"Listen, Lieutenant, if there's anything I can do in order to be of further assistance, I'd be happy to help, but as it is I'm late for an appointment."

"Oh, of course, of course. Of course. Must be very important."

I'm on my way to see Nicole, so keep yourselves occupied with Peter Falk. Be good!

You're wearing an expensive coat that your wife paid for. You hate her for it. You are Dick Van Dyke. You're taller, more polished, better dressed, and have better diction than the investigating detective assigned to your late wife's case, and yet you know he's the better man. You are either a highly paid psychiatrist, a world-renowned composer, a high-ranking naval officer, or a mystery novelist with a pilot's license. You are insufferably smug, and…

"That's why now, of all times, is so ripe for a Columbo Renaissance, because it's a wonderful example of the working man going after rich sons of bitches and making them pay for their crimes." The stout-hearted fellows at "Just One More Thing," A COLUMBO-THEMED PODCAST (were lovelier words ever written) invited me to join them in discussing "Étude in Black," an early Columbo episode starring John Cassavettes, and I could not help but oblige.

"'Journey's end in lovers meeting.'" Lenox laughed. "That is not going to be true for me." "Yes--yes, it is true. You are young, younger than you yourself know. Trust the train, Mademoiselle, for it is le bon Dieu who drives it." The whistle of the engine came again. "Trust the train, Mademoiselle," murmured Poirot again. "And trust Hercule Poirot. He knows.”

***

"I never guess. It is a shocking habit,—destructive to the logical…