Chronology part 16

Chronology of these short stories.

• ABBE - late January 1897
• MISS - February 1897
• DEVI - March 16, 1897
• REDC - winter

ABBE begins on a "bitterly cold night and frosty morning, towards the end of the winter of '97" when Holmes wakes Watson up, announcing that the game is afoot. He doesn't even let Watson say anything, just urging him to get dressed before dawn. They skip breakfast and take a cab to the train station in silence. Only after they have hot tea on the train does Holmes explain himself by showing him the note from Stanley Hopkins, dated at 3:30 AM that morning. The reason for choosing January rather than February will arise later.

Movie Malaise

Well, I was finally able to sleep through the night despite the summer heat. Pride month is almost over, and next weekend is July 4th. At work, my office will celebrate on July 2nd. I don't feel that happy about this 250th anniversary, and I'm short of money until my next paycheck. The short-term disability money while I was on leave was much less than my normal paycheck. Plus I had to reapply to make them cover the final couple of weeks. Anyway, because I was afraid I had cancer, I had previously signed up to get the "critical illness" coverage, and that benefit is just now kicking in. I should just be happy I have it in case I get any else later.

I saw Supergirl yesterday hoping it would be a fun romp like Superman in 2025, but I was disappointed. I had hoped that Gunn was finally allowing bright colors back into DC movies, but no, it's all dark browns and greys, desaturated and subdued. Kara doesn't even wear the Supergirl costume until late in the movie. I know, it's thematic, to show that she's depressed and traumatized, not feeling like a hero. But even if she's going to wear that brown coat and Blondie shirt most of the movie, at least let me see the colors of those clothes! Let me see vibrant, saturated colors with full sun! Look at the previous Superman movie that had bright colors everywhere despite dark plots; some fights even took place in daylight. It was fun! Or look at the recent Sheep Detectives, which was bright and cheery despite being a murder mystery; they did have a few gloomy scenes when necessary for night time; it was also for dark themes of grief, animal abuse, disillusionment, etc, but the rest of the time we could enjoy full saturation and daylight in the quaint Denbrook village. Please stop with this idea that dark themes require 100% grunge! I hate this movie and TV trend.

Baker Street Studies

I bought a bunch of Sherlockian books, but I still can't get the rare chronology books by H. W. Bell, and Ernest Bloomfield Zeisler. Even if I could afford those out of print books, I wouldn't spend that much money on them. After all, their information may be superseded by more modern books; I just wanted to hear their logic and know their sources. The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia provides their chronologies, but those are plain lists without the reasoning behind the dates. However, I was able to buy Baker Street Studies edited by H. W. Bell in 1934. It's one of many reprints by Otto Penzler's Sherlock Holmes Library, to keep Sherlockiana available to readers; check libraries and used bookstores for them. Baker Street Studies contains essays from other Sherlockians on various topics, but Bell does provide his own chronology of SIGN at the end. So I can at least get a taste of his opinions. He thinks that SIGN took place in 1887 too. This probably explains why Bell dates VALL to 1887 before the marriage, when most others place it in 1888. However, it looks like he believes in Watson having 3 wives per the Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia above.

Speaking of VALL, I also discovered A. G. Macdonell's theory on "Mr. Moriarty" which relies on dating VALL to 1899. I've added that theory to my previous chronology post on VALL.

Moving on, the book features Dorothy Sayers's essay on "Holmes's College Career." It's odd that she attended Oxford, yet she argues for Cambridge. Also, she just assumes that we know technical terms like Triposes without explaining them. From context it can either mean the examinations that students take, or it can mean the course of study leading to a degree. Meanwhile, another Sherlockian Helen Simpson looks at Watson's medical career, pointing out the contradiction between his high M.D. degree and his deciding to become a lowly army doctor. (Watson could have stopped at an M.B. degree, if he just wanted to open a civil practice.) Simpson speculates that some scandal with a woman necessitated Watson to abandon his hospital career and leave the country. Personally I think that Watson wanted to be an army doctor all along and go to India. But he stayed in London to get the M.D. degree to please someone, like his father. When his father died, Watson decided to quit and enlist, not knowing that the Second Anglo-Afghan War would break out and cut short his army career.

