explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2863: Space Typography

2023-12-04T22:02:09Z

198.41.242.129: /* Accuracy */

{{comic
| number = 2863
| date = December 4, 2023
| title = Space Typography
| image = space_typography_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x239px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = And over heeee[...]eeeere (i)s Saturn.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an OPTIMISTIC ALIEN OVER THEEEE[...]EEEERE IN... NEPTUNE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Randall has created a sentence with the property that, when printed in {{w|Times New Roman}} font, the distances of the "i" letters from the first letter are proportional to the radii of the orbits of the innermost 5 planets in the {{w|Solar System}}. These are the only letters in the sentence that have a dot over the letter (there are no "j"s in the sentence). He suggests that if you get lost traveling among these planets, you can use the dots as a map.

This won't actually be a very useful map. When traveling between planets, it's not enough to know where the planet's orbit is, you also need to know where it is along the orbit.

The sentence is self-referential, since it talks about using typography to measure distances in space, and this makes it a useful mnemonic. The "optimistic" in the sentence could indicate that the aliens in question are highly optimistic that this kind of "map" would be useful for navigating a star system where planets orbit in ellipses, rather than being in static positions along a line (as is so often depicted in line-ups of the Solar System's planets).

The title text appends the sentence with a section for identifying Saturn. After an indeterminately long "Heeeeeere," Saturn is indicated, in the form of the dot in the i in "is."

==Accuracy==

Measuring the distances based on the provided image results in these approximate distances:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|-
! Planet !! Relative Distance in Comic !! Actual Distance in AU<ref>https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/pdfs/scaless_reference.pdf</ref>
|-
| Mercury || 0.39 || 0.39
|-
| Venus || 0.71 || 0.72
|-
| Earth || 1 || 1
|-
| Mars || 1.52 || 1.52
|-
| Jupiter || 5.18 || 5.2
|}

The picture also contains a standard-representation of Times New Roman, with no changes to kerning or tracking.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A grayed-out sentence reads "Optimistic aliens measure space typographically". The "O" in "Optimistic" is dark black and indicated as representing the Sun (not to scale). The dots of the letters "i" in the sentence are similarly dark black. The dot in the first "i" in "Optimistic" is indicated as representing Mercury; the dot in the second "i" represents Venus; the dot in the third "i" represents Earth. The dot in the "i" in "aliens" is indicated as representing Mars. The dot in the "i" in "typographically" is indicated as representing Jupiter. A measurement bar indicates that the distance between the "O" and the third "i" in "Optimistic" is equivalent to 1 AU (astronomical unit).]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Space tip: if you're ever lost in the inner Solar System, you can just type out the phrase "Optimistic aliens measure space typographically" in Times New Roman and use the dots as a map.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Tips]]

Talk:2567: Language Development

2022-01-12T18:45:41Z

198.41.242.129:

Has a small, child-size, stick figure been used before? I did not find a category on explainxkcd. This might be an interesting trivia to add. --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.129|198.41.242.129]] 18:45, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2366: Amelia's Farm Fresh Cookies

2021-12-22T13:34:27Z

198.41.242.129: Removed the extra topic, made it a separate comment

Personally, I think the most likely digit there is 4, followed by 6. I'm pretty sure it can't be a 9 given the angles, so I wouldn't say that's likelier than other alternatives in the explanation. (Very trivial point, so I won't bother editing.) It's most likely intended to be a generic nonsense squiggle (similar to the lines of text, but for just one character), purposely illegible to leave the actual location within Orlando ambiguous. It just happened to come out as a very 4ish squiggle.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.189|162.158.79.189]] 16:25, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

32841 is not a valid zip code. I'm also dubious that the town/city name is Orlando. Sure, it probably does start with an O (and not a cursive A, since the street name has a capital A to show the way the letter should look), but it certainly doesn't continue on long enough to be Orlando, especially with no ascending stroke for the 'd' and not appearing to end with a round shape for a letter like 'o'. It appears to me to be more of an n/m/r final letter. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.14|162.158.75.14]] 23:19, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

:Ah, that's what I get for just punching "32841 zip code" into Google and seeing Orlando FL come up. The closest-looking valid zip code I can find that's still in Orlando is 32891; fixed the transcript. The end of the word Orlando just seems intended to be generic squiggles not actually matching any letters, like almost everything after the Ingredients label. If you can find another town/city in FL that starts with O and has a similar-looking enough zip code, go for it. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 23:59, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

::All zip codes that begin 328 are in Orlando. 32841 specifically is not in use. [[User:Silverpie|Silverpie]] ([[User talk:Silverpie|talk]]) 02:12, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

