May the Falls be with you!

Happy Star Wars Day?

Sigh.

Did Luke Skywalker blow up the Death Star today? No.

Today is Star Wars Day because if you lisp slightly when you say "May the Force be with you," it sounds like "May the Fourth be with you," a statement that makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, I like Star Wars as much as the next guy . . . well, the next guy who found all the Anakin stuff to be a depressing failure . . . but really? That's be best rationale for picking a calendar date to celebrate Star Wars?

Sure, it takes place in a galaxy, far, far from our Earth calendar dates, but maybe they could have picked a date that wasn't somebody else's day of major accomplishment . . . like when Sherlock Holmes ended the greatest criminal empire that London, and perhaps the world, had ever known?

It's a bit of a curiosity to me why Sherlockians don't celebrate May the 4th more vigorously. Unlike such nebulous dates as Sherlock Holmes's birthday, or the day he met Dr. Watson, we know exactly when Sherlock Holmes battled Professor Moriarty to the bitter end at Reichenbach Falls. True, it was known for almost ten years as the day Sherlock Holmes died, but that was only ten years. We've known for over a hundred and ten years that Sherlock Holmes did not die on that date, but survived his greatest triumph with colors flying.

And Sherlock Holmes crashed his personal death star, Moriarty, long before that kid from Tatooine sent a couple of energy torpedoes down an exhaust port.

So, today, on May 4, 2014, let me be one of the hopefully many who wish you a Happy Reichenbach Day, and add "May the Falls be with you!"

Because that's a good thing. And today was Sherlock's holiday first.

"At his advice, upon the afternoon of the 4th we set off together with the intention of crossing the hills and spending the night at the hamlet of Rosenlaui. We had strict injunctions, however, on no account to pass the falls of Reichenbach . . ."