tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65120501743776784282024-03-16T13:51:43.144-05:00Sherlock PeoriaThe ongoing investigation of Sherlock Holmes, reported from the Peoria, Illinois outpost of Baker Street's dirtiest half a dozen.Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.comBlogger2405125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-40605697115167462402024-03-02T08:18:00.002-06:002024-03-02T08:18:33.915-06:00The Most Important Day in Sherlockiana!<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I'm going to do something unusual this week and give you the words that I am going to be speaking into a microphone on the<i> Watsonian Weekly</i> podcast on Sunday night, because I think you need the forewarning to prepare for Monday -- the most important day in all of Sherlockiana! And, no, it's not "Hug A Holmesian Day" on March 11, a week later. In fact, we should really celebrate this entire week ahead of us with all the fervor of that arbitrary January business . . . or more, actually. Why? Well, let me tell you, as I'm going to actually tell those blessed few who listen to the <i>Watsonian Weekly</i> at the start of each week.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">So here goes . . . </span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>March Fourth is here, and I don’t know why we don’t celebrate this day more than some made-up birthday date or Reichenbach Falls day. for March Fourth, most likely the one in 1881, is the day that John H. Watson meets the real Sherlock Holmes for the first time. Not the day he met the man, not the day he met the chemist, but the day Watson meets Sherlock Holmes, the world’s first and foremost consulting detective as they embark upon the case Watson would first call “The Lauriston Garden Mystery.”</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Sherlock Holmes has finally explained to Watson what he does for a living over breakfast on March Fourth, and as they finish that conversation, a commisionaire brings Holmes a letter from Tobias Gregson, whom Holmes calls “the smartest of the Scotland Yarders,” with Lestrade coming in a close second as “the pick of a bad lot.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Watson reads the letter, and what is his immediate reaction?</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“Surely there is not a moment to be lost. Shall I go and order you a cab?”</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Watson isn’t even thinking of going along with Holmes, but his first instinct is to help. Not as a partner, not as a chronicler, just as a guy in the same room who knows immediately that what Sherlock Holmes does is important.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Holmes hustles about, getting ready to go, and tells Watson the most critical words in the entire Canon, three words we sadly overlook in favor of that Afghanistan line when the two first met. And what are those three words?</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“Get your hat.”</i></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>That’s all it takes. The trigger for the creation of the Sherlockian Canon as we know it.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“Get your hat.”</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“You wish me to come?” Watson asks politely to confirm the implied invitation. And Holmes, being Holmes, gives a casual, “If you have nothing better to do.”</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>And he knows Watson has nothing better to do. He also sees how excited Watson is about the whole thing. And we next read those wonderful words: “A minute later we were both in a hansom, driving furiously for Brixton Road."</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>It is a beautiful, wonderful, glorious moment and one we should all celebrate March Fourth for, by . . . I should think . . . at least following Holmes’s command as Watson did on that day.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Get. Your. Hat.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>March Fourth, a date and a homonym that need to be celebrated. March forth, it’s March Fourth! But get your hat first. Because it's the day that all our Sherlockian adventures truly began.</i></span></p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-6204114496342587022024-02-17T20:58:00.002-06:002024-02-17T20:58:57.072-06:00Can a second Sherlock Holmes survive in a free Sherlock world?<p>Today I stopped in at the latest online meeting of the Praed Street Irregulars, the society dedicated to Solar Pons in the way the Baker Street Irregulars are dedicated to Sherlock Holmes. And there's a reason for that parallel, of course -- when Wisconsin writer August Derleth wrote to Conan Doyle and got a "no," he created a detective who decided to be the next Sherlock Holmes. His own Irregulars, his own "B" address, his own doctor companion, his own landlady whose name ended in "son," the whole kit and caboodle.</p><p>When I told a friend about the meeting, and its familiar Sherlockian speakers Peter Blau and Max Magee, they were a bit surprised that Peter was interested in Solar Pons. And then it hit me . . . to a Sherlockian who wasn't in the hobby decades ago, Solar Pons doesn't make much sense. Why would anyone need a detective who copies Sherlock Holmes when we have so much Sherlock Holmes?</p><p>I read all of the Solar Pons books back in the 1980s. In an era when the Holmes fan fiction was not coming hot and heavy and published pastiches were months apart, Solar Pons was the thing that got you by, not Sherlock Holmes but close enough and written well enough to do the job. We all read the Pons Canon back in the day. The whole Pons Canon even came in a boxed set of paperbacks.</p><p>Solar Pons has had a very loyal following for a long time. The Praed Street Irregulars who first organized in 1966. New stories have been written about him, new books are still coming out starring Pons. But like other ancillary Sherlock Holmes subfandoms, its numbers are a but a fraction of the main man's hordes. Yet they persist, despite never having a movie, TV show, or cartoon. (A character on <i>Twin Peak</i>s did get last-named after Pons, but that's as close as he got.) </p><p>Would a CBS series starring some good-looking Brit as Solar Pons power him up to the next level? Could Pons survive a modern-day adaptation? How would a gender-bent Solar Pons work? Could he be in love with Dr. Parker? And could Solar Pons have his own Solar Pons, like a 1960s detective named Spellman Nonce with a partner named Dr. Halston living at 45B Cable Street?</p><p>With Sherlock Holmes free of his copyright chains and able to now morph into a thousand other versions of Sherlock Holmes named "Sherlock Holmes," Solar Pons remains more of a fixed point in a changing age than even Watson can now claim to be. Pons's copyrights are still in force with the August Derleth estate. It makes him unique.</p><p>And as today's meeting of the Praed Street Irregulars demonstrated, Solar Pons isn't done yet.</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-83473067030019128362024-02-16T07:06:00.004-06:002024-02-16T07:06:55.072-06:00The Era of the Collected Work<p> Sherlockiana has always come in waves.</p><p>A new screen Sherlock triggers a wave of fans. A best-selling pastiche teaming up Holmes with a historical character triggers a wave of Sherlock Holmes crossover books. Covid inspires Zoom use inspires online groups. And then there's the rise of the collection, once publishing a book became relatively easy.</p><p>Writing and entire book, especially and entire novel or nonfiction book on a single topic, is hard. Writing an essay or a short story? Not nearly such a mountain to climb. And if you get a bunch of people to do that easier task, and collect enough things to fill a book . . . well, you still have a book. And now, we have a lot more books having to do with Sherlock Holmes than ever before.</p><p>Sherlockiana has always loved a collection. <i>Profile By Gaslight </i>was collected by Edgar Smith in 1944 and remained a "must have" piece of Sherlockiana for decades, and is the only "many hands" collection to make it into Eckrich and Nunn's recent <i>Canonical Cornerstones: Foundational Books of a Sherlockian Library</i>. The 1990s saw a wonderfully ambitious series called <i>The Case Files of Sherlock Holmes,</i> where editors Christopher and Barbara Roden published volumes of essays where each book collected works on a single Sherlock Holmes story. (I'm a bit amazed no one has picked up that idea in the 2020s yet.)</p><p>But those are just the essays. Pastiches were held at the starting gate by certain Doyle offspring, with <i>The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes </i>being a rare exception to slip through the gate, collecting various authors works. Ah, but if those Doyle brothers could now see MX Publishing's <i>The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories,</i> starting in 2015 and now up to at least 42 volumes -- well, that's a reaction I would love to see. Anthologies are now flowing steadily from various publishing outlets.</p><p>Our current wave of new Sherlock Holmes books is a bit overwhelming with all the available routes for publishing a book, including those that cost no overhead other than your own ability to format a file, and it shows no signs of stopping -- this wave has become a flood that will leave us in a virtual <i>Waterworld</i> of books on Sherlock Holmes. I always just shake my head at the enthused bibliophile claim that you can never have too many books -- tell that to the person who eventually has to clean out your house fifty years later. The only virtue of massive book collections is that their weight isn't the total back-breaker of massive vinyl record collections.</p><p>For both book buyers and anthology editors, selectivity has become a very necessary skill. Neither can have it all and would be mad to try. And time will sort things out somehow. As a movie fan, I'm always amazed at the amazing amount of movies out there that none of us have ever heard of, even though they came out in theaters nationwide at one point. Even movies we've seen and then forgotten existed. Yet some persist through time, either as classics or cult favorites. What will the classic collections be, fifty years hence? What will the cult favorites be?