Monday, July 11, 2016

Going to work on Monday.

And now, let's go back to 1981 and an imaginary Sherlockian Sheena Easton as she sings, "My Sherlock takes the morning train, he works with Watson now and then . . ."

Why is that crazy tune going through my head?

At the thought of Sherlock Holmes going to work on a Monday morning, riding the train to Camford to talk for a look at Professor Presbury.

Of course, on many a Monday, Holmes got to work from home. The clients came to him. Or sent notes. Sometimes he even started a case by reading newspapers in his dressing-gown. But that was on the easy days . . . .

As an entrepreneur in a start-up profession of his very own, Sherlock Holmes worked a lot of nights and weekends. Sometimes he worked for so many days in a row that the concept of "Monday" didn't really matter so much.

On the biggest Monday morning of his career, ironically, Sherlock Holmes didn't even show up for work. He just sent a telegram to Scotland Yard to deal with Moriarty's criminal empire (and even arrest Moriarty himself) and went off to wander France's wine country. Of course, Scotland Yard kind of bungled that last bit, and Moriarty escaped, so perhaps the wine country tour wasn't his best move.

But by September 7, 1903, late in his career, he was taking that morning train to Camford, off to do his job and looking forward to retirement, so maybe he learned his lesson.

Happy Monday, folks. If you decide to take off and wander the wine country today, at least you've got a role model to blame.

1 comment: