Eruption: Annotated

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

Story Order

 * Page 1
 * Motel 6 - Motel 6 is a major chain of budget motels with more than 1,000 locations in the United States and Canada.


 * Page 2
 * ... flailing away against Randy Johnson in his prime. - Randall David "Randy" Johnson is a retired American professional baseball player. A left-handed pitcher, Johnson played in Major League Baseball for 22 seasons. Johnson is a member of the 300 win club.


 * Page 5
 * ... liked turning it up to eleven. - "Up to eleven" or "these go to eleven" is an idiom from popular culture, coined in the movie This Is Spinal Tap, which has come to refer to anything being exploited to its utmost abilities, or apparently exceeding them, such as a sound volume control.


 * Page 11
 * ... if the Jolly Green Giant dropped a tray from his freezer. - The Jolly Green Giant was introduced as the mascot of the then Minnesota Valley Canning Company (Green Giant Company since 1950) in 1928.


 * Page 17
 * Not the Black Hole of Calcutta ... - The Black Hole of Calcutta was a small dungeon in the old Fort William in Calcutta, India, where troops of the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, held British prisoners of war after the capture of the fort on 20 June 1756.


 * Page 17
 * ... but not the Ritz-Carlton, either. - The Ritz-Carlton Hotels is a chain of luxury hotels and operates 84 luxury hotels and resorts in major cities and resorts in 26 countries worldwide.


 * Page 25
 * National Geographic documentary. - The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, DC in the United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational institutions in the world.


 * Page 25
 * Ken Burns - Kenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American director and producer of documentary films, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs.


 * Page 30
 * ... employees going postal. - Going postal, in American English slang, means becoming extremely and uncontrollably angry, often to the point of violence, and usually in a workplace environment.


 * Page 30
 * Jenny Craig frozen dinner - Jenny Craig, Inc., often known simply as Jenny Craig, is a weight loss, weight management, and nutrition company founded in 1983 by Jenny Craig and her husband, Sidney Craig.


 * Page 30
 * Harvey Wallbanger - The Harvey Wallbanger is a mixed drink made with vodka, Galliano, and orange juice.


 * Page 33
 * They Might Be Giants - They Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982. The group is best known for an unconventional and experimental style of alternative music.


 * Page 35
 * Archie McPhee - Archie McPhee is a Seattle-based novelty dealer owned by Mark Pahlow. Begun in the 1970s in Los Angeles as the mail-order business Accoutrements, in 1983 it opened a retail outlet dubbed "Archie McPhee" after Pahlow's wife's great-uncle.


 * Page 41
 * the Hermitage - The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in St. Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been open to the public since 1852.


 * Page 49
 * "Addicted to Love" - "Addicted to Love" is a song by English rock singer Robert Palmer released in 1986.


 * Page 53
 * Clairol - Clairol is a personal-care-product division of Procter & Gamble begun in 1931. The company was widely recognized in its home country, the United States, for its "Miss Clairol" home hair-coloring kit introduced in 1956.


 * Page 55
 * Theocritus - Theocritus, the creator of Ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC.


 * Page 57
 * ... when the Big One'll hit. - "The Big One" is a term often used in casual conversation by residents of California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia to describe the megathrust earthquake anticipated as inevitably striking the Cascadia Subduction Zone.


 * Page 59
 * gravedigger in Hamlet say? ... familiarity lending a quality of easiness - In Shakespeare's play Hamlet one gravedigger singing a humorous song while digging leads Horatio to explain "Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness."


 * Page 60Charlie Brown.png
 * ... round as Charlie Brown's head. - Charlie Brown is the protagonist of the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. As drawn, he had a round head.


 * Page 63
 * Crank - Crank is slang for a low purity, crystallized Methamphetamine that is administered in a powder form.


 * Page 65
 * Cortez - Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conquistador and nobleman, best remembered as the conqueror of the Aztec Empire.


 * Page 65
 * Balboa - Vasco de Balboa was a Spanish explorer best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World.


 * Page 65
 * Keats would have got a C- in Western Civ - John Keats (1795 – 1821) was an English Romantic poet. In Keats' poem "On first looking into Chapman’s Homer" he mistakenly has Cortez spot the Pacific not Balboa.


 * Page 68
 * ... plowed through the chow like Sherman plowing 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 71
 * Phi Beta Kappa - The Phi Beta Kappa Society is the oldest honor society for the liberal arts and sciences and aims to promote and advocate excellence in the field.