</p><p>Some of our younger friends might be influencing those choices as they wax poetically about the virtues of their favorites decades from now. If you're putting out a collection, you might want to consider sending them a free copy. </p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-40267469560095319772024-02-13T20:38:00.002-06:002024-02-13T20:38:54.396-06:00The Case for a Modern Adaptation<p> Okay, it's blasphemy time.</p><p>Today saw the release of the second part of <i>Sherlock & Co.</i>'s podcast adaptation of "The Gloria Scott," and I'll say it plain: This new "Gloria Scott" is better than the original. Here and now, in 2024 where we all live, Joel Emery has written a better version of the tale than Conan Doyle. </p><p>And I will argue that point with anyone who thinks straight word-for-word adaptations of tales written for the denizens of the 1800s is what we all need now.</p><p>Yes, Doyle does get credit for the frame Emery hung his version upon, and the original is worth thinking about. But Joel Emery plainly did spend some time thinking about Doyle's "Gloria Scott," and what it would mean for the people in that story to be in the situation they're in. He took that, put it into modern words and a modern frame to best given a modern listener a feeling for what those events would bring forth in a person.</p><p>In the original tale, we are told how Victor Trevor was heart-broken and left England after the case was solved, but it's a postscript we don't feel. Sherlock Holmes is telling a story long after it happened, and it doesn't hit nearly as hard. Bringing "The Gloria Scott" not only to the modern day, but letting us listen to Holmes and Watson having to deal with the Trevor family in person puts us in touch with the drama in a way the original can't. Where the original is Watson sitting cozily in Baker Street while Holmes tells him a tale of his college vacation, we now get to listen in as the events unfold.</p><p>We now get a chance to really hate Hunter (the renamed Hudson) and feel badly for Trevor up close and personal before the twist hits and we find why James Armitage became a new man and never told his son about his past life. And this time, up close and personal, you can almost start to sympathize with the tale's Hudson when the truth comes out.</p><p>I don't think I was ever affected by the original "Gloria Scott" as much as I was by Joel Emery's modern adaptation. And while a Sherlock Holmes fan is always going to have a soft spot for Holmes's original detective origin story, having listened to why people think "Veiled Lodger" is a bad story this past weekend, I suddenly realized just how much "Gloria Scott" and "Veiled Lodger" are alike: More about somebody telling a story from the past than an actual investigation. Sure, there's that code bit, but how much investigation is Holmes looking at a piece of paper and in the next paragraph, going "Oh, it's really this." The code is just the woman in the mask to dress up the tale of a tale being told.</p><p>It's impossible for any human being to experience both Conan Doyle's "Gloria Scott" and Joel Emery's version for their first "Gloria Scott" to compare reactions. And you're probably going to find either one more interesting once if you enjoyed whichever one you got to first, unless a particular detail triggers your displeasure. A fan of the podcast might find Victorian prose a bit dull. A fan of the original story might get irritated listening to John and Marianna shopping. But if you're somewhere in the middle, and can enjoy both . . . well, go, you!</p><p>But it's 2024 and we are citizens of the twenty-first century, getting further and further away from that audience that the "The Gloria Scott" was written for with each passing year. An update that makes a story of our favorite detective resonate even harder with us right here and right now is something special.</p><p>So this week, I will be celebrating that something special. You have to take such moments when you find them.</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-33726665051791146862024-01-27T12:11:00.002-06:002024-01-27T12:11:49.655-06:00From the Shaw 100 down to the Eckrich and Nunn 17<p> After their interview about <i>Canonical Cornerstones: Foundational Books of a Sherlockian Library</i> on the <i>Watsonian Weekly</i> last week, the book's editors, Peter Eckrich and Rob Nunn sold me on immediately ordering a copy from Wessex Press. It was a good interview, and the duo spoke highly of their notable list of writers. When the book arrived this morning, I was immediately struck by the slimness of its one hundred and twenty-five pages, even though that makes perfect sense for a book of seventeen essays and an introduction or two. But it set me to thinking . . .</p><p>Jim Hawkins is quick to remind us of John Bennett Shaw's influence on our hobby of late, and I was just reading some of Jim's notes on Facebook this morning, which brought the Shaw One Hundred to mind. Since the final version of Shaw's list, others have made some attempt at such a foundational list for a Sherlockian collector, but nothing gained the traction of Peter and Rob's new book, and it's succinct list of seventeen. And from one hundred down to seventeen? That's some Marie Kondo style housecleaning!</p><p>Shaw's list, as many of us know all too well, contained some rarities, some true collectables. Very hard to find and afford, all told. The Eckrich and Nunn list, while not cheap to buy all at once, is easily acquirable. Doing a quick online shopping trip, I found I could buy almost all of it for $255.14, not including <i>The Baker Street Journal</i>, which is either a whole collectable hard-copy quest, or a less challenging but still problematic search if you go digital with what's available. (There was also a particular item on the list that I made a substitution for that the author of the essay on might not consider perfect, so I won't call it out.) All told the most expensive item of the Eckrich and Nunn seventeen is the Les Klinger <i>Annotated</i>, which is in that weird niche of being newish and not yet reprinted.</p><p>Shaw's list was that great collector's opinion at each moment he came up with it. The Eckrich and Nunn list was concocted in a more democractic manner, surveying, asking, and asking again. And, with John Bennett Shaw being John Bennet Shaw, Sherlockians of a certain generation were not wont to argue with his choices. <i>The Canonical Cornerstones</i>, like any democratically elected group, is up for debate -- there is one item on the list that I actively hate. But Peter and Rob state in their introduction that their hope is that the book leads to discussion of what Sherlockian books are key for the enthusiast looking for something to add to their collection . . . and I'm sure that will come.</p><p>To look at the landscape of Sherlockian works out there, past, present, and still coming, as they never stop coming and think that even a hundred books form a perfect core collection is a bit mind-boggling. And <i>Canonical Cornerstones: Foundational Books of a Sherlockian Library</i> was published for and marketed to a particular, more traditional sort of Sherlockian. We do have our prejudices as a hobby culture and we do like to stay inside the box a little bit -- if you look across your own shelves, you might discover a favorite or two from folks you never hear of in our normal circles.</p><p>But we do like a good shopping list, a goal, a mile marker in our reading travels. This new, more travel-sized list, with sales pitches from those well qualified to give them, makes a much easier start than what we had before.</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-40398601005855987472024-01-22T18:39:00.002-06:002024-01-22T18:39:34.005-06:00Sherlockian Ghosts of Past SelvesWhen you go to the movies, sometimes it makes you think about the topics involved for a while after the movie is done, and I see a few movies. And being an ardent Sherlock Holmes fan, I often put Sherlockian twists on those thoughts. Thursday, for example, I saw <i>The Beekeeper,</i> about a secret organization of uber-vigilante beekeepers and thought about Sherlock Holmes having something to do with its origins. Then on Saturday, being a bright and sunny day despite the cold, I ventured out to see the latest incarnation of <i>Mean Girls, </i>a musical tale of social orders and how we treat ourselves and others. Which I then cast around in a Sherlockian way as the evening went on.<div><br /></div><div>Except I wasn't thinking about Holmes, Watson, and their friends. I was thinking about the Sherlockian life. One, hopefully, cannot find too strict a parallel between <i>Mean Girls a</i>nd Sherlockian life. I mean, the head of the Baker Street Irregulars isn't exactly Regina George, the queen bee of North Shore High School . . . unless you count the part about who gets to eat at what table. But the trials and tribulations of the characters in that movie do get you to reflect a bit on your own past, social flubs, toes you might have stepped on, people you actually hurt. If you're at all self-aware, that list gets longer with time, and the memories are helpful aids in not doing THAT again.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, I put a little post on Facebook on how sometimes all that comes back to me, more unforgettable than Watson's original name (which I forgot last week) or that guy who did that one thing . . . you know! That one guy! Anyway, it seems that our memories tie to our feelings and thus we get the oddest little moments stuck in our head. For example . . .</div><div><br /></div><div>The year was 1984. The place was Dubuque, Iowa. Someone introduced me to a Sherlockian of note from the east coast. The name was familiar, but I couldn't place it, right on the tip of my brain. I fumbled around trying to remember where I'd heard the name until the person I was being introduced to politely made and excuse and move on. I never really had the chance to talk to that person after that, and they eventually passed away, and I was just left with this really awkward memory.</div><div><br /></div><div>A decade later, somewhere in rural Minnesota visiting the home of a lesser-known but incredible collector of things that went Sherlockian and beyond, I got over-enthused and cried out "[Insert name here] is God!" I mean, what does that even mean, but it sure horrifies proper church folk. And it has come out of my mouth on a later occasion or two as well. I mean, I don't think anyone I've ever met is actually George Burns (old movie reference, kids) God on Earth, but when you really get excited you can say some weird shit. And I do.