FARK.com: (7215881) Donald J. Sobol, Encyclopedia Brown author, dead at 87. Killer last seen running away putting the murder weapon in his left pants pocket with his right hand

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		Donald J. Sobol, Encyclopedia Brown author, dead at 87. Killer last seen running away putting the murder weapon in his left pants pocket with his right hand (mediabistro.com)		184
		More: Sad, Encyclopedia Brown, Donald J. Sobol, New York Public Library, deductive reasonings

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4418 clicks; posted to Main » on 16 Jul 2012 at 2:13 PM | Favorite | share:

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HST's Dead Carcass		2012-07-16 08:25:19 PM

I loved these books as a kid, and I even read encyclopedias to be as smart as ole Leroy! Thanks, Mr. Sobol, you made reading enjoyable!

ciberido		2012-07-16 08:31:22 PM

Sgt Otter: NOBODY has ever known what the hell I'm talking about.

I don't know what the hell you're talking about.

orange storm		2012-07-16 08:34:39 PM

I am going to strike a match on my shoe after my morning walk in the park.

ciberido		2012-07-16 08:40:03 PM

whidbey: And am I the only one who used to get "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" stuck in my head everytime I read Donald J. Sobol?

The Three Investigators were meaner than a junkyard dog, but ... well ... they were in a junkyard, anyway. Does that count?

K3rmy		2012-07-16 08:55:07 PM

Can we have a

tag? I, myself, do not find the death of everyone who dies to be a sad occasion. If you live over 80, I usually think you've had a good run.

On a side note:

Encyclopedia Brown: Dad, it has to be Jimmy. Johnny only masturbates other guys with his right hand. He pleasures himself solely with his left hand. Jimmy is lying about the Johnny burgling the turds!

LittleMissStubborn		2012-07-16 09:31:51 PM

Loved Encyclopedia Brown.

I remember very clearly a spelling bee in Grade 3 when I thought I had them all beat by spelling "encyclopedia", which I knew from reading the books.

Then, I was given the word "newspaper" and forgot the "s".
/sadface

over_and_done		2012-07-16 09:39:19 PM

Magorn: docmattic: theorellior: Sally Kimball was hawt.

She was also an good example of a strong female supporting character, which wasn't all that common in children's literature.

Well the good news is that she and Peppermint Patty were one of the first people to be granted a marriage license after North Carolina recently legalized same-sex marriage

You owe me a new keyboard, you magnificent bastard.

/somewhere I think I still have my encyclopedia brown collection

Wool E Mammoth		2012-07-16 09:39:22 PM

just say no, folks. encyclopedia brown led to sir arthur conan doyle. i popped those books like they were triscuits. then it was the hard stuff: chandler, wolfe, the m(a)cdonalds. before i knew what was happening, i was mainlining hammett.

just say no, kids.
just say no.

thebravetoast		2012-07-16 09:47:01 PM

rynthetyn: Oh, anybody else read the "Soup" books?

Soup was awesome, as is the slightly more serious "A day no pigs would die". iirc Robert Newton Peck is a bit strange though, and for all his stories about growing up in VT I'm not sure he ever actually lived there.

knbwhite		2012-07-16 10:11:04 PM

Farker Soze: knbwhite: Because of him I never bought that coin that was minted in 500 BC.

dammit!

What's funny about our posts is that I kinda pulled 500 BC out of my ass. Was that really the date in the story?

Thosw		2012-07-16 10:12:25 PM

OtherLittleGuy: Some of the solutions are anachronisms.

There's one which a guy said he found an elephant looking through his bedroom window on April Fools Day, then offered to buy it, but said the seller wouldn't cash the check later because it was Friday the 13th.

Encyclopedia called the buyer a liar because banks aren't open on Sundays.

This was before ATMs and before TD Bank.

I picked up one of 2-minute mysteries books earlier this year and in the answer to one of the puzzles, even Sobol admitted that it was a long time ago that phones didn't automatically drop the signal when one person hung up.

HighlanderRPI		2012-07-16 10:30:11 PM

I had the movie taped off tv, used to watch it all the time as a kid.