 * Page 73
 * When it was railroad time, it was railroad time ... - “When railroading time comes you can railroad—but not before.” from Robert A. Heinlein's The Door Into Summer. It is an observation that technological breakthroughs can't occur until the state of the art reaches a critical level. Once it does, there can be multiple inventors of a similar technology.


 * Page 74
 * Michael Jackson or Mariah Carey would have committed seppuku - Michael Joseph Jackson was an American singer-songwriter, actor, musician, dancer, businessman, and philanthropist. It is estimated that Jackson earned about $750 million in his lifetime. Mariah Carey is an American singer, songwriter, actress, record producer, and philanthropist. In 2000 Carey signed a $100 million recording contract with Virgin Records.


 * Page 76
 * Moose Drool - Moose Drool is a brown ale brewed by Big Sky Brewing Company located in Missoula, Montana.


 * Page 76
 * Guinness - Guinness is a popular Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness (1725–1803) at St. James's Gate, Dublin.


 * Page 90
 * The Burning Bed - The Burning Bed is the name of both a non-fiction book by Faith McNulty about battered housewife Francine Hughes, and the TV-movie adaptation starred Farrah Fawcett as Hughes.


 * Page 93
 * 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 98
 * ... that song about tomorrow, tomorrow? - "Tomorrow" is a popular song from the musical Annie expressing the protagonists optimistic outlook.


 * Page 112
 * "maybe the horse will learn to sing." - Fable attributed to Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian.


 * Page 115
 * life, the universe and everything - In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, a group of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings demand to learn the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything from the supercomputer, Deep Thought.


 * Page 121
 * So why don't we get drunk and screw? ... country song ... - "Why Don't We Get Drunk" is a novelty song written and performed by Jimmy Buffett. It was a b-side to "The Great Filling Station Holdup", released in 1973. The first line of the chorus was: "Why don't we get drunk an' screw?"


 * Page 122
 * Cowboy Bebop - Cowboy Bebop is a 1998 Japanese anime series developed by Sunrise. The twenty-six episodes ("sessions") of the series are set in the year 2071, and follow the adventures of a bounty hunter crew traveling on the Bebop (their spaceship).


 * Page 122
 * Bebop Deluxe - Be-Bop Deluxe were an English progressive rock band who achieved critical acclaim and moderate commercial success during the mid to late 1970s.


 * Page 123NewYorkerCover 1976-Mar29.jpg
 * ... the USA from New york City's viewpoint. - View of the World from 9th Avenue is a 1976 illustration by Saul Steinberg that served as the cover of the March 29, 1976, edition of The New Yorker. The work presents the view from Manhattan of the rest of the world showing Manhattan as the center of the world.


 * Page 123
 * Brillo fright wig - Brillo Pad is a trade name for a scouring pad, used for cleaning dishes, and made from steel wool impregnated with soap. A fright wig is a wig with hair that stands out from the head. Together, this implies curly hair standing out from the head.


 * Page 123
 * Dylan - Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, artist, and writer. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades.


 * Page 123
 * ... cover of the Rolling Stone - Rolling Stone is a magazine published every two weeks that focuses on politics and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California in 1967.


 * Page 124
 * Robin Trower - Robin Leonard Trower (born 9 March 1945) is an English rock guitarist and vocalist who achieved success with Procol Harum during the 1960s, and then again as the bandleader of his own power trio.


 * Page 124
 * Hendrix - James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music.


 * Page 124
 * a man's reach ... - "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, / Or what's a heaven for?" are two lines from Robert Browning's 1855 poem "Andrea del Sarto".


 * Page 125
 * Carnegie Hall - Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1891, it is one of the most prestigious venues in the world for both classical music and popular music.


 * Page 126
 * Marshall stacks - Marshall Amplification is a British company that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, speaker cabinets, brands personal headphones/earphones (made by Zound Industries), and, having acquired Natal Drums, drums and bongos.


 * Page 131
 * Popeyes Chicken & Buscuits - Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen is an American chain of fried chicken fast food restaurants founded in 1972 in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is often referred to as Popeyes and sometimes as Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits or Popeyes Chicken & Seafood.


 * Page 136
 * With all the horseshit, he was bound to find a pony - Punch line to an old joke about an optimistic child digging into a pile of manure.


