In the Lunatic Lake episode, Dodie's mom gets sick from eating bad clams that Carl suggested. And whenever Ginger talks to her, why does she act like a Jerkass to Ginger for no reason? Ginger didn't really do anything!
Knowing her, it's because Ginger is Carl's sister and because she is always a Jerkass.
In addition, Joann entirely blames Carl for being sick, even though it's technically the fault of the restaurant who served the clams.
That's basically Joann's personality. She's high strung, self obsessed and rude to everyone.
Technically Carl was the one who bought the clams for her, since she didn't order them. And he's also the one who's taken her son out in the middle of the night - so of course she'll be zeroing in on him. Especially since she didn't want him on the trip in the first place.
Duchess comes home
How on earth did The Duchess get back to Principal Milty's house after his ladyfriend Georgia kidnapped a bunch of dogs, including her and drove them out of town in the first Camp Caprice special? Yes, there have been many well-publicized stories about dogs who have crossed state lines to find their way home, but those are the exceptions that prove the rule.
I always wondered that too - Carl and Hoodsey later on mention catching the dognapper after the Camp Caprice special but...uhm...what happens next? Is Muffin found? I think there was intended to be an episode about them starting the next grade or returning to school after a summer at camp caprice, but the only thing that even mentions it (Aside from heat lightning) is that Ginger joined the band just to see Sasha again.
Muffin was indeed found again, she is later seen in the episode "Next Question".
Skipping a grade
Did Blake skip a grade or two? The first season clearly says that he is in the fourth grade with Carl and Hoodsey, but his stated age in the first episode of "seven and three-quarters" should put him in second. While he certainly exhibits a lot of Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness, that does not always translate to phenomenal academic work.
I always assumed he was, we barely see anything to suggest that he's smart enough to have skipped second or third grade.
Maybe his dad hired a private tutor to start teaching him at age 3. It's one thing for Courtney to be an air head, but he expects Blake to take over the family business one day.
He actually could've skipped a few grades or got extra learning to the point where he could go up a few grades. This troper once met a girl who was a year younger then me in middle school, so it is possible. And even though Courtney is a somewhat air-head, doesn't mean the father will let his only son be dense.
It's just Early-Installment Weirdness. The first episode seems to treat the boys as younger, but they get aged up to ten.
Saving money for a facelift
Why did Claire Gripling get a facelift from a place called "Same Day Nip N' Tuck?" Surely they could have afforded a high-end surgeon...
Well she isn't the brightest bulb
Or maybe she was in a hurry?
Yes to the above. It’s also possible her doctor didn’t recommend it and/or wasn’t covered by her insurance. She also likely didn’t want her rich friends to find out so she went to a place her friends would never go. If it also means saving a few bucks (lots of people get elective sugary on the cheep if they don’t have to), also she legit thought it could be done in a day (likely not doing her research on a facelift before hand), lastly I can’t be the only one who thinks she also wanted to go on vacation.
Actually there's a precedent for this in real life. There's a difference between a plastic surgeon and a cosmetic surgeon. The former has to have at least six years of specialized training to be board-recognised, while doctors can call themselves cosmetic surgeons with just a couple months' worth. Claire Gripling not knowing this, and possibly never having gotten work done before, made a mistake.
Another explanation is that she wasn't getting a "facelift" but was getting "botox".
Noel and Carl's Breakup, was it out of the left field?
Why did Noel break up with Carl. I never understood that.
Because one he was hanging out with a girl she didn't like and lied about it.
He didn't lie about a thing, except maybe that he'd actually begun to have fun. The only reason Carl hung out with the girl in question, a crazy bird obsessed girl who demanded she play with him in her wreck of a backyard, was because Noel BET HIM IN A CARD GAME TO SAID GIRL AND LOST! Carl was just fulfilling NOEL'S END OF THE BET out of loyalty. Pictures of him were taken and when Noel saw them, she got miffed that it looked like he was enjoying himself which.....what? Noel, as great as she is, is still a little kid. And did a little kid thing, she got jealous for no reason and made an immature decision. That's all.
