Bishop Ireton High School: the school Mike and Will graduated from; they have censored Mike in the past, but he's their most popular writer. However, we hold no grudges toward them or the people there, except in very specific cases.
Certiorari: going back to government or Latin class? Either way, in the field of law, when a writ of certiorari is given, it means that the Supreme Court will hear the case in question.
Channel One. A REALLY WONDERFUL news program for high school students famous for such anchors as Anderson Cooper, the white-haired 26 year old, and Rawley Valverde, whose hair looks like it was dipped in the remains of the Exxon Valdez spill.
Conservative Party: British political party associated with John Major, Margaret Thatcher and a more affluent area of Britons; the British version of the Republican Party; a.k.a. the Tories. Now out of power.
Denis Skinner: British Labour firebrand, always known for wearing drab suits and bright red ties; soon to be a power in the new Labour government
Donald "Dewey" Clarridge: the coolest CIA Ops officer ever, who once said "Tell Abul Abbas that I'm comin', and when I get to him, I'm gonna kill him." He ran the effort supplying the Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s. Also, he's got a new book out, see here.
Dutch: Ronald Wilson Reagan. Also known as the Gipper or Ronnie. "The man who won the war," as Tom Clancy called him.
Eamon de Valera: one of the leaders in the fight for Irish independence; a leader of the Easter Rebellion of 1916, elected president of the Irish Republic in 1959 and 1966, prime minister from 1937-1948, 51-54,57-59. Could be seen in film Michael Collins, considered by some to be a traitor because he negotiated with Britain
Executive Outcomes: according to 60 Minutes, this is the largest private army in the world. Based in South Africa, they give "military advice" to "legitimate governments." Apparently, they look to me like real professionals (William).
Griswold v. Connecticut: no, this has nothing to do with Clark or any of the rest of the folks from those National Lampoon Vacation movies. This was a case "back in the day" which defined the right of privacy later pulled into Roe v. Wade.
HUAC: the House Un-American Activities Committee, home of McCarthyism (not Mike, Joseph) in the early 1950s. Congressman Richard Nixon gained national fame here by leading the investigation into the activities of Soviet spy Alger Hiss (yes, he WAS a spy)
Intifada: Palestinian uprising in the 1980s in Israel, especially problematic in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This was orchestrated by the PLO to fight against Israeli control of lands won after the 1967 Six-Day War.
James Bond: the coolest man, fictional or real, of all time. Nuff said.
Jimmy Buffett: the King of Margaritaville and all he surveys; Mike's favorite musician
Labour Party: British political party associated with Tony Blair; very pro-social programs and distribution of wealth; the British version of the Democratic Party. They are now the ruling party in Britain, thanks to Blair's push to the center and the implosion of the Tories. On 2nd May, Blair formed the first Labour government in 18 years.
MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction -- the theory persisting throughout the Cold War that said no one would start a nuclear war for fear of being destroyed. It also said that nuclear war was, for all intensive purposes, unwinnable.
Markus Wolf: the head of the East German HVA, foreign intelligence. Considered to be one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, spymaster of the Cold War era. Also author of his biography, Man Without a Face.
Milton Bearden: CIA officer in charge of the mujaheddin operation against the Red Army in Afghanistan; one of the great Operations officers
Nell Carter. A big female actress, in many senses of the word. Was on many sitcoms in the 80s.
New Coke: possibly the worst-received invention of all time; a change in the formula of Coca-Cola that was detested so much that the old formula had to be returned
Ngo Dinh Diem: president of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) before the Gulf of Tonkin incident. He was supposedly assassinated on CIA orders, although this was never proven to my satisfaction (William)
Paintball: Highly aggressive sport akin to wargames; for more information, see here.
Project RYAN: the Soviet idea of a secret US nuclear attack in 1982. RYAN, in Russian, is Raketno-Yadernoye Napadeniye , which translates to "Nuclear-Rocket Attack" This was not a real plan, but both Brezhnev and Andropov believed that it was, and both the KGB and GRU combined to get information on it. This plot stemmed from Reagan's announcement of SDI. For more details, consult Walker, Martin. The Cold War. (New York: Henry Holt and Co, p. 275-277
Puffy: Mike's pet name for Bill Clinton; also, the Arkansas Avenger, Bubba
PGMs: precision-guided munitions; a computer mounted to a bomb, the bomb is guided to the target (which is painted by a laser beam), and big, large things go bang
SAS: the British Special Air Service, the greatest special operations unit of all time
SDI: the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as Star Wars.
SFS: The Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Arguably the most prestigious undergraduate school of international affairs in the United States, the school where President Clinton did his undergraduate studies, and yes, the school in which Will, Matt, Laura and Ryan all currently study.
Slash: in Will's opinion, the greatest pure rock-and-roll guitarist of all time; former lead guitarist for Guns N' Roses, now playing solo
Strict-constructionist: someone who takes a very literal view of the Constitution. Generally speaking, strict-constructionists are very by-the-book, and don't approve of judicial activism. In their interpretations of the law, they always use the Constitution more than other Court cases, and normally make fewer assumptions about "what the Founding Fathers would have wanted." A good example is Justice Antonin Scalia.
The Coming Conflict with America, by Richard Bernstein and Ross H. Munro. An excellent book, an excerpt of which Will read in Foreign Affairs. There's a website for it here.
tracheotomy: a particularly nasty operation where a hole is cut in the neck to facilitate breathing
Weibheiten: from German Weiseheit (pron. vice-HITE) Germ. word for wisdom, with connotations that suggest something beyond merely having knowledge
Whig: formerly a party of classical liberals (modern conservatives; laissez-faire) in England; now the party that Mike associates himself with