...about subsidiary publications - guides to the series, the cookbook, 14 Tales, and the parody:
...about the fandom:
...about purchasing the books themselves:
...about the author:
...about the characters and story:
...about the Ronald Frobnitz and Family site:
A: There are currently twenty-five books total in the Cat Who... series. The first is The Cat Who Could Read Backwards; chronologically, they're all ordered as follows:
A: Braun's latest is The Cat Who Brought down the House, released in the States on February 3rd; it wealthy and eccentric Hollywood restauranteur Thelma Thackeray's return to her native Moose County and ties in with the "Milo the Potato Farmer" yarn from Short and Tall Tales.
A rumor to this effect is in healthy circulation in Cat Who... fandom, seemingly spawned from information once contained in this very FAQ. The answer is - we don't know.
A: Yes, indeed - there is a eighteen-year window between On and Off and Red. Braun had had The Cat Who Saw Red written in the late 60's, but, by then, the climate at her publisher and in the mystery market in general had changed, putting heavy emphasis on sex and violence, and Braun's books were no longer welcome. It was not until her second husband, Earl Bettinger, read the manuscript years later and urged her to re-submit it to the publishing houses that the Cat Who... series was reborn.
A: Paperbacks of the latest hardcovers are generally brought out anywhere from about the month before to the same time as the release of the next hardcover - and those are now generally released in January of any given year. Ergo, the next paperback should be available sometime in December or, at the very latest, early January. In any circumstance, the previous book will most certainly be released in paperback before the hardback of the next book comes out.
A: The great majority of the covers (everything up to and including the hardback for Blew the Whistle and the paperback for Said Cheese) were done by an artist named Jill Bauman, from whom I a while ago received a very nice e-mail explaining that the publisher, Putnam, ceased using her services with no explanation given. (It wasn't because of a rate increase, since Bauman's prices had remained the same.) The current covers are done by a fellow named Walter Harper, and while they're delightfully colorful, I can't help but miss the distinctive flavor of the others...
A: Braun has stated that she does not want to strike a movie or TV deal while the series is still ongoing, since having to keep the special concerns of screenplay adaptations in the back of her mind while writing the novels upon which they will be eventually based might unduly influence her work. Therefore, no plans towards that end have been made, although an eventual big- or small-screen version of our favorite series cannot be entirely ruled out (especially in view of the amount of licensing activity in the past couple years).
There aren't many other (non-true crime) mystery series that star a semi-roving/free-lance reporter (that is, to my knowledge, but e-mail me if I'm wrong - I'd be interested), but I assume you're looking for other cozyish kitty-cat mystery series, correct? Nothing is exactly like the Cat Who...s, of course (and nothing's quite as family-friendly, either - all of the series below are probably in the PG-13 range), but the following are a few series that seem to appeal to fans:
A: The Cat Who Had 14 Tales is a collection of short stories written by Braun, five of which (not, regardless of what previous versions of this FAQ said, all) were published in Ellery Queen Magazine from 1962 to 1968. A complete list of its contents can be found here.
A: The Cat Who... Companion is a sort of series data book/compendium written by fan Sharon Feaster. It features maps of Moose County and Pickax, several book-by-book guides to the places Qwill has lived, the women in his life, the cats' clues and antics, an encyclopedia, and an interview with Braun, among other things. A more complete rundown of the first edition's contents can be found here.
The first edition of the Companion has a green cover, while the second edition's cover is orange. The third edition's cover is yellow and features new cover art.
A: Yes, Short and Tall Tales, the collection of Moose County legends Qwilleran's been compiling throughout the last few most recent books, was published for real in the States on October 14th, 2002. The complete title is Short and Tall Tales : Moose County Legends Collected by James MacKintosh Qwilleran (with some help from Lilian Jackson Braun, of course), and it clocks in a 144 pages and lists at $21.95.
A: Apparently, it's now out of print, but for the record - the Checklist was a slim li'l checklist-book that includes a few basic introductory articles about the premise of the series and Braun's life and centers around a series of individual title entries (one for each book) where the reader can read a title's short plot synopsis and publication data, check off whether or not they've read the book in question (and, if so, when and in which formats), and write their own little review. More info on it is available here.
