# Is Chalk Like Doom? -or- Weird questions Fom Your Child. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 4, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953 "2013-03-04T00:56:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/1 "2013-03-04T00:56:58Z")
True conversation from Dinner tonight: Celtling: Mom, Is chalk like doom? Me: Huh?!? 😕 Celtling: Is chalk like doom? Me: Chalk? Like you write on a chalkboard? Celtling: Yes. Is chalk like doom? Me: Doom? Celtling: Yes. Me: What do you mean doom? Spell it? Celtling: D.O.O.M doom. Me: Is _chalk_ like _doom_?!? Celtling: (harrumphing) Yes, you know, like when it’s really small! :rolleyes: Me: I. Just. Ummm. I still don’t understand the question. . . Celtling: (Giving up) NeverMIND Mom! So, I ask you Dopers. Please help me out here. _IS_ chalk like doom? And/or has your child ever asked you a question like this? ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/2 "2013-03-04T01:02:58Z")
I sure hope someone can figure this one out! “When it’s really small” seems to be referring to a tiny piece of chalk, all worn down. But then? I got nothing. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/3 "2013-03-04T01:17:34Z")
I don’t know the answer, but I do remember having trouble with “doom” as a kid. It’s used a lot in cartoons (“Bwhahaha, and now He-Man will meet his doom!”), but if you think about it, it’s a really abstract and non-intuitive thing to be talking about, especially if you haven’t been raised with a lot of talk about heaven and hell (or other permanent, terrible fates.) ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/4 "2013-03-04T01:29:23Z")
Yes, defintiely holding her thumb and forefinger very close together and repeating, “You know, really, really small piece of chalk.” ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/5 "2013-03-04T01:29:25Z")
Tell the Celt-Spawn: “The answer to your question is _five_”. When he asks what that _means_, tell him : “Think about it.” You shouldn’t hear from him for a day or two. You can thank me in small bills, please. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/6 "2013-03-04T01:55:11Z")
Is it possible he was thinking of dust when he said doom? ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/7 "2013-03-04T02:10:36Z")
I have no opinion on the doominess or otherwise of chalk (spellcheck keeps trying to change that to “roominess” - hmmm) but here’s one I got from my Taller Girl, aged four at the time, coming home in the car one day. **Her:** “Mummy, how much is for children?” **Me** :“Sorry?” **Her:** :“How much is for children?” **Me** :“How much _what_ is for children?” **Her:** :“No! How MUCH is for CHILDREN?” **Me** :“How much
grass? Air? Lollies? What do you mean?” **Her:** :_screwing up her eyes and beating her chair with her fist_ “I MEAN HOW MUCH IS FOR CHILDREN!!!” After a few more rounds of this, with the Taller Girl getting ever more frustrated and I ever more confused, finally we reached home. At which point she raced into her room, flung herself onto her bed and sobbed hysterically for twenty minutes. Once she had calmed down some, and I had done some thinking, we then had this conversation. **Me** :"Um
when you wanted to know ‘how much is for children’, is that like ‘_four_ as in one, two, three
?’ " **Her:** :“YES!” **Me** :“Oh. Well, if it’s children in a kinder class that’s not very many, but if it’s all in the same family it’s quite a lot.” **Her:** :“Oh. OK.” _runs off to play_ Anyway. In your situation, I would recommend “I’m sorry, I’ve never heard of doom. Can you tell me what it is?” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/8 "2013-03-04T02:18:32Z")
This may be far too existential for a child, but in a weird metaphorical way, a really tiny piece of chalk could sort of symbolize doom – in that it’s quickly nearing its permanent end as it gets used more and more. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/9 "2013-03-04T02:24:35Z")
I remember having a surreal conversation with my son back in the day; he mentioned that the houses we were driving past weren’t real houses. It took me a while but I tracked it down to _Who Framed Roger Rabbit?_, which we had just seen
 he had gotten the impression that real houses had faces and eyes, and they moved and talked, but all the houses we were driving past were all fake. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/10 "2013-03-04T02:27:01Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > This may be far too existential for a child, but in a weird metaphorical way, a really tiny piece of chalk could sort of symbolize doom – in that it’s quickly nearing its permanent end as it gets used more and more. đŸ’„ Anyone seen my head? ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/11 "2013-03-04T02:33:59Z")
