Hikari

@VBS & Besley Bean… if you are in disbelief that we seem to be trapped in a political “Groundhog Day” here in the U.S., imagine how we feel. It’s deja vu all over again and it wasn’t pleasant the first time around. Four years later, it’s even worse. The incumbent is an 80 year old man with obvious dementia who is a mere puppet of his party. Forcing him to run for reelection is tantamount to elder abuse because if the man is not oriented or even continent, Should he really have the nuclear launch codes? On the other side, the Challenger is a former president whose party seems to have become his puppet. He has openly admired Vladimir Putin, the sworn enemy of the United States. In addition, he is now a convicted felon on 34 counts of tampering with evidence to obfuscate his participation in an attempt to overthrow the results of an election that didn’t go his way. This is probably the first time in American history that a candidate with 34 felony convictions will be eligible to run in a presidential election and has a very good shot at winning. You could say we are in completely uncharted territory. This is a low point for the United States of America. There is another Civil War raging, and like the first one it is split along ideological lines. The art of politics is the art of getting along with your opponent, even when you disagree, and finding common ground to build on. It used to be possible to disagree with someone, even vehemently, without turning them into a personal enemy but we are so divided along party lines now, it’s scary. I have often reflected on why it is that the selection of national leaders is so so weak. I concluded long ago that the best individuals… The ones who are hard-working incorruptible and conciliatory do not pursue politics. They are too modest and on some level high-level politicians all have enough ego to think that they can do the job better than anyone else. Our two party system all but ensures that the people with personal wealth and an ability to raise millions of dollars in support of a campaign will be backed by their party for the nomination. How many thousands of better candidates are overlooked because they don’t have an Ivy League degree and a big war chest? Replacing our head of state every four or eight years is expensive, frustrating and inefficient. But the framers of our constitution wanted to ensure that the American leader would not get too comfortable in that role and overstay his welcome. The continental congress was prepared to make George Washington Presiden for life; That smacked too much of a king for Mr. Washington’s taste and he declined, insisting that he would serve only two terms and then retire to his farm in Virginia. Two terms was not law until 1945 but it was convention. FDR won a fifth term in 1945 shortly before he died and after that the limit was set at two consecutive terms. If Trump wins, he will only be the second man to serve two nonconsecutive terms as president…Grover Cleveland being the other. Do you know things must be pretty bad if the electorate is considering returning someone to office that they had already fired. The benefit to the American system of periodically every four or eight years going out with the old and in with the new is that no matter how bad a president is, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel as to how long we are going to have to tolerate this person as the chief executive. The system of monarchy works very well when you have a solid and dependable good person running the show. Her late Majesty Elizabeth will never be replicated. The crown found the right head that time. The United Kingdom would look vastly different if Elizabeth’s uncle had not abdicated for Mrs. Simpson. Can you imagine what a right mess the UK would be in if Harry was the heir rather than William?

VBS, Hello again! Theft is not “okay” but is often overlooked if the value of the items is not deemed worth the effort of prosecution. Under $1000 in value is considered petty theft—a misdemeanor. If one is convicted of “grand larceny”—$1000+, that is a felony. Generally you are not required to disclose misdemeanors on job applications but felonies are different. with the current push being toward self check out, retailers are having more and more prosecutions of people who take items without scanning and paying for them. Theft is a huge problem… Called “shrink“ in retail lingo, when the takings do not match the inventory. The biggest source of shrink is often the employees. It’s a depressing scenario. When I worked for a small retailer in a mall, we had to get searched every night before we left to make sure we weren’t stealing. Ironically I had worked for a huge department store prior to this and they didn’t have any such rule. Inflation is so bad post Covid especially for groceries that more people are being driven to steal. It’s like the dystopian future is here.

I don’t know what possessed me to come to this discussion tonight but here’s a few other uses for Q-tips besides crafts— Use them to clean tiny areas a cloth or brush can’t reach, like electronics and little crevices in the molding. Also good for removing gunk around bottle and jar necks. Don’t have a fancy eyeliner brush or shadow blender? A Qtip is the cheap solution. Great if you’re traveling And have limited space for cosmetics. Just be sure to keep them sterile and take care that you don’t get fibers in your eye. Also use to apply creams or medications to a small area, like zit cream or hair remover that you don’t want to get on your fingers. Work as lipstick applicators or to apply Vaseline and the like. Wetting it first is suggested! Apply solvents like jewelry cleaner to tiny areas and clean knickknacks. You could always color them green with a marker then stick them in your ears, not too hard!… And you are on your way to a Shrek costume! They work great to clean smudges of nail polish when doing a mani/pedi.

