Conan Doyle Estates.

I've got this crazy idea for a gated community within a gated community.

I buy up a bunch of land, develop it with some nice houses, and call it "Conan Doyle Estates." As a direct tie to the great man himself, I'd also buy some book or lesser manuscript from the original inheritance he left, frame individual pages, and put one in every house. Outside that gated community and completely surrounding it, I'd build a second housing development of houses adjacent to Conan Doyle Estates. These houses, I'd rent out by the hour to folks who wanted to come in read, experience, taste, or otherwise enjoy any book or product having to do with Sherlock Holmes. If anyone in the rented houses enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes product and gave it their stamp of approval, that product could then by advertised with the motto: "Approved by the Conan Doyle Estates."

Nothing fraudulent there, right? Conan Doyle Estates contains property owned by Doyle at the time of his death, part of his estate, so if there's a little confusion, a little mistaking the current business for the actual direct inheritance of Doyle's kids, well, technically the framed pages in the houses have filled the bill. And I'm just renting and selling houses, nothing at all skeezy in that. They're good houses, with nice framed Doyleiana inside. And as a result, we get a whole lot of books with "Approved by the Conan Doyle Estates" on the cover, which is apparently a very good thing in some circles.

Yes, it's a crazy idea, and I still like the thought of a Sherlock Holmes amusement park much better. But there are ideas just as crazy out there these days that seem to be working for some folks, so feel free to borrow it if you have the time and energy. I probably won't be renting one of your houses though.

Those "approved" labels just have never worked for me.