Turtledove
in: Three Miles Down, Trivia

Three Miles Down: Annotated

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The following references to cultural and/or historical events or people in Three Miles Down occur during the novel.

Story Order[]

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
    • Roger Payne ... Songs of the Humpback Whale - Songs of the Humpback Whale is a 1970 album produced by bio-acoustician Roger Payne. It publicly demonstrated for the first time the elaborate whale vocalizations of humpback whales.
  • Page 3
    • RAND Corporation - The RAND Corporation ("research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces.
  • Page 4
    • Swahili - Swahili, also known by its native name Kiswahili, is the native language of the Waswahili who are found along the East African coast and litoral islands (primarily, modern coastal Tanzania/Kenya, Zanzibar/Pemba/Comoros Islands).
  • Page 4
    • The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction - The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949.
  • Page 5
    • They'd know when he was sleeping. ... awake. - These are lyrics from the Christmas carol "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" (1934).
  • Page 6
    • Hughes Glomar Explorer - GSF Explorer, formerly USNS Hughes Glomar Explorer (T-AG-193), was a deep-sea drillship platform built for Project Azorian, the secret 1974 effort by the United States Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division to recover the Soviet submarine K-129.
  • Page 6
    • K-129 - The K-129 was a Golf II–class diesel-electric-powered ballistic-missile submarine that served in the Pacific Fleet of the Soviet Navy. She sank while on deployment on 8 March 1968.
  • Page 6
    • SOSUS - The Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) was a passive sonar system developed by the United States Navy to track Soviet submarines.
  • Page 7
    • manganese nodule - Polymetallic nodules, also called manganese nodules, are mineral concretions on the sea bottom formed of concentric layers of iron and manganese hydroxides around a core.
  • Page 7
    • Beagle - HMS Beagle was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. Its second survey expedition is notable for carrying Charles Darwin around the world.
  • Page 7
    • Darwin - Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) was an English naturalist who proposed and provided scientific evidence to show that all species of life have evolved over time from one or a few common ancestors.
  • Page 8
    • Bugs Bunny cartoon - Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s. He is an anthropomorphic gray and white rabbit who is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality.
  • Page 2
    • Rambler - The Rambler American is a compact car that was manufactured by the American Motors Corporation (AMC) between 1958 and 1969.
  • Page 11
    • Cal State L.A. - California State University, Los Angeles is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the 23-campus California State University system.
  • Page 12
    • malacologist - Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca, the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species.
  • Page 14
    • Perry Mason - Perry Mason is a fictional American criminal defense lawyer in a series of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner.
  • Page 14
    • Howard Hughes - Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (1905–1976) was an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, film director, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and financially successful individuals in the world.
  • Page 14
    • ... the way Carter has Little Liver Pills - Carter's Little Liver Pills were formulated as a patent medicine by Samuel J. Carter, in 1868. Heavy advertising spawned a common saying: "He/She has more ______ than Carter has Little Liver Pills".
  • Page 15
    • The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction - See page 4 above.
  • Page 15
    • Big Brother really was watching him. - Big Brother is a fictional character and symbol in George Orwell's dystopian 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the novel, every citizen is under constant surveillance, mainly by telescreens. The people are constantly reminded of this by the slogan "Big Brother is watching you".
  • Page 16
    • Thomas Brothers - Thomas Guide, alternately published as Thomas Brothers Maps, is the title of a series of paperback, spiral-bound atlases featuring detailed street maps of various large metropolitan areas in the United States.
  • Page 17
    • Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter - The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a work of historical fiction by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. Set in the Puritan-dominated Massachusetts Bay Colony, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter with a man to whom she is not married. Her sentence requires her to stand on the scaffold for three hours, exposed to public humiliation, and to wear a scarlet "A" for the rest of her life.
  • Page 18
    • KGB agents - The KGB is the Russian abbreviation for Committee for State Security, which was the official name the umbrella organization serving as the Soviet Union's premier security agency, secret police, and intelligence agency, from 1954 to 1991.
  • Page 21
    • Habitable Planets For Man - Habitable Planets For Man is a work by Stephen Dole, copyright 1964 by The RAND Corporation. Originally 158 pages, it was republished in a posthumous second edition in 2007, as Planets for Man. The work contains a detailed scientific study on the nature of worlds that may support life in the universe, the probability of their existence, and ways of finding them.
  • Page 22
    • Becker and Fagen ... Steely Dan - See page 1 above.
  • Page 23
    • The Queen of Air and Darkness - The Queen of Air and Darkness (1973) is a story collection by Poul Anderson which includes the eponymous novella.
  • Pages 23-24
    • Goldilocks ... just right. - "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is a 19th-century English fairy tale. Goldilocks enters the Bears' cottage and uses various things in groups of three with two being to much or little but the third just right.
  • Page 25
    • Global Marine - Global Marine Inc. was founded in 1953 as an offshore drilling venture formed by four small oil companies.
  • Page 25
    • Summa Corporation - Summa Corporation was a holding company for the business interests of Howard Hughes after he sold the tool division of Hughes Tool Company in 1972.
  • Page 25
    • Philip Watson - Philip E. Watson was Los Angeles County's tax assessor for 15 turbulent years until he retired in 1977.
  • Page 26
    • Silly Putty - Silly Putty is a toy based on silicone polymers that have unusual physical properties. It bounces, but it breaks when given a sharp blow, and it can also flow like a liquid.
  • Page 27
    • Leavenworth - The United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB) colloquially known as Leavenworth, is a military correctional facility located on Fort Leavenworth, a United States Army post in Kansas. It is the U.S. military's only maximum-security facility.
  • Page 27
    • ... termination with extreme prejudice. - Euphemism meaning to murder; to assassinate. Play on the term “terminate with prejudice” when an employee’s employment is terminated with no intention to rehire.
  • Page 28
    • Midlothian Pipe Band - Midlothian Scottish Pipe Band is a competitive bagpipe and drum band located in the Chicago area.
  • Page 33
    • If that Snark was a Boojum ... - From the poem The Hunting of the Snark, by the English writer Lewis Carroll.
  • Page 33
    • Selectric - The IBM Selectric typewriter was a highly successful line of electric typewriters introduced by IBM on 31 July 1961.
  • Page 35
    • ... more things in the heavens and earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy. - Paraphrase from Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5.
  • Page 36
    • Sleeping Beauty problem - "Sleeping Beauty" is a classic Central European fairy tale about a princess who is cursed to sleep for a hundred years by an evil fairy, to be awakened by a handsome prince at the end of them.
  • Page 37
    • Montresor ... "Yes, for the love of God!" - From "The Cask of Amontillado" by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. As Montresor finishes the topmost row of stones, Fortunato wails, "For the love of God, Montresor!" to which Montresor replies, "Yes, for the love of God!"
  • Page 37
    • Deep Throat - Deep Throat is a 1972 American pornographic film that was at the forefront of the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984).
  • Page 38
    • Linda Lovelace - Linda Lovelace was the pseudonym given to Linda Susan Boreman, the star of the film Deep Throat.
  • Page 38
    • SEALs - The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command.
