Today’s set jumps from the mirror-image border towns of Calexico and Mexicali to Henry VIII’s still‑used title “Defender of the Faith,” seen as F D on modern UK coins, then on to Osaka‑born conveyor‑belt sushi, the art-historical and Gen Z meanings of “glaze,” populist readings of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the groundbreaking hip‑hop trio Salt‑N‑Pepa.

Each question is a doorway into a bigger story—about how languages evolve, how politics hide in fairy tales, how technologies like conveyor belts reshape eating, and how borderlands and women rappers alike can redefine cultural maps.

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Study Notes

Question 1: Calexico & Mexicali Border Portmanteaus

GEOGRAPHY - Two opposing border towns, which sit approximately 125 miles (200km) east of San Diego, are distinctive for their portmanteau (and sort of reciprocal) names. Identify either of these cities.

Calexico, California, and Mexicali, Baja California, are paired border cities whose names are reciprocal portmanteaus—Calexico from California + Mexico, Mexicali from Mexico + California—located about 122–125 miles east of San Diego and forming the Calexico–Mexicali transborder urban area.

Connections

  • Band named for the town: The indie band Calexico took its name from the California border town and builds borderland themes into its “desert noir” mix of Americana and Latin influences.
  • Animated satire: Fox’s animated series Bordertown is set in the fictional town of Mexifornia, explicitly based on Calexico and its location on the California–Mexico border.
  • Twin‑city metro: Calexico–Mexicali is recognised as one of two major transborder agglomerations along the California–Baja border, the other being San Diego–Tijuana.
  • Culinary destination: Food writers highlight Mexicali as a capital of Baja California cuisine, famous for mesquite‑grilled carne asada and a distinctive Chinese‑Mexican restaurant scene that attracts many visitors from Calexico and San Diego.

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Question 2: Henry VIII as “Defender of the Faith”

WORLD HIST - What four-word title (with two of the words being “of the”) was bestowed on Henry VIII by Pope Leo X, as a reward for the King’s written opposition to the teachings of Martin Luther, and is still held by the British monarch today?

The four‑word title is Defender of the Faith, Latin Fidei Defensor (abbreviated F.D.), granted by Pope Leo X to Henry VIII on 11 October 1521 in recognition of Henry’s treatise Assertio Septem Sacramentorum defending the seven Catholic sacraments against Martin Luther. Although the papacy revoked it after Henry’s break with Rome, Parliament restored the title in 1544, and it remains in the British monarch’s style today and appears on UK coinage as “F D” or “FID DEF.”

Connections

  • The king’s bestseller: Henry’s Defence of the Seven Sacraments was a major work of early Counter‑Reformation polemic; modern editions and digital facsimiles show how thoroughly it attacks Luther on indulgences, marriage, and papal authority.
  • History on TV: The series The Tudors includes an episode where Henry is informed that the pope has named him Fidei Defensor for his anti‑Luther pamphlet, dramatizing how proud he initially was of this Catholic honour.
  • Coins and controversy: Collectors focus on how “F D” appears on modern British coins and on the 1849 “Godless florin,” which famously omitted both “Dei Gratia” (by the grace of God) and “Fidei Defensor,” causing public outrage and a design change.
  • Irony in the archives: A document from St George’s Chapel, Windsor, shows Henry later styling himself both “Supreme Head of the Church in England and Ireland” and Fidei Defensor, underscoring the irony that he kept a papal title even after rejecting papal authority.

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Question 3: Kaiten‑Zushi & Conveyor-Belt Sushi

FOOD/DRINK - YO! Sushi, founded in 1997 in London’s Soho district, introduced many Western diners to a concept invented in Osaka in 1958 by Yoshiaki Shiraishi called kaiten-zushi, which involves the serving of sushi using what device?

Kaiten‑zushi (“rotating sushi”) serves plates of sushi on a rotating conveyor belt that loops past every seat; diners simply take what they want and pay based on the number and type of plates. This system was invented by Osaka restaurateur Yoshiaki Shiraishi, who, inspired by a brewery’s bottle conveyor, opened the first conveyor‑belt sushi restaurant, Mawaru Genroku Sushi, in 1958 and later showcased the idea at Expo ’70, after which the format spread throughout Japan and abroad. YO! Sushi brought this “kaiten” conveyor‑belt style to London in 1997 and made it a signature part of its brand.

Connections

  • Spy spoof cameo: In the 2003 comedy Johnny English, Rowan Atkinson’s hapless agent visits a YO! Sushi restaurant, where his tie gets caught in the moving belt—one of the earliest big‑screen gags built around a sushi conveyor.
  • Video‑game battles: Nintendo’s Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido turns conveyor‑belt sushi into an action‑puzzle mechanic, where players link plates on multiple rotating belts and hurl stacks of dishes at opponents.
  • Art and TikTok POV: Visitors and artists have filmed entire loops of sushi belts by placing cameras on the conveyor, producing “cinematic” one‑shot views of restaurant life that have gone viral and inspired think‑pieces about the aesthetics of kaiten‑zushi.
  • Anime & merch: Conveyor‑belt sushi shows up in anime‑adjacent culture too—from Doraemon’s “Revolving Sushi of People I Wanna See” gadget episode to Demon Slayer‑branded at‑home kaiten‑sushi toys and Kura Sushi’s One Piece collaborations that send themed items whizzing past diners.

Sources

Question 4: Glaze in Art, Pottery, and Gen Z Slang

LANGUAGE - What word used in oil painting and pottery for a particular substance (or the use of that substance) is today a Gen Z slang term for giving praise to an excessive and cringeworthy degree?

