The World Needs a Heroine

I found out at a German dinner party the other week that everyone in the world, regardless of race, age, or creed, knows that Jessica Fletcher was a resident of Cabot Cove, Maine.

Also that Cabot Cove has an astoundingly high murder rate.

Interesting, too, is the number of different titles the show has had in different countries.

My favorite is still the original title, "Murder, She Wrote", which I remember puzzling over even as a child. But some of the titles from other countries are also pretty weird.

There's the failed whimsy of the Spanish title: Se ha escrito un crimen, or "A Crime has Been Written". Then there's Portugal's strangled attempt at a translation: Crime, Disse Ela, or "Crime, She Said".

Perhaps weirdest of all is Quebec's boring literalism: Elle écrit au meurtre, or "She writes about murder".