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1. 

   Fairportfan2 said, about 1 month ago

   Where are the elephants?

2. 

   Sisyphos said, about 1 month ago

   Who’s the guy doing the pumping (and no smart answers that “he’s the gas-station attendant” or the like)?

3. 

   rumball said, about 1 month ago

   Brilliant stuff, Justin. Thanks for a terrific story.

4. 

   efergus3 said, about 1 month ago

   It’s Terry Pratchett.

5. 

   Phaze58 said, about 1 month ago

   Terry Pratchett Discworld .. hmmm not a sphere… hmm . anyway it ‘s GOT to be Justin coz he created this world . wooooh heavy dude !!!! or not as the case may be …..

6. 

   Vijay Sadasivam said, about 1 month ago

   I like how this story takes totally unexpected turns :)

7. 

   Hugh B. Hayve said, about 1 month ago

   I like the “stepping out from behind the mirror” effect between the first two panels. Very imaginative artwork.

8. 

   Johanan Rakkav said, about 1 month ago

   Very clever and funny panel today, indeed!

   Unfortunately for the clever old lady, there can’t be an infinite number of finite entities in a row. (I have to take the mathematicians’ word on this.) My response would’ve been, “All the way down to what?” :)

   “He stretches out the north over the void, and hangs the earth upon nothing” (Job 25:7, RSV).

9. 

   Simon_Jester said, about 1 month ago

   Great story arc, M. Thompson

   And I hope Sir George shows up again, some day in the future; I REALLY wanna see him and Sir Dudley face off in a jousting tourney

10. 

    jestrfyl said, about 1 month ago

    That’s old Al One Mug - pre-physicist days, when he was working at the local garage.

11. 

    baslim_the_begger said, about 1 month ago

    Ah! the inflationary universe! Must be Guth at the pump! 8^)

    Justin, Very funny!

    Rakkav, Mathematicians have long used infinite numbers of hotel rooms to illustrate points concerning countable infinities.

    And the old lady could have pulled a St. Augustine, and replied “All the way down to Hell, which awaits people who ask questions like that!”

    (Google St. Augustine “what was god doing” )
    Actually, one of the links is to “The confessions” by St. Augustine, and it appears that it was not Augustine who actually made the remark attributed to him. His response was worthy of a Zen master. Learn something every day.

12. 

    WoodEye said, about 1 month ago

    So Grail came back with them, maybe he’s a permanent character now. Perhaps an injection of a bit of religion into the science of Zen? ; )

13. 

    Just plain Steve said, about 1 month ago

    Now I’m intrigued – is this a Discworld reference? We did introduce Justin to Terry Pratchett a few months back.

14. 

    bmonk said, about 1 month ago

    Rakkav said, about 11 numbers ago

    “Unfortunately for the clever old lady, there can’t be an infinite number of finite entities in a row. (I have to take the mathematicians’ word on this.) My response would’ve been, “All the way down to what?” :)”

    An infinite number of whole numbers, or, if the universe is curved, it can come back around to the original point.

15. 

    Chuck1002 said, about 1 month ago

    Umm, what about the earth being “flat”? Am I the only one that found that intended pun as bad? And who let the air out? Was there a puncture? If so, what did he fix it with??

16. 

    Dypak said, about 1 month ago

    Sisyphos said,
    Who’s the guy doing the pumping (and no smart answers that “he’s the gas-station attendant” or the like)?
    ———————————————————————
    I don’t know, but I think he’s ok. You can trust your car to the man who wears the star. Or at least has one on his gas pump.

    Thanks, Justin, for a wondeful tale.

17. 

    JUSTIN THOMPSON said, about 1 month ago

    It’s not quite over yet. We have a couple of days of denouement, the final will be on Friday.
    No weirdness or hidden meaning behind the gas station attendant, he’s just helping out the turtle. Why did the Earth go flat? I dunno. Make up your own myth. Sometimes balls just go flat.
    And Chuck 1002: What “pun” are you talking about? I have no idea what you’re on about.

18. 

    Dypak said, about 1 month ago

    Sounds like a great oppurtunity for some fan fiction. Explain how the Earth went flat, in 25 words or less.

    The turtle was drag racing his nemisis, the hare, when suddenly the earth was punctured by the crescent moon during a hare-pin turn.

19. 

    mathpup0627 said, about 1 month ago

    I miss bitty Boody already. Great, great story.

20. 

    Chuck1002 said, about 1 month ago

    Oh, I thought that the fact that people used to believe that the earth was flat (like, say a piece of paper) and if you went too far you’d fall off the edge. Then there’s the type of flat where something that is filled with air and has the air leak out has gone “flat”. Wouldn’t that make this a pun??

21. 

    Johanan Rakkav said, about 1 month ago

    I should correct the statement re: my source: allegedly there can be no infinite number of finite events (points is another matter).

    Now my ability to actually address that claim…that’s something else, but now I’ll have to sooner or later…

    Ah, how well I remember that quip by Augustine! I saw it first in the paraphrase “Before God was creating Heaven and Earth He was creating Hell for the benefit of people like you who ask questions like that!” Zero biblical basis for that quip, if he only knew it, but funny.

22. 

    JUSTIN THOMPSON said, about 1 month ago

    “”Then there’s the type of flat where something that is filled with air and has the air leak out has gone “flat”. Wouldn’t that make this a pun??””
    Ah, I see where you’re going. No, that’s a bit of a stretch for me, there wasn’t a pun there really. I just had to come up with some way to tie it all together and get the earth back to a sphere. That visual seemed funny to me so I put it down. A pun was not intended.
    But very interesting, seeing how your mind works.
    Thanks.

23. 

    Just plain Steve said, about 1 month ago

    Dypak, is that distinct from a terra-pin turn?

24. 

    Dypak said, about 1 month ago

    Questions like that will get you a shell-acking! ;)

25. 

    MisngNOLA said, 29 days ago

    Hey Justin, was the stepping through the yo-yo back into the norm a variant on string theory?