When Sherlock Holmes has to go into the garbage . . .

Going to whine a bit this afternoon, so forgive me.

 Forty-five years of Sherlockian life does lead to a certain level of accumulation.

I'm not talking about collecting here. I'm talking about the bits and pieces that either just came your way or were extras of things you created or just generally had Sherlock's name or picture or was related to something that had Sherlock's name or picture. Now, the following words might bother a few of you, and there may be some denial triggered as well, so take a breath and just hold for a second after I use these words, but I think what I'm talking about here is Sherlockian trash.

I know, I know, "one man's trash is another man's treasure," but sometimes you just shouldn't be held responsible for finding that other man. Only so much time in the world, and sometimes, the trash has to be taken out. Or recycled.

Whilst a lot of society functions in the paperless world of the internet at this point, t'was not always so. Materials were printed, photocopied, mimeographed, or retyped for even the most limited of moments -- a paper presented at scion meeting for eight people that you made fifteen copies of, for example. Not something you throw away immediately, and eventually these pile up. Or those thirty extra copies of the local Sherlockian society newsletter that got printed up in 1992, that, gee, they're old, but are they collectable? Copies were send to the big library archives back in the day, so it's not like they're vanishing off the face of the earth if you dump a few.

And there's a limited amount of this stuff you can pass along to younger Sherlockian friends as novelty items. Or sit out on a giveaway table at a con. And a lot of it doesn't have meaning or significance to anyone from another generation or who wasn't there at the time, and you can't expect it to. They have their own detritus picked up along their path.

As impossible as it may seem to some younger version of ourselves, especially a 1980s incarnation, eventually one has to decide that not everything with a deerstalker and a pipe is a holy relic. And some of it might actually need to go into the trash. We do live in an age of massive storage for digital photos of things, so that might ease the conscience a little bit, as throwing photos on a blog might give the Sherlockian historical record a chance of seeing the thing if it ever needs seen. 

For now, back to cleaning . . .

What To Say.

 So, I have this blog.

I've had a blog for twenty-two years now. Ten of those years were on a website that no longer exists, where I'd post weekly, on Sunday nights. After that came this version, where posts came at the pace of things to write. Daily for events, weekly if I could manage, and otherwise, randomly as the spirit moved.

 The spirit doesn't seem to be moving me as much lately, for several reasons. First, especially when it comes to the aforementioned Sunday nights, is that I somehow wandered into other outlets, and now put out a weekly podcast, a monthly chronology newsletter, host a monthly Zoom, and, oh, yes, there's that other podcast hanging out there that I haven't ever quite figured out what to do with. Sometimes, you just get ideas for stuff that hold on to you like a curse. And that's just on the Sherlockian side. I won't get into the things my job has been putting me through of late.

Okay, okay, let's not worry that this is one of those "I have to leave" statements we see so often on social media and the like. This isn't that.

This is me just wondering what to write. Like I said, other things competing for time, but at the same time, something has changed. The internet has changed, to be sure. The algorithms have taken the reliability of anything you write being seen away, unless you pay to play. And we live in an age where we are overrun with opinions, and I am no longer young enough to foolishly believe my opinion is all that important for the world to hear. Annnnd, at some point, you've had the same opinions long enough that even you're bored with them. The world isn't going to change on some points, as foolish as they might be.

The world literally has more writers than it ever has. More published writers, too, now that the gatekeepers are barely holding the gates up, just so name celebrities can walk through. Can an individual writer's voice can be heard against the din? I wonder about that, too.

And we're all just fodder for somebody's AI or the other at this point. Any Zoom call your on is apt to have a little AI assistant quietly making notes of what was said, like a creepy little spy in the corner of the room. It can take the best of what you said, combine it with better things it learned from other places, and make its own swell-sounding statements.

It all can be pretty depressing, if one is leaning toward the gloom, especially with all the other shit flowing from a certain volcano of rot of late. And what can one do against all of these bleak omens of shadows overtaking the Earth?

I guess one can write. And even if one has nothing to say, there are still some words that will follow other words into forming sentences, and sentences into paragraphs. And maybe just have enough humanity left in the results to let our friends know that we're still alive and maybe not a software replicant of someone they used to know . . . for now.

And on we go.

So, I'm thinking this was the first guy Sherlock Holmes killed.