</div><div><br /></div><div>Have you ever completely pulled a website off the web because you didn't like the hosting service, when you had people who had regularly contributed to the thing? Probably not. Yeahhhh . . . there's little mistakes you have to live with, and then there's big ones like that. A scion falls apart. A friend gets their bridge burnt in the pain of a moment. And suddenly you find yourself treating a blog post like it's your confession booth and the internet is your priest . . . say ten "Hail Marys" and don't post it.Unfortunately, I'm not Catholic.</div><div><br /></div><div>But, what I am is a Sherlockian. And this little cult of ours is such a gloriously forgiving place to be a social klutz, a cranky ol' grump, or even a misanthropic hermit. And while a life may hold many memories of moments we aren't exactly proud of, this hobby also can give plenty of moments of hearty camaraderie, moist-eyed affection, and just happy memories to counterbalance all that. It isn't perfect, and none of us are certainly perfect, but a fandom, a hobby, a culture of friendship needs a little forgiveness and the opportunity to forgive on occasion, especially if we can find it in our hearts to forgive ourselves.</div><div><br /></div><div>Because that's the person you have to look at it the mirror every day, until Dracula converts you or something. (Which starts to look like a decent option as the aging process moves along. Sorry in advance, future victims.) (Damn, didn't I say I was socially awkward! Almost had this thing wrapped up with a nice bow and started talking about draining people's blood for eternal youth. Apologies to everyone with blood in their veins out there. Warm, life-filled bl . .. STOP IT!)</div><div><br /></div><div>Okay. Time to hit "Publish." Don't think I'll put this one's link on the socials, though. This one's for those of you that care enough just to read past the previous entry that had a link. Thanks for sticking with it!</div>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-49436068536072341002024-01-16T07:00:00.002-06:002024-01-16T07:00:30.124-06:00The self-discipline of the Sherlock & Co. Baker Street Irregular<p>Two things I really get along with came together this morning. The podcast <i>Sherlock & Co.</i> now has a Patreon, and a Patreon that offers some really sweet options. TOO sweet, actually.</p><p>My now-weekly excitement for the latest episode -- "Red-Headed League" this week!!!! -- has become . . . well, almost troubling with the embarassment of riches. I was enjoying the once a week thing, and doing our little podcast discussions on The Watsonian Weekly every two or three weeks when a two or three part story wrapped up. But now?</p><p>For six bucks a month, at their "Baker Street Irregulars" tier, you get all three parts of "Red-Headed League" the minute the first one drops. As a big fan of the podcast who does Patron and is not $30 a month rich, I immediately went for that middle-tier without hesitating. It's a great podcast, and I always think good art needs encouragement. But, having done that, I was immediately confronted with what previously was three weeks worth of <i>Sherlock & Co</i>. right there and available, transcripts and all.</p><p>Yes, I know it's unbecoming to whine about having it <i>too</i> good. Fitting yet another subscription into the budget when everything is now a monthly subscription isn't easy. But now I have to ration these beauties and have some self-control. On the good side, these are adaptations of the good old Sherlock Holmes Canon, so it's not like the endings of the mysteries are going to be spoiled if I don't listen immediately. But there is a lot going on with these that still could be. Moriarty sneaking in before "Final Problem." Marianna finally taking on a Mary Morstan place in John's life. All the little add-ons any adaptation brings along with it.</p><p><i>Sherlock & Co. </i>has been a continual treat since its start, and offering its fans some really great Patreon benefits is a move that folks were asking for -- podcast listeners are probably more used to Patreons than anyone else. And here we are. This may not be a BBC <i>Sherlock</i> level wave of Sherlock Holmes fans entering the traditional spaces . . . yet. But I have a strong feeling about the show, and the podcast adding a solid Patreon to Watson's interactions with listeners is some next level stuff. </p><p>Going to be fun to see how this goes.</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-29430669075363072052024-01-15T07:54:00.001-06:002024-01-15T07:54:05.562-06:00Sherlock vs. Sherlock: The Barbenheimer Metric<p> It's January, that time of year that brings back memories of theatrical Sherlock Holmes movies releases for me. One that did well with the public, one that did not so well with the public. But both had an impact, and both lead actors, our Sherlocks, have had ongoing success as actors on the big screen.</p><p>Rarely do we see two of our screen Sherlocks, however, go head-to-head in other roles in movies released on the same weekend. And rarely do we see two screen Sherlocks in movies of comparable quality released on the same weekend. Yet in the summer of 2023, we did.</p><p>One saw a worldwide box office success of $1,441,528,220 dollars. The other $805,600,000. Our two Sherlock actors played a part in the biggest movie phenomenon of the whole year, and both were notable in their performance and, while not starring, playing key roles.</p><p>Those two actors: Robert Downey Jr., playing Lewis Strauss in <i>Oppenheimer,</i> and Will Ferrell, playing "Mattel CEO" in <i>Barbie.</i></p><p>Yes, Robert Downey Jr. from 2009's <i>Sherlock Holmes </i>and Will Ferrell from 2018's <i>Holmes and Watson</i>. Both January movies that shall remain in my memory as ground-breaking Sherlockian films. Each has its haters among our ranks, but each brought something special and brought it to the big screen in the January's that followed their release.</p><p>And I don't want to be an internet troll here, except maybe to one friend in particular, but I'd like to point out that on the now famous Barbenheimer weekend, when two Sherlocks competed on screens everywhere, Will Ferrell's movie did better.</p><p>That is all. Happy January!</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-22630334391934344622024-01-13T08:42:00.001-06:002024-01-13T08:46:33.346-06:00Thoughts from the Saturday morning after . . .<p> One of the things the greater share of humanity doesn't do well has always been allowing for two opposing thoughts to co-exist. "You're either for or ag'in it!" the crusty old-timer might demand, in that fictional headspace where archetypes live. But sometimes they do.</p><p>Earlier in the week, I did my semi-annual gripe about the BSI investiture system. "Oh, please, suh, may my friend have a shilling?" and all that. The non-transparent "benevolent dictatorship" might be pleasant mystery on one level, but it allows for entrenched bias on others. Yet, at the same time, I'm always very happy to see my friends get invitations and investitures. Why?</p><p>The answer is simple. The system may not make me happy, but everyone who passes through the societal gauntlet is happy at finishing the race, and I am happy that they're happy. Maybe sometimes even too happy, if I read a particular name wrong.</p><p>I don't participate in the nomination system, as one of the few voices to publicly criticize the BSI shilling business, the exclusive nature of the dinner, etc., I've never been a favorite of the ruling class, and as such, don't want to hurt anyone's chances by the powers that be seeing my name at the bottom of a letter of recommendation. I mean, you compare something to a Nazi eugenics program once or twice, you might get a reputation. It is what it is.</p><p>But Sherlockiana as a whole is a wonderfully welcoming world, and Zoom has opened it up even more. You no longer have to go to a particular Sherlockian's city or they come to yours to make a friend. We all do better in person, 'tis true, but the new connectivity is opening doors and offering opportunities like we never saw before the great pandemic. Our Sherlockian friends connect us to other Sherlockian friends and we can now meet more folks over the course of a year than ever before, across oceans and national borders that some of us might never cross. And when we do get to finally meet our new Zoom friends in person, what a grand thing that is. Having a lot of Sherlockians you hold dear is easier than ever, especially if you've been at this a while.</p><p>And when it's their special day, whatever the reason, you delight in their moment. Systems can be flawed, but our friends are still our friends. Both of those things can exist at the same time.</p><p>So congratulations to all who made the shilling list in New York for 2024 -- Rudy, Bob, Liese, Derrick, Fabienne, Danna, Jessica, Chuck, Daniel, Olivia, Maxine, Tom, and George. I'm quite pleased you get to be in the club that I will continue to hope figures our a way to open its doors to everyone one day.</p><p>We haven't eliminated the impossible in that hope, and as improbable as it remains, it's my truth.</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-28882662437664220342024-01-12T22:59:00.002-06:002024-01-12T22:59:23.488-06:00The Partie Carré Experiment<p> There was a lot of fun to be had at the Dangling Prussian virtual pub night on Zoom tonight, our annual fill-in for those of us who don't make it to New York for the birthday festivities. Some wonderful Sherlockians showed up, many of the usual suspects and some very happy surprises. Good conversation, toasts, our third puppet Sherlockian premiere, the induction of new members into the Montague Street Incorrigibles, and the very first time for a fun experiment in Sherlockian play.</p><p>And it worked.</p><p>With our core team of players being Mary O'Reilly as Sherlock Holmes, Edith Pounden as Dr. Watson, Kristen Mertz as Inspector Gregson, and Heather Hinson as Inspector Lestrade, we all saw a new client, the young blonde Lucy Slaney and her nanny Lanny come rushing up the seventeen steps and into the sitting room at 221B to begin the case that our Watson would come to call "The Adventure of the Scented Invalid." </p><p>As I've probably explained elsewhere, with Zoom as our medium all the other attendees got to be parts of Sherlock's brain and feed our Sherlock information as they wandered from Baker Steet to the Surrey countryside in a sort-of "Dungeons & Dragons" style that require no dice and orc-fighting. We decided to call it "Skunks and Scalawags" at some point as the mystery involved a skunk brought over from America. Characters abound, from Brixton Bob, the simple carriage driver who liked his beer, to a certain dancer who held a grudge against inspector Lestrade, to a young boy in a Watson mask who was happy to meet the real Sherlock Holmes. The murder room was thoroughly searched, time was spent in a local pub (too much, according to Brixton Bob, and in the end, Inspector Gregson solved the case?