Talk:The Mother Hunt

Initial contribution
It's pedantry, I know, but I'm not sure how I should indicate "chapter seven" in the article's reflist. The problem is that the edition I'm looking at uses Roman numerals for chapters. I've followed that course in identifying the chapter, but if it looks too priggish to do so then someone by all means change it. I've stared at it long enough that I no longer trust my own judgment on the matter. TurnerHodges 03:15, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
 * A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, so it makes perfect sense that I changed it to numerals. — WFinch 03:49, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks. (And thanks for the correct quote. "W" in WFinch stands for "Waldo"?)TurnerHodges 20:29, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Pins
I'd not seen the original cover before. What's weird about it is that chapter 1 specifies that the pin is a straight pin, not a safety pin. (I shouldn't even bring it up. It's probably OR, and now I'll incur the wrath of some administrator.) TurnerHodges 19:21, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Bill English blew it — he should have incorporated one common pin in his design. The book design is nice, though, with a special touch in having a pink and a blue safety pin printed on the cloth front cover, underneath the dust jacket. — WFinch 19:33, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * The note is attached with ONE straight pin, and the diaper (or pillow case) with TWO safety pins,  Besides. the cover needs to sell the book to people who haven't yet read it. As Lon would say. women love babies (Archie says "like") and diaper pins say "baby" while straight pins just look like abstract lines. 12.193.238.99 (talk) 13:07, 27 July 2014 (UTC)

pucker
It's absurd that "pucker" is identified as an obscure word. People commonly talk of babies puckering up when they get their first taste of a sour pickle, of girls puckering up for a kiss, or talk of a clothing repair not lying flat but rather puckering. And checking the word in several dictionaries, I don't see any assertion that it's obsolete or archaic. The paragraph reads "He looked at me. Is this flummery? You said she shied but you reassured her. Is she in fact in a pucker?" Flummery is a far more obscure word, being used almost nowhere except in Stout's writing, or the verb "gull" (although gullible is common enough) 12.193.238.99 (talk) 12:43, 27 July 2014 (UTC)

Nonsense. I suggest that you get a better dictionary. The Random House Dictionary, Unabridged, copyright 1973, gives as its fifth definition for pucker, "Archaic. A state of agitation or perturbation." The Oxford English Dictionary concurs, noting that the usage is colloquial and dating it to the mid-eighteenth century. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.176.127.133 (talk) 05:34, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Differences Between The Novel And Its A&E Adaptation?
I notice the section devoted to the A&E adaptation does not mention any of the differences between it and the novel. If no one objects, I will insert a brief summary of these differences into that section. Thanks.TH1980 (talk) 13:41, 5 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Here is what I inserted:
 * "The adaptation is very faithful to the novel except for moving the setting to the show's 1950's timeframe and two minor changes in detail: Lucy's beach house becomes a country house, and Lucy is interested in preventing killer fog from occurring in New York City."
 * How's that?TH1980 (talk) 13:47, 5 February 2017 (UTC)

The buttons
This book contains the noir joke "Are you a button man?" I think. -- Asked by Nicholas Losseff of Archie Goodwin. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.174.85.204 (talk) 22:32, 14 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Most definitely. The Nero Wolfe books are full of noir jokes, and I think that the first example of saying a murder victim was was "still dead" appears in one of them. Wastrel Way (talk) Eric —Preceding undated comment added 22:23, 28 January 2019 (UTC)