The last blog post of 2021?

 Boy, this pandemic is killing my blogging output. How can a virus weaken one's blogging without the writer getting the disease, you ask?

Well, first came the lockdown, those months when we were all suddenly at home doing jigsaw puzzles and watching Tiger King. (Okay, so maybe you resisted that. I didn't.) I started digging through old files and decided to write a book. By the time The Rise and Fall of an Eighties Sherlockian came out earlier this year, I had pretty much decreased my 2020 blog posts to almost half the number of the year before.

And then, even as that project finished and 2021 began, what happened? I kicked off The Sherlockian Chronologist Guild and its monthly newsletter, Timelines. A fairly niche topic right? Shouldn't take up all that much mental space, right?

Twelve monthly issues later, with a grand total of twenty-six subscribers, I have learned otherwise. There are more rabbit holes to Sherlockian chronology than most ever suspect, and as tiny as twenty-six subscribers might seem for any normal area of interest, I was dead sure the entire Sherlockian world was going to have no more than eight interested parties. You don't do Sherlockian chronology for popularity, that's for darned sure.

But what did that chronology occupation do? Drop my blog post count from 2020's all-time low by another twenty percent! 

And as 2021 starts, I find myself occupied by January 14's Pub Night at the Dangling Prussian, which has gotten my few blog posts of late. Throw in some other hot topics that I am trying to keep my mouth shut on for various reasons, and my output for the month of December has hit an all time low of TWO posts so far. While always a busy, distracting month, December of 2018 had twenty-nine posts as I was reading fics and going to see Holmes and Watson multiple times while its short run in theaters held up.

Ah, happier times.

But the pandemic hasn't killed this blogger* (*yet!) so we shall hope that 2022 brings more things to write about that aren't sidelined off to the chronology corner or some tome on the eighties.

The Canon of Afterlife Sherlock Holmes

It is a rather fascinating thing to me that Arthur Conan Doyle, a man who took great stock in communicating with spirits in the afterlife, was not the one who made contact with Sherlock Holmes after his death at Reichenbach Falls. True, Conan Doyle did come out in the early 1900s, claim Sherlock Holmes was not dead after all, and hand us a contrived account of Holmes reversing his boots to fake his death so new stories could occur. But during that time when Sherlock Holmes surely was dead, from 1893 to 1903, there was another fellow communicating with the dead, and Sherlock Holmes.

This, of course, was American writer John Kendrick Bangs, who, it seems, possessed an enchanted typewriter, capable of being operated by those on the other side of the veil. There were four books in the series of afterlife accounts from Bangs, A Houseboat on the Styx, The Pursuit of the House-boat, The Enchanted Typewriter, and Mr. Munchausen. All are out of copyright and available on Project Gutenberg, and the middle two of the series, published in 1897 and 1899, feature Sherlock Holmes.

And here's the thing: In both those books, Sherlock Holmes tells of a previously unpublished case.

In The Pursuit of the House-Boat, we find "The Brighton Mystery," which Holmes tells to his fellow Shades in chapter seven. And if you think Watson made Sherlockian chronology confusing, Holmes says the case  was "some ten years ago when I first took up ferreting as a profession." He and Watson were spending that summer together in a Brighton hotel at a time when books being sold about him were already stirring autograph-seekers to come after him.

In The Enchanted Typewiter, we get Holmes teasing a full book called Memoirs I Remember written by Holmes himself with twelve new stories. The first is called "WHO THE LADY WAS!" in which Sherlock Holmes returns incognito to living London "by a special dispensation of his Imperial Highness Apollyon" after being dead three years to find the world's largest diamond for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, when an amnesiac woman poses a second puzzle for him. (Shades of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes!) Apparently the afterlife has done Holmes no favors, as "Lion's Mane" or "Blanched Soldier" this is not. (And, c'mon, even those aren't Watson-quality.)

Is there enough in those two appearances to get a real feel for this post-life Sherlock Holmes, for some current author to attempt a full-blown pastiche of Holmes in Hades? Is it even possible to out-do Bangs himself in this case for a fellow American, easier than topping ACD? John Kendrick Bangs was definitely a writer of his times, and maybe not as timeless as other "classic" writers, so a modern take on that curious incarnation of Sherlock Holmes might even be more enjoyable for our fellow moderns.

There is surely some fun to be had there.

The NaChronoWriMo report

 At the end of October, I decided that instead of participating in "NaNoWriMo" (National Novel Writing Month) this year, I would devote my month to "NaChronoWriMo" and spent the time with Sherlockian chronology. Was my final word count the hoped-for 50,000 that NaNoWriMo participants shoot for?

