explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Category:Calvin and Hobbes

2013-06-05T02:13:14Z

50.74.2.12: Created page with "{{w|Calvin and Hobbes}} are occasionally referenced in xkcd."

{{w|Calvin and Hobbes}} are occasionally referenced in xkcd.

529: Sledding Discussion

2013-06-05T02:11:50Z

50.74.2.12: Category:Calvin and Hobbes

{{comic
| number = 529
| date = January 12, 2009
| title = Sledding Discussion
| image = sledding_discussion.png
| titletext = If you get your hands on that one, it's the worst place to have a breaking-up conversation.
}}

==Explanation==
''{{w|Calvin and Hobbes}}'' is an acclaimed newspaper comic strip that ran from 1985 to 1995. Calvin is a six-year-old child with an active imagination, and Hobbes is his stuffed tiger who Calvin perceives to be alive. The two frequently had philosophical conversations, often while sledding. Calvin sledded on densely-wooded hills near where he lived, and the ride would often serve as a perfect parallel to the conversation they were having; for example, in one strip, Calvin talks about how seemingly mundane decisions can nonetheless have lasting consequences, by pointing out how all of the things they see as they continue down the hill (and eventually crash into a ravine) are a direct result of him having taken a particular fork early on.

[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]], on the other hand, have a perfectly normal sled ride down a perfectly normal hill. The reader expects something ironic to happen, since they're engaging in what's traditionally a children's pastime while discussing how they've grown too old for certain things. Instead, the only humor arises from their {{w|meta humor|commentary on the ''lack'' of humor}}.

The title text notes that it's a bad place to have a breaking up conversation, presumably because the sled itself would literally ''break up'' during the journey, with potentially dangerous consequences.

==Transcript==
:[Megan looks out window through blinds.]
:Megan: It's snowing!
:Cueball: [from off-screen] Sled time!

:[Megan and Cueball outside with sled, at the top of a hill.]
:Cueball: It depresses me that I'm too old to learn another language fluently. My brain's solidified.

:[Megan and Cueball sledding down the hill.]
:Megan: Is there one you wish you knew?
:Cueball: No, I just hate having options closed to me. Like I've given up a life that was once possible.

:[At the bottom of the hill, sled has stopped.]
:Megan: Yeah. Which reminds me -- our anniversary is coming up.

:Megan: Man, that ride failed to be a metaphor for our conversation.
:Cueball: Guess this isn't the Calvin & Hobbes-model toboggan.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Calvin and Hobbes]]

702: Snow Tracking

2013-06-05T02:10:34Z

50.74.2.12: Category:Calvin and Hobbes

{{comic
| number = 702
| date = February 15, 2010
| title = Snow Tracking
| image = snow_tracking.png
| titletext = I suppose that's more accurately a hare dryer.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a guide to recognizing various animals by their footprints. However, the comic typically detours into strange, ridiculous or pop-culture-referencing footprints. In order:

*"Moose and squirrel" is a reference to the cartoon ''{{w|Rocky and Bullwinkle}}''. Rocky and Bullwinkle were a flying squirrel and a moose, respectively, and were frequently referred to as "moose and squirrel" by the show's antagonist Boris Badenov.

*[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/longcat Longcat] is an internet {{w|meme}} from pictures of cats all stretched out that make them look very tall (or long).

*Mouse riding Bicycle is a reference to ''{{w|Ralph S. Mouse}}'', a series of novels by {{w|Beverly Cleary}}.

*The title text is a pun on the Rabbit with a hair dryer frame.

*{{w|Legolas}} is a reference to the character by the same name in the ''{{w|Lord of the Rings}}'' trilogy of books and movies. Legolas, as an elf, was able to walk on top of snow, while the other races in his party were forced to trudge through it.

*The "Knight" panel is a {{w|chess}} reference, as the tracks move just like the knight piece in chess.

*The two "Kid with" frames are a reference to the comic strip ''{{w|Calvin and Hobbes}}''. In it, Calvin would crawl in a cardboard box to do various things. When upside down, he pretended the box was a "transmogrifier" and could turn him into something else, in this case his tiger Hobbes, whereas when on its side, the box was a duplicator and could produce multiple clones of Calvin.

