explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2366: Amelia's Farm Fresh Cookies

2020-10-01T20:07:09Z

MrBigDog2U:

{{comic
| number = 2366
| date = September 30, 2020
| title = Amelia's Farm Fresh Cookies
| image = amelias_farm_fresh_cookies.png
| titletext = I told her I'd take her address off the packaging if she'd stop submitting anonymous food safety complaints about my bakery to the health department, but she sent me a note that said NO DEAL along with an extra large batch of cookies.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AMELIA'S GRANDMA. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The comic portrays the back side of a box of cookies (evidenced by the {{w|nutrition facts}}-style table on the left side). Many brands have a romanticized origin story on their packaging explaining the name or how they have a secret ingredient. Instead, this brand's origin story is tale of petty one-upmanship as the brand's founder sets out to prove that her cookies are better than her grandmother's.

Grandma's cookies were apparently very fragile and crumbly. They also had "gooey exteriors and slightly crisp interiors." Normally items bake from the exterior in, so how the interior had gotten crisp and the exterior hadn't is not explained (maybe Grandma used a microwave?). The grandmother's cookies also had a "mysterious gritty texture", presumably from sand getting into the flour from the stone grinders, that would be unpleasant.

To complete her revenge, the "story" contains the grandmother's address (apparently, somewhere in Orlando, FL). Creating false addresses for their mascots is often used as a publicity stunt for children to write testimonials to the brand's PR or marketing department. However, here it appears to be Amelia's actual Grandma's actual address, the goal being for her to receive thousands of letters on a regular basis about how her granddaughter's cookies are so great, while jabbing "unlike yours!"

In retaliation, Amelia's grandmother has started submitting (presumably bogus) food safety complaints about Amelia's bakery to the health department in a ploy to overburden the bakery with unnecessarily frequent inspections. At one point Amelia eventually decided to offer a truce, which her grandmother emphatically rejected, underscoring it by sending Amelia an extra-large batch of the cookies she knows Amelia hates.

The high-resolution version of the comic may be found [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/amelias_farm_fresh_cookies_2x.png here].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[What looks like the back of a package of cookies is shown.]

:[Top left: Product logo.]
:'''Amelia's''' Farm-Fresh ''Cookies''
:[Parts of an oval surround the logo]

:[Middle left: What appears to be a standard Nutrition Facts panel, though the details are illegible squiggles]

:[Bottom left: What appears to be an ingredients list, though the details are illegible squiggles, and a few other squiggles]

:[Right side:]
:''Our Story''
:Growing up on my grandma's farm, I spent so many cozy mornings in the kitchen, watching her take trays of fresh-baked cookies from the oven.
:Her cookies were just ''awful''.
:She used the finest ingredients. Eggs straight from the coop, stone-ground flour, hand-churned butter. But she squandered them. It's so sad. She told me I was too picky, but I know what cookies are supposed to taste like.
:When I started a bakery, I vowed not to repeat her mistakes. These cookies won't fall apart in your hands. They have gooey centers, and slightly crisp exteriors, not the other way around, ''Grandma''. There's no mysterious gritty texture. Why would there be?
:If you enjoy these cookies, please write to my grandma to let her know.
:Thanks!
:''Amelia''

:[A partially legible squiggled out address appears at the bottom left of the Our Story part of the box.]
:Ms W[illegible] M[illegible]
:1[illegible] A[illegible] Ln
:Orlando, FL 328#1

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Food]]

Talk:1459: Documents

2014-12-12T15:40:33Z

MrBigDog2U:

742 Evergreen Terrace.docx
742 Evergreen Terrace (2).docx

[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.51|141.101.99.51]] 07:24, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

I'm sure everyone can relate to using poor filenames occasionally. As far as default filenames go:

*Notepad (XP) = *.txt - Cannot save without choosing a new filename.
*Word (2003) = Title (if set by template) > First sentence of document > Doc1.doc, Doc2.doc, etc
*Paint (XP) = untitled.bmp
--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 08:58, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

Using the image format (.jpg) to store text information (like addresses) will also contribute to an annoying future if you ever need to copy data from that file into some other programme. [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 09:58, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
: oo good point -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 13:13, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
:: Could be a JPEG because it's a camera photo of the address on something. That'd make it even more perverse because most cameras create files with names like DSC01234.jpg meaning he's given it the "Untitled" moniker on purpose. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.78|141.101.99.78]] 14:23, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
: Placing an email address in a graphic is often used when the email address is to be displayed on a web page to make it difficult for email-address harvesting programs to grab the email address for spamming. But that's probably not relevant here.--[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 15:28, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

Something I come a cross now and then is the result of the following situation: You are in the process of selecting multiple files while holding CTRL. During the process of quickly selecting the next file, you accidentally move your cursor/mouse while clicking the next file, resulting in copying all the selected files on the same location :) [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 13:36, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

