Taking Sherlock paperlessly.

This has been a marvelous weekend for Sherlockian publications for me. Used to be that one had to write off, wait for snail mail to get your subscription to the person putting a given thing out, wait for them to send it back, snail mail again, and then, one random day much later, said publication would show up in your mailbox.

Things are a bit different now.

A Facebook tip from Charles Prepolec passed along a link to the latest issue of Canadian Holmes, the premiere Sherlockian journal of our neighbors to the north. Lots of good stuff there, and while I'm sure some collectors and archivists still feel better about tangible paper copies filling boxes and shelves, for most of us, the space-saving benefits of paperless PDF are pretty sweet. And since the writers for Sherlockian journals  have always done their work for love of the subject and not monetary gain, the free distribution allowed by the internet fits the old hobby like a glove.

A link to the latest issue of The Sherlockian E-Times also came along, passed via e-mail by Gael Stahl, and the E-Times was, as the name implies, an early entry into the used of the internet for a Sherlockian publication. Joel Senter provides plenty of good tidbits as he always does, and in this issue just happened to include a nice little list of journals and newsletters, which contained a link to . . .

The Pink 'Un, the newsletter of the Hansom Wheels of South Carolina. I've been enjoying The Pink 'Un in pink paper form for years -- the Hansom Wheels are a lively bunch, even from a newsletter distance -- and it's great to see that familiar publication in e-form.

The interesting thing about paper publications that make the transition to the internet, like Canadian Holmes and The Pink 'Un, is that even while reading them on a computer screen, I still see the paper version in my head. But then, we do tend to remember people, places, and things based on our first encounter with them, so I'm sure new readers will have a little different view.

The times, they are a'changing. And they always are. And the really cool part? There's not a point where we can ever just say "Done!" Sherlock Holmes moves through time, technology, and generations. No one media can hold him, no corporate entity . . . none of us and our point-in-time POV. But we all carry him forward, all the same, and it's good to see the good works people are doing in his name currrently . . . especially when internet links make it so quick and easy to do so.