2. The Banana Cream Pie Paradox

CHAPTER 2 THE BANANA CREAM PIE PARADOX Time machines are awesome. There's no doubt about it. But they can also be very dangerous. It's possible that a person could go back in time and accidentally change one little thing— and that one teeny, tiny, itsy-bitsy thing could profoundly affect the future. This is what scientists refer to as the Banana Cream Pie Paradox. BANANA CREAM PIE PARADOX PLEASE FOLLOW ALONG WITH THESE HANDY ILLUSTRATIONS

Imagine, if you will, that a scientist from the year 2020 baked a banana cream pie using bananas that he harvested from his very own banana tree. Let's suppose now that this scientist took his banana cream pie into a time machine, which zapped him (and the pie) back to the year 1936 Now imagine that the scientist stepped out of his time machine and accidentally tripped, smashing his pie into the face of a lady sitting at a fancy garden party.

Now suppose that the lady jumped up angrily, wiped a handful of gooey banana cream pie filling from her face, and threw it at the scientist. The scientist ducked... causing the banana goo to smack into the face of a gentleman standing nearby.

A waitress pointed at the gentleman and laughed. The angry gentleman wiped the goo from his face... ...and smooshed it into the waitress's face.

"Well!" said the waitress. "I've never been so insulted in all my life!" "You oughtta get out more, lady! Nyuk, n'yuk, n'yuk!" said a wise guy. "Why don't you mind your own business, birdbrain?" said another man...

...as he poked the wise guy in the eyes. The wise guy fell backward and landed on the scientists banana tree (which was just a tiny sapling in 1936). The tiny banana tree snapped in half and died.