Heck no! The current total is 13,177. (And a good chunk of those words are Watson's!)

But I did make it through the entire Canon, and met goals that went beyond word count. That word count also did not count writing for the Sherlockian Chronology Guild's monthly newsletter Timelines, a sideline that has definitely cut into my blog-posting time this year.

Other excuses? The sudden rise of the Dangling Prussian virtual Pub Night on Zoom, January 14th. As is always the case with our diversely multi-tentacled Sherlockian hobby, just as you're fighting to extricate yourself from one tentacle of the beastie, another one starts to wrap itself around you and demand your attention. (And if that metaphor was just a little too exciting to you, we know where your internet searches have been taking you. * wink *) (Hey, it's another blog post on Sherlockian chronology! I had to make it more exciting somehow!)

It's been a good month of chronology work, though, the results of which will, I hope, come up before too long, into the pubic view.

On to pub-work December!

My Conan Doyle Book Problem

 It's exciting to fill shelves with books when you're younger. It's fun to carefully peruse the shelves of old and used bookshops, with their random selections from sources unknown. But there comes a time when the gleeful cry of "You can't have too many books!" just makes you shake your head at the folly of youth.

Because books can be a blessing and a curse. It's a marvelous thing to want to know something and be able to reach up to a shelf and find something that even Google doesn't know about. But books are also physical objects with a certain weight, and a space requirement, and when they leave shelves and overflow into boxes, those can be some heavy boxes.

And they can be hard to get rid of, especially if they are ancillary to one's specialty.

At this point in my life, I really don't need any books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that don't have Sherlock Holmes in them. As much as we owe the man, I'm not really a fan of the fellow. I'll send him a mental thank you card now and then, but there are so many other new writers our their that need my casual reading time, and my Sherlockian reading time is, well, all about Sherlock.

So what does one do with boxes of non-Sherlock Conan Doyle books? Seems a pity to dump them on the local used paperback shop, library sale, or Goodwill store. (And you don't want to know what happens to books that fall down the food chain and are never bought. There's no magical library of unwanted books out there.) Knowing there's a special interest in a certain kind of book makes it harder to dispose of. And while there are folks interested in Conan Doyle works out there, are there currently enough of them to serve as owners of all the copies of The White Company in existence?

I'm having some doubts.

Would scattering old Doyle books to the winds encourage the reading of said author, when more genre specific works are out there? You might notice that I'm purposefully avoided mention of eBay -- dealing with random retail customers in any venue is something for those with tougher hides than me.

The great gap in Sherlockian weekend workshops and events hasn't helped matters -- grand gatherings are always good places to offload a few things to interested parties. And while 2022 was looking hopeful, the words "omicron variant" this past week have cast a dark cloud. But who knows?

For now, I'll probably do what I've done in the past: Fill banker's boxes and stack them in the corner of some room that shouldn't have any more bankers boxes in it. But those probably need to be dealt with before my back can no longer deal with a banker's box of books . . .

Hmmm.

A Dangling Prussian Registration Link!

If you didn't get on the RSVP list from the earlier post and get the e-mail version of what lies below, here's some new details on the Dangling Prussian pub night on January 14, along with a registration link. The word will start getting spread further this weekend, but, hey, you're special!

You are invited to Pub Night at the Dangling Prussian on Zoom.. 

When: Jan 14, 2022 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) 

Register in advance for this gathering:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMsd-mspzosGNWrY5QEPzpJIR0YFCGCQMfL 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

The Schedule (all Eastern Time U.S.)

6:00 to 8:00,  Happy Hour

Join for general chat and wander the tables of the pub for conversation and friendly faces. Zoom might call them “breakout rooms,” but we’re reserving them under the names …

The Brett party’s table (perhaps to discuss television)

The Rathbone party's table (perhaps to discuss movies)

The Starrett party's table (perhaps to discuss pastiche)

The Watson party's table (perhaps to discuss the Canon)

The Morley party's table (perhaps to discuss the Sherlockiana)

I mean, folks at any table can talk about whatever they’re going to talk about, of course. And from 7:00 to 10:00, pub trivia questions will be randomly sent out to the tables. If the occupants of said table at that moment can answer that question in a private message in the chat to the host, their table scores a point, and a winning table will eventually be announced. (Not being a formal competition, you can always jumps table and beef up an underdog’s points — it’s really just about the fun.)

