Minneapolis and Sherlock Holmes @ 50: Friday Morning and Earl Afternoon

 One of the things I love about a big Sherlockian weekend is the random encounters that turn into long conversations. Case in point, around seven AM this Friday, I was feeling a bit hungry, and not wanting a full hotel breakfast, went across the street to a coffee shop for some tea and any pastry they happened to have. There I saw the editors of Canadian Holmes, Mark and JoAnn Alberstat, said hello and asked if I could sit with them, which resulted in some lovely talk about Conan Doyle and things Sherlockian. Since we were all in a mood for a walk, we navigated over to the Elmer L. Anderson Library, where the displays and the day’s talks were to take place. None of that would open until 9 AM, of course, so eventually we wandered back to the hotel and took a break before heading to that opening.

In the meantime, of course, many Sherlockian friends had organized a breakfast outing, and were going to be a bit in coming back, so when the displays and 221B recreation opened at nine, I got to get in and photograph everything before anyone was really looking at it. (See previous blog post.) After that, I started to head back to the hotel, but ran into Charles and Kris Prepolec and Mike McSwiggin and just had to see Charles looking over the array of old books that were in the 221B sitting room, so I went back in.

Eventually when I did head back to the hotel, I found my bull pup podcast crew, Madeline and Heather, and set about plotting our recording session in a nice outdoor spot on the way back to the library. We got to that spot, got out the laptop and prepared to record, but found I hadn’t brought the adapter I needed for the microphone, having left it back in the hotel room. It was a little warm out in the sun, so we postponed the recording and headed back to the library, where registration was about to start.

Joe Eckrich stopped me, as he was collecting autographs for the new Holmes in Heartland collection, and somehow that put me into the middle of the growing registration line. Is it cutting if a line seems to grow around you? I don’t know, but Sherlockians are kindly folk and didn’t kick me to the back. Many of us had picked up our name badges the night before, so registration was picking up programs, the big red hardback book that was a part of the conference goodies. yet another book on the display, still another book (a pastiche, I think -- haven’t looked yet) and more. The folks at the registration table nicely bagged all this up in a clear plastic bag with handles.

The University of Minnesota Special Collections had a table of some of their duplicates and donations for sale, and . . . well, I don’t want to get into how much I spent on an impulse buy, but I was helping Kristin Mertz avoid overspending of her own by taking that bullet so to speak. (That’s the story as I’m telling it now. Kristin might tell you something a little different.) In any case, have loaded up with books and needing lunch, the four block walk back to the hotel was necessary once again. I met my old friend Don Hobbs, who was walking with Tim Kline, and we agreed to have lunch together when we got back to the lobby. As I waited for Don, I was talking to Gayle Pugh, who was thinking the walk to the library might be a bit much, so I offered to grab my car and drive her to the library door -- which was actually possible to do. So my fourth trip from hotel to library and back was a little quicker.

Back at the hotel, we headed out for lunch to the pub next door only to find some Sherlockians coming out of said pub with news that the place was too crowded to get us lunch and out in time for the afternoon program. Across the street to the Corner Bar we went, where we were still concerned about eating and making it out on time. Enter Crystal Noll, one of our 221B Con queen bees, and someone I’ll nominate for captain of our starship if we suddenly find ourselves on a starship. She gave the server a series of simple instructions and our willingness to cooperate to speed things along. She not only got eight of us in and our of the Corner Bar as quickly as possible, she also pulled out a Tide stain removal wipe when I dropped ketchup on myself. 

And we made it back to the Elmer L. Andersen Library in time for Dick Sveum’s opening remarks and Rebecca Romney’s opening talk on collectors and collecting, past, present, and future. (During which I’ve been writing this blog.) Rebecca’s talk was a great opener, looking forward in ways Sherlockian talks often miss in looking to the past. Jim Hawkins is going to come up next to talk about John Bennett Shaw, but for now, I’ll  post this much.

Minneapolis and Sherlock Holmes @ 50: The Displays

Pics from Saturday morning!

Minneapolis and Sherlock Holmes @ 50: Thursday Night

In the past fifty years, the University of Minnesota based Sherlock Holmes collection has made a lot of friends. So when its golden anniversary needs to be celebrated, like any golden anniversary, you're going to see a lot of that family and friends showing up from all over the place. The initial limit was set at one hundred and sixty attendees, and that number of spots sold out months ago. So if a person was to sit in the lobby of the Courtyard Minneapolis Downtown all day today, they would be apt to see an array of notable Sherlockians from across the decades.

The Courtyard was a Holiday Inn the last time it was held here, I think. I missed at least one of the prior conferences held here, so I'm not sure, and I'm hoping the next few days fills in some of my memory gaps in what's gone on here in the last fifty years.

Tonight was a nice welcome reception at the hotel, where folks got to say hello, pick up a handy name badge to help with those names you might have forgotten, maybe have a slice of pizza and get something to drink. A charades game was organized and played, but with well over a hundred people re-connecting at the same time, we weren't entirely focused on it. Winners got a nice "SHERades" badge, and eventually we all had the chance to pick one up.

A lot of catching up went on, a lot of "Oh, I brought something for you!" things passed back and forth, some organizing of outings like some carloads headed for a local speakeasy for the more ambitious or a simple "We're headed over to the bar next door" for the less energetic (along with a few "I have to rest after a full day of travel"s). Since most of us just got here today from various distances and modes of travel, motivations varied. Me, I had fought afternoon traffic to get to an early screening of Deadpool & Wolverine at a local multiplex, so I wasn't as up for getting back in a car.

Tomorrow the serious program begins, but as one quickly learns going to Sherlockian events, the best part is just hanging out with other Sherlock Holmes fans, and we're definitely there already. I have a feeling that Facebook is going to be getting an influx of photos of actual Sherlockians, but for tonight, i'll just leave you with a photo of a badge and a button. The weekend doesn't start until Friday, does it?

Sherlock & Co. -- A Textbook in Friendship

 "You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism, which produces the same effect as if you worked a love story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid."

