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

[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 Ramon requested a ruling on when to observe shabbat in orbit, and I didn't want a story of mine to end up out of date if I wrote it the wrong way...