


 * ... sit in a cubicle next to Dilbert - Dilbert is an American comic strip satirize workplace issues. Rob Ferguson is favorably comparing Squirt Frog and the Evolving Tadpoles' limited success to being an office worker. Also, Bryce Miller viewed his office space at the Department of Water and Power as being similar to the caricature in Dilbert (i.e. Dilbertland). Elbonia is a fictional, former Soviet bloc country in Dilbert.


 * The Epic of Gilgamesh - The Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem from Mesopotamia, is amongst the earliest surviving works of literature.


 * ... cloth diapers and safety pins, right out of Ozzie and Harriet and The Lucy Show. - I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957.


 * ... had an almost Jetson kind of cool. - The Jetsons is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera. The Jetsons live in the year 2062 in a futuristic utopia (100 years in the future at the time of the show's debut) of elaborate robotic contraptions, aliens, holograms, and whimsical inventions.


 * Jolly Green Giant - Green Giant and Le Sueur are brands of frozen and canned vegetables owned by General Mills. The mascot of Green Giant is the Jolly Green Giant.


 * ... is Kermit's last name. - Kermit (the Frog) is puppeteer Jim Henson's most famous Muppet creation, first introduced in 1955.


 * King Rat- King Rat is a 1962 novel by James Clavell. Set during World War II, Clavell's literary debut describes the struggle for survival of British, Australian, Dutch, New Zealand and American prisoners of war in a Japanese camp in Singapore.


 * ... collection of Mad Magazine pieces ... - Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952.


 * something from a Mad Max movie. - The Mad Max franchise is based on a series of futuristic films, taking place in the "Mad Max Universe". The series has had a lasting influence on apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction ever since.


 * Python routine - Monty Python (sometimes known as The Pythons) were a British surreal comedy group that created Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969.


 * 1984 - Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984) is an English dystopian novel by George Orwell, written in 1948 and published in 1949. The main character, Winston Smith lives in a post-civil war United Kingdom ruled by the English Socialism (Ingsoc) Movement.


 * ... cloth diapers and safety pins, right out of Ozzie and Harriet and The Lucy Show. - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is an American sitcom, airing on ABC from October 3, 1952 through March 26, 1966.


 * Like Popeye, he was what he was ... - Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television starting on January 17, 1929. His catchphrase is "I yam what I yam and tha's all what I yam."


 * I want it to go "Nevermore" - From Edgar Allan Poe's narrative poem "The Raven", the eponymous raven says "Nevermore" when asked its name.


 * Reefer Madness - Reefer Madness is a 1936 American propaganda exploitation film revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try marijuana.


 * The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show - The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC television networks.


 * Ebenezer Scrooge - Ebenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol.


 * Shogun - Shogun is a 1975 novel by James Clavell. Beginning in feudal Japan some months before the critical Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Shogun gives an account of the rise of the daimyo "Toranaga".


 * Shylock - Shylock is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. He is a Jewish moneylender who lends money to his Christian rival, Antonio, setting the security at a pound of Antonio's flesh.


 * {Dr. Travis Suzuki} reminded {Louise Ferguson} of Mr. Sulu from Star Trek - Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. Mr. Sulu was a character from the original series and one of the first Asian characters portrayed in a positive light by an Asian actor.


 * Tai-Pan - Tai-Pan is a novel written by James Clavell about European and American traders who move into Hong Kong in 1842 following the end of the First Opium War.


 * Not Thing One, and not Thing Two, either. ... The Cat in the Hat - The Cat in the Hat is a children's book by Dr. Seuss. Thing One and Thing Two are secondary characters from the story.


 * ... fallen into the looking glass, just like Alice. - Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) is a work of literature by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865).


 * "the times, they were a-changin'" - The Times They Are a-Changin is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in January 1964 by Columbia Records.


 * ... might not be true, it was definietly truthy. - "Truthy" derives from truth +‎ -y. First attested in early 19th century; reintroduced into modern use by Stephen Colbert in 2005 as truthiness and means "the quality of seeming to be true, even if this contradicts evidence or rational thought".


 * ... a sled pulled by White Fang and Buck. - White Fang is the titular character and a novel by American author Jack London. The story details a wild wolfdog's journey to domestication.


 * ... out of a Grant Wood painting. - Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 – February 12, 1942) was an American painter, born four miles east of Anamosa, Iowa. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly the painting American Gothic, an iconic image of the 20th century.


 * World of Warcraft - World of Warcraft (often abbreviated as WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Blizzard Entertainment.


 * ... yahoo who didn't know what a yahoo actually was. - A Yahoo is a legendary being in the novel Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift. Swift describes them as being filthy and with unpleasant habits, resembling human beings far too closely for the liking of protagonist Lemuel Gulliver.

Historical Figures and Things

 * Fred Astaire - Fred Astaire (1899 – 1987) was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer, musician and actor.


 * Irving Berlin - Irving Berlin (1888 – 1989) was a Russian-born American composer and lyricist, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.


 * ... bull moose, sure as the ghost of Theodore Roosevelt - The Progressive Party of 1912 was an American political party. It was formed by former President Theodore Roosevelt, after a split in the Republican Party between himself and President William Howard Taft. The party also became known as the Bull Moose Party.


