And the Broken Staff

Stone tries to distract the Queen of Hearts with the Mad Hatter's riddle "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" The original intent of the joke was that there is no answer; however, it became an odd sort of challenge for writers to devise clever answers. English writer Aldous Huxley proposed, "Because there is a 'B' in both and an 'N' in neither."

The word "Celtic" is mispronounced by Moriarty as "seltic" instead of "keltic". The former pronunciation refers only to the Scottish football club and the Boston basketball team. Only the latter refers to the ancient culture and language group.