I have strong affinity for having references popping into my mind when doing something not obviously related. Sometimes the connection is obscure, sometimes the source of the reference is obscure. I highly doubt people would get many of them.

One of my favorite ones is "Third turtle lies.". When people wonder how something reported could have been possible.

"The third turtle lied" seems to be from a collection of logic puzzles called "Mathematical Circles". (although that was not in a 'turtles all the way down' context)

Putting it in a book with legitimate math puzzles was quite devious by the authors.