# ­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:** 17
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/321 "2020-12-06T16:05:39Z")
There is also Gil, Gilberto/Gilberta, … ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/322 "2020-12-06T17:08:37Z")
What are they also? Gilbert has been a male name for as long as that resource goes back. The only Gil- female names that have been used enough to show up are Gillie in the 1890s (few numbers), Gilda peaking 1920s, and Gillian peaking in the 1990s. Giberta doesn’t ever hit the list. One odd thing that Gilda got me thinking about - obviously many of the big bumps in names come after a popular figure (often fictional) has it. Dorothy though dropped in the years following the release of The Wizard of Oz. Gilda had a brief resurgence though. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/323 "2020-12-06T17:09:09Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Gale has apparently switched from a majority girl’s name to a majority boy’s name. There was a male character named Gale in the Hunger Games. IANA expert by any stretch. But I’ve only encountered “Gail” as female and “Gale” as male. Both pretty archaic today. You’re saying Gale was also a feminine spelling? ---
**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:** [December 6, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/324 "2020-12-06T19:21:16Z")
There’s Gale Ann Hurd, Gale Norton, Gale Garnett, and Gale Weathers (admittedly that last one is a fictional character). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/325 "2020-12-06T19:32:43Z")
Cool. Thanks. ---
**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:** [December 6, 2020, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/326 "2020-12-06T21:53:40Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > You’re saying Gale was also a feminine spelling? I have 3 Gales in my client database, all women, and all in their 40’s-60’s. 2 Gails. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/327 "2020-12-07T03:52:55Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I stand corrected. I always assumed the name originally came from the Maria gens Indeed, “false friends” – ended at the same place but from a different starting point. When the Latin-speaking Christians transcribed the Koiné Greek Μαρία using the equivalent Latin letters it wound up identical (ISTR they are not pronounced quite the same, different stress points?) ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/328 "2020-12-07T21:54:01Z")
So what _was_ Mary’s name, in Aramaic or Hebrew, if it wasn’t Miriam? What did her friends call her? Also: I’m not sure I get the joke in the contiguous states strip. Is it just “take that! we’ll drop your state and see how _you_ like it!” I keep trying to tie it to the meaning of “contiguous” but it’s not working. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2020, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/329 "2020-12-07T22:06:43Z")
I think it’s purely a visual joke, that this map is wrong, but still manages to look right. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/330 "2020-12-07T22:11:12Z")
…and can you tell which ones are missing by easy inspection? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/331 "2020-12-07T22:33:32Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Is it just “take that! we’ll drop your state and see how _you_ like it!” It’s just that plus the visual aspects as stated above. No play on “contiguous” that I can find. In a good fraction of the episodes the hover-overs are afterthought or “Here’s an almost-related tangent …” jokes. Not simply a straight-line extension of the main image and caption. Sometimes they are just straight-line extensions. But not always. I think this one’s hover-over is almost-related tangent. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/332 "2020-12-07T22:41:17Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > So what _was_ Mary’s name, in Aramaic or Hebrew, if it wasn’t Miriam? What did her friends call her? You misunderstood. Her name _was_ Miriam, but I was under the impression that the Latin name “Maria” as a name pre-dated Christianity, and that it was used as the translation for “Miriam” simply because it sounded similar - sort of like translating the French name “Jacques” to English as “Jack”. Apparently I was wrong. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2020, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/333 "2020-12-07T23:17:09Z")
It looks more like there were two different names in Latin, both spelled “Maria”, but with independent origin. After all, some of the guys named Marius had to have had daughters. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2020, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/334 "2020-12-08T04:35:53Z")
> **[Covid Precaution Level](https://xkcd.com/2395/)** > > It's frustrating to calibrate your precautions when there's only one kind of really definitive feedback you can get, you can only get it once, and when you do it's too late. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2020, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/335 "2020-12-08T22:20:01Z")
Too true. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/336 "2020-12-09T18:50:18Z")
It’d be fun to create a similar dial showing each of the various political /social / regional subgroups’ ideas of what’s too much, too little, and whether there is or isn’t any overlap in the middle. With, say, concentric arcs for each group. Something roughly like this [**dial**](http://www.quadibloc.com/science/images/dial.gif) with this [**data**](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blood_values_sorted_by_mass_and_molar_concentration.png). ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2020, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/337 "2020-12-10T03:25:56Z")
> **[Wonder Woman 1984](https://xkcd.com/2396/)** > > 'Wait, why would you think a movie set in 1984 would do drive-ins as a retro promotion?' 'You know, 80s stuff. Drive-in movies. Britney Spears doing the hustle. Elvis going on Ed Sullivan and showing off his pog collection.' 'What year were you born, again?' ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2020, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/338 "2020-12-10T03:46:11Z")
To be fair there were still drivein movie theaters in 1984 (the closest theater to my parents’ house was a drivein - 40 minutes closer than anywhere else). That being said, I think the last movie I did see at a drivein was Tron in 1982. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2020, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/339 "2020-12-10T17:52:18Z")
I think the last movie I saw at a drive-in was _Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze_, in 1975. ---
**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:** [December 10, 2020, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/340 "2020-12-10T18:06:02Z")
We have a drive in around here that has been going since forever. They are nice when you want an excuse to go somewhere, but still have some privacy. Also nice for family outings with little ones that may be disruptive in a theater. I haven’t been since High School days, but it still does good business. Probably better now with the pandemic and all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=16) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=18)