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 After all, their information may be superseded by more modern books; I just wanted to hear their logic and know their sources.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.

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.

Chronology part 13

Chronology of these short stories.

• WIST - mid June 1894 to be near a different quarter-day.
• NORW - August 1894. Watson mentions having sold his Kensington practice to move back to Baker Street.
• GOLD - November 1894

WIST has an impossible date. Watson claims that the case happened at the end of March 1892, but Watson thought Holmes was dead from May 1891 to April 1894. He must have changed the date out of discretion, but not realised his mistake; he didn't proofread, and as always, he never corrects mistakes once they're published. We have to at least find a new year for the case, and there's a hint in NORW that the case takes place in 1894. NORW mentions "the case of the papers of ex-President Murillo," and WIST features Juan Murillo as a villainous dictator from a Central American country. "Don" is his title, not his name. Actually there are no presidential papers mentioned in the case, but the reference is similar to how Holmes sometimes refers to SCAN by talking about papers, instead of the photograph that the King of Bohemia wished to retreive. NORW was actually published in October 1903, and WIST wasn't published until August 1908. So it's a case of Doyle having an idea for a story, but changing the details when he actually writes the story later. In that way, it's similar to the 3 versions of SECO.

Insomnia

Arrgghh! I went to bed after midnight, then woke up at 1:30 AM. What the fuck with my messed up sleep cycles? And more pain even when I take tylenol. Maybe I'll go back to ibuprofen.

At least I managed to see the Ghost Machine play last night. I enjoyed its take on Tesla and Edison's feud. There were hints of Sherlock wanting to retire, and Irene Adler resurrecting her opera career. I'm not sure if the story was set in 1912, because if so, the writer is implying a Titanic tragedy. Marie Chartier had a timely speech about how soldiers die in war while old men in suits make obscene profits. But of course, that is a perennial truth.

Chronology part 12

Chronology of these short stories.

• REDH - Oct 4, 1890. Watson has moved from Paddington to Kensington.
• FINA - April 24, 1891 to May 4, 1891
• EMPT - April 1894, with Watson's bereavement having taken place in the past 3 years

REDH was published in in 1891, and Watson says that he visited Holmes in "autumn of last year." So it is in autumn of 1890, but there is confusion about the month. For example, the newspaper article has a date of April 27, 1890, and everyone says that was two months ago, or eight weeks; if April were correct, then today would be in June, not autumn. Later on, the sign announcing the dissolution of the Red-Headed League is dated October 9, 1890, which is autumn, but NOT two months after April. In addition, the bank robbery plot depends on the date being Saturday. But October 9, 1890 is a Thursday; so the date needs to be on either October 4th or October 11th instead. October 4th seems the obvious choice, as it's easy to mistake the digit 4 as a 9 if the handwriting is unclear.

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 Prince 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.