Woman who has pet weasel... WWHBNB?

[TheAsh]

Who is this woman in TBB?

>“Nothing helpful,” Violet said, glancing down at a piece of scrap paper on which she had been taking notes. “Fifty years ago there was a woman who left an enormous sum of money to her pet weasel, and none to her three sons. The three sons tried to prove that the woman was insane so the money would go to them.”

“What happened?” Klaus asked.

“I think the weasel died,” Violet replied, “but I’m not sure. I have to look up some of the words.”

“I don’t think it’s going to help us anyway,” Klaus said.

Now, when Klaus says that this information isn't that useful, my red flag went up and thought it would be very useful. Also, the word "was insane" instead of "had been insane" implied to me that the woman was still alive. So I searched the books. Sure enough after a simple search:
Having an aura of menace is like having a pet weasel, because you rarely meet someone who has one, and when you do it makes you want to hide under the coffee table.

So, Lemony hid under a coffee table, or wanted to, after meeting someone with a pet weasel. 

Sure enough: 

A taciturn writer, for instance, might produce only one short poem every ten years, which is unlikely to annoy anyone, whereas someone who writes twelve or thirteen books in a relatively short time is likely to find themselves hiding under the coffee table of a notorious villain, holding his breath, hoping nobody at the cocktail party will notice the trembling backgammon set, and wondering, as the ink-stain spreads across the carpeting, if certain literary exercises have been entirely worthwhile.

So now we know a few things: The woman owned a pet weasel, was a notorious villian, and a cocktail party host. She owns backgammon. This woman also had an aura of evil. So who do we know that is a 3woman, notorious villian, who would cause people to tremble? WWHBNB.

The finger had been broken long ago, in a dispute over a game of backgammon, which is another story that would take at least thirteen books to describe, but in the Baudelaires’ story the finger only made this brief appearance as it pointed at the children in alarm.

She's also the one who thought of the cocktail scheme. It's WWHBNB and MWABBNH's. Not Esme. And presumably, she'd try to do it again without being caught.

Interestingly, 50 years ago is the perfect time for the schism. So perhaps that case caused the schism.

Here's some speculation: Perhaps the Pet Weasel was the infant servant:

The woman with hair but no beard nodded. “Infant servants are so troublesome,” she said. “I had an infant servant once—a long time ago, before the schism.”
“Before the schism?” Olaf said, and Sunny wished Klaus were with her, because the baby did not know what the word “schism” meant. “That is a long time ago. That infant must be all grown up by now.”

Why do I think so? because in the books, adult villians are disguised as cows. (TUA) Children around twelve are disguised as puppies:

Finally—as, I’m sorry to say, Count Olaf forced the Quagmires into puppy costumes so he could sneak them onto the airplane without anyone noticing—

So, infants can be disguised as weasels. 

[bear]

get a job

[Dante]

You're making a number of assumptions regarding connections which are not, in fact, connected at all.

Jan 30, 2020 15:53:42 GMT -5 TheAsh said:

Who is this woman in TBB?

Absolutely nobody, judging by the series's ad hoc creation and the author's own belief that his original four-book contract would never be extended. The only thing in TBB you can really call foreshadowing is the mention of the island (p. 153), and even that was very different by the time it was actually written about (and thus seems more likely to be a retroactive correspondence).

Also, the word "was insane" instead of "had been insane" implied to me that the woman was still alive.

The use of "was" here would still be standard grammatical usage if the woman was dead, which is also the implication of the overall story, where such revelations generally come about only post-mortem. Notably, the use "left an enormous sum" rather than "planned to leave an enormous sum" implies more strongly that the woman was dead. This is also indicated by the fact that she had three sons fifty years ago, which would put the woman's present-day age at eighty at the very least (fifty years, roughly twenty years old at the time of birth assuming a very young mother and perhaps triplets, plus another ten for them all to be capable of holding a legal opinion) - and more likely much more. This also favours the idea that the woman would, by now, be dead - or otherwise incapable. Additionally, Kit and Dewey interviewed the woman with hair but no beard's math teacher (TPP, p. 183), who would necessarily be even older and thus even less likely to still be alive had they been teaching at least seventy years ago.

Having an aura of menace is like having a pet weasel, because you rarely meet someone who has one, and when you do it makes you want to hide under the coffee table.

So, Lemony hid under a coffee table, or wanted to, after meeting someone with a pet weasel. 

It's a simile, not an anecdote. At no point does the line indicate that Lemony met a person with both an aura of menace and a pet weasel; indeed, it doesn't even confirm that he met either (though the encounter with an aura of menace, as you correctly state, is indicated later and separately). But even if the statement confirmed all of these things, it would not indicate that it was the same almost certainly dead woman from TBB.

A taciturn writer, for instance, might produce only one short poem every ten years, which is unlikely to annoy anyone, whereas someone who writes twelve or thirteen books in a relatively short time is likely to find themselves hiding under the coffee table of a notorious villain, holding his breath, hoping nobody at the cocktail party will notice the trembling backgammon set, and wondering, as the ink-stain spreads across the carpeting, if certain literary exercises have been entirely worthwhile.

