The end of a metaphysical debate

[mrissa]

timprov: So if you make something that's half muffin and half kangaroo, but then you only frost it inside the pouch, is it a muffin or a cupcake?
Me: Only the joey is a cupcake. The rest is a muffin.
timprov: Do the cupcakes breed true when the joey grows up?
Me: Look, I can make you a Punnett Square when you wake up--
timprov: I don't want to be a Punnett Square when I wake up! I want to be a Punnett Square now!

I do wish to clarify that while frosting is a guideline for the important existential difference between muffins and cupcakes, it is not the endpoint of the discussion, which is I think how we got to kangaroos. Either that or we got to kangaroos because timprov should have gone to bed half an hour ago. I'm not really sure.

I am just relieved that there was nothing whatsoever about frosting ducks, geese, or grey ducks. Because that would have been just silly.

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a conversation my husband and younger son would have.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

It's a muffin if it has milk in it. Cakelings and cupcakes don't have milk.

(I never understood that joke about how Muffin the Mule (http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/tv/children/muffin/muffin.htm) is a criminal offence in several states...)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My chocolate cupcakes have milk in them. I can't tell from here whether we just plain disagree here or whether you wouldn't know mine had milk in them from biting into one. I suppose we can try an experiment sometime if you like, with a double-blind and like that. Science applied to chocolate is good science.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

If it had milk in, I'd call it a muffin. But I doubt I could tell. It's just a reasonable place to draw an arbitrary line.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see.

Well, this makes it easier for me to tell myself that I should not set up an elaborate muffin/cupcake distinguishing session for 4th St. Because really I have other things I could do with that energy, but on the other hand...muffins! Cupcakes!

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I suspect it has to do with "muffing"; "muff" is American slang for the female genitals and there are a number of expressions that use the word.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

This all sounds to me perfectly appropriate for Nonsense Day (http://home.netcom.com/~mecowan/calendar/02feb.htm).

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We are occasionally nonsensical but mostly merely obscure.

[seabream.livejournal.com]

<3 you two.

Now I'm picturing some sort of icing filled pastry that jumps energetically out of a toaster, but with muffin/cupcake consistency rather than flakiness. Of course, for it to work in a toaster means that it's not particularly muffin/cupcake shaped, but neither is a half kangaroo.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

True, it's hard to argue that something is half kangaroo in a half that has nothing to do with its shape, particularly when someone has already brought up the pocket.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

The kangaroos were Janet Kagan's fault.