Thessaly's Tooth

Today is Andy’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Andy!
I will be spending my birthday next month in Turkey, for purposes of archaeology (and I’m afraid our cat Teti is just going to have to look to herself during this time, see post below). Thus, Andy has been asking me whether I want to celebrate my birthday before or after the Turkey trip, and I keep answering “both” but I guess he doesn’t think I’m serious because he just keeps asking me.
The question of birthdays and especially of ages in the Trixie Belden series is a difficult one, in that the characters age (or rather, don’t age) at different and quixotic rates. Hence, the best choice for Trixie Belden on Birthdays may be this fanfic. One oasis of sanity in this sea of nonlinear timelines can be found in the fact that the three girls, Honey, Di, and Trixie, all age from 13 to 14 during the series; and the birthdays of two (Di and Trixie) feature in two of the books.
Perhaps the best birthday-related Trixie is The Mystery of the Emeralds. It features one of the hallmarks of the Trixie series, the Improbable Gift, here in the shape of Di’s father taking the entire Bob-White crew down to some tiny town in the indeterminate South as a birthday gift for Di–because he just happens to be attending a conference near the tiny indeterminate town in which Trixie has unearthed a mystery.
The requisite Educational Digressions in this book feature the Underground Railroad and Williamsburg, Virginia. The book also features a birthday cake shaped like a hat.
Trixie’s one and only birthday in the entire series, which would, in our world, cover several years, takes place during the events of The Marshland Mystery. This book includes another Improbable Gift, the nature of which I cannot reveal since it forms part of the mystery–okay, there isn’t an actual mystery in this one, but it’s still fun to read. Educational bits about natural remedies found in marshland plants are brief and easily skipped.
Andy’s birthday cake is shaped like a cake, his birthday presents are not implausible in the least, and there will be no educational digressions during the day; but I hope he has a very Happy Birthday anyway.

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