We dont actually know. There were no answers at the last Book. In fact I actually regret reading the entire series and maybe i should have just heeded Lemony Snicket's warning. The Series turned out to be actually a load of tosh. It wasn't really miserable or unfortunate it was just annoying that none of the answers to the mysteries were revealed. Not even VFD and don't tell me it was Fire Extinguishing Services of Very Flammable Hydrant. It had 100 meanings, but the true meaning that Voilet, Klaus & Sunny were looking for was never revealed.

And if you think about it, the Book is very unrealistic - What sort of of ppl would believe Count Olaf each time and do the sordid crimes they did and justify themselves. The world of Lemony Snicket seemed to be a warped version of today's future. The day there is a world like that we must realize that the Apocalypse is nigh, because if humans were ever truly like that with their Nuclear Bombs and dangerous items we would be long extinct.

However, there is some realistic-ness to the answers that weren't given. The fact that Sunny, Violet & Klaus never got answers to their questions is very realistic. In real life, you can die or live on without knowing the answers to some of your life's biggest mysteries. Life itself is a mystery and you never truly know everything, do you?

PS the Movie was a load of tosh as well. Nice action scenes and stuff, but it ended so wrongly. And Pleease! - Jim Carrey as Count Olaf? Waste of time - they shouldn't even have tried to turn it into a Movie.

i didnt regret reading the series, I just wished that he would have answered a little ore of the questions.

yeah, i agree with officefan.


i actually really liked the books, and liked the fact none of it was tha realistic, espeacially when it came to the people the children had to come in contact with. it was like the human race was really, really, really simplified, and all that was left the their ignorence and greed and stuff. then again, there were good guys, too.


but i agree, i didnt like the movie very much at all.

it is a bummer that most of the questions werent answered, but i guess thats why its so unfortunate.

i thought that it standed for - volunteer fire department? am i wrong? plz tell me if i am, i dont no how i got that answer, and niwdog, i hope you dont actually believe that this story is non fiction? for one, its a childrens book, of cause it is going to be unrealistic? what else do you expect? i really enjoyed the books! they are my 2nd most favourite series apart from harry potter, and niwdog, you are obviously not a fan of the series, so plz, no one wants to hear your negativities, plz display them sumwhere else

the_bunkster: no, you're right! it stands for VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT (puzzling, huh?)A lot is a blur for me and I half regret reading the series. On one hand it could be so fustrating to read and so unrealistic whereas on the other hand... i dunno. there must be a reason why I bought them, so I must like them. I was also just hoping for my questions to be answered (which they weren't).

yeah it stands for Volunteer Fire Department. but abt the sugar bowl, i totally dunno what it is but i think in "The Ersatz Elevator" it say that Esme had blamed Beatrice for stealing the sugar bowl from her but i think lemony Snicket had stolen it or mayb there Beatrice and Lemony were in cahoots to get the sugar bowl.

I also think that Beatrice is actually Beatrice Baudelaire(Mrs. Baudelaire) and was once lemony's snicket sister bfore she married Bertrand(Mr. Baudelaire). But i still dont get it why lemony would be in love with his sister or mayb it was love, but grieve?

i have been trying to figure it out but the sugar bowl was the hardest. It was said not to be revealed. That was plain suckie. =(

P.S. i made alot of spelling errors. i hope you can read it.

oh yeah and it was "..or mayb it wasn't love, but grieve?". lol

i liked the series but they didnt answer enough stuff. like the sugar bowl. what was with that? what about it was so special? i dont get it!

the sugar bowl wasnt important. what was in it was.

It turns out that Beatrice and Lemony were once in love and were engaged to be married, but Beatrice left Lemony when it was put in the 'Daily Punctilio' that he had died, moved on and married Bertrand instead. Although when it was revealed that he was alive, she had already married Betrand and also she believed a lot of things in the 'Daily Punctilio' were true, like Lemony commiting arson and various other crimes. She didn't want to be around someone like that. Lemony is still very much alive and in love with her, hence the dedication in each book and Kit and Jacques were his brother and sister. It's routine that they name their children after someone important to them that had passed and the Baudeliere parents were going to name Violet Lemony if she was a boy because it was rumoured he had died. But in actual fact he was very much alive and when the Baudeliere parents perished, he started following the orphans and doing his part from the V.F.D to tell the tales of their lives because of how much he loved Beatrice and also to keep everyone safe. He stole the sugar bowl from Esme, and he probably still has it but he's not telling. Kit wanted to name her baby girl Beatrice because she knew what a great mother she was to the orphans before they died.
V.F.D does stand for Volunteer Fire Department and the story behind that name and schism and all that i'm sure most of you understand.
What i really want to know is if the Baudeliere parents had something to do with Count Olaf's parents being murdered and something to do with poisin darts... That's something to think about lol.

your all idiots. the sugar bowl had horseradish as a cure to the medusoid, and it also contained papers to clear lemony snickets name. V.F.D. stands for volunteer fire department, but besides that it was still a highly entertaining concept having it stand for more than one thing. anyone who thinks differently is a moron and doesn't have a very creative imagination (ahem, niwdog! ahem). the books were pure genius, and the fact that they never got any answers to their questions only adds to the beauty of it all: life is full of dead-ends and false paths, it is up to us to decide whats right and whats wrong, whats intelligent and whats just plain insanity. these books gave great detail yet at the same time they left so much for the imagination, and that's what i believe he was going for.

have any of u guys read the beatrice letters? does it have any answers? i've been thinking of bying it

I KNOW WHATS IN THE SUGAR BOWL!!!! GET READY........... SUGAR!!!!

o.O

I want to know what was in the sugar bowl too. It seemed so important and then he didn't even tell us what was in it in the last book. grr.

