explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2549: Edge Cake

2021-12-02T10:26:11Z

Sir: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2549
| date = December 1, 2021
| title = Edge Cake
| image = edge_cake.png
| titletext = Every time IERS adds or removes a leap second, they send me a birthday cake out of superstition.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AN EDGY CAKE- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Megan]] (possibly representing IERS) wishes Emily, represented as [[Hairbun]], Happy Birthday. This prompts a confused [[Cueball]] to ask if her birthday was sometime last month. Emily explains that she was born over the North Pole in a plane, meaning that she was born in every timezone at once. Technically though this is false, as there are some timezones (such as {{w|Nepal Standard Time|UTC+5:45}}) that are not represented at the north pole. Except for the one hour before it's midnight at the International Date Line, the date in eastern time zones is one day ahead of western time zones. She also says that it was February 29th (presumably it was also February 28 or March 1 in some time zones). February 29th only happens once every four years in the Gregorian calendar, adding to the confusion - people born on February 29th often celebrate their non-leap-year birthdays on arbitrary days (or {{w|The_Pirates_of_Penzance#Synopsis|not at all}}). Normally {{w|Birth aboard aircraft and ships|one could simply use the time in the airline company's native country}}, but the airline company was changing ownership from one country to another at the time, so this option has apparently been ruled out.

The punchline is that rather than try to identify the correct birthday for Emily, the {{w|BIPM}} has decided to let her have birthdays whenever she wants.

Cueball's final line is a pun on "{{w|edge case}}", an engineering term referring to situations or conditions that are unusual in a way likely to cause problems unless specifically accounted for. Edge pieces are generally only important with sheet goods (brownies sheet cakes, etc), which are typically cut into pieces creating a difference between pieces originating on the edge and pieces originating from the center. Since the sides of a cake are often frosted, an edge piece has two faces covered in frosting and a corner piece has three, while a center piece only has one.

The title text states that the {{w|IERS}} sends Emily a cake every time they add or remove a leap second, out of superstition (perhaps Megan is delivering that cake). The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service is in charge of global time standards. It occasionally adds one leap-second to {{w|Coordinated Universal Time}} to adjust for changes in the rotation speed of the Earth.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is walking towards Cueball and Emily (who resembles Hairbun), holding a cake.]
:Megan: Happy birthday, Emily!
:Cueball: Wait, wasn't that last month? When's your birthday, anyways?
:Emily: It's complicated.

:[A diagram of a flight path over the North Pole, with meridian lines radiating out from the center. Emily's dialogue appears above the diagram, but she herself does not appear in this panel.]
:Emily: My mom went into labor on an arctic international flight that diverted directly over the North Pole.
:Emily: I was born in every time zone at once.

:[With Megan standing behind her, Emily holds out a plate of cake to Cueball.]
:Emily: It was also February 29th, and the airline was just changing ownership between countries.
:Emily: The International Bureau of Weights and Measures finally issued a declaration that it's my birthday whenever I want.
:Emily: Cake?
:Cueball: Nice, it's all edge pieces.

{{comic discussion}}

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

Megan

2021-12-02T10:22:43Z

Sir: /* Characteristics */

{{Infobox character
| image = Megan.png‎
| imagesize = 150px
| caption = Megan
| first_appearance = [[15: Just Alerting You]]
}}
'''Megan''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. She is the second-most frequently appearing character, after [[Cueball]], and the most frequently appearing female character. She does not necessarily always represent the same character from comic to comic. She is essentially the female equivalent of Cueball, representing the every-woman to his {{w|everyman}}. This is less clear than for Cueball as there are several comics, where there are [[:Category:Multiple Cueballs|multiple Cueball-like figures]], any of whom could be called Cueball.

There are very few comics where this happens with Megan-like characters, with the few including [[139: I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards]], [[173: Movie Seating]], [[1409: Query]], [[1496: Art Project]], [[430: Every Damn Morning]], [[2040: Sibling-in-Law]], and in [[1951: Super Bowl Watch Party]].

Of course she also appears several times in some of the comics with [[:Category:Large drawings|large drawings]], like [[1110: Click and Drag]]. Often this should be seen as different small comics, where there is just one Megan in each story. In [[1608: Hoverboard]], however, there are two identical Megans at the bottom rear end of the Destroyer, where one is talking to the other. As opposed to with Cueball, an example where this is a serious problem for Megan has yet to be found.

Megan does sometimes appear to have slightly specific personality traits; she has quite odd habits, and is sometimes shown to be very focused and intent on a goal. However, as explained above this is not a general rule for a given Megan character.

==Name==
''Explain xkcd'' originally referred to this character as "Cutie" (complementing "Cueball" with a matching first syllable). But then a "Cutie" was given a specific name, Megan, in [[159: Boombox]] and later in for instance [[215: Letting Go]], [[420: Jealousy]], [[478: The Staple Madness]], and [[654: Nachos]]. The name was also used without displaying a drawing of Megan in [[596: Latitude]] and in the title text of [[627: Tech Support Cheat Sheet]].

The name Cutie was then changed to Megan. If this rule should be followed generally, then Cueball should be re-named Rob after [[276: Fixed Width]] (and the [[:Category:Comics featuring Rob|other 8 times]] a Cueball has been named Rob in total). But as mentioned above this was not to be.

She can also be drawn under a different name as in [[672: Suggestions]], where a sexy image of her, hair hanging loose over her face, is called Susie. And in [[1221: Nomenclature]] Megan is called Mrs. Whatsit in the transcript provided in the comic source. In [[734: Outbreak]] Cueball and Megan are named Ryan and Laura, but that is a movie, so they could be actors called Cueball and Megan in real life...