*{{w|Prius}} is a reference to current events in which Toyota Prius's pedals have allegedly malfunctioned causing accidents. [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/business/global/04prius.html]

*The final frame is the {{w|Higgs Boson}} which is an {{w|elementary particle}} which has recently been detected in the {{w|Large Hadron Collider}}.

{{Incomplete}}

==Transcript==
:BACKYARD SNOW TRACKING GUIDE

:[Each panel contains an overhead view of tracks through the snow, with a caption indicating the apparent source.]

:[Standard paw prints through the snow.]
:CAT

:[Large split-toe tracks and smaller rodent tracks.]
:MOOSE AND SQUIRREL

:[Cat prints, but with more space between the pairs of prints.]
:LONGCAT

:[Two similar careening tire tracks.]
:MOUSE RIDING BICYCLE

:[Longer rodent tracks, with a large melted ring surrounding a point in the middle of the frame.]
:RABBIT STOPPING TO USE HAIR DRYER

:[No visible tracks.]
:LEGOLAS

:[Single deep holes with cratering.]
:BOBCAT ON POGO STICK

:[Round prints that suddenly turn to the right halfway into frame.]
:KNIGHT

:[Human footprints up to a square melting pattern, turning into animal prints.]
:KID WITH TRANSMOGRIFIER

:[Human footprints up to a rectangular melted area, which are then doubled to another rectangular area, which are then doubled again up to another rectangular area, which are then doubled.]
:KID WITH DUPLICATOR

:[Right curve on a road, with tire tracks careening out of frame.]
:Out of Frame Garden Owner: MY VEGETABLE GARDEN!
:PRIUS

:[A series of spiraling and outwardly traveling lines extend from a point in the middle of the frame.]
:HIGGS BOSON

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Calvin and Hobbes]]

170: Turn Back

2013-06-05T02:10:30Z

50.74.2.12: Category:Calvin and Hobbes

{{comic
| number = 170
| date = October 13, 2006
| title = Turn Back
| image = turn_back.png
| titletext = I hear that these days Bill Watterson is happy just painting in the Ohio woods with his father and doesn't get any mail or talk to anyone.
}}

==Explanation==
The frequent themes of spontaneity, beauty and adventure characterize this exchange between [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] as they explore a distinctly ''Spaceman Spiff'' landscape.

Bill Watterson was the artist behind ''Calvin and Hobbes'', and hence creator of Spaceman Spiff.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Should we keep going?
:Megan: I don't know.
:Cueball: We can turn back if you want.
:Megan: Look--
:Megan: Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don't have a plan any more than you? Maybe just having this conversation means we're lost.
:[Wide shot of the characters walking through a Calvin and Hobbes-esque alien landscape]
:Cueball: Kind of scary.
:Megan: It's terrifying.
:Cueball: This place is beautiful.
:Megan: Yeah.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Calvin and Hobbes]]

409: Electric Skateboard (Double Comic)

2013-06-05T02:09:43Z

50.74.2.12: Category:Calvin and Hobbes

{{comic
| number = 409
| date = April 11, 2008
| title = Electric Skateboard (Double Comic)
| image = electric_skateboard_double_comic.png
| titletext = Unsafe vehicles, hills, and philosophy go hand in hand.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic is an affectionate parody of ''{{w|Calvin and Hobbes}}'', a newspaper comic drawn by {{w|Bill Watterson}} that ran for ten years from November 1985 to December 1995. Calvin and Hobbes follows the daily life of a rambunctious, precocious six-year-old named Calvin and his sarcastic stuffed tiger Hobbes. Sunday strips (for both Calvin and Hobbes and many other print comics) often consisted of two comics strung together, the first one often lasting one or two panels and the second one being more elaborate. This comic follows the Sunday strip pattern, hence the "Double Comic" in the title. The artwork in the second strip is distinctly Wattersonian as well.

[[Randall]] has a special fascination with motorized {{w|skateboard}}s. A {{w|Longboard (skateboard)|longboard}} is a skateboard that is longer, and is used for downhill races, and skating through less urban areas (college campuses, for example).

{{w|Mario Kart}} is a game for {{w|Nintendo}} game consoles that allows four players to race each other while having good spirited fun ([[290|sometimes]]) while throwing power-ups at each other. The objects in the fourth panel are Koopa Troopa shells, items in the game.

