I've really been wondering about something. When Carsini and his (what shall I call her here?) "Secretary" are on the plane to New York, he instructs her to send Rick a letter and a check for 5 Grand to his hotel in Mexico. Now, this is supposedly a Sunday evening. As I understand it, Rick Carsini's fiance is in Columbo's office just a couple of days later (actually it was night)....WITH the letter. OK, I wish the mail would work that fast today. I mean getting a normal letter from New York to Mexico that could not possibly have gone out until Monday....well, the time frame seems very hard for me to believe.....

Yeah, "storm mail" -- it's just another one of those plot conveniences that defy logic, but we forgive them. For instance, why would a man like Carsini trust in such a decrepit air conditioner?

Now you've gone and done it. You prompted me to go watch my grainy video of that episode. Not only is it by regular mail, but Carsini even specifies that it NOT go by telegram.

Anyway, another real peculiarity I noticed. The Tuesday weather report (the day of the death): "High 48, low 42". Later that week, "record temperature of 109". Must have been one heck of a weather front!

I am always amazed at how Carsini's
friends, just a couple of rooms away
from his office don't hear the loud
argument between Ric and Adrian ("The
69 cents a gallon Merino Brothers!"),
Adrian then bashing Ric on the head and
Ric falling to the floor.

Well..... one must suspend reality for these shows to work, right? I mean, they're meant to entertain. So if they cheat a little with facts, times, etc., what's the harm?

If you apply the same level of inquisitiveness to any show, you'll be deeply dissappointed. Smoke and mirrors.......

What's my point? Oh, there is no point. For what it's worth.

Yes, I brought up the "weather" issue a couple of months ago. It is very interesting, isn't it? That episode is full of quirks, but Donald Pleasance made a very good villian. Gave a good performance as well

I agree that although this episode has more
holes in logic than any other, it is still
a very entertaining episode, thanks to
Donald Pleasance's masterful performance.
However, I still find it hard to believe
that Carsini would throw away hundreds of
thousands of dollars of wine because of a
flaw (overheating) that only a handful
of people in the world would be able to detect!

Ah yes. I see a discussion along those lines around last November. Looks like it's hard to see all threads using the search feature though.

Anyone point out the beer glass goof in the bar scene yet? Also, has there been any discussion about how similar the premise of this show is to one of the later ("new") episodes that co-starred George Wendt? (Smirky comment, George looked pretty silly on that little collapsing bicycle.)

Apologies if I'm covering old ground.

But Adrian was a perfectionist, and I don't think he would have wanted the wines knowing that they were flawed, even in the tiniest way. And as for throwing away thousands of dollars (even if few others could detect the spoilage), money was never really an issue with Adrian. That is the main reason why his brother wanted to close and sell the winery, because Adrian didn't care if it was losing money. He cared about the beauty and integrity of wine.

quid,

Temperatures: was one mentioned in centigrade and one in farenheight?

I doubt the temp was in centegrade (Celsius). Because the high was 47 and the low was 42. That would equate to the high being about 120 degrees...in Fahrenheit.

Ah! We use both here in England so I get confused!

i still cant believe karen the secretary would fall in love with carsini...hes not the most attractive knife in the drawer

And he did not seem to care about any other human being - only wines.

Recall she herself said that it wasn't for "love". She felt she had been exploited for years and now was the time to get what was coming to her. Don't forget he drove a Rolls-Royce, went to New York, Paris and
other place on wine-foraging trips, spent money like a drunken sailor.....all this is better than the $200 a week she had been getting up to that time.