I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

Trifling Issues in August

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"the observance of trifles [BOSC] </h4>
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If you frequent this site, you're certainly familiar with our <a href="http://ihose.co/ihoseshows">10 year-long show</a>, in which we interview notable Sherlockians who are doing their part to keep the memory of Sherlock Holmes green. I Hear of Sherlock has evolved over that decade, but we're on a steady cadence of long-form interviews on the 15th and 30th of every month.<br />
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Meanwhile, over on <a href="http://www.sherlockholmespodcast.com/">Trifles</a>, we're engaged in something different: we have short discussions of about 15 minutes in length every week in which we talk about one or two trifling issues that we've noticed within the Sherlock Holmes stories. It's an approach that we hope brings more people into our fold who are new to Sherlock Holmes and are fascinated with the details within the story.<br />
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Before we get to a recap of what we've been talking about, we wanted to take a moment to thank you. In July, we asked for your assistance in nominating our two shows for the <a href="http://podcastawards.com/">Podcast Awards</a>. Well, your generous support has paid off: of the hundreds of shows that were nominated, <i><b>Trifles was selected as a finalist for a Podcast Award in the Arts category!</b></i><br />
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Thank you for making this possible. And most of all, thank you for listening.<br />
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And now, on with the recap of <a href="http://www.sherlockholmespodcast.com/search/label/August">our August shows</a>.<br />
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<b>August Update</b></h3>
Our first show of the month was <a href="http://ihose.co/trifles32">Episode 32: A Return to Normalcy via Norwood</a> in which we discussed Watson's return to Baker Street following Holmes's return from the Great Hiatus. Holmes was behind the financing that made such a move possible. What was going on here?<br />
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Then we moved on to <a href="http://ihose.co/trifles33">Episode 33: Thumb Up for Engineers</a>. We took a few salient points from Bliss Austin's early work on some engineering irregularities in "The Engineer's Thumb." And a few of you pointed out the hilarity of the title of the episode.<br />
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Next up was an investigation of the "The Cardboard Box" - its introduction that was later recycled and its disappearance from the collected stories in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Hear what we discussed in <a href="http://ihose.co/trifles34">Episode 34: The Mysterious Box</a>.<br />
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And finally, in <a href="http://ihose.co/trifles35">Episode 35: The Real Greek Hero</a>, we picked apart the players in "The Greek Interpreter" and gave our opinion as to who was the true hero of the story.<br />
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We hope you enjoy these discussions. If you do, please subscribe to <a href="http://sherlockholmespodcast.com/">Trifles</a> via the podcast provider of your choice, or to the email updates.<br />
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And if you'd like to learn more about Tom Richmond, the talented artist behind the show's logo, check out <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose65">Episode 65: Art in the Blood</a>.<br />
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Trifling Issues in August

"the observance of trifles [BOSC] If you frequent this site, you're certainly familiar with our 10 year-long show , in which ...

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by Scott Monty

See Arthur Conan Doyle's Portable Writing Desk

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"your open desk" [SIGN] </h4>
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With the ubiquity of laptops and various thin and portable black mirrors (aka phones and tablets), there's no longer a need to have a single place from which to write.<br />
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But when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was writing Sherlock Holmes stories, he needed a place to place his paper as he ran the pen over it. There are many photographs of him at home in his study, where he authored so many of his works, from <i>The White Company</i> to "Lot 249," from "A Night Among the Nihilists" to <i>The Land of Mist</i>, and about recurring characters like Sherlock Holmes, Brigadier Gerard, and Professor Challenger.<br />
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There are tales of Conan Doyle writing on the train, at sporting events, and in other unlikely places, as the muse struck him. And as his fame and fortune grew, he was able to afford a luxury from a specialty retailer that could support his need to write during his travels.<br />
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It wasn't until 1925 that <a href="http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/arthur-conan-doyle-desk-goyard-salon-art-design">Sir Arthur Conan Doyle commissioned a travel writing desk</a> from the legendary trunkmaker <a href="http://www.goyard.com/">Goyard</a>. The luxury brand has <a href="https://www.purseblog.com/goyard/goyard-handbags-history/">a fascinating history</a>, including their willingness to accept special orders. <br />
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"several trunks and cases" [3GAB]</h3>
As the Industrial Age continued into the 20th century, international travel became more popular—particularly as immigration laws changed and the travel industry realized that tourism could be very profitable. And the luggage industry changed to support it.<br />
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Until then, trunks were the mainstay of transporting belongings — some of them capable of containing seemingly an entire wardrobe. But with the expansion of cruise and then airline travel, trunks gave way to a variety of baggage that could be crafted to coordinate. For many more details and illustrations, see The Rake's <a href="https://therake.com/stories/style/carry-cruising-history-trunk/">A History of the Trunk</a>.<br />
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"Engage a special" [FINA] </h3>
By 1925, Conan Doyle had made several transcontinental trips. To supplement his already significant writing income, he went on the lecture circuit, speaking about his friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes and of his growing fascination with spiritualism. And such long journeys would afford him the time and the ability to relax, read, and write.<br />
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But in order to be comfortable and efficient, and to avoid any interruption of his schedule when alighting in places that had no writing desk, Conan Doyle assured that he would always have a place to write through his commissioning of a writing desk trunk. According to <i><a href="https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/arthur-conan-doyle-desk-goyard-salon-art-design">Architectural Digest</a></i>,<br />
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"He requested a custom-made trunk that would enable him to comfortably pursue his writing on his continuous worldwide forays. The solution that emerged from Goyard’s workshops was an amazing writing trunk, which was roughly the same size and weight as an ordinary travel trunk but was capable of transforming at will into an actual writing desk."</blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writing trunk. Courtesy of Goyard.</i></td></tr>
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<br />And you can see the trunk desk in person; according to <i>Architectural Digest</i>, it is on display at the annual Salon Art + Design show in New York. <div><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Conan Doyle's writing desk. Courtesy of Maison Goyard.</i></td></tr>
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While such luxury may not be within most travelers' budgets today, there are other ways to pay an homage to times gone by. In fact, we noticed that the Spanish furniture brand JMM has a similar setup. Its <a href="https://www.fastcodesign.com/90133447/this-office-in-a-box-is-a-cubicle-you-might-actually-want-to-use">HO is a home office in a box</a>, at once a piece of furniture and a cubicle: a console that transforms into a workstation, complete with a file cabinet, shelves, LED task lamp, stool, and integrated power.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>JMM's HO design - office in a box</i></td></tr>
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It's not quite Goyard and not quite travel-ready, but if you placed your Royal typewriter and some foolscap, a pen, and a bottle of ink on its surface, you might feel a bit like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, even if only for a fleeting moment.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><b>January 2023 update</b>: <a href="https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2023/01/buy-arthur-conan-doyles-portable.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the desk is for sale</a></h4><div><br /></div><div>
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See Arthur Conan Doyle's Portable Writing Desk

"your open desk" [SIGN] With the ubiquity of laptops and various thin and portable black mirrors (aka phones and tablets), t...

