The Vinyl Cafe
By Stuart Mclean
Introduction
Hello, I am going to be telling you a bit about Stuart Mclean, and his full out hilarious stories, so sit back and let me tell you a little about his stories, and about his awesome characters ;)
Characters
Galway
Galway is Dave, and Morley's cat. In the story, Dave tries to potty-train Galway. Galway loves to flush the toilets, whenever the bathroom isn't locked.
Dave
Dave is the families dad. Dave is very clumsy, and surprisingly enough, he fails almost everything he does. He gets very stressed out, paranoid, and gets scared easily. Dave is in his mid 40's, he has gray hair, and has 2 children, Sam, and Stephany. He also has a wife called Morley.
Morley
Morley is Dave's wife. She used to be a Stay-at-Home mom until she found a job at a local theatre. She helps Dave with his problems.
Sam
Sam is the families youngest member. He is about 10-11 years old. Sam loves sports, but unfortunately he is not very good at them, by the way, his favorite sport is hockey. He is considered very naïve, a but goody, and very sensitive.
Galway
One day, Dave's sister named Annie left Galway, the cat at Dave's house. One day, Dave thought that Galway had almost nothing to do, and he wanted to give him a challenge, so he decided why not potty train him. He did it step-by-step, moving the litter box with small distances, but most times Galway just does his business on the floor. Once Dave got the litter box on the toilet he made a hole in the middle of it, and then he taught Galway to actually flush the toilet. Once Galway got the hang of it, he loved the water going round and round. One day, Dave, Morley, Sam, and Stephany left the house, and had a pet sitter watch galway then in the night Galway flushed the toilet and the pet sitter was scared, and thought someone broke in, so she climbed out of a window, onto the shed and then off, and she never went in again.
Reaction
I really liked this story, because of its humor. I mean, a cat getting potty trained... never heard of that, and how bad it would be if you were actually to do that. At least I can read stories about it, and not try it myself.
Dave and The Duck
The story start off with Dave trying to get his ring off of his finger, but is unsuccessful in the process. After telling Morley, she suggested to get it sized, and that is exactly what Dave did. So the next day he went to a Jeweler and got it sized. But the trouble wasn't over, he got a call that he had to go to Nova Scotia. Then the next morning, the day after he arrived, he went for a walk, but forgot his room key, in his room. Then he wondered into the public gardens, where he sat on a bench, feeding ducks with his peanuts. Then he caught a flash of something shiny in the middle of the ducks, and surprisingly enough, it was his ring. Then he realized it has been eaten by a duck, then Dave went after the duck, trying to catch it, and then he got it. He went back to his hotel with it under his jacket, but he didn't have a key, so he waited in line with a duck under his jacket. Once they got to his room Dave searched the duck for it, its feathers, everything. Then he locked the duck into the bathroom. Then dave and the duck watched the Simpsons, and then went to the library to read about ducks. He found out that the things ducks eat get crumbled up in its body. So he thought it has already been destroyed. So he let the duck go. He asked the front desk if they could clean his jacket, then when he got his jacket back, they said that they found a ring in his pocket. Then Dave went home with a good feeling.
Reaction
The story was not bad, but it wasn't too good either. In my perspective I found it a bit... boring. But as always Stuart Mclean puts humor into his stories, and that is nothing he fails with. My favorite part was when Dave had to carry the duck in the lobby, under his jacket. Or when Dave wanted to move to another hotel, but then the people there were really... weird. The part I didn't like was how fast the story went. From one to another Dave is in his store, trying to get his ring off, next thing you know he is in Nova Scotia.
Labour Pains
Reaction
I liked this story because of course it is written by Stuart McLean. It has humor, and it's not cheesy which is good. I liked when Dave crushed the bag full of Margarine and had it all over him. Another thing I like, is that it never gets boring. Unlike this story, many other stories I have read, were very repetitive, but this one is not. In fact, none of Stuart McLean's stories get boring.
Summary
Links
Character Resource
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vinyl_Café
Stuart Mclean Picture
Duck Picture (Dave and The Duck)
Picture of the cat (Galway)
Stickman family picture
There was no link for the baby picture