I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

The Other London: A Great Place for a Sherlockian Society

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<b>"I shall probably return to London" [BOSC] </b></h4>
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When I move from western Ontario to eastern Ontario this spring, one of the things I'm going to miss most is the monthly pub lunches of an improbable group that names itself after a sewer.<br />
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Dr. Watson describes his London (in <i>A Study in Scarlet</i>) as "that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained," and when a group of Sherlockians got together in the namesake city of London, Ontario, and decided to form a society, what better name could there be than the <b>Cesspudlians</b>? (Liverpool, Liverpudlian; cesspool, cesspudlian; it's obvious after a round of drinks.)<br />
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It all got started in 2015 when I realized that there were a few members of the <a href="http://www.torontobootmakers.com/" target="_blank">Bootmakers of Toronto</a> who lived in or near London, which is far enough away from the big city (120 miles) that they wouldn't often get to meetings. I sent out a note suggesting that we meet for lunch and see what happened, and one Saturday in August we assembled at the <a href="http://www.thewaltzingweasel.com/" target="_blank">Waltzing Weasel</a> pub on London's Adelaide Street. By the time the meal was over, we were forming a society.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First gathering of the Cesspudlians: Margot Northcott, Mark Hanson, Chris Redmond, Liz Bardawill</td></tr>
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Saturday lunches have been happening monthly since that beginning, mostly at another pub, the <a href="http://www.thechurchkey.ca/" target="_blank">Church Key</a> in the city's downtown. The most recent one, in January, drew an amazing eight participants, and if everybody on the email list showed up at once, the Church Key would have to find seats for as many as a dozen of us. Besides London, members drive in from Woodstock, Stratford, Guelph, and in my case Waterloo. We have managed without any sort of formal organization, other than Mark Hanson's obliging service in keeping a list of email addresses and sending out a note now and then to remind us of the next get-together.<br />
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"the conversation drifted away into other channels" [STUD]</h3>
Conversation at the lunch table sometimes touches on Sherlock Holmes, but we're not compulsive about it; there's also lots of talk about movies, travel, the challenges of teaching and the problem of crowded bookshelves. Some of us are Bootmakers; two of us are Baker Street Irregulars; no fewer than six of us wrote essays for the <i><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2016/10/about-sixty-eliminates-improbable.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">About Sixty</a></i> anthology, and we occasionally talk about that too. <br />
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Oh, and we talk about London, which is a pleasant, prosperous, rather conservative city of 350,000, the home of Western University and several insurance companies. It's the county seat of Middlesex County, it sits on the Thames River, and its points of interest include Covent Garden Market and Oxford, Pall Mall, and Piccadilly Streets. It's better known for snow, however, than for yellow fog.<br />
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"my knowledge of the history of crime" [STUD]</h3>
It also turns out that the Church Key is just steps away from the sites of two of Canada's most legendary crimes. One is the 1919 disappearance of impresario <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Small" target="_blank">Ambrose Small</a>, who owned the Grand Theatre straight across Richmond Street from the pub. The other is the murder of waitress Kate Gardener, whose body was found in May 1879 (not August as Wikipedia claims) in a shed behind a house on Queens Avenue, just around the corner. The house was the home and place of business of <a href="http://murderpedia.org/male.C/c/cream-thomas-neill.htm" target="_blank">Dr. Neill Cream</a>, who would eventually be hanged for other murders in the other London far away. After the inquest learned that Gardener's death was not suicide, as first suspected, but murder, Cream found it convenient to abandon his practice as sawbones and abortionist, and to leave town on the Great Western Railway. Neither he nor anyone else was ever charged in the case. The Cesspudlians will get around to doing more intensive research on the matter, one of these days.<br />
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I'm going to miss all this friendship and erudition when I make the move to Carleton Place, near Ottawa. Waterloo is a substantial distance from London — an hour if you drive with determination, two hours if you amble the way I like to — but from my new home it would be an overnight trip. I suspect the Cesspudlians will get along fine without me, but I'm certainly not going to forget them. I think the Cesspudlian Society is, in fact, the best Sherlockian group I've ever belonged to. Thanks, guys.<br />
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<i><b>Editor's note: </b>Forming a Sherlockian society is a relatively easy thing to do. And there are a variety of ways to structure the meetings. For more information about getting started, please listen to <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose05" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 05: Sherlockian 101 (Part 2)</a> and for some examples of what goes on at other societies, listen to <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose110" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 110: Sociable and Clubbable</a>.</i><br />
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The Other London: A Great Place for a Sherlockian Society

"I shall probably return to London" [BOSC] When I move from western Ontario to eastern Ontario this spring, one of the thin...