Anyway I also need time to read the Angel of Crows book, which is Sherlock Wingfic that has been changed to different characters. There's never enough time for books.

Speaking of chronology, I've now read June Thomson's 1995 Holmes and Watson book. Scattered in the fictional biography, she does a chronology on the cases, including unrecorded cases, in 4 charts. Plus her Appendix One mentions useful information on what other chronologists like Zeisler have previously written. But sadly, she is vague on some stories like SILV. I don't agree with all her theories, because her SCAN theory about the King and the princess seems rather convoluted and too detailed to me. And Thomson argues that Watson's 2nd wife is Grace Dunbar from THOR, but he kept it a secret to avoid Neil Gibson trying to get revenge on them. Also he kept this marriage secret from Holmes, then sprang the news after ILLU but before BLAN, which made Holmes upset with him for a few months. Early in her book, Thomson mentions the slash Holmes/Watson viewpoint but dismisses it as wrong, due to Watson's genuine love for Mary Morstan. But bisexual people exist, and even within heterosexual love, it is possible to love two people at one time; love triangles exist. Besides, why would Watson need to hide a 2nd wife from Holmes if not that he knows that Holmes would be jealous? Anyway, that's more fanfic rather than chronology-related stuff. It is a helpful book overall.

Happy Juneteenth

Obama's presidential library is now open in Chicago, so that's nice. Meanwhile the FIFA games have been on TV, and even playing at movie theaters. I don't care about sports, though, and I'm surprised that any tourists still came here under this anti-immigrant regime.

I bought a Magic Bullet recently, and it did well making pudding, though I had to do two batches. It saves me having to do it by hand with a whisk or get out the electric mixer. On smoothies, it works fine with protein powder, but if I want to use ice or frozen fruit, I will have to thaw it and use plenty of fruit juice or other liquid to help the Bullet blend the solids.

I've started doing some core exercises to try to recover. I still get fleeting flashes of pain, plus irritation from seatbelts in my car. The summer heat also exhausts me easily.

Chronology part 15

Chronology of these short stories.

• VEIL - late in 1896
• THOR - Oct 4-5, 1896
• SUSS - Nov 19-21, 1896

VEIL was first published in January 1927, and, like in SPEC and FIVE, Watson spends the introduction calculating the years of Holmes's career. He says that Holmes was "in active practice for twenty-three years" while Watson was only involved in seventeen of those years. Which years does he mean? Certainly not May 1891 to April 1894, when Holmes faked his death. Holmes's first case was GLOR while he was still in university, but it's not much of a case. I think Watson only counts when Holmes moved to Montague Street and started working as a detective for money. Sherlockians typically work backward since Watson didn't give a definite date for Holmes in Montague Street. We know Holmes returned in 1894, and looking ahead to CREE, we know he retired in 1903. CREE is set in September 1903, "one of the very last cases handled by Holmes before his retirement from practice." 1903 minus 1894 is 9 years, so we just need 14 more years. 1891 minus 14 is 1877, a good date halfway between GLOR and MUSG.

Chronology part 14

Chronology of 1895.

• 3STU - spring, maybe May, 1895
• BLAC - July 3-12, 1895; Hopkins comes on the 10th, after Holmes attempted to spear a pig at the butcher's shop
• LADY - summer 1895 or 1896
• BRUC - 3rd week of November 1895

The famous Vincent Starrett 221B poem, full of nostalgia about bygone Victorian days, ends with the wish that "it's always 1895" for Holmes and Watson. I wonder if Starrett picked that year just for the rhyme, or if he really thinks that 1895 is when Holmes and Watson would be happiest at 221B. Why that year and not another? Anyway, it's time to finally tackle the cases occuring in 1895.