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by Scott Monty

Elementary, She Read

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<span style="text-align: start;">"I have spent nearly all my time in...Canada" [HOUN]</span></h4>
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The closest high school to where I lived in Waterloo, Ontario, for many years is Kitchener Collegiate Institute, the alma mater of Margaret Sturm and Kenneth Millar. If those mentions don't ring a very loud bell, it may be that you know the two KCI grads under other names: <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Millar">Margaret Millar</a></b> and <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Macdonald">Ross Macdonald</a></b>, two of the significant figures of mid-20th-century American crime fiction. <br />
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I wish I could say "Canadian" crime fiction, but the duo, who married in 1938, spent most of their adult lives in California, and set the majority of their work there. (Millar did use Canadian settings on a few occasions, notably <i>The Iron Gates</i>, published in 1946.) Canada does its best to take pride in them, and I know I was not the only researcher to visit the KCI library to find a copy of the student literary magazine in which Millar's first short story appeared in 1931.<br />
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I said little about those two sort-of-Canadians in an essay about Canadian crime fiction that I wrote as a graduate student in 1973. The essay itself is lost somewhere in my archives, but I have many of my notes, as well as a practically illegible handwritten memo from the professor, who I suspect knew nothing about the subject, calling my work "scholarly."</div>
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I analyzed and classified about a dozen novels, and there's some evidence that I thought at the time those were all the Canadian mysteries there were. If I did, I was wildly wrong; even then, Derrick Murdoch, the first president of <a href="http://www.torontobootmakers.com/">The Bootmakers of Toronto</a>, was writing extensively about such fiction in the Globe and Mail, and later David Skene Melvin, BSI, would add to the literature with several anthologies, notably <i>Crime in a Cold Climate</i>, that offered samples of CanLit dating back to the 1880s. <br />
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A few of the Canadian novels I examined were actually set in Canada, such as Hugh Garner's 1970 <i>The Sin Snipe</i>. But more of the books were like those of Millar and Macdonald, essentially American even if the authors were nominally Canadian. For example, <i>The Long Way Down</i> is set in Virginia Beach, of all places, though it's the work of a Canadian, Douglas Hall, who's still at it four decades and two dozen mysteries later.<br />
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These observations are a prelude to what I want to say about <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Elementary-She-Read-Sherlock-Bookshop/dp/1683310969">Elementary, She Read</a></i>, the new novel by <b><a href="http://vickidelany.com/">Vicki Delany</a></b>, who lives not far from me in Prince Edward County, Ontario. I have not read any of Delany's previous books, and I am so clueless that I didn't actually know her name even though she has served as president of <a href="http://www.crimewriterscanada.com/">Crime Writers of Canada</a> and produced more than a dozen successful books. But I could no longer overlook her, of course, when she started writing about Sherlock Holmes.<br />
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<i>Elementary, She Read</i> is billed as "A Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery," signalling that there are going to be more books with the same setting and central character. The character is Gemma Doyle, no known relation to Arthur Conan of that ilk, who has (and cleverly demonstrates in almost every chapter) a remarkable Holmes-like ability to observe and make deductions. The setting is a smallish town on Cape Cod in Massachusetts — not, obviously, part of Canada. Delany is, in fact, following in the footsteps of Millar, Macdonald, and the rest; and who can blame her for paying attention to where her potential market is to be found, something even ACD did in his later stories?<br />
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This book, published in spring 2017 by Crooked Lane Books, is squarely in the "cozy" mystery tradition. Its young woman narrator/sleuth who enjoys an on-again, off-again relationship with a hunky police detective will be familiar to readers of Joan Hess and, for that matter, Janet Evanovich. The author Delany's book most reminds me of, however, is Charlotte MacLeod (Alisa Craig) — who is, what do you know, another Canadian setting her action in (frequently) Massachusetts.<br />
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The most distinctive feature of <i>Elementary, She Read</i>, at least for you and me, is its setting in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium, associated with Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room. I won't belabour the details, so let's just say that while most would-be-Sherlockian novels are a bit heavy-handed and tone-deaf (yes, even Graham Moore's <i><a href="http://ihose.co/ihose30">The Sherlockian</a></i>), Delany seems to get the Irene, <i>Beeton's</i>, <i>Strand</i>, and Speckled Band allusions exactly right. She also refers in a natural way to Cumberbatch collectibles… and to <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20418852-jewel-of-the-thames">Jewel of the Thames</a></i>, the first young adult novel by yet another Canadian author, Angela Misri. Oh, and there's a dog called Violet.<br />
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Elementary, She Read

"I have spent nearly all my time in...Canada" [HOUN] The closest high school to where I lived in Waterloo, Ontario, for many...

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by Chris Redmond

Episode 127: From Holmes to Sherlock

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"this is my special hobby" [STUD] </h4>
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Every once in a great while, a book with special significance is published in the world of Sherlock Holmes fans. When the Canon was completed and the stories appeared in the first version of <i>The Complete Sherlock Holmes</i>; when Vincent Starrett brought forth scholarship and fun in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes; when William S. Baring-Gould, BSI ("The <i>Gloria Scott</i>") took a stab at compiling research and chronologies in The Annotated Sherlock Holmes; and now as Mattias Boström, BSI ("The Swedish Pathological Society") has chronicled the rise of Sherlock Holmes in popular culture.</div>
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<i>From Holmes to Sherlock</i> looks not at Conan Doyle's life as a biography would, and does not look at the stories as scholars would. Rather, it shows how Sherlock Holmes was brought to life and how the character evolved over time through the many creators, actors and fans who have kept the interest going.<br />
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We talked with Mattias about the creative process, his inspiration, and his other major Sherlockian works. We hope you'll learn a few things along with us.<br />
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<b>Sponsors</b></h3>
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<li><a href="http://www.wessexpress.com/">Wessex Press</a>, publishers of <i><a href="http://www.wessexpress.com/html/newspaper.html">Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle in the Newspapers</a></i>.</li>
<li><a href="http://ihose.co/bsijuly50"><i>The Baker Street Journal</i></a>, where you can find the BSI Press International Series.</li>
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<b>Notes</b></h3>
1:35 Hi and welcome<br />
2:10 An astounding—even an amazing—revelation<br />
4:40 An obvious number<br />
6:40 Wessex Press<br />
8:31 Mattias Boström joins us<br />
10:42 Where the idea for the book was born<br />
14:13 Models for the unique style of the book<br />
22:29 Research materials and locations<br />
30:05 Vincent Starrett's visit to FDR's office in 1914<br />
33:02 Mattias' first meeting with Sherlock Holmes<br />
37:42 One of our earlier guests was a pen pal of Mattias during their childhoods<br />
44:35 <i>Scandinavia and Sherlock Holmes</i><br />
47:57 The Baker Street Journal<br />
50:42 The Parallel Holmes<br />
54:27 The most influential Sherlock Holmes<br />
57:55 <i>Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle in the Newspapers</i><br />
1:05:32 Churchill's<i> A History of the English-Speaking Peoples</i><br />
1:07:55 Our biggest surprise from the book<br />
1:10:32 Sherlock Holmes Brand Halloween Products</div>
1:12:40 A final plea<br />
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<b>Links</b></h3>
<ul>
<li><i><a href="https://amzn.to/3zg8ait" target="_blank">From Holmes to Sherlock</a></i></li>
<li>"<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/if-you-love-sherlock-holmes-youll-love-this-book/2017/08/16/2bf21cca-811d-11e7-902a-2a9f2d808496_story.html?utm_term=.17517819e04b">If you love Sherlock Holmes, you'll love this book</a>" - Michael Dirda's review of <i>From Holmes to Sherlock</i> in the <i>Washington Post</i></li>
<li><i><a href="https://bakerstreetirregulars.com/2006/12/29/scandinavia-and-sherlock-holmes/">Scandinavia and Sherlock Holmes</a></i> via the BSI Press</li>
<li>"<a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2016/01/original-holmes-and-parallel-holmes.html#.WaZWq8h97b0">Original Holmes and Parallel Holmes</a>"</li>
<li><i><a href="http://www.wessexpress.com/html/newspaper.html">Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle in the Newspapers</a></i> from Wessex Press</li>
<li><a href="http://ihose.co/ihose80">Episode 80: The Great Detective</a></li>
</ul>
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Transcript<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Transcript not yet released</span></span><br />
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Episode 127: From Holmes to Sherlock

"this is my special hobby" [STUD] Every once in a great while, a book with special significance is published in...

