Sunday, January 6, 2013

The measure of a fan.

Let me stand and start the slow clap.

If you're not familiar with the slow clap, it's that movie convention where a single member of a crowd starts to clap after some action by the main character and is gradually joined by more and more members of that crowd, until everyone is applauding and cheering as enthusiastically as you can imagine. It lacks a certain something being done in words alone, but it still feels necessary.

Today is Sherlock Holmes's birthday.

And over at the Baker Street Blog, Scott Monty posted his Holmes birthday blog at exactly 2:21 AM.

The blog post itself, entitled "The Celebrated Mr. Sherlock Holmes," is nice enough, but the thing that got the biggest reaction out of me was the timestamp of 2:21 AM.

Having long been an aficionado of that minute twice a day when Sherlock's street address appears on a digital clock, the fact that Scott cared enough to post at that time was truly impressive to me. He might have done it before and I didn't notice. In fact, it could be his habit to always post then. It could even be that half the Sherlockians on the internet are posting at 2:21.

But today, on Sherlock Holmes's birthday, I saw it on Scott Monty's blog for the first time, and so I'm giving him the points. If genius truly is the infinite capacity for taking pains, Scott, you are a genius.

And well deserving of the slow clap on Sherlock's birthday.

Happy Sherlock's Birthday, everybody! Get each other lots of presents!

6 comments:

  1. Not to pee on your picnic, but I pointed out the same thing out to Steve Doyle when I noticed that his first post about Sherlock Holmes for Dummies was posted at the same time - 2:21.
    I believe there might be a time stamp for that time regardless of when it happens.
    Vincent

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    1. I'm sorry, Vince, we don't allow mentions of urine on this blog. That's Elementary's turf and we don't want to infringe on the things that make that show unique and special.

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  2. Happy Birthday to Sherlock!

    So, what does an avid Sherlockian do to celebrate? I have always been a fan—for almost 30 years I have been a fan—but I have only become an obsessed Sherlockian in the past year. This is the first year I am truly celebrating his birthday. So, what does one do? Read the canon over a dusty bottle of Imperial Tokay? Or the alcoholic beverage of your choice? Host your own movie or Brett marathon? Or is there a place where Sherlockians gather locally? We seem to be a relatively introverted bunch, so I doubt it. But I am at a loss…beyond wishing everyone a happy day on my Facebook page…which seems weak and anticlimactic.

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    1. That's the thing about being a Sherlockian -- no rules! Whatever creative or social celebrations you want to come up with are fair game. Peoria's local Sherlockian scene has been rather weak of late, but I'm willing to declare a six o'clock Sherlock Holmes's birthday dinner at Donnelly's Pub and just see who shows up! (And if nobody does, hey, it's dinner at Donnelly's!)

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    2. Sounds like fun. I'll be there--in a hat that's not exactly a deerstalker...but close.

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  3. You see but do not observe. Almost always the posts on the Baker Street Blog are posted at a time somehow relevant to the Canon, whether related to Holmes' address or the number of pages in the Garden City edition.

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