Talk:Bertha Cool

MERGED
I have today created a new page called Cool and Lam and merged all information from both articles, making both individual pages into redirects. (see below -- this has been proposed for six weeks with no adverse comments). I was instructed that I couldn't merge the talk pages so I will leave them as they are, so that people have a record of what's happened. If anyone has any questions or problems, my talk page will be a good place to let me know. Accounting4Taste 01:49, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Proposed Merge
I've proposed to merge the Bertha Cool and Donald Lam pages into a single page, Cool and Lam. My reasoning for this is that there are no books that have just one of them -- even in the two wartime novels when Donald Lam is servingin the army, he's constantly referred to and is an active presence in the novels. All the rest contain the two equally. Also, I checked out the Nero Wolfe page, and it contains Archie Goodwin -- a very similar situation. Both are pairs of private investigators, both have one active "leg-man" partner and one "managing" partner. I'm leaving this proposal up for a while just to ensure that if anyone disagrees, they have a chance to express themselves. This note has been repeated on the other page that I propose to merge. Accounting4Taste 03:13, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

I've edited the reference to Bertha's weight from 285 pounds down to the more usual 165. I checked a dozen of the novels and Bertha's weight is usually given as 165 pounds within the first few pages -- once in the first line of the novel (Cats Prowl At Night, 1943). In the opening chapter of the first novel, Donald Lam estimates her weight at about 200 pounds and a few pages later revises that estimate upwards by twenty pounds, but she is never described as heavier than that. On the first page of Double Or Quits she's described as having had an illness that dropped her down to 160 pounds. Possibly the suggestion of 285 pounds is in confusion with Nero Wolfe? Anyway, I have a dozen citations that say she's 165, so I've edited to that. I find it more confusing that she's described as "heavy" or "fat", but I guess standards were different in those days (most of the women whom Donald Lam finds attractive weigh somewhere between 110 and 125 pounds). The other edits were to make the out-of-universe perspective more clear. Accounting4Taste 02:54, 11 April 2007 (UTC)