The Baker Street Blog

"Monsieur Oscar Meunier, of Grenoble" [EMPT]

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Kitts) — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:17:19 PDT

Occasionally we remember members of the BSI who have gone to the other side of the Reichenbach. This one was a particularly difficult one for us.

Irving Kamil, BSI ("Monsieur Oscar Meunier, of Grenoble") died on April 26, 2013 at the age of 86. He was a chemistry teacher, assistant principal and principal in the New York City school system for 41 years, retiring in 1990. Irv graduated from Central Methodist College and received a Master's Degree from Columbia University Teachers College.

Irv was a WWII U.S. Navy veteran, a former member and president of the Cliffside Park Board of Education and president of Temple Israel in Cliffside Park. He wrote over 40 articles that were published in The New York Times and other papers, taught a mystery course at The New School, was a member of The Wolfe Pack, and was an avid three-times-a-week bridge player.

In 1976 Irv, Norm Schatell, and Harlan Umansky founded Mrs. Hudson's Cliffdwellers's of Cliffside Park, NJ after they attended an off-Broadway Sherlock Holmes play. They went to Molly Malone's Pub and as Irv tells the story, they came up with a song for the group, sang it with all their hearts -- and nobody paid the slightest bit of attention to them.

For many years at the BSI Dinner, Irv had the honor of Standing on the Terrace for members of the BSI who had crossed over the Reichenbach. It was his eloquent and sensitive delivery honoring the lives of the members that prompted us to take up a similar effort on this site. He also wrote essays and poems that were published in The Baker Street Journal and other Sherlockian publications, and ran the Cliffdwellers for 21 years.

Irv and his wife of over 60 years, Selma, traveled extensively and during their travels created what he called "non-meeting" Sherlockian societies in places such as the Great Wall of China, on the Amazon, in Sicily, Thailand, New Zealand, Vietnam, Jordan, Antarctica, and the Galapagos, among others.

Irving Kamil was invested into The Baker Street Irregulars in 1981 as "Monsieur Oscar Meunier, of Grenoble."

Another remembrance of his life and his obituary can be read here.

Image credit: (c) 2013 Amy Newman / northjersey.com
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"Dealt With In Any Public Print" (RESI)

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Dymowski) — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:52:13 PDT

Although many Sherlock Holmes pastiches are published, very few often have the sparkle of Conan Doyle's writing. This is not a complaint - after all, attempting to document the great detective's further adventures often mean focusing more on the story and less on the style. However, The Lost Stories of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Tony Reynolds and available via MX Publishing, is the best of both worlds, containing some well-written stories that reflect the "house style" at its best.

Thankfully, Reynolds does a very admirable job in writing a series of tales that could easily fit into the Canon, but that have an imagination and creativity all of their own. Even the first story - "The Giant Rat of Sumatra" - takes its cue from the Canon, but spins a decidedly distinctive tale. But page after page contains some wonderful, well-written adventures which (thankfully) contain a brief statement within as to why the tale was "omitted" (usually for reasons of either national security or personal embarrassment).

Sometimes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and for Sherlockians, finding the perfect Conan Doyle-esque copy can be a valiant quest. Thankfully, Tony Reynold's Lost Stories of Sherlock Holmes makes the quest a little easier. It's a near-perfect gem of a book, and worth reading - and owning.

[Disclosure: http://cmp.ly/1 - a complimentary copy of Mr. Reynolds' book was provided for purposes of review.]

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[Disclosure: affiliate links http://cmp.ly/5]

"You Remind Me of Edgar" [STUD]

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Monty) — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:52:56 PDT

The evening of May 2 marked the 2013 Edgar® Awards banquet, during which the winners of the Mystery Writers of America grant the most prestigious award in the mystery genre to the authors and creators who gave us such treasures over the previous year.

As usual, Sherlock Holmes-related and -inspired work was present across a number of categories of both nominees and winners, and we'd like to share the results that may be of interest to those of you who are either completists on your collecting habits or who simply like to know relevant news about works of Sherlock Holmes.

Best Critical/Biographical
The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics by James O'Brien (winner)
In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero edited by Otto Penzler (nominee). Otto of course is a Baker Street Irregular ("The King of Bohemia") and was interviewed on Episode 17 of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere.

Best TV Episode / Teleplay
"A Scandal in Belgravia" - Sherlock, teleplay by Stephen Moffat (BBC/Masterpiece) (winner)
"Child Predator" - elemeNtarY, teleplay by Peter Black (CBS Productions) (nominee)

And while not exactly Sherlockian, we can't help but mention The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye, BSI, ASH ("Kitty Winter"), which was a nominee for Best Novel. Set in New York in 1845, this widely acclaimed novel followed her barnburner Dust and Shadow, in which she imagined the intersection of Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper, as told by Dr. Watson. The award for this category went to Dennis Lehane, but we're extremely proud of our friend and colleague for keeping company with such a superstar - and deservedly so!

Congratulations to all of the winners and nominees and thank you for all that you do.

When you make purchases from the links we share, it provides us with a stream of revenue to help keep this site running. Thank you for your generosity. Disclosure: http://cmp.ly/5
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"To Stand the Kicks" [TWIS]

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Monty) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:21:00 PDT

If you haven't had the chance to check out Watson and Holmes on Kickstarter yet, we highly recommend doing so.

We've mentioned Kickstarter previously - first for the graphic novel Moriarty: The Dark Chamber by Daniel Corey, and then again last year for Steampunk Holmes, a multimedia adventure by Richard Monson-Haefel that included a print edition as well as the core iPad edition. That latter project is just winding up now and will be making its way to the market.

One of the unique aspects of so-called crowsourcing development costs for such a project is that there are levels of awards based on the amount of money a benefactor is willing to pledge. So investors will not only receive the final product when the project is complete, but will also have the opportunity to accumulate various other value-added items along the way. For example, backing Steampunk Holmes at the $36 level resulted in the backers receiving all of the lower level rewards (all of the e-publications, lifetime subscription to the website, a print edition, and advance copies of the future e-books).

There's another Kickstarter project that is nearing completion that you have an opportunity to support.

Watson and Holmes is a new modern re-interpretation of Sherlock Holmes in which the detective and his friend and colleague are African Americans living in modern day New York City. We had the good fortune to speak with some of the principals behind the project on Episode 44 of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere. Listen now:

Under the direction of Karl Bollers and Rick Leonardi and New Paradigm Studios, the first two publications of the project were digital-only. But because of the success, they're looking to expand their creation to print. And that's where the Kickstarter project comes in. Their video describes the series and their aim:

The project had a $7,500 goal and now it stands at more than $12,000. To sweeten the pot, the creators have pledged additional surprises for hitting "stretch goals" as follows:

$10,000: Everyone at $20 and above gets a set of 3 Watson and Holmes postcards
$12,500: Everyone at $20 and above will receive a Watson and Holmes magnet and button
Mystery stretch goals will be unlocked after $15,000 and $20,000.

What are you waiting for? There's still time to get on board with this unique and first-of-its-kind creation.

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"An Isolated Phenomenon" [GREE]

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Monty) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:21:00 PDT

When we recently came across an entry from Now I Know, a free daily newsletter that promises "you'll learn something new every day," (click through to subscribe) it was almost as if it had been written for us. So we did what was only natural: we reached out to the editor and asked if we might share the original post here. He gracefully agreed.

But before we delve into the details behind this rather interesting bit of trivia, let's explore the Canonical mention (CAUTION: there may be spoilers ahead if you haven't yet read The Sign of Four).

The mystery begins with Holmes and Watson being visited by Mary Morstan, whose father served in the army in India at Fort Agra. Major Morstan disappeared 10 years prior, leaving behind his luggage and some curiosities from the Andaman Islands. Since that time, Ms. Mortan received pearls annually and has been invited to discover the origin of the same by Thaddeus Sholto, son of Maj. John Sholto, who served with Morstan. Upon arrival at Pondicherry Lodge, the group learned that Bartholomew Sholto is dead, having himself been hit with a poisoned thorn. All that remained were child-like footprints and a stick with a stone head tied to it like a hammer.
Holmes pieced the elements together: small footprints, strange weapons, individuals who have been in India for some time. He concluded that the perpetrator must have come from the Andaman Islands:

This is the first volume of a gazetteer which is now being published. It may be looked upon as the very latest authority. What have we here? `Andaman Islands, situated 340 miles to the north of Sumatra, in the Bay of Bengal.' Hum! hum! What's all this? Moist climate, coral reefs, sharks, Port Blair, convict barracks, Rutland Island, cottonwoods - Ah, here we are! `The aborigines of the Andaman Islands may perhaps claim the distinction of being the smallest race upon this earth, though some anthropologists prefer the Bushmen of Africa, the Digger Indians of America, and the Terra del Fuegians. The average height is rather below four feet, although many full-grown adults may be found who are very much smaller than this. They are a fierce, morose, and intractable people, though capable of forming most devoted friendships when their confidence has once been gained.' Mark that, Watson. Now, then, listen to this. `They are naturally hideous, having large, misshapen heads, small, fierce eyes, and distorted features. Their feet and hands, however, are remarkably small. So intractable and fierce are they that all the efforts of the British officials have failed to win them over in any degree. They have always been a terror to shipwrecked crews, braining the survivors with their stone-headed clubs, or shooting them with their poisoned arrows. These massacres are invariably concluded by a cannibal feast.' Nice, amiable people, Watson! If this fellow had been left to his own unaided devices this affair might have taken an even more ghastly turn. I fancy that, even as it is, Jonathan Small would give a good deal not to have employed him.

There we have the setup. Now without further ado, here's "The Most Isolated People in the World" from Now I Know:

The part of the Indian Ocean encapsulated by the eastern shore of India and the shores of Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma) is called the Bay of Bengal (map). The eastern edge of the Bay of Bengal is defined as a set of islands called the Andaman Islands, an archipelago, most of which are under control of India. North Sentinel Island, a small dot of land, is part of the Andaman Islands. North Sentinel Island is set just west of the larger islands in the group, as seen as the red area in the map at the top. (For further context, the island is flagged on the map here – be sure to zoom in.)

Between 50 and 400 people are estimated to live on North Sentinel Island. These people, known as the Sentinelese, are perhaps the most isolated people in the world and are believed to be pre-Neolithic — literally, technologically in the Stone Age. By and large, the Sentinelese have gone uncontacted by outsiders for centuries if not millennia — in part because the Sentinelese do not take kindly to visitors.

In 1967, Indian authorities began their first meaningful attempt to engage the Sentinelese by leaving coconuts as gifts on the island’s shores. While some progress was made over the course of a few decades, the quality and quantity of contact was minimal at best. Seven years later, anthropologist Trilokinath Pandit and a film crew attempted to woo the Sentinelese into friendly contact with gifts, such as fruit, a pig, some toys, and pots and pans. The result was not positive: a film director was shot in the thigh with an arrow. In the 1990s, India cut off its permission for these anthropological endeavors, citing risks seen in contacting other uncontacted tribes as well as the fear of introducing diseases from mainland India to the Sentinelese people, whose physiologies almost certainly would be ill prepared to recover from.

More recent events strongly buttresses that this decision to cut off hopes of contact is just fine with the Sentinelese. In 2006, a pair of fishermen were plying their trade, illegally, off North Sentinel Island’s shore. Sentinelese archers killed the fishermen. When a helicopter came to recover the bodies, the helicopter too was met with a hail of arrows, and retreated before fulfilling its mission.

What do we know about the Sentinelese? Understandably, very little. They live in huts and are hunter-gatherers, employing the use of javelins, bows and arrows, and harpoons. They speak a language unique to them (also called, by outsiders, “Sentinelese”) which we have no way of translating. The Sentinelese appear to use pig skulls as ornaments of some sort, and have employed the use of red dye in both clothing and what is best guessed to be decoration.

And that, unfortunately, is all we may ever learn. As India has given up almost all hope of making further contact with the Sentinelese, these people are considered autonomous and, in a very real sense, the most isolated people on the planet. It seems like a matter of time before they and their culture die off, becoming a historical footnote. On the other hand, the Sentinelese are resilient — some estimate that they have lived on North Sentinel Island for 60,000 years, and in any event, the Sentinelese somehow survived the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 (which probably hit the island).

