Hacking Whistle
I didn’t think I wanted to mention the inspiration for the hacking whistle here, since I liked the thought of readers thinking of it as a ridiculous cartoony thing like a portable hole, only to have that eureka moment some time later when they read about the real thing it references. But, the story behind it is too cool not to share. You’ll want to read about John Draper, Phreaking, and the 1971 Cap’n Crunch Bosun Whistle. For now, I’ll just point you here: wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Draper
This is part of what I love about your comic. Not only do I learn new and interesting things from your commentaries (I enjoy learning about just about everything, and I have a particularly strong fondness for, among other things, kitschy breakfast cereal culture), but I also love the sly references in your comics.
You might enjoy Ready Player One by Ernest Cline for, if nothing else, its plot-important cameo of the Cap’n Crunch whistle. It’s an explosion of ’80s nostalgia (which I strongly experience despite my birth at the dawn of the ’90s).
Glad you like the comic! I’ve heard of that book but haven’t checked it out. But knowing that it involves the Capn’s whistle really makes me want to now!