page 1290 – minor face-related damage
Me, drawing the art for this page: “Man, why do I keep making the labels and fine print on these things so big? That makes the goofy fine print way too obvious and ruins the joke! I gotta make all that text smaller!”
Me, scaling everything down to proper page size: “OOOOoooooh, right. THAT’S why the text needed to be so much bigger than it felt like it did.”
And the worst part is, even if you do pull some kind of resolution miracle and manage to read all the now-tiny text, it probably won’t be funny enough to justify the effort. Save yourself the eye strain.
…for the record, though, I HAD thought about having “Trigger was here” scribbled into a corner to reference him crawling around the ship’s various nooks and crannies, but then I remembered that all his sabotage training would have specifically conditioned him to NOT leave any trace of where he’d been. So no graffiti.
9/21 EDIT: New TWC Voting Incentive is up!
Was the “Fat Free Air” was cheaper than the “Air” next to it, or was it that all three needed to be replaced, and there was only one bottle of “Air”, one of “Fat Free Air” and one of “Meh”? While the “Not Cheese” is a add on to counteract the “Fat Free Air” and “Meh”.
I’m sure it’s like food and the Fat Free version of Air is 3x as expensive. Presumably these are piped, for an extra charge, into the quarters of passengers who read on the space internet that blah blah blah causes whatever disease and so you need to breathe some particular thing to stop it, paid for by the company that produces that particular thing of course. “Air” is like bottled water – which is to say just like the regular stuff in every way, but you pay more for it. Fat Free air is for dieters, of course. And some passengers may have been bioengineered to survive on planets with Methane in their atmosphere – Meh-thane is just a cheaper, unenthusiastic knockoff version of it the Cap’n got on sale, totally just as good…probably. You need all 3 so it’s good for whoever has to break the pumpkin – you don’t want people to hesitate in case of an Emergency.
Also, they obviously put the “do not dent” on the wrong side of the panel. Or the panel’s in backwards. So totally not Stilez’s fault.
Either if the Service Tube Hatch is dented inwards, it’s less of a big deal than if it’s dented outwards, the warning kept getting painted over and so they needed to put it on the back to remain, or, like a lot of the things in this area, the hatch is second hand and works well enough that the Cap’n is happy to use it for his customers.
I feel like a lot of the stuff we see plastered around the innards of the ship was there from its previous owner, who had a hired crew staffing the ship, who needed instructions and warnings and such on everything – the Cap’n seems the sort to handle everything himself and has probably never had a crew (Blip does not count as crew) and would likely not need to warn himself not to screw up his ship. Take, for example, the storage room with the Neva pin-up poster we saw when they were tracking Megaweapon through the ductwork, really doesn’t look like the Cap’n’s sort of decorations, definitely leftover from the prior owner. Yeah, I’m the guy in charge of remebering stuff from 15 years ago 😉
I looked back and found what you’re talking about on page 362.
I can come up with a better explanation for the Neva Image… especially since I can’t think of a good explanation for why a previous set of owners would have owned the ship soon enough to have images of Neva, given how quickly media churns through anything and everything in FOT.
Namely, that the pin-up (and possibly even the entire metal cabinet) is something that was left behind by some passenger, and was seen to be useful instead of just junk to toss. So it was put somewhere out of the way where it could be useful as a cabinet, and no other thought was put into cleaning it, or anything. Either that, the cabinet was bought second hand, and keeping the images on it allowed the Cap’n to buy it for cheaper.
While it has been mentioned that future media is even more fad-of-the-moment than it is today and most things only get their 15 microseconds of fame before burning out, I think there are still some franchises like Cormistapurp or Neva that have been around for a long time because their creators keep churning out new material constantly, even if that new material seems very much like the old material, or celebs like Vashti that have some staying power because they keep recreating themselves, or something like that. So I would not entirely rule out that Neva pinup could be decades old – Neva being a character not tied to any particular actress – as long as a Corporate Entity can continue to milk money from a character for thousands of years they definitely will, no matter how many governments they have to bribe to extend their trademark way past its normal expiration (ie mickey mouse).
So, my original idea when drawing the stuff in the tube was to try and suggest that the ship is full of used surplus material because Cap’n Crosby is too cheap to spend money on something new when something old but cheap can still work ALMOST as well… but then my attention started to drift and it just wound up being whatever amused me.
I’m intrigued by the idea of the ship itself being surplus, though. I’d honestly not thought that hard about where The Exposition came from beyond it just being old like its captain. There might be something to explore in this…
I’d also not considered the question of how old the Neva franchise is compered to the rest of Far Out There’s media. Clearly another case of me not giving out character ages 😛
Oh, and everybody knows that Fat Free Air is more expensive than the regular kind. Do you have any idea how much work it takes to filter all the fat out of air?
Oh, I understand that Fat Free Air would typically be more expensive than the regular kind. But it also hit’s it’s “Best Before” date in half the time as the regular kind, and may need specific additives to be breathable (aka, possibly whatever is in the “Meh” bottle, and the “Not Cheese” bottle), effectively putting “healthier” versions of whatever the “fat” taken out of the “Fat Free Air” into the air circulation.
Though the bottle of “Meh” and “Not Cheese” are likely knock-off products that only work well enough.
I have already mentioned why the “Fat Free Air” could have been cheaper than the “Air”. But to clarify, the “Fat Free Air” in that possibility was in the discount bin for being two months past it’s “Best Before” date, and a day before it’s actual “Expiration” date.
Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “stale air,” doesn’t it?
Fortunately, the Cap’n is a wise man who realizes that in the FOT verse, just like in RL, “expiration” dates and “best by” dates (for almost every product) are 100% complete nonsense dates made up by marketers to trick gullible chuckleheads into throwing away perfectly good products that would likely still be fine years or decades later, so they have to buy new stuff. 😀
Regarding the age of the Exposition – the Cap’n was probably old even back when he was young (kinda like me), and does not seem the type to like new-fangled things, like modern ships, for example – the Expostion could be centuries old even, having passed through the hands of many dozens of captains, with a long, storied history (that only Avatar remembers). Probably a few ghosts and such along for the ride by now. In fact, it may have been one of the ships that was part of the tragically ill-fated Mass Elderly Exodus of Masagento, way back when…seems that the Seniors Fleet had finally escaped for good from the pursuing military forces (durn punk teenagers!) when they all decided to celebrate their narrow escape by unpacking some of the delicious tasty pies they had gotten “to-go” before they left the planet 🙁
“Use By” dates are the real expiration dates. In Australia, at least. Everything else is a recommendation based on what the maker assumes will be the average before the product hits some usability threshold.
…darn that limit on comment nesting! 🙁
…reply to darius above…
It’s difficult to compare across countries, of course, since standards are different. All I know is that if you open up an undamaged RL can of beans 10 years after the “Expiration” date, it will be just as good, or bad, as the day it was canned, and if you open up an undamaged FOT Can of Beard 10 years past the “Expiration” date, it will be just as Beard as the day it was sealed! Whatever that means!
Totally just a brilliant Marketing ploy to get trillions of consumers across the Galaxy to throw away perfectly good Beard! 😉
I’m going to start a new list of comments so that the nesting isn’t trouble. In reply to Ed8 above.
Best Before is supposed to be, I believe, more a requirement for sellers than buyers. It’s kind of like a “Sell By” date for food products. The fact that consumers misinterpret it shouldn’t be put onto the sellers or product producers.
Use By, on the other hand, is used when the food is assumed to have been made unhealthy to eat through the propagation of bacteria and the like.
That said, a can of beans ten years after it was sealed is NOT as good to eat as the day it was sealed, or even a year from the day it was sealed. That is movie lies & crazy apocalypse prepper talk. The seals separating the beans from the meal walls breakdown over time, resulting in the beans having microscopic traces of the can’s outer container spread through it, usually rusty.
AKA, if you wait long enough, the canned beans will taste metallic, contain traces of rust, and could poison you.
If you say so, but I’ve had so-called “expired” cans of beans and other foods and they tasted to me 100% exactly like the non-expired ones, could not tell any difference at all. Naturally one inspects the interior of the can first for damage, if the coating is not damaged there should not be any rust. I would believe it, though, for some can from WW2 before they coated the insides-I’m not going to eat that, that really is internet hype. The jar of peanut butter in my fridge right now says “2021” on it (found it in a box when I was moving, I didn’t intentionally keep it that long) and it definitely tastes exactly like the brand new peanut butter sitting in the jar right next to it**. So maybe that’s one of those “YMMV” things. Now there’s probably some legitimate argument about some chemical from the plastic or coating gradually leaching into the food, but then that’s going to be true before the exp date as well. But no poisonings yet here. 😉 Or, rather, I should say, none from eating “expired” foods – quite a few times from eating out at restaurants, though, and not shady ones. I feel much much safer with my expired can of beans prepared by me, than eating out restaurant food prepared by the guy who thinks hand washing is optional…
**I will put a disclaimer on that, though, I’m an antisupertaster – as opposed to the small percentage of the population classified as “supertasters” that have a more acute sense of taste, I have a much more limited sense of taste than the vast majority, apparently, so it’s entirely possible there’s differences that I just can’t taste but others can. So all the excitement and enthusiasm that Layla has over a steak, for example, is entirely lost on me. To me, most food pretty much tastes like most other food.
