Google’s Sherlock News

[Hikari]

23 minutes ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

I'm pretty sure Arcadia was joking there, folks!  Good ol' Benedict Cumberbatch?  Have we really become that cynical?

Though I will admit to being puzzled by the lack of any other witnesses -- with photos and videos on their phones.  Marylebone Road isn't exactly the middle of nowhere.  Of course it was apparently all over in less than a minute.  But still, even if passers-by didn't realize at the time who the rescuer was, it would have been a photo-worthy event.  And then later on when the news broke, the eye-witness photos should have been all over the internet.

*sigh*  I guess a good case could be made either way.  So for now, just color me open minded.

Arcadia was joshing, but I think she's accidentally hit upon a truth.  I was willing to accept it at face value yesterday--but several things did not add up.  I could run through the very, um, serendipitous list of occurrences--BC being on the scene--on or near Baker Street--at the precise moment that a solitary cyclist was in need of his help . . Ben's fit and all, but he's nearly 42 years old and he prevailed against a gang of 20-something men armed with bottles and etc. singlehandedly?  Equipped with an admiring audience/Boswell in the form of Manuel, his gushing driver?  And when asked for a printed statement of his heroics, where was Ben's famous gifts at improvisational articulateness with the press?  He provided a sentence (ish) with no verbs or discernible object.  No one needed to go to A&E, which is great , considering that the messenger was allegedly hit with a bottle over the  head, which would have smarted a lot, one would have thought.  Unless that was a breakaway bottle, or perhaps the 'bashing' was entirely simulated.  Because when Sherlock Ben leapt to the rescue, this gang of young thugs just melted away into the London streets like the hired actors they were, their scene completed.  Possibly.

I think the ruse went one fib too far, at the start, really, by asking us to believe that Benedict Cumberbatch actually chooses to use Uber to get around London with the Mrs.  Uber.  *This* is what has been niggling in my brain for the last 24 hours since I first read that item.  It is altogether possible that Manuel is an actual Uber driver, given his 15 seconds of fame and, possibly, an autographed photograph of Benedict.  But I am not willing to swallow that Benedict is an actual Uber customer.  We know he likes to pretend that he's not as posh as he looks/sounds/the upbringing he enjoyed . . but if he chose to exercise a perk of his celebrity and use a Town Car and his own personal driver, I wouldn't accuse him of snobbery.  It's a safety issue.  This is the same couple that, as Internet footage shows, was accosted by paparazzi on a recent night out for dinner, leading to some fraught words and shoving between Ben and at least one scum-sucking pap who made insinuations about his marriage.  Why would he book a ride with Uber when he'd have no idea who was picking them up or what pictures this person might take and sell on to the tabloids?  It makes a lot more sense that this was a carefully-managed publicity stunt.

Not that Ben couldn't beat up some muggers possibly if the situation really demanded it.  But I am like Sherlock in that I don't believe in that many coincidences at once.  Or the Uber thing. That really is the deal-breaker for me.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Everyone's  source for the cabbie's account of the incident seems to be this article from The Sun, a publication not known for its strict adherence to veracity.

I am inclined to disbelieve the whole thing, not as a Moftiss stunt, but rather as a typical circulation booster.

[Hikari]

5 minutes ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Everyone's  source for the cabbie's account of the incident seems to be this article from The Sun, a publication not known for its strict adherence to veracity.

I am inclined to disbelieve the whole thing, not as a Moftiss stunt, but rather as a typical circulation booster.

The timing is *awfully* coincidental with the launch of their 'interactive Sherlock experience' though.

I don't want to believe that BC would stoop to wh*r*ng himself like this . . with his wife in the car, yet.  He's an Oscar-winner with a very impressive Shakespearean resume in just a few brief years--he doesn't need Moffat or his brainstorms.  I've overthunk it and now the whole thing just tastes bad to me.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

@Hikari -- you posted twice while I was dealing with an interruption.  I agree with you in general, but if this was indeed not the strict truth, I doubt that they bothered to stage the event. For one thing, if they had, they would have done it in front of flocks of  (probably innocent) witnesses, and it would have hit the headlines immediately rather than five or six months later.  For another, why go to all that bother when you can far more easily employ the time-honored tabloid technique of Making Things Up?

Assuming (as I do) that the NYT was right about there being a corroborating police report, here's what I think happened:  The cabbie really did come across a mugging in progress last November, near Baker Street.  He and his passenger really did break things up so that the assailants fled.  But the passenger's name was not Cumberbatch.

Added:  And that "aw shucks" quote was simply made up.

[Arcadia]

Cynics. I believe every word of it.

[Hikari]

3 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Added:  And that "aw shucks" quote was simply made up.

Come to think of it, I believe now that the entire thing was made up, soup to nuts, and there was no scene on the street as described at all--hence the complete lack of witnesses or corroborating accounts in other media/camera phone pics from passersby, etc.  This area of Central London where the alleged incident occurred is very busy . . scores of people would have seen this go down and have the pictures to prove it.  That is a piece of creative fiction pasted together in what passes for Mofftiss's writing room these days.  They wrote it on the back of a beer mat at their local and had some minion at the production company type it up.  So many specific little touches . .like the Uber.  I bet Ben wasn't even in London on the purported day, and Sophie was, if not with him, home with the kids.

To quote Sherlock:  "Only lies have detail."

