Lockheed Electra:   the aircraft that Amelia Earhart was flying when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937

"Leave It to Beaver":   popular TV sitcom in the 1960s

Professional Wrestling:   an offshoot of "Theatre of the Absurd," in which characters engage in meaningless dialogue, repetitive actions, and incomprehensible behavior in order to demonstrate the absurdity of human existence.

Jackson Pollack:   twentieth-century abstract expressionist painter

Marionette:   a puppet; the name of the female paleontologist seeking the Erotic Manifesto

Grand Ole Opry:   a long-standing radio program originating from Nashville, featuring rhinestones, banjos, and biscuit commercials

Sherlock Holmes:   Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous Baker Street detective who occasionally shows up in the cerebral cortex of Dr. Marionette Dish

lipstick lesbian:   slang for a female homosexual who accentuates her femininity through carriage, dress, and make-up

The Undershirt Language Barrier:   an impediment to Marionette's verbal communication with various people she meets in South America

Sojourner Truth:   female civil rights advocate who fought against Jim Crow laws in the South

Moral Majority:   a minority of people who believe that Victorian morality is still the cat's pajamas

George Harrison:   member of the Beatles who popularized Eastern mysticism in the 1960s through his contact with Maharishi Mahesh-yogi

Buick Regal:   a popular American automobile manufactured by General Motors

string bikini:   a garment for circumventing prohibitions against nudity at certain public beaches

romance novel:   fiction genre in which love conquers all, bosoms heave, and cowboys are the best things since sliced bread

manifesto:   a document or public declaration of information, motives, or demands by a government, sect, or group of people; believed to be of some importance

Kamasutra (sometimes written as Kama Sutra):   a text mistakenly labeled as a Hindu sex manual. The Kamasutra actually seeks to integrate sexuality into a larger context of Hindu spirituality and love, although Tantric sects in the eighth century did much to promote the emphasis on physical technique and positions. There is some scholarly debate over whether the original English translations are accurate.

ashram:   a secluded spot where a community, usually Hindu, leads a life of meditation and simplicity

monastery:   a secluded spot where a community, usually Christian, leads a life of meditation and simplicity

commune:   a secluded spot where a community, usually ex-hippies, leads a life of polygamy and simplicity

"She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain":   popular folk song