Calvin and Hobbes frequently involves heavy philosophical discussions. In one recurring theme, they ride down a dangerous hill in a red wagon while discussing the nature of morality, usually ending in a crash (examples [http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2013/04/21] [http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2012/05/20]). This comic inverts that by having [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] go uphill while discussing philosophy. Naturally, they collide with Calvin and Hobbes' wagon.

Cueball uses the {{w|C (programming language)|C}} and {{w|Python (programming language)|Python}} programming languages as analogies for their ride. In general, Python is easier than C, and abstracts a lot of C's hairier features ("boring parts," as Randall calls them). Moving from C to Python is quite a [[353|freeing experience]]; programmers no longer have to worry about pointers, and memory allocation, and just lets the code flow through the programmer until they are one with the Force. Erm, computer.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball showing off electric skateboard to girl reading something]
:Cueball: Check it out! An electric longboard!
:Megan: Sweet!

:[Cueball riding longboard with Megan sitting onboard — people in background]
:Longboard: ''RRRR''

:[Megan turned around on longboard]
:Megan: I feel like we're missing something...
:Cueball: Yeah...

:[Cueball throwing 3 green Koopa Troopa shells; Megan throwing 1 red Koopa Troopa shell -- like Mario Kart]
:''Music Playing''
:Longboard: ''RRRR''

:[Cueball and Megan still on longboard, going up an incline]
:Cueball: Skating uphill like this is amazing. Years of gliding downhill and pushing uphill, and now suddenly it's gliding both ways.
:Longboard: ''RRRRRRR''

:[Cueball and Megan after passing an S-curve and boulder]
:Cueball: It's like going from C to Python. You don't realize how much time you were spending on the boring parts until you don't have to do them anymore.
:Megan: But coding C or assembly makes you a better programmer. Maybe the boring parts build character.

:[Cueball and Megan on longboard...]
:Cueball: Yeah... but it depends how you want to spend your life. See, my philosophy is --
:[Longboard get into an accident]
:'''WHAM'''

:[Calvin and Hobbes laying down in the grass near the Cueball and Megan laying down on the grass -- Calvin and Hobbes's wagon is on the path, as is the longboard -- all characters seeing stars]
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Electric skateboard]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Calvin and Hobbes]]

1002: Game AIs

2013-06-05T02:08:55Z

50.74.2.12: Category:Calvin and Hobbes

{{comic
| number = 1002
| date = January 11, 2012
| title = Game AIs
| image = game_ais.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = The top computer champion at Seven Minutes in Heaven is a Honda-built Realdoll, but to date it has been unable to outperform the human Seven Minutes in Heaven champion, Ken Jennings.
}}

==Explanation==
To understand the comic, you have to understand what the games are, so let's go (but first, the years in parenthesis in the comic are the year that the game was mastered by a computer):

* '''Tic-Tac-Toe''' - (via {{w|Tic Tac Toe|wikipedia}}) Tic-tac-toe, also called noughts and crosses (in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and the rest of the British Commonwealth countries), is a pencil-and-paper game for two players, X and O, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid.

* '''Nim''' - (via {{w|Nim|wikipedia}}) a mathematical game of strategy in which two players take turns removing objects from distinct heaps. On each turn, a player must remove at least one object, and may remove any number of objects provided they all come from the same heap.

* '''Ghosts''' - (via {{w|Ghost (game)|wikipedia}} and [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2290/ghosts Board Game Geek]) a spoken word game in which players take turns adding letters to a growing word fragment, trying not to be the one to complete a valid word.

* '''Connect Four''' - (via {{w|Connect Four|wikipedia}}) (also known as Captain's Mistress, Four Up, Plot Four, Find Four, Fourplay, Four in a Row and Four in a Line) is a two-player game in which the players first choose a color and then take turns dropping their colored discs from the top into a seven-column, six-row vertically-suspended grid.

* '''Gomoku''' - (via {{w|Gomoku|wikipedia}}) an abstract strategy board game. Also called Gobang or Five in a Row, it is traditionally played with go pieces (black and white stones) on a go board (19x19 intersections); however, because once placed, pieces are not moved or removed from the board, gomoku may also be played as a paper and pencil game. This game is known in several countries under different names.

:Black plays first, and players alternate in placing a stone of their color on an empty intersection. The winner is the first player to get an unbroken row of five stones horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

* '''Checkers''' (via {{w|Draughts|wikipedia}}) (American English) or Draughts (British English) is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces.

