Shangas

Thanks. Other members are welcome to share their photography here as well. Straight-razor manufactured by Joseph Rodgers & Sons. Cutlers to the royal family It's a beautiful shaver.

The Singer is from 1936. But the design goes all the way back to the 1860s. Yes, it still works perfectly. The typewriter is a late 1920s Underwood Standard Portable. Here's another photograph: It's an absolute joy to type on. This also, still works (almost) perfectly. The shift-lock key doesn't function, but it's otherwise a perfect typer. By the light of the silvery moon... On a little street in Singapore... You can't run from, nor hide from, the thing that you've done, from the eyes, the very eyes of Notre Dame...

Ready for a shave? Sweeney's waiting... Le Secretaire Noir... Singer collection: "Under the Clocks":

Hello everyone, As I think I mentioned in my introductory thread, I like photography. It's a minor compulsion with me, but I enjoy it, nonetheless. I wanted to share with the members here, a selection of my photography. You're welcome to ask any questions about anything in any of the photographs. Don't be shy. I don't bite. My Writing Case: My Desk: "I could not possibly leave London! Scotland Yard feels lonely without me, and at any rate, it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes..." One of a number of machines I own, for some reason... "All the better to see you with, my dear..."

"Do you know any swears?" "Well, bugger, bugger you, blast, bugger you, you beastly bastard..." "Bertie!...A public-school prig could do better than that!" "SHIT! Shit shit ass balls shit bugger..." "Do you know the F-word?" "Ffffoooornication?" "Beeertie..." "F***!" That's from "The King's Speech", if anyone's wondering. A wonderful film.

Hahahaha. They weren't going off to the mines. They were going to find a dragon!

"Fair Dinkum", "Strewth" (from "God's Truth"), "Blimey!" (from "God Blind Me") are all alive and kicking in Australia. Along with some shared vernacular from our British counterparts, such as bugger, blast and damn. Does anyone in England really say "Giddy Biscuit"? Or is that just Hugh Laurie in "Jeeves & Wooster"?

Sadly, "Crroooyikey!" will forever be linked down here, to Steve Irwin the Croc-Hunter. I've never known anyone but the Brits, to say... "By Jove", "By George". 'By Jove' always makes me think of the really refined, upper-class aristocrats (think Jeeves & Wooster). I've never known anyone but the British, to say "Jolly good", or "Cheerio" (the cereal does not count in this instance). I've never known the British to ever say "dude". "Mate", "chap", "Buddy", "Chum", yes. "Dude" or "Pal"? Never. I've never known anyone but those OUTSIDE the states, to refer to Americans universally as "Yanks". Sorry chaps. Take it for granted; to us Imperials, you're a Yank whether you're from Florida, Nevada, California, Washington, Iowa, Jawjah, or Nue Yawk. And I'm sure there are loads for Australia...

Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to Holmes we go, At a smartish pace for a puz'ling case, Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho... Ahem...Sorry, the thread title just reminded me of the song. Welcome to the forum

Common sense is not the box. The box is the limits of conventional thought. Imagination is what exists beyond the box. Common sense is the lid on top of it. How much imagination (and therefore, deductive ability, arguably) one would have, is determined by how much we can override common sense. To throw off the lid, and have our minds spill outside the box into the realms of imagination and fantasy, and to what extent. The more we can do that, the better we'd be at deduction.

"Impossible". Nailing jello to a brick wall is impossible. "Improbable". It is improbable that the Queen will accept a flyswat made of bread-dough as a Christmas present. The difference is that one is clearly unobtainable, while the other has an element of chance, or the unknown, involved. Holmes would differentiate between the two by deciding how likely each one of these scenarios would be. I've done a few 'deductive puzzles' myself, and when you really think about it, it's not TOO difficult. Granted, some of the things I practiced on were fairly easy... It helps, I think, to have a big imagination. If you can't imagine, and think outside the box, deduction is extremely difficult. In another Sherlock Holmes board, of which I was a member before it went belly-up, I initiated a Deductions Game thread which was very well-received. To start off with, ironically, just as Holmes had started off with - I used a pocketwatch!!

The differences between the Australian and New Zealand accents are quite marked once you get used to them. New Zealanders tend to mix up their vowels. A LOT. A typical sentence with a really thick New Zealand accent is almost indecipherable to those who have never heard it. Fur exemple, Nu Zullunders allus mex up their As, Es, Is, Os and Us. So Deck becomes dick, six becomes sex, fish becomes fush, Peg becomes pig, Chips becomes chups... The list is almost endless. And it can be quite amusing. Or annoying. One of the big peculiarities about the Australian accent is that in a way, it's a bit like the American accent; the closer you get to the equator, the thicker it becomes. Maybe it has something to do with temperature and vocal viscosity? I dunno. By the time you reach Queensland, it's like speaking treacle, with a hardcore drawl. "Yeeeeh gidday maayte. Owza gawn? Wedder rup 'ere's farrout buggehed up, yeh?" Another forum which I frequent had a member which proposed that, due to the number of flies that inhabit equatorial regions, beings which inhabit these lands are forced to keep their mouths shut, and speak out of the corners of their lips, creating, in his own words: "an accent of necessity".