-- Sherlock Holmes on Watson's fanfic

Following a Sherlock & Co. meetup for those lucky enough to be close to London or have travel time and funds available, the podcast's writer, Joel Emery put out a very thoughtful Twitter thread. It became obvious that the question we all knew was out there got asked: Are Sherlock Holmes and John Watson going to be a full-on couple? It may have been seven years and our bodies might have possibly regenerated all of their cells, according to some, but you can't stop the Johnlock. Someone plainly asked, and seems to have asked in the manner of "Why aren't you doing this thing you plainly should be doing?"

"We want listeners to feel like they're best friends with Sherlock, Watson, & Mariana," Joel Emery wrote. "The way we do that is by having them build a loving, powerful friendship between all three of them. A physical relationship between any of them changes that dynamic. (imo)"

I kinda loved that. It's what the podcast was actually giving us, the feelings that I was getting from the show's primary trio. Their Mrs. Hudson brings so much to the Holmes/Watson dynamic that we were already comparing them to Kirk, Spock, and McCoy from Star Trek. And it's a big part of what makes this new adaptation great.

It's interestingly ironic that adding a woman to the traditional male partnership formula makes it more friendship-oriented, almost like she's a talisman against Johnlock or a chaperone. But Marianna has grown into such a fully formed part of the 221 Baker Street team in this adaptation and so much more than any previous "Mrs. Hudson" that trying to define her as anything so small is impossible. (And for those of you who still haven't gotten into the show -- since Marianna was representing a realty firm called "Hudson's" when Holmes and Watson first met her, Sherlock started their whole relationship by constantly calling her "Mrs. Hudson" instead of her full name, Marianna Ametxazurra.)

Marianna has become such a key part of the team that a recent episode actually included the fact she wouldn't be in the episode as a trigger warning. And suddenly it was interesting to see how Sherlock and John were without her. John, for example, suddenly feels comfortable making allusions to an old girlfriends' bra size in that sort of "guy talk" that is a foreign language to Sherlock Holmes. But it isn't what Marianna keeps from coming out in their Baker Street agency that makes her great, it's what she brings to the table.

With Marianna serving as the practical, common sense part of the team, we get to see much more personality from John Watson. At the same time, she mediates the rough edges of the John/Sherlock contrast we saw in BBC Sherlock, and allows Sherlock to be a bit more Sherlock without John getting quite so peeved at him. But there's more to it than that, and will be still more as the podcast goes on -- this is a story of evolving characters, not static cut-outs who reset each week.

Sherlock & Co. is wonderful about bringing other characters along for the ride without hurting the stories. Stamford showing up every now and again as he did in "Dancing Men." Wiggins proving useful when things get a little more criminal-oriented. Relationships continue on, as they do in life. And Mariana "Mrs. Hudson" Ametxazurra being a regular part of the boys' lives and friendship brings so much to these new adaptations of the original sixty stories in ways that shipping any two of them (or all three, as happens in fic) would undoubtedly spoil.

And it all keeps its listeners coming back for more each week, even though some of us have these stories printed on our souls at this point. The show seems to have found its groove and gone from really good to REALLY really good. as we approach the end of the Canonical sixty's first quarter.

--------------------------

End Note: I based the title of this post on Christopher Morley's Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: A Textbook of Friendship, which really didn't give lessons in friendship either, just told you how good the stories were and then reprinted the stories.

Was He A Greek Interpreter or a Greek Interpreter?

 Sometimes I am vexing to more people than just the good Carter, my partner of so many years.

Take tonight at our local library Sherlockian discussion group, discussing "The Greek Interpreter," for example. A lot of questions where posed and discussed. Was Mycroft involved with MI-6? When did Holmes learn about the obliquity of the ecliptic when he had earlier professed ignorance of Copernican theory? What rights did Sophy Kratides have in the Victorian age? And why is it only non-British girls seem capable of violence in these stories?

All fine questions. And then there's the question I wonder about.

Does the title of the story "The Greek Interpreter" refer to Mr. Melas being from Greece or interpreting Greek?

Everyone seemed to agree that it could mean both, but I still had to ask: Which way did Conan Doyle intend it to mean when he wrote it?

"BOTH!" came the answer from the rest of our jury-sized group.

"But when I say something, I usually mean it one way, not two ways at once," I protested.

"That might just be you." This is probably not an exact quote. It's been an hour.

"I am Greek by birth and with a Grecian name, it is with that particular tongue that I am principally associated," Mr. Melas says in the story.

But in the title, is it saying that he's Greek or that he interprets Greek language? Conan Doyle had to mean one, didn't he? Or was he consciously and purposefully letting it stand for both?

What I did not say at the meeting, as we'd already discussed the xenophobic tendencies of the stories, with the Greek girl getting her stabby revenge in the postscript, was that I was kind of wondering because if Doyle felt the need to specify that the interpreter was Greek in the title, it has a whole different feeling than if he was just a guy who spoke Greek.

Since our friend Mary had mentioned the 1955 Ronald Howard adaptation, titled "The French Interpreter" (which curiously includes the Diogenes Club while leaving out Mycroft), I thought I would check it out to see how they treated Melas's French version. In the 1955 edition, filmed in France, they made Melas into a Claude Dubec. But he, like Melas, says he is French by birth and translates his native language in Britain, even though, like Melas, he knows other languages as well. So both Dubec and Melas are interpreters even when not conversing in their native tongue, but are both placed in situations when their home language is the interpreting need.

So now I have to also wonder: Was Claude Debuc a French interpreter or a French interpreter, just like I wondered if Melas was a Greek interpreter or a Greek Interpreter?

So I shall toss this question to the internet: What does the title "The Greek Interpreter" really mean? Greek or Greek? (I shall accept that the same answer applies to the 1955 "French" adaptation, as well.)

The Ghost in the Pastiche Machine

 You have to think there's an AI-generated Sherlock Holmes book on Amazon, even now.

I don't know how many of us shop for random Sherlock Holmes books by names we don't know, so perhaps nobody has stumbled on it yet, but I have to think that somewhere out there one of those non-writers with big ideas and big desires has used the digital beastie to put together something that looks vaguely like the writings of Watson and put it on the web to sell.

