Wapsi Square Forum

Dave wrote:Decorators cribbed the idea from scientists, who came up with these many years ago. Google-search "boiling beads". They were (and are) used in laboratories, in beakers and flasks that are being heated. By providing surfaces with lots of minute irregularities that act as nucleating sites, they ensure that the liquid comes to a gentle bubbling and gradual simmer when heated. Without them, a liquid can "superheat" without boiling, and then suddenly flash over and spew boiling liquid everywhere... messy and dangerous.

Another use for marbles used to be in photography.

When i was six or so (1954), i asked my mother why we had so many boxes of marbles around the house.

She explained that she and my dad had done a lot of photography, including their own darkroom work (as a matter of fact, i wish i had a copy of my birth announcement, which featured photos of all three of us - them with the Miniature Speed Graphic - and was designed as a studio announcement of a new production...).

Some solutions were prone to oxidation in storage, so as you used them, you would add marbles (which, being glass, were inert) to bring the level in the half-gallon or gallon bottles up to the point where its surface was in the neck, to minimise surface area for atmospheric interaction.

================

Then, of course, there's Campbell's Vegetarian Vegetable and Marble Soup. Only available to studios producing commercials.

(The page's summation of the case is wrong - it was not a competitor who sued Campbell's, it was the FTC, and they got onto it because an ad agency copywriter, testifying before the Commission on an unrelated matter, let it slip that they did it.)

Sidhekin wrote:Also on whatever-she-is: It never fails. No matter how aquatic, she's unmistakably mammalian.

No. Those are Dalek bumps.

lake_wrangler wrote:Meanwhile, I can't seem to recognize what kind of being it is, talking to Bud in the first panel. Anyone know?

Mermaid?

Boxilar wrote:I could be mistaken, but it looks in panel 2 as if the pot is full of dirt, and pickle appears to have burrowed into the soil.

That could be. My take on it was that it was empty, and that the dark part was just where the inner surface of the pot was unglazed and rough (and possibly in shadow); most pots aren't finished smoothly on the inside. It would be a little strange to have a big pot just sitting there with only soil or whatever substrate in it. . .though given that this is a place run by paranormals on a day for paranormals, strange is probably to be expected.

Fairportfan wrote:

Sidhekin wrote:Also on whatever-she-is: It never fails. No matter how aquatic, she's unmistakably mammalian.

No. Those are Dalek bumps.

Or swim-bladders?

Sidhekin wrote:
Also on whatever-she-is: It never fails. No matter how aquatic, she's unmistakably mammalian.
Fairportfan wrote:
No. Those are Dalek bumps.
Catawumpus wrote:
Or swim-bladders?

It's a disguise. With Mammalian Protuberances like that no normal human male will notice anything else...

Fairportfan wrote:

Sidhekin wrote:Also on whatever-she-is: It never fails. No matter how aquatic, she's unmistakably mammalian.

No. Those are Dalek bumps.

The protuberances on her head look like squid fins to me, and her 'hands' look a lot like tentacles. (Squid anatomy diagram)

I also thought Bud's friend might be an Ultra. Or a WayBig.

Either Castela is playing Pirana Plant, or that cat genie from MagiRanger/PR Mystic Force.

Until Paul gives us something official I move that this new character be known as "Ms. Mari", first name "Cala".

shadowinthelight wrote:Until Paul gives us something official I move that this nfirsztas new character be known as "Ms. Mari", first name "Cala".

Snerk!!!

That is some good wordplay you got there.

I don't profess to know what Pickle is, but I know what she isn't. Yeah, I know I added an 's' but mistakes happen.
http://i.imgur.com/G3BGkOb.png

shadowinthelight wrote:

Grantwhy wrote:*checks the Wapsi Square Fan Art > Fan Art thread*

What, no "If you won't talk to you children about pot, who will?" fan art from the creative (and talented) people yet?

