Reading list for Sept.

Two sources once again; Sherlock Peoria and Chris Miller

Sherlock Peoria		Year		Chris Miller
		1874		GLOR
FIVE		1887		FIVE
		1887		SIGN
SIGN		1888
		1888		IDEN
VEIL		1896
ILLU		1902		ILLU
CREE		1903		CREE

Get busy.

What's in a name?

What's in a name?


Robin Hood made the list, but not Holmes.
Although there are a few Musgrave's.
What's up with that?

Seven Degrees of Sherlock Holmes - #18 - was going to be Ewan Mcgregor, but is now Peter Lorre

Why didn't one of you take me to task for missing this on Tuesday!

So here goes.

I was going to do Ewan McGregor - (1971) who is a great actor and has done a couple of my favorite documentaries . .

but the connection went to quick with him being in 'Trainspotting' 1996

with Jonny Lee Miller (1972)

who currently stars as Sherlock Holmes in 'Elementary' 2012 - 

So it was back to the drawing board, and I picked a favorite character actor from my dad's era,

Peter Lorre (1904-1964)

who played a Chinese detective (a Hungarian born actor playing a Chinese detective, would that go well now a days?) nine times in Mr. Moto films, and in 1937 made 'Think Fast, Mr Moto'

which also featured Virginia Field (1917-1992) 

who also starred in 1949's 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"

which also featured Sir Cedric Hardwicke (1893-1964)

who explored, in 1939, the world of 'Stanley and Livingston'

which starred Sir Henry Baskerville himself, Richard Greene (1918-1985)

(center in this picture)

from the 1939 film 'Hound of the Baskerville's)

Peter Lorre was going to work earlier with Rathbone in 'Son of Frankenstein', but the part fell through.

Update!

Peter Lorre's second wife, Kaaren Verne (1918-1967),

 was in 1943's 'Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon'

 with Rathbone, which shortens the connection by a lot.

So there you have it, there you are.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Home furnishings

Which movie, TV series or show had the best interior 221b?
Let me know what you think.

It may be a combination of different shows if you liked one room in one, and another room from another.


This photo is from the Sherlock Holmes Museum.

My wife can't stand the smell of them. . .

. .  so therefore, will not try them. But I kinda grew up with them and can eat them right out of the can..
Wish we could get them before they are canned over here, without paying an arm and a leg.

Any mention of kippers or fish in the Canon as a food?

SALES REVIVAL

I wish my 'local' looked like this.

Heritage pubs   I

I can see Holmes and Watson sitting in one like this in Dartmoor.

And (going with the theme) because it's Friday, you deserve it. . . .

In case you didn't know.

10 British foods with strange names

Which one do you think this Is?

Ten British foods with strange names.

A recent poll.

50 Things We Love Best About Britain

1. Bacon sandwiches
2. Roast dinners
3. A Cup of Tea
4. British history
5. BBC
6. Big Ben
7. Buckingham Palace
8. Countryside
9. Fish and Chips
10. Yorkshire Pudding
11. An English Fry or Full English Breakfast
12. British sense of humour
13. Cheese
14. Lake District
15. The Queen
16. Sunday lunch
17. Aston Martin
18. Cornish pasties
19. Stonehenge
20. National Heritage
21. Pubs
22. The Tower of London
23. Wimbledon
24. Baking
25. Strawberries and cream
26. The Pound
27. Black cabs
28. The Beatles
29. The coastline
30. Bargains
31. Shakespeare
32. James Bond
33. Red phone boxes
34. Football
35. Teatime Treat, Crumpets
36. The Houses of Parliament
37. Red buses
38. Harry Potter
39. Ice cream vans
40. The Red Arrows
41. Driving on the left
42. Cricket
43. Concorde
44. Real ale
45. The Royal Family
46. The Queen’s English
47. Festivals
48. Stephen Fry
49. Harrods
50. Cheese Rolling

I did not know this. . . I don't think.

• Arthur Conan Doyle based his Professor Challenger character partly on Fawcett, and stories of the "Lost City of Z" became the basis for his novel The Lost World.^[16]

Percy Fawcett

Elementary on your mind.

We use to have a family friend who always liked to point out the failings of our English heritage.

Often annoying my dad with his tales about how such-and-such did this better during the war than England, or how so much better it was to do something this way and not the English way.

He was a good friend of my brothers, so we took it all in stride, and my dad, being a better person than I, usually just shrugged his shoulders and moved on. 

It was usually done mostly in jest, but after a while it became pointless and grating.

If he really hated everything English and all that the English stood for, why continue to make it the standard for his comparisons?

I find this to be much the same point with those who do not find any redeeming qualities in ‘Elementary’.

If they find it so bad, and so un-Sherlockian, why do they feel the need to keep using it as their basis for comparison to other shows and other Holmes’?

Why must they use it in every argument they make for how Sherlockian well something else is doing. If you hate ‘Elementary’, why compare ‘Sherlock’ to it. Surely a better argument would be made by comparing ‘Sherlock’ to the Brett series.

