The Old Hack

When I see you saying "shrink day", it brings to mind what Rhoda and Catalina are currently doing . . .

Good luck Prof.  My evil twin /me and I don't want you off the list for a long long time. :-)
I've got a shrink visit on Monday.  I just hope he doesn't change meds on me.  I don't think he will, but it's always a bit nerve wracking on shrink day.

Seconded.  
From your link, "Almost all CML patients respond to treatment with imatinib, and most of these responses seem to last for many years....Common side effects....are generally mild."  That sounds encouraging!

Well I have no opinion on that as I'm just a figment of my imagination.
 

We've been over that. It is I who is made up and everything else that is real.

All of a sudden his reluctance to leave becomes perfectly comprehensible. Who knows what might happen the next time? Cheerleadra gets snatched by a dragon looking for a virgin and then has to fight her way free past an army of Puritan clothiers?

I'm having some trouble seeing how this would make Elliot more comfortable with leaving town.

That's the point, every time Elliot's left town was a bad experience, mind you I doubt he regret's Ellen's existence but even she admitted that day was the worst day of her life.

Actually, it's pretty cool to see most-of-the-time-rivals come together to support each other.  We saw a bit of that when the White Sox won the World Series in 2005, too, although maybe not as much, given that they hadn't been nearly as long without a win.  Everyone seems to be jazzed that the Cubs won, except maybe the Cleveland fans, and even they seem okay about it.  :-)

People have been leaving green apples at Harry Caray's grave.  Apparently, while he was the iconic announcer for the Cubs, he commented, "Sure as God made little green apples, someday the Cubs will win the World Series!"  It's a relatively well-known (if now somewhat old-fashioned) phrase, but the fans picked up on it and remembered it, all these years later.  They just had an interview with his widow where the apples came up, and played a clip of the comment, which looked like it was from maybe the 70s or 80s.
I'm also amused by all the special deals local businesses are offering to celebrate.  Chicagoland McDonalds will be offering 10 McNuggets for $1.08, and a few stores are offering 10.8% discounts, in honor of the 108 years since the last time the Cubs won the World Series.  We can get free cheesecake at Eli's or discounted food at Chipotle.  Some of the deals require you to wear Cubs gear (T-shirts, caps, etc) but some are for anyone, whether they forked over dough to prove they're fans or not.
Stephen Colbert tweeted his congratulations, adding, "See you in 2124!"

I accept this as canon.

I just wanted to express my gratitude to the creator of "I dream of a Jeannie bottle" (the web comic). It has given me so many hours of enjoyment and I know it is a difficult task without any material reward, putting out a comic strip of such quality for so long. Thank you.

Well the gods must be appeased.

Chicago restaurants are serving a lot of goat, tonight.

Somewhere, Siannis and Royko are sharing a few beers, and Goodman is frantically revising lyrics while listening to their jokes.
Apologies to non-Chicagoans for references you may need to Google, but Mrs. Dorsai just told me that the impossible has happened. I'm croggled.

TIffany Susan Pompoms, you watch your language! This is a family strip.

I know right? Especially considering JML was stating possible worry over the fact that the dishwasher stopped chanting meant something was about to happen. Very anti-climactic.

Just for what it's worth, the quake was much closer than normal.  Most of the Oklahoma quakes are about 100-200 miles west of me, or more.  This was about 30 miles, as the crow files.

Mmm, maybe, but my best guess is that it was trying for a decent strength earthquake, one that would make people sit up and take notice. You know how it is, you get a good grip but then when you make the big effort your grip slips and you end up just looking stupid.

If neither of them imagined that, it must have been a visualisation of what's in the readers' minds.

The undesirable attraction and tidal stress from space-bending can be counteracted by incorporating negative-mass. Within the relevant theories, negative matter is analogous to antimatter, except that its inertia and gravitation are negative. If a normal particle and its negative partner touch, they are completely negated--their energies sum to zero, so there is no release of mass-energy unlike the giant release of a matter/antimatter reaction. Hypothetically, this would mean that no net energy would have to be expended to create a particle/negaparticle pair, but so far no one has come up with a workable way to induce such pairs to form in the real world. However, the existence of negative mass is essential to current theories for wormholes and for Alcubierre-White (Warp) drive. In other words, making warp drive work would be equivalent to creating temporary negative masses.
As for the comic, all of this physics stuff assumes that the shrinking is a quasi-stable state (i.e. will hold together without extra energy). However, it has been said (by Adrian in particular) that transformations (and presumably other spells) that must hold normal physics in continued abeyance (such as major size changes) require energy to sustain--usually either the initial energy charge added at the time of casting, or the energy stores of the altered lifeform (if alive), or else environmental energy (if dense enough, such as Moperville with the energy clog in effect). Energy is thus being constantly used, not only to hold the target in its transformed state, but also to enable its interaction with the outside world (in the case of sizechange, altering the size of photons and of air/food/water molecules that cross the barrier). To use an analogy, the spell is acting as Catalina's "space suit" to allow her to walk around in an otherwise-unlivable environment where the air molecules, etc. are too big for her needs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_mass

I bet your dishwasher is very disappointed right now.

I am sorry to hear. It is hard to lose a beloved teacher, especially one who managed to touch your life and give you gifts of learning that will follow you the rest of your life. I hope he will find peace.

That would be it.  About 50km west of me.  According to the "shake map" option I'm right on the edge of "weak", which would explain why I wasn't sure about it being an earthquake or heavy people moving around upstairs.  :-)