AH Cultural Descriptions

[John Spangler]

The hot dogs incident of 1984

An incident occurring in 1984 when Canadian PM William Shatner, during a diplomatic trip to the United States, asked American president Leonard Nimoy to try one of the famous New York hot dogs. While eating, he choked on one and died. Being a very popular PM, both at home and internationally, he was widely mourned.

Welcome to Fucktown

 

[Mr Red Stone]

Welcome to Fucktown

The name of an concept album by rook band Sole genres released November 12th 1979.
Which is described by lead writer and singer Nick Jagger as "a contempt filled response to the isolationist stance of the Sole America party And how their party line is what let to the nuclear war that was then currently happening in the Middle East between Israel and Saudi Arabia"

This is made clear and it's first Lead single Welcome to Fucktown which is about how a town in the middle of nowhere was once upon a time a great protector of the rest of the world but when it's new powers that be took control they sealed off the town from the rest of the world And how are main character/narrator named the nobody must break down the seals so the town can do its job and help the world prosper.

As the album goes on the nobody begins making Both allies and enemies at equilateral which concludes with the last song on the album when day breaks singing of how the nobody and his allies put their all into hopefully ending the powers that be.

The album itself upon its Release was highly controversial With many in office clamoring to Ban it believe that it would cause "unrest among the people" This would ironically Lead to album Selling millions from both those on the left who believed in the albums messages and from the right who wanted to see if was truly as bad as the sole America party said it was.

What killed the age of Sony.

 

[MegaToon1234]

What killed the age of Sony.

A question that was asked by half of the people regarding the time Sony failing to achieve everyone with the PlayStation 3, and it made it in the headlines of every newspaper imaginable. Of course, considering the flop of the PlayStation 3 led to Sony bailing out of the gaming market and their game division is sold off to other companies. May whoever owns them, they’re doing something with them.

Nintendo’s Other Side of the Coin

 

[Reflection]

Nintendo’s Other Side of the Coin

The title of a 2006 book delving into the Nintendo gaming company's corruption, specifically allegations of money laundering, that took place all throughout the 1990s and was a huge scandal. This eventually forced a corporate reboot of sorts, and has continued to tarnish Nintendo's image even to this day, no matter how hard they've tried to escape it.

The Masked Wolves

 

[sampleswift]

The title of a 2006 book delving into the Nintendo gaming company's corruption, specifically allegations of money laundering, that took place all throughout the 1990s and was a huge scandal. This eventually forced a corporate reboot of sorts, and has continued to tarnish Nintendo's image even to this day, no matter how hard they've tried to escape it.

The Masked Wolves

A mercenary group infamous for a war in Angola, Africa which damaged this country beyond repair, making it the poorest or second-poorest country on Earth (depending on who you ask: some say Djbouti is poorer). The Masked Wolves were paid by the Angolan government to fight revolutionaries in a war that would eventually last 20 years and end with both sides falling apart (except the Wolves who also ran a mining program to mine Angola's gold.) While condemned by the Russian, Japanese, British, American, and French governments, no international intervention was taken to avoid getting stuck in a quagmire. Attempts to arrest the leader of the Masked Wolves and drag him before a war crimes tribunal in The Hague also failed.

Loyal to the Idea of Democracy

 

[Mr Red Stone]

Loyal to the Idea of Democracy

Is the Title of a 1913 book by swedish philosopher Morton Moseåy (1888-1924) detailing his complicated relationship with democracy in practice even though he loves the idea of it using examples of democracies in the real world which he believes has failed (The United States falling into corruption, Switzerland war crimes against the people of Africa, and his homeland Sweden willingness to help the fascist regime of Britain,) The book is notable for the phrase "Free will is the ultimate paradox for it is both what makes US human and it is Also What destroys the human within you" in the time since the books publishing And it's authors death The book has ironically become used as a justification by multiple authoritarian regimes most notably The United States of America post the second civil war.