  • Page 39
    • Pickwick's - Pickwick opened on Hollywood Blvd. in 1938. Owned by Louis Epstein, the store was named after Charles Dickens’ classic The Pickwick Papers.
  • Page 42
    • Scrabble - Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left to right in rows or downward in columns and are included in a standard dictionary.
  • Page 43
    • Blue Tips - Jack Purcell designed a low, bleached-white canvas-and-rubber badminton sneaker for the B.F. Goodrich Company, known as PF Flyers in 1935. They have the trademark blue "toe smile" in front which led to the nickname "Blue Tips" and "Smilies".
  • Page 44
    • AK-47s - The AK-47 (Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947) is a gas-operated assault rifle designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov, and produced by Russian manufacturer Izhevsk Mechanical Works and used in the Soviet Union and many other Eastern bloc nations during the Cold War.
  • Page 44
    • John Birch Society - The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American right-wing political advocacy group. Founded in 1958, it is anti-communist, supports social conservatism, and is associated with ultraconservative, radical right, or far-right politics.
  • Page 44
    • Glomar II- The Glomar II was a Transocean Ltd. drillship launched in 1962.
  • Page 45
    • manganese nodule - See page 7 above.
  • Page 47
    • Times Square - Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
  • Page 48
    • Everly Brothers - The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. The duo combined elements of rock and roll, country, and pop, becoming pioneers of country rock.
  • Page 48
    • ... oh my darling - "Oh My Darling, Clementine" is an American western folk ballad in trochaic meter usually credited to Percy Montross (or Montrose) (1884).
  • Page 49
    • slide rule - The slide rule, also known colloquially in the United States as a slipstick, is a mechanical analog computer.
  • Pages 49-50
    • Jerome Waldie - Jerome Russell Waldie (1925 – 2009) was an American politician, he served five terms in the United States House of Representatives from California from 1966 to 1975.
  • Page 50
    • The fog came in, and not on little cat feet, either. - "Fog" is an English haiku poem by Carl Sandburg. It starts with "The fog comes on little cat feet."
  • Page 50
    • Titanic - RMS Titanic was a British Olympic class passenger liner that collided with an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland on the night of 14-15 April 1912, resulting in more than 1500 deaths.
  • Page 50
    • ... Alfred E. Neuman. What, me worry? - Alfred E. Neuman is the fictitious mascot and cover boy of the American humor magazine Mad. His motto was "What, me worry?"
  • Page 53
    • tempest in a teapot - Tempest in a teapot is an idiom meaning a small event that has been exaggerated out of proportion.
  • Page 53
    • plate tectonics - Plate tectonics is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large tectonic plates or crustal segments which have been slowly moving since about 3.4 billion years ago
  • Page 54
    • ... tropical storm Gilda - Typhoon Gilda was a destructive, deadly, costly and long-lived tropical cyclone that left over 145 confirmed deaths over Japan and South Korea. It was named Gilda on June 30, 1974 as it strengthened to a tropical storm and became a typhoon two days later.
  • Page 54
    • Bel Hudson - The Bel Hudson was a grain bulk carrier launched at Tonsberg in 1968.
  • Page 55
    • Philistine! - Philistine is a derogatory term that describes a person who is narrow-minded and hostile to the life of the mind, whose materialistic worldview and tastes indicate an indifference to cultural and aesthetic values. Taken from the Book of Judges, Chapter 16.
  • Page 56
    • Fear and Midlothian on the campaign trail - Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson is a 1973 book that recounts and analyzes the 1972 presidential campaign in which Richard Nixon was re-elected President of the United States.
  • Page 56
    • Hunter Thompson - Hunter Stockton Thompson (1937 – 2005) was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement.
  • Page 57
  • Page 59
    • SB-10 - The SB-10 was a seagoing Soviet tugboat.
  • Page 60
    • Alpha Beta - Alpha Beta was a chain of supermarkets in the Southwestern United States between 1917 and 1995.
  • Page 63
    • Portuguese men o' war - The Portuguese man o' war (Physalia physalis) is a marine hydrozoan surface dweller. It has numerous venomous microscopic nematocysts which deliver a painful sting powerful enough to kill fish.
  • Page 63
    • Aqua Lube - Aqua Lube is a water resistant grease used in marine or winter environments.
  • Page 63
    • Aqua Lube, my friend! - This is a riff on the line "Aqualung, my friend" from the song "Aqualung" by the British progressive rock band Jethro Tull.
  • Page 64
    • Jethro Tull - Jethro Tull are a British rock band formed in Blackpool, England, in 1967. Initially playing blues rock and jazz fusion, the band soon incorporated elements of English folk, hard rock, and classical music, forging a signature progressive rock sound.
  • Page 64
    • H. R. Haldeman - Harry Robbins "Bob" Haldeman (1926 – 1993) was an American political aide and businessman, best known for his service as White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon and his consequent involvement in the Watergate scandal.
  • Page 65
  • Page 65
    • "To Serve Man" - "To Serve Man" is a science fiction short story by American writer Damon Knight. Three emissaries from the planet Kanamit have arrived at the United Nations and declared their mission to bring "the peace and plenty which we ourselves enjoy".
  • Page 65
    • Twilight Zone - The Twilight Zone is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, supernatural drama, black comedy, and psychological thriller, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist.
  • Page 66
    • Atlas of the CIA ... - In Greek mythology, Atlas is a Titan condemned to hold up the heavens or sky for eternity after the Titanomachy.
  • Page 67
    • playing chicken - The game "chicken" has its origins in a game in which two drivers drive toward each other on a collision course: one must swerve, or both may die in the crash, but if one driver swerves and the other does not, the one who swerved will be called a "chicken", meaning a coward.
  • Page 67
    • "John Campbell - style aliens - John W. Campbell was the long time editor of Astounding (later Analog) science fiction magazine.
  • Page 68
    • Risk - Risk is a strategy board game of diplomacy, conflict and conquest for two to six players. The standard version is played on a board depicting a political map of the world, divided into forty-two territories, which are grouped into six continents.
  • Page 68
    • Get Smart - Get Smart is an American comedy television series, parodying the secret agent genre that had become widely popular in the first half of the 1960s with the release of James Bond films.
  • Page 69
    • Barbara Feldon - Barbara Feldon (born Barbara Anne Hall; March 12, 1933) is an American actress primarily known for her roles on television. Her most prominent role was that of Agent 99 on the 1965–1970 sitcom Get Smart.
  • Page 69
    • Pong - Pong is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released in 1972.
  • Page 70
    • NSA - The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for foreign and domestic intelligence and counterintelligence purposes, specializing in a discipline known as signals intelligence (SIGINT).
  • Page 70
    • Honeywell 316s - The Honeywell 316 was a popular 16-bit minicomputer built by Honeywell starting in 1969. They were commonly used for data acquisition and control, remote message concentration, clinical laboratory systems, Remote Job Entry and time-sharing.
  • Page 71
    • "Never trust anybody over thirty?" - Jack Weinberg is credited with the phrase, "Don't trust anyone over 30". The saying exists in several variants, such as "Never trust anybody over 30". It has been wrongly attributed to Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, the Beatles, and others.
