50 thoughts on “Today in Alternate History

  1. fkaWaldenPond August 11, 2016 / 9:08 am

    Hovertext! Hovertext! 😀

    • 6rabbits August 11, 2016 / 9:14 am

      Yes! So much?????

      • Murray C. August 11, 2016 / 10:08 am

        Yes – grrrrr – willful ignorance.Ouch. Cute flying kitty, however – is this the exception that proves the rule? I never did get that.

          • Murray C. August 11, 2016 / 10:55 am

            I will have to read this more than once – did a quick read-through and certainly didn’t fully understand tho’ the kernel is there. Thank you Allein – I think!?

            • 6rabbits August 11, 2016 / 4:19 pm

              The Mental Floss author doesn’t explain well, IMO. There are 2 similar adages causing confusion here, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating” and “It’s the exception that proves the rule…” due to multiple meanings of the words prove and proof. At the following link it is explained better, I think?. (LOTS of baaaad info out there on this subject, btw!)
              http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule

              • Murray C. August 11, 2016 / 4:41 pm

                When I saw the phrase in Latin and the word “probat” I thought of “probate” and it made more sense – just like “proof” in the pudding phrase. Yes, this helps a bit more. thank you both. I LOVE this place!?

              • Smartypants August 11, 2016 / 6:55 pm

                It reminds me of the phrase “to beg the question,” which people nowadays use to mean “to ask the question” – but it actually means roughly “to answer a question with itself” (a sort of flawed logic on the part of the person answering the question). But it’s so prevalent now that I wonder if it’s even worth trying to make the distinction.

                • allein ? August 11, 2016 / 9:28 pm

                  That one drives me nuts.

                • Murray C. August 12, 2016 / 2:52 pm

                  I’m still puzzling over this. I think I thought it meant that if someone brought up an issue but there were potential flaws in the thinking, then it would “beg the question” to help correct the flaw? For instance, I’m going to put this chifforobe into my car, that would beg the question how big is your car or what kind of a car do you have, have you measured everything.

                  • allein ? August 12, 2016 / 3:10 pm

                    It’s assuming the thing being questioned is true when answering the question, e.g., “Paranormal activity is real because I have experienced what can only be described as paranormal activity.”

                    (Just because you can’t think of another explanation doesn’t mean there isn’t one.)

    • Mich Patt August 11, 2016 / 2:01 pm

      Yep yep yep! 😀

  2. Gigi the cat lady August 11, 2016 / 9:18 am

    Faster than an electric can opener ! More powerful than scented kitty litter ! Able to leap tall ottoman in a single bound!
    Look up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Supercat!

    • 6rabbits August 11, 2016 / 9:23 am

      ” More powerful than scented kitty litter !” ?

    • debg August 11, 2016 / 9:48 am

      Nicely done, Gigi!

      How’s Boo?

      • Gigi the cat lady August 11, 2016 / 10:07 am

        Boo is back to eating normally , altho his mouth still hurts him. By contrast Penny who also has teeth pulled a day after him show no signs of pain and started eating normally the next day.
        I’m reminded of how much worse a “man cold” is than a woman’s. ??

        • Murray C. August 11, 2016 / 10:09 am

          HAH!

        • Birdcage August 11, 2016 / 10:44 am

          HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

  3. 6rabbits August 11, 2016 / 9:19 am

    Thank you for this NTMTOM!?? I need to have this as a poster.? The hovertext is Perfect!!?

  4. Faye August 11, 2016 / 9:31 am

    Wendell is obviously high(up).

  5. allein ? August 11, 2016 / 9:32 am

    “Just a theory” ….. *twitch*

    Appropriatley enough, this morning in my work email I had an ad for a new book:

    So fluffy he floats!

    • Murray C. August 11, 2016 / 4:42 pm

      Who sends you ads like this? I might have to get on their list!

      • allein ? August 11, 2016 / 5:02 pm

        Publisher’s Weekly. A coworker actually gets the subscriptions to all their newsletters and has a rule set to forward them to the rest of us.

  6. Emmberrann August 11, 2016 / 9:49 am

    Can’t see the hovers! What’s it say?? What’s it say? Pleeeeze?
    “Supercat!” Aren’t all cats?

    • allein ? August 11, 2016 / 9:59 am

      “And thus the proud national tradition of rejecting science was born.”

  7. Stressfactor August 11, 2016 / 10:19 am

    Iiiiiiiinnnnnnnccoooooommmmmiiiiiinnnnnnggggg!

  8. benvolio August 11, 2016 / 10:38 am

    Flying is really very simple. All you have to do is throw yourself at the ground and miss.

