Putting Encyclopedia Brown in his place

I used the read these stories as a kid, I remember liking most of them. But even then, I just had the think... "WTF? Who would know that one esoteric bit of trivia." Apparently the author did, and he liked to hold it over me to make me feel dumb.

I found this post that takes apart Encyclopedia Brown and points out 10 ridiculous mysteries he solved. Check it out here.

A few quotes:

And even the few children who can tell the Civil War from the American Revolution certainly don't display an Apu-like knowledge of its major motives, battles, and dates.[...]

Would you really try to challenge a group of isolated strangers who have just proven that they can slaughter and cook a goose, and then lie to innocent children about it? Is that not the worst real-life Deliverance red-flag imaginable?[...]

To solve this one, a child would have to either be a bird-watcher (unlikely) or inclined to wake up before sunrise (impossible).[...]