A HOLMESIAN CALENDAR
HERE IT IS January 8, 2016, and we’ve already missed, by two days, the 161th anniversary of the birth of Sherlock Holmes. But there are a lot more places to mark our … Continue reading
HYPIN’ HOLMES
YA GOTTA schlep the stock, move the merchandise, fill the till. And what better celebrity endorsement than the world’s most famous consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. Over the years, Holmes has … Continue reading
HOLMES’ COLLEGE DAYS—BUT WHERE??
THE MATTER of Sherlock Holmes’ education has encouraged a lot of scholarly research generating lively differences of opinion: King’s College, London? Queen’s College, Birmingham? Owen’s College, Manchester? Cambridge? Oxford? Or … Continue reading
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
