Jan 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The birthday festivities in New York were nicely unwintry, and enjoyable as usual. Thursday offered a variety of informal gatherings, concluding with the Aunt Clara Sing at O'Lunney,s Steak House and some Iroquois Hotel room parties that may or may not have ended early Sunday morning. Friday's schedule began with the Mrs. Hudson Breakfast at the Hotel Algon- quin, and continued with the William Gillette Luncheon at Moran's Chelsea, where Paul Singleton, Sarah Montague Joffe, and Andrew Joffe performed what may be the world premiere of a play written by William Gillette when he was only 21 years old (it is likely that "The Sorrowful Tragedy of Jimlagaglio" may never be performed again, since many members of the audience found it memorable only for the exploding nuns). And Otto Penzler's open house at the Mysterious Bookshop offered refreshments as well as tempting treasures for collectors. The Baker Street Irregulars gathered at 24 Fifth Avenue, where *The* Woman was Myrtle Robinson, who was toasted by David Hammer during the pre-dinner cocktail party and then dined at the National Arts Club with a dozen other ladies who have received that honor. The BSI's agenda featured the usual toasts and traditions, and some unusual entertainment, including Marina Stajic's put-'em-on-one-at-a-time presentation on Victorian undergarments, Tom Stetak's discussion of Canonical lawn ornaments (which might well have been subtitled "beware the deadly sundial"), Paul Herbert's report on two Sherlockian films that never made it from script to screen (for which Sher- lockians can be thankful), and Sherry Rose-Bond's toast to The Second Most Dangerous Man in London (in which she explained why that title really ought to be assigned to Sherlock Holmes). Irregular Shillings and Investitures were given to David Stuart Davies ("Sir Ralph Musgrave"), Thomas J. Francis ("The Imperial Opera of Warsaw"), Theodore Friedman ("The Commonplace Book"), Marina Stajic ("Curare"), Dante M. Torrese ("Von Herder"), Gerald N. Wachs ("Godfrey Emsworth"), Kathryn White ("The Musgrave Ritual"), and Ronald White ("The Cabinet Photograph"). And Robert S. Katz received the BSI's Two-Shilling Award. The Fortescue Symposium also convened on Friday evening, at the St. Moritz Hotel, where the agenda included Cheryl Hurd's paper on Canonical gardens and gardening, and a presentation on Canonical divorce by Aretha Franklin (impersonated by Kate Karlson), and energetic and enthusiastic singing of songs by many people who may still be wondering whether reindeer really are Sherlockian. On Saturday morning the usual suspects gathered at the huckster room at the Algonquin (aka Covent Garden West), and the BSI Saturday-afternoon cocktail party at 24 Fifth Avenue offered food and drink and a bit of entertainment: Al Rosenblatt's poetic report on events at the BSI annual dinner, the usual fast-and-furious auction that raised more than $1,100 for the Dr. John H. Watson Fund. Saturday evening the Chisholm Galley was open for a memorial service for Steve Emmons, who died shortly before the weekend; Steve was a splendid artist whose striking and imaginative Sherlockian poster art, both originals and limited-edition reproductions, was welcomed by collectors. Jan 95 #2 The cocktail party included an announcement by William R. Coch- ran, editor of The Baker Street Journal: the Morley-Montgomery Memorial Award, established by Lew David Feldman in 1958 for the best con- tribution to the BSJ, has been revived. The author of the best paper pub- lished in 1995 will receive a prize of $500. The announcement included a warning that Poul Anderson, winner of the award in 1958, will have a paper in the BSJ in 1995, but the competition is open to all; Bill's address is 517 North Vine Street, DuQuoin, IL 62832. One of the auction items offered a room for two nights at the Beekman Arms and two seats at the Culinary Institute of America on May 13, which is the date of the Grand Gourmet Sherlockian Dinner at the CIA in Hyde Park. The Beekman Arms already is fully booked for the week-end, and the price of the dinner has not yet been set, but I will publish the important information as soon as it is available. The Dr. John H. Watson Fund offers financial assistance to all Sherlockians (membership in the BSI or the ASH is not required) who might otherwise not be able to participate in the weekend's festivities. A carefully anonymous John H. Watson presides over the fund and welcomes contributions, which can be made by checks payable to John H. Watson and mailed (without return any address on the envelope) to Dr. Watson, c/o Thomas L. Stix, Jr., who will forward the checks unopened. Dr. Watson will acknowledge your generosity, and Tom's address is 34 Pierson Avenue, Norwood, NJ 07648. THE SHERLOCK HOLMES VIDEO is a new 52-minute videocassette that has nicely blended modern views of the cities and towns and countryside where many of the Canonical stories occurred with interviews with Sherlock Holmes' secre- tary and Stanley MacKenzie. Holmes and Watson provide their own commentary (with style and humor), and the cassette is available for $30.00 postpaid from Countryside TV Productions, Chargot Manor, Luxborough, Watchet, Somer- set TA23 0SL, England; it's an NTSC cassette, for American machines. Herman Beerman ("Sir James Saunders") died on Jan. 1. He was an eminent dermatologist and an enthusiastic Sherlockian, and combine his two worlds by founding The Sir James Saunders Society for dermatologist who shared his enjoyment of the Canon. He was a Master Copper-Beech-Smith of The Sons of the Copper Beeches of Philadelphia, and his gentle manner and devilish wit contributed greatly to their meetings. Gillette Castle has deteriorated to the point where more than $1 million is needed for renovations, and private fund-raising may be the only way to get the money, according to an article by Ward Morehouse III in the N.Y. Post (Dec. 30), at hand from Ted Friedman. The castle leaks and the masonry has weakened, and one worker at the castle joked that "we haven't had a strong wind, so it's still standing." And John Rowland, who just won reelection as governor of Connecticut, campaigned on a platform that included repeal of the state income tax, and may not look kindly on increasing spending on state parks. Reported: THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES AND OTHER DETECTIVE STORIES, with an introduction by Owen Dudley Edwards (London: HarperCollins, 1994; 1468 pp., L9.99); the Canon and many other stories. Jan 95 #3 Tom Kowols reports that BBD Audio has released MEMOIRS OF SHER- LOCK HOLMES, VOLUME 3, with four more of the BBC radio program starring Clive Merrison and Michael Williams; the two-cassette set costs $15.99, and the stories are "The Greek Interpreter", "The Naval Treaty", "The Final Problem", and "The Second Stain". Apparently some sets shipped with defective second cassettes ("The Second Stain" is missing); Tom Galbo reports that replacements are available from BBD's distribution center at 2451 South Wolf Road, Des Plaines, IL 60018. One of the most fascinating and frustrating aspects of the world of Sher- lockians in the 1980 and 1990s is the increase in Sherlockian scholarship published in languages other than English: fascinating because there is so much excellent work done in other languages, and frustrating because it is not accessible to those who do not speak those other languages. Newly at hand is LA PEQUENA COMPLICACION DOMESTICA DE LAS TRES SEGUNDAS MANCHAS, by Manuel Diez-Alegria (Madrid: The Amateur Mendicant Society, 1994); this is a 124-page monograph dealing with "The Little Domestic Complication of the Three Second Stains", and it is carefully researched. The question of how many cases there actually were has long intrigued Sherlockian scholars who have noted that the case mentioned by Watson in passing seems not to be the one he wrote using that title; Diez-Alegria concludes that there was only one case, which occurred in 1886, and he identifies all the politicians who were involved in it. The monograph costs $10.00 postpaid (currency only, please), from Miguel Gonzalez-Pedel, C/ San Vidal 15 (3-B), 28010 Madrid, Spain; if you want it by airmail the cost is $20.00 postpaid. The Tortoises of Galapagos is the newest Sherlockian society, founded by Irving and Selma Kamil on the island of Santa Cruz, where they landed from the yacht Cruz del Sur on Nov. 19, 1994. The society is for Sherlockian visitors to the Galapagos (although Irv is normally found at 32 Overlook Avenue, Cliffside Park, NJ 07010). Nino Erne died on Dec. 11. He was the editor of a uniform edition of the Sherlock Holmes stories translated into German and published in 1959 and later years by Bluchert and many other publishers. The GESAMMELTE WERKE IN EINZELAUSGABEN did much to bring Sherlock Holmes to the attention of German readers, and Erne's excellent forewords and introductions helped in this. SHERLOCK TAKES A WIFE AND OTHER MODERN TALES, by Ira Bernard Dworkin (Flem- ington: Creative Writers of Hunterdon, 1994; 92 pp., $10.00), reviewed last month (Dec 94 #6) is available from the publisher (Box 724, Flemington, NJ 08822) for $11.50 postpaid). Mary Ann Warner (Annmar Enterprises, 2711 Fairlane Place, Chino Hills, CA 91709-1240) offers an illustrated flier for four new Sherlock Holmes mouse pads ($8.95 each plus shipping). "They Might Be Giants" is alive and well, and getting ready for a new tour, according to an report spotted by Chris Redmond in the Varsity Review (Nov. 3, 1994). That's the rock group, not the film, but the rock group is named for the film. John Linnell and John Flansburgh founded the duo in 1982 and have been touring and recording ever since; their new album is "John Henry" (Elektra), and they have a dial-a-song number in Brooklyn (718-387-6992). Jan 95 #4 Peter Cook died on Jan. 9. Regarded as one of the founders of modern British satire, he performed in the comedy revue "Beyond the Fringe" in the 1960s, launched the satirical magazine Private Eye, and shared the screenplay credit with Dudley Moore for a comedy version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1978) and starred in the film; Variety's review described Cook's Holmes as an "absurdly degenerate version of Conan Doyle's master-sleuth." Cook also had an amusing scene in the film "Without a Clue" (1988), as Norman Greenhough, publisher of The Strand Magazine, thoroughly shocked at the news that "The Crime Doctor" intends to succeed Holmes. The fourth running of the Rache Road Rally, planned by The STUD Sherlockian Society for Mar. 5, will honor the centennial of automobile racing in Amer- ica, duplicating the original race from Chicago to Waukegan ("but with more Canonical twists than you'll find in one of Mrs. Turner's German pretzels," Don Izban promises). The weekend also includes a meeting of The Solar Pons Breakfast Club on Mar. 3; additional information is available from Donald B. Izban, 5334 Wrightwood Avenue, Chicago, IL 60639-1524. 1995 marks the 100th anniversary of Buster Keaton's birth, and many of his films are now being released on cassettes and laserdiscs by Kino on Video (800-562-3330) in three boxed sets, according to TV Guide (Jan. 14). One of the films is "Sherlock Jr." (1924), described recently by the American Film Institute as "'The Purple Rose of Cairo' in reverse, as dreaming pro- jectionist Buster jumps right into the screen (amid furious editing from garden bench to city street to cliff to lions) that eventually settles down to Keaton as ace detective Sherlock Jr. outwitting the bad guys, with an electrifying motor-cycle chase ... years later a routine physical revealed he'd unknowingly broken his neck when the water tank spout swept him away." The "Third Occasional Sherlockian Cruise" will sail on June 17, 1995, from Fort Lauderdale on the MV Zenith. The cruise lasts seven days, with stops at Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman Island, Cozumel, and Key West, and there will be Sherlockian seminars during the two days at sea. Holmes at His Zenith (Box 96, Norwood, NJ 07648) is the contact, and enquiries are welcome. Jim Suszynski reports a Sherlockian deerstalkered Bugs Bunny on five of the cards in and on a $1.99 box of "34 Tiny Toon Adventures Mystery Valentines" distributed by the Paper Magic Group to CVS drug stores. ENCYLOPEDIA SHERLOCKIANA, by Matthew E. Bunson (New York: Macmillan, 1994; 326 pp., $25.00) is a worthy successor to Jack Tracy's out-of-print volume with the same title; subtitled "an a-to-z guide to the world of the great detective," it conforms to the format used by Tracy but extends the focus beyond the Canon itself, with additional entries on actors, artists, films, plays, pastiches, and much more, including many excellent illustrations. The rhetorical question of the month (Dec 94 #6) was: If cats always land on their feet, and toast always lands buttered-side down, what happens if you tie a piece of toast buttered-side-up to a cat's back and drop him? Russ Geoffrey's answer is: it depends on the price of the carpet. Patrick Campbell reports that he has conducted exhaustive tests, with his cats and buttered toast, with and without parsley, and has found that the assembled unit landed on its left side (possibly true only north of the Equator). Jan 95 #5 Last year (May 94 #6) Warren Randall noted entries for Holmes and Watson and Conan Doyle in A BOOK OF DAYS FOR THE LITERARY YEAR. And now Warren reports an entry for Conan Doyle in THE PHYSICIANS' BOOK OF DAYS (May 22) and for Holmes in THE LAWYERS' BOOK OF DAYS (Jan 6.); both published by Hugh Lauter Levin Associates and distributed by Macmillan (New York). Warren also spotted a comment in Richard Zoglins' long article on the Star Trek phenomenon in Time (Nov. 28, 1994): "Star Trek has never won much respect. In the realm of long-running entertainment phenoms, Sherlock Holmes has more history; James Bond, more class; Star Wars and Indiana Jones, more cinematic cachet. And while no one sneers at the Baker Street Irregulars, noninitiates consider Trekkies to be pretty odd." And while it's too late to help voters in New York decide who to vote for in the governor's race, Warren has forwarded an item from Newsday (Oct. 19, 1994) with answers to questions posed to candidates Cuomo and Pataki. One of the questions asked for the candidates' favorite book: Cuomo answered: "Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's The Divine Milieu because it's a wonderful combination of poetry and ultimate truth." And Pataki answered: "Sherlock Holmes". George E. Pataki (Rep.) is now governor of New York. Our new "Happy New Year!" stamp honors the oriental year of the boar. The weather-bitten pillars on either side of the lodge gates were surmounted by the boars' heads the Baskervilles, and there also is mention of a "human wild boar," formidable in its bestiality, in "The Veiled Lodger". Further to the report (Dec 94 #2) of a new Sherlock Holmes Pub in Cairo, Al and Julie Rosenblatt note that a friend has reported a Sherlock Holmes Free House on Collins Street in Melbourne, Australia. The comic-book mini-series SHERLOCK HOLMES: ADVENTURE OF THE OPERA GHOST is now in the shops; two issues, $2.95 each, from the Caliber Press, and it's the Phantom of the Opera again. THE SHAW FESTIVAL'S "SHERLOCK HOLMES", by William Gillette (1994; 208 pp.), offers Christopher Newton's revised version of the Gillette play (performed last year at the Shaw Festival), with additional material that includes an excellent essay by Chris Redmond about the play and about Gillette, and a reprint of Gillette's "The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes", and is available in plastic clam-shell binding from George Vanderburgh (Box 204, Shelburne, Ont. L0N 1S0, Canada); CA$20.00 plus US$3.00 shipping. Also available from George Vanderburgh is THE UNPUBLISHED SOLAR PONS, by August Derleth (1994; 102 pp.), offering three hitherto unpublished stories and an unfinished fourth story (the latter previously published by Luther Norris in The Pontine Dossier). Derleth created Solar Pons as a tribute to Sherlock Holmes, and the Pontine saga has long been highly regarded for its imagination and style; the unpublished stories are among the first he wrote (in 1929 and 1930), and were not even known to exist until ten years ago, when his college roommate donated them, with other Derleth papers, to the August Derleth Society. The book is bound in paper-covered boards and the cost is CA$20.00 plus US$3.00 shipping. Jan 95 #6 Jack Tracy has issued a new catalog from Gaslight Publications (3888 West Sahara Avenue #221B, Las Vegas, NV 89102), offering W. W. Higgins' OUR BLAZONINGS AND CHARGES (due in March at $18.95) as well as a long list of in-print books from Gaslight and other publishers. The telephone number is 702-221-8495, and credit card orders are welcome. Many of the cable networks have their own monthly magazines, and Arts & En- tertainment is no exception. A&E Monthly (Jan. 1995) celebrated Sherlock Holmes' birthday with a nicely Sherlockian "Quiz for the Fiendishly Clever" by Lester Shane, and an article on Sherlockian collectibles by Linda Peter- son (with attractive color photography); 235 East 45th Street, New York, NY 10017; $2.50. It is frustrating to consider how many really grand shows were broadcast on television in the days before videocassettes. Among them were the programs in the series "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes" (with 26 shows broadcast by ITV in Britain in 1971 and 1973). Some of them were aired here in 1972 and they were delightful. The series was triggered by the anthologies edited by Hugh Greene, of course, and offered (to name only a few) Derek Jacobi as Duckworth Drew, John Neville as Dr. John Thorndyke, Robert Stephens as Max Carrados, Roy Dotrice as Simon Carne, Donald Pleasance as Carnacki, Douglas Wilmer as Prof. S.F.X. Van Dusen, and Charles Gray as Eugene Valmont. And I'm sure they'll never be rebroadcast by PBS-TV on "Mystery!" Another fine series was "The Edwardians" (produced by the BBC and broadcast in 1972); it had eight programs about interesting Edwardians such as Baden-Powell, Lloyd George, Daisy Warwick (a very close friend, as was said in those days, of the Prince of Wales), and Arthur Conan Doyle (played by Nigel Davenport). Only four of the shows were broadcast by PBS-TV here (including the one on Conan Doyle, but unfortunately long before VCRs were widely owned). A year ago I suggested (and I will suggest again) that Arts & Entertainment cable carries a lot of fine British programming, old and new, and it might not be at all amiss to write to A&E (address as above) to ask that they consider broadcasting these fine series. John Aidiniantz, proprietor of The Sherlock Holmes Museum, who was convict- ed last month on charges of obtaining L1.2 million by deception, was jailed for three years and fined L30,000 in costs, according to a brief report in the Daily Telegraph (Jan. 21), noted by Wayne Swift. Jennie Paton reports WINNIE THE POOH: DETECTIVE TIGGER, a 55-minute commer- cial videocassette from Walt Disney Home Video with four excerpts from the animated "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh"; three of them ("Tigger, Private Ear", "Eeyore's Tail Tale", and "Sham Pooh" feature Tigger in Sher- lockian costume. Jerry Kegley, John Farrell, and Chuck Kovacic recently created the Curious Tiger Press and from it have published the first issue of Baker Street W1, a new journal intended as a rallying point for Sherlockians who live west of the Mississippi and thus have far fewer opportunities for the proverbial whiskey and sodality than those in the more populous east. The first issue offers a fine article by Steve Hecox on Jefferson Hope's career in Nevada, reports on western society activities, and more; $3.00 postpaid from Jerry Kegley, 110 El Nido #41, Pasadena, CA 91107. Jan 95 #7 The next "Victorian Holmes Weekend" in Cape May, N.J., will be held on Mar. 31-Apr. 2. There will be a mystery to solve (with prizes for the winners) during a tour of eight Victorian homes, and meals, and other fun and games. More information is available from the Mid-Atlan- tic Center for the Arts, Box 340, Cape May, NJ 08204-0340 (609-884-5404). I tend not to mention The Baker Street Journal often in this newsletter, on the grounds that those fanatic enough to subscribe to this newsletter also subscribe to the BSJ (and if you don't, I recommend it, and it costs $18.95 a year for four issues). But what's truly worthy of mention here is A CUM- ULATED INDEX TO THE BAKER STREET JOURNAL 1970-1993, compiled by Donald A. Redmond: it is an invaluable tool for people who want to know what's been published in the BSJ since 1970, because it is a true index (as opposed to a list of authors' names and titles of articles). The authors and titles are there, to be sure, but Don Redmond also has including careful indexing by subject, and that's what makes an index an index. There are 120 pages, and it costs $19.95 postpaid, and the address (both for the BSJ and for the index) is The Baker Street Journal, Box 465, Hanover, PA 17331. Debi Pollard notes an attractive Rathbone/Bruce T-shirt, available from Book'em Mysteries, 1118 Mission Street, South Pasadena, CA 91030 (818- 799-9600); $21.95 postpaid; credit card orders are welcome. The design is by Pasadena artist/ actor Michael Wilhelm, and the shirts are avail- able in large and extra-large sizes. "London in Children's Literature and the History of Childhood" is the title of the Christopher Newport University summer seminar in London from July 27 to Aug. 9; the seminar can be taken for credit and will be taught by Prof. Kara Keeling, and the Canon is among the children's classics to be studied. University president Anthony R. Santoro, a member of The Cremona Fiddlers, will be on hand to ensure proper attention to Sherlock Holmes. Additional information is available from Prof. Keeling at Christopher New- port University, Newport News, VA 23606-2998. Dana Richards has reported an interesting (and Sherlockian) "Double Cross" puzzle on page 36 of the Jan. 1995 issue of Games World of Puzzles. Arthur and Joyce Ann Liebman will guide their 14-day tour "In the Footsteps of Sherlock, Dracula, and Agatha" in England, starting by air from New York on Aug. 5, 1995. Their phone number is 516-621-6008, or you can write to Contemporary Tours, 580 Plandome Road, Manhasset, NY 11030. One of the interesting things about Sherlockians who are collectors is that quite often they collect something other than Sherlockiana. A fine example of such a non-Sherlockian collection is on exhibit at The Grolier Club in New York through March: Jerry and Glorya Wachs' collection of 19th-century English poetry. And the catalog prepared for the exhibit offers some fine lessons on why and how collectors collect (and they happily pay tribute to A.S.W. Rosenbach, who once suggested that "After love, book collecting is the most exhilarating sport of all"). Jan 95 #8 The winter 1995 issue of Scarlet Street has arrived, with David Stuart Davies' interview with Jeremy Brett, who offers some new anecdotes about the Granada series. Asked, "Will you play Sherlock Holmes again?" Brett smiled and said sweetly, "That door is never quite closed." Scarlet Street now has a video department, selling the Granada and Rathbone series and other Sherlockian films. The magazine costs $20.00 a year for four issues; Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. And Scarlet Street publisher Jessie Lilley notes with pride that a copy of the magazine is on display in an exhibit of "Screams on Screen: 100 Years of the Horror Film" at the N.Y. Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center (the exhibit is on through April). Syd Goldberg has reported a knighthood for another Sherlockian actor: the Queen's annual New Year's honours list included Robert Stephens, who starred in "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970). The eight one-crown coins issued last year by Gibraltar in honor of "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" (Nov 94 #2) are offered by Peter Mosiondz, Jr. (26 Cameron Circle, Laurel Springs, NJ 08021) at prices slightly lower than those asked by the Pobjoy Mint; write for his illustrated flier. According to my not-always-infallible records, subscribers to the ink-on- paper edition of this newsletter all now should have my seasonal souvenir for 1995 ("GORGON'S FATHER"), received during the birthday festivities in New York, or since, or with this mailing. If I managed to forget anyone, please let me know. And it's available to readers of the electronic edi- tion in return for two 32c stamps; it's a modest tribute to the 1940s comic strip "Barnaby" and its creator Crockett Johnson, reprinting an passing but amusing reference to the Canon. And a few commercials: the revised 15-page list of Investitured Irregulars, Two-Shilling Awards, *The* Women, and the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes costs $1.15 postpaid. The 72-page list of 657 Sherlockian societies, with names and addresses for contacts for the 397 active societies, costs $3.65 postpaid. A run of address labels for 336 individual contacts (recommended if you wish to avoid making duplicate mailings to people who are contacts for more than one society) costs $10.30 postpaid. Checks payable to Peter E. Blau, please. For the electronically enabled, the 15-page list of Irregulars and others is available from me as e-mail without charge, and the list of Sherlockian societies is offered by Willis Frick via anonymous ftp from ftp.netcom.com (directory pub/Sh/Sherlocktron). Al and Julie Rosenblatt's splendid 20-page souvenir menu for "An Evening in Scarlet" at the Culinary Institute of America on May 16, 1987, handsomely devised, designed, and produced, with many illustrations, annotations, and explanations, is still available for $18.00 postpaid; checks also payable to Peter E. Blau, please). The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@capaccess.org Feb 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The ninth volume of Beeman's Christmas Annual offers 32 pages of Sherlock- ian scholarship from past meetings of The Occupants of the Empty House; the cost is $11.00 postpaid, from the society (105 Wilcox, Zeigler, IL 62999). And for $1.00 more you can receive the annual and a year of the society's monthly newsletter. The Giant Rats of Sumatra have a new necktie (red) with an amusing design (yellow); $25.00 postpaid from Raymond J. Phillip, 2865 Stage Coach Drive, Memphis, TN 38134. Gayle Harris spotted nice news in the N.Y. Times (Jan. 7): a photograph of members of the Greater Philadelphia Search and Rescue Team searching for a cougar reported in Cobbs Creek Park in Yeadon. The search was led by Jim Hosgood and his bloodhound Watson. One of the nice souvenirs distributed during the birthday festivities was Cheryl Hurd's "A Sherlockian Garden" (two pages of helpful hints for people considering a horticultural tribute to the Canon); send a #10 SASE to the Teapot Press, Box 2048, Scotia, NY 12302. Don Hobbs reports that Thomas W. Olson's two-act play "Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars" has been scheduled by the Dallas Children's Theater on June 2-18, 1995; the box-office address is 2215 Cedar Springs, Dallas, TX 75201 (214-978-0110). The play premiered in Minneapolis in 1989 and was well-received. The latest issue of The Sherlock Holmes Review is largely devoted to the Granada series, with articles by Patricia Ward, Steven T. Doyle, and Mark Allen Gagen, and a long interview with Michael Cox. 64 pp., $6.00 postpaid from Steven T. Doyle, Box 583, Zionsville, IN 46077 (a four-issue subscrip- tion costs $20.00). Plan ahead: the fifth annual Mid-Atlantic Mystery Book Fair and Convention will be held at the Holiday Inn (Independence Mall) in Philadelphia on Nov. 10-12. Membership is limited to 450, full registration costs $45.00, and the contact is Deen Kogan, Detecto-Mysterioso Books, 507 South 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147. Norman Houde reports that THE QUEST FOR SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: THIRTEEN BIOGRAPHERS IN SEARCH OF A LIFE, edited by Jon L. Lellenberg (Nov 87 #4) is offered by The Scholar's Bookshelf, 110 Melrich Road, Cranbury, NJ 08512, discounted to $14.95. The book is a fine guide to the many, and frequently unreliable, biographies. Geraldine Beare's anthology CRIME STORIES FROM THE 'STRAND' in 1991 (with "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Dying Detective") was followed by ADVENTURE STORIES FROM THE 'STRAND' in 1992 (with "A Pot of Caviare") and this year by ADVENTURE STORIES FROM THE 'STRAND (with "How the Brigadier Came to the Castle of Gloom"). The three volumes are illustrated by David Eccles and make a uniform set; the new title costs $37.95 from The Folio Society, 2323 Randolph Avenue, Avenel, NJ 07001 (and the first two are still in print). Feb 95 #2 Otto Penzler's Sherlock Holmes Library continues its series of reprints of classic Sherlockiana: BAKER STREET STUDIES, edited by H. W. Bell (New York: Otto Penzler Books, 1995; 223 pp., $8.00), first appeared in 1934; it was (and still is) a splendid anthology of scholarship written by Dorothy L. Sayers, Helen Simpson, Vernon Rendall, Vincent Star- rett, Ronald A. Knox, A. G. Macdonnell, S. C. Roberts, and Bell himself. "I was able to refer him to two parallel cases, the one at Riga in 1857, and the other at St. Louis in 1871, which have suggested to him the true solution," Sherlock Holmes said (in "The Sign of the Four"). Union Station in St. Louis is shown on a postal card issued last year, but Charles Lavazzi reports that the station opened on Sept. 1, 1884, far too late for that Canonical reference, or for the one found in "A Study in Scarlet" ("When you see him, ask him if he remembers the Jefferson Hopes of St. Louis"). But Union Station was there when Arthur Conan Doyle arrived in St. Louis by train in 1923. And in OUR SECOND AMERICAN ADVEN- TURE he told a story he heard in St. Louis, about a drummer selling potted milk. "It came from a contented cow," was his slogan. His fellow-drummer was selling some imitation beer. "I wish I had a slogan like yours," he said. "Well," said the other, "I've seen your stuff and tasted it. You might say it came from a discontented horse." Shall the world, then, be overrun by Sherlock Hound porcelain? The teapot available previously from What on Earth (Sep 94 #5) also is available from The Mind's Eye, Box 1060, Petaluma, CA 94953 (800-949-3333), along with a new matching set of four mugs ($44.95), according to Tim O'Connor. The Sherlock Holmes Journal has long been one of the best of Sherlockian periodicals, and the winter 1994 issue is at hand, with Richard Lancelyn Green's excellent article about the history of The Sherlock Holmes Society, and the S'ian scholarship in the early 1930s that preceded the founding of the Society in 1934. The Sherlock Holmes Society was dissolved in 1938, and was succeeded by The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, whose member- ship secretary is Graeme Jameson (75 Kingsgate Street, Winchester, Hants. SO23 9PE, England); you can write for details (including available back issues and other material). Green quotes from a letter written by Dorothy L. Sayers to H. W. Bell in 1932: "I am also for maintaining the authenticity of the established text wherever possible, because this demands much more complication and perverse ingenuity than iconoclasm. What I like so much about your book was the determined seriousness and majestic parade of scholarship with which it plays the game. It's no fun unless it is played with deadly earnestness." Sayers continued in that belief, and in the introduction to her UNPOPULAR OPINIONS (1946) wrote: "The game of applying the methods of the 'Higher Criticism' to the Sherlock Holmes canon was begun, many years ago, by Mon- signor Ronald Knox. . . . Since then, the thing has become a hobby among a select set of jesters here and in America. The rule of the game is that it must be played as solemnly as a county cricket match at Lord's: the slight- est touch of extravagance or burlesque ruins the atmosphere." Feb 95 #3 Arthur H. Lewis died on Jan. 25. He grew up in Mahanoy City, and had first-hand experience of the Shenandoah Valley, well- demonstrated in his book LAMENT FOR THE MOLLY MAGUIRES (1964), on which the 1970 film "The Molly Maguires" was based. He was a faithful member of The Sons of the Copper Beeches, and he had grand fun libelling his fellow Sher- lockians in his murder mystery COPPER BEECHES (1978). "You don't happen to have a Raphael or a first folio Shakespeare without knowing it?" Sherlock Holmes asked (in "The Three Garri- debs"). And this year's "Love" stamp has a Raphael cherub (from his "Sistine Madonna"), according to the postal service. Well, not quite, according to Joseph Cafetta Jr., whose letter in the Washington Post (Feb. 2) notes that the stamp actually portrays one of two "putti" (guardian death angels) that Raphael painted resting their elbows on the coffin of Pope Julius II. When the pope, who was Raphael's patron, died in 1513, Raphael made the painting to be carried in the funeral procession, and it is now in the Dresden Gallery in Germany. The 10th World of Drawings and Watercolours Fair was held at the Park Lane Hotel in London last month, and one of the paintings offered (for L24,000) was Charles Altamont Doyle's watercolor "Enjoying the Ice: a Curling Match on Duddingston Loch" (the loch, southeast of Edinburgh, was a favorite for skating and curling matches, according to the