A: One was released on October 10th, 2000 in the U.S., in hardcover for a list price of $21.95. (It's also been released along with the Cat Who... Companion in something called The Cat Who... Bundle, listing for $34.95; see above for details.) It contains about 200 recipes, interpretations of the series's dishes concocted by the authors, Julie Murphy and Sally Stempinski.
The book's not out yet, but judging by what we know of it so far, no, you probably don't want to know.
Fair enough. The existence of The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun was brought to my attention by the alert H. M. White, after she found an entry for it on Amazon. It is, of course, a parody of our own Cat Who... books, and, yes, it does promise a fictional "ghastly murder" of our author, along with "resounding slap[s]" at Britney Spears and Oprah Winfrey. I can hardly wait. (Exactly how much of the book will satirize the Cat Who...s proper is put into question by the PR material, which promises a "Mad magazine humor" "shotgun approach" aimed at all of pop culture - the Cat Who... link might be just a publicity-grabbing launching pad.)
A: Many ways, in fact - though their topicality has waned in recent years.
A: There once was a Cat Who... newsletter printed up from out of Connecticut, but it ceased publication about a few years ago. (It's still advertised in certain seldom-updated pages as being active, so beware. Does anyone have any old issues, though? I'd love to take a look.) As of now, the only thing close to such an animal is the (quite nice) monthly mailing from the Qwill's Barn page, delivered via e-mail.
A: Um...somewhat. Two stores in North Carolina stock - or at least did stock - signed copies of Braun's books and are willing to ship them long-distance - The Book Shelf in Tryon (call 828-859-9304 and ask for Wanda, or e-mail betsy@nc.skyrunner.net) and Mountain Lore in Hendersonville (call 828-693-5096 and ask for Kathleen Peehan) - but hold on!!
Abridged Cat Who... books-on-tape abound, but unabridged versions are dang hard to find. http://www.recordedbooks.com has most of the books in unabridged audio form for rental or purchase - but the purchase prices are in the $30-$40 range. Oi. Much more economical is Audio Editions, which stocks some of the unabridged audiobooks for $20-$25 each. (Audiobookworm.com also has a goodly amount of unabridged tapes, but for rental only, alas.) Otherwise, the only solution would be to periodically check the eBay online auction house. Good luck.
This question has been popping up with increasing frequency, and I'm afraid that as of yet I have no answer - a search of the web marketplace turns up zippo. I e-mailed Putnam a long while, and there's been no response - so, presumably, the answer is no, at least not yet. Please e-mail me if anyone notices that this situation has changed.
A: If you're just looking for new copies, I'd recommend either Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. In previous years, my experiences with Amazon were excellent while those with bn.com had proved less than satisfactory, but recently, it's been the other way around. (Amazon seems to get extraordinarily hung up on shipping as of late.) Scouring both eBay or Yahoo's auction services has proved fruitful for many shoppers, and fans have also recommended half.com, abebooks.com, Bibliofind, and Powell's for both new and used copies of Cat Who...s (thanks, Marie, Jan, and Mary). It's always good to patronize your local neighborhood bookseller, of course, but if you live in a place that is not densely populated enough to be classified as a neighborhood (hey, I live in Montana, I can relate) or just don't like leaving the comforts of home, online purchasing is probably the way to go.
Again, both eBay and Yahoo Auctions, as well as Amazon's privately-run auctions, are good places to look. Powell's also has the occasional first edition (not recent - like Sniffed Glue vintage), if you're looking for those. If, on the other hand, this is a relatively recent hardback you're looking for - within two or three books back from the most recent release, say - you might try the bargain racks & bins of your local chain bookstore.
A: Yep; only one "l" in the middle. Tough sucker, ain't it?
A: Indeed not; she's still alive and well. Believe me, we would know if the situation were otherwise - Lilian Jackson Braun is a best-selling author, and her passing would be big news (among the local North Carolina media if anything, and there are several fans living in the area and people in regular contact with her with online access who would know if anything were up). I still get a number of e-mails, though, from folks detailing how they were told by a mistaken bookstore employee that Ms. Braun had passed away. It's not true.