</p><p>What the heck?</p><p>If you've ever played <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> as it should be played, you know that it's a story not just being told by the dungeon master, but by the players as well, with the "yes, and . . ." quality of improv. Our Lestrade came up with a clue that was not at all in the script. A wandering naturalist, a singing milkmaid, and "maid number two" showed up out of the blue to add to the tale from the audience. Instead of dice-roll fighting, the key to getting past certain barriers in this game were things like singing or agreeing to a witness's unreasonable demands.</p><p>It took an hour and a half for "The Adventure of the Scented Invalid" to play our and be successfully solved, which is the right length for a movie. As Watson once wrote "It may have been a comedy, or it may have been a tragedy," but I think wound up with more of the former.</p><p>In any case, it was fun and we're definitely doing it again, and definitely before next January. The same game could play out with different people in different ways. And the best thing: It was an experiment in Sherlockian fun that worked. In the early 2000s when we tried a role-playing society out called The Dark Lantern League, I think this is the part we were missing -- it just took Zoom to make it possible.</p><p>Thanks to all the folks both mentioned above and unmentioned who were there helping us wander the halls of Morfield Manor and save an innocent skunk. We can never say it enough: Sherlockians are just the best people!</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-18508068788645614492024-01-11T07:17:00.002-06:002024-01-11T07:17:36.276-06:00The Bovestrians of Ragged Shaw 2024<p> Being a Sherlockian will inevitably take one to unexpected places in one's life.</p><p>This past Saturday, I found myself finally attending a meeting of a Sherlock Holmes society where I was the only human present, a meeting of the Bovestrians of Ragged Shaw. The Bovestrains, named for that moment in "The Adventure of the Priory School" where Holmes concludes, "... it is a remarkable cow which walks, canters, and gallops," hinting at the possibility that someone is out there riding cows instead of horses. Thus "bovestrian" instead of "equestrian."</p><p>The group started with some digital trading cards put together by my friend Mary O'Reilly back in September of 2021, after the idea of a society with that name came up at our local library Holmes group meeting. </p><p><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS1oqJZelArsYSGo3yjmk5oVZwdzyoE5HPgtzetX83JqY3JQNL_eTLjJdRUvgsg4dOBP6P09AcbNxznYduXZ_0Lz-qpEc1pJPzKGjYMIoXuMxoedMNMsAu9Ix9wjU7LjsfUABJ0cDfXKU/s320/TradingCardLionsMane.jpg" width="213" /> <img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHi3G9ydUcuRS74Msluo5BQtxU1JEHtG2unaPdPI77ot24VA2jRFt9Tf_ay3un7fkGqLXhWjJTl7aj54sENTOUTyRWdavlCSZNi-JIKmHLbbaf_vj4H53ZYocbeZfgRysWFDdKg1SP6uQ/s320/TradingCardAiredaleTerrier.jpg" width="213" /></p><p>Other cards followed that fall . . .</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTDOpWm2TfS7d9mCS1t9ESjGC2bwNoQHejVfpaX92URHa6rtpIpNK_qxisoKpJR_-aIyxIdHWP6yYSbOGWC7jOZ6zjOowkUgG9y0OR85WLJLnV3ulnivwegPR44uKMughBPBw3xgG45vPMIfM7D6cJR8FnDjBwT2cwmEXkv2stTm7JFu0cig3zL6tfhRw/s1800/TradingCardRonder.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTDOpWm2TfS7d9mCS1t9ESjGC2bwNoQHejVfpaX92URHa6rtpIpNK_qxisoKpJR_-aIyxIdHWP6yYSbOGWC7jOZ6zjOowkUgG9y0OR85WLJLnV3ulnivwegPR44uKMughBPBw3xgG45vPMIfM7D6cJR8FnDjBwT2cwmEXkv2stTm7JFu0cig3zL6tfhRw/s320/TradingCardRonder.JPG" width="213" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUzJkPVp2oGHA5ighK8DgdXM4IOM7Ufsc8fo5KwbiJITzqZATjCOcEPkuXdsLBJA_OGs7_gZ6NXuyrRsPvmrwNA9NP-GsaSsIRehfTE3pVYaGQs3To9hUvckGsLeVZxb9YLmxkIAXNvBrstMt5gsYjrWJWgEeOIrUAqChzHFj31XAbckHLQsrq9PJKqms/s1800/TradingCardRoyWolfhound.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUzJkPVp2oGHA5ighK8DgdXM4IOM7Ufsc8fo5KwbiJITzqZATjCOcEPkuXdsLBJA_OGs7_gZ6NXuyrRsPvmrwNA9NP-GsaSsIRehfTE3pVYaGQs3To9hUvckGsLeVZxb9YLmxkIAXNvBrstMt5gsYjrWJWgEeOIrUAqChzHFj31XAbckHLQsrq9PJKqms/s320/TradingCardRoyWolfhound.JPG" width="213" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And, eventually, in January of 2022, a meeting of the Bovestrians . . .</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU8WyY-e4zVZFDlJ5N6tfoTVygxoXyMaN8Yt6iFbsilp2uK8_3bgZfpHXebN6CSsE9k2jpvFEwM2AAXEe_Nw82ASsUrQUisJtkfUYlLbRAg5JjW1rsbF6mgIEigKRUfn2gjStaIrQ6BcDB6MtrSwIXOXlYRG4nsgOFzrTb2uaS1GyHqJL_af2CjFom_zg/s720/BovestriansOriginal.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="720" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU8WyY-e4zVZFDlJ5N6tfoTVygxoXyMaN8Yt6iFbsilp2uK8_3bgZfpHXebN6CSsE9k2jpvFEwM2AAXEe_Nw82ASsUrQUisJtkfUYlLbRAg5JjW1rsbF6mgIEigKRUfn2gjStaIrQ6BcDB6MtrSwIXOXlYRG4nsgOFzrTb2uaS1GyHqJL_af2CjFom_zg/w400-h311/BovestriansOriginal.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Baskerville the hound, Lucinda the cobra, Teddy the Mongoos, Car and Buncle the geese, and Toby the tracker dog all showed up for the first story discussion, showed at the first Dangling Prussian pub night. (Oh, wait, Silver Blaze was there, too! Missed her photo. Sorry, S.B.!)<div><br /></div><div>To see how the first and second meetings of the Bovestrians went, here are a couple of links:</div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZK8TmHH1ig">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZK8TmHH1ig</a></div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bNPwFlluCE&t=61s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bNPwFlluCE&t=61s</a></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This year, we'll get to look in on the Bovestrians one more time, which might be the last for reasons that will become apparent when we get to see it on Friday night <a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckdeihrzguE9BngTJSLbDNjk1RUNGkjo73" target="_blank">at the Dangling Prussian virtual pub night</a>. It's also the first meeting that I got to attend, even though the Bovestrians seem to think I founded their group, even though I did none of the amazing work that went into gathering what has to be the first non-human Sherlockian society on planet Earth. (Credit Mary O'Reilly and her Doctor Doolittle-like skills there.) </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Like I said at the start, stick with Sherlock Holmes long enough, and he'll take you to some very unusual places.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhINKu0EmFDYKNlY0XF5_geOmxwXu8JxOA9uDxu_1f48jNsxuNpxoEX5kwRh62pVOW5zIdLo9mbrjFXPbmOMuNeZOSftJfX9GypPKAymHNOUTT0o_ffAsoc3VPd04FC1pOIF7Aixt3e8HCNeatOvMmtKb0lSSlcFRR-zpqCzy14iz_Upjy1SVUsL5myHU4/s1856/Blur%20City.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1856" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhINKu0EmFDYKNlY0XF5_geOmxwXu8JxOA9uDxu_1f48jNsxuNpxoEX5kwRh62pVOW5zIdLo9mbrjFXPbmOMuNeZOSftJfX9GypPKAymHNOUTT0o_ffAsoc3VPd04FC1pOIF7Aixt3e8HCNeatOvMmtKb0lSSlcFRR-zpqCzy14iz_Upjy1SVUsL5myHU4/w400-h233/Blur%20City.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-80406934655384065992024-01-09T05:57:00.000-06:002024-01-09T05:57:21.644-06:00Shilling Week Thoughts<p> This is always a weird week for some of us.</p><p>For a whole lot of our little fandom, it means travel, socializing, a sort of Sherlockian family reunion based on the love of Holmes that courses through our veins. If you go to other destination gatherings of Sherlockians throughout the year, eventually you will start hearing the question "Are you going to New York?" bandied about. The Sherlock Holmes Birthday Weekend has grown into almost a full week of socializing for the hard core or New York based Sherlockian. It's quite a thing.</p><p>And at its core, the reason for <i>that</i> city and <i>that</i> weekend, is the annual invitation-only dinner of the Baker Street Irregulars -- the tradition. And at the core of that dinner, the fuel rod that powers its place in the fandom, is the awarding of the BSI shilling, a simple Victorian coin affixed to a certificate, that serves as the most highly regarded recognition in Sherlock Holmes fandom.</p><p>It's not an Oscar or an Emmy, awarded for skill at a specific aspect of a creative art. It's not a diploma for accomplishing a level of education. What it comes closest to is a knighthood awarded by the reigning sovereign of Great Britain, that country Sherlock Holmes hails from, and a land that American fans of Holmes prize, often enough to add a "u" to the word honors when describing the BSI shilling. In a land supposedly free of an aristocracy or caste system, we still like to create our own versions of such things.</p><p>The annual awarding of that BSI shilling will give you two things: One is a lifelong (with some notable exceptions) invitation to the annual dinner where the shillings are awarded. The second is the ability for yourself and others to tag the three letters "BSI" at the end of your name. Editors or event coordinators can use those three letters appended to your name to give you a certain status to readers or attendees if they aren't familiar with your work, like a certification of a certain level of Sherlockian ability.</p><p>Yet the Sherlockian level of ability that it mainly certifies, at this point, is your ability to go to New York and attend the annual awards dinner whilst staying interesting enough to those who put it on to keep inviting you long enough to award you. How do you stay interesting enough?</p><p>Well, that's the question. Before he left his post as head of the organization, previous chair of the Irregulars, Mike Whelan tried to lay out some guidelines for those who would follow him. They weren't codified, and the final choice, after suggestions are made by the membership, is always in the hands of the current host of the annual dinner. I don't know if Dracula fans have an annual dinner where their master vampire makes new vampires, but that would be kind of cool, wouldn't it? Sigh. We can't just help but try to create hierarchies. It's in our DNA.</p><p>Having come up in a time when women weren't allowed to be invited or awarded the BSI shilling, I will always have burning questions in my head about the whole process of "You are BSI material!" versus "You are not BSI material." Just because we took away one plainly ridiculous barrier to the process doesn't mean others still don't exist. Economic factors enter in. "Can the person you want us to invite afford and make time to come to New York?" As we watch the economic shift that has been creeping up between how the "baby boom" generation had it and how their grandkids have it, the country club aspect of the fancy dinner becomes more apparent. "A true fan will make it work," becomes the unspoken guideline.