A FOGGY DAY/IN LONDON TOWN…
IRA GERSHWIN wrote the lyrics, his brother George composed the melody, and Fred Astaire introduced the song in the 1937 movie A Damsel in Distress. Old-time movie buffs may recall … Continue reading
FREUDIAN HOLMES/SHERLOCKIAN FREUD
NO LESS than Dr. John H. Watson, chronicler of his friend Sherlock Holmes, refers to Sigmund Freud as “the greatest detective of them all.” Or at least this high praise … Continue reading
SHAMUS SLANG—YOU GET ME, NATCH?
WIFE DOTTIE fears I might be enjoying too many old-time radio shows. You know, Nero Wolfe, Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, Boston Blackie. Shamuses who treat their molls tough. Dolls who … Continue reading
DID POIROT EVER MEET HOLMES?
THE WORLD’S two greatest consulting detectives, Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, had overlapping careers. It was around the advent of the Great War, World War I to those of us … Continue reading
ON EARLY SLEUTHING
MANY CONSIDER Sherlock Holmes the world’s first detective. With more than a little hubris, a while back I proposed otherwise in noting that Kumedera Danjō, the hero in the Kabuki … Continue reading
THE BOOKSHELVES AT 221B
THE SITTING room at 221b Baker Street, London, contained bookshelves, of course. But what were the books that Sherlock Holmes and his chronicler Dr. John H. Watson had on these … Continue reading
THE GAME’S AFOOT, KIDS (AND GROWNUPS TOO)
NORTHBOUND DRIVERS on Interstate 5 in Santa Ana, California, encounter an outsized canted cube, the DiscoveryCube Orange County, a wonderfully interactive kids’ museum. The DiscoveryCube is also a destination this … Continue reading
FIREARMS OF THE HOLMESIAN CANON
IN FULL candor, I’m not much into firearms. By contrast, as chronicled by his friend and sidekick, Dr. John H. Watson, Sherlock Holmes certainly knew his way around them. Here’s … Continue reading
SHERLOCKIAN WOMEN
IT’S GOOD fun researching Sherlock Holmes through the chronicles of Dr. John H. Watson as represented by his literary agent Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. At this website, for instance, I’ve … Continue reading
“SIT!” SAID THE CYNOLOGIST
A BOOK of Sherlockiana introduced me to the term cynology, “logy” as in “the study of,” cyno from the Greek κυνóς, “dog.” As is usually the case, this book led … Continue reading
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