A: Write her through her publisher, Putnam, at -
A: Yes; as you might have expected, Qwill's prized Siamese are based upon cats that have shared Lilian's household. All in all, there have been four Kokos and two Yum Yums.
A: The books never say explicitly, but odds are it's located in Michigan; it's always been described as being located in the "northeast central United States", 400 miles north of some major metropolitan areas - which pretty much narrows it down to Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Michigan. A number of readers have also noticed significant similarities between certain locales in the upper peninsula of Michigan and places in Moose County; a few others dissent. An entire section has been created to address this thorny issue; consult the So where is Moose County, anyway? page.
A: A false rumor instigated by an addled book reviewer (I don't know exactly whom - if you do, please e-mail me) and kicked about on AOL a couple-three years ago. Most likely he or she identified Moose County's local culture, stubborn natives, and close-knit, isolated sense of community with small-town Maine, but skipped over the geographical hints in the books themselves, which directly discount this theory. Pay no attention. (Chris and Fiona Jackson opine that "someone simply jumped to conclusions about Kennebeck, which is probably better known as a place in Maine than anywhere else".)
A: It's beginning to look more and more like Detroit all the time, although that isn't an ironclad assertion. In the lengthy hiatus between The Cat Who Turned On and Off and The Cat Who Saw Red, Braun worked as an editor at the Detroit Free Press, which alone gives the city first-choice status. Moreover, The Cat Who Went Underground specifies that Down Below is in the "southern end" of the same state as Mooseville and Pickax; considering the aforementioned overwhelming likelyhood that Moose County's in Michigan, I really wouldn't place money on anywhere else but Detroit. (Wherever it is, it's not Chicago; both Arch Riker and Qwilleran make frequent references to having grown up in Chicago in the city episodes, and it'd be awkward for them to refer to Chicago in the "third person", so to speak, if they're in the city at the time. It's also, as attentive reader Adam Elliott pointed out to me, not Milwaukee, as the art critic Mountclemens in The Cat Who Could Read Backwards mentions that he has a sister in Milwaukee, and, again, the "third person" problem rears its head - he wouldn't say she lived in "Milwaukee" if he himself lived in that city at that time, etc.)
A: We hear vague bits and pieces of Qwilleran's history throughout the books, but only in The Cat Who Lived High is everything put on the table - Qwilleran was once a well-respected, industry-renowned crime reporter and best-selling author married to a successful ad exec named Miriam. Somewhere along the line, however, he became addicted to alcohol, couldn't keep a job, and lost his respect and credibility, and, eventually, his entire career. Miriam, beforehand single-minded in the pursuit of her career, eventually went insane (presumably from her husband's drinking, though a correlation is never distinctly drawn between the two, and I hear the ad business is rough - if you can find it, read the book From Those Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Pearl Harbor by Jerry Della Femina for proof). The two divorced (nine years before the start of the series), and Qwilleran wandered along a long time as a virtual vagrant before being convinced to sober up through a horrifying experience - in a drunken stupor, he once fell onto a subway platform in the path of an oncoming train, and only at the last second did the onlookers manage to pull him out. After that, Qwilleran started the long road to recovery, and hasn't touched alcohol since.
A: As the good ol' eight-ball would say, all signs point to no. Qwilleran is always saying how he's learned that he makes a horrible husband, and his and Polly's conversations in the books indicate that they're quite happy with their relationship as it is. And the word from Braun herself? "I don't know what is going to happen book to book. The characters walk around in my head, and I don't exactly know if they will ever get married. It does not look to me as though they will ever marry."
A: A bit difficult to deduce, as birthdays and exact ages are rarely given out in the series. Qwilleran's birthday, however, is stated as being May 24 in The Cat Who Moved a Mountain, and he is stated as having turned fifty in The Cat Who Sniffed Glue and as being 52 in The Cat Who Lived High, which takes place in a November. Qwilleran receives his inheritance one-and-a-half years after High (in a June), and a little more than three years pass between that time and The Cat Who Robbed a Bank (which takes place in September. Need proof? Go to Jan's excellent Cat Who... timeline).