Who's supposed to fill in?
In "Deja Who?", the episode where Courtney makes Ginger "fill in" for her, the whole school "pretends" that Ginger really is Courtney. In one scene, Ms. Zorski takes attendance and Ginger calls "here" for Courtney and remains silent for Ginger. Ms. Zorski, with a knowing look on her face, remarks about Ginger being out so much and the class giggles. Lois later gets a call saying that she has been absent for three days in a row... One: Ginger is in junior high school, so she should have multiple teachers. Why would they all play along with the charade and mark her absent? Two: Why would Ms. Zorski seriously mark Ginger absent when she knew about what was going on? Three: Were Zorski and the other teachers really not willing to see through the fact (or anyone throughout the episode for that matter) that Ginger kept her hair red instead of dying it blonde like Courtney's hair?
I think it's hinted that Principal Milty is unofficially going along with the ruse because he really wants the Senator's son to attend. So for the week the rest of the teachers are told to just turn their backs and pretend Ginger is Courtney. The call probably came from someone in the administration office who wasn't in on the ruse and just saw that Ginger had been marked absent for three days in a row.
We could have avoided much heartache, Milty
In the whole "Summer of Camp Caprice", why didn't Milty just tell Carl and Hoodsey upfront that he had a dog in the basement and they were hired specifically to clean the house up of the dog hair? (He didn't even have to say "I have a girlfriend who's allergic to dogs".) Carl and Hoodsey then could have been tasked with making sure she was alright, cleaning up after her, and giving the dog some exercise. If anything, he could have said "By the way - I have a dog, I want you to clean up the hair. She's in the basement, and I'm trying to keep her safe from the petnapper."
A little late for sex ed?
In "Gym Class Confidential" they make it a point that the puberty movie is a requirement for the 8th grade, but isn't that a little late? This troper remembers having to watch a similar movie in the 5th grade, and they're only seeing it now? On top of that, by 13 most if not all girls are usually well into puberty and should have already been going through the "changes" in their bodies, yet all the girls in the class act completely oblivious and seem shocked. At the very least they should have taken a 7th grade health class by now.
Seems odd sense plenty of the girls are developing breasts and Ginger has leg hairs. I suppose the town isn't called Sheltered Shrubs for a reason.
We were shown such a film in school when we were fourteen but I remembered being taught a little earlier at eleven. I got the impression that Macie was more worried about the graphic imagery in the film, rather than what the film would teach her. As a bookish person, she'd know the facts. But she seems anxious about what the film will show. It's established that she's a very squeamish person, so the idea of graphic imagery would be terrifying for her. I think the girls allude to a childbirth depiction in the film, which is what Courtney threw up over.
The girls were likely given this information in the fifth grade which (Macie could have missed) and their middle school thought they needed a refresher (this troper could have used one in 7th grade).
It’s also possible Macie is afraid of starting puberty and watching a video about it in public wouldn’t help her fears. Lots of kids are afraid about puberty, at least when it comes to certain things. Your body changing while normal can sound scary.
A lot of us take health class in junior high school for whatever the state's PE requirement is, so that might be case in As Told by Ginger.
What’s also to note is that the age/grade the puberty talk is given varies. The talk is given to students sometimes as early as third grade lately. At the time it likely was normal to start giving it as late as the seventh grade.
Parental Hypocrisy.
Why exactly doesn't Lois want Ginger to save her legs? All she really says about it is once you start you can't stop and a girl who shaved her legs got her rodeo pony stolen from her or something?? It's fairly normal for girls Ginger's age to start shaving, isn't it?
It's sort of like those parents that don't want their kids to wear deodorant and there are some parents in real life who don't want their kids to shave or wear makeup or perfume or cologne. It's their parenting style. My mom was the same with makeup and me.
Lois also doesn't want the girls wearing make-up until they get to high school. Perhaps Lois doesn't want the girls growing up too fast.
I get the not growing up too fast reason when it came to make up reason but not for the leg hair, if Ginger’s leg hair was making her feel awkward and felt uncomfortable for her (and was ruining her life) why couldn’t she shave it?