I’ve been staying with my mother, who still uses a landline and an answering machine (with a tape) like it’s 1994. “Ghost” calls are a daily occurrence—sometimes multiple times a day, always from 9 - 4ish. Even more bothersome, and occurring during the same time window are robocalls that go like this: Me: Hello? RC: Hello?…..Hello?…. Hello? Me: <Click> The Hellos sound like a human voice, but it’s obviously recorded on a loop because the inflection never changes. Sometimes after the second or third hello, a person will launch into a spiel for some business But usually it’s just dead air between hellos. On a bad day we can have half a dozen of these type of calls and it’s gotten to the point where I don’t want to even answer the phone. It’s advisable to say nothing if you get a call like this, or do not reply if you get a call that is someone’s voice saying “can you hear me?” Or say who is this? Do not answer yes or no because scammers Can record your responses and then use them to access your accounts. I get a lot of solicitation calls on my cell but I do not answer any number I don’t recognize, especially if it’s a one 800 number. But on the landline with no way to see who’s calling, we don’t know if it’s a scammer or a family member calling. It’s getting very tedious.

@Carol and Caya A successful surgeon has mastered the art of dispassion when he or she is working. It would help a great deal in a surgical career to be capable of such detached rationality and cool thinking under pressure. I don’t suppose the first year med students who faint at the sight of blood or puke while dissecting a cadaver finish the program—or at least do not become surgeons. A natural aptitude for professional detachment coupled with a dozen or so years of meticulous training produces people who are capable of cutting into other people’s organs while they are still alive. That’s a rarified skill set but I don’t think every person who can do this deserves the label “psychopath”. Surgeons are controlling their emotions in a specific professional environment, not that they don’t experience any. A psychopath doesn’t feel anything ever, regardless of what he or she is doing. Other people exist for them like ants in an ant farm to a hobbyist. That being said, the power and access to drugs and sharp implements does make the medical profession a highly attractive hunting ground for a psychopath. I believe that it was sir Arthur Conan Doyle, himself a physician, speaking through his signature creation, SH, when he wrote “When a doctor turns bad, he is the worst sort of criminal imaginable”—Or words to that effect. I think sociopaths and psychopaths can be found in every endeavor of life. They are found in higher than usual concentrations in professions of power like medicine, the law, law-enforcement, and captains of industry and business…And show business and the visual arts are stuffed full of them relatively speaking because those are high risk high reward lots of ego fuel environments. The unifying characteristics of sociopathy and psychopathy which exist on a spectrum are a lack of empathy for others and a belief in their superiority. Someone can be sociopathic without being violent or even necessarily committing any actions that break the law. Their personal relationships are going to be shallow and there will always be some façade management happening because they often have to fake feelings or interests they do not have in order to fit in. They can be mild mannered and law abiding—until they experience some stressor that makes their mask crack. I think psychopaths by definition commit violent acts and crimes just to try and feel something, or because they are bored. Usually they will manifest other mental problems too like schizophrenia or low IQ and will be too disorganized or unstable to avoid coming to the attention of the authorities. There is a lot of overlap in these diagnoses, but I don’t think either condition is “curable”. It’s not just the person’s behavior (what they do) but the fundamental personality (who they are). A crucial part of their humanity is missing—Stolen from them or never there to begin with. As such they could be said to have a profound birth defect that was not their own doing. Is it fair then to call them evil and undeserving of life or freedom? Maybe not “fair” as such—but is the prey wrong to protect itself from predators? That’s what the sociopaths and psychopaths are—apex predators. They care no more for you ir I than a hawk cares for a mouse—only as dinner or something to torture and play with. You and I are the mice who can only pray that either the hawk doesn’t see us or he gets locked up so he never will.