 Our library book club that only does short stories, and only short stories with Sherlock Holmes in them, and only the ones by Conan Doyle, except sometimes we do those four novels . . . well, anyway, we met tonight. And we talked about "The Boscombe Valley Mystery." And I had this thought.

At the end of the case, Sherlock Holmes says, "I never hear of such a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes."

Now, the case he's talking about involved a guy who killed a blackmailer from his past. Sherlock Holmes was hired by the guy's daughter, and the guy is old and supposedly dying anyway, so Sherlock lets him off. But that thing he says . . . "There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes." It sounds like Sherlock Holmes has just heard old Turner's confession and thought, "Wow, I really relate to that."

But why would he think that? Had he killed a blackmailer who returned from his past to haunt him?

Or maybe helped kill a blackmailer who returned from the past to haunt that friend's family member?

It seemed like such an odd thing for Holmes to say out of context that I immediately theorized tonight that Holmes must have done that very thing. And we know that Holmes's start in the crime business was a triggering incident in the story Watson wrote up as "The Gloria Scott." And, gee, there was that blackmailer Hudson that came out of Trevor Senior's past in that story, just as the events in Boscombe Valley played out. Could Holmes and his college buddy Victor Trevor have killed Hudson, just as old Turner did in Boscombe Valley?

Victor Trevor does flee England to live in southern Nepal or northern India after whatever happened at his family home. Sherlock Holmes returns to London and seeks our a fellow lodger so he has an excuse to fund a landlady named Mrs. Hudson in need of tenants. And eventually we are. told that Holmes paid Mrs. Hudson "princely sums." Was someone trying to ease some guilt with those payments?

It seemed pretty odd as well for Sherlock Holmes, after telling Watson about Hudson in that case write-up to just basically go, "The police think Hudson killed another guy named Beddoes and fled, but I think Beddoes killed him." So if Hudson's body ever did turn up, Holmes has a pre-selected suspect from a case he's have surely solved if it had been just hanging out in his origin story all that time.

It has always seemed a bit coincidental that we never hear of Mr. Hudson or what happened to him, and maybe that was on purpose . . . because we sort of did hear. Was "The Gloria Scott" Watson's way of telling us without telling us, even though Holmes was thought to be dead when he published it?

A number of criminals who passed through Sherlock Holmes's casebooks had mysterious deaths after seeming to escape justice. And Hudson was the first. 

Maybe the first at not escaping justice, thanks to Sherlock Holmes, as well?

The Montague Street Incorrigibles Pub Night 2024

 Here it is, mid-October already, and, well, we'd best think a bit about January, as many an American Sherlockians (and a few of our kin elsewhere) are apt to do in the fall. Does Sherlock Holmes's Birthday actually fall in January? As a dedicated Sherlockian chronologist, I have to answer "Who knows?"  -- but what I do know is that a lot of Sherlockians find that time to be their season for seeing and being seen.

The evening of Friday, January 17 is rather key to that, Baker Street Irregulars annual dinner and all, but there are always those whose awareness of that evening centers around the fact that they can't be in New York for one of the dinners held that night. So what's left for those of us in our scattered abodes that night?

Well, the Montague Street Incorrigibles, of course.

Less strict admittance standards, no need to dress up, and we have our spies.

It's the a six-hour Zoom hangout that's never the same twice. (Except for the arcane membership ritual, which inducts those who undergo its rigors into the society. There's a nifty PDF membership certificate endorsed by an ape!) What will happen this year? Who knows? Possibly more to come on that, but it's mainly a way to spend an evening with some fellow Sherlockians when you can't be with the pilgrims making their way to New York City for the annual rituals there.

Here's the link for registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwof-qgqjsoH9AItYBhp8Rkm4j5x5_s1vpT

There's no other gathering like it, and it's never recorded, since everybody has to miss something that night! So if you already know what your plans aren't going to be on Friday night January 17th between the hours of 6 P.M. to midnight Eastern time, think about joining the motley crew at "the Dangling Prussian," our virtual meeting place where it is always 1895. (And hopefully, the world hasn't exploded by then!)

What Will Happen To Sherlock Holmes's Killer After "The Final Problem?"

 Every day I scroll through a news feed where some algorithm looks through what TV shows I watch, and see endless headlines that ask me easily answerable questions. They are questions that don't require an entire story to answer, questions that are only there to get a click routing to a page full of adds wrapped around one or two paragraphs of non-info.

