(TEXT) Messages from The Hounds - 5/4/108
There are 17 messages totalling 723 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Leaders of the Pack for April 2008
2. Request for Help/Advice
3. sorry you missed Shane Peacock (2)
4. 33rd SPRING GATHERING OF THE PLEASANT PLACES OF FLORIDA
5. 10-minute grammar plays
6. Grammar Dog
7. 20 Rules for Writing Detective Stories
8. Kansas City looks at Michael Chabon
9. The Mystery of Boscombe Pool
10. An Inquiry Into ABBE (2)
11. Pastiches and "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange"
12. {No subject given>
13. Apology
14. MISS
15. ABBE: Not Narcissistic At All
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Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 08:32:38 -0500
From: "John R. Clark Ka6JCx"
Subject: Leaders of the Pack for April 2008
Those who barked most often
Barks Bytes Barker
45 56914
26 45175
16 12160
14 13728
9 22347
8 18310
7 13645
6 4351
5 11255
5 2380
Those who bayed the longest
Barks Bytes Barker
45 56914
26 45175
9 22347
8 18310
14 13728
7 13645
2 12217
16 12160
5 11255
5 9097
General Gordon
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
It is an old Maxim of mine
With the exception of watching the sunrise, there is nothing you can do
at 6AM that can't be done better at 4PM or later.
PS Sorry I am late -- college reunion time.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 19:39:45 +0100
From: Andrew Clark
Subject: Re: Request for Help/Advice
The nomless Ben Williams remarks: "I would beg to differ here, in that
"about thirty (28-32)" is incompatible with "approaching thirty,"
I wholeheartedly agree. However, I presented these two possible
interpretations of the Canonical original as alternatives, so their
incompatibility is, alas, irrelevant to the point at issue.
The Neighbourly Scotch Fir
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 16:37:16 -0500
From: Karen Murdock
Subject: sorry you missed Shane Peacock
An item in today's "kids' calendar"
in the "Montreal Gazette":
>Blue Metropolis Children's Festival [. . .]
Shane Peacock, author of the Young Sherlock Holmes
books, holds a workshop at Babar en ville, 1235A Greene Ave.,
at 10:30 a.m., presented as part of the Blue Metropolis{
May Blunder hopes that the "Gazette" ran
this item in LAST week's Sunday paper, too.
Otherwise it probably only affected a few people
who read the back sections of the Sunday
paper early on Sunday morning and had
no church services they were planning on
attending today.
Can you provide us with any details on
Shane Peacock, my dear Vagabond?
~May Blunder
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Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 18:09:23 -0400
From: Philip & Phyllis Jones
Subject: Re: sorry you missed Shane Peacock
My fellow Hounds:
As May blunder requested, here is the data I have on Shane Peacock's
Sherlockian publications:
1. "The Eye of the Crow: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His First Case" is a
short novel for teens.
2. "Death in the Air: The Boy Sherlock Holmes" is a second short novel in
the series, still aimed at teenage readers.
I have not yet acquired copies of either, so I have no information on their
quality.
Submitted respectfully:
An Ill-dressed Vagabond
Aka Philip K, Jones, AMS
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karen Murdock"
To:
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 5:37 PM
Subject: sorry you missed Shane Peacock
> An item in today's "kids' calendar"
> in the "Montreal Gazette":
>
>
>>Blue Metropolis Children's Festival [. . .]
>
> Shane Peacock, author of the Young Sherlock Holmes
> books, holds a workshop at Babar en ville, 1235A Greene Ave.,
> at 10:30 a.m., presented as part of the Blue Metropolis{
>
> May Blunder hopes that the "Gazette" ran
> this item in LAST week's Sunday paper, too.
> Otherwise it probably only affected a few people
> who read the back sections of the Sunday
> paper early on Sunday morning and had
> no church services they were planning on
> attending today.
>
> Can you provide us with any details on
> Shane Peacock, my dear Vagabond?
>
> ~May Blunder
>
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 18:13:33 -0400
From: "Carl L. Heifetz"
Subject: 33rd SPRING GATHERING OF THE PLEASANT PLACES OF FLORIDA
Explore Wines in the Sherlockian Canon at the
33rd SPRING GATHERING OF THE PLEASANT PLACES OF FLORIDA
Explore wines in the Sherlockian Canon at the 33rd Spring Gathering of
the Pleasant Places of Florida. with witty toasts, erudite discourses,
devious quizzes, good food, and most of all - excellent companionship.
After the luncheon meeting, we will saunter to the nearby "Florida
Orange Groves Winery" for a wine tasting experience..
WHEN: May 31, 2008 at 11:30 A.M.
WHERE: Lunch at Pasadena Steak House (1530 South Pasadena Ave., St.