</p><p>But the Sherlock Holmes Birthday Weekend in New York is a great big party and a good time. Those thoughts are for the rest of the year for those busily enjoying this week. For those of us sitting the trip out, however, we wind up having to do something with our time, wondering if we will go next year, what would that take, and if it's worth the cost -- a question which will get a resounding "YES!" from so many quarters it doesn't bear asking.</p><p>Still, sometimes you have to wonder about some aspects of it, especially this week, as we celebrate Sherlock Holmes, a man who would definitely put up with none of it. [Mentally insert a GIF of Sherlock Holmes blowing a party blower with that weird litttle horn noise.] Watson might enjoy it, though.</p><p><br /></p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-71581673596993710072023-12-31T21:49:00.001-06:002023-12-31T21:49:09.995-06:00New Year's Eve, Sherlockian and Six Hours Early<p>Sherlock Holmes didn't have any New Year's Eve stories, now did he?</p><p>It's kind of hard to tie him to New Year's, other than he starts thinking about buying a new almanac for the new year each year. That much we know about him.</p><p>But this year, the Sherlock Holmes and New Year's Eve wires crossed in my head in a way I can't unsee.</p><p>What were we looking at as the powerful opening chords of the BBC <i>Sherlock</i> theme came on to our TV screens? The London Eye ferris wheel.</p><p>And what was the centerpiece of Britain's New Year's Eve midnight explosion of fireworks, a greater fireworks show than anything I can remember? The London Eye ferris wheel.</p><p>Click. Click.</p><p>New Year's Eve and Sherlock Holmes clicked into place. London was Sherlock's city. He loved that town, loved how well he knew its streets, hidey-holes, and inner workings. Sherlock Holmes had that sort of torried relationship with a city that meant he had to remove himself from it completely whenever he needed to rest or retire. This year, vis CNN and the good Carter's channel selections, Sherlock Holmes's city's midnight festival of skyrockets and lightshows turned my new year six hours ahead.</p><p>Sure, Times Square has some ball that had six hours to drop. Sure, Times Square had that big-ass confetti that then had people write on this year. I've been to Times Square post-New-Year's and seen remnants of it still blowing around over a week later. Yet Times Square, it's light ball, its confetti . . . all suddenly seemed so provincial and old-timey next to the show put on by its much older urban cousin.</p><p>I texted "Happy New Year's" to my best British pal, since it was his midnight. (Yeah, of course, it was Paul.) And then I just sat in wonder as the London show went on for a full fifteen minutes.</p><p>As American Sherlockians, we do tend to Anglophilia, the Holmes stories giving us a great interest in the lands that Sherlock Holmes walked. But we're still very American, always trying to prove Watson was from here, or that Sherlock went to college over here, both of which I've done. But I swear, I actually think I may start celebrating New Year's on London time after this year.</p><p>It is easier to manage after all, for us older sorts. And damn, do they put on a good fireworks show.</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-63975138775905531082023-12-09T12:37:00.002-06:002023-12-09T12:37:45.125-06:00John Watson and Taylor Swift have something in common?<p> Some of us can't shake being a Sherlockian, even when the topic at hand is far from Holmes.</p><p>Listening to my standard Saturday morning podcast today, I heard the discussion turn to <i>Time</i>'s Person of the Year, Taylor Swift, and just went, "It's John Watson" all over again.</p><p>It's their sexuality, you see. Both have a large contingent of fans that accept them as gay. Both have public evidence of being in a heterosexual relationship. And both get a measured, "Okay, they're bi," from those of us not invested enough in either side and willing to accept duality.</p><p>Governess Mary Morstan and NFL tight end Travis Kelce are characters almost as far apart as two people can be, but they find themselves in the same role: Unlikely love interest standing in the way of fans hopes for their significant other. While Taylor Swift doesn't have a Sherlock Holmes dominating her life, creating a relationship rival for Travis Kelce, there are still qualities she shares with Watson that have put her in this space.</p><p>John Watson lets his writings speak for themselves telling their stories. He's made the choices for what stories he records, but still comes off as an everyman in the telling, remaining back just far enough to let the reader imagine they're present for the events happening around him. Taylor Swift seems to do the same, letting her songs tell their stories, not distracting from them by putting any personal distractions out front. </p><p>Have there been any articles in <i>The Baker Street Journal</i> or <i>The Sherlock Holmes Journal</i>, the two traditional pillars of Sherlock Holmes fandom, digging as deeply into John Watson's sexuality as topics like which trains he rode where? Something that goes in without an agenda and examines his reactions to both men and women, his moments of emotion, and definitely goes deeper than dwelling upon "an experience of women which extends over many nations and three separate continents." (How often we forget the "many nations" part of that quote.) I'm very forgetful about what I've read over the years, so I'll need to be reminded if there is such a piece.</p><p>While Taylor Swift will one day probably reveal her truths, in a memoir or candid interview, we're definitely not going to see that from John H. Watson anytime soon. Like the chronology of his cases or the extent of his wounds, we will just have to keep posing the questions and working out our own answers.</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-61039461123703508052023-12-06T22:35:00.003-06:002023-12-06T22:35:46.000-06:00Five Weeks Until The Dangling Prussian, But Let's Talk About Poe<p> Five weeks out until virtual pub night at the Dangling Prussian, our little virtual soiree for those left adrift on the night of the New York dinners in honor of Sherlock Holmes. We know the limits of Zoom, which serves up neither the intimacy of a party, where even in a crowd you get little breakout conversations, or the proper audience feel of a theater where you hear all the reactions of your fellow patrons, laughing and clapping together. But we still gather and make do as best we can.</p><p>Why the "Dangling Prussian," that hypothetical inn proposed by Sherlock Holmes after the threatened lynching of Baron Von Bork in "His Last Bow?" </p><p>Because it's Sherlock Holmes being imaginative and clever, and, c'mon, there's a bit of a bawdy way to look at that pub name as well. And if one is claiming a pub night can exist on Zoom, hypothetical is completely it. And it's a bit like the box holding Schrödinger's cat, isn't it? We don't really know if Von Bork was alive or dead after that trip back to London, now do we?</p><p>So, he wrote, about to change the subject, I finally pushed my way to the end of <i>The Fall of the House of Usher</i> on Netflix tonight, just because it needed to be done. Grim, dark, weaving Poe's story bits into a modern tragedy of wealth and power, it was all about reminding you of what Edgar Allen Poe is most famous for. The reliably solid Carl Lumbly (I watched all of <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.A.N.T.I.S." target="_blank">M.A.N.T.I.S.</a></i> back in the day.) plays a character named C. Auguste Dupin, who bears the same name as Edgar Allen Poe's detective, once called "a very inferior fellow" by Sherlock Holmes, but <i>The Fall of the House of Usher </i>is no detective story.</p><p>The darkness of<i> Usher</i>, representing Poe's work, makes one think hard on the contrast between the works of Poe and the works of Conan Doyle, who was inspired by Poe. Doyle wrote some horror, to be sure, but it was never what he was most famous for, just as Poe was not most famous for his detective. And even though his inaugural mystery, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" delves in analytical reasoning used to solve crime, that murderous orangutan that turns out to be the villain seems quite the horror in his way.</p><p>One comes away from a Sherlock Holmes story in quite the opposite mood of a typical Poe horror tale. We want Sherlock Holmes to leave the world in an ordered, sensible state for us when all is said and done, whatever darkness was passed through along the way, be it family demon hound curse or creepy country estate with snakes in the vents. And that's what we hope for from any Sherlock Holmes tale, which makes those supernatural Holmes pastiches a little less attractive to some of us.</p><p>The night of the Dangling Prussian virtual pub night, we'll be seeing a Sherlock Holmes mystery play out, as four recruits demonstrate just how Holmes, Watson, Gregson, and Lestrade might work their way through a murder mystery, Dungeons and Dragons style. And when it's done, hopefully we won't be in as dark a mood as if we'd done Edgar Allen Poe role play. More details and a link can be found <a href="https://sherlockpeoria.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-third-january-option-back-again-and.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-83042919793979151432023-11-25T22:16:00.001-06:002023-11-25T22:16:16.510-06:00Taking a Moriarty Day<p> Early this morning, I recieved one of those odd e-mail that makes one wonder if an attempt at hacking is being foist upon you. The sending address was but a number, the subject line blank, and the content a simple JPEG image. Gmail claimed to have scanned it, and the preview looked a bit like Paul Thomas Miller with a bit more hair than last I saw him. Still, I just didn't want to trust it enough to double-click for full view. And then, while at the theater waiting for a matinee of <i>Napoleon</i> to start, I received a query with the same image from another friend.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrQoEZQEXRcbZuHTCfw6vzY_t3nEXuiG4zoVzDdXDzhU9sFpPy13_WyIUoyM0iYkUDXFpKGVgWMLFCG-euW0U7MhZiKzBvbdonG9FjJ5q0z3bAZVB7sS7vhwdls9UJUYJsRvR-0ttVTBjszXfK5CbPjyLA9IVyyoN-pKFL49CS7gc2KGspas_13WNJOyk/s2048/IMG_8427.