#5

When I was in second grade, my dad taught me about negative numbers. I cannot remember what the actual number example was, but I really glommed onto the idea that if you subtract more than what you started with you end up with a negative number. Simple enough.

Later in the year, for math class, we had to come up with a word problem and illustrate it - THIS I remember VERY CLEARLY - I drew a large bowl of plums - it looked something like this:

and the math problem said: “if you have six plums and subtract seven plums, how many plums will you have left?” - I got a bad grade on my project. My teacher said that I clearly was not paying attention because I did not register that seven was greater than six and you could not subtract a larger number from a smaller number. And I said, that clearly she was not as smart as my dad, if she did not understand that the answer was “minus one plum” - a negative number! - A NEGATIVE PLUM!

Anyway, here’s the plum poem, ofc.

And this INCREDIBLE article about forgotten desserts that I have already shared about 75 times today with my loved ones. It’s hilarious.

The word “plum” may be my top favorite word. And if you wanted to draw a negative plum and send it to me, or put it in the comments here - I would love that.