1979: History

2018-04-11T20:45:20Z

Psiphiorg: /* Transcript */ Add the period that erroneously appears in the comic ("...the present. period may...")

{{comic
| number = 1979
| date = April 11, 2018
| title = History
| image = history.png
| titletext = HISTORIANS: We've decided to trim the past down to make things more manageable. Using BCE/CE, would you rather we lose the odd-numbered or even-numbered years?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HISTORIAN. Needs to be expanded. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic quotes a [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19134214/httpswwwxkcdcom1979/|a lengthy section of the Bloomington Daily Pantagraph's September 30, 1881 issue]. The tragic event referenced throughout is the {{w|Assassination of James A. Garfield|assassination of President James A. Garfield}}. Interestingly, the article is about how closely studied the incident will or will not be in the future. Garfield's assassination is rarely more than a quick note in a history class, leaving only the "dry and tedious" historians to comb through the details.

The punchline comes from not how insignificant this assassination has come to be viewed, but from Megan and Cueball being baffled by the sheer scope of information contained in the past, most of which they have not learned because of all the other information they have had to learn..

The title text indicates that there is more information about the past than can be researched by the manpower of available historians at this time. For whatever reason, be it lack of funding to carry out research or lack of interested people becoming historians, the facetious solution is to just ignore events of either even or odd numbered years. This would essentially halve the amount of data to go through and the amount of time to go through it, but it would be at the detriment of our understanding of all of the context of said events.

Although this format with small panels above and below a larger one has been seen before, there could be an extra joke this time, if it is seen as if there were originally five panels to the comic, but the second and fourth (the even ones) were removed.

==Transcript==
:[In a small panel top left, Cueball walks up to Megan who is sitting on an office chair holding a tablet showing a screen full of (to the reader) unreadable text.]
:Megan: I read this article in an old newspaper, and I can't stop thinking about it.

:[Below is a large panel twice as wide as the first, and much longer. It contains the newspaper clip that Megan talks about. Three sections of the text is in normal black font, the rest is in gray font:]
:'''The public events of the last three months are of the class which will go into its permanent history. We have been living in an atmosphere of history which will be immortally preserved.''' Even the brief series of important dates to be collated for the use of the schoolboys of centuries hence will contain the day of the assassination, and the day of the death of President Garfield. 

:The intermediate events co-related, like the defeat of Roscoe Conkling, will be of great interest, but will scarcely be likely to stand prominently out from the page of history written in 1881. To us who have been the witnesses, so to speak, of the tragic incidents of the times, it seems entirely probable that future generations will eagerly scan every feature of the recent bereavement which the nation has suffered. 

:'''How accurately will future generations know the immense volume of grief and sorrow which has rolled over the land? Will those who come after us ever be able to understand the extent of our loss?''' Is there anything in the first century of our history—even the death of the great Lincoln—which can be used as a parallel? 

:Perhaps a careful reading of the daily papers of the present. period may give some future antiquarian a fine idea of the feelings of the nation during the past summer. '''But these journals are so large, so full of detail, that we imagine the coming American will never find time to read the record.''' He must depend on a brief statement, meagerly compiled by sonic dry and tedious historian. 

:::-The Bloomington Daily Pantagraph 
::: September 30,th 1881 

:[The third and final panel is the same size as the first, below and to the right. It contains a zoom in on Cueball and Megan talking.]
:Cueball: Man. The past is so '''''big. '''''
:Megan: How do historians even cope?
:Cueball: I have no idea.
:Megan: I honestly have enough trouble just with the present.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

1750: Life Goals

2016-10-24T16:37:34Z

Psiphiorg: /* Transcript */ Scrabble is a proper noun; capitalizing

{{comic
| number = 1750
| date = October 24, 2016
| title = Life Goals
| image = life_goals.png
| titletext = I got to check off 'Make something called xkcd' early.
}}

==Explanation==
This index of goals features many words containing an excess of the letters X and Z, most of which are fictional, obscure, or proper nouns. The punchline climax expresses that the writer (presumably Randall) often uses these unexpected and bizarre words in Scrabble games, which exasperates his opponents to a great extent, to the point of him getting punched.

All of these words would theoretically earn a player the prize of many points. However, most of them would not be found in {{w|SOWPODS}}, the combined list of all words valid in either British or North American Scrabble, and many include too many X's, Y's or Z's (there's 1 X, 2 Y's, 1 Z in a standard set), meaning at least one would have to be substituted for a blank (which is not worth any points). Some words would also be very difficult to play in reality, since there are only 7 letters in a Scrabble hand, so they could only be played in extremely rare circumstances (there are only a couple of ways to play MUZQUIZOPTERYX: for instance, from MU and OPTER; or MU, QUIZ and ER; or an astonishingly unlikely set of crossing letters). Many are long enough that, in theory, they could net the player the additional 50 point bonus for using all seven letters in a hand if played right.

