8 Comments

1. 

   Nancy was plucking pedals before the comic started but that’s not what she’s counting now. She’s counting the panels. This is why she’s gesturing at them outside the borders. Nancy holds off replying until panel 4, forcing her frenemy to respond in panel 5 and giving herself the last word in panel 6.

2. 

   I agree with Andrew. Think of Nancy as counting for each panel instead of “She loves me…She loves me not…”, “She is correct …She is wrong …” thus making sure her frenemy is wrong about it being a waste of time. Hence, the smug face in panels 4 and 6

3. 

   There is a name for counting-out games with larger numbers of participants, which are semi-solved recreational math problems.

   You have N participants standing in a circle, and you (or the person you want selected) is at position Y. They count off, starting from position X, and when they reach m, that participant is removed from the circle. The counting continues, restarting with 1, and whenever it reaches m again, that participant is removed from the counting circle. This continues until only one participant is left. This person is “selected” — I think you have variants where this selection is a good or bad thing.

   As a generalized problem, you are given most of the setup parameters, but get to specify one (usually X, the starting position for the counting), with the goal of having the person at initial position Y left as the selected one at the end.

   I think one name for these is based on a Biblical (or Bible-adjacent) story. Maybe “Josephus puzzles”? Any particular one you are handed could of course be finitely solved by simulation. But when is there a quicker solution?

   [“She loves me, she loves me not” is an instance with n=2 and m=(petals on the flower). “Eeenie meenie minee moe” is a version with m given by the word or syllable count in the rhyme.]

4. 

   Yes! I searched for “counting-out games” and found first several pages about children’s-rhyme versions, and then a pointer to Wikipedia on “the Josephus problem”.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_problem

5. 

   When I was a kid we had several counting rhymes. They generally ended with a question. The person pointed to answered the question, and the counting continued with the answer spelled out. The last person pointed to was “not it” and dropped out and the process was repeated until only “it” was left.

   Example:

   “Engine Engine Number 9 going on Chicago line. If the train goes off the track, do you want your money back?”

   “Yes”

   “Y E S spells yes and you are not it!”

   If he could think fast, the person questioned could calculate which person would be not it.

   But of course the person doing the counting could go: “N O spells no and you are not going to be it!”

   Or: “N O spells no and today you are not going to be the one who will be it!”

6. 

   I read a story by Sarah Pinsker titled “And Then There Were (N-One)”. In that, Sarah Pinsker attends a gathering of Sarah Pinskers from many different timelines at a remote island hotel (managed by Sarah Pinsker). Then Sarah Pinsker it murdered. As an insurance investigator, Sarah Pinsker is the closest thing to a cop the Sarah Pinskers have.

   If you’re interested in reading it:
   https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/and-then-there-were-n-one/

7. 

   I don’t know how many Sara Pinsker’s there are, but there is a Jim Smith Society. Your name must be Jim Smith to join. They get together every year in August for a fun time. The softball game is always interesting. “Up at bat is Jim Smith. Jim Smith throws the ball … Jim Smith hits it. There it goes to the outfield, caught on the bounce by Jim Smith who throws it to Jim Smith at first base and Jim Smith is OUT!”

8. 

   It’s a multiverse, there are an unlimited number of Sarah Pinskers. There were many in the story, and those were just the ones who were invited and attended.

   Given the setup, a hotel on an island isolated by a raging storm, and the title, I expected more fatalities than there were.