Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Mom follows Marten (and Claire) back to NoHam!

5 (5.7%)

Claire doesn't remember NCS with Marten!

9 (10.2%)

Claire does the Tasha Yar routine ("It didn't happen.")

7 (8%)

Marten puts down the boundaries with Claire (about not dating interns).

5 (5.7%)

Next scene: Faye and Angus are FIGHTING!

0 (0%)

Marten returns to the library, and the first thing? Tai's RIGHT HOOK!

14 (15.9%)

A freak snowstorm hits Central Mass, trapping everyone at COD!

5 (5.7%)

Hannelore's freak illness turned out to be indigestion.

1 (1.1%)

...or worse, SHE'S PREGNANT! (Yeah, I know, Jeph would never do that.)

6 (6.8%)

Cristi commits Shipper Mutiny, demands Marten and Claire get together over Jeph's protests!

14 (15.9%)

The Final Four: Waffles, Spathe Ham, Feral Hogs and "Look! Boobs!"

4 (4.5%)

A whole week of Yelling Bird strips.

6 (6.8%)

THERE'S ALWAYS ANOTHER OPTION, #### IT!

12 (13.6%)

Total Members Voted: 80

[Nepiophage]

YAAAAAAY! Marigold and Dale! MOAR MOAR!

[Near Lurker]

Gonad war!

(Of course Marigold has agents...)

[Tova]

than what do you call what we refer to as lemonade?

I've seen it referred to as "real lemonade". Or maybe "lemon cordial"?

I am not at all a fan of what Australians call lemonade (which is sprite, basically, as previously mentioned). I much prefer your version. Or lime cordial is good as well.

There is a more strongly lemon flavoured carbonated drink called Solo - no idea whether you have it in the US (too lazy too google). I don't mind that stuff.

Which reminds me of something I was going to mention earlier. For a long time, Mountain Dew was not caffeinated in Australia. Apparently it is now - a fact that I was blissfully unaware of until I googled it yesterday.

And on a slightly different note, I tried Canada Dry recently. Blech.

I do like ginger beer, though. All the better if it's the alcoholic version.

[GarandMarine]

It's like Marigold is returning the favor after this daaaaw strip. It's so nice to see they are very good friends  .

 At least is not taking care of her like this:
 

(click to show/hide)

....Maidagold... wait what? The vodka is not allowing me to process this clearly...

I would also like to suggest Masterpiece be referred to as Masterpiece Theater. Cause.

On today's strip:

Awwwwwwwww no fair Marigold! I want agents! T_T

Other stuff:

Lemon Cordial sounds like something that would have alcohol in it, I'm not sure why... or it's the classiest way to order a lemonade I've ever heard.

I'll ask you all to excuse my posting tonight. I saw a sign that said "Drink Canada Dry" so I went there and did.

[westrim]

Okay, seriously, does he have LEDs behind the lenses or something? A special reflective layer applied?

International Beverages

The primary appeal of lemonade (US) is that it's so easy a caveman kindergartner can make it. Water, lemon juice, sugar, stir. Add more of whatever more is needed of. Serve at a driveway stand for 25$. It's an easy way to learn about capitalism AND chemistry!

Canada Dry isn't a valid representative of ginger ale, on account of having no ginger, so if you see a different brand, give it another try. Does Australia have root beer?

I think this is related to the site outages

I saw that on the news and went "oh, so that's what was going on!"

[Near Lurker]

I've seen it referred to as "real lemonade". Or maybe "lemon cordial"?

"Lemon cordial"?  That sounds like limoncello...

[pwhodges]

I think this is related to the site outages

No, it's coincidence; the attack on QC was directly targetted.  However, the defence that has now been put in front of QC is one that is mentioned in some articles about that bigger attack (though not that one) - it is a global distributed caching service called CloudFlare. CloudFlare manipulates the DNS so that requests for this website are distributed over many different servers which also have other methods of reacting to DDOS attacks that individual servers cannot have.

The use of CloudFlare should even improve the speed of the site (including this forum to some extent), but may have the side effect that changes to images take a while to propagate - so if you change your avatar, and it doesn't appear to happen, wait a while before worrying about it.

[Tova]

Canada Dry isn't a valid representative of ginger ale, on account of having no ginger, so if you see a different brand, give it another try. Does Australia have root beer?

