Really? But dementia is so fun! ;)

Can't seem to find any explanation for it anywhere. All I can figure is that it was probably originally "le Pazou" (which seems to be used as a nickname -- possibly of West African origin?) or perhaps a variant of "lollapalooza". Seems to have been something pretty nifty, anyway.

So I'm watching Batman Begins again, so here's a question:

What would be the fear that Scarecrow's gas would evoke in you?

For me, it'd be stuffed animals coming to life and attacking me. I've long been phobic about taxidermy in general. Not just stuffed and mounted animals, either, just a few bugs pinned into drawers creep me out no end. Ugh.

Interesting. Thanks.

Would Assignment: Earth have made an interesting show?

How come I only just now noticed that the hyperlink from the main page to the forums still says "The Five Minute Voyager Forums?"

How long can a person pine for the fjords without getting hungry, or having to take a bathroom break, or taking ten minutes to change the blurb or something? :)

I guess until they decompose beyond the point where they are recognisably human and not just a skeleton and some goopy smelly mess.

Do we need a combination PNQ/Link Dump thread? A lot of posts I create for either seem to imply a combination of the two is necessary, usually based around "post a link, then ask a question about it."

Why is text messaging so popular? Seriously, you have a cell phone, your friend has a cell phone, why not TALK?

Can't call a phone from a computer. Can text-message via IM.

Aside from that . . . I dunno.

It's a Theme Day here in the PNQ Thread! Today is Christmas lore:

Where did this idea of flying reindeer come from? I suppose it follows a line of "logic" from Pegasus to reindeer (a more logical quadraped to be found in the North Country), but still...flying reindeer?

I've seen versions of the Santa legend that state one immortal jolly dude and others that state a sort of generational legacy. Some even posit the existence of a "throne" at the North Pole. Saint Nicholas the XXXVI or whatever, and Santa a hereditary title. Which do you prefer?

I'm still a little curious about this bit of Santa having to lay one finger alongside his nose to go up the chimney. Given the sizes and shapes (and nonexistence, for some) of chimneys, I'd imagine some sort of autonomous teleportation a la Q would come into play. Thus a finger snap, wink, or some other, more expedient and simple method of physically indicating you are about to change position.

So how would Santa's pack work? Someone once calculated that even if every child only recieved a one-pound LEGO set, we're still talking thousands of tons. I suppose that if we're positing flying reindeer, a normal sack being a doorway into hammerspace (i.e. a Bag of Holding) would also work. Perhaps Santa has a bunch of elves in there with clipboards and forklifts finding the correct toys for each house.

Why do people always insist on starting the Christmas thing before Sinterklaas has come and gone?

I dunno. For the same reason that you can practically buy your Easter Eggs on January the 1st, I suppose.

Why does everyone think I made up the word quasihemidemisemiquaver?

The whatnow?

Let's see if we can dissect and translate it:

quasihemidemisemiquaver

quasi=sort of, not quite
hemi=half
demi=half
semi=half
quaver=tremble

Not quite an eighth of a shudder? Okay... :)

http://teh-no.livejournal.com/125561.html

Who is this guy? Is he on this forum under a different name, or what? The "fivers" are nice enough as they go, but the incorrectly spelled names put me off a bit.

A quasihemidemisemiquaver is an 128th note.

Why doesn't anyone ever want to talk aboutPHYSICS

I could have told you that. Not something you see very often, though, except on some of those insane black-page pieces which no one ever actually performs.

Why do people like rap?

Beats me. Why do people like opera when they can't understand the words?

It doesn't give me migranes

But do you LIKE it?

Yes.

It's about the whole experience, not just that someone is singing in another language.

And if you have an understanding of a foreign language like Italian, you can probably understand at least some of an opera.

Sometimes the inability to understand the words helps ;) I can think of a LOT of "pop" songs that I might enjoy much more if I didn't know what the words were supposed to mean . . .

How many people know that (at least at one point) the most hotly debated Dear Abby/Ann Landers topic was toilet paper orientation? Those were the days, huh?

What's the oddest thing you've ever seen served on a stick? You see, at the Minnesota State Fair (The Great Minnesota Get Together!), stuff on a stick is a cherished tradition. We go way beyond hot dogs and their derivatives.

What's that one custom flavor of ice cream that you've seen on a shelf that's made you go "huh? What inspired THIS one?"

Do you think there are more pro-pulp or anti-pulp people in the world?

My answer to both of those is khav khalash.

Who's the single most powerful (mortal) being in Trek? If we include immortal, the Q/Organian debate could be quite messy. I'm not sure if a Borg Queen quite counts, because she needs the entire Collective and Borg infrastructure for her power, plus we've seen indications that even though individual host bodies are mortal, the Queen herself is a specific personality that occupies a series of bodies.

Easy: The Sisko.

Are Prophets mortal?

This begs another question: Is Sisko a Prophet?

I'd say 'no', given that he appears not to have assumed their habits of speech, noncorporeality, or habit of turning up looking like people you're acquainted with.

I'd assume that's more along the lines of "he knows better than to be one of those obstrusely incomprehensible omnipotent beings."

Okay, this isn't really PNQ, but maybe someone knows. This page says that Archie and Veronica are the Official Couple, not Archie and Betty. Huh? Putting aside the fact that the Love Triangle will never be resolved, how would an Archie/Veronica marriage last anyway? I'd have to imagine that it's the chase that intrigues Veronica, not to mention sheer stubborness. Could he really make her happy? And vice-versa for that matter. Hey, so I'm an Archie/Betty shipper, so what?

Chuck Norris. Just because we've never actually seen him on screen or in print, doesn't mean he isn't in there somewhere punching Borg and shooting Klingons.

Um, okay...

Okay, here's a real PNQ...

Why do Canadians use the name Kraft Dinner? Putting aside the fact that macaroni and cheese isn't quite a full meal by itself (at least it's not SUPPOSED to be...), Kraft Dinner isn't really descriptive of anything in particular, least of all a specific style of macaroni and cheese.

Becaaauuuse:

Canadians just stuck with the original name under which it was marketed by Kraft. Neither P nor N, particularly.


Your turn to look up something to which the answer can be found easily in seconds.

I could live on macaroni cheese. Granted, I wouldn't live for very long, but once I did die my bloated cheesy corpse would be wearing a smile.

That answered absolutely nothing. I wasn't asking WHETHER, I was asking WHY. As in "WHY is it called Kraft Dinner?" I'm not bashing the product (in fact, both as a poor college student and now a poor ex-college student, it is a staple), I'm just asking why it's called what it is in Canada.

Would Ocarina of Time have been more fun or too easy if the Iron Boots and Hover Boots had been equippable as C-items instead of having to manually switching them in the subscreens?