Somehow, Holmes doesn't seem to be the type to drink to excess, even on his birthday. Destructive to the mental faculties, wot?

Found it. A 'dresser' is a surgeon's assistant. He'd help with such things as preparing the patient before operation, and he'd assist the surgeon during the operation, handing him tools and equipment and keeping an eye on things, to see that nothing went wrong. It sounds like a trained position. Not something that an orderly could do.

I rest my case. The history of medicine fascinates me.

Medicine was changing a LOT in Victorian times. You went from sawing off gangrenous limbs and digging bullets out of bodies, treating people with mercury and laudanum, and opium, heroin, digitalis, and other really dangerous stuff, to the birth of modern medicine starting around the period after the American Civil War. You had stuff like sterilisation, antiseptics and anesthetics coming in around the 1860s and 70s. So Watson would've had to learn all those things in university. Even as 'recently' as the 1860s, people still believed in the Miasma Theory and bloodletting. Victorian medicine and the doctors who practiced it were treating some horrible diseases. I mean stuff like consumption (tuberculosis), influenza, syphillis, gangrene, chronic alcoholism, scurvy, scarlet fever... T.B. was especially endemic during this time. And treatment was haphazard at best. You had stuff like ether and chloroform to make surgery safer. But it was still largely experimental until the later Victorian period (1880s, 1890s). And you didn't have antibiotics. So keeping things SPOTLESS CLEAN was the only way to prevent infection. If you visit a tailor and ask him what jacket-cuffs are called, which can be unbuttoned, he'll tell you that they're "Surgeon's cuffs". That's because surgeons would unbutton their jacket-cuffs, and work on patients in their day-clothes. A mark of an experienced surgeon was how much blood he had on his coat. All that stuff went OUT in the second half of the 1800s, when there was a real revolution in medicine. Watson would've had to learn about all these things and more during medical school.

The general consensus is that H&W were both born *around* the same time. Ca. 1850s., but that Watson is perhaps *slightly* older, say, two or three years. In the Sign of Four, I believe it is, Holmes ties a leash to Toby's collar, saying that he's "too fast for two middle-aged, London gentlemen". So H&W must've been at least in their 40s by that time, surely? But the story takes place in 1888. At best, they'd be in their early-mid 30s? I believe in later stories (I forget which), H&W both start having bouts of rheumatism. When the stories end around the start of the Great War, H&W are generally considered to be at least in their 60s.

I think Agatha Christie was also a bit like that. Must be a thing with mystery/crime writers.

And the Diognes Club is a front for M.I 6.

Last time I had a look, Benedict had eggs in it.

http://scheong.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/come-watson-come-the-game-is-afoot-the-elementary-fame-of-sherlock-holmes/ An article from my blog I thought you fellows might be interested in reading about. It seemed pertinent to the subject at hand.

I generally consider crimesolving fiction to be the hardest to write about. So I applaud you for trying. I've written a couple of humble efforts myself. And that kinda stuff takes SKILL.

For chatting with me privately over instant messenger, i use MSN and Yahoo messengers. MSN: shahancheong@hotmail.com (also my main email address. Email me at that address). YAHOO: shangas123 My blog may be found at: http://scheong.wordpress.com It covers a staggeringly large range of history.

The Chinese for "death" is "Si" (pronounced 'sir'). Which is also how 'four' is pronounced. It's similar in a lot of Asian dialects and cultures. No, B.I., gran never visited Hawaii. But she did grow up in a country where coconuts are plentiful. CHINESE TRADITIONS *ALWAYS* remove your shoes before entering a private home (unless excused by the host). Shoes are used to protect your feet outside, and not to track mud into the house. ANOTHER SUPERSTITION: Always hold your chopsticks midway between top and bottom. Too far to the bottom suggests incest and familial marriage. Too far to the top suggests marrying a total stranger that your family will not approve of. My father told me that one. I thought it was rather funny. But it is a genuine Chinese superstition. It is tradition to wear red on special occasions, as mentioned further up. Red is the Chinese color for celebration, as it is believed to scare away evil spirits and monsters. **I'm going to Chinese New Year dinner tonight. I'll be wearing a red necktie. Keep those nasty ghoulies away from my dinner! BEGONE!** When being served a cup of tea, make a fist, and knock the tabletop twice with your knuckles. This dates back to ancient China. When the emperor moved incognito through the kingdom with his servants, he wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible. So as not to draw attention to himself, he would serve his own courtiers tea during mealtimes at public restaurants and inns during their journeys. To be served tea by the emperor was a great honour. But so as not to blow his cover, the servant would mimic the act of kowtowing, by tapping his knuckles on the table, to show respect. Along with where you hold your chopsticks, is HOW you hold your chopsticks. Always make sure that they are of equal length. The only things which are not of equal length are the planks of wood used to build your coffin!

I think granny believed in it because she died at 97. I don't recall her having any coconut-related accidents in the neighbourhood of 87, but who knows?