report spotted by Wayne and Francine Swift in The Times, and the artist was the father of Arthur Conan Doyle). Joseph A. Coppola reports that the Oxford University Press is considering reprinting the colorful set of postcards that were used as promotion for THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES; if you'd like to be on their mailing list, you can call them at 800-451-7556. SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE WHITE LADY OF FEATHERSTONE is Tony Lumb's second pastiche about Holmes' investigations in Yorkshire, again with plenty of local color; the 31-page pamphlet costs $5.00 postpaid (currency, please) from the author (21 Albert Street, Featherstone, Pontefract, West Yorks. WF7 5EX, England). "I shall be the Hans Sloane of my age," said Nathan Garrideb. And SIR HANS SLOANE: COLLECTOR, SCIENTIST, ANTIQUARY, by Arthur MacGregor, has just been published by the British Museum Press (294 pp., L50.00). According to John Baesch, it is available from The Good Book Guide (24 Seward Street, London EC1V 3GB, England); they welcome credit-card orders. Roger Johnson's newsletter The District Messenger continues to provide all sorts of news about what's happening in Great Britain (and sometimes else- where); it's published approximately monthly and costs $10.00 for twelve issues (dollar checks payable to Jean Upton can be sent to Roger Johnson, Mole End, 41 Sandford Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6DE, England). His most recent issue has an alert for videotapers here: the series "Biography" (on A&E cable five days a week) filmed a dozen members of The Sherlock Holmes Society dining at The Sherlock Holmes in the company of Dr. John H. Watson (impersonated by David Burke). There's no word yet on a broadcast date. Feb 95 #4 SHERLOCK HOLMES & OTHER DETECTIVE STORIES (London: HarperColl- ins, 1994; 1468 pp., L9.99) offers all of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and 31 other stories that involve detectives (or detection), from "That Little Square Box" (1881) to "The Lift" (1922), with an introduction and bibliography by Owen Dudley Edwards. The stories are arranged in order of publication, mixing S'ian and non-S'ian stories, and allowing readers to consider Edwards' suggestion that "Conan Doyle worried that the pressure on him to produce series of Sherlock Holmes stories would mean that Holmes was dragged into perfectly good plots which really did not need a great detec- tive." Edwards also notes Conan Doyle's skillful focus on the short-story format, proposing that "he would have thought of one of the greatest of all modern derivations from Holmes and Watson, F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby', as a short story." AN ILLUSTRATED MONOGRAPH ON THE USE OF FIREARMS IN THE ADVENTURES OF SHER- LOCK HOLMES, by E. W. McGinley, offers a knowledgeable exploration of the topic, concentrating on the weapons used by Holmes and Watson (the author concludes that Holmes was more expert than Watson); 47 pp., $19.95 postpaid from Joseph Coppola, 103 Kenny Drive, Fayetteville, NY 103066. Carl and Diana Stix have found a new and interesting use of Sherlock Holmes, in promoting shopping safety at the Eastern Hills Mall in Williamsville, N.Y., where Holmes provides entertainment and safety tips at the mall, poses for pictures with children, and is delighted to meet with school and civic groups. And his portrait appears on the mall's publicity, and on the shoulder patch worn by the mall's security officers. An illustrated flier for the mall's "project awareness" notes that they chose Sherlock Holmes for this role "because he represents the calm, cool, confidence that comes from being in control of the situation." A nicely-illustrated flier is available from the Eastern Hills Mall (attn: John E. Abt), 4545 Transit Road, Williamsville, NY 14221. Michael Meer has sent a brochure from a new establishment called Sherlock's City in Switzerland; the address is Rte de Jura 49, 1700 Fribourg, and it offers a bar, rotisserie, and billiards. Plan ahead: "A Study in Largess" is the title of the memorial conference that will mark the dedication of the John Bennett Shaw Collection at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on Oct. 13-15, 1995. The schedule will include exhibits, lectures, music, theater, tours, and much more, and a prospectus will be available next month. David Stuart Davies reports that he has heard from Jeremy Brett, who has been in hospital again, for serious heart failure, but is now on the mend. But he's had to suspend all activity for the next three or four months, and thus won't be able to join the festivities at "A Study in Scotland" on May 6-8 in Edinburgh. The weekend gathering is sponsored by the Northern Mus- graves, and will include presentations by Owen Dudley Edwards and Michael Cox, a ghost walk, a whisky tasting, and a new drama written by John Car- gill Thomson. Additional information is available from David at Overdale, 69 Greenhead Road, Huddersfield, W. Yorks. HD1 4ER, England. Feb 95 #5 IT'S A PRINT!: DETECTIVE FICTION FROM PAGE TO SCREEN, edited by William Reynolds and Elizabeth Trembley (Bowling Green: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1994; 235 pp., $46.95 cloth, $18.95 paper), is a fascinating anthology of essays on how the printed page is brought to both film and television screens. The coverage extends from "The Thin Man" to "The Silence of the Lambs", and Granada's "Sherlock Holmes" is discussed both by Elizabeth Trembley and by Michael Cox (who produced the first 32 of the Granada shows); Cox's article is noteworthy for its explanations of the reasons for the strengths and weaknesses of the series. A newsletter from the UCLA Film and Television Archive reports that thanks to Hugh Hefner's ongoing support, they are making great progress in preser- vation (from the original negatives and deteriorating prints) of six of the Sherlock Holmes films made by Universal in the 1940s. The National Endow- ment for the Arts has suspended its funding for film preservation, and your donations, large or small, are thus more important than ever; the develop- ment officer is Cornelia Emerson, UCLA Film and Television Archive (FX48), 302 East Melnitz, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1323. Richard Lederer has long delighted lovers of the English language with his explorations of that language's oddities, and he and Michael Gilleland have explored LITERARY TRIVIA: FUN AND GAMES FOR BOOK LOVERS (New York: Vintage Books, 1994; 233 pp., $10.00); there's Sherlockiana, of course, and lots of other challenges for those who love literature. George Ault reports that the "top 50 music video countdown" broadcast by VH1 cable on Dec. 17 included (as the #29 video) a song called "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" from the Crash Test Dummies album "God Shuffled His Feet", with three kids dressed in Sherlockian costume, in foggy London, investigating spots on another kid's body (like a school play put on for the parents, according to George, and really quite cute). The Trifling Monographers will hold their annual dinner during the annual meeting of the Public Relations Society of America in Seattle on Oct. 29. Laborers in the vineyards of public relations (and local Sherlockians) are invited to contact William Seil (3001 125th Avenue SE #3-D, Bellevue, WA 98005). The next meeting of the Practical, But Limited, Geologists will be at Ches- terfield's (1111 Fannin Street) in Houston on Wednesday, Mar. 8; drinks at 7:00 and dinner at 8:00. I think that I've already alerted all the Houston Sherlockians, but if I've missed anyone, I'll be at the Doubletree Hotel at Allen Center (713-759-0202) from Mar. 4; just give me a call if you'd like to attend the festivities in honor of the world's first forensic geologist. The latest Sherlockian scholarship from Spain is ALGUNAS LEGUAS AL NORTE DE OPORTO: LA VERDAD SOBRE EL NORAH CREINA?, by Antonio J. Iriarte (Madrid: The Amateur Mendicant Society, 1995); the 59-page monograph explores "Some Leagues to the North of Oporto: The Truth about the Norah Creina?", offer- ing an intriguing suggestion of a possible connection between the events in "The Resident Patient" and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The monograph costs $10.00 postpaid (currency only, please), from Miguel Gonzalez-Pedel, C/ San Vidal 15 (3-B), 28010 Madrid, Spain; or $20.00 postpaid by airmail. Feb 95 #6 There are all sorts of imaginative Sherlockian goings-on in the United Kingdom, and if you have scheduled a visit this summer, you might wish to attend the "Appledore Towers Summer Ball" planned by The Poor Folk Upon the Moors, at the Lord Haldon Hotel in Dunchideok, near Exe- ter, in Devonshire, on June 10. Additional information is available from Mike C. Philipson, 4 Dolvin Road, Tavistock, Devon. PL19 9EA, England. Sorry about that: Ron Fish notes that Connecticut governor John Rowland was elected, rather than reelected (Jan 95 #2), last November. A sales list of books, pins, neckties, socks, and memorabilia offered by The Speckled Band of Boston is available from Richard M. Olken, 200 Hyslop Road, Brookline, MA 02145-5724. There's some fine writing in the antholo- gies of Sherlockian scholarship and humor perpetrated over the years by the members of the Band. When Sarah Jane Smith decides she would like to meet Rudyard Kipling, the Doctor kindly makes the necessary arrangements, but as so often happens in stories about Doctor Who, his time-setting is slightly off, and they arrive in England to find Kipling still a schoolboy. In Devon, where a thoroughly horrible hound is roaming Dartmoor, and another doctor is on hand: Arthur Conan Doyle, member of the crew of the whaler Hope. John Peel's EVOLUTION (London: Virgin Publishing, 1994; 261 pp., L4.99/$5.95) is a new cross-over novel, and nicely done (with some advice from Bill Vande Water). "On the scene is Sherlock Holmes matching wits with Archy Stillman while Ham Sandwich and Wells Fargo look on," is (part of) the blurb for a recent unabridged recording of Mark Twain's "A Double-Barreled Detective Story", read well by Thomas Becker on two audiocassettes (2:15 hours), with a bit of added value: letters from readers, when the parody of 19th-century mys- teries was first published in 1902, wondering about one of Twain's jokes, and his bemused response. The set is available for $16.95 from Commuters Library, Box 3168, Falls Church, VA 22043 (800-643-0295), and credit-card orders are welcome. Other authors in their catalog include Chekhov, Wells, Poe, Carroll, Wharton, Joyce, and Kipling. A reader has asked for an explanation of the derivation of the name of the Spermaceti Press. Many years ago, when I wanted a whimsical name for the imaginary press from which my seasonal souvenirs were published (following in a long Sherlockian tradition of devising interesting names for this sort of thing), it occurred to me that someone whose Investiture in the BSI was "Black Peter" and who lived just down the road from Arrowhead, where Herman Melville wrote MOBY DICK ought to be able to find a name that had something to do with whaling. Of course one wouldn't expect to find printing presses on whaling ships, but I did some research and found that there used to be a spermaceti press, which was used for the final processing of whale oil into the spermaceti from which the finest candles were made. And there still is one surviving spermaceti press, preserved at the Nantucket Whaling Museum in Massachusetts, in the actual building where in the 19th century millions of candles were made and exported throughout the world. Now you know . . . The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@capaccess.org Mar 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "I have never known my friend to be in better form, both mental and physi- cal, than in the year '95," proclaims the announcement of this year's grand Sherlockian dinner at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., on May 13. The evening begins at 5:00 pm, with wine, hors d'oeuvres, and a brief film interlude, with dinner at 7:30 pm. Dress is black tie, and the cost is $95.00 per person. Checks (with a limit of four people) with names and addresses for all people, should be sent to Albert M. Rosenblatt (300 Freedom Road, Pleasant Valley, NY 12569); enclose a self-addressed postal card if you want an acknowledgement. Al advises quick action, since space is limited, and that you prepare for the dinner by reading the five cases said to have occurred in 1895 (Blac, Bruc, Norw, Soli, and 3Stu). And as in the past, there will be a Firehouse Breakfast in Rhinebeck on Sunday. The Beekman Arms in Rhinebeck is sold out, but a discount rate ($65.00 per room) is available from the Sheraton Hotel (914-486-5300) in Poughkeepsie (about 10 minutes south). Conventional motels in Hyde Park include the Dutch Patroon (914-229-7141), Golden Manor (914-229-2157), Hyde Park (914- 229-9616), Roosevelt (914-229-0026), and Super 8 (914-229-0088). Motels in Rhinebeck (about 20 minutes north) include the Rhinebeck (914-876-5900) and Village Inn (914-876-7000). The current issue of Anglofile reports that Mark Frost's THE SIX MESSIAHS (a sequel to his THE LIST OF SEVEN) will be issued by Dove Audio in July in an audiocassette set, read by David Warner ($24.95). I've not had any word of a book edition (although there surely will be one), nor anything about the long-rumored film based on THE LIST OF SEVEN. Anglofile is a monthly newsletter with detailed coverage of British entertainment; $12.00 a year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033). It was a capital mistake (and it was mine): the new membership secretary of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London (Feb 95 #2) actually is Bob Ellis, 13 Crofton Avenue, Orpington, Kent BR6 8DU, England. Stanley MacKenzie died on Feb. 25. He joined The Sherlock Holmes Society of London soon after it was founded in 1951, became a member of its Council in 1956, and was one of its honorary secretaries from 1980 to 1985. He was a member of The Baker Street Irregulars (as "The Man with the Twisted Lip" in 1967), and an enthusiastic and energetic collector (one of the very few to have owned more than one copy of Beeton's Christmas Annual). Stanley's particular interest was in theatrical Sherlockiana, over the years finding many unique posters and playbills for early productions; that special in- terest was understandable, in view of his own career in the theater, which included the post of deputy stage manager for the Royal Shakespeare Company when it revived William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" in 1974 and brought it to Washington and New York. Nice news for those who have been searching for commercial videocassettes of the first six shows in Granada's Jeremy Brett series (Scan, Spec, Danc, Nava, Soli, and Blue): all 35 shows that have been broadcast in the United States are now available ($19.98 plus shipping) from Scarlet Street Video, Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452; credit card orders welcome. Mar 95 #2 Bert Coules (Fairway, Sandling Road, Saltwood, Hythe, Kent CT21 4QJ, England) offers laser-printed scripts (about 60 pp. each) for his BBC radio adaptations (the current series starring Clive Merrison and Michael Williams as Holmes and Watson, except for the 1988 broadcast of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" with Roger Rees and Crawford Logan). The programs are: Stud, Sign, Scan, Bosc, Blue, Nobl, Silv, Croo, Fina, Empt, Norw, Danc, Soli, Chas, SixN, Seco, Houn, Wist, Bruc, Devi, Last, Illu, Maza, Suss, Thor, Lion, and Reti. The postpaid cost (by sterling check or draft) for each short-story script is L12.00 (surface) or L14.00 (airmail), or you can pay with currency ($19.00 or $22.00) or by dollar check ($28.86 or $30.02). The cost is doubled for the three long-story scripts. Catherine Cooke, who presides over the Sherlock Holmes Collection at the Marylebone Library in London, notes that she now has access to the Internet (and her e-mail address is C.COOKE@BBCNC.ORG.UK). It was 35 years ago that The Council of Four of Denver published the first anthology of Sherlockian science-fiction, reprinting seven stories by some of the very best writers working in the field. SHERLOCK HOLMES IN ORBIT, edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg (New York: DAW Books, 1995; 374 pp., $5.50), is a somewhat different anthology, with far more stories (26 of them, all published for the first time), and it is interesting that the most successful of the new stories are those that do what the stories in the earlier volume did: they offer new and imaginative approaches to a character that is loved by so many readers, and give readers far more than tales told by authors who merely use Sherlock Holmes. Ron Fish reports a new comic book: THE REN & STIMPY SHOW #29 (Apr. 1995) in the shops now (from Marvel, $1.95), with Sherlock Hoek and Dr. S. J. Stupid M.D. in "The Casebook of Sherlock Hoek". Stephen Davies reports that the 100th anniversary of the opening of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" will be marked by the installa- tion of a stained glass window in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. It should be remembered that Conan Doyle met Wilde, at a dinner at which they both were commissioned to write stories for Lippincott. Wilde's story was "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and Conan Doyle's was "The Sign of the Four" (and it is interesting that a character in Conan Doyle's story offers some echoes of Wilde). Domestic cats are mentioned in four of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and it is nice that the Royal Mail has issued a handsome "cats" set with designs by Elizabeth Blackadder (kindly forwarded by Roger Johnson and Jean Upton). And since black cats are mentioned in two of the four stories ("His Last Bow" and "The Yellow Face"), the black cat (named Sophie) on the 19-pence stamp is nicely appropriate. Mar 95 #3 Sherlockians considering attending the Dartmouth Alumni College on Aug. 6-11 will (one hopes) be happy to hear that the focus will be on crime and mystery fiction, especially the locales of the genre. "Landscapes of Murder" is to be the theme, and the program "will of course explore the landscape of Sherlock Holmes and other consummate masters." If you've never seen the lion's mane, you might wish to pay a visit to the New England Aquarium in Boston, Mass., where John Baesch reports that it is on display in a new exhibit ("Jellies") that is expected to run through the summer. Peter Calamai spotted the N.Y. Times obituary for Leonard S. Silk, who died on Feb. 10. He was a distinguished columnist and editorial writer for the paper and, as the obituary noted, a rarity in journalism: a reporter with a Ph.D. in economics. He started his journalism career in 1954 at Business Week, and moved to The Times in 1970 and wrote his farewell column in 1992. One of his stories, published in 1977, focused on Oskar Morgenstern, who with John von Neumann published a landmark treatise on THE THEORY OF GAMES AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR in 1944. They used Holmes' flight from Moriarty to explain the game of Matching Pennies, and Silk carefully explained for gen- eral readers how (as Morgenstern put it) when Holmes left Waterloo Station he was "already 48 percent dead." The sixth issue of Troy Taylor's The Whitechapel Gazette has arrived, with 50 pages of nicely illustrated articles on Doyleana, including Groombridge and Crowborough, a tribute to John Bennett Shaw, and some pastiches. $6.50 postpaid; Troy's address is 805 West North #1, Decatur, IL 62522. Compliments and congratulations to Bjarne Nielsen, who has won first prize in the Scandinavian "Viking Lotto". Jette Randloev has kindly forwarded an article from the Berlingske Tidende (Feb. 26) with a photograph that showed Bjarne in a deerstalker and reported that the first prize was 4.3 million kroner (about $711,000). Bjarne's mystery-specialist bookshop Antikvariat Pinkerton is located in a former jail in Nykobing, Denmark, where he also presides over his Sherlock Holmes Museum; according to the article, Bjarne will now try to buy the building from the Ministry of Justice. A new and well-illustrated 28-page catalog is at hand from Carolyn and Joel Senter (Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219), with a fine mix of books, pamphlets, pins, prints, and other collectibles. A hitherto unreported copy of Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887 has turned up, at auction at Christie's East in New York, where it was sold from the collection of the late Charles J. Liebman to an unidentified buyer on Feb. 22 for $14,375 (including 15% buyer's premium). It was without wrappers and advertisements, and was rebound in contemporary cloth, with the name of a previous owner (Claremont) on the Contents leaf and a bookseller's slip with the name Walter Schatzki. There's still time to plan to attend this year's National Sherlock Holmes Meeting in Australia on Apr. 14-17, when The Sydney Passengers will be in charge of the 1995 festivities. More information is available from Phil Cornell, 24 Byron Street, Croydon, N.S.W. 2132, Australia (02-799-3107). Mar 95 #4 "Body Found in Lions' Den at Zoo" was the headline on a story in the Washington Post (Mar. 5), and the story seems to have been followed widely in other papers. The victim was Margaret Davis King, of Little Rock, and the authorities have concluded that she chose a grisly way of committing suicide. The lions involved were a 450-pound male named Tana and a 300-pound female named Asha, and Tana is the son of one of the North African (or Atlas or Barbary) lions that The Red Circle of Washington visited during a "Cat House Picnic" at the National Zoo in June 1977. The Canon's Sahara King (in "The Veiled Lodger") was a North African lion, and they were recorded as extinct in the wild in the 1930s (killed by the likes of Count Negretto Sylvius); in the 1970s a few survivors were found in the King of Morocco's private zoo. This year marks the 150th anniversary of statehood for one of the states mentioned in "The Five Orange Pips" (the colorful design by Laura Smith shows an alligator enjoying himself in a swamp); Texas is due for similar honors later this year. Spradlin & Associates (Box 863, Lapeer, MI 48446) offer an attractive deck of playing cards, with Paget and Steele portraits of principal characters on the court cards (Moriarty's on the jokers), and Canonical quotations on the others. The Game's Afoot Playing Cards cost $12.00 a deck, plus $3.00 per order shipping. Those who remember Nigel Hawthorne from the fine series "Yes, Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister" broadcast by some PBS-TV stations will find him doing something quite different, and doing it magnificently, in the title role in the film "The Madness of King George", which I recommend highly. Hawthorne is joined by other fine actors, including Ian Holm and Helen Mirren, and if you need a Sherlockian excuse to see the film, two of the characters in it are mentioned in the Canon. Tom Drucker was the first to note, and quite correctly, that the mention of Raphael is in "The Three Gables" rather than in "The Three Garridebs" (Feb 95 #3). My collection of G's is a confused one . . . Jennie Paton spotted SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE CARD GAME, from Gibsons Games (H. P. Gibson & Sons Ltd., London SW19 2B, England) in 1991; 108 playing cards, score pad, and rule book with detailed background notes ($20.00 in a store in Georgia). Gibson also produced 221B BAKER STREET: THE MASTER DETECTIVE GAME and VIDEO BAKER STREET. Joseph A. Coppola's article "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" appears in the Mar.-Apr. issue of Topical Time (published by the American Topical Associa- tion). Joe does a nice job of telling about his discovery and pursuit of stamps honoring Sherlock Holmes. Box 630, Johnstown, PA 15907; $3.00. The brochure for "A Study in Largess" will be available from Judy Burton at 499 Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (e-mail J-BURT@VM1.SPCS.UMN.EDU); that's the memorial conference scheduled for Oct. 13-15 to honor the dedication of the John Bennett Shaw Collection, and the schedule will include exhibits, lectures, music, theater, tours, and more. Mar 95 #5 If your collection extends to romance novels with Sherlockian titles, such as Colin Rafferty's SHERLOCK AND WATSON (Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1991; #363) (Jan 92 #1), you might want to pursue Sharon De Vita's SHERLOCK'S HOME (New York: Silhouette Books, 1988; #593), which John Farrell recently found. According to the blurb: "Willie Walker took her position as head of the Children's Welfare Agency very seriously. Too seriously, according to juvenile detective Michael Ryce. As far as Ryce was concerned, that petite, fire-and-brimstone, by-the-book social worker was the only thing keeping him from adopting T.C. Sherlock, the street- smart orphan he'd grown to love." John Farrell reports that Rosella Frederick, a Cochiti Pueblo Indian, designs and makes porcelain-on-copper ornaments (John uses his on his bolo tie, but brooches also are available). John has BSI in dancing men in his design (the ornament is 3 in. high), and the cost is $50.00 postpaid. More information is available from Charlotte Irons, Box 283, Cerillos, NM 87010. The Sherlock Holmes Society of London has issued two delightful audiocassettes with Douglas Wilmer reading "The Speckled Band", "The Devil's Foot", "The Musgrave Ritual", and "Charles Augustus Milverton"; the readings are unabridged, the notes are decorated with Wilmer's self-portrait as Holmes, and Wilmer, who has played Holmes on both television and film, does well indeed. The cost of the set is L13.95 or $23.00 postpaid (the checks should be payable to the Society, please), from Mrs. E. M. Godden, Apple Tree Cottage, Smarden, Ashford, Kent TN27 8QE, England. John Baesch, on holiday in London, reports that the Sherlock Holmes Museum still is open, with John Aidiniantz's mother in charge. The Practical, But Limited, Geologists met for dinner at Chesterfield's in Houston on Mar. 8 to honor (as usual) the world's first forensic geologist. Visitors attending the annual meeting of the American Association of Petro- leum Geologists were welcomed by members of The John Openshaw Society and The Strollers on the Strand. And we all welcomed Laurie R. King, author of THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE, who by pleasant coincidence was in Houston for a book-signing earlier in the day at Martha Farrington's Murder by the Book (Laurie's second book about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes will be issued this year, and a third book is in the works). The Practical, But Limited, Geologists will meet next in New Orleans in November (does anyone know of any Sherlockians in New Orleans?) and in San Diego in May. We've lost a lawyer, and gained a judge. Congratulations to Andy Peck, who on Mar. 31 was inducted as United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of New York. It's not entirely clear when and where Sherlock Holmes might have heard the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus performed, but I've had my first opportunity to do that, on Mar. 18 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Washington, where the Palestrina Choir performed an all-Lassus program. And it was a delight to hear the songs, in a thoroughly appropriate setting, with fine acoustics. Mar 95 #6 Dave Galerstein reports that the Alumni Federation of Columbia University is planning a Swiss Alumni College, May 30-June 7, and since the alumni college will be based at the Sherlock Holmes Hotel in Meiringen, the brochure includes a photograph of the statue, and mention of Conan Doyle's visit to Meiringen. Alumni Federation, Columbia University, Box 400, New York, NY 10027 (800-323-7373). Jim Hillestad (The Toy Soldier, Paradise Falls, R.R. 1, Box 379, Cresco, PA 18326) offers two new sets of 54mm Sherlockian figurines: "Boscombe Valley" shows Holmes and Watson in a railway train compartment ($130 postpaid), and "Silver Blaze" shows Holmes and Watson with Silver Blaze and his rider ($50 postpaid); color photographs available from Jim in return for an SASE. Tom Stix has spotted an imaginative poster for the French release of the 1963 film "Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes" (which was dubbed into English and released in 1968 as "Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace"). The film starred Christopher Lee and Thorley Walters, and the poster measures 31 x 23.5" and is offered by the Omnibus Gallery (422 East Cooper Avenue, Aspen, CO 81611) at $600. The winter 1995 of The New Baker Street Pillar Box is at hand, with 46 pages of articles by and news of members of The Franco-Midland Hardware Company. The society is led by Philip Weller, and offers a sales-list of other Sherlockian studies and monographs, from Philip at 6 Bramham Moor, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire PO14 3RU, England. The fourth annual Watsonian Weekend (celebrating Dr. Watson and the Battle of Maiwand) will be held in and near Des Plaines, Ill., on July 28-29, with a dinner, a speech by Susan Rice, a horse race, and a contest for the best essay on how many wives Watson had. Additional details are available from Fred Levin, 8242 North Ridgeway Avenue, Skokie, IL 60016. A video-taper alert from Jerry Margolin: "VR.5" is a new one-hour series on the Fox television network, with the overall premise that "lonely but like- able computer buff Sydney Bloom (Lori Singer) stumbles onto the previously unattainable fifth level of virtual reality." And the show will be in part Sherlockian on Friday, April 7. Wayne and Francine Swift report that they've been told that Stanley MacKen- zie's collection has been sent to auction at Sotheby's in London; the date is not yet known (34-35 New Bond Street, London W1A 2AA, England). Three volumes of the game SHERLOCK HOLMES, CONSULTING DETECTIVE are avail- able on CD-ROM discs, and now there's a book: SHERLOCK HOLMES, CONSULTING DETECTIVE: THE UNAUTHORIZED STRATEGY GUIDE, by Bruce C. Shelley (Rocklin: Prima Publishing, 1994; 369 pp., $19.95); it's a true "everything you ever wanted to know" book, with instructions on how to play, and hints on how to play better, and the stories for all nine cases, and comments on them, and much more. Box 1260-BK, Rocklin, CA 95677-1260 (800-632-8676). The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@capaccess.org Apr 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Bob Thomalen proudly reports that his grandson Patrick is as observant as every Sherlockian should be: their recent visit to the American Museum of Natural History in New York included an inspection of the museum's cross- section of a huge redwood tree, which is marked with time-lines that show what happened during the life of the tree. And Patrick happily called to Bob's attention the label, which noted that "this tree was cut down in a forest in California in 1891, the year in which Arthur Conan Doyle first published the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in the Strand Magazine." 