I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

"The Second Morning After Christmas" [BLUE]

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Jwr9Z2Fdf-y1YMmLQC3Kp2lGpcXfPkk9-2AF_mgMAi-rTY-6T1ViuA0vUwGvMgy9x9u4AYZpjmiruzRaYdjAqg9HeCasLALMEctcdT3PFVE_RhSLEjL5y95fgJKCiQOhHoqcAa-_87N-/s1600-h/blue-05.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5013328828577409250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Jwr9Z2Fdf-y1YMmLQC3Kp2lGpcXfPkk9-2AF_mgMAi-rTY-6T1ViuA0vUwGvMgy9x9u4AYZpjmiruzRaYdjAqg9HeCasLALMEctcdT3PFVE_RhSLEjL5y95fgJKCiQOhHoqcAa-_87N-/s200/blue-05.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" /></a>This is a repost of an entry from 12/27/2006. I've decided to make it a regular annual feature here. In 1995 I penned a seasonal ode to <a href="http://camdenhouse.ignisart.com/canon/blue.htm">The Blue Carbuncle</a> in the style of Clement Moore's <a href="http://iment.com/maida//familytree/henry/xmas/poemvariants/troysentinel1823.htm">A Visit from St. Nick</a>. Since then, it has been an annual tradition to share this gem (sorry, I couldn't help myself) in my Sherlockian circles. Enjoy. Please note that you are free to use this at your own society meetings; according to the Creative Commons license below, you just have to give attribution for for it. And allow me to wish you "compliments of the season." May all your carbuncles be blue. <div style="text-align: center;">Two Days After Christmas </div><div style="text-align: center;">'Twas two days after Christmas and in one part of town, Sherlock Holmes was lounging in his purple dressing gown. A felt hat was hung on the wood chair with care, Looking seedy and cracked and much worse for the wear. The forceps and lens were an arm’s length away, So Sherlock Holmes was engaged well today. Peterson was the giver, Holmes was the taker Of the hat and goose, "For Mrs. Henry Baker." Holmes began to infer from the battered old hat Grizzled hair, self-respect, and odd things like that. Then Peterson entered, astonished and dazed, And showed us upon what the goose must have grazed. When what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a bonny blue thing in the shape of a tear. With facets that twinkled, sparkled, and shone, I knew in a moment it was the Countess’ stone. Holmes sprang to the Times to review all the history Of the Hotel Cosmopolitan jewel thief mystery. The crime was fixed on a plumber named Horner. No Christmas pie, no plumb; for him, a corner. More rapid than lightening, Holmes’s orders now came, As he wrote an advert and called the papers by name: "Evening News, the Star, Globe, and Pall Mall! St. James’s Gazette, Standard, Echo, et al." The stone which Holmes held was the devil’s pet bait, With a sinister history for a forty-grain weight. Robberies, vitriol, three people now dead; And all for a stone which should have been red. Henry Baker called on the street with his name, Wearing a tam o’shanter, much to his shame. Holmes gave him his hat and then the bad news: That we were compelled to eat his fine goose. "To eat it!" said he, as he rose from his chair, <div style="text-align: center;">"Do not fret, Mr. Baker, we have one more there." Holmes offered to him the disjecta membra, Relics of an adventure he still could remember. And taking his items, Baker turned with a jerk, As Holmes and I set straight to work. To the Alpha we went, then on to Covent Garden Where Breckinridge against our pleas seemed to harden. But finally we found the origin of the geese, From one Mrs. Oakshott of Brixton Road, east. We overheard Ryder, who was hot on the trail, So as a four-wheeler passed, we decided to hail. Riding to Baker Street, of the mystery, no mention, But all the way there, we could sense Ryder’s tension. As he saw the truth, our guest stifled a howl: The stone had been rescued from his bar-tailed fowl. At Holmes’s request, I helped the small imp, To whom Holmes referred as simply "a shrimp." The little man clutched at the detective’s knees, Shrieking and begging and putting forth pleas. For Sherlock Holmes, the case held no glory, He was simply looking for an end to the story. Cusack, the maid and Maudsely, who went bad - Both wanted the stone that Holmes just now had. The hotel attendant did the deed of evil, Fed the stone to a goose, in the hopes of retrieval . There were two that matched, but he hadn’t looked. So now it seemed that Ryder’s goose was cooked. Holmes said "No more words," and turned to the lout, Ryder opened the door and then ran straight out. The crisp rattle of footfalls, up from the street, Told me Ryder knew that Holmes had him beat. "I am not here to perform the policeman's role, But it is just possible that I’m saving a soul. It’s the season of forgiveness, a time to have heart, Let us begin another case, in which a bird will take part."</div><o:p></o:p> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div></div> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/2.5/88x31.png" style="border-width: 0pt;" /></a> This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License</a>.

