Food Slots

[Marsden]

I thought melon would be the word for head in the future, and dogs will be feet.

My melon is splittin and my dogs are barkin.

No extra 'g' s on the end of ing words, either.


Using "And the Children with Lead" to explain or understand anything is very problematic in of itself. It's a bad scene in a bad episode.

Sorry, Orphalesion, I'm not aiming that at you, just at the episode, it's a fair question. I just think that's the worst place to look for answers.

WTH is "wobble" as regards to ice cream?

 

[FormerLurker]

I always got the impression it was meant to be swirled with the pistachio. Either way, I think the actor mispronounced the word, whatever it was.

 

[Orphalesion]

Using "And the Children with Lead" to explain or understand anything is very problematic in of itself. It's a bad scene in a bad episode.

Sorry, Orphalesion, I'm not aiming that at you, just at the episode, it's a fair question. I just think that's the worst place to look for answers.

WTH is "wobble" as regards to ice cream?

Nah it's okay, I understand that it's a bad episode and it was season 3 where they had in some parts just given up on any consistency.
Still I think one of the most fun aspects of the trek fandom is people finding workarounds how even the oddest scenes and concepts might work in universe.

 

[Kor]

This is why I have hated the cutesy word "veggies" since it first popped up a few years ago. As soon as a corruption like that becomes the rule in casual speech, we're headed for a generation of kids who don't know the actual word. And their kids won't know it, and so on. And the language is damaged.

Of course there are times when it doesn't bother me. I don't mind if we're splashing in the pool and you call a toddler's floatation device a floatie. I'm not a monster.

How about this:

Hwaet we Gar-Dena in gear-dagum
theod-cyninga thrym gefrunon,
hu tha aethelingas ellen fremedon.

That's English, buddy.

The process you described above, where a word gets "corrupted" through casual use and then future generations never learn the right word, is exactly how, over a thousand years, the above text becomes:

So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
We have heard of those prince's heroic campaigns.

--The opening lines of Beowulf.

By your standards, we speak a pretty "damaged" language. In fact, one might suppose it's totally destroyed and unrecoverable. A lot of people seem to think that English was somehow "done" in the 1850's and we all need to cling to the grammar and vocabulary of the vaunted past. But that's silly and ignores how language works in reality. Getting too worked up over "these kids today and their silly lingo" is a losing battle. Linguistic evolution is an unstoppable force.

--Alex

Well... the differences between contemporary English and old Anglo-Saxon are more involved than just words being abbreviated.

Kor

 

[Melakon]

WTH is "wobble" as regards to ice cream?

I always got the impression it was meant to be swirled with the pistachio. Either way, I think the actor mispronounced the word, whatever it was.

I think you've got something there. Maybe he's trying to say "marble". Can't stand the episode though, so I'm not going to watch to verify.

 

[FormerLurker]

I wonder if he got in trouble at home for saying it wrong. After all, that kid was Caesar Belli, Melvin Belli's son. Dad's career was built on strong speaking skills, and diction was a major part of that.

 

[Albertese]

Well... the differences between contemporary English and old Anglo-Saxon are more involved than just words being abbreviated.

Kor

Quite true. It was also the addition of Danish and Norse vocabulary, accompanied by the fact the settling Vikings generally failed to learn their neighbor's complex conjugations and taught their children a rounded off, clipped form of the language. Then there was a period where French was the official language of England and a lot of French vocabulary got subsumed into common English. As England tried more and more to be an academic power in Europe, a great deal of Greek was adopted and worked it's way into common speech.

In any case, though, it's a collection of small changes and adaptations, not far removed from shortening words. My point is that a language slowly and inevitably changes, eventually into something unrecognizable to the ancestors of those who speak any given modern language.

--Alex

 

[GSchnitzer]

More about the multi-colored ice cream cads can be found in this old post:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=7403824&postcount=13

 

[ZapBrannigan]

More about the multi-colored ice cream cads can be found in this old post:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=7403824&postcount=13

So the makers' intention was that she literally had a separate card for each flavor, and each combo. I think this can be made plausible by suggesting that Stevie saw the "and peach" card in her hand, so she didn't just happen to have what he dreamed up. He picked what she had.