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrQoEZQEXRcbZuHTCfw6vzY_t3nEXuiG4zoVzDdXDzhU9sFpPy13_WyIUoyM0iYkUDXFpKGVgWMLFCG-euW0U7MhZiKzBvbdonG9FjJ5q0z3bAZVB7sS7vhwdls9UJUYJsRvR-0ttVTBjszXfK5CbPjyLA9IVyyoN-pKFL49CS7gc2KGspas_13WNJOyk/s320/IMG_8427.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p>I examined it more closely. Paul Thomas Miller was holding a copy of an extremely rare monograph on Professor Moriarty, that was only known to exist in Michigan, far, far away from Plymouth and Paul's usual environs.</p><p>Suddenly, pieces fell into place. A known defender of Canonical criminals from Michigan had been in possession of two copies of that black item, and had recently been heard of in London. Had Rich Krisciunas met up with Paul Thomas Miller? It seemed so. I knew Talon King was due to have a meeting with Paul tomorrow about certain Moriatian plottings, so I made a mental note to ask him.</p><p>While all this was going on, I had finally let the ongoing encouragement of Madeline Quiñones to listen to the Audible Moriarty audio drama push me to do that thing. The alternate universe of <i>Moriarty: The Devil's Game</i>, created by Charles Kindinger, is a splendid little drama which lays out a quite different origin story for the professor than we normally expect for "the Napoleon of Crime." And watching a movie laying out the career of Emporer Napoleon in the middle of listening (and considerations of Moriarty as any sort of successor to Napoleon) made for a stark contrast in Moriartys.</p><p>Moriarty's stationmaster brother being called "J.J." in <i>Moriarty: The Devil's Game</i>, when just two days ago I got to see a certain family member of that same moniker fit right into the theme of things, which was the omnipresence of the professor. After more listening to the audio drama, I dropped in on the Theatre-Goers Homeward Bound and their viewing of <i>They Might Be Giants</i>, which features continual references to Moriarty until his leads face him at the film's mystifying finish.</p><p>"He's out there somewhere," George C. Scott's Sherlock Holmes says of Moriarty as they head toward the supermarket on their late night mission to find him, before his Watson deduces the final clue that leads them to their weird final face-off. (Which is such the early seventies sort of . . . well, this is one of the reasons <i>Star Wars</i> was such a hit. Not doubts about that ending!)</p><p>A little break for the return of David Tennant to Doctor Who, and I was back to finishing up Moriarty: Devil's Game before bringing the day to an end. And after that finished, one thing was left, one bit of Moriarty mischief to manage. And that, shall be here in the morning . . . when it will be someone else's day.</p><p><br /></p><p></p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-53385681904416045312023-11-23T21:39:00.002-06:002023-11-23T21:39:31.024-06:00Older than Sherlock Holmes<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyVL8XFF2sugd_Ds6M3n_fN89SFIPrSCjTn9yerLfMPq7TrmjdY8ByB5vm7mgk5TEEq6EgU3zdetdet17GeJ3pZBI-r9x2J4aJ0uyXUpCDec4h546-YmYc1NnEDQ5Y3mf2TFtUTCVqyjW5X5uqsE1Emh6205da60G4iDD4JKWcftQfU9a04lKS9gz2R2E/s577/Screenshot%202023-11-23%20at%208.30.15%E2%80%AFAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="577" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyVL8XFF2sugd_Ds6M3n_fN89SFIPrSCjTn9yerLfMPq7TrmjdY8ByB5vm7mgk5TEEq6EgU3zdetdet17GeJ3pZBI-r9x2J4aJ0uyXUpCDec4h546-YmYc1NnEDQ5Y3mf2TFtUTCVqyjW5X5uqsE1Emh6205da60G4iDD4JKWcftQfU9a04lKS9gz2R2E/s16000/Screenshot%202023-11-23%20at%208.30.15%E2%80%AFAM.png" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>The 1980s verson of me, reading current me on Bluesky, would have thought it was sacrilege to refer to Sherlock Holmes, the world's first consulting detective and first true master of the detective arts, as "that boy." But that was back when Sherlock was Rathbone-old, and I was in my twenties. But time does weird things.<div><br /></div><div>Sherlock Holmes is, ninety-nine percent of the time, a lot younger than me now. I can call him "Sherlock" now. I can go, "Ah, that kid! He's just amazing!</div><div><br /></div><div>The last time we see Sherlock Holmes, in "His Last Bow," his is only sixty years old, by most folks reckoning. At that age, had he been in America when I graduated high school, he'd only have been too young to date my younger sister. Not that he'd have wanted to, of course, him being Sherlock Holmes and all, but you get the point. Sherlock Holmes being historical at this point doesn't stop him from being a punk kid once you get to a certain perspective on your personal timeline.</div><div><br /></div><div>At the age of seventy, Sherlock Holmes's creator did <a href="https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Old_Horse" target="_blank">a little cartoon he called "The Old Horse,"</a> depicting himself as a weary equine, burdened with all the accomplishments of his life's work. Conan Doyle's perspective becomes more relatable as one transitions from Holmes's age in "His Last Bow" to Doyle's age in "The Old Horse," but I can't help but think Sherlockians over the years have found Sherlock Holmes a relatable figure in their retirement just because he used to be a lot older, all the time.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even though Watson documented himself and Sherlock Holmes as young men, Hollywood really wanted to depict a man of Holmes's intellect and wisdom as an older man for a very long time. It's almost like no one wanted to allow a young man to be depicted as that much smarter than his elders. Even as Holmes grew younger on cinema and TV, there was often an urge to give him some deficiency to balance out his gifts. The age of the super-cool guy who does it all has pretty much passed. (Poor James Bond can't even deal with an evil lair these days without blowing himself up after spending a lot of time with a broken heart.) But I digress.</div><div><br /></div><div>Admiring the accomplishments of the young is just one of the joys at passing into older generation status. And whether its our fellow Sherlockians or Sherlock Holmes himself, that's just part of the fun.</div><div><br /></div><div>Because that kid really is pretty amazing, even now.</div>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-86501498401871894112023-11-20T06:31:00.001-06:002023-11-20T06:31:15.292-06:00Watsowrimo In Decline, and Other Complaints of Sherlockian Distraction<p> Today marks the two-thirds done point for "Watsowrimo," my attack on National Novel Writing Month working out a Watson-based character and his Sherlock(s) as they live out their lives in electronic document form. (Typing words on to actual paper might have been just as vulnerable to loss as an electronic document, but had its more satisfying moments.)</p><p>Ten days into this venture, at the one third point, it became plain that I'd only typed half the number of words to keep pace for reaching the goal by month-end. And with that realization came the thought that if I wasn't going to make it, I might as well get a few other things done instead of giving the novel priority. Nanowrimo is a master best served by the young or retired and otherwise unencumbered. And once I started giving focus to those other efforts, the goal 50,000 words in November was doomed. Oh, I was going to probably write 50,000 words this month, just not in that one document holding the novel.</p><p>Like right now, stopping to write a blog post.</p><p>But working on a podcast or two, putting out a chronology newsletter, planning something for the next meeting of the John H. Watson Society or an annual Sherlock Holmes birthday Zoom . . .all that is not conducive to the writing of long form fiction when one has a job filling at least forty hours of one's week. But life is all about choices, no matter what your philosophical take on free will.</p><p>All that said, I was still writing on the novel this morning, just prior to this post, and still enjoying the characters and looking in on what they're up to. The thing about Nanowrimo that makes it different from running a marathon is that when a marathon is over, the course tends to revert to its former function, often a road travelled by cars and trucks. You can't stop halfway and keep running the marathon later from the same point at which you took a break. When a marathon is over, it's over. </p><p>Writing, thankfully, is not running. You can take as long a breather as you'd like and get right back into the race, if your brain can hold on to the course and what you've done so far. Maybe just getting a little more done each day, even if not enough to reach that lofty goal of a 50,000 word November, is enough.</p><p>Sometimes, "enough" isn't such a hard goal to achieve. Perhaps "Watsowrimo" becomes "Watsowriye" and it just continues on past November.</p><p>And gives me time for one more blog post . . .</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-71799001787417396182023-11-18T10:27:00.003-06:002023-11-18T10:41:10.492-06:00The third January option, back again and planning some fun!<p> Ah, January! The invitations are out. Plans are being made.</p><p>The Baker Street Irregulars, and invited guests, will be dining at New York's Yale Club on that Friday closest to Sherlock Holmes's celebrated birthdate.* Friday, January 12th, 2024, is the appointed date.</p><p>The uninvited guests, those who choose to use electronic devices that evening, and other Sherlockians in New York City at the time have the opportunity to go to<a href="https://gaslightgalanyc.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"> the revitalized Gaslight Gala</a> on January 12th as well. Always a good time.</p><p>For the rest of us in an American evening friendly time zone, who for whatever reason cannot be in New York that night, there remains <a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckdeihrzguE9BngTJSLbDNjk1RUNGkjo73" target="_blank">the Third Annual Pub Night at the Dangling Prussian on Zoom</a>. Now that virtual gatherings are a part of Sherlockian culture, there has to be an online alternative, and our tradition continues. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju4nTUUYDK5EUQtKklAbe0CJUNNb5P7T288eDNwdS8MSmwIWpNZUvDAFECpEWJVldpLZ5mAVHMjgPND7k0TJI3Nea6Z1RPbCnkXebJJfyhVxwjUuxj4c-yNwrRUQmparFukXAhMgfWMGEuQVpQpaUsLw65hm7ZCeO-mOjLSe4vhBUDGgAhan8N8hCKmvc/s2110/Dangling%20Prussian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2110" data-original-width="2042" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju4nTUUYDK5EUQtKklAbe0CJUNNb5P7T288eDNwdS8MSmwIWpNZUvDAFECpEWJVldpLZ5mAVHMjgPND7k0TJI3Nea6Z1RPbCnkXebJJfyhVxwjUuxj4c-yNwrRUQmparFukXAhMgfWMGEuQVpQpaUsLw65hm7ZCeO-mOjLSe4vhBUDGgAhan8N8hCKmvc/s320/Dangling%20Prussian.jpg" width="310" /></a></div><p>As in previous years, the five to six hour online event will be welcoming both drop-ins who pop in to say "hi," and die-hards who want to hang for the full five to six hours of socializing, fun, and the one meeting of the Montague Street Incorrigibles every year with its arcane membership ritual for all in attendance to earn their Presbury-thumb-printed certification as an MSI.</p><p>This year's event will feature a brand-new live Sherlock Holmes mystery, in which Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, and Inspectors Lestrade and Gregson will tackle a manor house murder investigation that will require your help to make Sherlock as brilliant as they need to be to solve the mystery. (Did you notice that Sherlock's pronoun there was "they?" Our great detective is probably not going to be a middle-aged male this time.)</p><p>Here's the current full schedule:</p><p style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>6:00 PM Eastern/5:00 PM Central -- </b><i>Happy Hour, Welcomes, and Ice Breakers!</i> </p><p style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You can come in silent and off camera, but if you come in with your camera on, we're going to introduce you around and ask you a question or two. (We'll be doing this later, too, but if there's some other program going on, we might miss your arrival.)</p><p style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>7:00 PM Eastern/6:00 PM Central </b>-- <i>The Official Annual Meeting of the Montague Street Incorrigibles!</i></p><p style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Toasting, membership rituals, official monkey business. Getting it out of the way early!</p><p style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>8:00 PM Eastern/7:00 PM Central </b>-- <i>The Adventure of the Partie Carrée</i></p><p style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">A Sherlock Holmes mystery that starts with a client coming to 221B Baker Street in need of help, played out in a sort of Dungeons and Dragons style, where no one knows what might happen. Sherlock Holmes, however, will be brilliant!</p><p style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><i>10:00 PM Eastern/9:00 PM Central</i></b> -- The Sherlockian Underground Reports!</p><p style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">As always, we will have our spies in New York City, some risking their very reputations for slipping us information via banned channels. We'll be finding out all the news we can as quickly as we can, and you'll hear it here first! Twitter isn't what it used to be, and we'll be using all our sources.</p><p style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium;">With the Gaslight Gala happily back in action, decreased Covid fears, etc., the need for online events has lessened somewhat, but the Zoom must go on!</span></p><p style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium;">Join us, if you can! Here's <a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckdeihrzguE9BngTJSLbDNjk1RUNGkjo73" target="_blank">the registraton link </a>again. Because ya just never know.</span></p><p style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ1CWla46ZCPYmf5ffEC8BXLuowGYpyN2i1qehuyK4dR4eM6angtRkE7c0oPtC6JcyVkBN748ClBTb0XF08oD3M3OuFCN5OGPpb6TNIS-rEbrDmervKpgiVHUFC_NROmeHStSiueToz_bHN7m7RltVmUU0Xz87reC2cbf5vvRA44n8iE5e1LYiJQLXmuc/s1920/ASuddenEntranceAtThePrussian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ1CWla46ZCPYmf5ffEC8BXLuowGYpyN2i1qehuyK4dR4eM6angtRkE7c0oPtC6JcyVkBN748ClBTb0XF08oD3M3OuFCN5OGPpb6TNIS-rEbrDmervKpgiVHUFC_NROmeHStSiueToz_bHN7m7RltVmUU0Xz87reC2cbf5vvRA44n8iE5e1LYiJQLXmuc/s320/ASuddenEntranceAtThePrussian.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-82229163142140778872023-11-17T06:22:00.002-06:002023-11-17T06:22:27.140-06:00I unfollowed you on Twitter . . .<p> Okay, I've been pulling on a certain plug for weeks, and I'm about to completely yank the cord and removed that connection. It started with just unfollowing every single person and entity that I follow on Twitter. It's not the app it was, by any stretch of the imagination. When it first went south, I remember a few diehards planting their feet and saying, "I shall not go," but I never felt that impulse whatsoever. </p><p>Sure, over about fifteen years I got the followers built up to four digits -- that kind of ego-salve is hard to give up. But it was one person's massive ego that really ruined Twitter in the first place, and that seems a bit of a lesson and warning in itself. And lets get real here -- that follower number is largely due to the BBC <i>Sherlock</i> explosion of last decade. Most of those folks have probably drifted off, and ninety percent of them never clicked the links to go to any of the blog posts or podcasts anyway. It was a pretty number while it lasted, but for practical purposes, not worth much.</p><p>Sherlockiana has never been a large numbers field for most of us, as the highly collectible nature of its books, monographs, and other limited creations will attest. If you can reach a hundred Sherlockians with a non-pastiche bit of writing, you're doing good. (And probably even with a pastiche -- those things are the true oysters of Sherlockiana that a modern Sherlock Holmes could babble about whilst pretending fever.) The internet has connected us more, given us more range, and Zoom has done some wonderful things, but we still have a lot to learn about its best uses. We're evolving.</p><p>Whilst none of us know what path the future will take with this stuff Bluesky has really become the best tool for weaning one's self from Sherlockian Twitter. (If you need an invitation to that and I know you're a real human, let me know and I'll send you one.) And Facebook is still the eternal Facebook it always was, just as problematic but wonkily useful.</p><p>So if I unfollowed you on Twitter lately. Sorry about that, but you do what you gotta do.</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-28395213505223972162023-11-12T19:07:00.002-06:002023-11-12T19:07:40.249-06:00The Eight-Three Men Who Gave Us Sherlock Holmes<p> It's not often I feel compelled to write a blog post that's a direct sequel to someone else's blog post. One would expect that such a post would be an argument against points made in the earlier post, but in this case the inspiration comes from both the other new blog post and the fact I was rewatching Into the Spiderverse for a while this afternoon.</p><p>The post is <a href="https://interestingthoughelementary.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-history-of-this-terrible-business.html?fbclid=IwAR1xjDVhbyWsDchsuDdOvdRL9qBpYOMW36Ey1OaFl5mrFq6g1nndFSqu6xY" target="_blank">Rob Nunn's latest "Interesting though Elementary," entitled "The History of this Terrible Business."</a> Go give it a read, if you haven't already.</p><p>In his conclusion, Rob points out that the tragedy of the bloody breakout and mutiny that destroyed the prison ship<i> Gloria Scott </i>was part of the chain of events that led to Sherlock Holmes becoming a detective. Without all the horrible events of that dire place in Canonical history, Sherlock Holmes wouldn't have become the hero we know today.</p><p>The 2018 film <i>Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse,</i> which dealt with multiple universes where different Spider-man stories occurred, had a concept called "Canon events" which were moments that had to happen in every Spider-man's life, no matter what other circumstances surrounded him. Parts of his origin, later tragedies . . . the story of each depended upon certain events to keep them "Canon" and not destroy their entire world. (Ruining the story, one might say.)</p><p>So if the destruction of the ship<i> Gloria Scott </i>is a Canon event of importance to Sherlock Holmes lore, that means eighty-three people must die in every universe to create one Sherlock Holmes. We are given the full tally of people aboard the ship: </p><p>"She was a five-hundred-ton boat; and besides her thirty-eight jail-birds, she carried twenty-six of a crew, eighteen soldiers, a captain, three mates, a doctor, a chaplain, and four warders. Nearly a hundred souls were in her, all told, when we set sail from Falmouth."</p><p>Nine people are known to have survived the tragic end of the <i>Gloria Scott</i>. The math is pretty straightforward. Eighty-three men died to create one Sherlock Holmes on November 6, 1855. And think about that for a moment . . .</p><p>There are those who would like us to believe that Sherlock Holmes was born on January 6, 1854, based on some party-animal's love of his brother's birthday and some suspect year calculations. But didn't we just say that the event that made Sherlock Holmes who he was occurred on November 6, 1855? A date which birthed a man whose utter fascination with crime and criminals, some criminality in his own soul, and a desire to fight against those same criminals. </p><p>What if the <i>Gloria Scott</i> was releasing the souls of eighty-three soldiers, sailors, and criminals into the ether at the exact moment a baby came into the world needing some soul matter of his own, and through some strange and spooky spiritual event that would have been right up Conan Doyle's alley, Sherlock Holmes became the reincarnation of eighty-three men, with the strength in mind and body of multiple men and the desire to occasionally dress up like a sailor.</p><p>'Tis a pity that November 6 has already passed us by this year, for it might just have cause to be a new Sherlockian holiday. Thanks for that, Rob!</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-71466126965446321992023-11-10T07:09:00.003-06:002023-11-10T07:09:19.698-06:00Sherlok (sp) November<p> Ten days into "Watsowrimo," as I'm calling National Novel Writing Month this November, the writer's block has officially hit. My tale of Sherlockians dealing with a mystery has played out to the point it has played out before and come up dry. One of the characters went to Walmart -- that's how bad things got. Sherlockians go to the Mysterious Bookshop, they don't go to Walmart. (Well, a lot of us probably do, but not in our Sherlockian mode . . . I mean, what's the last Sherlockian item you heard of being at Walmart?)</p><p>So here I am taking a little blogger break. But, then, what do I have to blog about?