20 26 23 2 "Any Englishman who claims high intelligence," said Sherlock 29 3 13 24 Holmes, should be able to identify which of these numbers is 27 25 17 10 the odd one out, within about ten minutes." That is one of 22 12 21 28 the 74 Mensa-type puzzles in THE SHERLOCK HOLMES IQ BOOK, by Eamonn Butler and Madsen Pirie (London: Pan Books, 1994; 193 pp., L3.99); summaries of the Canonical cases are used as introductions to the puzzles, which aren't in themselves Sherlockian (but that doesn't mean that they aren't challenging). And I will publish the solution next month. A new catalog from Art & Artifact, 2451 Enterprise East Parkway, Twinsburg, OH 44087-8021 (800-950-9540) offers a Sherlockian chess set ($450.00) with board ($185.00); this is the same address used previously by What on Earth. Randy Cox is now editing the venerable Dime Novel Round-Up, a monthly maga- zine for collectors of the old-time dime and nickel novels, which sometimes had Sherlockian connections: the Feb. 1995 issue (for example) has a cover photograph of one of the old Flashlight Detective Series covers with a fine portrait of Sherlock Holmes. Robert H. Smeltzer's brief article about the Sherlock Holmes stories is in the Nov. 1944 issue, J. Edward Leithead dis- cussed the influence of Holmes on the Nick Carter stories in the June 1968 issue, and there are minor Sherlockian allusions in the Sept. 1950 and Dec. 1981 issues. Fanatic collectors will welcome the news that back issues are available (although some are in short supply), at $3.00 each postpaid (or $7.50 postpaid for all five issues); the address for the magazine is Box 226, Dundas, MN 55019-0226. Michael Ross reports that SCORN, edited by Matthew Parris (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1994), is a collection of unfriendly comments by famous people on other famous people or places, including a quote from the Canon on London: "that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained." More Star Trek: The Next Generation stuff: Joe Coppola spotted a new book- mark showing Data in Sherlockian costume, with the quote "It is deduction, pure and simple ... well, perhaps not *that* simple." Design KBO-10901 from the Antioch Publishing Co., Yellow Springs, OH 45387. The Ben Silver Collection (800-221-4671) continues to use a small Sherlock- ian silhouette to identify regimental or school neckties "associated with the great detective Sherlock Holmes" in its spring 1995 catalog (but there are no explanations of the associations, as there were in the autumn 1994 catalog); the company's address is 149 King Street, Charleston, SC 29401. Apr 95 #2 The imaginative activities of Les Quincailliers de la Franco- Midland merit some wider publicity: they have departments and branches throughout France, and in other nations, and their publications include the Ironmongers Daily Echo and Franco-Midland Branches Advertiser (in French), which recently offered details of a proposed "Hommage au Brig- adier Gerard a Waterloo le 18 juin." The society's headquarters are at 26 avenue de la Republique, 75011 Paris, France. The newest Sherlockian society pin is from The Denizens of the Bar of Gold, who meet on Maryland's eastern shore. The design is by Jeff Decker (his first), and the eight- color pin is 1" wide and it costs $10.00 postpaid, from Michael F. Whelan, 342 Perry Cabin Drive, St. Michaels, MD 21663. On Mar. 22, 1995, the "American Masters" series on PBS-TV broadcast a one-hour show on "Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul". And Mary Burke noted that one of the program commentators suggests that "the Sherlock Holmes stories are very much patterned after the Dupin stories." If you missed it you can wait for a repeat, or order a cassette from PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314 (800-848-4727); $24.95 plus shipping. It was at the third pillar from the left outside the Lyceum Theatre that Mary Morstan was directed to meet her unknown benefactor. And a lengthy argument over preservation of the theater now seems to have ended. Seven years ago (Sep 88 #1) the London Residuary Body (successor to the Greater London Council) sold a 150-year lease on the building to a company that planned to turn the Lyceum into a London version of the Paris Lido (a "tits and bum" cabaret, one angry opponent suggested), but nothing came of that. Now according to an article at hand from Sally Kinsey, work has begun on a true restoration project that will turn the present eyesore back into a proper 2,000-seat theater. That's what's planned by a partnership between Apollo Leisure and American theater-owner James Nederlander, and the L15 million project is targeted for completion in August 1996. Apollo chairman Paul Gregg noted that archeologists have been invited in to make sure that London's history is preserved; "they have not uncovered any corpses yet," he said, "only dead shows." Michael McClure's publications list continues to expand: his newest period- ical is THE BAKER STREET NEWS, launched during the birthday festivities in January with color covers and 64 pages of articles and interviews ($10.00 for two issues). Mike also publishes HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS, for younger Sherlockian and anyone who has one handy ($7.50 a year for five issues), THE DEVONSHIRE CHRONICLE ($4.00 a year for four issues), and the STIMSON & COMPANY GAZETTE ($1.00 an issue); and his address is 1415 Swanwick Street, Chester, IL 62233. Forecast from Fedogan & Bremer in October: THE RECOLLECTIONS OF SOLAR PONS, by Basil Copper, with three new stories and a revision of an older one, and illustrations by Stephanie Hawks. Copper's THE EXPLOITS OF SOLAR PONS (May 94 #2) is still available at $24.00; the publisher's address is 603 Wash- ington Avenue #77, Minneapolis, MN 55414-2950, and they take plastic. Apr 95 #3 FACT AND FEELING: BACONIAN SCIENCE AND THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERARY IMAGINATION, by Jonathan Smith (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995; 277 pp., $52.00 cloth, $22.95 paper), is a scholarly discussion of the perceived (misperceived, in Smith's opinion) conflict be- tween the scientific method and the arts. He finds interesting parallels (between Hutton's geological uniformitarianism and Eliot's THE MILL ON THE FLOSS, for example), and the book ends with a chapter on Sherlock Holmes as a scientific detective. Smith explores the influence of Huxley, Tyndall, and Darwin on Conan Doyle and Holmes, and notes Albert Einstein's tribute to "the admirable stories of Conan Doyle." The film "The Pagemaster" (1994) arrived in the videoshops this month, with a brief glimpse of an animated Hound of the Baskervilles (Macauley Culkin plays a boy who winds up in an animated dream-world that includes some of the classic children's stories (Dec 94 #1). Tom Biblewski now offers a silhouette of Conan Doyle on a 50-sheet notepad (and the silhouette of Holmes is still available). $2.25 postpaid per notepad, from the Baker Street Dispatch, Box 5503, Toledo, OH 43613. Roger Johnson reported earlier (Feb 95 #3) that the series "Bio- graphy" filmed a dozen members of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London dining at The Sherlock Holmes in London in the company of Dr. John H. Watson (impersonated by David Burke), and now Richard Wein has learned that the one-hour program "Sherlock Holmes: The Great Detective" will be broadcast on A&E cable on Monday, May 22. According to the A&E press release, the show "has an intriguing twist--it assumes that Holmes is a real person and is still alive, and it traces the publishing history of his stories as if they were still being churned out today." Mike Kean noted in the Dec. 1994 issue of The Baker Street Journal Philip Weller's suggestion that there is good reason to consider that "the only surviving example of a fully-operational version of a Bruce-Partington Sub- marine" is His Majesty's Submarine Torpedo Boat No. 1, launched on Oct. 2, 1901, as the Royal Navy's first submarine. Renamed H.M. Holland I, it sank off Plymouth in 1913, and was recovered in 1981. And John Baesch has sent a story from the Daily Express (Mar. 27) that reports that "scientists are locked in a L250,000 battle to save her from the rust which has been goug- ing holes in her once-watertight hull." Restoration of the historic boat is being carried out at the Royal Naval Submarine Museum in Gosport, near Portsmouth. Further to last month's report (Mar 95 #3) that Bjarne Nielsen had won the Scandinavian "Viking Lotto", it should be noted that Bjarne had more than that to celebrate, namely his 50th birthday. And the festivities included publication of DETEKTIV DROMMAR [DETECTIVE DREAMS], an extremely-limited- edition of pastiches written about Bjarne by his friends in various styles; the book was edited by Anders Hammarqvist, and of course there was a Sher- lockian pastiche: Nils Nordberg's THE ADVENTURE OF THE THIN MAN. A grand time was had by all, including Marina Stajic, who survived both the beer and a visit to jail. Well, to Bjarne's museum, which is in a jail. Apr 95 #4 "Surf Reichenbach!!!" proclaims the cover of the just-published St. Patrick's Day 1993 issue of the Reichenbachian Cliff-Notes, published occasionally (very occasionally) by The Reichenbach Cliff-Divers. This issue's contents include "The Reader's Indigestible Condensed Canon: Fifty-Six Stories and Four Novels Available Now as Eight Brief Tales" and "The Rotherhithe Memorial Get-It-Over-With, Off-the-Deep-End-with-an-Aqua- lung Sherlockian Monograph Chart", and it's available in return for a #10 SASE from Robert C. Burr, 4010 North Devon Lane, Peoria, IL 61614-7109. Plan ahead: the next Canonical Convocation and Caper in Door County, Wis., is scheduled for Sept. 15-17, 1995, with talks by Bob Hahn, David Hammer, and Tony Citera, and "surprizes" (according to Don Izban); contact Claud- ine Kastner, 810 Burning Bush Lane, Mount Prospect, IL 60056. "I'd wanted to write about a detective, a Sherlock Holmes or Maigret, to keep me alive in my old age," John Mortimer recalls in the latest install- ment of his memoirs. "Then I thought of making him a criminal defender, in honour of the Old Bailey hacks I'd known and admired." The book is MURDER- ERS AND OTHER FRIENDS (New York: Viking, 1995; 260 pp., $23.95), and it's nicely done indeed, with a few other passing Canonical allusions. Mortimer was on tour in the United States last month, lecturing in Washington and Boston and elsewhere, and in fine fettle. Lawrence Nepodahl reports that Court Benson died on Feb. 5. He was a fine actor, and had a long career on radio and television, and played Watson on many of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater dramatizations of the Sherlock Holmes stories from 1977 to 1981. The tradition of home-movie drama survives in the age of video, and perhaps the genre is easier to produce now: "Quintet" is an 86-minute videocassette made in 1993 and available from Quartz Productions, 392 Taylor, Ashland, OR 97520 ($20.00 postpaid); there are five "neo-classic screenplays by living playwrights," including "Watson's Only Case" (26 minutes), a farce written by Robert Spira, with Leland Tanquaray as Holmes and Jon Bernard as Watson. The fourth Sherlock Holmes Review Symposium will be held on Nov. 18-19 in Indianapolis (in the Omni Severn Hotel, a restored classic built in 1913, across the street from the railroad station where Conan Doyle arrived in 1894); contact the SHR, Box 583, Zionsville, IN 46077. John Ruyle is celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Pequod Press the same way it began, issuing a book of his poems (his first "serious" collection since 1986); SPLINTERED PARTS will offer about two dozen poems, including full-page tributes to "two men who helped the Press survive" (Holmes and Moriarty). $40.00 cloth, $20.00 paper; 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707-1521. Jeanne Munson recommends a new CD-ROM game called "Hodj'n'Podj" produced by Boffo Games and marketed by Virgin Interactive Entertainment (800-874-4607) -- it's engineered for MS-DOS computers, and costs $49.99 plus $4.00 ship- ping, and contains 19 mini-games such as poker, mazes, and battleship (but with a new spin on each game); the games have occasional Sherlockian allu- sions (perhaps thanks to Jeanne, who gets credit in the testing section). Apr 95 #5 Further to the earlier report on the film-preservation efforts of the UCLA Film and Television Archive, their annual Festival of Preservation featured some of the results: on Apr. 20 the archive showed a new 35mm print of "Paramount on Parade" (1930), in which Sherlock Holmes is shot to death by Fu Manchu (and Clive Brook has a splendid death scene). On Apr. 23 they screened new 35mm prints of Basil Rathbone's "The Pearl of Death" (1944) and "The Woman in Green" (1945). Donations, large or small, are of course welcomed; the development officer is Cornelia Emerson, UCLA Film and Television Archive (FX48), 302 East Melnitz, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1323. Bob Fritsch uses an imaginative Sherlockian wooden shilling as his calling card, and he'll be happy to send you one in return for 50c and an SASE. Or you can get three of them for $1.00 and a #10 SASE with 55c postage. Bob's address is Box 3003, Nashua, NH 03061-3003. Fifteen years ago John le Carre was asked about "writers who mean the most to you," and replied, "P. G. Wodehouse for rhythm and timing. Conan Doyle for thrust and instant atmosphere." And le Carre has included Sherlockian allusions in his books, most recently in his new novel OUR GAME (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995; 302 pp., $24.00); it's a splendid book about secret service agents involved with and in the current conflict in southern Russia (and with some real insight into the reasons for that conflict). Dave Thomas (one of the stars on ABC-TV's "Grace Under Fire") is reported to be writing a comedy special for Showtime cable about "the final adven- ture of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson." Thomas and fellow "SCTV" alumnus Joe Flaherty expect to start shooting the show in May. The spring 1995 issue of the Sherlock Holmes Gazette has fine cover art by Tom Rieschick and 48 pages of interesting articles and news, including a report from Philip Weller on the closing of the Conan Doyle Room at The Cross Hotel in Crowborough; the new landlord of the hotel was not able to continue to provide space for the collection, which had been assembled by Malcolm Payne and his society The Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment. The collection is now in storage, until Malcolm finds a new display site. 46 Purfield Drive, Wargrave, Berks. RG10 8AR, England; or Classic Special- ties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219. And a welcome addendum: Tim O'Connor has received a report from Malcolm Payne that Andrew de Candole, the owner of Groombridge Place, has kindly offered the Victorian dairy and cheese room of the old manor as a new home for the collection, which may be open again by Easter. One of the nicest things about the Internet is how easy it is to send and receive news and information, as was the case immediately after the earth- quake in Kobe. And that generated a Sherlockian item in a long story about the growth of computerized communication in Japan, in Time (Mar. 6), kindly forwarded by Dick Lesh: "Shortly after the Kobe quake, Tomoji Ohta, a coll- ege student whose parents' home had collapsed, approached Time reporters on the rubble-strewn streets with an urgent request: 'Please get on the Inter- net and notify the Baker Street Irregulars that all our members in Kobe are all right.' Sherlock Holmes fans around the world were reassured." Apr 95 #6 THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES, issued as a nine-volume set in 1993 (Dec 93 #8) offered delightful scholarship in its introductions and many explanatory notes by Owen Dudley Edwards, Richard Lancelyn Green. Christopher Roden, and W. W. Robson, and a new edition is now available in The World's Classics series of paperbacks (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994; L3.99 or $5.95 per volume). The new edition has color covers showing Frederic Dorr Steele artwork, and it really is a new edition (rather than a new printing), because some errors and omissions have been corrected. Reported: a two-in-one paperback (Donald I. Fine, $13.95) with reprints of John T. Lescroart's SON OF HOLMES (Mar 86 #2) and RASPUTIN'S REVENGE (May 87 #3). The detective is bon vivant Auguste Lupa, son of Sherlock Holmes and an opera star, who makes his detecting debut in France in 1915 in the first book, and in the second winds up in St. Petersburg in 1916, using a passport in the name of John Hamish Adler Holmes, accused of espionage, and rescued by his father. THE GAME IS AFOOT, a splendid anthology of pastiches, parodies, and schol- arship edited by Marvin Kaye, was published last year in cloth (Apr 94 #4) and is now available as a trade paperback (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995; 512 pp., $13.95). Recommended. Reported by B. J. Rahn: June Thomson's biographical HOLMES AND WATSON, new from Constable in London (this is her fourth Sherlockian book, following her three collections of pastiches). Plan ahead: the seventh International Holmesian Games will be held on Sept. 16-17 in Vancouver, B.C. Details on the "Sherlympiad" are available from Fran Martin, 10662-129 Street, Surrey, BC V3T 3H4, Canada. Roger Johnson reports in the latest issue of The District Messenger that Michael Coren's THE LIFE OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE is due in November from Bloomsbury Publishing (L20.00), and that Ian Henry (20 Park Drive, Romford RM1 4LH, England) have published Ernest Dudley's revised acting edition of THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (L5.95), and that Malcolm Payne has reported that THE HISTORY OF THE CROWBOROUGH BEACON GOLF CLUB (with much about Conan Doyle) is available from the Club (Beacon Road, Crowborough, East Sussex, England) (L11.00 postpaid). The Practical, But Limited, Geologists will convene on Tuesday, Nov. 7, at Ralph and Kacoo's in New Orleans, during the annual meeting of the Geologi- cal Society of America. Geologists and Sherlockians are welcome to join in honoring the world's first forensic geologist; Ralph and Kacoo's is at 519 Toulouse Street, and the festivities will begin with cocktails at 7:00 and continue with dinner at 8:00; reservations are not needed. New Orleans may well be the largest city in the U.S. without an active Sherlockian society; if anyone knows of any Sherlockians down there in the bayous, please let me know their names and addresses. Scott Monty spotted Rathbone as Holmes on the cover of the 1995 Antibodies Catalogue from Transduction Laboratories (2134 Nicholasville Road #18, Lex- ington, KY 40503-9888), and Canonical quotations scattered through it pages (their motto is "Investigation Made Elementary"). Apr 95 #7 ESTUDIOS DEL NATURAL: LOS CASOS QUE SHERLOCK HOLMES NO PUDO RESOLVER Barcelona: Grijalbo Mondadori, 1995; 142 pp., 1,200 pesetas) is a Spanish translation of STRANGE STUDIES FROM LIFE AND OTHER NARRATIVES: THE COMPLETE TRUE CRIME WRITINGS OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, edited by Jack Tracy and published by Gaslight in 1988 (Dec 88 #5). The publisher's address is: Arago 385, Barcelona, Spain. Dick Lesh reports that a cassette with Buster Keaton's film "Sherlock Jr." (1924), recently issued by Kino Video (Jan 95 #4), is available from Barnes & Noble (126 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011); item D120162 ($29.95). And that Archie McPhee: Outfitters of Popular Culture (Box 38052, Seattle, WA 98103) offers the colorful 7x8" inner lid label for Sherlock Holmes cigars for $16.95 postpaid. Burl Ives died on April 14. Carl Sandburg dubbed Ives "America's mightiest ballad singer" in the 1940s, and his unique voice and stage presence made him (and the folk songs he sang) world-famous. He also was an actor, and won an Oscar as best supporting actor in 1959 (in "The Big Country"). And he was one of many singers who recorded songs from the 1964 musical "Baker Street" (his LP album "Burl's Broadway" was issued by Decca in 1969 with "A Married Man"). "St. Bartholomew's Hospital, founded for the sick and poor of London nearly 900 years ago, had developed a formidable instinct for survival", The Times noted on Apr. 6, but British Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley "has suc- ceeded where Henry VIII, the Great Fire of London, the Blitz, and Margaret Thatcher all failed." The long campaign to keep the hospital open (Apr 93 #4) seems to have failed, and the government now proposes to move most the facilities to Whitechapel (St. Bart's accident and emergency unit closed in January). One hopes that The Sherlock Holmes Society of London is planning to rescue Sherlock Holmes' laboratory chair and the plaque that honors the first meeting between Holmes and Watson. Douglas G. Greene's JOHN DICKSON CARR: THE MAN WHO EXPLAINED MIRACLES (New York: Otto Penzler/Simon & Schuster, 1995; 537 pp., $35.00) is a delightful biography of a splendid writer. "The Man Who Explained Miracles" was the title chosen by Fred Dannay for one of Carr's short stories, but it's also an apt description of the master of the "impossible mystery" genre. Carr is possibly most familiar to Sherlockians for his excellent biography of Conan Doyle, and his work with Adrian Conan Doyle on some of the pastiches that were published as THE EXPLOITS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, but he also wrote radio adaptations of "The Lost World" and "The Speckled Band" for the BBC, and two amusing Sherlockian parody-playlets performed at the annual dinners of the Mystery Writers of America. He succeeded in creating four success- ful series detectives, and Greene has done a fine job of describing the man who could perform that sort of miracle. The spring 1995 issue of Scarlet Street offers David Stuart Davies' inter- esting interview with Michael Cox, who tells some fine stories about the Granada series (such as: the studio wanted a well-known name in the title role, and having recently produced "Brideshead Revisited" suggested Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, but Cox insisted on Jeremy Brett). The magazine costs $20.00 a year for four issues; Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. Apr 95 #8 "Sherlock Holmes on American Radio" is a new audiocassette pre- pared by Lawrence Nepodahl, with one hour of comments on and excerpts from the many radio series about the Great Detective. The sound quality is high, and the cassette offers an excellent tour of the American series, and (at the end) Gordon E. Kelley's fine tribute to Basil Rathbone. 1230 Vienna Boulevard, Dekalb, IL 60115; $20.00 postpaid. A new audio dramatization of William Hjortsberg's NEVERMORE from Radio The- ater, 150 Martinvale Lane, San Jose, CA 95119 (800-959-7107) offers three hours on two cassettes ($14.95). The novel (Oct 94 #5) brought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini to New York in 1923, involving them with Opal Crosby Fletcher (a provocative and beautiful medium) and with a mysterious serial killer (who copies murders described in Edgar Allan Poe's stories, and whose targets include Conan Doyle and Houdini), and the dramatization is nicely done. It hasn't taken long for Laurie R. King's THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE to be translated: BIAVLERENS LAERLING (Arhus: Klim, 1994) is the Danish version. Forecast: ESCAPADE, by Walter Satterthwait, from St. Martin's Press in July ($22.95); "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini join forces to solve the murder of their host, killed in a locked room during a seance at his country manor house." And: THE SIX MESSIAHS, by Mark Frost, from William Morrow in July ($23.00); "Arthur Conan Doyle embarks on his first tour of the United States, where six strangers await him--convinced it is Doyle who can lead them to the source of their vision." Reported: Anthony Boucher's delightful mystery novel THE CASE OF THE BAKER STREET IRREGULARS (1940) has been reprinted, with an introduction by Otto Penzler, from Carroll & Graf ($4.95). One of the nicest things about being a publisher is that it is not diffi- cult to get one's writings into print. And it is particularly nice for readers when the publisher is a fine writer, as is David L. Hammer, whose new collection THE BEFORE-BREAKFAST PIPE OF MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES offers a fine assortment of his essays and articles, old and new. 206 pp., $19.50 postpaid, from the Gasogene Press, Box 1041, Dubuque, IA 52001-1041. HAVE A LITTLE PATIENCE: THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF AN INDEPENDENT GIRL is Mary L. Jaffee's amusing poetic tribute to Patience Moran, with excellent illustrations by Debra McWilliams, in a 24-page pamphlet published by Vin- cent Brosnan (1741 Via Allena, Oceanside, CA 92056); $10.00 postpaid. And his new "Sherlock in L.A." catalogue 11, available from Vinnie on request, offers 782 items of Sherlockiana and Doyleana, and as added value, essays on Edgar W. Smith by Marilyn Ezzell, and on Michael Harrison by Tina Rhea. Audio-taper alert: BBC Radio 4 sent four people to Lidingo for two days to interview Ted Bergman and four of his friends about Swedish girls, Swedish royalty, Swedish sin, and Swedish interest in Sherlock Holmes, for a pro- gram in the "Ad Lib" series to be presented by Robert Robinson on June 17. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@capaccess.org May 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "Dracula on the Rocks" is a short story by Carole Nelson Douglas scheduled for CELEBRITY VAMPIRES, a horror anthology due from DAW Books in October at $4.99. Irene Adler "has more suitors than the Crown Prince of Bohemia when she plays prima donna at the Warsaw Imperial Opera. Could Count Dracula be lurking behind the arras and the arias?" 20 26 23 2 "Any Englishman who claims high intelligence," said Sherlock 29 3 13 24 Holmes, should be able to identify which of these numbers is 27 25 17 10 the odd one out, within about ten minutes." For those who 22 12 21 28 came in late, that's the puzzle I published last month, from THE SHERLOCK HOLMES IQ BOOK. The answer is 17. Because the names of all the other numbers begin with a T when written in English. The book suggests that anyone in the top 1% of the population, with an IQ of at least 155, should have been able to solve the problem in ten minutes. There are Hebrew translations of Frank Thomas' SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MAS- QUERADE MURDERS, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SACRED SWORD, and SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE GOLDEN BIRD (possibly the first book-length pastiches to appear in Hebrew), and they are offered by the publisher ("Schalgi" Ltd., 23 Levanda Street, 66020 Tel-Aviv, Israel) at $20.00 each postpaid. And Frank reports that the last two titles are due soon in Russian. And Laurie R. King's THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE will be published in a Dutch edition (as DE LEERLING VAN DE BIJENHOUDER) from Het Spectrum in August. Don Hobbs has found an old and artistic Sherlockian bookplate. I remember seeing the design before, but can't recall where, or when, or whose design it was (the name of Robert F. Larson, Jr., is typed rather than printed). Please let me know if you recognize this and can supply more information about artist or purveyor (the dancing men spell "in libris"). The 24-page manuscript for Conan Doyle's article on "Life on a Greenland Whaler" (which was published in The Strand Magazine in Jan. 1897, and in McClure's Magazine in Mar. 1897) went to auction at Christie's in New York on Apr. 25, and was sold for $9,200 (in- cluding the 15% buyer's premium). The Apr. 1995 issue of Nutshell News has a fine article by Lisa Sullivan on "The Game Is Afoot" (with some excellent color photographs of her miniature of the sitting-room); Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187-1612; $3.95. Ginger Rogers died on Apr. 25. Her acting career spanned 65 years, from vaudeville to television, and although she will always be remembered best for her dancing with Fred Astaire, it was as a dramatic actress that she won an Academy Award, as Kitty Foyle in the 1940 film based on Christopher Morley's novel. Her life-long artistic achievement was recognized at the 15th annual Kennedy Center Honors in 1992, when Walter Cronkite confessed that "I wasn't that excited about Fred Astaire or the dancing. But--boy-- her performance in 'Kitty Foyle' just knocked me out." May 95 #2 Ed Wallner spotted a new article about the Andaman Islands in the May issue of Scientific American: Madhusree Mukerjee notes that the Great Andamanese have been reduced to a mixed-race group of 37 surviving on South Andaman Island, where the prison once was. The Jawara, also living on the island, still number about 200; the authorities don't know exactly how many, because the tribe still greets visitors with well- aimed arrows. After the British burned the Capitol, and the Library of Congress, during the War of 1812, there was considerable debate about whether Congress would buy Thomas Jefferson's library to replace the lost books. And, according to Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, some members of Congress com- plained that too much of Jefferson's library "is in languages many cannot read and most ought not to." Billington also reports, in the May/June 1995 issue of Civilization, that the Library now has more than 108 million items in 460 languages. That leaves quite a few languages to be pursued by Sher- lockian collectors (Ron De Waal lists 63 foreign languages in THE UNIVERSAL SHERLOCK HOLMES). But of course the Canon has not been translated into all those other languages. Yet. In 1972 Nicaragua commemorated the 50th anniversary of Interpol with a set of stamps showing the twelve most famous detectives, with tributes to them printed on the backs of the stamps, and with Sherlock Holmes appearing (of course) on the highest value of the set. I have a small supply of mint copies of the Holmes stamp, which I am offering for $15.00 each postpaid, one to a customer; checks payable to Peter E. Blau, please. And yes, the stamps do say that Interpol's 50th anniversary was in 1973, but Nicaragua obviously wanted to be the first to honor the anniversary. In 1973, at the annual dinner of the Baker Street Irregulars, a Sherlock Holmes silver medal was awarded (in absentia) to the Hon. Rafael Sevilla-Sacasa, director of the Philatelic Bureau of the Repub- lic of Nicaragua, for his help in arranging for the world's first official Sherlock Holmes stamp. The second issue of Baker Street West 1 has arrived. This "Sherlockian Journal from the Western U.S.A." continues to focus on activities west of the Mississippi, and its highlights include an amusing cover designed by Chuck Kovacic. $3.00 postpaid, from Jerry Kegley, 110 South El Nido #41, Pasadena, CA 91107. Telephone calling cards are a fairly new collectible (some people actually use them to make telephone calls, but the cards are energetically marketed to collectors), and the first sort-of-Sherlockian card has been spotted by Gordon Palmer: TEC Card (800-333-8735) offers a series of Star Trek cards, one of which shows Data in Sherlockian costume. The S'ian card is one of a set of four that costs $40.00, and each of the four cards gives you $5.00 of long-distance calling (at $1.00 a minute) and $5.00 of access to a "Star Trek" entertainment line. The six Sherlockian daily "Fox Trot" comic strips that ran in various news- papers on Mar. 8-13, 1993, were reprinted in Bill Amend's MAY THE FORCE BE WITH US, PLEASE (Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1994; 128 pp., $8.95). May 95 #3 Our new commemorative honors the late President Richard Nixon, whose first known contact with the world of Sherlockians was the telegram of greetings he sent to the annual dinner of The Baker Street Irregulars in 1956, and which was noted with disdain by Rex Stout in The Baker Street Journal in June 1961. The investi- gation of Watergate launched a flood of Sherlockian allusions in editorials and in editorial cartoons, but Nixon did know about Sherlock Holmes: Julie Baumgold wrote in New York (June 9, 1980) that he told her, "I don't care for novels, and mys- teries bore me except on TV, and since Holmes is off, what is there?" Nixon also found an appropriate context for a refer- ence to "Sherlock Holmes's dog that did not bark" in his book 1999: VICTORY WITHOUT WAR (1988); see page 76. ESTUDIOS DEL NATURAL: LOS CASOS QUE SHERLOCK HOLMES NO PUDO RESOLVER, the Spanish translation of Jack Tracy's 1988 edition of STRANGE STUDIES FROM LIFE AND OTHER NARRATIVES: THE COMPLETE TRUE CRIME WRITINGS OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (Apr 95 #7) also is available from Gaslight Publications, 3888 West Sahara Avenue #221-B, Las Vegas, NV 89102; $17.00 postpaid (credit- card orders welcome). Mel Hughes spotted David Lilley's obituary for Douglas Bartlett Gregor in the Apr. 24 issue of The Independent [London]: Gregor was a classicist by training and profession, and was fluent in more than 20 languages and read many others. "He wrote about Byron's knowledge of Armenian, discussed the texts of Greek tragedies, and translated two Sherlock Holmes stories into Dolomitic Ladin and its sister languages Friulan and Romontsch." Andy Fusco reports that LEXIS-NEXIS (Box 933, Dayton, OH 45401) has some amusing Sherlockian artwork on its new flier ("The Case of the Bogus Busi- ness") promoting the use of LEXIS data bases ("Suppose you need to track the business operations of Moriarity Enterprises, operated by your nemesis, Professor James Moriarity, against whom you are attempting to recover dama- ges in your fraud case"). And there are other S'ian allusions in the text. Edwin Blum died on May 2. He was a playwright and a screenwriter, working with Ernest Pascal and Billy Wilder and others; he shared screenplay credit for Basil Rathbone's "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1939), and forty years later his script for "The Ghost of Sherlock Holmes" was considered by ABC-TV for a project starring Christopher Lee. A new flier at hand for Bouchercon 26, at the Royal Centre in Nottingham, Sept. 28 through Oct. 1, 1995. The organizers are still anonymous, but the guests of honour are James Ellroy and Colin Dexter, and Reginald Hill will be the toastmaster at the awards dinner. Additional information is avail- able from Conference Nottingham, The Business Information Centre, 309 Haydn Road, Nottingham NG5 1DG, England. "Sherlock Sholem: Israeli detective in relentless pursuit of his nemesis, Professor Yom Tirra." That was one of the examples that Mary Ann Madden offered in a competition in New York magazine (May 8), in which competitors were invited "to sully by anagram one familiar name of fact or fiction and provide for it a brief description similarly altered by a one-word jumble." May 95 #4 Donald Girard Jewell has announced the sixth volume in his con- tinuing Sherlock Holmes Natural History Series: THE BOTANICAL HOLMES: A MONOGRAPH ON PLANTS IN THE TIME OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is illustrated with contemporary artwork and is twice as long as previous volumes, and the booklet costs $16.95 postpaid (signed and hand-tinted copies are priced at $24.95 postpaid). You can order from the Pinchin Lane Press, 4685 Geeting Road, Westminster, MD 21158. Video-taper alert: watch for a re-run on "Star Trek: Voyager" (syndicated on Mondays). Gilles Coughlan reports that "Ex Post Facto" (Feb. 27, 1995) had Lt. Tom Paris convicted of murder and sentenced to relive the victim's final moments over and over again, but is cleared of the crime when Tuvok applies some logic