# Really Bad Encyclopedia Brown Solutions (or Other Kid Lit. Items That Ticked You Off) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 19, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400 "2005-09-19T18:26:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/141 "2018-02-19T19:46:59Z")
> [@Millit\_the\_Frail](#): > > The worst one for me was a “Two-Minute Mystery” for which the solution was something along the lines of “A lady would never put away her new mink stole upon bringing it home from the store! She would first try it on and fawn over herself in the mirror for a while.” To this day I remember a key point in 2MM was that redhead never wear shades of reds and pinks but rather blues and greens. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/142 "2018-02-19T20:27:13Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Does anyone remember this one? I’ve only got a partial memory. As a child I once read a book, the hero was a sickly boy pretty much confined to bed, who sent his friends out to search for clues, then solved the mystery from his bedroom. His name was Peter Brayne, or possibly Paul or Phillip,m definitely somethingm bbeginning with ‘P.’ He adopted the nickname ‘Peabrain.’ > > That’s all I remember. I only read one book, but I got the impression it was one of a series. It was probably British, and maybe was never published anywhere else. Anyone know it? Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/143 "2018-02-19T20:49:39Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Anyone? It’s only been 12 1/2 years. Give it a little time.😉 ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/144 "2018-02-23T13:08:11Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Anyone? Was it this? [https://www.amazon.com/School-Spirit-Sabotage-Elizabeth-Levy/dp/0064420132](https://www.amazon.com/School-Spirit-Sabotage-Elizabeth-Levy/dp/0064420132) “Second-grader Brian and his sister Penny, a kindergartner who he calls Pea Brain, [try] to discover who is undermining School Spirit Week. Readers will have a good chance of solving this mystery, which features…the lively, but fundamentally good-natured, rivalry between Brian and Penny.”—H. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/145 "2018-02-23T15:17:10Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > It’s only been 12 1/2 years. Give it a little time.😉 This thread is old enough to catch the diamond smugglers operating out of the old mill. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/146 "2018-02-23T18:56:28Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > Was it this? [https://www.amazon.com/School-Spirit-Sabotage-Elizabeth-Levy/dp/0064420132](https://www.amazon.com/School-Spirit-Sabotage-Elizabeth-Levy/dp/0064420132) > “Second-grader Brian and his sister Penny, a kindergartner who he calls Pea Brain, [try] to discover who is undermining School Spirit Week. Readers will have a good chance of solving this mystery, which features…the lively, but fundamentally good-natured, rivalry between Brian and Penny.”—H. I don’t think that’s it, but thanks. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/147 "2018-02-23T19:31:04Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > I mentioned it before, but while we’re on the subject of kid brainteasers, does anyone recall Mindtrap? We have these cards and they are a blast. After about an hour of playing we got to the point that we were running down the murder scenarios as guesses: “Was she electrocuted in a hot tub?” “Was she killed by the parrot?” “Did the parachute fail to open?” Speaking of phrasing, which statement is correct (I caught someone with this one) "The yolk of the egg is white or “The yolk of the egg are white?” Neither. The yolk is yellow. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/148 "2018-02-23T21:19:04Z")
> [@audiobottle](#): > > Mad Scientists Club was awesome! I loved it when they made the UFO and fooled the whole town. Or when they made their own sea monster. Or, or, or… The Great Brain was so far above Encylopedia Brown that they don’t really deserve to be in the same setence together. Remember when Tom taught the kid how to use his prosthetic leg and so Tom won his erector set? If I recall correctly, Tom ended up letting the kid keep the erector set. The title of the chapter was “The Great Brain’s Reformation,” suggesting that Tom had realized the folly of putting money first. This didn’t prove to be the case, but Tom did maintain a certain benevolent streak. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/149 "2018-02-23T23:33:36Z")
the odd thing is two minute mysteries was a newspaper syndicated column … but I did learn the dubious fact about why mice actually cant eat cheese …it heats up their blood and they boil inside out…from them and he did crib a lot of browns cases from two minute and admitted he did so … my favorite EB book was actually a cook book with a few food related stories thrown in …it had the parsley case…the lox case and my favorite case the missing sandwich case as many of you well know sobol had certain characters that would show up for specific cases in fact the opening line of said case is " eb looked up and seen so and so and knew it would have to be food related , Well food kid worked at a men’s shop as a stock boy and his coworker would steal his lunch every day so he hid it but forgot where it turned out to be in a hat box and the reasoning was something to do with the differences between hat and shoe sizes What made the story stand out was when foodie kid caught co worker stealing lunch he made co worker take him to lunch … he did but at the restaurant he spouted off a short list of the best restaurant insults ive ever read …like nice place … do you kill your food here ? the tablecloths are great … did they come straight from the bed ? brown added a few of his own that were even funnier… ---
