Talk:2498: Forest Walk

Have just added a transcript. Hope I did good! :) -Lance (172.70.126.211 02:40, 5 August 2021 (UTC))

You did good, Lance. *pats head* 162.158.74.197 18:06, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Wonder what Beret Guy would do if Cooper said, "I don't have it any more," since some of the money was discovered, badly deteriorated and partially buried, along the banks of the Columbia River back in 1980, as verified by serial numbers on the found currency.  Given the absence of any other evidence, it was assumed that the hijacker had gotten separated from the money either during or right after the jump, the found currency had been deposited as flotsam at its discovery point through the actions of the river itself, and the rest of the money was still somewhere in the Pacific Northwest awaiting similar discovery, RAGBRAIvet (talk) 04:23, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

If it can be considered that the comic is a reference to random walk (in a forest), can it also be considered a reference to random forests ? 141.101.68.73 07:14, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

I don't get why the comic is supposed to be a reference to random walks or to random forests. Nothing points to that. Real forests exists, and people walk in them. The only peculiarity of this particular forest is that D.B. Cooper hangs in one of its trees. --188.114.103.244 08:20, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

I feel like there should be a D.B. Cooper category at this point. --141.101.104.52 07:51, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Hey there, I think the alt text is also a reference to https://xkcd.com/2390/ ? Kind regards :) 162.158.89.61 08:13, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Typo: "he might have simply inherited it form his mom". --162.158.255.39 12:40, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Done, now. I'd seen it, but apparently missed it, in preparing for my first big corrective edit of the day (little tyops, a lot less awful than ones I have previously left for others to correct). Or maybe I thought I should leave it suspended from the tree until some other issue had been resolved. :P 162.158.158.105 12:53, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Not to question the artistic representation, but rather than Forest (tree canopy and dense undergrowth), I'd say that was more Woodland Savanna (individual tree growth smattered around grass/shrubland at most). Or maybe we just can't properly see the woods for the trees... (Or the action is set at the edge of a clearing, of course!) 141.101.98.184 13:32, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

It's Southwest Washington, where Pyroculture practiced over centuries changed the nature of the forests. Your average forest, until recently when fire suppression came in, had very little undergrowth, and sometimes whole fields of Camas Lilly or Tarweed or other food plants valued by the Yakima.Seebert (talk) 19:43, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Savanna (savannah? - I always thought it had that spelling, but too lazy to check my convictions) is pretty much the product of pyroculture, though not of course the only one. Intensity and accompanying herbiculture/arboriculture being practiced could make some differences, and climate too (NW US is famously damp most of the time, so may be hard to overburn in primitive anthropogenic fire-settings). But even without a modern parafoil-type chute there's likely an attempt to aim for landing in a clearing (with a basic back-bleeding canopy and shifting weight/tugging the harnessed bundles of lines asymetrically used to activelychange heading) only to over-/under-shoot the landing slightlty and apparently snag upon a tree. That might indicate a localalised area of ground more close to the relative sparseness of the illustration. 162.158.111.122 03:49, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

Doesn't it seem likely, that Beret Guy's trees have soup outlets on them? Like his Business does? (Or, maybe Ghosts (like the business))

'You help me down this instant!' is not an "unlikely combination of words" or an unusual phrase. I'm not sure if it is regional, but as a native US English speaker, this is a completely normal wording to use if you are frustrated and insisting that someone do something, especially someone much younger, so perhaps it is meant to further indicate the man's age. As an example, a parent might say to their unruly child who is refusing to do their chores, "young man, you clean your room this instant!" (or "right this instant") It can also be used playfully: you are taking a walk along a river with some friends, when one of them suddenly playfully splashes water on you and takes off running (to avoid retaliation) and you run after them shouting "I'm going to get you for that! You get back here right this instant!" 172.70.131.28 15:36, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

I had the same reaction to both the title text and the explanation (although I believe it refers to the "help me down" part and not the "this instant" part). Either way, neither part of the phrase nor the entire phrase seems unlikely or unusual. I actually first came to this page to see if I was missing a reference in the title text, but it appears Randall just finds our dialectic somewhat strange. 172.70.114.73 16:28, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

IANALinguist, but I took it that "Help me down" is a (potentially, enough to be linguistically nerdsniped upon) ambiguous. 'Down' as a verb is strange, maybe ("to down, I wish you to help me") which might even be more feather-based in regards to the action conveyed. Or "lower the amount of help you shall grant me". Or even "(I) require assistance (for) I (am) feeling a certain amount of ennui". And "I wish to fall" is obviously not meant... Or is it? Some people would wish to consider this... 162.158.158.211 19:06, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

It was I who added that part about the "unlikely combination of words". Today I have checked it on https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/ (where you have to annoyingly register with your real email address as throwaway mails are effectively blocked). Expression 'right know' has 151 795 results. 'this instant' has only 558 including phrases such as:

"Get the fuck out of my office this instant." from Silicon Valley (2017 TV Series, episode The Keenan Vortex);

"Shh. Stop that this instant! 'Stop that this instant.' You sound like my teacher." Justice League Action (2016, Galaxy Jest);

"Put those drapes down this instant. ... I will grab a spatula and put you Over my knee this instant! - You sound like mommy." The Haunted Hathaways (2014, Haunted Viking);

"Applebloom! You come back here right this instant! (blustering)" My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010, Bridle Gossip).