/Turn my gaze to the rising sun

poot_rootbeer		2012-07-16 10:32:19 PM

Encyclopedia knew that electric clocks don't tick!

octopied		2012-07-16 10:36:32 PM

Omahawg: how sad.

i read all those books. devoured them. chose a life of crime because of them. profited. thanks for the mammaries, mr. sobol!

Uh, so you turned to a life of crime which paid for your breast enhancement?

LowbrowDeluxe		2012-07-16 10:37:41 PM

Wasn't there an anti-Sally that hung out with the Tigers? Or am I thinking of one of the knock-off series?

Omahawg		2012-07-16 10:43:38 PM

octopied: Omahawg: how sad.

i read all those books. devoured them. chose a life of crime because of them. profited. thanks for the mammaries, mr. sobol!

Uh, so you turned to a life of crime which paid for your breast enhancement?

wouldn't you?

mat catastrophe		2012-07-16 11:48:00 PM

I spent a lot of time as a child proving you could actually use the left pocket with the right hand.

Just not while running.

HaveBeerWillTravel		2012-07-17 12:00:59 AM

JosephFinn: findthefish: Loved me some Three Investigators Mysteries.

I wanted to visit their clubhouse in the junkyard so bad as a kid!

The phrase "clubhouse in a junkyard" just triggered a serious trip down memory lane for me. I haven't thought about this for over 20 years but HOLY SHIAT, YEAH! They had a PHONE in that motherfarker. And a LAB! And BOOKS! Eight-year old me thought that most have been the most incredible place in the world. I loved those books!

And I loved good ol' Encyclopedia Brown, too. I'm sad to hear about this, although to be perfectly honest I would have thought that the man died a long time ago. Those books seemed positively ancient even when I had them.

never_too_clever		2012-07-17 12:04:18 AM

fat_free		2012-07-17 12:09:17 AM

It wasn't me, now excuse me as I put mustard on top of this sauerkraut laden hot dog.

/JASON ftw!

casey17		2012-07-17 12:33:20 AM

StoPPeRmobile: Found the books in 5th grade. Read all the library had. Then read Sword of Shannara which led to LoTR in 6th grade.

I read way too much.

When's the movie coming out?

/still do
//fort in a junkyard
///awesome

Sword of Shannara - wow. That's one of the very 1st fantasy books I ever read/owned. I should get another copy of it.

And Encyclopedia Brown was one of my childhood faves! I should re-read those as well.

wookiee cookie		2012-07-17 12:43:31 AM

Inaditch: Did any of you start your own detective agency as a kid? Mine lasted about a day and a half, and it was my brother who "broke the case..." he found mom's hairbrush or whatever it was. I think we each got a quarter.

the one my sisters and i started was called "spy city"

the theme song went a little something like this:

spyyy city! deh deh deh dehhh deh-deh
(repeat ad infinitum)

/hat tip to 3 investigators, choose your own adventure
//wrong side of 40

over_and_done		2012-07-17 01:00:32 AM

sabreWulf07: theorellior: Danny Dunn had some reeeeeeeealy sketchy science, even as a kid I was a little leery of those. Although the one with the VR dragonfly drone was pretty cool.

I remember the VR dragonfly! The control unit actually transmits pain for some damn reason. Also, freaking anti-gravity paint FTW.

VR dragonfly setting things on fire was awesome.

Okay, back-to-back CSBs to demonstrate how hopeless of a dweeb I was (am?) as a child. CSB #1:

We know the culprit was a man in drag because when a man and a woman dine at a restaurant, the woman always sits where she can see out and be seen whereas the man sits facing the wall. Unless he's a cad. Thanks for everything Sobol!

Because of that specific story, To.This.Day. I always sit facing into the wall at a restaurant, letting my gf get the more visible side. Because at the age of ten, I dreaded being thought of as a cad by women, and it stuck. I don't think she's noticed, and I sure as hell ain't gonna bring it up.

CSB #2:

I learned the word "stride" from one of the DD stories, but initially with the wrong meaning. I don't remember which one story it was, but I recall the exact phrase, The Professor took two strides and pulled the cord out of the wall. For years afterwards the word stride was tagged in my memory as "not sure, but might mean some kind of extended-rod thing like those plastic grabber sticks with a trigger on one end and goofy hands on the other; be prepared to discard this tentative definition."

