biscuitbear

I have liked Big Chief Studios on facebook so I can see progress on these. Something's wrong with Sherlock's eyes.

Mwahaha http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-03-12/benedict-cumberbatch-confirms-sherlock-series-4

This one is not a novel but a selection of some of the letters sent to Sherlock by the public. For years, a bank had the official Baker Street address and employed a secretary to read and answer the letters (now the bank moved and the letters are going to the museum). Strangely, the editor of the book, a prominent Sherlockian, died a mysterious death in 2004. He had been strongly opposing the auctioning off of important ACD papers at Christie's, and had told friends he was followed by an American and was fearing for his life. Shortly after, he was found garroted by a shoelace tightened with a wooden spoon. Some said it was a suicide staged as a murder. Too bad Sherlock was not there so solve the case!

Just stumbled on this on tumblr, love it : http://glasmond.tumblr.com/post/16022749716/a-little-something-i-improvised-on-the-piano-its This girl made lots of other versions too such as salsa and ragtime. Almost makes me want to take up piano again!

I don't have the original text, but it seems to be "aluminum" and he was an American. The reference is in the Musgrave Ritual : They are not all successes, Watson," said he, "but there are some pretty little problems among them. Here's the record of the Tarleton murders, and the case of Vamberry, the wine merchant, and the adventure of the old Russian woman, and the singular affair of the aluminium crutch, as well as a full account of Ricoletti of the club foot and his abominable wife." Among the untold tales, my favorite is "the dreadful business of the Abernetty family". "The affair seems absurdly trifling, and yet I dare call nothing trivial when I reflect that some of my most classic cases have had the least promising commencement. You will remember, Watson, how the dreadful business of the Abernetty family was first brought to my notice by the depth which the parsley had sunk into the butter upon a hot day." (from The six Napoleons)

The Old Tin Box by Jay Finley Christ (1946) In the vaults of Cox was an old tin box With Watson's name on its lid. What wouldn't we pay for that box today And the secret notes there hid? Old Russian dame, Ricoletti the lame. The famous aluminum crutch; For Alicia, the cutter, the parsley in butter, What would you give for such? Story of Randall, the Darlington scandal, The coptic patriarchs. The opal tiara, the Addleton barrow -- Dollars? or francs? or marks? The tale of the pinch of Victor Lynch, The furniture warehouse mob, The case at the Hague, the murder at Prague The powderless Margate job. The giant rat, the cardinal's hat, The Patersons (first name Grice), The cormorant's bill, the Hammorford will -- We'd take 'em at any price. The Phillimore fella who sought an umbrella, The steamer Friesland (Dutch); For Col. Carruthers or Atkinson brothers One never could give too much. The Vatican case and its cameo face, The slithering, unknown worm, The Abergavenny were none too many -- Where is this Cox's firm? Oh, wonderful box in the vaults of Cox! You come with a touch of salt! But I offer two blocks of the choicest stocks For the treasure of Cox's vault.

I thought I would start a new topic to share the little gems I come across. To start with, this was written by E. B. Kellett after the publication of The Final Problem (as published in the London Spectator in 1933) : "Toll for the brave That was so strong and hearty Who tumbled in the wave Along with Moriarty Ah, never shall we learn The tale of that man's life Who took out his false teeth And threw them at his wife "Let scoundrels all rejoice Throughout our mourning land For Sherlock Holmes is gone Gone to a better Strand" And of course, the famous poem "221 B" by Vincent Starrett, which does have a link to BBC Sherlock (1895) : Here dwell together still two men of note Who never lived and so can never die: How very near they seem, yet how remote That age before the world went all awry. But still the game's afoot for those with ears Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo: England is England yet, for all our fears— Only those things the heart believes are true. A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane As night descends upon this fabled street: A lonely hansom splashes through the rain, The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet. Here, though the world explode, these two survive, And it is always eighteen ninety-five. A long evening with Holmes, by BSI member William P. Scheikert : When the world closes in with its worries and cares And my problems and headaches are coming in pairs I just climb in my mind those seventeen stairs And spend a long evening with Holmes. The good Doctor greets me and motions me in Holmes grasps my hand and lays down his violin Then we sit by the fire and sip a tall gin When I spend a long evening with Holmes. And while we're discussing his cases galore If I'm lucky there comes a loud knock on the door In stumbles a client, head splattered with gore When I spend a long evening with Holmes. Watson binds up the client's poor face While Holmes soon extracts all the facts of the case Then off in a hansom to Brixton we race When I spend a long evening with Holmes. The Adventure is solved, Holmes makes it all right So back to the lodgings by dawn's early light And a breakfast by Hudson to wind up the night When I spend a long evening with Holmes. So the modern rat race can't keep me in a cage I have a passport to a far better age As close as my bookcase, as near as a page I can spend a long evening with Holmes.

