Episode 12 - The Cat Who Lived High

 Qwill and the cats head back down below for one last Junktown jaunt to save the aging Casablanca apartments.  Old friends, new enemies and scrabble tiles all come in to play when murder is at the game table.

Listen to the Podcast here: 

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-64c78-f65b7a

Old Familiar Faces - Robert Maus (now Roberto), Charlotte Roop, now elegantly dressed in beige and an expensive cameo, Amberina of the Three Weird Sisters, now divorced and decorating in early carboard boxes, Mary Duckworth, now in twinsets and pearls rather than red nails and blue kimonos, and the sassy Inga Berry, who greets Qwill by saying, “I’ll be damned if that isn’t the best looking mustache east of the Mississippi!”

I still cannot believe that Qwill had never played Scrabble until this book.  This man brags about winning spelling bees and reading voraciously constantly, but no one, NO ONE ever introduced him to Scrabble?  I'd believe it more if he'd said he never enjoyed playing, finding baseball and theatre more interesting. 

Polly - She of course remains in Moose County during this adventure and she and Qwill chat several times, but each time we are reminded, “ she [is] a wonderful woman, but inclined to be jealous.”  She also tells him at one point that he has a “duty, like English Royalty” to keep himself safe - and she’s not wrong.  We’re only 3 years into the 5 the will stipulates before he inherits outright, and he’s been pronounced dead or nearly dead twice in that time. 

Apparently, living at the Casablanca is a model named Winnie Wingfoot - and whenever she walks by we have to hear about how Qwill breathes Lustily into his mustache… Just Ew. 

A sign of the time -  Qwill finishes reading the architect’s report on what financial investment it will take to restore the Casablanca, and he gulps because it’s in the 9 figures (hundreds of Millions).  Even for LJB’s considerably behind the times financial acumen, I am honestly surprised it’s not in the billions.  There's a reason the Pennimans want to tear the building dwn and start from scratch!

Also there are still landlines and after 11pm discounts for calls. 

There are some interesting comparisons to WPKX and the radio news down below - where WPKX reports winners of the local quilting and hunting competitions, every single report from the Down Below radio lists some death - a irate law clerk shooting his boss, a school shooting, and of course, Qwill's supposed highway death.

Names - LJB doubles WAAAAY down on the weird names in this book  - Qwill complains about the strange names and new spellings of old names that have cropped up in the last few years, but it’s tongue in cheek - LJB mentions that the peculiarities of his own name clearly escaped him (he’s a name hipster, he was rocking the strange spelling before these kids were even born).  But some of these names - Keestra Hedrog, Matt Thiggamon, Rewayne Wilk, Winnie Wingfoot, Dunwoody, Fleudd, Ylana Targ are just bizarre.

Cats will be Cats - Qwill attempts to bring home beef stroganoff for his dinner from a local restaurant but ends up dropping the plate to save a fellow tenant from breaking a hip.  The first floor cats enjoy his dinner instead.  He returns to his apartment intending to feed the cats, but they only nip politely at the food.  It turns out, the handyman fed them a Jelly Donut while he was there...and Qwill is incensed.  Once again, they’ll eat plebeian food as long as someone else is serving it. 

Qwill is slowly learning not to crumple paper before tossing it in the wastebasket - if he does, Yum Yum attacks it immediately. Yum Yum also falls in love with the waterbed at the Casablanca and Qwill decides he has to get her home before she sleeps her life away.