* '''Scrabble''' - (via {{w|Scrabble|wikipedia}}) a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a gameboard marked with a 15-by-15 grid.

* '''Counterstrike''' - (via [http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3055/counterstrike Board Game Geek]) is probably this {{w|backgammon}} variant.

* '''Beer pong''' - (via {{w|Beer pong|wikipedia}}) also known as Beirut, is a drinking game in which players throw a ping pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end.
:[http://hacknmod.com/hack/beer-pong-robot-precision-air-pressure/ Here's the video] of the University of Illinois robot mentioned in the comic.

* '''Reversi''' - (via {{w|Reversi|wikipedia}}) (also marketed by Pressman under the trade name Othello) is a board game involving abstract strategy and played by two players on a board with 8 rows and 8 columns and a set of distinct pieces for each side. Pieces typically are disks with a light and a dark face, each face belonging to one player. The player's goal is to have a majority of their colored pieces showing at the end of the game, turning over as many of their opponent's pieces as possible.

* '''Chess''' - (via {{w|chess|wikipedia}}) Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Each player begins the game with sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns, each of these types of pieces moving differently.

* '''Jeopardy!''' - (via {{w|Jeopardy|wikipedia}}) an American quiz show featuring trivia in history, literature, the arts, pop culture, science, sports, geography, wordplay, and more. The show has a unique answer-and-question format in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in question form.
:Ken Jennings, mentioned in the title text is a famous Jeopardy champion.

* '''Starcraft''' - (via {{w|Starcraft|wikipedia}}) a military science fiction real-time strategy video game... the game revolves around three species fighting for dominance in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy known as the Koprulu Sector: the Terrans, humans exiled from Earth skilled at adapting to any situation; the Zerg, a race of insectoid aliens in pursuit of genetic perfection, obsessed with assimilating other races; and the Protoss, a humanoid species with advanced technology and psionic abilities, attempting to preserve their civilization and strict philosophical way of living from the Zerg.

* '''Poker''' - (via {{w|Poker|wikipedia}}) a family of card games involving betting and individualistic play whereby the winner is determined by the ranks and combinations of their cards, some of which remain hidden until the end of the game.

* '''Arimaa''' - (via {{w|Arimaa|wikipedia}}) a two-player abstract strategy board game that can be played using the same equipment as chess. Arimaa was designed to be more difficult for artificial intelligences to play than chess. Arimaa was invented by Omar Syed, an Indian American computer engineer trained in artificial intelligence. Syed was inspired by Garry Kasparov's defeat at the hands of the chess computer Deep Blue to design a new game which could be played with a standard chess set, would be difficult for computers to play well, but would have rules simple enough for his then four-year-old son Aamir to understand.

* '''Go''' - (via {{w|Go (game)|wikipedia}}) an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. The game is noted for being rich in strategy despite its relatively simple rules. The game is played by two players who alternately place black and white stones on the vacant intersections (called "points") of a grid of 19×19 lines (beginners often play on smaller 9×9 and 13×13 boards). The object of the game is to use one's stones to surround a larger portion of the board than the opponent.

* '''{{w|Snakes and Ladders}}''' (or Chutes and Ladders) is an ancient Indian {{w|race game}}, where the moves are decided entirely by die rolls. A number of tiles are connected by pictures of ladders and snakes (or chutes) which makes the game piece jump forward or backward, respectively. Since the game is decided by pure chance, it occupies the limbo where a computer will always be ''exactly'' as likely to win as a human.

* '''Mao''' - (via {{w|Mao (game)|wikipedia}}) (or Mau) a card game of the Shedding family, in which the aim is to get rid of all of the cards in hand without breaking certain unspoken rules. The game is from a subset of the Stops family, and is similar in structure to the card game Uno or Crazy Eights.

:The game forbids its players from explaining the rules, and new players are often told only "the only rule you may be told is this one." The ultimate goal of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all the cards in their hand.

* '''Seven Minutes in Heaven''' - (via {{w|Seven Minutes in Heaven|wikipedia}}) a teenagers' party game first recorded as being played in Cincinnati in the early 1950s. Two people are selected to go into a closet or other dark enclosed space and do whatever they like for seven minutes. Sexual activities are allowed; however kissing and making out are more common.