Matt Damon starred as Ripley in 1999 for Anthony Minghella. Opposite Jude Law, a breakout role for him (Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actor). Matt Damon displayed impressive chops for mimicry (Ripley’s specialty) and even learned piano to a high level for the role. Probably due to the general discomfort with the psychopathic personality, this Ripley is played more as a little boy lost who is forced by fear and self preservation into committing his heinous acts. He just wants to be loved and accepted, and is messed up due to a terrible childhood. The audience is primed to feel sorry for this kid who has to keep killing people because they just won’t stop being nosy. This Ripley murders, but seemingly against his will because the universe is conspiring against him. This is the modern interpretation of psychopathy, because I’m sure neither Matt Damon nor Anthony Mengele want us to view Tom as “evil” either. Not evil, just self-loathing, maladjusted, and unlucky. And cursed by perpetual loneliness. Patricia Highsmith’s antihero is a lot more detached and opportunistic and cold blooded. He enjoys playing with people. The Netflix series is taking its notes from Highsmith’s book, including the noirish feel. It’s a throwback to “Purple Noon”, the original Ripley movie in the 1950s. John Malkovich played an older Ripley in Ripley’s Game. I think the Scott portrayal will be more in the Malkovich mode then the Damon one. Come to think of it John Malkovich would’ve made an outstanding Moriarty. Maybe using terms like “evil” aren’t helpful, especially in diagnostic terms. As far as I understand it having read it this way, sociopaths are made through abuse or negative influences in childhood, and psychopaths are born. The difference between the two hast to do with emotional responses and their limbic systems. Sociopaths can still experience stress, fear and regrets. They Exhibit physical symptoms of stress and emotions. Psychopaths do not, so the phrase “Stone cold” is apt. They don’t feel anything and can remain exceedingly calm when committing their crimes. Based on this, I would say that Matt Damon’s Ripley is a sociopath and Highsmith’s Ripley and potentially Andrews Ripley are psychopaths. I would have to see the show to see what they come up with. This has nothing to do with an inability to distinguish right from wrong, what normal people would call the conscience. Sociopaths and psychopaths do not experience conscience in the same way, in terms of feeling guilt. They are well aware that their behaviors are antisocial and often break the law. They do not care. They care about the consequences of getting caught but they do not acknowledge societal norms as binding upon them and can justify their actions as necessary. The line that distinguishes the sane from the insane is sometimes hard to determine. I think it’s possible to be insane but also know right from wrong. Previous generations accepted the concept of evil and the demonic without question, but evil is out of fashion now. In our era we seek for justifications for behavior that hurts others. If unrepentant serial murder isn’t evil, I’m not sure what qualifies.

Just learned that our Moriarty is playing another world-famous psychopath, Tom Ripley. Brilliant casting, I daresay. https://deadline.com/2024/04/andrew-scott-ripley-sherlock-netflix-1235873701/amp/

I’ve always thought Sherlock Holmes would be attracted by the mathematical precision of baseball. A statistician’s dream. He also has a fondness for the equine nation based on one of my favorite stories, Silver Blaze, so maybe he’d like the racetrack. Getting this out of the archives; I had posted it on another discussion back in 2017. From the collection Sherlock Holmes in America comes a tale by Darryl Brock recounting an? early exploit of Sherlock Holmes in America, when a 21-year-old Holmes, having left university, met Mark Twain, titled as "My Silk Umbrella." Hartford, Connecticut, May 1875: On a fine spring day, Hartford's most famous citizen, Mr. Samuel Clemens, skives off from writing "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" to go the ball park to root for Hartford's hometown nine, 'The Dark Blues' in their highly-anticipated contest against the Boston Red Stockings in the newly-minted American pastime of 'base ball'. He overhears a nasally aggrieved English voice complaining, "But it's a glorified game of rounders! Why is the price so dear?!" This would turn out to be Holmes, says Clemens. What follows is a rollicking, often contentious transcontinental exchange of views on various topics, including the superiority of 'base ball' to cricket, or vice-versa, the criminal classes, and nothing less than the national character of two nations, at least. Also, the nascent consulting detective takes on one of his smaller, unheralded, and first-ever cases when he solves the theft of the American humorist's prized silk umbrella, given to Clemens as a gift from some English admirers on a recent trip to London. This match-up of two gigantic literary icons, one nearing his zenith and the other just on the rise is a humdinger of a tale, whether or not you actually believe that Sherlock Holmes visited Hartford, Connecticut when he was 21. Mr. Brock makes a very compelling case that he did.

