Have you noticed... ?
Some of the references in Yvelheim:
- Introduction Page
- "Yvel" is "Levy" backwards. Yarvis was a stupid and
inept character of mine in a role-playing game run by Goldenflame. Blovis
was the mangling of an abbreviation for black olives at a pizzeria, but its
risqué made-up meaning quickly became a running gag. These words have
other uses now: "Yarvis" is a call to someone unseen.
"Blovis" is the response call. The previous incarnations of
Yvelheim had the words "Reality stops here" under the Blimix logo.
(It now says, "Reality starts here.")
"What, you're still here? The introduction is over!" is a
reference to the end of the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". The pi symbol
in the lower right is a reference to the movie "The Net" ("a
movie so bad that even Sandra Bullock in a bikini couldn't save it").
- The House
- "Vin.13.10" is a footnote to The Boomer Bible by R.F.
Laird. The arrow reading, "Thwpp: 6.46 miles" is a reference to
Tenebrus' arrow to the Archie Bunker Chair, with the distance changed.
"Weak-minded fools" is a reference to "Return of the
Jedi". "How can a jumprope be poly-fi?" is a parody of a
"Peanuts" quote, "How can a jumprope be hi-fi?"
"Don Alfonzo's tweezers" is a reference to So Long, And Thanks
For All The Fish by Douglas Adams. "I loved the lemon meringue
pie" was told by my uncle-to-be to his girlfriend's mother, my
grandmother. So she baked him a lemon meringue pie every time he visited.
He hates lemon meringue pie. "The comfy chair" is a reference to
the Spanish Inquisition skit from "Monty Python's Flying Circus".
Myrtle was a small stuffed cow, who left Tommy Sciacca's
possession without his consent to travel the world in the apron of a high
ranking Hooter's hostess. (Myrtle returned to Tommy a year later.)
- The Smart-ass Cashier
- In case you didn't catch it, "Part i" means it was imaginary.
- Exploring
- The mountain is based on Crane Mountain (in the southern
Adirondacks), where the pictures were taken. Have you tried swimming immediately after lunch? "Demons
skate over
you" is a reference to Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry
Pratchett. ("And the road to hell is paved with good intentions. (This
is not actually true. The road to Hell is paved with frozen door-to-door
salesmen. On weekends many of the younger demons go ice-skating down
it.)") Talking to the
initially unresponding beaver is meant to be reminiscent of a similar scene
from The Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson,
involving a badger. Dentist Rabbit was the protagonist in a series of improvised
stories told long ago by my grandfather. You'd better have gotten "M.
Fibian". "We can't all have beverage teleporters and
usenet access" is a reference to the lair of the dragon Wyve in "Images,"
by Rachel Schwartz. The pit is a heffalump trap, the shards of pottery left
from Pooh's honey pot after the events described in Winnie-The-Pooh by
A.A. Milne. The filename thot.html (contemplating silence in the pine grove)
is a reference to Pooh's "thotful spot". The attack frog is based
upon two such beasts that I have encountered, though I was fortunate
enough not to suffer their wrath. "Peter! Peter! I can see my house
from here!" is the punchline to a joke about Jesus. It is there because
the house where I used to stay can be seen from the equivalent lookout on
Crane Mountain.
- The Realm of Air
- If you have found the Key of Air, it is expected that you have caught
the references scattered thickly throughout the Realm of Air. Its primary
inhabitant is a bit of an airhead. The technobabble is in the
style of Star Trek, as is the plight of "those nice people from that
starship". "Most of it seemed to make some kind of sense at the
time" is a quote from Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The
Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. "Put the dangly bit in the tea" is
one of the commands needed to assemble the infinite improbability drive in
the Infocom game based upon the same book. The leaving of the Realm of Air
is a tribute to Warner Brothers cartoons (exemplified by "Roadrunner vs.
the Coyote").
"Nor was that the only amusement," repeatedly standing alone, is
meant to be reminiscent of The Boomer Bible.
- The Realm of Earth
- If you don't recognize the name of the inhabitant (once you've figured it
out), ask someone or Google it.
- Metaland
- "Robster Craws" and "Frush" refer to the movie
"Revenge of the Nerds". "Gim," "nummy,"
"bop" and "lello" are RachelSpeak words, though
"Bop" was originated by Isaac Asimov. "Stimpy" refers to
the cartoon "Ren and Stimpy". "Bleem" is the integer
between three and four. (This really screws up arithmetic, but in a fun way.
Bleem is a bastardization of "bleen," invented by George Carlin.
("The Nobel Prize in mathematics was awarded to a California professor
who has discovered a new number! The number is bleen, which he claims belongs
between 6 and 7.")
"Dankeschmeckle" is a word made up by Tenebrus, as a response to
a harsh comment. "Fourteen" is a reference to the question of
whether one can aspire to be the number fourteen (from Professor Zenzen's Philosophy
of Mathematics class). Fourteen is also a baker's buttload
(coined by Jen Tallon), because a buttload is thirteen. (A buttload is
thirteen because a drunk Delta Phi brother once phoned in an order for "a
buttload of chicken," which the employee took to mean the thirteen-piece
meal.)
A Selmer (named for Professor Selmer Bringsjord, who
teaches Philosophy of A.I.) is a unit equal to tangents per second.
"Kweepa"
and "$CATACOMB" are references to the maze of catacombs in the hilarious
Infocom game "Leather Goddesses of Phobos". "Woozle" is
from A.A. Milne's "Winnie-The-Pooh". "Forty-two,"
"Whop," and "Foop" are references to the Hitchhiker's
trilogy. Bogart is my stuffed psychedelic frog. (Yes, it is named after
Humphrey Bogart.) "ROFL" and "ROFLMAO" are acronyms for
"Rolling On the Floor, Laughing" and "Rolling On the Floor
Laughing My Ass Off" respectively. Ivanovah is a character from the
television series "Babylon 5". Calvinball is from the comic strip
"Calvin and Hobbes". "Grok" is a reference to Robert
Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. "Quadell" is what
the "Q" in "MyQ" stands for. "Zorkmid" is a reference to Infocom's
Zork series. "Flush" refers to the "I found Jimmy
Hoffa!" / "Did you remember to flush?" in-joke.
"Absarka" was the answer received when Jen Tallon's history teacher
climbed a mountain, found an old Native American sitting at the top, and
asked him for some words of wisdom. (He says it changed his life.)
"Rabbi Nussbaum" refers to Mad Magazine #270, which features a
priest pretending to be a rabbi. The yak shaving
certificate is a reference to a similar one that was received in real life by
MyQ, from an anonymous sender.
- The Gauntlet
- "Schwertfisch" is one of the possible passwords to the thieves'
guild in the original "Quest For Glory: So You Want To Be A Hero."
"Ken sent me" is the password to the pimp in "Leisure Suit
Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards". "My voice is my
passport" was part of a password in the movie "Sneakers".
"Peekaboo" was (I think) Scotty's password/authorization code for
enabling the Enterprise's self-destruct mechanism.
Four cuts / eleven pieces is a reference to an ancient mathematical problem:
Into how many sections can you divide a convex, two-dimensional figure (such
as a square) by drawing N lines through it? The behavior of the pizza
elementals is a parody of the "Dungeons and Dragons" games.
- The Cathedral of Fate
- "Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs" is a "Calvin and
Hobbes" reference.
- The Book of Answers
- "Eat mountains of olives" is a reference to the Dan Byrne song
"Jerusalem".
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