Cultural Reference

In general, transient can be used to indicate anything that is passing or temporary. When used to describe people, it usually means someone who is hired for a certain job on a temporary basis (such as seasonal farm workers), or a short-term boarder who stays in a place of residency for only a limited time. The term is also often used in a derogatory way to refer to poor, migrant laborers or homeless people.

A written (or typed) statement detailing expenses incurred during a particular event, such as a trip, or while performing a certain job, such as a research project. Expense statements often include lodging, meals, and gas.

The acronym stands for General Motors Corporation, an U.S. automobile manufacturer which was the world's largest producer of motor vehicles for most of the 20th century. The corporation was founded in 1901 in Detroit, Michigan, and quickly became the leading brand name and best seller of pickup trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles.

The entertainment and recreational branch of the U.S. military. The unit was created in 1940 by the War Department with the purpose of enhancing morale, specifically of deployed soldiers, through entertaining performances and leisure programs.

Considering the context in which the term appears in Tony Hillerman's 1980 novel PEOPLE OF DARKNESS, there is a possibility that Hillerman meant Special Forces or Special Operations, and not Special Services. Since the passage in the book discusses explosive mechanisms and ways to conceal them, it is likely that the reference is to the Special Operation unit, which engages in unconventional combat missions requiring highly-skilled personnel.

A brand of shaving cream that was popular in the U.S. from the 1920s to the early 1960s. The product was one of the first brushless shaving creams to enter the market, and it became a cultural icon after a long advertising campaign in which signs erected along highways created a series of humorous rhymes designed to capture the driver's attention. For example, in the following verse, each line was posted on a separate sign, leading to the final sign carrying the brand name:

Within this vale
of toil
and sin
your head grows bald
but not your chin
Burma Shave

The innovative advertising technique became known as "burmashaving" and is still imitated still today in various marketing and political campaigns.

A clear, savory jelly typically derived from the preparation of fish or meat. Aspic consists of the fat and other juices released by meat during its heated preparation. As these liquids cool, they congeal and can be collected and used as garnish, in molds, or as flavor enrichments in other dishes. Especially if the liquids are further clarified, the finished product will consist of a relatively clear, relatively firm jelly in which eggs, fruits, and vegetables can be suspended in a visually decorative, usually savory mold. Jell-o and Spam are examples of aspic dishes.

An American magazine dedicated to upscale food and wine that was published monthly between the years 1941-2009. The magazine targeted professional and amateur chefs, and its contents were comprised of cooking advice, recipes submitted or requested by readers, and articles related to high-class "good living" in general.

Joe Leaphorn, a fictional character created by Tony Hillerman, a Navajo detective for the Navajo Tribal Police and is typically stationed in Window Rock, Arizona. Leaphorn’s last name is a reference to the ancient Minoan practice of bull jumping, about which Hillerman was reading as he wrote THE BLESSING WAY. At the time of his first appearance Hillerman’s 1970 Navajo detective novel THE BLESSING WAY, Leaphorn is already a veteran detective. Because Leaphorn was educated in a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school during high school and then completed a bachelors and master’s degree in anthropology at Arizona State University, his extended time off reservation leaves Leaphorn negotiating between traditional Navajo as well as white ways. Despite his lack of complete knowledge of Navajo rituals, Leaphorn is cognizant that Navajo beliefs are often important aspects of cases. In the early novels Leaphorn works alone; however, in later novels, he and, the much younger and more traditional Navajo policeman, Jim Chee, are tasked to be partners and solve cases together. Unlike Leaphorn, Chee is studying to be a Navajo singer, or hataali, and is much more sensitive to Navajo lifeways. Their very different temperaments often cause tension between the two, but together they are able to solve cases.

Leaphorn was first introduced as a supporting character in THE BLESSING WAY. He then becomes the main character for Hillerman’s Navajo mystery series with Hillerman's next two books in the series, DANCE HALL OF THE DEAD, published in 1973, and LISTENING WOMAN, published in 1978. In the mid-1970s, Hillerman sold the rights to Joe Leaphorn to a Los Angeles-based agency called Bob Banner Associates to produce a movie version of DANCE HALL OF THE DEAD and, possibly, a serial television program based on the life of Joe Leaphorn. Hillerman was unable to use Leaphorn as a character in subsequent novels, even though neither the film nor television options proposed by Banner Associates were ever realized, until Hillerman was able to buy back the rights to his character. Leaphorn returns to Hillerman’s writing in 1986 in the novel SKINWALKERS.

In Navajo, Diné means "the People." Eminently adaptable, the Diné learn from their neighbors and have incorporated elements from Pueblo, Hispanic, and even Anglo cultures into their lifeways, developing a traditional way of life that is fluid and dynamic but also deeply affected by their respect for custom and tradition. This is intimately tied to their belief that the physical and spiritual worlds blend together and that everything on earth is alive and related. This is called hózhǫ́, the state in which all living things are ordered, in balance, and walking in beauty. The opposite of hózhǫ́ is hóchxǫ́ǫ́, which refers to disorder and chaos in one’s life.

Every Southwestern Pueblo society has slightly different ceremonial practices, yet each Pueblo maintains a variety of priesthoods that perform ceremonies in kivas and plazas. These priesthoods are also known as secret or kiva societies. Each society has a different obligation it fulfills for the benefit of the Pueblo at large, including farming, healing, and even warrior duties. Boys between the ages of five to fourteen, depending on the Pueblo, are initiated into a society, and members of the kiva societies act as their sponsors as they learn the duties, rites, dances, and ceremonials associated with their kiva.