A conversation - well, more of a ramble - I just had:
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jenett snerks. Someone wrote a book about the history of tonic water.
I say "Chinchona! Chinchona!"
I say "... that was more weirdly obscure than usual, thank you, brain."
Jenett hahs, at oblique bit of research necessary for describing someone's drinks cabinet.
I say "Dear brain, references to comics that were probably published twenty years before you were born are probably unnecessary."
I say "Also unfindable on image search for easy reference explanation, I would have to go find it in the attic. :P"
Jenett grins.
I say "I mean I suspect you can deduce 60% of the joke."
Jenett says "I think so, yes."
I say "The part that isn't obvious from it is that the reason the character shouted 'Chinchona! Chinchona!' was he was being tutored in being a movie star dog and thus he needed to try out a foreign bark."
Jenett says "Ah!"
I say "Leading to dialogue that went osmething like, '... Chinchona? Is that a foreign bark?' 'It sho nuff is, they makes quinine out of it.'"
Jenett nods.
I say "The fact that the character learning to be a movie star dog was an alligator is peripheral to this conversation."
Jenett giggles.
fiver says "Ah, early comics."
I say "He was being tutored by a dog, who, when it was suggested that he might do better at being a dog than the alligator, was scandalized because that wouldn't be _acting_."
I say "Wait wait I've found something just before that in the sequence."
I say "
https://tinyurl.com/y62trsvl"
Jenett says "I was thinking it was Pogo."
I say "Well, the alligator, the accent, the sense of humor, and the me all point that way."
Jenett says "They do, rather."
I say "Okay I tracked the riff down to July 1955 which may help me find it in a book if I want to but I am not going to rabbithole ANY MORE RIGHT NOW."
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