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1587: Food Rule

2015-10-07T09:06:26Z

173.245.49.29: corrections

{{comic
| number = 1587
| date = October 7, 2015
| title = Food Rule
| image = food_rule.png
| titletext = I won't eat invertebrates, because I can fight a skeleton, but I have no idea what kind of spooky warrior a squid leaves behind.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a list of different types of food and [[Randall]] has a food rule that uses this list to indicate which types of food he eats and which types he does not wish to eat.

The first four items on the list are meat from four different animals of the type {{w|vertebrates}} and the last three items are from {{w|plants}}. These are all OK to eat. But the middle three items are three different animals of the type {{w|invertebrates}}. Randall does not eat these!

In the caption below the frame the comic subverts the vegetarian slogan "I don't eat anything with a face". Because Randall do not wish to eat anything if he is uncertain weather it has a face or not. If he has to first goggle the name of the food to determine if it has a face or not then he will not eat it. He has no problems with eating things with or without a face, as long as he knows if it has a face in advance. He knows a cow has a face and that an apple does not. But he might not, for instance, know what a {{w|Lamprey}} is and if so, he would not eat it even after he used Google to determined if this strange creature has a face or not (which can be disputed).

This is thus not why he does not wish to eat, for instance, Squids and Oysters, because he already know how they look. The reason he do not wish to eat these animals is explained in the title text. Both shrimps and squids could be said to have a face in some way (although not oysters). But it is not the existence or lack of a face that indicates whether he wish to eat any given food.

The title text explains why Randall do not wish to eat any invertebrates. These animals do not have any skeleton. Randall is joking about how the animals he eats might come back to haunt him, and in the case of a cow or fish (or any other vertebrates - with skeletons), he imagines that they would come back as a living dead skeleton. Any undead creature that returns as a skeleton he believes he will be able to fight. But since he has no idea how an undead squid or oyster (or any other invertebrate) would look, he feels unprepared to fight such a spooky creature and thus declines from eating them. This may be the worst excuse ever for not wishing to eat a certain type of food. But it may be better than to just say that he thinks they are disgusting...

Randall has previously mentioned his dislike of certain foods (namely lobster) in [[1268: Alternate Universe]].

==Transcript==
:[There is a caption above a list of food with indication whether it is OK or not to eat. Below is another caption.]
:My food rule:
:{| class="wikitable" style="border: 0px;"
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Red meat
| style="border: 0px; color:green;" | ✓
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Pork
| style="border: 0px; color:green;" | ✓
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Poultry
| style="border: 0px; color:green;" | ✓
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Fish
| style="border: 0px; color:green;" | ✓
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Shrimp
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | X
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Oysters
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | X
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Squid
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | X
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Fruit
| style="border: 0px; color:green;" | ✓
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Vegetables
| style="border: 0px; color:green;" | ✓
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Grains
| style="border: 0px; color:green;" | ✓
|}
:I won't eat something
:if I have to Google
:to figure out whether
:or not it has a face.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]

Talk:1544: Margaret

2015-06-29T14:16:14Z

173.245.49.29: hotness

I though it was Anna, not Margaret... but it turns out that {{w|Mister God, This Is Anna}} is a different book... --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 13:13, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

== Judy Blume ==
The text in the comic comprises titles of Judy Blume's novels:
* Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great
* Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
* Then Again, Maybe I Won't
* The Pain and the Great One

== the the ==
Why the double "the the" in the Title text?
Maybe it's supposed to be "thee"?
: Maybe it's a typo? ;) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.51.116|173.245.51.116]] 12:05, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

== hot ==
Margaret is kinda hot.
Is it normal to be sexually attracted to an xkcd character ?

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.87|108.162.221.87]] 14:09, 29 June 2015 (UTC) See also title text of comic [[1354: Heartbleed Explanation]]

Talk:1438: Houston

2014-10-24T13:36:12Z

173.245.49.29: privatizing space travel by NASA?

A commentary on the nature of outsourced helpdesks, perhaps? Although, IME, the problems are more due to 'sticking to a script' (which would have given an entirely different exchange) rather than an unknowledgable and casually uninterested 'service'-person. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.247|141.101.98.247]] 05:15, 24 October 2014 (UTC)
:I think this is the idea behind the comic too. Kind of like a "What if it had happened today?" It sure sounds like the kind of hotline support we get today. [[User:Deantwo|Deantwo]] ([[User talk:Deantwo|talk]]) 10:29, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

::I agree. This is definitely comparison between the original mission control center and current outsourced helpdesk centers. Although it would be interesting to know what specific incident caused Randal to comment on it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:28, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

What is going on is this strip? Usually it's a reference to something or a commentary, but I don't get it at all. [[User:Cheeselover724|Cheeselover724]] ([[User talk:Cheeselover724|talk]]) 05:32, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

I think I figured out enough of it to remove the "incomplete" tag. This is definitely one of the weird ones. [[User:Shachar|Shachar]] ([[User talk:Shachar|talk]]) 06:02, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Reference to Continuum? (Canadian sci-fi show)
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.106|199.27.133.106]] 06:41, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Ebola? Really? Where is that..what? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.79|173.245.49.79]] 09:34, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

I agree, there is no evidence to back up the ebola reference. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 09:36, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Also, I took it to refer to people being distracted on the phone in general (hence the title text) or generally not taking their jobs serious. Maybe the idea that for NASA, space travel has become so routine that mission control is no longer as engaged in the missions. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 09:38, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Perhaps the guy answering the phone is called "Houston"? A misplaced Skype call from a rather shell shocked astronaut?
:But then it wouldn't make sense, that he says he's at work.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.29|173.245.49.29]] 13:36, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

There are a LOT of anachronisms, or things that don't match the way things were back in the 1960's, not just the flat screens. (And I do still remember the sixties, despite "if you can remember the sixties, you wern't really there" - a reference to the drug scene.) We didn't say "cool" or "you suck at doing that" back then, and it's very unlikely that communications with the mission and a simple telephone call would be selectable from the same headset, and the michrophones on headsets were larger and probably had dangling wires back then. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 13:22, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

It could be a commentary on privatizing space travel by NASA (among others to Boeing). Would explain, why Cueball knows it's a "airplane or whatever".--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.29|173.245.49.29]] 13:36, 24 October 2014 (UTC)