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by Scott Monty

Baker Street Elementary — Quit Your Ribbin'

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"a certain unexpected vein of pawky humour" [VALL] </h4>
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English is a strange language. For many of us who first met Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on the printed page, we were exposed to words that were strange to us, either by their antiquated nature or because they were foreign. Some might even say <i>outré</i>.<br />
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For those who didn't have the benefit of family members or friends who spoke French, Latin or German, and who weren't yet exposed to broader subjects in school, the dialog and pronunciation existed only in our minds. So how is one to know what <i>recherché</i> sounds like? Or that pince-nez is not pronounced "pins-nez," but more like "pons-nay"? Or that Goethe does not rhyme with "both"?<br />
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Such are the pains of childhood.<br />
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So when we come into contact with fellow Sherlockians, we might surreptitiously learn for the very first time how certain words are pronounced. And the polite Sherlockian will not necessarily stop you and upbraid you for mispronouncing a word, but will simply use the word as part of the conversation, in something of a retort courteous, thereby demonstrating its proper pronunciation. They demonstrate rather than remonstrate.<br />
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But there is a certain familiar word in the Sherlock Holmes stories that, like so many other English words, has multiple meanings and pronunciations. Beware the dangers of homographs...<br />
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<b>Editor's note:</b></h4>
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The estimable Julian Wolff, BSI ("The Red Headed League") enjoyed mapping out various places in the Canon, and one of his illustrations for the layout of 221B Baker Street was the origin of our confusion concerning "His Last Bow." It was part of the end papers for a Franklin Library edition of Sherlock Holmes stories, and can be seen below. You may understand our confusion.</div>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Baker Street Elementary</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> 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 </span><a href="http://www.bakerstreetelementary.org/" style="background-color: white; color: #006f85; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">www.bakerstreetelementary.org</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">.</span></div>
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Baker Street Elementary — Quit Your Ribbin'

"a certain unexpected vein of pawky humour" [VALL] English is a strange language. For many of us who first met Sherlock Ho...

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by Scott Monty

What Was in Sherlock Holmes's Everyday Carry? Part 2

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<b>"transfixed by a jack-knife" [MUSG]</b></h4>
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<i>In <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2017/08/what-was-in-sherlock-holmess-everyday.html" target="_blank">the first installment of this feature</a>, we began our investigation into the everyday carry habits of Mr. Sherlock Holmes.Having verified his use of the pocket notebook and pencil, the portable light source, and the compact fire kit, we continue with our examination of the great detective’s pocket knife. </i><br />
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With his knife, Holmes performs tasks as delicate as collecting samples of exotic poisons and as robust as assailing iron-barred shutters. If the same knife is used for both tasks, we may surmise that it has more than one blade. Such a knife would align with the thinking of leading outdoor writers of Holmes’s day like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Kephart" target="_blank">Horace Kephart</a>, who favored large jack-knives with two to three blades of varying sizes and shapes, the smallest of which, according to his <i><a href="http://scoutmastercg.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/campingwoodcraft.pdf" target="_blank">Camping and Woodcraft</a></i> (1916), should be kept sharp and clean “for such surgery as you may have to perform.” (Needs must when the Devil drives.) For my part, I could be content with a four-inch spear- or clip-point main blade accompanied by a two-inch sheep-foot or Wharncliffe secondary blade.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfn3jV4D2OZYqcX0HW_tBgiIq5HLzr_qYHFI3Y8PEB9xyCOsuoGKBZZ4qzjKiTRWjnTNocjqJlWkSrjKdUnbbLxPOIW2rfwrb3EIJ1J6pFnFChXVs9hCTQKUbMhJX6DSh6VY-MXzonqL1e/s1600/blade-shape.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="138" data-original-width="302" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfn3jV4D2OZYqcX0HW_tBgiIq5HLzr_qYHFI3Y8PEB9xyCOsuoGKBZZ4qzjKiTRWjnTNocjqJlWkSrjKdUnbbLxPOIW2rfwrb3EIJ1J6pFnFChXVs9hCTQKUbMhJX6DSh6VY-MXzonqL1e/s400/blade-shape.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXemSSpRdUl5eCLO-a4Q0wOaBr6Fo1riVyc8y7GW98wI7_rLysjQDkr5GNVLAG2ZVYquCWLn40lQPZc3ZSZVsap1bCt35yXZHBEgi4oKjsyV3vugtG2w8SZ0nCmo8otx9zavjX_JjfaL2D/s1600/SHwharn1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="291" data-original-width="400" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXemSSpRdUl5eCLO-a4Q0wOaBr6Fo1riVyc8y7GW98wI7_rLysjQDkr5GNVLAG2ZVYquCWLn40lQPZc3ZSZVsap1bCt35yXZHBEgi4oKjsyV3vugtG2w8SZ0nCmo8otx9zavjX_JjfaL2D/s400/SHwharn1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Jeremy Brett's Holmes uses the classic English </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Wharncliffe blade in Granada's "The Devil's Foot."</span></td></tr>
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We might infer a few more features of Holmes’s knife. Take, for example, this much-debated passage from “The Abbey Grange”:<br />
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“This bottle was opened by a pocket-screw, probably contained in a knife, and not more than an inch and a half long…. When you catch this fellow you will find that he has one of these multiplex knives in his possession.”</blockquote>
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One of “these” multiplex knives, not one of “those” multiplex knives: does the phrasing indicate that Holmes has drawn an example of such a knife from his own pocket while speaking? Perhaps a visit to Dartmoor will prove instructive...<br />
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<h4>
<b>The Man on the Tor, or, Camping with Sherlock Holmes</b></h4>
In the eleventh chapter of <i>The Hound of the Baskervilles</i>, Dr. Watson tracks down the mysterious watcher who has been lurking among the stone huts of ancient man that stand upon the moor, and who turns out to be (<b><i>SPOILER ALERT</i></b>) Sherlock Holmes. Watson’s reconnoiter of Holmes’s campsite may lead us to one or two conclusions about Holmes’s pocketknife:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“The ashes of a fire were heaped in a rude grate. Beside it lay some cooking utensils and a bucket half-full of water. A litter of empty tins showed that the place had been occupied for some time, and I saw, as my eyes became accustomed to the checkered light, a pannikin and a half-full bottle of spirits standing in the corner. In the middle of the hut a flat stone served the purpose of a table, and upon this stood a small cloth bundle…. It contained a loaf of bread, a tinned tongue, and two tins of preserved peaches.”</blockquote>
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Thus, I deduce three more features of Holmes’s knife: a saw, a can opener, and a corkscrew. At the risk of stating the obvious, fire needs fuel, and fuel must be processed; of the likely sources of fuel for the fire in Holmes’s rude grate – peat, coal, or wood – foraged deadwood is the most likely. A peat shovel would surely have caught Watson’s eye as he surveyed the contents of the hut, and coal would need to be packed in by Holmes’s assistant, young Cartwright. Yet we are told throughout the novel of the ready supply of wood at every turn; indeed, Watson notes a log-fire burning at Baskerville Hall itself.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8VlzAwphigtQLc3qefMycVbPfj4ijHPg02GwAAYRpM2IbUafxn3L3Cv13YtUU1pRdSn4DTWtGA3FcWJDd0IdyBAyFsA5TlGtD8oDleAu2fSqqmt6mMUtwe1hML4nReAQdmK43k_5ly98/s1600/Rodgers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="640" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8VlzAwphigtQLc3qefMycVbPfj4ijHPg02GwAAYRpM2IbUafxn3L3Cv13YtUU1pRdSn4DTWtGA3FcWJDd0IdyBAyFsA5TlGtD8oDleAu2fSqqmt6mMUtwe1hML4nReAQdmK43k_5ly98/s640/Rodgers.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Victorian camp knife with robust saw by Joseph Rodgers</td></tr>
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Furthermore, tins need opening, if one is to enjoy a delicious (?) meal of peaches and tongue, and that requires a tin opener. True, the opener might be among the “cooking utensils” mentioned, but it seems like a superfluous thing to bring along when it so handily fits into a knife, and the backpacker's maxim always applies: "Laugh about ounces; cry about pounds." It is likewise true that one may open a can of peaches (or a can of tongue, for that matter) with the blade of a knife, opener notwithstanding, but we know Holmes takes better care of his equipment than to do such a thing.<br />
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Now to the controversial corkscrew: prior to the invention of the bottle cap in 1892 Baltimore, almost all bottles were corked, and spirits were shipped with driven corks, as were wines, so a corkscrew was required to open the bottle. (See period literature, such as <i>Life and Liberty in America</i> by Charles Mackay; or, consult <i>World Whiskey</i>, edited by Charles MacLean.) And what do we find in the stone hut upon the moor? Sherlock Holmes is camping in rough conditions far from home, but among the few comforts to be seen is a half-full bottle of spirits. If not conclusive, it is at least suggestive.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCPpcKtcHYp8lta37rRu4k1F344okMWekV4eNDLva0eSALHbbj-adcrNj6oWG0SEeP5Lnck3pzWkydE5hyphenhyphen_ImPWfz1SV3-Bq5nz6ocaan46Rc9Gs3oRvzRzfuzaa8nnwW4yH6TdGeapeux/s1600/1880sWusthofSolingen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="400" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCPpcKtcHYp8lta37rRu4k1F344okMWekV4eNDLva0eSALHbbj-adcrNj6oWG0SEeP5Lnck3pzWkydE5hyphenhyphen_ImPWfz1SV3-Bq5nz6ocaan46Rc9Gs3oRvzRzfuzaa8nnwW4yH6TdGeapeux/s640/1880sWusthofSolingen.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">1880's Wusthof pocket knife, made in Solingen. Note large </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">and small blades, pen blade with custom screwdriver tip, </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">saw, (damaged) scissors, tin opener, awl, and corkscrew.</span></div>
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Where and when would Sherlock Holmes acquire such a knife? His scamper through Switzerland in May of 1891 takes him near the heart of the emerging and soon-to-be global phenomenon of the Swiss Army Knife, but Karl Elsener’s firm delivered the first order of his soldier’s knives to the Swiss government in October of that year, and corkscrews began to appear on Victorinox SAK’s only in 1897. At any rate, even Sherlockian chronologists agree that the Baskerville business predates the Reichenbach ruckus, so we must look elsewhere for Holmes’s wonder-knife. We must look back home, perhaps no farther than one block south of the Wigmore Street Post Office and just around the corner from Watson’s tobacconist in Oxford Street, to the firm of <a href="http://www.antiquebox.org/thornhill/" target="_blank">Thornhill & Co.</a>, in New Bond Street, purveyors of the world-famous Sheffield cutlery since 1734.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyh0PeHxEIdvarhyH2yrZwhAAufliqYT4c7BwQyirUYYsUierGkJBLo4Fr9h8TwFDqYW6oaEC1ulqCfsYR2idm6NVpLXrTtA18EiDjxP5UF0LTJSl9lZ882YeJLWLcKvSGQQ06rZASNzyS/s1600/Thornhill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="640" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyh0PeHxEIdvarhyH2yrZwhAAufliqYT4c7BwQyirUYYsUierGkJBLo4Fr9h8TwFDqYW6oaEC1ulqCfsYR2idm6NVpLXrTtA18EiDjxP5UF0LTJSl9lZ882YeJLWLcKvSGQQ06rZASNzyS/s640/Thornhill.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thornhill's eminently Sherlockian trademark</td></tr>
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Along with Joseph Rodgers, George Wostenholm, and a few others, the Thornhill firm made up the front rank of the Sheffield knife industry, famous since the time of Chaucer; they had few rivals for quality in the world, outside the German town of Solingen, with its own famous names like <a href="https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/catalog/6417-gust-haker-solingen-germany-pearl-corkscrew-knife" target="_blank">Haker</a> and <a href="http://www.wuesthof.com/germany/index.jsp" target="_blank">Wusthof</a>. The Sheffield houses had been producing multiplex knives, often on a bespoke basis, for over a century by Holmes’s time; the existence of such knives is noted by Herman Melville in <i>Moby-Dick</i> in 1851 when he compares the <i>Pequod's</i> carpenter to one of those highly useful<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Sheffield contrivances, assuming the exterior - though a little swelled - of a common pocket knife; but containing, not only blades of various sizes, but also screw-drivers, cork-screws, tweezers, awls, pens, rulers, nail-filers, [and] countersinkers."</blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAzpxMAKnnBldm93aUxbZj28NaD3MMV-vhGxnP59CoeCqHjlH-pLFgKK45y7djdIz2KL2KQZ9aXFqol06-eZL-5cxwoGl_ZfkdDL2h0cDiuXiGolkkwSxKvlyZkTPHXC7P-2oyhRO0c7lF/s1600/WostenholmIXLcoachknife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAzpxMAKnnBldm93aUxbZj28NaD3MMV-vhGxnP59CoeCqHjlH-pLFgKK45y7djdIz2KL2KQZ9aXFqol06-eZL-5cxwoGl_ZfkdDL2h0cDiuXiGolkkwSxKvlyZkTPHXC7P-2oyhRO0c7lF/s640/WostenholmIXLcoachknife.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sheffield knives could be had for virtually any need, like this Wostenholm coachman's knife, sporting the "IXL" trademark ("I excel") and a wraparound hoof pick.</td></tr>
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In our upcoming and <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2018/01/what-was-in-sherlock-holmess-everyday.html">final installment</a>, we shall examine the remaining items of Holmes's everyday carry and consider the contemporary Sherlockian's EDC options.</div>
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--<br />
<br />
<br />