We know folks have dabbled with the demon for toasts and art "just to see what it will do." We're also being sold on how it can improve your writing, not write things for you. But there's the slippery slope. At what point does the composition become the work of the AI and not your own, if you're using it to rework your words into something more palatable?

And here's the other thing we have yet to learn: Will a writer who leans on AI early on get better at writing? Will the old "thousand hours" proposed by goofy Malcom Gladwell result in expertise? Or will that writer be just as bad -- or worse -- at writing without the AI's help? Will they ever develop their own style?

Or will they simply annoy us by flooding the market with AI work that's pretty much like the AI work of other folks who decide to press the big AI "Easy" button?

The Sherlockian communities can be smaller, where people know each other and their work, so we might be buffered against the beastie somewhat. But with generational change, and the prevalence of the thing coming along, Sherlockiana may not be proof against it. It's gonna be a sneaky bastard.

In decades past, hardcore Sherlockians really crapped on pastiches in their love of the original Canon. As markets opened up, and opportunities for us to have our own pastiches published, whether online or in a collection, all except the worst of us have developed at least a surface tolerance for the pastiche. What will AI bring to that mix? Hard to say.

But it's coming, if it's not here already. So we shall see.

I Like This Watson Better.

 Okay, it's heresy time. Or blasphemy. At least to a few of you (who are probably not the ones reading this), as there has long been a section of our traditional Sherlockian world that finds new ideas abhorent. So let's get it out of the way.

I like Sherlock & Co. John Watson better than Canon John Watson.

It's not just that Paul Waggott is a terrific voice actor who takes all the good things Martin Freeman brought to a modern Watson to the next level, hits the goofiness of a Nigel Bruce without the rampant idiocy, and still manages to be completely charming -- of course the scripts by Joel Emery are a large part of that. Teamwork makes the dream work, as they say.

No, it's the one thing that Canon Watson never gave us, that Sherlock & Co. is giving us in spades.

This week began their adaptation of "Shoscombe Old Place." (They're adapting all sixty stories, if you haven't been paying attention.) And how did they get to Shoscombe in this version of the tale?

They are taking a little vacation in Watson's home town. At the house he was born in. The town where he lost his virginity. The town where he had that one relationship that he'd rather not talk about. And we get the details, even if it takes Sherlock to drag them out of him at points.

This Watson is forthcoming, written by a writer who knows we want to know these things and seems to actually love his characters. We get to learn things we want to know.

True, this won't result in a hundred years of speculative writings trying to fill in the gaps, as kept Sherlockiana running all these decades, but, good lord, is it refreshing and enjoyable!

So, yeah, I'm really liking this Watson. Could be my favorite Watson ever. Is that heresy, blasphemy, or the statement of the sort of fool who loves the movie Holmes & Watson far more than is prudent in polite society? Could be. I'm not going to put on the airs of anyone who claims to be a Sherlock Holmes authority as we occasionally see on the web these days. But if you've not listened to Sherlock & Co., give it a shot. Figure out how to listen to podcasts if you haven't already. It'll be worth it.

And if it's not, well, shout "Heretic!" at me when next we meet. I'll enjoy the attention, I'm sure, and have one more thing to blog about.

Following Superbaby to see Sherlock Holmes

 In addition to May 4th being Reichenbach Day, Star Wars Day, Cinco De Mayo Eve, and whatever else this year, it was Free Comic Book Day at many a local comic store. I stopped in for a look and wound up picking up a few well-worn issues of Superboy on the cheap just because they had Superbaby on the cover and he makes me laugh.

Just look at that kid! Since nobody knew who Superman was yet, nobody was going, "Hey, that baby is dressed just like Superman!" so Ma and Pa Kent could kinda keep his Kryptonian origins secret. But one particular issue from April 1964 had a little surprise inside that wasn't a baby flying out of a serving platter as the cover showed.

The letters page of that issue had a certain name that popped the minute my eyes scanned the page.

"But in one sequence Lana Lang was able to summon Sherlock Holmes from the past. How was this possible? As everyone knows, the great sleuth Sherlock Holmes was a fictional character," wrote Richard Walls of West Des Moines, Iowa.

WHAT? There was an issue of Superboy that had Sherlock Holmes in it? To the internet!

Yep, "The Surrender of Superboy" from issue 110 in January of that year. And copies were to be had a reasonable prices on eBay, if one wasn't too concerned about condition (and I was not). They weren't slabbed and graded in plastic, either, as is the current trend on collectable comics, so I could get in and have a look at Sherlock's appearance.

And not only was it a Sherlock Holmes appearance, it was a Sherlock Holmes team-up with Edgar Allen Poe! Oddly enough, even though summoned from the past, Sherlock Holmes seems to know all about Superboy and how Lana shouldn't mess with him. 

It's only one page, as Lana sends Holmes back to the past after he barely does anything, but still -- a really neat treat for the Sherlockian comic collection. All thanks to that wacky Superbaby!

The Diary of a 221st Southumberland Waffleer

 "In the year 2023 I took my menu at the Waffle House of Peachtree City, Georgia, and proceed to order the courses prescribed by the waitress at the counter. Having completed my breakfast there, I was duly attached to the Two Hundred and Twenty-First Southumberland Waffleers as an assistant transporter."

-- From The Reminiscences of Brad A. Keefauver, EmDee (like a lower level of emcee)

That first Waffle House breakfast, April 14, 2023.

I shall never first my first Waffle House breakfast. At the tender age of sixty-five years old, it was like I had waited my whole life to finally cross that threshold, at a time when my body wanted to retire from all work and just eat breakfasts. (I still haven't allowed my body that comfort.) Still, the inspiring words of the leader of the 221st Southumberland Waffleers, that modern day Horace Greeley of breakfast, Steve Mason pushed many of us to the waffle front that year. We were not the first. We would not be the last.

The 2023 British Invasion

With Paul Thomas Miller commanding the first table of Waffleers that campaign, I was relegated to the counter, where a kindly waitress explained to me all of the workings of the Waffle House menu. I ordered the "All-Star Special," which is said to have a calorie count that only an orderly and a pack-horse can bring you safely away from. I landed back at the hotel with my waistline irretrievably ruined, but permission from my marital government to spend the next eleven months in attempting to improve it.