Re: the whole foods/expiration date thing
We have to keep in minds that different countries not only have different regulations regarding how products are marked, but in many cases also regarding how they can be packaged or what kind of ingredients can be put in them in the first place. So a jar of Product X manufactured in Country A could legitimately be edible for longer or shorter than the “same” product in Country B. It all depends on what and where. (and it’s discussions like this that drive people to go find the nearest Farmer’s Market and buy stuff as fresh as possible)
Even that’s not quite as fresh as possible – I grow stuff myself in my garden these days – you can go out, pluck it off the plant, and eat it immediately – now that’s as fresh as possible! 😀 (and if you want it to be “organic” or free of some particular thing, you can really be 100% sure it is!)
Just because I can eat an expired can of beans, doesn’t mean I really want to 😉
@ Peanut Butter: You keep that in the fridge? I believe that the “best before” date on Peanut Butter is based on it being room temperature. And the “decade” I put on the can of beans wasn’t an attempt at exaggeration, I believe that it might literally take a minimum of a decade before the can of beans starts to be unhealthy to eat, with variance depending on climate & the like.
@ Blitz & Regulations: Actually, Chocolate is a good example of that, even if it isn’t legal regulations. Even if we ignore US Cadbury’s chocolate using the Hershey’s recipe, I know for a fact that Cadbury makes changes dependent on where the chocolate is intended to be sold. The Australian version is a great example, due to its additives that mean it needs higher temperatures to melt. This is done so that it’s less likely to melt in the wrapper, but is carefully regulated by the company to ensure that it can still be melted by the consumer’s body temperature.
Ah, the eternal debate: Peanut Butter: to Fridge, or Not to Fridge. In the FoT future, holy wars will have been fought between planetary systems over it, most likely more than once… 🙂
Isn’t that debate more around all room-temperature stable sandwich spreads, than specifically Peanut Butter? The version I heard was about Vegimite, with the argument about it going into the fridge being that the margarine/butter that gets into the container from going onto the sandwich first needs it, so it needs to go into the fridge once opened.
Word of advice for anyone not from Australia trying Vegimite. That stuff’s taste is STRONG. The way to prepare a Vegimite Sandwich is to put down some margarine or butter on the bread and spread the Vegimite until it turns from the default black to a light brown. If you DO decide to eat it straight, ensure that you spread it THIN. It makes people used to it wince in pain seeing it piled on something like it’s Peanut Butter.
According to the internet, next month is the 100th Anniversary of the first sale of Vegemite in stores…I feel like I ought to try this (in)famous substance in honor of that…been wondering what it’s like since that Men-At-Work song back in the 80s (the first, and for most the only time 99.9% of Americans had even heard of it). Interestingly, the Amazon page selling contains similar instructions on how to properly eat it, with photos, knowing that we’d likely screw it up otherwise 🙂
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71S-vrkNhLL._SX679_.jpg
A friend in high school had a number of American Foreign Exchange students who, I was told, slapped it onto bread like it was peanut butter without a care in the world. I recoiled at the thought when it was first told to me, and even when I was retelling it to you. Those instructions are absolutely NECESSARY.
Kind of like, but to a far LESS severe degree, the necessity of opening Surströmming (the Sweedish Fermented Canned Fish) under water so that you simultaneously DON’T stink up the kitchen and wash the fish. The only person getting hurt by getting a mouthful worth of too much Vegimite is the person eating it, while the Surströmming hurts everyone who wants to try to use that kitchen for (I assume) the next year.
Ironic you should mention Surströmming since our original discussion was about canned foods going bad 🙂 Though it probably shouldn’t count if it’s on purpose. Nobody has to worry about me opening one improperly, I would not try Surströmming if I were in a famine – I’ll just stick with my 100 year old rusted can of beans first 😀 If I’m going to try something so purportedly awful smelling, I’d go with Durian, although I’ve yet to see it sold fresh anywhere here. I don’t think ordering it in dried form online would give the true Durian experience.
re: author comment – rather than Trigger, perhaps “Megaweapon Was Here”, next to some smashed equipment of course. We know he was crawling throughout the ductwork extensively when he was on board, and he’s exactly the sort to randomly vandalize someone else’s property just to let everyone know who smashed their stuff.
Alternatively, a note by Trigger addressed to the captain apologizing for something.
…or an “anonymous” note that has still has Trigger’s signature but it’s clumsily crossed out
Sorry I had to borrow this part critical to the ship’s functions, will bring it right back as soon as possible! -Trigger
I.O.U. (1) Flux Capacitor