  • Page 72
    • Super Chicken - Super Chicken is a segment that ran on the animated television series George of the Jungle. One catchphrase of Super Chicken was to his sidekick after the latter suffered an injury was "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred!"
  • Page 73
    • Miss Pickerell stories - Miss Pickerell stories were a science fiction series for children created by Ellen MacGregor. Miss Lavinia Pickerell is an unlikely heroine: prim, spinsterly, angular and stiff, wearing old‑fashioned clothes and an outlandish hat, and devoted to her pet cow, she nevertheless manages to inadvertently stowaway on a rocket to Mars in her first adventure.
  • Page 73
    • Mushroom Planet books - The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet is a children's science fiction novel written by Eleanor Cameron, illustrated by Robert Henneberger, and published in 1954. It is set in Pacific Grove, California, and on Basidium, a tiny habitable moon of Earth, invisible from the planet in its orbit 50,000 miles away.
  • Page 74
    • Tom Lehrer - Thomas Andrew Lehrer (1928 - 2025) was an American musician and mathematician, best known for the pithy, humorous songs he recorded in the 1950s and 1960s.
  • Page 76
    • Hush Puppies - Hush Puppies is an American brand of casual footwear made with tanned pigskin.
  • Page 80
    • Bondord - Bondo is a polyester putty product originally marketed as an automotive body filler. Nowadays the brand name is used by 3M for a line of American-made products for automotive, marine and household repairs
  • Page 80
    • Rosemary's Baby - Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American psychological horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski. The film follows a young, pregnant wife in Manhattan who comes to suspect that her elderly neighbors are members of a Satanic cult, and are grooming her in order to use her baby for their rituals. It is based on the 1967 novel of the same name.
  • Page 83
    • peace symbol V - The V sign is a hand gesture in which the index and middle fingers are raised and parted to make a V shape while the other fingers are clenched. It has various meanings, with the counterculture movement adopting it as a symbol of peace in the 1960s.
  • Page 83
    • Murphy's Law - Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."
  • Page 84
    • John Dean - John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is an American attorney who served as White House Counsel for United States President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal and his subsequent testimony to Congress as a witness.
  • Page 84
    • John Ehrlichman - John Daniel Ehrlichman (1925 – 1999) was Counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon. He was a key figure in events leading to the Watergate break-in and the ensuing Watergate scandal, for which he was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury and served a year and a half in prison.
  • Page 85
    • Doonesbury - Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college student to a youthful senior citizen over the decades.
  • Page 85
    • H. R. Haldeman - See page 64 above.
  • Page 85
    • "Smoking Howitzer!" - The White House released House subpoenaed tapes on August 5, 1974. One tape, later known as the "Smoking Gun" tape, documented the initial stages of the Watergate coverup. On it, Nixon and H. R. Haldeman are heard formulating a plan to block investigations by having the Central Intelligence Agency falsely claim to the FBI that national security was involved.
  • Page 85
    • Charles Wiggins - Charles Edward Wiggins (1927 – 2000) was a United States representative from California. Wiggins fiercely defended Richard Nixon during debate on the House Judiciary Committee over Nixon's impeachment. However, Wiggins dropped his support after the revelation of the so-called "Smoking Gun" tape.
  • Page 86
    Doonesbury - Guilty, Guilty, Guilty
    • Doonesbury where Mark chortled "Guilty!" - Mark Sheldon Slackmeyer is a character in the comic strip Doonesbury. He starts out as a radical at Walden College, and leads several peace rallies. He gives up his radical ideas and becomes the college radio personality at Walden. After graduating, Mark goes to work for NPR, where he still works today.
  • Page 87
    • H.L. Mencken - Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken (1880 – 1956) was a journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, and acerbic critic of American life and culture. He is well known for the quote "No one in the world, so far as I know, has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people."
  • Page 89
    • Humpty Dumpty - Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle, and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. He is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such.
  • Page 89
    • All the president's men ... Woodward and Bernstein - All the President's Men is a 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two of the journalists who investigated the June 1972 break-in at the Watergate Office Building and the resultant political scandal. The book chronicles the investigative reporting of Woodward and Bernstein from Woodward's initial report on the Watergate break-in through the resignations of Nixon Administration officials H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman in April 1973, and the revelation of the Oval Office Watergate tapes by Alexander Butterfield three months later.
  • Page 89
    • All the president's men ... Woodward and Bernstein - Robert Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an American investigative journalist. He started working for The Washington Post as a reporter in 1971 and now holds the title of associate editor.
  • Page 89
    • All the president's men ... Woodward and Bernstein - Carl Milton Bernstein (born February 14, 1944) is an American investigative journalist and author. While a young reporter for The Washington Post in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward, and the two did much of the original news reporting on the Watergate scandal.
  • Page 90
    • Harry Harrison's Plague from Space - Harry Max Harrison (1925 – 2012) was an American science fiction author, known mostly for his character The Stainless Steel Rat and for his novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966). The latter was the rough basis for the motion picture Soylent Green (1973).
  • Page 90
    • Harry Harrison's Plague from Space - Plague from Space is a science fiction novel by Harry Harrison, first published in 1965. The first manned expedition to Jupiter returns and causes an epidemic that threatened to extinguish life on Earth.
  • Page 90
    • Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain - John Michael Crichton (1942 – 2008) was an American author and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films.
  • Page 90
    • Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain - The Andromeda Strain is a 1969 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton. It is written as a report documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating the outbreak of a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism in New Mexico.
  • Page 91
    • credibility gap - Credibility gap is a term that came into wide use with journalism, political and public discourse in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. At the time, it was most frequently used to describe public skepticism about the Lyndon Johnson administration's statements and policies on the Vietnam War. It was used in journalism as a euphemism for recognized lies told to the public by politicians.
  • Page 91
    • Credibility Gap - The Credibility Gap was an American satirical comedy team active from 1968 through 1979. They emerged in the late 1960s delivering comedic commentary on the news for the Los Angeles AM rock radio station KRLA 1110, and proceeded to develop more elaborate and ambitious satirical routines on the "underground" station KPPC-FM in Pasadena, California.
  • Page 91
    • Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" - Eric Arthur Blair (1903 - 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. Noted as a novelist and critic as well as a political and cultural commentator, Orwell is among the most widely admired English language essayists of the 20th century.
  • Page 91
    • Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" - "Politics and the English Language" (1946) is an essay by George Orwell that criticized the "ugly and inaccurate" written English of his time and examines the connection between political orthodoxies and the debasement of language.
  • Page 91
    • Petition the Lord with prayer? ... the Doors ... - "Seminary School (a.k.a. Petition the Lord With Prayer)" was a track on The Doors' fourth studio album, The Soft Parade.
  • Page 91
    • Petition the Lord with prayer? ... the Doors ... - The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles. They were one of the most controversial bands of their time, due mostly to vocalist Jim Morrison's cryptic lyrics and unpredictable stage persona.
  • Page 92
    • "Running away with me," ... the Temptations - "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" is a song by American soul group The Temptations. Its featured on the group's 1971 album, Sky's the Limit.
  • Page 92
    • "Running away with me," ... the Temptations - The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s.