We do, and I like it. Bundaberg makes both root beer and ginger beer. They also do a nice sarsaparilla.

"Lemon cordial"?  That sounds like limoncello...

Limoncello is different again (and is awesome).

To be accurate, cordial refers to the concentrated stuff that you dilute before drinking.

Lime cordial (ok, or lime juice) can also be mixed with gin to make gimlet. (:

I have a bookmark here... aaaand here we are.

http://www.lesauce.com/2011/06/real-lime-cordial-for-a-true-gimlet-of-course.html

Sorry about the distraction from the comic.

[pwhodges]

Lemonade: fizzy; lemon squash: still, diluted from concentrate; lemon cordial: poncy marketing name for lemon squash.

[Tova]

So... what you call squash is what we call cordial, then. And what we call squash is ummm lemon soda? Something.

hurrrr so confused hurrr

[Truec]

Am I the only one who doesn't like Dale?  The whole Marigold vs. Dale rivalry mostly exists as a holdover from her reclusive WoW addict shutin days, and it always bugged me as a thing that characters do, not real people.

I'm glad to see the rivalry end, I just hold that whole mess against Dale, so it's going to bug me if he starts showing up more often.  Until Nyarlathojeph develops his character and makes him awesome.

International Beverages

The primary appeal of lemonade (US) is that it's so easy a caveman kindergartner can make it. Water, lemon juice, sugar, stir. Add more of whatever more is needed of. Serve at a driveway stand for 25$. It's an easy way to learn about capitalism AND chemistry!

Canada Dry isn't a valid representative of ginger ale, on account of having no ginger, so if you see a different brand, give it another try. Does Australia have root beer?

The only acceptable ginger ale is Vernors.  Which I'm not certain is even marketed in all states, let alone in other countries.

[Tova]

Am I the only one who doesn't like Dale?  The whole Marigold vs. Dale rivalry mostly exists as a holdover from her reclusive WoW addict shutin days, and it always bugged me as a thing that characters do, not real people.

I'm glad to see the rivalry end, I just hold that whole mess against Dale, so it's going to bug me if he starts showing up more often.  Until Nyarlathojeph develops his character and makes him awesome.

Well, if the rivalry does end (at least to the degree which it has existed so far), and assuming we see more of him, presumably his character will be fleshed out a little more.

I don't think you're the only one. I've enjoyed this background story, myself. But then, I am a WoW escapee.

[Loki]

I must say, I fairly like Mountain Dew, even if we can only get a caffeine reduced variant in Germany.

Huh, I didn't know that. Then again, I didn't know we had Mountain Dew in Germany until a few months ago.

Energy drinks are not allowed to contain more than 320mg/l of added caffeine, and restrictions on softdrinks are even stricter. There is only one energy drink here with a really high concentration. They use coffee concentrate to get the caffeine, so it is officially a coffee beverage, which are not as restricted. This contains 699mg/l.

  and here I was thinking Club-Mate was potent with coffein.

After a brief googling, I assume you mean this. It looks like it has more sugar, though.

[Abyssalin]

Oooh energy drink chat, i had the one time where i had stayed up for days on nothing but red bull after red bull, pretty sure i did myself some serious damage that day, alas, it's something everyone does right?

Todays Strip: It's nice that Dale may be getting fleshed out, but really it's just one more character to the pot so i don't see the big deal, this comic already has a bigger cast than the old show Scrubs, and that had a pretty big cast.

[ChaoSera]

Method of Madness, is it possible to change my nickname to just "Masterpiece"? It feels weird being called "the Masterpiece"

Congratulations on your new name Masterpiece!

I must say, I fairly like Mountain Dew, even if we can only get a caffeine reduced variant in Germany. Energy drinks are not allowed to contain more than 320mg/l of added caffeine, and restrictions on softdrinks are even stricter. There is only one energy drink here with a really high concentration. They use coffee concentrate to get the caffeine, so it is officially a coffee beverage, which are not as restricted. This contains 699mg/l.

We can get Mountain Dew in Germany? I never knew...
Now I just have to find out where. Seeing as I used to work in a fairly big drinks market (I highly doubt that's the correct translation but you guys get the point. A place where you can buy lots and lots of different drinks) and they did not have it there I wouldn't know where to start looking.
Where do you usually get it from?