Here's an article on the topic of Sherlock's age, dated 1920 (also has interesting info about early pastiches) : http://www.unz.org/P...n-1920jul-00579 I'm quite fascinated by early articles and the beginnings of The Game. Also I forgot to say, I read a short story recently, which is set at an unspecified time which sounds like the twenties, and ends by the following dialogue : “What will you do, Holmes, when you’ve brought to book the last criminal in London? You’ll have no more excuse to dress up in your fancy disguises!" “Elementary, my dear fellow. I have my eye on a cottage in St. Mary Mead.” How fun to picture Sherlock living into old age and embarking on a second career posing as a woman!

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Unfortunately the only real clue we have is in His last bow, so even if the description was that of Altamont and not of Holmes himself, it's the best guess we can have. Another question could be, how old were they when they died. Obviously, Watson lived at least until he wrote the last story, which was published in 1927. Baring-Gould proposed that Holmes died in 1957 at the age of 103 (with the words Irene, Irene on his lips ), but I read an article making him die around 1912 which is quite convincing : http://www.bakerstreetjournal.com/deaddetectiveno1.html And another question could be, when are their birthdays. The hints that point to January 6 for Holmes are very, very flimsy : the fact that Twelfth Night is the only Shakespearian play that he quotes twice in the canon, and that in one of the stories he is silent over breakfast on January 7 (so people assume he has a hangover from celebrating). More about it here : http://www.sherlockpeoria.net/ViewFromSP/ViewSP2006/ViewSP010806.html

Oh I don't intend to - studying the ACD canon is keeping me busy enough. It seems Baring-Gould invented quite a lot of things about Sherlock which have become more or less accepted, and why not, as long as you know it's only an invention (you're right about Nero Wolfe, Clarke proposed it first and then Baring-Gould seized on it). Certainly there are lots of short stories by various authors which use some biographical details first proposed by Baring-Gould (I just read an excellent one by Neil Gaiman where Holmes travels to China to work on a youth elixir derived from honey; and Moriarty as maths tutor as well as Sherrinford as older brother turn up quite often in Holmes fiction). Some info on Baring-Gould's Holmes biography is here : http://www.sherlocki...aringgould.html Beth, I'm so jealous you can check out that kind of book so easily, here of course it can't be found in libraries and often the books by the early scholars like Baring-Gould or Starrett are out of print and have to be ordered from the UK or the US. I wish more of them were made into ebooks. I see that Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street was made available in Kindle format last December, so I may get it, let us know how you like it.

Good, then you'll be able to tell us how Baring-Gould got this idea. Maybe there are clues in the Nero Wolfe books, I haven't read them. Rex Stout also played the game and in 1941 made a famous address to the BSI which is quite hilarious (http://www.hwslash.net/stout.html).

That's Baring-Gould's theory, one wonders what he could possibly have found to suggest this. I haven't read him but he seems quite fanciful! I enjoy fun theories but I like them to be founded on at least a very small hint in the canon...like SH's birthday.

I suppose we can imagine that the King of Bohemia was really devious and lied when he said he believed Irene would keep her word, went to Moriarty the next day and had her killed. But I prefer to think that the King was sincere and in the 1890s I see nothing extraordinary in a woman dying quite young without being necessarily assassinated. Regarding BBC Irene, I see in her a lot of the female character from The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, which is said to have inspired the writers. To me there is a really strong parallel :

I enjoyed the book a lot, devoured it in a week-end. It was written in 1974 by Nicholas Meyer and the film is from 1976. I already talked about the book in another thread (book recommendations), it's a really ingenious explanation of what happened just before the hiatus and throws a light on Holmes's character. I enjoyed the movie rather less. Biggest problem for me was the actor portraying Holmes, with his sandy hair and not really prepossessing appearance, he really didn't fit my idea of Holmes. Though BC is my favorite, I can be convinced by Jeremy Brett or by the Russian version guy, but this one was really difficult for me. Watson wasn't particularly interesting for me either, I did enjoy Freud's character, actually he's the only one who really stood out for me. Vanessa Redgrave was OK, the baron too ugly (sorry but I couldn't believe in him being the lover of such a supposedly sucessful beauty of the time), Regine was of anecdotal interest (I saw her a few weeks ago in a tearoom in Paris, very old now of course). What bothers me also are the differences with the book. Nicholas Meyer wrote the script and I suppose he had to make the story more sensational for the screen. I guess for me the turkish pasha and white slavery plot were a bit too much. If I hadn't read the book first I suppose I wouldn't have thought anything of it, but whenever I see an adaptation of a book I enjoyed, which simplifies the story or makes it more crude, I cringe. An example that comes to mind is The remains of the day, a great movie is you see it as a stand-alone, but so much less subtle than the book. Finally, I do like a sense of humor and some funny moments in Holmes movies, and found almost none here. Still an interesting movie to see for any Holmesian student.

