Didja Notice?

 

The story opens near Pier 42 at the docks of San Francisco.

 

On page 2, Indy tells the tong members attacking him they don't even make him sweat because he's fought Thuggee assassins. He is referring to the Thuggee cult he tangled with in The Temple of Doom.

 

Jessie uses a two-shot derringer to scare off the tong members attacking Indy. A derringer is a compact handgun that holds only a small number of low caliber bullets for close range shots. The gun is often carried by women in their purse or can be hidden on the body relatively obscurely in a stocking or sleeve or elsewhere.

 

Jessie first appeared in "Good as Gold". The American Institute for Natural History that she is said to work for is a fictitious entity.

 

Indy argues with Jessie about who it was that attacked him, Jessie telling him it was likely tong and he countering that that secret society was wiped out years ago. Tong are Chinese secret societies, sometimes benevolent, sometimes questionable, with connections to crime. Despite Indy's claim, they've never been "wiped out" in the American Chinese neighborhoods in which they have become established.

 

The Chinese mummy Indy is in San Francisco to pick up is brought to the port by the ship Ocean Pearl.

 

Just as Indy is about to lay claim to the Chinese mummy that was shipped to him in San Fran, members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) attempt to snatch it out from under him. This was one of several versions of the IRA that have existed for over a century to protest and fight against British rule in Ireland, this particular version existing from 1922-1969. Indy became caught up with a precursor to the previous IRA to this one (the Irish Volunteers) in 1916 in "The Easter Rebellion".

 

Indy, wondering what the IRA wants with a Chinese mummy in San Francisco, remarks to the leader, "Maybe you haven't noticed, pal, but we're a little west of Belfast." Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland.

 

Indy threatens the IRA pack leader (Michael Cobb) he'll drive the truck carrying the mummy's coffin into the bay if he and his men don't back off and let him, Jessie, and Peter drive away. The gambit is successful and Jessie asks him, "You wouldn't have actually dunked the coffin, would you?" and he admits he would not have. We have seen this before in Indy, a refusal to intentionally destroy historic artifacts in the form of the Sankara Stones in The Temple of Doom and the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark (although he did destroy the crystal cylinder found inside one of the Stonehenge menhirs when it began to open a gateway to another realm that threatened to release demons in "The Harbingers").

 

On page 7, the license plate on the truck Indy drives is LY-771. The license plate on the IRA pursuit vehicle is simply E-59.

 

Indy tells Peter to take the truck and get the crate to safety while he and Jessie slow down their IRA pursuers and they will meet up with him at Chang's Restaurant in Chinatown. This is likely meant to be a fictitious business for the time, but there are a number of restaurants in San Francisco with "Chang" as part of the name.

 

On page 10, Cobb refers to Jessie as a "colleen". This is an Irish term for "girl".

 

Cobb tells Indy to bring the mummy in exchange for Jessie to the Shannon Pub on St. Francis Street. There is a St. Francis Boulevard in San Francisco, but no Shannon Pub has existed there as far as I can find.

 

On page 11, Indy is seen staying at a modest hotel on Sutter Street. This is an actual street in San Francisco.

 

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