Editing 735: Floor

{{comic
| number    = 735
| date      = May 3, 2010
| title     = Floor
| image     = floor.png
| titletext = We once got grounded when we convinced the FAA to block flights through our county because of ash clouds.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Hot lava (game)|The floor is lava}} is a game many kids play where they pretend the floor is {{w|lava}}, meaning that they can't step on it or else they'll get 'burned'. In this comic, the three kids are taking this game too seriously, causing great damage to the house with what appears to be a garden hose and some dynamite.

Stopping a lava flow by diverting it into an artificial trench or cooling the flow with (sea)water are both tactics that have been used in the past  [https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hvo/news/volcano-watch-can-hawaiian-lava-flows-be-diverted with varying success].

The title text refers to events like the 2010 eruptions at {{w|Eyjafjallajökull}}, the ash clouds of which caused the shutdown of most of Europe's {{w|IFR}} airspace. The first joke there is that grounding a child often means to consign them to their bedroom for a set period of hours (as a punishment), whereas grounding a plane means to disallow any use of that plane for an extended period of time. The most notable example of this is {{w|Concorde}}, which has been indefinitely grounded. The second joke is that causing panic and diverting a large number of flights would cause lots of financial damage, and would normally be subject to more punishment than simply giving the kids a time-out.

==Transcript==
:[Three Cueball-like kids are in a living room. Furniture and other things are knocked over, broken, or tilted. The first kid is holding a handle of a plunger with cables going offscreen.]
:First Kid: I've dynamited a trench through the kitchen to divert flow!
:'''BOOM'''

:[The second kid is aiming a hose at the floor.]
:Second Kid: More hoses! We need to cool and solidify the surface layer!
:''FWOOSH''

:[The third kid is standing on a chair, using a cell phone or radio.]
:Third Kid: Where are the damn helicopters?

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:Like many kids, we sometimes pretended the floor was lava.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Volcanoes]]
[[Category:Kids]]