The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

@Marvin It's a little bit more detailed than the question that inspired it. :) (It verges on too long, but I'm not sure what to prune...)

@DavidW ask @Alex for advice

Wouldn't that make the post longer?

@Jenayah Based on past examples, that would make his question even longer.

@Jenayah How does that help make the post shorter or more clear?

4:14 PM

You guys don't get irony do you

No, my shirts are always creased

Evidence says: "no."

Three people just said the same thing.

@Jenayah Ron is in the middle of it. I'd guess @Alex identifies more with Hermione.

@Randal'Thor Well she certainly surpasses Ron in every possible area besides chess and making weird hissing sounds.

4:16 PM

@Alex Quidditch.

@Randal'Thor Yeah, it's hard to say that she surpasses him in that, given that he doesn't even make it onto the scale.

*she?

Hermione is a female, is she not?

Otherwise it would be HISmione.

I mean, given that *she doesn't even ...

@Alex Boom! Nice one.

@Randal'Thor No, I was insulting Ron.

4:19 PM

But she really doesn't even make it onto the scale. And Weasley Is Our King.

Only because she doesn't play. But if she would, she would surely be better than King Weasley.

I doubt it.

Are you sure she never plays?

I thought she took part at some point, just to humour the boys or something.

Yeah, at the Burrow.

> (he and Hermione against Ron and Ginny; Hermione was dreadful and Ginny good, so they were reasonably well matched)

Told you.

They were reasonable well matched because Ginny was almost as good as Harry.

Or maybe even better, since they were presumably playing without Snitches.

4:26 PM

How the duck is Hermione dreadful at chess?

Thus, Ron could still be worse than Hermione.

@Jenayah "Dreadful" is talking about Quidditch.

Oh

*relieved sigh*

@Alex Only in your headcanon.

@Jenayah But Ron's still better.\

Yeah well gotta hand him something at least

4:27 PM

Which may still be odd, as chess is usually associated with some cognitive abilities.

Which explains why I keep losing to the ex-child prodigy.

Two's not enough to draw conclusions

Oct 25 '18 at 15:23, by Jenayah

@TheLethalCarrot Are you sure about your data? I'm just asking because as you may know, 73.6% of all statistics are made up.

Aww damnit you edited it haha

Q: What was the Batman TV series (1960's) episode where he explains pyramid schemes?

@Randal'Thor Ginny is supposed to be even better at Chaser than she is at Seeker. Harry has never played Chaser. Surely she was better than him at that position?

Zaphod

10

When I was a child, I watched the 1960's Batman TV series every chance I got. One of the episodes came to mind this morning when I was trying to explain why the Secret Sisters gift exchange was a scam. Someone is trying to scam the town by proposing a pyramid scam (invest a little money now, mult...

dc batman episode-identification batman-1966

@Alex But I never played chess with you.

4:30 PM

@TheLethalCarrot sorry :P

Better be

@Zaphod oh boy, guess who will spend time watching cheesy Batman

Who?

Me

Well I'll check summaries first of course

Me?

4:31 PM

@Alex Batman.

Me

@Jenayah Don't forget your cheesy crisps while watching.

Oh, me?

Yeah, me

Sock confirmed!

prepares hammers

4:32 PM

As in me?

@Randal'Thor oh duck you, now I have an irresistible urge for onion crisps and I'm going to buy some before going home

@Randal'Thor Who?

@Alex as in me.

@Alex me.

@Alex Yes.

@Randal'Thor me.

4:33 PM

@Randal'Thor Not An Answer.

Hey, @Alex, you know that Hebrew joke about this?

What joke?

Q: Conversation between Obama and Netanyahu

Goddammit @Jenayah, this whole exchange was just Alex making Hebrew jokes at you.

11

I took a contest entry written by Seth Brown of Williamstown, MA in 2003, and I converted it into this puzzle. Disclaimer: Events described in this puzzle are fictional. A White House stenographer transcribed the following conversation between Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu. Obama: W...

enigmatic-puzzle

@Randal'Thor Wow I didn't even think of that!

