AH Cultural Descriptions

A Snowball Down the Slopes of Mt Ararat
Common saying, etymology unknown, likely dating back to 5th-century Norse Christians, being taken to the pagan Picts in the 11th Century via the Vikings. Earliest documented use is in a 13th-century Shetland monastery. Meaning: a weak or pathetic comeback, generally to a lost argument; believed to be referencing a single folkloric snowball trying to maintain Noah's Flood, having noticed that sin still remained in the world.
See also: The Runaway Pancake

The Containment of Truck-Kun
 
No Independence Before Minority Rule (NIBMIR)
The slogan for the white population of the American colony in Kenya, who fought against independence (America was trying to divest the colony responsibly and had to deal with squabbling locals who couldn't agree on the new form of government of the independent state) until an agreement could be made to effectively give the white population near-total autonomy in several coastal regions of the colony.

Victory Cancer
 
Victory Cancer
The widespread sickness (not all technically cancers) that afflicted North America after WWIII - name was popularised after propaganda documentaries showing what life was like in the former Soviet Union (basically a high level version of "if you think I look bad, wait till you see the other guy").

The Siege of New Zealand (Fifth Anglo-Dutch War)
 
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The Siege of New Zealand (Fifth Anglo-Dutch War)

The Siege of New Zealand as a 12 month long siege by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force against the Dutch empire in 1962. The English and commonwealth forces stated goal was to block New Zealand from South Africa and other Dutch colonies who were still engaged in the slave trade. Eventually the New Zealanders capitulated and New Zealand later became a major staging point for the Pacific War against the Dutch.

The Loyal and Ancient Society of Snake Handlers
 
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META reminder
META:

Please remember to keep the things you describe to 'cultural objects' - i.e. books, plays, musical pieces / albums, foods, works of art, TV shows, etc.

Quotations, nicknames, and descriptions generally should go in other threads, especially the specific "AH Quote" thread.


Hope everyone is staying warm or cool, depending on where you live!

Cheers,
Ganesha
 
The Loyal and Ancient Society of Snake Handlers
Allegedly dating back to Vannic times up to the rise of Islam, the Kargêrêmars are a monastic kurdish order also known by this translation, who spread as far west as Libya. Their name comes from iconography of them capturing and destroying snakes, a symbol of evil. They gave rise to the minority religion Kargeremism, which currently numbers as of 2021 just 118 followers.

Some biblical scholars assume these are a form of early christianity, but its highly unlikely.

The Sable Island Creature
 

oboro

Banned
META:

Please remember to keep the things you describe to 'cultural objects' - i.e. books, plays, musical pieces / albums, foods, works of art, TV shows, etc.

Quotations, nicknames, and descriptions generally should go in other threads, especially the specific "AH Quote" thread.


Hope everyone is staying warm or cool, depending on where you live!

Cheers,
Ganesha
I kind of forget which thread I’m in from time to time...
 
META:

Please remember to keep the things you describe to 'cultural objects' - i.e. books, plays, musical pieces / albums, foods, works of art, TV shows, etc.

Quotations, nicknames, and descriptions generally should go in other threads, especially the specific "AH Quote" thread.


Hope everyone is staying warm or cool, depending on where you live!

Cheers,
Ganesha

I kind of forget which thread I’m in from time to time...
TBF, I think everyone in this thread is also in the Quote thread, and I think I've seen some in the AH Titles thread (in post-1900).
 
The Sable Island Creature

A Canadian short story by writer Elina S. Burroughs, published in 1892. Considered an early example of "monster horror", the story involves a young woman, Rose Goodnight-Johnson, investigating the disappearance of her brother, a police investigator who had been summoned to the island. One of the first popular stories in Canadian fiction to feature a female lead character, the story popularized detective fiction as a genre aimed at female readers. Burroughs went on to write 11 more novels and short stories featuring the Goodnight-Johnson character, before controversially marrying her off in 1914's Rose's Wedding. Despite her novels, Burroughs was not a feminist and believed married women should not work.

The Mystical, No. VII

Cheers,
Ganesha
 
The Mystical, No. VII
Seventh movie in The Mystical Saga, it premiered 23 years after the sixth installment. The Mystical Saga tells the story of orphaned siblings Isabella, Mark and Jonathan Davies, who travel to a magical world known as The Mystical and fight in the war against the evil emperor and eventually help free it. They never returned to Earth and instead create a new life for themselves in The Mystical. It was notable for how much the main characters age and mature through the story. In The Mystical, No. I, released in 1980, Isabella and Mark are teenagers and Jonathan is a child. In The Mystical, No. VI, released in 1995, all three are adults and have been through a lot. Isabella is married with children and balances motherhood with her position as a rebel leader, Mark is trying to redeem himself after spending time as the emperor's enforcer and is willing to do whatever it takes to end the war, and Jonathan is a hardened warrior.
The movies were extremely popular and people all over the world rejoiced when Universal announced that they would make six more Mystical movies in 2014. The Mystical No. VII was mostly well received but it angered many fans due to controversial additions to the lore, Jonathan's offscreen death (the actor didn't want to return) and the revelation that Isabella's son was evil and had murdered his uncle.

(OoC: I got way too much into this and now I want this movies, which are a cross between Narnia and Star Wars, to exist)

WandaVision
 
WandaVision
WandaVision is a once-per-episode sight gag used by Wanda in The Fairly OddParents by Nickelodeon. The concept is simple: comic relief cloudcuckoolander Wanda sees the world in a ridiculous way, often in a way that helps resolve a plot point (or obviously does- too obvious for Wanda). It was also frequently used to include visual puns, funny backgrounds events for the main scene, and parental bonuses, and was very often used to confound or contrast with the Spock expy Cosmo. Animated in an unusual pseudo-cel CGI, the style was unused in other Nickelodeon productions, but was occasionally referenced by comedy shows when Fairly Oddparents went off the air- especially The Late Show with Steven Colbert, whose son was an avid fan.