Could Tonga have been part of the Sentinelese people? Given his rather irascible personality, it doesn't sound like a stretch. The blowpipe would seem to equate with the archers and the hammer-like weapon is clearly Neolithic in nature.

And when one considers that he was "a fine boatman" according to Johnathan Small, it's not unlikely that he left Sentinel Island and made his way to some of the other Andaman Islands where he took ill. It was there that Small nursed him back to health and was able to attain a degree of loyalty from the islander, whom Small said was "as venomous as a young snake."

While we may never know with certainty which of the Andaman Islands Tonga called home, our preference is for Sentinel Island, home of the most isolated people in the world.

When you make purchases from the links we share, it provides us with a stream of revenue to help keep this site running. Thank you for your generosity.
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"I'm Sorry, Councillor, But It's Ted" [VALL]

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Kitts) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 21:03:41 PDT

[Editor's note: The following is a guest post by C. Paul Martin, BSI ("Dr. Leslie Armstrong"), who knew Ted Schulz quite well.]

Theodore G. Schulz, BSI ("The Amateur Mendicant Society") passed beyond the Reichenbach on January 24, 2013. Knowing Ted was to appreciate a true champion and an active practitioner of the art of Sherlockiana and its environs.

Ted was the genuine template for the formation of the optimal Baker Street Irregular, Sherlockian, Holmesian, Praedian, etc. while imparting his caring and enthusiastic personality to all his associates and acquaintances in many societies.

Ted had the opportunity to give us his own story before he left us: it's a rich mix of text and videos and can be found at TedSchulz.com, which has been recently updated by Barry Brilliant (who himself penned a letter to Ted that summed up their friendship).

Other adventures with Ted can be viewed via a number of YouTube videos that he made, such as the one below. Yet, in knowing him these past 44 years, I believe he would also like you to know some unique facts.

Ted was born at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco in 1923, the same night that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was presenting a lecture on spiritualism and photography at Dreamland Auditorium just a few blocks away from the hospital. Could Doyle’s ethereal spirits have migrated to Ted upon his birth with resultant influence?

Ted’s only son was named William Sherlock Schulz, a fitting testament to his devotion to his avocation and his wife Mary’s love of him and acceptance of his enthusiasm for the world of Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle.

The many honors bestowed upon Ted, including his Two Shilling Award and his 50 year BSI Membership Recognition only validate the conclusion of the many people who were privileged to meet him that “Ted is the nicest man I have ever met!” Ted received his investiture "The Amateur Mendicant Society" in the BSI in 1961.

If you'd like to watch the memorial that Ted's local Sherlockian group held, it can be viewed by clicking here.
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"Striking Illustration" [SOLI]

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Magnusson) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 11:21:00 PDT

One of my friends gave me a collection of comic books they found at a used-books store: the “Cases of Sherlock Holmes” series by Dan Day. It was run by Renegade Press from 1986 til ‘88 and then by Northstar Publishing from ‘89 til 1990. I expected these to be a set of original tales featuring the Great Detective, based solely on the cover images. Open up the first issue, and the first page looks like the image seen on the right.

The illustrations were rich in detail and very evocative of a Victorian setting. Particularly pleasing is the amount of detail given to the characters - more than even the best Sidney Paget drawings could hope to give us, as we view them in reprints. The only drawback to the early issues of the Cases of Sherlock Holmes series is that the text was in ALL CAPS. No need to shout at me while I'm reading a graphic novel.

Some of you probably know about these already - for those of you who don’t, they’re worth looking for. They are, simply, the stories from the Canon put to illustration. The illustrations themselves are wonderfully detailed, and the layout is generally easy to follow. Most of the time the illustrations simply decorate the columns of text, but every now and then the reader comes across a dynamic spread -

This is also from the first issue, “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet”, and shows the confrontation between Holmes and the thief. Granted, there is some artistic license taken with the scene, such as Holmes wrestling over a knife, but it is stunning nonetheless.

While I’m on the subject of ‘artistic license,’ I should mention an aspect of these comics I find particularly entertaining: the covers. My initial supposition that these comics would be original stories was wrong, but I think I can be forgiven. The title of the story is not printed on the cover, and the illustrations tend towards pulp.

This one isn’t too bad, as “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons” does feature small statues of Napoleon, who is dead, hence the skeletal figure on the horse with the funny hat.

But what story could possibly have this cover image?

“Silver Blaze.” The story about a horse.

Oddly, of the 20 issues, one is an original pastiche. “The Strange Adventure of the Vourdalak” was written by Gordon Derry and is an interesting, thought-out tale that keeps the feel of the Canon while adding a little more action (and cocaine) in a neat setting - a traveling fair of gypsies, Turks and Cossacks in France. It is the only pastiche in the series.

These are a fun, quirky addition to my collection, and could be enjoyed by any Sherlockian who is a fan of comics or illustrated editions of the stories. They’re certainly worth keeping an eye out for at your local used books or comics store, or online.

Katie writes about Sherlock Holmes in science fiction (among other things) on her tumblr.

When you make purchases from the links we share, it provides us with a stream of revenue to help keep this site running. Thank you for your generosity.
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"Upon These Tragic Events" [HOUN]

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Monty) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 20:12:22 PDT

All eyes have been on Boston in the last 36 hours. As with others, we extend our heartfelt sympathy for the victims, their families and loved ones. As we spent 20 years in Boston, it is particularly gut wrenching to observe the goings on from afar, powerless to do anything to help.

Because we specialize in the written word, we thought that it might be helpful to reflect on a world that Vincent Starrett remembered and lived in some 70 years ago when he penned the sonnet "221B" that appeared in Profile by Gaslight. That sentiment is very much still in play in 2013 as we contemplate a world that explodes.

Yes, we're fortunate to share an interest that keeps us grounded in what seemed like a more genteel and serene age. But the work of our Sherlockian forbears reminds us that every generation has its challenges - challenges that afford us the escapism that good storytelling can provide.

May we remember that well.

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"A Very Workmanlike Little Bit of Analysis" [VALL]

noreply@blogger.com (Katie Magnusson) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 23:21:00 PDT

The somewhat unwieldily titled book How Sherlock Holmes Deduced “Break The Case Clues” On The BTK Killer, The Son of Sam, Unabomber and Anthrax Cases - With Analysis on The Mad Bomber and the Unsolved L.I. Gilgo Beach Murders (disclosure: cmp.ly/5) is an examination of the cases mentioned in the title, made up of actual reports made to the FBI or other agency involved in the case. The author, Tom Walker, is a retired police captain of the NYPD and a Sherlockian. As he says in his Introduction:

“What follows is true, it is not fiction. However, I readily acknowledge that none of these deductive successes would have been possible without Sherlock Holmes walking behind me and occasionally whispering in my ear.”

It is interesting to see the inner workings of a mind that directly applies lessons from Sherlock Holmes to detective work. Mr. Walker provides just enough detail of each crime to express the horror of the scenes, but does not delve into unnecessary gore. The “break the case clues” he arrives at unfortunately never do break a case, but they very well might have if his conclusions had been heeded by the agency in charge.

The book, for the most part, maintains an academic atmosphere fitting for a ‘course of lectures,’ as Holmes himself would have liked. The exception comes in moments of Sherlock Holmes quite literally whispering in Mr. Walker’s ear, moments which are either supposed to add a touch of levity, or are a very serious Sherlockian taking the influence of Sherlock Holmes very seriously. Either way, Playing The Game is an unexpected quirk within a nonfiction setting.

Of course, this is a book written by a long-time Sherlockian, for Sherlockians, but there are moments where The Game is just too pronounced for a relative newcomer like me. For example, during what is otherwise a convincing defense of Bruce Ivins, the top suspect for the Anthrax Killer case, Walker details a clandestine consultation with the BSI that anyone unfamiliar with the organization would find unintentionally campy at best. His appeal to whomever knows the identity of the Gilgo Beach murderer(s) at the end of the book to step forward at Holmes’s insistence is off-putting.

Apart from that, the author is confident in his ability and clearly guides the reader through his methods in each case. He does have a little trouble narratively, the best example of which is the first half of his description of the Son of Sam case. He attempts to frame the case within what was going on in his life at the time, with the result that we get an interesting account of the power structure of NYC law enforcement and a fun game-show story, but this is ultimately a diversion that doesn't seem to contribute anything to the overall theme of the book or the analysis of the case itself. Another occasion of a case not quite fitting within the Sherlockian theme is his examination of the police response to the Mad Bomber. It is a fascinating analysis of effective (and ineffective) procedure, but it lacks the direct references to Canon and Holmes’s methodology that ties the other cases to the Great Detective.

Overall, anyone interested in seeing Sherlock Holmes’s methods applied to real-life detective work would find this an enjoyable and interesting light read. It should also appeal to anyone who wants to see a new perspective on high profile cases and the inner workings of law enforcement. Mr. Walker’s language is clear and his process easy to follow. He knows what he is doing, and it would be nice to see him get some recognition for it.

How Sherlock Holmes Deduced “Break The Case Clues” On The BTK Killer, The Son of Sam, Unabomber and Anthrax Cases - With Analysis on the Mad Bomber and The Unsolved L.I. Gilgo Beach Murders is available in paperback and ebook formats directly from the publisher, iUniverse, or Barnes and Noble. It is also available on Amazon, but if I understood the iUniverse royalty policy correctly, you’ll do better by the author if you purchase it from iUniverse or Barnes and Noble.

Katie writes about Sherlock Holmes in science fiction (among other things) on her tumblr.

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"Acquired By Long and Patient Study" [STUD]

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Dymowski) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:21:00 PDT

Examining the "Science of Deduction and Analysis" is a singular activity - many Holmesian scholars have managed to find interesting nuances when focusing on the Great Detective's skills. With the plethora of Holmes-related media in recent years, it would seem that reconciling Holmes' unique talents to modern-day psychology might be a bit daunting.

Thankfully, we now have Maria Konnikova's Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes (available on Amazon as a hardcover, paperback or Kindle edition) a fascinating book that not only marries Victorian detection to current-day thought, but manages to provide an illuminating, insightful work for both Sherlockians and casual fans alike. Mastermind focuses on how much of what we understand about learning, decision-making, and deductive ability can be derived from Holmesian thought (as expressed in the canon).

Each discussion has an underpinning in the canon, from how "facts" can influence our first impressions (see Mary Morstan) to the proper care and maintenance of the "brain attic", Mastermind takes much of its lead from key stories in the canon. (In fact, towards the end Mastermind cleverly demonstrates how Holmes' cognitive abilities have developed over time, citing both early and later Conan Doyle stories).

For both Sherlockians and the casual reader, Mastermind is relatively easy to comprehend, avoiding complicated language for an extremely simple approach. The final chapter - which outlines precisely how to attain Holmesian skills in deduction - is well worth the cost of the book. But it's the chapters leading up to it, mixing familiar (and some unusual) references to the canon, that provide the bulk of Mastermind's value, placing Holmes' abilities in the realm of possibility.

Mastermind may not necessarily lead you to consider a career in being a consulting detective....but provides one of the best pieces of both Sherlockian and psychological scholarship. This is a must-read for the serious Holmes scholar.

When you make purchases from the links we share, it provides us with a stream of revenue to help keep this site running. Thank you for your generosity.
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"Don't Imagine That You Can Bully Me" [CHAS]

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Monty) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 08:03:03 PST

It isn't often one gets a ringside seat at a legal-literary battle royal, but it would seem that we're about to bear witness to some activity in that particular area.

Of course, you'll recall that recent legal battles in England have revolved around Undershaw, Conan Doyle's home for about a decade that included when he wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles. We've covered that topic extensively here - click for more background on that topic.

But this is wholly different.

The noted Sherlockian scholar, Baker Street Irregular and prominent attorney Leslie Klinger, editor of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, The Sherlock Holmes Reference Library and The Grand Game: A Celebration of Sherlockian Scholarship, to name a few, has filed a civil lawsuit against the Conan Doyle Estate to determine that the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are in fact in the public domain.
Currently, the so-called estate undertakes high-handed legal action to levy royalties and other payments from authors who use the characters in their own works. This is despite the fact that there are only 10 stories in the entire Canon that are still under copyright protection (in the United States). Klinger, for one, will not stand for this bullying, and has formally filed suit and issued a press release.

