The sheer number of weird happenings in Idaville make more sense when you realize what state it's in.
In "The Case of the Chinese Restaurant," the amount of money stolen is given as $108. Seems like kind of a random amount... unless you know that that's the number of dishes served at the Manchu-Han Imperial Feast.
In "The Case of the Boy Bullfighter", Encyclopedia tosses some chocolate drops to keep Miguel's dog occupied while accusing the boy. Chocolate is poisonous to dogs, and Encyclopedia should know this. Worse, he did it before he had proof that Miguel had intentionally set the dog on Charlie. What the hell, Encyclopedia?
Encyclopedia should have known, but Sobol might not have.
Hold your horses; while the dog might have gotten sick, depending on the type of chocolate, it might have just ended at "the dog got sick". Still a dick move but not necessarily murderous intent, especially since it's not a small dog.
Encyclopedia's Oh, Crap! reaction when his father picks up a hitchhiker that may have seen a robber gang pass by and he realizes that the hitchhiker is part of the gang and was meant to send his father on a Wild Goose Chase. Why the Oh, Crap!? The hitchhiker is sitting in the backseat with Encyclopedia, while his father's in the front, and Encyclopedia has to find a way to warn him without arousing alarm.
Adding to this is that the story ends with Chief Brown confronting the hitchhiker and other than the solution, we aren't given any closure on the dangerous situation. Who's to say that there wasn't an off-screen Hostage Situation; after all, the "hitchhiker" is well-aware that Encyclopedia is Chief Brown's kid since he addresses him as "dad" at least once...