Now I've seen it, I can see cleear parallels between this and Sherlock, the most obvious one being with Scandal in Belgravia, but I won't say more if you haven't seen it yet.

It's a 1970 movie by Billy Wilder (who also directed Some like it hot, one of my favorite). I'm barely 30 minutes in and laughing my socks off. Watson with a rose in his hair dancing Swan Lake with Russian ballet girls : priceless!

I gave in and looked up a few things, but I'm still missing some. Rats.

Here's my solution so far: I think they were, but this being 1934 it must have been harder to look up than nowadays. I'm sure my pala is wrong!

Has anyone tried the 1934 puzzle by Morley which served as entrance examination for the BSI? http://holmes.crispen.org/bsi.html I've been trying to do it without looking up anything but I'm stumped. I can't find the 4 down, the first word of 8 across, 37 and 43 across, and a couple of 2 and 3 letter words. Rats. Quite proud though to have figured out 24 down without knowing the meaning of epollicate.

I thought I would share a few books which I have enjoyed so far and which I haven't found mentioned yet in the forum. - The seven percent solution by Nicholas Meyer : the true story of the Final Problem and The Empty House - two stories which by his own admission, where pure invention on Watson's part. In which Holmes travels to Vienna and is cured by Freud. - My dear Watson by Margaret Bridges : in which Holmes is (gasp) a woman and locks wits with Moriarty's daughter. - The veiled detective by David Stuart Davies : in which we learn that Watson was actually called Walker, wasn't wounded at Maiwand but ignominiously discharged from the army after getting drunk on duty. And if he ends up sharing lodgings with Holmes it's not exactly a coincidence... (no wonder Watson can't remember where his wound is, it never happened...) - The hound of the d'Urbervilles by Kim Newman : in which we learn how Moran came to work for Moriarty, and hear of their subsequent adventures, in Moran's own words. A relationship and reminiscences which curiously mirror another famous pair...Moran, though a through-and-through villain, comes across as strangely likable in his memoirs. More to come later!

Anyone here interested in The Great Game? At first, I wasn't, it seemed kind of silly, I couldn't see the point. But, after reading the founding essay by Monsignor Knox, I have begun to see the light. It's just plain fun! I bought the New Annotated Sherlock by Leslie Klinger (which will surely take me weeks if not months to go through) and am currently reading a biography by June Thomson, "Holmes and Watson". The essay by Knox is here in case anyone is interested : http://www.diogenes-club.com/studies.htm I found it quite fascinating that The Game started over a hundred years ago from his poking fun at some scholars' overzealous scrutiny of biblical writings. I actually googled Backnecke before realizing Know invented him. I didn't study the classics myself so I had to google quite a few of the Greek references but it was well worth it. Another favorite is Rex Stout's address to the BSI contending that Watson was a woman, it's really hilarious : http://www.hwslash.net/stout.html An interesting example of how a very small thing (tantalus vs spirit case) can lead to a whole new theory about the two Watsons : http://www.sherlockpeoria.net/Report_pages/HWRArticleArchive/SecretOfTheTantalus.html I've been hunting for the book "Sayers on Holmes", as Dorothy Sayers is one of my favorite mystery authors (up there on my pedestal with Colin Dexter, Reginald Hill and Barbara Vine), but no luck so far.

Fancy seeing you here wildwoodflower! I just downloaded your book yesterday and am reading it on my kobo. I found it through a devious route from an initial link in the newsletter of the SHSL to an online bookstore, then I read the reviews on amazon and decided to try it. It's not the type of book I would normally choose (I'm into rational happenings) but the premise sounded interesting. I'm only a few chapters in but I'm loving it! It's like your main character is giving a presence to the little voice inside us that wants to interact with Holmes and Watson but can't because we're only readers. ^_^

I offered to buy some of these for my daughter when I spotted them in a supermarket last summer, but she wasn't interested (she's totally into fantasy fiction). I haven't tried them myself as I haven't been feeling like reading children's books lately, but I have heard some of the twenty-something Frenchlockians singing the praises of these books.

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