A: Basically, because I'm completely incompetent. Unfortunately, I'm almost always a couple weeks behind in my e-mail - I have a couple of long-running projects going at the moment, and my Inbox often gets backlogged. If I haven't answered your message yet, please, please don't take it as a personal slight.
A: I've gotten this question a few times, mostly concerning the Primer - I've therefore created a traditional black text-on-white edition of it here to circumvent the problem with that specific document. For all other white-on-black documents, though, there're three ways around the matter -
A: If you've opened up a new Cat Who... page or have posted a review of a Cat Who... book, then I absolutely want to take a look, but otherwise...well, it's iffy. Catch-all mystery or cat sites are fair game (though I'd like to limit those type of links to a small, select group), but those devoted to completely separate mystery series (say, P. D. James's stuff, or the Hercule Poirots) are not. I cannot link to sites designed to promote a mystery book or related product, as that would be unfair to the many other cat-mystery authors out there.
A: "Ronald Frobnitz" is a sort of running joke in the series - whenever Qwilleran needs to snatch a name out of thin air, whether as an alias or for use in one of his famous quick lies, more often than not, he'll use Ronald Frobnitz (a "Frobnitz", I've found out, is a term meaning a "thingamajig" or "gizmo", adopted by the computer realm but actually coined by MIT's model-railroad club in 1958 - click here for the whole story, thanks to Becca B). I've always found the name intrinsically amusing and always thought that it would be great in the title of a Cat Who... website even before I had firm plans for creating one on my own.
Q: How many books are there in the series? What's the proper chronological order of them all?
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards
The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern
The Cat Who Turned On and Off
The Cat Who Saw Red
The Cat Who Played Brahms
The Cat Who Played Post Office
The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare
The Cat Who Sniffed Glue
The Cat Who Went Underground
The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts
The Cat Who Lived High
The Cat Who Knew a Cardinal
The Cat Who Moved a Mountain
The Cat Who Wasn't There
The Cat Who Went into the Closet
The Cat Who Came to Breakfast
The Cat Who Blew the Whistle
The Cat Who Said Cheese
The Cat Who Tailed a Thief
The Cat Who Sang for the Birds
The Cat Who Saw Stars
The Cat Who Robbed a Bank
The Cat Who Smelled a Rat
The Cat Who Went up the Creek
The Cat Who Brought down the House
Would you like a printable list to take with you to the bookstore/library? Here you go.
Q: When is Braun's next book due out?
As for the next book after Brought down the House, no release and plot details are available, alas.
Q: Is the series ending after The Cat Who Brought Down the House, or anytime soon, for that matter?
The information in question, given by reliable source Wanda May of The Book Shelf bookstore in Tryon (situated near Braun's residence and in direct contact with the author), surfaced around the time of Smelled a Rat's release and stated that Lilian Jackson Braun had two more Cat Who... books planned after Rat. The confusion apparently stemmed from the two ways this can be taken - "Braun has two books in the definite planning stages, and she'll see what develops after that", or "two more books, and that's it, the series is over". Wanda May clarifies - "Lilian is doing fine.. She still writes every day, although it is more difficult since she has 'low vision'. There are two more books finished...... At any rate, she shows no signs of stopping.. If your fans would like to order the next book, they can e-mail me." So the "two more books" news was not meant as an ultimatum. Not that this necessarily means, of course, that it's an absolute sure bet that Braun won't stop writing after Brought down the House - it just means that she wasn't planning to do so at the time the news was leaked and apparently isn't as of this writing (November 2001), and that her eventual decision to do so or not will be dictated by her own wants and needs and the factors that usually figure into one's retirement from or continuance of a long-running, highly successful job. (But, still, one must wonder, as Ann does in a recent poll, does the "Brought Down the House" part of the title hold some further, "meta" significance? Then again, in a recent publicity release for the book, Lilian teases, "The Cat Who Brought Down the House is the twenty-fifth installment of the Qwilleran saga. Shall we try for twenty-six?" - so perhaps not.)