Petersburg).
We will order from "Early Bird Specials." Prices range from $9.95 to
$12.95, add 25% for tax and tip. For location, map, etc., go to
http://pasadenasteakhouse.com/. For toasts, we can share the two-for-one
happy hour prices.
Wine tasting will take place at Florida Orange Groves Winery )1500
Pasadena Avenue S, St. Petersburg). For information contact
http://floridawine.com/. The wine tasting is only $3.00 each.
STORY: Learn how Sherlock Holmes' observation of three wine glasses
solved the case in "The Adventure of Abbey Grange."
To register for attendance, please fill out the attached form, insert
you check, and mail it to:
Carl L. Heifetz, Representative
1220 Winding Willow Drive
Trinity, FL 34755
The registration deadline is May 23, 2008!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes! Yes! Yes! I must attend the 33rd Gathering of the Pleasant Places
of Florida.
My detailed information is provided below:
Name (s):
Street Address:
City, Zip, and State:
Phone Number:
E-Mail:
Please reserve _____ places for lunch. (We will order from the "Early
Dinner Specials menu and receive separate checks)
Please reserve _____ places at the wine tasting at $3.00 each.
Please accept a $_____ donation to the Marshall/Wood Fund (to purchase
children's Sherlockian books for local libraries).
Please enclose $3.00 for paper work and postage.
Total funds enclosed: $_____
I would like to give a presentation on:
I have a show and tell item:.
I would like to make a toast:
(Please note, toasts and readings will be assigned at random)
Please make checks out to: Carl Heifetz, and Mail to:
Carl L. Heifetz
1220 Winding Willow Drive
Trinity, FL 34655, FL
=09
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 17:43:49 -0500
From: Karen Murdock
Subject: 10-minute grammar plays
The things one comes across whilst in pursuit of The Master!!
A school teacher has written a series of "10-minute grammar
plays." One of them, "Interrogative!", is described as:
>10 minutes; Fixed Set; 3 Men, 3 Women, Flexible Cast Gram's ring is missing!
Fear not, the Stratfords are on the case. Gramps, decked out as
Sherlock Holmes,
leads the family in a hunt for clues. Addie the dog activates her
sniffer to search the
premises. It's
not only clues that the family uncovers. They also learn about the
four sentence
types-declarative, imperative, exclamatory, and interrogative. {
Here is the link:
http://usaplays4kids.drury.edu/playwrights/latham/index.html
~May Blunder
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Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 17:59:42 -0500
From: Karen Murdock
Subject: Grammar Dog
How nice! May Blunder, apparently, has
an intellectual sister spirit in Texas! She
is a high school English teacher with a
website called "GrammarDog":
http://www.grammardog.com/index.php
If you click on "View Sample" then on
"Sherlock Holmes Stories" you get
some multiple-choice questions dealing
with matters of parts of speech and
figures of speech. How nice to know
that somebody besides May Blunder
is interested in such things!
~May Blunder
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Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 18:11:26 -0500
From: Karen Murdock
Subject: 20 Rules for Writing Detective Stories
An article by S.S. Van DIne, originallly
published the "The American Magazine,"
September 1928. May Blunder especially
likes "rule" number 7:
>There simply must be a corpse in a detective novel, and the
deader the corpse the better. No lesser crime than murder will suffice.
Three hundred pages is far too much pother for a crime other than murder.
After all, the reader's trouble and expenditure of energy must be rewarded.{
(Of course, this applies to *novels*. Most of the Sherlock
Holmes short stories do not involve murder and they
are just fine without any.)
The whole article is at:
http://gaslight.mtroyal.ab.ca/vandine.htm.
~May Blunder
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 18:17:23 -0500
From: Karen Murdock
Subject: Kansas City looks at Michael Chabon
The "Greater Kansas City Writing Project"
(at University of Missouri, Kansas City)
has prepared a literary analyis of
Michael Chabon's "The Final Solution"
at
www.kcmlin.org/UnitedWeRead2007/teacherresources.htm
~May Blunder
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 18:39:06 -0500
From: Karen Murdock
Subject: The Mystery of Boscombe Pool
Here is an online English literature syllabus
from (it looks like) Montana:
http://www.curriculum.gov.mt/docs/syllabus_english_literature_07_08.pdf
If you scroll down to page 19, you find
that secondary students are encouraged
to read "Sherlock Holmes and the
Mystery of Boscombe Pool."
I don't know if this is an abridgement of
"The Boscombe Valley Mystery,"
or just a re-naming. Oh, well, as long
as students are reading about The
Master, I guess the title does not matter!