[Loki]

Now that you ask, I think I only got it that one time from my local Döner place

[bhtooefr]

Ugh, Vernors. Disgusting. (I believe it's a Michigan-and-surrounding-states thing.)

Re: having ginger in the ginger ale... this is where it's at (not exactly a conventional ginger ale, but I don't care): http://freshgingerale.com/

Water, sugar (and I mean sugar, not HFCS), ginger, citric acid. That's it. And I've got a barbecue place near me that carries 24 packs for $27.

[TimO]

Probably not, Zoe.

Mountain Dew is carbonated, for one.

So is Lemonade, here.

In Australia and New Zealand, lemonade usually refers to the clear, carbonated soft drink that other countries identify as having a lemon flavor such as Sprite.

It sounds like Australian and New Zealand Lemonade is basically the same as UK Lemonade, which bears no resemblance whatsoever to USAian Lemonade, as ZoeB said, more like Sprite or 7 Up.

It's interesting that Mountain Dew is available in Australia, since I've never seen it in the UK (although it's probably available from specialist shops).

[Near Lurker]

Yeah... thing is, in the US, "squash" pretty much exclusively means "marrow."  Or raquetball.  Or what Veronica Vance does.  And for that matter, "marrow" pretty much exclusively means the stuff in bones.

[TimO]

than what do you call what we refer to as lemonade?

I've seen USA style lemonade sold as Traditional or Still Lemonade, obviously at a significant markup vs some random "own brand" lemonade, or even premium brands like R.Whites (starts humming "I'm a secret lemonade drinker, R.White's, R.Whites ...").

"Lemon cordial"?  That sounds like limoncello...

Limoncello is evil!  It tastes like liquefied lemon Opal Fruits Starburst (damned globalisation and name changes), which is horribly misleading since it has got quite an alcoholic content, at around 30%!  More than once in an Italian restaurant, where they've given us Limoncello as a free digestif, quite a few people seem to dislike the taste, so I've "helped out", by drinking there's for them.


It's interesting to see Dale again.  I've never liked him that much, since he doesn't seem to do or say much, and obviously he's Alliance Scum (ie not on Marigold's side).  But on the other had, is there some booty on the horizon for Marigold?

[Masterpiece]

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaallleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

ahem.
Excuse that for a second.

Am I the only one who doesn't like Dale?

You seem to have forgotten that Everybody likes Dale.

[Masterpiece]

also before I forget: Thanks to Him or Her, who changed my Nickname. You are awesome (but I suppose you already knew that).

[Near Lurker]

I think "not quite a lurker" and "asleep in the boner patch" are my fault.  When I got 1-800-SCABIES, I thought it was because I'd been signed up seven years - hence my avatar.

Also, I remember the first St. Patrick's Day after I turned 21, my (mostly underage) friends and I passing around a fifth of limoncello I'd bought... think I drank half of it.  Most drunk I've ever been, and that counts the night I wound up naked and waving a knife at the police.

(...aaand I'm hoping no one who was there that night reads QC.)

[pwhodges]

... Him or Her, who changed my Nickname ...

Did you not see my PM?

[Skewbrow]

Don't know which drinks are/should be carbonated and which aren't/should not. I'm just grateful that Mountain Dew exists:

Waitress: "What would you like to drink?"
Skewbrow: "A Coke, please!"
Waitress: "Pepsi ok?"
Skewbrow: "Make it a Mountain Dew, please!"

And... Moar Dale vs. Marigold PvP, please!

[Storel]

In Australia, standard Lemonade is very similar to Mountain Dew in taste. That's assuming that Mountain Dew here is the same as Mountain Dew in the US.

Most soda companies vary the formula for their beverages very widely in different countries, to reflect local tastes. In general, you probably can't assume that any soda [here] tastes the same as the same soda [there].

And on a slightly different note, I tried Canada Dry recently. Blech.

I do like ginger beer, though. All the better if it's the alcoholic version.

Ginger beer is great. I don't recall ever seeing an alcoholic version, though.

Canada Dry isn't a valid representative of ginger ale, on account of having no ginger, so if you see a different brand, give it another try.

The US-purchased bottle of Canada Dry sitting in front of me says "Made from Real Ginger" on the label. It doesn't actually say "ginger" on the ingredients list, though, so I suppose "natural flavors" must in this case mean "flavor extracted from ginger" assuming the label is truthful (which we have some fairly strict laws about in the US).

