Ginger Meggs by Jason Chatfield for July 25, 2010

Aussie Boy, LOVE IT Jason! G’day to Jason, usfellers, JFri, and ottod!!

Well, this explains a lot!

Good Morning and G’Day to Jason & ALL the Meggsie fans!

I know the feeling with the nails!

G’day Jason, Dry, JFri, Barb, Ottod and all Meggsie’s mate.

Priorities spot on. Perhaps, in a very short time the two lobes on the bottom right will change in corresponding proportions but they will still leave room for the rest to stay intact and leave the boy in the man.

Good Morning, usfellers & Dry! I don’t think that is unique to Aussie boys!

Ah the mind of a boy………..fascinating!

I get the feeling there’s some reference I don’t understand in the graffito. Help, anyone? Thx in advance.

Lollies— similar to the american slang ‘getting your jollies” the typical aussie gets off his ‘lollies’

but why would he be thinking about an insect that hops?

Morning.

Seems well-adjusted to me.

Seems logical to me, nighthawks. Those critters can tell you the temperature, but it requires a lot of brainpower to remember the formula and count chirps at the same time. It probably requires even more in Australia, because they probably have to do it in °F and °C.

Great labcoat and tie, Jason.

Morning, Ottod & Usfellers.

The “girls” thought will grow soon enough to outdo the “girl germs” thoughts! lol

Some replies from a fair dinkum Oz lad:

Lollies are the equivalent of American candy, not a slang word and nothing to do with ‘jollies’.

Our temperatures are expressed in deg. C only. If you want to know what any C temperature is in F then divide it by 5, multiply the answer by 9 and add 32 to the result. Hmm, well I suppose if you also add the age of your aunt and divide by your uncle’s then the answer will be the number you first thought of LOL.

Water boils at 100 C or 212 F. Mr. Fahrenheit made 100 on his scale what he thought was the temperature of human blood but he made a dreadful mistake - probably had the flu’ at the time he measured his own.

The homework bit is surprisingly larger than I’d have expected… then again, he does have a tie and a labcoat.

@pschearer As someone who often bites his nails to the cuticle and then attempts to play guitar, I’m almost certain there is nothing in the graffiti left unexplained :)

EDIT: After a bit of e-stalking, I could trace the quote to Rove McManus.

usfellers,

The reference was to nighthawks’ post about hopping insects. Here (North America, I have no idea whether it’s universal) the rate at which crickets chirp is related to the temperature. There are (of course) different formulas for °F and °C, but they both involve counting the number of chirps within some (?) time period and multiplying by a constant. Usually, just when you think you’ve got it, you discover there were actually two or more crickets and the Temperature you’ve just calculated is twice as high as possible. Then you go look at a thermometer.

For what it’s worth (Wikipedia):

Crickets chirp at different rates depending on their species and the temperature of their environment. Most species chirp at higher rates the higher the temperature is (approximately 62 chirps a minute at 13°C in one common species; each species has its own rate). The relationship between temperature and the rate of chirping is known as Dolbear’s Law. Using this law it is possible to calculate the temperature in Fahrenheit by adding 40 to the number of chirps produced in 14 seconds by the snowy tree cricket common in the United States.[1]

Thanks Ottod, I do recall now that there is a relationship between cricket chirps and temperature. It went by me and I thought you meant us critters still used degrees in F. It all escaped me because here the crickets chirp continuously.

Ginger’s brain, of course, is geared for the game of cricket.

Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind going to Australia. On days when I have toast for breakfast, it’s a standard margarine and fruit spread; so among other things, it would be a kick to try vegemite.