Weird but: Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo is a complete sentence?
Yes — as bizarre as it looks, **“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.”** is a grammatically correct English sentence.
### How it works
1. **Buffalo (proper noun)** = the city of Buffalo, New York.
2. **buffalo (noun)** = the animal, American bison.
3. **buffalo (verb)** = to bully, confuse, or intimidate.
So the word “buffalo” can appear as:
– Noun (the animal)
– Proper noun (the city)
– Verb (to bully/intimidate)
### The structure
The sentence essentially means:
**“Bison from Buffalo that other bison from Buffalo bully, themselves bully bison from Buffalo.”**
Broken down:
– *Buffalo buffalo* = bison from Buffalo.
– *Buffalo buffalo buffalo* = bison from Buffalo that other bison bully.
– *buffalo Buffalo buffalo* = those bison bully other Buffalo bison.
It’s recursive bullying.
### Why it works
English allows:
– Noun phrases stacked without commas (like “New York police department rules”).
– Verbs that follow nouns (e.g., “Dogs chase cats”).
– Recursive clauses (something that applies to itself again).
Put them together and you get that tongue-twister of intimidation.
—
Want me to diagram it visually (like a syntax tree) so the bullying chain makes sense at a glance?
If Only 1000 of a comic book is produced – how many would need to be produced at a 1:100 ration to have 1000
Got it. You’re asking: *if you want 1,000 copies of a **ratio variant** that is 1:100, how many total comics must be printed?*
### Step-by-step
1. **1:100 ratio** means:
– For every 100 *regular* copies printed, the publisher produces **1 variant**.
2. To get **1,000 variant copies**:
[
1000 times 100 = 100,000
]
3. So, the publisher must print **100,000 total comics** (regular + variants).
– **99,000 regular copies**
– **1,000 variant copies**
—
👉 If they only print **1,000 total comics**, then at a 1:100 ratio you’d only get **10 variants**.
Do you want me to run the math for other ratios too (like 1:25, 1:50, 1:200) so you have a quick reference table?
Yes
Here’s a breakdown of how many total comics must be printed to yield **1,000 ratio variants** at different ratios.
You now have a quick reference table to compare print runs and see how extreme some of the higher ratios really are.
Want me to extend the table to include **1:500 and 1:1000** variants too?
Is it ever to find the print run of a comic to determine how rare a 1:200 is?
Great question. Short answer: **sometimes, but usually not directly**. Comic publishers treat exact print runs like state secrets, but there are a few ways collectors get a decent estimate of how rare a ratio variant (like 1:200) really is.
—
### 1. **Publisher transparency (rare)**
– Occasionally, publishers will **announce print runs** for special limited variants (“only 1,000 copies made”).
– This is more common for store exclusives, con exclusives, or “virgin” covers—not standard ratio incentives.
—
### 2. **Distributor / sales data**
– **Diamond Comic Distributors** used to publish sales rankings (the old *Diamond Top 300*) that gave relative orders.
– From those, collectors could estimate that, say, 60,000 copies of *Amazing Spider-Man #600* were ordered → so about **300 copies of the 1:200 variant** might exist.
– Today, sites like **Comichron** and **ICv2** still compile estimates, though they don’t give hard numbers for each individual issue.
—
### 3. **Backwards math**
If you know the **total orders** for a book (say 20,000 copies) and the ratio (1:200), then:
[
text{Variant Copies} = frac{text{Total Orders}}{text{Ratio}}
]
So:
– 20,000 orders @ 1:200 → ~100 variants exist.
– 50,000 orders @ 1:200 → ~250 variants.
—
### 4. **Market reality check**
– Some 1:200s barely surface because few shops ordered enough copies.
– If only the biggest stores hit the threshold, sometimes there are **fewer than 100 copies nationwide**, even though the math *could* allow more.
– Rarity is often functionally lower than theoretical print runs because many shops simply don’t chase the incentive.
—
### 5. **Collector “gossip math”**
– Forums, CGC census data, and auction house records help triangulate rarity.
– If only a handful of copies have ever been graded or sold, that’s a strong indicator the variant is scarce.
—
⚖️ **Bottom line:**
You usually can’t get the *official* print run, but between Comichron/ICv2 order estimates, ratio math, and market tracking, you can ballpark how many 1:200s exist.
—
Want me to pull up an actual **case study** (e.g., Amazing Spider-Man, Batman, or a big Marvel/DC event book) where collectors have reverse-engineered the print run of a 1:200? That would show how the theory plays out in the wild.