The original stories of Sherlock Holmes, of course, came out in a different era. 

Media in that time was just newspapers, letters, and word of mouth, and while newspapers were trying to get you to read them with big headlines shouted by newsboys, the ads were only a part of the revenue stream. You still had to pay for the paper. And those headlines were about the biggest stories that affected the most people. The London Times never tried to pull Jane Austen fans into buying papers with speculation about Elizabeth Bennett as the front page leader.

The internet, however, can slice and dice its readership into the slimmest tailored niche headlines. Had "The Final Problem" been published today, two years later, with another eight before "Empty House," we'd be getting constant headlines like "Conan Doyle Reveals Future Of Sherlock Holmes" (He was asked about writing more Holmes for the fiftieth time, he said "No." For the fiftieth time.). Or "What Will Happen To Sherlock Holmes's Killer After 'The Final Problem?'" (Well, we think he fell off that waterfall and died, but nobody saw it or found the body. You actually thought we knew more than you? Silly fan!)

The headline leading to the non-story is but one technique these "news" sites use to draw clicks. Another is picking some other site's actual essay and reporting on that as their own news story. Let's give that a try!

Christopher Plummer Portrays An Odd Preachy Sherlock

Is Christopher Plummer's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in "Murder By Decree" a good representation of the classic detective?

In a recent blog post from Two Tarnished Beeches Christopher Plummer's performance was judged "odd" and "preachy" in a discussion that fans of Christopher Plummer will certainly disagree with. 

Now, a sensible person is going to click on that link to the original post and quit reading the re-hash that was written just to generate a headline, but at that point, the derivative site has already got you to click on their link and shown you their ads. 

Sherlock Holmes having fans means that we will always get clickbait about "Sherlock Holmes 3" or Benedict Cumberbatch or whatever comes next. We don't get quite the YouTube attention of a Disney-owned property, but maybe we just haven't found the right You-Tuber yet. That's a completely different topic . . .

Some weeks later . . . .

When I originally wrote this bit about clickbait headlines, I thought I had see the internet at its worst. Then came today's headlines on Google News, "Walmart to Shut Down All Stores in Illinois: What This Means To You," "Supermarkets Announce 1-day Store Closures -- Official Date Now Available," and on and on and on about stores announcing they're closing, until about fifteen headlines down someone finally gives the game away with "Walmart, Target will be closed for Thanksgiving again this year."  Yep, same as every year. Good lord, the world has gone stupid . . . .

Hugh Laurie in the Sherlock & Co. Universe

 Things got weird this week in the world of Sherlock & Co., that podcast every Sherlockian should be giving a listen to. In a Patreon exclusive mailbag episode, their "Mrs. Hudson" was answering questions and stated that her favorite doctor was Hugh Laurie in House. This was Marianna speaking as herself in the universe of the show, where she works with Sherlock Holmes and was being read mailbag questions by Doctor John H. Watson.

And yet she likes Hugh Laurie in a TV show, that, in our world, was inspired by Sherlock Holmes.

I have questions!

In Sherlock & Co.'s world, does Gregory House live at 221 Baker Street in apartment B?

In Sherlock & Co.'s world, who does Hugh Laurie play in that movie he was in with Will Farrell and John C. Reilly, and what was that movie's title?

In Sherlock & Co.'s world, does Marianna also like that actor who plays Dr. Strange? And how does she feel about that Everett K. Ross character, played by Martin Freeman? Is she a fan of Martin Freeman?

I felt like shouting "THEY"RE CROSSING THE STREAMS! THEY"RE CROSSING THE STREAMS!" out my window, as my brain tried to parse out this universe that has a Holmes-related actor in a world where Sherlock Holmes isn't from some hundred plus year old stories.

Sherlock & Co. is so full of pop culture references that I'm sure this is not the last time we'll be faced with such a puzzler. But I'm looking forward to everything that comes next on and around that show!

So let's talk about Sherlock Holmes s**tposting . . .

 We all have our opinions. And we know that. It's just that sometimes we think it's not just an opinion, it's the One Correct Answer.