Oh it had horseradish in it :o

i think in the sugar bowl there is a map to dewey's underwater catolog/library and in there is horseradish+stuff to clear lemony's name

go to wikipedia search sugar bowl
i think it is just to give the characters a purpose and keep the reader interested.

:)

I saw the movie when I was real little and hardly remember it. By the way, no one knows but Lemony Snicket knows what the Sugar Bowl is or what VFD means.

I don't think the sugar bowl contains horseradish. The sugar bowl was something that both sides of the schism were desperate for. They can get horseradish anywhere.

I don't think anyone knew what the sugar bowl contained. Not Kit, not Esme, not the baudelaire parents, not Lemony, nobody. It had that Pandora's Box-ish thing going on, and everyone wanted it just because of what they THOUHT could be in it.

The sugar bowl contained papers that had evidence of Olaf starting the fire that Lemony was blamed for.

I think VFD stands for Volunteer Fire Department through and through.

In the Unauthorised Autobiogaphy, theres a song about VFD and it says "you'll soon be doing noble work, although you wont be paid."

Volunteer firemen aren't paid. And they talk about fires so much its OBVIOUS that its nothing but a volunteer fire department.

BUT!!! We can say its "Vampires Feed on Dragonflies."

V.F.D totally stands for volunteer fire department cause in the very first illustration in the first book the fireman's hat says V.F.D. on it :D also i found a website that made me understand some more stuff! link <-- link

and i think the sugar bowl is in the pond behind the hotel. cause in the 12 book the eagles dropped it there... i think....

yeah.

Inside the sugar bowl, obviously, it is never clear. There are many, many assumptions. All should be considered. SimplyLaurel was right. It can't contain horseradish because horseradish can be bought anywhere. Just take a look at all the clues, take notes and you might be able to figure it out. Like someone posted before, look it up on wikipedia. Wikipedia helped clear a lot of things for me.

Really, I'm only on the tenth book, but I do remember it saying, "Why did I ever steal that sugar bowl from Esme' Sqaulor?" That's all I really know so far. Probably not that much help, though.

lilheartnet3, Wasn't Kit SNICKET Lemonys SNICKETS sister? Cause Ish said the the Snickests were as much trouble as the Baudlaires and he wouldn't really be saying that if Beatrice was one of both, would he? I don't know I'm just so confused!

Does anyone recall page 251 in The Penultimate peril? It refers to a mysterious man who arrived in a taxi after the death of Dewey, offering the Baudelaires a lift and speaking in such coded language that he was clearly a member of V.F.D. Well Lemony Snicket goes on to write, "I know who the man was, and I do know where he went afterward, and I do know the name of the woman who was hiding in the trunk, and the type of musical instrument that was laid carefully in the back seat, and the ingrediants of the sandwich tucked into the glove compartment, and even the samll item that sat on the passenger seat, still damp from its hiding place..." The amount of detail used instantly made me presume that it was in fact himself (Lemony) who he was talking about. And the small item? Well I just presumed it was the sugar bowl, damp from either being dropped into the pond or even from the laundry room if it possibly dropped down the chute. Still no idea what was in it though :/

Oh my gosh, I NEED TO REREAD THIS SERIES! I'VE FORGOTTEN SO MUCH! There's a guy in my class though, who is constantly rereading the last book. He must of read it fifteen times by now.

I think that he left so much open so that we can use our imagination. Put our deducting skills to the test. Try and figure it out ourselves. It's a mysterious series right? Besides, that's part of books. Using your imagination, figuring things out alongside the characters.

It's a great experience really.

I think Lemony wasn't trying to aim for realisticness, he was trying to show us how warped our minds are, and how cruel the world really is.

The sugar bowl is a bowl, but it has a dangerous, powerful object inside it.
Esme owned it, but believed Beatrice (The Baudilaires mother) stole it as she was at her house for a tea party that day. But Lemony said he stole it. Since her house has a secret tunnel to the Baudelair mansion mabye she burned it in revenge. Mabye Lemony and Beatrice stole it together...that may of been the crime they commited together before she died...though it was probably the murder of Count Olafs Parents.
I love the books, they make me think about the world differently. And I don't mind the movie.

i just read all ur comments and it cleared up a whole lot thanks so much!

well guess what the sugar bowl contains horse radish or a tube of wasabi files about count Olaf's crime's and a figurine from the carnivorous carnival and possibly a weapon even more powerful than the medusoid mycenim