3092: Baker's Units

2025-05-21T23:47:15Z

172.70.246.172: additions

{{comic
| number = 3092
| date = May 21, 2025
| title = Baker's Units
| image = bakers_units_2x.png
| imagesize = 349x310px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 169 is a baker's gross.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a baker's bot. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

A {{w|Dozen#Baker's_dozen|baker's dozen}} is 13 units of bakery goods, as opposed to the normal dozen meaning 12. That tradition that was allegedly started so that customers wouldn't complain about receiving one bread roll less when served in a hurry: If a miscount happens the baker would have given out twelve rolls just as ordered; if no miscount happens the baker is just short of one inexpensive item).

Randall proceeds to apply this principle to other things comprised of 12 units, some with bizarre results:
* Imperial feet are 12 inches long; a baker's foot would be 13 inches long.
* Noon is 12:00 o'clock; baker's noon would be 1 PM o'clock.
* Dodecahedrons have 12 faces, baker's ones are tridecagons (if they are supposed to be regular they'd have to be constructed quite differently).
* Years have 12 months, a baker would celebrate New Year on January 31 (meaning that their New Year wozld shift forward each year.
*

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

Talk:2760: Paleontology Museum

2023-04-11T15:06:18Z

172.70.246.172:

Turtles aren't rocks. ? [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 03:04, 8 April 2023 (UTC)
:Maybe referring to shell of turtles? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.212|172.71.22.212]] 03:56, 8 April 2023 (UTC)
:Neither were dinosaur bones, at least not during the times that they come from. I do believe that that's the joke.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.172|172.70.246.172]] 15:06, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

I thought this was a joke where Cueball thinks rocks were cooler in Þe Olde Dinosaur Times, because ÞODT had rocks shaped like dinosaur bones. Maybe I'm completely off. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.47|172.69.65.47]] 04:15, 8 April 2023 (UTC)
:I appreciate your use of the letter thorn. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.209|172.69.65.209]] 09:21, 8 April 2023 (UTC)
::You mean þorn [[Special:Contributions/172.70.42.86|172.70.42.86]] 00:31, 9 April 2023 (UTC)
::NB, this was [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Admin requests#user edits someone else's comment|someone else's edit]]. However funny/intelligent it was, it was bad form. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.229|172.70.162.229]] 12:10, 9 April 2023 (UTC)
:I think you've got it right. My understanding is that Cueball thinks the that ÞODT had rocks shaped like the ones he's seeing in front of him. The turtle comment makes it seem like he knows that those rocks were alive ("did stuff"), but isn't aware that they were covered in more squishy dinosaur bits back then. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.172|172.70.246.172]] 15:06, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

My interpretation is that paleontologists picked up all of the interesting rocks, and now only boring rocks are left—and turtles. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.159|162.158.94.159]] 09:41, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turtles Rocks] were cool. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.144|108.162.216.144]] 13:15, 8 April 2023 (UTC)
: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qcxq3RVf1gQ#heavy heavy rocks] are cooler [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.178|172.70.242.178]] 05:47, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

I interpreted this as a geologist who has always thought rocks were “cool” has, while looking at a stegosaurus skeleton, considered switching to paleontology instead, because that’s way cooler. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.36|162.158.91.36]] 20:38, 10 April 2023 (UTC)

It seems unlikely to me that Cueball is referring specifically to the plates on the stegosaur's back. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 16:05, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

I added my own interpretation where Cueball thinks that dinosaurs actually were made of rocks, therefore making them cooler than our rocks. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.42|172.70.211.42]] 18:37, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

Terrible, wrong explanation. He's referring to how the rocks used to be dinosaurs, obviously. Rocks "used to be way cooler" because they used to be dinosaurs. Duh.

Aren't most dinosaur skeletons on display these days not the actual original rock, but plaster or plastic (or some other material) casts of the original fossil? [[User:Dogman15|Dogman15]] ([[User talk:Dogman15|talk]]) 09:57, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3092: Baker's Units

Talk:2760: Paleontology Museum