 * Page 137
 * Santa Anas - The Santa Ana winds are strong, extremely dry down-slope winds that originate inland and affect coastal Southern California. The winds are known especially for the hot dry weather (often the hottest of the year) that they bring in the fall, and are infamous for fanning regional wildfires.


 * Page 138
 * Brita filter - BRITA GmbH is a German company founded in 1966 by Heinz Hankammer with headquarters in Taunusstein, Hesse, Germany, that specializes in water filtration products.


 * Page 144
 * ... the end of the world as she knew it - the REM tune ... - R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 and amicably disbanded in September 2011. "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" is a song by R.E.M. which first appeared on their 1987 album Document.


 * Page 144
 * TS Eliot - Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot (1888 – 1965) was a playwright, literary critic, and an important English-language poet of the 20th century. "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.", alluded to by Kelly Birnbaum are the last two lines in the final stanza of Eliot's The Hollow Men.


 * Page 145
 * Goes to eleven, man ... This is Spinal Tap - See reference for Page 5 above. This Is Spinal Tap is an American 1984 rock music mockumentary about the fictional British heavy metal band Spinal Tap.


 * Page 146
 * Apocalypse Now - Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film set during the Vietnam War, directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, and Robert Duvall.


 * Page 146
 * I love the smell of hydrogen sulfide in the morning. Smells like tenure. - This is a parody of a famous quote from Apocalypse Now: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning ... Smelled like victory".


 * Page 149
 * ... parody of Kipling's "If" - "If—" is a poem by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling, written in 1895 and first published in Rewards and Fairies, 1910. It is a tribute to Leander Starr Jameson, and is written in the form of paternal advice to the poet's son. As poetry, "If—" is a literary example of Victorian-era stoicism.


 * Page 151
 * ... louder than a Metallica concert. - Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. The band's fast tempos, instrumentals, and aggressive musicianship placed them as one of the founding "big four" of thrash metal.


 * Page 158
 * Energizer Bunny - The Energizer Bunny is the marketing icon and mascot of Energizer batteries in North America. It is a pink toy rabbit wearing sunglasses that beats a bass drum bearing the Energizer logo. The mascot is promoted as being able to continue operating indefinitely, or at least much longer than similar toys using rival brands' batteries. In North America the term "Energizer Bunny" has entered the vernacular as a term for anything that continues endlessly.


 * Page 179
 * Stinky Cheese Man - The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales is a postmodern children's book by Jon Scieszka. Published in 1992 by Viking, it is a collection of twisted, humorous parodies of famous children's stories and fairy tales, such as "Little Red Riding Hood", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Gingerbread Man".


 * Page 188
 * Titanic - See reference for Page 93 above.


 * Page 192
 * Hardee's ... Carl's Jr. - Hardee's Food Systems, Inc. is an American restaurant chain, which predominantly operates in the South and Midwest states. It is currently owned and operated by CKE Restaurants. Along with its sibling restaurant chain, Carl's Jr. (which predominantly operates in the Western and Southwestern states), Hardee's is the fifth largest fast-food restaurant chain in the United States.


 * Page 192
 * Best Foods mayonnaise was Hellman's back here - Hellmann's and Best Foods are brand names that are used for the same line of mayonnaise and other food products. The Hellmann's brand is sold in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and also in Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Canada. The Best Foods brand is sold in the United States west of the Rocky Mountains, and also in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.


 * Page 193
 * USA Today - USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it had previously held since 2003.


 * Page 196
 * "Why this is hell, nor am I out of it." - From Act 1, Scene 3 of Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.


 * Page 196
 * one with Nineveh and Tyre - This is a line from Rudyard Kipling's poem "Recessional" denoting the impermanence of great cities and states.


 * Page 201
 * Bactine - Bactine is an antiseptic, first-aid treatment produced by Bayer. It was first developed in 1947 and first used in 1950.


 * Page 205
 * alas poor Yorick - This begins a monologue by Prince Hamlet in Act 5, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's play Hamlet.


 * Page 212
 * Crayola - Crayola is a brand of artists' supplies manufactured by Crayola LLC (formerly Binney & Smith Company) and best known for its colored crayons.


 * Page 213
 * Eloi and Morlocks in The Time Machine - The Time Machine is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. In the story, the protagonist travels to the far future where he meets the Eloi, a society of small, elegant, childlike adults and the Morlocks, ape-like troglodytes.


