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 gives an apology (possibly sincere, possibly 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.

The title text is another joke about trapping poets with situations based on their own poems, it is about 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 seems physically impossible 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.

Transcript

This is one of 46 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)

They are not. The “apology” is obviously insincere. The narrator is clearly pleased with himself and would do it again. I suppose you could say it is an insincere apology. 185.98.169.32 07:58, 20 February 2026 (UTC)

I expect one could find an actual citation for either viewpoint (citations added). Poetic criticism is not known for consensus. Philhower (talk) 19:44, 20 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)

Yes, although the punctuation and line structure are different, there is the typography, meter, and consonance, as described at Wikipedia. Elizium23 (talk) 09:07, 20 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)

The captions and title texts aren't speech bubbles. They aren't necessarily attributed to a particular character, or someone appearing in the comic. In this instance, it seems like the caption reflects Cueball's thoughts, but the title text is more likely to belong to the offscreen speaker. Elizium23 (talk) 00:29, 20 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)

The poem explicitly mentions one of the paths bending, so curved paths should presumably be fine. 45.140.184.137 03:59, 20 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)

I second this conjecture. Given that the trap has an entrance/exit (assumed to be bidirectional), eventually, any wood would become so travelled that the exit would be the only option. R128 (talk) 16:09, 20 February 2026 (UTC)

How do I edit my user page? Is there supposed to be an edit button somewhere? Xkdvd (talk) 02:03, 20 February 2026 (UTC)

Please read this. tori :3^{talk to me!} 02:09, 20 February 2026 (UTC)

Unless I'm missing something, it's actually pretty easy to create an infinitely looping network of branching paths, isn't it? The simplest configuration I can think of off the top of my head is three paths arranged in a triangle, with three more paths running inwards from the vertices of the triangle to meet in the center. All the paths are completely straight, and every time you get to a junction you have to pick between two paths that are diverging from one another. All you need to do is eliminate the path Frost used to get into the trap before he gets back to it, which should be relatively easy if the paths are long enough. 45.140.184.137 03:45, 20 February 2026 (UTC)

My thoughts went to a curved path a bit like an Infinity symbol, but with the crossing point offset (so you have 2 forks, rather than 1 cross-road). Same as your idea, you’d need to arrange a tripwire or something to close off the path Frost used to enter the infinite path. Still seems pretty achievable even for Cueball. 2A0A:EF40:F62:5201:6863:3656:ED2B:1B1B 07:54, 20 February 2026 (UTC)
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