We'll allow you to read directly from the press release:

A civil action was filed today in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate by Sherlock Holmes scholar Leslie S. Klinger. Klinger seeks to have the Court determine that the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson are no longer protected by federal copyright laws and that writers, filmmakers, and others are free to create new stories about Holmes, Watson, and others of their circle without paying license fees to the current owners of the remaining copyrights.

Klinger says that the litigation came about because he and Laurie R. King, best-selling author of the "Mary Russell" series of mysteries that also feature Sherlock Holmes, were co-editing a new book called "In the Company of Sherlock Holmes." This collection of stories by major mystery/sci-fi/fantasy authors inspired by the Holmes tales, is to be published by Pegasus Books. "The Conan Doyle Estate contacted our publisher," says Klinger, "and implied that if the Estate wasn't paid a license fee, they'd convince the major distributors not to sell the book. Our publisher was, understandably, concerned, and told us that the book couldn't come out unless this was resolved.

“It is true that some of Conan Doyle's stories about Holmes are still protected by the U.S. copyright laws. However, the vast majority of the stories that Conan Doyle wrote are not. The characters of Holmes, Watson, and others are fully established in those fifty 'public-domain' stories. Under U.S. law, this should mean that anyone is free to create new stories about Holmes and Watson.

"This isn't the first time the Estate has put pressure on creators," Klinger adds. "It is the first time anyone has stood up to them. In the past, many simply couldn't afford to fight or to wait for approval, and have given in and paid off the Estate for 'permission.' I'm asking the Court to put a permanent stop to this kind of bullying. Holmes and Watson belong to the world, not to some distant relatives of Arthur Conan Doyle."

Klinger denies that he was trying to strip the Estate of its proper rights. "The Estate still owns copyrights in the U.S. on 10 of the stories about Holmes—some of the stories that appeared in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. As a lawyer myself, I respect those rights, and in fact I licensed them when I published my New Annotated Sherlock Holmes."

All of the remaining 10 stories will be in the public domain after 2022, 95 years after the last was published.

Klinger is represented by Scott M. Gilbert of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLC in Chicago, who serves as litigation counsel, and Jonathan Kirsch in Los Angeles, an intellectual property attorney specializing in publishing issues.

“Les Klinger is the ideal plaintiff to undertake this praiseworthy effort to confirm the public-domain status of the iconic characters and settings of the Sherlock Holmes Canon and remove the cloud of fear, uncertainty and doubt that the Estate has used to scare off others,” says Kirsch. “As a world-renowned expert and an acclaimed author, he is willing to champion a cause that others have been too timid to undertake. Authors, movie-makers and other creative people owe him a debt of gratitude.”

Klinger and Laurie R. King previously edited A Study in Sherlock: Stories Inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon (Random House, 2011), a collection of new stories written by Lee Child, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Maron, and other contemporary writers. Their second collection, In the Company of Sherlock Holmes, will feature new stories by Sara Paretsky, Michael Connelly, Lev Grossman, Larry Niven, Val McDermid, Denise Mina, Cornelia Funke, Jeffery Deaver, and other major writers. Some of the stories are new adventures of Holmes and Watson; others are about people inspired or influenced by the Holmes stories of Conan Doyle.

For more information, see the web site Free-Sherlock.com or write to Mr. Klinger at mail@lesliesklinger.com.

The formal legal documents can be found here:

KLINGER vs. CONAN DOYLE ESTATE LTD

We're happy to let the legal system sort out all of the specifics, and we appreciate Mr. Klinger's measured approach - note that he still respects the copyright of the works that are under such protection. But at 125 years as part of the public consciousness, it doesn't seem reasonable to expect that the characters should be under the same level of protection.

Michael Buffer, the famous ringside announcer, trademarked the phrase "Let's get ready to rumble!" In doing so, he managed to net over $400 million by licensing the phrase. But as Holmes has been with us for a century and a quarter and the famous profile, pipe, hat and even utterances of "No sh*t, Sherlock" are part of our public consciousness, should those things also be subject to the heavy hand of the so-called estate?

We prefer to think not. We wish Mr. Klinger the best in his endeavors. What's your take?

Feel free to join the discussion below or via the #FreeSherlock hashtag on Twitter.

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"His Friend the Lascar" [TWIS]

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Monty) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 12:59:02 PST

Editor's note: Brad Keefauver, BSI ("Winwood Reade") wrote this remembrance of his good friend Robert Burr, who passed beyond the Reichenbach on January 9, 2013.

On May 28, 1992, Bob Burr got a phone call from Tom Stix, the head of the Baker Street Irregulars at that time. Tom offered Bob the editorial reins of The Baker Street Journal. After talking to Philip Shreffler, who was ending his seven year run as the journal's editor, Bob decided a few days later, not to take the job.

To many of those who encountered Robert C. Burr, BSI ("The Rascally Lascar"), in various internet venues, the thought of Bob Burr being in at the helm of America's greatest Sherlockian publishing legacy has to seem a little insane at best. His persistence in horrible jokes, non-politically correct comments, and terse, often sharp reactions annoyed more than a few, and got him kicked off of the Hounds of the Internet more often than any other. But the internet Burr of later years was only one part of that complex fellow who was also a great host, a steadfast scion leader, and a careful perfectionist when it came to the written word. He died on January 9, 2013, in Peoria, Illinois, at age 82.

The simple facts on Bob are these, as he wrote them up for his obituary himself:

He was born June 21, 1930 in Paterson, NJ. to Howard E. and Helen (Matthews) Burr. He married JoAnn Taggart in Ames, IA, on July 1, 1953. They divorced in 1963. There were no children of the marriage. His life from 1964 to 2004 was deeply enriched by his Significant Other, Lucy Sommerfield, until her death in 2004.

Bob received his B.S. degree in chemistry from Rutgers University in 1952, and his M.S. in chemistry from Iowa State University in 1955. He was an instructor in chemistry at Bradley University from 1955-1961, and a chemist at Peoria's USDA Lab from 1962-1988.

His two abiding interests were barbershop style singing, and the world's greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes.

As always, Bob left out a lot. In the 1960s, he was the local chairman of NICAP (the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena), looking into UFO sightings. In 1977, after waiting almost two years for local science fiction author (and Bob's neighbor) Philip Jose Farmer to start a promised scion society, Bob called the first meeting of Peoria's Hansoms of John Clayton and held it at his home. He published the society's lively monthly newsletter, Plugs & Dottles, from 1978 to 1998. Beginning in 1981, the club's triennial journal, Wheelwrightings, was was of the few scion journals to be typeset in the days before desktop publishing, a luxury that Bob quietly paid out of his own pocket. He took over that journal's editorship in 1983 and held those reins until its final issue in January 1992. When offered the BSJ editorship a few months later, he was not ready to end his editorial retirement for that even greater responsibility, which his sense of perfectionism would have made him work doubly hard on. In 2011, a collection of pun-filled tales he had printed over the years was published, in book form with the help of Philip K. Jones, under the title The Punishment of Sherlock Holmes.

Bob Burr was invested in the Baker Street Irregulars in 1987, having never attended an official BSI dinner nor attending any after that, except for the appearance of a life-sized photo of him (lovingly nicknamed "Robbie") in the photo of the 1989 dinner. An attempt to collect for that attendance was made by Tom Stix, as well as chastising him for wearing a flannel shirt to such a formal affair. Even though he did make it to a few midwestern Sherlockian conferences of note, Bob was well known for not leaving Peoria, Illinois. He still managed to touch a lot of lives.

You can still see Bob's profile on the Sherlock Holmes Social Network.- Ed.

Feel free to leave your own memory of Bob here.

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"The Celebrated Mr. Sherlock Holmes" [SCAN]

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Monty) — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 23:23:38 PST

What do you get for the man who's 159 years old?

At first blush, one might be tempted to say, "Oxygen!" or "A defibrillator!"

But in our case, the man is none other than the celebrated Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was born on January 6, 1854. And while his existence has been known to us for 125 years thanks to his first appearance in A Study in Scarlet in Beeton's Christmas Annual of 1887, we trace his birth to the year 1854 and the date of January 6 and the Baker Street Irregulars celebrate it on or around that date every year in New York City.

But why January 6? Tradition has indicated that it is due to these factors:

In "His Last Bow," Holmes, in the guise of Altamont, was called "A tall gaunt man of sixty," and we know that story took place in 1914.
Over the course of his recorded adventures, Holmes quoted Shakespeare on and off, but it was only Twelfth Night that he quoted twice. The inference? That he preferred that play over the others for some reason - namely, that the twelfth night of Christmas was his birthday. [BONUS: can you name the two quotes and the stories in which they appeared?]

Of course, we recall heartily the words of Vincent Starrett, BSI ("A Study in Scarlet") in his poem "221B" that Holmes and Watson "never lived, and so can never die." While that may be the case, they still live on in our hearts, as "only those things the heart believes are true."

Happy Birthday, Sherlock Holmes. Many happy returns.

Oh, and if you're looking to follow along for the BSI Weekend action, please be sure to set your searches to the #BSIWeekend hashtag.

Image credit: diamond geezer (Flickr)
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"The Gleam of an Electric Switch" [CHAS]

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Monty) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 20:34:52 PST

Over a decade ago, The Baker Street Journal did the unthinkable: it entered into the electronic age. That is to say, it released a CD-ROM containing every issue from 1946-2000, debuted its web site and introduced an online ordering system.

And while the Baker Street Irregulars are not yet offering an electronic subscription option to the BSJ (we believe it to be inevitable, considering what's been happening in the news and book industry over the course of the last, oh decade or so, but we certainly don't expect it in the near term), the Journal has come a long way in its recent history. From updating the style of the wrappers to including a different cover image on each new issue, the physical version is much more pleasing to the eyes and hands.

And the Journal, which has for years offered advertising space within its own pages, has begun sponsoring other outlets worthy of association, such as The Baker Street Babes and I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere podcasts. We trust that those affiliations have garnered the attention of a new swath of fans who have discovered Sherlock Holmes in a variety of manners.

For those interested in understanding what happens between the yellow covers can get a sample by clicking on the Current Contents section of the site, which at minimum will show the Editor's Gas-Lamp.

In addition, there are Featured Articles that provide a decent round-up of recent writings about the Sherlock Holmes stories, and of course some of the past winners of the Morley-Montgomery Award (for the best article in the BSJ each year) are available as well. And for a fuller understanding of some of the scholarship that made it into those pages over the course of the first 50 years, there are electronic indexes available (thanks to the hard work of Donald Redmond, BSI).

The BSJ 2.0

Of course, the world moves ahead and the BSJ continued to publish in the decade since the CD-ROM first was made available. So the Irregulars have decided to update the first volume, expand it to include more of the current information and update the format.

The eBSJ v2 provides a PDF archive of all BSJ issues from 1946-2011, including all the Christmas Annuals, on a single DVD. The the new eBSJ adds 55 issues from 2001-2011, plus makes other improvements to the original CD files and is priced at $149.95.

And for owners of the current CD-ROM version of the BSJ, there is a limited time offer for a $100 discount that the BSI is offering. If you're attending the BSI Weekend, just bring Disk 4 of your set with you to the Merchants Room and the set will be only $49.95 - a $100 discount off of the $149.95 list price. If you're not attending the BSI Weekend, the offer is still good, but only until May 1, 2013. Online ordering, with additional information, will be available from the BSJ website in the week after the BSI weekend.

Until then you can find more out about the offer at this link, or in the embedded version of it below.

eBSJ Trade-In FAQ

"Just a Suggestion, Perhaps" [HOUN]

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Monty) — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 23:21:00 PST

With the #BSIWeekend quickly approaching, we thought it might be helpful to provide a series of tips for the veteran attendees and the newbies alike.

After all, it's usually a pretty big deal if you're taking time out of your life to head into New York City for 3+ days of activities with people you haven't seen in a year (or years!) or those you may only know online. Whether you're making the trip for the first or twenty-first time, you know that the Weekend provides the same level of excitement, anticipation and giddiness as Christmas morning does to a child.

It's usually during those anxious moments that our brain-attic tends to forget some of the essentials that help make a great trip perfect. And for the uninitiated, it's just a matter of not knowing what you need to survive the Baker Street Irregulars Weekend.