:::It seems impossible to read the zip code as anything other than [3][2 or 4][6 or 8][squiggle][1], where the squiggle is different from the other 4 digits and probably isn't a 0. Under these constraints, there are 20 possible zip codes, but if the zip has to be valid and the city name has to be one word that starts with O and in Florida, the only possible choices are Orlando and 32891 or 32861. To keep the transcript faithful to the actual appearance, I'll let it stay as "O[illegible], FL 328#1" and put the city and zip deduction in the explanation. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 01:45, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

I don't see that the mouse-over suggests an escalation as described. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 00:23, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
:I saw it as "had address on packaging, just so; grandma starts campaign of complaints to give granddaughter a similar experience; granddaughter suggests stopping original action if that would stop granny's retalation; (but apparently an armistice purely on those terms is not acceptable to Big-G)" - But there's other interpretations, I'll admit. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.154|141.101.98.154]] 00:45, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
::That's how I saw it too -- no suggestion that the package didn't originally have the address. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 01:17, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Isn't this a reference to the Annie's brand?
:"Annie Withey believed it was possible to build a socially conscious and successful business. This was her mission in 1989, when she wrote her name, address, and phone number on the very first boxes of Annie’s Mac and Cheese. Her legacy lives on as Annie’s strives to change the future for our kids, starting with food." per https://www.annies.com/our-mission/ . So maybe? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 03:59, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
:I am pretty sure Annie's brand has a story on the label

I didn't get the clues pointing that it's a package and mistakenly thought it was a cooking recipe web page. Many sites feel obliged to precede the recipe with a personal story on the food, which distracts from what the reader wants -- the recipe itself. I'd been a good comic as well if it was a pun on that. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.94.50|172.68.94.50]] 03:44, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
: I didn't interpret it as a package of the cookies, either. To me it looked like the company's ("Amelia's Farm") website and I interpreted the "nutrition facts" table as the site's menu. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:35, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
::For readers in the USA, it's more obviously a Nutritional Facts box - the varied weight of horizontal lines and the Percentage (%) symbol at the end of each line is standard.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 21:04, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
:Tip: the word you're looking for is "parody" rather than pun. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 01:52, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

Anyone else think the additional squiggles at the bottom left include a circle K (Kosher) and Parve (containing neither meat nor milk) which would be plausible for cookies (and could easily anger some grandmothers)? If so, is it worth adding to the transcript?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.212|108.162.219.212]] 12:10, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
: On magnification, it just looks like random squiggles to me. The letter in the circle looks like a lowercase "i", which is not (as far as I know) the symbol for any kosher certification. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 13:42, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
:It could just as easily be some impression of a trademark or copyright or any other of the many circle-like designations on food packages.

Upon reading the address I immediately thought that the city was Orlando and that granny's name was "Wanda Munroe". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.43|162.158.74.43]] 13:16, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Per the editing FAQ, we use the smaller version of the comic here. But perhaps we should always include a link to the high-res version when one is available? Though it doesn't quite fit under either "Transcript" or "Explanation". [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 19:44, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

I think the city's actually Ocala and Randal didn't even try to match the city to the zip code. (Too many L's!) [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 21:16, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
:This seems unlikely given how everything after the O is squiggled and there's another much more well-known candidate with a zip code that's much closer to matching. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 01:45, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

Just what was her grandmother doing to get cookies like that? To get cookies that are crumbly and brittle, Grandma cooked her cookies for too long at too high a temperature, driving too much water out. The gritty texture can be achieved by not using enough water in the batter to start with; put the dry ingredients into the mixer bowl set at too high a speed, add the water all at once (but not enough to hydrate all the flour particles) and mix it for too long. This should form lots of fine lumps to give a gritty texture. To get the crispy middle and gooey outside, use ''way'' too much fats, like the butter, and don't let it evenly distribute in the batter, so that when it melts in the oven, the fats ooze out and soften the edges, but Grandma would have had to add extra water after the initial mixing, so the conversion of steam will dry out the middle and put the fat out. Okay, I am reaching a bit with the last one. You have got to do a lot of things wrong to make cookies that bad. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 03:17, 2 October 2020 (UTC)
:Using specialty flours can do some of it. I tried using non-wheat flours to make gluten-free cookies a couple of decades ago, with mixed success. They tended to come out brittle and crumbly, and if I recall correctly, tapioca flour gave them a certain grittiness. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 03:44, 2 October 2020 (UTC)
:You'd get a gritty quality if you also made sure you used only the finest farmyard grit... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.247|162.158.158.247]] 14:12, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

Finally, the first xkcd to address the issue of GMO antibacterials head on

First question, is oatmeal involved? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.96|172.69.22.96]] 03:23, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

Reference to "Cookie Clicker" seems unlikely to me. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 15:00, 3 October 2020 (UTC)
:I agree and removed that part. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:35, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

