Jan 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The birthday festivities in New York suffered only a brief blizzard on Fri- day afternoon, and almost everyone traveling that day got to evening events almost on time. The weather was much nicer on Thursday both for the Chris- topher Morley Walk and for the BSI's Distinguished Speaker Lecture, which featured Owen Dudley Edwards, who both entertained and enlightened a large audience at the Williams Club with his talk on "Dr. Watson: Portrait of a Genius". And (for those up early enough on Friday) the first event was nationwide: Edward Lear reports that during the "Today" show on NBC-TV, Matt Lauer and Al Roker were outside with the audience, and Roker said that they wanted to announce a birthday of someone who was 145 years old today. With that they panned to Lauer, who was wearing a deerstalker and said it was the birthday of Sherlock Holmes. Lauer then had the camera turn to a man in the crowd who also was wearing a deerstalker (David R. McCallister, of The Pleasant Places of Florida, Wanda and Jeffery Dow note). The Hotel Algonquin provided a fine meal for the Mrs. Hudson Breakfast on Friday morning, and the William Gillette Luncheon at Moran's Chelsea Sea- food Restaurant was as always a splendid event, with the Friends of Bogie's (aka Andrew Joffe, Sarah Montague Joffe, and Paul Singleton) presenting a tour of "Sister Wendy's World of Sherlock". And Otto Penzler's traditional open house at the Mysterious Bookshop was a nice opportunity for collectors to browse and buy. The Baker Street Irregulars assembled at the Union League Club, which is a new venue, and a fine one indeed (and not just because it's closer to mid- town), and joined Otto Penzler in his toast to Deborah Fusco as *the* Woman during the pre-dinner cocktail party (Debbie went on to dine at the Algon- quin with many of the other ladies who have received that honor). The evening's entertainment featured the usual traditions, and presenta- tions that included a report by George Fletcher and Jon Lellenberg on the venues of past annual dinners, an explanation by John Linsenmeyer of why Charles Augustus Milverton should be Canonized, a frantic debate on the best and worst stories in the Canon (frantic because each side had to be both pro and con), and a tribute by Dan Posnansky to the late James Keddie (pŠre and fils, as they chose to be known in Boston and in the BSI). And there was enthusiastic applause for New York governor George Pataki, who had appointed Al Rosenblatt to the Court of Appeals, and on Jan. 5 had presided over Al's swearing-in ceremony, and was the first state governor to attend a BSI annual dinner (mention was made of the fact that New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been a Sherlockian and had gone on to serve as president of the United States, but the governor did not seize the opportunity to announce his future plans). Mike Whelan (the BSI's "Wiggins") awarded this year's Birthday Honours of Irregular Shillings and Investitures to Marilyn MacGregor ("V.V. 341"), Paul Jeffers ("Wilson Hargreave"), Bill Dorn ("The Newgate Calendar"), June Kinnee ("Miss Hatty Doran"), and Les Klinger ("The Abbey Grange"). Jan 99 #2 The Baskerville Bash also took place on Friday evening, again at La Belle Epoque and with a capacity crowd, and with enter- tainment by The Grimpen Mire Choir and the Sherlettes, Will Walsh explain- ing his Seventeen-Step Program for Recovering Sherlockians (you start by admitting that Sherlock Holmes is fictional), Elliott Black performing his mystifying mentalism act ("The Sherlock Holmes of Thought"), and presenta- tions by Rosemary Michaud and Brad Keefavuer. On Saturday morning the dealers' room (at the Algonquin) was as always full of dealers and a wide variety of Sherlockiana to delight eager browsers and collectors. And the Saturday-afternoon cocktail party at the National Arts Club featured Jay and Trish Pearlman's spectacular miniature recreation of the sitting-room at 221B Baker Street, displayed for the first time for a Sherlockian audience. Al Rosenblatt waxed poetic in his traditional report on the previous even- ing's events, and Mike Whelan announced that Jon Lellenberg was the winner of the Morley-Montgomery Award (an attractive certificate and a check for $500) for the best contribution to last year's Baker Street Journal (the BSJ's Christmas Annual history of the 1940 BSI annual dinner). And Beverly Wolov read her poem honoring *the* woman, commissioned as a new tradition at the previous evening's dinner at the Algonquin for *the* woman. The Dr. John H. Watson Fund benefited from June Kinnee's energetic market- ing of raffle tickets for an attractive portrait-in-oils of Sherlock Holmes that was painted by Franklin Moody in 1979 and kindly donated to the raffle by Ken Lanza and Altamont's Agents, and from the generosity of bidders in the auction, which included treasures such a sheet of the Sherlock Holmes stamps and the set of first day covers issued by Nicaragua in 1973, donated from Ted Schulz's collection by Vinnie Brosnan. The festivities continued into the evening, but on a more informal basis, with The Canonical Capricorns celebrating Sherlock Holmes and others born under that sign, and with some going off to theaters or getting into other mischief. And for the hardy souls who stayed on, or perhaps up, until Sun- day noon, the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes had arranged a Sherlockian brunch at the Landmark Tavern. I've not reported on everything, I hasten to add; if you want more details than fit into print here, it is quite likely that there will be much longer reports in the March issue of The Baker Street Journal (quarterly, $21.00 a year, and the address is Box 465, Hanover, PA 17331). The BSJ's Christmas Annual for 1998 still is available ($6.00 postpaid, from the same address); "Entertainment and Fantasy" is the title that Jon Lellenberg chose, and it is apt indeed for his appreciative and amusing look at what the Irregulars were up to way back when. The Dr. John H. Watson Fund offers financial assistance to all Sherlockians (membership in the BSI is not required) who might otherwise not be able to participate in the weekend's festivities, and contributions of interesting and unique items for the raffle and the auction are always welcome. If you have something you would like to donate to this worthy cause, you are cor- dially invited to write to Michael F. Whelan, Box 2189, Easton, MD 21601. Jan 99 #3 "What is your favorite occupation?" "Being an entertainer." "When and where were you happiest?" "Right now!" "What is your greatest regret?" "I could have been a contender." "What do you most value in your friends?" "Love." "Who is your favorite hero of fiction?" "Sherlock Holmes." Those were some of the questions and answers in Tony Bennett's "Proust Questionnaire" in Vanity Fair (Dec. 1998). "His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have equalled," Watson reported (in "A Scandal in Bohemia"). And this year the postal service celebrates the Year of the Hare. This year may be the year of "The Lost World" on television: "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World" premiered on The Movie Network in Canada on Jan. 4 (the 93-minute television film was produced in Canada and is only, loosely based on Conan Doyle's book, set in Mongolia in 1934, directed by Bob Keen, and starring Patrick Bergin as Challenger); a different two-hour film has been completed by the Telescene Film Group (produced by John Lan- dis and directed by Richard Franklin, it is targeted for the Action Adven- ture Network, with plans for a spin-off series of twenty one-hour shows); and there was a report last year suggesting that the BBC is considering a production starring Brian Blessed as Challenger. The John Landis television film stars Peter McCauley as Challenger; he has been an actor at least since 1979, and had a supporting role in the televi-sion mini-series "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1987) that starred Michael Caine as Capt. Nemo, and the film was made in Australia and will be seen on DirecTV (that's a direct broadcast satellite service with 4.6 million sub-scribers); the film debuts on Feb. 1 and will be available through Mar. 10, and subscribers will pay $2.99 if they want to watch the film. It's really difficult to make a dinosaur film now, since Steven Spielberg has set a standard difficult to match; the Canadian film doesn't begin to do justice to Conan Doyle's story, and the actors aren't up to what story there is, and the dinosaurs aren't much better than the actors. The real problem, perhaps, is that producers don't understand, and thus ignore, the humor in Conan Doyle's tale. It was in 1979 that Sherlock Holmes went on display at the National Museum of Air and Space at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and I'm glad to report that he's still there, in the exhibit on "Exploring the Planets" on the second floor of the museum, with Sidney Paget artwork and an appro- priate quote from the Canon. An interesting book for those who collect foreign-language Sherlockiana: MY DEAR WATSON, by Margaret Park Bridges; it won the second prize in Suntory's mystery-fiction competition in 1992 and it was translated into Japanese and published by Bungei Shunju, and as far as I know it is the only Sherlockian novel to have been written in English, and published in Japanese but not in English. Masamichi Higurashi reports that it's also unusual for a Sherlock Holmes pastiche to win a prize in the competition. Jan 99 #4 Spotted by Jerry Margolin: A STUDY IN SCARLET (1998), a graphic novel published by Thorby Comics ($6.95); it contains reprints of "The Singular Case of the Anemic Heir!" (artwork by Anton Caravana) from The Rook (Aug. 1981) and "A Study in Scarlet" (artwork by Noly Panaligan) from The Rook (Feb. 1982 and Apr. 1982) and Eerie (Jan. 1983), with strong new cover art by Mark Evans. Elic Denbo ("The Ferrers Documents") died on Mar. 9, 1998. He was an oph- thalmologist, and for many years a member of The Sons of the Copper Beeches (in which he held the rank of Master Copper Beechsmith). He received his Investiture from the Baker Street Irregulars in 1974. Lois McMaster Bujold was the guest of honor at the New England Science Fic- tion Association's annual convention in 1996, and one of Boskone's pleasant traditions is publishing a collection of the honoree's work. DREAMWEAVER'S DILEMMA (NESFA Press, 1995; 250 pp.) still is available in the trade paper- back edition ($14.00 postpaid), and it includes "The Adventure of the Lady on the Embankment" (kindly noted by Alexandra Haropulos); it's a Sherlock- ian pastiche, written after the author graduated from college and hitherto unpublished. The publisher's address is Box 809, Framingham, MA 01701 (and credit-card orders are welcome). The Pequod's poet laureate has begun the New Year with STIX & STONES, fea- turing poetic tributes to Tom Stix and perhaps (the poet hedges) a revised version of his own now-out-of-date epitaph; the cost is $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper) from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. Among my Christmas presents: THE MISSING NOSE FLUTE AND OTHER MYSTERIES OF LIFE, by Nick Bantock (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1991; $8.95); repro- ductions of 22 oversize antique postcards with bizarre captions supplied by Bantock (and one of them is Sherlockian, of course). And a canvas bookbag from Waldenbooks with the quote "It is a great thing to start life with ... really good books which are your very own," credited to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The quote is from his THROUGH THE MAGIC DOOR (1907), and the three dots replace "a small number of" (one can of course understand why Walden- books thought it best to leave that out). Susan Conant's THE BAKER STREET REGULARS (Feb 98 #4) is scheduled in a pap- erback reprint from Bantam Books in February ($5.99); amateur sleuth Holly Winter and her malamutes Rowdy and Kimi get involved with some Boston Sher- lockians, an animal psychic, and a murder. The latest issue of Scarlet Street offers the second part of David Stuart Davies' report on Edward R. Murrow's interview with Basil Rathbone on "Per- son to Person" on CBS-TV on Jan. 11, 1957, and as always coverage of other aspects of the mystery-and-horror genre. The magazine costs $35.00 a year (bimonthly); Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452, And there's a web-site at . Reported by Julie McKuras: Baker Street Pens ("our unique pewter pens are topped with finely crafted figurines depicting Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Professor Moriarty"), $39.95 each in the new spring catalog from What on Earth (2451 Enterprise East Parkway, Twinsburg, OH 44087 (800-945-2552). Jan 99 #5 "Clinton Describes Terrorism Threat for 21st Century" was the headline on a story in the N.Y. Times (Jan. 22, 1999), report- ing on an Oval Office interview with reporters Judith Miller and William J. Broad the day before. And it's obvious that the President knows the Canon: "he hoped a major legacy of his Presidency would be to stave off unconven- tional attacks. He said he would be delighted if, decades later, Americans look back on any such threat as 'the dog that didn't bark.'" "I would never have overlooked such a cock pheasant as that," Holmes told Watson (in "The Three Garridebs"); our latest post- card-rate stamp shows a ring-necked pheasant (and we can use it for a while longer since that rate hasn't gone up). Don Hobbs reports THE 50 GREATEST MYSTERIES OF ALL TIME, edited by Otto Penzler (Los Angeles: Dove Books, 1998; 567 pp., $25.00); the con- tents include "The Red-Headed League" and Vincent Starrett's "The Adventure of the Unique Hamlet" (Otto says in his introduction that if it wasn't for a limit of one story per author, there would have been more Sherlock Holmes stories). Dr. Watson's Neglected Patients (the Sherlockian society in Denver) offer their sales-list of society collectibles: their handbook, lapel pin, book- marks, T-shirts, and sweatshirts. The sales list is available from Mark Langston (1143 South Monaco Parkway, Denver, CO 80224) or from Bill Dorn . Michael Pointer died on Dec. 26, 1998. He was one of earliest enthusiasts to investigate Sherlock Holmes on stage and screen, and contributed his ex- pertise to the catalog of the exhibition at Abbey House during the Festival of Britain in 1951, and gladly and quickly joined The Sherlock Holmes Soci- ety of London. His fine series of articles on "Which of You Is Holmes?" in The Sherlock Holmes Journal were expanded into THE PUBLIC LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1975) and THE SHERLOCK HOLMES FILE (1976), both delightful explora- tions of theatrical Sherlockiana, and he went on to expand his reach in THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1991), another excellent contribution to our literature. Spotted by Jim Suszynski: THE NATURALIST'S HANDBOOK: ACTIVITIES FOR YOUNG EXPLORERS, by Lynn Kuntz (Layton: Gibbs Smith, 1996; 64 pp., $14.95, but now $4.98 on the discount tables); Sherlockian artwork by Michael Moran on the cover and inside the book. "Sherlock Holmes & the League of Night" is the mystery that Holmes and Wat- son and participants in the next "Victorian Holmes Weekend" will attempt to solve on Mar. 12-14 in Cape May. The weekend includes a tour of the town's Victorian homes, and additional details are available from the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, Box 