Eleven months later, it had not much improved, but the call went out, and I answered. This time, the location was Englewood, Ohio, which some call "Dayton."

March 23, 2023

This time, I found myself in the company of the officers of our company and a local commander. There are not many encounters where you can relive past glories like you can at a Waffle House, and again the All-Star Special came at me, and again it was summarily dealt with. 

A successful endeavor done!

I returned with one of our junior lieutenants the very next morning to find the site had been completely occupied by our forces after the success of our scouting party the previous morning.

Waffleers Ho!

But such successes on the battlefield of breakfast inevitably cause one to go too far, to attempt to take on more challenges than one's forces might be capable of holding and not gaining another ten pounds. Not a full month later, the Waffleers encamped in Atlanta, at yet another airport hotel, this one in the actual city its airport was named for.

The 8AM Campaign, Friday, Peachtree City 2024

It was April 12, 2024, a Friday I will not soon forget. As the change from Central to Eastern time caused our commander to delay our sortie until 8 AM, I was awake and ready when time came to assemble at our departure point. I plotted our route and got us back to the site of my previous year's first encounter with the WH waffle. I held back in my efforts and went with the "Two Egg Breakfast & Bacon," foregoing the waffle to preserve my energies. Little did I know what fate had in store for me.

Upon returning to our encampment at the Atlanta Airport Marriott, I found Waffleers who had missed the first call to forks, just as I had missed ordering a waffle during that early mission. There was only one answer to solve all our problems.

A waffle.

Back we went, shocking the waitress as two of our number were back at the same table we'd sat less than two hours before.

The 10 AM Campaign, Friday, Peachtree City 2024

At this point, waffle madness had begun to set in. Saturday morning, 8 AM, another Waffle House, this time in Fairburn, Georgia because our leader was tired of driving past six Waffle Houses to get to the one where my past glories had occurred. My ability to take photos was decreasing with my growing girth. And again we went, Sunday morning, 8 AM, taking up two troop carriers with the sheer mass of our forces.

Taken after stumbling out of my fourth WH visit in three days.

Was it all over? Was it all done? The call came for one last photo by the Waffle House sign to mark our last campaign of spring 2024. We gathered. We surrounded the sign. And just as the picture was about to be taken, the manager of the Waffle House and our waitress ran out. The manager offered to take the picture, the waitress handed me a handful of Waffle House hats to adorn our heads. We had not just invaded this Waffle House. We had emerged victorious. 

The final Waffleer shot of our spring 2024 campaigns.

Returning to our base camp at 221B Con, it would be some time before I took that Waffle House hat off. One of the vendors who sold Waffle House earrings converted some of them to necklaces, and I wore that the rest of the weekend when the hat did finally come off. What does any of this have to do with Sherlock Holmes? 

I do not know. But it's too late to even ask.

A Waffleer.

The Hallmark of a Scandal in Bohemia Romance

 During our recent discussion of "A Scandal in Bohemia" at our local library, we came upon a realization that couldn't be unrealized: "A Scandal in Bohemia" has all the makings of a Hallmark movie.

There is the prince, of course. Hallmark movies love their princes. The fairy tale come true.

And our Hallmark adaptation of "A Scandal in Bohemia" starts in what is typically the last act of of a "girl meets prince" story. Irene Adler in finishing her final performance with the Imperial Opera of Warsaw, her vocals providing the soundtrack for the opening credits as Wilhelm Gottsrich Sigismond von Ormstein watches adoringly from his box, fiddling excitedly with a small box, that we eventually see has a ring in it.

Irene's performance finishes and she rushes backstage, immediately asking her best friend/costumer if the bags are packed. Her pal replies that of course they are, and already en route to the station. Irene is returning to America and her roots after finding Europe just too traditional and trapped in its history. They leave the theater and start to get into a waiting four-wheeler only to find the handsome and charming King Willie inside. Irene is angry at first, but he wins her over, convincing her that her American ideas are just what Bohemia needs and if she agrees to marry him, they will show Europe that new ideas are possible.

Cut to three weeks later, with title card saying "Three weeks later . . ."

Willie, sitting cowed with his mother and his ministers, telling Irene that his royal duties must take precedence over his personal desires and that he cannot be with her. His mother states that travel arrangements have been made and that she has passage booked to America, and that the Bohemian royal guards will now escort her to a waiting ship. As they leave the palace, however, Irene eludes her escorts and leads them on a merry chase, finally taking refuge in the British Embassy.

Here we meet the slightly awkward but endearing Godfrey Norton, who at first tries to talk her into going to the American embassy, but eventually sees the menacing-looking Bohemian guards outside the embassy searching for her and agrees to help her escape.

Norton has some emergency documents they keep at the embassy allowing Godfrey and Irene to pose as a Canadian couple and leave Bohemia by train. A lot of cute stuff goes on here, and at one point in the journey Irene accidentally sees this awkward Brit with his shirt off and realizes what a hunk o' man he is, as Hallmark movies tend to go with. She is recognized by a fan at some point, and the King of Bohemia's agents start making trouble, stealing her luggage (which makes her wear charming local garb so Godfrey can see that she's just a normal American girl and not a fancy opera star), and attacking twice with Irene and Godfrey working so naturally together in fending them off that it brings them closer together. A mystery man is watching them as well, but they don't notice.

News of the King's impending marriage comes to them, and Irene sends the King a telegram telling him to call off his agents or she will send the photo of him and her to his fiancee's family. Godfrey and Irene were getting pretty close, but Godfrey is put off by the fact Irene still has a photo of her and the King, thinking feelings still exist.

At this point, the Watson-written part of "A Scandal in Bohemia" kicks in. Irene has settled temporarily in London, and Godfrey is preparing to return to embassy duty in Europe, when he is summoned to Whitehall by one Mycroft Holmes, who wants to know why he's helping this American woman screw up an important alliance-cementing European royal wedding. Godfrey tries to tell Mycroft that Irene is a good person who has authentic feelings for the King and a broken heart, but Mycroft then tells Godfrey that his best agent had been watching Godfrey and Irene since Bohemia (the mystery man mentioned earlier) who steps in to report that Irene Adler is plainly in love with Godfrey, not the King. Mycroft points out that if Godfrey were to marry Irene, she would pose no threat the the King, and Godfrey awkwardly wraps up the conversation and rushes out.