When Ginger gets to high school and addicted to coffee, Lois is called out for her hypocrisy in what she doesn't allow Ginger to do. So it's not meant to be a reasonable demand.
Yes and no. One end, it's possible that Lois just didn't want Ginger to shave her legs because she felt she wasn't ready for it (much like why she initially forbids Ginger to wear makeup) but, on the other end, with the coffee thing, Ginger getting hooked on it could make her justified in disallowing it, in the first place, while she herself is a coffee drinker (but she ain't shown to be hooked on it).
Carl's Atheism
Does anyone else find Carl's alleged atheism strange. He mentions "The Big Guy" multiple times throughout the series in a non-sarcastic way and in the finale he even scoffs at nondenominal weddings. Aside from that he's literally seen psychic powers and, especially, proof of the afterlife, which isn't necessarily proof of god but I think it would make someone very open minded to the concept.
He's ten and still figuring out his world view.
Maybe he just claims to be atheist but is actually agnostic?
If it helps, the Foutley's aren't shown to be religious besides Lois' dad being Rabbi, implying she's Jewish or part Jewish in the holiday special, so maybe Lois just didn't raise her kids to adhere to any beliefs.
And in said episode, he goes to a Christmas party that's also a Chanukah party dressed in Kwanza garb.
Dodie, the friend you (don't) need.
I need to ask this, and someone might give me an answer or might not agree with me, but... how in the seven sections of hell are Dodie and Ginger still friends?! No, I'm serious. Dodie is a self-centered, diva, ignorant brat and Ginger is an understanding, smart, talented and nice girl yet they stayed friends for 56 episodes? How? Dodie is not a good friend. This troper can only count a few times where Dodie has actually been there for Ginger and even then she was still annoying. But I know of times where she's stabbed her in the back: the time she told Miranda about Ginger's hair legs and fear of the tooth fairy, where she nearly had a panic attack when she found out Ginger had found out she was Jewish, something that wasn't an issue to begin with and I'm surprised no one called Dodie out on her almost anti-Semitic reaction, the Easter ham episode, getting all upset when Ginger had a crush on the new students, giving Ginger that terrible advice to ask a grown man out on a date, and the worst of them all, trying to break up Ginger and Darren! And, I know Macy was a part of that, but it's been shown Macy is at least very anti-social and can be very weak yet she is still there for Ginger and can defend her. Dodie talked Macy into because she was jealous, for no reason, and worked with Ginger's two worst enemies to break them up and even tricked another innocent guy into believing Ginger still liked him. And it wasn't like she hated Darren, he was one of her friends! That should've ended their friendship then and there, but no, next episode their bestie's acting like nothing happened and it's only brought up once. This is a toxic friendship to me and I understand if people do not agree with me. I understand if you say they were friends since kindergarten or that Dodie has been there for her, but to me and a lot of other people, I think Ginger should've dropped Dodie after the breakup scandal and befriended Courtney. Now Courtney was a true friend... but that's a story for another time.
While I think Dodie is very awful, consider that she has come through for Ginger on several occasions. She's the one that reminds Ginger when she's been acting too much like Courtney, helps Ginger out in preparation for a slumber party with the popular girls, done lots of favours for her etc. And if you want to get technical, Dodie didn't panic over Ginger being Jewish. She panicked because she was afraid of things changing - namely Ginger ignoring their traditions (you suddenly can't bake cookies with your best friend if you're Jewish?) I get the impression that the three girls had been friends since childhood and ties like that don't go away so easily. Dodie does have a good side and you could get the impression that Ginger empathises with her, as her bad side is influenced by her rotten mother. For instance, she apologises for being rude about Carl at Lunatic Lake and does undergo some Character Development as episodes go on. Judging by the Distant Finale, Dodie probably matured and became a better person once she was away from her mother's influence.
And let's not forget that Ginger's no saint either. She's been in the wrong plenty of times, but friends forgive.