And finally
* '''Calvinball''' - (via {{w|Calvinball|wikipedia}}) is a reference to the comic strip {{w|Calvin and Hobbes}} by {{w|Bill Watterson}}.

:Calvinball is a game played by Calvin and Hobbes as a rebellion against organized team sports; according to Hobbes, "No sport is less organized than Calvinball!" Calvinball was first introduced to the readers at the end of a 1990 storyline involving Calvin reluctantly joining recess baseball. It quickly became a staple of the comic afterwards.

:The only hint at the true creation of the game ironically comes from the last Calvinball strip, in which a game of football quickly devolves into a game of Calvinball. Calvin remarks that "sooner or later, all our games turn into Calvinball," suggesting a similar scenario that directly led to the creation of the sport. Calvin and Hobbes usually play by themselves, although in one storyline Rosalyn (Calvin's baby-sitter) plays in return for Calvin doing his homework, and plays very well once she realizes that the rules are made up on the spot.

:The only consistent rule states that Calvinball may never be played with the same rules twice. Scoring is also arbitrary, with Hobbes at times reporting scores of "Q to 12" and "oogy to boogy." The only recognizable sports Calvinball resembles are the ones it emulates (i.e., a cross between croquet, polo, badminton, capture the flag, and volleyball.)

==Transcript==
Difficulty of Various Games for Computers

[A diagram. The left column describes various levels of skill for the most capable computers in decreasing performance against humans. The right side lists games in each particular section, in increasing game difficulty. There are labels denoting the hard and easy ends of the diagram.]

Easy
{| border="1"
| rowspan="6" | Solved - Computers can play perfectly
| rowspan="4" | Solved for all possible positions
| Tic-Tac-Toe
|-
| NIM
|-
| Ghost(1989)
|-
| Connect Four(1995)
|-
| rowspan="2" | Solved for starting positions
| Gomoku
|-
| Checkers(2007)
|-
| rowspan="6" colspan="2" | Computers can beat top humans
| Scrabble
|-
| CounterStrike
|-
| Beer Pong (UIUC robot)
|-
| Reversi
|-
| Chess
* February 10, 1996 - First win by computer against top human
* November 21, 2005 - Last win by human against top computer
|-
| Jeopardy
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" | Computers still lose to top humans
(but focused R&D could change this)
| Starcraft
|-
| Poker
|-
| Arimaa
|-
| Go
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" | Computers may ''never'' outplay humans
| Snakes and Ladders
|-
| Mao
|-
| Seven Minutes in Heaven
|-
| Calvinball
|-
|}
Hard

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Calvin and Hobbes]]

Talk:1122: Electoral Precedent

2013-06-05T02:06:51Z

50.74.2.12:

I don't understand what he means by Alternative Tickets in the last frame.
:It does not say 'Alternative', it says {{w|Alliterative}}, meaning that both names starts with the same sound/letter. '''R'''omney/'''R'''yan --[[User:Pmakholm|Pmakholm]] ([[User talk:Pmakholm|talk]]) 16:04, 18 October 2012 (UTC)
----
My research tells me that Jefferson won 1800. Error on Randall's part? [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 08:52, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

I'm a bit confused by 1792 vs. 1804: The latter is "No incumbent has beaten a challenger", but didn't Washington face any challenger when he was re-elected in 1792? [[User:Jolindbe|Jolindbe]] ([[User talk:Jolindbe|talk]]) 14:19, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
: {{w|United_States_presidential_election,_1792|He ran unopposed}} --[[User:Buggz|Buggz]] ([[User talk:Buggz|talk]]) 14:33, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
:: As far as I understand it, he had four opponents, but got all the votes. Then, the electoral college voted on whom to be the vice president among the remaining candidates. But it seems unlikely to get 100% of the popular votes, do I misinterpret the wiki page? [[User:Jolindbe|Jolindbe]] ([[User talk:Jolindbe|talk]]) 17:45, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
:::Well, back then, the electoral college didn't take their votes from the people. They just decided, so they decided to give Washington the presidency. [[Special:Contributions/140.247.0.79|140.247.0.79]] 18:55, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

----
"1904: No one under 45 has become president. ... Roosevelt did."