The word is glaze. In painting, a glaze is a thin transparent or translucent layer of paint brushed over a dried underlayer to modify its colour, value, or texture while letting the lower layer show through. In pottery, glaze is a glassy, vitreous coating applied to ceramic ware and fired so it bonds to the clay, decorating, waterproofing, and strengthening the surface. In Gen Z/Gen Alpha internet slang, “glazing” someone means showering them with over‑the‑top, often cringe or insincere praise—especially in TikTok comments or Twitch chats—with “stop glazing” used to tell someone to tone down the flattery.

Connections

  • Old‑master glow: Art historians note that Jan van Eyck’s luminous effects in works like the Arnolfini Portrait and the Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych come from building up many thin oil glazes, creating intense, jewel‑like colour and a sense of depth.
  • Rembrandt’s surfaces: Technical studies of Rembrandt’s later paintings describe how he combined thick impasto with translucent coloured glazes, sometimes scraping and re‑glazing surfaces, to give fabrics and skin a three‑dimensional glow.
  • Ceramic traditions: Ceramic glazes underpin entire visual traditions—from ancient Middle Eastern and Chinese lead and alkali glazes to blue‑and‑white porcelain and modern sanitaryware and architectural terracotta—making “glaze” central to both art history and everyday objects.
  • From kilns to TikTok: Guides for parents and slang explainers describe “glazing” as the new term teens use to call out classmates for “buttering up” a teacher or obsessively hyping a favourite creator, replacing older slang like “simping.”

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Question 5: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as Monetary Allegory

LITERATURE - The American farmer, the American factory worker, and William Jennings Bryan (the last more loosely) are represented by a set of characters in a populist and bimetallist interpretation of what 1900 novel and its many stage and film adaptations?

The novel is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (often shortened to The Wizard of Oz), L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s fantasy about Kansas girl Dorothy’s journey through the Land of Oz, later adapted into a 1902 Broadway musical and the famous 1939 MGM film. Beginning with Henry Littlefield’s 1964 essay and expanded by later historians, one influential interpretation reads the book as a populist, bimetallist allegory: the Scarecrow stands for the American farmer derided as brainless, the Tin Woodman for the dehumanised industrial worker, and the Cowardly Lion for William Jennings Bryan, the silver‑standard orator of the 1896 “Cross of Gold” speech. In this reading, the Yellow Brick Road symbolises the gold standard, Dorothy’s silver shoes (changed to ruby slippers in the 1939 film) represent silver coinage, Emerald City evokes greenback paper money, and “Oz” puns on “ounce,” the unit of gold.

Connections

  • Economics in high school: Essays like Quentin Taylor’s “Money and Politics in the Land of Oz” and classroom materials such as “The Wizard of Oz as a satirical allegory of money and politics in 1900” use the story to teach about Populism, the gold standard, and bimetallism.
  • Modern financial commentary: A 2025 Fortune excerpt on money and class conflict re‑uses Oz imagery—casting the Yellow Brick Road as the gold standard and the Wizard as banking elites—to explain tensions between Wall Street and working Americans.
  • Enduring adaptations: Recent screen works like the two‑part film adaptation of the musical Wicked and Amazon’s planned YA series Dorothy keep re‑imagining Oz’s power structures and characters, showing how flexible Baum’s political symbolism has become.
  • Seeing the film differently: Knowing the allegory, viewers often notice that Dorothy’s shoes were silver in the book—a key symbol of free silver—but became ruby in the Technicolor 1939 film, subtly shifting the monetary symbolism even as the story remained a Depression‑era comfort narrative.

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Question 6: Salt‑N‑Pepa

POP MUSIC - With DJ Dee Dee “Spinderella” Roper, rappers Cheryl James and Sandy Denton seasoned the pop charts in the late 1980s and 1990s under what name?

They performed as Salt‑N‑Pepa (often styled Salt ’N’ Pepa), an American hip‑hop group formed in New York City in 1985 by Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton, later joined by DJ Deidra “Spinderella” Roper. Their 1986 debut album Hot, Cool & Vicious—featuring a remix of “Push It”—sold over a million copies in the U.S., making them the first female rap act to earn gold and then platinum RIAA certification, and they went on to score major hits with songs like “Shoop,” “Whatta Man” (with En Vogue), and “None of Your Business.” In 2025 they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with a Musical Influence Award, recognising their role in reshaping women’s place in hip‑hop.

Connections

  • “Push It” everywhere: Their 1987 single “Push It” became a global hit, reaching the U.S. Top 20 and UK No. 2, and has since appeared in countless films, commercials, and sports events; it ranks among Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” and VH1’s top hip‑hop tracks.
  • Deadpool’s anthem: “Shoop,” from the 1993 album Very Necessary, gained renewed fame when it was used prominently in the 2016 film Deadpool (including over the end credits), leading to Salt‑N‑Pepa performing it at the MTV Movie Awards alongside a squad of Deadpools.
  • Rewriting “What a Man”: Their hit “Whatta Man” with En Vogue reworks and samples Linda Lyndell’s 1968 soul song “What a Man”; the Salt‑N‑Pepa version became a major international hit and has inspired parodies and covers from science‑show spoofs (“Whatta Brain”) to Disney’s Whatta Mouse and K‑pop reinterpretations.
  • Feminist hip‑hop history: Scholars and journalists credit Salt‑N‑Pepa’s frank lyrics about sex and women’s desire—on tracks like “Let’s Talk About Sex” and the Grammy‑winning “None of Your Business”—with challenging male‑dominated hip‑hop norms and paving the way for later artists from Queen Latifah to Missy Elliott and beyond.

Sources