Mycroft was my first exposure to Mark as an actor but I searched up everything I could find that he has appeared in. Like many character actors who disappear effortlessly into their roles and do the workmanlike labor of supporting the leads, his talents are underrated, but he stays humble…and busy! His scenes as Mycroft with his onscreen “brother mine” where the highlights of the series for me. I love the chemistry of the two Holmes boys. As I am the oldest and dare I say the smartest of my own siblings, I am partial to Big Myc. I feel we have a lot in common. It is a testament to MG’s skills that he deftly created a very specific and so memorable character despite not much screen time. He has taken the barely sketched in character of M given to us by ACD and brought him to glorious life. Not forgetting his contributions as screenwriter and producer. His Great Game episode in S1 was stellar—My favorite of that season. His contributions to the other seasons all had to stand out moments as well. A very well deserved award.

You might luck into a PBS broadcast or find the DVDs at your library. The show is a hit for ITV and a fourth season has been commissioned and is probably shooting as I write. I notice that most of these detective shows that go on location tend to shoot in the summer months. S3 was supposed to have 4 episodes but I only see 3 listed. Either the last episode got delayed or it got scrapped altogether. The second season was interrupted by Covid and may have also affected the schedule for the following year. I wouldn’t call it a necessary purchase but seeing Jason Watkins as Dodds is not to be missed. Tala Gouveia said there was some pushback against the show being too woke because she, black woman of Portuguese descent was cast as the lead. Technically Watkins is the star, even though his character defers to hers. More woke than a black DCI is a gay Detective Superintendent who is obliged to mention’my husband’ in every scene he’s in. Bath is on the bucket list. It makes a refreshing change from London.

Recent discovery and the reason I finally broke down and signed up for BritBox… MCDONALD AND DODDS Starring Jason Watkins and Tala Gouveia If you watch Netflix’s The Crown, you may recognize Jason Watkins as PM Harold Wilson in Season 3. His part was not huge, but his scenes with Elizabeth (Olivia Coleman) were a highlight of the season for me. So I was delighted to hear that Jason continues in work as the co-lead(he takes first billing) Opposite newcomer Tala Gouveia. The show is up to its third season, but the runs are brief, only two or three episodes each. So it didn’t take long to catch up. Watkins demonstrates his character actor prowess as he inhabits a completely different character here in both looks and manner to Harold Wilson. Indeed, so different is he that unless you recognize his name, you might not know he’s the same guy. Ambitious high-flyer Lauren McDonald left the London Met for the picturesque spa city of Bath In order to take a promotion to DCI. She is very young for the post, and anxious to prove herself. She gets assigned mild mannered socially awkward Detective Sergeant Dodds (no first name given) Who has been riding a desk and out of the field for the past 11 years. The top brass hope to get the new DCI to encourage Dodds to take early retirement by showing him he can’t handle field work any more. DS Dodds surprises everyone, including his DCI by being a quiet quirky deducing machine, with a specialty in research and a prodigious ability to absorb new information fast. McDonald is the mouth and the extrovert bluster fronting this team, but Dodds is the brain and the soul of deduction. This partnership is what Conan Doyle’s might’ve looked like if Holmes and Watson had switched personalities—and if one of them was a woman. In an already overstuffed genre field, this show distinguishes itself with its inventive casting and its gorgeous location—Bath has not been featured before in a detective drama. The tone is more akin to Midsomer Murders than Inspector Morse or Vera. I felt that the 90-minute running time per episode was too long, as the cases didn’t have enough heft to warrant that length. So there was a lot of extraneous padding which made for slow going at times. I think the show might have been slightly more successful as a 60 minute drama, allowing for six episodes per season rather than three. I would definitely enjoy seeing more opportunities for DS Dodds to flex his stuff.

P.S. As someone mentioned earlier, A Confession reunited Martin with ‘Mike Stamford’ (David Nellist) who plays Steve Fulcher’s DI, and advises him that he’s making a terrible mistake. Happier times by far in the St. Barts lab.

Only four years late to the party, but I finally watched “A Confession”. I recently signed up for BritBox. Solid work by MF as the lead of this gritty procedural drama based on a true-crime case in the UK a decade ago. MG plays Wiltshire detective superintendent Steve Fulcher whose unorthodox methods in coaxing a confession from a suspect accused of abducting a young woman have long-reaching ramifications for his career and the public perception of police conduct. DS Fulcher lost his reputation over the case, and resigned his commission, becoming a security contract advisor in the Middle East. I couldn’t help drawing comparisons between this detective and Dr. Watson. I asked myself whether if John Watson had chosen to become a police detective rather than an army surgeon, would he likely have taken the same course of action which Steve Fulcher did—Pursuing justice even though it meant breaking the letter of the law and putting his own career in jeopardy? I could only conclude that yes, he would, particularly after having apprenticed with Sherlock Holmes.

