3209: Plums

Plums

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Title text: My icebox plum trap easily captured William Carlos Williams. It took much less work than the infinite looping network of diverging paths I had to build in that yellow wood to ensnare Robert Frost.

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Explanation

This is a reference to the William Carlos Williams poem This Is Just to Say, in which the narrator is apologizing for eating the plums in the icebox. In this comic, the joke is that Cueball cannot resist eating the plums from the icebox as a reference to the poem.

The title text is another joke about trapping poets with references to their own poems, referencing another well-known poem, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, which has been recently referenced in another comic, 3076: The Roads Both Taken. Of course, constructing a network of infinitely branching paths would be physically impossible ().

Transcript

This is one of 45 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

[Cueball is sitting at a desk with a laptop on it. He is looking backward towards someone offscreen.]

Out of view: I got you the ingredients for dinner tonight.

Out of view: Oh, and the plums in the fridge drawer are for my yogurt tomorrow; you should just leave them.

Out of view: Be back later!

Cueball, thinking: Oh no.

Caption: Help. It actually happened. I shouldn't, but how can I not!?

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Discussion

Referencing William Carlos Williams "This is Just To Say", an apology for eating the plums. 2600:1001:B000:6009:F81B:2869:73B7:339 03:31, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Robert Frost is my first cousin five times removed. Pgn674 (talk) 03:36, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

You could easily trap Edgar Allan Poe by training a crow. Xkdvd (talk) 05:07, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

You could easily trap Edgar Allan Poe scholars by training an orang-utan 2001:9E8:E129:8700:A4BD:2D19:5AC4:826B 13:19, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

I just described the scene in the transcript, it doesn't look quite right to me, I'm pretty sure there's supposed to be brackets or something, could someone fix that if I did it wrong? Xkdvd (talk) 05:12, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

The characterization of the poem as an apology needs an [actual citation needed] tag. 2001:8004:4E50:6B3:A564:E93B:1878:3634 06:00, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

The words "forgive me" aren't good enough for you? 174.127.214.79 06:46, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Seems pretty simple. Eat the plums for the cred, and then book reservations for a romantic breakfast the next morning. 73.42.229.109 06:22, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Might just make things more awkward if the trapper is just a roommate. 82.13.184.33 09:10, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Could the caption style also be a reference to the poem? New editor (talk) 07:08, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

It would be much more difficult that Robert Frost if one is to follow Gulzaar's "Is Mod se" Mitradranirban (talk)

Does the joke rely on any connection between Frost's surname and the Icebox? 79.161.109.128 10:35, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Wouldn't say so, given that they're referring to two different poems. If it did rely on that, I would say it didn't work! 82.13.184.33 11:39, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Tangent here: can someone explains to me how the structure of WCW's poem works? I find neither rythm nor rhyme. --94.73.51.255

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_verse 82.13.184.33 11:36, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

I'm trying to link Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy, but it's not appearing, even if the text is there. Anybody know why? Also, does anybody else find it odd that this is CUEBALL creating the spatial anomalies and not Beret Guy? --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse (BLM) 14:11, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

You have to put a : before “Category:” when linking to a category because otherwise it puts the page in the category instead of making a link to the category. 2A09:BAC3:88C3:188C:0:0:272:3F 14:23, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Ah. Thanks! --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse (BLM) 14:44, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

I believe it may be possible to make a network of infinitely branching straight line paths, even in an infinite universe, because the requirement is that if you keep travelling on the path you'll reach no end no mater your choice of branches, i.e. no matter how you choose your branches you'll choose infinitely many, but I can't think of a possible configuration right now. (It's trivial if they can be curved) Cobl703 (talk) 14:51, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

I'd conjecture that Frost's algorithm (take the path which has been taken fewer times) should fully explore any finite wood and find the exit; he's a pretty tough cookie. Cjmaloof (talk) 21:46, 19 February 2026 (UTC)
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