straight from the Sherlock Holmes stories. "You have a few sheep in the paddock," said Sherlock Holmes (in "Silver Blaze"). Our new stamped envelope shows a sheep (the envelope is for non-profit organizations, and is unde- nominated, because many non-profits don't want you to know that they pay only five cents when they mail you requests for donations). News for fans of Jeremy Brett: the British film "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" (also starring Elizabeth Hurley and Joss Ackland) will be released in June in Britain. And "Mystery!" will broadcast the six new (well, new to Ameri- can television) Granada shows this fall; for those who have forgotten, the shows aired in Britain in March and April 1994 ("The Three Gables", "The Dying Detective", "The Golden Pince-Nez", "The Red Circle", "The Mazarin Stone", and "The Cardboard Box"). Rush Limbaugh can be seen in Sherlockian costume on the cover of the May issue of The Limbaugh Letter (Box 420058, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0058) (800- 829-5386); $3.00. Debbie Clark reports that the Malice Domestic convention in Bethesda, Md., was enjoyable and well-attended, and the Sherlockian news is that Laurie R. King's next novel about Mary Russell (and Sherlock Holmes) is A MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN, due from St. Martin's Press in August. "It is always 1895" was the theme of the irregular quinquennial Sherlockian dinner at the Culinary Institute of America on May 13, and the event was as usual delightful. And the weather, and the scenery in and around Hyde Park for those who arrived early or stayed late for a bit of sight-seeing in up- state New York. There was wine and hors d'oeuvres at the CIA's new Conrad Hilton library, and a video presentation in the new Danny Kaye media center of Jennie Paton's rapid-fire and amusing survey of Canonical dining as por- trayed on film and television, and then dinner in the Great Hall with five buffet stations honoring the five cases dated in 1895, and toasts to those cases, and a handsome illustrated souvenir menu based on careful research by Al and Julie Rosenblatt, who shared credit with Fritz Sonnenschmidt for a memorable celebration. And on the next day the Rhinebeck Volunteer Fire Department welcomed visitors to The Great Jonas Oldacre Firehouse Smoke-Out Breakfast. And now back to dieting, preparing for the next gathering . . . May 95 #5 There's occasional Sherlockian artwork by R. Michael Palan in Greg Hunter's NATE THE GREAT LITERATURE NOTES (for students and teachers using the NATE THE GREAT series by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat); item FS-2725 in a catalog from Frank Schaffer Publications (Box 2853, Torrance, CA 90509) (800-421-5565); $2.49 (minimum order $15.00, but there's lots of other things in their catalog). J.B. Fine Arts (420 Central Avenue, Cedarhurst, NY 11516) (800-522-7871) is selling a 37 x 36" multi- colored lithograph of Robin Morris' "Sherlock" for $750.00, and they will be happy to send you a full- color card showing you how handsome it is. There's a discount if you mention "Scuttlebutt". An old comic book, newly noted for modern collec- tors: THE THREE STOOGES #28 (May 1966) shows Moe Howard on the cover, with deerstalker and calabash. Tom Kowols notes in the Apr. 1995 issue of The Police Gazette that Geoffrey A. Landis' Sherlockian pastiche "The Singular Habits of Wasps" (in the Apr. 1994 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact) was nominated for a Nebula Award (for best novelette) by the Science Fiction Writers of America. "I kind of believe what Sherlock Holmes said to Watson," said Michael Tigar (defense lawyer for Oklahoma bombing-suspect Terry L. Nichols), quoted in a report in the N.Y. Times on May 19. "It's like a stick on the ground. It does point in one direction till you turn it around and look at it from the other side and it points just as equally in the other direction." Well now -- what did Holmes really say? Warning: answer on next page. Sotheby's reports that Stanley MacKenzie's collection of Sherlockiana will be auctioned on July 24. The catalog isn't ready yet, but their address is 34-35 New Bond Street, London, W1A 2AA, England. The June-July issue of British Heritage has a fine article by Steven Eramo about Edward Hardwicke, covering much more than his work as Watson on stage and television; Box 1066, Mount Morris, IL 61054-9946 ($4.95). The 1995 running of The Silver Blaze at Belmont Park (in New York) will be held on Sept. 9. Additional information is available from Stephen L. Stix, 1150 NC 50 & US 117, Faison, NC 28341. Eric Porter died on May 15. He was a splendid actor, and his portrayal of Soames Forsyte brought him widespread notice in the United States when "The Forsyte Saga" aired on public television. And he was an inspired choice for the role of Prof. Moriarty in the Granada series. It should be noted, by the way, that the success of "The Forsyte Saga" was the key to bringing British drama to American television; the next step was when WGBH-TV (Boston) networked "The First Churchills" as the first series broadcast on "Masterpiece Theatre". "The Forsyte Saga" also featured Nyree Dawn Porter as Soames' wife Irene, and offered many American viewers their first chance to hear "Irene" pronounced as a three-syllable name. May 95 #6 The Sub-Librarians Scion of the Baker Street Irregulars in the American Library Association will holds it annual meeting from 4:00 to 5:30 pm on June 25 at the Harold Washington Library Center in Chi- cago; there will be reception, and a presentation by Ely M. Liebow, and the cost is $15.00, and the deadline for reservations is June 17. You can send your checks to Marsha L. Pollak, Sunnyvale Public Library, Box 3714, Sunny- vale, CA 94088-3714. And you needn't be a librarian to enjoy the meeting. Jeff Decker (who aptly describes himself as "an artist known for his blend of pawky humor and visual story- telling") welcomes enquiries about original artwork for Sherlockian stationery, greeting cards, and illustra- tions; R.D. 3, Box 7631, Jonestown, PA 17038. Members of The Hounds of the Internet have offered quo- tations as sources for what Michael Tigar said Holmes said. Ben Fairbank gets credit for "The Boscombe Val- ley Mystery" ("Circumstantial evidence ... may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncom- promising manner to something entirely different"). And Tom Crammond gets credit for "The Norwood Builder" ("After all, important fresh evidence is a two-edged thing, and may possibly cut in very different direction to that which Lestrade imagines"). It's difficult to figure out how Tigar got from either one of those quotes to his quote; perhaps he was recalling something from a pastiche or a movie or a television show. "Autumn in Baker Street" will be held on Oct. 28-29 at the Tarrytown Hilton in Tarrytown, N.Y. This annual gathering is always well-attended, and the agenda interesting, and additional information is available from Robert E. Thomalen, 69 Glen Road, Eastchester, NY 10709. If your cable system has the Sci-Fi Channel, watch for "Spectre" on June 3 and June 4 on "Pilot Playhouse". "Spectre" was a two-hour television film made from a story by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Norway Productions for Twentieth Century-Fox Television, and broadcast by NBC-TV on May 21, 1977, starring Robert Culp as William Sebastian and Gig Young as Dr. Hamilton. According to reasonably informed sources, Roddenberry wrote the screenplay several years after the original "Star Trek" series went off the air, and involved Holmes and Watson in a story that was dated after Holmes' retire- ment, and planned as a pilot for a series starring Leonard Nimoy as Holmes. But Nimoy didn't want to do the series, and Roddenberry wasn't able to get permission to use Holmes and Watson as characters, so he just changed the names to Sebastian and Hamilton and turned the project into a non-Sherlock- ian film. The just-published issue #9 of Murder & Mayhem: The Mystery Reader's Guide has a long and well-illustrated article "Of Matters Sherlockian" by editors Fiske and Elly-Ann Miles, and an interesting interview with Dame Jean Conan Doyle by John C. Tibbetts. Box 415024, Kansas City, MO 64141; $2.95. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@capaccess.org Jun 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Faithful viewers of the O. J. Simpson trial will recall the battle between defense attorney Barry Scheck and Los Angeles Police Department criminal- ists Dennis Fung and Andrea Mazzola, and Scheck brandishing what he called the "fundamental textbook" used by the LAPD. The book was CRIMINALISTICS: AN INTRODUCTION TO FORENSIC SCIENCE, and its author, Richard Saferstein was interviewed by David Ellis for People magazine (May 15); I don't know about the current edition, but in the second edition (1981) the introductory sec- tion on the history and development of forensic science features a tribute to Conan Doyle and Holmes. Saferstein expects a hung jury. Reported from Britain: THE SHERLOCK HOLMES ENCYCLOPEDIA, by Matthew Bunson (Pavilion, L19.99); the British edition of his ENCYCLOPEDIA SHERLOCKIANA (Jan 95 #4); and NEVERMORE, by William Hjortsberg (Orion, L9.99); the Brit- ish edition of his Houdini/Conan Doyle pastiche (Oct 94 #5). "You don't happen to have a Raphael or a first folio Shakespeare without knowing it?" Sherlock Holmes wondered (in "The Three Gables"). A cherub (suggested by some a guardian death angel) from Raphael's "Sistine Madonna" was seen earlier this year on an undeno- minated "Love" stamps (Feb 95 #3); now there are two of them. "Sherlock Holmes: The Great Detective" (on "Biography" on A&E cable on May 22) was nicely done and well produced for its target general audience. And those who don't get A&E, or who forgot to watch or tape the program and who don't know anyone who did tape it, will be glad to know that it's available on videocassette at $23.90 postpaid; you can call 800-423-1212. "Jack the Ripper: Phantom of Death" (on "Biography" on May 23) had passing mentions of Holmes and Conan Doyle. Bob Burr offers a revised version of the one-page "Some Basic Questions for the Beginning Student of the Canon" (some of the questions might be consid- ered multiple-choice, if Bob gave any choices). Send him a #10 SASE (4010 North Devon Lane, Peoria, IL 61614). Alas: newly-increased charges by the Postal Service have triggered a rise in the price of this newsletter, which now is $9.00 a year for six or more pages a month of whatever gossip I find appropriate. A box of 500 stamped envelopes with printed return address now costs $184.60 postpaid ($181.60 postpaid if you're satisfied with the Liberty Bell indicia); that's still a bargain, as far as I'm concerned, and the toll-free number is 800-782-6724. And (alas, again) the postal rates for international mail will increase on July 9. The new newsletter price for Canada will be US$11.50 a year, and the new price for other countries will be US$17.50 a year. James R. Webb's three-page article "Sherlock Holmes on Consulting" offers readers of the Journal of Management Consulting (spring 1995) a look at how Sherlock Holmes anticipated the modern management consultant. The address is: 858 Longview Road, Burlingame, CA 94010; $20.00 postpaid. Jun 95 #2 "I should not be surprised to learn that what we have heard is the cry of the last of the bitterns," said Jack Stapleton (in "The Hound of the Baskervilles"). There still are bitterns to be found in the United States, at least: Bob Robinson has noted a fine cover story in Smithsonian (May 1995) about the American bittern and the least bittern. Barbara Holmes will be glad to accept com- missions for original Sherlockian artwork, and to discuss your ideas. She works in acrylics, and prices range from $38.00 (11 x 14") to $55.00 (20 x 24"); this greatly- reduced reproduction of her color portrait of Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwick shows what she can do; her address is Box 446, Scottsville, VA 24590. Oxford University Press began to discount the boxed hard-cover nine-volume edition of THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES when the new edition in paper covers was ready (the new edition was edited to correct some of the errors). Last year (Oct 94 #6) the hard- cover edition cost $49.50 (plus $5.00 for shipping) from the press (800-230-3242), and Dick Lesh now reports that it's still available from Daedalus Books for $50.00 (plus $4.50 shipping); Box 9132, Hyatts- ville, MD 20781 (800-395-2665). I don't know if any Sherlockians investigating the Tankerville Club Scandal (mentioned in the "The Five Orange Pips") have ever discussed the case with the Earl of Tankerville, but there is one: the earldom was created in 1714, and the 10th Earl, Peter Grey Bennet, was born in 1956 and succeeded to the title in 1980. And a recent auction at the Swann Galleries in New York in- cluded a signed autograph postal card from Conan Doyle to Lady Tankerville, responding to an inquiry and complimenting her on her knowledge of psychic matters. Laurel Kristick reports (from the PBS home page on the World Wide Web) that "Mystery!" will repeat Granada's "The Last Vampyre" on Aug. 10 (two hours) and "The Eligible Bachelor" on Aug. 17 (ditto). The Ellery Queen Award, established by the Mystery Writers of America in 1982, recognizes achievement in the fields in which Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee) excelled: anthologies, team writing, and edit- ing. This year the award went to Martin H. Greenberg, of whom Francis M. Nevins, Jr., suggested that "his name seems to be on the dust jacket of ev- ery anthology or collection of entertainment fiction published in the last twenty years." Not quite, but Marty Greenberg has edited or co-edited 524 books, including THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (1981), THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1987), THE BEST HORROR STORIES OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (1989), SHERLOCK HOLMES IN ORBIT (1995), and many others that have included one or more Sherlockian or Doylean stories. Jun 95 #3 This isn't a quiz, but: later this year the postal service will honor the 100th anniversary of comic strips by issuing a sheet of 20 stamps showing classic characters (all of them are at least 50 years old), and the honorees will be: the Yellow Kid, Little Nemo in Slumberland, Krazy Kat, Rube Goldberg's Inventions, the Toonerville Folks, the Katzen- jammer Kids, Dick Tracy, Popeye, Bringing Up Father, Nancy, Blondie, Brenda Starr, Li'l Abner, Terry and the Pirates, Alley Oop, Barney Google, Prince Valiant, Flash Gordon, Gasoline Alley, and Little Orphan Annie. How many of these strips have had at least one Sherlockian allusion? In newspapers, not comic books or animations. Send me a photocopy of at least one, and I will (eventually) send you a complete set. If you weren't satisfied with the report (May 95 #4) on the grand Sherlock- ian dinner at the Culinary Institute of America, and would like more detail on what you missed, extra copies of the handsome 16-page menu are available ($18.95 postpaid) from Al and Julie Rosenblatt, 300 Freedom Road, Pleasant Valley, NY 12569. The text is carefully crafted by Julie and Al, with some grand photographs and artwork, and you can see "Black Peter and his wife in happier days." John Keane (who has been in business since 1976 as "Sherlock Bones: Tracer of Missing Pets") now has his own home page on the Internet; if you know how to cruise the Web, the URL is: http://www.sherlock.com/home/sherlock. And his e-mail address is (he says that he would love to hear from "barker street irregulars"). "Farintosh," said Sherlock Holmes (in "The Speckled Band"). "I recall the case; it was concerned with an opal tiara." Austra- lia selected the opal as the national gem- stone in 1993, and used holographic images of light and black opals on a set of stamps issued this year. Gem-quality opal also is found in South Africa, but one likes to think that the tiara had opals from Australia, if only because of the nice stamps. SHERLOCK HOLMES FOR CHILDREN is now offered both on CD and on cassette; the one-hour recording contains four stories (Maza/Spec/Musg/Blue) told by Jim Weiss, who does an excellent job of combining narration and dialogue. The stories were edited for a younger target-audience, but the adaptations are imaginative and retain the excitement of the Canon. The cassette is $9.95 and the CD is $14.95 (add $2.00 per order for shipping) from Greathall Pro- ductions, Box 813, Benicia, CA 94510. Sherlockian artist Cathy Childs (1510 Lake Drive, Grand Island, FL 32735) offers a new illustrated catalog of her artwork, including new 6" busts of Jeremy Brett as Holmes and Edward Hardwicke as Watson. M. J. Trow's LESTRADE AND THE KISS OF HORUS (London: Constable, 1995; 235 pp., L15.99) is the fifteenth in his splendid series about Sholto Lestrade, who in 1923 is an ex-Detective Chief Superintendent, but still involved in the work of Scotland Yard, investigating the death of Lord Carnarvon (which turns out to have been deliberate murder, and only one of many in Egypt and in London). As usual, the book is full of puns and bravado and fun. Jun 95 #4 Cadds (the British printer) will be issuing another colorful calendar for 1996, with color photos from the Granada series, and in the meantime has published two posters (12 x 16") with color photo- graphs of Jeremy Brett; you can order from Classic Specialties (Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219); $20.50 postpaid for the two posters. Jennie Paton has reported some nice news from Ken Greenwald and 221A Baker Street Associates: he now is working with the Brilliant Cassettes to make 16 new high-quality cassettes with 32 of the old Sherlock Holmes radio pro- grams with Tom Conway and Nigel Bruce; the introductions will be recorded this summer, and the cassettes likely will be released in 1996. And Ken doesn't have a 200-show backlog, unfortunately. If anyone knows where all those shows are hidden, he'd be delighted to hear who has them. Noted by Dana Richards: a Sherlockian rogue's gallery in "Test Your Private Eye-Q" in Games World of Puzzles (July 1995). Roving Reporter: From the Files of Sarah Jane Smith #4 (one of many Doctor Who fanzines) is now available, and one of the stories is "The Adventure of the Visiting Doctor" (by Joelle Augustine, with artwork by Stefanie Kate Hawks); the Doctor and Sarah Jane help Holmes foil a mass murderer. $13.00 postpaid ($15.00 overseas) from Kevin W. Parker, 3-E Ridge Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770-1900. Brad Keefauver calls Kevin's magazine "one of the world's few perfect fanzines." A Sherlockian first: a Sherlockian screen-saver (for non-tekkies, that's a program that helps you keep from burning something into the screen of your computer, which can happen if you leave something on the screen for hours). The "Abominable Wife" screen-saver cycles through seven of Melissa Hellen's black-and-white portraits of Sherlock Holmes, and you need Windows and 1-MB on a hard disk, and it is available on a 3.5" floppy disk from Carolyn and Joel Senter (Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219); $23.45 postpaid. The Silver Blaze (Southern Division) at Pimlico on May 27 was won by Banpac and Meccas Boy in a dead heat, first dead heat in the history of The Silver Blaze and possibly all the Silver Blazes. Karen McDonough of Philadelphia presented the trophy (a specially bound copy of one of the Sherlockian vol- umes of The Strand Magazine), which will, one hopes, be shared in rotation over the years by the two fortunate owners. The spring 1995 issue of The New Baker Street Pillar Box has arrived from The Franco-Midland Hardware Company; the 46 pages of news and articles in- clude Catherine and Alan Saunders' interesting exploration of "Heavy Game in the Western Himalayas" (information about the society and its publica- tions is available from Philip Weller, 6 Bramham Moor, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire PO14 3RU, England). Dr. Fatso's latest installment of the continuing saga of Turlock Loams is THE ADVENTURE OF THE FERAL BARONET, involving "theriomorphy, exotic herbs, and the fast-food conspiracy," according to John Ruyle, who is even now at work printing the booklet on his Pequod Press. Available from the author, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707; $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper). Jun 95 #5 The bibliographic research by Richard Lancelyn Green and John Michael Gibson for A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A. CONAN DOYLE (1983) un- covered ten stories that had been published anonymously and not previously known to have been Conan Doyle's; they were reprinted in THE UNKNOWN CONAN DOYLE: UNCOLLECTED STORIES (1982), and many admirers of Conan Doyle's work wondered whether there were more such discoveries to be made. The answer is yes: "The Blood-Stone Tragedy: A Druidical Story" in Cassell's Saturday Journal (Feb. 16, 1884) has been identified as Conan Doyle's work, thanks to Michael Halewood's research, inspired by his purchase at auction of a letter from Conan Doyle in Cassell's archives. The story has now been re- printed for the first time by The Arthur Conan Doyle Society in cloth, in a 63-page book that includes a 32-page Afterword by Owen Dudley Edwards, who offers details from contemporary newspapers about the real-life source for the story, and speculation about why it was not reprinted while its author lived. The cost is $26.70 postpaid by surface from the Society (Ashcroft, 2 Abbottsford Drive, Penyffordd, Chester CH4 0JG, England (information on prices for shipping elsewhere is available from the Society). "If so, it would be good news in the sense that there is no Moriarty out there, no diabolical figure still eluding capture and bent on further may- hem," Joel Achenbach wrote in the Washington Post (June 11), commenting on the investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing. And he obviously assumed that his readers would know who Moriarty is. It is interesting how often one now sees allusions to the dog that did nothing in the night-time, and to the hound of the Baskervilles, and to Moriarty, without any additional identification, made by writers who believe they are writing for readers who don't need help identifying the dog, and the hound, and Moriarty. Our new stamp shows a familiar rose, since the design has been used before (Sep 93 #1), but the rose is pink (rather than red) and the denomination is 32c (rather than 29c). There are lots of roses to be found in the Sherlock Holmes stories, and on our postage stamps (I doubt that any other flower has been featured on our stamps as often as the rose). Reported by Ralph Hall: Mickey Mouse in a Sherlockian scene from "Lonesome Ghosts" on the face of a wristwatch ($65.00) at a Disney store at a mall. THE BERENSTAIN BEARS AND THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER, by Stan and Jan Berenstain (New York, Random House, 1995; $2.50); Grizzlock Holmes in a deerstalker on one page. And a flier from Peterson announcing a new series of pipes (com- memorating "The Return of Sherlock Holmes"); the first is "The Rathbone" at $150 to $200 at your local pipe shop. Travelers to Ontario may wish to attend a dinner-theatre production of Den- nis Rosa's play "Sherlock Holmes and the Curse of the Sign of the Four" at the Rainbow Theatre in Parry Sound, July 25-Aug. 5. Box 282, Parry Sound, ON P2A 2X4, Canada (705-746-4050). John Baesch reports that The Folio Society still offers their uniform set of the Canon, as a premium for new members: you can get five volumes of the short stories for L9.95 (for the set), and the four volumes with the novels free if you then decide to join; the society advertised in The Sunday Times (June 4), and their address is 44 Eagle Street, London WC1 4BR, England. Jun 95 #6 Hugh Scullion (proprietor of Cadds Printing) reports that he has learned from Grace Riley (John Aidiniantz's mother) that Aidiniantz, who in January was jailed for three years after being convicted of obtaining L1.2 million by deception, has now appealed the sentence, and hopes to be released if he can persuade a judge that the mortgage lenders wouldn't have suffered financially (because property served as security), and that many people who apply for mortgages don't always tell the complete truth. Aidiniantz's company has now gone into liquidation, which may bode ill for The Sherlock Holmes Museum at 239 Baker Street in London. Anyone who might wish to own a Sherlockian landmark will be interested in a classified advertisement noted by Steve Rothman in the Wall Street Journal (June 7): "STEAK HOUSE & REAL ESTATE. Christ Cella, NY's 70 yr old family owner restaurant. Sale incl. business & bldg in midtwn Mnhtn. Excl Agt 212- 888-8850." The Baker Street Irregulars held their first formal meeting at Christ Cella's Restaurant on June 5, 1934, and their annual dinners on Dec. 7, 1934, and Jan. 6, 1936. However (Steve notes): it may be the same busi- ness, but it's not the same building, since the restaurant has moved since the days of the early BSI meetings. Steve also noted that "P.O.V.: Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter" (on PBS-TV on June 6), made by Deborah Hoffmann and nominated for an Oscar this year, involves the long struggle against Alzheimer's disease by her mother, Doris Hoffmann, who is the widow of the late Banesh Hoffmann, member of The Baker Street Irregulars. The spring 1995 issue of The Ritual is at hand from The Northern Musgraves; it's now a review rather than a newsletter, and offers 60 pages of articles and news, including David Stuart Davies' fine article on the BBC radio ser- ies with Clive Merrison and Michael Williams. Information on membership is available from Anne Jordan, Fairbank, Beck Lane, Bingley, West Yorks. BD16 4DN, England. "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" opened this month in Britain, and was not praised by the newspaper critics. Christopher Tookey (Daily Mail) called the film "the most inept condemnation of drug abuse since 'Reefer Madness' in 1936," and said that it "reduced a packed press screening to helpless laughter." And Jeremy Brett "gives us his Anthony Vernon-Smith, an aristocratic drug dealer, pimp, maker of blue films and master criminal -- though, frankly, he behaves more like a Mr. Prig than a Mr. Big." Other critics were a bit more lenient, at least toward the actors, including Elizabeth Hurley, who is the heroine-on-heroin and looks lovely, and Brett (who plays the drug king "in the louche style long copyrighted by Christopher Walken," accord- ing to Sean French in the Guardian). No word yet on distribution plans in the United States (the film might go directly to videocassette or to cable television, I suspect). "Try Canadian Pacific Railway," said Sherlock Holmes (in "Black Peter"). But that appears not to be the motto of the Canadian government, according to a Reuters dispatch in the N.Y. Times (Apr. 3). The government, striving to cut chronic fiscal deficits, plans to privatize Canadian National Rail- ways in October, but has refused a $1 billion offer from Canadian Pacific Ltd., which wanted to buy the eastern operations of Canadian National. Jun 95 #7 Julian Symons' CRIMINAL PRACTICES (London: Macmillan, 1994; 229 pp., L7.99) is a collection of some of the best of his critical essays and articles about crime writing. "The fact is that ninety per cent of crime stories, mystery stories, thrillers, are written by people with no feeling for language, place or character," he suggests in his Introduction, but he also finds much to praise, including the Sherlock Holmes stories, in his introductions to THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1981) and THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1987). Roger Johnson reports that Sir Michael Hordern died on May 2. His acting career spanned decades, and he was a splendid character actor as well as a fine Shakespearean; it was his voice we heard narrating as the adult Watson in the film "Young Sherlock Holmes" (1985). Raphael Shaberman's IN SEARCH OF LEWIS CARROLL (London: Greenwich Exchange, 1995; 110 pp., L14.95) involves the author, in modern London, in conversa- tion with Sherlock Holmes, discussing the life and work of the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Shaberman notes that both Dodgson and Conan Doyle were members of the Society for Psychical Research in 1894, and he reprints an illustration drawn by Conan Doyle's father Charles Doyle for an imitation "Alice in Wonderland" book published in 1877, but otherwise Sherlock Holmes is used only to help present the author's views. The publisher's address is 50 Langton Way, Blackheath, London SE3 7TJ, England. The Midsommmer Actors are mounting an interesting production of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" at Newstead Abbey in Linby (Nottinghamshire) on Aug. 2-5 (the box-office telephone number is 0115-948-2626). "This is a prome- nade performance covering a distance of over 2 miles. Comfortable sturdy footwear is strongly advised and small carrying chairs are permitted. We do not feel this performance is suitable for those with walking difficul- ties or the very young." Ron De Waal is selling some interesting items from his collection, includ- ing a corrected first draft of Ouida Rathbone's play "Sherlock Holmes" and a holograph letter from Basil Rathbone to Adrian and Anna Conan Doyle, and will accept bids until Sept. 1. A seven-page list of material is available from Ron at 638 12th Avenue, Salt Lake City, UT 84013. John Farrell has nice news for people who like Sherlockian sheet music: he has discovered a published score for a piano solo from the Disney film "The Great Mouse Detective" (six pages, with a colorful cover). And I've found a convenient source: Backstage Inc. (attn: Rip Claussen), 2101 P Street NW, Washington, DC 20037. You should give the title and code (HL00356113), and the cost is $5.50 postpaid (two to six weeks for delivery). The Brothers Three of Moriarty will hold their annual Trap/Crap Shoot at the Albuquerque Press Club on July 15, and this year there may actually be some traps shot. The program also will include a radio call-in show with Col. "Bash" Moran as host, and you're invited to submit written versions of phone-call questions or comments about his relations with Moriarty, Holmes, or anyone else that comes to mind. All calls should open with the obliga- tory "Megadodos, Bash!" (presumably more meaningful to locals than to me), and you can send them to Morrow Hall, Box 288, Estancia, NM 87016. Jun 95 #8 THE ADVENTURES OF KIRSTEN DOWNEY, by Barb Nicolls (New Castle: The Peace Makers, 1995; 242 pp., $19.95), is a collection of twelve stories set in the 1890s, about a young American woman who becomes a detective, and in one story winds up meeting Sherlock Holmes. The stories have many echoes from the Canon (and considerable borrowed dialogue), and some nicely appropriate period illustrations, and the cost of the book is $24.20 postpaid from Classic Specialties (Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219). The Sherlock Holmes Lapel Pin Society has (of course) created a new lapel pin, designed by Jeff Decker and produced in four colors; the pin costs $11.00 postpaid from Ralph Hall, 2906 Wallingford Court, Louisville, KY 40218; $11.00 postpaid. 1ST CULPRIT: A CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION ANNUAL, edited by Liza Cody and Michael Z. Lewin, first published in Britain in 1992, was reprinted by St. Martin's Press, and is now report- ed by Ted Friedman in paperback (Toronto: Worldwide Library, 1994; $5.99); the contents include amusing Sherlockian captions for three of the drawings contributed by "Clewsey" to the CWA's monthly newsletter Red Herrings. The seventh issue of The Whitechapel Gazette has arrived from Troy Taylor, with 50 pages of nicely illustrated articles on matters Doylean. The cost is $6.50 postpaid; Troy's address is 805 West North #1, Decatur, IL 62522. Troy notes that Malcolm Payne has reported that on July 1, Dame Jean Conan Doyle would unveil a memorial to her father at Groombridge Place, where the collection of the Conan Doyle Establishment is now on display. The Harpooners of the Sea Unicorn will hold this year's Sherlockian river- boat convention "The Game's Afloat" on Oct. 7-8; additional information is available from Michael E. Bragg, Box 799, St. Charles, MO 63302. Eugene Edmund Snyder's THE ADVENTURE OF THE MISSING BROTHER (Portland: Bin- ford & Mort, 1994; 159 pp., $12.95) is a pleasant mystery involving members of The 221 Club (a Sherlockian society in New Jersey) who become involved in a minor mystery that soon turns major, and that their amateur detecting helps solve. The publisher's address is 1202 N.W. 17th Avenue, Portland, OR 97209; if you order direct, add $3.50 for shipping. Videotaper alert: the latest issue of Anglofile reports that Granada's last six "Sherlock Holmes" shows will air on "Mystery!" beginning Dec. 21. The monthly newsletter gives detailed coverage of British entertainment; $12.00 a year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033). Sotheby's catalog of Stanley MacKenzie's collection and other material has not arrived (as we go to press), but Gordon Palmer has forwarded a report from the London Observer Service on estimates for the auction on July 24 in London. His copy of Beeton's is estimated at $15,000-$24,000 ("though it could fetch considerably more"), and the entire collection is expected to bring about $105,000. Sotheby's address is 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1A 2AA, England (0171-493-8080); attn: Peter Selley. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@capaccess.org Jul 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Reported: a British edition of THE D. CASE: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, by Charles Dickens, Carlo Fruttero, and Franco Lucentini (Lon- don: Chatto & Windus, L10.99); first published in Italian in 1989 and then in English (May 92 #5), the book is an account of the events at a Forum on the Completion of Unfinished or Fragmentary Works in Music and Literature, and of the deliberations by participants who include Father Brown, Hercule Poirot, Nero Wolfe, Lew Archer, and Sherlock Holmes. Cathy Childs reports that we'll soon be able to see Edward Hardwicke again: in the new movie "The Scarlet Letter" (also starring Demi Moore and Robert Duvall). Sherlockians have appeared as characters in non-S'ian books: Richard Hughes appeared in books by Ian Fleming and John le Carre, and Jerry Neal William- son killed off at least one of his Sherlockian acquaintances in one of his horror novels. Luci Zahray, who recently met Terence Faherty at a writers conference in Chicago, reports that Faherty told her that Tom, in Faherty's first novel DEADSTICK (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991) (Toronto: World- wide, 1995) based on his college room-mate Peter Crupe (Luci notes that the novel also has some interesting Sherlockian references). "The Wild Geese" was the title of a paper Arthur Conan Doyle presented to the Irish Literary Society in 1897, noting that "I am acquainted with few more interesting incidents in his- tory than those which led to the formation and the existence for a hundred years of the Irish brigades in the service of France." The lineage of these fighting corps began with the Irish Army that fought for King James II: after their defeat in 1691, thousands of soldiers went to exile in France, and Irishmen fought valiantly there. Conan Doyle's fine history of the Wild Geese was first published in The Irish Times in 1954, and it was reprinted in 1993 in ACD: The Journal of the Arthur Conan Doyle Society. This year Ireland issued a set of five stamps honoring the Irish who fought in France and other countries, and one of the stamps shows Irish soldiers in the French Army in 1745. Mike Kean reports a new destination for Sherlockian tourists: The Sherlock Holmes British Pub in Turkey. The address is Calikusu Sok. No: 5, Levent, Istanbul, and the pub's advertising shows a Sherlockian silhouette, and the motto "Visit the Place Where Everybody Knows Your Name." Sky-boxes aren't the only way that area-owners get help paying for arenas. Betty Pierce reports that backers of the proposed $45.9-million World Arena in Colorado Springs have created a "Builders Club" for those who donate $75 (tax deductible) for a six-inch-square decorative clay tile to be placed in the building (for an additional $25 you get a duplicate tile for your home or office). You get to put your name on the tile, or anyone else's name, anyone else, in case you want to honor James Moriarty or John H. Watson or Irene Adler or whomsoever (Betty already has honored Sherlock Holmes on her tile). Additional information is available from the Colorado Springs World Arena, 10 Lake Circle, Colorado Springs, CO 80906. Jul 95 #2 Mark Frost's THE SIX MESSIAHS (a sequel to his 1993 Conan Doyle novel THE LIST OF SEVEN) will be published by William Morrow in August, and the publisher is sending him on a publicity tour, and is going to contact local Sherlockian societies. Further to the earlier report (Jun 94 #5) that Universal was planning to make a film of THE LIST OF SEVEN, the latest news is that the book has been optioned by Twentieth Century-Fox for Amblin Entertainment, and is now being cast, with production scheduled to start later this year. Marian J. A. Jackson's mystery series about Abigail Patience Danforth began with three paperback originals (THE PUNJAT'S RUBY, THE ARABIAN PEARL, and THE CAT'S EYE), and continued in hardcover in DIAMOND HEAD (1992), and THE SUNKEN TREASURE (New York: Walker, 1994; 166 pp., $19.95). Miss Danforth, continues to ignore Conan Doyle's earlier warning that amateur detecting is no career for a young lady, and now is on a millionaire's yacht bound from Panama to New Orleans 1900, and as usual involved in a lively mystery. "Hound whodunnit 'not written by Sir Arthur'" is the headline on a story in the [Plymouth] Western Morning News (May 27, 1995) at hand from Jon Lellen- berg. Rodger Garrick-Steele, a 52-year-old advanced-driving instructor who owns Park Hill House at Ipplepen, says that Conan Doyle stayed at the house when it was owned by the Fletcher Robinson family, and reports that he has found new evidence that someone else wrote "The Hound of the Baskervilles" ("the world has been conned for years," according to Garrick-Steele). He won't say who the "real" author was, but it is obvious he means B. Fletcher Robinson. Garrick-Steele "has been turned down by every publisher he has approached in the U.K., but he has found a publisher in New York who wants to have a look." Johann Magnus Bjarnason's AN ICELANDIC SHERLOCK HOLMES, a short story first published in Icelandic in 1903, has been translated into English by Jan B. Steffensen; the story isn't a Sherlockian pastiche, but rather involves a young Icelandic immigrant in Nova Scotia, where he solves a minor mystery. The 14-page pamphlet was published by Tidsskriftet Pinkerton in 1994, and is available for $8.00 postpaid (in currency, please), from the translator (Sdr. Transders Bygade 23, DK-9220 Aalborg Ost, Denmark). Not a politician in sight, nor a trained cormorant, but our new booklet has five lighthouses, all of them on the shores of the Great Lakes. And there is another Canonical connection: Niagara Falls. Do you know (without going to a reference book) which of the Great Lakes are connected by the Niagara River, and which one is upstream? Jul 95 #3 More news from Hugh Scullion (of Cadds Printing): John Aidini- antz now seems likely to spend somewhat less than three years in quod, what with one-third off for good behavior, another one-third on parole, and credit for time in the slammer prior to trial. The Sherlock Holmes Museum seems still to be in business. The set of four stamp booklets issued by Great Britain in 1987-1988 with covers showing Canonical illustrations by Andrew Davidson, and the "Basil of Baker Street" stamps issue by the Grenadines of St. Vincent in 1993 are still available from the International Stamp Collectors Society (Box 854, Van Nuys, CA 91408); ask for their Sherlockian fliers. Donna Griffon reports that The Albuquerque Little Theatre will produce "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (dramatized by Tim Kelly) on week-ends from Oct. 20 through Nov. 4; the opening night will honor John Bennett Shaw, and the theater's address is: San Pascuale and Central, Albuquerque, NM 87104 (the box-office telephone number is 505-242-4750). The 150th anniversary of statehood for Florida was the occasion for a postage stamp earlier this year (Mar 95 #4), and now similar honors are being paid, colorfully indeed, to Texas, which also is mentioned in the Canon (in "The Five Orange Pips"). FLASHMAN AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD, by George MacDonald Fraser (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), 394 pp., $24.00), is the latest installment in the grand saga of Flashman's exploits (eventually one of the books will reveal what happened when Flashman stalked Col. Sebastian Moran in an empty house in Baker Street); the Angel of the Lord is John Brown, so the time is pre- Canonical, but Flashman, reminiscing early on for his grandchildren, does mention the prize-fighter Jack Johnson, which allows Fraser to mention Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in an end-note. The manuscript of "The Three Garridebs" (22 leaves, signed twice by Arthur Conan Doyle) went to auction at the Superior Galleries in Beverly Hills on June 24, and was sold to a private collector for $97,750 (including the 15% buyer's premium). I wondered (Jun 95 #7) about the obligatory "Megadodos, Bash!" required for call-in messages to Col. "Bash" Moran at the annual Trap/Crap Shoot at the Albuquerque Press Club this month. Obviously I've never listened to Rush Limbaugh's show: David Hobbet notes that Limbaugh's callers-in often start off by saying, "Megadittos, Rush!" "'Unless I am very much mistaken, said the great detective, 'we are about to have a visitor. A woman of some standing in society who has just enjoy- ed a prolonged and vigorous bout of sexual congress.'" That's the opening of "The Remarkable Adventures of Porlock Holmes", a story published in the British pornographic magazine The Oyster in the 1890s and reprinted in THE OYSTER V (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1991; 192 pp., $4.50). The pastiche is 107 pp. of the paperback, which is sold in the erotica section at Borders, and (presumably) other bookshops. And you can order direct from Carroll & Graf (260 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10001); $5.50 postpaid. Jul 95 #4 K. C. Brown's two-act play "Sherlock's Veiled Secret" will be produced at the Wayside Theatre in Middletown, Va., from Sept. 20 to Oct. 15. The play was performed in Seattle last year, and has Holmes coming out of retirement to solve a blackmail case. Middletown is about 70 miles west of Washington; the box-office address is Box 260, Middletown, VA 22645 (703-869-1776) (800-951-1776). Roger Johnson's newsletter The District Messenger continues to provide all sorts of news about what's happening in Great Britain (and sometimes else- where); it's published approximately monthly and costs $10.00 for twelve issues (dollar checks payable to Jean Upton can be sent to Roger Johnson, Mole End, 41 Sandford Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6DE, England). His most recent issue reports a British edition of Sam Siciliano's THE ANGEL OF THE OPERA (Robert Hale, L16.99); Glen Petrie's new pastiche THE HAMPSTEAD POI- SONINGS (Ian Henry, L15.55); a commercial release of Douglas Wilmer reading FOUR GREAT ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Penguin Audiobooks, L7.99), and much more. Reported from Britain: TRANSFORMING GENRES: NEW APPROACHES TO BRITISH FIC- TION OF THE 1890'S, edited by Nikki Lee Manos and Meri-Jane Rochelson (Lon- don: Macmillan, 1995; 272 pp., L27.00), with an article by Ronald R. Thomas about the racism and sexism he has found in the Canon. Sherlockians who ignore Conan Doyle's other stories are missing some grand writing as well as some great fun, and both will be found in THE COMPLETE BRIGADIER GERARD (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1995; 387 pp., L4.99). Actually, the volume is more than complete: it also offers the Napoleonic "A Foreign Office Romance" and an excellent Introduction by Owen Dudley Edwards, who also has supplied fine notes for the stories. Canongate's distributor here is Interlink Publishing, 46 Crosby Street, Northampton, MA 01060 (800-238- 5465); $15.95 postpaid, and credit-card orders are welcome. A small cloth bundle contained a loaf of bread, a tinned tongue, and two tins of preserved peaches (in "The Hound of the Basker- villes"). Our new stamp preserves two peaches for posterity. Plan ahead: Dick Miller notes that a Sherlock Holmes Conference will be held at Santa Fe Community College, on Apr. 19-20, 1996. Tom Stix will be the keynote speaker, and the event will honor John Bennett Shaw, who starred at similar conferences in Santa Fe in 1991 and 1993. You can enroll on the conference mailing list by writing to Dean Rita Martinez- Purson, Santa Fe Community College, Box 4187, Santa Fe, NM 87502. TALES AT MIDNIGHT: TRUE STORIES FROM PARAPSYCHOLOGY CASEBOOKS AND JOURNALS, by Hans Holzer (Philadelphia: Courage Books/Running Press, 1994; 175 pp., $5.98), gives the some of the results of Holzer's career as a ghost-hunter, and ends with Conan Doyle's essay "The Law of the Ghost" (first published in 1919). Milton A. Silverman ("Barker, My Hated Rival") died on June 15. He was for many years a Professor Law at New York Law School, and a faithful member of The Scandalous Bohemians and Mrs. Hudson's Cliffdwellers, and received his Investiture in The Baker Street Irregulars in 1982. Jul 95 #5 Tourists in Paris have until Aug. 13, Sonia Fetherston notes, to visit the Palais Galliera, Museum of Fashion and Costume, and see an exhibit on "Le Dessin sous toutes ses Coutures" that features costume illustrations drawn by Lagerfeld, Chanel, Dior, Alterio, and ... Horace Vernet (the grand-uncle of Sherlock Holmes). "Sherlock Holmes & John Bennett Shaw: The Detective & the Collector" is the official title for the memorial conference that will be held on Oct. 13-15 to honor the dedication of the John Bennett Shaw Collection, and there's a handsome brochure available, with all the details, from Judy Burton, at 499 Wilson Library, Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612-642-8207). Her e-mail address is J-BURT@VM1.SPCS.UMN.EDU. This will be an interesting gathering, and (something that certainly would please John) there will be lots of nice Sherlockian collectibles published to mark the event. Our new sheet of "Civil War" stamps has portraits of three people mentioned by name in the Canon: Abraham Lincoln (in "Thor Bridge") and Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson (in "The Five Orange Pips"). Reported by Jim Vogelsang: Les Martin's YOUNG INDIANA JONES AND THE TITANIC ADVENTURE (New York: Random House, 1993; 139 pp., $3.50); #9 in the Young Indiana Jones series. In 1912 Indy has some hair-raising adventures with German saboteurs, Irish revolutionaries, and a fortune-hunter on the ill-fated Titanic, and meets Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Don Hobbs has reported MURDER MOST MEDICAL, an anthology of stories from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, edited by Cathleen Jordan and Cyn- thia Manson (Carroll & Graf, $21.00); contents include "The Resident Patient". Reported: ESCAPADE, by Walter Satterthwait (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995; 336 pp., $22.95); from a review: "can mystery be far behind when Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle meet? Satterthwait offers up a locked-room caper enlivened by Houdini's ego and Doyle's decency." The latest catalog from Tyrol International (Box 909, Cleve- land, GA 30528) (800-241-5404) offers the Legends heads of Holmes and Watson ($29.95 each), the nested set of Sherlock- ian dolls from Russian ($36.00), and a S'ian letter opener and magnifying glass ($36.00 each). Radio Spirits (Box 2141, Schiller Park, IL 60176) (800-723-4648) has issued a four-cassette set of OLD TIME RADIO DETECTIVES AND CRIME FIGHTERS, with 12 grand old shows (digitally restored and remastered), and with a 52-page booklet about the shows (with a preface by Stacy Keach, Sr., who produced and directed "Tales of the Texas Rangers"). And one of the shows is "The Adventure of the Tolling Bell", with Nigel Bruce as Watson and Tom Conway as Watson (broadcast on Apr. 7, 1947, and hitherto unavailable). The cost is $24.98 (cassette set) or $34.98 (CD set); add $5.00 for shipping. Jul 95 #6 Mary Burke reports that the next "Victorian Holmes Weekend" in Cape May, N.J., will be held on Nov. 3-5. The weekend includes a mystery to solve, tours of atmospheric Victorian homes, meals, and other fun and games. Additional information is available from the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, Box 340, Cape May, NJ 08204-0340 (800-275-4279). P. N. Elrod (better known in Sherlockian circles as Patti Nead Elrod, the creator of the "Baker Street Irragulars") began her paperback series THE VAMPIRE FILES for Ace in 1990, featuring Jack Fleming (formerly a reporter and now a vampire) and his private-detective friend Charles Escott (whose name is not the only Sherlockian echo in the six-book series). Patti has other books in print, and a fan club (run by Jackie Black, 1201 South Byrd #39, Tishomingo, OK 73460), and a Jack Fleming short story in the Martin H. Greenberg anthology VAMPIRE DETECTIVES (from DAW in April), and another in the Greenberg anthology CELEBRITY VAMPIRES (due from DAW in October), and she is getting ready to return to THE VAMPIRE FILES with a novel DARK SLEEP that will focus on Charles Escott, who (as it happens) is the natural son of Sherlock Holmes. And she'll be the Horror Guest of Honor at Consanguin- ity II (a science fiction/horror convention) in Chicago on Nov. 3-5. The Trifling Monographers will hold their annual dinner at the Roosevelt Hotel in Seattle on Oct. 29, during the annual meeting of the Public Rela- tions Society of America. Laborers in the vineyards of public relations (and local Sherlockians) are invited to contact William Seil (3001 125th Avenue SE #3-D, Bellevue, WA 98005) (206-747-3636) . Ron De Waal's wonderful bibliography THE UNIVERSAL SHERLOCK HOLMES was pub- lished last year in four volumes (Jul 94 #1), but unfortunately had only a selective word-list rather than an proper index. But after many months THE INDEXES TO THE UNIVERSAL SHERLOCK HOLMES BY RONALD B. DE WAAL, compiled by George A. Vanderburgh and Leslie S. Klinger, now is available, as a 382-pp. fifth volume and in hypertext format for MS-DOS computers. There's a title index, and three separate personal-name indexes (for authors and subjects, thespians, and reviewers), and other useful material. $36.00 postpaid (to the U.S.) for either version (and the ink-on-paper version is available as unbound pages or in plastic comb binding), from Vanderburgh (Box 204, Shel- burne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada). But: the hypertext version appears to be defective: the search utility will not find all of the listings in the indexes. This is a serious defect, but the good news is that it is not all that difficult to print the indexes to your hard disk in plain-ASCII and then use a different (and perhaps better) search utility of your own. The hypertext format offers a colorful display on the screen, but many users surely will prefer the less colorful but much more useful plain-ASCII format. Better Holmes & Gardens: The Journal of Canonical Domesticity is requesting submissions, such as "learned speculation on the identity of Mrs. Turner, recipes for dishes mentioned in the Canon, instructions on the proper care of gas mantels or gasogenes, a Canonical study of roses (or Violets), and anything else Canonically domestic, including easily reproducible artwork." The first issue is expected in mid-November, and additional information is available from Cheryl Hurd, Teapot Press, Box 2048, Scotia, NY 12302. Jul 95 #7 One of the more interesting ramifications of the computer age the spread of totally-electronic publishing, and the existence of journals that are not available in ink-on-paper form. One such journal for Sherlockians is available on the Prodigy computer service, but others can see some of what's published there, because a selection of its material appears twice a year as a newsletter. The summer 1995 issue of The Wigmore Street Post Office is a fine one, with 37 pages; $6.00 a year, from Donald H. Meyers, 4757 47th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105. "That's God's truth, gentlemen, every word of it," exclaimed Abe Slaney, I heard no more about it until that lad came riding up with a note which made me walk in here, like a jay, and give my- self into your hands." (in "The Dancing Men"). A handsome blue jay appears on our new 20c booklet stamp. The summer 1995 issue of the Sherlock Holmes Gazette has arrived, and has David Stuart Davies' up-to-the minute report on Jeremy Brett's health (he has cardiomyopathy, and won't be able to take on any major acting work), and Wendy Teasdill-Rowe's interesting article about what Tibet was like when Holmes visited (or didn't), and much more. The cover price is L1.95 (48 Purfield Drive, Wargrave, Berks. RG10 8AR, England), and the American distributor is Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219. Jeanne Munson reports: THE PAGEMASTER: WHO'S IN THE LIBRARY WITH RICHARD? (Atlanta: Bedrock Press/Turner Publishing, 1994; 28 pp., $9.95); it's like a "Where's Waldo?" book, but based on the recent animated film, and one of the challenges is devoted to "The Land of Mystery: 221B Baker Street" (with readers challenged to find keys to a dozen Sherlock Holmes stories in the picture). Jeanne is not sure, however, whether the purplish hippo in the tree is supposed to be one of the clues. Sherlock's in space again. NASA mission specialist Nancy Sherlock, then an Army captain and a senior aviator, made her first space-shuttle flight two years ago in the crew of STS-57 (Jul 93 #5); now (married last month) she is Nancy Sherlock Currie, and a major, and went into space again on STS-70, which was launched on July 13 and returned on July 22. The launch had been scheduled for June 8, but was postponed when NASA discovered that energetic yellow-shafted flickers (woodpeckers common in the Cape Canaveral area) had pecked 135 holes in the foam insulation that protects the shuttle's exter- nal fuel tank. NASA now has a BIRD team (that's Bird Investigation Review and Deterrent) that persuaded the woodpeckers to peck elsewhere. Another Sherlockian chess set, with the pieces "finely carved of stone and resin" (item 09-V8508), offered at $149.95 (discounted from $199.95) in the latest catalog from Bits & Pieces, 1 Puzzle Place, Stevens Point, WI 54481 (800-544-7297) Bouchercon 28 has issued its first announcement, and the world mystery con- vention is scheduled for Oct. 30-Nov. 2, 1997, in Monterey, Calif. Advance registration costs $50.00 until Aug. 15 (Bouchercon '97, Box 6202, Hayward, CA 94540). Sara Paretsky and Ross Thomas will be the guests of honor, Don- ald Westlake will receive the lifetime-achievement award, Julie Smith will be toastmaster, and the organizers are Bryan Barrett and Bruce Taylor. Jul 95 #8 And some news from London, thanks to Catherine Cooke and Alan Vickers, who have supplied a few details on the July 24 auction of Stanley MacKenzie's collection. The total realized was L147,522 (which includes a 15% buyer's premium), and there was plenty of action: L20,700 for the Beeton's Christmas Annual, L10,350 for the almost-complete (688 issues) run of The Strand Magazine, L5,800 for lot 187 (ephemera, estimated at L350-500), L5,290 for the cigarette case presented by Conan Doyle to Saintsbury, L4,600 for lot 185 (theatrical posters and programs, estimated at L350-500), and L4,025 for lot 188 (memorabilia, estimated at L350-500). Sumner & Stillman (Box 973, Yarmouth, ME 04096) (207-846-6070) have issued an impressive catalog 59, offering 100 Conan Doyle items, almost all first editions, and some quite spectacular (such as an 1891 Ward Lock edition of A STUDY IN SCARLET presented to Joseph Bell). Kevin Parker has noted Charles Sheffield's "The Phantom of Dunwell Cove" in Asimov's Science Fiction, Aug. 1995; the story features Erasmus Darwin (the grandfather of Charles Darwin) using delightfully Sherlockian deduction to solve a mystery set long before the Sherlockian era. It isn't at all easy for pastichists to devise Sherlockian deduction for Sherlock Holmes, and it is a nice surprise to find in it a story about someone else. The autumn harvest 1995 catalog from Your Exceptional Home (W. M. Green & Co., Box 426, Greenville, NC 27835) (800-482-5050) offers a "mystery cardi- gan" embroidered with designs that include a small Sherlock Holmes. $152 (misses) or $162 (women) for item #769007 (shipping extra). Peter Spivak reports that the July 24 issue of Sports Illustrated features a six-page story by Merrell Noden about "The Adventure of the Treacherous Traps" (with Sherlock Holmes solving a mystery at the St. Andrews golf club a century ago). That's where the British Open is played, and this year the television coverage included commentary by Brent Musberger, who visited the pro shop and reported that you can buy a Sherlock Holmes golf cap there. Plan well ahead: the steering committee for "A Silver Anniversary Weekend with Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" has selected the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto as the site, and June 26-29, 1997, as the weekend. And The Bootmakers of Toronto are now at work on planning for the event. The STUD Sherlockian Society will celebrate Sherlock Holmes' 141st birthday on Oct. 6-7 at the historic Hutchinson Mansion Inn in Michigan City, Ind., and on Oct. 8 at Lou Malnati's Pizzeria in Lincolnwood, Ill. More informa- tion is available from Donald B. Izban, 5334 Wrightwood Avenue, Chicago, IL 60639. Don also will be happy to tell you about future STUD events, which include the Rache Road Rally scheduled on Jan. 13, 1996, in New York. The Seventh International Holmesian Games will be held on Sept. 16-17 in Vancouver, B.C., and the agenda includes sport, jollification, a debate, and a "Lost Special" train ride. More details are available from Len and Elsa Haffenden, 1026 West Keith Road, North Vancouver, BC V7P 3C6, Canada. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@capaccess.org Aug 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Paul Chapman and Terrence Harvey will play Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on television in Britain next year, according to a story in the Lancashire Evening Post (June 13), at hand from Jon Lellenberg. Gillian Whitworth re- ports that "Book Box" (produced by Granada for Channel Four) involves two young children who disappear into a computer game, only to re-emerge in the Victorian era where they must solve a mystery with the help of Holmes and Watson (the program "aims to promote reading among youngsters by introduc- ing them to fictional characters in an exciting and accessible way"). Miklos Rozsa died on July 27. His film music won three Academy Awards, for "Spellbound" (1947), "A Double Life" (1947), and "Ben Hur" (1959), and he often collaborated with producer Billy Wilder, with credits for the music in five of Wilder's films, including "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970). The music in that film was based on Rosza's "Concerto for Violin and Orchestra" (which had its first performance in Dallas in 1956 and was recorded by RCA Victor with Jascha Heifitz on violin). The sixth "gift set" of THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is due from Simon & Schuster Audio in October ($25.00 for four cassettes with eight of the old radio shows); the first 24 cassettes are now available in the six "gift set" collections of the radio series that starred Basil Rathbone, Tom Conway, and Nigel Bruce. The Book-of-the-Month Club still may be offering their nine-volume set of THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES for $19.95 as a premium to new members (they advertised in the N.Y. Times Book Review on Mar. 19). The set was issued last year at $44.95, and consists of reprints (A STUDY IN SCARLET and THE SIGN OF THE FOUR from editions published by Orange Judd in 1907, and the other seven volumes from first American editions. The club's address is Camp Hill, PA 17012-0001. The summer 1995 issue of Scarlet Street honors "A Study in Terror" (1965), with an appreciation by Richard Valley, and Jessie Lilley's interviews with John Neville and Herman Cohen. And an article about the Philo Vance films has some nice photographs of Basil Rathbone. And there's a photo of Roger Perry as Sherlock Holmes at a costume party in "The Return of Count Yorga" (1971). Scarlet Street costs $20.00 a year for four issues; Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. The Scowrers and Molly Maguires of San Francisco will hold an interesting day of "Sherlockian Intrigues & Adventures on Sept. 30, 1995; registration costs $50 (until Sept. 1) and covers lunch, dinner, all events and related supplies; details are available from the Scowrers (V.V. 341, Mount Eden, CA 94557). The Sherlock Holmes Journal continues to offer a splendid mix of scholar- ship and news from The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, and the summer 1995 issue arrived accompanied by a 40-page supplement devoted to the 1994 "Back to Baker Street" festival. The membership secretary is Bob Ellis (13 Crofton Avenue, Orpington, Kent BR6 8DU, England), and he will be happy to respond to requests for information on membership and on subscriptions. Aug 95 #2 Catalog 32 from Enola Stewart (Gravesend Books, Box 235, Pocono Pines, PA 18350) offers a great deal of desirable Sherlockiana and Doyleana from Julian Wolff's collection, some interesting material from the Rathbones (both Basil and Ouida), and much more. Tim O'Connor reports that a catalog from Idea Art, Box 291505, Nashville, TN 37229 (800-433-2278), has full- color "Get Results" stationery, with one design showing a Sherlockian figure (#742). Roger Johnson reports in The District Messenger that Sherlock Holmes in the Arches has opened at 6 the Arches, under Charing Cross Station; it's a new shop that sells Sherlockian artwork by Deirdre Keetley and others, and it's not far from The Sherlock Holmes. FETLOCKS, FEMURS AND PHALANGES, edited by Pam Bruxner, is the new 60-page guidebook for The Sherlock Holmes Society of London's recent excursion to Berkshire, and it's a fine one, demonstrating once again the fine scholar- ship that members of the Society can offer (and Bernard Davies does a fine job with identifications); $17.50 postpaid to the United States (L10.00 to Europe, L11.00 to other countries), from Lynne Godden, Apple Tree Cottage, Smarden, Kent TN27 8QE, England. "Me and My Holme Boys" is the subhead on Bill DeAndrea's column in the sum- mer 1995 issue of The Armchair Detective (he was trying for a Sherlockian pun that hadn't been done before, and I think he succeeded). He also notes that he once described Sherlockian pastiche as "the acne on the face of the detective story," and admits that he forgot one very important fact about acne: "in the course of growing up, virtually everybody gets it." And now he has written two of them, one for an anthology of S'ian Christmas stories edited by Martin Harry Greenberg, and the other for an anthology edited by Marvin Kaye for St. Martin's that will offer double-pastiches: Ed Hoch is doing Holmes as written by Ellery Queen, Kaye is doing Holmes as written by Rex Stout, and DeAndrea has done Holmes as written by Mickey Spillane. TAD now costs $31.00 a year for four issues; 129 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019-3808. Ely Liebow has returned from a trip to Britain, and has reported on his bus tour of the historic city of York, where he was both startled and delighted to discover that the bus had passed by a pub called The Brigadier Gerard. Ely persuaded the driver to stop, so that photographs could be taken of a pub named for Conan Doyle's famous character. Not quite: the pub is named in honor of the famous racehorse ("the only English classic winner of the present century to have lost only one race in 18 or more starts"). Briga- dier Gerard was foaled in 1969, Francine and Wayne Swift report. Ida Lupino died on Aug. 3. She had a long and distinguished career in the movies, as actress and director; she had made eight films in England before Paramount brought her to Hollywood in 1933 to play Alice in Wonderland (she didn't get the part, and perhaps it was just as well: "I would have played her as a hooker," she once said, "and danced on the table tops"). But she quickly made her mark, and at the age of 21 had star billing as Ann Brandon in Basil Rathbone's "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1939). Aug 95 #3 Further to last month's mention (Jul 95 #1) of Sherlockians who have appeared as characters in non-S'ian books, Don Hardenbrook notes that Dean and Shirley Dickensheet also qualify. Ward and Irene Bald- win, the San Francisco agents of T.H.R.U.S.H. in David McDaniel's paperback THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. #4: THE DAGGER AFFAIR (New York: Ace Books, 1965), were based on Dean and Shirley, and the book is dedicated to them. Baldwin also appeared in THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. #17: THE HOLLOW CROWN AFFAIR (New York: Ace Books, 1969). Penguin Audiobooks has issued a three-hour abridged version of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, read with verve and style by Freddie Jones on two audio- cassettes (L7.99); Jones has other Sherlockian credits: he played Chester Cragwitch in "Young Sherlock Holmes" (1985), and has appeared in two of the Granada shows, as Inspector Baynes in "Wisteria Lodge" and as the Pedlar in "The Last Vampyre". Penguin also offers FOUR GREAT ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES with four cases ("The Speckled Band", "The Devil's Foot", "The Mus- grave Ritual", and "Charles Augustus Milverton") read by Douglas Wilmer on two cassettes (L7.99); this is the commercial release of the two cassettes offered earlier by The Sherlock Holmes Society of London (Mar 95 #5), and Wilmer (who has played Holmes both on film and on television) offers grand performances on the cassettes. Sherlockian societies continue to find interesting ways in which to commem- orate sports and games mentioned in the Canon: the Second Hon. Ronald Adair Memorial Whist Tournament will be held in St. Louis on Nov. 18, when The Harpooners of the Sea Unicorn will challenge The Noble Bachelors (although all are welcome to participate). Details are available from Art Schroeder, 3131 