Jessica Fletcher - Who Killed Candlepin Bowling?

 

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;

 States of Mind: New England, 

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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HAPPY HALLOWEEN - SEE MUGS, SHIRTS, AND MUCH MORE HERE!!!

Answers to New England Lingo Trivia

The answers to last weeks New England lingo trivia questions from Yankee Talk - A Dictionary of New England Expressions, compiled by Robert Hendrickson and published by Facts On File, Inc., 1996.....


afterclap  - This is described as an old term for some unexpected or unpleasantly surprising happening, and quotes Melville's use of the word in Moby Dick.  We might further define it as the unpleasant result of an action.

all smiles and johnnycake - An expression for happy.

Boston strong boy - This was famed boxer John L. Sullivan's nickname.

bulkhead - the cellar double hatch doors.

Downeaster - Someone from Maine, to be sure, but also a ship built in Maine, and also sometimes referring to any New Englander.

muckle - Nantucket term to fret, or to putter with.

Watch Night - an old term for New Year's Eve.

Yankee Lingo Trivia

A few fun trivia questions from Yankee Talk - A Dictionary of New England Expressions, compiled by Robert Hendrickson and published by Facts On File, Inc., 1996.


See if you can identify these words or expressions:


afterclap

all smiles and johnnycake

Boston strong boy

bulkhead

Downeaster

muckle

Watch Night


Answers next week.

New England State Symbols

There is an astonishing collection of state symbols in New England, most of which most of us probably have never heard of, until reading trivia lists like this:

The state shellfish of Connecticut is the Eastern oyster. Massachusetts has the New England Neptune as its state shell. Vermont seems to do all right without a state shell or shellfish.

Birds are popular state symbols. Rhode Island has its Rhode Island Red chicken, Connecticut took the robin, which departs in winter so one wonders how reliable a state bird that is. Both Maine and Massachusetts of course have the Chickadee, mainly or Mainely because Maine was once part of Massachusetts -- which also explains the coincidence of the mayflower being the state flower. That and Patriot’s Day.

Vermont has red clover for its flower, and milk for its state beverage. Three cheers and a milk mustache for the dairy industry in Vermont. Maine’s state beverage is Moxie, which you need to drink the stuff.

Berries are awfully important, too. The cranberry belongs to Massachusetts, and Maine’s is the wild blueberry.

The state rock in New Hampshire is granite, of course. It’s marble in Vermont, and cumberlandite in Rhode Island. Don’t suppose there are too many countertops or statues made of the slightly magnetic cumberlandite, but maybe some of our readers can educate us about that.

Unusual in the world of state symbols is the category of state folk art symbol -- Rhode Island has the Crescent Park carousel. Not to be outdone in fringe symbols, Massachusetts has a state donut -- the Boston Crème, and a state cookie, the Toll House, or chocolate chip cookie to you.

Both Massachusetts and Vermont have chosen the Morgan horse for its state horse. And for its state ship, Connecticut adopted the nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus. Vermont has a state flavor -- maple, of course. Massachusetts has a state children’s book author, Dr. Seuss, who lost out to state children’s book -- which is Robert McCloskey’s “Make Way for Ducklings”.

Many of these symbols are references to aspects of our history or culture, though one may be hard pressed to discover why Connecticut required the praying mantis for its state insect. There’s a lot of important voting going on in the state houses. They might do some of it if there’s any time left over after voting on state cat, state fossil, and state polka.