Universal Serial Bus
 
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Whitewings

Banned
WandaVision is a once-per-episode sight gag used by Wanda in The Fairly OddParents by Nickelodeon. The concept is simple: comic relief cloudcuckoolander Wanda sees the world in a ridiculous way, often in a way that helps resolve a plot point (or obviously does- too obvious for Wanda). It was also frequently used to include visual puns, funny backgrounds events for the main scene, and parental bonuses, and was very often used to confound or contrast with the Spock expy Cosmo. Animated in an unusual pseudo-cel CGI, the style was unused in other Nickelodeon productions, but was occasionally referenced by comedy shows when Fairly Oddparents went off the air- especially The Late Show with Steven Colbert, whose son was an avid fan.

Universal Serial Bus
A curious slice-of-life series focussed on the sometimes unwitting passengers on the eponymous Bus, a vehicle of seemingly endless interior capacity which travels both regular roads and the “electron highway,” a quasi-mystical pathway between universes, visiting a long, but by no means endless, series of stops. The primary draw of the series is the often complex relationship between characters, especially ones from different universes. For example, a Chinese-descended multidisciplinary engineer in one episode claims an abandoned slave girl, whom she then acts to protect from exploitation while slowly encouraging the girl’s capacity for judgement and initiative, often over the objections of more idealistic or moralistic passengers. Some episodes take place entirely on the bus, others are set around various stops. The title itself is a mistranslation of the Japanese “All Destination Bus Route.”

Into the Mystic
 
Into the Mystic
1980 high fantasy film produced by Universal Studios about three orphaned siblings (Isabella, Mark and Jonathan Davies) who enter what they term "the Mystic" through a circle of mushrooms underneath the abandoned orphanage they stayed at when they were younger, before being moved to a foster family. Using groundbreaking special efects, including some pioneering practical effects, this first film shows the siblings simply learning to survive in this new world (though with Isabella and Mark reconciling some personal issues, and Jonathan learning to be more responsible). Intended to be the first part in a hexology of films, The Mystic franchise is both the first original epic fantasy work for film and the first live-action fantasy work; this is noteworthy because the inspiration- the Bakshi-Rankin-Bass Lord of the Rings hexology was both animated and based on a pre-existing property. Rings was also noted- as stated by many critics today- to have faced problems in the adaptation, largely because the process was so new, and also because The War of the Ring had only just come out, while The Third Age Ends was only in production, so the entire process was unproven.

The world itself combines elements from C.S. Lewis' Narnia series and the works of Ursula LeGuin, especially Earthsea. Due to the latter's influence, there are an increasing number of nonwhite characters as the series progresses; in this first film, however, the characters are mostly white- a product of it's time. According to the writers and producers, the majority of the cast- including the Trio themselves- were originally intended to be mixed-race, while the various Mystic peoples were supposed to have skins that varied even within individual families (with comparisons made to the San people in Africa); however, Universal nixed the idea of mixed-race protagonists, while the casting director was unable to find enough actors with intermediate hair and skin tones for a mixed-race world.

Universal received much criticism for their decision to not allow for mixed-race protagonists; however, the failure of multiple films starring black actors throughout the 1980s in theaters and television, most notably The Epic of Mwindo in 1983 and The Terminator in 1984 shows that this may have been the correct action on the part of the studio.

GURPS Changeling the Lost
 
GURPS Changeling the Lost
White Wolf Studios folded into bankruptcy in 2011, and Steve Jackson Games bought the rights to all 'New World of Darkness' content. They then reworked the games to work as GURPS systems - lightening the tones of the games quite a bit in the process, but retaining the core premises. This was not well received by many fans of the original games, but the GURPS-ified versions ended up outselling all the originals by a significant margin. The 'Old World of Darkness' material was bought by Wizards of the Coast, though they didn't end up doing anything with them until 2020, when they re-released the oWoD content, updating the rules, but still keeping the same basic structure and tone.

The Twitpocalypse.
 
The Twitpocalypse.
In 1850, presidential candidate Pliny Moody (R-Ohio) gave this speech about how those of the lower-class, which he called twits, after an old british slang, were seemingly to increase influence on those of the upper, and that spelt doom for America's sacred institutions.
His campaign was not successful.

The Black Richard Owen: The Life of John H. Henry and the History of african-american Palaeontology
 

oboro

Banned
In 1850, presidential candidate Pliny Moody (R-Ohio) gave this speech about how those of the lower-class, which he called twits, after an old british slang, were seemingly to increase influence on those of the upper, and that spelt doom for America's sacred institutions.
His campaign was not successful.

The Black Richard Owen: The Life of John H. Henry and the History of african-american Palaeontology
(Apologies in advance if I’ve got the wrong John Henry here)

Academic study of the career of John Henry - who began his scientific career in the most unlikely of ways. A strong laborer, he finally lost his job to technical advances such as the steam drill. After years digging tunnels, though, he was more acquainted with geology than the average layman, and was hired by Othniel Charles Marsh to help with dinosaur excavations. He left to pursue his own ideas as the Bone Wars heated up, and started the paleontology department at Howard University. His life is now almost the story of legend.

A Most Diverse Royal Family
 
A Most Diverse Royal Family
A biography of the Reşâd family since the ascension of Mehmed V in 1909 to the ascension of Abdulmejid III, published in 2012. After his alliance with the Allies in the Great War, the Reşâd family began intermarrying with any vaguely royal lineages worldwide, leading to a highly diverse royal lineage and a broad spectrum of alliances.

Wyrm by Wildbow
 
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