1196: Subways

2013-04-08T15:57:29Z

DCB4W: /* Explanation */ Odd, I always thought Sunnydale was closer to LA.

{{comic
| number = 1196
| date = April 8, 2013
| title = Subways
| image = subways.png
| titletext = About one in three North American subway stops are in NYC.
}}

The xkcd page links to [http://xkcd.com/1196/large/ a much larger version], which has another text added:
<blockquote style="font-style:italic">
For the pedantic rail enthusiasts, the definition of a subway used here is, with some caveats, "a network containing high capacity grade-separated passenger rail transit lines which run frequently, serve an urban core, and are underground or elevated for at least part of their downtown route." For the rest of you, the definition is "a bunch of trains under a city."
</blockquote>

==Explanation==
The comic shows the maps of all North American {{w|subway}} networks. In reality, none of these systems are interconnected, but in the diagram subways from different cities that have the same color on the official subway map are whimsically connected (for example, the "Ohio-California Tunnel" connecting the Green Lines of Cleveland and Los Angeles). The "Springfield Monorail" is fictional, from the animated series "{{w|The Simpsons}}" (see {{w|Marge vs. the Monorail}}), as is the San Francisco line to Sunnydale, which is the setting for {{w|Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series)}}.

The networks on the map are displayed in (relatively) geographic position, with {{w|Vancouver}} being the most North-West, and {{w|Mexico City}} being the most South – East/West and North/South order are correct, but distances are not (in reality, Vancouver is closer to Chicago than to Toronto for example).

The "Graveyard for passengers killed by closing doors" refers to the warning played in the Washington DC Metro system warning passengers that the subway doors are "not like elevators doors" and will close on your limbs or belongings rather than opening when contact with an object is detected.

Here are some official subway maps:
* Boston - http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/
* Chicago - http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/maps/P19_2012_CTA_Rail_Map.pdf
* Cleveland - http://www.riderta.com/pdf/maps/System_Map_Rapid_Connect.pdf
* Montreal - http://www.stm.info/english/metro/images/plan-metro.jpg
* New York City - http://www.mta.info/maps/submap.html
* Toronto - http://tourbytransit.com/toronto/images/Toronto-Subway-Map.png
* Vancouver - http://mapa-metro.com/mapas/Vancouver/mapa-metro-vancouver.png
* San Francisco - http://www.bart.gov/images/global/system-map.gif

==Transcript==
:

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]

Talk:1107: Sports Cheat Sheet

2012-09-13T19:25:27Z

DCB4W: Comment re: baseball

Thanks to whoever added the hockey mention ("no love" in the comic, for sure). Maybe the comic needs another column for Canada, where hockey can be argued about year-round. (Yes, it's an exaggeration for comic effect.) As for the rest of the world, or at least ex-Commonwealth and neighboring countries (e.g. Australia, India, New Zealand), what about rugby and cricket? --'''BigMal27''' (no account) / [[Special:Contributions/192.136.15.177|192.136.15.177]] 15:29, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
:Forgot to mention that these sports don't have to be professional in nature. I know of plenty US collegiate arguments in both football (e.g. Michigan vs. Notre Dame or Michigan State or Ohio State) and basketball (everyone vs. everyone during the NCAA tournament a.k.a. "March Madness" (TM)). --'''BigMal27''' / [[Special:Contributions/192.136.15.177|192.136.15.177]] 17:33, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
::I'm with you on cricket, though I was always under the impression that rugby was pretty much isolated to ''dahwn undah.'' Nonetheless, I took a slightly different read of the comic, possibly biased by this quip a friend shared: during the SuperBowl, if a team scores, the US reacts. During the cricket world cup, if a team scores, the commonwealth reacts. But if, during the football (aka soccer) world cup, a team scores, the ''world'' reacts. -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 13:39, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
:::For us Aussies it this comic would be would be "Cricket + Football + Football + Football + Football" all year round with "Tennis" added in 1-2 weeks, four times a year (the Majors tournaments, aka the Grand Slam tournaments). The four Football codes played professional in Australia are: Australian Rules (major sporting body is the AFL), Rugby League (NRL), Rugby Union (ARU) and Association Football/Soccer (FFA). Unfortunately, Cricket, Football, Football, Football and Football tend to dominate the Australian sporting media so there isn't much opportunity for people to argue about other sports. [Apologies if I've stuffed up any formatting/broken any rules, this is my first time posting] -- '''Grantwhy'''[[Special:Contributions/115.64.240.30|115.64.240.30]] 15:32, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

The problem with the suggestion in the mouse over text is that everyone would have the same opinion on the same day! A better idea would be to have an App which selects from two or more oposing opinions and feed you a random one each day. (Personally being 'European' I'd prefer it to be more like the US! Sooo fed up with football discussions.) Steve B
:Then you run into the problem of two people who rely in that app falling into a sports discussion with each other rather than something else. If I were to find someone expressing the same canned opinion that I have from the twitter feed, at least I can say "who cares about sports, let's talk about something important: vi or emacs?". The twitter feed is best for someone who wants to fake sports knowledge to fit in. [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 16:12, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
:The idea behind the twitter feed is to give people who really isn't interested in sport (aka. nerds) the opportunity to interact with so called normal people. It is just a variation on the http://bluffball.co.uk/ site refered to by [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKHyqjHqQLU#t=32s an The IT Crowd episode]. Two users of the twitter feed would have more important subjects to discuss (like for example vi vs. emacs) [[User:Pmakholm|Pmakholm]] ([[User talk:Pmakholm|talk]]) 18:12, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

What is with the sports bent that Randall is on? Two sports comics in three weeks? Has this happened before? [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 15:36, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

:He was on a Wikipedia kick about a year ago . . . 4 comics in about 5 weeks or so.--[[User:Joehammer79|Joehammer79]] ([[User talk:Joehammer79|talk]]) 22:07, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

Would that opinion even fit into a Twitter post? [[Special:Contributions/76.122.5.96|76.122.5.96]] 20:55, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

:You are right. The sample tweet in the title text is 164 characters long. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 21:18, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

::It would fit if the parenthetical explanations were removed though. [[Special:Contributions/76.127.162.20|76.127.162.20]] 12:03, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

:::Kind of need those if you don't understand the sport to begin with. They provide necessary context. For example, disambiguation between teams: I could mention "Minnesota" and without context it could mean either the Twins (MLB), Vikings (NFL), Timberwolves (NBA), Wild (NHL), Lynx (WNBA), other various professional teams ("lesser" sports, womens teams, minor leagues), or any of the University of Minnesota (NCAA Div. I) teams: football, basketball (mens & womens), hockey (mens & womens), baseball & softball, wrestling, gymnastics, swimming & diving, golf... --'''BigMal27''' / [[Special:Contributions/192.136.15.149|192.136.15.149]] 12:18, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Here's a comment I was thinking about integrating into the explanation, but decided it was probably too picky.
:Arguably, Randall cut this off too early; over years, the Major Leagues have added additional rounds of playoffs, so that the championship round, the World Series, sometimes now spills over into November, rather than ending in mid October as the graph would suggest. (It varies because the {{w|Major League Baseball postseason}} consists of one single elimination round, one best of five round, and two best of seven rounds.) It may be a meta-joke: the guy who needs the cheat sheet to keep track of sports seasons lacked the info to compile the cheat sheet.
I do have a slight tendency to overthink things. Anyone who thinks it adds to the explanation is welcome to insert it. [[User:DCB4W|DCB4W]] ([[User talk:DCB4W|talk]]) 19:25, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1196: Subways

Talk:1107: Sports Cheat Sheet