After about a year of talking about it, Mike and Max finally got off their duffs and created the oft-discussed, much-doubted secret internet web page known only, mysteriously, as the Words for Dinner "Show Notes." Did it really happen? Are we really real boys? The answer is yes. Behold, the elusive "Show Notes" page, a catalog of cultural references, literary texts, quotes, articles, and general miscellany that have been referenced on the air.
Episode 26 - 2018 Words of the Year
- Interstitial music in the Appetizer is excerpted from an AZWZ remix of "Go Go," by BTS.
- "Abannition," from Thomas Blount's Glossographia (presumably a noun), meant "a banishing for a year, properly among the Greeks, for manslaughter."
- Max gives an incorrect definition for Blount's "abone," which meant "to make good or seasonable, to ripen (from the Italian abonare)."
Episode 25 - Morbid
- Interstitial music in the Appetizer is excerpted from "Rapture," by Morbid Angel, and "Last Supper," by the Swedish band Morbid
- Mike is drinking Crystal Light in this episode
- The defunct Morbid Anatomy Museum referred to by Mike is apparently experiencing an unholy renaissance at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY
- The eerily-popular Mutter Museum in Philadelphia
- Read Nightmare Abbey, by Thomas Love Peacock, in its entirety
Snack! for Poindexter
- "Felix the Cat" music by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra
- "Felix Gets the Can," silent cartoon from 1925
Episode 22 - Poindexter
- Max can't quite remember the name of the villain from Sonic the Hedgehog, whom Mike later names as Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik
- Later, Max also forgets the very obvious name of the actor who plays Marty McFly in Back to the Future - Michael J. Fox
- The debatable origin episode of Poindexter in the 1950's-era Felix the Cat cartoon was "Felix Baby Sits"
- Perhaps the most famous silent cartoon ever, "Steamboat Willie," starred Felix's dubious cousin, Mickey Mouse
Episode 21 - Popcorn
- A reference is made to Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States
- Twenty-six of the most bizarre popcorn flavors
- Three of the real popcorn products referenced in the Infinite Game of All Time Forever - #1, #2, and #3
Episode 20 - 2017 Year In Review
- Christopher Walken reading the children's book, Three Little Pigs
- Parody from The Simpsons of Christopher Walken reading The Cow Jumped Over the Moon
- Complete Elf Quest Vol. 1, by Wendy Pini
- Otherworld Barbara, by Moto Hegio
- Quantum Lyrics, by A. Van Jordan
- Full Velvet, by Jenny Johnson
- Inside A Silver Box, by Walter Mosley
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemison
- Trevor Noah's autobiography
- Best American Sci Fi, first edition, edited by John Joseph Adams
- Burning Chrome, by William Gibson
- Above My Head, by James Baldwin
Episode 19 - Sentimental
- Max incorrectly states the name of the author of The Jungle as Sinclair Lewis. It is actually Upton Sinclair. (Sinclair Lewis is another guy.)
- James Baldwin's Everyone's Protest Novel
- Rights of the Reader by Daniel Pennac
- Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures by Mary Ruefle
- The Empathy Exams, by Leslie Jamison
- Interview with Leslie Jamison in The Atlantic - "What's Wrong With Sentimentality?"
- The Sentimental Agents In The Volyen Empire, book 5 in the series 'Canopus In Argos: Archives' by Doris Lessing
- "Nakedie Heartie!"
Episode 18 - Deja Vu
- The television show Fringe
- Appetizer interstitial music - "Deja Vu" by Dionne Warwick
- "Adam's Curse," by Yeats
Episode 17 - Apple
- http://www.barrypopik.com
- American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
- Jenny Johnson poems
- Wood apple how-to video from Migrationology Youtube series
- Interstitial music - Isaac Hayes
Version: 20240320