So it's even worse than we thought.  We didn't even get a 'staged' mugging/heroic intervention.  We got fake news of something they didn't even go through the motions of putting into 3-D.  Boycott this game, folks--as far as Moffat and Gatiss are concerned, we are complete mugs.

[Carol the Dabbler]

32 minutes ago, Hikari said:

That is a piece of creative fiction pasted together in what passes for Mofftiss's writing room these days. 

Maybe. But they've been putting out some pretty polished promos for their new venture -- why would they stoop to -- what? paying a cab driver to lie? paying a tabloid to print a lie?

Really, if you want a tabloid to lie, all you need to do is wait a little while and they'll do it all on their own. This one happened to coincide with the lead-up to one particular thing.  But BC is *always* in some upcoming thing or other.  Sounds like a coincidence to me, no matter what Mycroft says.

[HerlockSholmes]

Baldy Cumberbatch.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/benedict-cumberbatch-dominic-cummings-balding-vote-leave-brexit-campaign-a8415496.html?amp

[Hikari]

1 hour ago, HerlockSholmes said:

Baldy Cumberbatch.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/benedict-cumberbatch-dominic-cummings-balding-vote-leave-brexit-campaign-a8415496.html?amp

Not a good look for sure.  I feel like I am looking at Benedict in 20+ years.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I wonder if that TV movie will examine the questionable tactics used by *both* sides in the Brexit campaign?

[HerlockSholmes]

Are you hoping for a fair and unbiased account Carol? How much sun have you had over there😃

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Either too much or not enough. I know Minnesota has had a fair amount of rain and clouds as well as a fair amount of sun and all of that was in the same day. So either is likely possible in Indiana.

[HerlockSholmes]

We’re having a kind of mini heatwave here at the moment and it’s far too hot for me. Just the perfect weather for our refrigerator to give up the ghost! ☹️

[Carol the Dabbler]

How hot is "hot" there?

[HerlockSholmes]

Apparently it’s 23 degrees Celsius. (I can’t find out how to get a ‘degrees’ sign on my pad.) It’s due to hit 28. It’s 42% humidity. We’re just not used to this kind of heat over such a prolonged period. We’re like Polar Bears in the Sahara.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I can see 28C being annoying when not used to it. The humidity is what will make that worse. In Minnesota, we’ll be 30+C by this weekend and I’m not looking forward to it as I have a lawn to mow.

[Carol the Dabbler]

 I can think in meters.  I can think in liters.  But I still cannot think in Celsius, so please bear with me while I convert to good ol' Fahrenheit.  OK, 23C is about 73F.  And 28C is 82F.

Today's forecast for central Indiana is a high of 82F, same as yours oddly enough, and at that time the humidity will be in the high 60s.  This is considered a nice mild summer day in these parts. 

[J.P.]

23C? I consider it the middle of my comfort zone.

Carol, it's easy. 0 C is the freezing point. 10C is chilly. 20C is the T-shirt temperature outside, 30C is hot, 40C is the threshold of dangerously high fever. And 100C is the boiling point of water.

[bedelia1984]

5 hours ago, HerlockSholmes said:

Apparently it’s 23 degrees Celsius. (I can’t find out how to get a ‘degrees’ sign on my pad.) It’s due to hit 28. It’s 42% humidity. We’re just not used to this kind of heat over such a prolonged period. We’re like Polar Bears in the Sahara.

This is also me. It's 27 degrees here today and warmer in some areas. Sleeping at night has become so difficult. We're totally unused to this. Though, Ireland is so pretty in the sunshine.

[HerlockSholmes]

10 hours ago, SherlockedCAMPer said:

I can see 28C being annoying when not used to it. The humidity is what will make that worse. In Minnesota, we’ll be 30+C by this weekend and I’m not looking forward to it as I have a lawn to mow.

‘Annoying.’

’Hellish,’ I call it 😃

[HerlockSholmes]

5 hours ago, bedelia1984 said:

This is also me. It's 27 degrees here today and warmer in some areas. Sleeping at night has become so difficult. We're totally unused to this. Though, Ireland is so pretty in the sunshine.

I’d be tempted to sleep in the garden tonight if wasn’t for the army of slugs. One of which I trod on last night☹️

[Carol the Dabbler]

12 hours ago, J.P. said:

23C? I consider it the middle of my comfort zone.

Carol, it's easy. 0 C is the freezing point. 10C is chilly. 20C is the T-shirt temperature outside, 30C is hot, 40C is the threshold of dangerously high fever. And 100C is the boiling point of water.

I do know a few key temps, yes.  But I still don't really have a good feel for Celsius.  And isn't 20C about 68F?  I'd consider that to be sweatshirt weather.

 

 

[kimber8ada]

We're expecting 90F today with high humidity. It's going to be miserable here for the next several days, low to mid 90's. Thank goodness for air conditioning!

[SherlockedCAMPer]

We're expecting 90F today with high humidity. It's going to be miserable here for the next several days, low to mid 90's. Thank goodness for air conditioning!

Same here but I have to mow a lawn this afternoon so don’t get the luxury of ac for a couple of hours.

[kimber8ada]

1 hour ago, SherlockedCAMPer said:

 

 

Same here but I have to mow a lawn this afternoon so don’t get the luxury of ac for a couple of hours.

 

 

I feel for you. I have a great neighbor who mows for me. Take care out in the heat.