# ­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:** 173
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2024, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3443 "2024-10-03T14:30:05Z")
I keep seeing other people saying that the last coal-powered plant has been shut down in the UK. This was the last coal-powered plant used for grid electrical generation, hence the term “coal power plant”. Presumably there are other coal plants still running. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2024, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3444 "2024-10-03T14:47:01Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Took me a moment to get the hidden literary reference in the alt-text: > [@Andy\_L](#): > > Very nice. Thanks for digging out that reference. My first thought about “rabbit, run” and “digging” was Pink Floyd’s _[Breathe (In the Air)](https://genius.com/Pink-floyd-breathe-in-the-air-lyrics)_: > Run, rabbit, run > Dig that hole, forget the sun > And when at last the work is done > Don’t sit down, it’s time to dig another one ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2024, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3445 "2024-10-03T14:48:09Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > He forgot about Triton.   He didn’t so much “forget” as “exclude by criteria”, since Triton is #6 by diameter. “… **five** biggest outer Solar System moons…” ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2024, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3446 "2024-10-03T14:53:17Z")
I guess I have outdated info lodged in the brain. I thought that Io and Europa were smaller than Triton. Should have double checked before posting. ---
**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:** [October 4, 2024, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3447 "2024-10-04T00:34:19Z")
On the coal one, I’m disappointed that he didn’t also calculate how many inches of Newcastle that would be. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3448 "2024-10-05T01:29:30Z")
> **[Númenor Margaritaville](https://xkcd.com/2994/)** > > I see white shores, and beyond it, a far green country under a tequila sunrise. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3449 "2024-10-05T01:41:05Z")
At some point you just have to hit them over the head with a blunt instrument. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3450 "2024-10-05T16:56:48Z")
Suddenly Tolkien is much more readable. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3451 "2024-10-05T19:27:36Z")
“‘Changes In Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes’ is actually all about the Downfall of Numenor and the Changing of the World! No, no - wait - where’d everybody go?” ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3452 "2024-10-05T21:24:17Z")
“One Particular Harbor” is obviously the Grey Havens. “Most mysterious calling harbour So far but yet so near I can see the day when my hair’s full gray And I finally disappear” ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2024, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3453 "2024-10-06T14:19:02Z")
It’s going to take some work to get “Cheeseburgers in Paradise” to fit into the legendarium. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2024, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3454 "2024-10-06T14:34:40Z")
Old Shire drinking song ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2024, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3455 "2024-10-06T14:57:24Z")
Damn, that’s priceless! I suspect that the Parrotheads are descended from those Noldor who never made it to Valinor in the first place. ---
**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:** [October 6, 2024, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3456 "2024-10-06T16:20:18Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > It’s going to take some work to get “Cheeseburgers in Paradise” to fit into the legendarium. Yeah, “I like mine with lettuce and tomato” doesn’t work, and the canonical replacement for tomato, pickles, are mentioned in the next line already. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2024, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3457 "2024-10-06T17:25:29Z")
Stewed rabbit in Valinor Got some potatoes? They’ll add so much more. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2024, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3458 "2024-10-06T17:41:28Z")
No mention of lettuce per se, but Tolkien does mention “salad”, plus tomatoes, potatoes, roast beast, bread, cheese, bacon, mushrooms, and wasn’t Beren a vegetarian? Sounds like a cheeseburger or a mushroom bacon burger would be a definite possibility. ---
**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:** [October 6, 2024, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3459 "2024-10-06T17:50:28Z")
Tolkien did mention tomatoes in the first edition of The Hobbit, before he realized it was a mistake and changed it to pickles. The “potatoes” that the hobbits ate were almost certainly the same thing as the petty-dwarves’ “earth-bread”, but might or might not have been the same species as we call potatoes. I’m sure you could still slice them into strips and deep-fry them, though, so the “French fried potatoes” one serves with a cheeseburger are no problem. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2024, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3460 "2024-10-06T18:04:16Z")
They ate potatoes and they smoked tobacco. Tolkien has a whole page or two explaining how the source of the tobacco was unknown to the hobbits, but probably came from the Western men, in the preamble to the Lord of the rings. He wasn’t writing a history of our world, and his world had those things. It probably had tomatoes, too. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2024, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3461 "2024-10-06T21:08:45Z")
But now, she lives down by the ocean She’s taking care to look for orcs… ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2024, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3462 "2024-10-07T14:03:29Z")
When I’m in Aman, I get what I need Not just lembas bread or pints of mead or pipes of weed But that Elvish creation on which I feed Cheeseburger in Valinor Heaven on earth with the Valar Not too precise, not too particular I’m just a cheeseburger in Valinor (Do elves eat meat?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=172) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=174)