It's no mystery, NOBODY killed candlepin bowling. It is still alive in New England, even if more and more bowling alleys offer only ten-pin lanes ("big balls") like an encroaching weed devastating a native species. But you'd never know that if you saw the "Murder By Twos" episode of the beloved series Murder She Wrote.
I believe I am second to none in Jessica Fletcher or Dame Angela Lansbury fandom, and hardly miss an opportunity to watch a re-run, so please take this not as a rant, but merely as an observation by a concerned party. SHE AND SETH WENT TO A BOWLING ALLEY IN CABOT COVE AND IT WAS TEN-PIN!!!!!
I almost choked on my New England clam chowder. This is sacrilege. Please see this previous post on candlepin bowling. And remember, in New England, if it ain't candlepin, it ain't bowling.
While I understand the series was shot in California, one wonders why a New England consultant was not put on staff. I am willing to overlook occasionally dubious "Maine accents" or even the absence of any kind of New England drawl when the episodes are set in the fictional Cabot Cove, Maine. I am willing to overlook her nephew Grady constantly calling her "ant" Jess, instead of the appropriate "awwnt" Jess, though it has the same effect as fingernails on a chalkboard.
I even kept my temper when Jessica once referred to "pop bottles." Good lord. "Pop?" Really?
I am willing to overlook a lot of things, but not ten-pin bowling in this tiny hamlet in Down East Maine.
"Murder by Twos" is episode 9, season 11 of the program, originally broadcast November 27, 1994. There's nothing wrong with the story. A murder happens. Two of them, actually, but I guess that's a plot spoiler so I won't continue.
Though Jessica traveled all over the world, stepping over corpses at every turn, I confess, I enjoy the episodes set in Cabot Cove the most. I just have to overlook a few regional errors. But I draw the foul line at not having a candlepin bowling alley in town.
For those who are curious, or, like Jessica, need proof, I herewith include this link for places to go candlepin bowling in Maine.
Above image courtesy of the Encylopaedia Britannica,GNU Free Documentation License.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;
Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;
A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.
TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
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