What Was in Sherlock Holmes's Everyday Carry? Part 2

"transfixed by a jack-knife" [MUSG] In the first installment of this feature , we began our investigation into the everyday ...

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by Tim Greer

Sherlock Holmes & the Green Lama: The Heir Apparent - A Review

<h4 style="text-align: center;">
<b>"an inheritance with a vengeance" [HOUN]</b></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTdi593g3igvZ6kXwU5FTCf9jXAypzUFoIPujjLiGEwPAksUoiaciW7M3p_wOCTlXqDtMyfc-vKe1cLAVUocM7c7pm3tlTq7p-HTaiW5DsADLAeYESGEmuQhManmA0UsSeCReaatBZ1LTO/s1600/Green+Lama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1095" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTdi593g3igvZ6kXwU5FTCf9jXAypzUFoIPujjLiGEwPAksUoiaciW7M3p_wOCTlXqDtMyfc-vKe1cLAVUocM7c7pm3tlTq7p-HTaiW5DsADLAeYESGEmuQhManmA0UsSeCReaatBZ1LTO/s640/Green+Lama.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Writing team-ups involving Sherlock Holmes and other Victorian-era characters and concepts seems natural, especially since many of those characters and concepts are in the public domain. Often, Sherlock Holmes has teamed with better known fictional characters (like Batman in <b><a href="http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Detective_Comics_Vol_1_572" target="_blank">Detective Comics # 572</a></b>) with often mixed results. So having Sherlock Holmes team up with a classic pulp character might seem a bit out-of-place....<br />
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But Adam Lance Garcia's <b><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Green-Lama-Apparent/dp/1944017100" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes & the Green Lama: The Heir Apparent</a></i></b> not only succeeds in combining two disparate characters, he manages to channel the spirit of Conan Doyle within the context of a more modern character. <br />
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Published by Moonstone Books, <b><i>The Heir Apparent</i></b> takes place within the Green Lama "universe," but does not require prior knowledge of the character. In short, the story takes the form of a "lost" document by Jethro Dumont, the secret identity of the Green Lama. He serves as our honorary Watson, relating a tale that takes place in the latter part of Holmes's career involving kidnappings, death, and one person's quest for vengeance. It's a brisk, brief tale that balances the extraordinary spirit of classic pulp tales with the breathless atmospherics of Conan Doyle's canon.<br />
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In short, if you are seeking a straightforward Holmes pastiche, <b><i>The Heir Apparent</i></b> doesn't fit the bill....but transcends it. Adam Lance Garcia does the near impossible: he channels Conan Doyle's prose style while telling a more modern, streamlined pulp action tale. In short, it feels like Conan Doyle ghostwriting a pulp story involving Sherlock Holmes yet keeping it firmly within the bounds of traditional Holmesian storytelling.<br />
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Many great Holmesian pastiches are available for your reading pleasure, but Adam Lance Garcia's <b><i>The Green Lama/Sherlock Holmes: The Heir Apparent</i></b> is not just another pastiche; it's a seamless blending of two disparate styles that make for a uniquely engaging tale. Whether you are looking for traditional Holmesian fare or a slightly more modernized equivalent, <i><b>The Heir Apparent</b> </i>provides plenty to entertain Sherlockians of both types.<br />
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This is one book to place on your Sherlock Holmes must-read list.<br />
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<i>(A complimentary electronic copy was provided for purposes of review)</i><br />
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<i>--</i><br />
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Sherlock Holmes & the Green Lama: The Heir Apparent - A Review

"an inheritance with a vengeance" [HOUN] Writing team-ups involving Sherlock Holmes and other Victorian-era characters and co...