What Canada Dry and Seagrams call "ginger ale" seems to intended primarily as a mixer for drinks, which probably explains the low intensity of the ginger flavor.

Ugh, Vernors. Disgusting. (I believe it's a Michigan-and-surrounding-states thing.)

We've had Vernors here in California for decades.

By gingeriness, Vernors is roughly halfway between ginger ale (the mixer kind) and ginger beer. I discovered Vernors as a child -- my grandmother always had some on hand -- and since I love the taste of ginger, Vernors immediately became my favorite ginger ale. In high school I discovered ginger beer and that immediately replaced Vernors as my favorite.

Mind you, ginger beer itself can vary radically in its level of gingeriness, which is why "roughly halfway" is only a very approximate description of Vernors. I've had Jamaican ginger beers that were almost as hot as Jamaican food, which is some of the hottest stuff I've ever eaten in my life. Not very thirst-quenching, but MAN what a flavor!

[pwhodges]

Presumably you mean: s/different companies/different countries/

Ginger beer is great. I don't recall ever seeing an alcoholic version, though.

Crabbie's
Stone's

[Masterpiece]

Sorry pwhodges, I must have missed that. Thanks a lot! You are now on my list of AWESOMEADMINS.

For all those who want a trip down memory lane, here's the first time Dale delivered a pizza to Marigold.
It's so cute how insecure she was back then.

[Storel]

Presumably you mean: s/different companies/different countries/

Ack, you're right. Fixed, thanks.

Ginger beer is great. I don't recall ever seeing an alcoholic version, though.

Crabbie's

Fascinating. I've never seen that, though the larger beverage stores that have lots of imported stuff may have it. Thanks again!

[westrim]

You know, if we're going to keep talking about stuff we might as well have some sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Dew Mentions lots of availability stuff, just search by country name (unless you're German, then do some Googling). New Zealand has Passionfruit Frenzy, which calls for an invasion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordial says see: squash.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon-lime
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemonade

Most soda companies vary the formula for their beverages very widely in different countries, to reflect local tastes. In general, you probably can't assume that any soda [here] tastes the same as the same soda [there].

I recall that the orphaned branch of Coca Cola in Nazi Germany resorted to some unorthodox ingredients.

All this talk of variation in the availability of products makes me yearn for the days when Oreo Os were sold in more than South Korea.

Frankly speaking, Mountain Dew is my least favorite of the four major sodas in the genre. For me it's 7-up, Sprite, Sierra Mist, then MD, and not just because Appalachian kids drink so much they named their tooth decay for it. It's overflavored, Sprite and Sierra Mist are underflavored, 7-up is just right.

However, I rarely drink soda nowadays, and when I do it's usually root beer.

Wait, I said that wrong.

I don't usually drink soda, but when I do, I drink Root Beer.

[Masterpiece]

Most soda companies vary the formula for their beverages very widely in different countries, to reflect local tastes. In general, you probably can't assume that any soda [here] tastes the same as the same soda [there].

I recall that the orphaned branch of Coca Cola in Nazi Germany resorted to some unorthodox ingredients.

And that is how Nazi Germany created Fanta.
source

[GarandMarine]

Since we're talking fizzy drinks, question. Am I the only one who drinks straight tonic water? I think it's delicious.

[Border Reiver]

I have to come back to the forum more than once or twice a day - I had no idea we were onto drinks:

Canada Dry - it's OK as a soda
Crabbies - I have a very serious complaint - it goes down way too smoothly and with it being an import, I cannot keep sufficient quantities in stock without taking out a substantial loan.  So it's back to making my own ginger beer.

As for today's strip - who doesn't have agents?

[ZoeB]

than what do you call what we refer to as lemonade?

Lemon squash, I think.
Except in cans that's carbonated too, so probably not.


Home-made lemon squash is made with lemons, sugar, water.

[ZoeB]

(Of course Marigold has agents...)

Rats, you said it before I could. But yes, of course she does. Isn't that obvious? Spies in the enemy camp too.

[ankhtahr]

Talking fizzy drinks: I absolutely love the Danish "Faxe Kondi", which is a little bit like Mountain Dew. But it's only available in Denmark.

and here I was thinking Club-Mate was potent with coffein.