340, Cape May, NJ 08204 (609-884-5404) (800-275- 4278) . David R. McCallister's "Periodic Table of the Sherlock Holmes Adventures" is an amusing, artistic, and informative approach to organizing the Canon; it's 14 x 8.5 in., printed in six colors, and it's available for $6.00 post-paid from David at 8142 Quail Hollow Boulevard, Wesley Chapel, FL 33544. Jan 99 #6 One of the more interesting things about the Internet is the electronic auction ongoing at eBay , where Amy Brinkley noted the recent offer of a program from the Wyndham Theatre pro- duction of "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" signed by both Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke (accompanied by a letter of provenance and a photograph of the seller with Brett and Hardwicke). And the final price was $880 (demon- strating why some collectors like to get signatures on things). THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 1998 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998; 343 pp., $27.50) is edited by Sue Grafton and Otto Penzler and contains 20 fine stories that were first published in 1997, one of them John T. Lescroart's pastiche "The Adventure of the Giant Rat of Sumatra" (reprinted from Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine). The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond is displaying 50 sketches and finished drawings of horses by Sherlock Holmes' great-granduncle. "Fiery Steeds: French Romantic Studies by Carle Vernet from the Ritzenberg Collec- tion" runs through Mar. 14, and the museum's at 2800 Grove Avenue (804-367- 0844) . Warren Randall created a new lapel pin for this year's (third annual) Baskerville Bash; it's shown here actual size, and it costs $15.00 postpaid (his address is 15 Fawn Lane West, South Setauket, NY 11720). Charles Prepolec has reported that K. C. Brown's two-act play "Sherlock's Veiled Secret" (1994) is being performed at the Pleiades Theatre in Calgary through Feb. 14; Sherlock Holmes comes out of retirement to solve a blackmail case. Box 2100, Station M #73, Calgary, AB T2P 2M5, Canada (403-221-3708). And a few commercials: the revised 15-page list of Investitured Irregulars, Two-Shilling Awards, *The* Women, and the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes costs $1.20 postpaid. The 79-page list of 751 Sherlockian societies, with names and addresses for contacts for the 433 active societies, costs $4.20 postpaid. A run of address labels for 362 individual contacts (recommended if you wish to avoid making duplicate mailings to people who are contacts for more than one society) costs $10.40 postpaid. Checks payable to Peter E. Blau, please. For the electronically enabled, the 15-page list of Irregulars and others is available from me by e-mail (no charge), and both lists are available at Willis G. Frick's "Sherlocktron" web site at . Also available free on the Web are Linda Anderson's digital photographs of various and sundry celebrants at the birthday festi- vities, at . The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Feb 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Further to the report (Jan 99 #3) on the latest version of "The Lost World" starring Peter McCauley as Challenger: after the broadcast on DirecTV from Feb. 1 to Mar. 10, the two-hour film will air on TNT cable on Apr. 11. The spin-off one-hour series (same actors) is in production, and will start on DirecTV in July, and will be available for syndication this fall. Spotted by Jim Suszynski: A TREASURY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Dove Audio): "The Six Napoleons" and "The Crooked Man" read by Ben Kingsley on a single "sel- ect sound buys" cassette ($1.98); this was part of a four-cassette set that was first issued in 1988. Dove's toll-free number is 800-328-3683. TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU MAD is a new series, reprinting the earlier issues of Mad; Jack Kerr spotted #6 (spring 1999) with full-color reprints of original issues #16-18, including the classic "Shermlock Shomes in The Hound of the Basketballs" from the Oct. 1954 issue and a Sherlockian panel in "Julius Caesar!" from the Nov. 1954 issue; $3.99. Robert W. Hahn ("Colonel Ross") died on Feb. 4. He was a credit manager by profession, and a Sherlockian both by vocation and avocation: he lectured at conferences and taught courses in Sherlock Holmes, and he was a sparking plug in the S'ian world in Chicago (where he served nine terms as Sir Hugo in Hugo's Companions and founded their running of The Silver Blaze), con- tinuing his S'ian activities after he retired to Sheboygan, Wis., proudly playing the butler in the local community players' adaptation of William Gillette's play in 1987. He received his Investiture from the Baker Street Irregulars in 1963, and the BSI's Two-Shilling Award in 1981. Reported by Christopher Roden: MYSTERY & SUSPENSE WRITERS, edited by Robin Winks (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998; 1,296 pages, $225.00); two volumes of essays on past and present writers, including a 30-page essay on Arthur Conan Doyle by Owen Dudley Edwards. Barnes & Noble continues to reprint older books under its own imprint: Gas- ton Leroux's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, with reprints of two articles about the Phantom's Sherlockian connections (David Rush's "Holmes and the Opera Ghost" and Barbara Goldfield's "Sherlock Holmes Meets the Living Corpse"), first published in 1988 (now $5.98); and Terry Jones' LADY COTTINGTON'S PRESSED FAIRY BOOK, with artwork by Brian Freud (these fairies definitely are not those photographed at Cottingley in 1917, but the book is delight- fully macabre), first published in 1997 (now $12.95). Sorry about that: the correct URL for Willis Frick's "Sherlocktron" website (Jan 99 #6), where the 15-page list of Irregulars and others, and the lists of the Sherlockian societies, can be viewed by the electronically-enabled is . Reported by Jon Lellenberg: MEMBRANES: METAPHORS OF INVASION IN NINETEENTH- CENTURY LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND POLITICS (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1999; 248 pp., $49.00); Otis "examines how the image of the biologi- cal cell became one of the reigning metaphors of the nineteenth century," and there's a chapter on "Arthur Conan Doyle: An Imperial Immune System". Feb 99 #2 Huntz Hall died on Jan. 30. He made his broadway debut at the age of three months, worked in vaudeville and radio serials in his boyhood, and went to Hollywood at the age of 16 to be one of the Dead End Kids, and then one of the Bowery Boys. He can be seen with deerstalker and calabash playing Sach Jones in "Hard Boiled Mahoney" (1947), "Private Eyes" (1953), and the last film in the series, "In the Money" (1958). Tur- ner Classic Movies has announced that it will salute Hall by broadcasting 48 Bowery Boys films beginning in June. The Playmates 9-inch "Star Trek" collector-series figure of Data in Sher- lockian costume (Mar 98 #3) is now scheduled for release in June, exclus- ively in Target stores, likely priced at $17.99. The list of Sherlockian pastiches mentioned in novels written by non-Sher- lockian authors is short indeed, but you can add John Sandford's THE NIGHT CREW (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1997) (Berkley, 1998). Andrew Blau spotted the mention: "Later that night, with Glass asleep in his bed, Creek sat in his cluttered living room reading SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE RED DEMON. He turned the last page, sighed, put the book down and his feet up." Reported by Don Pollock: DETECTION AND ITS DESIGNS: NARRATIVE AND POWER IN 19TH CENTURY DETECTIVE FICTION, by Peter Thoms (Athens: Ohio Univ. Press, 1998; 160 pp., $32.95); the author uses Conan Doyle as one of several early detective-fiction authors, and devotes a chapter to "The Hound of the Bas- kervilles". Reported by George Schenk: THE MODERN SHERLOCK HOLMES: AN INTRODUCTION TO FORENSIC SCIENCE TODAY (London: Broadside Books, 1991), by Judy Williams; with Sherlockian artwork on the cover, and a Canonical quote and a Paget illustration with each chapter, the book is based on a BBC World Service radio series that brought up to date "the meticulous detection methods set down by Sherlock Holmes 100 years ago" (now discounted to $5.98 at Barnes & Noble). The Dec. issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota has excellent articles about David L. Hammer and James Montgomery, and other news of what's going on at the Library. You can join the mailing list by writing to Richard J. Sveum (466 O. M. Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) . Plan well ahead: the Sunshine State Sherlockian Scion Symposium II will be held in St. Pete Beach on June 9-11, 2000. If you would like to be on the mailing list, write to Carl L. Heifetz (3693 Siena Lane, Palm Harbor, FL 34685) . William Gillette's play "Sherlock Holmes" was first performed in 1899, and The Blustering Gales from the South-West will hold a conference on Mar. 27 at the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society Clubhouse in North Hollywood to honor the centenary. The day-long event will include guest speakers, two meals, and a performance of the play; additional information is available from Paula Salo (4421 Pacific Coast Highway, Torrance, CA 90505) and at the society's web-site at . Feb 99 #3 Caliber Comics has begun a new series called SHERLOCK HOLMES READER. The contents of the first issue ($3.95) include the first installment of "The Loch Ness Horror" (with story by Martin Powell and artwork by Seppo Makinen), and reprints of "A Case of Identity" and Barrie's "The Adventure of the Two Collaborators"; Caliber's at 225 North Sheldon Road, Plymouth, MI 48170 (888-222-6643) . Laurie R. King's THE MOOR (Jan 98 #6) is now in paperback (New York: Bantam Book, 1999; 369 pp., $5.99); it's the fourth novel about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, and Laurie has done a fine job with the time and place and characters, as well as with the mystery. Herman Herst, Jr. ("Colonel Emsworth, V.C.") died on Jan. 31. He began his as a stamp dealer in the 1930s and became the philatelic world's best-known dealers and collectors. Pat (he was born on St. Patrick's Day) was a fine writer and a delightful story-teller; his philatelic pastiche "Dirty Pool" Was published in the Baker Street Journal in June 1966, and he received his Investiture from the Baker Street Irregulars in 1968. He also found inter- esting philatelic connections for Arthur Conan Doyle, whose uncle Richard designed the first commercial Christmas greeting in 1840 (a caricature of the prepaid Mulready envelope), and whose father Charles was an artist for the Illustrated London Times at the trial of Madeleine Smith in Edinburgh in 1857 (a smudged postmark helped win a verdict of "not proven"). John Chaffin reports that "Another Evening with Sherlock Holmes" will open at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre on Aug. 31 and run through Oct. 23 (with dramatizations of "The Red-Headed League", "A Scandal in Bohemia", and "The Dancing Men"); 8204 Highway 100, Nashville, TN 73221) (615-646-9977) (800- 282-2276) . "Our noisy friend upon the sofa has assured me that it is from Franz Joseph's special cellar at the Schoenbrunn Palace," Sherlock Holmes said (in "His Last Bow"). Ben Wood spotted a new set of United Nations stamps honoring the Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens; the Palace was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1996. The palace and gardens are open to the public, but the tour may not include the special cellar. Many hotel chains have magazines now, just like the airlines (although they probably aren't called in-bed magazines). Connie Steffan reports that the contents of the Dec. 1998 issue of Navigator (Holiday Inn Express) included Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Tale of the Gloria Scott". Francine Kitts reports that the Morgan Library (at 29 East 36th Street in New York) has an exhibit of "Detectives, Private Eyes, and Spies" through May 5; it includes a first edition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, and at least one other Sherlockian book (with an accompanying mention of the Baker Street Irregulars in Christopher Morley's essay "On Belonging to Clubs"), and treasures such as the manuscript of Wilkie Collins' THE MOONSTONE. A "Murder at the Morgan" film series accompanying the exhibit includes "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970) at 3:00 pm on Mar. 21. Feb 99 #4 John Addison died on Dec. 7, 1998. He began writing music for theater and film in the 1950s, scoring more than 70 films, and he won an Oscar for "Tom Jones" (1963) and an Emmy for the theme music for the "Murder, She Wrote" television series. His other credits included the "detective" theme music for Douglas Wilmer's "The Speckled Band" on BBC television (1964) and the score for "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" (1976). Noted by Jim Suszynski: HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, MISS HILDY!, by Lois Gramb- ling, illustrated by Bridget Starr Taylor (New York: Random House, 1998; 32 pp., $3.99); a Step into Reading book for grades 1-3, with Miss Hildy as a senior-citizen detective in Sherlockian costume. Reported: Larry Millett's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE ICE PALACE MURDERS (the second of his novel-length pastiches), read by Simon Prebble on an abridged four-audiocassette set from Penguin Audio ($24.95). The Practical, But Limited, Geologists will meet for dinner in honor of the world's first forensic geologist at 7:00 pm on Apr. 14 at Mi Tierra in San Antonio. If you'd like to join us for the festivities, please contact Ben Fairbank (Box 15075, San Antonio, TX 78212) (210-733-8738) or me (addresses at the end of the newsletter). The Sons of the Copper Beeches celebrated their 50th anniver- sary last fall, and published a 24-page collection of essays, poetry, artwork, and history in honor of the event. Copies are available for $8.00 postpaid from Scott P. Bond (519 East Allens Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19119. And the Sons' lapel pin (shown here actual size), which was designed by Scott and (of course) is decorated with a colorful copper beech tree, costs $12.00 post- paid and also is available from Scott (to whom checks should be made pay- able as well as sent). Tyrol International (Box 909, Cleveland, GA 30528) (800-241-5404) offers a miniature (5.5 in. high) Sherlock Holmes nutcracker hand-crafted in Canada by Norbert Zuber from a design by Bernd Nagy (item 78229) ($45.00) [it will make a nice pair with the similar full-size Steinbach nutcracker that was offered more than 20 years ago]. 