Not being the type to remember everything ourselves (we swear that on every trip, our mind isn't calmed until we can figure out just what it is that we forgot to pack), we reached out to several members of the Baker Street Irregulars - some newer members who might have a less distant memory of their first Weekend, and some who have been at it literally for decades.

We were expecting a smattering of solid advice, but we were quite astonished at the quality and quantity of helpful hints that can make the BSI Weekend an enjoyable and stress-free one for you. Herewith the suggestions:

Bags

Make sure that you have plenty of room to bring home books that you bought. If you have to bring an extra bag that you can fold up and put in your suitcase, do so.
Some suggest bringing a plastic shopping bag to the BSI dinner, as it makes carrying the dinner packet around a little easier, especially if you plan to go to another venue afterward.
You might also consider bringing a shopping bag to the Vendors Room on Saturday to carry your various purchases.

Meeting Others

Bring business cards. You will be meeting a lot of new people, and you will be sharing contact information. Put as many as you think that you will need in your pack, and then double it. And be sure to include all modes of contacting you, including website, Twitter handle, etc.
If you're in need of a good card, the Moo does a splendid job and VistaPrint has a fast turnaround time.
If you want to make sure you get your table mates to sign your menu, bring a pen to the dinner.
Allow yourself time to shmooze with other Sherlockians. This is the fastest way to make new friends, who will quickly become old friends.

Comportment

DO tell people how good it is to see them again. DO tell them that you miss them in the intervening months between BSI weekends. DO tell them how invaluable they are to you as a Sherlockian comrade-in-arms and friend and how much you value their friendship.
If you're scheduled to speak at an event, be mindful not to overdo the alcohol beforehand. Dutch courage is usually inappropriate in such circumstances.

Attire

Bring comfortable shoes. The weekend inevitably includes a lot of walking.
This one is especially for the ladies:, it's useful to have a change of shoes in your handbag so the stilettos don't murder you by the end of the evening (or vice versa).
Bring warm clothes. It is winter in New York, and non-Sherlockian New York friends say that know when we are in town because we bring really bad weather.
Dress in layers. Many times the weather can be cold, but there have been instances in New York in January when we could - and did - comfortably walk about the streets without even a jacket on.

Money

Bring small bills. They will come in handy as you share taxis going from place to place, and you’ll find them handy when tipping helpful service employees.
Bring a checkbook to the Vendors Room as not everyone takes credit cards and you may find an item you must have.
If you see something you're interested in at the Vendors Room and you can afford it, don't wait until your second sweep of the room - it will probably be gone by then.
Estimate, on the top side, what you expect to spend – and double it. That might get you through.

Time

If you have any health conditions, allow yourself time to go back to your hotel room for periodic rests. Many find these rests invaluable, enabling them to enjoy the weekend despite their condition.Schedule your time.
Know when you need to be places (including when you need to catch the train/plane back home).
Count on it taking some time to get a cab amongst the other Sherlockians on 10th Avenue after the Gillette Luncheon. If the weather is not inclement and you’re fairly healthy, you may find a brisk walk from 19th Street to 45th Street a way to burn off those calories.

Getting Around

Print out a street map of the city with the places you need to be circled or otherwise identified. Many things are within walking distance, but it is good to know you are starting out in the right direction (or know when to turn).
Download and print the Summary of Weekend Events from bsiweekend.com (and seen below), or bookmark it on your smartphone.
If you want to go to Otto Penzler's Mysterious Bookshop and are staying at The Yale Club or the Roosevelt the easiest, quickest and cheapest way to go is by subway. From Grand Central take a 4 or 5 express train four stops to City Hall Station it is a very short walk over to Otto's. Don't take a local (which makes 10 stops). The express is about five minutes.

Logistics

Bring your event payment confirmations, just in case of a glitch in the system.
Also, everything is pretty centrally located, but it's a good idea to have a list of your schedule with the addresses of the venues so that you don't suddenly find yourself asking, where the devil am I supposed to be right now?
The heat during the BSI dinner has been uncomfortable the past two years in the Yale Club (potentially dangerously uncomfortable 2 years ago) -- if this continues, vests/waistcoats are not advised.

The Unscheduled

If possible, make breakfast plans with other Sherlockians (unless you eat breakfast alone)
To some, the secret to enjoying the jam-packed weekend is to find private, unpublicized events for more intimate interactions. How to find these? “You know my methods. Apply them.”

Dining
What? You’re not getting enough food between events? Thankfully there are gaps that allow a Sherlockian to venture places on his or her own. And of course, there are plenty of restaurants in and near Grand Central Station, which is in great proximity to the Yale Club and the Roosevelt Hotel.

Several Sherlockians like to go to the Oyster Bar for dinner after the Thursday night lecture.
There is a Cosí across the street from the Roosevelt, at 38 East 45th Street, and of course Starbucks in the station and at nearly every corner.
For a more comprehensive listing of eateries, Serious Eats has a guide that breaks them down by category and of course Yelp has many suggestions as well.

Online
Whether you're in New York for the festivities or sequestered at home, it might be worthwhile to follow along online. Some ways to do that:

The official hashtag of the BSI Weekend on Twitter is #BSIWeekend. We have a feed set up on the BSI Weekend website, or you can simply follow along by clicking on the hashtag, or even on Tweetgrid.
We'll be providing occasional updates on these pages, so please follow along.
Of course, we'll also be providing updates via our Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr presence.
The Baker Street Babes, who will be out in force during the weekend, will undoubtedly have a unique real-time perspective of the weekend.
We also have a list of Sherlockians on Twitter whom you might consider following. A number of them will be at the weekend as well.

Here is a handy downloadable and printable guide for the weekend; you may also bookmark it on your smartphone for easy reference (or download the Scribd app [iOS or Android] to make it easier).
The 2013 BSI Weekend

That sums up our list. Do you have tips as well, dear readers? Please leave them in a comment here on our site or drop us a line and let us know what your secrets are so we can all be the beneficiaries.

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"The Second Morning After Christmas" [BLUE]

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Monty) — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 23:21:00 PST

As is our tradition this time of the year, we bring to you the Christmas classic that surrounds "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle."

Typically we try to provide the freshest and most unique content here, but there are times when a grand tradition prevents us from keeping such a mandate - including our own self-imposed rule of trying to capture a relevant and original Canonical phrase for the title of each entry, never to be repeated. Just as the Wall Street Journal annually reproduces a 1949 editorial written by Vermont Royster called "In Hoc Anno Domini," we saw no reason to avoid replication here.

In the case of "The Second Morning After Christmas" [BLUE] which has been used in 2006, 2008, 2009 2010 and 2011, we find that we have a post that continues to please, so we'll continue the tradition.

If this is new to you, please feel free to share and use this at your own Sherlockian society holiday meetings. The only thing we ask is that you attribute the poem to its rightful author. We have taken the liberty of using this very poem in the latest episode of our sister podcast, I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere. We invite you to listen to the reading, as well as that of "A Christmas Story Without Slush" by Christopher Morley. The couplet provides a very satisfying listening session during this Christmas season.

So, we bring you "Two Days After Christmas," a tribute to "The Blue Carbuncle" in the style of Clement Moore's A Visit from St. Nick.

Two Days After Christmas

We have the pleasure and honor of wishing you "the compliments of the season."

Please consider visiting our sponsors from time to time. It helps defray the costs associated with running this site. Thank you for your generosity.
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"A Piece of Discoloured, Blue-Tinted Paper" [FIVE]

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Doyle) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 23:21:01 PST

The late 1940s were a Golden Age for the Baker Street Irregulars. The beautiful original series of The Baker Street Journal was in production, and it was in 1948 that the Irregulars took their first plunge into book publishing. This first effort was a deluxe slipcased edition of The Blue Carbuncle. Published in a limited edition of 1500, even this relatively small number was an over-estimation of its initial demand (a common
occurrance for Sherlockian publishers even to this day…) However now, 50-plus years later, the availability of this book is limited. You can still find a copy…for a price, but a good one will cost you a premium.

The Irregulars went on publishing books, and revived The Baker Street Journal when it foundered upon the financial rocks of its own ambition. After decades the BSI did issue books on a scale as grand as this one, but never one with the charm of the 1948 edition of The Blue Carbuncle. While browsing an on-line rare book site, I ran across the following description by an anonymous dealer who describes what The Blue Carbuncle is for Sherlockians perfectly:

Rare, sought, somewhat mystical copy of one of the few publications that the most famous New York-based club dedicated to the scholarly romance of Sherlock Holmes ever produced. This was a Christmas gift idea to the membership back in 1948. There is a great introduction by one of it’s most famous members, the great Christopher Morley and historical background notes by the equally scholarly Edgar W. Smith in the back. Sherlockian Society members were basically encouraged to use this story as a “Read Aloud” Christmas message similar in design and nature to the famous classic “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. It was also the first time that “The Blue Carbuncle” ever appeared as a story by itself in the form of a book. A reflection of the golden age of private Gentlemen’s Clubs, of large high backed armchairs, of pipe smoke drifting in the air and a rattle of newpapers and tinkling glasses of port or brandy in quiet reflection.

Gone, but not forgotten and I sure wish it were around again.

The Blue Carbuncle
The Baker Street Irregulars
New York City, 1948

Introduction by Christopher Morley, Edited w/a Bibliographical Note by Edgar W. Smith. Blue slipcase with a pictorial pastedown on one side.; Blue & White Illustrations.; 64 pages; DeWaal #16.

EDITOR'S NOTE:
We just published Episode 49 of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, titled "I'll Have a Blue Christmas." In it, we read from the BSI publication and discuss Morley's timeless essay. You might want to have a listen.

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"And Again, Vampires in Transylvania" [SUSS]

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Monty) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 23:21:00 PST

Sherlock Holmes meets Count Dracula!

A review of Sherlock Holmes and the Affair in Transylvania by Gerry O'Hara.

I love the cover and artwork inside the book. The illustrations are by P.M. Rose (the author's wife) and punctuate the feel of the story perfectly. (You can even buy the artwork you see in the book!)

The writing on the back cover is in a small font even though there's plenty of room, and the margins inside the book are quite large. My hackles were raised and I questioned the writing before I even started reading.

Unfortunately, I found a mistake on the first page. Because of these red flags, it took me some effort to get into the story. I understand that the book was edited (by Tom Evans) but, with great respect to Mr. Evans, I say it could do with another thorough edit. There are mistakes throughout the story and the writing gets bogged down by extraneous words and over-full descriptions but the story shone through, anyway.

The book is strong and purposeful and though my preferences lie in more of a fun read, I thoroughly enjoyed the characters. It's a shame the errors in grammar and punctuation detract from what would otherwise be a great book.

It was a darker book than I had anticipated but it is about vampires and murder! As I said, the story was solid and well told. However, I didn't like the author's use of a scene from one of Doyle's stories, as if it was the first time Sherlock Holmes talked about viewing a peaceful countryside as a hotbed of hidden crime. The author presented it as if it was his own.

I would have liked to have seen more deducing from Sherlock-his character didn't quite ring true to the original for me. Dr. Watson's character was spot on. I loved him and his narration.

All in all, I would recommend this book to readers who love Dr. Watson, a good vampire story and those who aren't bothered by errors throughout the book that seem, to me, avoidable.

*****

Review by Jennifer Oberth, author of the Ella Westin Mysteries. Disclosure: a free review copy was provided in preparation for this review.
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"Six Cases Which I Have Added to My Notes" [BLUE]

noreply@blogger.com (James C. O'Leary) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 17:24:28 PST

It didn’t take long after the short stories began appearing in the pages of The Strand Magazine in July 1891 for Sherlock Holmes to be not only a hit, but something of a phenomenon. Robert Barr’s parody, “Detective Stories Gone Wrong: The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs’’ appeared in The Idler in May 1892. In November, 1893, Holmes first trod the boards in the musical satire “Under the Clock” at London’s Royal Court Theatre, just before “The Final Problem” hit the newsstands.

After his supposed death at the hands of Moriarty at the Reichenbach, other authors tried to fill the void with their own more-or-less brilliant detectives—with or without more-or-less dullard sidekicks assisting them. Holmes appeared on the silver screen before he returned to the pages of the Strand to battle a demon hound in Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1900). He is the most filmed fictional character in history. His appearances in fiction, radio, stage, screen and advertising are legion. While his presence in the popular culture has waxed and waned, he is a perennial; always present to help those in need.

