Episode 11 - The Cat Who Talked To Ghosts

 Qwill is listening to Opera with the cats when he gets a terrified phone call from Mrs. Cobb.  He rushes to her rescue, but it's too late.  Now he has to discover if she's the victim of the Goodwinter Curse, or a much more mortal foe...

Listen to the Podcast here:

https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-5iigw-f5ccea

Thoughts:

New people  - We meet the Dingleberrys who run the funeral home and will apparently bury you for free if you’re over 100. Adam Dingleberry is the 94 year old patriarch.  His sons run the business.  Rhoda Finney, an 85 year old widow who’s been chasing 95 year old Homer Tibbet for as long as anyone can remember.  They get married on a trip to Lockmaster to fix her hearing aid. 

Kristi Waffle - lives on the Fugtree farm, has goats and sees the ghost of her grandmother walking on Thunderstorm nights.  Qwill at one point wonders if she has a husband and why he’s not cutting the grass.

Mitch ogilvie - currently working the check in desk at the New Pickaxe hotel and applying to replace Iris at the Museum. 

Arch to Qwill - People have come to expect the Qwill Pen on certain days - Find an Old-timer and rip off some memoirs!!  (this in response to Qwill defending his lack of writing due to multiple deaths, escaped felons and cat sitting the devil incarnate.) He does however go and interview Adam Dingleberry after this.

Restaurants - the Luncheonette by the court house finally gets it’s name!! It’s Lois’s Luncheonette!  And an institution is born. 

This book has the first mention of Qwill’s high school english teacher, Mrs. Fisheye, who taught Qwill and Arch back in Chicago.  The story goes that she would frequently assign thousand word essays on a variety of topics, leading to Qwill’s ability to be interesting on pretty much any subject for at least that long. 

Polly - There is dubious mention of Polly’s cooking skills here.  Apparently they read a TS Elliot book (The Cocktail Party) and now everything is curry - Qwill is less than enthused about coming over for dinner. Polly seems to enjoy torturing him and invites him to “Attitude Adjustment Hour” before dinner - Eat thy bread with joy and drink thy [Squunk water] with a merry heart! (Not Shakespeare, Ecclesiastes).  Another not great sign for their relationship at this point - Qwill admits that he wears whatever is available and clean for his dates with Polly, but actually puts thought in to dressing nicely for dinner with Mildred...He claims this is because Polly is not attuned to fashion, while Mildred has an eye for color and design.

Signs of the times - The telephones are land lines.  While the museum catalogue is computerized, Iris uses a typewriter to send letters to her son.  In the opposite direction , Homer Tibbet tells Qwill about how when he was a kid, he used to Spook a house, by putting a nail in a loose board on a porch or wall and tying a string to it.  If you pull the string taunt and bow it, it makes a horrible noise that reverberates throughout the house! (but he claims it won’t work with aluminum siding and modern insulation).

Odd Qwill fact - he does not own a dark suit and has to be fitted for one very quickly to be a pallbearer for Iris’s funeral . 

Odd Coincidence - Iris had a vintage school desk in her kitchen that she used for a telephone table - turns out it was Homer Tibbet’s old school desk and Adam Dingleberry’s before him (their initials are carved in the top). 

I did a brief search but I can’t find any record of LJB having children.  This may explain Qwill’s general dislike of them and her strange assertion from Verona that Baby “talked in full sentences at 8 months”.  I guess  it’s possible, but it’s more like 18 months for full sentences…(says the mother of the almost 10month old who certainly communicates, but words aren’t a thing yet).

I don’t give enough time to Baby being a very bright and engaging child who really does win Qwill over, but it’s not hugely important to the plot.

Cats will be Cats - Koko and Yum Yum object to car travel until Qwill gives them a running travelogue of their trip. They also eat Qwill’s lamb shank with lentils while he goes to make a phone call.  They left him the lentils.  We meet William Allen, formerly of the Pickaxe Picayune where he was staff mouser, who has gotten a promotion after escaping from the burning Picayune building - on the door to the newspaper offices, he’s listed as the general manager. 

Finally, we meet Polly’s siamese kitten, named Bootsie.  Qwill finds him cloying and infantile - and thinks she should have named him Puck.  Qwill attempts to cat-sit Bootsie overnight at Polly’s request - along with his special food, brushing requirements, and commode filled with clean paper towels (because newsprint might stain his precious fur).  Apparently he’s never been let loose at Polly’s because the next thing Qwill knows he’s flying all over the apartment and eating the meatloaf Qwill was saving for dinner. He then attacks Qwill from above, sinks his claws into Qwill’s sweater and won’t let go until Qwill rolls him IN the sweater to take it off, after which he falls asleep. Bootsie is responsible for Qwill’s reason why he and Polly never get married - their cats are incompatible.