Who cares for France it's nothing more than a pack of cards

 

[brunohusker]

Who cares for France it's nothing more than a pack of cards

A quote made by Prime Minister Oswald Mosley after his former ally Adolph Hitler invaded France. Mosley had basically been an ally of Hitler to the point that he had invited him to review troops at Buckingham Palace in 1937. Mosley had guaranteed that Hitler wanted peace and stated that it was "Strong men who are able to create peace, not weak men and their financiers who pretend to be strong through foolish wars." However, after privately finding out about the treaty between the Germans and the Soviets, he began to view them in a negative light, and after invading Action Francaise led France, Moseley decried the invasion but also felt they were weak, making his "pack of cards" statement to an American journalist, which Mosley made thinking his statement would be off the record.

Eventually, in spite of some sympathies with the Fascists, Mosley declared war when it was found that the Nazis were building airfields in Calais and somehow, word got out that Moseley had felt that the treaty with the Soviets showed that Hitler was basically "emphasizing the socialist part more and more" which angered them. Eventually, the British bombed the airfields and tried to invade France in 1940, but failed and eventually Mosley's government fell in what some British fascists called a "bloodless coup" and promoted conspiracy theories of how the royal family and the Rothschilds worked to install a new PM who would actually give the war their full attention.

Mosley then went to exile in Spain and died there in 1976, committing suicide after the death of Franco, lamenting that he no longer had a country.

Mary Moon outlives the Septuagenarians

 

[John Spangler]

Mary Moon outlives the Septuagenarians

A 2013 Disney Pixar CGI movie about Mary Moon, a orphan girl whose only friends are a dog named Waldo and a nerdy boy named Stewie, and who accidentally stumbles upon an ancient conspiracy by a secret cabal of immortal men (who look quite old and are therefore called Septuagenarians) who want to find the magic crown of queen Cleopatra and use it to rule the world. After facing dangers of all kind, Mary manages to stop the Septuagenarians and even find a family. The movie was a huge box office hit.

Doctor Doom-The Triumph of Reason

 

[brunohusker]

Doctor Doom-The Triumph of Reason

A documentary by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns about John “Doctor Doom” Branch, who promoted Eugenics in the United States from the 20’s until the 50s but turned against eugenics in the 60s and continued to do so until his 1982 death

Branch was a Kansas born physician who felt that sterilization of deformed and disabled individuals would reduce crime and welfare expenditures . He also felt that such practices would improve the lives of minorities and considered himself a “humane eugenicist” compared to counterparts in the German Kaiserreich and Great Britain, as well as many fellow Americans.

However, by the 1960s when he was more or less retired, he began to change his mind and campaign against eugenics. Many suspected it was due his conversion to Catholicism, though he maintained he felt it was wrong to violate the free will of any individual and that included their right to have children.

Burns had made this film mostly because he felt that Branch’s story needed to be told and that he wanted to give a voice to all sides.

Michaelmas Massacre

 

[Baron Steakpuncher]

A documentary by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns about John “Doctor Doom” Branch, who promoted Eugenics in the United States from the 20’s until the 50s but turned against eugenics in the 60s and continued to do so until his 1982 death

Branch was a Kansas born physician who felt that sterilization of deformed and disabled individuals would reduce crime and welfare expenditures . He also felt that such practices would improve the lives of minorities and considered himself a “humane eugenicist” compared to counterparts in the German Kaiserreich and Great Britain, as well as many fellow Americans.

However, by the 1960s when he waa as more or less retired, he began to change his mind and campaign against eugenics. Many suspected it was due his conversion to Catholicism, though he maintained he felt it was wrong to violate the free will of any individual and that included their right to have children.

Burns had made this film mostly because he felt that Branch’s story needed to be told and that he wanted to give a voice to all sides.

Michaelmas Massacre

Michael's Mass is a holiday of some significance to the Bohemian Brethren of Christ, a small splinter sect from Catholicism who in the 16th century formed a semi-independent colony on the shores of Winland, which would by the 17th century develop into the first independent state in the New World, centred on the island of Nový Silesia. Against all odds, this tiny island nation would survive the numerous European Conflicts, wars of independence by other colonies and the "Skraeling Resurgence" of the 19th century, and would emerge as a trading hub for the nations of the East Coast, retaining its distinct religious character and insular nature throughout.

