literary allusions in domestic life

At home, my conversation with my family is full of literary allusions and mentioning names of authors some of whom have become familiar domestic names and quotations from whom have become catch-phrases with us. In a letter to me, Ruby Cohn refers to this aspect in me as "allusionistic talent". The other day, my wife and daughter met an American on the plane, and my wife riddled him with a series of names like this, "Do you know Samuel Beckett, do you know Bernard Shaw, do you know Ezra Pound, do you know Tennessee Williams, do you know Eric Bentley?" Jaw-dropped, the American whom later my wife introduced to me when on ground, had answered her, "I am only a chemical engineer from Florida."