Former Lee Warmer		2012-07-17 04:02:30 AM

Smelly McUgly:
I am determined to find The Great Brain Goes to the Academy, the last one that I need, in the wild. Tom catching the dude on the

I liked him copying the key with a bar of soap, then carving it out of wood. That was some genius shiat, in my mind

Miss Stein		2012-07-17 04:22:27 AM

Former Lee Warmer: I liked him copying the key with a bar of soap, then carving it out of wood. That was some genius shiat, in my mind

That's also how the kids escaped in Flowers in the Attic.

What?

rynthetyn		2012-07-17 06:26:53 AM

thebravetoast: rynthetyn: Oh, anybody else read the "Soup" books?

Soup was awesome, as is the slightly more serious "A day no pigs would die". iirc Robert Newton Peck is a bit strange though, and for all his stories about growing up in VT I'm not sure he ever actually lived there.

I could swear that I read "A Day No Pigs Would Die," but I have absolutely zero recollection of the story even having looked up the plot summary. My mom's the one who first checked Robert Newton Peck's books out of the library, based on someone's recommendation I think, so maybe she read it first and decided that it wasn't age appropriate--I was probably only 7 or 8 at the time.

Back to Encyclopedia Brown, I actually read large chunks of the encyclopedia when I was little. When my siblings and I would complain that we were bored, my mom would tell us to read a book, and when we'd complain that we'd read all the books we had she'd tell us to read the encyclopedia. And so, because I've always been a wuss who hates going outside in summer, I spent significant stretches of my summers growing up in Florida reading the encyclopedia when I'd read all of the books I'd gotten from the library.

Jon iz teh kewl		2012-07-17 07:56:23 AM

LittleMissStubborn: Loved Encyclopedia Brown.

I remember very clearly a spelling bee in Grade 3 when I thought I had them all beat by spelling "encyclopedia", which I knew from reading the books.

Then, I was given the word "newspaper" and forgot the "s".
/sadface

libary

WRONG!!
L-I-B-A-R-Y
libary

TheVeryDeadIanMartin		2012-07-17 09:20:48 AM

mat catastrophe: I spent a lot of time as a child proving you could actually use the left pocket with the right hand.

Right after I read that story as a kid I moved my keys from my right pocket to my left. Decades have passed and I continue to keep my keys in my left pocket. I lead such a sad life.

Fano		2012-07-17 11:41:19 AM

Smelly McUgly: Sally used to throw down with the best of them, but she was also there to solve cases involving table manners or how women are supposed to sit at a table when Encyclopedia could not.

Good times.

/Also enjoyed Two-Minute Mysteries and that one Ashur Fine book I read which I think was supposed to be the start of a series.

I always thought it interesting when cases were solved based on people having good manners.

Why is Fano so sure? Turn to page 178 to find out.

98K514		2012-07-17 04:44:38 PM

Miss Stein: Former Lee Warmer: I liked him copying the key with a bar of soap, then carving it out of wood. That was some genius shiat, in my mind

That's also how the kids escaped in Flowers in the Attic.

What?

Oh yeah, that series was required reading for the girls in my junior high.

octopied		2012-07-17 10:01:19 PM

Fark: Just read a new book by a completely different author in which a very minor character was named Sally Kimball.

Farker Soze		2012-07-18 04:00:59 AM

knbwhite: Farker Soze: knbwhite: Because of him I never bought that coin that was minted in 500 BC.

dammit!

What's funny about our posts is that I kinda pulled 500 BC out of my ass. Was that really the date in the story?

Not sure. I pulled 500 BC out of my ass also.

JonZoidberg		2012-07-18 04:43:16 AM

I was a big E.B. fan when I was a kid. One year in grade school, we were all supposed to come to class dressed like our favorite literary character. I dressed up as encyclopedia brown, and none of my friends believed me; they assumed I forgot.

djmbbandie		2012-07-19 12:29:45 AM

RIP.

To see how Encyclopedia knew the author was dead, turn to pg 89.

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