Henge
Henge
[Ponytail and Cueball are walking towards two trees from the left (Cueball has just passed the first tree) and Megan is walking towards them from the right. Ponytail spreads her arms while talking.] Ponytail: One day a year, the sun sets directly between these two trees. Cueball: Oh, cool - like the Manhattan thing.
[Beat panel without a frame border. Cueball stands alone.]
[Cueball looks at Ponytail and Megan, while shining light appears at the top of the frame. Ponytail walks straight under the light looking up and Megan standing to the right looks up and points at the light.] Cueball: Wait, isn't that true every day for pretty much any two trees? Megan: Shh, here it comes!
[Cueball lifts both arms up and look on as Ponytail bending back suddenly holds a butterfly net up towards the "setting" sun that approaches the net while Megan is holding a bag open. Both are looking at the sun.] Cueball: Wait, what? Ponytail: OK, got the bag? Megan: Yup, grab it! Ponytail: We're gonna be rich!

Ponytail and Cueball walks in from the left to meet Megan who comes from the right. They are walking in between two trees while Ponytail tells Cueball that One day a year, the sun sets directly between these two trees.
Cueball's reply: Oh, cool - like the Manhattan thing , is a reference to Manhattanhenge , a phenomenon occurring twice a year that causes the setting sun to align with the east-west streets of the main grid of Manhattan , New York , causing a very special light display. Manhattanhenge is itself named after Stonehenge , an ancient monument consisting of several large stones, where the heel stone and the embanked avenue are aligned to the sunset of the winter solstice and the opposing sunrise of the summer solstice (thus creating on purpose the effect seen today in Manhattan, on specially intended dates). Hence the title of the comic, which was released less than a week after the winter solstice which fell on 2015-12-22.
After a beat panel Cueball, however, realizes that one could make the setting sun line up with almost any two arbitrary trees on any given day. This is due to the fact that the trees are effectively zero-dimensional points on the surface rather than one-dimensional lines like street grids. So any two trees that are close together with one tree further north would allow a setting sun to set between them; the viewer of the sunset could simply move themselves to make the alignment work. This is opposed to Stonehenge/Manhattanhenge, which requires the sun to align with a straight line, and only works on a few days a year.
The twist comes when Ponytail and Megan actually attempt to capture the setting sun with a butterfly net , as it is revealed that the sun is somehow setting at the actual point between the two trees rather than behind the trees when viewed from the east side. This is of course not possible in real life, [ citation needed ] but in the comic's last panel and in the title text the girls continue with their successful though surrealistic plan.
If this was indeed our Sun that they had somehow shrunk and cooled enough to captured with a butterfly net, transfer to a bag and bring it home, this would on xkcd terms be no more strange than many of the strange powers of Beret Guy . If this would indeed happen, then since Earth and the rest of the solar system is now missing its central star there would be a ton of problems for everyone on Earth. So the girls would probably be able to get a lot of money in ransom for releasing the sun, but in the title text it turns out that they are just going to sell the Sun on-line.
Alternatively this is not the Sun, but just a small sun-look alike, maybe a ball lightning which might actually be able to behave like this (though one would not be able to capture it in a bag). [ citation needed ]
Or the girls simply play a theatrical show for the reader. They know the comic's panel orientation, reader's position and the view projection. So they position themselves like the two trees between reader and the distant sun to look like they capture it with a butterfly net and a bag.
The title text refers to Craigslist , a web site where the girls plans to offer the sun for sale in hopes of getting rich. Craigslist is a classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, items wanted, etc. One of the girls tells that she was uncertain as to under which category she should list a "Sun for sale". But she put it under property (as in real estate). To advertise the "property" she put " that it has 'good sun exposure ", a common description of real estate. Being the sun itself you could claim that it is well located compared to the Sun, but it will never really see any sun light itself as the only "sun" light that hits the Sun is the light from other stars which is very dim.
The title text may also be a reference to a woman who was stopped by eBay after attempting to sell plots of "land" on the Sun on the site.
Lately Randall has had his characters catch several things (but never butterflies ) with a butterfly net. The next instance of butterfly nets can be seen in 1635: Birdsong , released less than a month after this comic's release date, wherein a bird is chased with a net.
[Ponytail and Cueball are walking towards two trees from the left (Cueball has just passed the first tree) and Megan is walking towards them from the right. Ponytail spreads her arms while talking.] Ponytail: One day a year, the sun sets directly between these two trees. Cueball: Oh, cool - like the Manhattan thing.
[Beat panel without a frame border. Cueball stands alone.]
[Cueball looks at Ponytail and Megan, while shining light appears at the top of the frame. Ponytail walks straight under the light looking up and Megan standing to the right looks up and points at the light.] Cueball: Wait, isn't that true every day for pretty much any two trees? Megan: Shh, here it comes!
[Cueball lifts both arms up and look on as Ponytail bending back suddenly holds a butterfly net up towards the "setting" sun that approaches the net while Megan is holding a bag open. Both are looking at the sun.] Cueball: Wait, what? Ponytail: OK, got the bag? Megan: Yup, grab it! Ponytail: We're gonna be rich!
