Cunard-Salusian longliner RMS Princess Leeanna - Cunard-Salusian Spacelines Ltd. was formed in the mid-21st century by the merger of Cunard Spacelines (the starfaring arm of the renowned Earth shipping company) and Salusian Line Ltd, the Salusian spaceliner flag carrier, and originally maintained largely separate operations based on Earth and Salusia. It remains Salusia's flag carrier today, the Earth end of the business having been shut down during one of that planet's more disruptive world wars.

A longliner is a specific type of starliner used on longer hyperspace routes, hence the name. This is a subjective matter and sometimes grounds for contention among spaceflight fanciers, but with its first leg stretching from Zipang in the Enigma sector clear to Zeltos IV, the route the Princess Leeanna customarily follows certainly qualifies.

The "RMS" prefix stands for Royal Mail Starship, and indicates that C-S is under contract with the Royal Salusian Postal Service to carry mail on vessels so designated.

The Princess Leeanna is unusual among C-S vessels in that it's named not for a historical Salusian queen, but instead Princess Leeanna of Zardon, one of Her Salusian Majesty Asrial I's oldest friends.

the moon is beautiful tonight - In Japanese (and evidently Fire Nation Kokugo), the sentence Tsuki ga kirei, desu ne? ("The moon is beautiful, isn't it?") is a traditional euphemism for a confession of love, and comes (IRL, at least) from the work of Meiji-era novelist Natsume Sōsuke.

Interestingly, Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi and his flag captain, Tomeo Kaku, were observed spending some of their last moments alive admiring the moon together before going down with the sinking aircraft carrier Hiryū during the Battle of Midway in 1942. The last exchange reported between them by witnesses who survived the sinking has Yamaguchi remarking, "Let us enjoy the beauty of the moon together," and Kaku replying, "How bright it shines; it must be in its 21st day."

it's obvious "Winter Days" is about me - The lyrics to this canonical HTT song feature in the first K-On! TV series' episode of the same title; after writing them, Mio leaves a printout in Ritsu's mailbox unsigned and without explanation, ostensibly seeking comment, and Ritsu mistakes them for an anonymous love note (which, given the content, would be extremely easy to do). Hilarious(?) misunderstandings(?) ensue.

you guys are as obvious as a weaselmonkey on cactus juice - The original form of this remark, said by someone at WPI in the Elder Days, was "You guys are as obvious as a weasel on acid."

Reddi-Wip - Other brands of spray-can whipped cream are available, but not as good.

the Bauhaus aesthetic - The Bauhaus was a German art school that existed briefly between the two 20th-century World Wars, being established after World War I and closed in 1933 (the Nazis thought it was an incubator for Communism, and in any case didn't hold with anything aesthetically modern). Its architectural style was an extension of the earlier German Neues Bauen ("new buildings") movement, which aimed for clean lines and functional simplicity. Not to be confused with the English goth rock band of the same name.

Handel House - George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), originally Georg Friederich Händel, was one of the most prominent composer-musicians of the Baroque period. He anglicized his name after moving from his native Brandenburg to London in 1710, as a member of the court of Prince George, Elector of Hanover (who became King George I of Great Britain in 1714).

could just as easily have been Haydn House - After Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), an Austrian Classical composer and a mentor of Mozart.

I'm old, and old people need lots of rest - It's worth keeping in mind that at the time of this scene, Kate is all of twenty-one.

Chapter 21

the DSM Campus Map - As seen here.

Churchill Hall - The music building at DSM is named not for Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, the famous former Prime Minister, but rather Lieutenant Colonel John M.T.F. "Mad Jack" Churchill, DSO & Bar, MC & Bar (1906–1996), the bagpiping, sword-swinging, longbow-shooting British Army officer who once remarked, "Any officer who goes into battle without his sword is improperly dressed."

Corrigan Stadium - This building's namesake is aviator Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan (1907–1995), who earned his nickname and notoriety in 1938 by "accidentally" flying from Brooklyn to Ireland instead of his documented destination, Long Beach, California, after official permission to carry out the flight to Ireland was denied due to the dilapidated condition of his aging Curtiss Robin. To the end of his life, Corrigan insisted (with little credibility) that he had simply misread his compass in his aircraft's poorly lit cockpit.

Stanley Shops - Named for the Stanley brothers, Francis (1849–1918) and Freelan (1849–1940), founders of the Stanley Motor Carriage Company (of steam car fame).

Mandeville Hall - Despite the fact that the school and its administration building are named after the late Deedlit Satori Mandeville, some choose to believe that the admin building is named in honor of Sir John Mandeville, the probably pseudonymous author of the wildly popular, heavily fictionalized 14th-century travel book The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (from whom ReRob Mandeville claimed descent, tongue in cheek, despite the fact that Sir John almost certainly never existed).

Mandeville's Travels are the classic medieval travelogue, fixated on the Mysterious East and replete with wondrous descriptions of foreign lands, peoples, and wildlife that bear only a passing resemblance to reality. It is said to have been, a century-plus after its appearance, one of the books that inspired the Genovese navigator Cristoforo Colombo to undertake his explorations of (what he thought was) the East.

Knox Hall - Formally Henry Knox Hall, this building honors General Henry "Ox" Knox (1750–1806), the American Revolutionary War hero and first United States Secretary of War.

the Panzer IV - The Armor Club's example is a Panzerkampfwagen IV (SdKfz 161) Ausführung F1, the last model of Panzer IV to be equipped with the short 7.5cm KwK 37 l/24 howitzer. (This is the form of the tank that the Ōarai Academy Sensha-dō team starts with at the beginning of Girls und Panzer.)