~May Blunder
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 19:46:06 EDT
From: HOUNDS-L Owner
Subject: An Inquiry Into ABBE
An Inquiry Into *The Adventure of the Abbey Grange*
*The Adventure of the Abbey Grange* was first published in September 1904 in
*The Strand Magazine.*
According to Baring-Gould's chronology, as set down in *The Annotated
Sherlock Holmes,* Second Edition, 1974, the case takes place on Saturday, January 23,
1897. At the time Holmes was 43 years old and Watson 41.
Notable Quotes:
"Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot."
"...I must admit, Watson, that you have some power of selection which atones
for much which I deplore in your narratives. Your fatal habit of looking at
everything from the point of view of a story instead of as a scientific exercise
has ruined what might have been an instructive and even classical series of
demonstrations. You slur over work of the utmost finesse and delicacy in order
to dwell upon sensational details which may excite but cannot possibly
instruct the reader."
"Once or twice in my career I feel that I have done more real harm by my
discovery of the criminal than ever he had done by his crime. I have learned
caution now, and I had rather play tricks with the law of England than with my own
conscience."
== Modesty, Milady, Modesty! == Regardless of the fact that, as described,
Lady Brackenstall was, "brought up in the freer, less conventional atmosphere of
Southern Australia," it still sounds singularly narcissistic for her to
describe herself as "sensitive and high-spirited." No lack of self-esteem here,
even though by the standards of the age she was being arrogant.
== Falling Off the Wagon == While nobody can deny the sad record of
alcoholism, it seems to be the only addiction that the Canon cannot forgive--even opium
addiction (or the occasional use of cocaine) are to be pitied or tolerated,
but alcohol? No! Drink does not warm the blood and make one more amiable. On
the contrary, it's Jekyll's potion and it turns men into fiends, leading them to
their final horrid self-destruction.
== The Beeswing == This Holmsian deduction always bothers me. I doubt very
much (and I have experiments that confirm this) that all the beeswing would have
remained in only one glass if the contents of the other two had been poured
into it, to form to a third party who supposedly drank from it. My results
indicate that some of it would have remained on the sides of the two glasses
emptied into it. The only way to avoid this would be by rinsing, which would then
negate the sought-after result. It seems to me that there is much of the Greek
in Holmes. He comes up with all these thought experiments, but when it comes
to confirming them, he generally doesn't... unless it involves pig-sticking.
(;->
== Tilting the Scales == While this is not the only case in the Canon where
our detective sets himself up as Lady Justice's sword, it does have the neat
twist of Watson representing the stalwart British juror. Holmes' comment that he
prefers to defer to his own conscience than to English law, and that in more
than one occasion he has regretted turning the criminal over to the law's
tender mercies. The result is very satisfactory, particularly since Holmes made a
very definite effort to put all the necessary clues before Hopkins.
What else happened in 1897:
EMPIRE
Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
Destruction of Benin City.
Uprising on India's Northwest Frontier.
First Women's Institute in the world; established at Stoney Creek, Canada.
BRITAIN
Sir Henryu Tate presents the Tate Gallery to the nation.
Northern Polytechnic, Holloway Road, opens.
Blackwall Tunnel opens.
Report of Royal Commission (Eversley) on agricultural depression.
Employers' Liability Act: responsibility for injuries to and compensation of
employees injured at work.
Royal Automobile Club, London.
Trunk telephone lines transferred to control of the GPO.
Trained nurses only to be employed in hospitals.
WORLD
Dreyfus affair.
Visit of French President Faure to St. Petersburg cements Franco-Russian
Alliance.
Two German missionaries murdered in Shantung; German interest in China.
Universal suffrage introduced in Austria.
Austro-Russian treaty on Balkans relaxes tensions created by 30-day war
between Greece and Turkey in Macedonia.
ART
Conrad publishes Nigger of the Narcissus.
Henry Havelock Ellis publishes Studies in Psychology of Sex.
H.G. Wells publishes The Invisible Man.
Roistand publishes Cyrano de Bergerac.
Paul Dukas debuts The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Gauguin paints Girls Bathing in Tahiti.
Toulouse-Lautrec paints Marcelle.
SCIENCE
Sir J.J. Thomson discovers the electron.
Aspirin marketed.
J. McCreary patents an air-washer intended to purify air in a building;
beginning of air-conditioning.
Diesel engine invented.
Sir Ronald Ross, bacteriologist, identifies the causes of malaria and studies
the disease.
Barthelot publishes Thermochemie, extending his M=E9chanique chimique (1878).
Beginning of Monotype system of typesetting.
S.A. Andr=E9e is killed attempting to explore the polar regions in a
free-flying balloon.
Next week's case: SECO.
