Inspired by the dictionary-lookup action of Defective Yeti's nanoremo, I've decided to document the cultural allusions I need to lookup (and will admit to) in order to understand the cultural witticisms of the novel, Special Topics in Calamity Physics.

Introduction

p.7 : "(He resembled Alice B. Toklas with that specter-mustache.)"

p.8 : "It was unmistakable -- her low voice of sex and highways, equal parts Marilyn and Charles Kuralt, but it had changed."

p.11 : "Charles was St. Gallway's dreamboat, its Doctor Zhivago, its Destry Rides Again."

p.12 : " 'I sing of arms and of the man, fated to be an exile,' Zolo had sung only a few weeks ago, bizarrely tapping his foot on every other word so the cuffs of his plaid pants raised and you caught an unwelcome glimpse of his toothpick ankles and dainty while socks"

Part 1:
Chapter #1: OTHELLO, William Shakespeare

p.18 : "And so my mother, "tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes / In an extravagant and wheeling stranger / Of here and everywhere," fell for Dad's tales of flood and field.

p.19 "I was five when she died, and unfortunately, unlike those geniuses who boast vivid memories of their own births ('An earthquake underwater,' said renowned physicist Johann Schweitzer of the event. 'Petrifying.'), my memory of life in Mississippi stutters and stalls like an engine that refuses to turn over."