THE BRASHER DOUBLOON CAPER
EPHRAIM BRASHER, prominent colonial silversmith, lived in the fashionable Cherry Hill neighborhood of Manhattan. George Washington lived next door. It was 1787. That year, Brasher and John Bailey, a fellow … Continue reading
HOLMES, DEDUCTION, THE KLAN, AND A LESS THAN PERFECT RESOLUTION
AN EXAMPLE of Sherlock Holmes’ deductive skills lies in his encounter with the Ku Klux Klan described in Dr. John H. Watson’s chronicle of “The Five Orange Pips.” This adventure … Continue reading
NYC: AC? DC? AC/DC?
SO I’M listening to a Nick Carter mystery on SiriusXM “Radio Classics” and he reveals a frame-up by recognizing an alternating-current clock at the scene of the crime, a New … Continue reading
HOLMES AND BARTITSU
HOW WELL did the world’s greatest consulting detective know Japanese gentle arts of self defense? Indeed, the nearest that Holmes ever got to Japan was during his hiatus that included … Continue reading
HUGH L. COURTNEY—CHARLATAN EXTRAORDINAIRE
THEY DON’T make charlatans like they used to. I’ve just learned about Hugh L. Courtney while reading “Cheats, Swindlers, and Ne’er-Do-Wells: A New York Family Album,” by Dan Barry in … Continue reading
HOLMES’ FUTURE SHOCK
ALVIN TOFFLER wrote Future Shock in 1970, but certainly Sherlock Holmes experienced the late-Victorian/Edwardian equivalent of this disruption caused by accelerated change. Here are several examples. The Telephone. During much … Continue reading
HOLMES RESIDUALS
I SUSPECT it was chronicler Dr. John H. Watson who taught Sherlock Holmes the value of branding, of selling marketers on his reputation as the world’s greatest detective, and then … Continue reading