So now we know a few things: The woman owned a pet weasel, was a notorious villian, and a cocktail party host. She owns backgammon. This woman also had an aura of evil. So who do we know that is a 3woman, notorious villian, who would cause people to tremble? WWHBNB.

The finger had been broken long ago, in a dispute over a game of backgammon, which is another story that would take at least thirteen books to describe, but in the Baudelaires’ story the finger only made this brief appearance as it pointed at the children in alarm.

She's also the one who thought of the cocktail scheme. It's WWHBNB and MWABBNH's. Not Esme. And presumably, she'd try to do it again without being caught.

You present a chain of associations intended to link the woman with the pet weasel with the woman with hair but no beard, but the chain breaks at every link. There is no confirmation that the woman with the pet weasel had an aura of menace, there is no confirmation that either woman was a cocktail party host when she might merely have been a guest at that party, there is no confirmation that she owned or even played backgammon when she might merely have been involved in an argument relating to a game played by others, there is no confirmation that Lemony was hiding from this individual in particular. Probably the two incidents Lemony recalls were indeed one and the same, but this says nothing about the TBB woman.

Interestingly, 50 years ago is the perfect time for the schism.

Not especially. The original implied timeframe of the schism presented in the U.A. appears to have been when the major adults of the series were still young men and women, and this is later backdated in TPP to the infancy of Kit and Dewey, neither of whom give the impression of being in their fifties.

Here's some speculation: Perhaps the Pet Weasel was the infant servant:

The woman with hair but no beard nodded. “Infant servants are so troublesome,” she said. “I had an infant servant once—a long time ago, before the schism.”
“Before the schism?” Olaf said, and Sunny wished Klaus were with her, because the baby did not know what the word “schism” meant. “That is a long time ago. That infant must be all grown up by now.”

Why do I think so? because in the books, adult villians are disguised as cows. (TUA) Children around twelve are disguised as puppies:

Finally—as, I’m sorry to say, Count Olaf forced the Quagmires into puppy costumes so he could sneak them onto the airplane without anyone noticing—

So, infants can be disguised as weasels. 

I have a hard time taking this idea seriously. Quite aside from deriving further assumptions from obvious absurdities employed outside of the main narrative, it would be extremely generous to assume that these statements have any bearing on one another whatsoever.

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

Jan 30, 2020 15:53:42 GMT -5 TheAsh said:

Who is this woman in TBB?

>“Nothing helpful,” Violet said, glancing down at a piece of scrap paper on which she had been taking notes. “Fifty years ago there was a woman who left an enormous sum of money to her pet weasel, and none to her three sons. The three sons tried to prove that the woman was insane so the money would go to them.”

“What happened?” Klaus asked.

“I think the weasel died,” Violet replied, “but I’m not sure. I have to look up some of the words.”

“I don’t think it’s going to help us anyway,” Klaus said.

Now, when Klaus says that this information isn't that useful, my red flag went up and thought it would be very useful. Also, the word "was insane" instead of "had been insane" implied to me that the woman was still alive. So I searched the books. Sure enough after a simple search:
Having an aura of menace is like having a pet weasel, because you rarely meet someone who has one, and when you do it makes you want to hide under the coffee table.

So, Lemony hid under a coffee table, or wanted to, after meeting someone with a pet weasel. 

Sure enough: 

A taciturn writer, for instance, might produce only one short poem every ten years, which is unlikely to annoy anyone, whereas someone who writes twelve or thirteen books in a relatively short time is likely to find themselves hiding under the coffee table of a notorious villain, holding his breath, hoping nobody at the cocktail party will notice the trembling backgammon set, and wondering, as the ink-stain spreads across the carpeting, if certain literary exercises have been entirely worthwhile.

So now we know a few things: The woman owned a pet weasel, was a notorious villian, and a cocktail party host. She owns backgammon. This woman also had an aura of evil. So who do we know that is a 3woman, notorious villian, who would cause people to tremble? WWHBNB.

The finger had been broken long ago, in a dispute over a game of backgammon, which is another story that would take at least thirteen books to describe, but in the Baudelaires’ story the finger only made this brief appearance as it pointed at the children in alarm.

She's also the one who thought of the cocktail scheme. It's WWHBNB and MWABBNH's. Not Esme. And presumably, she'd try to do it again without being caught.

Interestingly, 50 years ago is the perfect time for the schism. So perhaps that case caused the schism.

Here's some speculation: Perhaps the Pet Weasel was the infant servant:

The woman with hair but no beard nodded. “Infant servants are so troublesome,” she said. “I had an infant servant once—a long time ago, before the schism.”
“Before the schism?” Olaf said, and Sunny wished Klaus were with her, because the baby did not know what the word “schism” meant. “That is a long time ago. That infant must be all grown up by now.”

Why do I think so? because in the books, adult villians are disguised as cows. (TUA) Children around twelve are disguised as puppies:

Finally—as, I’m sorry to say, Count Olaf forced the Quagmires into puppy costumes so he could sneak them onto the airplane without anyone noticing—

So, infants can be disguised as weasels. 

There is something strange in your text ... I can't see ... But something is not coherent ... Something is not fitting ... How about you introduce yourself to us at Gruesome Greetings? That way we may better understand the nature of your ideas.

[Tiran O'Saurus]

Hi there, spambot. Been googling around for places where pet weasels are discussed?