Holmes-inspired investigators that sprang up on American TV like problem-solving weeds in the first decade of the 21^st century culminated in his return to the movies in the hugely successful Robert Downey Jr./Jude Law franchise and the small screen with BBC Sherlock and now Elementary.

The September 27 debut garnered just over thirteen million viewers, making it the number two highest rated new show on the major networks, after CBS’s Vegas. In fact, the combined average ratings for the first three episodes—live viewership and those who watch on DVR within seven days after broadcast—was 14.2 million (with a 3.5 rating in the desirable 18-49 demographic) leading CBS to order up a full season of 22 shows. On November 5, the network announced that Elementary won the coveted post-Super Bowl time slot and on November 15 upped the episode count to 24.

However, there was a large contingent of Sherlockians who were vocal in their dismay of what they saw in the pilot. It was seen as a pale imitation of BBC’s Sherlock. There was not enough Sherlock Holmes. Instead, the character seemed too much like Gregory House or Adrian Monk or Patrick Jane.

Indeed, an unshaven, tattooed, sexually active, drug addicted, and tantrum throwing Holmes dependent on the largesse of his father seems like no Holmes at all. As Jonny Lee Miller’s Sherlock Holmes has reached the end of his probationary six-week sobriety period under Joan Watson’s (Lucy Liu) care, now would be a good time to assess those first six cases through a Sherlockian eyes.

“Let Me Have an Opinion upon the Character”

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, co-creators of Sherlock, have delighted fans with their deep knowledge of the Canon. There seemed to be precious little of that in Elementary’s first episode. However, creator Rob Doherty has shown over the course of the first six episodes that he knows his Doyle. Here are some examples:

Miller: “I don’t guess, I observe. And once I’ve observed, I deduce.” (Ep. 1)
Holmes: "No, no; I never guess. It is a shocking habit - destructive to the logical faculty.” (SIGN)

M: “Attic theory. I’ve always believed that the human brain is like…an attic. A storage space for facts. But because that space is finite, it must be full with only the things one needs to be the best version of one’s self. It’s important, therefore, not to have useless facts.” (Ep. 2)
H: "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose….It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." (STUD)

M: “I can smell ‘T-Blossom’ brand deodorant on the chair. A lady’s deodorant.” (Ep. 2)
H: “I…was conscious of a faint smell of the scent known as white jessamine. There are seventy-five perfumes, which it is very necessary that the criminal expert should be able to distinguish from each other, and cases have more than once within my own experience depended upon their prompt recognition. The scent suggested the presence of a lady…” (HOUN)

M: “From a drop of water, a logician can infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of either one. I’ve got my drop of water, now allow me to infer.” (Ep. 3)
H: (from a magazine article entitled “The Tree of Life”) “From a drop of water a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other.” (STUD)

Miller: “Since we first collaborated you’ve always held me and my work in a certain esteem. I guess I’m…more vain about that than I would care to admit.” (Ep. 4)
Watson: My companion flushed up with pleasure at my words, and the earnest way in which I uttered them. I had already observed that he was as sensitive to flattery on the score of his art as any girl could be of her beauty. (STUD)

Liu: “Are you expecting someone?”
Miller: “Am I ever?” (Ep. 5)
W: "Why that was surely the bell? Who could come tonight? Some friend of yours, perhaps?"
H: "Except yourself I have none. I do not encourage visitors." (FIVE)

M: “You know I dislike proposing a theory in its formative stages before I feel confidant of its conclusion.” (Ep. 5)
H: "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." (SPEC)

Miller keeps bees and is writing Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen; Holmes does those things in his retirement. Miller practices lock-picking on padlocks, doorknobs and handcuffs; Holmes has a first-class, up-to-date burgling kit and “the opening of safes was a particular hobby with him.” (CHAS) Holmes speaks French, German, Latin and possibly Italian; Miller speaks Mandarin. Both play the violin. Holmes has “never been known to write where a telegram would serve” (DEVI); Miller loves “text shorthand. It allows you to convey context and tone without losing velocity.” (Ep. 4) Holmes engages in indoor target practice and adorns “the opposite wall with a patriotic V.R. done in bullet-pocks” (MUSG); Miller uses Adam Kemper’s immunity agreement tacked up on the brownstone’s walls for a knife-throwing target (Ep. 3). Holmes beats “the subjects in the dissecting-rooms with a stick” (STUD) to test for postmortem bruising; Miller, through the offices of fellow beekeeper Bruce, morgue attendant at Chandler Memorial Hospital, conducts the same type of experiment on donated cadavers (Ep. 5). Holmes’ pipe is absent. Indeed, tobacco use on television is almost non-existent today, but Holmes’ magnifying glass is present in Miller’s smart phone with magnifying lens attachments.

On the other hand, Miller is perpetually unshaven, often wearing novelty t-shirts or wrinkled clothes. Holmes “affected a certain quiet primness of dress” (MUSG). Even after living for days in a dilapidated stone hut on the moor, Watson remarks, “In his tweed suit and cloth cap he looked like any other tourist upon the moor, and he had contrived, with that cat-like love of personal cleanliness which was one of his characteristics, that his chin should be as smooth and his linen as perfect as if he were in Baker Street.” (HOUN) Is this an affectation? Corporate killer Donna Kaplan observes, “My bosses use $5000 suits to get attention. You use a scarf and an old t-shirt.” (Ep. 4) Are we seeing Miller at his personal nadir and will he become better dressed and clean-shaven as the series progresses? Or is this just the 21^st century Holmes, as slobby as (or slobbier than) the average person?

Holmes eccentricities do get overblown in these modern adaptations. Doyle gave him a Bohemian nature. He was working the trope that geniuses are different than the bulk of humanity; “Art in the blood” and all that. However, he did not chew coca leaves and follow it up with a formaldehyde chaser. Watson did not record, “Holmes vaulted the settee on the way to the door.” And Holmes did not describe one of his clients as a stupid, overweight porn addict with a probable short life span in his presence. Miller can also be prickly. “He wasn’t asked to consult here because of his charming personality,” says Captain Gregson (Aidan Quinn). I find Miller a kinder, gentler Holmes than Cumberbatch’s incredibly (and hilariously) rude take. Miller cares about people and their feelings. Miller had deduced the real reason Liu had become a sober companion but at first gives a more generalized reason: “I knew it would be a sour subject so I made up the bit about your friend to spare your feelings.” He apologizes to the janitor for throwing a pitcher of water on the floor and to Gregson for not telling him sooner about his addiction. In Episode 2, Miller, after pulling a man aside and using as "persuasion" not exposing the man's methamphetamine use to Gregson to elicit information, says to him, "Also, um...when you're ready to get your life back on track...Hemdale Rehabilitation Facility gets my very strongest recommendation. They even have a pool." In Episode 4, at a high-end restaurant on the expense account of the investment firm Canon-Ebersole, Miller orders the most expensive bottle of wine on the menu; not for himself, of course.

M: “You see that couple over there? I observed them while you were in the bathroom. The man’s suit is frayed from dry cleaning. I’d wager it’s the only one he’s got. Therefore, he saved to come here for a special occasion. Also, he keeps touching the inside pocket of his suit coat, like he’s checking to see if something valuable is still there. He’s about to propose. And I’m going to send this wine over as congratulations. Or condolences.”

I can’t image Cumberbatch doing that in a similar situation.

There are many things missing from Liu’s Watson. Gone is the military service in Afghanistan and the war wound. There is, so far, no chronicling of cases. Watson and Liu are both surgeons, of course, but one of the nice things that Doherty has picked up on is Watson athleticism and love of sport. Watson reckoned himself “fleet of foot” (HOUN); Liu regularly jogs. Watson follows the ponies; Liu the New York Mets. While Watson played rugby for Blackheath in his youth (SUSS); Liu apparently played soccer. We have this exchange in Episode 5 when Liu accompanies Dr. Carrie Dwyer (Anika Noni Rose) on a medical round:

Dwyer: “Morgan’s here because she tore her ACL.”
Liu: “Let me guess. Soccer player, right wing?”
Morgan: “Center, actually.”
L: “Heart of the offense—nice.”

There may even be a subtle nod to Watson’s inherent honesty. Holmes says of Watson in “The Dying Detective”, “that among your many talents dissimulation finds no place”. In Episode 2, when Miller, Liu, and Detective Bell (Jon Michael Hill) set a trap for the killers, Liu’s reading of the line “When I couldn’t talk you out of coming, I texted him” is particularly off. As Liu’s acting is exemplary throughout the episode; what we must be seeing is an example of Joan Watson inability to play-act. Kudos, too, to Doherty for giving Hill not a Canonical name but a Doylean one: Dr. Joseph Bell was one of Doyle’s teachers at Edinburgh University, and, of course, one of the inspirations for Holmes.

Knowledge of Chemistry-Profound

There is a very nice chemistry between the two leads and we get to see the evolution of the relationship over the six shows. In Episode 2, Liu catches Miller putting himself in a trance at his first group support meeting (or “addict festival” as he calls it). At the next meeting Liu is ready:

M: “What, would you rather I put myself in another trance?”
L: “I already thought of that.” She shows Miller a pushpin in the palm of her hand. “Got it off the board over there. If you even think about zoning out, it goes into the softest part of your thigh. Lots of nerve endings there.”
M: “You wouldn’t dare.” Liu gives Miller a “just try me” look. Miller is convinced.

In Episode 3, the dynamics of working a case together is explored. Liu wants to help Miller in recovering a kidnapped child, but Miller finds her help intrusive: “Situations like these—cases that require my total concentration—I talk to you, never the other way around.” He later explains:

H: “I found, over the years, that nothing clears up a difficult case so much as stating it to another person. When I talk, they listen and in talking I make connections that I may have otherwise missed. One way street, not two.”
L: “Who did you talk to back in London?”
M: “Oh, lots of people. Waitstaff, cabdrivers. The occasional prostitute. Better listeners than you might think.”

M: “You mustn’t be so sensitive, Watson. The service you’re providing is quite valuable. For a brief stretch in London, I talked only to a phrenology bust I kept in my study. I named him Angus. Wasn’t the same. I realized when it came to listeners, I preferred animate to inanimate. Was quite a breakthrough, really.”
L: “Angus. I’m glad I made it to the animate category.”

Miller in this episode gives us a glimpse of a lonely Holmes who doesn’t make friends easily and Liu, putting up with a lot of guff from Miller, a long suffering Watson. The show ends in a lovely coda. After being awake for 48 hours, Miller is ready to crack another cold case from his files.

M: “Right after you solve a case, you’re flush with success. We should double down on work.”
L: “We?”
M: “You, me, Angus. Some combination of the three. You already know I favor you. Hm?”

Naturally, Miller soon falls asleep.

The tart exchanges and witty bon mots that we expect from our modern day Holmes and Watson are present and, I think for the most part, well done. Miller encourages Liu to develop her deductive skills and Liu shows a certain flair for it. But the friendship between the two is evolving. Miller’s “You’ve lived with me a week now, Watson. You know I don’t share” mirrors Holmes’ statement that he “was never a very sociable fellow”. It was only after knowing Watson for seven years that Holmes told him of his brother Mycroft. As late as 1902, Watson says, “I was nearer to him as anyone else and yet I was always conscious of the gap between.” (ILLU) Miller resents Liu’s intrusion into his personal life and retaliates by hacking her email and inviting her ex to the brownstone for dinner, and, in a later episode, accepting a dating request on her behalf. The strain culminates in Episode 6:

L: “I’ve been glued to your side for weeks now, and you have refused to share even the tiniest bit of your personal history. You know what, Sherlock; I don’t trust you, because thanks to you we’re still basically just strangers.”

“Strangest Case I Have Handled."

Of course, people are not tuning in to watch My Dinner with Sherlock. They want to see difficult cases solved with brilliant deductive reasoning. Certainly, Episode 1 could give Sherlockians watching pause. In the hands, say, of Patricia Highsmith, the plot of a psychiatrist, as anti-hero, manipulating his unstable patient to be a killer and his wife unwitting victim could make for a taut, suspenseful thriller. On Elementary, it became a straight-forward and prosaic puzzle.