221B: EN STUDIE I BAKER STREET, by Morgan Malm, offers a careful survey of Baker Street and the many suggested locations for 221B; the 36-page mono- graph (in Swedish) is available for $9.00 (in currency only, please) from Ystads Antikvariat, Box 165, 271 23 Ystad, Sweden. Ystads also offers KRONDIAMANTEN, ELLER EN KVŽLL MED SHERLOCK HOLMES; this is Conan Doyle's play "The Crown Diamond" (translated into Swedish by Ted Bergman) and with a foreword by Mattias Bostrom (also in Swedish) discuss- ing a production of the play in Malmo in 1994, and with photographs from the show. 28 pp., same price (or $16.00 for the two pamphlets). The exhibition of "Jellies: Phantoms of the Deep" at the National Aquarium in Baltimore in 1997-98 (Apr 87 #6) can be seen at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga (423-265-0695) (800-262-0695) through the end of 1999, Jack Kerr notes, and it's a fine (and safe) opportunity to see a lion's mane. Feb 99 #5 Noted by Matt Demakos: VISITORS FROM OZ: THE WILD ADVENTURES OF DOROTHY, THE SCARECROW, AND THE TIN WOODMAN, by Martin Gardner (New York: St. Martin's Press, 208 pp., $22.95); the intrepid trio travel to an alternate-universe Wonderland, where they are assisted by Sheerluck Brown (a large brown private-detective bear wearing a deerstalker), and to New York, where they appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Ezra A. Wolff ("Sir James Damery") died on Feb. 2. He was a surgeon, and was guided into the Sherlockian world by his brother Julian Wolff, and in 1969 Ezra began his delightful tradition of reporting in rhyme at the Sat- urday cocktail party on events at the annual dinner the night before. He read the last of his poems in 1988, noting that "It's nineteen years since I, a beginner, Came to my first BSI Dinner." Ezra received his Investiture in 1972, and the BSI's Two-Shilling Award in 1987, and the Irregulars still honor the tradition he started, thanks to Al Rosenblatt's judicial poetics. The Northern Musgraves offer a metal bookmark that shows Sherlock Holmes as drawn by Peter Cushing (it's the socie- ty's logo); the postpaid cost is L2.00 (Britain) or L3.00 (Europe) or $10.00 (elsewhere). Checks should be payable to The Northern Musgraves, and sent to Anne Jordan (Fair- bank, Beck Lane, Bingley, West Yorks. BD16 3DN, England). Gary L. Heiselberg's PERSONAE DRAMATIS IN LUDIS SHERLOCIENSIBUS follows the trail blazed by Edgar W. Smith in his APPOINTMENT IN BAKER STREET, but Gary has cast his net more widely in offering capsule commentaries on the char- acters and animals named in the Canon. 183 pp., $28.00 postpaid (cloth) or $19.00 (paper) from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada (or you can special-order at Borders bookstores). David McCallister spotted the "leather book collection" in the current cat- alog from the Home Decorators Collection (8920 Pershall Road, Hazelwood, MO 63042) (800-245-2217): furniture featuring multi-colored book facades that include fake "Sherlock Holmes" volumes. A coffee table with two accent ta- bles costs $199.00, and a four-panel screen costs $299.00. Reported: a new Dover Thrift Series edition of A. A. Milne's THE RED HOUSE MYSTERY, with an introduction by Douglas G. Greene (Mineola: Dover, 1998; 156 pp., $2.00); two of the characters assume the roles of Holmes and Wat- son to solve the mystery. The 18th annual Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes Symposium will be held on Mar. 12-14 at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Fairborn, Ohio, with speakers and theatrics and other fun and games. Additional information is available from Greg Sullivan, 39 Sherwood Avenue, Danvers, MA 01923 . A new catalog from femmes fatales offers some intriguing new Sherlockiana, including deerstalker wine stopper, napkin rings, swizzle sticks, and place cards, and Sherlockian bottle openers and corkscrews, and older items, and some interesting non-Sherlockian material. Box 4457, Lakewood, CA 90712 (800-596-3323) . Readers of this newsletter qualify for a 10% discount (the magic word is "Scuttlebutt"). Feb 99 #6 Tangled Web #7 is a 28-page magazine with an article about the Cottingley fairies by Chris Willis, reviews of British myster- ies, and a nice tribute to A. E. W. Mason by Philip L. Scowcroft; available from Andrew Osmond (69 Holm Oak Park, Watford, Herts. WD1 8TH, England) for L2.95 (U.K.) or $6.00 (elsewhere: currency only, please). The Pequod Press' second book of the year is BAKER STREET BAZAAR, with more Sherlockian poetry; the cost is $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper) from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. Sorry about that: the correct title of the new paperback edition of Susan Conant's mystery novel about amateur sleuth Holly Winter and her malamutes Rowdy and Kimi (Jan 99 #4) is THE BARKER STREET REGULARS (New York: Bantam Books, 1999; 272 pp., $5.99). "The Sign of Four" (directed and adapted by Bart Lovins) will be performed by Expanded Arts from May 16 to June 1; the theater is at 85 Ludlow Street, New York, NY 10002 (between Broome and Delancey) and the box-office phone number is (212-253-1813). The company's production of "A Study in Scarlet" last year won praise in a review in The Three Garridebs' newsletter. Our "Celebrate the Century" souvenir sheets have reached the 1940s, and the new sheet includes a stamp honoring the film "Citizen Kane" and Orson Welles, one of the few actors who have played both Sherlock Holmes and Prof. Moriarty. Other stamps show Harry S. Truman (who was a member of the Baker Street Irregulars), and a World War II poster drawn by N. C. Wyeth, who also illustrated some of Conan Doyle's stories. The Sherlock Holmes Society of Australia's lapel pin, first sold more than ten years ago (Apr 88 #6), shows a silhouette of Holmes superimposed on an outline map of Australia, and is available again from Alan C. Olding, P.O. Box 13, Stirling, S.A. 5152, Australia; $15.00 postpaid (personal checks are welcome). "My wife and the other furniture will arrive shortly," Dr. Watson said, in "The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes" (1935). An addition to the list of memor- able lines from Sherlockian movies, spotted by Jane Langston of The Afghan- istan Perceivers of Tulsa. Planning for the unveiling of the statue of Sherlock Holmes in Baker Street this fall continues, with an informal schedule that starts with a tour of Tower Bridge on Sept. 21 and ends with a visit to sculptor John Doubleday's studio in Essex on Sept. 26. And Barbara Herbert has begun work on a pack- age (plane and hotel) for Americans who might participate; you can write or call her at Wayfarer Travel Service (7140 Miami Avenue #100, Cincinnati, OH 45243) (513-271-4637) (800-638-5351) . The electronically-enabled can find a few more details about the festivities at , which is the web-site of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, and I hope to have more information here next month. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Mar 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "Pinkerton Inc., the legendary American detective agency that guarded Abra- ham Lincoln, chased Jesse James, and gave rise to the term 'private eye', is being bought by a Swedish security company," according to a story in the Boston Globe (Feb. 23), spotted by Scott Monty. Securitas AB has agreed to pay $384 million for Pinkerton, which will keep its name, management, and worldwide staff. "We're not losing an icon," Pinkerton's president said. "Pinkerton will remain Pinkerton. We're just trading shareholders." And it's a nice coincidence, of course, that Ettie Shafter was Swedish, at least in The Strand Magazine and in the first British edition of THE VALLEY OF FEAR. In the first American edition, and in the manuscript, Ettie was German; it is likely that the change from German to Swedish was an editori- al decision: Conan Doyle's prophetic story "Danger!" (about Britain's weak- ness if an enemy were to impose a submarine blockade) appeared in the July 1914 issue of the Strand, two months before "The Valley of Fear" began in the magazine. Plan ahead: the third annual Sherlock Holmes Festival on Nov. 5-6 in Tryon, N.C. will again pay tribute to William Gillette; the events will include a performance of his play "Sherlock Holmes", and additional information will be available from the Polk County Travel & Tourism Council, 401 North Trade Street, Tryon, NC 28782 (800-440-7848). Laurie R. King's won an Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America for her first novel, A GRAVE TALENT, and of course copies of the first printing are serious collectibles now, and even more collectible if they're signed. So it was a surprise to Laurie when at a recent book-signing, she was asked to sign a faked copy of the first printing. The faker had photocopied both sides of a proper title page, removed the title page from a later printing, and carefully glued in the photocopy; Laurie might not have detected the forgery, except that the original paper was of better quality than the pho- tocopy paper. And the dedication page (where she was about to sign), has a line of Hebrew, which in the first printing is upside down. Edward Rote and Karen Page offer a wristwatch with a Sherlockian silhouette on the face; $75.00. You can request an illustrated flier from A Sherlock Holmes Occasion, Box 1079, Agoura Hills, CA 91376), or visit their web-site at . Lenny Gray spotted a new comic-book mini-series THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN from America's Best Comics, with story by Alan Moore and striking artwork by Kevin O'Neill. The first issue is dated March ($2.95) and gath- ers Allan Quatermain, Captain Nemo, and C. Auguste Dupin into a league that has been organized by an off-stage Mycroft Holmes. THE WORLD OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Martin Fido (London: Carlton Books, 1998; 144 pp., L14.99), is subtitled "the facts and fiction behind the world's greatest detective," and it's a handsome book indeed, packed with colorful illustrations and offering interesting two-page summaries of the stories, aspects of their author's life, and the world of Sherlock Holmes and Sher- lockians. The books is discounted here at $20.00 by the Adams Media Corp. Mar 99 #2 Michael Avallone died on Feb. 26. He wrote more than 200 books (about half of them using pseudonyms), and was best-known for his "Ed Noon" series. He liked being known as "the fastest typewriter in the east," and once suggested that "a professional writer should be able to write anything from a garden seed catalogue to the Bible." In 1973 he told a reporter for the Daily Express that "I've been writing ever since I dis- covered pencils," and that he was considering writing a thriller that would identify Jack the Ripper as Arthur Conan Doyle. Pam Verrey spotted the "Children of the World" shirts and jackets and tops and totes and mini paks in a cata- log from S.C.R.U.B.S. (8555 Argent Street, Santee, CA 90271) (800-231-5965); $23.00 to $44.00, and one of the children is in Sherlockian costume. Moshe Nalick notes that Ohr Somayach, a Jerusalem-based yeshiva, publishes a weekly newsletter on the Internet, in which Sherlox Holmes and Watstein solve problems in commentary on the Torah. The URL is . Sorry about that: the correct Caliber Comics toll-free number is 888-222-6642. They have launched the series SHERLOCK HOLMES READER (Feb 99 #3), and have back iss- ues of other Sherlockian comics, and there's a web-site at . Dr. Watson was "deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories" (in "The Five Orange Pips"), and David Pearson notes that one of the stories is in print as a paperback: THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR, by William Clark Russell (McBooks Press, 1998, 320 pp.); $11.16 from Barnes & Noble (One Pond Road, Rockleigh, NJ 07647) (800-843-2665) and presumably elsewhere. The English Channel offers Sherlockian chess sets ($897.00), bottlestoppers ($17.00), and matchbox covers ($16.00 or $19.00); and you can write for an illustrated sales list (Vine House, 16 New Street, Ledbury, Herefordshire, HR8 2DX, England) or visit their web-site . Bob Burr reports that in THE FLINTSTONES AND THE JETSONS (from DC Comics, Apr. 1999), Fred Flintstone reads so many Sherock Stones books that he be- comes the character himself. Lynn Willis died on Mar. 7. She was an early member of The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes (as "Laura Lyons"), and an enthusiastic participant in Sherlockian affairs in the New York, including planning for the Baskerville Bashes. "Hot on the Trail of Sherlock Holmes" is the title of David Goodman's arti- cle in Ski Magazine (Mar.-Apr. 1999), but it was Arthur Conan Doyle who did the skiing, in 1894, crossing the Maienfelder Furka from Davos to Arosa, as did Goodman almost exactly 104 years later. The magazine's address is Box 55533, Boulder, CO 80322 (800-678-0817) ; $3.99. Mar 99 #3 MEMBRANES: METAPHORS OF INVASION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERA- TURE, SCIENCE, AND POLITICS, by Laura Otis (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1999; 210 pp., $49.00), uses the century's attitudes toward the spread and prevention of disease as an analogy for colonial pol- itics, with a chapter on "Arthur Conan Doyle: An Imperial Immune System". Dennis France is trying to assemble an archive of all 56 of the stories as broadcast by Carlton Hobbs and Norman Shelley, and lacks only four ("A Case of Identity", The Cardboard Box", "The Illustrious Client", and "The Three Students"); anyone who has any or all of the missing four is invited to get in touch with Dennis (8546 North Kedvale Avenue, Skokie, IL 60076). John L. Goldwater died on Feb. 26. He is survived by Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica, in River- dale, the N.Y. Times noted in its obituary. Gold- man and artist Bob Montana created Archie in 1941, and the strip once ran in 750 newspapers. Archie Andrews and his friends are still in their teens, although now exchanging e-mail, and Archie Comics publishes more than 30 comic books. This panel is from a strip that ran on June 13, 1965, with Jug- head and Archie rehearsing for a "Sheerluck Homes" play at their school. William F. B. Vodrey has written an interesting one-act radio play about "The Adventure of the Grice Patersons" (it will take 35-40 minutes to per- form); copies of the script (with permission for a single performance) cost $15.00 postpaid from the author (3785 Hillbrook Road, University Heights, OH 44118). Alvin E. Rodin ("Palmer) died on Mar. 18. He was for many years a profess- or in the departments of pathology and postgraduate medicine and continuing education at Wright State University's School of Medicine, and combined vo- cation and avocation in careful research and excellent writing about Arthur Conan Doyle's life and career, published in The Baker Street Journal, Baker Street Miscellanea, and other journals. With Jack D. Key he wrote MEDICAL CASEBOOK OF DOCTOR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: FROM PRACTITIONER TO SHERLOCK HOLMES AND BEYOND (1984), offering a fascinating assessment of Sir Arthur's career and the medical aspects of all of his writings, and Al's interest in Conan Doyle continued through many other books, culminating in THE ANNOTATED LOST WORLD (1996), which he wrote with Roy E. Pilot. Al received his membership in The Baker Street Irregulars in 1989. The next Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes Symposium (Mar. 10-12, 2000 in Fairborn, Ohio), will have tributes to Al, who founded the symposium many years ago; if you have thoughts or reminiscences for publication in a book- let that will honor Al, please send them to Greg Sullivan (39 Sherwood Ave- nue, Danvers, MA 01923) . Reported: DINOSAUR SUMMER, by Greg Baer (Jun 93 #3), in a paperback reprint (Aspect, $6.99); it's delightful alternate history, about an expedition to return the survivors of America's last dinosaur circus to the Lost World, Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen along for the fun and games. Mar 99 #4 Les Klinger spotted reviews of two books that may be of inter- est: A MAN'S PLACE: MASCULINITY AND THE MIDDLE-CLASS HOME IN VICTORIAN ENGLAND, by John Tosh (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1999; 288 pp, $30.00); the book considers the decline of the cult