A 1962 Donald Duck cartoon, and one of the first of several that would be written by Carl Barks specifically for use as a theatrical/TV cartoon.
Pinky and the Brain
AH Cultural Descriptions
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Pinky and the Brain
Elton John's satirical take on his earlier hit 'Benny and the Jets'. Sung on the tone of the latter, 'Pinky and the Brain' portraits a naive young singer (Pinky) entering in a partnership with a world-savy songwriter (The Brain) but while the duo becomes successfull, more successfully than any of the two could ever be on their own, by the end of the song it becomes clear that 'The Brain' ends up controlling not only 'Pinky's ' music but eventually his/her whole life. To make things more complicated there are suggestions of sexual undertones in the Pinky/Brain relation while Pinky's gender is deliberately never spelled out.
The song had a brief success in the late 1970's but today is more famous for celebrity watchers trying to figure out who 'The Brain' is that Elton John complains was running his life. The list of favorites includes his then-time manager Joe Scarborough, Bernie Taupin and even David Hockney. A completely out-of-the-way theory even suggest that the song was never about Elton John himself but that he wrote it after spending six days doing back to back concerts with Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.
Next up:
Moldivia, not Mordor
A reference to an infamous gaffe made by President Dan Quayle regarding the "Soviet Atrocities in Mordor" while he was referring to Soviet actions in the then-ongoing Transnistria War. "Moldovia, not Mordor" became a vocal rallying point during the 1996 presidential election, which saw the election of President Jerry Brown.
"Hail Hydra!"
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Deleted member 120563
A phrase associated with fans of the British-Cypriot metal band Hydra, where lead singer Alekos Steliou would rile up crowds between performances by raising his fist in the air, prompting audiences to reciprocate the gesture and chant 'Hail Hydra' in unison.
Popular among British, Cypriot and even Greek youth across the 1980s-1990s, Hydra sparked controversy when The Guardian ran a series of articles of its fervent approval among the burgeoning skinhead movement and made allegations that the band's members participated in or otherwise condoned xenophobia and Neo-Nazism. Further fueling these allegations was Hydra's 1989 song The 300, which retells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae and the final stand of Leonidas I's Spartans and Demophilus' Thespians whom stood with them. Critics claim that certain lyrics referring to 'foreign legions' invading 'our virgin lands' were in truth alluding to the waves of Turkish and South Asian migrants that had settled in Britain and Cyprus in recent years.
"Snake! It's not over yet!"
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A declaration by Ethiopian general and politician Ras Alula in regards to finding out a spy escaped with information that would lead to the Second Axum Empire's collapse.
The War of the Whale Shark
Deleted member 120563
I had fun writing this one.
An alternative term (dubbed by a '17 NYT article) for the 2010s-era proxy-maritime conflict in the South China Sea, sparked by an incident between the People' s Republic of China and the Republic of Vietnam.
Incursions of Chinese vessels illegally fishing in foreign territorial waters had increased in the last decade, spurned by the aggressive behaviour of Chinese fishermen towards local vessels. One egregious incident occurred when the Vietnam Coast Guard fired upon and disabled a Chinese vessel after it had attempted to ram VCG ships, then detained and arrested the vessel's crew after a search had uncovered evidence of illegal fishing including the carcass of a pregnant whale shark, which the press seized upon.
Following subsequent protest by Beijing and an insistence that the vessel was within 'traditional' Chinese territorial waters, both Indonesia and the Philippines backed Vietnam in the matter and PRC Coast Guard ships were sighted accompanying vessels illegally fishing in 'disputed' waters across the South China Sea, bullying not only Vietnamese ships but Indonesian, Filipino and Malaysian crews as well. Coupled with this were armed 'anti-piracy' vigilantes formed by angered fishing communities that would accompany local fishing crews, ostensibly claiming to deter pirates but in truth targeting Chinese fishing vessels, resorting to tactics such as ramming, throwing missiles or even hijackings.
Beijing and the Pro-China Lobby fervently expressed outrage - reports of PRC Coast Guard searching, seizing and even firing upon foreign vessels within the disputed territories of the South China Sea increased, which in turn led to both naval intervention from Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, with their own Coast Guard maneuvering to escort fishing crews within their territorial waters. Maritime skirmishes between the PRC, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines sporadically took place within the South China Sea, with neither side acknowledging fault, blaming one another for attacks on civilian shipping and funding piracy and terrorism. Only Malaysia and Taiwan stood apart from the conflict, instead pushing for a diplomatic solution. Ultimately, western contemporaries credited the intervention of the Royal Australian Navy and diplomatic undertakings from Canberra and Taipei as one of several reasons that the conflict did not escalate into a major war between the powers of the South China Sea, given both Vietnam and China's nuclear capabilities.
The Partition of Imperial Japan
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The splitting of Imperial Japan between Soviet and American controlled zones after the Soviets attacked Japan in an alternate World War II. In this timeline, the Soviets got the northern half, while the US got the southern half and also gained Korea as a protectorate. The Soviets mismanaged their part of Japan.