@Randal'Thor what, me?

4:36 PM

:50227212 Google Translate says "I'm in it, a lot of people!"

@Randal'Thor No, it's just a meaningless string of letters because I forgot my keyboard was on Hebrew.

@Alex Google says it's meaningful.

@Randal'Thor There's actually another step, not mentioned.

@Randal'Thor Google lies.

@Alex @Jenayah is a liar???

@Alex And there was me thinking you were good at wordplay :-P

@Randal'Thor I always lie.

4:37 PM

Same thing here:

Apr 29 at 21:14, by Adamant

Google Translate thinks it means something.

@Randal'Thor I was just making a joke that "me" from my perspective would be me.

@Jenayah Epimenides!

@Randal'Thor Sounds like the countercurse to an anaphylactic reaction.

@Randal'Thor I know :P

@Alex Anapen > Epipen

Anyone have an example of a comment to a question that says something like "this is not an answer"?

Because it was originally a comment to an answer that was converted to a comment.

Q: Which MCU characters have not been referred to by their superhero name?

1

There's a clear trend in the MCU, all the way back to the start of the whole thing with the iconic admission I am Iron Man, to eschew the 'secret identity' trope and for characters to more generally go by their common name. Nonetheless some characters are, in fact, referred to by their "su...

marvel marvel-cinematic-universe names super-hero

1

Q: Looking for a short story online, where the program handling optimization of ordering decides it has to eliminate humans that order unpredictably

I read a short story recently online (within the past year, I think). It features a company similar to Amazon (maybe by name, but I can't remember), that sells and delivers just about everything. The computer program responsible for optimizing the ordering and delivery gets better and better, u...

story-identification

4:43 PM

Wow, that was fast. 30 minutes to a correct answer!

@Alex data.stackexchange.com/scifi/query/223551/comment-finder

@Jenayah Thanks. Is there a way to filter that by questions vs answers?

Probably

I'll take a look when I get back

Not handy on mobile

Well, guess who won't browse through Batman episodes in the end

Who?

Me.

4:55 PM

Me?

Me.

As in me?

As in me.

Like Alex me, not Rand me.

@Randal'Thor guess who's just leaving the store with a box of Pringles

4:58 PM

He.

@Jenayah Me?

@Alex like me.

Donald.McLean

Greetings, Earthlings.

@Donald.McLean Greetings, Hubble guy.

Signed, me.

@Jenayah Jenayah al’Thor?

Now we just need to find a language where “me” means you.

5:01 PM

And if it doesn't exist, we'll create it. You and me.

Napoleon Wilson

You can probably just create one. The same way the people on Programming Puzzles & Code Golf create a new optimal programming language for every single puzzle.

@Jenayah Which is essentially me.

@Alex yeah, you get the work. Me? Will be resting.

Well it's by definition also just essentially you.

Because you are me.

5:08 PM

You're confused. I am me.

Exactement!

Well I can't be you since I am me and you are me. Me, i'm not you.

But by that logic you also can't be you.

Napoleon Wilson

Meh.

@NapoleonWilson Is that just "me" with an accent?

Napoleon Wilson

5:13 PM

Possibly.

@Alex sure me can. But you can't.

So you can't be me?

But you said that you are me!

8 mins ago, by Jenayah

You're confused. I am me.

41 secs ago, by Alex

8 mins ago, by Jenayah

You're confused. I am me.

So we're both me?

Don't we add we to you and me.

5:21 PM

I don't have a MeWe account.

Me neither.

So get one.

Then we can be me.

Why me and not you?

Because then we would be you and not me.

But you're me already.

5:31 PM

Finally you admit it!!!

b_jonas

Yay! This was the easiest story-id answer ever. The duplicate post was already there in second place in the sidebar where SE searches posts with similar words.