Russell Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63104. Penguin Books is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a book series called "Penguin 60s" (the price is 60p) [95c]; one of the volumes, reported by Will Walsh, contains "The Man with the Twisted Lip" and "The Devil's Foot". THE ADVENTURE OF THE SIX NIXONS is the latest installment in the adventures of Turlock Loams (it's "a grotesque & tangled skein of madness, philately, iconoclasm, & murder," according to its author John Ruyle), and it's finely printed (as is everything published from John's Pequod Press). The cost of the 34-page booklet is $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper), and John's address is 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707-1521. Further to last month's report (Jul 95 #4) about a Sherlock Holmes Confer- ence scheduled at Santa Fe Community College on Apr. 19-20, 1996: they have issued a "call for presenters" (with a Sept. 29 deadline); more information is available from Ms. Trisha Stanton, Community Services Division, Santa Fe Community College, Box 4187, Santa Fe, NM 87502. Bonnie Bills reports that David Burke, no longer sporting the beard he had when he was filmed as Dr. Watson at dinner at The Sherlock Holmes in London in January (for the biography of Sherlock Holmes recently broadcast on A&E cable), is now on stage at the Fortune Theatre in London, as Arthur Kipps, in "The Woman in Black", a play based on Susan Hill's novel. And he told Bonnie that he has been quite busy the last few years, working in theater in London and Stratford, and guest-starring on television. Aug 95 #4 Mark Frost's THE SIX MESSIAHS (New York: William Morrow, 1995; 404 pp., $23.00) is a sequel to his THE LIST OF SEVEN (Sep 93 #4); the book opens in 1894, with Conan Doyle about to leave England for his tour of the United States, and the story involves him in a struggle to possess the mystical Book of Zohar, and to prevent the end of the world. As with the first book, this is alternate-universe fantasy, with more than a touch of the supernatural. And fantasy: Conan Doyle arrives in New York to be welcomed by three costumed members of "the official New York chapter of the Baker Street Irregulars," and ends his trek in the Arizona desert, helping an old friend win out over evil. Mark Frost joined The Red Circle of Washington for dinner on Aug. 11 during his promotion tour for THE SIX MESSIAHS, and reported that he is consider- ing a third book about Conan Doyle's visit to Egypt in 1895-96. Frost's screenplay for THE LIST OF 7 has been optioned by 20th Century-Fox for Jim Cameron's Lightstorm Productions (Cameron has produced "Terminator", "True Lies", and "Aliens 2"). Cheryl A. Hurd's THE VICTORIAN YELLOW PAGES: RESOURCES FOR YOUR VICTORIAN LIFESTYLE (Scotia: Teapot Press, 1995; 100 pp., $12.00) offers guidance to those who want to recapture the nicer aspects of living in Victorian times, providing names and addresses for purveyors of clothing, jewelry, hatpins, furniture, stereoscopes, garden arbors, food and drink, and much more. The book is available from Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219 ($15.00 postpaid). THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF HISTORICAL DETECTIVES, edited by Mike Ashley (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1995; 532 pp., $9.95), offers reprints of two pastiches: Jack Adrian's Sherlock Holmes story "The Phantom Pistol", and an expanded version of Basil Copper's Solar Pons story "The Adventure of the Frightened Governess". The anthology is a companion volume to Ashley's THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF HISTORICAL WHODUNNITS (Mar 94 #6), and includes some fine stories, one of them being Ashley's candidate for the earliest-ever setting for a locked-room mystery: Australia, about 37,000 years ago. The summer 1995 issue of Friends of the Library (the newsletter published by the University of Minnesota Libraries) has two nice articles about John Bennett Shaw and plans for the memorial conference on Oct. 13-15; it's sent free to those who have contributed to the John Bennett Shaw Fund, and there still is time to do that: checks for $25.00 (or more) payable to the fund can be sent to the University of Minnesota (attn: Judy Burton), 499 Wilson Library, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Miles Elward's SHERLOCK HOLMES IN CANTERBURY has three short stories that bring Holmes to Canterbury, with lots of nice period atmosphere. The 72- page book (paper covers) costs $10.00 postpaid from Wynne Howard Publica- tions, 10 Betula Close, Kenley, Surrey CR8 5ET, England. Societies looking for ideas for souvenirs might take a look through the new catalog from Best Impressions (Box 802, La Salle, IL 61301) (800-635-2378). Their promotional products range from mugs ($40.00 set-up charge, and $2.40 each for 72) to wooden nickels ($15.00 set-up, and $0.10 each for 1,000) to Christmas ornaments ($3.31 each for 96), and there are many other ideas. Aug 95 #5 THE RECOLLECTIONS OF SOLAR PONS, by Basil Copper (Minneapolis: Fedogan & Bremer, 1995; 248 pp., $29.00), has three new tales about Solar Pons, and a much longer version of an earlier one, and striking illustrations by Stefanie Kate Hawks. Copper's continuation of the series that August Derleth conceived as a tribute to Sherlock Holmes is in turn a fine tribute to Derleth. The publisher's address is 603 Washington Avenue #77, Minneapolis, MN 55414-2950; a signed limited edition also is available at $75.00, and they take plastic. Discount prices ($25.00 or $67.00) are available on orders received by Sept. 15. The Proprietor of the Pequod Press is hard at work again, setting type for THE ADVENTURE OF THE ALUMINUM CROTCH, the latest installment in Dr. Fatso's chronicles of the intrepid Turlock Loams. Available from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707-1521; $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper). Ruth Berman published the first issue of THE SHSF FANTHOLOGY in 1967, with 32 pages of contributions by Robert Bloch, Dean Dickensheet, Dick Lupoff, and others, and the second and third issues appeared in 1971 and 1972, and they are great fun and now rare. And recently reprinted, offering modern collectors a chance to read some early cross-over essays and fiction. The reprints cost $3.00 each postpaid (or $8.00 for all three) from Ruth Berman (2809 Drew Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55416). Spotted by Jim Suszynski: SPIDER KANE AND THE MYSTERY UNDER THE MAY-APPLE, by Mary Pope Osborne (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992; 127 pp., $13.00); an amusing children's book, with detection by "the Sherlock Holmes of the bug world" (the description is the only Sherlockian aspect of the book). Frank Darlington has noted a catalog listing that might interest those who are investigating aspects of "The Musgrave Ritual": THE LATE KING'S GOODS: COLLECTIONS, POSSESSIONS, AND PATRONAGE OF CHARLES I IN THE LIGHT OF THE COMMONWEALTH SALE INVENTORIES, edited by Arthur MacGregor (London: Alistair McAlpine, 1989; 432 pp., $59.95); A115162 from Barnes & Noble, 126 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011). I can't remember who asked me about the cause of death for Raul Julia, so: the newspaper obituaries say that he died on Oct. 24, 1994, at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., and that hospital spokeswomen Alice Siegel stated that the cause was complications of a stroke on Oct. 16. Mel Hughes reports that Edward Hardwicke is working on a new film: "Richard III" (due for release in Britain in November). Ian McKellen is executive producer, wrote the screenplay, and plays the title role, and other actors include Robert Downey Jr., Maggie Smith, Annette Bening, Nigel Hawthorne, and Edward Hardwicke (as Lord Stanley, played as an Air Vice Marshal who joins Richmond's forces, taking the RAF with him). Oh yes, the play is set in the 1930s, and McKellen is playing Richard as a fascist leader. Spotted by Dick Lesh: a new 80-minute videocassette "Sherlock: Undercover Dog", from Columbia Tristar, $10.96 at Walmart. "The world's first talking police dog on a mission im-paws-ible!" The box shows the dog with pipe and deerstalker, and the story is about a boy and girl, on summer vacation on Catalina, encountering a talking dog. Aug 95 #6 "Dinosaur Named After Conan Doyle" was the headline on a story in The Times on Aug. 19, at hand from Chris Roden. Dr. David Martill of Portsmouth University has described and named "Arthurdactylus conan-doylei" from a fossil found in northeastern Brazil; it's a pterodac- tyl with a wing-span of six meters. And no, pterodactyls aren't dinosaurs (but the copy-editor at The Times who wrote the headline didn't care). Bob Fritsch has reported finding a Sherlockian POG, with a white silhouette on a metallic blue background. POGs are the size of milk-bottle caps, and were last year's fad for kids, although they're still popular, because kids still are playing with them. You can ask your friendly neighborhood kid to tell you how the game is played. If your friendly neighborhood kid doesn't know what the name means, the first POGs came from Hawaii, where they were used to seal containers of a papaya-orange-guava juice drink. Noted by Jennie Paton: Investigator (an alligator detective in Sherlockian in Sherlockian costume) in Jerry Smath's INVESTI*GATOR* IN CLASSROOM CAPERS (Troll Associates, 1994; $2.25); an illustrated children's book. Further to the report (Jun 95 #6) on the offer to sell Christ Cella's, Syd Goldberg reports that the N.Y. Times has noted that the restaurant has been sold to Ken Aretsky, who until March was the chairman and chief executive of the "21" Club. Aretsky said he had not decided whether to keep the name but will keep the steakhouse genre "with some additions and changes." The Baker Street Irregulars held their first formal meeting at Christ Cella's (which then was not where it is now), on June 5, 1934. Was anyone at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club for the British Open? ABC-TV commentator Brent Musberger visited the pro shop at St. Andrews on July 23, and reported that one could buy a Sherlock Holmes golf cap there. UNEXPLORED POSSIBILITIES, by John Hall (Leeds: Tai Xu Press, 1995) has the apt subtitle "Some Notes on the Life, Habits, and Character of Dr. John H. Watson," and offers a 96-page examination of the man who did so much for so many Sherlockians in bringing the exploits of Sherlock Holmes to the atten- tion of generations of readers. Hall reviews the scholarship that has been devoted to Watson over the years, and offers some of his own, and does it well. Available from Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219; $23.20 postpaid. Don Hobbs has forwarded a new catalog from Earlynn Collier (104 Brunswick Drive, Greenwood, IN 46143) that offers hand-painted porcelain with Sher- lockian silhouettes: paperclip box ($12.00), thimble ($12.00), lapel pin ($12.00), earrings ($18.00), teapot ($35.00), and other items. There aren't that many banks mentioned by name in the Canon, and they don't make the headlines all that often, but "Despite Tough Competition, Credit Lyonnais May Be the World's Worst Bank" caught Chris Redmond's eye. It was Bernard Levin's column in The Times (Apr. 25, 1995), discussing the bank's loss of six hundred million francs (that's about $33.3 billion). The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@capaccess.org Sep 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Jeremy Brett died on September 12. He made his stage debut in Manchester in 1954, and played Nicholas Rostov in the film "War and Peace" (1956), and then joined the Old Vic to perform in London and on Broadway. Brett played Dr. Watson in "The Crucifer of Blood" in Los Angeles in 1980 and 1981 (with Charlton Heston as Holmes), and then played Sherlock Holmes in the Granada series, launched in 1984. It was during a break in the Granada series that he commissioned and starred in the play "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" in London and on tour in England in 1988, and it is as Holmes that he will be remembered by this generation and many more: the 46 hours of splendid tele- vision in the Granada series will be played on cassettes and broadcast over and over again to please old audiences and new. Jeremy Brett was the first actor since Basil Rathbone who truly owned the role of Sherlock Holmes, and he created a legion of fans and friends with his fine work for Granada and in other films and television programs. Meg Moller Martin, who last month launched a campaign to get Jeremy Brett onto the next honours list, heard only a few days before his death from the Prime Minister's office that the nominations unit would "see that Mr. Brett receives full and careful consideration." Try identifying the famous detective's employee who once said: "You mean these Baker Street societies and all that. Grown men being so silly! But there, that's men all over. Like the model railways they go on playing with. I can't say I've ever had time to read any of the stories. When I do get time for reading, which isn't often, I prefer an improving book." Ruthann and Tom Stetak report that the wristwatch showing Mickey Mouse in a Sherlockian scene from "Lonesome Ghosts" ($65.00 at Disney mall stores not too long ago (Jun 95 #5) has been discounted to $38.00 (and they warn those with ageing eyes that even though the dial is large, the watchface is quite small). Also that busts of Napoleon are offered in a catalog from Design Toscano of Chicago, 15 East Campbell, Arlington Heights, IL 60005 (800-525- 0733). The Bull-Terrier Club of Boston University visited Newport, R.I., in August to attend a polo match at Glen Farm (possibly the first such occasion that a Sherlockian society has arranged), and commemorated the event with a nice 16-page booklet that explores the history of polo, and the history of polo in Newport, and does not neglect the fact that polo is indeed mentioned in the Canon. Copies of the booklet are available for $4.00 postpaid ($5.50 overseas) from W. Scott Monty, 140 Bay State Road #1137, Boston, MA 02215. The fifth issue of The Shoso-in Bulletin has arrived from The Men with the Twisted Konjo, with 152 pages (in English) of articles, pastiches, poetry, and illustrations by contributors from Japan and eight other nations. The journal is edited by Yuichi Hirayama, and is truly an international effort. $12.00 postpaid (to addresses in the United States and Canada) from Jennie C. Paton, 206 Loblolly Lane, Statesboro, GA 30458; or L7.60 postpaid (to addresses in Britain and on the Continent) from John Hall, 20 Drury Avenue, Horsforth, Leeds, W. Yorks. LS18 4BR, England. Checks in U.S. dollars to Jennie; checks in sterling to John (or any nation's currency, John notes). Sep 95 #2 "During our London years, when I was learning my craft, various famous characters gave me a hand without knowing it. I am in- debted, for example, to Sherlock Holmes, who was always complaining that Dr. Watson was often at the scene of the crime but failed to notice the incriminating details. 'You looked but didn't *see*, Watson!' This encour- aged me thereafter to notice the little giveaway expressions on presidents' faces and telltale gaps in their arguments." Spotted by Gayle Harris in DEADLINE: A MEMOIR, by James Reston (New York: Times Books, 1992). "You mean these Baker Street societies and all that ..." Spoken by Hercule Poirot's secretary, Miss Lemon, in HICKORY DICKORY DEATH (1955); spotted by Ted Friedman. And here's an interesting discovery made by Jack and Natalie Kerr, while on holiday in Vermont: an impressive memorial at the birthplace of someone who is mentioned by name in the Canon. Who? Further to the report on the new pterosaur "Arthurdactylus conan-doylei" (Aug 95 #6), David M. Martill has kindly sent a copy of the report that he and Eberhard Frey contributed to the Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Pala- ontologie Abhandlungen (Dec. 1994). Described from a single specimen that was found in laminated limestone of the Crato Formation (Lower Cretaceous) in northeastern Brazil, the fossil flying reptile was named in honor of the author "whose imaginative Lost World story inspired so many children." It had a wing span of 4.6 meters (that's about 15 feet), and the fossil now is at the State Museum of Natural History in Karlsruhe, Germany. Reported by Wally Conger: a reprint of William S. Baring-Gould's classic biography SHERLOCK HOLMES OF BAKER STREET: A LIFE OF THE WORLD'S FIRST CON- SULTING DETECTIVE (from Wings Books, at $7.99 on the bargain-books tables). First published in 1962, this was an important milestone on the road to THE ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES. Recommended. Sherri's Hacienda is now Sherlock's Steak House on Holmes, according to a review in the Kansas City Star (Aug. 18), at hand from Jerry Houchens. The restaurant's address is 9916-A Holmes Road, and the newspaper's restaurant reviewer gave the food high marks but suggested that the new mural "looks more like St. Francis of Assisi than Sherlock Holmes." If you've wandered by 12 West 44th Street in New York and wondered just how bad the delapidated Mansfield Hotel was, it was pretty bad. But no longer: it has been thoroughly restored, hearkening back to its original clubhouse atmosphere (it was built in 1904 as a residence for affluent bachelors). A single room will cost $125 a night, including free parking and a breakfast buffet, and three bedside-reading anthologies (according to a story in the N.Y. Times on Aug. 16): one has essays about New York and the other two are devoted to the fiction of Jack London and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. THE IRISH PROFESSOR, by Eddie Maguire (Bridgwater: Big House Books, 1995), is a pleasant pastiche that takes Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to County Sligo and an encounter with the Gore-Booths in 1897 (well before the time of Sir Paul of S'ian fame). The 23-page pamphlet costs $4.00 postpaid from Ian Henry Publications, 20 Park Drive, Romford, Essex RM1 4LH, England. Sep 95 #3 Christopher and Barbara Roden have launched the Calabash Press as a new Sherlockian imprint, and their first book will be a reprint of David Stuart Davies' Holmes-Dracula pastiche THE TANGLED SKEIN, first published three years ago by Theme Publications (Apr 92 #2); $28.50 postpaid, and their address is: Ashcroft, 2 Abbottsford Drive, Penyffordd, Chester CH4 0JG, England (shipping costs to other countries vary, and you can write to them for details). "An impressive memorial at the birthplace of someone mentioned by name in the Canon." Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints, who was born in Sharon, Vermont, on Dec. 23, 1805. A MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995; 326 pp., $22.95) is Laurie R. King's second novel about Mary Russell, whom we met in THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE (Mar 94 #4), and who is now (at the end of 1920) about to turn 21, and again involved with Sherlock Holmes. She is a strong character in her own right, and the story has power and tension, important in any book that does more than merely offer an imitation Sherlock Holmes in an unimaginative mystery. King's new book has some intriguing insights into Holmes, as well as imagination and style. Michael Hardwick's SHERLOCK HOLMES: MY LIFE AND CRIMES is the latest volume of Sherlockiana to appear in a Japanese translation (by Masamichi Higurashi and Naohiko Kitahara) (Tokyo: Hara Shobo, 1995; 328 pp., Y2,000); Masamichi reports that he also is translating Randall Collins' THE CASE OF THE PHILO- SOPHERS' RING and Edward B. Hanna's THE WHITECHAPEL HORRORS. Ronald A. Knox's "Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes" (published in the May 1912 issue of The Blue Book) is a well-known classic, but less far less well-known is the letter that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote to Knox on July 5, 1912, commenting on the paper. The letter has been unpublished until now, and it appears for the first time, translated into German, along with a German translation of Knox's paper, in the summer 1995 issue of The Reichenbach Journal, which is edited for The Reichenbach Irregulars by Mar- cus Geisser. $10.00 postpaid (in currency, please) from Klaus Worner, Tor- kelgasse 9, D-97980 Bad Mergentheim, Germany. Norman Houde reports that THE QUEST FOR SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: THIRTEEN BIOGRAPHERS IN SEARCH OF A LIFE, edited by Jon L. Lellenberg (Nov 87 #4) is offered by The Scholar's Bookshelf, 110 Melrich Road, Cranbury, NJ 08512, discounted to $14.95. The book is a fine guide to the many, and frequently unreliable, biographies. If you didn't buy a copy of Maeve Binchy's novel THE COPPER BEECH when it first appeared (Oct 92 #5), and you still want one (there's nothing about it that's Sherlockian except for the almost-exact title match), Dick Lesh reports that it's discounted at $5.95 in the current catalog from Edward R. Hamilton (Falls Village, CT 06031). And other bargains include the Outlet Books edition of William S. Baring-Gould's THE ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES ($19.95), Edward B. Hanna's pastiche THE WHITECHAPEL HORRORS ($5.95), and a real bargain: THE QUEST FOR SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: THIRTEEN BIOGRAPHERS IN SEARCH OF A LIFE ($9.95); the last book is an excellent guide, edited by Jon L. Lellenberg, to the many, and frequently unreliable, biographies. Sep 95 #4 Further to the report (Nov 94 #6) about a "Hound of the Basker- villes" episode on the new PBS-TV series "Wishbone" (who is a Jack Russell terrier whose active imagination allows him to immerse himself in the storylines of classic books), the series will debut on Oct. 6. But there's no word yet on when "The Slobbery Hound" will air. This year's Christmas card from The Sherlock Holmes Society of London will be in full color, with an attractive watercolor painted for the Society by Douglas West, showing Holmes and Watson meeting Inspector Lestrade when he arrived from London in "The Hound of the Baskervilles". The cost is $13.50 postpaid for ten cards (checks payable to the Society); you can send orders to Capt. W. R. Michell, 5 Old Farm Place, Hinton St. George, Somerset TA17 8TW, England. I can't remember who asked me recently about the different portraits of Queen Victoria on British coins, but an adver- tisement at hand from Sherry Rose-Bond provides the answer: the young queen's coins were minted from 1838 to 1887, a more mature queen appeared from 1887 to 1893, and an older queen from 1893 to 1901. The illustration shows gold sovereigns, advertised by the Worldwide Treasure Bureau, Box 5012, Visalia, CA 93278 (800-437-0222) at $225 each (or $650 for the set of three). Sherlockians are not the only ones who enjoyed membership in the many clubs founded by Christopher Morley, but some of those imaginative clubs are not widely known. A recent auction at the Swann Galleries in New York of items in the collection of the late Herman Abromson included a document certify- ing that R. C. Riminton was "a popular member of the N. & S. C. D. H. & L. R. C." That was the Nassau & Suffolk County Devilled Ham & Lake Ronkonkoma Club, and the certificate was signed by Morley as president, and Ogden Nash as permanent secretary pro-tem. Evelyn Wood died on Aug. 26. She began teaching speed reading in 1957 at the University of Utah, and reportedly could read as many as 15,000 words a minute. She founded the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics Institute in 1959, and in 1961 her Institute published a two-volume speed-reading edition of Conan Doyle's ADVENTURES OF GERARD. Walter Satterthwait's ESCAPADE (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995; 355 pp., $22.95) offers a mystery that is mysterious, and characters that are interesting, and some real fun. Two of the characters are Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the setting is an English country house in 1921, and there's a locked-room murder that mystifies Houdini, and there's a Pinkerton man on hand to tell the tale in graceful but hard-boiled style, and there are some nice surprises and inside jokes as well. Sherlockian societies that would like more advance publicity for meetings and other events can now have brief announcements posted on the World Wide Web, on a home page maintained by Nigel J. Hayler for those who can cruise the Web via the Internet. You need only find a member who can send e-mail, and send your announcements to , or you can write to Nigel at 74-A Elm Park Road, London N3 1EB, England. Sep 95 #5 William P. Schweickert ("Cox and Co.") died on Sept. 12. Bill had a long and distinguished career in banking, and he was an enthusiastic historian as well as a dedicated Sherlockian, and his friends and associates benefited from his energy and delightful sense of humor. He was one of the founders of The Three Garridebs of Eastchester, and a member of The Five Orange Pips of Westchester County and The Sacred Six and other societies in the New York area, and received his Investiture from the BSI in 1979, and their Two-Shilling Award in 1986. The postal service continues to issue annual souvenir sheets commemorating the 50th anniversary of World War II, and this year's sheet includes a stamp that shows President Truman announcing Japan's surrender, on Aug. 14, 1945. Truman was a member of The Baker Street Ir- regulars. "Exotic Creatures Lured to Balmy British Waters" is the headline on a story by Jonathan Leake and John Burns in The Times (Sept. 3), kindly forwarded by John Baesch. Warm weather and changes in ocean currents have resulted in an invasion of seldom seen sealife, including the lion's mane jellyfish. "Health officers in Hartlepool recently had to close the Seaton Carew beach after a swarm of lion's manes were washed up," and three children received hospital treatment for stings. Issue #31 of The Tonga Times, published by The Mini-Tonga Scion Society for Sherlockian miniaturists, offers news and helpful hints, and a report from Yves Charles Fercoq on the genealogy of the Vernet and Holmes families (it seems that Sherlock Holmes' grandmother was Emilie Vernet, who was guillo- tined in 1794). Membership in the society costs $7.00 a year (with three issues of the newsletter), and if you would like to have more information about the society, you need only send a #10 SASE to Carol Wenk (Box 770554, Lakewood, OH 44107). Spotted by Jennie Paton: Pat Cummings' JIMMY LEE DID IT (New York: Harper- Trophy, 1995; 30 pp., $4.95); a children's book, first published in 1985: Angel plays detective (wearing a deerstalker). SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE HOUDINI BIRTHRIGHT, by Val Andrews (London: Breese Books, 1995; 160 pp., L5.99), involves Holmes and Watson with Houdini, and then with Houdini's widow Bess (whose request for help brings them to New York and then to Budapest); the author is a magician, and has some fun with Houdini's contemporaries and rivals. The publisher's address is 164 Ken- sington Park Road, London W11 2ER, England. Geoff Jeffery notes that the Sherlock Holmes nesting dolls (Sep 93 #4) are offered at $12.95 in a catalog from Bits & Pieces (1 Puzzle Place, Stevens Point, WI 54481 (800-544-7287); also Tom Bullimore's BAKER STREET PUZZLES (Nov 94 #1) and another puzzle book by Falcon Travis with S'ian artwork on the cover ($9.95 for the set of two). The Victorian Villa Inn, at 601 North Broadway Street, Union City, MI 49094 (800-348-4552), is a carefully restored 1876 house that offers Sherlockian weekends, and an attractive brochure giving details and a schedule. Sep 95 #6 Not everyone named James Moriarty is a criminous mathematiciam, Dave Galerstein notes. Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz is on his way to the Mayo Clinic for spinal surgery, according to a story in the N.Y. Times (Sept. 11). The announcement came from university physician James Moriarity, who uses a different spelling for the family name. "Wear the wrong hat out in the midday sun and there is a long-term danger of skin cancer," was the sub-head on a story in The Times (Aug. 22, 1995), kindly forwarded by John F. Baesch. The Garden (the journal of the Royal Horticultural Society) reports that the American National Farm Centre in Wisconsin has cautioned farmers that the American baseball cap will not protect the neck and ears from the sun, and that better protection would be provided by a deerstalker or a solar topi. Well, it has taken the RHS only four years to catch up with the news. It was the National Farm Medicine Center in Marshfield that conducted a test of various hats (Aug 91 #3 and Nov 91 #3): a modified baseball cap with a detachable flap that covers the temples, ears, and neck provided the most protection, and a mesh variation of the deerstalker came in second. The Ben Silver Collection (800-221-4671) continues to offer a grand variety of regimental, university, old school, and other neckties, and many of them can (with a bit of research) be associated with the Canon; the autumn 1995 catalog is now available, and their address is 149 King Street, Charleston, SC 29401. Steven T. Doyle has announced that the Wessex Press (founded two years ago by Steven and his partner Mark Gagen) has purchased the Gasogene Press from David L. Hammer, and Gasogene's books are now in Indianapolis. The Wessex Press will continue as a more general imprint (its next title will be THE ANNOTATED LOST WORLD, by Alvin E. Rodin and Roy Pilot), and Gasogene will continue to publish Sherlockian books. The new address for the Gasogene Press is: Box 68308, Indianapolis, IN 46268; a list of available titles is available on request. Carl L. Heifetz reports that The Pleasant Places of Florida have published THE CALENDRICAL CANON WITH HOLIDAYS HOLMESIAN, with a calendar of special occasions in 1996, and narratives by members of the society. The 20-page brochure costs $6.50 postpaid to the U.S. and Canada, $7.10 to Mexico, and $9.20 elswhere), and Carl's address is 5490 Salem Square Drive South, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. Playboy (Oct. 1995) has reported on the new series of commemorative Sher- lockian pipes from Peterson Pipes of Dublin (Jun 95 #5). The "Rathbone" is available now; call 800-247-6653 (that's 800-24-SMOKE) for information on store locations. Chris Redmond has reported that Ronald P. Graham died on June 24. He was one of the three founders of The Canadian Baskervilles (the first Sherlock- ian society in Canada), and he wrote a paper for The Baker Street Journal (Oct. 1946) suggesting that Sherlock Holmes when retired from detecting he devoted himself to research in organic and analytical chemistry. Graham was, as might be expected, a professor of chemistry, at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and was dean of science there from 1962 to 1977. Sep 95 #7 "The calculation is a simple one," as Sherlock Holmes once said, but there was some bad arithmetic in the story about the Credit Lyonnais (Aug 95 #6), as spotted by careful calculator Jack Kerr: the six hundred million francs lost by the bank actually is a mere $118 million. Geoff Jeffery reports (found at a Book Warehouse in North Bend, Wash.) THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Wordsworth Classics, $5.00); the book has "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Sign of Four" in addition to the "Adventures" (which is reprinted with the Paget illustrations from The Strand Magazine), and the British publisher (Wordsworth Editions) states that there will be two more volumes and that the set will have all sixty stories; Christopher Roden reports that Wordsworth Classics sell for L3.99 in Britain, and that Wordsworth has published paperback editions (L1.00 each) of SIR NIGEL and THE LOST WORLD AND OTHER STORIES (with all of the Challenger stories). Thanks to Ted Schulz for providing proof that Merrell Noden's pastiche "The Adventure of the Treacherous Traps" (Jul 95 #8) actually was published in the July 24 issue of Sports Illustrated. But it didn't appear all copies: only in some regional editions of the magazine. "Sometimes they call each other 'Watson and Holmes,' wear deerstalkers, and study with a magnifying glass, just as Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson searched for clues," wrote Dinitia Smith in a long story about Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern in the N.Y. Times on Aug. 29. In 1942 they discovered that Louisa May Alcott, who wrote charming novels about New Eng- land domesticity, also wrote "blood and thunder" tales about transvestitism and hashish smoking and feminism and other shocking themes (published anon- ymously or under a pseudonym). Now in their 80s, the ladies have been in the rare-book business for almost 40 years, and their interest in Sherlock Holmes is not merely a passing fancy: Madeleine Stern has researched and written about Sherlockian (and Doylean) phrenology and about Holmes as a collector of rare books, and Leona Rostenberg included Sherlock Holmes in an article on "Bibliately: A History of Books on Postage Stamps". Charles Marowitz's play "Sherlock's Last Case" opens at the Globe Theatre in Regina on Dec. 6, 1995, and runs through Dec. 17 (it may be held over until Dec. 23); the box-office address is 1801 Scarth Street, Regina, Sask. S4P 2G9, Canada (306-525-6400). Thanks to all those who reported on some recent television shows (which can be seen in repeats, if you missed them). On Sept. 9 the season opener of "Animaniacs" (broadcast by the Warner Bros. network) had a segment in which Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson helped Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner compete in a scavenger hunt, with the evil Professor Morey Archie making an appear- ance. On Sept. 17 the season opener of "The Simpsons" (on the Fox network) was "Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part Two" with Sideshow Mel doing a brief Sherlock Holmes impression (with Krusty the Klown as his Watson); Dan Castelaneta is the voice of Sideshow Mel. Mark Alberstat's 1996 Sherlock Holmes Calendar is illustrated with artwork from The Strand Magazine, and displays important Sherlockian birthdays and William S. Baring-Gould's dates for the cases. The cost is US$12.00 post- paid, and his address is 5 Lorraine Street, Dartmouth, NS B3A 2B9, Canada. Sep 95 #8 "The Scarlet Letter" opens wide (as they say in the trade) on Oct. 13, starring Demi Moore, Gary Oldman, and Robert Duvall -- and Edward Hardwicke in a supporting role (sorry, I don't know which one). And you should warn your kids not to write a book report after seeing the movie (the movie has a different ending than the book did). Someone once suggested to James M. Cain that what Hollywood had done to his books was awful. Cain replied: "Hollywood hasn't done anything at all to my books; they're still right up there on the bookshelf." There are many reasons for the continuing popularity of the Sherlock Holmes stories, including their being used so widely in schools. And THE SHERLOCK HOLMES STUDY GUIDE, by Susan Thurman (Henderson: Class Act, 1995) is a fine example of this sort of use: the package includes the Dover Thrift Edition of SIX GREAT SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES (with Scan/RedH/Spec/Engr/Fina/Empt) and 44 pages of helpful study questions, vocabulary tests, ideas for study projects, and ideas for writing assignments. As well as a warning note to teachers about two words and phrases in the tales that today's students may think mean something other than what they meant when the stories were first published. $21.95 postpaid, and the publisher's address is Box 802-P, Hen- derson, KY 42420. American Express provides those who have its top-of-the-line platinum card with extra benefits that include an opportunity to have questions answered. And someone asked American Express for the address of the nearest Sherlock- ian society, and someone at American Express apparently called The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, and was told to call me, and did, and got the in- formation needed. Maybe they'll do your kids' homework, too. You've all seen "find the what-ever in this picture" puzzles for kids, but the puzzles in Games magazine are far from childish. The October issue has "Up in Smoke" (created by Lars Hokanson and Frances Cichetti), and all you need to do is find 30 pipes in an illustration that shows Holmes and Watson in the sitting-room at 221B Baker Street. And here's a non-Sherlockian puzzle (well, I could have had Sherlock Holmes post the challenge, but I didn't): A H I M O S T U V W X Y Which letter is in the wrong line? Why? B C D E F G J K L N P Q R Z I'll supply the answer next month. Judy Burton reported on Sept. 26 that registration for the dedication of the John Bennett Shaw Collection in Minneapolis on Oct. 13-15 had reached 238 -- and that there still was room for late-comers. You can register by phone (and credit-card) by calling 612-625-3850. Further to the request (Jun 95 #3) for Sherlockian panels from the 20 comic strips that will be honored by the U.S. Postal Service on a sheet that will be issued in October, the results so far total seven. And photocopies have been sent to those who responded to the request for help; others who might wish to see the results are invited to send me a #10 SASE. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org) Oct 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Spencer Schein notes some new bargains offered in a new catalog from Edward Hamilton (Falls Village, CT 06031): Chris Redmond's WELCOME TO AMERICA, MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES (item 489557; $4.95); IN BED WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES (489506; $6.95), and A SHERLOCK HOLMES HANDBOOK (item 489530; $7.95); all three are well-written, interesting, and recommended. And: William S. Baring-Gould's fine biography SHERLOCK HOLMES OF BAKER STREET (490393; $7.95). Postage is $3.00 extra per order. And Dick Lesh reports that Hamilton offers THE ILLUSTRATED SHERLOCK HOLMES, adapted by Nigel Flynn and Richard Widdows (London: Multimedia Books, 1993) for $4.95; the 160-page book has adaptations of three of the long stories (Stud/Sign/Houn) with art-work from the Australian animations made in 1985 with Peter O'Toole's voice as Holmes; the adaptations were first published separately in 1985. Another (possibly) Canonical site is for sale, according to a brief story in the Birmingham Evening Mail (Aug. 17), at hand from Jon Lellenberg. The site is Crowsley Park House, an Oxfordshire estate in Henley-on-Thames, and the story reports that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lived nearby and is said to have borrowed the name of owner Henry Baskerville. It should be noted that the most widely-accepted source for the family name is Harry M. Baskerville (who was coachman to B. Fletcher Robinson, who was Conan Doyle's host for a visit to Dartmoor and suggested the "West Country legend" to him. Last month's non-Sherlockian puzzle was: A H I M O S T U V W X Y Which letter is in the wrong line? Why? B C D E F G J K L N P Q R Z I'll supply the answer on the next page. Further to the report (Sep 95 #4) on Nigel Hayler's "Sherlock Holmes Event Guide" on his home page on the World Wide Web, you don't need to be a web- cruiser to see the listing: send an e-mail message to , leave the subject-line blank, and state as the text (without the quotation marks): "send http://194.72.60.96/www/pwf/shevents.htm". The Dispatch Box is a four-page newsletter published in English by The Jap- anese Cabinet (a branch office of The Franco-Midland Hardware Company) with news of Sherlockian events in Japan: recent issues have included discussion of The Sherlock Holmes Pub in Osaka, exhibitions at Matsuzakaya department stores of Sherlockiana from the collection of Kiyoshi Tanaka, and the first performance of a Sherlock Holmes play in Japan (apparently Ferdinand Bonn's "Sherlock Holmes" produced by German prisoners of war in 1918). The news- letter costs $8.00 or L5.00 (currency, please) for four issues, from Yuichi Hirayama, 2-10-12 Kamirenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo 181, Japan. The October issue of Anglofile has a long tribute to Jeremy Brett, and the usual detailed coverage of British entertainment. "Reilly: Ace of Spies" will air on the History Channel in two-hour installments, Nov. 5-10, with Sam Neill as Reilly and many excellent actors in supporting roles, includ- ing David Burke as Stalin. The monthly newsletter gives detailed coverage of British entertainment; $12.00 a year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033). Oct 95 #2 Jennie Paton spotted another Sherlockian chess set in the new catalog from Time Warner's "Sound Exchange" (45 North Industry Court, Deer Park, NY 11729 (800-521-0042); the catalog says that the pieces are "beautifully hand-decorated in subtle shades of green and grey" and the characters are based on "the original drawings that appeared in the Strand Magazine in 1890." $495.00 painted (#219626); $295.00 unpainted (#219618). And the answer to the non-Sherlockian puzzle is: the letter S should be in the bottom line. All of the other letters in the top line have rotational symmetry around a vertical axis, and none of the letters in the bottom line have that rotational symmetry. Conan Doyle likely was the first author to use THE LOST WORLD for the title of a book, and other authors have used the title since then (copyright laws don't protect titles of books). And THE LOST WORLD is the title of Michael Crichton's sequel to JURASSIC PARK. Reviewers of Crichton's new book (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995; $25.95) seem well aware of the borrowing from "the granddaddy of all dinosaur tales" (one reviewer's description). The new book opened at #1 on the best-seller lists, which will surprise no one who read JURASSIC PARK or saw the movie. While the United States Postal Service was honoring classic comic strips in October, Canada Post honored Canadian comic- book superheroes in a booklet that included a stamp showing Superman. One assumes that many readers are wondering why Superman is Canadian: he was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and Joe Shuster was born in Toronto. If you also are wondering why Superman is Sherlockian, Bill Rabe discov- ered that Jerry Siegel and fellow staffers on the Pacific edition of Stars and Stripes during World War II founded The Baker Street Irregulars of Honolulu (active 1944-46). Roger Johnson reports in The District Messenger that the Croydon Clocktower Museum and Galleries will stage a major exhibition on "The Sherlock Holmes Experience" from Dec. 7 to Mar. 30. Conan Doyle once lived in Norwood, now part of the Borough of Croydon, and the exhibits will explore "the reality of Conan Doyle's Victorian London and the fictional world of the sleuth." The Croydon Clocktower is in Katharine Street, Croydon CR9 1HT, England. Bruce D. Aikin reports in the latest issue of "A Very Irregular Newsletter" Vasily Livanov died earlier this year. He starred as Holmes in a series of dramatizations of Canonical stories on Soviet television from 1979 to 1985, and in 1986 provided the voice of Holmes for a Soviet animated film called "Sherlock Holmes and I". Two of the one-hour television shows are in cir- culation, dubbed into German and taped off-the-air when they were broadcast from East Germany, and they're fun to watch. For those who don't yet have enough busts of Napoleon: John Baesch reports that the gift catalog from Monticello (800-243-1743) has a copy of the bust of a young Bonaparte that Thomas Jefferson owned ($40.00). John also notes that Robert Harris' new novel ENIGMA (New York: Random House, 1995; $23.00) involves the code-breaking activities at Bletchley; its hero Thomas Jericho carries a copy of the Doubleday THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES with him. Oct 95 #3 Reported by Stu Shiffman: NEIL GAIMAN'S MR. HERO--THE NEWMATIC MAN is a new comic-book series from Tekno-Comix (2255 Glades Road #237W, Boca Raton, FL 33431-7383) (800-448-3566); Mr. Hero is a steam- powered robot who once performed at Maskelyne's Egyptian Theatre (deucing that a doctor in the audience was contemplating writing about a consulting detective) and is now accompanied by a young woman named Jenny Hale and is searching for a site in Sussex where he thinks he was created. Issue #10 (early Dec. 1995) reports on "The Hand of the Baskervilles" and has a Sher- lockian cover ($1.95). Jim Vogelsang reports a new Christmas ornament: "Gotta Have a Clue" shows Santa in a deerstalker, with pipe and magnifying glass, examining a "Clue" gameboard. It's item #139653 from the Enesco Corp. ($20.00); check your local card and gift shops. And Andy Peck reports that it's available to members of the Mystery Guild (Box 6325 Indianapolis, IN 46206) at $19.95. "I have some knowledge, however, of ... the Japanese system of wrestling," said Sherlock Holmes (in "The Empty House"). A new Japanese stamp, at hand from Yuichi Hirayama, honors the 1995 World Judo Championships and shows two women con- contestants. Sorry about that: the translators of the Japanese edition of Michael Hardwick's SHERLOCK HOLMES: MY LIFE AND CRIMES (Sep 95 #3) are Masamichi Higurashi and Naohiko Kitahara. Further to the report (Sep 95 #7) on the Wordsworth Classics editions, Jim Coffin reports that he found all three volumes at Crown Books; $7.00 each. The three volumes (THE ADVENTURES SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, and THE CASEBOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES) contain all sixty stories in facsimile from The Strand Magazine, except for the first two stories, which are set in similar two-column format. The new volumes apparently use the plates created for THE COMPLETE ILLUSTRATED SHERLOCK HOLMES (Ware: Omega Books, 1986) and then used in THE ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATED 'STRAND' SHERLOCK HOLMES (New York: Mallard Press, 1990). Reported by Laura Kuhn: PAST IMPERFECT: HISTORY ACCORDING TO THE MOVIES, edited by Mark C. Carnes (New York: Henry Holt, 1995; 308 pp., $30.00); the contents include a four-page essay by David Cannadine on "Murder by Decree" (1979) that compares fact and fiction. The Sept. 1995 issue of Baker Street W1 ("a Sherlockian journal from the western U.S.A.") offers news from west of the Mississippi, including John Farrell's interview with Marilyn Lewis, head of marketing for "Skeletons in the Closet" (which retails Sherlockian merchandise from the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office); $9.00 a year (three issues) from Jerry Kegley, 110 South El Nido #41, Pasadena, CA 91107. H. Paul Jeffers, author of THE ADVENTURE OF THE STALWART COMPANIONS (1979) and MURDER MOST IRREGULAR (1983), also has paid tribute to the Canon in THE RAG DOLL MURDER (1987) and again in A GRAND NIGHT FOR MURDER (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995), which Ben Wood describes as "a corking-good mystery" with references to the Canon and to the Baker Street Irregulars. Oct 95 #4 Michael Coren's new biography CONAN DOYLE is due in November from Bloomsbury Publishing (L20.00); "the creator of Sherlock Holmes was much more than a populist writer: he was a paradox--a Catholic who rejected religion; a family man who loved another woman throughout his marriage; an atheist who adopted spiritualism." The next volume from the Pequod Press will be LOOSE CANONS, a collection of John Ruyle's verse that includes his tribute to the late Jeremy Brett, and the cost is $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper), available from the author at 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. For those who unfamiliar with the fine Pequod pressings, it's a hand press, and John is an expert printer. "Not a politician in sight, nor a trained cormorant," I wrote earlier (Jul 95 #2), when I reported on the postal service's new booklet of stamps that show five lighthouses. Eagle-eyed Don Hardenbrook notes that the stamp that shows the Spectacle Reef Lighthouse also shows some rare albino cormorants, which often are mistaken for seagulls. And of course it's possible that there's a politician somewhere in the shadows . . . The 1995 issue of The Musgrave Papers (the annual published by The Northern Musgraves has 132 pages of scholarship, news, and reviews, with a great deal of excellent discussion of the humor that is found in the Canon, in the Sherlockian litera- ture, and among Sherlockians everywhere (a well-illustrated interview with cartoonist Gahan Wilson is particularly interesting). Information on mem- bership in the society is available from Anne Jordan, Fairbank, Beck Lane, Bingley, West Yorks. BD16 4DN, England. Further to the amusing comments made by Miss Lemon about the "Baker Street societies and all that" (Sep 95): Chris Redmond spotted the quotation long before I did, and included it in his QUOTATIONS FROM BAKER STREET, which is a delightful 49-page compilation that still is available ($10.00 postpaid) from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada. Ken Greenwald reports that he and The Baker Street Associates now are at work on a new series of 16 audiocassettes to be called MORE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, which will continue the series issued through Simon & Schuster (who told Ken that the Sherlock Holmes series sold better than all other S&S series other than "Star Trek"); Brilliance Audio (Box 887, Grand Haven, MI 49417) will issue the new series, and Ken would appreciate your writing to Brilliance to tell them you're looking forward to the series, and to ask them to let you know which stores will carry the cassettes. Ken also notes that a few copies remain of the 1987 commemorative record album of Rathbone/Bruce broadcasts that launched the series (the album has two LP records, and please don't ask me what an LP record is); details are avail- able from Ken Greenwald at Box 351453, Los Angeles, CA 90035. "It's a waste of talent and a yawn for Baker Street buffs provided they even catch the show before it closes," Variety's reviewer suggested when Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke opened in "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" at Wyndham's Theatre in Sept. 1988. The play ran for a year in London, and for eleven weeks more on tour in the provinces. Oct 95 #5 Sherlock Holmes' 142nd birthday will be celebrated on Friday, Jan. 12, with the traditional festivities in New York. But the festivities actually will begin on Thursday at 9:00 am at the Hotel Algon- quin (59 West 44th Street), whence Allen Mackler and Charlie Shields will lead participants in the annual Christopher Morley Walk, which ends with luncheon at McSorley's. Allen's address is 324 2nd Street NE, Osseo, MN 55369, and from Jan. 9 he will be at the Iroquois Hotel (212-840-3080). Friday begins with the Martha Hudson Breakfast (details are not yet avail- able). The William Gillette Memorial Luncheon starts at noon, at Moran's Restaurant at 146 Tenth Avenue at 19th Street; $32.00 (Susan Rice, 125 Washington Place #2-E, New York, NY 10014). Otto Penzler's open house at The Mysterious Bookshop (129 West 56th Street) also is on Friday, from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, and it is possible that Sherlockian authors will be on hand to sign their books. The Baker Street Irregulars will gather at 6:00 pm at 24 Fifth Avenue (at 9th Street), and The Fortescue Symposium (sponsored by The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, The Priory Scholars, and The Montague Street Lodgers) will convene at 6:30 pm at the St. Moritz Hotel at 50 Central Park South at 6th Avenue; $60.00 (Katherine Karlson, 1259 Fowler Place, Binghamton, NY 13903- 6036). Early reservations are advised for the luncheon and the Fortescue festivities. On Saturday a posse of purveyors will offer a wide variety of S'iana at the Algonquin (also known for the occasion as Covent Garden West) from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm; vendor tables are available (Ray Betzner, 1535 South Jefferson Court, Lancaster, PA 17602). The Baker Street Irregulars will hold their annual reception, open to all Sherlockians and their friends, on Saturday afternoon (details are not yet available). Mary Ellen Rich has once again kindly provided a list of hotels that offer reasonable (as defined by New York landlords) rates, along with a warning about non-optional extras: $2.00 a day occupancy tax, 8.25% state tax, and 5% city tax. If you plan to arrive on Thursday, it is important to confirm the rates, and that the weekend-package rates include Thursday. Dorset (30 West 54th St.): $149 (single/double, including Sunday brunch) (800-227-2348); Mansfield (12 West 44th St.): $145 (single/double, but ask about specials) (212-944-6050); St. Moritz (50 Central Park South): ask for the Fortescue rate: $125 (single) $140 (double) (800-221-4774); Wyndham (42 West 58th St.): $115 (single) $130 (double) $175 (suite) (212-753-3500); Wentworth (59 West 46th St.): $115 (single/double) (800-567-7220); Iroquois (49 West 44th St.): $99 (single) $125 (double) $150 (one-bedroom suite) (800-332-7220); Pickwick Arms (230 East 51st St.): $95 (single/double) $117 (triple) (212-355-0300); Edison (228 West 47th St.): $88 (single/double corporate rate) (212-840-5000); Portland Square (132 West 47th St.): $79 (single) $89 (double) $94 (triple) (212-382-0600). Richard M. Olken (200 Hyslop Road, Brookline, MA 02146) offers a new sales list of books, pins, neckties, and memorabilia available from The Speckled Band of Boston. There's some fine writing in the anthologies of Sherlock- ian scholarship and humor perpetrated by the members of the Band. Oct 95 #6 Sonia Fetherston reports that A&E cable has removed the "Sher- lock Holmes" series from its Monday-evening lineup, effective Oct. 30, and has no plans to bring the series back soon; someone in their viewer-relations department told Sonia: "As you know, the show is out of production, and we felt that we should give it a rest." Cards and letters can be sent to programming director Brooke Baily Johnson, A&E Television Network, 235 East 45th Street, New York, NY 10017. The dedication ceremonies for the John Bennett Shaw Collection at the Uni- versity of Minnesota this month were grand indeed, and great fun. There were more than 300 on hand for the festivities, including Dorothy Shaw and almost all of John and Dorothy's children and grandchildren. The Univer- sity and the Library and The Norwegian Explorers worked hard to arrange a splendid conference, and made everything look far easier than it really was. And there are some fine collectibles for those who couldn't attend: SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE DETECTIVE AND THE COLLECTOR, edited by Lucy M. Brusic; a 188-page anthology of essays about John Bennett Shaw and his collection ($38.00 postpaid). The handsome conference poster is $16.70 postpaid, and the conference brochure (mailed to many before the conference, with lots of information about what went on) is $1.00 postpaid. Checks payable to "Uni- versity of Minnesota" should be sent to: Shaw Conference Publications, 466 Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Conan Doyle's THE LOST WORLD continues in print, offering a new generation of readers an opportunity to see where Michael Crichton found many of his ideas: a new edition in the Oxford Popular Fiction series (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1995; 189 pp., $7.95) also has an interesting Introduction by Yale University professor of English Ian Duncan. Reported: an American edition of Colin Dexter's collection MORSE'S GREATEST MYSTERY AND OTHER STORIES (New York: Crown Books, 1995; 272 pp., $23.00); the British edition was published by Macmillan in 1993 (Jun 94 #4), and the contents include his amusing pastiche "A Case of Mis-Identity" (first pub- lished in WINTER'S CRIMES 21, 1989). Kingsley Amis died on Oct. 22. He was the author of more than 20 novels, six books of poetry, and a volume of memoirs, beginning his career as one of Britain's "angry young men" achieved his first literary success in 1954 with his first novel, LUCKY JIM, and won the Book Prize in 1986 for THE OLD DEVILS. In an essay on "My Favorite Sleuths" (Playboy, Dec. 1966) he wrote that "Holmes is the memorable figure he is because Conan Doyle grasped the essential truth that the deductive solving of crimes cannot in itself throw much light on the character doing the solving, and therefore that character must be loaded up with quirks, hobbies, eccentricities. It is always these irrelevant qualities that define the figure of the great detective, not his mere powers of reasoning." Amis also wrote an Introduction for the Murray/ Cape edition of THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1974), and the script for a 1974 BBC-1 television program "Dr. Watson and the Darkwater Hall Mystery" (adapted as a short story in Playboy in May 1978). The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org) Nov 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press More details about the birthday weekend on Jan. 12-13: Friday begins with the Martha Hudson Breakfast from 7:00 to 10:00 in the Oak Room at the Hotel Algonquin at 59 West 44th Street; the Algonquin provides its guests with a continental breakfast, and others are welcome to order from the menu (res- ervations are not required). The Baker Street Irregulars will hold their annual reception, open to all Sherlockians and their friends, on Saturday afternoon from 3:00 to 5:30 at the National Arts Club at 15 Gramercy Park (20th Street between Park and Third Avenues). There will be an open bar, and hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, and the cost is $35.00 a person until Dec. 29 (checks payable to the Baker Street Irregulars should be sent to Donald E. Novorsky, 5182 Mahoning Avenue NW, Warren, OH 44483); tickets will be available at the door, at $40.00 a person. Rooms at the Hotel Algonquin (single or double) are available at the Hotel Algonquin for $150.00 a night; no tax is due on reservations made through the BSI, and the offer is available to all Sherlockians; reservations with full names of all occupants, accompanied by payment (checks payable to The Baker Street Irregulars) should be sent to Thomas L. Stix, Jr. (34 Pierson Avenue, Norwood, NJ 07648) to arrive no later than Dec. 15. The Dr. John H. Watson Fund offers financial assistance to all Sherlockians (membership in the BSI or the ASH is not required) who might otherwise not be able to participate in the weekend's festivities. A carefully anonymous John H. Watson presides over the fund and welcomes contributions, which can be made by checks payable to John H. Watson and mailed (without return any address on the envelope) to Dr. Watson, c/o Thomas L. Stix, Jr. (address as above); Tom forwards the checks unopened, and Dr. Watson will acknowledge your generosity. SHERLOCK HOLMES, BRIDGE DETECTIVE, by bridge expert (and Sherlockian pasti- chist) Frank Thomas, was first published in 1973 and now has been reissued by the Devyn Press, 3600 Chamberlain Lane #230, Louisville, KY 40241 (800- 274-2221); $12.95 postpaid. Thomas notes that the game of bridge closely resembles a detective story, and has Holmes explain the fine points of the bidding and play of 44 bridge hands. Vincent Starrett was a true bookman, and an essayist and a poet as well as a Sherlockian. And Peter Ruber, long an admirer of Starrett, has edited a new volume of Vincent Starrett's COLLECTED POEMS, with an introduction by Ruber and an afterword by Albert M. Rosenblatt. Starrett delighted in the sonnet, and his famous "221b" is only one of the Sherlockian sonnets in the book (which is the first in a projected 15 volumes in the "Vincent Starrett Memorial Library"). COLLECTED POEMS (194 pp.) is available from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada; $27.00 postpaid. Peter Ruber is hard at work trying to find Vincent Starrett's uncollected early work, and would greatly appreciate hearing from anyone who has access to 1917-1937 issues of the magazines Short Stories, Wayside Tales, Real De- tective Tales, or Street & Smith's Detective Story Magazine, and 1920-1930 issues of Black Mask or Weird Tales. Peter's address is Box 502, Oakdale, NY 11769. Nov 95 #2 "It is as impossible for man to demonstrate the existence of God as it would be for even Sherlock Holmes to demonstrate the existence of Arthur Conan Doyle." WISHFUL THINKING: A THEOLOGICAL ABC, by Frederick Buechner (New York: Harper & Row, 1973). Richard L. Coe died on Nov. 12. He went to work for the Washington Post in 1938 as radio editor and assistant drama editor, and was the paper's drama editor from 1947 to 1979, and he worked hard over those many years to help his city grow from a one-theater town to a major theatrical center). In an article published on Oct. 6, 1974, he discussed Nicholas Meyer's THE SEVEN- PER-CENT SOLUTION and William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" (then about to open at the Kennedy Center), and asked rhetorically, "How does one account for Sherlock's long-lived appeal?" His answer was: "Doyle created a vivid character, a strong, independent man, but whimsical and unpredictable as well." If you didn't get the "Sherlock Hound Salt and Pepper Pups" offered by What on Earth last year (Sep 94 #5), they're in the new catalog offered by Joan Cook, Box 6038, Peabody, MA 01961 (800-935-0971); $16.75 for the set (50C-6138). THE ADVENTURE OF THE FLABBY GRUNGE is the most recent installment in the saga of Turlock Loams, who now is investigating a murderous plot by Colonel Sebastian Marin against his brother Sebastopol, as reported by Dr. Fatso for the prolific Pequod Press. The cost is $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper), from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. The manuscript of "The Dancing Men" (53 small quarto pages, plus a special title page, signed by Conan Doyle on the front cover) was offered for sale at a book fair in Fort Worth in October, for $250,000. The owner is Brian Perkins (the proprietor of Barber's Book Store, 215 West 8th Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102 (800-327-5471). Edward Hardwicke needs no introduction to those who have enjoyed his por- trayal of Watson in the Granada series and his readings on CSA Telltapes audiocassettes (Jul 93 #1 and Sep 93 #3). Tangled Web Audio now offers two audiocassette sets with new recordings by Hardwicke: SHERLOCK HOLMES: TALES OF INTRIGUE (with Croo/Gree/Nava), and SHERLOCK HOLMES: TALES OF SUSPENSE (with Suss/Cree/Spec); each set has two cassettes and costs $20.45 postpaid ($39.90 for two sets). The address is 3380 Sheridan Drive #167, Amherst, NY 14226 (800-249-2666 operator 616), and credit-card orders are welcome. John Terry Bell died on Aug. 24. He was an actor, writer, and director, beginning his career as a child actor in the Los Angeles production of "The King and I", and in 1983 played the title role in the American Theatre Arts production of William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" in Hollywood. Steven T. Doyle reports that publication of the ANNOTATED LOST WORLD, by Roy Pilot and Al Rodin is "imminent" (and that the book will have 280 pages and cloth covers and a dust jacket). Advance orders are being accepted by the Wessex Press, Box 68308, Indianapolis, IN 46268; $37.70 postpaid. Nov 95 #3 Caroline Gassner presides over The Shadows of the Elm at the Arroyo del Oso Elementary School in Albuquerque, and helps her students present half-hour video dramatizations of the Canon. This year's adventure was "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" Beeches", and a cassette (with a selection of out-takes) is available for $9.00 postpaid from Mrs. Gassner (P.O. Drawer G, Corrales, NM 87048-0178). Al Greengold and Jan Stauber offer three lapel pins showing artwork by Sidney Paget (shown here actual size); $7.00 each postpaid, or $18.00 postpaid for all three (Al's address is 118 South Prospect Street, Verona, NJ 07044. Reported: on Dec. 22 and 29 the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. radio series "Ideas" will repeat its two-part "The Casebook of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" (first broadcast in June 1994). The two one-hour programs have Barry McGregor as Holmes and Nigel Bennett as Watson, and interviews with enthusiasts and experts such as Chris Redmond, Michael Coren, Owen Dudley Edwards, Jon Lellenberg, and Christopher and Barbara Roden. Reported by Jack Kerr: a catalog from Greybeard's Tobacco- nist & Gifts of Distinction), 211 Rehoboth Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971 (800-414-7473) advertises a Sherlock Holmes hand-carved meerschaum pipe (#21A) at $80.00. SHERLOCK HOLMES TRIUMFER (Kobenhavn: Forlaget Sesam, 1995; 287 pp.) is a new Danish translation, with ten stories, il- lustrations from The Strand Magazine, and a new foreword by Bjarne Nielsen. The Sherlock Holmes Memorabilia Company (230 Baker Street, London NW1 5RT, England) has a new 12-page full-color cata- log with a wide variety of attractive Sherlockiana (many visitors to London have also recommended the shop, which is on the east side of Baker Street, not far from 221B). John Pforr spotted an Associated Press story about the Deerstalker Express, a sleeper train that runs from London to Fort William in the rugged Scot- tish Highlands: the six-car train has been making the 522-mile run through spectacular scenery and prime hunting grounds since 1894, but now is losing $4 million a year. British Rail had announced plans to shut down the run, but public protests will keep the train rolling. Carol Wenk (Box 770554, Lakewood, OH 44107) offers sets of miniature books to fill your miniature bookshelves: one set of five books have Watson's name on the spines and titles of five stories on the covers (the pages are blank); the second set has Holmes' name on the spines and cover titles for five of his monographs. $5.00 postpaid per set. The "Sly Fox" necktie (Jun 92 #6) is offered again in a new catalog at hand from Chipp II (9 Ethan Allen Lane, Stamford, CT 06903): the pattern shows a brown fox, wearing a green deerstalker and holding a magnifying glass on a navy (or medium blue) background; $27.25 postpaid, and they take plastic. Nov 95 #4 I've not yet had any reports on anything Sherlockian at Bouch- ercon 26, held in Nottingham on Sept. 28-Oct. 1. But you can plan ahead for the world's largest mystery-fan convention: Bouchercon 27 will be in St. Paul on Oct. 9-13, 1996; Dennis Armstrong and Bruce South- worth are co-chairs (Box 8296, Minneapolis, MN 55408). Bouchercon 28 will be in Monterey on Oct. 30-Nov. 2, 1997, with Bryan Barrett and Bruce Taylor as organizers (Box 6202, Hayward, CA 94540). Dante Torrese spotted Dudley the Dinosaur in material created by the American Dental Association for dentists to use during National Children's Dental Health Month (February). The stickers cost $4.95 for 100 (#W435), and there's a poster for $5.00 (#W318); non-members of the ADA pay 40% extra. ADA (Department. of Salable Materials, 211 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611 (800-947-4746). Frank Darlington notes another theological quote: "The fact that thousands of people refused to believe that God was real is one side of the coin: the fact that almost as many refused to believe that Sherlock Holmes was ficti- tious is the other." From Derek Jarrett's THE SLEEP OF REASON: FANTASY AND REALITY FROM THE VICTORIAN AGE TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR (New York: Harper & Row, 1989). British publishers keep Conan Doyle's grand "Brigadier Gerard" stories in print: THE COLLECTED BRIGADIER GERARD STORIES (Munslow: Hearthstone, 1995; 399 pp., L22.00 cloth, L9.50 paper) has an informative introduction by John Whitehead and presents the saga in chronological order; the cloth edition is distributed here by International Specialized Book Services, 5804 N.E. Hassalo Street, Portland, OR 97213 ($35.00). Hearthstone also has THE BEST SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES, CHOSEN BY THE AUTHOR (370 pp., same prices), with the twelve stories that Conan Doyle selected for a competition set by The Strand Magazine in 1927, plus two later stories that he regretted were too recent to qualify, and his explanation of "How I Made My List" (the cloth edition also is available here from I.S.B.S. at $35.00). Modern Maturity (with the largest circulation of any magazine published in English) has an amusing essay by Roger Rosenblatt in the Nov.