Nancy Drew Saves Me from Drowning in Irony
I was mocking "explosive oranges" the other day when a co-worker interrupted me with: "Admit it, you just LIKE her!"
I waved my hands in fervent denial. She went on, relentlessly: "The only reason you have read five or six--"
"Nine," I interjected, nicely, as I shifted Moss-Covered Mansion to cover up Scarlet Slipper Mystery, wondering where Clue in the Diary had gotten to.
"Nine, is because you like 'em. You should just admit it!" she went on.
"No, they are bizarre," I insisted. "Just truly twisted."
"Huh!" was her self-satified reply.
Why was I still immersed in "research" on Nancy Drew? This was a real mystery.
I had already written a very funny OS post on Nancy Drew, so why read more?Was I a glutton for punishment?
Had I lost my critical facilities?
Had all the other books in the Library been checked out?
Since posting Nancy Drew Turns 80--and it Shows, I had read:
Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion (#18), in which Nancy's father, attorney Carson Drew, is defending an orange-grower/business tycoon who has been accused to driving a truckload of explosive oranges into the Kennedy Space Center.But--and Nancy pursues this important clue--the explosive oranges are NOT the variety of oranges that her father's client grows!
Hamlin--Can be explosive
Pineapple--safe orange varietyWhile solving the case, Nancy hopes to buy a Florida vacation home, but the realtor is strangley uncooperative. Could it be that he is in cahoots with the wild animal trainer who lives next door in the mysterious moss-covered mansion?
And what about the rude servants of Nancy Drew's father's client? They leave dirty dishes in the sink. Nancy will have to investigate--and wash their dishes!
Finally Nancy is kidnapped with Ned Nickerson and imprisoned in the moss-covered mansion's basement --in a room with a narrow ledge around a pool of boiling water. All because they interfered with the scientist who is going to aim a "beam" at the NASA moonshot launching because he has been turned into a subversive by a foreign government. Luckily Nancy's friends lead the FBI and NASA security and local law enforcement to the mansion just in time.
Got that?
Whew! We're saved by Nancy Drew!I also found time to plow through Nancy's Mysterious Letter (#8), in which Nancy's mailman has letters stolen from his mailbag. The thief turns out to be his own half-brother, Edgar Nixon, who had earlier sworn to make him "sorry."
Among the stolen letters: a letter from a law firm in London to Nancy Drew asking if she is the heiress to a large fortune left to a "Nancy Smith Drew " and letters from women who are being bilked by Edgar Nixon via a spurious Lonely Hearts Club.
Note: A Lonely Hearts Club--aside from Sgt. Pepper's, which formed a band in the 1960s--is a means for women (and men) to meet a spouse by paying someone to find them a match.
1960s style Lonely Hearts The con-man, Edgar Nixon, spends most of his energy trying to foil Nancy's search for the heiress, the Other Nancy.
The missing heiress, an actress, is directing a play at Emerson College, where Nancy spends a chaste weekend with Ned Nickerson. Nancy never finds her doppleganger and Edgar never actually hits the Girl Detective on the head--despite several efforts.
When he pays $25 to a "no good" to throw a rock at Nancy Drew, Ned gets the hireling to part with $5 to repair the frat house window broken when Nancy ducked.
There are so many specific dollar amounts in Nancy's Mysterious Letter that I suspect that the ghost-writer must have been negotiating for a higher payment.
Nancy suspects that the villain wants to marry the Other Nancy to get her money. But other times, she's worried that Edgar may substitute a female accomplice -- and just kidnap the Other Nancy Drew.
Kidnapping Nancy Drew--it's a "villain thing."
Of course, Nancy not only ultimately breaks up the villain's wedding plans, she sends the heiress back to England.
As they say in Highlander, there can be only One (Nancy Drew)!
Not a car in sight, but still lots of clues!I also started The Clue in the Diary (#7), in which Nancy Drew meets Ned Nickerson for the first time. He is driving off in her car--but he's saving it from the sparks from the burning house where Nancy has stopped. In the next chapter Ned will help her again, by ripping the damaged bumper off her convertible so that she can drive it to the auto repair shop. Yeah, another car accident.
Oy vey! Such a Nancy Drew Moment! I'm so excited!
I'm going to hell, arent' I?
Another one? 
Comments
i wanna read those original racist ones! I wanna meet spunky nancy!!!! and she should have mentioned how nancy can read music and know what it sounds like in her head, and then remember it and play it perfectly later. i dont remember which book that was but it happened. and so true with the kidnapping.unconscious thing. she gets knocked out once a book. oh nancy! thats why she gets killed a lot in the games.
she had a fast car, a boyfriend, and a flashlight
she made it look easy
Aunt Mabel--you are so right!!! And I wonder about Bess and George's parents, who kept sending them out with Nancy--to protect her.
Wendy--Beverly Gray??? I'll look her up. There have been a ton of girl detectives, but Nancy kidnapped them all and hid them in the Old Clock.
Hoop, Jr.--- Reading Nancy Drew is like getting hit on the head. You don't remember much, which is why I'm posting these plot summaries.
I read a terrific book about how Nancy Drew came about and the many people who wrote the books. Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak. I had no idea that she had been a creation of the publishing company and had been written by so many people. It was a fascinating look into the way Nancy Drew's characters had evolved as society changed.
Sip raw goat milk from a cracked Smurf Mug?
You go to heaven as one who had a good heart.
You got Heart tucked under the Left ribs cage.
scup.
scupper has no hole in head that leaks truths.
I reading because I love 'Library' in a `Lola.
If you can - will you teach comb-overs Elder?
Aging Elders hate going bald? Drew. O sigh.
I never read Drew. I read the Hardy Boys.
I even though of Annie Oakley & Trigger.
Trigger was Zoro's mule name? Cisco?
I vote you and Nancy Drew wear shoes?
You can wear non-matching flip-flops?
I Hope the SS @ White House hire you.
You would protect from bad-weird lies.
Wild days, Barack Obama. Gimme truth.
Beatles's Lennon`We say we want truth.
We weary of stale poppy beagles barfing.
I ask my sister if Nancy Drew was on ritalin.
Aunt Mabel 'ought' to be the new Surgeon.
The White House need red beets and arugula.
No use MAYO.
Use Dijon mustard.
Eat Chicago corn-dog.
White House is foodie.
It's a foodie fast food joint.
Honest. I hear wild turkey.
Turkey fly like drunk goat.
If You ever see turkey fly?
Ya should read Nancy too?
If you read the Hardy Boys?
I hope we don't be bald eagle.
Bald Eagles need manicure too.
I feel like getting a bald duck tutu.
The wild turkey talk to a black crow.
Serious.
What a beautiful day to no be goofy.
No get a holy canoe to float to Cancun.
Walk to Myrtle Beach to tease two obese.
Silly. I love chubby and skinny. Whoa wow.
Be real and love who You are with on Friday.
Go get ice cream at Sweetsi. Eat banana Sunday.