the-other-side-of-the-chessboard
Original: the-other-side-of-the-chessboard on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Father (an older man in a tie): I have trained you in mathematics. Now that you are going to college, I present you with two options.
Panel 2:
Father: Option one: I pay for your entire college education.
Panel 3:
Father: Option two: I take this chessboard, and give you one penny on the first square, two pennies on the second square, and so on.
Young man (excited, smiling): OPTION TWO! OPTION TWO!
Panel 4 (nighttime, the young man and a young woman sitting together on a grassy hill):
Young man: Then he gave me $1.27
Votey:
The young man (now a large, dejected face): You're lucky it's not $0.96
Father (an older man in a tie): I have trained you in mathematics. Now that you are going to college, I present you with two options.
Panel 2:
Father: Option one: I pay for your entire college education.
Panel 3:
Father: Option two: I take this chessboard, and give you one penny on the first square, two pennies on the second square, and so on.
Young man (excited, smiling): OPTION TWO! OPTION TWO!
Panel 4 (nighttime, the young man and a young woman sitting together on a grassy hill):
Young man: Then he gave me $1.27
Votey:
The young man (now a large, dejected face): You're lucky it's not $0.96
Alt text
A four-panel comic. An older man in a tie tells his son he has trained him in mathematics and, now that he's going to college, offers two options. Option one: the father pays for his entire college education. Option two: the father takes a chessboard and gives the son one penny on the first square, two on the second, and so on (the classic doubling trick that grows enormous). The son excitedly shouts "OPTION TWO! OPTION TWO!" In the final panel, set at night on a grassy hill, the son sits dejectedly with a young woman and admits, "Then he gave me $1.27" -- the father only counted a single square's penny doubled a few times, not the exponential total. Votey: a big sad close-up of the son's face saying, "You're lucky it's not $0.96."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.