I see your point, but when Ginger did something bad, she wasn't doing it to hurt her friends and she didn't intentionally try to ruin her friend's relationships with their boyfriends! Dodie (and Macie to an extent) decided to ruin Ginger's relationship with Darrin because she was jealous. She decided to work with Miranda and Mipsey (two of Ginger's enemies) to try and break them up. And in my opinion, it seems like she felt bad after she got caught and I was actually furious when the next episode barely talked about this serious issue of betrayal, yet Courtney still doesn't become Ginger's friend after what her two so-called friends did to her. Forgiveness is a wonderful thing, but with forgiveness also comes time. She needed time (maybe two episodes including the one where they betray her) for her to fully forgive them. The show didn't even do that. And I'm sorry, but any friend who tries to ruin my relationship with the person I like because they're jealous and not because of genuine reasons like he's mistreating her, cheating on her, or using her is not something you quickly forgive especially since Ginger has done something that horrible. I give her points for getting somewhat better later in the show heck when Darrin was close to cheating on Ginger, Dodie actually sent him a letter telling him to do the right thing. I seriously do think she's still a toxic friend, but not everyone has to agree.
She IS a toxic friend, it's just lazy story telling. They could have had a really cool mini arc or something where the friend dynamics really DID change and Dodie had to actually account for her actions and such. Like would happen in real life and would actually be a good thing for kids/the show's demographics to see. One just has to assume a lot of heart to heart talks/discussions happened "off camera".
They're also fourteen by the time the series ends. People can still be in toxic or unhealthy friendships out of inertia or proximity even into their late twenties. Ginger might possibly feel that she can 'fix' Dodie or encourage her better side - sympathising with her based on what a rotten person her mother is (to her credit, Dodie does apologise for her mother's behaviour in "Lunatic Lake"). Ginger is a very forgiving person in a lot of areas, like she lets Jonas back into her life even if he was a bit of a deadbeat, so she seems like she prefers giving people second chances. "Wicked Game" is best ignored because of its bizarre plot (as awful as Dodie can be sometimes, trying to split your best friend's relationship up is a stretch even for her, and especially Macie too).
New grade, same teachers?
It is explicitly stated in several Season 2 episodes that Ginger is in eighth grade and Carl in fifth. However, they both still have their same teachers from Season 1, where they were in seventh and fourth grade, respectively. This is especially unusual for Carl since he's in elementary school, which would mean Mrs. Gordon is his only teacher and she changed to teaching fifth grade instead of fourth for the new school year. One should wonder why Mrs. Gordon would want to risk having Carl and Hoodsey for students for a second year in a row considering how she resents them most of the time.
Maybe, just mebbe, underneath it, Mrs Gordon does care for Carl and Hoodsey. As far as Ginger's teacher go, those teachers either moved from teaching seventh grade or they also teach eight grade for some classes.
How old are they?
In Season 1, it is strongly implied that Lucky Junior High starts at seventh grade, especially in "Hello Stranger" when Ginger gets a graduation card from her father five months late. In Season 2's "Family Therapy", two LJH students are celebrating their 12th birthday in April, which would put them in sixth grade, and in Season 3, Carl and Hoodsey begin attending LJH for sixth grade while Ginger moves on to Lucky High School for ninth grade.
In "Family Therapy", Mipsy and Macie are celebrating their 13th birthdays, not twelfth.
Changing faiths
In several episodes, Carl mentions "The Big Guy Upstairs", but in "A Lesson in Tightropes", Lois mentions he's an atheist without hesitation.
Someone in earlier headscratcher mentions that Carl is ten and so figuring out his worldview, which includes his religious beliefs as well, or that he's agnostic (he doesn't believe in a deity but isn't doubting the idea that there is one). However, it's possible that Lois, regardless of her own beliefs, never raised her kids with any particular adherence any beliefset.
Ginger's (supposed) hairy legs.
In many episodes after "Cry Wolf", especially in "Summer of Camp Caprice", Ginger (noted for those hairy legs she tried to cover up) was seen in a one piece swimsuit and shorts with her legs bared.