Godfrey and Irene have their big moment, ending all confusion and admitting their love for each other, and we soon get all the rush to get married part with Sherlock Holmes as their witness that we know so well.

The story concludes with Godfrey and Irene happy and headed for America, Willie and Clothilde happily at their Scandinavian royal wedding, and Irene's costumer friend having a meet cute with Dr. Watson.

The final mid-credit scene of the movie is Sherlock Holmes visiting his brother Mycroft and comparing notes, with Mycroft alluding that he actually solved the problem and that Sherlock wasn't needed. And that maybe Sherlock should see about finding a wife of Irene's caliber, which Sherlock nopes in some funny fashion that may or may not involve Watson.

The End.

It's the spaces in between what we know of the King, Irene, and Godfrey that make "A Scandal in Bohemia" true Hallmark movie fodder. Watson's different, distant POV only gives us the most scant outline of the romance that lies beneath the King and Sherlock story, and neither of them is the true lead character of "A Scandal in Bohemia."

I really hope Hallmark does adapt the tale one day and bring it to its true potential. And let Godfrey Norton finally have his due and his Irene.

The Blood and Bone of Sherlockiana

 During some recent conversations about The Watsonian, the journal of the John H. Watson Society, I started thinking about the body of the Sherlockian party and its two most important parts: the blood and the bones.

The bones of Sherlock Holmes fandom are old and solid, over a century old. The original Canon. The Victorian era. The Sherlockian societies. The pseudo-scholarship, studying Holmes as if his were historical. Traditional Sherlockiana.

The blood of Sherlock Holmes fandom are hot and fast-moving, surging and receding. The movies. The TV shows. The popular Sherlock in any medium, getting people excited, inspiring them to write, to draw, to create . . . and to learn more about Sherlock Holmes.

And like any body, we need both to keep Sherlockiana alive.

The bones might look at the blood and go, "This blood was not here last year and will be gone next year. It does not have the importance of bone. It flows here and there and does not stay in one place as bones do. Bones are secure. Bones give comfort."

And the blood, the blood just looks at bone and goes, "Boring old bones. Never changing, not moving on the way blood does. Blood is life, blood is energy, blood powers action, creativity, joy."

When BBC Sherlock came and hit Sherlockian fandom, there were many on the side of bone Sherlockiana who were a little afraid of blood Sherlockiana flowing in and replacing their cherished tradition with a tide that would ebb. They set up walls and went "this is a literary hobby," knowing full well that Sherlockian cinephiles have been with us as long as movies. And the new blood so often replied in kind, not having the patience to deal with those old dry bones and their stiff traditional structures. And yet, there were still old bones who welcomed the energy of new blood, and new blood that saw the value in old bones that had been holding up Sherlockiana before they came.

Sherlockiana, like any body, needs both to endure. New Sherlockians rarely come from reading Victorian literature for entertainment without being led to it by some more modern text, be it written, filmed, or otherwise made to intrigue the mind of today.

The John H. Watson Society and its publications have long had one foot in both worlds, publishing both fanfic and the most studious of papers on Dr. Watson's life. Not every publication has the bandwidth or audience to do that, we've been lucky that way. Exploring a man with so much mystery and depth as John H. Watson takes both research and imagination, treatises on the Battle of Maiwand and fic explorations of how his character would live as a leprechaun cohabitating with a pixie Sherlock Holmes. There is something to be gained from looking at all sides of this gem of a man.

The blood and the bones of Sherlockiana. Together they make us whole and bring this hobby to life, every single day.

221B Con 2024: The Penultimate 221B Con?

I was a younger man when 221B Con started eleven years ago. That's my primary excuse for not keeping up with ongoing blog reporting as the weekend went on this time. Also, I'm not sure how I found the time in the past . . . or the wifi connection? In any case, my lack of ongoing reportage is not because there are things to report. And I did try, as you will see. 

So let us return now to Thursday of last week . . . 

Here’s the initial pro tip for attending 221B Con: Arrive on Thursday, if at all possible. Also, don’t spend the entire day driving, if you can help it. My sweet spot itinerary is to get the to eastern side of Nashville by Wednesday night, then make the scenic drive down through Chattanooga Thursday morning, lost that hour in the dreaded time zone crossing, stop at the Georgia Welcome Center, then get to the Atlanta Marriott Airport mid-afternoon before rush hour fills up the ring road.

After checking in and settling down, the hotel has a really nice area for watching the familiar faces roll in, and those initial hellos are one of the best parts of any Sherlockian weekend. Giving them a little extra time in never a bad idea.

Last year I made the mistake of becoming a dealer’s room dealer and didn’t get to bounce around the con like usual, but the one thing I did get in during 2023 was an early meeting of what was initially called “the Southern Waffleers.” That Waffle House based Sherlockian society has grown immensely since we dragged Paul Thomas Miller there last year for his and my first time at the classic southern eatery, where the waitress was more shocked that there was an American of a certain age who had never been there before than an Englishman. So when the Waffleers headed out at 8AM Friday morning, I was with them. And when we returned and found my friends from the John H. Watson Society had slept late and still needed an alert Waffle House driver, I decided a second Waffle House visit was needed.vAfter returning to the same table and freaking out the same waitress two of us had served only an hour before, I settled into the waffle I skipped during first breakfast. A second good time was had.

And then back to the hotel, yet again, where we ran into Marilynne McKay, one of the original fiver traditional Sherlockians who had been there at the first 221B Con eleven years ago. Getting the big table near the entrance, my fellow podcast bullpups from the John H. Watson Society and I recorded our weekly review of Sherlock & Co. with Marilynne as our guest. Soooo, podcasting taking precedence over blogging . . . another excuse from me for not getting this out sooner.

Late afternoon is registration time for the con, and the numbers of Diogenes Club (lifetime con attendees) in their registration line was longer than ever. This con has a very dedicated core following. A quick circle of the dealer’s room, which was still getting its tables filled when it opened at five, and I was off to the first set of panels, already in progress.

