https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=CMoney087explain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-04-08T01:24:12ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=3209:_Plums&diff=4067613209: Plums2026-02-21T03:52:50Z<p>CMoney087: replaced AI generated source with more reputable source</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 3209<br />
| date = February 18, 2026<br />
| title = Plums<br />
| image = plums_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 251x409px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = 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.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|This page was created by a rebellious icebox. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}<br />
This is a reference to the {{w|William Carlos Williams}} poem [https://poets.org/poem/just-say This Is Just to Say], in which the narrator gives an apology (possibly [https://poemanalysis.com/william-carlos-williams/this-is-just-to-say/ sincere], possibly [https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/william-carlos-williams/this-is-just-to-say insincere]) for eating the plums in the icebox. In this comic, the joke is that [[Cueball]] (perhaps intended to actually be William Carlos Williams) learns that the person out of view has left themselves some plums in the refrigerator for tomorrow, and cannot resist eating them as a direct reference/inspiration to the poem.<br />
<br />
The title text is another joke about trapping poets with situations based on their own poems. It is about another well-known poem, [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken The Road Not Taken] by Robert Frost, which was referenced in another comic, [[3076: The Roads Both Taken]]. Of course, constructing a network of infinitely branching paths seems physically impossible [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|for Cueball]], though some kind of circular or looping arrangement might work. Of course, the choice that Frost makes would change over time in such an arrangement, if he always takes the path least-travelled, so this could prove complex.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}<br />
:[Cueball is sitting at a desk with a laptop on it. He is looking backward towards someone offscreen.]<br />
:Out of view: I got you the ingredients for dinner tonight.<br />
:Out of view: Oh, and the plums in the fridge drawer are for my yogurt tomorrow; you should just leave them.<br />
:Out of view: Be back later!<br />
:Cueball [thinking]: Oh no.<br />
:[Caption below the panel]: <br />
:Help. It actually happened. I shouldn't, but how can I not!?<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<noinclude><br />
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] <!-- ...maybe. --><br />
[[Category:Food]]</div>CMoney087