We can assume that for Camp Caprice, Ginger shaved the legs behind Lois's back or Lois just relented as Ginger got older. She might be more understanding if Ginger is in a situation where she'd have to wear a bathing suit or shorts a lot (as opposed to school, where she has the option to wear long pants and skirts).
Pickle Pigs
In "Blizzard Conditions", one of the girls' snow day traditions is baking "pickle pigs" (mini hot dogs wrapped in dough). However, the house loses power before they can bake them and the girls (especially Courtney) complain about the lack of food. Winston manages to start a fire in the fireplace, so they could have roasted the hot dogs over the fire.
Ginger assures Courtney that they can order pizza as soon as the phone lines come back. What pizzeria would even be open, let alone delivering, during a blizzard?
Depends on the area. I have a neighbor originally from the Chicago area and when we got a blizzard that the entire county shut down for, she said where she used to live she'd probably still be going to work. Schools and malls might be closed but restaurants and other places might still be open - deemed essential workers. Or the fact that some places would still be open in the hopes (or need) to make money off a crisis. For all we know, the delivery drivers may have vehicles that are okay to drive during snow.
Could be a proximity thing.
Lice and Friends.
"Of Lice and Friends" has several questionable moments:
Dodie manages to time most of her announcements so that her classmates can react and make comments without talking over her. When she reports that a drop of pudding barely missed Courtney, Courtney, sitting in the classroom, adds, "And my all-cream ensemble", and Dodie repeats the exact same thing immediately afterwards. When Dodie announces that the school nurse is sick and won't be able to check the students for lice, the class breathes a collective sigh of relief right before Dodie continues the announcement. Ginger and Macie even manage to have an entire exchange during one of her announcements without talking over her, which would be quite a long pause for Dodie. When Dodie begins to read the list of students found with lice, she takes dramatic pauses between each name, which gives Ginger just enough time to stop her before reading the entire list. These two-to-three-second pauses gave the students enough time to react if the student was in their class without drowning out the next name.
Interestingly, seven of the ten names on the "lice list" fall between A and G in terms of alphabetical order by last name, only the first seven letters of the alphabet. Courtney (seventh on the list) should consider herself lucky since a more practical list would probably put her within the first five names or so. No doubt she was placed low on the list to make the reading more dramatic and to give Ginger just enough time to cut off Dodie before reading Courtney's name, although this is very unfortunate for those near the top of the list...
No faculty makes an attempt to stop Dodie from reading what is supposed to be confidential information, nor does Dodie appear to get in trouble for managing to get out six of the ten names on the list. However, when Ginger makes a bee line for the office to stop her, both Ms. Zorski and a hall monitor try to stop her from stopping Dodie, although neither of them seemed to know her true motive for running.
I could imagine that Dodie reading out the names without being stopped was down to a misunderstanding on everyone else's part. Yes those names are confidential so maybe each teacher listening assumed that the principal had okayed it, or in their minds why else would Dodie be reading them out? Or each teacher could have had the sadly realistic attitude of doing nothing in the hopes that someone else would stop it (people often don't want to make themselves look stupid or be caught out for being in the wrong - so sometimes they avoid acting on incidents like this in the hopes that someone else will take care of it).
As for avoiding punishment, maybe Dodie lied to say that the list was on the desk in front of her and she just assumed she was supposed to read it out. Since we don't see her doing the announcements again, we can assume her punishment was being fired.
Covering for Courtney
In "Deja Who?", Courtney asks Ginger to take her place at school while she's home sick by dressing as her, hanging out with her clique, and even going by her name. During her second day as Courtney, Ginger even goes by Courtney as Ms. Zorski takes attendance. She then comments that "Ginger's been out so much". The next day, Lois gets a call saying that Ginger has been absent for three days in a row, which flabbergasts her. There are three major problems with this...
1. It was unprofessional of Ms. Zorski to intentionally mark Ginger absent and presumably give Courtney credit for attendance when it's obvious that she and the rest of the class were in on the charade. There's no way she would actually mistake the two, because Ginger did not dye her hair blonde.