Respectfully submitted,
Murray, the Courageous Orderly
(a.k.a. Alexander Braun)
"I should have fallen into the hands of
the murderous Ghazis had it not been
for the devotion and courage shown
by Murray, my orderly..."
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 19:58:05 -0400
From: Sandy Kozinn
Subject: Re: An Inquiry Into ABBE
>== Modesty, Milady, Modesty! == Regardless of the fact that, as described,
>Lady Brackenstall was, "brought up in the freer, less conventional
>atmosphere of
>Southern Australia," it still sounds singularly narcissistic for her to
>describe herself as "sensitive and high-spirited." No lack of
>self-esteem here,
>even though by the standards of the age she was being arrogant.
Perhaps she was looking at Holmes as one looks at a doctor -- and
hoping that the more honest she seemed about some things, the less he
might discover others.
>== Falling Off the Wagon == While nobody can deny the sad record of
>alcoholism, it seems to be the only addiction that the Canon cannot
>forgive--even opium
>addiction (or the occasional use of cocaine) are to be pitied or tolerated,
>but alcohol? No! Drink does not warm the blood and make one more amiable. On
>the contrary, it's Jekyll's potion and it turns men into fiends,
>leading them to
>their final horrid self-destruction.
That's a little strong, considering how much brandy, not to mention a
host of other alcoholic beverages, is consumed in the Canon by
otherwise admirable characters.
Esmerelda
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 20:14:14 -0400
From: Philip & Phyllis Jones
Subject: Pastiches and "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange"
My fellow Hounds:
The database lists four items involving character and/or events from "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange:"
1. "A Cause for Rejoicing" is a short story by anonymous author "Escott." It was published in "Friend of My Heart II," a homosexually oriented 1994 fanzine.
2. "An Interview with Sir Eustace Brackenstall" is a short story by Steve Clarkson. It was published in a pamphlet titled "Irene's Cabinet" in 2003.
3. "Murder at the Abbey Grange or Gullible's Travels" is a short story by William S. Dorn from his anthology, "The Dogs of Sherlock Holmes."
4. "Murder Most Fair" is a short story by Pierre Pratt. It was published in a pamphlet titled "The Fore of the Scions" issued by the Hansoms of John Clayton.
If anyone knows of other items referencing ABBE, please let me know.
Submitted respectfully:
An Ill-dressed Vagabond
Aka Philip K, Jones, AMS
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 5 May 2008 00:49:46 +0000
From: Ben Williams
Subject: {No subject given>
QUERY HOUNDS-L
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 5 May 2008 01:55:39 +0000
From: Ben Williams
Subject: Apology
My sincere apologies for sending a "QUERY HOUNDS-L" message to the List.
Brain temporarily out of gear......
bw
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Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 22:04:13 -0400
From: Bill Briggs
Subject: MISS
I tend to agree with The Hon. Ronald Adair. It is one of the good stories,
tighltly written and plotted.
I remember reading it as a kid, and I was especially impressed with the line
"he could chalk his billiard cue with his knuckles".
Matilda (from the lumber camps of Michigan)
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 22:09:01 -0500
From: Don Dillistone
Subject: ABBE: Not Narcissistic At All
Our Courageous Orderly wrote:
Modesty, Milady, Modesty! == Regardless of the fact that, as described,
Lady Brackenstall was, "brought up in the freer, less conventional
atmosphere of
Southern Australia," it still sounds singularly narcissistic for her to
describe herself as "sensitive and high-spirited." No lack of
self-esteem here,
even though by the standards of the age she was being arrogant.
But this is taken out of context. Actually, Lady Brackenstall is lying
through her teeth. Her entire testimony (including "sensitive and
high-spirited) is designed to differentiate herself from her husband.
She is doing her best to throw the blame for the murder of her husband
on to the Randall Gang, and thus protect the real killer, Captain
Crocker. She is at the very least an accessory in the murder because of
her enthusiastic cooperation with Crocker and her maid to completely
mislead the police. She obviously thinks that Sir Eustace got exactly
what he deserved, and can't help herself from drawing as dark a picture
of him as she can by contrasting it with herself =96 the brutal villain vs
the sweet little innocent thing. If nothing else, she is rationalizing
her desire to protect her protector =96 Captain Crocker. She isn't paying
herself a compliment, she is doing everything she can to convince the
police not to investigate very deeply. She is the major figure in a
criminal conspiracy. Her comments weren't arrogant, they were actually
"poor little me," implicitly comparing her lily-white character with
that of her late, unlamented husband.
The Hon. Ronald Adair - I locked the door lest the ladies should
surprise me.
AKA Don Dillistone M.Bt.
Winnipeg
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End of HOUNDS-L Digest - 3 May 2008 to 4 May 2008 (#2008-69)
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