Also, you can get inducted into the Montague Street Incorrigibles upon entry, should you so wish. There’s a small ceremonial bit.

8:00 to 9:00, As Formal A Program As You’re Going To See

There will be toasting, first and foremost, and some entertainments are currently being lined up. Again, this is going to be about the fun. No serious presentations on pub night.

9:00 to Midnight, Anything That Didn’t Get Done Earlier

You’ve heard of rap battles, but have you ever heard of a limerick brawl? Now you have. Singing? Dancing? Reports from any other events or misadventures in the rest of the world that night? Who knows, it’s a Zoom party. 

Tiger Tyrant of San Pedro 2

 "I tell you, Eugenia Ronder murdered her husband. People are trying to kill me, and I'm running for my life."

-- Juan "Don" Murillow, Tiger of San Pedro, from an undisclosed location

The story of Don Murillo captured the attention of readers everywhere in 1908. The attention of one reader in particular shot toward that account more than any other.

"You know why I wasn't in part two of 'Wisteria Lodge?' Because Watson forgot about me. He got so excited by the Tiger of San Pedro that I just didn't exist to him any more. It wasn't until that story came out in 1908 that I even heard what happened to my close personal friend Garcia."

-- John Scott Eccles, sociable bachelor and Canonical character

"John was always telling that double-barrelled tiger cub story. He loved tigers. And he really, really hated that famous tiger hunter Sebastian Moran. Do I think he was involved with the Tiger of San Pedro beyond what he wrote in that story. It was 1892. 1892. Sherlock Holmes was dead in a river in Switzerland."

-- The late Mary Morstan Watson, to a friend before her mysterious disappearance

"It was 1889 and I wanted to take my children to the circus. That's all. Was this Watson at that circus? Did he know how far a murderess would go to discredit a witness from another country? Try to look up San Pedro in any encyclopaedia! You find San Cristobal and then William Sancroft -- there is no San Pedro!"

-- Juan "Don" Murillo, Tiger of San Pedro, a country no one has heard of

"Was it a fierce tiger of crime, which could only be taken fighting hard with flashing fang and claw?"

-- John H. Watson, creating an imaginary criminal in his head in "Black Peter"

"Yes, Watson liked to pretend Eugenia was horrible to look at. But the way he'd go on about her figure, how perfect her mouth was, how pleasing her voice was . . . I mean, it was just a few scars. He didn't have any problem taking her to Simpson's with Sherlock and me after I got sprung from the joint."

-- Kitty Winter, reputed hell-cat from Hell, London

"I mean, who the hell is 'the Marquess of Montalva, and why did Watson want people to think I was him after he was murdered?"

-- Juan "Don" Murillo, Tiger of San Pedro, not a marquess

"You know Watson waited to publish that story until Sherlock Holmes was undercover in America and couldn't give him hell for making up all that 'Tiger of San Pedro' crap. What he did to Eduardo was bad enough."

-- Ricardo Lucas, a.k.a. "cat-like" Lopez, whose family's reputation had a second stain by Watson's pen

"Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife."

-- Sherlock Holmes, apparently refusing to say Eugenia Ronder's name

A virtual pub night to celebrate Sherlock Holmes!

 

Attention all scalawags, layabouts, rapscallions, and full grown street urchins of the Sherlockian, Holmesian, and Watsonian worlds!

On Friday night, January 14th, a pub of legend is opening its Zoom doors for an evening of distraction, gossip, merriment, and feats of mental brawn, as the Dangling Pussian plays host to the Montague Street Incorrigibles Non-Annual Non-Dinner!

What’s that you say? You’re not a member of the Montague Street Incorrigibles? Well, for one night, and one night only, you can sign Arminius Detweiller’s big membership book and join the club. (Bring your own pen. Maybe some paper might be good, too. You really do have to sign the book — under whatever alias you’re going by that night.) But even if you don’t want to join such a motley crew, we’ll let you come anyway.

It’s just going to be about having a little fun with whoever else decides to show up. And there will be fun. Trust me on this. (Or don’t, because I’m a rapscallion too.)

Friday night, January 14, 2022, cocktail hours starting at 6:00 P.M. Eastern U.S. Time Zone, main Incorrigible congress and program starting at 8:00 P.M. E.T. 

Registration Zoom Link: 

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMsd-mspzosGNWrY5QEPzpJIR0YFCGCQMfL 

Or for more info, write to sherlockholmesisrealpodcast@gmail.com

Hope to see ya there!