The room for “Adapting Sherlock Holmes” was full, so instead of creeping in to a corner there, I headed next door to the 25th Anniversary of The Phantom Menace, which a certain person had encouraged me to attend due to a bit of a debate we’ve had over that film. That room was so cold, however, that I went to my room to retrieve my sweatshirt, which turned out to be still in my car. When I eventually made it back to the con area, I ran into Rob Nunn which . . .

[SCREECHING HALT IN MY TYPING]

As I type this in the “221B Con Redux” panel reminscing about past cons, we just got the announcemnt that next year will be the last con. The BBC Sherlock surge that made a con of this size financially possible has faded, so I had started to wonder about such things. And while the news is sad, I’m sympathetic, and the fact they’re giving us one last year to go out with a last hurrah is definitely the way to go. 

I hate to jump in time, from Friday to Saturday, but the news and a break between panels sent me into retail therapy mode in the dealer’s room. (Operating on five hours of sleep, for reasons to be described later, and I’m a little more emotional than I would be on a full night’s sleep.) Some good artists that I haven’t seen before have some nice stuff, and while I’m not a Johnlock shipper, there’s a parody of the classic Sidney Paget train art of Holmes and Watson that has them bending forward for a kiss that’s totally delightful in both execution and rebelling against tradition. After years of admiring the wardrobe vendor’s wares, I went for a shirt and vest that were very reasonably priced. Conversations happen about the last-con news as I move through the dealer’s room, and even after I drop my purchases off in the room and hit the food truck outside, 

But let us now return to Friday eve. I had run into Rob Nunn just before he was sitting on his first panel -- on Sherlock and education, which I then attended. While I hadn’t signed up for an panels this year, the “Arthur ‘Continuity’ Doyle” panel had a panelist who couldn’t make it, so I was asked to sit in, having done it many years before. So 6:30 found me in the Georgia room, discussing all the little continuity issues, primarily about Watson -- wounds, wives, knowledge of Moriarty, all the raw materials Sherlockians have let their imaginations run wild on for over a hundred years.

The Victorian manners panel starts a bit later after than, and following that, I suspect I settled into conversation somewhere, as one does at 221B Con, and missed a panel or two after that. Some 11 PM pizza in the bar, more socialiizing, and eventually hitting the already full-force karaoke party at 1 AM. Rusty Mason used his influence with the DJ to get me a spot on the already full song list, and a couple of songs later, I wind up bellowing my go-to, “Flagpole Sitta.” And suddenly it’s two in the morning. A mere five hours sleep followed, as I had to be up for another Waffle House trip at eight.

By the end of Saturday, the “Southern Waffleers” were officially renamed the “221st Southumberland Waffleers” by the head waffle (or whatever position Steve Mason holds). Yes, it was my third Waffle House visit this trip in 24 hours. Does that make the Waffleers a cult? As I write this on Sunday morning, I’m actually wearing the paper WH hat from our most recent trip -- our waitress had actually run outside with a stack of hats for us as we posed for a photo by the roadside sign, which was handy when Ashley Polasek suddenly expressed the need for one during the later BSI scion society panel.

Back the con, the first panel of the morning for me was not “Mycrofts through the Ages,’ but "221B Con Redux," a panel about past con memories, where the announcement of next year’s final 221B Con came out. After that, I went to the dealer’s room to tell a few friends the news.

A lot of bouncing around between panels and the food truck followed. The Sherlock & Co. panel was one of the best panels of the con, with four enthusiastic panelists who introduced themselves as Coat, bullpup Maddie, bullpup Starlight, and Jones. (Hint: The editor of The Watsonian, two cohosts from The Watsonian Weekly, and artist 4thelneyj0nes, from my POV.) Jones turned out to be the artist whose work I'd already admired in the dealer's room, and finding out that some of the art I didn't recognize what his visual interpretation of the Sherlock & Co. audio characters, I had to go buy some more art.

At that point, I'm not sure what happened in the haze of con stuff, but I missed the Dynamics of a Podcast "From Baker Street to the Holodeck" panel. Some panels moved around on Saturday night, so things got a little more hazy as I write this two days later. There was a Sherlolly panel, a fan fiction workshop panel, Victorian soda fountain creations . . . and some other Sherlockian things I definitely missed.

Eventually it lead to hanging out in the bar, the Saturday night dance party and all of us dressing up in whatever we had on hand for "prom" photos that the official con photographer Christ has somewhere. We wound up in Mrs. Hudson's lounge at some point, for more chats with different folks, but I forced myself to end the evening at 1 AM this time to try to get a little more sleep (this weekend had a few necessary naps in it).

But since this is 221B Con, Sunday is still a day of programming, and after a nine-Sherlockian trip to Waffle House yet again, there was a queer interpretations of Canon panel, an "ASH, BSI, and Other Sherlockian Orgs" panel, one on Young Sherlock Holmes, a nap break, Ashley Polasek and Curtis Armstrong in full academic gear doing a "Skippable Canon" hour of entertainment, and finally the "Our Last Bow" panel at which our con hosts let the attendees ask questions and offer appreciations. With the news of next year being the final con, this eventually turned into a "How do we keep this going?" discussion, as diehard 221B Con Bees brainstormed, suggested, and wondered about how to keep next year's con from being the last.

Was it just working through the "bargaining" phase of the five stages of grief? Or will something catch fire and somehow keep 221B Con going? The next year will tell that tale. And just because something goes away, as we learned during Covid, it does not necessarily mean it won't come back in some form. The alchemy that created 221B Con might not be a recipe that works as well in 2025 as it did in 2015, and sometimes that's just life. BBC Sherlock gave us an energy that's worn off at this point, and one questions if CBS Watson will even be a small jolt -- CBS's Elementary never had the presence at con of its British counterpart, and media representations are a big part of 221B Con. But as we learned Sunday afternoon, it's easy to do sports-type analysis of what coaching can make the team have a successful season next year.

