With less than 10 days to get his Christmas shopping done, Steven Ghoststalker checked the presents under his tree. According to his list and the gifts under the tree, he still had a few more people to shop for.
Steven thought about it for a few minutes, where could he get some unique gifts for his friends. Most of them have explored the various shops located on available Spiral Worlds and the Bazaar in Wizard City was ALWAYS picked over and seldom had what you wanted. So he decided to go to Hope Springs in Wallaru. Steve had just gotten a Spiral Door key from the Arcanum and didn’t think any of his friends had made it there as yet. So the gifts he purchased should be unique this year.
Off he went to the homeworld of Zandar his fellow Life Scholar. When he got there he found Prospector Zeke and asked for some recommendations for good places to shop.
“Hey dere, l’il wizard! Fancy meetin’ you here in Hope Springs,” Zeke greeted his young friend. ”Chris’mas shopping? You betcha, dere’s plenty of unique gift oppertunities ‘roun here.” Zeke directed his young friend to Herb’s Food and Stuff, The Outback Stakehouse, Bing Bang Boomerang, The Dentist Office (the dentist office?), and the theater.
Steven ran into some desperate dingoes at the first three establishments and after setting things right he was able to procure some unique souvenirs.
Herb’s Food and Stuff – H*E*B
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/Quest:Desperate_Times,_Desperate_Dingoes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-E-B
https://www.heb.com/static-page/Our-Stores
The Outback Stakehouse – The Outback Steakhouse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outback_Steakhouse
https://www.outback.com/
H-E-B Grocery Company, LP, is an American privately held supermarket chain based in San Antonio, Texas, with more than 380 stores throughout the U.S. state of Texas and Mexico. The company also operates Central Market, an upscale organic and fine foods retailer. As of 2022, the company had a total revenue of US$38.9 billion. H-E-B ranked number 6 on Forbes‘s 2022 list of “America’s Largest Private Companies”. H-E-B was named Retailer of the Year in 2010 by Progressive Grocer. Supermarket News ranks H-E-B 13th on the list of “Top 75 North American Food Retailers” by sales. Based on 2019 revenues, H-E-B is the 19th-largest retailer in the United States. It donates 5% of pretax profits to charity.
The company was founded on November 26, 1905, when Florence Butt opened the C.C. Butt Grocery Store on the ground floor of her family home in Kerrville, Texas. In 1919, Howard Edward Butt, Florence’s youngest son, took over the store upon his return from World War I. Shortly after becoming owner of his mother’s small store, Howard tried four expansions into Central Texas, including one in Junction, all of which failed. Finally, in 1927, Howard launched a successful second store in Del Rio, Texas, followed by the purchase of three grocery stores in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The initials of Howard E. Butt became the name of the store.
Outback Steakhouse is an American chain of Australian-themed casual dining restaurants, serving American cuisine, based in Tampa, Florida. The chain has over 1,000 locations in 23 countries throughout North America, South America, Asia, and Australia. It was founded on March 15, 1988 with its first location in Tampa by Bob Basham, Chris T. Sullivan, Trudy Cooper, and Tim Gannon. It was owned and operated in the United States by OSI Restaurant Partners until it was acquired by Bloomin’ Brands, and by other franchise and venture agreements internationally.
No Returns Allowed
Looking at his list, Steven realized that his friend Kyle IceWielder was always checking his look whenever a reflective surface was handy. Maybe he COULD get a present at the Dentist Office. Sure enough, Dr. Sherman was more than obliging. Steven got Kyle a gift certificate for one free cleaning.
P Sherman DDS – Phillip Sherman DDS from the film Finding Nemo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finding_Nemo
Finding Nemo is a 2003 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Andrew Stanton with co-direction by Lee Unkrich, the screenplay was written by Stanton, Bob Peterson, and David Reynolds from a story by Stanton. The film stars the voices of Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe, and Geoffrey Rush. It tells the story of an overprotective clownfish named Marlin (Brooks) who, along with a forgetful regal blue tang named Dory (DeGeneres), searches for his missing son Nemo (Gould). Along the way, Marlin learns to take risks and comes to terms with Nemo taking care of himself.