My friend Rob posted his weekly blog column on the negativity he'd see from some Sherlockians online about our latest big Sherlock, "Cumberbashing" was the term he used. Typically we see bashing of a particular Holmes portrayal from a couple of sources: Those new to the community who don't realize what a big tent Sherlock Holmes fans encompass, or those whose egotism and mindset doesn't allow that other opinions could have value or that others might feel a sting from their words.

Rob wrote of the big three: Rathbone, Brett, and Cumberbatch. All have their diehard fans and most of us know to be a little measured in our discourse, like different denominations of the same religion with nearby churches.  

But what about Matt Frewer? Is his Sherlock fair game, just because his fans tend to rarely be in the room?

And what about . . . oh, you think I'm going to Will Ferrell? Mais non, mon petit! . . . season four of BBC Sherlock?

Nothing is worse than a pundit with God on their side, or a seemingly overwhelmingly popular opinion. With season four of BBC Sherlock,  all the Canon-only Sherlockians, all the Brett-Is-The-One-True-Sherlock-ians, everyone who had any reason to dump on the Cumberbatch series to start with, all saw their opportunity to invite disgruntled fans of the show to the Dark Side. They might as well have gone full Palpatine and just said it . . .

"Good. Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you."

But here's the thing. We all really hate something. If you go back in time with this blog post, you'll find I was as evil as could be about CBS's Elementary. I should just shut the hell up, having written such things. But nobody is as preachy as a reformed villain, so I'm gonna preach.

If you're talking one on one with a friend you know well, let it all out. Find that person, give them a heads up to center themselves, and then talk all the shit you have in your mental bowels. But on a Zoom call with a whole bunch of people, including some you barely know? In a Facebook channel for folks just looking for Sherlock news of any sort? Why take the chance of ruining someone's day to air your grievances. If you want to make that your brand, it's a free country (so far), so make your own feed somewhere where folks can ignore you as needed.

Of course, I know you aren't like that. If you read my blogs you pretty much have to be one of those saints who has no problem with the odd opinion. And I thank you for that.

Also, my apologies to Rob for using his post as a springboard for a cannonball into the pool. Ah, but it's Sunday night and I'm all bad-tempered about having to go back to work again tomorrow.

Minneapolis and Sherlock Holmes @ 50: Sunday Interruptus

 Soooo, 9 AM on a Sunday . . .  and way back over at the library. 

Well, that might have worked for someone who hadn't abused his digestive tract and missed much of his Saturday night sleep. And yet, I just had to see what Max Magee was up to, as you just never know . . .

So Julie McKuras introduced Max, because you just can't have anyone introduce Max. Plus, it's Minneapolis, and I needed to throw a Julie pic in.

And then Max stepped up to discuss four copies of a magazine for an hour.

Yes, you heard me right, four copies of a magazine. Well, more than that actually, but he was mainly doing his talk in honor of the four copies of Beeton's Christmas Annual in the U of M collections, which is probably the most anyone has out of the twenty-something known copies.

Who was Mrs. Beeton? Who owned those known copies and where did they get them? And, hey, do you remember this Jerome Kern song? I don't remember Max's credits including any Wisconsin dairy work, but he milked those four copies of a magazine like a guy who knew how to work the udders of information.

Okay . . . now, I have to say it's Sunday night after one big weekend, I've got a ticket for a Ghost Boat in an hour, and I had to leave after Max's talk for reasons nobody wants to hear detailed, so I'm distracting you with Wisconsin dairy references. (Had a hot skillet of mac n' cheese for supper in the heart of Wisconsin, so there might be a reason for that.)

Anyway, here's a slide of Max's discovery that Johnlock existed before BBC Sherlock.

And with that, I'm outa hear. Plenty of photos from folks to see on Facebook from the weekend, so borrow someone's FB account if you don't have one.

Minneapolis and Sherlock Holmes @ 50: Saturday Part The Last

 Okay, so I took a nap. I'm not as young as Peter Blau.

Apologies to Will Walsh and the lawyers among us for not reviewing "Treason: British Law, Holmes, and Doyle." But I made it back for Mark and JoAnn Alberstat's "Written in the Stars: Moriarty's Canadian Connection."

Simon Newcomb, a prodigy from Nova Scotia who became an expert in celestial mechanics, is thought to have surely been the inspiration for Professor Moriarty. (Google it! There's a lot.) All kinds of fascinating stuff there, as when Newcomb reached out to friend Alexander Graham Bell with an idea to help save president Garfield after the assassination attempt that eventually killed him.