The Michaelmas Massacre of 1957 was conducted by agents of the Milano Chamber, the secret police of the Tripartite Federation, to be aimed at silencing a growing Agrarian movement amongst exiles from that federation. Conducted on St Michael's feast day, multiple chemical weapons were unleashed on the immigrant "Catholic Quarter" where most of the expatriates were staying, with almost all the relevant targets being killed. Unfortunately for the Milano Chamber, evidence of their actions was left behind, discovered and revealed to the world not three weeks later, resulting in a general declaration of war on the Tripartite Federation by the allies of the Nový Silesian Republic in Europe, starting off the fourth and final Pan-European war.


So far from God, so close to London

 

[DocBen]

So far from God, so close to London

A book written by the Christian Loyalist exile Jack Isidor, criticizing the English Revolutionary State.

The Protestant Reformation was the first stick to break the Western Christiandom. Then one hundred years later, came the Atheist Revolution, which swept through France, Germany, Iberia, and the British Isles. The Atheist Revolutionary Army of England, also known as simply the Red Army because they wore bright crimson uniforms, overthrew the Church and the Monarchy, and began mass purges of Christians, both Catholics, and Protestants, with wholesale massacres and concentration camps. A similar story occurred in the Mainland Western Europe as well, with both Religious and Monarchist authorities being overthrown and radicals coming to power. Most Christian Loyalists, those who were able to escape, were forced to flee to either Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, or the American colonies. The Ottoman Empire took advantage of the internal European civil wars to invade and successfully occupy Iberia and Italy, with the Atheist Revolutionaries retaining only France, Germany, and Britain. The results of this was a permanent weakening of Western Europe, and relocation of Western Europeans to Austria, Poland, Scandinavia, and to a smaller extent Russia. New England and New France were also large destinations of the Western Europeans, the Latin American Empire collapsed when Iberia and Italy was overrun by the Ottomans, and the Native Americans seized the opportunities to successfully rebel and overthrow their European overlords, in many cases massacring people of European appearance in their countries.

Jack Isidor was one of the Christian Loyalists who fled to New England, and wrote a book criticizing the Atheist State as traitors to Christiandom and European civilization in general, for causing the destruction and reshaping of European culture, for giving (or at least not stopping) an opening for the Ottomans to expand into Europe, and for helping the collapse of the Iberian Empire by publicly executing the Iberian King and the Roman Catholic Pope, destroying the peninsula, and razing all the churches, palaces, and villas of the nobles to the ground.

His book "So far from God, so close to London" specifically wrote about the ordeals of the British Christian Loyalists in the reeducation camps that the British Atheist State set up in the outskirts of London, to beat religion out of the believers. It is estimated that more than 100,000 people perished in those unheated facilities.

The collapse of the Kartvelian Empire, tragedy of our century

 

[Reflection]

The collapse of the Kartvelian Empire, tragedy of our century

The last book in a series of alternate history novels by S.M. Sterling, of the Draka series fame, detailing a fictional Kartvelian Empire from the Iberian Peninsula. The first two books were The Beginning, The Rise, followed by The Collapse.

Tiffany Goes to Moscow

 

[brunohusker]

Tiffany Goes to Moscow

After her 1980s heyday, pop star Tiffany decided to do a concert in Moscow in 1992. She also had a plan to bring Cyndi Lauper, Belinda Carlisle, Debbie Gibson, The Bangles, in what would be called the Girl Power tour, but this never panned out and instead, she did a concert in Moscow.

Tiffany goes to Moscow was the documentary film made by amateur filmmaker Scott Nordlund who filmed the adventures of the 80s pop princess as she toured the Russian Capitol.

The documentary was played on MTV and later VH1 and was noted for being quite candid and Tiffany herself ended up having a small film career, appearing in a number of low budget horror flicks from 1993 to 2012.

