Orontes found

Ok I think found the answer to my chronology conundrum. I found that it was D. Martin Dakin's Sherlockian book where I had read about the October date for the Orontes troopship in A Study in Scarlet. Strange that the Annotated Sherlock Holmes didn't make a note about it at all, though it quotes from Dakin about other stuff. Dakin describes the previous research on the ship by Percy Metcalfe, and he cited a "Sherlock Holmes Journal" article as the source. But of course, that was from decades ago and I despaired of being able to buy an obscure SHJ article anywhere online. They do sometimes show up on Ebay, but the "Baker Street Journal" issues are far more widely available.

Just when I was despairing of ever locating it, I found a 2 volume book called The Grand Game: a celebration of Sherlockian Scholarship edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie Klinger. It basically gathers together lots of different Sherlockian essays from several decades, and I was able to see Metcalfe's article listed in the table of contents. The 2011 book was published by the Baker Street Irregulars, but their website listed it as sold out. I searched some rare bookshop sites trying to find a secondhand copy to buy, but it was nowhere. I began to despair again, until I found the book on OpenLibrary, where I could create an account and "borrow" the book so I could read the digital copy. Hooray!

***

Discombobulated

I'm all aflutter and disoriented. I guess it's good that I didn't post a final canon chronology yet, because I was dithering about format. Now everything's upset and awry. But at least I know now where people are coming from with their various chronologies pushing Study in Scarlet to 1882, 1883, and even 1884. The old accepted 1881 date clashes with real life history, and now I'm muttering about the Orontes and Malabar in a daze.

It all began when I was reading STUD again, the first chapter where Watson says he returned to England on the "troopship Orontes" but does not give us any dates. I thought I remembered reading somewhere an October-November date for the Orontes in Klinger's Annotated Sherlock Holmes, but no, it's not in that book. It must be in one of the other Sherlockian books I've read. I at least know that I didn't hallucinate the date, because Trumbull's chronology gives a very precise date of Sunday, October 31 – Friday, November 26, 1880 on his timeline. Unfortunately, when I try to search online for a primary source about that ship, Wikipedia says that the HMS Orontes (1862) doesn't go to India at all. It sails to South Africa and the West Indies instead. What the hell? Do Sherlockians just have different references offline that online references do not?

***

Discovery

I improvised another chicken thigh recipe in my slow cooker, using leftover wine and sauce. My crockpot indeed cooks the chicken so well that it falls off the bone, but it also makes the skin soft, so I wonder why recipes still insist that I should brown the skin in a pan first, if the skin isn't going to stay crunchy.

Meanwhile, I heard that some AI video service called Sora shut down and Disney backed out of its huge AI deal. (I heard it was because the Supreme Court ruled that AI products can't be copyrighted; of course Disney always wants to own everything it can.) Disney still wants to buy AI stuff, so I hope the bubble will burst soon so all AI stuff gets shut down. Then maybe I could resume my Disney+ subscription if they do decide to renew the Muppet Show. Why does it take so long to announce a TV renewal? Wasn't it a hit? I had also heard that Sherlock & Daughter was a hit for the CW, and yet no announcements still. It's puzzling.

Last night on Youtube I discovered a 1940 Mr. Wong mystery starring Keye Luke as the detective. It always bothered me that the old Charlie Chan movies had a yellowface actor and contributed to stereotypes about Chinese immigrants. Luke plays the Jimmy Wong character without that kind of tomfoolery, though he interacts with other Chinese characters who have thick accents and pidgin dialogue. There's also an Asian female lead played by Lotus Long. The actress was actually of Japanese descent but she adopted a Chinese stage name to avoid the Japanese internment camps during WWII. How sad. It's a shame also that the Wong film series didn't continue with more starring Luke.

Hopes and Pleas

Well, the equinox was on the 20th and it's officially Spring now. Bluebonnets are blooming along the highways. I don't have any Spring Break from work, but maybe I'll try to schedule some vacation time this summer.

