Chronology part 11

Chronology of these short stories, while Watson still lives in Paddington.

• DYIN - a Saturday in Nov 1889, "in the second year of my married life." Also, this makes it less uncomfortably close to Holmes faking his death in FINA.
• BLUE - Dec 27, 1889
• IDEN - The wedding was on Friday the 14th. Mary Sutherland visited Holmes maybe on Monday February 17, 1890; this would make the Friday wedding on Valentine's day. I originally placed this case in June 1889, but I moved it because Holmes hasn't seen Watson for "some weeks."
• CARD - August 1890 (Mrs. Watson gone visiting again)

DYIN was published very late in 1913, but the case clearly takes place decades ago, "in the second year of [Watson's] married life." Though I theorize that he married in late 1887, it would be very late, then they'd go on honeymoon the rest of the year; so I think Watson would count 1888 and then 1889 as the first and second year of his married life. Also, notice how he doesn't qualify the phrase as "the 2nd year of my 1st marriage" or "2nd year of my 2nd marriage," as if he means there's only one marriage at all. Watson starts out just talking about Mrs. Hudson as a long-suffering landlady and says that Holmes paid her "princely" sums for rent to make up for his terrible habits. (When Watson moved out, Holmes would need to pay for Watson's missing rent, but it sounds like he's paying way more than that, because he's "the very worst tenant in London.") Despite this, Mrs. Hudson is in awe of Holmes and doesn't interfere with him, which explains why she did not call a doctor for three days, even though she was very worried about his health.

There are also some very puzzling things going on about time. When Mrs. Hudson tells Watson that Holmes is deathly ill, she says "this morning" is when she finally insisted on getting a doctor "this very hour." Holmes lets her fetch Watson, and she urges Watson to rush to Baker Street before it's too late. Soon they drive back together and Mrs. Hudson explains that Holmes has not eaten since Wednesday afternoon; so today is Saturday. Watson describes it as a foggy November day, and Holmes's bedroom is dim when he enters; he's told to turn the gaslight on half-way. Holmes goes through the whole deception, even insulting Watson's medical qualifications to keep him from getting too close. Watson is fooled, even when Holmes jumps up from bed to lock Watson in. It seems like they were only arguing for a few minutes, yet Holmes says that it's 4 PM now, and Watson needs to wait until 6 PM to get Culverton Smith. What happened to the whole day? Has Watson omitted something that happened since this morning? Maybe Watson realized that Holmes wasn't dying, if he could spring out of bed like that, so Holmes had to explain the truth and argue with him at length until he agreed to Holmes's plan. And yet Watson writes the story as if he still thinks that Holmes is dying.

What's Going On

I saw the new Masters of the Universe movie, despite Jared Leto. It's very good nostalgia for He-Man fans, with easter eggs from the show and the previous movie. The only character that I didn't recognize was the woman named Dion or Dian; a youtube video says that she's a deep cut from a minicomic or newspaper. The movie is funny and campy, including Skeletor's usual jokes. It also features 4 Non Blondes's "What's Up" song in a fight scene. Apparently there was a meme in 2005 featuring Adam singing that song, and I must have missed it at the time. It's popular enough that the filmmakers are leaning into it. I do wish they didn't undercut all dramatic moments with jokes, though; a hero march set to a Queen song should have been kept serious. Besides that, it was satisfying. There are some end-credits scenes, including a tease that they might do She-Ra next, if this movie is theatrically successful. If not, people have suggested that Amazon would at least make a film for streaming.

Incidentally, I've now learned how to use the "delete" and "insert" HTML tags to show revisions. Huzzah! I might go back and revise various old posts as needed, including my Revised Outline of DIM.