  • Page 92
    • mother-of-pearl - Nacre, also known as mother of pearl, is an organic–inorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent.
  • Page 93
    • A.1. Sauce - A.1. Sauce is a brand of brown sauce produced by Brand & co, a subsidiary of Premier Foods in the United Kingdom (as "Brand's A.1. Sauce") and in North America by Kraft Heinz. Sold from 1861 as a condiment for meat or game dishes in the United Kingdom, the makers introduced the product to Canada, and later to the U.S. where it was marketed as a steak sauce.
  • Page 94
    • ... Dick Nixon to kick around anymore. - The so-called "last press conference" of Richard Nixon took place on November 7, 1962, following his loss to Democratic incumbent Pat Brown in the 1962 California gubernatorial election. Nixon's closing remarks were "But as I leave you, I want you to know: just think how much you're going to be missing. You don't have Nixon to kick around anymore. Because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference."
  • Page 94
    • Playboy - See page 63 above.
  • Page 96
    • Midway - Midway Atoll is a 2.4-square-mile (6.2 km2) atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. From 1941 until 1993, the atoll was the home of Naval Air Facility Midway Island, which played a crucial role in the Battle of Midway. The Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, encompassing 590,991.50 acres (239,165.77 ha) of land and water in the surrounding area, is administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service
  • Page 96
    • albatross - Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds allied to the procellariids, storm-petrels and diving-petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses).
  • Page 96
    • Lahaina - Lahaina is the largest town and census-designated place (CDP) in West Maui, Maui County, Hawaii.
  • Page 97
    • Vatican II - The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as Vatican II, was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four sessions from 1962 to 1965. Among other decisions, Vatican II relaxed the requirement to abstain from eating meat on Fridays.
  • Page 97
    • Andre Norton's The Time Traders - Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, 1912 – 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction.
  • Page 97
    • Andre Norton's The Time Traders - The Time Traders is a science fiction novel by Andre Norton, the first in a series, published in 1958. The novel introduces the premise: a confrontation between Western heroes and the Soviets, plus the "Baldies", a mysterious alien race that has used time travel to alter Earth.
  • Page 98
    • Catalina Island - Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The island is located about 22 miles (35 km) south-southwest of Los Angeles.
  • Page 99
    • Star Trek extra in a red shirt - A "redshirt" is a stock character in fiction who dies soon after being introduced. The term originates from the original Star Trek television series in which the red-shirted security personnel frequently die during episodes.
  • Page 101
    • Fort Bragg - Fort Bragg, officially the City of Fort Bragg, is a city along the Pacific Coast of California in Mendocino County. It is at 39° 26′ N latitude.
  • Page 101
    • Eureka - Eureka is the principal city and county seat of Humboldt County in the Redwood Empire region of California. It is at 40° 48′ N latitude.
  • Page 101
    • Hermosa Beach - Hermosa Beach is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California.
  • Page 101-102
    • Able to leap tall mountains of data at a single bound - The comic book character Superman is described as being "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!"
  • Page 104
    • Waddaya mean, we, Kemosabe? - The punchline to a joke where the Lone Ranger and Tonto are surrounded by hostile Indians. The lone Ranger say that it looks like we are doomed. Tonto replies "Who do you mean we, Kemosabe."
  • Page 105
    • the enormous egg - The Enormous Egg is the fanciful story of farmboy Nate Twitchell who raises a Triceratops that hatches from a hen's egg in 1950s New England. It is by Oliver Butterworth (1915 – 1990) an American author of children's books and an educator.
  • Page 107
    • Frodo - See page 44 above.
  • Page 107
    • the Nine Walkers - In The Lord of the Rings, the Nine Walkers or the Fellowship of the Ring was formed as a brotherhood among members of the various Free Peoples of Middle-earth. Its purpose was to take the One Ring to Mordor so that it might be cast into the fires of Mount Doom so that it would be destroyed.
  • Page 107
    • Doors of Durin - In The Lord of the Rings, the Doors of Durin or West-gate were built in the dark cliffs of the Silvertine mountain and protected the entrance to what became the goblin-realm of Moria, once the Dwarf kingdom of Khazad-dûm.
  • Page 108
    • Lipton's - Lipton is a British brand of tea, owned by Ekaterra. The company is named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton who opened a tea shop in 1871.
  • Page 109
    • "Hansel and Gretel" - "Hansel and Gretel" is a German fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimm's Fairy Tales. The siblings are taken into the woods and abandoned but leave a trail of breadcrumbs to led them out. Unfortunately the wildlife eats the crumbs before they are out of the woods.
  • Page 110
    • Minotaur's Labyrinth - In Greek mythology, the Minotaur is a mythical creature portrayed with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man. He dwelt at the center of the Labyrinth, which was an elaborate maze-like construction. The Minotaur was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus.
  • Page 111
    • Mellon! - In The Lord of the Rings, the Doors of Durin or West-gate protected an entrance to the Dwarf kingdom of Khazad-dûm. Inscribed over the doors was a riddle: "speak friend and enter." The answer was a password in an Elvish language that would cause the Doors to swing open. The answer was the Elvish word for friend, mellon.
  • Page 111
    • Elvish - The philologist and high fantasy author JRR Tolkien created many languages for his Elves, leading him to create the mythology of his Middle-earth books, complete with multiple divisions of the Elves, to speak the languages he had constructed.
  • Page 113
    • ... follow the yellow brick line? - The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 musical fantasy film, telling the story of how a Kansas farm girl and her small dog must find their way home from a childishly surreal fairy kingdom, while helping other characters fulfill their lives' purposes. Dorothy is directed to follow a yellow brick road that goes to the Emerald City, the Wizard of Oz's home, who might know how Dorothy can return home.
  • Page 113
    • walkie-talkies - A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver, is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver.
  • Page 114
    • Kamov Ka-25 - The Kamov Ka-25 (NATO reporting name "Hormone") is a naval helicopter, developed for the Soviet Navy from 1958.
  • Page 114
    • Asimov - Isaac Asimov (1919 or 1920 - 1992) was a Soviet-born American author and professor of biochemistry, a highly successful writer, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books.
  • Page 114
    • Niven - Laurence van Cott "Larry" Niven (born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction author, writing primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics, but also often including elements of detective fiction and adventure stories.
  • Page 114
    • Carl Sagan - Carl Edward Sagan (1934 – 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life.
  • Page 115
    • ... Fermi had got a chain reaction ... - Enrico Fermi (1901 - 1954) was an Italian physicist most noted for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, particle physics and statistical mechanics.
  • Page 115
    • ... Fermi had got a chain reaction ... - On December 2, 1942, the world's first self-sustaining, controlled nuclear chain reaction took place paving the way for a variety of advancements in nuclear science. The experiment took place at the University of Chicago's football stadium under the direction of Enrico Fermi—a Nobel Prize-winning scientist.
  • Page 117
    • ... two Viking probes to Mars ... - NASA's Viking program consisted of a pair of space probes launched to Mars in 1975, Viking 1 and Viking 2. Each vehicle was composed of two main parts, an orbiter designed to photograph the surface of Mars from orbit, and a lander designed to study the planet from the surface.