Finding Nemo is the best-selling DVD title of all time, with over 40 million copies sold as of 2006, and was the highest-grossing G-rated film of all time before Pixar’s own Toy Story 3 overtook it. In 2008, the American Film Institute named it as the 10th greatest American animated film as part of their 10 Top 10 lists. A sequel, Finding Dory, was released in June 2016.
After being abducted by scuba divers on his first day of school, Nemo is placed in a fish tank in the office of dentist Philip Sherman in Sydney. He meets the “Tank Gang” led by Gill, a Moorish idol. The Tank Gang tells Nemo that he will be given to Sherman’s niece, Darla, who killed her previous fish. Gill, who wishes to return to the ocean, devises an escape plan: Nemo must squeeze inside the aquarium’s filter tube and block it with a pebble, obliging Sherman to put the fish into bags while he cleans the tank. This will allow them to roll out the window and into the harbor. Nemo tries but fails and is almost killed.
Seeing that he still has a few more people to shop for, Steven heads over to the Juggernaut Crab Theater. Steven stands in line waiting to see Uwe’s new play, “The Fourth Lark”. Steven does not like the play. He finds it derivative, familiar and also somewhat insulting. Not wanting to subject his friends to this nonsense, he instead buys tickets for the upcoming Wallaru staging of “The Gobbler King”.
The Juggernaut Crab Theater – The Sydney Opera House
The Fourth Lark – A retelling of the Fourth Arc of the wizard’s journey and Alfred Hitchcock Presents
The Gobbler King – The Broadway version of The Lion King
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/Location:Juggernaut_Crab_Theater
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Uwe
https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Opera_House
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock_Presents
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_King_(musical)
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world’s most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architecture.
Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, but completed by an Australian architectural team headed by Peter Hall, the building was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973.
The building and its surroundings occupy the whole of Bennelong Point on Sydney Harbour, between Sydney Cove and Farm Cove, adjacent to the Sydney central business district and the Royal Botanic Gardens, and near to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The building comprises multiple performance venues, which together host well over 1,500 performances annually, attended by more than 1.2 million people. Performances are presented by numerous performing artists, including three resident companies: Opera Australia, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. As one of the most popular visitor attractions in Australia, the site is visited by more than eight million people annually.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series created, hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, airing on CBS and NBC, alternately, between 1955 and 1965. It features dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. Between 1962 and 1965 it was renamed The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Hitchcock himself directed 18 episodes during its run.
The Lion King is a stage musical with music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, with additional music and lyrics by Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor, and Hans Zimmer. It is based on the 1994 Walt Disney Animation Studios’ film of the same name. Directed by Taymor, the musical features actors in animal costumes as well as giant, hollow puppets. The show is produced by Disney Theatrical Productions.
The musical debuted on July 8, 1997 in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the Orpheum Theatre and was an instant success before premiering on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theater on October 15, 1997 in many previews with the official opening on November 13, 1997. On June 13, 2006, the Broadway production moved to the Minskoff Theatre to make way for the musical version of Mary Poppins, where it is still running after more than 8,500 performances. It is Broadway’s third longest-running show in history and the highest grossing Broadway production of all time, having grossed more than $8.1 billion as of 2017.
This December Wizard101 Extra Credit article is the first to reference Wallaru. An index of all current pop culture reference articles can be found here.
Although I am well versed in Pop Culture references but I do not claim to have caught them all. Let me know your favorites in the comments and if I’ve missed one you caught, let me know so I can add it to the list.
Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages
All Wizard101 images have been photomanced by Steven GhostStalker in Hope Springs, Wallaru and are copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment
H*E*B logo and photo are copyright H-E-B Grocery Company, LP
Outback Steakhouse logo and photo are copyright Bloomin’ Brands
Finding Nemo poster, image and the Lion King poster are copyright Walt Disney
Sydney Opera House image is borrowed from Wikipedia it is in the public domain
Alfred Hitchcock Presents trailer is borrowed from YouTube and is copyright Universal Television
Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
Vulcan Stev's Database 