Episode 2.2 ,"The Hounds Of Baskerville"

[Artemis]

Was the cell phone deduction cut from the American showing?

No, I saw it.

[Pseudonym]

Ah, I was wondering because I've come across a few fics recently where Sherlock and John call their phones cells, and I thought if you're a big enough fan to be writing fic, and Sherlock himself has said in an episode that cell is an American thing, it would be weird people keep making that mistake. 

[Boton]

I've been doing the reverse a lot since I started getting addicted to, er, watching Sherlock.  I have now started calling cell phones "mobiles," and that confuses the heck out of my students.  On the other hand, they have already made the shift to where "phone" is mobile/cell, and "land line" is anything corded. 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Just popping 'round to say hello. Also wondering... where do you think Moriarty was being held in prison at the end of THOB? The bowels of MI5?

I could see that or some secret (at least for commoner) mi-6 place. I don't think it's Sherrinford as that seems like too much of a risk since we now know that Eurus exists there.

[Arcadia]

Just popping 'round to say hello.  Also wondering... where do you think Moriarty was being held in prison at the end of THOB?  The bowels of MI5?

 

Hello! :d I always thought it was something like that, yeah. Or whatever agency Mycroft actually controls. (MI20? )

[Pseudonym]

The Holmes Office maybe?

[Arcadia]

That might be it, since it's practically a full time job cleaning up after his daft siblings. :p

[Boton]

That might be it, since it's practically a full time job cleaning up after his daft siblings. :P

 

Seconded!

 

Season 5 idea: Mycroft finally throws up his hands and is done with the whole mess.  We spend an entire episode just watching him and Lizzie Smallwood cavort on a beach together while London (metaphorically?) burns.

[Arcadia]

And we'd sit there and watch it. :p

[Carol the Dabbler]

Regarding cell/mobile -- it appears that the technical term here in the US is now mobile.  No idea why, but that's what the ads all say.

 

Us normal human beings still mostly call them cell phones, though, so I would assume that the fan fics where that term is used without comment are merely written by Americans in their native language.  (I'll tell ya, that doesn't bother me nearly as much as the ones who attempt to write in British -- with some glaring slip-ups.)

[Artemis]

^ That's true.  I see pretty much only "mobile" and rarely "cell" now.

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

However, I think most Americans would pronounce it to rhyme with "noble" rather than as "moh-bile" (which is, I believe, the British pronunciation).

 

P.S.:  The city of Mobile, Alabama, is pronounced "moh-beel."

[Pseudonym]

There was a good set of detective novels I used to read set in Mobile, though I can't for the life of me remember what they were called now. 

 

I don't mind people writing in their native language to an extent, but when the characters are talking like Americans it grates. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yeah, I can imagine. That's why in my (very limited) fan writing, I have an American point-of-view character. That way I can write the bulk of the story in American, and only need to worry about British terminology for some of the dialog.

[Boton]

I try to "write in British" if I can, at least as far as getting the cell/mobile and trunk/boot kinds of things right.  I don't try to standardize to British spelling, however, and sometimes I find it annoying if someone nitpicks to the level of "well, the Boots on Baker Street puts its paracetamol on the third shelf on the back wall, and you have Sherlock walking in and getting it from the front display."   ;)

[Pseudonym]

American/British spelling doesn't bother me - I think going to that level is pretty nit-picky too. 

[Boton]

There are little things, too, that are incredibly hard to get right for a non-native speaker, even one who speaks another form of English.  I read somewhere a well-deserved rant about fan fiction writers from the States making John say "cor blimey," as if we've ever heard him say that.  But it is definitely hard to know what accent sounds weird and what sounds normal, and troubleshooting that requires a dedicated Britpicker and frankly a lot more time than I'm willing to devote to free fiction.  So, I try to stick with constructions I've actually heard the characters say, and I hope I'm fairly close.

[Pseudonym]

Lol, I think that rant was me.  :lol: When John suddenly sounds like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.

[Carol the Dabbler]

And then I pointed out that he has actually said "blimey" once (in Blind Banker, when he thinks the pizza or whatever has arrived).

[Pseudonym]

It was more the 'cor' I have issues with. I don't think I've ever actually come across a fic with 'cor blimey.' (Yet.) 

 

Things like:

 

SH: "It's clear from the pattern of wear on her cuff that she was at the scene."

JW: "Cor, Sherlock!"

[SherlockedCAMPer]

It was more the 'cor' I have issues with. I don't think I've ever actually come across a fic with 'cor blimey.' (Yet.)

 

Things like:

 

SH: "It's clear from the pattern of wear on her cuff that she was at the scene."

JW: "Cor, Sherlock!"

Would cor be like a shortened/slang form of 'of course'?

[Pseudonym]

Nope. 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

So what does it mean then as I don't know all of the British or Celtic slang?

[Pseudonym]

Doesn't mean much of anything really. Mild surprise maybe. It's something that no one actually says unless they're a Dicken's era urchin. 

[Arcadia]

A couple of websites I glanced at claim its a corruption of "God blind me."