  • Page 118
    • Jack Anderson - Jack Northman Anderson (1922 – 2005) was an American newspaper columnist, syndicated by United Features Syndicate, considered one of the fathers of modern investigative journalism.
  • Page 118
    • Instamatic - The Instamatic is a series of inexpensive, easy-to-load cameras made by Kodak beginning in 1963. The easy-load film cartridge made the cameras very inexpensive to produce and use.
  • Page 119
    • Have Space Suit - See Have Space Suit - Will Travel on page 38 above.
  • Page 120
    • ... boldly going where no man had gone before. - In the science fiction television series Star Trek, the title sequence has a voice-over by Captain Kirk ending with "To boldly go where no man has gone before!"
  • Page 120
    • ... rabbits in Australia ... - European rabbits were first introduced to Australia in the late 18th century, and later became widespread. Such wild rabbit populations are a serious mammalian pest and invasive species in Australia, causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage to crops.
  • Page 122
    • snerps - Smeerp: (n.) a word invented by a science fiction or fantasy writer merely to give their writing a false sense of other worldliness. Turtledove may be using a variation.
  • Page 122
    • centaurs - Centaurs are a mythological creature from Greek mythology. A centaur consists of a human head, arms and torso upon a horse's body. Centaurs are sentient and can speak and write human languages.
  • Page 124
    • Wonderful things - When Howard Carter first peered through a hole into King Tutankhamun's tomb, a colleague asked, "Can you see anything?" Carter replied: "Yes, wonderful things!"
  • Page 124
    • Howard Carter - Howard Carter (1874 – 1939) was an English archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922.
  • Page 124
    • King Tut's tomb - 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 126
    • Fotomat kiosk - Fotomat was an American retail chain of photo development drive-through kiosks located primarily in shopping center parking lots.
  • Page 128
    • papal bull - A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by a pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden seal (bulla) that was traditionally appended to the end in order to authenticate it.
  • Page 129
    • Lieutenant Calley - William Laws Calley Jr. (1943 - 2024) was a former American army officer and war criminal convicted by court-martial for the premeditated killings of 200 to 400 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the Mỹ Lai massacre on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War. Calley served three years of house arrest for the murders.
  • Page 129
  • Page 129
    • Captain Medina - Ernest Lou Medina (1936 – 2018) was a captain of infantry in the United States Army and served during the Vietnam War. He was the commanding officer of Company C, the unit responsible for the My Lai Massacre of 16 March 1968. He was court martialed in 1971 for his role in that war crime, but acquitted the same year.
  • Page 129
    • Eldritch horror - Eldritch is an English language word used to describe something otherworldly, weird, ghostly, or uncanny. In contemporary culture, the term is closely associated with Lovecraftian horror.
  • Page 129
    • Eldridge Cleaver - Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (1935 – 1998) was an American writer and political activist who became an early leader of the Black Panther Party.
  • Page 129
    • Soul on Ice - Soul on Ice is a memoir and collection of essays by Eldridge Cleaver. Originally written in Folsom State Prison in 1965, and published three years later in 1968, it is Cleaver's best known writing and remains a seminal work in African-American literature.
  • Page 130
    • You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think - Attributed to Dorothy Parker after she was challenged to use the word "horticulture" in a sentence.
  • Page 130
  • Page 130
    • Oscar Levant - Oscar Levant (1906 – 1972) was an American concert pianist, composer, music conductor, author, radio game show panelist, television talk show host, comedian and actor.
  • Page 130
    • The Merv Griffin Show - The Merv Griffin Show is an American television talk show starring Merv Griffin which ran from 1962 to 1986 on various networks.
  • Page 131
    • The Graduate - The Graduate is a 1967 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Webb. The film tells the story of 21-year-old Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate with no well-defined aim in life, who is seduced by an older married woman, Mrs. Robinson, but then falls for her daughter Elaine.
  • Page 132
    • John Birchers - See John Birch Society on page 44 above.
  • Page 132
    • Stolichnaya - Stolichnaya (Russian: Столичная) is a vodka made of wheat and rye grain. It is a well-known Soviet brand.
  • Page 133
    • Mormon - Mormon is a term used to describe the adherents, practitioners, followers or constituents of Mormonism. The term most often refers to a member of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is commonly called the Mormon Church.
  • Page 133
  • Page 135
    • Pandora's box - Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology connected with the myth of Pandora. Hesiod reported that curiosity led her to open a container left in the care of her husband Epimetheus, thus releasing sickness, death and many other unspecified evils upon mankind leaving behind only hope.
  • Page 136
    • 1971 Sylmar quake - The 1971 San Fernando earthquake (also known as the 1971 Sylmar earthquake) occurred in the early morning of February 9 in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in southern California. The unanticipated thrust earthquake had a magnitude of 6.5 on the Ms scale and 6.6 on the Mw scale, and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme).
  • Page 136
    • snips and snails and puppy dogs' tails - Lines from the popular early 19th century nursery rhyme "What Are Little Boys Made Of?".
  • Page 138
    • Bugs Bunny - See page 8 above.
  • Page 138
    • Mel Blanc - Melvin Jerome Blanc (1908 – 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. He became known worldwide for his work in American animation as the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and numerous other characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons.
  • Page 140
    • No harm, no foul. ... Chick Hearn ... - Francis Dayle "Chick" Hearn (1916 – 2002) was an American sportscaster who was the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association for 41 years. Hearn is remembered for his rapid fire, staccato broadcasting style, associated with colorful phrases such as slam dunk, air ball, and no harm, no foul.
  • Page 141
    • Schenectady - Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat.
  • Page 141
    • "never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." ... Donne - John Donne (1572-1631) was an English cleric and poet. The quote is from his Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624).
  • Page 143
    • Jethro Tull - See page 64 above.
  • Page 143
    • Quonset huts - A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel having a semi cylindrical cross-section.
  • Page 143
    • Hornblower books - Horatio Hornblower is a fictional officer in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. He is the protagonist of a series of novels and stories by CS Forester.
  • Page 145
    • April 15 - In the United States, Tax Day is the day on which individual income tax returns are due to be submitted to the federal government. Since 1955, Tax Day has typically fallen on or just after April 15.
  • Page 147
    • Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star - The Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star was an American airborne early warning and control radar surveillance aircraft operated by both the United States Navy and United States Air Force. It was introduced in 1954 and phased out in 1978.
  • Page 147
    • Have Space Suit - Will Travel - See page 38 above.
  • Page 148
    • mai tai - The Mai Tai is a cocktail made of rum, Curaçao liqueur, orgeat syrup, and lime juice. It is one of the characteristic cocktails in tiki culture.
  • Page 150
    • kickball - Kickball is a sport and league game, similar to baseball. As in baseball, one team tries to score by having its players return a ball from home base to the field and then circle the bases, while the other team tries to stop them by tagging them "out" with the ball before they can return to the home base. Instead of hitting a small, hard ball with a bat, players kick an inflated rubber ball.
  • Page 150
    • sockball - Sockball is played with a tattered, misshapen ball made of recycled material like socks, t-shirts and plastic bags, tied together with string.
