Diary of the Doyle's Rotary Coffin Treasure Hunt, Day One

 It was opening day for the first-ever Doyle's Rotary Coffin Treasure Hunt today, and the key phrase for today had to be "Pace yourself!" We have six months until Blue Carbuncle Day to complete the sixty tasks that Paul Thomas Miller has set out for us, and there are one hundred and eighty three days left to go. It would be far too easy to charge into the list, do all the easy ones this week, and then get discouraged for the months remaining. So today, I limited myself to two items of the sixty.

First, number sixteen, a photo of a musical Holmes. Here you go:

Yes, it's that fabulous singing Sherlock, Will Ferrell! And, just in case there's a quibble, there's also a photo of a drawing of a musical Holmes from the musical Baker Street. Here's the thing, though: I'm checking off "A photo of a musical Sherlock Holmes," but if I get anywhere near Will Ferrell in the next six months, I'm upgrading this with a photo of the actor himself. That's part of the fun of this -- you aren't limited to just settling for your first try. You can upgrade!

And my second checked-off entery, number four, a photo of an object mentioned in the Canon.

It's an egg-spoon! You remember the famous egg spoon that Watson used to point at the article "The Book of Life" in A Study in Scarlet? Used specifically for eating boiled eggs, egg spoons were traditionally made from bone or horn so they would not discolor from use because the sulfur in eggs would tarnish silver. I dearly love my little egg spoon, which was a gift from that grand Minnesota Sherlockian Pj Doyle who brought it all the way back from Scotland.

I've quickly discovered that our treasure hunt journey isn't just about taking the first photo that you can -- it's also about choosing the best option that represents who you are and what you value about Sherlock Holmes. The list from Doyle's Rotary Coffin are prompts, really, only instead of prompts inspiring us to create a fictional tale of Holmes and Watson, they're prompts to show something of ourselves.

Two checkmarks down, fifty-eight to go!