“Explain XKCD #1393: “Timeghost””, Explain XKCD (philosophy)⁠:

[Explanation of XKCD #1393, “Timeghost”:]

Megan has been haunted by a Timeghost for some time. It is obviously not the first time the ghost arrives to let Megan know that “…ooOOOOOOOOooo… Tiiiime is passiiiing!” The ghost is dedicated to making people feel old by having them think about the passage of time. It is shown to reference time periods related to well-known people and events, such as famous actors and the release of movies and TV shows. Megan is just annoyed that it is back and wishes it to go away…But one thing about the prediction is true—they will eventually die. And this is the scary part about realizing how old you are and that you are quickly getting older: You will die, and “soon” (for some value thereof).

The comic seems to be using “factoid” to mean a small fact. “Factoid” can also mean a “questionable or spurious statement presented as a fact”, but this does not seem to be intended usage here. In this instance, some of the factoids are easily verifiable, while others are reasonable assumptions based on the number of years passed since the individual events. Several sources advocate the use of the word “factlet” to express a brief interesting fact, while using the word “factoid” for unverifiable or untrue statements passed as fact…“Timeghost” might be a literal interpretation of ‘Zeitgeist’, which is a German term for “spirit of time” and refers to the school of thought that influences or dominates the art and culture of a time period. All the events and people mentioned in this comic may be considered influences on present day art and culture.

Randall has covered making people feel old several times in 647: Scary, 891: Movie Ages, 973: MTV Generation (in which White Hat utters Cueball’s “That can’t be right” line), and 1477: Star Wars. Also see the blag post Odd Temporal Milestones. This is, however, so far the only one that makes a prediction of anyone’s death. A similar ghost with a much different agenda was seen in 1108: Cautionary Ghost. Similarly annoying fact(oids) were given in 1272: Shadowfacts.