One must be careful when injecting humor to a Holmes story. It has the potential to diminish the character in the audience’s eyes. When Miller first meets Liu and are on the way to the crime scene, he says that it was big of Liu's mother to take her father back after the affair. Later, when Liu asks how he knew, Miller says, "Google. Well, not everything is deducible." Mildly humorous, but that means that Miller checked out Liu on the internet before they met. If her dad’s affair is on Google (highly unlikely unless either her dad or the person he had the affair with are newsworthy), then so is her stint as a surgeon and her "sin of malpractice". Miller doesn't need those brilliant deductions about beeswax on hands and parking tickets at cemeteries. It calls in to question the legitimacy of all of Miller’s other deductions during the episode. Surely, that was not what Doherty’s script was going for. Scott Monty on the I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Episode 46 podcast also brings up Miller’s talking to Liu in full voice at the opera; antithetical to the personality of the music-loving Holmes. I have to say that I missed that. I saw at it only as humorous scene in which Miller needed Liu's help, and Liu, mad at Miller, was using social mores and etiquette to ignore him and Miller chose to break them to embarrass Liu into listening. However, Burt Wolder’s point that the scene was “pointless out-of-character” is well-taken. So is the temper tantrum of Miller crashing Liu's car. It seems to exist only to get Miller out of the way so that Liu can find the vital clue used to trap the killer. Fortunately, such behavior has been dropped in later episodes.

Of course, Sherlock is occasionally guilty of that as well. In “A Scandal in Belgravia”, Benedict Cumberbatch’s refusal to get dressed and arriving at Buckingham Palace clothed only in a bedsheet makes him seem like a spoiled, petulant adolescent. I know I’m in the minority on that score, as the scene is a fan favorite. But I have no more need to see Cumberbatch’s posterior than I do of seeing Irene Adler’s (Laura Pulver). I have no doubt that if Moffat and Gatiss decide to throw a gratuitous Martin Freeman shower scene into Season 3, they will do it with their usual cleaver aplomb.

Fortunately for Elementary, each episode since has gotten better, with much better mysteries and deductions, and dialog that works for the character, not against. The plots can seem familiar; the murderer being the person with the perfect alibi, for example. Episode 3’s script would have worked perfectly well on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, right down to the patented Law and Order twist. Episode 5’s mystery was ruined by casting. If your killer is the janitor, never cast a recognizable TV character actor in the role. Janitors are supposed to be invisible, but as soon as you see he’s played by David Costabile--never mind the name, you’ve seen his face on countless commercials and shows and on the big screen in Lincoln--you know he’s going to have a bigger part than mopping up a pitcher of spilt water. The fact is, with a history 60 plus years of televised mysteries and cop shows, you are not going to see anything new. Even Doyle had that problem. Not only did he reuse the plot for “The Red-Headed League” (Strand, August 1891) in “The Three Garridebs" (Strand, October 1926) but also much earlier in “The Stock-Broker’s Clerk” (Strand, March 1893). It’s how well they are presented that will matter as much as the content. In this respect, Elementary is a worth successor to The Mentalist in the Thursday 10:00 pm timeslot. The problem is, Sherlock Holmes and police procedurals are an awkward fit, as Lyndsay Faye points out in her blog review of the pilot (as well as the Baker Street Babes podcast on Elementary). Personally, I would like to see Miller weaned of his "working for the police" addiction. Leave that to Castle. I'm hoping that eventually Miller opens up his own agency, so that we don't have the police-case-of-the-week and that, like the Canon, not every case of his is a murder. It seems that, on TV, a crime is not really serious unless there is a corpse or two lying around for the protagonist to trip over.

I Had Gradually Weaned Him from That Drug Mania

The days when Holmes can be portrayed as only brilliant, as with Basil Rathbone, are past. There needs to be some further hook in the character interpretation. Jeremy Brett’s Holmes emphasized his manic quality, Downey his martial skills, Cumberbatch his differently-wired-ness, and Miller his substance abuse. All were parts of Doyle’s creation.

Holmesian scholars disagree just how much of an effect the detectives’ drug use had on his life and career. In Victorian England cocaine could be purchased at the corner chemist. It was an ingredient in Coca-Cola until 1903 and in Vin Mariani wine, which was advertised as a favorite drink of Pope Leo XIII. Doyle was prescient in having Watson rail against its use in The Sign of Four as its debilitating effects weren’t generally recognized until the turn of the 20^th century.

The fear, in viewing the pilot, was that addiction was only a plot devise in getting Miller from London to New York (“I’m finished with drugs. I won’t be using them again.”). However, the showrunners have shown an ongoing sensitivity, and wit, in depicting Miller’s struggles with sobriety. In Episode 4, while investigating an overdose death, there is this exchange:

L: “Earlier, when I asked you about being around heroin again, you wanted to say something? I could tell.”
M: “I’d forgotten what it smells like. Cooked heroin. It brought back memories.”
L: “You also said that heroin users want to dull their senses, that they crave oblivion. Is that what you wanted?”

In Episode 6 we find out his drug use has some connection with his relationship to Irene Adler.

“I Have Made a Small Study of Tattoo Marks”

The tattoos that Miller displays are his own. The showrunners have allowed his character to keep them. While esthetically I prefer my Holmes to be ink free, I am fine with them. It would be nice if the producers work them more into the show (they get a brief mention in Episode 6). Miller has a 26.2 tattoo in his left shoulder blade. He’s a marathon runner in real life. He had an impressive 3:01:40 time in the 2008 London Marathon. It would have been nice if Liu made some mention of it in Episode 3 when she tried to get Miller to go jogging with her. On his right shoulder blade, Miller has a ribbon tat that says “Sister, Mother, Father”. If Holmes’ sibling gets introduced on the show, let’s make Mycroft his older, smarter sister.

"You Would Not Call Me a Marrying Man, Watson?"

Two of the most problematic aspects of Elementary are Miller’s doxy dalliance and his father issues. Holmes remained non-sexual throughout the whole of the Canon, with one exception. No, not with Irene Adler, despite massive speculation to the contrary; nor Mrs. Neville St Clair, who also garners a bit Sherlockian gossip, but with Charles Augustus Milverton’s maid Agatha. Disguised as up-and-coming young plumber Escott, he wooed the maid for a week to get the lowdown on Milverton’s house. Appreciation of feminine charms was not foreign to Holmes’ nature. While he was quoting the ostlers of the Serpentine Mews that Irene was “the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet”, it was Holmes’ own opinion that “she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for.” Even in retirement his eye for the ladies did not dim: “…she possessed strong character as well as great beauty. Maud Bellamy will always remain in my memory as a most complete and remarkable woman.” (LION)

But part of the archetypical nature of Holmes’ appeal is his chasteness. Doyle was raised on tales of chivalry and at times in the Canon Holmes acts as a knight errand, as in “A Case of Identity” and “The Copper Beeches”, but especially in “A Scandal in Bohemia”, where his regard for Irene Adler by the end of the tale can be seen as that of courtly love.

To have Miller paying for sex, then, strikes Sherlockians wrong on many levels. Especially what one would call “kinky” sex. Miller indicates he was handcuffed during the session in Episode 1. Miller dismisses Polk as a murder suspect, “Polk is a prat, no doubt, but his body language said ‘sub’ not ‘dom’.“ There’s also this exchange:

L: “Hey, I found something in the hall closet the other day.”
M: “Was it the zipper mask? I swear I’m just holding that for a friend.”

Episode 5’s comment “Postmortem bruising experiments are more of a third date activity,” can only charitably be called “icky”.

But consider this; one of the interesting things about Miller is that we can't trust what he says. When Liu gets the information from Eileen Renfro about her attacker in Episode 1, Miller says "I knew it. I knew if I started a row in there you'd come to her defense, she might very well tell you the truth." Liu’s reply: "You are so full of it." Later he admits, "You were right the other day. About Eileen Renfro. I had no idea that she would respond to you the way she did. I told you I did because I was embarrassed I'd lost my temper. Would I had gotten the truth some other way? Of course, but you got me there faster." We also can't trust what he says about his dwelling. Compare Miller's "Well, if you mean his [father’s] threats to evict me from this, the shoddiest and the least renovated of the five--count them, five--properties he owns in New York well, yeah, he made his conditions quite clear," at the beginning of the show to his wistful "I'm going to miss that brownstone," at the end. When Liu finds Miller’s violin, he denies it’s his, even though his name is written under the strings. When interrogating Adam Kemper, Miller says he’ll be the only person today not to lie to him and tells the story of how his father sent him to boarding school at eight and the symbiotic relationship he formed with his tormentor, Anders Larson. Afterwards, Liu asks, “The story about your bully was really moving. Any of it true?” Miller: “I went to boarding school.” The fact is, the viewer doesn’t if Miller was lying to Kemper or Liu.

Liu finds the business of Miller and prostitutes off-putting, and maybe that’s the point. Miller escapes from rehab only a few hours before he was to be released. Why? Was it to stage the scene with the prostitute for Liu’s benefit and if so, what was the reason? We’ll have to see as the series progresses if such speculation bares fruit or if it was something thrown in just to make Miller “edgy”.

"My Ancestors Were Country Squires”

Holmes’ parents make no appearance in the Canon. The Holmes we see is a self-made man who struggled in the beginning of his career, even having to get a roommate to help make rent; built a reputation through his genius and was considered the top man in his field; became renowned throughout Europe and retired early and very well off. Miller doesn’t have to work because his father’s rich and provides him with a home. In another country. In the most expensive city in the world to live. His whining that father was a “serial absentee” sound just like that—whining.

It is the thing that most makes Miller not Holmes. But are the producers hinting that Miller’s father doesn’t exist?

M: “Remind me, Watson, how many times have you actually met the man?”
L: “Never”
M: “That’s because he secured you services as my sober companion electronically.”
L: “Yeah, but—“
M: “And all you subsequent correspondence has been via email or through one of his legion of personal assistants.” (Ep. 6)

If the man isn’t real, then why complain about him and the emotional scarring he caused? We were teased that Papa Holmes was going to show up in Episode 6, instead we got Allistair, an actor acquaintance of Miller’s who provided Liu with a bit more of Miller’s backstory. No doubt, the showrunners will string us along for as long as they can. We will have to trust that the solution will not diminish further the character of Holmes. I’m afraid that they’ve made the Mycroft figure into Miller’s father, changed sibling rivalry into filial resentment, all in an effort to avoid a lawsuit from Moffat and company. Or worse, daddy dearest will turn out to be Moriarty. Doherty needs to pull a rabbit out of the hat to make this set up work. I truly wish him well.

A Retrospection

I do not understand the vitriol aimed at Elementary, lighting up the message boards like so many Kitty Winters with jars of acid. It seems more emotional than based on a thoughtful consideration of facts. Elementary is not an arctic hunter out to club the cute baby seal with the high cheekbones and clothe itself in the fur of BBC Sherlock’s brilliance. It is a pilot fish, as is BBC Sherlock, the Downey movies, the Brett series, the Rathbone/Bruce films, et al, swimming along side a massive Great White; feeding off the genius that is Doyle’s brainchild.

Miller and Liu make as credible a Holmes and Watson as any other pairing of actors one cares to name, even if they don’t live at 221B Baker Street, London. I especially enjoy Liu's underplaying to Miller's frenetic Holmes. She is the perfect yin to Miller's yang, in very much the way Freeman is to Cumberbatch and Law is to Downey. In these 21st century adaptations Watson has a complementary stature to Holmes. Gone, and I hope forever, are the days of the comedy relief sidekick. The humor between the principals are character-based not guffaw-inspired, although in Game of Shadows there seemed to be more Nigel Bruce than Basil Rathbone in Downey's ability with disguises.

For those who find Elementary a crass attempt to cash in on Sherlock’s world-wide popularity, I hate to burst your bubble; there are no virgins in show business. Show biz, and I do not use the term pejoratively, exists at the corner of commerce and art. When Citizen Kane wakes up in the morning, the money’s there on the bedroom dresser, same as Elementary; same as Sherlock. There are unCanonical elements to CBS’s offering, true; as there is with the BBC’s.

