The weird things people ask their spouses...

[gnomi]

Paraphrased conversation between MAB and me last night:

(edited to add conversational markers, for clarity)

Me: Hey, I've got a science question.

Him: [curious] Yeah?

Me: Do people float in oil?

Him: [bewildered] Huh? I don't want to know where this question came from.

Me: No, seriously. Would a human thrown into a big vat of oil float?

Him: (thinks a minute) Yeah, of course.

Me: Because humans float in water, and oil floats in water.

Him: [contemplatively] Yeah.

(pause)

Him: [bemusedly] OK, why?

Me: Cop show. Bad guy gets thrown off a catwalk into a vat of oil. Does he float?

Him: [contemplatively] Yeah. Unless he drowns, instead.

Me: Yeah, 'cause then the oil's in his lungs and he'll sink to the bottom.

Him: Yeah.

It's conversations of this type (which are somewhat common around our dinner table) that make me wonder if other people talk about things like this.

Comments

[arib.livejournal.com]

How about some discussions I've had with various rabbis:

"Which direction would an astronaut on Alpha Centauri face when he or she prayed? Up?"

or

"Does telekinesis outside of an eruv on Shabbat count as carrying?"

My rabbis said it doesn't, because it's notthe natural method for carrying things...

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I've had some interesting questions of my own, such as how to put a mikvah on Mars, or if the Passover invitation of "Let all who are hungry come eat" means that you've given carte blanche to vampires.

In fact, as a SF writer, for professional reasons I had to put a story on hold recently. Col. Ramon requested a ruling on when to observe shabbat in orbit, and I didn't want a story of mine to end up out of date if I wrote it the wrong way...