**Author:** ![Not\_a\_Platypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Not\_a\_Platypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_a_Platypus)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2018, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/150 "2018-02-24T00:45:18Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > We have these cards and they are a blast. After about an hour of playing we got to the point that we were running down the murder scenarios as guesses: “Was she electrocuted in a hot tub?” “Was she killed by the parrot?” “Did the parachute fail to open?” > > Speaking of phrasing, which statement is correct (I caught someone with this one) > > "The yolk of the egg is white or “The yolk of the egg are white?” > > Neither. The yolk is yellow. Oh for crying out loud! I even briefly thought of the actual answer, then immediately disregarded it and focused on the grammar itself. Didn’t even occur to me what the point was. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2018, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/151 "2018-02-24T02:58:04Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > the odd thing is two minute mysteries was a newspaper syndicated column … but I did learn the dubious fact about why mice actually cant eat cheese …it heats up their blood and they boil inside out…from them and he did crib a lot of browns cases from two minute and admitted he did so … It may have been a two-minute mystery, but it was a collection of mysteries along that same concept. I thought the solutions were absolutely asinine. One that I dimly recall involved a robbery at a cheap cafe, and some witness to the crime stated that they saw the robbery thorough the cafe’s windows. The investigator know the witness was lying because The grease in the air from the cafe’s kitchen, combined with the cold temperature, would have caused it to condense on the windows, meaning the witness couldn’t have seen through them. Seriously, wtf? Where the hell were we to get the info to guess that? Especially since the investigator could have said, [spoiler]Mrs Jones, I’m looking at the windows right now and I can’t see through them. Care to explain you how saw through them? Their solution is completely irrelevant.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2018, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/152 "2018-02-24T16:41:09Z")
This one is a slow burn for me. Someone up thread mentioned Jupiter Jones and the stuttering parrot case. The parrot says “To-to-to be” and the assumption is that the parrot is stuttering Hamlet’s line. Genius kid detectives figure out that the parrot is giving an address - 222B Baker St, Sherlock Holmes’s address. Clever, until years later I found out that Holmes lived at 221B Baker St, thus rendering the whole plot pointless. This peeved me somewhat. I still burn with the feeling of being cheated. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2018, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/153 "2018-02-24T22:41:06Z")
How come Encyclopedia Brown is never included in tales of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Egregious oversight, Moore. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/154 "2018-02-25T02:42:30Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#): > > Of course it was Bugs Meany. It was **always** Bugs Meany! Beaten to the punch by 12 years. Damn you, Red, damn you! ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/155 "2018-02-25T16:42:44Z")
My least favourite Encyclopedia Brown solution involved a story of someone hiding in a castle moat and breathing through a hollow vertical tube that was an inch in diameter and four feet long (all measurement pulled out of my ass). The solution? E.B. knew it was a lie because the tube is too long for the human lungs to expel carbon dioxide from the end so he would have asphyxiated. As an adult I can appreciate the physics lesson, but how is a kid supposed to guess that? My second least favourite involved some ridiculously contrived situation where some guy was standing on his head and looking in a mirror and he was able to read a sign that said “CHOICE COD”. Oy. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/156 "2018-02-25T17:57:20Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > My least favourite Encyclopedia Brown solution involved a story of someone hiding in a castle moat and breathing through a hollow vertical tube that was an inch in diameter and four feet long (all measurement pulled out of my ass). The solution? E.B. knew it was a lie because the tube is too long for the human lungs to expel carbon dioxide from the end so he would have asphyxiated. As an adult I can appreciate the physics lesson, but how is a kid supposed to guess that?. I remember a similar story. I’ve never read E.B. I think it was probably a Two-Minute Mystery. Basic plot, as I recall, some guy trying to escape a lynch mob. A Doctor advises him to lie underwater and breathe through a hollow reed. Guy later found dead. Who murdered him? The Doctor would have known that breathing through a tube would be fatal. Having read this story aged about 9 I knew it was impossible to breath through a reed. It’s entirely plausible that EB has read the same story. Or he may have read an analysis of [the trope](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReedSnorkel). ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/157 "2018-02-25T18:25:54Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > My least favourite Encyclopedia Brown solution involved a story of someone hiding in a castle moat and breathing through a hollow vertical tube that was an inch in diameter and four feet long (all measurement pulled out of my ass). The solution? E.B. knew it was a lie because the tube is too long for the human lungs to expel carbon dioxide from the end so he would have asphyxiated. As an adult I can appreciate the physics lesson, but how is a kid supposed to guess that? By trying it himself in the pool, which is what I did. I didn’t try to suck in too hard (so I didn’t blow a vessel or such), but it was clear that the pressure was too much even at 1-3 feet below the surface to inhale. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/158 "2018-02-25T20:58:38Z")
The Encyclopedia Brown story that infuriated me has already been mentioned in this thread, but I’ll bring it up again for emphasis. The one where he knew a couple was crossdressing because one gender is supposed to sit facing the wall. I had never heard of any such idiotic rule. The book was telling me, with a straight face, that I could not pick my spot in a restaurant, that polite society had decreed that I had to sit in a certain place, and that this was how things had always been. I wanted to track the author down and scream at him about how _this is not my reality_. I also didn’t believe the one about men and women’s clothing having buttons on different sides, but apparently that’s true. I borrowed a coat from my dad a couple months ago, and I was having trouble buttoning it because someone had put the holes on the wrong side. Still think it’s a stupid and arbitrary distinction to make. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/159 "2018-02-25T23:55:45Z")
> [@Jayrot](#): > > There was one such case where the solution hinged on the fact that a young baby was playing on the hood of a car and that if the car had been driven 400 miles just before the baby would have been burning his feet. At the moment, it sounds reasonable, but there was something about it that pissed me off that I can’t remember. Anyone remember that one? I remember that one, in Encyclopedia Brown. EB’s father (sheriff? police officer?) had driven over to talk to a man who’d been identified by witnesses as robbing a bank/store locally. The suspect denied it, and as an alibi, claimed he’d been driving from Sundale Shores (I remember asking my mom if there was such a place, and she said probably not [using the opportunity to teach me the word “fictitious”] which was 400 miles away from town. The child (the suspect’s nephew?) was playing on the hood of the car, and at one point, almost fell. EB’s dad caught the child. The suspect said, “Thanks sheriff, he’s my nephew, I’ll hold him”. EB’s dad replied, “No (suspect’s name), I’ll hold him”, and continued the questioning. EB’s dad asked the suspect if he’d stopped anywhere. The suspect said he’d stopped for gas and a hamburger hours away, and then drove non-stop. EB sat in the car listening to the conversation. When his dad got back, EB said he could prove the suspect had not driven from Sundale Shores “in that car old (red?) car - I can prove he didn’t!”. EB asserted that the hood of the car would have been very hot after a 400-mile drive at highway speeds, and would have burned the kid. At the time, my gearhead brother claimed that not all cars would have, as a result of a 400-mile drive, become so hot that the hood would have been hot enough to burn the child. The car was described as “old”. Would that have made it more likely that it would have gotten sufficiently hot? Presumably, the sheriff could have gone over and Columbo-style - _there’s just one more thing_ - discreetly leaned on the hood. Stone cold, and you’ve got him dead to rights. I know this was EB - other literature series may have used the same plotline. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400/160 "2018-02-26T00:08:33Z")
In another EB story, a grocer hires him to find out who had broken into his store. The burglar had left a knife stuck in a watermelon. EB wanted to dust for prints, but the grocer had for some reason wiped the handle, destroying the prints. EB’s suspect was a kid named Corky (one of the Meany gang?) who during questioning said that the knife in the watermelon couldn’t have been his, because “my knife has a blade half an inch longer”. The only way he could’ve known the length of the blade (which was still buried in the watermelon) was if he’d seen it before. So the knife had to belong to Corky. The obvious intent of the story was to make the reader note that Corky had said “blade” rather than “handle”. But it occurred to me that Corky could’ve simply said, “I mean - _handle_ - not blade” when confronted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-bad-encyclopedia-brown-solutions-or-other-kid-lit-items-that-ticked-you-off/322400.md?page=9)