2. Ginger is in middle school, which means she has multiple teachers (although she is rarely seen in classrooms other than Zorski's). This would likely mean that all of her teachers played along and marked her absent from their classes as well. True, it's possible that with Zorski likely being her homeroom teacher, attendance is only taken then and the students are accounted for for the whole day, but assuming this class is early in the day (it's in the morning in "Of Lice and Friends"), this would mean that students can skip any and every class after homeroom and get away with it if no other teachers take attendance.
3. Principal Milty knew it was Ginger the first time he saw her as Courtney and seemed confused about the charade on the first day, but he seemed more up to speed by the third and final day. Since Lois was notified about Ginger's "absence", he should have known about it, too, but did nothing to clear up the confusion even when Lois confronted him in person at the school in front of Ginger, who was no longer dressed as Courtney.
It's implied that Milty is in on the ruse and for that week, all the teachers are told to turn their backs and play along just so the senator's son could attend the school.
Parents As People and Macie.
In "Family Therapy", Macie's parents didn't know her daughter's birthday had passed, let alone even arrived yet, until her father checked the current date on his PDA. They're both psychologists who are always very busy, hence their neglectfulness. However, since they see their clients on an appointment basis, they should always be aware of dates, and it's not like they go too long without any sessions considering how busy they are plus the fact that Macie herself couldn't even book an appointment any earlier than ten weeks.
Generally speaking, people who keep appointments might not keep track of the date specifically but of the day. For example, it's less "I have Mrs Williams on the 13th" and more "I have Mrs Williams on Thursday". If you're seeing people regularly, the days often blend together, and you won't know your appointments ten weeks in advance - but rather focus on the next day or the upcoming week's appointments. And if you keep a PDA, you're not going to necessarily be paying attention to the date, but rather what's scheduled for the day.
Taking the Train
In "Far From Home", Carl, Hoodsey, and Noelle hop a train back home after they were briefly stranded at a highway rest stop. They likely didn't have tickets since they ran on the train in a hurry, and since they didn't plan on taking a train home, they likely didn't bring any money with them. Although they were with Darren, they could've been in serious trouble for riding without a ticket, or they could've had to pay some hefty on-board fees since they were implied to be several hours from home. It is not even known if Darren had a ticket, since he wasn't sure about making the trip to confess his love for Ginger until a conductor convinced him and pulled him on as the train began driving off.
Judging by how far Avalanche County supposedly is from Sheltered Shrubs, the railroad the boys use is probably an equivalent of Amtrak. Amtrak has strict policies on minors riding their trains, the most lenient of which involve at least parental permission.
For that matter, the episode glosses over Darren's parents' reaction to their 13-year-old son traveling up to Avalanche County by himself, and presumably spending the night in the woods, no less (after his awkward first meeting with Ginger, he walks off into the woods and is not seen again until the next day at the train station. Surely Darren did not stay in a hotel.) It also isn't explained how Dodie and Macie got back home after Courtney ditched them.
Let's see, As Told By Ginger takes place in the late 1990s-early 2000s so....
The idea of letting a 13yo travel by themselves doesn't seem too off the wall for that time period.
Dodie and Macie could have brought change for a payphone (if this ep was before they got cell phones), which were still around during when this show aired, so could have used one to call their parents.
Ginger's Fair Plans
In "Fair to Cloudy", Ginger says that they plan on staying at the county fair until night, then tells Carl, "Meet back here at 8:00", which implies that they will leave at that time. Dodie also comments that they normally don't go on rides until dark. This episode is implied to take place in August or early September according to Courtney's comment "Summer's almost over". At this time of year in the Northeastern United States, it doesn't get dark until around 9:00 PM. At the end of the episode, everyone rides the ferris wheel and it is now dark, which could only mean that they stayed well past 8:00, otherwise it would still be light out.
Concerning the same episode, Dodie is upset that Ginger chose to invite Darren along at the last minute and feels that their traditional trip is ruined. Assuming that the fair is close by (it is a county fair, after all), the episode never even brings up the possibility that she could have made two trips to the fair on two separate days: one with just Darren, the other with just Dodie and Macie, provided the fair was on for multiple days, which most county fairs are.