"The Second Morning After Christmas" [BLUE]

This is a repost of an entry from 12/27/2006. I've decided to make it a regular annual feature here. In 1995 I penned a seasonal ode to ...

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by Scott Monty

Camden House is Back Online

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"we are in Camden House" [EMPT]</h4>
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For anyone who's spent some time poking around this site, you may have frequented one of the links in the References section (aptly titled "His Encyclopedia of Reference"). And there, for a long time, we had linked to <a href="http://www.ignisart.com/camdenhouse/main.htm">Camden House</a>, a site that contained images and text from the Canon. 
 
At some point over the last year, the site went down with no explanation. Many online Sherlockians were concerned that something might have happened to the site owner or that there were unpaid bills that they might be able to assist with. It was a site that clearly meant a great deal to people. 
 
We're happy to report that <a href="http://www.ignisart.com/camdenhouse/main.htm" style="font-weight: bold;">Camden House</a> is no longer an Empty House. It has reopened under the same management. The site administrators share this message on the sidebar of their site: 
 
<blockquote>
We're back online! 
 
For reasons I still haven't been able to get an answer on, my web provider had locked this site out. I got tired of trying to get them to respond and just wiped it out and restarted. 
 
It's been too long.</blockquote>
 
To which we say, hear, hear! If you haven't had a chance to explore the site, please do so. There you'll find the <a href="http://www.ignisart.com/camdenhouse/gallery/index.html">largest collection of Holmesian graphics</a> online, a <a href="http://www.ignisart.com/camdenhouse/canon/index.html">comprehensive listing of all stories</a> that are in the public domain, as well as a number of other nifty features that may inspire you. 
 
It's good to see the site back again. We can think of no better quote to honor the reopening than what Sherlock Holmes himself said in"<a href="http://www.ignisart.com/camdenhouse/canon/empt.htm">The Adventure of the Empty House</a>," 
<blockquote>
"Once again Mr. Sherlock Holmes is free to devote his life to examining those interesting little problems which the complex life of London so plentifully presents."</blockquote>
Only we'd put it this way: "Once again we are free to devote our lives to examining those interesting little pages which the comprehensive site of <a href="http://www.ignisart.com/camdenhouse/main.htm">Camden House</a> so plentifully presents." 
 
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Camden House is Back Online

"we are in Camden House" [EMPT] For anyone who's spent some time poking around this site, you may have frequented one of ...

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by Scott Monty

Christopher Morley on 'Information, Please'

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"getting some information" [SILV]</h4>
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The founder of the Baker Street Irregulars, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Morley">Christopher Morley</a>, BSI ("The Sign of the Four") was a man of many interests and talents. And while he may be known in these parts for his whiskey-and-sodality through the BSI, he was more widely known and appreciated than that in his time. 
 
He was probably most widely known for his novels <a href="https://amzn.to/2Y4Y2WY" rel="nofollow" style="font-style: italic;">Parnassus on Wheels</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=thebakerstree-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0559272219" style="border: medium none; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, <a href="https://amzn.to/3kSOKWX" rel="nofollow" style="font-style: italic;">The Haunted Bookshop</a> and <a href="https://amzn.to/3zTqA2D" rel="nofollow" style="font-style: italic;">Kitty Foyle</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=thebakerstree-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000BYA4FG" style="border: medium none; font-style: italic; margin: 0px;" width="1" />, which became an Oscar-winning film. As a founder of The Saturday Review of Books, he was in a unique position to be able to see and observe much of the literary world. This is in part what led to him being one of the first judges for the Book-of-the-Month Club. 
 
If you'd like to hear Morley's voice, it's available on an old-time radio recording of <a href="https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/quiz/information-please/christopher-morley-1942-09-18" style="font-weight: bold;">Information, Please</a>.  
 
"<a href="http://www.factmonster.com/spot/time-radiohistory.php?type=radio">Information, Please</a>" was a radio quiz show that was extremely popular in the Golden Age of radio. The fact that it was hosted by Morley's contemporary, Clifton Fadiman, the book review editor for The New Yorker, made Morley's appearance a near certainty. It probably didn't hurt that Fadiman was an early attendee of the <a href="http://www.bsitrust.org/2015/01/dinner-summary.html" target="_blank">BSI dinners</a>, either. 
 
Image credit: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christopher_Darlington_Morley_cph.3b14371.jpg#/media/File:Christopher_Darlington_Morley_cph.3b14371.jpg">Wikipedia</a> 
 
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Christopher Morley on 'Information, Please'

"getting some information" [SILV] The founder of the Baker Street Irregulars, Christopher Morley , BSI (" The Sign of...