There were also some result from spoken word, newspapers and blogs but they were not relevant. In conclusion, 'this instant' is much less frequent than more common 'right know', however, it is used. On the other hand, it is infrequent enough that characters in TV series comment on how out of place that phrase sounds. I have deleted my explanation, feel free to undo the deletion, rewrite the explanation or leave it as it is now.

To clarify, I have deleted this part of explanation: As mentioned in 1400: D.B. Cooper, Cooper was also known for ambiguous, possibly affected speaking style and use of unusual phrases such as 'negotiable American currency', he seems to hold to this habit and instead of much more common 'Help me right now!' or 'Put me down immediately!' he used rather unlikely combination of words 'You help me down this instant!'. CryptoNut1269 (talk) 11:06, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

I assume you mean "right now" not "right know". 172.70.126.165 01:05, 7 August 2021 (UTC)Pat

My input: the "this instant" bit is not even mentioned as the focus of the linguist's attention, so I'd not consider that important. D.B. may also have only started to say that since the prior visitor, or only when directly addressing BG (with the long history of ignoring/refusing him). "Help me down" is an interesting construct in and of itself, as mentioned. But I could not tell you in what ways. 162.158.158.106 14:39, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

Just FYI: I accidentally noticed that 1860: Communicating has this caption: [...] “which explains why you haven't been able to convince anyone to help you down from that wall.” — Yosei (talk) 08:13, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

Anyone else think that D.B. Cooper in this comic looks a bit like Don Quixote from alternate energy revolution? --4D4850 (talk) 02:13, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

Kind of, but when you looked closer at 556: Alternative Energy Revolution Don Quixote's beard is definitely better groomed and his hair is trimmed. I would rather compare this Cooper with the guy form 725: Literally. CryptoNut1269 (talk) 11:06, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

<humor> What if literally guy is alternate universe D.B. Cooper? </humor> Seriously speaking though, it seems the similarity is just because there aren't many different ways to draw stick figures. --4D4850 (talk) 19:41, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

Where's the page for yesterday's 2499:Abandonment Function? I know it was published late (after midnight last night), but is that a reason not to explain it? Barmar (talk) 12:54, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

Sometimes DGBRTBot (however it's capitalised, etc, I forget) needs a nudge. It's a long long time since I last saw that need so seriously doing, so can't remember how difficult it was when everyone was last complaining about it... I'm sure others are checking that, but I'll poke around to see if it's possible to poke as an AnonIP too... 141.101.99.12 17:55, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

I think my desire to archive the comic along with everything else in case the universe ends is simplifying down to just pasting a link in here: https://xkcd.com/2499/ . Presently accessible for me on xkcd.com . Has a single panel showing a drone asking to be charged by an owner it gifts itself to. Somewhat triggering around human slavery. Caption describes an abandonment function that provides for unwanted drones to find new owners. Reminds of discarded autonomous robots. archive.org will be crawling it soon, hopefully before the universe ends, but I wrote a small summary here. 172.70.114.87 20:04, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

commentary: this probably actually works to give drones away, comparable to leaving furniture by the side of the street. 108.162.219.11 20:06, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

The way to get rid of things by the side of the street is not to have a "free to a good home" sign, but to make it actually tempting to just take it. Many a broken fridge has been given a price-tag and "see owner" label and ended up (even less responsibly) taken away by someone who thinks that even if that price is a steal, they'll happily do their own stealing. (Anyway, the article now exists, after a fashion.) 141.101.98.157 23:07, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

If D. B. Cooper is hanging from his parachute from a tree branch, why are the parachute lines slack? 172.69.68.184 19:30, 9 August 2021 (UTC)

Some are slack, but a core set (below the bit of the chute-canopy snagged most firmly in the tree-canopy) are taut. Which might be expected, as airflow isn't fairly equally holding all the deployed fabric up, just the bits hooked most upon the highest branches that remain unbroken/unbent after entanglement. The rest of the fabric drapes itself on lower branches and the non-loadbearing chords form basic (or modified by chord/branch interaction) cateneries between the silk and the backpack anchor-point.

Though it could as easily end up being one edge of the 'chute (as seen from a chosen angle) as a saddle-like distribution with a centre (maybe just front or back?) held up and two limbs (of the presumably hemispherical, not aerofoil, style of construction surely typical of the day).

It is of course a fairly trivial sketch of an entangled chute, not a complexly rendered simulation of an idealised draping and suspension-from. But I think I'd have mistrusted an all-taut set of guylines compared with that fairly feasible depiction. YMMV. 162.158.111.122 03:49, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

This page is on the list of beret guys strange powers. Is there anything here that qualifies as a strange power? Like it’s weird having D.B. Cooper in your yard, but it’s not a power. Should it be removed from the list? --BlackBeret (talk) 23:24, 28 October 2021 (UTC)