I think I'll leave it at that, because it's Monday and I now need to pack up my car to start driving home. Had a great time, as always, and wondering how long the infinity symbol "temporary" tattoo is going to be on the back of my left hand. More blogs to come . . .

The Full Spectrum Sherlockian

 We were discussing pastiches the other night, and it got me to thinking about all the different ways we celebrate Sherlock Holmes. And in considering it, I started to realize there's a bit of a spectrum to it all. And in delineating it out, it seemed to need a coding system to it, and I bet you can guess what the "R" and the "F" stand for. So here's my first draft:

• R4 - England. (This topic more favored by Americans who aren't living it every day.)
• R3 - The Victorian period in England, its history and culture.
• R2 - Conan Doyle's place in the Victorian period, his life and literature.
• R1 - Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, the history of their creation and publication.
• F1 - John H. Watson's Sherlock Holmes stories, the history of their creation and publication.
• F2 - Sherlock Holmes's place in the Victorian period, his Canonical life and career.
• F3 - The 221B Baker Street period, the non-Canonical history of Canonical people, places, and things.
• F4 - Any world with Sherlock Holmes in it.

Me, I tend to stay in the "F" end of the pool, where we splash around and play. The "R" side of the pool is where the swim team plays by the rules of their swimming and diving sports. Some ambitious swimmers can do both sides of the pool, of course, being disciplined and staying in the swim lanes for certain events, then coming back to enjoy the water slides and lazy rivers, but that's not to say that the "F" side of the pool doesn't have people working just as hard at their fun as anyone on the "R" side.

Worn that metaphor out yet? I think so.

Anyway, the thing that has kept Sherlockiana alive all these years isn't just that people love that Sherlock Holmes. You can only read the original sixty stories so much, no matter how much of a purist you are. At some point you have to go outside the Canon proper and find something else to do, some other trails to follow. Could be studying Conan Doyle, could be writing your own stories, but they emanate from the same place: that love of Sherlock Holmes that takes you beyond level one, be it in the direction of "R" or "F." 

And here's the other thing -- there's so much Sherlock Holmes out there at this point that there are Sherlockians who didn't start their journey at "R1" or "F1." If you came to Holmes from Robert Downey Jr.'s Holmes, for example, you might have started at F4 and worked back to F1, maybe even continuing the journey to R2 or R3. It's very common to wander around that spectrum in search of a comfy place to settle. And I can already see the problem with a linear view of the spectrum. Where do the people that love to study the history of Sherlockian fandom find a spot on there? How about Holmes film historians? 

Suddenly it seems there has to be an "R2A" or "F4B" for Christopher Morley or CBS's Elementary. Some things just can't be put in a box, no matter how hard you try, kind of like the reason the DSM has had five editions since its inception in the 1950s. (Not to say that Sherlockiana is a mental disorder -- I'll leave that diagnosis to some of our friendly experts in that field.) We don't need to classify our fellow Sherlockians.

But the exercise of pondering a spectrum of Sherlock Holmes fandom is good for reminding yourself of all the varieties of folks and fun we have within this hobby of ours, and taking a panoramic view of just how lovely it is when you step back and look.

The Valley of Fear-ly Odd Nudity

 Another Holmes discussion group eve at the North Peoria library, and always some new treat from an old story from one of our regulars. Tonight Dale pointed out the oddest part of phrases regarding how the victim was dressed:

"He was clad only in a pink dressing gown . . ." is a plain enough phrase. The dead guy only had on a pink dressing gown, right? But then you finish the sentence, and find " . . . which covered his night clothes."

Don't night clothes count as clothes? But it doesn't stop there!

"There were carpet slippers on his bare feet." How could his feet be bare if he had slippers on?

And in both cases: Why does Watson seem to want his corpse to be naked so badly? It's almost as if he is giving us hints to the answers to this mystery. The dead man came wearing different clothes and got shot in the face. Then somebody stripped him down, so he was naked at one point, at which point one of the men who stripped him down also got naked. Is there a secret Sidney Paget drawing somewhere where the naked dead man is laying there while the naked live man starts to dress the dead one in his clothes?

Or of the naked live man putting the naked dead man's clothes into the moat before scampering off naked to find more clothes?

Should we even let children read The Valley of Fear with all this shocking implied nudity!?!

And John Douglas went immediately into the hidey-hole of his after the clothes-switch, and Watson never states he was wearing anything but a wedding ring when he comes out, so are we to then surmise that the entire final scene of the mystery has a naked man in the middle of it?

Watson's narration is quick to leave that scene and move on to the flashback part of the novel, possibly so he doesn't have to describe John Douglas finally getting dressed again.

There were a lot of other comments about The Valley of Fear tonight, and the fact that Allan Pinkerton seems to have thought about suing Conan Doyle for turning a private conversation into a novel really fascinates me. But the true surprise was finding out just what the naked truth of this novel was.

It's practically the Poor Things of its day!

Crimes Against Sherlockiana

 Communities.

Gotta love ‘em. Just spent a very lovely weekend in the heart of one of our little "family reunions" as some have called a good Sherlockian weekend. One of my favorite moments even occurred after it was all over and done, when everybody just decided to have their departure breakfast, not in the hotel's free breakfast lounge, but at the local Waffle House. Waffle House restaurants are not that big, but there were fifteen of us, taking up all the booths and seats in the main seating area. Old friends, new friends, and a great spirit of community.

There's a lot of love in Sherlockiana. But at the same time as I was enjoying this weekend's festivities, another friend was going through the opposite side of the coin. Because Sherlockians may be the best people in the world, a fact we will state easily after a good weekend like the one I just had in Dayton, but we also have our assholes and we also have our tempers. We discuss Sherlock Holmes, not politics or religion for the most part, which is our lovely common ground. And most of us have the good sense to steer away from politics or religion when those come up. Texans and Californians can sit down at a Sherlockian dinner table and get along just fine.

But occasionally, one of us will get all fired up with righteous anger at some matter or the other that has nothing to do with the Sherlockian world (or within it) and cause a hard break with another Sherlockian. This has happened twice in the last six months with different folks that I know of, and it's something that happens in communities. Fighting, when it doesn't get physical, isn't necessarily a crime. And being an asshole in itself isn't a crime. But when we get put in a situation where we have to start deciding who our better friend of two Sherlockians is . . . it almost starts to feel like crime and punishment, because oftimes, somebody is going to get ostracized from part of the community, or exile themselves rather than put up with a certain person. Either way, we lose.