Love it or hate it, Elementary is a permanent presence in the Sherlockian world. To disparage those who enjoy the show, as I do, with the same smug condescension to the natives as those Brits who sat on their veranda sipping gin and tonic while the Mutiny boiled around them, serves no good purpose. It stifles the good-natured back-and-forth and bonhomie that characterizes Holmesian discourse. And instead of decrying the great unwashed, uninitiated masses for having a taste for network pabulum, say to them, “You like Elementary—great. Have I got a series of stories for you!”

Editor's note: James is a long-time Sherlockian, proud member of The Speckled Band of Boston (2012) and a huge fan of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere.
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"A Community of Interests" [HOUN]

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Monty) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 23:21:00 PST

While Sherlock Holmes was a lone practitioner (with the occasional assistance of his friend and colleague John H. Watson, MD), he needed the help of others.

He occasionally enlisted the help of the Baker Street Irregulars, the "unofficial force" that could "go everywhere, see everything, overhear everyone."

So too it would seem that the new Google+ Sherlock Holmes Community aims to have us do the very same: to share what you know and what you see about Sherlock Holmes - on the web, in books, on the screen - and create content and lively discussions. The Google+ platform is open to anyone with a Gmail account, and if you don't have one, it's free to create.

When you're there, you'll have the opportunity to share photos, videos and other links from the web, as well as create posts and discussions. In addition, you can create events, add them to your calendar and invite others - think of the possibilities when running Sherlock Holmes society events!

The Sherlock Holmes Community is divided into a number of categories by media type, interest, etc. and can accommodate just about anything that the average (or above-average!) Sherlockian throws at it.

If you're in doubt about how it can work, here's a brief overview video from Google:

It is a public group and all are encouraged to join and invite others. "The game is afoot!"

When you make purchases from the links we share, it provides us with a stream of revenue to help keep this site running. Thank you for your generosity.
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"You Like This Weather?" [CHAS]

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Monty) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 13:36:58 PDT

Much of the East coast of the United States is bracing today for the approach of Hurricane Sandy, the so-called "Frankenstorm" that is one of the largest in modern history.

And while we don't profess to be meteorologists (nor do we play one on TV), we thought that we might be able to think about Sherlock Holmes through the lens of severe weather.What does the weather have to do with Sherlock Holmes? Quite a bit, as it turns out.

We'd like to invite your ideas, memories and input to help us discern exactly how weather played a role in the Sherlock Holmes stories. You can do that by leaving a comment below. We'll get things started by enumerating a few items that might get you thinking.

Setting
Stormy weather is a wonderful literary device for setting the scene. Michael Dirda (who we interviewed on I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Episode 38: On Conan Doyle), in his own recounting of his first experience with Sherlock Holmes, recalls his preparation one Saturday afternoon in his childhood:

With a dollar clutched in my fist, I pedaled my red Roadmaster bike to Whalen’s drugstore, where I quickly picked out two or three candy bars, a box of Cracker Jack, and a cold bottle of Orange Crush. After my parents had driven off in our new 1958 Ford, I dragged a blanket from my bed, spread it on the reclining chair next to the living room’s brass floor lamp, carefully arranged my provisions near to hand, turned off all the other lights in the house, and crawled expectantly under the covers with my paperback of The Hound—just as the heavens began to boom with thunder and the rain to thump against the curtained windows.

There are a few stories from the Canon that open with such a scene, giving an even more realistic and somber tone to the tale about to unfold. Here are some that we recall vividly.

"The Resident Patient"

It was boisterous October weather, and we had both remained indoors all day, I because I feared with my shaken health to face the keen autumn wind, while he was deep in some of those abstruse chemical investigations which absorbed him utterly as long as he was engaged upon them.

Occasionally we learn a little bit about Baker Street geography or topography. In this instance in "The Adventure of Thor Bridge," we take a glimpse out of Watson's window to witness the effects of the weather:

It was a wild morning in October, and I observed as I was dressing how the last remaining leaves were being whirled from the solitary plane tree which graces the yard behind our house.

"The Noble Bachelor" takes a turn for the matrimonial, both in plot and in Watson's life, and also gives further evidence as to where his war injury was:

It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and the jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as a relic of my Afghan campaign, throbbed with dull persistency.

Giving us a sense of the evil and foreboding nature of the Cornish coast in "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot," we're given this description of the surrounding area:

It was a singular spot, and one peculiarly well suited to the grim humour of my patient. From the windows of our little whitewashed house, which stood high upon a grassy headland, we looked down upon the whole sinister semicircle of Mounts Bay, that old death-trap of sailing vessels, with its fringe of black cliffs and surge-swept reefs on which innumerable seamen have met their end. With a northerly breeze it lies placid and sheltered, inviting the storm-tossed craft to tack into it for rest and protection. Then comes the sudden swirl round of the wind, the blustering gale from the south-west, the dragging anchor, the lee shore, and the last battle in the creaming breakers. The wise mariner stands far out from that evil place.

And who can forget this passage from "The Five-Orange Pips"?

It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life, and to recognize the presence of those great elemental forces which shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilization, like untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in the storm grew higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, whilst I at the other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories, until the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of the sea waves.

Probably one of the most descriptive, which also leads to the next section on plot development is that of "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez"

It was a wild, tempestuous night towards the close of November. Holmes and I sat together in silence all the evening, he engaged with a powerful lens deciphering the remains of the original inscription upon a palimpsest, I deep in a recent treatise upon surgery. Outside the wind howled down Baker Street, while the rain beat fiercely against the windows. It was strange there in the very depths of the town, with ten miles of man's handiwork on every side of us, to feel the iron grip of Nature, and to be conscious that to the huge elemental forces all London was no more than the molehills that dot the fields. I walked to the window and looked out on the deserted street. The occasional lamps gleamed on the expanse of muddy road and shining pavement. A single cab was splashing its way from the Oxford Street end.

What elemental passages have we missed that you think are worth noting here?

Plot Development

Many times, Holmes makes use of the conditions of the ground in order to detect certain clues. A rain-soaked pathway, lawn or trail may make footprints or other activity more easy to discern. Here is a quick but incomplete list of some of these instances. Add yours below!

A Study in Scarlet - the boot prints in the walkway leading to and from 3 Lauriston Gardens, as well as noting that "The whole place was very sloppy from the rain which had fallen through the night."
"Silver Blaze" - mud concealed the wax vesta that helped Holmes solve the case.
"The Adventure of the Boscombe Valley Mystery" - "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able to go over the ground."
"The Beryl Coronet" - snow allowed Holmes to follow footprints of the perpetrator and hero.
"The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez" - it was by tracking the footprints along the garden path that Holmes was able to deduce something about the murderer.
"The Adventure of the Lion's Mane" - the "severe gale blowing up the Channel" had a direct impact on the plot, to which we will not give spoilers here.

Again, this is just a cursory list. What others can you name?

To us, one of the most fascinating bits of research that went into the development of a number of chronologies of the Sherlock Holmes stories in the last century by the likes of H.W. Bell, Jay Finlay Christ, Gavin Brend, Ernest Zeisler and William Baring-Gould is the use of weather reports and lunar phases to determine the exact dates of particular stories. The examples above show us how key certain weather patterns and descriptions were to certain tales.

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"Senior Captain of His Regiment" [SIGN]

noreply@blogger.com (Francine Kitts) — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 09:28:45 PDT

Richard H. Miller, BSI ("The Grice Patersons in the Island of Uffa") died in Santa Fe on October 21, 2012 at the age of 78. He was born in Illinois and graduated from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina in 1957. He resigned his commission of Army Officer after 4 years, attended The University of South Carolina School of Law, and graduated in 1966. He married Dr. Faye Bruce in 1967 and moved to New Mexico, where he joined the US Naval Reserve, retiring in 1994 with the rank of Captain. He was retired from the Naval Intelligence, the Bar of the US Supreme Court, and The University of California in Los Alamos, NM. In addition to being a prolific reader, he published a number of articles for the Officer Review of The Military Order of the World Wars (Santa Fe Chapter), of which he was a member.

Dick was one of the founding members of The Brothers Three of Moriarty. The scion had an annual trek to the village of Moriarty in New Mexico which they appropriately named "Happy-Birthday-You-Bastard-Moriarty." He was also a member and staunch supporter of the Gila Lizards of the Arid & Repulsive Desert in Santa Fe. Dick Miller was invested into The Baker Street Irregulars in 1982 as "The Grice Patersons in the Island of Uffa."

We were fortunate enough to find some other memories of Dick around the web. For example, Jon Lellenberg, in his Oct. 22, 2012 "Editor's Gas-Bag," remembers Dick:

The moment I first met Dick, May ’73, he was handing me a loaded gun, and it sort of set the tone of our long friendship. It was the annual Colonel Sebastian Moran Memorial Trap-Shoot of John Bennett Shaw’s Brothers Three of Moriarty, where Dick was one of the earliest members, and to Shaw’s disgust and Dick’s delight I beat Shaw out to win it. Dick was a graduate of The Citadel, a veteran of both the Army (nuclear artillery) and Navy (intelligence), and a lawyer at Los Alamos Laboratory for decades. In the 1980s he did his reserve-duty activations at the Pentagon and was of inestimable help to me there. A superb companion, a loyal friend, and a good soul.

Continuing in the same vein, according to Brad Keefauver of Sherlock Peoria (hat-tip to Always1895.net for finding this), Dick once "tried to blow up the college during his talk on Watson's firearms habits."

If you have any specific memories of Dick Miller, please share them with us in a comment below.
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"A Dangerous Move At Chess" [BLAN]

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Dymowski) — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 11:21:00 PDT

Many authors have written pastiches fitting Sherlock Holmes into a greater historical context; although most of them center around Victorian England, Charlie Roxburgh attempts to mix some Russian history with Holmesian deduction in The Case of the Russian Chessboard. And although it's a promising premise, the execution is somewhat flat.

Mr. Roxburgh's tale has a great start - in fact, it's almost a pitch perfect recreation of the many tales of the Canon. In fact, the idea of Russian conspirators and tsarist enforcers operating near and around Baker Street not only reflects what Conan Doyle might have written, it provides an ample amount of promise for any Sherlockian reader.

However, although this is a very brief tale, its brevity is one of its major faults. Just as many items are set into motion, the story seems to have a rushed ending. It is not a bad tale - just one that might have been better told as a novel-length adventure rather than as a short novelette. With the "Russian Chessboard" analogy coming into play (with Holmes himself explaining it), there is a great potential that is sadly never met....and that would be a great vantage point for writing a sequel and/or continuation of this story (especially with several themes that might resonate in our present time)
Perhaps this leaves Mr. Roxburgh in a position to expand the story under a sequel or second edition, or perhaps even to execute a series of historical pieces that bring together a number of the geopolitical forces in play in the late Victorian era. There is certainly a plethora of material there.

If you are looking for a pastiche with a fascinating premise, and some sharp writing early on, you might want to consider reading The Case of the Russian Chessboard - it is a very short piece, and available as both a paperback and for the Kindle via Amazon, as well directly from the Sherlock Holmes publishing powerhouse MX Publishing.

Editor's note: Gordon regularly covers the intersection of Sherlock Holmes and the entertainment industry. You can also find him at Blog THIS, Pal! and Comic Related.

Disclosure: http://cmp.ly/1 - the author received a review copy of the book above.
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"Each of These Wore Some Scarf" [VALL]

noreply@blogger.com (James C. O'Leary) — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 19:07:57 PDT

At the PBS Masterpiece/Sherlock question-and-answer event held on May 2 in New York City that brought Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat, wife and producer Sue Vertue and star Benedict Cumberbatch in close proximity to several hundred avid fans, event host and Masterpiece executive producer Rebecca Eaton asked Vertue (at about the 21:40 mark) about the rumors floating around that she had some connection to CBS’s upcoming Elementary. Mention of the show brought boos from the crowd. After Vertue dismissed any link with the American production, Eaton added, “And we don’t necessarily wish it the best, right?” Cumberbatch replied:

Well, Jonny’s a friend, you know, and as we know with the Robert Downey, Jr. franchise there’s room enough for two, so why not three? It’s fine. It’ll be different and I don’t think it will take away the love from ours and there’s no need to be churlish…about it or what they’re trying to do.

The crowd responded with applause. It was a high point for Cumberbatch in an afternoon that had quite a few for him.