Once JoAnn got to listing the Newcomb/Moriarty parallels on the academic side of things, including that paper on dynamics of an asteroid that Newcomb wrote at age nineteen, the case gets pretty solid. Eclipses, which Moriarty explained to Inspector MacDonald, were also a subject that excited Newcomb. But can we talk of Moriarty without mention of Moran? A fellow named Alfred Drayson comes into play, also an astronomer with theories on the topic, but also a card player with a big ol' moustache like Moran who was a friend of Conan Doyle who likely talked to Doyle about Newcomb. A bit more of a stretch than the Newcomb/Moriarty parallel for Drayson/Moran, but not without notes of interest.

Newcomb's writings come into play, mentioned in the Strand Magazine, and the many ways Conan Doyle might have been aware of him. Like a few elder Sherlockians of old I encountered, Newcomb had moments where he thought everything possible had been discovered in his field, but eventually realized he was wrong. Did Moriarty realize how wrong he was, eventually, when Holmes was about to bring him down? Mark brings the talk home with the seven specific points of comparison between Newcomb and Moriarty, and blaming Novia Scotia and Canada, ala South Park, for the evil that was Moriarty.

And now, a photo break before dinner.

Rich Krisciunas finds 221, and it's leasing!

The banquet that followed featured a lot of toasts between our salads (there when we arrived) and the main course. I did the usual "When did toasts turn into mini-presentations?" complaint. (Really, people, stop it. Toasts are meant to be quick, clever, and get you drinking.) One particular toast, however, was a thing of wonder that might surprise a few of my younger friends. The Norwegian Explorers' own Erica Fair was tasked with the toast to the second Mrs. Watson, as many have over the decades. Erica went down the list of qualities needed in a second Mrs. Watson to identify the one person who was surely that later spouse of the good doctor, then concluded with the words, "To the second Mrs. Watson . . . Sherlock Holmes!" She was rewarded with joyous laughter and the heartiest applause of the evening, in a room largely populated with traditional Sherlockians. While every single person in the room might not have been on board, it sure seemed like Johnlock shipping is finding its way to acceptance in the hobby as a whole. Of course an Irene Adler toast came after, so there's room for everyone in this big ol' tent. ("Even Maud Bellamy," he hastened to add.)

After dinner, Les Klinger said he had been asked to stand in for Laurie King and talked about his path into Sherlockiana and some thoughts about its path onward. His talk was followed by Peter Blau serving as auctioneer to raise funds for the Collections selling a few items. Auctions at fan venues have always gotten a little crazy, since my first experience with one at a Star Trek convention in the 1980s, and this was no different. The one notable difference was that in addition to the normal folks stretching their limits to get something, we do have a Sherlockian or two with pockets known to be deep enough to take the suspense out of their desire to walk away with something. (And one weird request we still haven't figured out.)

But that was the end of the official program, and here are some pictures of what came after.

Founders of the Hansom Cab Clock Club with a known photobomber

Next to the Norwegian Explorers, I think the Parallel Case was best represented.

The Eckrich-Nunn editorial team.

After dinner drinks at the brewery patio next door, which got overtaken by about fifty Sherlockians.

Can a BSI scarf be tied like a bow tie?

What a BSI bow tie is supposed to look like.

The last stragglers seen from the sixth floor.

Minneapolis and Sherlock Holmes @ 50: Saturday Part The Second

 After a nice break and some shouting about the Tea Brokers, our next speaker is Stephen Lee, whose little book with the same name as his talk appeared in our conference packet. The talk? "The Silent Contest: How Sherlock Brought Down Professor Moriarty and Why Dr. Watson Lied." Using his experience as a federal prosecutor, Stephen is diving into the contradictions the Canon holds about Holmes, Watson, and Moriarty.

"Why did Watson lie?" Stephen asks, regarding Watson's "Never!" at being asked if he had heard of Moriarty before late April 1891, and then gets into the course of a full investigation of a criminal like Moriarty. Going back as early as A Study in Scarlet, Stephen proposes that Watson was playing down Holmes's knowledge and ability so Professor Moriarty would not think this guy was anywhere smart enough to come after him. Watson describing Holmes's astronomy know-how as "Nil" would have especially amused the writer of "Dynamics of an Asteroid" and make him feel less threatened. And that's just for starters. Stephen Lee has given a whole lot of thought to Holmes's investigation of Moriarty. (Just like every speaker so far at this conference. Minneapolis doesn't mess around.)