As a Sherlockian who has behaved badly upon occasion (and still can blunder into that realm on occasion), but still considers himself a sweet and lovable soul, I really hate to see when this stuff happens to other people. Nobody wins, even if one of the parties gets a whole "God is on my side!" self-righteous thing going and won't let go of it. (Been there, done that.) Because once you start @#$%ing with people's friends, they may not come at you directly, but you can start getting quietly left off guest lists and other such things.

I'm seriously thinking about dropping a person off a certain list I manage right now, for going after one of my friends. And I hate that. It's been done to me, and I don't want to be that person. Nobody wants to be a gatekeeper, even if that gate is only for one individual. (But, goddammit, you don't go after people's friends.) We should all know better, or at least learn that at some point. And we might be at a point where someone needs to learn to do better, because no matter how right you think you are, when you do damage in our Sherlockian community, more people are gonna feel it than you realize. And you might just rob us of some talent we really enjoy, which is definitely a crime.

Sherlockiana is a great community, as we know. Communities as a whole, are a key part of the human experience. But living in a community does not come without some work and some responsibility. We have to actively work on being our better selves, forgiving a few moments of bad choices now and then, and taking serious care when deciding that someone needs to be excommunicated from our personal version of that Sherlockian community. While nobody has the power to completely banish someone from Sherlockiana, even with a full cancellation campaign, a lot of folks will decide to leave due to one asshole treating them badly, or one incident where they got triggered to behave a little badly themselves. 

We miss those people. Our numbers are not so large that we don't notice new gaps. And we're always glad to see a familiar Sherlockian face turn up at a gathering just like a surprise "221B" sticker on a bumper in a parking lot, or a bunch of folks at a Waffle House.

So be careful out there. 

Holmes, Doyle, & Friends: Nine

Outside of the BSI weekend in New York, I don’t think any. place has hosted many Sherlockian weekends as Dayton, Ohio. Decades and decades of weekends, organized by different generations of hosts and hostesses, have brought Sherlockians to Ohio for both scholarship and fun in about any way you can imagine.

My day began very early, as I wanted to join the latest gathering of the Southern Waffleers

After an hour or so of dealer’s table browsing and socializing, David Harnois began the program with “Setting Up Camp: How I Build A Scene.” Using the classic tent joke for his example, David showed us the layers of building an audio scene in Audacity. I learned a few things for my podcast work, which may or may not be a good thing, depending upon your view of the proliferation of podcasting at this point.

Kira Settingsgard came up next, starting with a disclaimer that her talk titled “We Love Sherlock ... but Would Sherlock Love Us?” would not involve diagnosing anyone in the Canon or not. Would Shelrock Holmes come to Sherlockian events? What were his attachments based on? What were his attachment styles? We soon learn it’s “dismissive or avoidant” . . . and suddenly I’m feeling very called out as we get into what that means. Her analysis of Holmes’s friends is fascinating and shows us just how real Sherlock Holmes was as a character.

I like a talk where I get details of the Canon I had never thought about before, and Kira’s point that both Watson and Victor Trevor bonded with Holmes at a time when they had a dog is very interesting.

A break follows, and time to dash around and see what the other vendors have to offer, which is tricky when you have a dealer’s table to man, which I did this year.

After the break, Texas Sherlockian Tim Kline starts his talk singing, and quickly gets into talking about games and Sherlock Holmes’s appearances in them. Did you know the very first Clue game had Sherlock Holmes’s name on the box? Yes, Doyle’s kids didn’t like that very much and made Parker Brothers take it off. There are more games with Sherlock Holmes on them than you ever imagined, and Tim rolls through more weird and wacky bits about Holmes and games than I can easily mention here. Another great talk -- the variety this year is far-ranging and enjoyable so far.

Madeline Quinones follows time with a history of Sherlockian podcasts -- can you believe we’ve had enough podcasts and time with them passed to have history? Starting with “I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere,” the grandpappy of Sherlockian podcasts” (which is a weird thing for me to say for such young show), Madeline walks us through more podcasts than any of us knew existed, and makes me realize that these weekends are going to be more and more a source of learning just all that exists.

That brings us to lunch, and I have to say -- Madeline did a good job of holding my interest and winding up before hunger started distracting me!

After a quick sandwich lunch, more dealing and shopping in the dealer’s room, David Harnois and Mike McSwiggin portrayed Holmes and Watson in a little “playlet” reminiscent of a certain Abbot and Costello routine. A recent Dayton staple, Ira Matetsky, educates and entertains us on Liberty magazine and its time running later Sherlock Holmes stories. A memorable key fact toward Doyle’s motivations for his last run of stories for Liberty -- adjusted for time and inflation, etc., Ira estimates Conan Doyle was making about $85,000 per story.

Ira winds up answering questions and gets in a good ad lib about not getting a spirit connection from Doyle in the next world, which leads well into longtime BSI George Skornickel speaking on Conan Doyle spiritualism.

A break celebrates Bob Sharman’s birthday, which happened to be today, with a cake with his face on it. My particular dealer’s table went into “going out of business” mode, slashing prices to nil, which tends to move some merch. And then it was time for Max Magee to explain to us one path to becoming a Sherlockian. Where do we fit on his Sherlockian version of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? He then illustrates what each step entails, complete with hats. Was Max’s talk so enjoyable for us because he was talking about us? I would not say that was NOT the case.

After Max has explained the levels of Sherlockiana to us, it is only fitting that the last speaker of the day is a top level Sherlockian like Burt Wolder. In lieu of a slide show, Burt gave us all a souvenir card reproducing Conan Doyle’s 1929 drawing “The Old Horse.” Burt’s talk then goes through the various boxes loading the wagon of Doyle’s life in his drawing with well-thought expertise. It’s a novel way to look at Conan Doyle’s time. He brings it back to our own lives in the end. And with that, the program begins to wind to a close.

On to happy hour and banquet time!