The War of Dread
A colloquial name for WWI in a TL where the war stalemated for seven years, lasting until 1921 when all the conflicting powers fell into ruin and civil war and deaths by suicide outnumbered deaths by enemy fire on the Front. Said civil wars are usually lumped into the greater 1914 - 1952 era in European history usually called "The Bleeding" by the general public even if historians object to the name. When the New European Community finally rose above its many, many competitors in 1952 to dominate the European continent many hoped it would be a chance to finally rebuild the shattered continent. However, the Polish Crisis of 1955 and the subsequent four year Baltic War would once again dampen the light of peace in Europe and many nations on the Continent are still struggling to rebuild even five decades later. Dictatorships and despotic military rule are commonplace as many pin most of the blame for Europe's current state of affairs on the Dread War.
The Land of the Fading Sun
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Maneater
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Rockitfest 2014
Albums from the 60s Californian shakers [rock group] Eyes of Zorro who became international music stars in the wake of the British development of shake music first introduced to the Californian Republic at the 1964 festival in the small town of Rockit.
Their peak could be claimed with the 1971 album and tour Rockitfest 2014, a highly extravagant popera [musical]-esque show in mock futuristic style that spawned the Rocket genre of shake [think Queen and similar theatrical bands].
The 2014 film "trilogy" Rockitfest starring tribute band Highs of Sorrow was critically acclaimed and brought the music to a new generation of fans.
Sons of Vice
A famous Californian movie about the infamous Florida Cartel. The movie follows two Carolinian brothers who move to Florida to escape trouble at home, only to delve deep into the San Agustin underworld. The film won several Harvey awards, though it closely lost out for Best Film, ironically to another movie about cartels.
A Thousand Shards of Glass
English-language international title for the 1978 Mexican telenovela Mil Fragmentos de Vidrio, written by Caridad Bravo Adams based on a synopsis made by famed writer Jesús Gardea, who also collaborated with the former in writing the series. Originally broadcasted from Monday to Friday at 10:00 PM on Televisión Chimeca[*], then wholly owned by the O'Farrill family, it narrated the bankruptcy, both financially and morally, of an already decadent upper-class family from the city of Chihuahua. The convulted and realistic plot of the said telenovela, completed with its natural dialogues and interconnected parallel stories, most of whom had issues that tackled on it, had radically and permanently transformed the way the Mexican telenovela was made, which was actually started in the middle 1960s in the public broadcaster Televisión Federal Mexicana (TFM) and culminated in 1986 with Televisa's Cuna de Lobos.
OOC Notes
[*]ATL name for TV Azteca, which the flagship channel in this scenario is in Channel 4.
Selva de Pedra
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Official name for part of the Amazon protected by the Brazilian Church of the Rio Pope.
Serenade of the Flute Worms
The mating dance of the Flute Worm, as described by famous biologist Richard Sittenborough.
The Finger Man
A derogatory term for a man of mixed african american-indigenous race. The term comes from the Joel McHale incident of 1925, where the Tennessee schoolteacher of black and cherokee descent was accused by student Audrey Selkirk of molesting her in the anus; in truth, she made it up in part (but not solely contrary to popular belief) because he had given her poor grades. He was lynched to death a week after it first emerged. Unfairly for him, the media would continue to demonise him for the next eight centuries.
The Devil is a Bruins fan
And often quoted saying attributed to Archbishop Christopher Cuomo of New York on the subject of his well-known love for the New York Nationals ice hockey team. This one specifically relates to the 2011 Stanley Cup playoff between the Nationals and the Boston Bruins.
The full quote goes:
"You asked me if I will be rooting for the Nationals this Saturday? Well, all I can say is: I am a Man of God, and God doesn't care about ice hockey.... But the Devil is a Bruins fan."
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Where is Waldo?
This inevitably let to much mudslinging from other sports fans, most obviously those of the Nationals, waving signs stating Satan was a Nationals fan and not a Bruins fan. Eventually every sport team's fans were doing this.
A mocking slogan the Tennessee Republican Party adopted in the early 1960's, on the presumed death of Clifford Waldo, the opposition's Nebraska-born majority leader; acquiring a mythic status who cleaned it up and brought it to new heights in the preceding decade, he mysteriously disappeared on May 12, 1962 in Utah before being declared dead in absentia. The TRP seized on it to mock and shame democrat voters who placed their faith and trust in him.
Margo Tillman Must Not Win
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A 2003 comedy about a high school student council election. The protaganist, Jamie Christenson, an athlete running for student council to fill time while he’s injured, begins an intense rivalry with the other candidate, his obnoxious, over-achieving “arch nemesis” Margo Tillman.
Black Cats
A documentary on the history of the black cat as a symbol of bad luck. This displayed on the Folklore Channel, to mixed reviews.
Scarab Special
A slang term among association football fans in mediterranean countries (most notably Kemetia and Bosphoria [ATL Egypt and Turkey]) for throwing fecal matter at the other team's own fans, either to celebrate a win or get petty revenge after a loss. It has in recently years become used to describe aggressive spiteful behaviour from a losing side.
Georgia among the Dinosaurs
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