Chapter 35

Page 383

Star Wars marathon
Possibly just the original trilogy. The Phantom Menace was released in theaters 1999 and on DVD sometime in 2001. Attack of the Clones comes out in theaters 2002.

Page 384

T-shirt reading ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US
"All your base are belong to us" (often shortened to "All Your Base", "AYBABTU", or simply "AYB") is a phrase that became an Internet meme. The text comes from the opening cutscene of the 1991 European Sega Mega Drive version of the video game Zero Wing by Toaplan, which was poorly translated from the original Japanese version.

The meme developed from this as the result of a GIF animation depicting the opening text which was initially popularized on the Something Awful message forums. more info

See the type of hat here.

Page 384

Sam the King of Cool
aka Samuel L. Jackson, the actor, who often wears a Kangol hat.

Page 386

Love you in Pulp Fiction, baby. That Bible quote?
Samuel L. Jackson (see note above on page 384) played a hit man in the film Pulp Fiction and would often deliver a not-quite-biblical monologue before shooting someone. You can see it here.

Little more on this famous quote. Here's the ending of Pulp Fiction where Jackson's character "explains" the quote: YouTube.

The somewhat misquoted Ezekiel passage from the film: Ezekiel 25:17. The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.

King James version of Ezekiel 25.

Page 386

an oversize bottle of vodka, named after a Lithuanian basketball player
“Sabonis” is the Russian slang for a huge bottle of vodka. Basketball star Arvydas Sabonis was the center of NBA's Portland Trail Blazers between 1995-2001 and 2002-2003. He won the Olympic gold with the Soviet national team in 1988 and played in Žalgiris Kaunas club in the 1980s, contributing to its legendary victories against CSKA Moscow. After Lithuania regained independence, he won two Olympic bronze medals with the Lithuanian team.

Page 388

I've come in for an episode of inconvenience myself
maybe even a couple of episodes - The Inconvenience ship in Against the Day here Inconvenience HMS in Mason & Dixon here

Page 390

Is it that American Indian curse about, if you save somebody's life you're responsible for what happens to them from then on?<br\> AFAIK there is no "curse" anything like this, American Indian or otherwise. Many people believe this to be a Chinese custom or proverb, but that idea appears to be erroneous too. Some people on the net claim that that the saying originated from a 1975 episode of the television show Kung Fu, others mention Star Wars or the Andy Griffith Show, or Japan instead of China.

Maybe there's a typo in this sentence too. The syntax seems to be screwed up, with the preposition "about" having no object, and instead being followed by a comma that seems to make no sense.

IRS-issue stogie
An “IRS-issue stogie” would be an American cigar that came in a box with the IRS stamp on it. Since 1862, when Congress passed a broad taxation law that included taxing cigars — to help finance the Civil War — the IRS has taxed cigars [1]. Since then cigars have come in boxes and those boxes have the IRS stamp (looks sort of like a postage stamp) on them which means they’ve been properly taxed.

Quality cigars, usually from other countries (e.g. Cuba), don’t have the IRS stamp, so the "IRS-issue" — not to mention "stogie" (a cheap cigar) — would imply a cheap cigar.

I can't find this reference on this page - can someone fix?

street pickup<br\> 9/11 provided a boost to the intercity bus business, and members of New York's Chinese community were among the first to take advantage of the opportunity. Dragon Coach and New Century started up budget New York-to-Washington routes in 2002 to compete with the established bus lines, but there may have been earlier runs made by others under less formal auspices. [2]

Page 391

Eurowire
Type of "lever-backed" earring. More info here.

Page 392

Already, as the Eagles say, gone
Already Gone. 1974 Eagles song.

Winston Churchill
Apparently he really did say "Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result."

Page 393

Cybiko
Real hand-held device. Wiki.