    • Gigi the cat lady August 11, 2016 / 10:43 am

      LOL! Love Douglas Adams!

    • belphebe August 11, 2016 / 11:49 am

      Ah yes, I was thinking the same thing!
      Last week at a company meeting, a senior manager asked how many people knew what “42” meant. Less than half of the people in the room put up their hands. I’m definitely getting old!

      I didn’t get “Human Hawk” at first, but I figured it was a joke of some sort. It took me a few minutes. I blame the lack of coffee, a lack that I’m quickly rectifying.

      • Murray C. August 11, 2016 / 1:55 pm

        42 means something? Other than an age I haven’t seen for a very long time???

        • allein ? August 11, 2016 / 2:07 pm

          The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42.”

          • Muppet2171 August 11, 2016 / 2:15 pm

            The problem being, of course, that no one really knows what the actual question was…

          • Murray C. August 11, 2016 / 4:35 pm

            Yes, of course. I had forgotten that was the number – I should read that again. And thanks for bringing my attention to the “Human Hawk” line – I didn’t read it carefully enough. Hee, hee, that Mike.

            • allein ? August 11, 2016 / 5:03 pm

              That Mike? Or the other Mike?

              • Murray C. August 11, 2016 / 7:54 pm

                ?

        • belphebe August 11, 2016 / 2:44 pm

          What Allein said.
          It was someone named Alain who introduced me to ’42’ and Douglas Adams. Anytime I asked Alain a question, he answered with “42”. Eventually, he told me where it came from and loaned me his copy of the HitchHiker’s Guide.

          Memories…

  9. Muppet2171 August 11, 2016 / 10:56 am

    “Human Hawk, South Carolina” I see what you did there…

    • allein ? August 11, 2016 / 10:58 am

      Wow, I totally missed that (I mean, the words themselves…gotta stop staying up so late).

    • Smartypants August 11, 2016 / 6:58 pm

      Yes, this post is a Win on so many levels – I wonder if Mike gets tired of hearing that he’s outdone himself! 😀

        • Murray C. August 11, 2016 / 8:27 pm

          ?I thought that might be the case. But let us know if it all becomes too much, OK????

        • jlamusings August 11, 2016 / 8:33 pm

          Then here’s a parade in your honor (yes I believe we’ve seen this at the old homestead, but it’s still great):




            • Murray C. August 11, 2016 / 11:07 pm

              I love the one playing with the broom, the accordion player with the fancy hat and the spinning xylophone player – I’m sure there were other little variations – so cute. That has to be Japanese, isn’t it???

  10. Duckie ? August 11, 2016 / 11:19 am

    Normally I would not do this, but I have been inspired by so many of the comments lately…
    Ninja Caaaaaaaaaaaat!

  11. Laura August 11, 2016 / 3:24 pm

    Human Hawk! Hee!

    Some years back*, when we lived outside Dayton, Ohio, I met a little old man who, as a child, had seen the Wright Brothers’ very first flight over Dayton, Ohio after they returned triumphantly from Kitty Hawk. I just love little things like that — it makes you realize just how fast things happen in today’s world!

    *Okay, too many years — I just realized it was probably 35 years ago. Ack! How can I remember things from that far back that vividly? Oh, wait, I can remember things from farther back than that. Never mind, apparently I really *am* getting old….

    • Smartypants August 11, 2016 / 4:20 pm

      That’s awesome! Years ago I met a lady, age 101, who knew the guys who *almost* invented powered flight…but the Wright Bros. beat them to it because they had a bicycle shop and could fabricate their own parts…

      • Murray C. August 11, 2016 / 4:32 pm

        Laura and Smartypants, those are wonderful memories to have – and interesting to have brought together in this space. I grew up with a man – my parents became his caretakers in his old age so we lived in his house – and he was born in 1866. It’s amazing to think that my young life touched a life that went that far back – but to also realize that that was the end of the Civil War and it really wasn’t all that long ago.

        • Smartypants August 11, 2016 / 7:20 pm

          1866? That’s amazing – what a great connection to the past!

          When I was young, history seemed like the dullest thing ever, but I think it’s just how it was taught – now it’s fascinating. I mean, history is just the collected lives of real people, like the old folks we got to learn from.

          • Murray C. August 11, 2016 / 8:20 pm

            I sing folk songs and I’ve learned more about history than in any other way. Even funny songs talk about history. And it’s about the ordinary people – I much more enjoy social history than the big dates, big battles, etc. I’d rather know about a famous person’s servants or their family life or the life of some poor farmer or coal miner.

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