Sort of. {{w|Theodore Roosevelt}} (Oct 1858–1919) was under 45 when he ''became'' president, in 1901. But by the time of the ''1904'' election he was 46.
<br/>[[Special:Contributions/75.36.234.236|75.36.234.236]] 18:48, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
:Correct. Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest President to date, but Kennedy was the youngest yet ''elected''. [[Special:Contributions/67.51.59.66|67.51.59.66]] 20:09, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

The image needs to be updated. I'm not sure how to do that myself. [[Special:Contributions/76.122.5.96|76.122.5.96]] 23:56, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Uploaded corrected image, changed tense on comments. Reload/refresh to check the 1800 frame should now show Jefferson... --[[User:Bpothier|B. P.]] ([[User talk:Bpothier|talk]]) 01:36, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

And how can people be from Virginia AND Massachusett? I think he meant OR.[[Special:Contributions/77.245.46.86|77.245.46.86]] 11:39, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

I take it the entire comic will not go up under "Transcripts"? [[User:Bobidou23|Bobidou23]] ([[User talk:Bobidou23|talk]]) 22:03, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

:It will, but no one's been bothered the transcribe it all yet.[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 23:01, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

----
Although Buchanan/Breckinridge won in 1856, Stevenson/Sparkman were defeated by Eisenhower/Nixon in 1952.

He's wrong about the other 'precedent' for 2012 as well. Other first name with a K losers:
*1924, Frank T. Johns (Socialist Labor)
*1932, Frank S. Regan (Prohibition)
*1936, Frank Knox (Republican)
*1948, Tucker P. Smith (Socialist)
*1980, Patrick J. Lucey (Independent)
*1996, Patrick Choate (Reform)
*2004, Chuck Baldwin (Constitution)
*2008, Chuck Baldwin (Constitution)
--[[Special:Contributions/76.20.209.221|76.20.209.221]] 10:43, 20 October 2012 (UTC)
----

Good point about small party candidates, but Tucker P. Smith was the Socialist vice presidential candidate in 1948; the presidential candidate was Norman Thomas.
--[[Special:Contributions/174.59.119.154|174.59.119.154]] 13:51, 24 October 2012 (UTC)
----

==Errors==
Should the errors be included in the article explanation, or should they just be discussed here in the chat box? I'm of the opinion that anything that doesn't go towards explaining the comic should go here in the discussion. I would lean towards keeping error nitpicking confined to the discussion page. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 13:19, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

:I think errors should be put down in a trivia/errors section. Or, if a flame war is starting, move it onto the talk page. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 23:44, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

I put back my original comment on the 2012 streaks; some anonymous person had previously written 'whether he thinks "st" and "sp" sounds are different enough to count as alliteration', but first of all, an alliteration requires the (first) sound(s)/letter(s) of two words to be the same (not different), and second, if Randall would consider Stevenson/Sparkman not to be alliterative (as their second letters differ), he would undoubtedly think the same about Romney/Ryan.--[[User:Jay|Jay]] ([[User talk:Jay|talk]]) 14:11, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

:Yeah, I noticed that edit, but thought there was a "not" in there, which would have made it make sense. Ah well. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 16:50, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

:Not quite true, Jay - St/Sp is two different consonant ''blends'', which are much more intertwined than a consonant and its following vowel, as in Ro/Ry. The question is do they sound alike, not the literal letters used. [[User:Jerodast|- jerodast]] ([[User talk:Jerodast|talk]]) 17:06, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Re: 1996 - surely 'William' (12 pts not including 50 pts for using all seven letters) beats 'Robert' - (8 pts)? {{unsigned|163.1.166.255}}

==Transcript==
Just finished the transcript. I didn't check for typos, since there was a lot of typing. It would be great if someone else would look over it. {{unsigned|207.242.93.10}}

:Looks great! I've removed a lot of the whitespace which (I think) makes it easier to read, and doesn't require quite as much scrolling. I haven't gone through and spell checked everything either, but if someone finds anything they can fix it. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 23:44, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

----

2012: No Republican has lost a November 6 presidential election...
2012: No one ever wins re-election after the previous two presidents - from different parties - won re-election...
2012: No Democrat was re-elected with very high unemployment and a Republican-controlled House...

...until Obama. [[Special:Contributions/50.74.2.12|50.74.2.12]] 02:06, 5 June 2013 (UTC)