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by Chris Redmond

Missing Dates in "The Missing Three-Quarter"

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"a puzzled quarter of an hour" [MISS] </h4>
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If you've ever read a Sherlock Holmes story, you know that the reminiscences of John H. Watson, MD can be hazy at times. At least when it comes to details.<br />
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The plots are usually gripping, even though some are completely devoid of crime. The narrative around setting and surroundings are consistently artistic and descriptive. But, "the devil is in the details," as the adage goes, and "The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter" is no exception.<br />
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In the opening paragraph, Watson clearly tells us that the case began on "a gloomy February morning." And yet, as we learn, the player was missing from a key game — a game typically played in another month.<br />
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Fear not! Plenty of chronologists have trod this ground before, and a number of them helpfully point out the actual date. And it's the topic of <a href="http://ihose.co/trifles06" target="_blank">the latest episode of Trifles</a>.<br />
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If you don't yet subscribe to email updates about Trifles, <a href="http://forms.feedblitz.com/6ew" target="_blank">please sign up now</a>. It's free and you'll receive one email a week when we post a new episode. Each episode is just 15 minutes long and contains discussion about some finer point in the Canon.<br />
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And thank you in advance for listening!<br />
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Missing Dates in "The Missing Three-Quarter"

"a puzzled quarter of an hour" [MISS] If you've ever read a Sherlock Holmes story, you know that the reminiscences of J...

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by Scott Monty

New Feature — Baker Street Elementary

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"It belongs to the same elementary class" [LADY] </h4>
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We're pleased to offer a new regular feature to I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere. One of our long-time listeners, Steve Mason, approached us with this singular opportunity, and we couldn't pass it up.<br />
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Steve and his son Rusty are big fans of <a href="http://ihose.co/ihoseshows" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our show</a> (they listen on cross-country trips!) and are keen students of the Sherlock Holmes stories. So keen, in fact, that they've developed an education-related creation of their own. <a href="http://www.bakerstreetelementary.org/" target="_blank">Baker Street Elementary</a> is a comic series that they, together with Joe Fay, created two years ago and brought to life online on the website of their Dallas / Fort Worth-based Sherlockian society, Crew of the Barque Lone Star.<br />
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We'll let Don Hobbs, BSI ("Inspector Lestrade"), a longtime Crew member, describe it further:<br />
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"<b><i>Baker Street Elementary</i></b> is one of those rare treats, taking all of the familiar Sherlockian characters and presenting then in a completely original manner. This marvelous creation, the brainchild of <b>Joe Fay</b> (creator & writer), <b>Steve Mason</b> (writer & editor), and <b>Rusty Mason</b> (artist), features Holmes and Watson during their formative years at that long-ago elementary school that might have been…somewhere on Baker Street. The magic this trio produces is evident in every panel of every strip of <b><i>Baker Street Elementary</i></b>. There is nothing close to South Park envy here, in fact many of the South Park residents most likely wish they could attend Baker Street Elementary."</blockquote>
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With that in mind, and keeping with the tradition of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_comics" target="_blank">Sunday comics</a>, we've decided to syndicate Baker Street Elementary every other Sunday here on IHOSE. We (and Joe, Steve and Rusty) would appreciate any feedback you have on the series.</div>
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And we we'll kick things off with the very first strip the trio created, from February 6, 2015.</div>
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<b><i>Baker Street Elementary</i></b> follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London.  An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at <a href="http://www.bakerstreetelementary.org/">www.bakerstreetelementary.org</a><br />
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New Feature — Baker Street Elementary

"It belongs to the same elementary class" [LADY] We're pleased to offer a new regular feature to I Hear of Sherlock Ever...