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by Gordon D

Curse of the Deadly Dinosaur - A Review

<h4 style="text-align: center;">
"...the education of two young
children" [THOR]</h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZVc2K9ovQqNc9o8brdTydvxfxYepkVLXRuA7tQiGNgOfqaHwAa31qE4GlLZVl3briS2oYyL1YX3lY3C_VvfMS4r9v403bLRHYmfP6Tlt8JTrYgFSXFpn-iwXYqfzHR0n_aoUkwPKiyLYP/s1600/McDougall+Twins+Dinosaur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZVc2K9ovQqNc9o8brdTydvxfxYepkVLXRuA7tQiGNgOfqaHwAa31qE4GlLZVl3briS2oYyL1YX3lY3C_VvfMS4r9v403bLRHYmfP6Tlt8JTrYgFSXFpn-iwXYqfzHR0n_aoUkwPKiyLYP/s640/McDougall+Twins+Dinosaur.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Dinosaur-MacDougall-Sherlock-Holmes/dp/1519173385" target="_blank">Curse of the Deadly Dinosaur</a></i> is the third book in Derrick Belanger's The MacDougall Twins Mysteries with Sherlock Holmes series, and it serves up the same action that fans of the first two books enjoyed.  This series is meant to appeal to younger readers, with its ten-year old protagonists, accessible text and a story format that will introduce middle grade readers to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.<br />
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This installment of the series starts off with the twins Jimmy and Emma MacDougall decorating their home at 222 Baker Street for Christmas when Mycroft Holmes knocks on their door.  Although their mother doesn't like the idea of her children being detectives and participating in adventures with Sherlock Holmes, she allows the twins to go with Mycroft to meet a client that is currently with Sherlock and Dr. Watson at 221B Baker Street.<br />
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Once there, the story falls into a familiar canonical pace.  The twins make deductions about Holmes's client, Mr. Bogswell, and hear his story of a dinosaur that is terrorizing the local livestock in his country town.  Of course, the neighbors don't believe his story and have shunned the family, one lady going so far as to having put a curse on his household.  Bogswell's hope is that Sherlock Holmes can clear the mystery, and is quickly won over to the idea of Holmes's two junior partners coming along to Surrey to help in the investigation.<br />
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The story really takes off when Holmes, Watson, and the MacDougall family arrive in Surrey.  From there, the story rockets through the investigation, while allowing for some comic relief as Jimmy MacDougall chafes under the over-protectiveness of his mother.  The later chapters of the book are bursting with action that will have kids turning the pages to find out what happens next.  More than two dozen illustrations are scattered throughout the 123-page book which will also appeal to readers.<br />
<br />
But Belanger knows that not just children will be interested in his tales of the MacDougall twins and Sherlock Holmes.  Throughout the story are small nods to the fans of Conan Doyle's original stories and those of us that continue to read the writings about the writings.  Young or old, seasoned Sherlockian or new arrival, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Dinosaur-MacDougall-Sherlock-Holmes/dp/1519173385" target="_blank">Curse of the Deadly Dinosaur</a></i> is a book meant to please.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5YEfbCpkCFDV0DITgCQRuYd1M8-DKFhfIN3CDvk1k_7ZJY_IDwx7CW5pp_lFew9uLO0Ztb7sXsn_WpPzCuaPAySordjwYAAPpcDiuP5xNniWU1hYLJDlHoHrwfaJ6C64w6xxjKfyNyC1/s1600/Deadly-Dinosaur-8-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5YEfbCpkCFDV0DITgCQRuYd1M8-DKFhfIN3CDvk1k_7ZJY_IDwx7CW5pp_lFew9uLO0Ztb7sXsn_WpPzCuaPAySordjwYAAPpcDiuP5xNniWU1hYLJDlHoHrwfaJ6C64w6xxjKfyNyC1/s320/Deadly-Dinosaur-8-2.jpg" width="240" /></a>  <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPe7hDA0JGLJOHTmHNytMiGMQSrVnhV6Tqzpy8aT4ONOPoOhqjHDjR04Yimz4fvnMS08IDXkB6VY-Av2RTgGKYVwm3SbE3Mh1lncOE-t-0iyOd-aJVJJFJAqqg8kZpyAaYVCDXG6A5AepT/s1600/Deadly-Dinosaur-9-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPe7hDA0JGLJOHTmHNytMiGMQSrVnhV6Tqzpy8aT4ONOPoOhqjHDjR04Yimz4fvnMS08IDXkB6VY-Av2RTgGKYVwm3SbE3Mh1lncOE-t-0iyOd-aJVJJFJAqqg8kZpyAaYVCDXG6A5AepT/s320/Deadly-Dinosaur-9-1.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_0zEeaA5mYbIouDF70sqDsP3neOCS4Htx_7qkReez0yIQXKjlG0clJuQZUkNkLdElLlhKx1WKW5QjmltbPcY4COsCzgjKAaZKplOsnBQZSiRthqgkbthul-eDAiTIWj-8njx9u3OsQKUL/s1600/Deadly-Dinosaur-10-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_0zEeaA5mYbIouDF70sqDsP3neOCS4Htx_7qkReez0yIQXKjlG0clJuQZUkNkLdElLlhKx1WKW5QjmltbPcY4COsCzgjKAaZKplOsnBQZSiRthqgkbthul-eDAiTIWj-8njx9u3OsQKUL/s320/Deadly-Dinosaur-10-1.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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--<br />
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Curse of the Deadly Dinosaur - A Review

"...the education of two young children" [THOR] Curse of the Deadly Dinosaur is the third book in Derrick Belanger's The...

