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[ZeissIkon]

Other than beating up ex-boyfriends, what use would a typical L5 denizen have for a shovel?  Heck, I walk on soil every day, and I don't own one...

[wdg3rd]

I don't know how the environment would evolve over several centuries, but several of the O'Neill designs have suburban-style areas involving yards large enough to garden.  Can't say as I'd have much use for a shovel that would take that much damage from beating one biped not quite (we'll hope) to death.

[Scott]

The Shovel was originally a gag gift from a friend. But we haven't seen the last of it. That's all I can say for now.

[Bob G]

The Shovel was originally a gag gift from a friend. But we haven't seen the last of it. That's all I can say for now.

I was thinking maybe 'old family heirloom'. Thanks for the straight skinny.

[Big.Swede]

I´m thinking someone misheard "towel" as in the old spacer proverb.

[Bob G]

I´m thinking someone misheard "towel" as in the old spacer proverb.

How would you get 'shovel' out of 'towel'? 'Trowel' would be an understandable misapprehension of 'towel', but that's a tool on an entirely different scale. Unless you didn't really know, asked someone what a trowel was and was told something like 'a tool with a spoon-like blade and a wooden handle', and picked up something that looked close to the description. And where would the wood (?) come from on a space station?

Apparently I have entirely too much time on my hands if I'm actually cogitating on this.

[Big.Swede]

I´m thinking someone misheard "towel" as in the old spacer proverb.

How would you get 'shovel' out of 'towel'? 'Trowel' would be an understandable misapprehension of 'towel', but that's a tool on an entirely different scale. Unless you didn't really know, asked someone what a trowel was and was told something like 'a tool with a spoon-like blade and a wooden handle', and picked up something that looked close to the description. And where would the wood (?) come from on a space station?

Apparently I have entirely too much time on my hands if I'm actually cogitating on this.

You would be amazed at what people are capable of mishearing. Famous incident in my crowd was from "Pleasure is all mine" to "You are realy not on our side" with 5 different people hearing the exact same thing wrong in the exact same way. Repeatedly. Mind you that was in Swedish.

[ZeissIkon]

I´m thinking someone misheard "towel" as in the old spacer proverb.

How would you get 'shovel' out of 'towel'? 'Trowel' would be an understandable misapprehension of 'towel', but that's a tool on an entirely different scale. Unless you didn't really know, asked someone what a trowel was and was told something like 'a tool with a spoon-like blade and a wooden handle', and picked up something that looked close to the description. And where would the wood (?) come from on a space station?

Depending on the accent of the speaker, it's entirely possible that one could hear "towel" as "shovel" without the side trip through "trowel".  Think of a Ukranian speaker with a couple teeth missing.  No, I don't think either of those conditions are likely to be common in L5 five centuries from now, but it is possible...

In any case, a gag gift makes much more sense than owning a shovel intentionally in an environment like what we've seen of Nicole's home, uh, turf...   

[Bob G]

You would be amazed at what people are capable of mishearing. Famous incident in my crowd was from "Pleasure is all mine" to "You are realy not on our side" with 5 different people hearing the exact same thing wrong in the exact same way. Repeatedly. Mind you that was in Swedish.

Uff da.

[macsnafu]

Ha!  I didn't even think twice about the shovel when she pulled it out.  It was just such a good response to his comment that he knew he could count on her.

[ZeissIkon]

Well, it's not every day you see a fish on a bicycle -- and I don't mean a dolphin in a perambulator, as occasionally seen in a David Brin or L. Neil Smith novel; this one looks rather like an ornamental goldfish a couple meters long.  That makes me wish I could see the wolfman's other hand -- does he have a menu from Li Ho Fouk's?  And is that really a five meter (or larger, depending on distance) amoeba in the background?     Or just a small park a good way around the curve of the ground?

[caohaoim]

A fish with a bicycle. 
The socio-political implications are staggering.

A man without a woman is like a  polar bear without a balloon.

[Scott]

Zeiss: It's a small park.

L-5 denizens fully embrace trans-humanism, and many of them use genetic re-engineering and other means to re-shape themselves in a variety of manners. This is why you'll see all manner of creatures is the background in L-5 City -- they're all human, fundamentally, but have re-shaped themselves to suit their personal desires.

The fish in that scene normally lives in micro-gravity portions of the City, but sometimes visits other parts where there is gravity in the 1-3 "grav" range (1 grav = 1 meter/sec/sec), and when in such places must employ some means of conveyance. This particular one likes to ride a bicycle.

[ZeissIkon]

Zeiss: It's a small park.

L-5 denizens fully embrace trans-humanism, and many of them use genetic re-engineering and other means to re-shape themselves in a variety of manners. This is why you'll see all manner of creatures is the background in L-5 City -- they're all human, fundamentally, but have re-shaped themselves to suit their personal desires.

The fish in that scene normally lives in micro-gravity portions of the City, but sometimes visits other parts where there is gravity in the 1-3 "grav" range (1 grav = 1 meter/sec/sec), and when in such places must employ some means of conveyance. This particular one likes to ride a bicycle.

Would've been more fun as a gigantic amoeba...    Okay, transhumans, gengineered real animals (at least, I presume that's the source of the dog in today's page that looks like, well, a dog with eyebrows and a track suit), presumed synthetic organism (valets?), various gradations through cyborgs to what we'd have to split hairs whether to call robots or androids (and how many of them are actually uploads?).  Nice.  A real fish isn't equipped to ride a bicycle -- neither in terms of manipulators and locomotive limbs, nor balance organs and reflexes -- but a human fish could surely use remotes for control and either a tail-driven mechanism or something as simple as a battery-powered electric motor for propulsion, and in what I think of as 0.1 G, keeping the bike upright is much easier (because you fall slower), though every surface will feel "slippery" compared to riding on pavement in a 1 G field.

I'm a little surprised they still need anesthetic to implant a neural interface and processor; seems like they'd be able to drink a "shake" consisting of a seed cadre of nanites and a nanite construction supplement, flavored like whatever beverage is currently popular, or just swallow (or inject) a capsule if the nanites use materials normally abundant in the body -- carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, calcium, and iron (other minerals are enough less common not to be usable for significant nanite construction without supplementation).  Nanites seem like the most probable answer to things like radical reshaping of bodies (at least when done after gestation), and (given a few centuries of debugging) significantly less prone to accidents involving brain tissue than actual open-skull surgery.

[stsparky]

I like the shovel. The ex had it coming.