Say the girl on the right is about 6. The adult in the final panel is plausibly age 6+37=40, but not plausibly 6+74=80. So do we have to conclude that wish transmission is at light speed, but wish fulfillment is instantaneous?
@DanaK: yes, we do.
Wayno’s timing seems more than a little off. According to this USDA map, the most recent appearance by any of the 17-year cicadas was “Brood X”† in 2021, and the next appearance will not occur until 2024:
P.S. The season is also wrong: “Adult periodical cicadas live for only a few weeks; by mid-July, all have died.”
P.P.S. For those living in Illinois, 2024 will be unusual in that the entire state will be covered with cicadas; in the north by the 17-year Brood XIII, and in the south by the 13-year Brood XIX. This coincidence will not happen again until 2245.
P.P.P.S. † – No relationship to Twitter.
2024 will be the third time I’ve seen the 17 year cicadas here in northeastern Illinois. We lived in an older neighborhood with mature trees, and when they come out, they are everywhere. The birds get so fat they can hardly fly. It’s an amazing event.
Now we live next to a large city park that was laid out in 2000-2003, just before the 2007 wave, so it will be interesting to see how many there are in the park.
@ Dana (1) – The Daily Cartoonist recently featured that strip, and raised the same metaphysical objection about comparative velocities.
If you require lightspeed capabilities, and physical transport rather than just metaphysical, you will need to shop for the proper saucer.
(Sunday Bizarro, Dan Piraro)
You find it implausible that wish fulfillment instantly traverses 37 light years but perfectly plausible that all of the necessary atoms and molecules come together to materialize a pony?
@Dana: 6+37=40?
It’s 42 – the answer to everything.
Being The Oldest Person On Earth (and Monarchy) transfers instantaneously, faster than the speed of light, so Wish Fulfillment can too. The information about being The Oldest Person may lag some time behind the condition.
Of course, the question of when exactly death occurs makes this not really relevant in our normal earthly environment, as it must be smeared over a second or two. But if Prince Charles had been on Mars when his mother died, the condition of Kingship would have landed on him 3 to 22 minutes before the news about it could.
Thanks for the correction, Lord F (and Narmitaj for the… approximation..?). The problem was from my phone-typing skills, more than my arithmetic.
Did you know that if a reigning monarch gives birth to twins, the first at 1:55 a.m. on the first Sunday in November, and the second ten minutes later at 1:05 a.m., there will be serious and perhaps unsolvable disputes about primogeniture? The legal definitions do not take into account “Spring forward, fall back”.
Being the oldest person on earth only transfers instantaneously if everyone on Earth is in the same frame of reference, which we generally are, more or less. Being the oldest living being in the universe won’t always transfer instantaneously if there are multiple frames of reference. Consider A age 150, B age 140 and C age 130. One observer may see A die, then B. A was the oldest, then B was the oldest, then C. Another observer may see B die, then A. A was the oldest but B was never the oldest. There is no absolute frame of reference so there is no “one and only” order of death.
@ MiB (11) – For births like that, in practical terms nobody in that delivery room is going to have the time, nor interest in resetting the clock at the precise moment. In officialese documentary terms, they could mark the birth certificates with the corresponding time zones (such as “EDT” vs. “EST”, or “UTC+2” vs. “UTC+1”).†
P.S. The theoretical scenario would play in November only if the queen in question were to travel to America to give birth (presumably to take advantage of an idiotic health care system that places profit considerations before the needs of patients). In the continent where the vast majority of monarchs live, the DST switchover is on the last Sunday in October, and the switch there is from 3am to 2am, not 2am to 1am.
P.P.S. † – During the Fall DST switchover, trains in the German rail system are suddenly one hour ahead of schedule. To get back “on track”, they simply wait at the next station stop for an extra hour. (I do not know how they manage the DST change in Spring.)
Glad to know about the time changeover in German Rail System. My niece (she is in her early 30s) somehow got a job teaching in England. (She is a NYS licensed teacher.) She plans on traveling around Europe by train during the breaks in the school year. I would hate to think she has a problem while in Germany if the there during the Fall DST switch.
I am not completely sure as most information about niece in Europe is coming through my 94 yo mother, but I think that niece plans to travel by night and sleep on the trains as she travels. But mom has trouble understanding the difference between a Roku device and a Roku TV and that we do not have channels for the various channels, while she does with her TV – so this cannot be for certain.
Also, per mom, niece had a problem getting Yom Kippur off from teaching as they don’t allow for same in England.
(Am I really old enough to have a niece in her 30s? Well, husband’s younger niece is in elementary school so I guess it evens out.)
@Kilby: Yes, there are logical solutions to the birth order problem. But logical solutions do not override established protocal. Wars have been fought over such things. Like whether to sing hymns in Latin or French.
@ MiB (15) – The established protocol is that the first born will have priority in inheritance, and that is independent of any details written on a birth certificate. How about a different conundrum? Consider the case of twins born by Cesarian section. Theoretically, the surgeon could decide which kid will later become king (or queeen).
If they’re going by “first star I see at night” the wishing star is a planet, considerably closer than stars, so turnaround is more reasonable.