I just find it interesting that Mark Gatiss is the spokesman for Tom Hiddleston’s preferences in that area. Did the two have a meeting about it? Why is Mark announcing something that should come from Tom himself, if it has to come from anywhere? It seems presumptuous to declare something like that on another man’s behalf, doesn’t it? I haven’t been privy to this interview but perhaps that comment was meant in a humorous sort of way. Because being asked to comment about someone else’s love life who isn’t like, a best mate or family would be awkward. Well, Zawe seems a much better partner for Tom than Taylor Swift ever did, so I am glad they got together. When you find the right person, everything clicks. Tom seemed headed for confirmed bachelor territory or else he has an exceptional knack for privacy because he’d never been linked with anyone apart from the Swiftie Summer Tour several years back.

??? Are you saying there is already a HiddleBaby??! I have not been following HiddleNews lately. I know he was touted as the next James Bond after his work in the Night Manager. Tom Is insanely talented and incredibly bright, too. Indeed, one might say that a career in the Marvel universe isa waste of a double-First degree in Classics from Cambridge. There’s hardly an impression that he cannot do. I recommend everybody check out his turn as Prince Hal/Henry V in The Hollow Crown to see what Tom is capable of. Loki wastes him, really. I’m rather surprised that he’s into women. Zawe is a catch! In recent years I have had my wonderments about which team our Bendi is on. Some of his recent choices are definitely Pride Nation approved. Interesting times we live in.

I guess that makes it definitive then! One wonders if TH confided this personally to MG? All the best to cover and perhaps in due course they will present the world with a HiddleBaby. It’s going to be a good looking child I’m pretty sure.

Tom is engaged? Congrats to the couple. I had rather assumed that Hiddles batted for the other team, owing to being a 41 year old bachelor with no long-lasting relationships with women, at least which have been publicly announced. I do not count the baffling interlude with Taylor Swift several years ago which featured 4-6 weeks of staged displays of PDA for cameras before abruptly ending. It's been speculated for yonks that Tay-Tay also bats for the other team and the two were providing beard deniability for each other and clicks for their mutual upcoming career projects. Zawe is a beautiful woman; after her brief stint as Donovan in the unaired pilot (speaking most of the same lines which Vinette Robinson would reprise in the official first episode) she next appeared opposite Jason Isaacs as sassy PA Deborah in Case Histories. It wasn't a huge role but it was recurring over 2 seasons (6 episodes) and on balance had much more screen time than Donovan. Her commitment to Case Histories probably made her unavailable when Sherlock went back into production. Also in the cast was Amanda Abbington, playing this show's version of Lestrade . . or possibly John. Anybody out there who hasn't seen it yet, I recommend it. Jackson Brodie has a very Sherlock-y vibe at times and features another brunet lead with arresting blue eyes who is very dishy. If anyone didn't know that Lucius Malfoy has black hair in real life . . he does. An unrelated but still fascinating factoid: Tom Hiddleston was classmates with Prince William at Eton, so the two are of an age. No doubts whatsoever about William's team.

Welcome to the forum! You can find some of the best pastichers now working collected in The MX New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series edited by David Marcum. He releases two or three volumes of short stories a year since 2015. Denis O. Smith, Michael Kurland and Donald Thomas are names you should know. Also Lyndsay Faye. Happy sleuthing!

