I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

"The Second Morning After Christmas" [BLUE]

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It's that time of the year when we reach into the archives and pull out one of the old favorites that seems to survive the test of time.<br />
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Not only do we recycle the content, but we ignore our editorial mandate to avoid reusing a quote for the post title. However, in the case of "The Second Morning After Christmas" [BLUE] which has been used in <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2006/12/second-morning-after-christmas-blue_27.html"><b>2006</b></a>, <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2008/12/second-morning-after-christmas-blue_27.html"><b>2008</b></a>, <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2009/12/second-morning-after-christmas-blue_27.html" style="font-weight: bold;">2009</a> and <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2010/12/second-morning-after-christmas-blue_25.html" style="font-weight: bold;">2010</a>, we find that we have a post that continues to please, so we'll continue the tradition. Just as the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> annually reproduces a 1949 editorial written by Vermont Royster called "<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204464404577112431986005786.html">In Hoc Anno Domini</a>," we saw no reason to avoid replication here.<br />
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If this is new to you, please feel free to share and use this at your own Sherlockian society holiday meetings. The only thing we ask is that you attribute the poem to its rightful author. <br />
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So, we bring you "Two Days After Christmas," a tribute to "The Blue Carbuncle" in the style of Clement Moore's <a href="http://iment.com/maida//familytree/henry/xmas/poemvariants/troysentinel1823.htm" style="color: #003366;">A Visit from St. Nick</a>.<br />
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For those of you inclined more to listening rather than reading, <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2007/12/special-episode-compliments-of-season.html">here's the audio version, courtesy of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere</a>.<br />
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<b>A note about the lead image for this post:</b><br />
This is the dust jacket from the first book to be published by the Baker Street Irregulars. The deluxe edition included "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" with blue-tinged plates of two of the Sidney Paget illustrations from the original <i>Strand Magazine</i>. It also included an essay by Edgar W. Smith, BSI titled "The Story of the Blue Carbuncle," as well as "A Note on the Baker Street Irregulars." We have included a link below to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YE59BW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thebakerstree-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000YE59BW%22">purchase this through Amazon</a>.<br />
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We have the pleasure and honor of wishing you "the compliments of the season."<br />
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<i>Please consider visiting our sponsors (in the right column and footer of the site) from time to time. It helps defray the costs associated with running this site. </i><i>Thank you for your generosity.</i><br />
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"The Second Morning After Christmas" [BLUE]

It's that time of the year when we reach into the archives and pull out one of the old favorites that seems to survive the test of...

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by Scott Monty

The Blue Carbuncle, As Told via Animated Gif

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"It arrived upon Christmas morning." [BLUE]</h4>
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Usually we save our Christmas greetings on this site for "the second morning after Christmas." But in this case, we found a relic from our digital version of Holmes's own "large tin box" [MUSG] containing notes of his early cases. <br />
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In our own instance, the artifact is an animated gif that we found and sought permission (some four years ago) from a member of <a href="http://www.holmesian.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=473&st=20">Holmesian.net</a> named "whorl". We had misplaced the image, and then did not have an appropriate hosting service to be able to share it with you. <br />
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Now, on Christmas morning, that has all been solved. We're proud and honored to bring you <b><a href="http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj88/scottmonty/stick_BLUE-1.gif">The Bloo Sparkly</a></b> (click for the fullsize image), a retelling of "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" with stick figures, which you can see below. <i><b>If you're reading this on a feed reader or via email, please click on "I Hear of Sherlock" in the header of the email to advance to the website to see the animation</b></i>. The slides advance automatically, so if you need to start over, just hit F5 or refresh your browser to start over.  <br />
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We hope that your holiday is an enjoyable one. Expect to see us back here again in two days (i.e. "the second morning after Christmas" [BLUE]).  <br />
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The Blue Carbuncle, As Told via Animated Gif

"It arrived upon Christmas morning." [BLUE] Usually we save our Christmas greetings on this site for "the second m...

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by Scott Monty

“Those Shots Must Have Told Him that the Game was Up.” [HOUN]

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<br /><i>Editor's note</i>: this is another review in our continuing series from our contributors. If you would like to contribute to the site, please <a href="http://www.bakerstreetblog.com/p/about-me.html">click here</a>.<br /><br /> It has been three years since the original Guy Ritchie reboot of the Sherlock Holmes film franchise. At the time, Holmes hadn't been seen on the big screen in years, and excitement for this new take on the classic character was huge. We were promised a faster, rougher Holmes from the director of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000093FLA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thebakerstree-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000093FLA%22"><i>Snatch</i></a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00007ELEP/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thebakerstree-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00007ELEP"><i>Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels</i></a>, and that’s exactly what we got. The best part? It was fun, if not exactly true to the original characters and tales as told by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.<br /><br />