Title is an impossible file name in most operating environments because it is too long at 277 characters. 255 characters is the limit for any file or folder name in Linux, and is the limit for a fully defined file name (file and full path the file is in) in Windows. So the Title/Alt text is 22 characters too long for Linux and at least 25 characters too long for Windows since being in the root of drive takes 3 characters, each folder adds at least 2 characters (a letter and the slash). I encounter clients pushing this limit all the time, complaining why they can't access their files with the novel length file names, so this comic REALLLYYY spoke to me. As an IT consultant, I get to see and occasionally cleanup such poor file naming conventions.
[[User:Chaosadventurer|Chaosadventurer]] ([[User talk:Chaosadventurer|talk]]) 15:34, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

I suppose it's just the OCD but the fact that the filenames are not in alphabetical order is the first thing that hit me. They're not even alphabetical by file type/extension. About the only thing that would result in this ordering is if the files were sorted by timestamp (which we don't see). Of course, if I were looking over someone's shoulder at their timestamp sorted list of files, I might be just as horrified by the ordering as I would by the names.
[[User:MrBigDog2U|MrBigDog2U]] ([[User talk:MrBigDog2U|talk]]) 15:40, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1429: Data

2014-10-03T14:28:45Z

MrBigDog2U:

What should "off-screen" be called in the transcript? I just put that since I didn't know what else to say. Also, someone needs to a) explain the Kirk/Picard situation and b) explain the title text. Sorry for not doing it myself, but I'm editing on my phone so there are probably errors that people need to fix and other people know far more about it anyway. [[User:Athang|Athang]] ([[User talk:Athang|talk]]) 04:42, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

:Based on looking through some other transcripts, it looks like the convention is "off-screen". Also, fixed some typos in your comment. [[User:Cheeselover724|Cheeselover724]] ([[User talk:Cheeselover724|talk]]) 06:06, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

The comic refers tp "pedants '''on all sides'''", which implies there is some kind of debate/dispute about the issue in the grammatical world. If someone who is aware of this dispute were to explain the details of it and/or provide links to sites that discuss it, I think the explanation would be greatly improved. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.180}}

::There seems to be an ongoing dispute of whether to rigidly stick to the latin form (datum singular, data plural), or adjust to the way it is far more commonly used. There appears to be divided opinion amongst grammar pedants, hence the 'on all sides'. [http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/jul/16/data-plural-singular Data are or data is? - Guardian Newspaper], [http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/07/05/is-data-is-or-is-data-aint-a-plural/ Is Data Is, or Is Data Ain’t, a Plural? - WSJ]

I always thought the noun data was non-quantifiable like "gasoline" which you'd need a unit to pluralize. "This piece of data suggests more than those gallons of gasoline"... [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.79|173.245.48.79]] 05:03, 3 October 2014 (UTC)BLuDgeons

I added some info on Kirk vs. Picard, but I'm not sure how useful or understandable it is. Sorry in advance. [[User:Cheeselover724|Cheeselover724]] ([[User talk:Cheeselover724|talk]]) 06:01, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

As someone pretending (for purposes of this comment) to be British, what's the matter with "an hypercorrection habit"?

:Agreed. The consonant 'h' sound is not always preceded by "a". Is it quite common for other words starting with consonant 'h' to be preceded by "an". One is example is "An historic occasion". [[User:MrBigDog2U|MrBigDog2U]] ([[User talk:MrBigDog2U|talk]]) 14:28, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1205: Is It Worth the Time?

2013-04-30T14:35:26Z

MrBigDog2U:

The title text is just silly.[[Special:Contributions/220.255.1.25|220.255.1.25]] 08:52, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

Is it worth all of the time we've spent on 1190, developing wikis, and wget scripts to pull the pictures efficiently, etc.? [[User:Bdemirci|Bdemirci]] ([[User talk:Bdemirci|talk]]) 08:58, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

I would just like to ask if there is an interactive version of this comit out there. I suppose it wouldn't be too hard to create...
--[[User:Charlesisbozo|Charlesisbozo]] ([[User talk:Charlesisbozo|talk]]) 09:14, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
: Well, it would be really simple indeed. For now, you can try [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%285+years%29+*+%285+%2F+week%29+*+%282+minutes%29 Wolfram|Alpha] --[[User:Mormegil|Mormegil]] ([[User talk:Mormegil|talk]]) 10:49, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
: I have a site up that does the calculation : http://c.albert-thompson.com/xkcd/ --[[User:Whitecat|Whitecat]] ([[User talk:Whitecat|talk]])[[User:whitecat|whitecat]] ([[User talk:whitecat|whitecat]]) 18:39, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

The graph ignores the fact that it is much more satisfying to shave off time from task, especially by automating it. Also note that it IS possible to shave off 6 hours from task you do daily and one day from task you do weekly. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:39, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
: The table also ignores all monetary costs associated with the work: e.g. buying a new tool --[[Special:Contributions/66.46.212.10|66.46.212.10]] 15:45, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

I was thinking the same, but then realised it's NOT practical if you assume a 6 hour working day and 5 day working week. [[Special:Contributions/41.134.254.53|41.134.254.53]] 12:33, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

If Momo taught us 1 thing, than it is that you can not save time ;-). --[[User:DaB.|DaB.]] ([[User talk:DaB.|talk]]) 13:56, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