The Ausf. F1 represents a transition in the use doctrine of the Panzer IV. As originally developed in the mid-1930s, the Panzer IV was intended as a support tank which would mostly engage fixed fortifications and infantry, while its stablemate the Panzer III carried a long-barreled anti-armor gun and was meant to fight enemy tanks. By the time the Ausf. F came along in 1941, it was clear that bigger anti-tank guns would be needed to match the advancing state of the art in armor protection, and the Panzer III's turret could not be made to accommodate them, so the Panzer IV's production line was changed to fit the tanks with a longer 7.5cm gun capable of taking on that role. The first ones to be fitted with the longer gun were otherwise identical to the Ausf. F, so they were designated Ausf. F2 (with the short-barreled variant retroactively redesignated Ausf. F1).

The side-view photo of the Ausf. F1 that is on Wikipedia at the time of this writing also gives a good view of the turret side door Yukari leans out of in the scene where the tank is featured. (She's actually on the starboard side of the tank, but there's a door just like the one pictured on that side of the turret as well.)

a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun - Specifically an M19 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage, which was basically an M5 Stuart light tank hull with a turret mounting two 40mm Bofors AA guns on it. These vehicles would require a referee's ruling to qualify for an orthodox Armorsport match, since they were designed and built during World War II, but didn't see active service until the Korean War. (And never mind that there are no airplanes in Armorsport.)

some sort of cooking competition - "The Institute Cooking Club Presents Iron Chef in the Park"

British Aerospace Sea Harrier FA2 - The last variant of the Sea Harrier, which was the original carrier-based naval variant of the now-venerable Harrier Jump Jet family. Produced in the 1980s and '90s, they were retired by the Royal Navy in 2006.

the Institute Volunteer Ambulance Corps - Inspired by the real-life University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, which provides EMS for the University of Maine campus out of a garage adjacent to the campus health center. The AV-4 is the traditional AV employed by Trauma Team detachments in Cyberpunk 2020.

a sleek, bullet-shaped white car - A General Motors Firebird I, which was a 1953 concept car developed by GM's engineers to test the feasibility of gas turbine-powered automobiles. (Spoiler: They weren't.) The Motor Club's is probably a reproduction, since only one real Firebird I was ever built.

There were four turbine-powered GM Firebirds, each unique and each shown off as a prototype of the Car of the Future at Motorama shows in the 1950s and 1960s. (They have no relation to the car of that name produced from 1967 to 2002 by GM's Pontiac division.) Weirdly, Firebirds I through III are now in the collection of the Henry Ford Museum, despite having been built by General Motors. Firebird IV was converted into a different show car in the '60s and later destroyed.

Despite Mio initially taking it for a wingless airplane, the Firebird I does in fact have stubby wings, on which are mounted its aircraft-style drag brakes.

GM-79D Gunslinger II Destroid - The UF version of the nameless "GM" mass-production Mobile Suit from the Mobile Suit Gundam universe. By giving it a proper name, we made it more survivable. The "Gunslinger II" variant is akin to the real-life "Super Hornet" models of the F/A-18 fighter-bomber—bigger, badder, pretty much an entirely new platform that just looks a lot like the old one.

another, smaller tank that had a similar design language - Miho's Panzer II Luchs from DSMP-PF 02 "Mail Call".

a taller, narrower tank covered in rivets - A Japanese Type 89B I-Gō Otsu medium tank, first fielded in 1934. Although the original design dated to 1928 and, by 1934, was antiquated in terms of its armament and armor plan (it had a short 57mm howitzer-type gun and riveted armor), the Otsu was the first mass-production tank in the world to be fitted with a diesel engine.

In Girls und Panzer, the Ōarai Academy "Duck Team", formerly the volleyball club, operates a Type 89B.

the Kettenkrad - Known as the SdKfz 2 on its driver's license, the Kettenkrad (a contraction of kleines Kettenkraftrad, "small tracked motorcycle") is basically just like it's described, a motorcycle halftrack, built in Germany during World War II. They were originally developed as small artillery tractors to be glider-deployed with airborne troops, but were popular with Wehrmacht soldiers for their handiness and agility. The Luftwaffe also used them as airfield tractors.

the Time Travel Club - This table is a joke. Probably.

Chapter 22

Supply and Logistics Command - Support ships are relatively few in Kancolle, since the game is mainly about combat and they don't do any, but there are a handful. Hayasui here is the closest thing to a freighter that's been introduced (although the food supply ships, Mamiya and Irako, could also make a case for consideration).

I've taken the liberty of installing the first such kit - In my original plan for this gag (which started back in the last episode of season 1), Minami was just going to mail the first kit to Ritsu in a box and let her install it herself, but when things developed such that HTT would be going to Jeraddo, I realized she wouldn't be able to resist putting it on herself if she had the bike available and Ritsu wasn't using it. From there, it was further obvious that she wouldn't stop there. It's just how she is. :)

call me Shoebill - I knew from the start that Iwabi and Tsuchinoko were going to be involved in Kaban and Serval's expedition, but until I wrote this scene, I wasn't sure whether anyone else would be joining them. I felt like the band needed more than four people in it, so the question then became who else would tag along. My initial thought was Raccoon and Fennec, but then I had the image of Shoebill as bass player and couldn't set it aside. Seven would've been too many, so the Raccoon and Fennec Show will have to wait... at least for now.

Sandstar covering Powerman 5000 - Another option that was on the table until quite late in the process was "Word Up" by Cameo, which would have given them a... different vibe. I can't see Kaban agreeing to wear the codpiece, though.

they're already got cool stage names - I mean, it is the most logical explanation. (It's also a useful coincidence that none of the Friends who have come to Jeraddo is an animal the girls from Dìqiú would have heard of, so it's not quite obvious to HTT just what Sandstar's "theme" is--just that they must have one.)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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