I couldn’t make the connection because I am not a big consumer of fantasy.
I wonder whether the writer might have drawn inspiration from the maritime Bajau communities of Southeast Asia or from the stilt‑house settlements around Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, both of which are contemporary examples of water‑based living.
Here’s another interesting aspect about Lake Maracaibo: Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela has the world’s highest concentration of lightning strikes, known as the Catatumbo Lightning, averaging 233 flashes per square kilometer annually.
It is also curious that Lake Maracaibo is not a lake. Its hydrological characteristics may better classify it as an estuary and/or semi-enclosed bay connected to the Gulf of Venezuela. You’ll see why if you watch the pictures in the wikiarticle about it. The non lake is geologically interesting.
Back in colonial times, the Lenni Lenape asked the English: “Why do you call us Delaware? What does it mean?” The English told them the name came from Thomas West, Baron de la Warre. When the Lenape heard that they’d been named after a great chief among the whites, they felt relieved. They were just glad it wasn’t something derogatory.
(Male) moose grow a new set of antlers every year. They are the fastest-growing tissues in the animal kingdom - growing up to 3 cm/over an inch a day. At their peak, they can weigh over 20 kg/40 lb.
Before WWII, Coke utterly dominated the pop world; its 6.5 oz distinctively-shaped glass bottles were the standard drink, and only cost a nickel. Pepsi was losing the cola wars so badly that in 1934 it bet the company on a seemingly loony strategy: 12 oz bottles still only costing a nickel.
“Pepsi-Cola hits the spot
Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot
Twice as much for a nickel, too
Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you.”
Amazing, it not only worked, but Pepsi sold so many that their profits doubled. Turned out the price of syrup was so incredibly low that any price per ounce was profitable, leading to the Big Gulp, obesity, and type two diabetes. But … Profit!
Which makes me wonder if the alternate Earth Howard was from was one inhabited by essentially human beings who just happened to be shaped a lot like ducks. Supported by the storyline in which Howard was temporarily mutated by Dr. Bong into fully human appearance.
And in the end, Pepsi lost the Cola Battle, but still won the war. Coke far outsells Pepsi, but for other beverages, Pepsi pulls ahead, and they also own a lot of food companies that Coke just can’t compete with at all, leading Pepsi-Co to be the far more successful company.
It’s a friendly rivalry. There’s a famous case where a Coke employee tried to sell trade secrets to Pepsi. The two of them worked together with law enforcement to bust her.
The joke is that she went to jail for being a coke dealer.
Of course, Coke’s “secret recipe” isn’t actually at all valuable in itself: Its only value is in the marketing of having a “secret recipe”. Pepsi didn’t want Coke’s recipe, because they already had their own, which was better (aside from the intangible mystique, which the recipe wouldn’t have gotten them).
Even if you knew the Coca-Cola recipe, it would probably involve ingredients expensive enough that the cheap, lousy tasting generic colas wouldn’t bother with it.
The attempted industrial espionage didn’t involve the secret recipe. Pepsi probably already knew that anyway. It was information about potential future products.
Yeah, the cost to produce any soft drink is such a minuscule fraction of what it sells for that you can basically consider the ingredients to all be free, for the manufacturer.
Well there’s some reason why Val-u-Cola doesn’t taste as good as Coca-Cola or Pepsi. If they could make a competitive product and still beat the major players’ price, why don’t they?