 * bully pulpit - President Theodore Roosevelt referred to the White House as a "bully pulpit", by which he meant a terrific platform from which to advocate an agenda.


 * Al Capone - Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone (1899–1947), was an Italian American gangster who led a crime syndicate during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and 1930s. Although never successfully convicted of racketeering charges or murder, Capone's criminal career ended in 1931, when he was indicted and convicted by the federal government for income tax evasion.


 * ... the Communist dictator, old nutty What's-his-name ... - Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918 – 1989) was a Romanian Communist dictator. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's last Communist leader.


 * ... charge of the Light Brigade - The Charge of the Light Brigade was a charge of British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War.


 * ... demented Darwinian amphibians - Darwinian is of or relating to Charles Darwin or his theories especially of evolution. Jim Farrell is referring to the "Evolving" part of the Squirt Frog and the Evolving Tadpoles band name.


 * John Donne's No man is an island ... - John Donne (1572 – 1631) was an English poet, satirist, lawyer and a cleric in the Church of England.


 * Stephen Foster - Stephen Collins Foster (1826 – 1864), known as the "father of American music", was an American songwriter primarily known for his parlour and minstrel music.


 * ... men and women of the Fourth Estate - The Fourth Estate is a societal or political force or institution whose influence is not consistently or officially recognized. "Fourth Estate" most commonly refers to the news media; especially print journalism or "The Press".


 * Frederick II - Frederick II (1194 –1250), was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous.


 * Hellenistic Greeks - The Hellenistic period or Hellenisitc civilization is the period of Ancient Greece history between the death of Macedonian king Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of ancient Rome.


 * Herodotus - Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria (modern day Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the fifth century BC (c.484 – 425 BC). He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative.


 * Holy Roman Empire - The Holy Roman Empire was a varying complex of lands that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.


 * ... in J'accuse! tones ... - "J'accuse" was an open letter published on 13 January 1898 by writer Émile Zola and accused the government of anti-Semitism and the unlawful jailing of Alfred Dreyfus. As a result of the popularity of the letter, J'accuse! has become a common generic expression of outrage and accusation against someone powerful.


 * Kilkenny Cats - The term Kilkenny cat refers to anyone who is a tenacious fighter. The origin of the term is now lost so there are many stories purporting to give the true meaning.


 * ... the law west of the Pecos - Phantly Roy Bean, Jr. (c. 1825 – 1903) was an eccentric US saloon-keeper and Justice of the Peace in Val Verde County, Texas, who called himself "The Law West of the Pecos".


 * ... Jack London to mush past ... - Jack London was an American author, famous for several works, including The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Iron Heel.


 * ... eating long pig so we don't starve - European explorers brought home stories of cannibalism from the Marquesas Islands of Polynesia, where human flesh was called long pig.


 * Lusitania - The RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner and briefly the world's biggest ship. In 1915 she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat, with heavy loss of life.


 * World War II cartoon - Kelly Birnbaum is likely recalling a cartoon by Bill Mauldin; a WW II cartoonist for the Stars and Stripes.


 * Melian Dialogue - The Melian dialogue, contained in Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War, is an account of the confrontation in 416–415 BC, between the Athenians and the people of Melos, a small island in the southern Aegean Sea.


 * some modern Mussolini - Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) was the fascist dictator of Italy during World War II. In the 1920s he claimed credit for getting Italy's trains to run on time.


 * Peloponnesian War - The Peloponnesian War (431–413 BC) was an Ancient Greek military conflict, fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta.


 * something out of Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre.


 * {Jackson, Wyoming} was as one with Pompeii and Herculaneum. - The cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were Roman towns partially destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.


 * Norman Rockwell - Norman Percevel Rockwell (1894 – 1978) was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture.


 * Schrödinger's cat - Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment, sometimes described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. The scenario presents a cat that might be alive or dead, depending on an earlier random event.


 * Sherman was marching through Georgia - William Sherman's Savannah Campaign during the American Civil War was a march from Atlanta and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah. Sherman's forces destroyed military targets as well as industry, infrastructure, and other civilian property during the march.


 * $64,000 question - The $64,000 Question is an American game show broadcast from 1955–1958, which became embroiled in the scandals involving TV quiz shows of the day.


 * Thank you, Willie Sutton ... - William "Willie" Sutton (1901 – 1980) was a prolific American bank robber. Sutton is known, albeit apocryphally, for the urban legend that he said that he robbed banks "because that's where the money is."


 * Theocritus meets the supervolcano - Theocritus, the creator of Ancient Greece bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC. Bryce Miller enjoyed writing poetry in this style.


 * Thucydides - Thucydides (c. 460 – c. 395 BC) was a Greek historian and Athenian general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history", because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work.


 * Titanic - The RMS Titanic was a British Olympic class passenger liner that became famous for her collision with an iceberg on April 14, 1912 and her dramatic sinking on April 15, 1912.