Now, with that matter settled, I can say this - while we do not know what the final volume of the series proper will be, we do have some information on what will be the final book dealing with the life and times of Jim Qwilleran. Reporter G. L. Williams e-mails: "When I interviewed Ms. Braun for an article I wrote for a local paper she told me that while she was working on her current books (at that time it was The Cat Who Smelled a Rat) that she was working on a book that would be her final book- to be published after her passing. She indicated that it would be Qwill's Journal and would fill in some of the past including his marriage as well as other information. I haven't heard from Putnam any info on her ending the series but will check with them when I turn in my next review." Bless you, Geoffrey.
Q: I note that The Cat Who Turned On and Off was first published in 1968 - but then the next book, The Cat Who Saw Red, was released in 1986. Huh?
Q: When is the latest hardcover coming out in paperback?
Q: The covers of the recent Cat Who... releases look different...
Q: Are any of the Cat Who... books ever going to be made into a movie or television program?
Q: Hey, I really like these books. Is there anything else like them on the market?
Also much-beloved by many Cat Who... fans, though not in any way about cats, is the Mrs. Polifax series by Dorothy Gilman (starts with The Unexpected Mrs. Polifax), about a grandmotherly lady who becomes a secret agent. I haven't read any of these yet, but they come well-recommended.
Incidentally, my own views of some books in the series above - because the planets above would stop in their orbits without the benefit of my opinions, y'know - are available in the C-Pad section, under the "An Exploratory Foray..." series, which started out as a venue to examine the Mrs. Murphys and has turned into a catch-all for reviews of all types of cat-mystery books.
Q: What's the deal with The Cat Who Had 14 Tales?
Though the cover layout is the same as her other books, it's not an installment of the Cat Who... series.
There are, however, two stories with a connection to Moose County - "Tipsy and the Board of Health", the life story of the sweet and funny cat who single-handedly brought the town of North Kennebeck back to life in the '30's, and "The Mad Museum Mouser", a short caprice with Homer Tibbitt and Rhoda Finney running a historical museum in Lockmaster. (One might also find a connection between the end of The Cat Who Saw Stars and the concept of "A Cat Too Big for His Whiskers".) Also of interest - "The Sin of Madame Phloi", which indeed was the story which Braun wrote that kicked off the Cat Who... series. (See the Shrine section for details.)
An important side note - any short story ever written by Braun published in any multi-author anthology (Mystery Cats, etc.) is included in 14 Tales. Therefore, if you have Tales, you don't have to scour the bookshelves worrying about missing out on any of Braun's work.
Q: What's The Cat Who... Companion?
A second, updated edition of the Companion was released on November 15th, 1999 in the States. It included a new quiz, a chapter that includes a few of Feaster's favorite Cat Who... quotations, and updates to all applicable chapters for Saw Stars compliance (including a few additions to the map). After that came a third edition released in September of 2002; it contains another new quiz, what appears to be a revised map, the inclusion of Robbed a Bank, Smelled a Rat, and Went up the Creek material, and, of most interest, a greatly expanded interview with LJB.
Q: Short and Tall Tales is coming out? But that's a fictional publication!
An important note, however - Short and Tall Tales is a compilation of mostly previously-published material; two-thirds of the twenty-seven tales are passages lifted verbatim from previous Cat Who...s, and a few more tales are condensed versions of stories we've heard before. My review of Short and Tall Tales contains a full overview of its contents; please look it over and know what you're buying beforehand.
Q: OK, then what's this Lilian Jackson Braun: A Reader's Checklist and Reference Guide published by Checkerbee?
Q: I heard that there was a Cat Who... cookbook coming out...
What's this The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun by Robert Kaplow? Do I want to know?
That's not an answer.
Besides the publicity release, the bits of hard info available are not encouraging - a) by Amazon's records, Kaplow's previous works were all geared to a teenage audience, so we can bet, if the PR left any doubts, that the humor is not going to be all that evolved, and b) the very first joke Kaplow makes - the title itself, the one Kaplow set out there to hook readers - is "Lilian Jackson Braun - DEAD!! Funny?" No.