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ra9w_y8IRu6ZKwFHWOfkA2iZ8wYlNW0AY9xTaSx-d_LPwhcaXnuIO2SsbNmxGH2ePv8Ht4bJ57kyxlkeO0eALDz4Lwxa2weFUIPJqt4OceEsFA-guT7djyAHRqeWcEjG5nDuVQUfpRZ8xQmZCntuUXEgqJi-3c93Ov4ASs1ZyNKQBiBI4s0ONMUf8d4/s498/SpoonRiverSherlokCover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="432" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ra9w_y8IRu6ZKwFHWOfkA2iZ8wYlNW0AY9xTaSx-d_LPwhcaXnuIO2SsbNmxGH2ePv8Ht4bJ57kyxlkeO0eALDz4Lwxa2weFUIPJqt4OceEsFA-guT7djyAHRqeWcEjG5nDuVQUfpRZ8xQmZCntuUXEgqJi-3c93Ov4ASs1ZyNKQBiBI4s0ONMUf8d4/s320/SpoonRiverSherlokCover.png" width="278" /></a></div><br /><p>How about a copy of <i>Spoon River Anthology</i> by Edgar Lee Masters?</p><p>Masters was a law partner of Clarence Darrow who originally aspired to be a poet, writing poems about the local folk where he grew up in the middle of Illinois where the Spoon River winds around through a bunch of small towns. Working my aunt's antique store during an annual event called the "Spoon River Drive" I took a little interest in Masters and picked up this book. And what is its marginal tie to Sherlock Holmes that makes it blog material?</p><p>Its bookplate.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1IJyNtIn4EX_-OJ3O5cc7iJQOHr2kFRsT0bgKeg29V6_VCHoduz0-xBODoRXfTP992UGmiQc2noZUFEStlzn3CuX3PM-zw4XyAlQRBPxRVVwElzNSo1q-ss9bLVjd84iNttKNzUCvTX_gHb1vieSZyAXlVKdUTeupz5bz6Hgz3UbsLYBT3srCgscH29Y/s540/SpoonRiverSherlokBookplate.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="432" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1IJyNtIn4EX_-OJ3O5cc7iJQOHr2kFRsT0bgKeg29V6_VCHoduz0-xBODoRXfTP992UGmiQc2noZUFEStlzn3CuX3PM-zw4XyAlQRBPxRVVwElzNSo1q-ss9bLVjd84iNttKNzUCvTX_gHb1vieSZyAXlVKdUTeupz5bz6Hgz3UbsLYBT3srCgscH29Y/s320/SpoonRiverSherlokBookplate.png" width="256" /></a></div><div><br /></div>In 1965, this book was owned by a guy named Sherlok V. Miller. Try googling that and you'll get Johnny Lee Miller every time. Dropping that "c" out of "Sherlock" is a curious thing. Merely parents who didn't know how to spell? A time-travelling fan of the 2015 Ukranian <i>Sherlok</i> TV show? (And if it's a time traveller, maybe it's Paul Thomas Miller with his brain attic dishevelled by the transit.)<div><br /></div><div>There's a Sherlockian Chronologist Guild newsletter for me to work on, if my writer's block continues. I probably should dynamite the narrative of my November novel to blast the writer's block out of there. If it's anything like past works, it may just wind up in the closet come December, but the exercise is always good. Like many another thing, the journey is the real reward of doing the thing -- something that is definitely going to be lost on the more eager AI adopters, trying to cheat actually being creative. But that's a conversation for another time.</div><div><br /></div><div>November continues.<br /><p><br /></p></div>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-57382841432885984402023-10-27T07:52:00.002-05:002023-10-27T07:52:59.101-05:00Grasping Sherlockiana with One’s Mental Tentacle<p> Fellow blogger Rob Nunn likes to ask Sherlockians to define the word “Sherlockian” when he conducts his bloggerviews, and nobody seems to have an issue answering his question. Most of us have an answer to what makes another person Sherlockian in our eyes. But there is a tougher question, one which I’ve seen seriously invested Sherlockians struggle with over the years. Identifying as a Sherlockian is easy. Identifying your current location on the Sherlockian map, however, is something entirely different.</p><p>If you go to an amusement park, a zoo, or many another attraction with a landscape, you’ll usually find a map with a “You are here” arrow pointing to your current location. The Sherlockian landscape, the mental amusement park where we spend our fun time, has never had a visual map. It has lands within lands, and those lands have connecting borders. Original Canon land borders Actual History land, Pastiche land, and Literary Academia land. But where does Movie land and its parts and offshoots, like Cast Cottage and Movie Universe Fic Forest, lie? </p><p>And while we might park ourselves in one spot for a time, one can’t help but wander Sherlockiana. People come to be familiar with us along certain paths, other folks in areas we seldom visit, not so much. And we can get so enthralled with a given attraction in Sherlockiana world that we can even forget, for a time, that there are other people right next to us in our explorations of the lands. Or that people in one area can hear folks in other areas. Folks can get on a Sherlock sort of sugar high and crash into folks as they run through the attractions. Others just quietly do their part in keeping the machinery of the established rides running. A few Sherlockians have such a history with Sherlockiana that they become side attractions themselves when they leave the field. (Jim Hawkins setting up John Bennett Shaw displays comes quickly to mind.)</p><p>For a small part of the big outside world, the lands of Sherlockiana are expansive and ever-growing. The “You are here” arrow moves a lot, even if you’re just sitting on a bench. And so we wonder. And wander. And wonder.</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-58101628873849541252023-10-21T06:03:00.004-05:002023-10-21T06:03:56.886-05:00Nanowrimo versus AI<p> Next month is National Novel Writing Month, the annual challenge for writers of all genres and levels to attempt getting 50,000 words under their belts in the month of November. It's been going on since 1999, and I've participated a few times with varying results. Going to try again this year, but there's one thing that's a little different this year . . . AI.</p><p>This is the first year that we're all painfully aware that a computer algorithm is out there that can write a 50,000 or more word novel in a much, much, MUCH shorter period of time. At this point, it's not good enough at it to write a great novel, or probably even a good novel, but you know there are already doofuses out there with no scruples or talent having AI write them novels and trying to sell them. Trying a self-published book by an unknown has become much more risky.</p><p>So a computer program can write a book . . . and one day, we can imagine, it might be able to write a book as well as a lot of us. Why should we bother writing novels at that point?</p><p>Well, we already have robots that can run a marathon faster and further than a human. Why do marathoners still run? </p><p>Because there have always been better runners, even when it was just us humans. Most runners don't run to win. Runners run for the experience, for how it improves their bodies, and a hundred other reasons.</p><p>It's the same with writing.</p><p>National novel writing month isn't about having a potential <i>New York Times</i> bestseller come December. It isn't really even about testing yourself to see if you can do it. It's about just writing and writing and writing and learning what all that experience will teach you. It might teach you that you <i>can</i> write a novel. It might teach you how to push past writer's block as the artificial deadline makes you learn to first-draft without self-criticism. It might show you parts of your mind that were just waiting to get out if only the other parts would quiet down and let them out. </p><p>Ever watch a kung fu movie where the troubled main character has to go into a montage of repeating and repeating and learning and getting more skilled? Nanowrimo November is that montage for a writer.</p><p>Sure, an AI can write a novel or draw a picture for your lazy ass. But it sure isn't going to make you a better human. Remember that movie WALL-E and those lazy lumps that humans had become as the robots did all their work for them? Yeah, that, but for creativity.</p><p><a href="https://www.johnhwatsonsociety.com/watsowrimo/" target="_blank">As I've mentioned over at the John H. Watson Society website</a>, this year I'm calling my own personal marathon of words "Watsowrimo" and inviting fellow Sherlockians to join in. We've still got over a week until November, so give it a little thought. You will definitely wind up a better person than those AI-using lumps pretending to be creative.</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6512050174377678428.post-59823762664976539332023-10-16T23:12:00.001-05:002023-10-16T23:12:15.990-05:00The Third Annual Pub Night at the Dangling Prussian<p> Now, if you go to a lot of a certain kind of Sherlockian functions, you're apt to run into folks who ask a certain question: "Are you going to New York?"</p><p>Call it the Birthday Weekend, call it the BSI weekend, call it the Pilgrimage of the Potentials, but whatever you call it, the eldest community of Sherlock Holmes fans (by a smidge) spends a long weekend meeting and mingling with their peers. And it's where people go in January.</p><p>Well, most of us.</p><p>But if you read the headline to this blog post and have seen similar words before, you know that at least one person is committing to sitting in front of a Zoom screen for a long evening on Friday night January 12th. For many a decade, an alternative dinner was held in New York for folks who couldn't get into the annual dinner of the Baker Street Irregulars, and once Covid was done, the idea of taking that spirit to include all those who can't even get to New York (and a few who did, in past years) seemed like a good idea. So here we go again.</p><p>It's time for the third annual Dangling Prussian Pub Night. Here's the registration link, if you already know you're homebound come January 12:</p><p><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckdeihrzguE9BngTJSLbDNjk1RUNGkjo73">https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckdeihrzguE9BngTJSLbDNjk1RUNGkjo73</a></p><p>Not sure what will make up the six hours. Most all of the folks who might do a presentation are going to be in New York. And it's far too late across the Atlantic for any of our European friends. Also, Zoom -- there are limits.</p><p>But after two previous virtual pub nights at the Dangling Prussian, as we call our Zoom alternative, somehow we make it through with a little program, a little gossip, and a lot of just hanging out, enjoying the company.</p><p>I might get back to New York City one day, but for now, I'm comfortable hosting a little virtual get together for those who can't. More on this to come, of course, as we figure out just what will happen in those six hours. But as invitations start to go out for the main event with the BSI in New York, it's time to start planning for everywhere else.</p>Sherlock Peoriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09896656391037436805noreply@blogger.com1