-Dec. issue, with a mention of the giant rat of Sumatra and an illustration by Guy Bill- out. Modern Maturity is published by the American Association of Retired Persons (3200 East Carson Street, Lakewood, CA 90712). The latest issue of The Sherlockian Times has arrived from Carolyn and Joel Senter (Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219); it's their new 28-page catalog of Sherlockian books, pamphlets, cards, audiocassettes, pins, and much more. Robert Stephens died on Nov. 12. He was a grand Shakespearean actor (he won the Olivier Award in 1993 for his performance at Falstaff in "Henry IV" and received a knighthood in the New Year's Honours List in Jan. 1995); he starred as a very human Sherlock Holmes in the film "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970) and played the title role in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" in Toronto in 1976. Nov 95 #5 The Baker Street Pages offer a weekly pocket diary with a Sher- lockian cover design (black, brown, gray, burgundy, or navy); $5.00 postpaid from Tim O'Connor (6015 West Route 115, Herscher, IL 60941). Tim also recommends a visit to the Christmas-gift department at your local Wal-Mart to seek their Sherlockian "bloodhound" plaster statue (the dog is 12" long and is wearing a deerstalker and holding a calabash); $19.98. Foothill Video (Box 547, Tujunga, CA 91043) specializes in public-domain video, David Pearson has noted, and their catalog offers Sherlockian films that include "The Speckled Band" (1931), "Sherlock Holmes" (1932), "A Study in Scarlet" (1933), "The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes" (1935), "Silver Blaze" (1937), "The Woman in Green" (1945), "Terror by Night" (1946), "Dressed to Kill" (1946), and "Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace" (1964), all at $7.95 each. And Archival Photography (14845 Anne Street, Allen Park, MI 48101) offers full-color photographic reproductions of posters for all the Rathbone/Bruce films at prices from $4.00 (8 x 10") to $20.00 (16 x 20"). Those who missed the Sherlock Bloodhound "country companion" offered by Wild Wings a few years ago (Mar 92 #5) can pursue a similar hand-painted figurine (5.25" high) now offered by The Cottage Shop, Box 4836, Stamford, CT 06907 (800-388-7660); $38.00 plus shipping. Barbara Holmes (Jun 95 #2) reports that she's still accepting commissions for original Sherlockian artwork; she works in acrylics, and prices range from $48.00 (14 x 18") to $68.00 (20 x 24"). A color photocopy and details are available for $1.00 and a #10 SASE; Box 446, Scottsville, VA 24590. J. Ed Newman's pastiche THE GIANT RAT OF SUMATRA, first pub- lished in 1972 as a nicely-printed pamphlet, is now available as a miniature book, from his JEN press, for $75.00 postpaid; 129 South Cory Drive, R.R. 2, Edgewater, FL 32141. Sotheby's (34-35 New Bond Street, London W1A 2AA, England) will have some Conan Doyle material in an auction of "English Literature and History" on Dec. 18, including the twelve-volume Author's Edition (London: John Murray, 1903) inscribed by the illustrator Arthur Twidle to his wife (estimated at L700-900). Sam Fry reports yet another Sherlockian chess set, with pieces handmade in simulated wood, at $209.00 (the board costs $99.50, and both cost $299.00), offered by Past Times, 280 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210 (800-242-1020). Plan ahead: Anglofile reports that "To Play the King" (with Ian Richardson as Francis Urquhart) repeats on "Masterpiece Theatre" on PBS-TV beginning Jan. 28, followed by his new (and allegedly last) appearance as Urquhart in "Final Cut". And that Nicholas Meyer will direct the movie version of "The Avengers" for Warner Bros., with filming in London as soon as they get a new script (they couldn't get a major male star because the current script has John Steed subservient to his female partner). Anglofile is a monthly newsletter with detailed coverage of British entertainment; $12.00 a year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033). Nov 95 #6 HORSES OF DIFFERENT COLORS: A MONOGRAPH ON HORSES IN THE TIME OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, illustrated with artwork of the period, is the seventh volume in Donald Girard Jewell's continuing Sherlock Holmes Natural History series; the 34-page pamphlet costs $12.95 postpaid from the Pinchin Lane Press, 4685 Geeting Road, Westminster, MD 21158-1720. Ben Wood offers a convenient (5.5x4.5" unopened) 1995 SHERLOCKIAN CALENDAR (with notes on some of the Sherlockian red-letter days); the cost is $2.50 postpaid ($4.00 or L3.00 in cash for foreign orders). Ben's address is Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222-0740. Dave Galerstein spotted something new from Royal Doulton: a resin "character sculpture" of Sherlock Holmes, designed by Robert Tabbenor. The figurine is 8.5" high and portrays Sherlock Holmes on Dartmoor, watched by one of the ravens that inhabit the area, and costs L99.95 in Britain. Royal Doulton USA, 701 Cottontail Lane, Somerset, NJ 08873 (908- 356-7880) will be delighted to tell you where your nearest Royal Doulton Shop is. The catalog number is HN3751. Faithful readers may recall John Aidiniantz's past efforts to require the Royal Mail to deliver letters addressed to Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street to Aidiniantz's Sher- lock Holmes Museum rather than to the Abbey Bank (where Sherlock Holmes' secretaries have been handling his mail since the 1930s). The attempts were unsuccessful, but I've now heard that a letter that was sent to Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street in October received an answer from the Museum. Only one report, however, and lots of other letters still are being delivered to Abbey House, so the one letter may have been handled by a new carrier on the route. Has anyone else heard reports of mail going to 239 rather than 221 Baker Street? It's always fun when a Sherlockian brings real expertise to the Canon, and uses that expertise to illuminate the sometimes murky corners of the world of Sherlock Holmes, and Patricia Guy has done exactly that, in her BACCHUS AT BAKER STREET (Romford: Ian Henry, 1995; 136 pp., L9.95). She discusses the wine and beer and spirits found in the Canon, and the brewers and the vintners and the barkeepers and the wine-merchants, with flavor and humor and an occasional surprise. The publisher's address is 20 Park Drive, Rom- ford, Essex RM1 4LH, England; that's a postpaid price in Britain; $25.00 postpaid elsewhere (credit-card orders welcome). Rebecca Anderson has good news for those who liked THE BEEKEEPER'S APPREN- TICE and A MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN: Laurie R. King reports that the next book in the series about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes will be LETTER OF MARY, tentatively scheduled for publication next summer, and there may be a fourth book in the summer of 1997. THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE, by the way, is scheduled in paperback from Bantam in January at $5.50. Congratulations to Hizzoner: Albert M. Rosenblatt was elected to another fourteen-year term as judge in New York, and he won handily, as they say at the track. Of course it helped that he was endorsed by both the Republican and Democratic parties and was listed on both lines on the voting machines. Nov 95 #7 CONAN DOYLE, by Michael Coren (London: Bloomsbury, 1995; 213 pp., L18.99), is a new biography, and it's both entertaining and informative. Authors aren't responsible for publisher's blurbs, so don't be put off by claims that it's a definitive biography, or that Conan Doyle was an atheist, or that Conan Doyle loved another woman throughout his marriage (Coren notes in the text that he did not have access to the family archives, and does not suggest that Conan Doyle was an atheist, and reports that Conan Doyle married Louise Hawkins in 1885 and first met Jean Leckie in 1897). Coren has some new information discovered in G. K. Ches- terton's papers, but otherwise depends greatly on previous biographers (but there also is some evidence that Coren wrote more than his publisher was willing to publish, perhaps aiming at a general public more than at Sher- lockians and Doyleans, who may be disappointed at finding little material that is truly new). Christopher Roden offers a discount on Coren's book: postpaid prices are L15.99 (U.K.), L16.99 or $27.00 or CA$37.00 (elsewhere by surface mail), $30.50 or CA$42.00 (North America by airmail), and $31.50 (elsewhere by airmail). Checks payable to the Arthur Conan Doyle Society can be sent to him at Ashcroft, 2 Abbottsford Drive, Penyffordd, Chester CH4 0JG, England. The Jan. 1996 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine has an imaginative Sherlockian cover by Richard Parisi, and S'ian stories by Gene DeWeese and Stephen Murray (nicely continuing the magazine's long tradition of celebra- ting Holmes' birthday with Sherlockiana). Cynthia Wein (65 Briarwood Lane, Plainview, NY 11803) offers a newly-commissioned Sherlockian pen, with a hand-painted ceramic barrel that takes a Bic refill; $16.75 postpaid (U.S.), $18.50 (Europe), $19.50 (Asia and Africa). David McCallister reported to The Pleasant Places of Florida recently on "The Face of the Tiger: A Rogue's Gallery of Latin American Rulers"; his seven-page paper draws upon descriptions in Wm. Eleroy Curtis' THE CAPITALS OF SPANISH AMERICA (1888), and the illustrations show some of the candidates proposed by Sherlockian scholars as the original for Don Murillo of San Pedro. Copies of the paper are available from David (at 8142 Quail Hollow Boulevard, Wesley Chapel, FL 33544) in return for a #10 SASE and 25c (or an IRC). From This Old House (Box 468, Almont, MI 48003) offers a wide variety of "Personality Dollar Bills" with a list of possibilities ranging from Hank Aaron to Robert Young available for substitution as the portrait on U.S. currency. The list includes Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (impersonated by Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce), and the final product is thoroughly realistic. $3.95 each (three for $9.95) plus $0.75 postage. THE DYNAMICS OF A FALLING STAR, by John Hall (Leeds: Tai Xu Press, 1995) is a 32-page monograph on the late Professor Moriarty, examining his history, character, career, family, and associates. The cost is L4.50 postpaid (in Britain) or $10.00 postpaid (elsewhere, in currency, please); his address is: 20 Drury Avenue, Horsforth, Leeds, LS18 4BR, England. Nov 95 #8 The fifth annual Watsonian Weekend (celebrating Dr. Watson and the Battle of Maiwand) will be held in and near Des Plaines, Ill., on July 19-21, with a dinner, an chance to watch Dr. Watson "Meet the Press", a horse race, and other festivities. More information is available from Susan Diamond, 2851 North Pearl Avenue, Melrose Park, IL 60164-1421. Willis Frick has relayed a report from the Crowborough Courier (Nov. 17) on some controversy in Crowborough. The Town Council and Chamber of Commerce have joined to propose a Sherlock Holmes Festival in the fall of 1996, with the aim of revitalizing the town, but Malcolm Payne, curator of The Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment, has written to the festival's steering committee complaining about the title of the festival and suggesting that at least two years should be given to project planning. Chamber president Tony Charlton said that festival proposals include a Sherlock Holmes exhi- bition and literary, film, and theatrical events. Sonia Fetherston spotted the caricature of Gil the Iguana at the Gilbert House Children's Museum in Salem, Oregon, where there's a "Secret Sleuth" detective exhibit. The museum is a hands-on children's museum that emphasizes creative learning for children aged 2-12, and is housed in two restored Victorian homes, one of which belonged to the family of A. C. Gilbert, who was born and raised in Salem and went on to Erector set and American Flyer train fame. Gil the Iguana is the museum's mascot, and the ex- hibit is funded by Lightning Powder (a company that makes and sells finger-print dusting powder for law-enforcement agencies). The Practical, But Limited, Geologists met for dinner at Ralph and Kacoo's in New Orleans on Nov. 7 to honor (as always) the world's first forensic geologist. Visitors attending the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America were welcomed by local Sherlockians led by Robin Leckee, and a special toast was offered to the absent geologists who named a pteranodon in honor of Arthur Conan Doyle. Our peripatetic society will meet next in San Diego in May 1996 and in Denver in October 1996. Further to earlier reports (Dec 91 #2 and Jun 92 #5) about the conversion of the Isle of Dogs into a mixed-use community, the project appears to be alive, though not yet well, and Canadian developer Paul Reichman is part of a consortium that is proposing to buy the project for L800 million. Reich- man's family investment company Olympia & York took control of the project in 1987, masterminding construction of the Canary Wharf complex, which has the (among other attractions) a 50-story office building that is the tall- est in Europe. The company and project went bankrupt in 1992, but Reichman now has financial backing from CBS-TV chairman Laurence Tisch, Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, and other rich investors, and his new consortium now controls Canary Wharf again. And yes, there is a Sherlockian connection: Holmes and Watson rounded the Isle of Dogs in pursuit of the dainty Aurora and the Agra Treasure. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org) Dec 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Dorothy Beverly West died on June 30. She was a young Dorothy Beverly in 1934, when she was working with Gladys Norton and Katherine McMahon at Mrs. Cowlin's Open Bookshop in Elgin, Ill., and carried their completely-correct solution of the famous crossword puzzle to Christopher Morley in New York, thus helping all of the ladies qualify for membership in The Baker Street Irregulars. Morley often stayed with her family when his travels took him through Elgin, but never invited any of the ladies to a BSI annual dinner. She received the BSI's "Queen Victoria Medal" in 1990, and was one of our very few links to the earliest days of The Baker Street Irregulars. It has been a while since I've mentioned Bossons' "wall sculptures": their 1995 mini-folder, at hand from Tim O'Connor, shows all their models, including some attractive Victorians (Holmes, Watson, Moriarty, and, in case you need more, a fireman and a bobby). The company has many distributors, and their address is W. H. Bossons (Sales) Ltd., Brook Mills, Mountbatten Way, Congleton, Cheshire CW12 1DQ, England. Gayle Harris notes that the latest catalog from Fusion Video offers a 92- minute videocassette of "Hands of a Murderer" (the 1990 television film starring Edward Woodward) at $29.95 (item #9635); this is the first report of this program on cassette that I've seen, but it's also likely available elsewhere. The catalog has lots of other Sherlockian video, and "Macbeth" (with Jeremy Brett); 17311 Fusion Way, Country Club Hills, IL 60478-9906 (800-959-0061). Michael Ross has reported that Erich Schellow died on Nov. 25. He was a respected actor on the German stage, and portrayed Sherlock Holmes in six television films broadcast in Germany in 1967 and 1968. Earlier this year Von Herder Airguns Ltd. published Uwe Sommerlad's SCHELLOW HOLMES, a well illustrated 48-page booklet honoring the actor, with text in German and summary in English; $12.00 postpaid (currency, please) from Michael Ross, Bendheide 65, 47906 Kempen, Germany. Bernie O'Heir notes that the new Johnson Smith catalog of "Things You Never Knew Existed" has a 100% woolen deerstalker (item 9762) in sizes M-L-XL for $19.98; Box 25599 (Dept. J9510), Bradenton, FL 34206-5500. The fall 1995 issue of the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library News has a report on Sherlock Holmes' recent visit to Toronto, where he planned to retrieve the Great Mogul diamond for its rightful owner in England, but was foiled by Professor Moriarty, who then hid the gem somewhere in the Bloor- Yorkville area. And that provided the Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Area an opportunity to challenge residents of Toronto to help find the gem, and local businesses to create Sherlockian window displays. Copies of the newsletter are available from Victoria Gill, Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M4W 2G8, Canada; no charge. Dec 95 #2 The Easton Press published THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES in 1987 in three leather-bound volumes, each with a color frontispiece, reprinting the Heritage Press edition published in 1952 and 1957. The set is handsomely produced, and available again at $41.85 per volume postpaid, and the address is 47 Richards Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06857 (800-367-4534). Peter Calamai has forwarded David J. Brazier's story from The Independent (Nov. 24) about the new 1996 RUPERT ANNUAL (Pedigree Books, L5.50) in which Rupert time-travels to join Sherlock Holmes in the fight against Victorian crime in London. Brazier notes sadly that times have changed, suggesting that in the 1940s Rupert Bear helped parents in the moral education of their children, and laments that in the 1990s "Ruppert is still a winsome enough character, but he has relinquished his grasp on the ethi- cal nettle." Robertson Davies died on Dec. 2. He was a journalist, and an actor and director, and later in his life a novelist, and above all a Canadian who won many admirers for his work. It was as a journalist that he wrote in "A Writer's Diary" in the [Calgary] Herald Magazine in 1961 that he wished he liked detective stories, and described himself as "temperamentally unsuited to this sort of diversion," and confessed that "I have had it in for Great Detectives since boyhood, when I read Sherlock Holmes, and failed utterly to fall under his spell." But you will find Sherlockian allusions in his novels, so he must have remembered what he had read. "Sherlock Holmes: The Final Journey" is the title of an eight-day tour to Switzerland organized by Gemmi Travel next year (five times, in May, June, July, August, and September) with stops in Montreux, Leukerbad, Kandersteg, and Meiringen; additional information and an attractive flier are available from Gemmi Travel (attn: Hilary Jenkins), The Barn Studios, Carters Lane, Old Woking, Surrey GU22 8JG, England. An "anthology of gloriously stodgy essays" is the way an anonymous reviewer in Newsweek (Dec. 4) described Otto Penzler's reprint of H. W. Bell's BAKER STREET STUDIES in Otto Penzler's "Sherlock Holmes Library" (and the review was in the section of books for "for men only"). Murray Shaw, author of the fine series of children's books MATCH WITS WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES, has written and illustrated an imaginative new tale: THE CASE OF THE CLEVER KIPPERED HERRING, in which all the characters are cats; 32 pages, with hand-colored artwork, and the cost is $8.50 postpaid (3601 North 5th Avenue #106, Phoenix, AZ 85013-3732). Further to the earlier report (Nov 95 #5): Nicholas Meyer has been replaced by Jeremiah Chechik ("Benny and Joon") as the director of the film version of "The Avengers" (according to Anglofile), and Variety reports that Nicole Kidman is a possibility as Emma Peel. Anglofile also notes that Mobil will stop sponsoring "Mystery!" at the end of the current season (in June 1996), but will continue funding "Masterpiece Theatre". Dec 95 #3 First day covers for the British set of stamps issued in 1993 in honor of Sherlock Holmes are still available here and there: an FDC with the Royal Mail's official cachet and a 221B Baker Street post- mark is offered by the International Stamp Collectors Society, Box 854, Van Nuys, CA 91408; $14.95 postpaid (credit-card orders welcome). James B. Reston died on Dec. 6. He was a splendid journalist, winning two Pulitzer prizes and the respect of both his readers and the people he wrote about in the N.Y. Times for fifty years. The journalists he hired to work in the paper's Washington bureau praised his guidance and support. And in his book DEADLINE: A MEMOIR (New York: Times Books, 1992) he wrote: "During our London years, when I was learning my craft, various famous characters gave me a hand without knowing it. I am indebted, for example, to Sherlock Holmes, who was always complaining that Dr. Watson was often at the scene of the crime but failed to notice the incriminating details. 'You looked but didn't *see*, Watson!' This encouraged me thereafter to notice the lit- tle giveaway expressions on presidents' faces and telltale gaps in their arguments." Victoria Gill suggests that those who collect translations of the Sherlock Holmes stories may wish to contact Pannonia Books: The Hungarian Bookstore (Box 716, Station P, Toronto, ON M5S 2Y4, Canada); their latest sales-list has eight Canonical titles in paperback (CA$11.90) and cloth (CA$14.50). The cold-cast porcelain Sherlock Pocket Dra- gon (3" high) costs $48.00 (item HA510), and the Watson Gargoyle (2.5" high) costs $27.50 (item HA522) in a new catalog received from Dancing Dragon, Box 1106, Arcata, CA 95518- 1106 (800-322-6040). Lee Shackleford has reported to The Hounds of the Internet on a letter that Meg Moller Martin received from Linda Pritchard (who was Jeremy Brett's companion during his last years). She wrote that: "Some of my friends and I have had a plaque in memory of Jeremy put up in Wyndham's Theatre, Leicester Square, London [where he acted in the play 'The Secret of Sher- lock Holmes']. Edward Hardwicke unveiled the plaque, which is in the bar by the Royal Circle, and bears the inscription 'I have lost a friend whom I regarded as the best and wisest man I have ever known.'" Carol Barnett (3562 N.E. Liberty, Portland, OR 97211-7248) is a bookseller specializing in gardening books from the Victorian and Edwardian eras (for those who want to know more about gardens in Sherlockian times). The fall 1995 issue of Friends of the Library (the newsletter published by the University of Minnesota Libraries) notes that in Jan. 1996 the Univer- sity of Minnesota will ask the Minnesota State Legislature for $43 million to build the Minnesota Library Access Center; the Center will have space for eight archives and special collections, including the Sherlock Holmes Collections. Copies of the newsletter are available from Judy Burton, 499 Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, MN 55455. Dec 95 #4 Plan ahead: the next Canonical Convocation and Caper in Door County, Wis., is scheduled for Sept. 13-15, 1996, with Sher- lockian scholarship, fun and games, and many of the usual suspects (because the event is fully booked quite early each year); contact Donald B. Izban, 5334 Wrightwood Avenue, Chicago, IL 60639-1524. David Dunnett died on Sept. 15. He kept the memory green in Fort Worth for many years, founding The Sherlock Holmes Birthday Commission in 1979, and in 1980 The 1st Bangalore Pioneers (in which he served as acting Colonel, succeeding the late Colonel Sebastian Moran), and he was active in Civil War reenactments, his and imaginative Christmas greetings to Sherlockians were envelopes sent each year from Texas cities and towns with Canonical names, from Moran (1977) and Moulton (1978) to Cleveland (1993) and Athens (1994). David's mother has donated his Sherlockian collection to the Uni- versity of Minnesota. William Hyder's FROM BALTIMORE TO BAKER STREET is a fine collection, with thirteen pieces, four being essays reprinted from The Baker Street Journal and Baker Street Miscellanea, plus other essays and dramatizations from the Sherlockian weekends held annually at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Philip Shreffler describes Bill's "The Martha Myth" as one of the two best papers published in the BSJ during Philip's editorship, and it is only one of the items that ably demonstrate Bill's style and skill and humor. The 216-page book costs $27.00 postpaid from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada. THE SHERLOCK HOLMES JOKE PORTFOLIO is a new item offered by Cadds Printing (59 Lancaster Avenue, West Norwood, London SE27 9EL, London); there are 32 black-and-white cartoons by Peter Rochford, with captions by Hugh Scullion and Joel Senter, looseleaf in a leatherette cover for $35.00 postpaid, or $9.00 postpaid as a stapled booklet. US dollar checks are welcome, if made payable to Mrs. Ferrara. Jerry Margolin recommends a series of fantasy novels by Brian Lumley called NECROSCOPE, and notes that the latest volume is NECROSCOPE: THE LOST YEARS (New York: Tor Books, 1995; $23.95) (and due in paperback next year); Harry Keogh is the hero, who can talk with the dead and is searching for a serial killer who believes he's a werewolf, and whose name is Arthur Conan Doyle Jamieson. The fall 1995 issue of The Armchair Detective has an excellent tribute to the late John Bennett Shaw in the "Report from 221B Baker Street" by Sherry Rose-Bond and Scott Bond, and an interesting exploration "In the Footsteps of Peculiar Companions: From Doyle to Dexter" by Cushing Strout. $31.00 a year (quarterly); 129 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019-3808. Skeletons in the Closet (1104 North Mission Road, Los Angeles, CA 90033) is run by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office to raise funds for the local Youthful Drunk Driving Program, and continues to offer imaginative merchan- dise that includes "Sherlock Bones" (a skeleton in appropriate costume) on T-shirts, tote bags, playing cards, and mugs, and they have an illustrated sales list (funds are used to support the Youthful Drunk Driver Visitation Program, which is an alternative sentencing option in the Los Angeles area. Dec 95 #5 As reported earlier, Bouchercon 28 will be in Monterey, Calif., on Oct. 30-Nov. 2, 1997. And Mike Kean reports that The Dioge- nes Club of the Monterey Peninsula has been asked to put together one or two Sherlockian sessions. If you're planning to attend the convention and would like to participate in the Sherlockian agenda, please get in touch with Mike (3040 Sloat Road, Pebble Beach, CA 93953). Ramesh C. Madan has reported that Dr. G. Krishnamurthi died in 1993. He was an orthopedist who had "boned up thoroughly on Holmesiana" according to an article in the [Madras] Indian Express (July 11, 1988), and had studied in Edinburgh as Conan Doyle had. Dr. Krishnamurthi established a Sherlock Holmes Museum in Mylapore, and he founded The Sherlock Holmes Society of Madras (which was dissolved when he died). Philip R. Brogdon's SHERLOCK IN BLACK: BEING PROFILES OF PAST AND PRESENT REAL LIFE SHERLOCKIANS covers a wide range: actors from Bert Williams to Marcia Hewitt, entertainers from The Coasters to Wah Wah Watson, namesakes, and many more. The 29-page pamphlet is available for $11.00 postpaid from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada. Catherine Cooke reports that the Criterion Bar in Piccadilly, which closed a few months ago, has now reopened, and looks more Victorian than ever (and the plaque honoring Watson's meeting with Stamford is still there); the new owner is Marco Pierre White, a young and trendy chef who has three Michelin stars, so the restaurant is now even less likely than in the past to be the haunt of impoverished invalided-out Army doctors. Harlan L. Umansky ("Jonathan Small") died on Nov. 20. He served for many years as a high school principal in New Jersey, and was one of the founders of Mrs. Hudson's Cliffdwellers. He was a scholar and an enthusiastic coll- ector, and received his Investiture in The Baker Street Irregulars in 1981. His most recent contribution to The Baker Street Journal was an article in the Sept. 1991 issue on echoes from the Bible in our Canon. C. H. Liddiard has forwarded to alt.fan.holmes a report in The Times (Dec. 11) that "A 30-ton granite rock on Hound Tor, Dartmoor, which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said inspired his story 'The Hound of the Baskervilles', has been toppled and smashed by a gang of youths thought to be trying to start a landslide." Dick Rutter has recommended THE ADVENTURES OF HUXTABLE HOLMES AND SPROCKET WATSON, by Glen Frank (Acworth: Huxtable Press, 1993; 84 pp. $9.95); Hux- table and Sprockett are teddy bears, and solve three cases (for kids aged 8-12). The book is available from Laissez Faire Books, 938 Howard Street, Fan Francisco, CA 94103 (800-362-0996); $13.20 postpaid. William H. D. Cotrell Jr. died on Dec. 22. He was Walt Disney's right-hand man, beginning his career as a cameraman and in 1952 heading the division that designed and built Disneyland. According to the obituary published in the Los Angeles Times, he was an avid Sherlock Holmes fan, and was credited with suggesting the idea that led to the animated feature "The Great Mouse Detective" (1986); it is more likely, one suspects, that Cotrell suggested that the studio make a film based on Eve Titus' "Basil of Baker Street". Dec 95 #6 Malcolm Payne reports that the Crowborough Town Council plans to include a life-size bronze statue of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the new Town Centre (and "the best-known and most-reputable sculptors" will be asked to submit drawings); funds for the statue will be raised by donation, and details are available from David Harris, The Town Hall, Crow- borough, East Sussex, England. Joe Coppola has spotted "A Very Curious Desk Caddy Indeed" in Wood Magazine (Jan. 1996): the article has full-sized patterns and detailed instructions for making a handsome Sherlockian desk caddy (all you need is some walnut, cedar, maple, mahogany, translucent plastic, tools, and skill). 1912 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50309-3379; $4.95. Sophisticated Shirts (8712 East 33rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46226) (800- 259-7283) offer a wide variety of "genius" T-shirts and sweatshirts, with one of them showing Watson and Holmes on the front and Moriarty on the back (artwork by Sidney Paget); white-on-black, sizes M/L/XL/XX; postpaid prices are $21.00 (T-shirts) and $34.00 (sweatshirts). Reported: THE WINGED WHEEL, a new pastiche by Peter H. Wood; available from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada; $27.00 post- paid. Joan Wood's recipes from Mrs. Hudson's Kitchen have been featured in many issues of the Communications from The Pleasant Places of Florida, and she now offers MRS. HUDSON'S HANDBOOK OF SHERLOCKIAN COOKERY, BOOK NO. 2 (49 pp.) for $10.00 postpaid ($15.00 outside the U.S.); Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222-0740. Bernie O'Heir notes some interesting prices at an auction of old movie pos- ters at Sotheby's in New York on Dec. 7: $6,037 (including the 15% buyer's premium) for a French two-panel poster (94 x 63") for "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1939), and $1,380 for a three-sheet poster (41 x 81") for "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror" (1942). Tom Galbo reports news from BDD Audio, the American marketer of cassettes with the BBC Radio 4 series starring Clive Merrison and Michael Williams: THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, VOL. I was released in April, VOL. II is due this month, and VOL. III in June 1996; each volume has two cassettes and four stories, and the price should be about $16.00 per volume. Some British financial news, with a few familiar names: the Granada Group (which owns Granada Television, which produced the Jeremy Brett series), has launched a L3.4 billion hostile takeover bid for Forte (which owns and operates restaurants and hotels that include the Ritz in Madrid, the George V in Paris, the Hyde Park Grosvenor House in London, and the Travelodge chain in the United States). And Forte, attempting to generate some quick cash now for shareholders, plans to sell its British restaurants and hotels to Whitbread (which owns and operates The Sherlock Holmes pub in London) for L1 billion. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org)