And one more thing - I've been looking a reviewer's advance copy on eBay, but to no avail. As my expectations for this book are hovering in the basement, I'm quite averse to building up its sales receipts, so - if I don't find an advance copy, I'll take the hit for everyone, buy a copy and read it (or perhaps sit in Barnes & Noble for three hours), and report back on its contents and suitable audience - not because I aspire to the position of the fandom's Great Arbiter of Taste, but because I figure we all have enough mental garbage polluting our brains to which we don't need to add. (And, yes, this review should be more promptly posted than my one for Brought Down the House.)
Q: Is there any way to get in touch with other Cat Who... lovers on the Internet?
Q: I heard something somewhere about a Cat Who... newsletter...
Q: I missed/can't get to Braun's signings. Is there any way for me to purchase autographed copies?
It seems, though, that this is now limited only to the newest releases, not older ones. Wanda May, at the time The Book Shelf's Cat Who... contact, stated that "unfortunately Ms. Braun does not sign stacks (short or tall) of her older titles. She no longer comes into the shop to do autograph parties, but has her husband pick up the books [an Earl sighting! - ed.], take them home to sign and then bring them back." I assume this goes for Mountain Lore as well.
In the way of newer releases, however, The Book Shelf is offering autographed copies of Short and Tall Tales for $30 (shipping to U.S. addresses included) and preorders for autographed copies of The Cat Who Brought Down the House for $26 (again, shipping to U.S. addresses is included in the price. Contact info for The Book Shelf is above, or you can send a money order to - The Book Shelf, 90 Pacolet Street, Tryon, NC, 28782.
And, as always, if you still really want to shell out the bucks, go to Bookpile and check out their first editions of The Cat Who Could Read Backwards.
Q: Where can I find unabridged audiobook versions of the Cat Who... series?
(P.S.: audible.com has a goodly number of samples from the audiobooks posted up, if you'd like to take a short trial listen before purchasing. The site itself sells only abridged, RealAudio- or Windows Media Player-versions of the audiobooks, though - files, nothing tangible or complete.)
Q: How about e-books?
Q: This is all very nice, but I'm looking for plain ol' regular copies of the books. Where to?
If anyone out there knows of any other reputable Cat Who... booksellers that I haven't mentioned, please e-mail me.
Q: Yeah, and what about hardbacks?
In addition, The Mystery Guild also boasts a program where you can get several hardbacks for .99 - but they're a special, slightly smaller edition printed especially for the club, not the original hardbacks, and taking Mystery Guild up on the deal entangles you in a subscription-type contract (where you have to buy a certain amount of books at full price in a year, etc.). But, then again, that might work just fine for some of you folks out there. Your call.
Q: Are you sure that the author's first name is spelled "Lilian"?
Q: I heard that Lilian Jackson Braun had passed away... (Instant answer: no, she hasn't.)
Q: Is there any way to get in touch with Lilian Jackson Braun?
Lilian Jackson Braun
c/o Putnam Publicity
375 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
Lilian does not have an e-mail address at this time - and I'm afraid I know no other way of reaching the lady other than the above address.
Q: Is there a *real* Koko or Yum Yum?
Braun also currently has another Siamese living with her at the present time named Pitti Sing (named after another character in The Mikado, which also lent Koko and Yum Yum their monikers).
Q: Where exactly *is* Moose County?
Q: Hey! I heard it was in Maine!
Q: Okay, then, in which city did Qwilleran work in the early books?
A reader contacted me, however, to say that Could Read Backwards talks about a certain character going to Michigan, which would rule out Detroit for the "third person" reason listed above. Alert reader Benjamin Hartley located this reference, in Chpater 11, pg. 139 of the paperback, a line of dialogue from Mrs. Buchwalter to Qwilleran -
"Mountclemens is a frustrated artist. Of course, you know
he wears a prosthetic hand--remarkably realistic--actually
made by a sculptor in Michigan."