In fact, he had been nothing but gracious about Miller and CBS in the months since his appearance. That is, until an article appeared in ShortList magazine (issue 240, 30 August 2012). In a wonderful and far-ranging interview, Cumberbatch, once again, was asked about that other Sherlock:

What do you make of the new US modern Sherlock Holmes adaptation, Elementary?

Jonny [Lee Miller] asked me if I was all right with him doing it. I said, “What are the similarities?” And he went, “Well it’s modern...” I went, “Oh.” Then he said, “Lucy Liu’s going to play Joan Watson...” And I went, “Oh.” I got hold of the pilot script just to check it out. I don’t know, we’ll see. I think there’s room for us both to coexist. I don’t feel threatened by it and I wish him the best, which is as diplomatic as I can be.

It’s a strange position to be in...

It’s very odd. I did say, “Well, I’d prefer you didn't do it but you've got a kid to feed, a nice house in LA and a wife to keep in good clothes.” When you get used to a certain standard of living and they waft a pay cheque at you, what are you going to do? I think Jonny was like, “Mate, I've got the [expletive] mountain to climb here [to reach the acclaim of Sherlock], you've got nothing to fear.” I wish him the best of luck, but I’m a bit cynical about why they've chosen to do it and why they cast him.

Was this a glimpse of Cumberbatch’s real feeling? Was this frustration about being asked, for the umpteenth time, about Elementary? Whatever it was, it was about as close to nothing as one could get. However, to the media journos it was like a catfight between frenemies on The Real Stars of the British Entertainment Industry. It was played up fast and big. In fact, realizing that he came off sounding tetchy, Cumberbatch told this to The Hollywood Reporter:

"I am both bemused and upset at this misquote. I never said that Johnny took the job for the paycheck nor did I ask him not to do it. What I said is I would have preferred not to be in the situation where we will again be compared because we are friends. I know for a fact his motivations were to do with the quality of the script and the challenges of this exceptional role.

"It is baffling because I have only been supportive of an incredibly talented actor who I am proud to call a friend taking a job I know he is going to enjoy immensely and be wonderful in.

"Over 70 actors have played this exceptional character before us. To say that there can be only one Holmes would be ludicrous. We're both thrilled to get the opportunity to play him in a modern context. The world of Sherlock Holmes and the world that we live in now is big enough to take more than one interpretation. As a genuine Sherlock Holmes fan I am greatly looking forward to his series."

If Cumberbatch was misquoted, then we have the "entertainment press" lowering journalistic standards to gin up a story (nothing new). However, read in the full context of the interview, it seems doubtful that ShortList took liberties with the quote. If he misspoke, and answered a question that he's probably been asked ad nauseam less diplomatically and closer to his actual feelings, then, so what? There can be no blame for his natural and very human opinion. And if his quoting of Miller is accurate, then one can only agree with Miller; he does have a Sisyphean task to reach Cumberbatch’s almost universal acclaim.

Now that Elementary has aired, we have Benedict Cumberbatch’s reaction. Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival and as reported by the Radio Times, he said:

Benedict Cumberbatch on Elementary

“Under no circumstances would I want Jonny to have anything but a rip-roaring success because, first and foremost, he is my friend, and we’re both actors and while it’s very gratifying to be told that you are such-and-such a Sherlock Holmes, this is one role, this is one incarnation – and I know it’s why we’re all here tonight – but you can’t take possession of it. He’s the 72nd, I’m the 71st, the 70th was Robert Downey Jr.

“I made a joke, which I shouldn't have done. I made a joke, which never translates – humour, generally, out of context doesn't translate well, that’s one of the lessons I've learnt this summer whilst doing lots of talking (I did it talking about Parade’s End).

“I have to be careful about mentioning anything which could be vaguely misinterpreted, but that doesn't take away from the absolute truth of what I’m saying which is that I’ve seen [Elementary] and it's absolutely fantastic – and the bit where you find out that the killer is, in fact… – it’s really good you should all watch it.

“[Jonny Lee Miller is] phenomenal; he’s completely different; he’s far more contained. He’s stunning to watch as well – he’s just a beautiful specimen, Jonny – and he really knows what he’s doing, he’s completely got under his skin and it’s another Sherlock for he 21st century.

“Was I cynical about them going to him and asking [given that we had worked together on Frankenstein]? Yeah, but I've yet to go and talk to them about where their original thoughts came from to cast him, but I know for a fact that they kept on going back to him so he must have knocked it out of the park in the auditions.

"And I know for a fact that he was dubious about doing it because of myself and, of course, Jude [Law, who plays Dr Watson in the current Sherlock Holmes movie franchise], who he’s known since they were kids. So he felt really nervous, he wasn't sure about it, and he asked if I was alright with it, and I said ‘Of course I am, of course I am,’ and so the thing that always gets quoted now – because people want to sell the programme off two friends who are friends, having a fight that they‘re not having because they’re friends – is that, what I've said, which I haven’t said, which is that I didn't want him to do it – and it’s not true, I didn't Even what I've just said can now be taken out of context and used against me...

"Just to put a cap on it, I do wish him all the best with it, he’s got a phenomenal job ahead of him because he’s got 12 or 13 episodes and maybe a five-year series.

"And Lucy Liu is wonderful – it’s another great relationship... We should all just suspend our judgement about it until we see it, that’s the thing, isn't it? There was anther [sic] two sheets worth of fish paper in The Times today about it – apparently I’m not happy about it, apparently Steven [Moffat]'s not. I mean, it’s just fine – it’s more than fine, it’s brilliant."

Once again, Cumberbatch has proved he's a class act. It's refreshing to have a star who's not in the papers because of his recent DUI arrest or messy divorce or public meltdown, but because entertainment writers need copy and have to invent controversy.

As to who wears the Sherlockian scarf the best, the reviews of Holmes-watchers on Elementary are decidedly mixed, with a large and vocal contingent voting “nay.” My personal opinion on the debate is, unlike Cumberbatch, I don't think Elementary brilliant, but it has potential and deserves every opportunity to reach it, while Sherlock is brilliant, but far from perfect.

“Applause sign is on. Hold on Benedict, camera two. Fade to black.”

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Editor's note: James is a long-time Sherlockian and a huge fan of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere.

"Texas, I Think" [FIVE]

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Monty) — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 20:06:25 PDT

Editor's note: the following was submitted by the John Openshaw Society.

On Saturday, October 4th, 1980, Tom Harman and Warren Chaney chartered the John Openshaw Society
(JOS) of Houston, Texas. The first newsletter, The Pip’s Log, announced (Vol. 1, No. 1) on November 30, 1980:

“The John Openshaw Chapter of the Baker Street Irregulars is established in memory of the former young gentleman from Horsham, John Openshaw, who, on September 29, 1887, brought to the attention of the master, Sherlock Holmes, the remarkable case of The Five Orange Pips. It was during this adventure, ‘so remarkable in its details and so startling in its results’ that the great State of Texas was brought to the attention of both Holmes and Watson. In particular, the barque Lone Star, a sailing vessel owned by the Johanssen Brothers of Savannah, but constructed at the Port of Galveston, is featured in a most singular fashion. It is only fitting that the Houston Chapter of the Baker Street Irregulars be named in memory of the man who gave his life, however indirectly, to advance the name of the State of Texas.”

Over several years, the JOS scion grew to almost fifty members and held many interesting meetings. Sometimes they traveled to Galveston, Texas, where they joined the Strollers on the Strand scion and together enjoyed the distinctive Strand district which is historically so well aligned with Sherlock Holmes and 1895. The two groups even enjoyed a trip to a submarine docked in Galveston while studying "The Bruce Partington Plans." The JOS also traveled to England. Warren Chaney made a statue of Sherlock Holmes that he and Tom Harman presented to the London Sherlock Holmes Society. They also gave a JOS membership certificate to the Sherlock Holmes Restaurant and Pub in London. Tom Harman and his wife Karen visited that famous London Pub this past summer and verified that the Sherlockian certificate is still hanging on the wall. Over the years the John Openshaw Society has attended local Sherlockian plays, movies, and book signings (i.e. Laurie R. King).

The recent resurrection of the John Openshaw Society, a la Holmes in "The Adventure of the Empty House" (albeit less dramatically), has not only retained some of the original members, but also has been of interest to newcomer fellow Sherlockians. The society has taken advantage of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to expand membership and strengthen connections with fellow societies. The development of the official website has also been instrumental, along with posters located at Murder-by-the-Book bookstore, in spreading the word and reaching out to more fans. The members cover a range of interests, from engineers to artists, from Sherlock Holmes connoisseurs to passionate newcomers. Whether discussing possible land erosion at Reichenbach Falls, or to questioning the date of the typewriter used by Dr. Watson in the recent Sherlock Holmes movie, whether raising our glasses to Professor Moriarty or Mrs. Hudson, or listening to our member Ipek playing the piano, or listening to another member Julia asking those difficult questions about the Holmes story of the day, the John Openshaw Society is a place for those who have read the stories and thought "I want to read these again," for those who have watched the stories and thought "I want to watch these again," for those who have visited 221B and the moors and thought "I want to visit here again," and for those who have done all of these and thought "I want to share all of this with someone!"

Ken Rozek, a long time devotee of Sherlock Holmes, has quietly collected Sherlockian philatelic material such as stamps, first day covers and cinderella items, for over eight years. Over this time period, he has made contact with many Sherlockians via email, snail mail or eBay. One of those Sherlockians was Peter Blau, who has been a Baker Street Irregular ("Black Peter") for over forty years. Peter continues to travel the United States pursuing geological conferences as "a practical, but limited, geologist." Every few years, one of these geological societies meets in Houston, Texas. Last spring Peter and Ken discussed over dinner several Sherlockian ideas. One of these ideas was to re-activate the John Openshaw Society scion in Houston, Texas. This led to someone saying, "Where does one go in Houston, Texas to share experiences and learn more about the Great Detective? Why, it’s elementary my friend, the John Openshaw Society, of course."

The first reactivated JOS meeting was held at the Red Lion Pub in June 2011. On that night, eight people came, and over a few drinks and an English meal we got to know each other and began to formulate our plans for the scion. After a meeting or two, we hit upon a format that seems to fit us well. The group meets bimonthly and share a few toasts over a libation or two, break bread together with an English meal, enjoy a presentation by a member on a Sherlockian theme, take a quiz from a story in the Canon, plan for future meetings, and end with a reading of the poem "221B" by Vincent Starrett.

For the meeting in August, the group met at the Ruggles café in the Montrose area to enjoy a travelogue presentation by Tom and Karen Harman about their recent visit to Great Britain that included visiting many places of interest to Sherlockians, including the 221B location in London. The quiz that night was on "The Five Orange Pips" - the story from which the group took its name.

In October they reconvened at Ruggles café for a travelogue presentation by Ken Rozek about his recent visit to Reichenbach Falls near Meiringen, Switzerland. Members could almost feel the spray on their faces as they pondered if the location of the precipice has been moved by erosion, or by some other means, from that which is depicted in Paget's image. Our quiz, that evening, of course was on "The Final Problem."

For December there was a group outing to the showing of the Robert Downey, Jr. movie Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Then off to the Black Labrador café on Montrose Avenue to discuss the movie together. The Black Labrador proved to be a perfect location for meetings and the JOS plans to make this a regular meeting place. It has two private rooms, good prices and a delightful English-based menu including shepherd's pie, bangers and mash, bubble and squeak, as well as the traditional fish and chips. What more could a Sherlockian hope for in this day and age? The quiz that night was "The Blue Carbuncle," an appropriate story for the Christmas season.

For February 2012 it was back to the Black Labrador for another travelogue presentation by Ken Rozek about his recent visit in January to New York City for the 158th Sherlock Holmes birthday celebration. Ken explained and showed us in pictures how fellow Sherlockians eat, drink and made merry over five very chilly days. Our quiz that evening was on "The Speckled Band."

Keeping with the tradition of the earlier John Openshaw Society, the reactivated scion has elected several officers: First Pip - Ken Rozek, Second Pip - Julia Sanders de Berardinis, Third Pip – Ipek Bozkurt,
Fourth Pip - Rick Etchells and Fifth Pip - Michael Coulter.

Tom Harman and each Pip has contributed ideas to this article.

Do you have a Sherlockian society event to report? We would be glad to receive and review your submissions. Any upcoming events can be submitted to the Sherlockian Calendar.

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