Lynne Thigpen: The Chief

Quotes 

• The Chief : Gumshoes, Carmen Sandiego's horde of harsh-hearted harpies has struck again. This time, they heinously ham-fisted their way into L.A. In a Los Angeles neighborhood called Watts stands a fantastic triple spires sculpture called Watts Towers. Two of the three towers rise almost 100 feet. Begun about 1921, the towers took 33 years to build. They're made of broken bottles, seashells, shards of tile and china, and all kinds of other scrap parts. Most people didn't recycle back then, but the sculptor was ahead of his time. He was an Italian immigrant named Simon Rodia, and he built them as his personal tribute to the land that took him in. To many residents of this mostly poor urban neighborhood, the towers symbolize hope. In the winter of 1990, Watts Towers was designated a national historic landmark. But now, the landmark is lost because Kneemoi, Carmen's close encounter of the criminal kind, wheezed into Watts, tipped the towers, and towed them away. She said they were just like the flowers on her home planet, Roddenberry. Your mission, gumshoes: neutralize Kneemoi, take back the towers, and then bring Carmen Sandiego to justice.