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<br /><a href="http://sherlockholmes2.warnerbros.com/"><i>Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows</i></a> opened this weekend to a substantially different reception. While the original film brought in over $60 million it’s first weekend, GAME barely topped out at $40 million. Were we all just tired of waiting three years to see more of Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes? Or have we seen all that Ritchie had to offer and just don’t feel the need to pay to see any more?<br /><br />Part of this reviewer’s personal apathy towards seeing the film was the fact that, yes, I enjoyed seeing the original <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OQCV6A/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thebakerstree-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001OQCV6A"><i>Sherlock Holmes</i></a> for Christmas in 2009, but that’s before the BBC television series, <i>Sherlock</i>, had aired. Seeing Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman embody the fully-modernized Holmes and Watson in Mark Gatiss and Stephen Moffat’s three episode series is everything you hoped the big-budget Ritchie film would be: clever, exciting, and extremely well done. If <i>Sherlock</i> didn’t exist as a series, then maybe, just maybe, GAME wouldn’t have disappointed quite as much as it did.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows</i> finds Watson (the handsomely-mustachioed Jude Law) about to marry, and Holmes teetering on the edge of psychosis. Is Holmes manic, has he lost his edge? the film seems to ask. The film never misses a moment of making Holmes seem, well, incredibly ridiculous—whether he is downing a glass of formaldehyde rather than brandy, or trotting along on a tiny pony while everyone else rushes by on their full-sized horses. If the filmmaker’s objective was to make Holmes look downright silly, rather than classically brilliant, or even heroic, then consider this movie a success.<br /><br />The film is much more an action film than a well-written mystery, centering around the machinations of Holmes’ latest obsession, Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris, whom Americans will recognize from the AMC series <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YABIQ6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thebakerstree-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000YABIQ6"><i>Mad Men</i></a>). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the climax happens at Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland, which is not an incredibly exciting plot point to anyone who knows anything about the canon of Holmes stories.<br /><br />That being said, there were some very beautiful shots in the film. The scene with Holmes, Watson, and their gypsy companion, played by Noomi Rapace, running through the woods while under heavy artillery fire leaps to mind. My viewing companion (not a Holmes aficionado) enjoyed the film very much, so I believe it stands on its own as an enjoyable time at the movies. I can’t help my reservations at recommending the film, though. Any movie that sets out to make the Great Detective seem silly overall is doing the legacy quite an injustice. <br /><br />Word is that the green light has been given to a third film as well, so we’ll just have to endure more action-packed ridiculousness from the Ritchie group. All of this Hollywood Holmes stuff just leaves me wondering, ‘When does the BBC “Sherlock” air in the US?’ This reviewer is ready to see some really taut storytelling and acting as befits the great Sherlock Holmes. </div>
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<i>Jill Brumer is a small business owner, college drama professor, and all around creative type who has lived all over the States. She has her father to thank for purchasing her first Sherlock Holmes story when she was twelve years old- the fascination has never stopped!</i>--<br />
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“Those Shots Must Have Told Him that the Game was Up.” [HOUN]

Editor's note : this is another review in our continuing series from our contributors. If you would like to contribute to the site, pl...

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by Scott Monty

"You Will Find That the Clips Are Too" [GOLD]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsmonty/6540058639/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="Sherlock Series 2 BBC Poster by Scott Monty, on Flickr"><img alt="Sherlock Series 2 BBC Poster" height="240" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7149/6540058639_770c819209_m.jpg" width="164" /></a>The BBC series "<b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018ttws">Sherlock</a></b>" is making is second series run on BBC One this holiday season.<br /><br />If you <b><a href="http://www.bakerstreetblog.com/2010/10/something-more-modern-houn.html">missed the first one</a></b> (viewed in the United States on Masterpiece Mystery), you're in for a real treat. The series takes the original stories and characters and updates them for the 21st century. Watson is returning from Afghanistan (strange how some conflicts never end) and Holmes is an oddity of a consulting/science machine that lives alone in Baker Street. The two share rooms and Watson is there to chronicle Holmes's cases (albeit with <b><a href="http://www.johnwatsonblog.co.uk/">Dr. Watson's Blog</a></b> rather than the <i><a href="http://www.bakerstreetblog.com/2007/01/i-even-embodied-it-in-small-brochure.html"><b>Strand Magazine</b></a></i>). And instead of chemical retorts and tobacco ash research, Holmes relies on GPS and his iPhone, among other devices.<br /><br />Lest you thumb your nose at such a modernization of the character, o traditional Sherlock Holmes fan, let us remind you that the Basil Rathbone series was almost, in its entirety, set in modern-day England. This new series manages to update the stories while paying proper respect to the stories from which inspired it. The co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss are each students of the Canon.<br /><br />Here we have <b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAFD3D45AD81DC848">a two-video playlist</a></b> of clips from the upcoming season.<br /><br /><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="244" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLAFD3D45AD81DC848&hl=en_US" width="480"></iframe></center><br /><i><br /></i><br />The episodes should be truly excellent, with titles like "A Scandal in Belgravia," "The Hounds of Baskerville," and "The Reichenbach Fall," all clearly taken from "A Scandal in Bohemia," <i>The Hound of the Baskervilles</i> and "The Final Problem."<br /><br />Have you seen the first series? What are your expectations from the second? Let us know in a comment here on the site.<br /><br /><i>When you make purchases from the links we share, it provides us with a stream of revenue to help keep this site running. Thank you for your generosity.</i><br />--<br /><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=thebakerstree-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B004132I20" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>  <iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=thebakerstree-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B00499LTLM" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>  <iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=thebakerstree-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B004132HZS" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>