{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5 class="wikitable"
! Word !! Definition !! Notes !! In SOWPODS? !! Enough tiles ({{w|Scrabble letter distributions|in English version}})? !! Score !! Score (ignoring blanks) !! 50 points possible?
|-
| {{w|Skrillex}} || A dubstep musician || Proper noun || No || Yes || 19 || 19 || Yes
|-
| {{w|Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix}} || A city in Arizona (and a mythological bird) || Proper noun and noun || Yes (but only in lower-case) || Yes || 19 || 19 || Yes
|-
| {{w|Zymology|Zymurgy}} || The study of fermentation. || || Yes || Yes || 25 || 25 || Yes
|-
| {{w|Axolotl}} || A kind of water-breathing salamander which lives on the bottom of lakes. || || Yes || Yes|| 14 || 14 || Yes
|-
| [http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Hexxus Hexxus] || An evil spirit from the animated movie [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FernGully:_The_Last_Rainforest FernGully] || Fictional || No || With a blank as X || 23 || 15 || No
|-
| {{w|Syzygy (astronomy)|Syzygy}} || An astronomical event where three planets form a straight line. || || Yes || With a blank as Y || 25 || 21 || No
|-
| {{w|Zzyzx, California|Zzyzx}} || An unincorporated community in California || Proper noun. Recently mentioned in [http://what-if.xkcd.com/152/ this what-if] || No || Yes, with both blanks as Z || 42 || 22 || No
|-
| {{w|Zzyzzyxx}} || A 1982 arcade video game about navigating a labyrinth || Proper noun || No || No || 64 || 26 (assuming infinite blanks) || Yes
|-
| {{w|Xexyz}} || A 1988 game for the Nintendo Entertainment System with platformer and shoot-em-up gameplay. || Proper noun || No || With a blank as X || 31 || 23 || No
|-
| {{w|Xbox}} || A series of home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. || Proper noun || No || With a blank as X || 20 || 12 || No
|-
| {{w|Zzzax}} || A Marvel comic book villain. || See below || No || With both blanks as Z || 39 || 19 || No
|-
| {{w|Mister Mxyzptlk}} || A DC Comics villain. || Fictional. Since Zzzax and Mxyzptlk come from different companies, a crossover story involving them both might run into license problems. || No || Yes || 42 (8 for Mister, 35 for Mxyzptlk) || 42 || Yes
|-
| {{w|Xhafzotaj}} || A village in Albania || Proper noun || No || Yes || 38 || 38 || Yes
|-
| {{w|Albania}} || A country in the Balkans || Proper noun || No || Yes || 9 || 9 || Yes
|-
| {{w|Qazaxbəyli}} || A village in Azerbaijan || Proper noun. It can alternatively be spelled "Kazakhbeyli". || No || Because it's spelled with a schwa (ə, upper case Ə), this word would be impossible to spell in English-language Scrabble, although you could put an E tile down upside down (Ǝ) or use a blank. || Unclear (at least 39) 36 for Kazakhbeyli || 39 || Yes
|-
| {{w|Azerbaijan}} || A country in the Caucasus || Proper noun || No || Yes || 28 || 28 || Yes
|-
| {{w|Archaeopteryx}} || A famous small feathered dinosaur || || Yes || Yes || 30 || 30 || Yes
|-
| {{w|Muzquizopteryx}} || A pterosaur || || No || With a blank as Z || 55 || 45 || Yes
|-
| {{w|xkcd}} || You know what this is || From title text || No || Yes || 18 || 18 || No
|}

The distance between [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Xhafzotaj,+Albanien/@41.3420999,19.538176,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x134fd7eb6257dec7:0xc0c17ea9f1d4ef05!8m2!3d41.3442157!4d19.547883 Xhafzotaj] in Albania and [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Gazakhbayly,+Aserbaidschan/@41.1604329,45.3040337,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4041307bb83f5793:0x30f6c3728844806e!8m2!3d41.1606486!4d45.3147936 Quazaxbeyli] in Azerbaijan is about 2800km. Doing this trip by bike would be challenging, but possible.

Unfortunately Archaeopteryx and Muzquizopteryx lived in different time periods, so we can only speculate which one would win a fight.

The title text explains naming [http://www.xkcd.com xkcd] "xkcd" was also a goal.

It seems likely that Randall created this comic after doing research for this what if article (http://what-if.xkcd.com/152/), and came across the city Zzyzx as the shortest way to dig a channel to flood Death Valley.

==Transcript==
:[A list entitled "Life Goals", where each item has an empty box, like a to-do list.]
:Meet Skrillex in Phoenix
:Study Zymurgy
:Get a pet Axolotl named Hexxus
:Observe a syzygy from Zzyzx, California
:Port the games Zzyzzyxx and Xexyz to Xbox
:Publish a Zzzax/Mister Mxyzptlk crossover
:Bike from Xhafzotaj, Albania to Qazaxbəyli, Azerbaijan
:Paint an archaeopteryx fighting a muzquizopteryx
:Finish a game of Scrabble without getting punched

{{comic discussion}}

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1979: History

1750: Life Goals