Not the issue. Ginger brought Darren along last minute rather than asking in advance, and it's soon obvious he doesn't even like it. Dodie is very keen on their traditions as friends, and she felt disrespected by Ginger just inviting Darren without a thought to whether she or Macie would want him to come. Dodie is established to be very insecure about things changing, and she's likely aware that with them entering high school now, the friends will soon drift apart - so she may have hoped this could be the last hurrah before that happens.
Cell Phones
Multiple times in "The 'A' Ticket", Courtney and Miranda talk to each other via cell phone in the middle of class and the teacher never says anything nor do the other students think anything of it. Most egregiously, near the end of the episode, they do it during an exam and the teacher walks right past the both of them without saying a word. The teacher also does not seem to pay any mind to Ginger and Ian's conversation while the rest of the class is staying quiet while taking the exam.
Well for the first two times, if you look in the background you can't see the teacher at his desk or walking around - so those times, Courtney and Miranda waited until he was out of the room before calling. One time he reappears just as their conversation is over to clean up a spill, so one could assume he just came back inside then. In the exam part, they are being more secretive so maybe he just didn't notice or hear them.
As for Ginger and Ian's conversation, they're lab partners and working together, so of course they'd be allowed to talk. And maybe he could see that Ginger was having a personal moment and thought best to not embarrass her, since he does say she's his favourite student earlier in the episode. Note that Courtney walks over to them and asks to borrow something to save Ginger from accidentally saying something she'll regret - and he can be seen watching.
Courtney being picked on.
The events of "Deja Who?", "Sibling Revile-ry", "Of Lice and Friends" and the instances of Courtney being bullied in high school raise the question: how is it that the Lucky School District hasn't been sued? The whole mix-up in "Deja Who?", the fact the elementary school was kept open despite a sewage-filled playground and no running water or working toilets, the discipline problem, a lackadaisical Principal who enjoys humiliating students (his words), confidential information being read out loud to the student body with no attempt to stop the reader, and a Freshman girl being bullied at her school with even the bullies locking her in a locker and Courtney being reported missing; a conversation even reveals rumors of an anti-Freshman group that terrorizes on the regular. With the amount of students with wealthy parents (wealthy enough to afford an addition to their large McMansion the size of a small house or a Japanese National sushi chef), one would think the district would've been sued at some point.
Early 2000s setting. Bullying was not considered as big a deal back then. If it was reported, the bullies would be given mild punishments and back to their old tricks. I remember the Phoebe Prince case where it was actually considered surprising that the parents sued the bullies over her suicide. Even as late as then, it was still considered 'kids will be kids' stuff.
This is also a SCHOOL. Even in The New '10s, schools are notorious for their apathy towards bullying.
Oh and when Courtney was stuffed in a locker by two mean girls? She later lied and said she just got locked in by accident. She doesn't seem the type to admit to being bullied.
Another explanation (besides the aformentioned) is that Sheltered Shrubs has a really, really, really sh*tty school board, so a lawsuit probably wouldn't have much good anyways. On the subject of Milty, he can be a nice enough dude, so he's not all bad.
Aqain, we could have avoided much heartache, Milty.
If Milton hired Carl and Hoodsey to clean the house so that his dog wouldn't trigger his girlfriend's allergies, why didn't he simply tell them "I have a dog - I want you to clean up after her." Regardless of whether or not he trusts the children with his dog, he could at least let them know to check the dog. Presumably he has somebody else (such as a neighbour) check up on her or is out short enough, but why wouldn't he have at least told them that's what he wants them to clean up?
Wouldn't they have noticed dog hairs that were obviously not Milton's while cleaning the house? They did a good enough job for Milton's girlfriend to not have her allergies triggered.
Carl and Hoodsey are known for being mischievous. He probably doesn't want them to know about the dog in case they let her out or cause all sorts of trouble. And if they did find dog hairs on the furniture, that would just add to Carl's suspicions that he was the dog thief.