4

A: Metal-softening tool

It looks like a previous answer on our site by Lisa matches your description. The story is G. C. Edmondson, “Technological Retreat” (1956).

I get to be the FGITW for once.

Usually such easy story-id questions are already taken by the time I see them.

@Alex hey, that's me, not you!

@Jenayah When did you get all that Me Youdeya reputation?

@b_jonas flesh the answer out; the question is very nice and should be used as dupe-target rather than the other :)

b_jonas

@Jenayah Sure, but that's not easy, because I haven't read that story.

5:39 PM

@Alex I have Meta rep.

@Jenayah So do I. But that doesn't answer the question.

well, you're me.

Speaking of Meta, I was about to post a Feature Request, but after writing it I discovered that there's already a secret moderator feature for it.

?

@Alex Can't be that secret if you know about it.

5:46 PM

@Randal'Thor I found out about it because it was mentioned in answer to an obscure question from 3.5 years ago.

@Alex That's usually how I check whether some mod tool is really secret or not.

"is it mentioned somewhere on main meta? if not, I'd better keep mum"

So... what are you keeping mum about?

Although the fact that I felt the need to make a Feature Request perhaps indicates that the moderators are not using the existing feature enough.

(Not specifically on this site.)

c'mon what's the FR?

Q: Why wasn't Tony Stark more affected by this?

Ban chat users from claiming that they're each other.

To allow commenters to answers to check a selection that says that if the answer gets converted to a comment their comments should be deleted. But apparently moderators already have such a checkboox when performing the conversion.

Babel fish

0

In Avengers: Endgame, when Tony Stark steals the Infinity Stones from Thanos and inserts them into his own ad-hoc gauntlet, there isn't much of an energy outburst and Stark seems to be able to wield the gauntlet fairly easily: By contrast, there is much more ene...

plot-explanation marvel-cinematic-universe avengers-endgame

5:54 PM

@b_jonas archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v010n05_1956-05_PDF/… Go nuts!

oh right I told you I'd take a look at that SEDE thing

do you still need it?

@Jenayah Since I won't be posting about it, I don't really need it. But it would still be interesting to see. But don't kill yourself over it.

no promises but will look

Today's a good day. I got 10 downvotes so far.

gotta catch'em all

5:58 PM

Actually not.

Only six.

Reputation dropdown apparently shows some of them twice.

@Alex Yes, but only if we convert from the post itself rather than from the mod dashboard. Different mod menus have different options ... rolleyes silly software.

@Alex The mod feature for that is called suspension :-P

Both show the same set of votes, one says it's two events and one says it's three events, both contain five events.

Q: Why are Bangalore and Gibraltar named Bangalore and Gibraltar?

0

Most of the Apex Legends cast have fairly straightforward codenames: Bloodhound's a tracker, Lifeline heals, Mirage does holograms, Octane uses fuel (well, drugs) to go fast, Wraith becomes ghostly, Pathfinder scouts, Caustic has his poisons... And then there's Bangalore and Gibraltar. Google te...

apex-legends

How does that figure?

uh

6:04 PM

Unless the first one is counting the first two events and the second one is counting the last three events. And then they just both happen to also list all the events for that post.

Seems like a strange way to do things.

It should either have one dropdown with all five events, or have one dropdown showing only two events and the other dropdown showing only three events.

@Randal'Thor How close are we?

@Alex I jest.

There's a first for everything.

@Alex I told you not to bring we into this!

Fine. Only you will be suspended.

Hey! You should get suspended, you're me.

6:09 PM

Maybe we need an Identity.stackexchange.com

@Marvin @TheLethalCarrot

@Alex we?

Well you're the one who seems unsure.

I know I'm me. Are you?

Yes.

@Jenayah si?

6:19 PM

@TheLethalCarrot is!

@TheLethalCarrot well it wasn't answered at the time so I thought you'd want a shot at it and was nudging you in case you had missed it :)

?S!i

¿Sí?