Benjamin's opinion - "I don't think the 'third person rule' applies. The phrase is best
understood to mean simply '...[ here in ] Michigan,' or possibly, '... [ here in ] Michigan, [ but not in Detroit ].'" Interpret as you will.
More info on this whole debacle is available in the Readers' Thoughts section of the aforementioned Moose County page. In any case, Down Below's location is not nearly as clear-cut an issue as Moose County's.
Q: What happened to make Qwilleran go on the wagon? Why is he divorced?
Q: Are Qwill and Polly *ever* going to get married?
There are, however, subtle signs of Qwilleran wanting his own family in The Cat Who Robbed a Bank - could it be that we'll see a turn of events sometime in the future?
Q: How old is Qwilleran/Koko/Yum Yum?
Koko is said to be three or four years old at the start of The Cat Who Saw Red, which takes place the March before Qwill's five-year sojourn in Pickax. Yum Yum is said to be a kitten in The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern and five years old in The Cat Who Knew a Cardinal (which meshes, since they're five years apart from one another). Cardinal takes place about four years before Robbed a Bank.
I've probably thoroughly confused everyone by now, so I'll shut up. In summary - at the end of Robbed a Bank, Qwilleran would be 57, Koko would probably be eleven or twelve, and Qwill's "little sweetheart" would be eight or nine.
Q: Why haven't you answered my e-mail?
Q: I'm trying to print out a document on your site that has a black background with white text, but my printer just shoots out a blank piece of paper...
1. Save the document to your hard drive.
2. Open up your hard drive's copy of the document. At the top command row of your browser, select "View", then the "Source" option. (This works for Internet Explorer. If you're running Netscape or another browser, and you can't find any "Source" option on it (or "Source HTML" or "View HTML" or something along those lines), it might be time to go on option two.)
3. This'll bring up a Notepad (or WordPad, if it's a really big document) version of the code that created the document. (Don't worry; it isn't as complex as it sounds.) Now, you're looking for two specific lines of text which should be in the first five lines or so -
BODY BGCOLOR=BLACK
and
FONT COLOR="#FFFFFF"
You'll want to delete the BGCOLOR=BLACK and FONT COLOR="#FFFFFF" lines. (Leave the BODY in there. If you can't find a FONT COLOR, try looking for a TEXT COLOR.) You'll note that these lines are encased in little < > brackets; only delete them if there's nothing left in them once you delete the BGCOLOR and FONT COLOR lines.
4. Save the document in Notepad or WordPad.
5. Hit the "Refresh" button on your browser.
If everything works out, you should see the document in black text on white. If not, abandon ship and go on to -
Q: Will you link to my site?
Please understand that it is not my intention to hurt anyone's feelings with what I link and do not link; it is just my responsibility as site maintainer to keep everything here streamlined and germane to the Cat Who...s. I can best explain it thusly: Ronald Frobnitz's Links page is not a list of my personal favorite links, but is rather a collection of links that are pertinent to the material dealt with on this website.
Q: Finally, why have you named this place "Ronald Frobnitz and Family"? What kind of name is THAT for a Cat Who... website?
As for the exact title? That's taken from a conversation between Qwilleran and Amanda Goodwinter (my favorite Moose County native) in The Cat Who Tailed a Thief. Qwill and Amanda are complaining about the sickeningly cheery Christmas newsletters so proliferous during the holidays, and together they make plans to strike back -
"'Next year,' she said, with a conspiratorial punch in his ribs, 'you and I will make up a phoney newsletter that's nothing but bad news, and we'll send it to every name in the Pickax phone book!'
'We'll sign it: Ronald Frobnitz and family,' he said."
So there.
Take me back to the Robert Frobnitz and Family homepage!
The Cat Who... series (The Cat Who Could Read Backwards and its sequels) and all its characters, places, and what-have-yous therein are the copyrighted property of Lilian Jackson Braun. Ronald Frobnitz and Family is an unofficial Cat Who... fan site and is not endorsed by or affiliated with Lilian Jackson Braun, G. P. Putnam's Sons, or anyone else involved with the production and publication of the Cat Who... series. Feel free to contact me if you think anything's been overlooked in this FAQ.