Random questions

[Triphammer]

STOS couldn't have toilets cause there were non on TV. In later versions, the waste is beamed directly out of the bowels to supply matter for the replicator

[brimic]

As a kid "coke" was a generic term in my neck of the woods.

Hey Bubba garb me a coke.
Sure, what do you want?
I'll have a Dr. Pepper.

it's pretty solid as "pop" now.

How come you never see a toilet on Star Trek?

This one always amused me.

See the very dark county on the map in WI, just right of the lower center of the state? That's where I grew up. It was always 'Pop'- if you said anything else, you were obviously an outsider. I've lived on the 'East coast of WI for most of my adult life, I haven't heard the word 'pop' in about 20 years.

[GigaBuist]

Why are pizzas round, but the box they come in is square?

We have a cultural bias toward round pizzas.  It's probably stupid but it is there.  It scales up better to larger sizes than rectangles do because each pie slice still has a crust handle. 

[charby]

I grew up near that one county in Iowa that calls pop, soda. Drives my wife nuts when I ask her to pick up soda from the store. She keeps telling me its pop, and I tell her get me diet mountain dew soda. :)

She also hates that I pronounce wash, worsh; Washington is worshington and drop my g's at the end of words.

Also a sofa/couch is a davenport.

Drinking fountain is a water cooler.

Draft beer is called draw. But you ask what is on tap.

[Tallpine]

She also hates that I pronounce wash, worsh; Washington is worshington and drop my g's at the end of words.

And I thought that was a Texas thing 

Also, the inflection on some words (which I think is a Scots/Irish/Gaelic thing).  For instance, I still say INsurance. 

[MechAg94]

We have a cultural bias toward round pizzas.  It's probably stupid but it is there.  It scales up better to larger sizes than rectangles do because each pie slice still has a crust handle. 

I imagine that if you go to a place that still hand rolls out the ball of dough, round is the easiest way to do it.  Also, all the pans are round if you eat it there.
The pizza place I worked at had a rolling machine that flattened out the dough, but it was still hand shaped more or less just all the dough was done at once.  I think DoubleDave's places still hand shape each pizza.

[Perd Hapley]

We have a cultural bias toward round pizzas.  It's probably stupid but it is there.  It scales up better to larger sizes than rectangles do because each pie slice still has a crust handle. 

Jets Pizza does rectangular.

Around here, a lot of thin crust pizza is cut into squares.

[charby]

Also, the inflection on some words (which I think is a Scots/Irish/Gaelic thing).  For instance, I still say INsurance. 

w N b c...

Makes me think of Howard Stern's movie.

[MechAg94]

I think I do remember using soda water or soda as well as "coke" to refer soft drinks. 

[Balog]

Another question. In Paul Simon's 1972 song "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard", Simon parodies a Hispanic (Puerto Rican?) youth. It wasn't considered racist then. Is it racist now? Is the song still played? Is playing it racist?  Is Paul Simon, who's Jewish, a "white Hispanic" in the same way that George Zimmerman, who is Hispanic but has a Jewish name, a white Hispanic?

I doubt any 1972 Paul Simon songs get airplay, racial overtones or not.

[KD5NRH]

Also, when he splits up with Marie at her British friend's house, Bourne gives her a bunch of cash, and says he just kept $30K for himself. $30K wouldn't last long travelling all over Europe for a year.

IIRC, the deposit box had several different currencies in it; he may have meant that he gave her all but $30kUSD, and still had lots of francs, lire, etc., or he may have had more stashed in various accounts for the names in his different passports (after all, an established bank account is a good backup for a fake ID: if someone's looking that close, it would stand out that you never had a penny in any bank anywhere until your $100k deposit last week) and gave her all but $30k of his cash.

[Tallpine]

Cakes are square.  Pies are round.

[bedlamite]

Cakes are square.  Pies are round.

Yes, but why? Pies could be square and would taste the same.

[Perd Hapley]

Cakes are square.  Pies are round.

No, pi r squared.

[Perd Hapley]

I doubt any 1972 Paul Simon songs get airplay, racial overtones or not.

Those are the kinds of overplayed songs on which radio thrives.

And just as an aside, I never pass up the chance to remark that Simon's no good without Garfunkel.

[Doggy Daddy]

Around here, a lot of thin crust pizza is cut into squares.

I miss that.  You can request square cuts around here.  It'll still be delivered sliced into wedges at least 75% of the time.  I've given up trying.

[Viking]

IIRC, the deposit box had several different currencies in it; he may have meant that he gave her all but $30kUSD, and still had lots of francs, lire, etc., or he may have had more stashed in various accounts for the names in his different passports (after all, an established bank account is a good backup for a fake ID: if someone's looking that close, it would stand out that you never had a penny in any bank anywhere until your $100k deposit last week) and gave her all but $30k of his cash.

Correct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca06PmdVIzg#t=74

[T.O.M.]

On the spy/money issue, I've noticed that very few writers who mysteries, espionage, or thrillers have main characters that are anything but financially well-off.  Very few give a plausible explanation as to where the money came from.  Best example I've seen of money in books is the novels of John Sandford...the Lucas Davenport series (the Prey mysteries) and the Virgil Flowers series.  Davenport is a cop who developed games based on his experiences, worked with smart guys to turn them into computer simulations/games, and sold for big money, then invested the money well.  Sandford does a good job of throwing in the nice money references (Porsche, expensive suits, etc.) but in a believable way.  The fun part is with the Virgil Flowers series (a spin-off of the Prey series) where the guy is a working cop, has enough money to live, but isn't driving around in a fancy car throwing cash around.  Sandford goes so far as to have the character worry about expenses, how to pay for his fishing boat repairs, etc.  Good reads if you like the mystery stuff.  Gun details aren't Correia-level good, but better than most.

[wmenorr67]

Where's the beef?

[Tallpine]

Where's the beef?

It's what's for dinner 

No, pi r squared.

Of all the people on all the forums in the world, why did it have to be you that got the joke 

[KD5NRH]

Correct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca06PmdVIzg#t=74

Can't remember who it was, but there was one author who included quite a bit about how much went into maintaining multiple identities; buying groceries and gas on the various bank cards from time to time, getting motel rooms etc. so that anyone looking closely at one would see some activity, rather than a guy who has $50k in the bank that he never withdraws from or deposits to between the initial deposit and the day he suddenly pops into normal daily spending.  As I recall, his character also maintained a couple of identities that only his handler knew about in case of issues internal to the department, and a couple that even the handler didn't know about, specifically in case he got burned and needed to disappear.  Had some creative ways of shuffling money between identities without letting them be linked to each other too.