 * Page 214
 * Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber - Miley Ray Cyrus (born November 23, 1992) is an American actress and singer-songwriter. In 2010, Cyrus ranked number thirteen on Forbes' Celebrity 100. Justin Drew Bieber (born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor. Bieber was named by Forbes magazine in 2012 as the third-most powerful celebrity in the world.


 * Page 216
 * the little girl with the little curl - A paraphrase of the first two lines of Henry Longfellow's poem "There Was a Little Girl".


 * Page 216
 * Denny's - Denny's is a full-service pancake house/coffee shop/fast casual family restaurant chain that is open around the clock.

Contemporary Figures and Things

 * Archie McPhee - Archie McPhee is a Seattle-based novelty dealer owned by Mark Pahlow. Begun in the 1970s in Los Angeles as the mail-order business Accoutrements, in 1983 it opened a retail outlet dubbed "Archie McPhee" after Pahlow's wife's great-uncle.


 * Bactine - Bactine is an antiseptic, first-aid treatment produced by Bayer. It was first developed in 1947 and first used in 1950.


 * Bebop Deluxe - Be-Bop Deluxe were an English progressive rock band who achieved critical acclaim and moderate commercial success during the mid to late 1970s.


 * Best Foods mayonnaise was Hellman's back here - Hellmann's and Best Foods are brand names that are used for the same line of mayonnaise and other food products. The Best Foods brand is sold in the United States west of the Rocky Mountains, and also in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.


 * Brillo fright wig - Brillo Pad is a trade name for a scouring pad, used for cleaning dishes, and made from steel wool impregnated with soap.


 * Brita filter - BRITA GmbH is a German company founded in 1966 by Heinz Hankammer with headquarters in Taunusstein, Hesse, Germany, that specializes in water filtration products.


 * Ken Burns - Kenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American director and producer of documentary films, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs.


 * Michael Jackson or Mariah Carey would have committed seppuku - Mariah Carey is an American singer, songwriter, actress, record producer, and philanthropist. In 2000 Carey signed a $100 million recording contract with Virgin Records.


 * Hardee's ... Carl's Jr. - Hardee's Food Systems, Inc. is an American restaurant chain, which predominantly operates in the South and Midwest states. It is currently owned and operated by CKE Restaurants. Along with its sibling restaurant chain, Carl's Jr. (which predominantly operates in the Western and Southwestern states), Hardee's is the fifth largest fast-food restaurant chain in the United States.


 * Carnegie Hall - Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1891, it is one of the most prestigious venues in the world for both classical music and popular music.


 * Clairol - Clairol is a personal-care-product division of Procter & Gamble begun in 1931. The company was widely recognized in its home country, the United States, for its "Miss Clairol" home hair-coloring kit introduced in 1956.


 * Crank - Crank is slang for a low purity, crystallized Methamphetamine that is administered in a powder form.


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


 * Energizer Bunny - The Energizer Bunny is the marketing icon and mascot of Energizer batteries in North America. It is a pink toy rabbit wearing sunglasses that beats a bass drum bearing the Energizer logo. The mascot is promoted as being able to continue operating indefinitely, or at least much longer than similar toys using rival brands' batteries. In North America the term "Energizer Bunny" has entered the vernacular as a term for anything that continues endlessly.


 * Brillo fright wig - A fright wig is a wig with hair that stands out from the head.


 * Guinness - Guinness is a popular Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness (1725–1803) at St. James's Gate, Dublin.


 * Hardee's ... Carl's Jr. - Hardee's Food Systems, Inc. is an American restaurant chain, which predominantly operates in the South and Midwest states. It is currently owned and operated by CKE Restaurants. Along with its sibling restaurant chain, Carl's Jr. (which predominantly operates in the Western and Southwestern states), Hardee's is the fifth largest fast-food restaurant chain in the United States.


 * Harvey Wallbanger - The Harvey Wallbanger is a mixed drink made with vodka, Galliano, and orange juice.


 * Best Foods mayonnaise was Hellman's back here - Hellmann's and Best Foods are brand names that are used for the same line of mayonnaise and other food products. The Hellmann's brand is sold in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and also in Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Canada.


 * Hendrix - James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music.


 * Michael Jackson or Mariah Carey would have committed seppuku - Michael Joseph Jackson was an American singer-songwriter, actor, musician, dancer, businessman, and philanthropist. It is estimated that Jackson earned about $750 million in his lifetime.


 * Jenny Craig frozen dinner - Jenny Craig, Inc., often known simply as Jenny Craig, is a weight loss, weight management, and nutrition company founded in 1983 by Jenny Craig and her husband, Sidney Craig.


