We mentioned to you last month that we had received an invitation to a pre-release showing of A Game of Shadows and that we invited members of the local Tankerville Club to join us. About 22-23 of the Tankervillians accepted our invitation. We had no formal meeting to discuss the movie (unless you count our stopping off at Red Robin, with Barbara and Paul Herbert and Ed and Gail Lear as a meeting), but we did chat, briefly with other members of the Tankerville Club and, in general, this is what we heard, and we judged it to be pretty much of a consensus:

1. Enjoyed the movie - a fast-action, adventure flick.
2. It wasn't a Sherlock Holmes movie; Robert Downey, Jr. doesn't really work as     Sherlock Holmes.
3. Jude Law is a good, perhaps even great, Watson.

PS: We just got a note, just today, from Tankervillians Steve and Barbara Winter. Their comment sort of summed it up, "Canonical it isn't."

    
     You know, sometimes a simple little thing can give old Sherlock Holmes fans a real "rush."

     On more than a few occasions we have gotten a real "charge" when we would attend a Sherlockian event, say, in Chicago, and someone from the west coast (or, maybe NYC) walked into the meeting wearing a sweat shirt, t-shirt, or a piece of jewelry which we had created. We'd glance at each other and smile resisting the impulse to jump up and yell, "Hey, you know what? We made that!"

     Well, just recently a ringing telephone lead to a real dose of nostalgia-dosed delight for us. The lady on the phone (she never gave her name) asked us if she could buy copies of The Sherlockian Times. The Sherlockian Times was the name of the "hard copy" catalog/newsletter/journal that we used to mail out to our customers quite a few years ago. We don't even remember when we mailed out the last issue, but we do know that we never produced an issue on which the date started with the digit "2," hence, the last edition was late in the last century (indeed, in the last millennium!). So, with considerable puzzlement, we asked her how on earth she even knew about our old periodical, which is still on extended hiatus. Much to our astonishment, she said, "I saw it on e-Bay." She actually bought copies of our old catalogs via e-Bay (click here to see)! She wanted to know if she could buy more recent copies from us. What a rush! Someone actually still owned copies of those old (nearing ancient, in modern values) catalogs and had assumed that they had enough value so as to advertise them for sale on e-Bay! Still a further rush issued from the fact that the woman who telephoned us had actually bought them - for cash - and for more than it had cost us to make them originally! They had appreciated in value over the last decade, or so! We recall, at the time we were laboriously putting those catalogs together, well before the advent of POD publishing and even before page set-ups could be easily done via desk top computer, that one of us quipped to the other, "You know, these are going to be collectors' items someday." We had laughed about that then.

     The whole incident reminded us of an encounter we once had while attending a Friends of Old Time Radio convention in Newark, NJ. One of the activities at the convention was the re-creation of old radio shows - with scripts, mikes, sound effects and all the rest. One of the shows being re-created at that particular convention was a broadcast of an episode of The Shadow. One of the performers, recreating her original role as "Margo Lane," the Shadow's feminine "side-kick" (we'd say "girl friend," but super heroes didn't have "girl friends" in those days).We are sure that there are very few people still alive who would remember Grace Matthews. In addition to being "Margo Lane," she also had a running role on the radio soap The Guiding Light. We had the opportunity to chat with Ms. Matthews after her performance. She told us, "It was just a job to us. We showed up at the studio, read our lines, and went home. We had no idea that anyone, 50 years later, would care anything about those shows, or even remember them. You people (fans Old Time Radio) have made us live again." Her eyes were misty.

     So, now we can empathize a bit with Ms. Matthews. To us, The Sherlockian Times was " just a catalog/newsletter" that no one would care about, or even remember, 10 or 15 years later. The facts that someone had actually saved copies for that long and that someone else thought enough about them to pay cash for those copies (originally they were free) were pretty gratifying for us.

     Big time warm fuzzies. Thanks. 

Carolyn and Joel 

*The text of the card reads:

"I would rather see you play Sherlock Holmes than be a child again on Christmas morning."

Booth Tarkington's comment to William Gillette must be the the best compliment paid to any actor who has played the great detective.

Gillette first played Holmes in 1899. In 1901 he brought his play to England, and after a week in Liverpool, enjoyed seven-months at the Lyceum Theater in London - on 30 January 1902, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra attended a performance.

We like to think that this autograph was signed during William Gillette's triumphant first season in England.

Signed:
Roger Johnson and Jean Upton

      We'd like to call your attention to the work of a new author, David Marcum. David lives down in eastern Tennessee and has been a customer of ours and an internet friend for many years. Recently, David has put his considerable talents to the compiling of a volume of short pastiches of his own authorship. We have to admit, with considerable chagrin, that we really don't have the time to read every book which we offer to you, but we have read David's The Papers of Sherlock Holmes. We were delighted at his ability to maintain that "Watsonian essence," which many of us find especially appealing, throughout his prose. This is not as easy as it might seem, especially for American pastiche authors. We are so sure that you will like the way in which he spins his yarns that here's the "no way to lose" offer we'll make you. Go over and take a look at David's book. Order a copy and, if you tell us that you honestly don't like it, keep the book and we'll send you the purchase price back. We're doing this as a "you can't lose" offer to introduce David's work to The Sherlockian Community, and we feel pretty safe in making this "money back guarantee" because we would honestly be astonished if there were any Sherlockians who wouldn't like the imaginative way in which he creates his yarns and the most engaging way he spins them on the printed page. What say? Click Here

Last Month We Asked:

"In 'The Resident Patient,' Dr. Trevelyan moved into his house on 'Lady Day.' What is "Lady Day" and what is its calendar date? What are three other quarterly year markers in common use in Victorian England - at least two of which are specifically mentioned in The Canon.

We received one (1 only?) reply. It was from Michael Procter:

"As you say, it is one of the Quarter Days on which, among other things, rents were due. The Quarter days were (indeed, still are):     Lady Day (25 March), Midsummer Day (24 June), Michaelmas (29 September), Christmas (25 December).

Lady Day, specifically,  is the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, i.e. the day, 9 months before Christmas, on which Mary was visited by the Angel Gabriel and Jesus was 'conceived by the Holy Ghost.'"

The two other Quarter Days specifically mentioned in the The Canon are Christmas (BLUE) and Michaelmas (HOUN). We know of no mention of Midsummer Day, but we stand to be corrected, if in error.

Thanks a lot, Michael! You are, indeed, a Scholar of The Canon and the calendar!

Happy New Year to all!!
Carolyn and Joel