Doom, the first person shooter that revolutionized the genre and much of popular video gaming, is not much like a piece of chalk at all. So you can confidently answer “no, Doom is nothing like chalk. Why do you ask?” ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/12 "2013-03-04T02:41:40Z")
I’m laughing just reading this thread. 🙂 I’m afraid I can’t help much with the “Is chalk like doom?” question, other than to suggest asking her later to explain what “doom” means. When I first started reading the OP I thought perhaps she meant “Is chalk like Dawn?” as in the dishwashing detergent, but I think Dawn only comes in liquid form and not the vaguely chalk-like white powder form. I guess she could be mixed up about brand names as well as the spelling/pronunciation of “Dawn”, but the more I think about it the more of a reach it seems. As **even sven** suggested, it may be that she does mean “doom” (and not some other word that sounds like it) but is a little confused about the definition and thinks it means, I dunno, “something that disappears”. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/13 "2013-03-04T02:42:02Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > This may be far too existential for a child, but in a weird metaphorical way, a really tiny piece of chalk could sort of symbolize doom – in that it’s quickly nearing its permanent end as it gets used more and more. Wow! This has to be it. Chalk is probably the most visible thing kids have to seeing something get smaller and smaller and eventually into nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/14 "2013-03-04T02:47:42Z")
The only way I can figure it is a police chalk-outline of a corpse. And the concept of “doom” gets even more complicated when you realize that a doom can be good _or_ bad. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/15 "2013-03-04T03:06:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The only way I can figure it is a police chalk-outline of a corpse. But it’s only like doom when it’s really, really small. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/16 "2013-03-04T03:57:18Z")
At bedtime. Me: Giggling. Celtling: What? Me: I’m still trying to figure out the chalk question. Celtling: I just pictured it in my head, Squidward was holding a tiny piece of chalk,and there were lightening bolts coming out of it, and it was like, the chalk of doom. We use the word doom a lot around here. Like our dog is this cute little 20 pound ball of curly black fluff, with the sweetest little face you ever saw: until he yawns, and you see the _ **gaping maw of doom** _ open before you. That cute short little snoot just opens up into the most enormous maw of razor canine teeth imaginable. He goes from [this](http://static8.depositphotos.com/1004199/964/i/950/depositphotos_9649222-Black-Toy-poodle-puppy.jpg) to [this](http://www.jawshark.com/photos/great%20white%20gaping%20maw.jpg) in a nanosecond. Seriously though, I think jragon nailed it. She was trying to picture what “doom” means. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/17 "2013-03-04T08:41:00Z")
My daughter, having found out that the earth rotates, once asked “so when we’re driving, could we be staying still while the world turns underneath us?”. I forget how old she was - maybe 8 or so, and the answer to her question is obviously ‘no’, but I was immensely proud she asked it. ---
**Author:** ![Faruiza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@Faruiza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Faruiza)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/18 "2013-03-04T09:42:33Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > This may be far too existential for a child, but in a weird metaphorical way, a really tiny piece of chalk could sort of symbolize doom – in that it’s quickly nearing its permanent end as it gets used more and more. This was exactly my first thought. You can just see it disappearing into nothing, the inevitable negative end. For those of you who don’t get it
go get stoned. Come back. (Bring pie, we’re going to need it!) Read again. Profit! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/19 "2013-03-04T14:02:45Z")
This sounds like a job for the Doom Patrol. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953/20 "2013-03-04T14:15:57Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > a really tiny piece of chalk could sort of symbolize doom – in that it’s quickly nearing its permanent end Now I feel bad for the chalk, I’d give my chalk a hug, but it would leave marks all over my clothes, and hasten it’s demise! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chalk-like-doom-or-weird-questions-fom-your-child/651953.md?page=2)