August 2012
31 posts
“You go. I didn’t pay twenty-five cents to get a black eye.”
– Gary Hale, pointing out that in addition to solving mysteries, Encyclopedia also serves as protection. Maybe Encyclopedia should start charging more than a quarter for his services. The Case of the Battle Cries
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The Case of the Practical Jokers
The last time we met Lucy Fibbs, her pig, Gwendolyn, had been stolen right before some pet obedience contest. This time, she feared that someone was a little too interested in her hog, Julius Caesar, who she was training in hopes of becoming the strongest pig in the world. The night before Encyclopedia and Sally came by to visit, Lucy said that she suspected one of the local boys tried to steal...
5 tags
The Case of the Boy Juggler
Idaville was all abuzz because talent scouts for the new television show Young Americans were in town to hold tryouts. Encyclopedia and Sally were at the civic auditorium to watch their friend, Fangs Liverright, try out. His act was eating three apples while juggling them.
Before the tryouts, the two went backstage to wish Fangs luck. On their way to see him, a woman in a yellow dress carrying a...
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The Case of the Bubble Gum Shootout
Encyclopedia and Sally were at the park when they saw Cephas Keefer making weird faces. It turned out he was actually trying to blow bubbles with his chewing gum to prepare for a bubble gum shootout against Malcolm Nesbit. Not actually against Malcolm, but I’ll get to that.
It started a year earlier when Cephas and Malcolm were playing outfield in a baseball game. Someone had hit a ball into a...
4 tags
The Case of the Crowing Rooster
Encyclopedia was doing yard work when Lisa Periwinkle raced by his house. She stopped to tell him that she was off to the city dump because Wilford Wiggins had an investment opportunity for everyone. Encyclopedia explained that Wilford doesn’t invite him to those meetings. Lisa acknowledged that that was because Encyclopedia always points out how Wilford was just cheating the children out of their...
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The Case of Hilbert’s Song
Hilbert Capps was a champion hollerer. When he wasn’t hollering, he was talking about hollering. Boy, he sounds fun to be around.
On the day that Hilbert stopped by the Brown Detective Agency to go with Encyclopedia and Sally to Maggie DeLong’s birthday party, he was quiet because his voice was shot.
He explained that he had been walking around the neighborhood a few days earlier when he heard...
8 tags
The Case of the Ugliest Dog
It was the First Annual Idaville Children’s Dog Show was being held, and Encyclopedia and Sally were on hand to look at all of the children’s dogs dressed in different costumes.
We’re already a paragraph into this story, and I already have a problem with it. You shouldn’t use the word “annual” until you’ve already held the event two successive years. Whatever, I’m just being nitpicky at this...
“What a horrible example of sportsmanship.”
– Mrs. Brown I wonder how many times a day that phrase gets uttered in Idaville. The Case of the Blond Wig
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The Case of the Used Firecrackers
Encyclopedia got a mysterious phone call from someone telling them to meet them out by the old cattle range at ten in the morning. He and Sally thought it was suspicious, as this was a method Bugs has constantly used in his ill-thought-out plans to get them to the scene of some crime, but they showed up anyway.
With the exception of a few birds on the power lines, it looked as if the two...
“You have to start the swimmers when they’re two or three days old. First...”
– Lucy Fibbs explains how she prematurely separates her piglets from their mothers and forces them to learn how to swim for the purposes of some competition. The Case of the Overfed Pigs
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The Case of the Dinosaur Hunter
Garth Pouncey came to the Brown Detective Agency after spending $3 on a dinosaur-hunting license from Bugs Meany. He was concerned that maybe Bugs tricked him into buying something that he didn’t need.
Really? Garth still hasn’t figured out that dinosaurs are extinct? Maybe he should consider himself lucky that he’s only out $3, because this kid really doesn’t deserve to have money in the first...
“If you went out of mind, no one would notice.”
– Bugs Meany to Wilford Wiggins, moments before he was ready to give Wilford $5 to invest in square eggs, despite the fact that Wilford had any evidence that these eggs even existed. The Case of the Marvelous Egg
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The Case of the Supermarket Shopper
Chief Brown had no idea what to do with his latest case, so he had Encyclopedia take a crack at it.
Someone had broken into William Quinn’s house and stole an Ignazio Saracco painting worth thousands. Don’t feel bad if you’ve never of Saracco, neither has Google. The story tells us that he was a 15th century artist.
How crappy is this painting for it to be 500 years old, but only be worth...
“[Wilford] must be afraid you’ll shoot him down again. Say, maybe I’d...”
– Chester Jenkins, referring to Wilford Wiggins’ latest “investment opportunity.” The Case of the Marvelous Egg
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The Case of the Thermos Bottle
The Parent-Teacher Association was holding its annual summer carnival. The proceeds from the event were to go towards getting a new air conditioner for the cafeteria.
I feel like this is part of a viscous cycle. We have a public school system that pumps out easily-fooled idiots and doesn’t spend its money improving the quality of the education it offers. Instead, it spends its money on an...
“After lunch, Edsel let Sally clean up [his] kitchen…”
– Not a quote uttered from a character, but actual narration in the story. The word “let” implies that Sally had wanted nothing more than to clean someone else’s kitchen. And that Edsel, out of the goodness of his heart, allowed her to do so. Edsel didn’t ask for Sally’s...
5 tags
The Case of the Ball of String
Cosimo Bender had asked Encyclopedia and Sally to show up to the Children’s Hobby Show two hours before it began. He had entered his two-and-a-half-foot ball of string in the Collecting for Fun division – a section of the event which showcased worthless collections that could not be sold or traded. Cosimo had originally hired the Brown Detective Agency because of a rumor floating around saying...
“The police department won’t touch the [oversided] mousetrap. We claim...”
– Chief Brown, explaining how he passed the buck, which led to his own Idaville’s municipal government grind to a halt. I’m sure the taxpayers are glad to pay his salary. The Case of the Giant Mousetrap
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The Case of the Overfed Pigs
Lucy Fibbs kept and trained pigs. In the past, they had been trained for obedience contests. She later moved on and went into the world of pig racing. She was training one breed of pig to run fast, and she was training another breed for swimming. She was going to enter a team for the first All-Pig Olympics. The problem was that the swimmer pigs were gaining weight too quickly. She suspected that...
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The Case of the Marvelous Egg
Idaville’s poster boy for childhood obesity, Chester Jenkins, was seen hurrying past the Brown Detective Agency carrying an egg. When Encyclopedia asked Chester what the rush was, Chester answered that Wilford Wiggins had told everyone that “egg power” was going to make them rich. What followed was the same conversation that occurs every time someone tells Encyclopedia about Wilford’s latest...
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The Case of the Upside-Down Witness
Unlike Caswell Philpott, who did headstands as part of his yoga, Elton Fisk did his for charity. He would stand on his head on the street corner and raise money for the local hospital. Like Caswell, Elton witnessed something that would be of great interest of the police, but took the information to the Brown Detective Agency instead.
Elton had seen three men wearing yellow overalls and carrying...
“The Odd-Ball Olympics are run on the honor system. No cheating.”
– Encyclopedia Brown, who seems to genuinely believe that one event could take place in Idaville without anyone cheating, despite the fact that that has yet to happen. Ever. The Case of the Fifty Mosquitoes
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The Case of the Diving Partner
Otis Dibbs had carved out a summer gig for himself diving for golf balls hit into the water hazards of Idaville’s golf courses and selling the balls back to golfers. He had himself quite the business until Helga Smith started butting in and taking over.
Helga was one of the town’s laziest 17-year-olds, whose only noted activity was getting weekly manicures. Otis didn’t want to have to share his...