 * ... they're dead as King Tut - Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (ruled ca. 1332 BC – 1323 BC in the conventional chronology), during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom. He is popularly referred to as King Tut.


 * Ustasha - The Ustaše (Croatian Revolutionary Movement) was a Croatian nationalist far-right movement. It was founded in 1929 and sought to create an independent Croatian state.


 * "Arma virumque camo" ... It's from Vergil - Publius Vergilius Maro usually called Virgil or Vergil in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid.


 * ... today's version of Vulgar Latin. - Vulgar Latin is any of the "nonstandard" (as opposed to "classical") forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. The word "Vulgar" in this usage comes from the Latin for "common," as Vulgar Latin was the spoken language.

Quotes

 * "All hope abandon, ye who enter here" - The quote is from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. It is inscribed over the gates of hell.


 * "Arma virumque camo" ... It's from Vergil - Publius Vergilius Maro usually called Virgil or Vergil in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. "Arma virumque camo" means "Of arms and the man I sing" comes from Vergil's Aeneid.


 * "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you're talking real money." - This quip on US Federal Government spending is attributed to Senator Everett Dirksen.


 * "Better to stay quiet and be thought cynical ..." - This thought of Colin Ferguson's is a paraphrase of a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."


 * "California, here I come" - Opening line of the chorus of an Al Jolson song of the same name. It was written for the 1921 Broadway musical Bombo and is often called the unofficial state song of California.


 * ...caviar to the general. - Caviar to the general is a good thing unappreciated by the ignorant; the phrase is originally a quotation from Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 2, scene 2.


 * ... dog returning to its vomit? - "As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly" is an aphorism which appears in the Book of Proverbs in the Bible — Proverbs 26:11.


 * "Et tu, Brute" - This line is uttered by Julius Caesar as he was assassinated in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Act 3, scene 1.


 * Here Be Dragons - "Here be dragons" is a phrase used to denote dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of the medieval practice of putting dragons, sea serpents and other mythological creatures in uncharted areas of maps.


 * Like Popeye, he was what he was ... - Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television starting on January 17, 1929. His catchphrase is "I yam what I yam and tha's all what I yam."


 * ... Shakespeare ... doing it quickly ... - "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well / It were done quickly:", from William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act 1, scene 7.


 * "If we don't hang together ..." - "We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." is attributed to Benjamin Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence.


 * ... call luck? The residue of design ... - "Luck is the residue of design". This quote is attributed to Branch Rickey (1881 – 1965), a Major League Baseball executive elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967. He was known for breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing African American player Jackie Robinson.


 * "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." - These are the last lines from the song "Won't Get Fooled Again" by the English rock band The Who.


 * ... pledge of the Persian Empire's couriers ... - "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor darkness of night prevents these couriers from completing their designated stages with utmost speed" as attributed to Herodotus and thought as the US Postal Service creed.


 * I want it to go "Nevermore" - From Edgar Allan Poe's narrative poem "The Raven", the eponymous raven says "Nevermore" when asked its name.


 * John Donne's No man is an island ... - John Donne's Devotions upon Emergent Occasions stated that "no man is an island".


 * "Sharper than a serpent's tooth is an ungrateful child" - Quote from William Shakespeare's King Lear Act 1, scene 4. Patty incorrectly atributes it to the Bible.


 * "I'm shocked, Professor. Shocked, I tell you!" - In the film Casablanca, Police Captain Renault closes Rick's Cafe on the grounds he is "shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here". He then pockets his winnings that a waiter hands him.


 * And wasn't the style the man himself? - Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte of Buffon (1707 – 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author. From his Discourse on Style: "Writing well consists of thinking, feeling and expressing well, of clarity of mind, soul and taste .... The style is the man himself".


 * And there, as Hamlet had said, was the rub ... - "There was the rub" comes from Hamlet's soliloquy from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet Act 3, scene 1'''.


 * three guys can keep a secret ... - “Three men can keep a secret if two of them are dead” is attributed to Benjamin Franklin.


 * "the truth was out there" - This was a tagline in The X-Files, an American science fiction drama television series.


 * "To be or not to be?" - From William Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 3, scene 1.


 * "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger." - Quote is a paraphrase of Friedrich Nietzsche's "What does not destroy me, makes me stronger." from Twilight of the Idols.


 * "When sorrows came, they came not single spies but in battalions." - Quotation is from Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 4, scene 5.


 * ... the second winter of our discontent. - "Winter of our discontent" is the opening line from William Shakespeare's Richard III. It is also the title of John Steinbeck's last novel and using the Shakespeare quote as its source. It is unclear which Jim Farrell was quoting although in Richard it is used to signify the end of winter, the opposite of what Farrell meant.


 * ... with the greatest of ease. - "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" is a 19th-century popular song about a flying trapeze circus performer, Jules Léotard. The refrain states: "He'd fly through the air with the greatest of ease, That daring young man on the flying trapeze".


 * "you can't always get what you want" - "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is a song by the Rolling Stones on their 1969 album Let It Bleed. The title comes from the first line of the chorus.


 * "You're only young once, but you can be immature forever." - Quote is from Ogden Nash, an American poet well known for his light verse.