  • Page 153
    • Folger's instant - Folgers Coffee is a brand of ground, instant, and single-use pod coffee produced and sold in the United States.
  • Page 153
    • Cremora - Cremora was a non-dairy creamer launched by Borden in 1963.
  • Page 153
    • Analog - See page 4 above.
  • Page 153
    • Ben Bova - Benjamin William Bova (1932 – 2020) was an American writer and editor. During a writing career of 60 years, he was the author of more than 120 works of science fact and fiction, six-time winner of the Hugo Award, an editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact (1972 - 1978) and an editorial director of Omni.
  • Page 156
    • Nolan Ryan - Lynn Nolan Ryan Jr. (born January 31, 1947), is an American former professional baseball pitcher and sports executive. Over a record 27-year playing career in Major League Baseball spanning four decades, Ryan pitched for the New York Mets, California Angels, Houston Astros, and Texas Rangers.
  • Page 157
    • Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John stories - Manly Wade Wellman (1903 – 1986) was an American writer. While his science fiction and fantasy stories appeared in various pulp magazines, Wellman is best remembered as one of the most popular contributors to Weird Tales, and for his fantasy and horror stories set in the Appalachian Mountains, which draw on the native folklore of that region.
  • Page 157
    • Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John stories - Silver John is a fictional character from a series of fantasy stories (1963–84) by American author Manly Wade Wellman. He is an example of the loner hero. The stories are set in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina.
  • Page 158
    • avgolemono sauce - Avgolemono is a family of sauces and soups made with egg yolk and lemon juice mixed with broth, heated until they thicken.
  • Page 158
    • keftedakia plate - Keftedakia are meatballs (usually beef, chicken, pork, lamb or mutton), either fried or oven-baked, seasoned with salt and spices, typically oregano and mint. Some people add grated carrots or capsicum along with onions to the mixture.
  • Page 159
    • Watchtower - The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom is an illustrated religious magazine, published monthly by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. Jehovah's Witnesses distribute The Watchtower—Public Edition, along with its companion magazine, Awake!.
  • Page 160
    • margarita - A margarita is a cocktail consisting of tequila, triple sec, and lime juice often served with salt on the rim of the glass.
  • Page 160
    • Dos Equis - Dos Equis ("Two X's") is a Mexican pale lager beer made by the Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery. It was originally called "Twentieth Century" (Siglo XX).
  • Page 162
    • saltpeter - Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula KNO3. Potassium nitrate is one of several nitrogen-containing compounds collectively referred to as saltpeter. It was once thought to induce impotence but there is no scientific evidence for such properties.
  • Page 162
    • Auntie Mame - Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade is a 1955 novel by American author Patrick Dennis chronicling the madcap adventures of a boy, Patrick, growing up as the ward of his Aunt Mame Dennis, the sister of his dead father.
  • Page 163
    • manganese nodule - See page 7 above.
  • Page 163
    • Howard Hughes - See page 14 above.
  • Page 163
    • Mission Pak fruitcake - Mission Pak was founded by George C. Page in 1917 in Southern California. It was a mail-order company shipping dried fruits and nuts, and fruitcakes during the holiday season throughout the U.S.
  • Page 165
    • mamzrim - In the Hebrew Bible and the religious laws of Judaism, a mamzer (Hebrew: ממזר, lit., "estranged person"; plural mamzerim) is a person who is born as the result of certain forbidden relationships or incest (as it is defined by the Bible), or the descendant of such a person.
  • Page 167
    • Three men can keep a secret, if two of them are dead. - An aphorism by Benjamin Franklin.
  • Page 168
    • Catch-22 - Catch-22 is a satirical war novel by American author Joseph Heller and published in 1961. In the book, Catch-22 is a military rule typifying obstructive bureaucratic operation and reasoning.
  • Page 170
    • Monopoly game - Monopoly is a multi-player economics-themed board game. In the game, players roll two dice to move around the game board, buying and trading properties and developing them with houses and hotels. Players collect rent from their opponents, aiming to drive them into bankruptcy. Money can also be gained or lost through Chance and Community Chest cards and tax squares.
  • Page 170
    • Bank of America - The Bank of America Corporation is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank was founded in San Francisco and took its present form when NationsBank of Charlotte acquired it in 1998.
  • Page 170
    • Summa Corporation - See page 25 above.
  • Page 171
    • Ford Pinto - The Ford Pinto is a subcompact car that was manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company in North America from the 1971 to the 1980 model years. The Pinto was the first subcompact vehicle produced by Ford in North America.
  • Page 172
    • Phi Beta Kappa - The Phi Beta Kappa Society (ΦΒΚ) is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences.
  • Page 173
    • interlibrary loan - Interlibrary loan is a service whereby a patron of one library can borrow books, DVDs, music, etc. and/or receive photocopies of documents that are owned by another library.
  • Page 175
    • Penguin Coffee Shop - The Penguin Coffee Shop was a coffee shop at the corner of Olympic and Lincoln in Santa Monica, California. It opened in 1959 and closed in 1988.
  • Page 177
    • honest politician ... Heinlein - “An honest politician is one that stays bought.” from the Robert A. Heinlein novel Sixth Column.
  • Page 177
    • honest politician ... Heinlein - See page 114 above.
  • Page 178
    • Crenshaw - The Crenshaw opened November 14, 1941 as an independent neighborhood movie house,
  • Page 180
    • Bicentennial - The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to historical events leading up to the creation of the United States of America as an independent republic.
  • Page 180
    • The Producers - The Producers is a 1968 film by Mel Brooks. The story concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich by overselling shares in a Broadway flop called Springtime for Hitler.
  • Page 183
    • John W. Campbell - See page 67 above.
  • Page 183
    • Dianetics - Dianetics (from Greek dia, meaning "through", and nous, meaning "mind") is a set of pseudoscientific ideas and practices regarding the metaphysical relationship between the mind and body created by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.
  • Page 183
    • Dean Drive - The Dean drive was a device created and promoted by inventor Norman Lorimer Dean (1902–1972) that he claimed to be a reactionless drive. Dean claimed that his device was able to generate a uni-directional force in free space, in violation of Isaac Newton's third law of motion from classical physics.
  • Page 183
    • Hieronymus Machine - A Hieronymus machine is any of the patented radionics devices invented by electrical engineer Thomas Galen Hieronymus (1895 – 1988). Hieronymus received a U.S. Patent for his invention in 1949, which was described in the patent application title as a device for "detection of emanations from materials and measurement of the volumes thereof".
  • Page 185
    • A Change of Hobbit - A Change of Hobbit (1972–1991) was one of the first science fiction, fantasy and horror bookstores established, and was a significant part of science fiction fandom generally and in Southern California particularly.
  • Page 187
    • Fantasy and Science Fiction - See page 4 above.
  • Page 187
    • Ed Ferman - Edward Lewis Ferman (born March 6, 1937) is an American science fiction and fantasy editor and magazine publisher, known best as the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1966 to 1991.
  • Page 189
    • Santa Barbara - Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County in the U.S. state of California. The city lies between the steeply rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
  • Page 189
    • Diamond Head - Diamond Head is a volcanic tuff cone on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. It lies to the east of Honolulu.