:-p

Here, you happy now?

very

Thank you

ActionKermit wrote:

Fairportfan wrote:

Sidhekin wrote:Also on whatever-she-is: It never fails. No matter how aquatic, she's unmistakably mammalian.

No. Those are Dalek bumps.

The protuberances on her head look like squid fins to me, and her 'hands' look a lot like tentacles. (Squid anatomy diagram)

...you know that's not what they're talking about, right?

Maybe she's what a 'real' merfolk looks like (took out the 'offensive' sexually exploitative reference that also infers her virginal status....)

My head is full of stuff like that. Most times it doesn't get out, but like Fibber McGee's Closet (or Shelly's, for that matter), sometimes it overflows.

Sidhekin wrote:Also on whatever-she-is: It never fails. No matter how aquatic, she's unmistakably mammalian.

Betsy Lee, animator and comic artist, has a series of videos on YouTube under the playlist title "No Evil." The main characters are based on Native American and Aztec mythology, and the non-mammalian females are clearly just that.

Her animations are well worth checking out, by the way. As is her DeviantArt page and her webcomic, "Brother Swan."

So yes, sometimes it does fail.

Well ... I dunno ... I mean, "Byrdi" is the first appearing character of Brother Swan with non-mammalian features: http://warlordofnoodles.comicgenesis.co ... 90904.html

... and she has plenty of mammalian features too ... three pretty unique ones, and a few typical-but-perhaps-not-necessarily-unique ones ...

She seems more mammalian than not. A hybrid then? A mammal augmented with non-mammalian grafts? Or an angelic character out of some mammalian mythology?

Yeah ... I dunno ...

OF COURSE!!!
My guess (and good amount of the others) from yesterdays post ("Over There!!!") was the thinking for a human kid.
Good ol' Paul went and did his usual story twist ... even with the Big Hint as to what she was on the post 4 days before 'Over There'.

Way to go, Paul. Keep up the good twist.

lake_wrangler wrote:Meanwhile, I can't seem to recognize what kind of being it is, talking to Bud in the first panel. Anyone know?

My first thought was of Shadow Girls...but that's just me.

Julie wrote:My first thought was of Shadow Girls...but that's just me.

Yes. Yes, it is...

...

... just you...

I love Pickle's enthusiasm (and her fangs) but also the indulgent smiles of her elders in the last (and first) panel . . .

The only question left is, do we really want to let Pickle get potted every night?

Dave wrote:

Timotheus wrote:I thought it [pot contents] looked more like ornamental gravel or glass beads, more likely for a decor item. Also I seem to recall a similar situation with a character in the Wotch.

Definitely glass beads. .. they're both decorative and useful. Decorators cribbed the idea from scientists, who came up with these many years ago. Google-search "boiling beads". They were (and are) used in laboratories, in beakers and flasks that are being heated. By providing surfaces with lots of minute irregularities that act as nucleating sites, they ensure that the liquid comes to a gentle bubbling and gradual simmer when heated. Without them, a liquid can "superheat" without boiling, and then suddenly flash over and spew boiling liquid everywhere... messy and dangerous.

They were also used in fractionating/distilling columns, to provide surfaces for the vapor to become liquid and properly distill out pure fractions.

Ahh, memories of labwork....

Julie wrote:

lake_wrangler wrote:Meanwhile, I can't seem to recognize what kind of being it is, talking to Bud in the first panel. Anyone know?

My first thought was of Shadow Girls...but that's just me.

It could be worse, once someone pointed out her hands my first thought was "Stinky's got a humanoid form?"

Grantwhy wrote:

Julie wrote:

lake_wrangler wrote:Meanwhile, I can't seem to recognize what kind of being it is, talking to Bud in the first panel. Anyone know?

My first thought was of Shadow Girls...but that's just me.

It could be worse, once someone pointed out her hands my first thought was "Stinky's got a humanoid form?"

She might be Stinky's owner.