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by Scott Monty

Remembering Paul Churchill, BSI

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" a genuine Corot" [SIGN]</h4>
 
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In his annual letter to all Irregulars, the current "Wiggins" Mike Whelan noted that the Baker Street Irregulars have lost 16 of our own in the last 15 months. I know I've detailed many (but not all) of them here. And today I'm tasked with documenting another. 
 
Only this time, it's someone I knew fairly well. 
 
Paul Churchill ("Corot") passed beyond the Reichenbach over the weekend. He had announced earlier this year that he was suffering from incurable cancer; the end came much too quickly for anyone who knew Paul. 
 
Paul received his investiture in the BSI in 2006, but for anyone who knew him, it was a long time coming. He was involved in many Sherlockian societies from the mid-Atlantic states to New England, and his presence was always a jovial and warm one. 
 
Among Paul's many talents was illustration, document creation, and the compilation of "evidence boxes" - his term for artifacts he found, created, and assembled into collections that supported each of the 60 Canonical stories. 
 
In <a href="http://www.sh-whoswho.com/index.php?page=search&criteria=member&id=521">Paul's own words</a>: 
<blockquote>
I have illustrated several Sherlockian books by authors such as Steve Clarkson, Steve Tollins, Joe Fink, Don Izban Susan Diamond, David Hammer, Patrick Campbell and Chris Redmond, and did covers for a reprint boxed set of August Derleth's Mill Creek Irregulars. With a colleague, I translated the story The Musgrave Ritual into Latin, the first and, so far, only Latin translation of an entire Sherlock Holmes story to be published. 
 
My main specialism is the amassing of Canonical evidence boxes. There is a box for each of the sixty tales. The boxes contain any letter, telegram, weapon, note, receipt, newspaper clipping, or piece of realia mentioned or hinted at in the Canon. My secondary specialism is the creation of genuine faux documents, many of which have seen their way into the packets given out at the annual BSI dinner in NY. Among these documents are Watson's commission, the charter of The Diogenes Club, the citation for Holmes' Legion of Honour Medal, the Bruce Partington plans and a patent for same, the hack licence for John Clayton, the Hotel Cosmopolitan receipt for the Countess of Morcar, the Stapletons' receipt for the Mexborough Hotel in Craven Street, one for the New Street, Birmingham hotel where Hall Pycroft stayed, Watson's chequebook which Holmes kept locked in his desk, the Capital and Counties Woolwich Branch chequebook belonging to Cadogan West and the very naval treaty copied by Percy Phelps.</blockquote>
He was a longtime friend of Steve Clarkson, another Irregular (author of the <a href="http://bakerstreetjournal.com/itemsforsale/christmasannuals.html">2003 BSJ Christmas Annual</a>) who was taken from us too early by cancer. He spent many long hours with Steve, sharing memories and just being a friend. Paul was like that. He was a friend to many, and was never too busy or too involved to chat with or make time for fellow Sherlockians. 
 
Jacqueline Morris, Gasogene XIX of <a href="http://www.geocities.com/jhwatson221b/wtb1.htm">Watson's Tin Box</a> shared the details of Paul's memorial service: 
<blockquote>
Saturday, November 15, 1:00 p.m. 
<a href="http://www.burrier-queen.com/">Burrier-Queen Funeral Home</a> 
1212 W. Old Liberty Road 
Winfield, MD 
 
Following the service there will be a gathering at <a href="http://www.alpost223.com/">American Legion 223</a> in Sykesville. Directions from the funeral home will be provided at the memorial service. 
 
Greg has asked that in lieu of flowers you might choose to donate to one of Paul's favorite charities, the <a href="http://www.alsa.org/">ALS Association</a>. Many of you know that Paul's beloved wife died from ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease many years ago. 
 
For those who would like to send cards of condolence: 
Greg Churchill 
Mark Churchill (Mark lives in Nebraska) 
3300 Appleton Avenue 
Parkville, MD 21234 </blockquote>
This January at the BSI dinner, the task that has traditionally been solemnly and dutifully performed by Irv Kamil will twice as difficult one as the volume of Irregular deaths has nearly doubled. More than that, the prestige, magnitude and general likability of these Irregulars makes these passings that much more doleful. 
 
UPDATED: <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-md.ob.churchill13nov13,0,7542668.story">Paul's obituary from the Baltimore Sun</a>. 
 
Do you have memories of Paul that you'd like to share? Please consider adding a comment below. It's free and you don't need to register. 
 
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