After a brief googling, I assume you mean this. It looks like it has more sugar, though.

That's what I was talking about. It tastes differently from other energy drinks (like sweet carbonated cola/coffee mixture), not as artificial.
Also Club-Mate! Woo! I pity you all for not being able to get Club-Mate! (Note that it's not the english word mate, but the south american mate tea) It's fascinating to see how widespread Mate is available and how commonly known it's now. When I first tried it, it was considered the typical beverage of the Hacker community, but now I see everybody drinking Mate… I feel hipsterish…

And back to comic: I love how easily Jeph can distract the shippers from Claire…
I often felt as if the PvP between Marigold and Dale was some kind of Angus-like way of trying to get in contact with her.

[ZoeB]

Since we're talking fizzy drinks, question. Am I the only one who drinks straight tonic water? I think it's delicious.

Me too - though a little sweet. Add some Rose's Lime Cordial, or even a squeeze of straight lime juice... Yummy!

The number of times I've asked for tonic water, and they put Gin in it out of habit... never mind. Jinantonix is also OK.
In my days staying at the HMAS Watson officer's mess, (duty free), I sometimes ordered a pink gin, more for keeping with tradition than anything else. I'm more into Chardonnays.

[DSL]

Since we're talking fizzy drinks, question. Am I the only one who drinks straight tonic water? I think it's delicious.

I like it, and it even does me good. Helps me deal with foods I like but that don't return the affection, and is great camouflage at open-bar parties. (I just throw a few bucks in the tip jar at the top of the night and the bartender is usually more than happy to help me with the deception -- if one is needed.)

[Nepiophage]

In Ireland we have Red Lemonade, which is the British type with some ingredient which turns it the colour of ruby ale.  There used to be a joke TV commercial about "Ireland -- where the red lemons grow."
It is one of only three consumables you can only get in Ireland -- the other two are batterburgers and drisheen.  I will not explain what these are as it would cause nausea and retching in any non-Irish readers.

[cesium133]

On the subject of soda, while I was in Brazil a couple years ago, I got hooked on Guarana Antarctica. It's somewhat hard to find and expensive in the U.S., though.

[Sassafras]

Am I the only one who doesn't like Dale?

I don't really like him either. Maybe the current arc will change my mind, now that he's being nicer, but before he just reminded me too much of gamer dudes who think they have a right to your time just because you grouped with them in a raid or whatever. That he went out of his way to insert himself into her life and annoy her repeatedly just because she was rude to him once doesn't help, it makes him look like a grudgy douche.

[Zebediah]

To be fair, Marigold's behavior towards Dale hasn't been all that commendable either. They seem to bring out the worst in each other. Which is a bad omen for any potential relationship.

On top of that I get the feeling that Dale may actually be, in his own way, as clueless about romantic relationships as Marigold is. I do not predict this ending well.

[jwhouk]

All right - for those of you who are NOT from the USA:

Mountain Dew is, essentially, an orangey-citrus carbonated soft drink. It tastes nothing like lemonade, and tends to be both high in fructose corn syrup (or sugar, if you drink "throwback" Dew), and in caffeine. A 12-ounce (355 mL) can of regular Mountain Dew has 54 mg of caffeine in it - which translates to about 152 mg per liter.

For reference: a 16 oz. (473 mL) cup of coffee from McDonald's has 145 mg of caffeine.

Back in the old days, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, people played video games on their Ataris and Colecovisions, and I was still in high school, it was the soda with the highest caffeine content that you could buy that wasn't coffee - which, at the time, was seen as being an "adult" drink.

[Boiled Dove]

I enjoy the Marigold/Dale interaction and am interested to see what becomes of this truce.

Does anyone remember Jolt Cola? that fueled some all night gaming sessions back in the day.

[Neko_Ali]

Jolt fueled me through a couple of years of full time school and full time third shift work... Sleep was often but a fond dream those days.

[drewdane]

Jeez Marigold, get a grip. 

[jwhouk]

I don't think she likes those kinds of controllers.

[LordVaughn]

I begin to wonder if Dale's glasses just have lights in them. if so, I want a pair.

[Is it cold in here?]

I wonder if Dale decided that Marigold preferred to interact that way based on how she reacted when they first met.

[cesium133]

Seems like it would be hard to see with glowing glasses. I think the glare would be a problem.