 * ... flailing away against Randy Johnson in his prime. - Randall David "Randy" Johnson is a retired American professional baseball player. A left-handed pitcher, Johnson played in Major League Baseball for 22 seasons. Johnson is a member of the 300 win club.


 * ... if the Jolly Green Giant dropped a tray from his freezer. - The Jolly Green Giant was introduced as the mascot of the then Minnesota Valley Canning Company (Green Giant Company since 1950) in 1928.


 * Marshall stacks - Marshall Amplification is a British company that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, speaker cabinets, brands personal headphones/earphones (made by Zound Industries), and, having acquired Natal Drums, drums and bongos.


 * ... louder than a Metallica concert. - Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. The band's fast tempos, instrumentals, and aggressive musicianship placed them as one of the founding "big four" of thrash metal.


 * Motel 6 - Motel 6 is a major chain of budget motels with more than 1,000 locations in the United States and Canada.


 * Moose Drool - Moose Drool is a brown ale brewed by Big Sky Brewing Company located in Missoula, Montana.


 * National Geographic documentary. - The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, DC in the United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational institutions in the world.


 * Phi Beta Kappa - The Phi Beta Kappa Society is the oldest honor society for the liberal arts and sciences and aims to promote and advocate excellence in the field.


 * Popeyes Chicken & Buscuits - Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen is an American chain of fried chicken fast food restaurants founded in 1972 in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is often referred to as Popeyes and sometimes as Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits or Popeyes Chicken & Seafood.


 * ... the end of the world as she knew it - the REM tune ... - R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 and amicably disbanded in September 2011.


 * ... but not the Ritz-Carlton, either. - The Ritz-Carlton Hotels is a chain of luxury hotels and operates 84 luxury hotels and resorts in major cities and resorts in 26 countries worldwide.


 * ... cover of the Rolling Stone - Rolling Stone is a magazine published every two weeks that focuses on politics and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California in 1967.


 * Santa Anas - The Santa Ana winds are strong, extremely dry down-slope winds that originate inland and affect coastal Southern California. The winds are known especially for the hot dry weather (often the hottest of the year) that they bring in the fall, and are infamous for fanning regional wildfires.


 * They Might Be Giants - They Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982. The group is best known for an unconventional and experimental style of alternative music.


 * Robin Trower - Robin Leonard Trower (born 9 March 1945) is an English rock guitarist and vocalist who achieved success with Procol Harum during the 1960s, and then again as the bandleader of his own power trio.


 * USA Today - USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it had previously held since 2003.

Fictional Works

 * "Addicted to Love" - "Addicted to Love" is a song by English rock singer Robert Palmer released in 1986.


 * Apocalypse Now - Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film set during the Vietnam War, directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, and Robert Duvall.


 * The Burning Bed - The Burning Bed is the name of both a non-fiction book by Faith McNulty about battered housewife Francine Hughes, and the TV-movie adaptation starred Farrah Fawcett as Hughes.


 * ... round as Charlie Brown's head. - Charlie Brown is the protagonist of the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. As drawn, he had a round head.


 * Cowboy Bebop - Cowboy Bebop is a 1998 Japanese anime series developed by Sunrise. The twenty-six episodes ("sessions") of the series are set in the year 2071, and follow the adventures of a bounty hunter crew traveling on the Bebop (their spaceship).


 * gravedigger in Hamlet say? ... familiarity lending a quality of easiness - In Shakespeare's play Hamlet one gravedigger singing a humorous song while digging leads Horatio to explain "Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness."


 * ... parody of Kipling's "If" - "If—" is a poem by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling, written in 1895 and first published in Rewards and Fairies, 1910. It is a tribute to Leander Starr Jameson, and is written in the form of paternal advice to the poet's son. As poetry, "If—" is a literary example of Victorian-era stoicism.


 * ... the end of the world as she knew it - the REM tune ... - R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 and amicably disbanded in September 2011. "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" is a song by R.E.M. which first appeared on their 1987 album Document.


 * Keats would have got a C- in Western Civ - John Keats (1795 – 1821) was an English Romantic poet. In Keats' poem "On first looking into Chapman’s Homer" he mistakenly has Cortez spot the Pacific not Balboa.


 * Stinky Cheese Man - The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales is a postmodern children's book by Jon Scieszka. Published in 1992 by Viking, it is a collection of twisted, humorous parodies of famous children's stories and fairy tales, such as "Little Red Riding Hood", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Gingerbread Man".


