Frazz by Jef Mallett for June 06, 2014
Transcript:
Girl with glasses: If Captain Jim's freighter picks up 60 million tons of iron ore in Marquette... Boy: and loses 3% of it per Great Lake on his way to Buffalo... Girl laughing: How massive is Captain Jim's post-Erie ore? Mrs. Olsen: That's the last time I let Caulfield volunteer to write story problems. Frazz: I think you need to give him extra credit.
TheSkulker almost 10 years ago
But Jef, how big is that in inches?
I think you have out-pastised Pastis!johnt204 almost 10 years ago
Did anybody notice the number 6 MILLION TONS?One article online says “mammoth ore ships able to carry 400K tons”. So is Caulfield thinking of one, oh, say, half the size of Lake Erie?
sbischof almost 10 years ago
At risk of being a useless dork, a freighter doesn’t have to be a ship.Therefore, its not impossible that he also passes Lake Michigan, given how far over Marquette is. Which would entail another 3%… and an interesting loophole, which I wonder if it was deliberate or not…
Stew Bek Premium Member almost 10 years ago
I don’t remember the last time I saw an ore ship loaded in Marquette, surely been a while.
Mark Jackson Premium Member almost 10 years ago
3% of the original load or 3% of the load remaining at each lake?
Stephen Gilberg almost 10 years ago
Would this be Captain Jim Kirk or the pirate from the Shel Silverstein poem?
gmforde almost 10 years ago
Assuming that the ore doesn’t end up in one of the lakes after a gale in November….
JavaJim almost 10 years ago
The Marquette ore dock (owned by the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad) is still in operation. See http://www.travelmarquettemichigan.com/recreation/ore-boats/ , but 60 million tons would represent about 6 years of production. The largest freighters operating on the Great Lakes top out at somewhere between 60- and 80- thousand (not million) tons. A 60-million ton freighter would never make it through the Soo locks.
Even if we assume Caufield’s freighter to be a large, but reasonable 60 thousand tons, we still have a bit of a trick question. The post-Erie weight of the cargo on a Great Lakes ore freighter will be zero, because the ship gets unloaded in Cleveland (or perhaps Erie, PA). A 60-thousand ton freighter is too large (by some 250 feet) to pass through the Welland Canal.
ChazNCenTex almost 10 years ago
Very clever. I had to say it out loud before I got it. Given how close they were to Wisconsin I wonder if Capt. Jim smelled (smelt?) their dairy air?
smoore47 almost 10 years ago
That is one of the funniest strips I have seen. Just hilarious.
pshea almost 10 years ago
Makes me glad I’m not the butt of Caulfield’s jokes.
Jessica_D almost 10 years ago
I thought the Frazz crew could appreciate today’s Rhymes with Orange http://seattletimes.com/comics/rworange.html
texasl almost 10 years ago
((60000000*0.97)0.97)0.97 for those of us who were trained to show our work. ;-)
luvdafuneez almost 10 years ago
My brain hurts…
kfdodd almost 10 years ago
Jef, you’re spending too much time with Stephan Pastis!
Varnes almost 10 years ago
Hey, they should dump a lot of it at the bottom of Lake Huron, where erosion and dredging has lowered the level of the Lakes permanently by over a foot…
Varnes almost 10 years ago
stewbek, it still happens everyday. But it’s north of Marquette, the loading dock downtown isn’t used any more. Remember when the train cars ran right over and above the town? So strange….But still, one of the prettiest towns in the UP….The prettiest? Calumet, and Laurium….
Varnes almost 10 years ago
Did you remember to carry the bum?
Fido (aka Felix Rex) Premium Member almost 10 years ago
It looks like Caulfied has mastered Common Core question writing as well.
johnt204 almost 10 years ago
Sorry. I try to see logic in even math problems, and the logic here is that the ship would be illogically huge.