The Smithsonian Magazine just posted an article about this year‘s dual cicada broods that I mentioned @3, above.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Say the girl on the right is about 6. The adult in the final panel is plausibly age 6+37=40, but not plausibly 6+74=80. So do we have to conclude that wish transmission is at light speed, but wish fulfillment is instantaneous?
@DanaK: yes, we do.
Wayno’s timing seems more than a little off. According to this USDA map, the most recent appearance by any of the 17-year cicadas was “Brood X”† in 2021, and the next appearance will not occur until 2024:
P.S. The season is also wrong: “Adult periodical cicadas live for only a few weeks; by mid-July, all have died.”
P.P.S. For those living in Illinois, 2024 will be unusual in that the entire state will be covered with cicadas; in the north by the 17-year Brood XIII, and in the south by the 13-year Brood XIX. This coincidence will not happen again until 2245.
P.P.P.S. † – No relationship to Twitter.
2024 will be the third time I’ve seen the 17 year cicadas here in northeastern Illinois. We lived in an older neighborhood with mature trees, and when they come out, they are everywhere. The birds get so fat they can hardly fly. It’s an amazing event.
Now we live next to a large city park that was laid out in 2000-2003, just before the 2007 wave, so it will be interesting to see how many there are in the park.
@ Dana (1) – The Daily Cartoonist recently featured that strip, and raised the same metaphysical objection about comparative velocities.
If you require lightspeed capabilities, and physical transport rather than just metaphysical, you will need to shop for the proper saucer.
(Sunday Bizarro, Dan Piraro)
You find it implausible that wish fulfillment instantly traverses 37 light years but perfectly plausible that all of the necessary atoms and molecules come together to materialize a pony?
@Dana: 6+37=40?
It’s 42 – the answer to everything.
Being The Oldest Person On Earth (and Monarchy) transfers instantaneously, faster than the speed of light, so Wish Fulfillment can too. The information about being The Oldest Person may lag some time behind the condition.
Of course, the question of when exactly death occurs makes this not really relevant in our normal earthly environment, as it must be smeared over a second or two. But if Prince Charles had been on Mars when his mother died, the condition of Kingship would have landed on him 3 to 22 minutes before the news about it could.
Thanks for the correction, Lord F (and Narmitaj for the… approximation..?). The problem was from my phone-typing skills, more than my arithmetic.
Did you know that if a reigning monarch gives birth to twins, the first at 1:55 a.m. on the first Sunday in November, and the second ten minutes later at 1:05 a.m., there will be serious and perhaps unsolvable disputes about primogeniture? The legal definitions do not take into account “Spring forward, fall back”.
Being the oldest person on earth only transfers instantaneously if everyone on Earth is in the same frame of reference, which we generally are, more or less. Being the oldest living being in the universe won’t always transfer instantaneously if there are multiple frames of reference. Consider A age 150, B age 140 and C age 130. One observer may see A die, then B. A was the oldest, then B was the oldest, then C. Another observer may see B die, then A. A was the oldest but B was never the oldest. There is no absolute frame of reference so there is no “one and only” order of death.
@ MiB (11) – For births like that, in practical terms nobody in that delivery room is going to have the time, nor interest in resetting the clock at the precise moment. In officialese documentary terms, they could mark the birth certificates with the corresponding time zones (such as “EDT” vs. “EST”, or “UTC+2” vs. “UTC+1”).†
P.S. The theoretical scenario would play in November only if the queen in question were to travel to America to give birth (presumably to take advantage of an idiotic health care system that places profit considerations before the needs of patients). In the continent where the vast majority of monarchs live, the DST switchover is on the last Sunday in October, and the switch there is from 3am to 2am, not 2am to 1am.
P.P.S. † – During the Fall DST switchover, trains in the German rail system are suddenly one hour ahead of schedule. To get back “on track”, they simply wait at the next station stop for an extra hour. (I do not know how they manage the DST change in Spring.)
Glad to know about the time changeover in German Rail System. My niece (she is in her early 30s) somehow got a job teaching in England. (She is a NYS licensed teacher.) She plans on traveling around Europe by train during the breaks in the school year. I would hate to think she has a problem while in Germany if the there during the Fall DST switch.
I am not completely sure as most information about niece in Europe is coming through my 94 yo mother, but I think that niece plans to travel by night and sleep on the trains as she travels. But mom has trouble understanding the difference between a Roku device and a Roku TV and that we do not have channels for the various channels, while she does with her TV – so this cannot be for certain.
Also, per mom, niece had a problem getting Yom Kippur off from teaching as they don’t allow for same in England.
(Am I really old enough to have a niece in her 30s? Well, husband’s younger niece is in elementary school so I guess it evens out.)
@Kilby: Yes, there are logical solutions to the birth order problem. But logical solutions do not override established protocal. Wars have been fought over such things. Like whether to sing hymns in Latin or French.
@ MiB (15) – The established protocol is that the first born will have priority in inheritance, and that is independent of any details written on a birth certificate. How about a different conundrum? Consider the case of twins born by Cesarian section. Theoretically, the surgeon could decide which kid will later become king (or queeen).
If they’re going by “first star I see at night” the wishing star is a planet, considerably closer than stars, so turnaround is more reasonable.
The Smithsonian Magazine just posted an article about this year‘s dual cicada broods that I mentioned @3, above.