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by Rob Nunn

What Was in Sherlock Holmes's Everyday Carry? Part 1

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<b>"here in my secret pocket" [MAZA]</b></h4>
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If the response of manufacturers is any indication, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyday_carry">everyday carry</a> movement is flourishing.<br />
<br />
The phrase "everyday carry,” or EDC, refers to those items one carries on a constant basis and would feel naked without; it also denotes a philosophy that encourages us to think in an efficient and utilitarian way about the objects we carry daily. Bernard Capulong at <a href="http://everydaycarry.com/" target="_blank">everydaycarry.com</a> gives an overview of the lifestyle in <a href="http://everydaycarry.com/posts/5827/what-is-edc-the-beginners-guide-to-everyday-carry" target="_blank">this post</a>.<br />
<br />
A video rundown of Adam Savage’s EDC gear is presented <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bypi7h6WOGg" target="_blank">here</a>:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bypi7h6WOGg" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<br />
Most of us can readily name three essential components of our 21st-century EDC’s: keys, wallet, and the ever-present mobile phone. Beyond that point our paths will likely diverge, but a list of the most popular items in a serviceable everyday carry assortment includes some or all of the following:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Watch</li>
<li>Handkerchief</li>
<li>Pen</li>
<li>Pocket notebook</li>
<li>Flashlight</li>
<li>Lighter</li>
<li>Knife</li>
<li>A multi-tool</li>
</ul>
<br />
Keeping such items small, flat, and light enough to be convenient, yet robust enough to be useful, has been the challenge that designers and manufacturers have eagerly tackled in courting the patronage of the EDC community.<br />
<br />
Members of the Cult of Phone are no doubt already saying to themselves that a phone can serve as a watch, a notebook, a flashlight, a GPS, and even a compass, so there’s no need for all that pocket clutter. For that matter, if the phone has the proper battery, it can, with a little MacGyvering, serve as a rudimentary lighter. For all its many beauties, though, the mobile phone has a hard time serving as a writing utensil, a cutting tool, or a screwdriver. What to do? Turn to the Canon for instruction, of course.<br />
<br />
<h4>
<b>The Valley of Gear</b></h4>
Sherlock Holmes, as we shall see, had a well-considered everyday carry system in place from the earliest days of the agency. As we ponder the EDC of Sherlock Holmes, we should employ a few ground rules, examining only:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Items that are multi-use ("railway tickets" may appear often, but a particular ticket only once)</li>
<li>Items that are plainly shown to be produced from Holmes’s pockets</li>
<li><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;">I</span>tems that are produced in various adventures</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
Holmes, like us, can quickly account for the popular choices: the watch, the keys, the handkerchief, and the wallet, or “pocket-book,” as the Canon puts it. He would surely have made use of the mobile phone had it been available. But what of the other leading selections? Allowing for technological changes, and focusing less on the gear and more on the job it performs, we arrive at this list:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Something to write with</li>
<li>Something to write on</li>
<li>A light source with a beam</li>
<li>A way to make fire</li>
<li>A versatile blade</li>
<li>A pocket tool set</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
Immediately, the Sherlockian bells are ringing. Holmes uses a portable writing utensil, likely a pencil, on at least four occasions; he sports a pocket notebook in 17 separate adventures, and rather ingeniously augments his notebook's versatility by including blank envelopes which he uses sometimes for note-taking and sometimes for evidence-gathering, as necessity dictates. If Sherlock Holmes is so committed to the multi-functional pocket notebook as part of his EDC, we should at least consider one ourselves. Ed Jelley makes the case for <a href="http://everydaycarry.com/posts/4405/why-you-should-carry-a-pen" target="_blank">carrying a pen</a>, while Brett and Kate McKay stump for <a href="http://www.artofmanliness.com/2010/08/23/the-manly-tradition-of-the-pocket-notebook/" target="_blank">the notebook</a>. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J535NN2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1" target="_blank">Rite in the Rain note-books</a> are waterproof, pages and all. Take that, tempestuous London weather!<br />
<br />
On those moonless adventures when note-taking is difficult, Holmes makes good use of his pocket lantern, a diminutive version of the more familiar bull's-eye lantern. Likely a Dietz traveler’s lantern built on the Stevens patent of 1875, this handy gadget illuminates both <i>The Sign of Four</i> and "Wisteria Lodge," and is the distant ancestor of your author’s favorite EDC light, the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Streamlight-MicroStream-Ultra-compact-Aluminum-Alkaline/dp/B00143JZ08/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1500396544&sr=8-3&keywords=streamlight+microstream" target="_blank">Streamlight Microstream</a>. If you crave a hands-free option, the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06W54SBSL/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1" target="_blank">Black Diamond Spot Headlamp</a> is a worthy choice.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyXE-SmEYU1hCX3TXggKl7owza0MM9Mc12QKgYnT4yTJs2KFgXZdygFbb0ZU5iWHkf0Y2tnXaazmalusMO6CpPQaXj9Wmbvry2Iup7VbpTd6ANNRHc5MAryEPg_1ghkWfxz0gW_qkuOyXr/s1600/s-l1600-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="173" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyXE-SmEYU1hCX3TXggKl7owza0MM9Mc12QKgYnT4yTJs2KFgXZdygFbb0ZU5iWHkf0Y2tnXaazmalusMO6CpPQaXj9Wmbvry2Iup7VbpTd6ANNRHc5MAryEPg_1ghkWfxz0gW_qkuOyXr/s320/s-l1600-2.jpg" width="138" /></a>  <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu11fmFuUSZ6_AiRUM-C0TzkfswLpEJPf1_RYrqorFrxLCFpfiVOuQGZnfQdItzHptMlhlwftj1-7n6VhsfFDnO7UV-APFHiLQf9gutxqbfVO-11p9K0WQQGs0GfYOK34tIjsgtx6zFCwv/s1600/s-l1600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="212" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu11fmFuUSZ6_AiRUM-C0TzkfswLpEJPf1_RYrqorFrxLCFpfiVOuQGZnfQdItzHptMlhlwftj1-7n6VhsfFDnO7UV-APFHiLQf9gutxqbfVO-11p9K0WQQGs0GfYOK34tIjsgtx6zFCwv/s320/s-l1600.jpg" width="169" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Unlike the Streamlight, the pocket lantern must be lit with a flame, and Holmes’s favorite approach to fire-making seems to be matches, which he often has occasion to use in the Canon, whether for starting a lantern or a campfire; igniting his pipe, cigar, or cigarette; or striking a quick light to look for clues or snakes. A favorite fire source for today’s EDC’er is the humble <a href="https://goo.gl/rqn2A2" target="_blank">Bic mini lighter</a>. It holds fuel longer than almost anything else, and even when it does go empty, it still has an effective sparking device on top. No tinder? No worries. Use your knife to scrape a pile of shavings from your empty Bic’s plastic casing, slowly roll the wheel around a few times, and, with a little know-how, you’re ready to start an old-fashioned <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4UZN-Q3p0k" target="_blank">spark-and-tinder fire</a>.<br />
<br />
When it comes to knives, Holmes seems to own and carry quite a few; Watson once notes a “litter” of them on his friend's mantel. Holmes's blades are variously described as penknives, jack-knives, pocket-knives, and so on, and he uses them for everything from evidence handling to emergency medical procedures. Holmes’s everyday knife is most likely a folding pattern with a blade approximately four inches in length, an exceedingly practical arrangement. Many enthusiasts maintain that the pocket knife is the most useful single item in one’s EDC, and thus, with the possible exception of the mobile phone, should be the most expensive investment in the lineup, especially if that knife also serves as a multi-tool.<br />
<br />
Sherlock Holmes with a multi-tool? Stranger things have happened. At various times, from a jumble of sandwiches, flasks, cigar-cases, tobacco pouches, and pipes, the following items appear from Holmes's pockets: a jemmy, screwdrivers, a compass, a measuring tape, a magnifying lens, and, by implication, even a can opener and a corkscrew.<br />
<br />
In <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2017/08/what-was-in-sherlock-holmess-everyday_25.html#.WkyI6d-nHb0" target="_blank">Part 2 of “The EDC of Sherlock Holmes,”</a> we shall investigate the great multiplex knife tradition of Sheffield, follow the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes through 1890’s Switzerland, and attempt to envision the ultimate Sherlockian pocket tool.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />

What Was in Sherlock Holmes's Everyday Carry? Part 1

"here in my secret pocket" [MAZA] If the response of manufacturers is any indication, the everyday carry movement is f...