Who's been cavorting on stage in his underpants? Daniel Radcliffe of course shook up the post-Harry Potter world when he played the lead role in "Equus" sans culottes . . sans everything to announce his arrival as a fully fledged adult actor. Boy did he ever announce his adultness. Nothing by halves. Henry Knight was the first thing I'd seen Russell T. of the distinctive ears in; the exchange in Baker Street prior to setting off for the moor is one of my top series moments. Having had an uninspiring breakfast sandwich on the Amtrak once, I can vouch for train breakfasts being disappointing. Surprisingly decent coffee on the Amtrak . . much better than I had expected. After I ran out of Sherlock episodes, I tried to find every role that every cast member with a regular or meaningful guest role had done prior. That's when I found Starter for 10, a number of Benedict's indie UK films and The History Boys. Mr. Tovey had a role in that ensemble on stage and in the subsequent film. The kid playing young Henry in the flashback sequence at the top of Hounds of Baskerville is actually Russell's nephew and his uncle joked that he was cast for those ears that run in the family. Another of my very favorite moments features young Adam Greaves-Neal as the young Sherlock prototype who Sherlock tries to school in ringbearer etiquette in the Sign of Three episode. "Archie" would go on to the title role of The Young Messiah in 2016. He was only 5 when Sherlock 3 was in production so I call that darned impressive.

Ben was very appealing in “Murder Is Easy”, and it was very droll to see Russell Tovey playing a constable. I don’t suppose either guy imagined that four years later they would be working together again on the case of the Hound. Unfortunately, I did not care for Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple at all. I wished that Geraldine McEwan could have had that case. Besley, I would be interested to know if you have seen a little indie project Ben did with Claire Foy and Shaun Evans called “Wreckers”. It was released in 2011, after the first season of Sherlock had aired, but I think it was shot at least two years prior on a shoestring and there were some problems getting it distributed earlier. It was a labor of love project with a very small budget and largely unknown cast. Benedict sports his own natural curly red hair and I think since the black dye is so very difficult to get out, It’s unlikely this movie was made after Sherlock premiered. They wouldn’t have been able to afford him after that. It tells the story of two brothers with a very dysfunctional childhood and how it echoes in the present of the older brother’s new marriage. Claire Foy and Shaun Evans have of course gone onto brilliant respective careers starring in their own series on TV. The role Ben plays is as unlike Sherlock Holmes as can be imagined. I wish he would do more of these kinds of diverse dramas instead of playing silly buggers in the Marvel universe but that’s my own personal taste. Playing Khan and Doctor Strange has made him very wealthy but I don’t think it stretches him at all.

A round-trip walk of three hours would be too onerous to undertake every day as a commute, though it wouldn't be bad as a weekend ramble if one was prepared to walk that far. With two jobs plus the cricket, MD didn't have that kind of time in his day. But I thought Blackheath was a much further train journey away . . another county. I just checked online. Blackheath Station to Whitechapel is covered by the modern rail in approx. 41 minutes, listed at a distance of 8 miles. There must be a lot of stops in between because the metro bus covers the distance in only 10 minutes more, still under an hour. This is the modern transit and in Victorian days it would've taken longer, but presumably it's always been 8 miles between stations. I remain curious as to what the terms of Druitt's employment at both locations were. If he were only a very junior member of his chambers, he might not have had a very busy docket at all and been advised that he'd need a side gig to make a go of it. But he had office space in chambers and also a room at his school. Part-timers don't normally get offered accommodation, so he had kind of a sweet arrangement going at both places of employ. If he were engaged as a PE teacher/coach at the school, perhaps he didn't have classes or coaching commitments all day every day. Maybe he had a half-time berth at each place . .2 or 3 days at the school and the same amount in his chambers. In American law firms, the junior associates are absolutely buried with work and routinely work 60 - 80 hour weeks in order to prove themselves. They wind up doing all the scut work for the senior partners . .research, writing briefs, etc. even if they aren't yet qualified to take lead on their own cases. A lot of them are studying for the bar exam in addition. It's hard to imagine how MD found the time for everything attributed to him. He is an intriguing individual for sure . . more interesting than some unwashed Jewish mental cases. Who can say?