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by Scott Monty

A Little-Known Sherlock Holmes Film

<h4 style="text-align: center;">
"a guard of Coal and Iron Police" [VALL]</h4>
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Everyone who has read a Sherlock Holmes story (or who is familiar with Britain before the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968, precipitated by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London" target="_blank">Great Smog of London</a>) knows the importance of coal as a source of fuel, both for transportation and for heat.<br />
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We're treated to a number of mentions of coal in the Canon, from Mordecai Smith, "stripped to the waist, and shovelling coals for dear life" during the river chase in <i>The Sign of Four</i> to a certain "enormous coal-black hound," to "the coal and iron valleys in the United States" in <i>The Valley of Fear</i>. Aside from settings, we're also treated to other appearances of coal, either as set-pieces or as plot devices. To wit:<br />
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<li>We learn of the odd habits of the lodger at 221B Baker Street, as Sherlock Holmes was identified as one "who keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece." [MUSG]</li>
<li>When Wilson Kemp and Harold Latimer were ready to discard Paul Kratides, they chose to asphyxiate him. Upon bursting into room with a poisonous atmosphere, Holmes immediately exited, exclaiming "It's charcoal!" [GREE]</li>
<li>The coal fire at 221B Baker Street provided more than heat on occasion. In one case, Sherlock Holmes substituted it for a match: "taking up a glowing cinder with the tongs, and lighting with it the long cherrywood pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a disputatious, rather than a meditative, mood." [COPP]</li>
<li>And we find a disguised Holmes setting down before "a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists" [TWIS]</li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhBGGQtTAZ96wS4rT-k0Xv25zGi7MdFrhEk91GJcRg_hvhMiCWPfZV7IFP23PEeU1hPAif7jS7clcKn6MMebyDqDTeffRCUlZBWW_RYGP-Nr1nLRBwuaRH14zhDdDY-8s9pfa8qkpHpLgL/s1600/TWIS+-+Paget.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhBGGQtTAZ96wS4rT-k0Xv25zGi7MdFrhEk91GJcRg_hvhMiCWPfZV7IFP23PEeU1hPAif7jS7clcKn6MMebyDqDTeffRCUlZBWW_RYGP-Nr1nLRBwuaRH14zhDdDY-8s9pfa8qkpHpLgL/s320/TWIS+-+Paget.jpg" width="272" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"This plant is taking forever to grow!"</td></tr>
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Coal was simply part of daily life in Victorian England. It was the main source of heat for homes well into the mid-20th century, and its heavy usage in colder months contributed to the poor air quality in and around London.<br />
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But it was during World War II that Britain stepped up efforts toward rationing and conservation. So it should be no surprise that Sherlock Holmes was selected for a public service announcement about saving fuel.<br />
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<a href="http://www.britishpathe.com/video/the-sacred-flame-coal-fire/query/2911" target="_blank">The Sacred Flame Coal Fire</a> was developed by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Information_(United_Kingdom)" target="_blank">Ministry of Information</a> to educate the public on smarter use of coal during the winter of 1943-1944. The description of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2euoUoz0C8" target="_blank">the video</a>, via <a href="http://www.britishpathe.com/video/the-sacred-flame-coal-fire/query/2911" target="_blank">British Pathé</a>, reads:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
MS Sherlock Holmes looking through his magnifying glass. MS Holmes and Watson in discussion. CU a hearth fire. MS the men discuss the fire. It's small, it uses fire bricks to contain the fire to a small area, and it has been lit very late in the day using cinders from a previous fire. CU Watson inspects the fire. MS the two men - Holmes has solved the mystery of how to save fuel in the winter of 1943-1944. CU Holmes looks into camera and puffs on his pipe.</blockquote>
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About Pathé News</h3>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path%C3%A9_News" target="_blank">Pathé News</a> was producer of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsreels">newsreels</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinemagazine">cinemagazines</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentaries">documentaries</a> from 1910 until 1970 in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom">United Kingdom</a>. Its founder, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Path%C3%A9">Charles Pathé</a>, was a pioneer of moving pictures in the silent era. The Pathé News archive is known today as British Pathé. Its collection of news film and movies is fully digitised and available online. (Wikipedia)<br />
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Special thanks to Tom Francis, BSI ("The Imperial Opera at Warsaw") for the tip.<br />
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