The statement "Everybody loves Irene Adler" did get some quiet "No" reactions from this side of our table, but that might have been the only big disagreement with his talk. And given that Stephen is all that stands between us and lunch at this point, that's pretty good. Even Holmes's occasional bashing of Scotland Yard comes into play. 

Lunch came up quickly, and the lunch lines were nicely short. More scanning the dealer's tables and talking to a wide array of Sherlockians before we resume at 1:30. The after-lunch spot on the schedule can be a challenge for a speaker, but luckily we have Burt Wolder speaking about artist Frederic Dorr Steele. Then again, as I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere listeners know, Burt's voice has an easy, comfortable tone to it that might relax one to the point of napping, should the content fail to keep one alert -- but as Burt moves through the details of Steele's life, that does not seem to be the case.

Steele illustrated a good many things, included some of Frank Stockton's work (Remember "The Lady and the Tiger?" That guy.). Created some new proceses for prints, met Mark Twain, defending the artists against particular criticisms, Monhegan Island . . . a life contains a good share of material, and Burt is strollling through it all. A big highlight was Steele's own little pastiches making fun of bits of his life, but complete with very Frederic Dorr Steele drawings of Sherlock Holmes.

Very aware of the dangers he faces as the after-lunch speaker, Burt also invited us to stand up at one point, and a good share of us do. And nothing against the next speaker, but I am finding I might need to take an afternoon break in my hotel room after this -- which has long been my course during Minnesota conferences. Is it because the talks go closer to an hour than some other venues? I don't know. But there seems to be a pattern. (Perhaps it's that speakers on the hour gives you that hour-long opening to get a short nap and only miss one talk. And once that thought is in your head . . .)

In any case, I will bid you adieu for this report. A lot more Saturday to go! 

Minneapolis and Sherlock Holmes @ 50: Saturday Part The First

 Saturday morning began a little easier for "Sherlock Holmes @ 50" attendees as the conference moved from the library a few long blocks away to the host hotel, so all we had to do was make our way downstairs, grab something at the hotel Starbucks, and wander down the hall to the wide room of tables where we'd be spending our day.

After a little browsing of the dealer's tables at the outer edges of the room, I settled at one of the tables lucky enough to have black armbands waiting (in honor of the legend of the young men of the Strand upon the publication of "The Final Problem"). A little chat and Dick Sveum called us to order and very shortly got us to our first speaker, Eric Scace, who came all the way from Boulder, Colorado to speak on "Some Clues by Telegram: 50 Years of Canonical Connections." His deep dive into telegraphy and the way it occurs in the Canon actually started to get into some of my favorite turf: Sherlockian chronology. The Valley of Fear, for example, has a telegram key to its dating, coming at the end to tell of the loss at sea of Birdy Edwards/John Douglas. He seems to be targeting 1888, which agrees with my own dating of the tale so I like where he's headed.

Ivy Douglas embarking at Capetown and the $1,390 it would cost to send a cablegram to London is a real shocker. Eric discusses how she might have cut down her wording and gotten it down to $800, and then follows the transmission and the cables of how her message would have been sent north. We learn of tape sending machines, Zanzibar cable stations, the re-entering of the message at such stations from one cable
end to another. (Side note: After seeing Shark Attack 3: Megaladon, I have to wonder about sharks biting those early cables after being attracted to the electrical charge, which, apparently, did happen in those early days. AND ERIC JUST MENTIONED SHARKS BITING CABLES!!! Shark Attack 3: Megaladon finds validation.) 

Passing around a sample of cable just hit a dead end as our table passed it to an boxed-in "We've all seen it!" table, but Max Magee appeared like a superhero descending from the sky to help the poor young lady holding a cable with nowhere to go, and moved it across the room.

Max Magee, photographed from a safe distance

Meanwhile, Eric Scace is still tracking the route of the telegrams, shipping news, how late at night Mrs. Hudson brought up the note, and puts that message coming through at March 4-6, 1888. A lot to explore for our chronology friends. I wish I had taken better notes instead of blogging and re-sizing photos of Max. I will definitely be asking Eric where his talk might be published or how one might otherwise get a copy for reference. 