When I first read the comic, I read the first paragraph, thought "oh, another story about happy evenings and healthy ingredients and so on", read the last paragraph, which confirmed my expectation, and didn't even realize the rest of the story. Anyone else was reading the text like this? [[User:Bolisom|Bolisom]] ([[User talk:Bolisom|talk]]) 07:53, 5 October 2020 (UTC)
:Hm... no. I (and I guess most others) have read the text completely becaus, you know, that is only place where the joke could have been. ;) But now that you mention it this should/could be added to the explanation since besides of the part that you accidently skipped it's like any other text of its sort. While it might not be Amelia's intention that you don't read the middle part it could have been Randall's intention just to fool the reader. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:35, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

Double size image for 4K shows more detail. I accidentally discovered it when I got a 4K monitor. If you have hidpi set (150%+ scaling in Windows), xkcd will default to double sized comics. The one for this is: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/amelias_farm_fresh_cookies_2x.png
You can open the double size images by opening the picture itself in the browser, then appending "_2x" to the filename (before the file extension portion).
The zip code is pretty clearly 32841, which is apparently invalid (it makes sense to prevent an accidental actual address).

Talk:2366: Amelia's Farm Fresh Cookies

2021-12-22T13:33:14Z

198.41.242.129: /* Double size image for 4K shows more detail */

2245: Edible Arrangements

2021-10-31T15:23:45Z

198.41.242.129: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2245
| date = December 23, 2019
| title = Edible Arrangements
| image = edible_arrangements.png
| titletext = Any arrangement is an edible arrangement if you're hungry enough.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the first of two comics in a row about presents, and it is also the last comic released before {{w|Christmas Day}}. This is the first [[:Category:Christmas|Christmas comic]] of 2019, with [[2246: Christmas Presents]] being the second Christmas comic, released on Christmas Day.

{{w|Edible Arrangements}} is a company that sells fruit, and other edible items that have been cut and arranged to look like flower bouquets. They can be ordered and sent to a given recipient for a variety of purposes. Flower arrangements are typically not eaten, as showy flowers are so economically inefficient to mass produce that modern culture has forgotten they are edible.{{fact}}

In the first panel, [[Cueball]] seems to find the concept incongruous, and wonders how it came about. [[Megan]] points out the easy answer: picking out a gift for someone can be difficult, but a tasteful meal is always welcome so long as it's something the recipient can eat safely.

Shortly afterwards, Megan uses the same incongruity of eating a floral arrangement to make puns. '''Vore of the Roses''' is a play on the '''War of the Roses''', either the {{w|Wars of the Roses|English civil war}} or the 1989 [[imdb:tt0098621|movie]] of the same name. 'Vore' is a word part referring to eating, as in carnivore (meat eater), herbivore (plant eater), voracious (hungry or eating a lot), etc. It's also used on the internet to refer to the Vore fetish, in which one gets sexually excited about the idea of eating or being eaten by someone (not in the metaphorical sense of oral sex, but actually consuming someone whole).

Cueball is probably in pain because of the bad pun (or perhaps because he doesn't like the idea of food items desiring to be eaten) and says he will cancel the edible arrangement that he had bought for Megan. She tries to convince him otherwise by providing alternative names, which are evidently not any more to his liking, since he has left Megan before she's finished with her suggestions.

Mouth Blossoms, Juicy Bouquet, and Oral Floral are all combinations referencing the eating of a floral arrangement. In theory, these combinations could be good names for a band, [[1025: Tumblr|or possibly a tumblr blog.]]

The title text also makes reference to the fact that many flowers that are often found in floral arrangements, such as roses, violets, tulips, daisies, lavender and many more, are items that a human can eat. Such flowers are safe to consume but usually unappetizing; Randall makes the point that if a person is sufficiently hungry and thus doesn't care how appetizing their meal is, any floral arrangement can be eaten. Since he doesn't use flower in the title text, he actually says that if you are hungry enough anything can be eaten. The title text may also be an allusion to a Mitch Hedberg joke: "Any book is a children's book if the kid can read!"

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are sitting on opposite sides of a leafless tree. They are silhouetted.]
:Cueball: I don't get how Edible Arrangements is a thing.

:[Zoomed in on Cueball and Megan leaning against the tree]
:Megan: That's easy — picking out presents is hard and fruit is delicious.
:Cueball: Yeah, true.

:[Megan gestures with an open hand]
:Megan: But my question is, why did they call it "Edible Arrangements" and not "Vore of the Roses"?

:[Pan to just Megan. Megan turns to face Cueball]
:Cueball: Just for that, I'm going to cancel the one I got you.
:Megan: Nooo! I want my Mouth Blossoms!
:Megan: My Juicy Bouquet! My Oral Floral!
:Megan: Hey, come back!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Furries]]