Why is it "not possible" to shave a day off of a task that you perform weekly? [[User:MrBigDog2U|MrBigDog2U]] ([[User talk:MrBigDog2U|talk]]) 14:29, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
: It definitely possible, but Randall feel it's just not worth the time to put it there. :-) [[User:Arifsaha|Arifsaha]] ([[User talk:Arifsaha|talk]]) 16:09, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
:: Then the explanation is inaccurate as it states that "blacked out areas represent times which are impossible to save". It is possible, perhaps just not worthwhile. [[User:MrBigDog2U|MrBigDog2U]] ([[User talk:MrBigDog2U|talk]]) 14:35, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

For most people in most circumstances, a net present value comparison would be most relevant. Even if I can save a day every year for the next 5 years, it may not be worth 5, or event 4, days input now, because my time now is more valuable to me than my time in the future (as of now), and my opportunity cost for time spent now greater. It would be interesting to see the chart revised assuming a particular discount factor, and that all efficiency-improvement input occurs up front. [[User:RyanDonovan|RyanDonovan]] ([[User talk:RyanDonovan|talk]]) 17:29, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
Agreed! :¬D

[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/TL;DR TL;DR] --[[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 21:14, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1205: Is It Worth the Time?

2013-04-29T14:29:59Z

MrBigDog2U:

Talk:1182: Rembrandt Photo

2013-03-07T15:30:05Z

MrBigDog2U:

I don't get it. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 07:57, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

It is a pun. Artist's conception can either mean an artist's description of an event where no real photo is available; or the artist's biological conception, meaning the sex that led to his birth. [[Special:Contributions/84.199.78.189|84.199.78.189]] 08:02, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

:Ohhh and Artist's conception, I get it! [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 08:15, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

::Example of an 'Incredibly Lame Pun' actually being hilarious. --[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 17:07, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

I don't get the "whistler" reference in the title text... anyone? [[Special:Contributions/84.197.94.196|84.197.94.196]] 09:21, 6 March 2013 (UTC)
:[[wikipedia:Whistler's Mother|"Whistler's Mother"]] is a famous American painting by [[wikipedia:James McNeill Whistler|James McNeill Whistler]] of his own mother. --[[User:Aaron of Mpls|Aaron of Mpls]] ([[User talk:Aaron of Mpls|talk]]) 11:39, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

Insert heartfelt groan here: -----> [. Groan! ][[Special:Contributions/24.79.11.46|24.79.11.46]] 12:15, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

I was too busy being grossed out by the prospect that it was the artist who conceived the image of his own conception. Be it Rembrandt or Whistler. Unresolved Oedipus complex, anyone? [[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 13:05, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

Incidentally there is a great reference to Whistler's Mother in the movie "Sneakers". Dan Akroyd's character makes the reference regarding his blind colleage ("Whistler"). Great movie.
:In which scene? --[[User:DaB.|DaB.]] ([[User talk:DaB.|talk]]) 18:06, 6 March 2013 (UTC)
:: Dan Akroyd's character is called "Mother"; I don't think there is any more reference than that: two characters, Whistler and Mother. "Whistler", incidentally, is a reference to being able to whistle the tone needed on old pay phones to get it to give you a free call -- Whistler is a phreaker. {{unsigned|72.68.11.22}}

Anyone know what "click" refers to in the title text? [[User:Trek7553|Trek7553]] ([[User talk:Trek7553|talk]]) 15:15, 6 March 2013 (UTC)
: the "click" because of Cueball working on the PC and not listening to Megan any more. [[Special:Contributions/80.76.68.155|80.76.68.155]] 15:38, 6 March 2013 (UTC)
:: Actually it's Megan switching to the next picture (that of Whistler's mother) on her laptop. {{unsigned|212.149.48.43}}
:: It's Cueball closing the door as he leaves the room. [[User:Schmammel|Schmammel]] ([[User talk:Schmammel|talk]]) 14:40, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

Does that mean that a painting of an artist painting a picture of Rembrandt's parents having sex would be an artist's conception of an artist's conception of an artist's conception? [[User:MrBigDog2U|MrBigDog2U]] ([[User talk:MrBigDog2U|talk]]) 15:30, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1098: Star Ratings

2012-08-22T15:16:55Z

MrBigDog2U:

'''please add <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> to the end of your comments to include your signature. Thanks!'''

*An alternate explanation is that internet users only vote in 1s and 5s, and that the cutoff represents the point where there are too many 1s.

*The people most likely to vote are those with strong opinions, which would often be polerized to one or five stars. These people would be the most likely to vote because their connection to the product would make them more willing to spend the time to share their experiance.

*In my opinion, this comic is about overrating. The comic says anything between full fout stars is crap. One possible explanation could be that people dislike to admit that their decision for a particular product was a bad one, so they grant three stars. Or look at certain brands, where every defect is by definition unimportant so they do not impact the review too harshly. [[Special:Contributions/46.142.51.138|46.142.51.138]] 15:05, 22 August 2012 (UTC)madd

*It seems likely that any product with a 1-start rating only has one (or a small number of) reviews as well. Usually a product has ''some'' redeeming value that someone will find useful.