 * Goes to eleven, man ... This is Spinal Tap - This Is Spinal Tap is an American 1984 rock music mockumentary about the fictional British heavy metal band Spinal Tap.


 * ... that song about tomorrow, tomorrow? - "Tomorrow" is a popular song from the musical Annie expressing the protagonists optimistic outlook.


 * ... the USA from New york City's viewpoint. - View of the World from 9th Avenue is a 1976 illustration by Saul Steinberg that served as the cover of the March 29, 1976, edition of The New Yorker. The work presents the view from Manhattan of the rest of the world showing Manhattan as the center of the world.


 * So why don't we get drunk and screw? ... country song ... - "Why Don't We Get Drunk" is a novelty song written and performed by Jimmy Buffett. It was a b-side to "The Great Filling Station Holdup", released in 1973. The first line of the chorus was: "Why don't we get drunk an' screw?"

Historical Figures and Things

 * Balboa - Vasco de Balboa was a Spanish explorer best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World.


 * Not the Black Hole of Calcutta ... - The Black Hole of Calcutta was a small dungeon in the old Fort William in Calcutta, India, where troops of the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, held British prisoners of war after the capture of the fort on 20 June 1756.


 * Cortez - Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conquistador and nobleman, best remembered as the conqueror of the Aztec Empire.


 * TS Eliot - Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot (1888 – 1965) was a playwright, literary critic, and an important English-language poet of the 20th century. "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.", alluded to by Kelly Birnbaum are the last two lines in the final stanza of Eliot's The Hollow Men.


 * the Hermitage - The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in St. Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been open to the public since 1852.


 * Keats would have got a C- in Western Civ - John Keats (1795 – 1821) was an English Romantic poet. In Keats' poem "On first looking into Chapman’s Homer" he mistakenly has Cortez spot the Pacific not Balboa.


 * ... plowed through the chow like Sherman plowing 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.


 * Theocritus - Theocritus, the creator of Ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC.


 * 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.

Quotes

 * a man's reach ... - "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, / Or what's a heaven for?" are two lines from Robert Browning's 1855 poem "Andrea del Sarto".


 * ... when the Big One'll hit. - "The Big One" is a term often used in casual conversation by residents of California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia to describe the megathrust earthquake anticipated as inevitably striking the Cascadia Subduction Zone.


 * gravedigger in Hamlet say? ... familiarity lending a quality of easiness - In Shakespeare's play Hamlet one gravedigger singing a humorous song while digging leads Horatio to explain "Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness."


 * ... employees going postal. - Going postal, in American English slang, means becoming extremely and uncontrollably angry, often to the point of violence, and usually in a workplace environment.


 * I love the smell of hydrogen sulfide in the morning. Smells like tenure. - This is a parody of a famous quote from Apocalypse Now: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning ... Smelled like victory".


 * life, the universe and everything - In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, a group of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings demand to learn the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything from the supercomputer, Deep Thought.


 * "maybe the horse will learn to sing." - Fable attributed to Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian.


 * one with Nineveh and Tyre - This is a line from Rudyard Kipling's poem "Recessional" denoting the impermanence of great cities and states.


 * TS Eliot - "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.", alluded to by Kelly Birnbaum, are the last two lines in the final stanza of Eliot's The Hollow Men.


 * ... liked turning it up to eleven. - "Up to eleven" or "these go to eleven" is an idiom from popular culture, coined in the movie This Is Spinal Tap, which has come to refer to anything being exploited to its utmost abilities, or apparently exceeding them, such as a sound volume control.


 * When it was railroad time, it was railroad time ... - “When railroading time comes you can railroad—but not before.” from Robert A. Heinlein's The Door Into Summer. It is an observation that technological breakthroughs can't occur until the state of the art reaches a critical level. Once it does, there can be multiple inventors of a similar technology.


 * With all the horseshit, he was bound to find a pony - Punch line to an old joke about an optimistic child digging into a pile of manure.


 * So why don't we get drunk and screw? ... country song ... - "Why Don't We Get Drunk" is a novelty song written and performed by Jimmy Buffett. It was a b-side to "The Great Filling Station Holdup", released in 1973. The first line of the chorus was: "Why don't we get drunk an' screw?"


 * "Why this is hell, nor am I out of it." - From Act 1, Scene 3 of Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.