Tales from the Corn Crib

 

[Mr Red Stone]

Tales from the Corn Crib

The name of a piece of art made in 1939 by Chicago born artist Alfred wasnick (1900-1964) depicting multiple rows of corn containing in incubators being monitored by various people of power around them then current world with varying degrees of indifference on their faces.
The piece was made By Alfred as a way for him to grieve for the at the time critically endangered corn Which was being wiped out in droves by a (corn plague) his family once grew.
Unfortunately the corn He and his family grew would be considered officially extinct just 2 years later.

Free will is a parasite and I have the cure.

 

[ParasaurEwan]

Free will is a parasite, and I have the cure.

Quote from His Greatness, leader of the dystopia from the 2012 movie "SUPERBIA", which has been described by some as "The worst Movie adaptation of a Broadway musical before Cats". Based on Johnathan Larson's hit musical of the same name, the movie was criticized for cutting out many beloved songs, adding unneeded new songs and being compared to what the musical was criticizing, although this quote was seen as a Light in the darkness of the movie, with a common joke being that they should have cut it from the script and put it in the 1945 film adaptation of Huxley's "Brave New World", which was in development hell until 2021. The line ended up being used in the brave new world movie, causing great controversy.

"This alternate history is a grim dark slop which depicts a world where History goes horrible. Rome falls to carthage, Suicidal Gnostics seize the whole Mideast, Not-Nazis dominate Europe and Every beloved artist either dies horribly or becomes a dictator. And yet the main thing I hated is that they had Mammoths go extinct."

 

[West234]

And yet the main thing I hated is that they had Mammoths go extinct.

A 2009 novel by John Boyne that tells the fictional story of nine year old bill sterling as he is adopted by a former history professor Dr. Robert Warner. Bill had just left a highly abusive household and the book largely focused on the emotional Dynamic between him and Warner. A recurring motif is that Bill can’t accept that someone would let the mammoths just go extinct with them representing him holding on to his innocence after all he has been through. It was widely praised for tackling themes of adoption in a positive light that was not commonly seen and it was later adapted in to a feature film in 2013.
I love you assignments

 

[Baron Steakpuncher]

I love you assignments

An "Assignment" in the context of Tripartite Federal military jargon, was a post that was forced upon an officer rather than the officer in question volunteering for it as would normally be good etiquette. Thus making the quote by English exile Lieutenant-General Alfred Martin a rather unusual one. In his own way he had come to greatly care for the men of the Ajaccio Garrison under his command, and when offered the chance to evacuate on one of the last boats out he refused. His speech, which is not covered here, began with the phrase that would immortalise him and the duty an officer is supposed to show to his subordinates.

His body was not recovered following the reclamation of the city, though General Martin's wife Samantha stated she believed it was only right that her husband was buried with those under his command.

Attention, attention, this is Prague Calling

 

[ennobee]

Attention, attention, this is Prague Calling

Often abbreviated as "This is Prague Calling" or simply "Prague Calling"

1) A baseless interruption of a conversation by a third party offering nothing to the discussion
2) A reply so said interruption calling it out as just a waste of words of no help to the discussion

From the Austro-Hungarian sketch-comedy show 'Live am Samstag Spät" and it's US American remake 'Saturday Night Live'. "This is Prague Calling" was a running joke where the show would call in on a reporter in a foreign correspondence studio, just to be interrupted by a call from the studio in Prague contributing.... nothing, but always getting a giggle from the audience for it.

"And we're live calling our reporter in Paris where we will be awaiting the arrival of the Tour de France any second now. Hallo Paris, Hallo Paris..."
"Hallo Vienna. Paris speaking. Yes we are standing here at the finish line. Right now, there is a tense silence in the air as we await.... Moment... What is that. There seems to be some rumour coming from the boulevard. Looks like the first racers have made it to the end stretch, but from where we stand right now we still can't see anyone...."
"Attention, attention, This is Prague calling. We have some breaking news from inside our studio"
"Yes, Prague?"
"From here, we cannot see anyone either"

