The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

[Cadence]

As follow up, if birds and dinosaurs have the same innards, would the big herbivores be like giant Canada geese as far as what they would leave in their wake?

 

[trappedslider]

the last couple of pages got me like :

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As follow up, if birds and dinosaurs have the same innards, would the big herbivores be like giant Canada geese as far as what they would leave in their wake?

Also, could Jurassic Park have been a 30 minute movie if they'd just thrown Alka-Seltzer down the dinosaurs' throats?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Your d20 glut era graphic design is really holding you back.

 

[overgeeked]

More interesting threads are killed by posters disappearing up their own holes thanks to Forge jargon than anything else on the site. Even Edwards has disavowed the Forge nonsense, yet people still cling to it like it’s gospel.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Edit: I think I need to go to bed before I ask about either mimics or dragons.

Hypothesis: Since mimic fewmets would blow their cover if not suitably disguised, they must appear to fit into the mimic's current form when produced. A bag- or chest-mimic might leave behind small piles of what appear to be low-value coinage but dissolve into malodorous sticky goo when disturbed. A bed-mimic may produce a scattering of equally-unstable footwear, discarded socks and throw pillows in its vicinity. Other innocuous-seeming furniture-mimics may lead to a suspicious number of throw rugs over time, or random perhaps stacks of fecal "books" on the floor for one pretending to be an overstuffed set of shelves.

Similarly, mimic farts would be carefully disguised as either environmental noises or by releasing the "silent but deadly" variety.

Observation: Samurai Jack has firmly established a precedent for dragon farts, dedicating an entire episode to the subject. It remains unclear whether healthy specimens fart, since the one in the cartoon was infested by intestinal parasites at the time and seems to have cleared up after they were removed.

Tangent: Madeleine L'Engle is the only author I know of who's credited with a quote using the word fewmets, being on record as saying "Fewmets is my new swear word. I'm tired of all the old ones." She used the word several times in "The Wind In the Door" and seems to have been quite taken with it.

This is somewhat unfortunate, since "fewmets" and its variant "fewmishings" are A) quite archaic even in hunting vocabulary (where "droppings" or "scat" are more common today) and therefore the very definition of "old" and B) they're arguably technical terms rather than swear words, even obscure ones. I cite the obscenity filter's quiescence as evidence of the latter. Both words trace their origin to the Old English words feawa (scant or few) and mentan (encounter or meet), referring to the difficulty of hunting harts as their scarce leavings are often the only sign of their presence.

Complete Aside: "Fewmets of the Questing Beast" are apparently a magic item in some CRPG called Grim Dawn, which require special fewmet-handling gloves to equip (as one might reasonably expect). One could also use the term jokingly to refer to the output over on Ben Milton's youtube channel, although it might be better to use fewmishings instead to avoid confusion.

 

[Cadence]

Hypothesis: Since mimic fewmets would blow their cover if not suitably disguised, they must appear to fit into the mimic's current form when produced. A bag- or chest-mimic might leave behind small piles of what appear to be low-value coinage but dissolve into malodorous sticky goo when disturbed. A bed-mimic may produce a scattering of equally-unstable footwear, discarded socks and throw pillows in its vicinity. Other innocuous-seeming furniture-mimics may lead to a suspicious number of throw rugs over time, or random perhaps stacks of fecal "books" on the floor for one pretending to be an overstuffed set of shelves.

Similarly, mimic farts would be carefully disguised as either environmental noises or by releasing the "silent but deadly" variety.

Observation: Samurai Jack has firmly established a precedent for dragon farts, dedicating an entire episode to the subject. It remains unclear whether healthy specimens fart, since the one in the cartoon was infested by intestinal parasites at the time and seems to have cleared up after they were removed.

Tangent: Madeleine L'Engle is the only author I know of who's credited with a quote using the word fewmets, being on record as saying "Fewmets is my new swear word. I'm tired of all the old ones." She used the word several times in "The Wind In the Door" and seems to have been quite taken with it.

This is somewhat unfortunate, since "fewmets" and its variant "fewmishings" are A) quite archaic even in hunting vocabulary (where "droppings" or "scat" are more common today) and therefore the very definition of "old" and B) they're arguably technical terms rather than swear words, even obscure ones. I cite the obscenity filter's quiescence as evidence of the latter. Both words trace their origin to the Old English words feawa (scant or few) and mentan (encounter or meet), referring to the difficulty of hunting harts as their scarce leavings are often the only sign of their presence.

Complete Aside: "Fewmets of the Questing Beast" are apparently a magic item in some CRPG called Grim Dawn, which require special fewmet-handling gloves to equip (as one might reasonably expect). One could also use the term jokingly to refer to the output over on Ben Milton's youtube channel, although it might be better to use fewmishings instead to avoid confusion.

Apparently White had fewmets in the Once and Future King, but I think only in the context of using them to track prey. I know the word from somewhere, but it doesn't feel like that's it. I wonder if it was from some merit badge for scouts (not the books probably, but I can picture one of the instructors at camp using it).

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

As follow up, if birds and dinosaurs have the same innards, would the big herbivores be like giant Canada geese as far as what they would leave in their wake?

Probably comes down to their diets, which are (very broadly) similar but very different in the amount digested and how long it spends in the GI tract. The big vegetarian dinosaurs appear to have gotten a fair bit of their food from treetop grazing, which is pretty different from the grasses, shrubs and water plants geese live on in the wild. Plants have evolved quite a lot since the days of the dinosaurs, and geese have evolved with them, so it's hard to speculate meaningfully as a hobbyist. Probably some actual paleontologist who could say with more confidence.

As an aside, there have been a number of D&D cartoons over the years dealing with the obvious dangers of something the size of a dragon soaring overhead and voiding itself (intentionally or otherwise) on targets below. One might reasonably assume that the draconic "elemental" affinities shown in their breath weapons and immunities/resistances are echoed in their excreta as well. A passing black dragon might be the very worst type of acid rain, red dragons a menace akin to an incendiary bombing run, greens a chemical weapon attack. The prospect of whites leaving hailstones in their wake is a bit more absurd but (as anyone who's passed a kidney stone can testify) might explain why they're so cranky. Who knows what's up with blues - does a stream of their urine conduct electricity like a inverse of the electrical fence adage?

Apparently White had fewmets in the Once and Future King, but I think only in the context of using them to track prey. I know the word from somewhere, but it doesn't feel like that's it. I wonder if it was from some merit badge for scouts (not the books probably, but I can picture one of the instructors at camp using it).

I've heard it from deer hunting enthusiasts, albeit rarely. Certainly possible that the scouts or 4H might teach it. The terms are archaic but technical language tends to preserve specialist terms well beyond general linguistic shifts, and hunting parlance is definitely pretty technical at times. And that's the thing, I don't think fewmets/fewmishings was ever just another general word for...um, poop? The filter allows poop, right? They've always meant something pretty specific as far as I can tell.

 

[Ryujin]

Jury duty on Monday. Yay.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Jury duty on Monday. Yay.

I had fun at my last one