These would be more like punched cards than floppy disks ("tapes" in TOS parlance).

I'll bet they had him say peach instead of apricot because the child actor was having trouble with the word.

 

[Albertese]

Well, yeah. After all, is it "App-ricot" or "Ape-ricot?" lol

But really, I agree with whoever said above that "And The Children Shall Lead" is a disposable episode in many regards.

--Alex

 

[ZapBrannigan]

But really, I agree with whoever said above that "And The Children Shall Lead" is a disposable episode in many regards.

--Alex

It's number 80 on my list of favorites.

 

[Mytran]

More about the multi-colored ice cream cads can be found in this old post:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=7403824&postcount=13

That's really helpful, thanks. I hadn't realised there was such a close correlation between the flavours requested and the colours of the cards

 

[johnnybear]

Behind the back wall of each food synthesizer unit was a team of hard working Keebler Elves.

If one of them was a 6ft one called Stacy, then mail her to me at....
JB

 

[Orphalesion]

So the makers' intention was that she literally had a separate card for each flavor, and each combo. I think this can be made plausible by suggesting that Stevie saw the "and peach" card in her hand, so she didn't just happen to have what he dreamed up. He picked what she had.

These would be more like punched cards than floppy disks ("tapes" in TOS parlance).

I'll bet they had him say peach instead of apricot because the child actor was having trouble with the word.

That would, if you are generous, also explain Chapel's weird smile after he asks "and Peach"'; she had gotten that card for herself and now she's stuck eating the coconut and vanilla one.

 

[Marsden]

Nah it's okay, I understand that it's a bad episode and it was season 3 where they had in some parts just given up on any consistency.
Still I think one of the most fun aspects of the trek fandom is people finding workarounds how even the oddest scenes and concepts might work in universe.

That's a great hobby, I think that I do that more than actually watching them.


Wow! GSchnitzer I read your post about the colors of the cards.

It pains me that they might have put that much effort into having that many colored cards and then have it in that episode. Like that some people really and truly cared to put in that effort but on the other side of the aisle, we get a lawyer in a shower curtain.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Like that some people really and truly cared to put in that effort but on the other side of the aisle, we get a lawyer in a shower curtain.

I got a good laugh out of that one. The best jokes are true.

 

[Orphalesion]

I know looked at the transcript because I was thinking if I might have interpreted Chapel's "pick your favourite" too literal.

She says:

CHAPEL: All right, children. Each card is a different flavour. You take your pick, and the computer will mix your favourite combination. Now, what would you like? Call out your favourites.

So yes it seems the cards designate flavour but also that the combination is mixed by the computer. So....scoops of stores ice cream that then get dropped into the dishes?

 

[Lance]

I suspect, based both on the evidence on screen and also the information supplied in this thread, that it's all some kind of sophisticated combination of computer input/control and an actual galley that prepares and dispatches the food. There's definitely some kind of traditional human food preparation at work, because we hear the chef in "Charlie X", and we see the galley in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country", so those ammenities are canon.

I've always erred on the side of believing the food slots are like some kind of express turbolift system that operates between the galley (probably multiple galleys) and the collection points. In "The Trouble With Tribbles" it does take a few seconds for the slot to supply Kirk with his 'Chicken Sandwich And Coffee' after he accesses it.

I do, however, quite like this idea, and am tempted to adopt it as my new explanation:

I wonder if they could be better represented as an advanced 3D food printer.

 

[Orphalesion]

^Perhaps it depends on the type of food? Things like ice cream and the brightly colored food cubes might be created by a 3D-Printer like device, while a chicken sandwich has to come from the galley.

 

[BigJake]

This is why I have hated the cutesy word "veggies" since it first popped up a few years ago.

The informal -ie suffix has been part of the language since late Middle English at the very least. This kind of arrant pedantry is more alarming to me than the word "veggie."