Herl, Very titillating account from the newspaper; thanks for sharing that. If Montague was the Ripper, then his family seems to have been quite connected to keep his crimes and identity mostly quiet to the general public. But if his family and some close associates had no difficulty believing him guilty of these horrific crimes because he was a 'homicidal maniac' who had escaped from a lunatic asylum, and besides which had medical training and kept being referred to as 'an insane doctor' . . the first he may have been, but demonstrably not the second . . how is it that an escaped lunatic continued with his work as a barrister and as a teacher and a respected member of a cricket club for how many months or years after supposedly escaping from the asylum until so very suddenly going off the rails again? How does a lunatic wanted by the authorities for escaping from an institution present himself at the bar or as a sports coach for youth and successfully get hired for both of these respectable positions of some authority? He was not practicing law or teaching under an assumed name, so I'd suppose that his mental health commitment would have caught up with him sooner or later as he tried to pursue these professions, if he had in fact gone AWOL from an asylum. We've observed before that a difference between the UK and the US is that in the UK, 100 miles is a really long way and to Americans, 100 years is a really long time. I guess a walk on foot of an hour and a half or thereabouts is a considerable distance enough to be inconvenient and time consuming to have to do every day as a commute, but if the distance could be covered on foot in that amount of time between MD's two places of work, then I imagine a train might take perhaps 20 - 30 minutes with stops, making a rail pass a good investment. A 30-minute commute by train is not outlandish at all, but we don't know how the train service would have been at the time. Still, if a man could walk the distance in an hour and a bit at a brisk pace, that's close enough to have had regular trains coming and going, I should think.

By “business” I was referring to the whole underground dealing in body parts, not just exhumed corpses to be sold wholesale to medical colleges desperate for cadavers. I said I did NOT assume the Ripper was doing body snatching, but that he might have been familiar with this underground world due to work in a morgue. Mssrs. Burke & Hare dealt body parts out of a wagon…the Ripper collected organs as trophies. Presumably he didn’t eat them all. Mostly he left everything arranged still-life style in situ. The Ripper’s victims were fresh, but I could see how dealing in dead bodies as a profession, like in a morgue, would desensitize one to the human carcass. There’d be lots of sharp blades around in a morgue. A morgue seems a very likely place for a failed med student or disgraced doctor to end up, if he had a fetish for cutting up women. Eventually he thought he’d try it in some still warm ones. Not a very zany theory considering what he did to them.

What is the distance from Blackheath to his chambers in the East End? Which room was the ostensible suicide note found in? If the two locations are close enough for a rail journey of an hour or less, maybe he was back and forth between the school and chambers often enough to make it worthwhile. It's hard to imagine that he could have had anything like a full-time post at either position. Am I right in thinking that he was a PE teacher at the school? Maybe he was only there a few days a week, or half-days in order to teach sport . .or maybe he was only in chambers a few days a week. Being on staff and a school AND a practicing lawyer in a completely different jurisdiction would be too demanding to be combined on a daily basis. The only way it would be manageable is if one of his jobs was quite sporadic or less than half-time. I do favor the theory that the Ripper might have been someone with more than rudimentary anatomical training via being a medical student or working in a morgue perhaps. I assume that the medical college rolls and local hospitals would have been canvassed for any former students/employees who might have been dismissed for inappropriate/disturbing behavior. The Ripper didn't remove enough organs from the scenes to have been a body snatcher but maybe he was familiar with that business. He had no qualms about dissecting his victims but his work lacked the precision of a highly trained surgeon. If MD had begun medical training and done a couple of years, but had to quit due to his nervous constitution or having been dismissed, he'd certainly have had enough skill to do the Ripper's work. Him or someone like him. I try and fail to really imagine either of the Jewish lunatics being the author of all of these murders. Both were mentally unsound and both worked with sharps in their day jobs. A butcher would know more about removing internal organs than a tailor, I would imagine, but neither of them appeared to have the mental organization exhibited by the Ripper at least in the earlier going. I don't suppose we will ever know . . .

If the Druitt family were prone to insanity, then Cousin Lionel might have been similarly afflicted. And he lived a 2-minute walk from one of the infamous murder sites…had resided in Whitechapel for some time…and he was a *doctor*? I’ve got to say that cousin Lionel is looking better for it then Montague. M. Had office space nearby, true but his residence was elsewhere and he was just so busy with two jobs plus the cricket… I don’t think he would’ve additionally had time to be involved in a charity for downfallen women. But his cousin the doctor would be well placed to be involved, eh? Someone involved with a local charity might even have been known to some of the victims as a friendly face… earning their trust if they happened to encounter him whilst doing business. Jack’s knife work points to anatomical knowledge and comfort with blades. I don’t think I buy the “Montague watched his father at work and that’s how he picked it up” theory. Unless daddy Dr. Druitt gave regular dissection lessons at the family kitchen table, how would young Monty have watched his father at work? A 12, 13 year old boy allowed into the operating theater? Doesn’t seem plausible. But there’s a cousin who lives in Whitechapel and went to medical school?! Why haven’t we heard about Cousin Lionel before?