  • Page 189
    • old royal palace - The Iolani Palace was the royal residence of the rulers of the Kingdom of Hawaii, beginning with Kamehameha III in 1845 and ending with Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1893.
  • Page 189
    • Arizona memorial - The USS Arizona Memorial, at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors and Marines killed on USS Arizona during the Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and commemorates the events of that day.
  • Page 190
    • Mormon's Polynesian Cultural Center - The Polynesian Cultural Center is a family-centered cultural tourist attraction and living museum located in Laie, on the northern shore of Oahu, Hawaii. The PCC is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was dedicated on October 12, 1963, and occupies 42 acres (17 hectares) of land belonging to nearby Brigham Young University–Hawaii.
  • Page 190
    • Lahaina - See page 96 above.
  • Page 190
    • Hana and the seven sacred pools - Hāna is a census-designated place in Maui County, Hawaii, United States. Hana is located at the eastern end of the island of Maui and is one of the most isolated communities in the state.
  • Page 190
    • Hana and the seven sacred pools - The Ohe’o Gulch is part of the Haleakala National Park. The name “Ohe’o” translates to “something special” but, for tourist marketing purposes, it was translated to “Seven Sacred Pools.”
  • Page 191
    • Rigel - Rigel is a blue supergiant star in the constellation of Orion. It is located at a distance of approximately 860 light-years from the Sun.
  • Page 193
    • menorah - A Hanukkah menorah, or hanukkiah, is a nine-branched candelabrum lit during the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah (Chanukah).
  • Page 193
    • Alpha Beta - See page 60 above.
  • Page 193
    • Bridge of Sighs, the latest Robin Trower album - Bridge of Sighs is the second solo album by the English guitarist and songwriter Robin Trower. Released in 1974, it was a commercial breakthrough for Trower.
  • Page 193
    • Bridge of Sighs, the latest Robin Trower album - 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 193
    • Chivas Regal - Chivas Regal is a blended Scotch whisky manufactured by Chivas Brothers, which is part of Pernod Ricard. It was founded in 1786 and is the oldest continuously operating Highland Scotland distillery.
  • Page 194
    • Nyarlathotep - Nyarlathotep is a fictional character created by H.P. Lovecraft. The character is a malign deity in the Cthulhu Mythos. He first appearing in Lovecraft's 1920 prose poem "Nyarlathotep".
  • Page 194
    • Miller - Miller High Life is a pilsner-style beer introduced in 1903, by the Miller Brewing Company.
  • Page 194
    • All in the Family - All in the Family is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979.
  • Page 195
    • Heinlein - See page 114 above.
  • Page 195
    • Asimov - See page 114 above.
  • Page 195
    • Andre Norton - See page 97 above.
  • Page 195
    • Tom Lehrer - See page 74 above.
  • Page 196
    • Bobbsey Twins - The Bobbsey Twins are the principal characters of what was, for 75 years (1904 - 1979), the Stratemeyer Syndicate's longest-running series of American children's novels, written under the pseudonym Laura Lee Hope.
  • Page 196
    • ... more things in heaven and earth than were dreamt of in his philosophy. - See page 35 above.
  • Page 197
    • Niven - See page 114 above.
  • Page 198
    • I saw the Atlantic ... wasn't terrific. - Lyrics from the 1936 American musical comedy film Follow the Fleet and the song "We Saw The Sea".
  • Page 201
    • manganese nodule - See page 7 above.
  • Page 201
    • Spanish Inquisition - The Spanish Inquisition was instituted in Spain by the Catholic Church in the late Middle Ages, with the mission of searching out those defined by the Church as "heretics", extracting from them confessions - often by torture.
  • Page 201
    • Habitable Planets For Man - See page 21 above.
  • Page 202
    • Smith-Corona - Smith Corona is an American manufacturer that was once a large U.S. typewriter and mechanical calculator manufacturer.
  • Page 203
  • Page 203
    • ... hitting fungoes ... - Hitting fungoes is a baseball fielding practice drill where a person hits fly balls intended to be caught.
  • Page 206
    • Pete Rose - Peter Edward Rose Sr. (1941 - 2024) was an American former professional baseball player and manager.
  • Page 207
    • Hamburger Helper - Hamburger Helper is a packaged food product from General Mills. As boxed, it consists of a dried carbohydrate (often pasta or rice), with powdered seasonings contained in a packet. The contents of each box are combined with browned ground beef ("hamburger") and water or milk to create a complete one-dish meal.
  • Page 208
    • Yes vote on Joining the Common Market - The United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum took place under the provisions of the Referendum Act 1975 on 5 June 1975 in the United Kingdom to gauge support for the country's continued membership of the European Communities and the Common Market — which it had entered two-and-a-half years earlier on 1 January 1973.
  • Page 208
    • Yes vote on Joining the Common Market - The European single market, internal market or common market is a single market comprising the 27 member states of the European Union. The single market seeks to guarantee the free movement of goods, capital, services, and people, known collectively as the "four freedoms".
  • Page 208
    • Jack Anderson See page 118 above.
  • Page 212
    • Dopp kit - A toiletry bag (also called a toiletry kit, ditty bag, dopp kit, bathroom bag, sponge bag, toilet bag, toilet article kit, body hygiene kit, travel kit, washkit, shaving kit, or wet pack) is a portable container—usually a pouch with a drawstring or zippered closure—that holds body hygiene and toiletry supplies.
  • Page 212
  • Page 213
    • Boyle Heights - Boyle Heights, historically known as Paredón Blanco, is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, located east of the Los Angeles River.
  • Page 213
    • Yul Brynner - Yuliy Borisovich Briner (1920 – 1985), known professionally as Yul Brynner, was a Soviet-born American actor.
  • Page 213
    • shave and a haircut - five cents - "Shave and a Haircut" and the associated response "two bits" (or "five cents" or "ten cents") is a seven-note musical call-and-response couplet, riff or fanfare popularly used at the end of a musical performance, usually for comedic effect.
  • Page 214
    • Corvair - The Chevrolet Corvair is a compact car manufactured by Chevrolet for model years 1960–1969 in two generations. A response to the Volkswagen Beetle, it remains the only American-designed, mass-produced passenger car with a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine.
  • Page 214
    • Unsafe at Any Speed - Unsafe at Any Speed is a non-fiction book by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, first published in 1965. Its central theme is that car manufacturers resisted the introduction of safety features, and that they were generally reluctant to spend money on improving safety.
  • Page 215
    • VW Bug - The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German der Käfer (meaning "beetle"), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug-is a two-door, rear-engine economy car, intended for five occupants, that was manufactured and marketed by German automaker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003.
  • Page 215
    • DMV - Short for Department of Motor Vehicles.
  • Page 216
    • San Bernardino - San Bernardino is a city located in the Riverside–San Bernardino metropolitan area (sometimes called the "Inland Empire") and that serves as the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States.
  • Page 216
    • double nickel - From trucker slang in the 1970s referring to the national 55 mph speed limit, based on nickel (“five-cent coin”).
  • Page 216
    • By the time he got to Phoenix - "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" is a song by Glen Campbell.
