Organic Fuel
Organic Fuel
[Cueball at a computer and a friend standing nearby.] Cueball: Wow – Engines can burn vegetable oil. Friend: Well, sure. You can burn most any organic matter. Corns, leaves, spices... Cueball: Spices? Really? Friend: Sure – Mussolini made the trains run on thyme. Cueball: ... Cueball: We are no longer friends.

Cueball is fascinated about engines that can burn organic matter. But in fact, biofuel is a big industry today. It is criticized now and then, because it can affect food prices and is believed to exacerbate world hunger.
Next comes a reference to the famous quote, "Mussolini made the trains run on time," an oft-quoted piece of propaganda from Italy under Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini . The pun is made on the fact that thyme (an herb, or as in this comic, a spice) and time (the universal phenomenon, as in the original quote) are homophones . But the organic matter thyme could technically be used as fuel.
The title text may be interpreted in one of two ways. It may be attributed to the pun-maker, in which case he makes no apology for his corny joke, or it may be attributed to Cueball, in which case he makes no apology for the termination of friendship, since the pun was too terrible.
Randall later made another joke on the fact that thyme and time are homophones: 1123: The Universal Label .
[Cueball at a computer and a friend standing nearby.] Cueball: Wow – Engines can burn vegetable oil. Friend: Well, sure. You can burn most any organic matter. Corns, leaves, spices... Cueball: Spices? Really? Friend: Sure – Mussolini made the trains run on thyme. Cueball: ... Cueball: We are no longer friends.