We get five minutes to stand up, so I'm standing up now.

Matt Hall, a great Sherlockian I just met for the first time at this conference, is our next speaker, on phosphorous and the hellhound from The Hound of the Baskervilles. Even though he's currently a resident of Maryland, Matt's still got just enough of his native Australian accent to give the conference some early international flavor. The question of the toxicology of phosphorous being applied to a dog is reached quickly, so he deep dives into chemistry and allotropes, an important factor in this case. (Google "allotropes.") Alchemists boiling down urine comes up and we get grossed out for a moment. And further grossed out by by said alchemists writing about applying it to their "privvy parts." Chemistry is apparently a lot yuckier than I remember, when one goes into the historical records. We get confirmation that no mammals or fairies have native bioluminescence, meaning that the Baskerville hound definitely needed some phosphorous.

Matt has dug into many a newspaper article on phosphorous being used in ghost pranks when fairly safe preparations of phosphorous were rubbed on people, sheets, and even bicycles, so earlier Sherlockian papers on phosphorous killing the poor hound it was applied to. 

Holmes was an experienced chemist, Matt points out, and he would have known how phosphrous was used. All in all, this talk was a great validation of The Hound of the Baskervilles having occurred as we have read it. In addition some healthy applause at the end of his talk, Matt got at least one "WOOO!" from the crowd, as well as the special challenge coin being handed to the speakers for their efforts.

Time to move along once more!

Minneapolis and Sherlock Holmes @ 50: Friday evening

 After Jim Hawkins and Emily Miranker gave the second and third presentations of the afternoon, a refreshment break in the library lobby occurred, and instead of getting in line, this little podcaster started to scout a fairly quiet location for recording this week's Bull Pups review of Sherlock & Co. The final result was a spot in the upstairs hallway next to the Allen Mackler recreation of the 221B sitting room -- not without a little traffic or issues, but infinitely quieter than the three stories of the main lobby, echoing with the chats of a hundred and sixty Sherlockians.

That done, the police whistle blew to announce the Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections annual meeting, run by Gary Thaden, the president of same. Officers were elected, the health of the Collections was pronounced as good, and some news was imparted. Tim Johnson's coming retirement as curator of the Collections loomed large in that talk, but the news that he was staying on long enough to deal with some new additions to the collections was the sweet side of that bittersweet talk. Tim has been terrific in the role, actively promoting the Collections in places many Sherlockians don't dare to tread and building an ever-better archive of Sherlock Holmes here at the university. Coming additions include Denny Dobry's well-known and loved 221B recreation and author Laurie King's papers. (As well as something else I might have forgotten after the festivities of the evening that followed.)

Ira Matesky, karaoke king, Nero Wolfe scholar, and Sherlockian force of nature, was the meeting's guest speaker and big closing act for the day. Ira spoke on libraries, the items that can be found hidden in their archives, and the missing pieces of Sherlock Holmes history that are still out there to be discovered. And if that doesn't sound like a topic where a speaker could crack up the audience a few times along the way, you don't know Ira. More importantly, Ira inspired (and shoved, gently, in his Ira fashion) those in attendance to investigate their own local libraries for materials regarding Conan Doyle and Holmes that might have found their way there from local collectors over the years. People wrote to Conan Doyle from all over the world, and he wrote back. One just never knows.

Later that evening I would despair that we had no karaoke venue to entertain ourselves, but that was not because of anything lacking in Ira's performance. I've enjoyed every talk I've heard from him. (And I'm not just saying this because I know he's going to read it.)

After that, we all broke into little groups of dinner parties. I fell in with some old favorite Canadians and Texans, for dinner and drinks at the Corner Bar, then after a return to the hotel lobby and a "Why didn't we stay at the bar?" moment, heading the the outside patio of the Town Hall Brewery for more drinks and dessert.

The ever-thinking Sherlockian Brainiac of the "younger" generation, Max Magee, had worked out that 10:18 PM is 22:18 in military time, which is the minute that represents 221B Baker Street as well as 2:21 AM might, so at that moment a good dozen Sherlockians heartily recited Vincent Starrett's poem "221B" on a Minneapolis sidewalk, possibly puzzling the locals.

At which point, I quite literally stumbled off to bed, and saved this write-up for a clearer morning mind!

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.