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by Tim Greer

Sherlock Holmes and Eclipses

<h4 style="text-align: center;">
"I had a chat with him on eclipses" [STUD]</h4>
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<br />
Sherlock Holmes was famously interested in only those things that mattered to his profession. Recall that in <i>A Study in Scarlet</i>, Watson made up a list titled "Sherlock Holmes - His Limits." The list consisted of the following:<br />
<ol>
<li>Knowledge of Literature. - Nil.</li>
<li>Knowledge of Philosophy. - Nil.</li>
<li>Knowledge of Astronomy. - Nil.</li>
<li>Knowledge of Politics. - Feeble.</li>
<li>Knowledge of Botany. - Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.</li>
<li>Knowledge of Geology. - Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.</li>
<li>Knowledge of Chemistry. - Profound.</li>
<li>Knowledge of Anatomy. - Accurate, but unsystematic.</li>
<li>Knowledge of Sensational Literature. - Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.</li>
<li>Plays the violin well.</li>
<li>Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.</li>
<li>Has a good practical knowledge of British law.</li>
</ol>
Specifically regarding astronomy, the conversation went something like this:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.<br />  "You appear to be astonished," he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. "Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it."<br />  "But the Solar System!" I protested.<br />...<br />  "What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently; "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work."</blockquote>
<div>
So it may seem odd that today, with the Solar Eclipse mania at its height, we should bring Sherlock Holmes into the astronomical conversations. But, as always, there is a method to our madness.<br />
<br />
While Holmes himself may not have been conversant in the workings of the Solar System, there were those around him who were. Particularly his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty, who famously wrote a treatise on <i>The Dynamics of an Asteroid</i>.<br />
<br />
In <i>The Valley of Fear</i>, Inspector MacDonald recounted his visit to Moriarty and how Moriarty educated him on eclipses:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Man, you can't but recognize it. After I heard your view, I made it my business to see him. I had a chat with him on eclipses - how the talk got that way I canna think - but he had out a reflector lantern and a globe and made it all clear in a minute.</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
But it was in "The Greek Interpreter," where we see that Holmes did in fact know a bit more than he initially let on:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It was after tea on a summer evening, and the conversation, which had roamed in a desultory, spasmodic fashion from golf clubs to the causes of the change in the obliquity of the ecliptic, came round at last to the question of atavism and hereditary aptitudes.</blockquote>
<br />
The obliquity of the ecliptic has nothing to do with eclipses per se, but is <a href="http://www.neoprogrammics.com/obliquity_of_the_ecliptic/" target="_blank">essentially</a> "the angle of inclination of the Earth's equator with respect to the plane of its orbit, which to us, produces the apparent relative tilt of the Earth's polar axis which causes the annual seasons." So Holmes was aware of the Earth and its general properties.<br />
<br />
It's also worth noting that words related to eclipse did manage to work their way into the Canon in other places, albeit less scientifically:<br />
<br />
In "A Scandal in Bohemia," Watson related how deeply Irene Adler impressed Holmes, such that she blotted out anyone who might compete with her, as she "<b>eclipses </b>and predominates the whole of her sex."<br />
<br />
<br />
"The Noble Bachelor" opens with an admission that there have been greater disgraces in the social sphere:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The Lord St Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have long since ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have <b>eclipsed</b> it, and their more piquant details have drawn the gossips away from this four-year-old drama."</blockquote>
<div>
<br /></div>
And in the conclusion of "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax," it's used as an admission that Holmes sometimes suffered from myopia in his thinking:</div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Should you care to add the case to your annals, my dear Watson," said Holmes that evening, "it can only be as an example of that temporary <b>eclipse</b> to which even the best-balanced mind may be exposed. Such slips are common to all mortals, and the greatest is he who can recognize and repair them.</blockquote>
<br />
Holmes himself may not have been familiar with interstellar activities, but he was no stranger to the wider use of the phrase.<br />
<br />
<i>Photo credit: <a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/269888">Eclipse</a> by Eugene Atget, Metropolitan Museum of Art (public domain)</i><i style="border: none; font-family: "PT Serif", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></i>
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Sherlock Holmes and Eclipses

"I had a chat with him on eclipses" [STUD] Sherlock Holmes was famously interested in only those things that mattered to his ...

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by Scott Monty

Remembering John Heard

<h4 style="text-align: center;">
"I had forgotten all about Mawson's” [STOC]</h4>
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<br />
Actor John Heard died on July 21, 2017 at 71. Most well-known for his role as the dad who had forgotten his son on the family trips in in the <i>Home Alone</i> movies, he also had a connection to the world of Sherlock Holmes.<br />
<br />
After graduating Clark University in Worcester, MA, he went to Catholic University of America for a master’s in theater but left to work off-Broadway. He made his Broadway debut in 1973 and film debut in 1977. He was in many well-known films of the 1980s and 90s, including <i>Big</i>, <i>Beaches</i>, <i>Gladiator</i>, <i>The Pelican Brief</i>, <i>In the Line of Fire</i>, <i>The Trip to Bountiful</i> and was nominated for an Emmy in 1999 for his guest role on <i>The Sopranos</i>. According to Heard, he was most proud of his role in 1980’s <i>Cutter’s Way</i>.<br />
<br />
John Heard was known to Sherlock Holmes fans as Joan Watson's (Lucy Liu) stepfather Henry in <i>Elementary</i>. Henry Watson married Joan's mother Mary when Joan and her brother Oren were young, and the children took his last name. Later, Henry and Mary divorced. Henry was a successful writer and in Season 4, Episode 7, "Miss Taken," Joan learns from Captain Gregson (Aidan Quinn) that her stepdad, in a wonderful bit of meta, wrote a book <i>The Heart Bled Blue</i> under the pen name Grover Ogden, concerning a beautiful Chinese-American woman who lives with a guy from London who both consult for the NYPD.<br />
<br />
Joan confronts her stepdad about the book: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>JOAN</b>: What were you thinking?<br />
<b>HENRY</b>: I was honoring you. The choices you make, the work you do. I think it's wonderful.<br />
<b>JOAN</b>: Really? So that's why you didn't ask my permission. That's why you used a pseudonym. Because you knew how honored I would be.<br />
<b>HENRY</b>: Did you even read the book?<br />
<b>JOAN</b>: Of course I read the book.<br />
<b>HENRY</b>: (like any typical author) And?<br />
<b>JOAN</b>: It's ridiculous. Sherlock and I do not run around with guns and we don't get into kung fu fights with criminals and we sure as hell do not sleep together.<br />
<b>HENRY</b>: Well, sex sells, Joanie. You know that. So how did you know that that was me?<br />
<b>JOAN</b>: Grover Ogden? We lived on Ogden Avenue. Grover was our dog. And by the way, that is how you make a porn name, not a pen name!</blockquote>
<br />
In the Canon we know next to nothing about Watson’s family, so the <i>Elementary</i> showrunners have named Joan’s mother Mary after John H. Watson’s wife Mary Morstan Watson and her stepdad after H. Watson, the name engraved on the watch Watson’s older brother inherited from their deceased father, as related to us in <i>The Sign of Four</i>.<br />
<br />
Joan demands that the publisher retract the book and Henry asks what Sherlock thinks about his novel.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>JOAN</b>: Okay, first, you are not friends. You met him once, at Aunt Vivian's funeral. Second, he is never gonna find out about this. He is the most private person that I know. He would freak if he found out. Call your publisher, Dad.</blockquote>
<br />
Later, Joan finds out that Sherlock has known about the book for months and in fact has read it.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>JOAN</b>: You're not mad?<br />
<b>SHERLOCK</b>: Should I be?<br />
<b>JOAN</b>: Of course you should, you're <i>you</i>.<br />
<b>SHERLOCK</b>: It's hardly the first time I've inspired a writer, Watson. I am actually the basis for several fictional characters across various media. It's one of the by-products of my success as a detective. I fascinate; this cannot be helped. You yourself once wrote about me: <i>The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes</i>.<br />
<b>JOAN</b>: When did you...?<br />
<b>SHERLOCK</b>: I was displeased because you used my real name and you shared my real history. Your father's magnum opus, on the other hand, is the very opposite of real. Look no further than chapter 32, where we make love beneath a footbridge in Central Park.<br />
<b>JOAN</b>: Why didn't you tell me about it? The book, not chapter 32.<br />
<b>SHERLOCK</b>: Your stepfather uses pseudonym, and I assumed you were the reason for that.</blockquote>
<br />
Later, Henry comes to the brownstone to apologize and say that the publisher will stop <i>The Heart Bled Blue</i> and to give Joan the manuscript of the sequel.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>HENRY</b>: Wait—before you take my head off, I already told the editor that he can't have it; it's all yours. I was just putting the finishing touches on it when you came by the house the other day.<br />
<b>JOAN</b>: I don't understand. Is this for me to burn?<br />
<b>HENRY</b>: That's for you to do with whatever you like. I missed you, Joanie, and that's the real reason I wrote about you. I mean, these last few years, ever since I ... strayed ... You know, I know that I screwed up. I knew it the moment that it happened. But what I didn't know, what I wasn't ready for, was what it would do to us. You used to be my friend. And I ruined that. The book is just my way of dealing with it. It let me be close to you again.</blockquote>
<br />
By the end of episode, Joan visits her stepdad back at his house.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>HENRY</b>: Hi. Joanie, what are you ...?<br />
<b>JOAN</b>: I'm sorry I got so angry about the book.<br />
<b>HENRY</b>: Oh, you don't have anything to apologize for. Come in.<br />
<b>JOAN</b>: Well, I've changed my mind. I'm okay with it being out there, so whatever you told your publishers to do, you can tell them to stop. It's all right.<br />
<b>HENRY</b>: You're sure?<br />
<b>JOAN</b>: I read the sequel. (She hands Henry the manuscript.) I actually think it's better than the first.<br />
<b>HENRY</b>: Yeah? A-And you ... you made some notes.<br />
<b>JOAN</b>:  Just a few. I thought we could spend some time and talk about them.<br />
<b>HENRY</b>: Well ... it would be an honor.</blockquote>
<br />
Fanfic is not my thing and pastiche reading was a bigger activity in my past than now. I’m sure the authors and artists of Mylock can eloquently explain the difference between fantasy and reality; actors-in-roles and actual beings. Others may find Holmescest beyond the pale. There is a huge world of fandom out there—the niches exist in the electronic reaches and may be explored by the adventurous. The <i>Elementary </i>writers have great fun in subtly inserting the real world and real-world Sherlockiana into the fictional New York of Jonny Lee Miller’s Sherlock and Lucy Liu’s Joan with always interesting results.<br />
<br />
John Heard played Henry Watson with sincere emotions that let you believe he was mostly blind to the creepy aspects of an author writing sex about a fictionalized version of his stepdaughter. Joan is not only okay with it but actively willing to help improve the final product. Heartfelt and skeezy at the same time, like a lot of fan shipping or slashfic, it was a wonderful meta of fandom with the happy ending of the fanfic writer getting approval of the subject.<br />
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[Quotes from <a href="http://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org/viewforum.php?f=12&sid=557b72d9da2b796e143ff071eb947102">Elementary Transcripts</a>.]<br />
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Remembering John Heard