  • Page 216
    • Glen Campbell - Glen Travis Campbell (1936 – 2017) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and television host. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s.
  • 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.
  • Page 217
    • Easy Rider - Easy Rider is a 1969 American independent road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda, and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and South, carrying the proceeds from a cocaine deal.
  • Page 217
    • Lordsburg - Lordsburg is a city in and the county seat of Hidalgo County, New Mexico, United States. Hidalgo County includes the southern "bootheel" of New Mexico, along the Arizona border.
  • Page 217
    • Burger King - Burger King is an American-based multinational chain of hamburger fast food restaurants.
  • Page 217
    • Dos Equis - See page 160 above.
  • Page 218
    • Golden Arches - McDonald's Corporation, informally known as Golden Arches or Mickey D's, is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants.
  • Page 218
    • Fort Worth - Situated in North Texas, Fort Worth covers nearly 300 square miles (780 km²) in Tarrant and Denton counties, serving as the county seat for Tarrant County.
  • Page 219
    • Hot Springs, Arkansas - Hot Springs, Arkansas is the seat of Garland County in Arkansas. The city is located deep within the Ouachita Mountains among the U.S. Interior Highlands
  • Page 219
    • Memphis - Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County.
  • Page 220
    • Time Enough for Love - Time Enough for Love is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, first published in 1973. The reference is to masturbation, which while effective is a lonely way to gratify oneself.
  • Page 220
    • APB - An all-points bulletin (APB) is an electronic information broadcast sent from one sender to a group of recipients, to rapidly communicate an important message. In the field of policing, an APB contains an important message about a suspect or item of interest, which officers may be in search for.
  • Page 220
    • Bristol City - Bristol is a city in Sullivan County, Tennessee, United States and is located in the northeast corner of the state.
  • Page 221
    • Rock Creek Park - Rock Creek Park is a large urban park that bisects the Northwest quadrant of Washington, DC. The park was created by an Act of Congress in 1890 and today is administered by the National Park Service.
  • Page 221
    • Michelob - Michelob is a 4.7% ABV pale lager developed by Adolphus Busch in 1896 as a "draught beer for connoisseurs". In 1961, Anheuser-Busch produced a pasteurized version of Michelob which allowed legal shipment of the beer across state lines.
  • Page 225
    • Danny Kaye - Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky, 1911 – 1987), was an American actor, singer, dancer, comedian, and musician. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire novelty songs.
  • Page 229
    • Seymour Hersh - Seymour Myron "Sy" Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is an American investigative journalist and political writer. Hersh first gained recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War. The New York Times published Hersh's account of Project Azorian on March 19, 1975, after a story appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
  • Page 229
    • high school teachers yelling "drop!" - "Duck and cover" is a method of personal protection against the effects of a nuclear explosion. Ducking and covering is useful in offering a degree of protection to personnel located outside the radius of the nuclear fireball but still within sufficient range of the nuclear explosion that standing upright and uncovered is likely to cause serious injury or death.
  • Page 234
    • Have Space Suit - Will Travel - See page 38 above.
  • Page 235
    • Rosenbergs - Julius (1918 – 1953) and Ethel Rosenberg (1915 – 1953) were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. The couple were convicted of providing top-secret information about radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and valuable nuclear weapon designs. Convicted of espionage in 1951, they were executed by the federal government in 1953.
  • Page 236
    • Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam. Following the partition of French Indochina, it became the capital of South Vietnam until the Fall of Saigon in 1975.
  • Page 237
    • Walter Cronkite - Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (1916 – 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America".
  • Page 237
    • Mort Sahl - Morton Lyon Sahl (1927 – 2021) was a Canadian-born American comedian, actor, and social satirist, considered the first modern comedian. Sahl pioneered a style of social satire that pokes fun at political and current event topics using improvised monologues and only a newspaper as a prop.
  • Page 238
    • Johnny Carson - John William Carson (1925 – 2005) was an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known as the host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962–1992).
  • Page 238
    • Harry Reasoner - Harry Truman Reasoner (1923 – 1991) was an American journalist for CBS and ABC News, known for his adroit use of language as a television commentator, and as a founder of the long-running 60 Minutes program.
  • Page 241
    • the late great planet Earth - The Late Great Planet Earth is a best-selling 1970 book by Hal Lindsey with Carole C. Carlson. It compared end-time prophecies in the Bible with then-current events in an attempt to predict future scenarios.
  • Page 241
    • John Chancellor - John William Chancellor (1927 – 1996) was an American journalist who spent most of his career with NBC News and as anchor from 1970 to 1982.
  • Page 247
    • Naxos - Naxos is an island in Greece and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the center of archaic Cycladic culture.
  • Page 248
    • April 15 - See page 145 above.
  • Page 255
    • Ralph Nader - Ralph Nader (born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes.
  • Page 256
    • CHP cruiser - The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is a state law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has primary patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and roads and streets outside city limits.
  • Page 258
    • Sumitomo Bank - Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Group is a multinational banking and financial services institution headquartered in Yurakucho, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan.
  • Page 261
    • Warning Star - See page 147 above.
  • Page 261
    • Aeroflot - PJSC Aeroflot – Russian Airlines commonly known as Aeroflot (Russian: Аэрофлот, transl. "air fleet"), is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Russia. The airline was founded in 1923 as the Soviet flag carrier.
  • Page 264
    • W.C. Fields - William Claude Dukenfield (1880 – 1946), better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler, and writer. Fields's comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist who remained a sympathetic character.
  • Page 265
    • Occam's razor - Occam's razor, also known as the principle of parsimony or the law of parsimony, is the problem-solving principle that "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity". It is generally understood in the sense that with competing theories or explanations, the simpler one is to be preferred.
  • Page 268
    • The lady or the tiger? - "The Lady, or the Tiger?" is a much-anthologized short story written by Frank R. Stockton and published in 1882. "The Lady, or the Tiger?" has entered the English language as an allegorical expression, a shorthand indication or signifier, for a problem that is unsolvable.
  • Page 268
    • "Warp Factor Seven, Scotty!" - Warp factor was the primary means of measuring speeds attained using warp drive in the Star Trek franchise. Seven was equivalent to 242 times the speed of light.
  • Page 268
    • Star Trek - See page 99 above.
  • Page 270
    • 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 272
    • AR-15 - The Colt AR-15 is a lightweight, magazine-fed, gas-operated semi-automatic rifle. It is a semi-automatic version of the M16 rifle sold for the civilian and law enforcement markets in the United States.
  • Page 273
    • Potemkin villages - In politics and economics, a Potemkin village is any construction (literal or figurative) whose sole purpose is to provide an external façade to a country that is faring poorly, making people believe that the country is faring better.
  • Page 273
    • Russo-Japanese War - The Russo-Japanese War', was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperialist ambitions of the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over Manchuria and Korea. It lasted from February 1904 to September 1905.
  • Page 274
    • One small push for man, one giant leap for mankind - Paraphrase of Neil Armstrong's first words stepping onto the Moon: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
  • Page 274
    • Neil Armstrong - Neil Alden Armstrong (1930 – 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer, and the first person to walk on the Moon.
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