DETAIL ORIENTED

Question:

Something I noticed in the books recently, in Incredibly Alice, Patrick says he sits down on the couch that Alice “was on when she was over”. But wasn’t that Max P, the dorm for the summer students? Didn’t Patrick move into the year-round student dorm when Fall came around? His roommate definitely changed.

I also wonder what Ben and Sylvia said when Alice and Patrick got married on the same day as they did, October 18th. Not that I think they made a big deal out of it, I just thought someone might mention it. Although given the weddings over the series, most of them seem to take place either around Thanksgiving or October. Is that really the best time to get married or just a coincidence that most people decided to marry at that time?

When I read about Patricia having one sip of beer and Patrick’s reaction to it, I felt a bit confused. I know drinking is heavily frowned upon in America when done by minors and the drinking age is higher than in Germany. But, well, my mother allowed me to have a tiny sip of beer if I asked for one when I was a kid – it wasn’t something forbidden, so when I turned 18 and was legally allowed to drink any alcohol, I saw no big thing about it. In fact, I learned that alcohol was pretty boring. I didn’t even start “drinking” until I turned 23 years old. I just never felt the urge to have any alcohol because I knew about it and realized it was not as great as people seemed to make it out.

A Fan Who Notices The Tiniest Of Things The More She Reads The Alice Books

Phyllis replied:

You certainly do notice the tiniest of things, and I have no idea who sat on what couch, nor do I remember wedding dates, birthdays, or Patricia’s first sip of beer.  I’m delighted that you pay so much attention to detail.  You might get a job as copy-editor at a publishing company.  I’ll bet they’d be glad to have you!