The CartoonStock Caption Contest No. 212

The CartoonStock Caption Contest number 212 brings us to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve wear leaves and Adam still holds the fruit from the forbidden tree that resulted in their fall. The serpent is in the grass. God indicates a breakfast buffet and speaks. The cartoonist is David Ostow.

You've probably already heard that the monthly cash prize contest has somewhat new rules which I seem compelled to repeat: Five dollars will buy up to three entries as it always has, but now three additional dollars can be used to optionally purchase a fourth entry, and so on and so forth. Real cash prizes are fifty percent of the total prize pool (usually in the ballpark of $500, but increasing) for first place and ten percent of the prize pool (typically about $100, but also increasing) for each of five runners up. As of this writing, I've put $285 into the first fifty-sseven pay-to-play contests and this fifty-eighth challenge brings my total cash outlay up to $290. (So far I haven't purchased any of the new $3 entries, but I'm prepared to should I come up with anything promising.)

Anyway, having achieved runner-up status with three previous cash prize entries, I've collected $300 from CartoonStock, so I'm still nominally playing with the house's money, if just for the time being. Because the contest is no longer subsidized by the treasury of CartoonStock but instead by the entrance fees, the contest's odds might now be just a little less favorable—as there are more entries to compete with—or possibly more favorable if those additional $3 entries are being purchased in bulk by the caption-impaired. The prize pool for this contest was fairly impressive:

I was uninspired this go-round and I thought my captions were weak. My three entries are listed above the break:

"But it's from Zabar's."
"Dammit, I see you already ate."
"I do this every fall."
* * *
"Before you go to eternal damnation, have a little something."
"I can't seem to tempt you."
"And to think I got catering."
"The tree? Oh, you thought I was serious?"
"Didn't I warn you not to kill your appetite?"

The Judges Deliberate

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