"I had forgotten all about Mawson's” [STOC] Actor John Heard died on July 21, 2017 at 71. Most well-known for his role as the ...

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by James C. O'Leary

To Be a Sherlockian

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As we celebrated Father’s Day this year, I thought it was the perfect time for me to reflect on being a Sherlockian.<br />
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But unlike many others, I don’t consider “being a Sherlockian” as being a person… for me, “being a Sherlockian” is a reminder of past events. <br />
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Every time I pick up the Canon, a pastiche, or literary criticism; or view part of a collection of my own or others; or share experiences with other Sherlockians, I think of my father. Because without him, I would not have become a Sherlockian. <br />
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Let me explain. <br />
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Every year or two, I would take the summer sojourn to my grandparent’s farm in rural Indiana. There I would stay in my dad’s boyhood room. And each year, waiting patiently for me, would be a set of books: a few Lone Ranger adventures, six or seven Hardy Boy mysteries, and <i>The Hound of the Baskervilles</i>. And yes, it was the 1949 Bantam paperback edition, <a href="https://pulpcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Bantam-366-1949.jpg">with the steamy cover</a>. <br />
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It wasn’t until junior high school I actually learned there were 59 other stories awaiting me. <br />
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But once I was bitten by the bug, I soon found out my dad had been a “closet” Sherlockian for most of his life. For years, if I had a question on anything concerning Sherlock Holmes or Victorian life, all I had to do was ask him. He either had the answer in his vast memory bank, or loved researching the issue and providing the answer. <br />
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As an aside, my dad did not push myself or my siblings to be, or do, anything. That includes our education, career, or leisure activities. He had three simple rules for the three of us though… pay your bills on time (I had to have that pointed out a few times in my younger days); respect what others believe, are, or do (even if you don’t necessarily approve of it); and whatever you do in life, do it right. As a career navigator in the United States Air Force, it was in his nature to everything well, and right. <br />
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Just before he passed away, he finally finished his own pastiche, which had been in his mind for years. Everyone who has read it believes it to be very good, as well as historically accurate. <br />
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My father did not push me to become a Sherlockian… he let me find it on my own… but once I did, he was there to support it. <br />
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Today, I feel extremely lucky my son has also been bitten by the same bug. He has become the webmaster for two different Sherlockian societies, as well as the illustrator of <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2017/02/new-feature-baker-street-elementary.html#.WZPUjlGGPb0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a popular Sherlockian comic strip</a>. I hope I followed my father’s pattern… I did not push or coerce. I was simply there when he wanted me there. <br />
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So, I can sum up my feelings on what “being a Sherlockian means” this way. A Sherlockian is not how much “stuff” you collect, or how many papers you write, or how many times you have read the Canon. <br />
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To be a Sherlockian means you are lucky enough to be able to share your world with the next generation when they ask, whether it is your offspring, students, or even complete strangers. <br />
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After all, for us, it is always 1895.<br />
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To Be a Sherlockian

"a family mannerism can be traced" [REIG] As we celebrated Father’s Day this year, I thought it was the perfect time for me ...

+ Read more »

by Steve

Episode 126: Becoming the Gillettes

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Harold and Theodora Niver (that's Tyke and Teddie to all who know them), are a unique couple, even by Sherlockian standards. They've had an abiding love of Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper and Dracula for most of their adult lives, they live at Baskerville Hall, and founded and ran the Men on the Tor, a Connecticut Sherlock Holmes society. [Which just so happens to be the group where Scott first got his start in Sherlockian societies.]<br />
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But one thing that keeps them active is appearing across Connecticut as William and Helen Gillette. They make regular weekend appearances at Gillette Castle, have been special guests at the William Gillette Luncheon during the BSI Weekend, and have been hired for regular events to perform "An Evening with the Gillettes."<br />
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As both of them are members of the Baker Street Irregulars, the Nivers are part of a select group of individuals in the Florin Society - having two shillings between them. Tyke received his investiture "The Man on the Tor" in 1977 and Teddie received her investiture "Carina" in 1997.<br />
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Join us on this very personal episode that has wonderful stories and details about this grand couple's adventures. From Don and Betty Grant at the Castle to Michael Harrison's sly preparedness to the law firm that includes language like "blithering saphead," it's full of surprises. We conclude with a "Gas-Lamp" that's cobbled together from the Introduction to Gillette's play in book form, and a poem written on the occasion of William Gillette's death.<br />
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Information on sponsors, links, timing notes and transcript available below.</div>
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<b>Sponsors</b></h3>
This episode includes our two longtime sponsors, plus a new addition. Please support our sponsors by visiting their sites:<br />
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<li><a href="http://www.wessexpress.com/">Wessex Press</a>, publishers of <i><a href="http://wessexpress.com/html/shrl.html">The Sherlock Holmes Reference Library</a></i>.</li>
<li><a href="http://ihose.co/bsijuly50"><i>The Baker Street Journal</i></a>, the original nerd periodical, publishing Sherlockian scholarship quarterly since 1946.</li>
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<a href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/ihearofsherlock/ihearofsherlock126.mp3">Download</a> [Save As] | File size 40.8 MB, 1:25:50</h4>
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<b>Notes</b></h3>
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<b>Links</b></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://ihose.co/ihose103">Episode 103: Al and Julie Rosenblatt</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.sherlockholmesct.com/">Sherlock Holmes: An Evening with the Gillettes</a></li>
<li><a href="http://ihose.co/ihose34">Episode 34: William Gillette, America's Sherlock Holmes</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/06/sherlock-holmes-in-san-francisco.html">Sherlock Holmes in San Francisco: The Triumph of William Gillette</a></li>
<li><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=a9_asc_1?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aschlock+holmes&keywords=schlock+holmes&ie=UTF8&qid=1502784299">Schlock Holmes</a></i> by Bob Fish</li>
<li><a href="http://essexsteamtrain.com/">Essex Steam Train</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Steinbrunner">Chris Steinbrunner</a></li>
<li><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gillette-Castle-Landmarks-Erik-Ofgang/dp/1467118524">Gillette Castle: A History</a></i> by Erik Ofgang</li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/cFxdoPumojQ?t=6m56s">Mysteries at the Castle: Season 3 Episode 2</a></li><li><b>2022 update</b>: <a href="https://www.middletownpress.com/news/article/Gillette-legacy-now-brighter-Farmington-cemetery-17499731.php?fbclid=IwAR1Xizhi7VUHMgkJszqKvVceh25wgO5gEJxdZOjxyZhC-LPWCXB05ekhLwU" target="_blank">William Gillette Legacy Shines a Big Brighter at Farmington Cemetary</a> (<i>Middletown Press</i>)</li>
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