A character that looked a lot like Megan, but with somewhat longer hair and a much meaner attitude, was distinguished from her as [[Black Hat]]'s girlfriend [[Danish]]. A similar long-haired version of Megan also appeared in [[1730: Starshade]], although without the attitude.

==History==
Early comics often feature Megan-style characters who may or may not be identified as Megan. [[Randall]] appears not to have standardized his character lineup early in the comic's run, and as a result, certain early female characters sometimes have similar hair to Megan, but some different features.

The name (or even pseudonym) "Megan" may be reference to a lost love of Randall's, given that he wrote a passive-aggressive toast for Megan's wedding in [[420: Jealousy]] about how he was madly still in love with her, put across in a way that would generally ruin the day for everyone involved. We also see this earlier in [[215: Letting Go]].

Several of the [[:Category:Cancer|comics about cancer]] have Megan representing Randall's fiancée (later wife).

==Characteristics==
Megan is distinguished by her black shoulder-length hair which generally appears to be parted in the middle in front, and is draped behind what are presumably her (undrawn) ears.

In [[1409: Query]], we learn that she is 30 or younger, implying that she was born in 1984 or later (this comic appeared in 2014); that her annual income is less than or equal to $100,000; and that she is afraid of flying. In [[630: Time Travel]], we learn she was born in 1983. In [[2178: Expiration Date High Score]], we can calculate that she is 37, and since this comic appeared in 2019, it implies she was born in 1982 or earlier. Randall is probably not concerned about chronological consistency for his characters, although another explanation is that since the figure is not explicitly named "Megan" in any of these comics, these are three different characters.

Although she is a stick figure this does not mean she cannot be drawn topless: [[864: Flying Cars]].
She is also shown explicitly dressed in [[1492: Dress Color]].
In [[631: Anatomy Text]] a naturalistic drawing of (undressed) Megan is found.

She is implied to, if not be bisexual, then at least experience same-sex attraction: while she has often been shown to be in a relationship with Cueball, [[267: Choices: Part 4]] mentions that, though she doesn't remember it, she's made out with an alternate version of herself (who is obviously female), and in [[305: Rule 34]], she reacts quite enthusiastically to her idea for porn centered around women playing electric guitar in the shower.

According to [[1521: Sword in the Stone]], Megan is canonically the Queen of England.

According to [[2549: Edge Cake]], Megan may be a representative of IERS.

==See also==
*[[:Category:Comics featuring Megan|Comics featuring Megan]].
*It was at some point suggested that Megan and Cutie should be un-merged? In relation to a similar suggestion that Cueball and Rob should be merged. But nothing came of the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob discussion.]

{{navbox-characters}}

[[Category:Characters]]

2549: Edge Cake

2021-12-02T10:13:02Z

Sir:

{{comic
| number = 2549
| date = December 1, 2021
| title = Edge Cake
| image = edge_cake.png
| titletext = Every time IERS adds or removes a leap second, they send me a birthday cake out of superstition.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AN EDGY CAKE- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Megan]] (possibly representing IERS) wishes Emily, represented as [[Hairbun]], Happy Birthday, prompting a confused [[Cueball]], as someone, probably Emily, told him that her birthday was sometime last month. Emily explains that she was born over the North Pole in a plane, meaning that she was born in every timezone at once. Technically though this is false, as there are some timezones (such as {{w|Nepal Standard Time|UTC+5:45}}) that are not represented at the north pole. Except for the one hour before it's midnight at the International Date Line, the date in eastern time zones is one day ahead of western time zones. She also says that it was February 29th (presumably it was also February 28 or March 1 in some time zones). February 29th only happens once every four years in the Gregorian calendar, adding to the confusion - people born on February 29th often celebrate their non-leap-year birthdays on arbitrary days (or {{w|The_Pirates_of_Penzance#Synopsis|not at all}}). Also, the airplane was changing ownership from one country to another at the time, so any attempt to use the airplane owner's timezone would not work - even if it's {{w|Birth aboard aircraft and ships|normally not so complicated}}.

The punchline is that rather than try to identify the correct birthday for Emily, the {{w|BIPM}} has decided to let her have birthdays whenever she wants.

Cueball's final line is a pun on "{{w|edge case}}", an engineering term referring to situations or conditions that are unusual in a way likely to cause problems unless specifically accounted for. Edge pieces are generally only important with sheet goods (brownies sheet cakes, etc), which are typically cut into pieces creating a difference between pieces originating on the edge and pieces originating from the center. Since the sides of a cake are often frosted, an edge piece has two faces covered in frosting and a corner piece has three, while a center piece only has one.

The title text states that the {{w|IERS}} sends Emily a cake every time they add or remove a leap second, out of superstition. The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service is in charge of global time standards. It occasionally adds one leap-second to {{w|Coordinated Universal Time}} to adjust for changes in the rotation speed of the Earth.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is walking towards Cueball and Emily (who resembles Hairbun), holding a cake.]
:Megan: Happy birthday, Emily!
:Cueball: Wait, wasn't that last month? When's your birthday, anyways?
:Emily: It's complicated.

:[A diagram of a flight path over the North Pole, with meridian lines radiating out from the center. Emily's dialogue appears above the diagram, but she herself does not appear in this panel.]
:Emily: My mom went into labor on an arctic international flight that diverted directly over the North Pole.
:Emily: I was born in every time zone at once.

:[With Megan standing behind her, Emily holds out a plate of cake to Cueball.]
:Emily: It was also February 29th, and the airline was just changing ownership between countries.
:Emily: The International Bureau of Weights and Measures finally issued a declaration that it's my birthday whenever I want.
:Emily: Cake?
:Cueball: Nice, it's all edge pieces.

{{comic discussion}}

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