Ordinary People

Do you know the actor Tony Robinson who played Baldrick in Black Adder in the 1980s? Well he has apparently appeared on British TV in several history specials over the years, and I just discovered Tony Robinson's History of Britain show on free streaming. They only had season 2 available, but after searching, I found the season 1 episodes as well. Instead of kings or wars, Tony's show presents ordinary people from lower classes such as Roman slaves, Tudor-age cooks, and coal miners. These aren't merely composite characters made up from general research. They are based on historical records or artifacts that refer to these particular people. For example, they found an elegant metal bowl used for Bacchanalia rituals in Roman Britain, and there was an inscription with the name of the metal worker who made it, so Tony speaks to experts about what that metal worker's life would have been like. They also found an artifact with the name of an actress and a gladiator, so the show discusses Roman theatre and gladiator battles in Britannia.

I kind of like this version of history, even though we do have to speculate on what happened to these people after there's no more historical record of them. Tony does want to imagine happy endings for them, and he tries to find humor too when he can. It's good that he shows diversity, and how Roman soldiers did often come from Africa, so there have been Black people living in Britain for many centuries. Whitewashed history is not real; it's stupid for people to claim that diversity is anachronistic in a period-set show. Much later, there is a story of two Black brothers, Edward and Walter Tull, who were orphaned in Victorian times. Edward was adopted by the Warnocks in Scotland, while Walter remained in the orphanage, though they were able to visit sometimes. Edward eventually became a dentist like his adoptive father, but he faced racism when he tried to get hired. He became successful in the end, though, while Walter became a football star and also enlisted in the army for WWI, where he became an officer despite his race. Sadly, Walter was killed in the war, but his history and his brother's were significant firsts in Britain.

Anyway, I highly recommend Tony's history show and will have to look into what other videos I can find with him.

Intermittent Rain

I've had trouble sleeping lately. I wake up really early in the morning, get tired, and then have to go back to sleep, with the sun streaming through the curtains. I wonder if I should take my medications at a different time of day. I was also forgetful, thinking that the Sherlock Holmes play was this week, but Stage West had to reschedule those performances to next week. Silly me to not check the date on the ticket.

It rained really hard on Tuesday, flooding the streets. I had expected rain later in the week, so I was caught off guard and had to wait in a parking lot for the storm to die down. There were primary elections that night in a bunch of states. California is still counting votes, so I hope the news will be good.

I did manage to see the What's the Story, Wishbone? documentary on PBS. They aired it Monday night with pledge breaks. It was fun to recognize a lot of the adult actors, but I guess the child stars are not available. Possibly they retired from acting and don't want to have a flurry of new media interest. Oh well. I think I heard that Mattel owns the Wishbone brand now. I wish they'd release the episodes on DVD or do something else to acknowledge the show. There had been talk of a reboot a few years ago. They could do something animated I think.

Happy Pride Month

Keep resisting, even if he keeps obsessing about his stupid birthday party and ruins the White House lawn for the UFC fight. Keep fighting for love, joy, and justice.

On BlueSky, I got recommended a fantasy book with a trans Watson-equivalent character. Going to check it out. Also going to see the Sherlock Holmes Ghost Machine play at Stage West this week next week; this is the last of the David MacGregor trilogy that they've done the past 3 years.

Chronology part 10

Chronology of these short stories

• BOSC - June 1889. June 3rd is a Monday, and Holmes was called in Thursday or Friday.
• IDEN - Monday June 17th 1889 to the next day. The wedding was on Friday the 14th. Another option would be February 1890, to have the Friday wedding on Valentine's day. Move this to 1890, between BLUE and CARD
• TWIS - July 19, 1889. (Watson says June 19th, but the July is actually on Friday.)
• ENGR - summer 1889

Holmes sends Watson a telegram at about 10:45 AM to invite him to Boscombe Valley, if he has a couple of days to spare for the mystery. For once, Watson is hesitant to neglect work, and his wife has to convince him to go. She says that Anstruther would take his medical practice for him. It is unclear if Anstruther is the same as Jackson, who was the neighbour doctor in CROO. Leaving breakfast, Watson soon packs a bag and meets Holmes at the train station at 11:15 AM. Holmes is glad to see him, and he didn't already purchase both their tickets, so I guess he didn't assume Watson would come. At least he was aware that 30 minutes is not much notice, though it is more notice than he gives Watson in other cases. They ride the train together and discuss the case.