Their use of ‘Elementary’, it would seem, would be akin to comparing the USA basketball team to one from, say, Pitcairn Island. What would be the point?

I like ‘Elementary’. Is it perfect? Heck no!

Is it how I would have done it? Again, heck no!

But I find it a truer attempt at making Sherlock Holmes than the Robert Downey Junior one.

Jonny Lee Miller’s ‘Holmes’ is at least, I think, an original attempt to come up with something new.

Where RDJ’s ‘Holmes’ is a cross between a bad attempt at being English, too slap-stick and too un-kept and I believe it fails the character of Holmes even more than 'Elementary'.

Did I like the movies? Yes.

Did I think he did a good Holmes? No.

Am I going to pick it apart in such a way that insults those who liked it? I hope not.

But the point is, I will gladly discuss the movies as Sherlockian, knowing my opinions are not the end all in the discussion. And also knowing I want my argument to come off as sincere, yet still open to others thoughts. I want people to want to discuss Sherlock Holmes with me.

If I really hated the movie, I hope I could still discuss it in a civil way, knowing other people may like the portrayal. If I couldn’t at least do that, I hope I could keep my mouth shut.

Isn’t the whole point of being a Sherlockian about wanting to have discussions and debates about the world of Sherlock Holmes? Wanting people actually to want your opinion?

I don’t know if it was my mother who said it, or Mrs. Hudson, but it still holds true,. . . “If you can’t say anything nice. . . .”.

Seven Degrees of Sherlock Holmes - #17 - Eddie Murphy

Once again, these may not be the only connections, but are the first ones I find a complete connection to.

So here goes.

Funny man Eddie Murphy (1961)

was in 2011's "Tower Heist" - 

which also featured the popular Matthew Broderick (1962)

who starred in 1989's "Family Business" 

which also starred Mr. Bond himself, Sean Connery (1930)

who starred in the adventure film, "The Man Who Would Be King" - 1975

along with not only Michael Caine (1933)

who played Sherlock Holmes in 1988 wonderful "Without a Clue",

but also featured Christopher Plummer (1929)

who first played Sherlock Holmes in 1977's "Silver Blaze"

And then again in "Murder by Decree" 1979.

So, there you have it, there you are.

Always a great time.

Already marked on my calendar.

Wessex Press


And here is my review of the last.

Even though I like "Elementary", . . . I am going to make a test. . . 'Will anyone care?'

And let's see how long it takes for someone (maybe B.K.?) to add, "Who Cares?"

Because it's Friday and you deserve it. . . .

For all my readers who do not like "Elementary". . . both of you.

Seven Degrees of Sherlock Holmes - #16 - Reba McEntire

So here we go.
(And again, this is not the only connection, and may not be the shortest, but I usually follow the first path I come across that leads to Holmes)

The always beautiful, very talented Reba McEntire (1955) -

was in the now cult favorite "Tremors" - 1990

which also starred "The six degrees" Kevin Bacon (1958) - 

who starred in 1995's "Murder in the First"

which also featured the talented Gary Oldman (1958) -

who was the star of 2011's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" -

in which Benedict Cumberbatch (1976) participated - 

who in "Sherlock" (2010 - present ) is, well, Sherlock - 

There is also at least one more connection in "Tremors". Can ya find it?

There you have it, there you are.

Some interesting Sherlockian Comic art. . .

HERE!

Book review - The Lighter Side of Sherlock Holmes: The Sherlockian Artwork of Norman Schatell (and I guess this pretty well takes care of '"It's Friday and you Deserve it" also.)

If you have followed this blog for any length of time you are aware that I like good illustrative art work. This for me also includes good animation, cartoons and comics, as well as fine art.
If that art work also involves some of my other interests, well, that's even better.
So after reading another bloggers review of

"The Lighter Side of Sherlock Holmes: The Sherlockian Artwork of Norman Schatell" ,

I thought I would check it out.

I have tried to curtail my Sherlockian book buying of late, but every once in a while I still pick one up for a new read. 

This book seemed to be right up my alley.

The title pretty well explains the content and it is pretty well filled cover to cover with fun little cartoons by Norman Schatell.

Here is an example of one of the cartoons.

You can tell Mr. Schatell was a devoted Sherlockian, and his sense of humor was very sharp with much wit. He loved his subject, but not so much that he couldn't see the funny side of it also.

The book is put together mostly by his family with help from friends.

If I were to have any criticisms about the book in would be in the production/publication aspect, not content or art work.

While trying to maintain the original quality of the cartoons they have forfeited clarity of script. I had a little trouble reading some of the gag lines and dialog in the original format.

If they had produced the originals with updated type below the images I think it would have worked better.

It was indeed a treat to see Mr. Schatell's work done by his own hand with dialog and such in his own hand writing, which made it very personal, but, as produced, sometimes hard to read.

I am sure that many of these were done as personal notes to family and friends, so production for publication was never part of the finished plan. That is one of the things that makes this book fun.

It is available in an e-reader format if you wish to enlarge some of the text to make it easier to read.

For content and intent, I give the book;

For production quality I give the book;

Just for fun. . .