setup. reinforcement. payoff.

six years into still blog and you can’t really talk anymore about the spare and simple elegance of the prairie grass stem. you need to find a new frame of reference. i’m choosing the classic structure of a three-part joke. setup. reinforcement. payoff. wile e. coyote buys the acme dynamite kit. wile e. coyote waits for the roadrunner and presses the TNT plunger at just the right time. nothing happens, the roadrunner speeds off, and wile. e. coyote goes to investigate the dynamite, which explodes in his face. it’s just exactly like a split stem of winter prairie grass.

prairie tall grass in late winter