Bad Machinery by John Allison for February 11, 2025

Fun fact: 27.3% of Bad Machinery cases end with Lottie in a small boat on the Tack. This one is unusual in that it’s Shauna with her rather than Sonny and Mildred, and the Tack has somewhat expanded its purview.

Mike is no newspaperman! Story first, counting the cost later.

“Catching crabs” is when your oar misses the water and just skims, throwing spray. Mark of an amateur.

For a good cause, Shauna, for a good cause!

So … are Lottie and Shauna both going to wear Mike’s single set of clothes, like a clown act where two people wear the same pair of pants at the same time? Meanwhile, I guess he’ll wear a barrel, like in old cartoons (I don’’t think he’ll fit into the girl’s wet clothes). Or maybe the Cormorant has a stock of extra dry clothes? (That would be a good idea for a newspaper, actually.)

Well, maybe this is an improvement. The streets are clean and now Tackleford can claim to be the Venice of England.

Catching crabs? Don’t they sell something for that at the Chemist?

“Rowing boat” is, I think, what Yanks call a “rowboat”.

There’s something truly poetic about seeing Shauna and Lottie rowing through the city streets.