I binged all the Young Sherlock episodes, and most of my non-spoilery reactions were already posted to Bluesky. I enjoyed the strong women characters and how they worked in the Married Women's Property Act and institutions into the plot. I didn't mind the steampunky anachronisms, and the costumes were quite lovely too. Their Moriarty is charming and roguish, but I found out he's not even in the Andrew Lane books at all, so basically they just made up the entire plot; the Lane books featured 14 year old Sherlock, not this 19 year old at Oxford. As long as they're not following any book, can they please just write young Watson into it next season? Please let me have young John meeting Sherlock and having, I don't know, drama about his alcoholic brother. Make it a homoerotic love triangle even. Just stop the queerbaiting please and actually make the gayness text.

Or else Guy Ritchie can finally give us a third movie with Downey and Law.

Meanwhile I've been getting into old-time radio shows, such as the 1952 BBC series starring Carleton Hobbs and Norman Shelley. I still haven't finished the CBS Radio Mystery Theater shows from 1977-1982, starring Kevin McCarthy and Court Benson. It's going to take a while to get through all episodes of both.

I wish some TV show would try adapting all 60 stories again. Nobody's tried to since Granada failed. I think they're afraid of comparisons to Jeremy Brett, but it's been decades now. Remember that Granada's last few episodes were not faithful and were largely rewritten due to Brett's health problems. There's scope to redo those stories accurately. David Suchet's Poirot hasn't stopped people trying to do Agatha Christie adaptations lately. Please someone try, or at least do a new episodic TV show like the 1954 Ronald Howard series with a mix of canon stories and original plots. Something like that.

Going Crazy

Apparently the Oscars are tonight. I don't care unless somebody makes a political statement. This is also the Ides of March, for those who know Roman history. I've mentioned it several times before, but am sure I'll be disappointed again like in 2024 when I hoped that someone would stop Israel's war crimes. The Senate is going to vote on the awful SAVE act to suppress voting, and I'm worried.

More locally, the city council runoff election to replace Junior Ezenou was yesterday and the unofficial results (all I could find) seem to indicate that the MAGA candidate won. (It's technically a non-partisan race, but I was told he's MAGA.) So disappointing.

Meanwhile, my smoke alarm has been beeping for several days, and I've replaced many batteries in various alarms, but it still keeps beeping! It seems to be coming from the hallway, but the smoke alarm there is WIRED; it has no replaceable battery. So what am I supposed to do? Last time I tried to buy a new alarm it was discontinued and had a weird adapter cable not available in regular stores.

I also tried a new recipe lately, sort of a tuna mac & cheese in a pot rather than a casserole. It turned out pretty good, though the pasta stuck to the bottom of the pot.

Political shakeups

Well the Texas primaries are over and we have a result in some races, while other races are going to runoff. Ok fine I'll vote for Talarico in the general, but I sure hope we get a bigger blue wave than we did for Beto's senate run. We've tried charismatic white guys reaching out to independents before. I guess Jasmine will have time to ponder what she'll do after her House term ends. I'm glad we still have her to fight for us for now. A stupid, evil war on top of eveything else...

Meanwhile, Junior Ezenou surprised once again by unseating Chris Turner in District 101. There was nothing wrong with Chris in my opinion, and I wish I could have voted for him, but the GOP redrew districts to screw everybody. When Ezenou quit his Grand Prairie job to run, he left a vacant position on the City Council that still hasn't been filled. There was an election to replace him, but it went to a runoff, and early voting has started I believe. I hope voters don't get confused with all these elections taking place, to think "I already voted on that."

Also the thunderstorms caused a power blackout and I came home to find my Tivo Bolt OTA flashing lights as if its hard drive is fried. I tried to reboot it and search online forums for a fix, but nothing helps. And now since Tivo went to software only and is not selling hardware, I can't find any support articles other than this troubleshooting page that tells me to Chat with them if it's still not working. But the chat is AI-powered and just points back to the article on flashing lights. So I guess it's fucked for good. I tried unplugging the Bolt and going back to antenna TV, but my Tivo Stream 4K dongle asked for the Bolt to be plugged back in. Maybe I can move another Tivo Bolt from a different room to there? I don't know. I gotta figure this out, but like, this is stuff I don't have time to deal with on a weekday!