GRATITUDE FOR THE PEG FILLERS

 

I'll fill a vacant peg, then.

    I've always loved the opening of "The Adventure of the Crooked Man" when Holmes shows up, unexpectedly at near midnight, invites himself to stay over for the night, and then proceeds to keep an exhausted Watson up for a while longer to explain the case the two of them will work on in a few hours. Exhausted Watson perks right up, of course, because Sherlock Holmes is usually the most interesting and invigorating thing in the room. Watson's tiredness dissipates and he is ready for whatever "exceptional features of interest" are waiting for them in Aldershot. Holmes sometimes fills a vacancy like no one else quite can. 

    This past week I felt Watson's weariness. It had been a long week of too many tasks, and a 48 hour road trip with two young dogs, and a painful accidental head bash with some lasting side effects. I needed something to help the weariness dissipate. I needed some features of interest. And while Sherlock Holmes did not turn up on my doorstep at midnight, he did send some wonderful envoys to my desktop: the always engaging discussion leader Bob Katz and the rest of the Crew of the Barque Lone Star; the Worldwide Doyle 2024 speakers of wonder: Ross Davies, Mark Jones, Paul Chapman, and Mattias Boström; and the inimitable Monica Schmidt in the company of The Bimetallic Question. 

    They brought enough Sherlock Holmes (and Arthur Conan Doyle) to "fill a vacant peg, then." Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, "Smack! smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!" 

    Sunday: As part of the many  fun parts of a Barque Lone Star meeting, Bob Katz asked some very leading questions about the major  characters of "The Problem of Thor Bridge." He had the Zoom audience in his hands; the man is a natural born speaker and leader. I'm still thinking about his idea that with THOR, Doyle created an outdoor locked-room mystery. This idea never, ever would have occurred to me. It is a bloody brilliant bit of thinking and I'm still pondering it these several days later.

    Monday: As a part of Worldwide Doyle 2024, Ross Davies, Mark Jones and Paul Chapman presented a wonderful program about Doyle, his (sometimes unwelcome) involvement with the British military, his caring for the everyday soldier, and how the bicycle shaped his thinking in many ways. The group then surprised the audience with the reveal of a tantalizing photo (of Sherlock Holmes?!) from the Doyle Salisbury Plain photo album. I can hardly wait for my postcards adorned with the photo to arrive from Portsmouth.

 

    Tuesday morning: Worldwide Doyle 2024 offered another bit of excellence, Mattias Boström presenting"Was Killing Sherlock Holmes a Stroke of Genius?" Mattias has a gift for imparting a lot of information, including statistics, in the most genial and accessible way. He, step by step, explained how the appreciation for Sherlock Holmes grew, slowly but steadily, up to the point of "The Final Problem" and how it grew astronomically after Holmes's "death", especially as the lines between Sherlock Holmes being a fictional character and a real person started to blur. Mattias explained something I did not understand very well before: Arthur Conan Doyle didn't always know what the public thought about his work. For example, Mattias explained how Doyle didn't understand that his initial popularity in the United States was not due to Sherlock Holmes, but due to the pirated printings of Micah Clarke instead. I could listen to Mattias talk all day and I hope to someday have the opportunity. 

Tuesday afternoon: On to the The Bimetallic Question meeting and the chance to listen to the brilliant Monica Schmidt explain how one goes about playing cricket.  I've been trying to get to a Bimetallic Question meeting for ages but I have trouble making the 4PM (Pacific Time) work for me. (I'm especially disappointed to have missed the recent The Stark Munro Letters discussion--it is one of my favorite books.) This week was a good time for it finally to work out. I hear of Monica everywhere because she does so many good things for the world of Sherlockiana. This presentation was certainly no exception.  Thanks to Monica's well delivered Cricket-101 program, I have a vague understanding of the game and I will have a better understanding of Doyle's history, and the context of his letters when he writes about his cricket experiences. Now that I do understand more, I plan to spend an afternoon rereading Doyle's letters about his cricket experiences. The letters will certainly prove more interesting to me than they were before.

Now, it is Wednesday evening. I'm still thinking about what I've learned over the past few days. I have a stack of notes to sort out; reading them again will be fun. I'm feeling a more energized and inspired, thanks to Sherlock Holmes and his representatives. I'm ready to return to my Sherlockian writing after a few days away, away physically and mentally.

OK, I've rattled on a bit here. I'm glad to be feeling more normal. I'm also having a John Watson style moment: 

"In the whirl of our incessant activity it has often been difficult for me, as the reader has probably observed, to round off my narratives, and to give those final details which the curious might expect..."--SOLI