  We provide a more informal explanation of two results in our manuscript
"Tilings of quadriculated annuli". Tilings of a quadriculated annulus $A$ are
counted according to volume (in the formal variable q) and flux (in p). The
generating function Phi_A(p,q) is such that, for q = -1, the non-zero roots in
p are roots of unity and for q > 0, real negative.
