3236: Border Message
| Border Message |
 Title text: Thanks to differences in logging regulations, the messages actually turned out to be visible from the air. |
Explanation
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This is one of 67 incomplete explanations: This page was created by a bored legislator. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
In this comic, legislators negotiating the boundary between two towns livened up the normally boring process by arranging for it to spell out a message when viewed on a map.
The title text implies that the area around the border is forested. Due to the different logging regulations in the two towns, the density of trees on each side of the border is so different that you can see the border, and hence the messages, when looking down on the land.
This comic may have been inspired by gerrymandering: defining voting districts to favor a particular group. This often results in districts with very unusual shapes. The comic was published on the day that Virginia voters passed a referendum approving redistricting that favored the Democratic Party. See the Belgium-Netherlands border, which is extremely chaotic.
Transcript
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This is one of 43 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
[A section of a map showing the border between the towns East Valley and Southlake. The border is shown as a dotted line, and it spells out a message:]
WE HOPE YOU'RE ENJOYING THIS MAP
[Caption below comic:]
When local legislators get bored
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Wow, I got here early. 47.152.141.142 21:11, 22 April 2026 (UTC)
The (sort of) Belgian village of Baarle-Hertog has numerous bizarre exclaves with neighbouring Netherlands, almost as complex as the borders in the cartoon. Some of the borders even pass through houses. https://maps.app.goo.gl/M5duocjEkJRQKedEA Martin (talk) 22:22, 22 April 2026 (UTC)
- Baarle is divided into two, with ~-Nassau being Dutch (the Dutch royal family is Oranje-Nassau) and ~-Hertog is Belgian. Note that Baarle is a 2km² area with an extremely chaotic border, but that otherwise the Dutch-Belgian border is pretty normal relative to other European borders. IIVQ (talk) 05:15, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
- European states/counties/jurisdictions were often complex and non-contiguous with many enclaves and exclaves. Many of these complex situations have disappeared (e.g. in France through the creation of departements in 1790); but some persisted or still remain. See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclaves_of_West_Berlin_in_East_Germany 62.112.240.32 12:50, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
- there's no need to look all the way to Europe, although I was fascinated by "border corpse(Dutch: grenslijk)" stories. One example is the Four Corners Monument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Corners_Monument which is administered by Navajo Nation(!) and also serves as a border for Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation.Cuvtixo (talk) 19:26, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
- What is it with the Belgians and strange borders? Their border with Germany near Monschau is also a mess of exclaves. --88.97.176.34 22:00, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
SMBC once had a similar idea to stop Gerrymandering: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2013-07-12 90.146.31.117 23:02, 22 April 2026 (UTC)
Gerrymandering was not my first thought when I saw this comic, maybe that part should be removed from the description? I don't see any real way that it connects to gerrymandering besides the fact that it talks about borders. Qoiuoiuoiu (talk) 01:56, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
- Maybe it was added after the vague link to that SMBC comic was found? 110.145.224.178 03:22, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
- For what it's worth, the comment about gerrymandering was added in the very first text to be put on that page (21:09, 22 April 2026). It's not merely because of borders; it's because of "borders that have been made extremely convoluted for artificial reasons unrelated to the factors that usually define such boundaries, such as geographical features, roads, latitude/longitude, or regular divisions". BunsenH (talk) 03:38, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
- Even as a non-USian, the recent gerrymandering efforts immediately seemed like an obvious prompt for the idea of the comic to me, even if it doesn't specifically reference it. 82.13.184.33 08:29, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
- I put it in my original explanation, before the comment (indeed, before any comments). It only came to mind because Virginia was in the news that day, so reporters were talking about weirdly-shaped districts. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but Randall may have known that the vote was taking place that day when he came up with the comic. Barmar (talk) 14:25, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
I once spelled out words on openstreetmap. There were some hiking trails nearby from a data set that opened up and I could not put them all up in one session, so I spelled "To Do" (in the shape of the actual hiking trails) on Openstreetmap. IIVQ (talk) 05:15, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
Is there a category for US State comics? There seems to be a lot of them, and a category might make sence. If there isn't perhaps someone could make one? -- GSLikesCats307 (talk) 09:26, 23 April 2026 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- There's Category:US maps, but that is really more specifically of the 'whole' US (give or take contiguousness/fictionalisation), whereas this is more just 'a map', not even necessarily a (theoretical) subset of the US (though the names given to either side of the border do have a more Leftpondian feel, having that 'settler vibe' to them). 82.132.238.56 10:48, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
- Counting Exclaves
The W, O, P, O, ', R, O, A ,P all have clear exclaves. "A" and "R" seems to have two. However, it's unclear whether J and G are entirely exclaves, or possibly letters like "O" are doubly exclaved. If the answer to that is no, then that would mean there are 11 exclaves. Does anyone else agree with this assessment? Fephisto (talk) 17:43, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
- No 'letter' is an exclave of Southlake, as I see it. The one "A" has two cut-out regions (let's assume these are all exclaves of East Valley, in leiu of any other info), the two "H"s have an exclave each, the "M" has an exclave, the two "N"s have an exclave each, three "O"s each have one exclave, both "P"s also, the "R" has two separate exclaves (topologically, like the "A") and the "W" has an exclave. Totalling fifteen (presumed) exclaves of East Valley within Southlake's nominal boundary, unless I've miscounted something (probably missed one, rather than repeated anything.
- In addition, the apostrophe is (if not a totally different enclave/unincorporated area) an exclave of Southlake contained within East Valley's main contiguous area, so that's one more (of the opposite association).
- Nowhere is doubly-exclaved (a.k.a. counter-exclaved). Although the pinch-points of some of the baseline-meeting letter shapes (the "O"-bottomed ones, like the "G" and "J", more so even than the "O"s themselves) are close, you can (terrain and obstructions allowing) walk into and around the "letter strokes" from Southlake without crossing over East Valley territory and back again.
- What I find interesting is the slope of the writing (beyond the 'slope of the border' as it would be if it hadn't been made wiggly). I suspect that the way the natural border effectively would go from the character base on the left to higher up on the 'line height' to the right means that the ficticious map-definers (and, by extension, Randall) probably scrupulously ensured that this 'map doodling' made sure to not change the total area possessed by each side. By dipping the text-outlines down into Southlake, the area that might be considered nominally East Valley 'transfered' to Southlake as sections of letter-body seems to be balanced by the gain by East Valley by the baseline (at the right-hand end) dipping down into Southlake territory, until brought back up to the next 'level' section at the extreme right of the panel.
- Might be worth analysing areas, comparing the scrawl-related possessions vs. what a more direct line would give to each. 82.132.238.117 20:13, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
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