# ­xkcd thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [May 28, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574 "2020-05-28T00:57:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 102
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2023 "2023-02-21T16:27:57Z")
I am unpleasantly reminded of my days loading trucks for UPS. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2024 "2023-02-23T06:37:55Z")
> **[Wish Interpretation](https://xkcd.com/2741/)** > > "I wish for everything in the world. All the people, money, trees, etc." "Are you SURE you--" "And I want you to put it in my house." ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2025 "2023-02-23T12:34:41Z")
I still like my wish better: > [@Can you defeat the evil genie?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-defeat-the-evil-genie/976903/161): > > “I wish my wish be unfulfilled.” ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2026 "2023-02-23T20:24:36Z")
Ever since I read Stephen King’s _Thinner_ in high school, I’ve occasionally practiced phrasing wishes in a way that avoids loopholes. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2027 "2023-02-23T23:02:31Z")
I’m reminded of Brian in _Knights of the Dinner Table_ having a pre-written wish (extensively thought through and reviewed by a paralegal) on hand just in case one of his characters got a chance to invoke it. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2028 "2023-02-24T02:24:17Z")
This was the central premise of A.S. Byatt’s novella _The Djinn In The Nightingale’s Eye_, which was made into the movie _Three Thousand Years Of Longing_. The protagonist is a literature scholar who studies folk tales, so when she buys an antique glass flask and inadvertently releases the genie imprisoned within, she thinks long and carefully before making her traditional three wishes. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2029 "2023-02-24T17:44:03Z")
> **[Island Storage](https://xkcd.com/2742/)** > > I always hate dragging around the larger archipelagos, but I appreciate how the Scandanavian peninsula flexes outward to create a snug pocket for the British Isles. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2023, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2030 "2023-02-28T01:00:36Z")
> **[Hand Dryers](https://xkcd.com/2743/)** > > I know hand dryers have their problems, but I think for fun we should keep egging Dyson on and see if we can get them to make one where the airflow breaks the speed of sound. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2031 "2023-03-01T17:18:37Z")
> **[Fanservice](https://xkcd.com/2744/)** > > I was eventually kicked out of my architectural engineering program because I wouldn't stop referring to HVAC as "the fandom." ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2032 "2023-03-01T20:17:39Z")
Huh, within the next couple of years, I now expect there to be a harem anime about HVAC system repair. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2023, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2033 "2023-03-02T04:10:24Z")
My main complaint about hand dryers isn’t that they take forever to heat up, but they take forever to, you know, actually dry your hands. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2034 "2023-03-03T18:16:42Z")
> **[Obituary Editor](https://xkcd.com/2745/)** > > As the editor has reportedly defeated Death in a series of games of skill, no further obituaries are expected. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2035 "2023-03-07T07:57:49Z")
> **[Launch Window](https://xkcd.com/2746/)** > > "Confirmed, we have to scrub." "Ugh, okay. I'll get the bucket and sponge." ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2036 "2023-03-09T05:30:05Z")
> **[Presents for Biologists](https://xkcd.com/2747/)** > > A lot of these are actually non-venomous, but I can see which species you mistook them for. If you pause the crane for a sec I can give you some ID pointers for next time! ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2037 "2023-03-09T05:57:36Z")
Presents for Biologists: Okay, this one totally works for me 😀. Several years ago I had one of those semi-awake dreams, you know when you’re just coming out of sleep in the morning, about this really neat snake I had found in Baja California. While showering I was idly trying to identify what snake it was in my mind that I had been dreaming about, when I had the sudden epiphany of “oh, no…wait…I was dreaming - there is no such snake.” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2038 "2023-03-11T06:21:25Z")
> **[Radians are Cursed](https://xkcd.com/2748/)** > > Phil Plait once pointed out that you can calculate the total angular area of the sky this way. If the sky is a sphere with radius 57.3 degrees, then its area is 4\*pi\*r^2=41,253 square degrees. This makes dimensional analysts SO mad, but you can't argue with results. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2039 "2023-03-11T06:26:07Z")
It’s super useful to know that the sphere is about 40,000 square degrees in area. Especially if you also know that the sun and moon each have a diameter of about 0.5 degrees, or about 0.2 square degrees, since it means each one covers about 1/200,000 of the sky. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2040 "2023-03-14T08:28:54Z")
> **[Lymphocytes](https://xkcd.com/2749/)** > > It's very hard to detect, but recent studies have determined that when plasma B cells are producing antibodies, they go 'pew pew pew' ---
**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 15, 2023, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2041 "2023-03-15T21:47:49Z")
> **[Flatten the Planets](https://xkcd.com/2750/)** > > We'll turn the asteroid belt into ball bearings to go between different rings orbiting at different speeds. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2042 "2023-03-15T22:06:10Z")
I wonder how flat the planets would need to be to make this work? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=101) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=103)