Amok Soup

I've been away for a few weeks, and it's fun to come back and see so much new fun stuff to read!

Anyhow, Amok Time. Good episode. But I've got a lingering question from the teaser. Spock hurls his bowl of plomeek soup at Chapel. Is it actually possible to hurl a full bowl of soup like that? I can picture gingerly picking up the bowl so as to not spill any, but beyond that, what would happen? If I decided to throw a full bowl of soup at, say, Melakon, it seems that the bowl itself might reach him, but I picture 90 percent of the contents would likely be spilled over me in the process.

I've never tried to do it, but is it possible?

 

Easily. Once the bowl is in motion, the soup will travel along the line it is thrown. Some may spill out, but that will just create a larger stain, as it too will be in motion along the line it is thrown. If you get it all over yourself, you didn't begin your throw until after it slopped out.

 

Hmm. Does plomeek soup leave a stain?

 

Hah. This thread reminds me of my all-time favorite note from a copyeditor. I once edited a horror novel in which the vampire ripped off somebody's head and dribbled it like a basketball, which prompted a query from the copyeditor: "Would a severed head actually bounce?"

Can't remember if we revised the scene or not . . ..

 

If you hold the bowl under the bottom and keep the bowl between you and the soup as you propel it forward, there should be minimal spillage at the point of departure. Of course, that's all speculation since I haven't tried it yet.

Amok Soup by Crow T. Robot.

 

Maybe Trek conventions could start to have soup throwing contests!

 

The hotels will love that!

 

^ Souper.

 

You'll be hearing from my drycleaner.

 

Spock being Spock, he would know the proper way to throw a bowl of soup, of course.

 

Of course, Dr. McCoy lifts the lid over the soup bowl to discover it's Vulcan plomeek soup before replacing the lid and then telling Chapel to "carry on." It's a bit easier to throw a bowl of soup and then have it, basically, explode up against the bulkhead when the bowl is covered with a lid as it flies through the air en route to the wall.

 

Well, if it's not, then the special effects people were put to a very weird use that week.

 

Plomeek soup does, indeed, leave a stain, a "baby-puke" greenish affair that is tough to remove. Melakon's drycleaner probable cold not even get it out. Throw away the stained clothing, and get the Soup-Flinger to buy a new article(s) of clothing for you.

 

It's not the stain, it's the smell.

 

Can you clean it off walls? Scotty would be pissed seeing soup stains all over the bulkheads.

 

Of course, you're right. It did have a lid. And didn't he throw it tray and all?

The Ronco Soup-Flinger! It makes the perfect Koon-ut-kal-if-fee gift, and it's only $9.98!

 

ooopsies!...but how can one pay for the "Soup-Flinger" when they do not use money in the 24th C. and beyond?!

"K-Tel" (good Vulcan name) presents "The Money Press"

"Prints money just like they did in the 21st C!!!"
"Guaranteed to devalue and fluctuate, and so easy to counterfeit."
"Pay for all those retro items you have always wanted!"

 

Maybe when McCoy lifted the lid of the bowl, it aerated the soup and spoiled it, causing Spock to throw it against the wall. All that talk about it being undignified was a ruse.

 

Anybody want to write this one in to Mythbusters? About time for a full-on Star Trek episode, especially with the new format...

 

We don't know how thick that particular soup is. Remember the old commercial for the soup that you could eat with a fork?

Also, this was in artificial gravity, so there may have been local effects and air corridors that Vulcan skill could exploit.

"Targeting nurse! Azimuth 0.71 pi, range 3.3 meters ... "