Episode 7 - The Cat Who Played Post Office

 

Qwill commits to living in Pickaxe for the five years required by Fanny's will and gets committed to the hospital when a truck runs his bike off the road.  His new house is full of priceless antiques and a mystery - a pregnant housemaid disappeared without a trace five years earlier.   Qwill's nosiness nearly gets him killed again, but he survives to continue being fed by Iris Cobb, his new live-in housekeeper and cook. Money has its perks. 
Catch up on the podcast here: 


My Thoughts: 

Food: We get introduced to several Moose County staples for restaurants, and all by one are different varieties of terrible- the Old Stone Mill (frozen tortellini), Otto’s Tasty Eats (the backcountry Golden Corral), and the Hotel Booze - oldest “flophouse” in the county, home of the Cholesterol special - a double cheeseburger and fresh-made fries.  The book ends at a new restaurant called Stephanie’s (named after a family cow) where the chef apparently cannot tell the difference between broccoli and asparagus. 


A “Sign of the times” is when Qwill has to go looking for a new bike and complains that they want more for a ten-speed than he paid for his first car! This makes me wonder if she’s still thinking of him buying a car in the 50s...


Cats:

     Cat success - Roger MacGillvary stated in the previous book that he doesn’t like cats after getting bit by a barn cat when he was a kid (fair).  Koko is out to change that apparently and is far nicer to Roger than to any of the women Qwill has dated. 

    Cat failure - the sad story of Arch having to put down his old cats after his divorce since his wife didn’t want them and he couldn’t keep them when he moved to a hotel.  (RIP Mibs and Punky) 


We get some unpleasantness of small town life here - the mayor’s mother is a Goodwinter, which is why he keeps winning reelection, but that’s after he was fired as principal of the high school after a scandal involving several female students. 


There is a notable county ordinance in Moose County left over from the mining days - no whistling.  It is actually illegal to whistle in the Pickaxe city limits. (and apparently the Hotel Booze, which is where Qwill runs into grave disapproval when he starts whistling Bicycle built for two, aka Daisy, Daisy)


I’d like to give LJB props for mentioning a possible miscarriage for Daisy and how that can affect someone.  It’s not commonly discussed, and yes, it’s a throwaway line from Mildred, but the fact that it’s there is nice.


If you've never seen a mining shaft house, here are some examples - A Shaft house is the structure that covers (or houses) the machinery at the top of a mine shaft.




Thanks for reading, and stay nosey my friends!


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