The joke quickly became a popular catchphrase, first in Vienna, then in all German-speaking regios and eventually, as the American franchise choose to keep the segment with Studio Prague's interruption, in the US. Finally the phrase, this time used as a reply to an out-of-context comment became known all over the English-speaking world through the sitcom 'Friends' as it was one of the catchphrases the character Bing Chandler used to shut up his friend Joey:

Roshelle:"Is this enough for the whole table? It says here on the can 'Up to 10 square feet"
Ray: "well, the table is round, so we just threat it as a circle and find it's surface by taking the square of its diameter and multiplying it by a quarter pi"
Joey:"You know who sells the best quarter pies? That bakery there on Hamilton Square, the one with the sexy waitress."
Bing: "Attention, Attention, this is Prague Calling. We just covered Hamilton Square. Hope there is still enough in the can for one table"

Next up:
The impossible Burger

 

[sampleswift]

Often abbreviated as "This is Prague Calling" or simply "Prague Calling"

1) A baseless interruption of a conversation by a third party offering nothing to the discussion
2) A reply so said interruption calling it out as just a waste of words of no help to the discussion

From the Austro-Hungarian sketch-comedy show 'Live am Samstag Spät" and it's US American remake 'Saturday Night Live'. "This is Prague Calling" was a running joke where the show would call in on a reporter in a foreign correspondence studio, just to be interrupted by a call from the studio in Prague contributing.... nothing, but always getting a giggle from the audience for it.

"And we're live calling our reporter in Paris where we will be awaiting the arrival of the Tour de France any second now. Hallo Paris, Hallo Paris..."
"Hallo Vienna. Paris speaking. Yes we are standing here at the finish line. Right now, there is a tense silence in the air as we await.... Moment... What is that. There seems to be some rumour coming from the boulevard. Looks like the first racers have made it to the end stretch, but from where we stand right now we still can't see anyone...."
"Attention, attention, This is Prague calling. We have some breaking news from inside our studio"
"Yes, Prague?"
"From here, we cannot see anyone either"

The joke quickly became a popular catchphrase, first in Vienna, then in all German-speaking regios and eventually, as the American franchise choose to keep the segment with Studio Prague's interruption, in the US. Finally the phrase, this time used as a reply to an out-of-context comment became known all over the English-speaking world through the sitcom 'Friends' as it was one of the catchphrases the character Bing Chandler used to shut up his friend Joey:

Roshelle:"Is this enough for the whole table? It says here on the can 'Up to 10 square feet"
Ray: "well, the table is round, so we just threat it as a circle and find it's surface by taking the square of its diameter and multiplying it by a quarter pi"
Joey:"You know who sells the best quarter pies? That bakery there on Hamilton Square, the one with the sexy waitress."
Bing: "Attention, Attention, this is Prague Calling. We just covered Hamilton Square. Hope there is still enough in the can for one table"

Next up:
The impossible Burger

Thought experiment made by scientist Enrico Fermi when talking about how a burger can be spoiled and unspoiled at the same time. His thought experiment had a burger in the same room as a radioisotope. Upon atomic decay, the burger would be irradiated. However, it is impossible to tell whether or not the burger was spoiled or not unless you opened the room, which changed the outcome. So the burger was in an impossible state of being spoiled and unspoiled before looking. This had connections to the uncertainty principle where observing a particle affects its behavior (which is not solvable by better instruments)
This was a physics joke, and not a serious discussion.

The St. Petersburg Shuffle

 

[ennobee]

Thought experiment made by scientist Enrico Fermi when talking about how a burger can be spoiled and unspoiled at the same time. His thought experiment had a burger in the same room as a radioisotope. Upon atomic decay, the burger would be irradiated. However, it is impossible to tell whether or not the burger was spoiled or not unless you opened the room, which changed the outcome. So the burger was in an impossible state of being spoiled and unspoiled before looking. This had connections to the uncertainty principle where observing a particle affects its behavior (which is not solvable by better instruments)
This was a physics joke, and not a serious discussion.

Great. No cats were harmed in this thought experiment. Bleep you, Schrodinger