of domesticity in late- Victorian times but describes this as a "change in atmosphere" rather than a "full-blown crisis." LILLIE LANGTRY: MANNERS, MASKS AND MORALS, by Laura Beatty (London: Chatto and Windus, 1999; 288 pp., L20.00); recommended by Antonia Fraser as "irresistibly enjoyable" and revealing that Langtry was tutored in Greek and Latin by Oscar Wilde. It certainly isn't the palimpsest that Holmes was studying (in "The Golden Pince-Nez"), but Mary Burke notes that you can see one at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore in an exhibit that opens on June 20. The "Archimedes Palimpsest" is the oldest surviving manuscript of any of his mathematical works; it was written in Greek in the 10th century in Constantinople, and washed by a monk in the Holy Land in the 12th century (so that the parch- ment could be used for something more important), and it was bought for $2 million at an auction last year by a private buyer who has loaned it to the Walters. Both of the texts can now be seen, thanks to modern conservation methods, and the palimpsest already is on display on the World Wide Web at . Leon Falk died on Mar. 13. Better known as Lee Falk, he created the "Mandrake the Magician" comic strip in 1934, and "The Phantom" in 1936 (this panel is from a "Phantom" strip that ran on Mar. 18, 1982). My trial took only seven days, and it was quite inter- esting: the charges involved possession of cocaine and marijuana with intent to distribute, and possession of drug paraphernalia, and the trial was in D.C. Superior Court, and I was on the jury, for the first time ever (in the District of Columbia you are called every two or three years, and you need to spend only one day at the courthouse unless you're selected for a jury), and this was the first time I've ever gotten through the selection process (in the past I've always been unselected, for unstated reasons), and I suspect it was because they were really desperate to get a jury (the jury included two lawyers and two journalists, which is quite unusual). There were four defendants; charges against one were dismissed, and we voted not guilty on one, and couldn't get unanimous votes for guilty on the remaining two. And jury duty is an experience I recommend to everyone, if only because you get to see that real life isn't at all like television or the movies. The March issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota has arrived, with inter- esting articles, and some truly important news: the launch of Ronald B. De Waal's THE UNIVERSAL SHERLOCK HOLMES online at the university's web-site . It is a work-in-progress at the moment (only the first two volumes are available now), but it's a fine taste of things to come. You can join the mailing list for the newsletter by writing to Richard J. Sveum at: 466 O. M. Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) . Mar 99 #5 Ray Russell died on Mar. 15. He was a prolific horror and fan- tasy writer, and his novella "Sardonicus" (1960) was praised by Stephen King as "perhaps the finest example of the modern Gothic ever writ- ten." He joined Playboy magazine as an associate editor in 1954, served as executive editor from 1955 to 1960, and continued as a contributing editor into the 1970s. His satirical pastiche "The Murder of Conan Doyle" (with Foames, Squatson, and Goryarty) appeared in Playboy in Apr. 1955. Roger Moore, who has portrayed Sherlock Holmes (in the 1976 television film "Sherlock Holmes in New York"), as well as Simon Templar and James Bond, is now a Commander of the British Empire, in the latest Queen's honours list. Welcome news for those who have been searching for a copy of A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A. CONAN DOYLE, by Richard Lancelyn Green and John Michael Gibson, which was published by the Oxford University Press in 1980: Richard has been hard at work on corrections and additions for a revised edition to be published soon by Otto Penzler. There won't be room for all of the additions Richard would like to include, he reports sadly, but the bibliography was and will continue to be the very best reference volume for anyone who collects or is interested what Conan Doyle wrote. The Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers will celebrate their 25th anniversary on July 24 at the Westin William Penn (where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stayed in 1923, when it wasn't part of the Westin chain), with a British high tea at noon, presentations and games, and dinner; details are available from Lynda Conway (2330 Bensonia Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15216) (412-563-6985) <76241. 3027@compuserve.com>. Bill Barnes reports that a contest among members of The Sydney Passengers to nominate actors for a new Sherlock Holmes film or television series pro- duced 23 suggestions for the role of Holmes, including Michael Palin, John Waters, and Maggie Smith. And the society's resident artist Philip Cornell has created a group portrait of all the nominees, available for $15.00 or L10.00 or CA$23.00 postpaid from Bill (19 Malvern Avenue, Manly, NSW 2095, Australia) (currency or checks welcome). The Irregular Special Railway Company offers their 1999 prospectus (avail- able from Antony J. Richards, 170 Woodland Road, Sawston, Cambridge CB2 4DX, England), with information about the society and its activities, and their publications and guidebooks and philatelic items and other items such as souvenirs from the Venice-Simplon Orient Express. Sherlock Holmes died on Mar. 19. He lived in Baltimore, according to the death notice spotted by Steve Clarkson in the Baltimore Sun. One of the nice things about the World Wide Web is access to electronic telephone dir- ectories (there are least four of them, and some may have listings that the others don't), and a quick check reveals listings for twelve people named Sherlock Holmes, in Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Texas. Another quick check, for Garridebs, turned up only Nathan (in Missouri) and John (in New York), both of whom are Sherlockians masquerading as Garridebs. The Mormons' data base, which is the largest genealogical resource in the world, has no one named Garri- deb, and the name remains a unique invention by Arthur Conan Doyle. Mar 99 #6 Interesting material continues to turn up at eBay (the Internet auction site), including a complete 18-hole portable miniature golf course, used for only three years. Each of the holes features a life- size movie characters on exterior plywood, including Humphrey Bogart, the Three Stooges, Humphrey Bogart, the Terminator, Jason, and Sherlock Holmes. It cost more than $32,000 new, and the high bid of $510 was lower (quite a bit lower, one might assume) than the reserve. The Canadian National Railway Police were the first organization reported to be using lapel pins with this mustached portrait of Sherlock Holmes with a pipe (Sep 89 #4), which then was copied by other police operations in Canada. Four different pins (for the Canadian National Railway Police, the Canadian Pacific Rail- way Police, the British Columbia Railway Police, and the Coordi- nated Law Enforcement Unit) are available from Paul D. Roy (3874 Winlake Crescent, Burnaby, BC V5A 2G5, Canada) for US$10.00 each postpaid. The CLEU was created in 1974 in British Columbia, combining the "best and brightest" of Royal Canadian Mounted Police and municipal forces to fight drug-smuggling and other organized crime. The design was used in 1989 by HOLMES (the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System used for comput- erized case-management in Britain and acquired by the police in Toronto), but that pin is not included among those now available. Donald J. Grant died on Feb. 7. His career with the state of Connecticut began in 1967, and for many years he was the Department of Environmental Protection Park Supervisor at Gillette Castle State Park in Hadlyme, where he offered hospitality and assistance to local and visiting Sherlockians. If you've seen and enjoyed the sound-film newsreel footage of William Gill- ette showing off his railroad, you're indebted to Don, who found the film and shipped it off to the Library of Congress for preservation. Fred Levin reports some nice news for collectors of foreign translations: you can add Vietnamese to the list of languages, since he has received THAM TU SHERLOCK HOLMES (Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban-Van Nghe TP, 1998) from a kind friend; there are two volumes, and they don't include all 60 stories (so there may be at least one more volume). MYSTERY & SUSPENSE WRITERS, edited by Robin Winks and including a 30-page essay on Arthur Conan Doyle by Owen Dudley Edwards (Feb 99 #1), has been nominated for an Edgar (best critical/biographical work) from the Mystery Writers of America. The Napoleon of Crime is in the news again: Phil Attwell has noted a report by Clive King in The Times (Mar. 13) that Robert Redford's company Wildwood Enterprises has purchased the film rights to Ben Macintyre's 1997 biography of Adam Worth, whose life and crimes contributed to Conan Doyle's portrait of Prof. Moriarty; the book had been optioned earlier by Steven Spielberg's company DreamWorks SKG (Dec 96 #1). King suggested that "for the 62-year- old heart-throb, the movie marks a long overdue return to the lovable-rogue territory of 'The Sting', or 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'." The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Apr 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "And yet I live and keep bees upon the South Downs," said Sherlock Holmes (in "His Last Bow"). And while it's old news in England, I don't recall that it's been reported here: the Countryside Commission decided against national Park status for the South Downs. According to an article in The Times (Apr. 24, 1998), at hand from Chris Redmond, the commission decided that the Downs, from Eastbourne in East Sussex to Winchester in Hampshire, could be best protected by enhancing their existing status as an area of outstanding natural beauty. The commission also welcomed a proposal to give the New Forest a status equivalent to that of National Parks through special legislation. It was Watson, of course, who "yearned for the glades of the New Forest" (in "The Cardboard Box"). Kirk Alyn died on Mar. 14. He began his show-business career as a chorus boy on Broadway and as an entertainer in vaudeville, and launched his film career in 1934; in 1948 he became the first actor to play Superman on film, in serial that ran through 1950, and one of his last film roles was an ap- pearance as young Lois Lane's father in "Superman" (1978). He worked with Jim Harmon on a script written by Ron Haydock for "Curley Bradley's Trail of Mystery" (a radio western series) playing Jonathan Frazier, an actor who played Sherlock Holmes on stage at the Strand Theatre in Grant, Utah, where Moriarty was committing foul play during the town's annual Sherlock Holmes Celebration; unfortunately the episode never aired. Alyn also was to star in an unproduced film "Sherlock Holmes and the Golden Vampire" (planned in 1976 by writer-producer-director Frank R. Saletri, with Keith McConnell as Sherlock Holmes and Alice Cooper as the Vampire). "The Rugrats Movie" (1998) was released on videocassette ($26.95) on Mar. 30 (discounted to $16.95 at Safeway and likely elsewhere); Angelica Pickles appears in the film in a deerstalker (and was seen thus in a wide variety of tie-in merchandise last year). Enrico Solito reports that there will be an exposition on Sherlock Holmes in the Imperial Gardens in Rome from July 10 to Aug. 10, and that his soci- ety (Uno Studio in Holmes) hold a seminar there on July 24-25. More infor- mation is available from Enrico at Via Lazzerini 56, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino F1, Italy , and on the World Wide Web at . John Ruyle has reported that Dr. Fatso has recorded another case of Turlock Loams for the Pequod Press: THE ADVENTURE OF THE FIERY POOL costs $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper) from John, at 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. The Canadian television series "The Adventures of Shirley Holmes" aired on the Fox Family Channel last year (Aug 98 #2), but was suspended after a few weeks. Repeats are now airing sporadically, at 2:00 pm on some Saturdays and Sundays. Meredith Henderson stars as the 12-year-old great grand-niece of Sherlock Holmes (and like him, she is brilliant and eccentric and wants to become the world's greatest detective). Apr 99 #2 Further to last month's note that Robert Redford has bought the film rights to Ben Macintyre's THE NAPOLEON OF CRIME: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ADAM WORTH, MASTER THIEF (Mar 99 #6), BBC News reported that Redford wants Paul Newman to play Worth's nemesis, Allan Pinkerton. This may require a bit of artistic license in the film: Allan Pinkerton died in 1884, and it was to his son William that Worth surrendered Gainborough's portrait of The Duchess of Devonshire in 1901. The Berkshire Theatre Festival's summer season will include Paul Giovanni's "The Crucifer of Blood" from June 24 through July 10. The box office is at Box 797, Stockbridge, MA 01262 (413-298-5536) . And there's more theater ahead: the Village Players plan to produce William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" from Mar. 17 through Apr. 1, 2000; the address of the box-office is Box 712, Birmingham, MI 48012, and the web-site is at . It's "the duelling dinosaurs" (or something like that), and if people were confused when Michael Crichton used "The Lost World" as a title for a book, they'll be even more confused now, since two different two-hour television films about "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World" have aired this year (Jan 99 #3 and Feb 99 #1). Patrick Bergin starred as Professor Challenger in the first film, broadcast on The Movie Network in Canada in January, and Peter McCauley was Challenger in the second film, which aired on DirecTV in February and on TNT cable in April (when TV Guide and the Washington Post announced the Bergin version). The McCauley film is a pilot for a spin-off one-hour series, announced to start on DirecTV in July. Our new sheet of stamps showing the fauna and flora of the Sonoran Desert includes at least three stamps with Canonical connections, one of them being the "venomous lizard or gila" (mentioned in "The Sussex Vampire"). A mail-order catalog from Signals offers a John Cleese video trio: "The Strange Case of the End of Civiliza- tion as We Know It", "Romance with a Double Bass", and "How to Irritate People" on three cassettes ($39.95). Box 64428, St. Paul, MN 55164 (800-669-9696). "The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It" aired on television in Britain in 1977, with Cleese as Arthur Sherlock-Holmes and Arthur Lowe as Dr. William Watson. Lola Troy Fiur offers an imaginative series of mystery-theme photographic note-cards; two of them are Sherlockian (and one of the S'ian photos also is available on a T-shirt). For an illustrated flier, contact LTF Studios, 360 East 65th Street #17-A, New York, NY 10021 . There's still plenty of time to register for Bouchercon (the World Mystery Convention), which will be held in Milwaukee on Sept. 30-Oct. 3, 1999 (Box 341218, Milwaukee, WI 53234) . Next year Bouchercon will be in Denver on Sept. 7-10 (Box 17910, Boulder, CO 90308) . And then Bouchercon will move to Washington, on Nov. 1-4, 2001 (Box 11700, Washington, DC 20008) . Apr 99 #3 The weekly syndicated