Oh I don’t know anything g about the lore of the game, only played it a bit haha

Oh thought you did

Q: What's the name of this 80s SciFi Alien movie

6:22 PM

0

There was a movie in the 80s' I cannot remember the title. It was about an alien ship that lands in a city(New York, Los Angeles??) It is in female form ( my memory has her looking a bit like a Til Tuesday's AIMEE MANN or Blade Runner's Darryl Hannah type character) She finds a guy on the street ...

aliens spaceship

Babel fish

6:54 PM

0

Q: What happened to Hulk's rage?

It is understandable that Professor Hulk has really dealt with Banner and Hulk and have got the "best of both worlds" as quoted by himself. But, I would disagree to some extent from this statement. Clearly, he has got best of Banner but missed out significantly on Hulk's rage. One of the biggest...

character analysis marvel-cinematic-universe avengers-endgame

@Alex comment finder on questions

sorry for the delay, went to eat

Sep 14 '18 at 9:55, by Jenayah

@Alex you rock

:D

I didn't even have to change the name...

?

6:59 PM

@Jenayah Why are you calling him a rock?

Alex Stoneheart?

The Rock of Gibraltar?

@Jenayah You might have thought I should have said "Jenayah you rock".

@Alex No, we get it already....

Simon & Garfunkel - I Am A Rock

@Randal'Thor because...

►

Mar 10 at 14:42, by Alex

Well some of them have their own problems. Scarecrow's missing a brain, Tin Woodman's missing a heart, Alex has to deal with captchas all day long, etc.

The implication is that Alex has a normal heart.

Maybe you get more captchas when your posts are so long.

7:04 PM

@Randal'Thor Yes, but not directly because of that.

When they're long they tend to be written over an extended period of time. When the period of time is too long than I have to prove that I'm not a robot.

squints

Are you SURE you're not a robot?

2

More precisely, a bathtub robot?

Q: PTIJ: Should Alex give up his Best Answer Contest and Answerathon prizes?

Apr 28 at 22:58, by Alex

3

As we all know, Alex is a script, designed to post HNQ on the Bam and good content on the site. (Though apparently he's been replaced with a newer model.) StackExchange’s terms of usage, under the section regarding one’s age, clearly requires that a user be at least 13 (16 in the EU). StackExcha...

discussion meta-purim-torah-in-jest

Though they're apparently not aware of the bathtub aspect.

Or the elephant mother.

SmokeDetector

7:35 PM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer (86): Why did Captain America age? by user6291867 on scifi.SE

Q: South African grows up in indecision

8:01 PM

1

A boy grows up in rural South Africa, raised partly by his white family and partly by the local black people. He is particularly impressed by the tribal shaman. As he grows up and travels, he has many life experiences that are characterized by indecision about moral and ethical issues, particular...

story-identification short-stories

8:20 PM

0

Q: Sff ss name and author

Looking for the name of an older sff short story where humans strap on wings to attempt to ascend a huge alien mountain by riding/flying the prevailing winds

story-identification

Q: Can the post-Endgame Avengers solve all their problems with time travel?

8:40 PM

-1

During Endgame, the Avengers find a method of time travel, and use it to During the movie, their ability to time travel this way is strictly limited by However, by the end of the movie With that limitation removed, what, if anything, prevents the Avengers from solving any and all problem...

marvel marvel-cinematic-universe time-travel avengers-endgame

Babel fish

9:11 PM

0

Q: Why is everyone afraid of the Night King?

A big part of season 7 of Game of Thrones is Jon trying to convince everyone that the Night King is a big deal and needs to be taken seriously. Why is he afraid? We learn earlier in the show from Benjen that there's magic to the wall (not just its size) that keeps the non-living from getting pa...

plot-explanation character game-of-thrones

marvel avengers avengers-endgame

9:58 PM

0

Q: Thanos and his stones

In the most recent Avengers Endgame movie, right at the end, But whenever it's this huge deal with electricity etc... So, Assuming I either missed something, or don't understand something :)