radio series "Imagination Theater" con- tinues to air 22-minute Sherlock Holmes programs written by Jim French (Jun 98 #4 and Sep 98 #2). Seven S'ian programs have aired so far, and they are available (along with many other shows) on CD or cassette (at $7.99 each postpaid) from TransMedia, 719 Battery Street, San Francisco, CA 94111 (800-227-7234) (credit-card orders welcome). "The Golden Era of the Movies" is a 35 x 14.5 in. print with portraits of more than 120 stars of the 1930s and 1940s by the late George I. Parrish, Jr., who included Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes; the print costs $92.00 postpaid from Bar- wick Publishing (Box 5355, Maryville, TN 37802). The Practical, But Limited, Geologists met at Mi Tierra in San Antonio on Apr. 14, during the annual meeting of the Am- erican Association of Petroleum Geologists, for a dinner hon- oring the world's first forensic geologist. We were welcomed by the local Sherlockians (The Strange Old Book Collectors), and of course approved of the AAPG's journalism award to Sarah Andrews for her four mys- tery novels about Emily Hansen, a petroleum geologist who doubles as a de- tective. We will dine next in October in Denver during the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. John McPhee won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for ANNALS OF THE FORMER WORLD (Jul 98 #1); it's a collection of his four fine books about geology, including BASIN AND RANGE, in which he notes that Sherlock Holmes was the first forensic geologist. "Australian Farmer Breeds Blue Sheep" was the headline a on report from the Associated Press (Apr. 20), spotted by Scott Monty, who notes that Sherlock Holmes could now wear a blue dressing gown made with undyed wool. Nancy Follett, who owns a sheep farm at Sleaford Bay in South Australia, said she 25 years ago with a Sussex-type of ram that had a black face and legs and a dark blue body, and now has bred 100 sheep with fleece ranging from light blue to navy blue. "Some people have accused me of dying the sheep," she said. "That's absolutely not true. I'm not up to chasing sheep around and dipping them into dye." Bill Barnes (19 Malvern Avenue, Manly, NSW 2095, Australia) offers copies of THE HOUNDS' COLLECTION: VOLUME 4, with 80 pages of pastiche, humour and serious writing by members of The Hounds of the Internet; most of the mate- rial is new, but a few items have appeared elsewhere. $12.00 or CA$17.00 or L8.00 postpaid by airmail; or $8.00/CA$11.00/L5.00 postpaid by surface mail. Payment by personal checks or currency is welcome. "Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries" is a new videocassette ($12.99) with four non-Sherlockian episodes from the 1970s animated television series "Scooby- Doo, Where Are You" (and a brief view of the cover of the book "The Hound of Beastville" in one of the short "behind the scenes" segments); the cass- ette box shows Scooby in Sherlockian costume, and is packaged with a photo frame that also shows Scooby in S'ian costume. And completists will want to visit a Dairy Queen: the paper bag for their "Kids Pick-nic!" has S'ian artwork on a coupon for a $2.00 discount when you buy the videocassette. Apr 99 #4 Reported: THE CROWDED BOX-ROOM: A CHECKLIST OF SHERLOCKIAN PUB- LICATIONS AND THEIR PUBLISHERS, by Don Hobbs. 214 pp. in plas- tic comb binding, with the names and dates of more than 420 publications, and the names of associated societies and editors, plus notes, appendices, and an index; available from the author (2100 Elm Creek Lane, Flower Mound, TX 75028) for $31.95 plus shipping costs. John Pforr offers the lapel pin honoring the 50th anniversary of the Six Napoleons of Baltimore; designed by Jeff Decker, the pin is one inch in diameter, and in three colors on a red back- ground, and costs $6.00 postpaid from John (6 Salthill Court, Timonium, MD 21093). Ernie Wise died on Mar. 21. Wise was one of Britain's greatest comedians, best known for his work with Eric Morecambe; they began performing together in 1941, and "The Morecambe and Wise Show" was one of the most popular ser- ies on British television. In 1982 the show features a skit with Morecambe (Holmes) and Wise (Watson) solving a murder mystery with Nigel Hawthorne as the butler (who did do it). Kent State University is not distinguished only for providing an electronic home for The Hounds of the Internet: Bruce Southworth notes that its libra- ries house the Borowitz True Crime Collection, to which Albert and Helen Borowitz continue to donate interesting items, most recently their Arthur Conan Doyle Collection, which features inscribed copies of "The Sign of the Four" in Lippincott's Magazine and of THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, and a copy of THE CAPTAIN OF THE POLE-STAR AND OTHER TALES (1890) with holograph corrections by Conan Doyle. The last item is of particular interest, since Conan Doyle seldom edited his work after publication. The university is in Kent, Ohio. Mary Ann Madden's "New York Magazine Competition" (Apr. 19) invited compet- itors 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. The ex- amples she offered included: "Sherlock Sholem--Israeli detective in relent- less pursuit of his nemesis, Professor Yom Tirra." Further to the report (Dec 98 #2) on plans to create The Undershaw Club in Arthur Conan Doyle's home in Surrey, Scott Lucy reports that the adjacent property has become available, adding greater scope for the project, which now is targeted for completion by the end of 2000. Additional details are available from Lucy at The Undershaw Club, c/o Grannom House, Gasden Lane, Witley, Surrey GU8 5QB, England . I've lived this long because I didn't die," Dirk Struik told the Associated Press when interviewed for a story on centenarians published in the Boston Globe on Apr. 20 and noted by Scott Monty. "I have good friends," Struik said. "I'm healthy. Above all, I'm active." Struik, now 104, was born in the Netherlands, and began teaching mathematics at the Massachusetts Insti- tute of Technology in 1926; his article on "The Real Watson" was published in The Baker Street Journal in Jan. 1947, and one of his activities now is attending the annual dinners of The Friends of Irene Adler in Cambridge, where each year he toasts his fellow mathematician, Professor Moriarty. Apr 99 #5 The New York Public Library celebrated its centennial with a display of one hundred "Books of the Century" (1895-1995), and one of them was THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Jan 96 #8), which also was included in a set of 48 "Books of the Century Knowledge Cards" ($9.95) pro- duced by Pomegranate Publications (Box 6099, Rohnert Park, CA 94927) and available at the Library. The card notes that "This full-length novel is considered one of Conan Doyle's most literary and best-written works." "Meanwhile, patrons of alt.comp.virus, a newsgroup where virus writers and hunters hang out, morphed into virtual Baker Street irregulars," noted the story in Time (Apr. 12) about the successful search for the author of the Melissa macro virus that attacked computers recently. Thanks to Syd Gold- berg for spotting the story. There still are Sherlockians who discovered Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in John Dickson Carr's THE LIFE OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE; that's something rather different from discovering Sherlock Holmes, of course, and it's nice indeed that fifty years later there is a new biography that will help readers old and new learn just how much more there was to Conan Doyle than the stories he wrote about Sherlock Holmes. Daniel Stashower is a fine writer, and his experience as a magician and warm sympathy for Conan Doyle's religious be- lief in spiritualism offers real insight into an area that has quite often been ignored or derided by other biographers. TELLER OF TALES: THE LIFE OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (New York: Henry Holt, 1999; 472 pp., $32.50) shows well just how interesting a man Conan Doyle was, and how much he did (as well as how much fun he had doing it); surely that's what a good biography ought to do. Recommended. Carole Nelson Douglas' GOOD NIGHT, MR. HOLMES (1990) now is available read (and read well indeed) unabridged by Virginia Leishman and Patrick Tull on nine audiocassettes, from Recorded Books, 270 Skipjack Road, Prince Freder- ick, MD 20678 (800-638-1304) , for $67.50 (purchase) or $15,75 (rental); credit-card orders welcome. Laurie R. King's four Mary Russell novels also are available, read by Jenny Sterlin; as well as THE POISON BELT and THE LOST WORLD, and six Canonical books, by other readers. Carol Barnett's "Plotting a Sherlockian Garden" (spotted by Mike Bragg in the June issue of Victorian Homes) is a nicely illustrated and interesting exploration for S'ian botanists; 265 South Anita Drive #120, Orange, CA 92868 (800-999-9718) The U.S. postal service has continued its annual tributes to the stars of Warner Bros. cartoons, this year honoring Daffy Duck, who appeared in "Deduce, You Say!" (1956) as Dorlock Homes (with Porky Pig as Dr. Watkins). The Andaman Islands continue to attract attention: Kathryn Piffat notes an article by Sita Venkateswar on the history of the Andaman Islanders in the May 1999 issue of Scientific American (with a mention of "The Sign of the Four"), and John Clark has forwarded a report from The Times (Apr. 13) that DNA analysis of hair samples taken from Andaman tribesmen by a British an- thropologist in 1907 suggests that the islanders may be descended from the first humans to leave man's African birthplace, 100,000 years ago. Apr 99 #6 Laurie R. King's O JERUSALEM (New York: Bantam Books, 1999; 367 pp., $23.95) is her fifth novel about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, set in early 1919 (just after A BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE) in the Holy Land, with Russell and Holmes in pursuit of a villain who is trying to undo the British conquest. It's nicely done, with some delightful touches, one involving Holmes, in disguise as a Bedouin in an Arab village, listening to someone translate a Sherlock Holmes story from The Strand Magazine. And in an interview with the Internet bookseller Amazon.com, Laurie reports that she has a sixth Mary Russell novel planned, set in England in 1923 and 1924. And that an English producer is interested in a Mary Russell film, but "won't touch anything until the copyright on the Holmes stuff expires in 2001." Laurie will be on a book-signing tour for O JERUSALEM in June; here's the tentative schedule: 1 or 2 Sebastopol, CA, Copperfield's (time not set); 1 or 2 Capitola, CA, Capitola Bookcafe, 7:30 (unconfirmed); 3 Scottsdale, AZ, Poisoned Pen, 12:00; 4 Houston, TX, Murder by the Book, 6:00; 5 Dallas, TX, Mystery Bookstore, 2:00; 6 Louisville, KY, Hawley-Cooke, 2:00; 7 Bethesda, MD, Mystery Bookshop, 6:30-8:00; 8 Washington, DC, MysteryBooks 6:00-7:00; 9 New York, NY, Mysterious Bookshop (time not set). A new set of United National stamps calls attention to endangered species, and one of the stamps shows the long-tailed chinchilla. And, yes, there's an Canonical allusion (in "The Engineer's Thumb"): "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson." The Mysterious Book Shop has issued a 38-page Sherlock Holmes Catalog with 551 items (and that's just A-J); available from the shop, at 129 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019 (800-352-2840) . "Murder in the City: The Classical Detective Story in New York" is sched- uled at the New York Historical Society on May 22-23, with an agenda that feature panels and speakers (including B.J. Rahn and Otto Penzler), a play- reading, and walking tours. Additional details are available from the New York Festival of Mystery, c/o Mercantile Library, 17 East 47th Street, New York, NY 10017 (212-755-5610) . Roger Llewellen first played Sherlock Holmes in Christopher Martin's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" in Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1997, and he'll be Holmes again in a tour of David Stuart Davies' new one-man play "Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act" (opening at the Salisbury Playhouse in Salisbury on May 18-22). The play then tours the provinces, and it will be performed during the Edinburgh Festival on Aug. 6-29, and in London on Sept. 10-Oct. 10. "In the elegant hands of Roger Llewellyn," the Sunday Express noted, "this is Holmes as you've always imagined him: tall, angular and precise, but with a cutting sense of humor." The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) May 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The spring issue of The Magic Door (the newsletter of The Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library) has Cameron Hollyer's article about the collection's letters and postcards written by Conan Doyle to Strand editor Greenhough Smith, and Victoria Gill's report on family spiritualism material, purchased from Denis Conan Doyle's estate and from other sources; copies are available from Doug Wrigglesworth, 16 Sunset Street, Holland Landing, ON L9N 1H4, Canada . And (for the electronically enabled), the collection's web-site is at . Plan ahead: "A Saturday with Sherlock Holmes" will be the 20th annual pre- sentation by The Six Napoleons, The Carlton Club, and Watson's Tin Box, at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore from 10:00 am to 1:30 pm on Nov. 20; the festivities begin with a coffee hour in the Edgar Allan Poe Room, followed by talks by eight members of the societies, and a quiz based on talks. The library is at 400 Cathedral Street, and there's no admission charge for the event, and additional information is available from William Hyder (5488 Cedar Lane #C-3, Columbia, MD 21044) (410-997-9114). Oliver Reed died on May 2. He was a fine actor, with 53 films to his cred- it, among them "The Three Musketeers" (1973), "The Four Musketeers" (1974), and "The Return of the Musketeers" (1989), directed by Richard Lester and written by George MacDonald Fraser, as well as many television roles. Ini- tial publicity for the 1990s television mini-series "The Lost World" and "Return to the Lost World" had Reed cast as Challenger (with Donald Pleas- sance as Summerlee); the films eventually were made with John Rhys-Davies as Challenger (and David Warner as Summerlee), and went directly to video stores, and it is interesting to consider what Reed might have been able to do as Challenger. A POETIC TRIBUTE TO BAKER STREET is a delightful audiocassette recorded by Philip Brogdon, who reads and comments on some of the best works by Sher- lockian poets, from T. S. Eliot to Vincent Starrett to Kenneth Fearing to E. V. Knox, with many others possibly less well-known but no less poetic. The cassette (53-minutes) costs $16.00 postpaid from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada. Ron Kritter reports that the 18th Annual Midwest Chesterton Conference at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul on June 10-12 will include a Sat- urday-morning debate on "Sherlock Holmes vs. Father Brown" (with Pasquale Accardo on behalf of Holmes and Steve Miller on behalf of Brown). There's no charge for the conference sessions, and additional information is avail- able from The American Chesterton Society (4117 Pebblebrook Circle, Minnea- polis, MN 55437) . The Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery offers Conan Doyle's signed three-page con- tract with Eveleigh Nash and Grayson for their 1926 edition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (the book sold for 2s6d, with a 3d royalty to the author, who received an advance of L100, so they expected to sell more than 8,000 copies); the Gallery's address is 989 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10021 (800-376-1776), and they're asking $15,000 for the contract. May 99 #2 The manuscripts of "The Dying Detective" and "The Lion's Mane" were loaned to the Marylebone Library in London in 1990 by the son of the late Alfred T. Miller (who bought them at Christie's in 1960); Catherine Cooke reports that the owner has retrieved the manuscripts, and will be putting them up for sale. Both manuscripts have been published in facsimile (Sep 91 #7 and Sep 92 #6), and copies of both still are available from Christopher and Barbara Roden (Calabash Press, Box 1360, Ashcroft, BC V0K 1A0, Canada ; postpaid prices are $31.50 (to the U.S.) or CA $40.00 (Canada) or $37.00/L11.60 (elsewhere by airmail) ($32.00 /L20.00 by surface post) (credit-card orders welcome). Hyman Shrand died on Apr. 21. He was an artist and poet, and doctor, and retired as chief of pediatrics at Mount Auburn Hospital in Boston in 1983. In retirement in Truro he founded the Truro School Irregulars at the North Central Truro School, and (according to his obituary in the Boston Globe) "was known for his entertaining storytelling, especially his rendition of Sherlock Holmes mysteries." The Interact Theatre Company's production of Nick Olcott's "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Purloined 'Patience'" delighted Washington audiences in 1997 (and it won the Charles MacArthur award for outstanding new play that year). Tim Brierly starred as Sherlock Holmes, and he will return as Sher- lock Holmes, acting as chairman (master of ceremonies) and performing in "The Very Model of a Major Merry Music Hall" at Arena Stage in Washington from June 9 to Sept. 5; the show will include Gilbert & Sullivan favorites as well as songs and sketches from the hey-day of British music hall. The box-office address is 1221 Mottrom Drive, McLean, VA 22101 (703-218-6500). The AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, but now officially known as the AARP, because they don't care whether you're retired or working) has a nice booklet YOUR THREE-STEP PLAN TO FIGHT MEDICARE FRAUD (available in English or Spanish), with amusing Sherlockian artwork; the AARP address is 601 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20049. The RE/MAX network of realtors (it's a franchise with 3,200 offices in 27 countries) now is running a major television advertising campaign that has been underway since last December. Holmes and Watson are featured in 15-second and 30-second commercials that ran on many network and cable stations this spring; the commercials will repeat on cable this summer, and we may see Holmes and Watson again on net- work television this fall. Stephen Davies spotted Ray Greene's article about "The Making of Star Wars" (on the "Return of the Force: Behind the Scenes, Part 2") on a web-page at . According to Green, the "Star Wars" production notes began with a quotation from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: "To the boy who's half a man/ Or the man who's half a boy." After the film was released, Lucas said that "It's been a long time since people have been able to go to the movies and see a sort of straight- forward, wholesome, fun adventure." Which, of course, also is a fine way to describe "The Lost World" (the source of the quotation). May 99 #3 John Ruyle reports that the fourth Sherlockian book this year from the Pequod Press will be THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLANCHED SHOULDER, in which Turlock Loams, assisted by Inspector S. Lespade and the ubiquitous Dr. Fatso, investigates the notorious acrobatic Lox Brothers. 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707; $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper). Sherlock Holmes made his 100th (and final) visit to the Victorian Villa in Union City, Mich., for an English beer and ale dinner on May 7, John Sher- wood reports. His next appearance (perhaps accompanied by Mrs. Norton) is to be on or about July 21, at the Sherlock Holmes Museum in Baker Street, when John and his wife Katari will be on holiday in London. The 22-page manuscript of "The Adventure of the Worst man in London" (Conan Doyle's original title for "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton") will go to auction at Christie's in New York on June 9, accompanied by the original artwork for Frederic Dorr Steele's portrait of Milverton (the lot is estimated at $75,000-95,000); previous owners of the manuscript have in- cluded William Randolph Hearst (who bought the manuscript at auction in New York in 1923 for $70), Edgar W. Smith (Buttons-cum-Commissionaire of The Baker Street Irregulars and editor of The Baker Street Journal), and Carl H. Anderson (one of the founders of The Sons of the Copper Beeches of Phil- delphia). The auction also will include Sidney Paget's original artwork showing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in "The Norwood Builder" (estimated at $10,000-15,000) and a first edition of THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES ($1,000-1,500). Christie's is at 20 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020 (800-395-6300), and the catalog costs $40.00 postpaid. Syd Goldberg notes that Ronald Howard's "The Case of Lady Beryl" (1954) is one of 24 programs in a six-cassette collection of RADIO TO TV ("comedies, dramas, and adventures sagas that made the transition" from radio to tele- vision) available for $59.95 from The Video Catalog (1000 Westgate Drive, Saint Paul, MN 55114 (800-733-6656); item 64842. Whatever happened to ... Guy Henry? Star of the British television series "Young Sherlock" (1982) about 17-year-old Sherlock's investigations of var- ious strange goings-on at his ancestral manor-house home on the edge of the Lancashire fells, Henry has won a Helen Hayes Award in Washington as the best supporting performer in a non-resident production for his appearance as the villainous Cloten in "Cymbeline" with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Kennedy Center last year. The May issue of Natural History, published by the American Museum of Natu- ral History in New York, is devoted to flowers, and one of the articles is Richard Milner's "Mystery of the Red Rose" (which starts and ends with ref- erences to the Canon, and is illustrated with an appropriate photograph of Jeremy Brett from the Granada series). The Holmes & Watson report celebrated Mother's Day in its May issue with a collection of essays about Sherlock Holmes' mother, plus some interesting reviews of older Sherlockian films by David Morrill and Jennie Paton (and Sherlock Holmes' father will be honored in the next issue); subscriptions cost $16.00 a year for six issues ($22.00 outside North America), from Brad Keefauver, 4009 North Chelsea Place, Peoria, IL 61614. May 99 #4 Dell's Yearling Books has launched "The Adventures of Shirley Holmes" as a paperback series based on the Canadian television series starring Meredith Henderson as the 12-year-old great grand-niece of Sherlock Holmes (it also is seen sporadically on the Fox Family Channel). The first two titles are THE CASE OF THE BURNING BUILDING AND THE CASE OF THE RUBY RING and THE CASE OF THE BLAZING STAR AND THE CASE OF THE KING OF HEARTS, written by Judie Angell (each 112 pp., and $3.99). The flier is now available for "Holmes Under the Arch: Weekend at Basker- ville Hall" on Sept. 10-12 at the Westport Sheraton Hotel in St. Louis; the speakers will include Bill Cochran, David Hammer, and Jennie Paton. Write to Holmes Under the Arch, 7101 Mardel Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63109 . Classic Images has been covering old films since the 1960s, when (as The 8mm Collector) it published the working script for "The Lost World" (1925); the May issue has William M. Apple's article on "The Twentieth Century-Fox Sherlock Holmes Films" and a report about film memorabilia (including Basil Rathbone material) at Boston University. Classic Images usually has 80 to 92 pp., and is published monthly ($32.00 a year); single issues cost $4.00 (301 East Third Street, Muscadine, IA 52761) . It's been many years since Michael B. Druxman's excellent filmography BASIL RATHBONE was published in 1975, and since then he has been writing non-fic- tion and stage and screenplays; Druxman's first novel is NOBODY DROWNS IN MINERAL LAKE (Westlake Village: Center Press, 1999; 240 pp., $12.95). It's a mystery, set in the state of Washington in the 1970s, and it includes an echo of one of Rathbone's Sherlockian films. Autographed copies cost only $12.95 postpaid from the publisher (30961 West Agoura Road #223-B, Westlake Village, CA 91361) ; credit-card orders are welcome. Mike Whelan spotted a new advertising use of Sherlock Holmes: by the Leak Investigation Unit of the Indianapolis Water Company: May 99 #5 Susan Dahlinger notes that there's a William Gillette Exhibit at the Harriett Beecher Stowe Center through July 5; the Center (formerly known as the Stowe-Day Foundation) is at 77 Forest Street, Hart- ford, CT 06105 (860-522-9258). The Center's quarterly newsletter reports that Harold and Teddie Niver, dressed in period costume, gave a presenta- tation about William Gillette at the Center's annual meeting on May 11. Rex Pinson, Jr. ("Inspector G. Lestrade") died on May 6. Rex grew up in Tulsa across the street from John Bennett Shaw, and by the time he retired as a vice president of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals he was a regular at the ann- ual dinners of The Baker Street Irregulars and at the Sherlockian dinners at the Culinary Institute of America; he received his Investiture from the BSI in 1973. Rex also loved wine, Jon Lellenberg notes, and had the best private wine cellar of anyone Jon has known (which is high praise indeed). John Stephenson has reported a packet of Stickopotamus binder stickers with a mystery theme, and (of course) one of them is a portrait of Sherlock Holmes; it's item SP-CB-13, and their address is Box 86, Carlstadt, NY 07072. Nancy Beiman reports that Walt Disney will reissue "The Great Mouse Detective" on videocassette on Aug. 31; it will be nice indeed to have Basil of Baker Street back. When you visit the Antarctic (and you certainly can, even as a tourist) you might want to visit Cape Evans, where you can see the world's southernmost copy of a book by Arthur Conan Doyle: THE GREEN FLAG AND OTHER STORIES OF WAR AND SPORT, which was brought there by Robert Falcon Scott in 1910, in the small hut from which Scott set off on an ill-fated attempt to reach the South Pole. Scott had led an earlier expedition to the Antarctic, in 1901- 04, and his third lieutenant then was Ernest Shackleton (who, fortunately for Shackleton, was not a member of Scott's second expedition). But Shack- leton did return to the Antarctic, and in 1914-16 he led an expedition that is the subject of one of the greatest stories of exploration ever told. That story's at the heart of the American Museum of Natural History's exhi- bition about "The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition" (through Oct. 11) that is well worth seeing if you're in or visiting N.Y. And John Rabe (son of the late Bill Rabe) has produced for Minnesota Public Radio a delightful one-hour program "Walking Out of History" about the ex- pedition. The electronically-enabled can visit a web-site at ; Minnesota Public Radio is planning to distribute "Walking Out of History" nationally in a month or so, and John (needless to say) would be delighted if you could ask your local PBS radio station to broadcast the program. The May issue of The Dispatch (edited by Vic Lahti for the Afghanistan Per- ceivers of Tulsa) has a report on a rebroadcast of an episode the "Kentucky Derby Bet" episode (May 7, 1939) from "The Jack Benny Show": after exchang- ing their opening jokes and wisecracks, the regulars went "on stage" to be- gin the formal show, and Benny called out to his dog, "Come on Baskerville, it's time to go." Followed by the yipping of a small dog (the Basil Rath- bone film had opened on Mar. 24, so presumable everyone got the joke). May 99 #6 Bill Dunning notes that Edmund L. Hartmann has been honored by the Santa Fe Film Critics Circle with their Golden Chile Award for Lifetime Achievement. Hartmann, who retired to Santa Fe in 1990 after a long Hollywood career as a screenwriter for Universal and Paramount, had among his many credits two of Basil Rathbone's films: "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon" (1943) and "The Scarlet Claw" (1944). The Golden Chile is a serious award, Bill says (it takes its name from the one to four red peppers that a local paper uses to rate movies in reviews). Until 1988 it cost exactly the same to mail a first-class letter from the United States to Canada as to an address within the U.S. But then Canada imposed an extra charge on letters mailed from Canada to the U.S., and the U.S. post office responded by charging 30c (instead of 25c) for letters to Canada. And it still costs more to mail a letter from Vancouver to Seattle than from Vancouver to Montreal (and more to mail a letter from Seattle to Vancouver than from Seattle to Boston), and it got worse at the end of May: one ounce from the U.S. to Canada now costs 55c (up from 52c). And (alas) the cost of this newsletter to Canadian subscribers goes up too (as you'll learn when you next hear from our circulation department). Laura Sifurova spotted a Russian translation of Arthur Conan Doyle's THE HISTORY OF SPIRITUALISM (1926) published by Global Books in St. Petersburg (1998), with additional illustrations by Polina Goryntseva (two of which are shown here). It was in 1929 that the Soviet government banned Conan Doyle's works, because of his interest in occultism and spiritualism, and almost nothing of Conan Doyle's was published in the USSR until World War Two, when some of the Sherlock Holmes stories were translated into Russian for distribution to the Soviet Army. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Jun 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "Last Words of Killer Gave Life to Sherlock Holmes" was the headline on a story by Nicholas Hellen in The Sunday Times (May 16) about BBC plans for a feature film and a television series about Dr. Joseph Bell. "Blood Line: The Dark Beginning of Sherlock Holmes" (the title of the first adaptation) is to deal with the trial, conviction, and execution of Eugene Chantrell in 1878, when Bell was working with Dr. Henry Littlejohn as forensic experts for the Crown. Jonathan Pryce (who played the villain in the James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies") was announced to play the lead in the series. Our "Celebrate the Century" souvenir sheets (with 15 differ- ent stamps for each decade) have now reached the 1950s. The latest sheet includes a stamp honoring the "shot heard round world" (the home run with which Bobby Thompson won the 1951 World Series for the N.Y. Giants). The Giants defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in that game, as they did in 1922, when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was on hand (and rooting for the Giants). According to Ely Liebow's DR. JOE BELL: MODEL FOR SHERLOCK HOLMES (1982), Littlejohn was present when Chantrelle was went to the scaffold: just be- fore being pinioned, Chantrelle took off his hat, took a last puff on his cigar, and waving his hand to the police physician, cried out, "Bye-bye, Littlejohn. Don't forget to give my compliments to Joe Bell. You both did a good job in bringing me to the scaffold." It was only a few months later that Arthur Conan Doyle became Joe Bell's student in Edinburgh. Michael W. Homer has long been interested in (and has written about) Arthur Conan Doyle and spiritualism, and his newest book is LO SPIRITISMO (Torino: Elledici, 1999; 96 pp., 10,000 lira), offering (in Italian) an overview of spiritualism, with discussion of Conan Doyle's life and beliefs in many of the chapters. Noted by Tom Dandrew: VICTORIAN QUEST ROMANCE: STEVENSON, HAGGARD, KIPLING AND CONAN DOYLE, by Robert Fraser (Northcote House, 1998; 108 pp., L8.99); one of the chapter ("Arthur Conan Doyle and the 'Missing Link'") focuses on "The Lost World". Stephen Kendrick's HOLY CLUES: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SHERLOCK HOLMES (New York: Pantheon Books, 1999; 192 pp., $21.00) is an interesting discussion of the faith, reason, mystery, and philosophy one can find in the Sherlock Holmes stories, especially with an expert guide. Kendrick is a Unitarian minister, and widely read (one doesn't often find Henry David Thoreau and Woody Allen quoted in the same book), and he has written with imagination and style. And I don't recall being told before that when Holmes said to Watson, "You see, but you do not observe," he was alluding to passages in both the Old Testament (Isaiah) and New (Matthew). The Crowborough Conan Doyle Trust is continuing its fund-raising for the life-size bronze statue of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle planned for Crowborough; British sculptor David Cornell designed the statue, and the Town Council has contributed and will maintain the site. More information is available from Brian Pugh (20 Clare Road, Lewes BN7 7PN, England). Jun 99 #2 Hillary Brooke died on May 25. She began a long film career in "New Faces of 1937" and went on to act with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce and with many other major stars, including Charles Laughton (in 1952 in "Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd"), and had a recurring role in the 1950s television series "My Little Margie". She appeared as Jill Grandis in "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror" (1942), as Sally Mus- grave in "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death" (1943), and as Lydia Marlowe in "The Woman in Green" (1945). She told some fine stories about her fellow-actors and her career in an interview in the winter 1996 issue of Scarlet Street. Geoff Jeffery reports a Three Stooges necktie showing Moe, Larry, and Curly in Sherlockian costume (item SGTX30, $16.99) in a recent mail-order catalog from Soitenly Stooges (Box 10666, Glendale, CA 91209) (800-378-6643). David L. Hammer's THE VITAL ESSENCE: BEING THE FURTHER ANNALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Gasogene Press, 1999; 131 pp., $12.95) is his second collection of hitherto-unreported cases hidden away by Dr. Watson. David notes that he has said several times that he would "never demean the Canon by insinuating a pastiche into commerce," adding unapologetically that he has found it to be great fun, and so it is. $15.45 postpaid ($16.45 outside the U.S.) from the publisher (Box 68308, Indianapolis, IN 46077). The Mysterious Book Shop's second Sherlock Holmes Catalog (J-Z) brings the total of its Sherlockian offers to 1017 items of old and new material; the catalogs are available from the shop, at 129 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019 (800-352-2840) . The Three Garridebs of Westchester County offer a Sherlock Holmes wrist-watch, with a Sherlockian profile on the face, in men's and women's sizes, for $27.00 postpaid; orders can be sent to Dante Torrese, 11 Chestnut Street, Ardsley, NY 10502. P. N. Elrod (better known in Sherlockian circles as Patti Nead Elrod, creator of the "Baker Street Irragulars") began her book series THE VAMPIRE FILES series in 1990 with BLOODLIST and LIFEBLOOD (Jun 90 #3), about Jack Fleming (once a reporter and now a vampire) and his private-de- tective friend Charles Escott (whose name is not the only S'ian echo in the series, which is set in gangland Chicago in the 1930s). The series gradua- ted to hardcover in 1998 with A CHILL IN THE BLOOD, and the eighth title is THE DARK SLEEP (New York: Ace Books, 1999; 368 pp., $21.95). "Yo, Sherlock" was the headline on a brief item in the Baltimore Sun (May 23), spotted by John Pforr. "In the seventh inning of a game May 7 between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Mets, the opposing pitchers were Holmes (Darr- en) and Watson (Allen)." The STUD Sherlockian Society will hold a Founder's Day Festival on July 10 in Chicago, with a Depression-era breakfast, a Rache Road Rally, a tour of Graceland Cemetery (resting place of Vincent Starrett, Alan Pinkerton, and others) conducted by Donald B. Izban, and luncheon at the Ridgmoor Country Club. Details are available from Bill Sawisch (418 Galahad, Bolingbrook, IL 60440) or Allan Devitt (630-227-9127) . Jun 99 #3 Frank Spencer died on May 30. After beginning his scientific career as a medical microbiologist he became an anthropologist, and was editor of THE HISTORY OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY and chairman of the Anthopology Department at Queens College. It was in 1976 that he became interested in the Piltdown Hoax, and in his PILTDOWN: A SCIENTIFIC FORGERY (1990) he documented his belief that Sir Arthur Keith was the culprit. He discussed, and dismissed, other suspects, including Arthur Conan Doyle, and published for the first time an amusing discovery in Keith's papers: the postcard portrait photograph of Conan Doyle that he sent to Keith, with an invitation to dinner, after they debated spiritualism in a series of arti- cles in the [London] Morning Post in 1925. On the back of the postcard Sir Arthur mentions the "Great 3rd round exhibition contest between the Crow- borough Kid and Battling Arty of Lincolns Inn Fields." [Dec 90 #3] M&Ms are marketed world-wide, and there are collectibles not seen in the U.S.: six different snap-together plastic toys, one of which is a detective (2.5 in. high assembled); they're marketed by Mars (BP 36, 67501 Haguenau, France), and widely available in Europe (there are eleven languages on the small "not suitable for children under three years" warning). "Sherlock Holmes was a sarcastic loner who played his cards close to his vest and left the business details of life to his faithful Dr. Watson," according to a Reuters dispatch in the Baltimore Sun (May 28) now at hand from John Pforr, about the British government's advertising for a new head of Scotland Yard, who will need to meet "demanding strategic busi- ness objectives" and must have "strong leadership, organizational ability, and communications skills," to command the 44,000-strong force. "Sherlock Holmes-types need not apply," the story noted. "Obviously the work of we-know-who!" notes Richard Shull on a report in the N.Y. Times (June 1) about the Maritime Museum at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, where a dilapidated roof and a weekend rainstorm resulted in damage to several paintings by Joseph Vernet (Sherlock Holmes' great-great-grand- uncle). Malice Domestic XII will be held on May 5-7, 2000, at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, with Simon Brett as the guest of honor, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as ghost of honor. Celebrating a ghost of honor has long been a tra- dition at Malice Domestic (John Dickson Carr was honored this year), and we can expect some interesting Doylean (and Sherlockian) discussions, events, and panels next year. If you would like to be on the mailing list, write to Malice Domestic (Box 31137, Bethesda, MD 20824); there's a web-site at . "Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century" (a 30-minute animated series with 26 episodes, created by DIC Entertainment and Scottish Television) began air- ing on ITV in Britain on May 6, and the series also is scheduled to run on the Fox network (probably on Monday mornings) this fall. Holmes, who died of old age and was preserved in honey, is revived and rejuvenated by Insp. Lestrade (well, an attractive woman who, like her ancestor, works for Scot- land Yard, and has a robot assistant she calls Watson), and does a fine job of battling crime and criminals in the 2100s. Jun 99 #4 Fred Levin notes that Nakladatelstvi Books (s.r.o., Star18/20, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic) is a good source for Czech trans- lations, including the complete Canon in eight volumes, Larry Millett's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE DEMON and Donald Thomas' THE SECRET CASES OF SHER- LOCK HOLMES (about $6.00 per volume). Hunga Libri Kiado (Budapest Print, Fogarasi ut 17/b, 1149 Budapest, Hungary) offers two paperbacks in Hungar- ian: A SATAN KUTYAJA [The Hound of the Baskervilles] and A SUSSEXI VAMPIR [The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes] (about $2.00 each). "Black Shag" is the first in a "221B Series" of pipe tobaccos from the McClelland Tobacco Co. ($6.50 sug- gested retail for a 50g tin); if you can't find it at your local tobacconist, you can ask McClelland for the name of a nearby dealer (Box 7005, Country Club Station, Kansas City, MO 64113) (888-213-8207). Tom Amorosi and Richard Valley interviewed Bert Coules for an interesting account of the "Sherlock Holmes" BBC radio series in the latest issue of Scarlet Street: The Magazine of Mystery and Horror (well illustrated with photographs, including one of Dame Judi Dench playing Mrs. Hudson with her husband Michael Williams as Watson); $6.95, or $35.00 a year for six issues (Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452). And Forry Ackerman's column in the same issue offers a $500 reward for in- formation leading to the return of a treasure stolen from his collection: a little metallic figure on a thin metal support of the pterodactyl from film "The Lost World" (1925); his address is 2495 Glendower Avenue, Hollywood, CA 90027 (323-666-6326). "Hip-Hop Raps to the Top" was the headline on an article in the [Atlantic City] Press (May 2), noted by Francine Kitts. And one of the people happy about the popularity of the genre is Sure Rock Holmes. He's a hip-hop disc jockey at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey radio station WLFR-FM. Lynette Yencho's new bronze Sherlockian sculpture "The Three Pipe Problem" is available ($600 plus shipping), and her earlier "The Grimpen Mire" (Nov 98 #5) still is available at the same price. Both sculptures also are off- erred in resin as bookends ($250 for the pair). You can write for an illu- strated flier (Garden Studio, 931 Portland Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104), or see her work the Web . The first two Sherlock Holmes jigsaw puzzles in "The Continuing Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" ("The Adventures of the Fellow Lodgers" and "The Phan- tom of Sorrel House"), now three years old (Mar 96 #3), are discounted at $6.95 in the new catalog from Bits & Pieces (1 Puzzle Place, Stevens Point, WI 54481) (800-544-7297) . The August issue of American History has two articles of interest, one by Daniel Stashower on "The Medium & the Magician" (about the contest between Mina "Margery" Crandon and Harry Houdini), and the other by Joseph H. Bloom on "Undermining the Molly Maguires" (about the originals of the Scowrers), and editor Tom Huntington's "thoughts on history" about Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. $3.99; 6405 Flank Drive, Harrisburg, PA 17112. Jun 99 #5 The 22-page manuscript of "Charles Augustus Milverton" (accom- panied by Frederic Dorr Steele's original artwork for his por- trait of Milverton) set a new auction record for a Sherlockian short-story manuscript at Christie's on June 9: $255,000 (including a 15% buyer's pre- mium. The previous record ($97,750 including the premium) was held by "The Three Garridebs" (sold at auction in 1995. And the fortunate new owner of "Charles Augustus Milverton" is Constantine Rossakis. Sidney Paget's original artwork showing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in "The Norwood Builder" brought $18,400 (also including the premium) in the same sale, and Jerry Wachs reports that he is delighted to be the new own- er. The underbidder was Richard Sveum, who is president of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota as well as a doctor specializing in asthma (which handily explains his special interest in an illustration showing John Hector McFarlane meeting Holmes and Watson: McFarlane was an asthmatic). Great Britain is issuing a series of stamps celebrating the millennium, and one of them honors "Chaplin's Geni- us" with a portrait of Charlie Chaplin by Ralph Steadman (Chaplin played Billy on stage with William Gillette). Clifton Fadiman died on June 20. "He learned to read when he was four," Richard Severo wrote in an obituary in the N.Y. Times, "and he never got over it." Genera- tions of readers benefited from his expertise, which was wide indeed. He helped to establish the Book of the Month Club and served on its editorial board for more than 50 years, in 1938 he was asked to moderate a new radio program "Information Please" and quickly gained an audience of nine million listeners, and he was a delightful anthologist and essayist. And he was a Sherlockian: listed as a member of the Baker Street Irregulars in the early 1940s, and a guest speaker at the "Trilogy Dinner" in Mar. 1944 (according to one newspaper report, he "elevated Sherlock Holmes to the position of a myth"). And in 1963 he contributed an afterword to a collection of TALES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES; "I hope this volume of excellent selections will make you want to read all the stories," he wrote. "I know men who have spent part of a lifetime poring over them, with never-failing delight." "Sherlock Holmes has been done so many times," Roberta Klaeser said, "so I decided to make a scene with this man who just wants to be like him." And her "Sherlock Holmes Wannabe" is one of the delightful rooms photographed for Kristen M. Scheuing's article on "Secrets of a Top Collector" in Doll- house Miniatures (July 1999), at hand from Kelly Blau. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187; $4.50. The June issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota has arrived, with Julie McKuras' article about Christopher Morley's brother Felix Morley, whose son Anthony J. Morley has donated to the collections his father's Sherlockian books; and an essay by Bruce Southworth about Conan Doyle's A DUET: WITH AN OCCASIONAL CHORUS; and other news. You can join the newsletter's mailing list by writing to Richard J. Sveum (466 O. M. Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) . Jun 99 #6 Sotheby's will offer 80 lots of Conan Doyle material in an auc- tion in London on July 15; some of the material is left over from the sale of Norman L. Rosenbaum's collection last year (Nov 98 #2 and Dec 98 #5), and some is new. The catalog's available from Sotheby's (attn: Peter Selley, 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1A 2AA, England) and at their web-site . Plan ahead: the Millennium Congress of Holmesian Societies will be held in May 2000 in Switzerland, sponsored by three French and Swiss societies. To enroll on the mailing list for additional details, write to Michael A. Meer (Morgenstrasse 70, CH-3018 Bern, Switzerland) . The seventeenth annual "Autumn in Baker Street" will be held at the Tarry- town Hilton in Tarrytown, N.Y., on Oct. 30-31, with an agenda full of Sher- lockian doings and undoings. More information is available from Robert E. Thomalen, Highview Drive, Carmel, NY 10512 . MYSTERY & SUSPENSE WRITERS, edited by Robin Winks and including a 30-page essay on Arthur Conan Doyle by Owen Dudley Edwards (Feb 99 #1), was an Ed- gar-winner (best critical/biographical work) at this spring's annual dinner of the Mystery Writers of America. John Ruyle reports that TIDEWAITERS & YEGGMEN will be the fifth Sherlockian book this year from the Pequod Press, offering whimsical verse dealing with Canonical occupations and personages. John's address is 521 Vincente Ave- nue, Berkeley, CA 94707; $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper). Margaret Scott died on May 30, She was a journalist, and with her husband Ken attended the first meeting of the Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis, in 1947, and was an enthusiastic member of the Clients for many years. Fred Holt reports that an exhibition called "Sherlock Holmes and the Clock- tower Mystery" opened at the Fresno Metropolitan Museum in Fresno, Calif., on June 20; it will run through Sept. 12. The exhibition was first seen in Croydon in England (Oct 95 #2), and has visited Des Moines, Iowa (where it was seen by 31,000 people). It's an interactive show, with an actor play- ing Holmes), and the museum is located at 1515 Van Ness Avenue, Fresno, CA 93721 (559-441-1444) . Laurie R. King's O JERUSALEM (her latest book about Mary Russell and Sher- lock Holmes) is one of the Mystery Guild's featured summer selections, and (for the electronically enabled) there's an interesting interview with her at their web-site . The eighth annual Watsonian Weekend will begin with the Royal Berkshires/ Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers Regimental Dinner in Elmhurst, Ill., on July 23; continues with the fortieth annual running of The Silver Blaze at Haw- thorne Race Track on July 24; and concludes with a Fortescue Honours Brunch in Des Plaines on July 25. Additional information is available from Susan Z. Diamond (16W603 3rd Avenue, Bensenville, IL 60106 . The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Jul 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Detailed information about the Sherlock Holmes Society of London's festival on Sept. 21-26 honoring the unveiling of the statue of Sherlock Holmes in Baker Street were mailed and posted from London on July 21; if you've not already heard directly from them, you need to act quickly, and the fastest way to get information is at their web-site at or (for those who have text-only browsers) at , or ask an electronically-enabled friend to do it for you. News from Moscow (noted by Yuichi Hirayama): on June 9 the Russian General Prosecutor's Office rehabilitated four Grand Dukes who had been executed by the Communists in Jan. 1919 after the attempted assassination of Lenin (Em- peror Nicholas II and his family had been executed in July 1918); the deci- sion to rehabilitate the Grand Dukes was based on their not having received due process, or having been convicted of anything. And one of the four was Pavel Alexandrovich, a son of Emperor Alexander II and an uncle of Emperor Nicholas II. According to an article by Yuichi in the 1997 volume of The Shoso-In Bulletin, Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich is "the most believable candidate for the King of Bohemia." Lora Sifurova has reported that Russian translations of all of the Sherlock Holmes and Professor Challenger stories now are available on the World Wide Web at and . Further to the report (Jan 99 #5) of the anthology THE 50 GREATEST MYSTER- IES OF ALL TIME, Otto Penzler also edited a four-audiocassette collection MORE OF THE GREATEST MYSTERIES OF ALL TIME (Los Angeles: Dove Audio, 1997; $24.95); the eight stories include Vincent Starrett's "The Unique Hamlet" (read by David Warner). The July issue of In Britain has Pat Moore's article "The Greatest Detect- tive" about the annual Sherlock Holmes festival in Crowborough, and local associations with Conan Doyle. British Tourist Authority, Thames Tower, Blacks Road, London W6 9EL, England; L2.75/$6.25. It's time for one of my infrequent irregular challenges: Sherlock Holmes says (in "The Abbey Grange"), "Come, Watson, come, the game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!" Of course this wasn't the first time the famous phrase was used in literature; it also is found in one of Will- iam Shakespeare's plays. In which of Shakespeare's plays does someone say "the game is afoot"? Who says it? The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has approved the latest list of people to be added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame; sponsors pay $15,000 to have a star installed in the sidewalk, and (with the exception of posthumous stars) the celebrities must promise to appear for installation ceremony, according to an Associated Press dispatch forwarded by Scott Monty. The latest list in- includes Don Knotts, who appeared in Sherlockian costume as Inspector Win- ship in "The Private Eyes" (1980), and Peter O'Toole, who did the voice of Sherlock Holmes in animations of the four long stories (1985) and played Arthur Conan Doyle in "FairyTale: A True Story" (1997). Jul 99 #2 Roberta Rogow's THE PROBLEM OF THE SPITEFUL SPIRITUALIST (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999; 282 pp., $23.95) is a sequel to her THE PROBLEM OF THE MISSING MISS (Jun 98 #6); Charles Dodgson comes to Southsea in Oct. 1885 to visit Arthur Conan Doyle, and they once again are involved in an interesting mystery (with some intriguing hints about Conan Doyle's future writings). Her first book now also has a British edition (as THE PROBLEM OF THE MISSING HOYDEN) from Robert Hale (256 pp., L16.99). Rogow has finished writing the third book in her Dodgson/Conan Doyle series (THE PROBLEM OF THE EVIL EDITOR) and is at work on the fourth (THE PROBLEM OF THE SURLY SERVANT). Plan ahead: the Sunshine State Sherlockian Scion Symposium II will be held at the Dolphin Beach Resort in St. Pete Beach, Fla., on June 9-11, 2000; the Pleasant Places of Florida have a full agenda scheduled, and additional information is available from Carl Heifetz (3693 Siena Lane, Palm Harbor, FL 34685) . Francine Kitts notes the "novelkeys" in the current mail-order catalog from the book-seller Bas Bleu (515 Means Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30318) (800-433- 1155) ; they're book-shaped keychains ($10.00 each), with the name of an author on the front and a quote on the back, and Conan Doyle is represented by "It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence." Our new 48c stamp shows Niagara Falls, and appropriately pays the postage on half-ounce letters posted to Canada. Niagara Falls is mentioned in two Sherlock Holmes stor- ies, and one of them ("The Crooked Man") has "I seem to have all Niagara whizzing and buzzing in my ears." In 1991 I wondered how much whizzing and buzzing can actu- ally be heard at Niagara Falls, and Don Pollock noted a comment by Richard Burton, who visited the Falls in 1860: "I well remember not being able to sleep within ear-shot of Niagara, whose mighty orchestra, during the stillness of the night, seemed to run through a repertoire of oratorios and operas." Further to the item about the Annual Midwest Chesterton Conference (May 99 #1), Phil Bergem reports that the "Sherlock Holmes vs. Father Brown" debate was well-done and interesting, and that an audiocassette is available from the American Chesterton Society (4117 Pebblebrook Circle, Minneapolis, MN, 55437); $6.00 postpaid. In which of Shakespeare's plays does someone say "the game is afoot"? Who says it? If your answer was "Henry V" and Henry V . . . you were wrong. This year's Christmas card from The Sherlock Holmes Society of London will have another attractive watercolor by Douglas West, showing Holmes and Wat- son inspecting the statue of Holmes in Baker Street; the title is straight from the Canon: "It really is rather like me is it not?" $13.50 postpaid for ten cards (L5.50 to the U.K., L6.00 to Europe, L7.00 elsewhere); checks payable to the Society, please, and orders can be sent to Cdr. G. S. Stav- ert, 22 Home Heights, Clarence Parade, Southsea, Hants. PO5 3NN, England. Note: you can order now, but the cards will not be shipped until September. Jul 99 #3 Lorraine Daly's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE LUSITANIA (Romford: Ian Henry, 1999; 188 pp., L15.99) extends Holmes' career beyond his capture of Von Bork, and involves Holmes and Watson in an investigation of the sinking of the *Lusitania* and in a battle against German saboteurs. The publisher's address is 20 Park Drive, Romford, Essex RM1 4LH, England, and a summer 1998 catalog of additional Sherlockian books also is available. Vinnie Brosnan has issued a supplement to his catalog of Ted Schulz's coll- ection (Jun 98 #7); the supplement offers 772 items, including "a curious collection" of 11 items of "adult material which may offend some Victorian sensibilities". Available from Sherlock in L.A., 1741 Via Allena, Ocean- side, CA 92056. That's right, you were wrong. Henry V says in "Henry V" (III, i, 32) that "the game's afoot" (not "the game is afoot"). Try again, please. Biker Sherlock competed in the street luge in the X Games again this year in San Francisco. In 1997 he won three medals (two gold and one silver), more than anyone else in the Games, but last year took home only one medal (gold). This year he won two silver medals (dual downhill and super mass). His real name is Michael Sherlock. Wanda and Jeffery Dow report a Sherlockian "Detective Little Bear" as one of five different toys offered with kids' meals at Subway shops; the toy is 3 in. high, wearing a deerstalker and holding a magnifying glass. "Little Bear" (created by Maurice Sendak) also stars on two videocassettes ("Little Bear: Friends" and "Little Bear: Summertime Tales") that costs $9.95 retail (but no one has yet reported S'ian artwork on the cassettes). Also noted by the Dows: a toy with Wishbone as Holmes advertised by Dairy Queen. The Fortescue Honours Brunch was one of the events held dur- ing the annual Watsonian Weekend (Jun 99 #6), and there's a commemorative lapel pin in five colors (1" high) available ($12.00 postpaid) from Susan Z. Diamond (16W603 3rd Avenue, Bensenville, IL 60106). "I have some knowledge," Sherlock Holmes explained to Watson (in "The Empty House"), "of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me." That's what Watson wrote, and possibly what he heard, but it's likely that what Holmes said was "bartitsu" (note the minor difference). Graham Noble's interesting article "An Introduction to W. Barton-Wright (1860-1951) and the Ecclectic Art of Bartitsu" in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts (1999), reported by Jim Webb, notes that Bar- ton-Wright wrote about "The New Art of Self Defence" in Pearson's Magazine (Mar. 1899 and Apr. 1899), and suggests that he "deserves his niche in mar- tial arts history." The issue costs $10.00 from the Via Media Publishing Co., 821 West 24th Street, Erie, PA 16502 (800-455-9517). The Mycroft Holmes Society of Syracuse has a full schedule planned for its Fall Sherlockian Weekend at Minnowbrook (an Adirondack Camp) in Blue Moun- tain Lake, N.Y., on Oct. 15-17, 1999. More information is available from Carol Cavalluzzi (108 Marvin Road, Syracuse, NY 13207) . The resort also has a web-site, at . Jul 99 #4 Stanton O. Berg's first contribution to the Writings About the Writings was his article on "Sherlock Holmes: Father of Scien- tific Crime Detection" in the Sept. 1970 issue of the Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science (Sept. 1970); he's a forensic firearms consultant, and his two-part illustrated lecture on "The Firearms-Safeties of Sherlockian-Victorian London" at the 1997 and 1998 annual conferences of the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners has now been published in the spring and fall 1998 issues of the AFTE Journal, with expert discus- sion of the Canon as well as the conclusions of earlier authors. Sorry about that: Costa Rossakis ("a Yankees fan and a native New Yorker") notes that the "short heard round the world" (Jun 99 #1) was the home run with which Bobby Thompson won the 1951 pennant for the Giants. The Yankees (of course) beat the Giants to win the 1951 World Series. And the manuscript of "Charles Augustus Milverton" (accompanied by Frederic Dorr Steele's original artwork for his portrait of Milverton) sold at auc- tion at Christie's (Jun 99 #5) for $244,500 (including the buyer's premium, which drops to 10% above $50,000). In which of Shakespeare's play does someone say "the game is afoot"? The play is "Henry IV, Part I" (I, iii, 276) and it's said by Northumberland. Next question: "The Abbey Grange" isn't the only Sherlock Holmes story in which the game was afoot. What's the other story? Who said that the game was afoot? Paul S. Newman died on May 30. He began writing comic book stories in the late 1940s, and wound up listed by the Guinness Book of World Records for more than 4,100 published stories in more than 360 comic-book titles (and about 5,000 stories that were rejected). According to Greg Metcalf's arti- cle "If You Read It, I Wrote It: The Anonymous Career of Comic Book Writer Paul S. Newman" in the Journal of Popular Culture (summer 1995), Newman's work included the stories for "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (two issues illustrated by Frank Giacoia, published by Dell in 1961 and 1962). The National Crime Prevention Council has been using its "Take a Bite Out of Crime" symbol for more than ten years: according to an article in Smithsonian (Apr 88 #5), the dog's name was selected in a contest in which the most frequent suggestion was "Shure-lock Bones" (but "McGruff" was the winner). The Council now has a sales-list for its McGruff reflective Halloween bags (1 Prospect Street, Amsterdam, NY 12010) (800-995-5121). Len and Elsa Haffenden created "The Adventure of the Evil Apparition" as a three-act puppet show, based on the brief scenario found in Conan Doyle's papers by Hesketh Pearson (and reported by Pearson in his 1943 biography of Conan Doyle); the play (accompanied by a puppet-show dramatization of Conan Doyle's pastiche "How Watson Turned the Trick") were first performed at a meeting of The Stormy Petrels of British Columbia in July 1993. And both scripts (suitable for performance by live actors) have just been published by the Hansom Press in Ellay Aitchison's THE ADVENTURE OF THE AWFUL APPARI- TION; the 52-page booklet costs $10.00 or CA$14.95 or L7.00 (postpaid) from the publisher (1026 West Keith Road, North Vancouver, BC V7P 3C6, Canada). Jul 99 #5 Jay Windsor (who is Charles Marowitz's personal manager) offers a copy of the prompt-script for Marowitz's play SHERLOCK'S LAST CASE (the two-act version performed on Broadway in 1987 by Frank Langella), fully annotated and inscribed to the buyer by Marowitz, for $450.00. Also available are copies of Marowitz's THE SHERLOCK LOG, an unpublished diary- record of the show, covering rehearsals, the Washington try-out, and the Broadway production itself, inscribed by Marowitz; $350.00 each. Windsor's address is: Mail Boxes Etc., 23852 Pacific Coast Highway, Box 172, Malibu, CA 90265 . And he reports that a revival of the play in London's West End is projected for November. What's the other Canonical story in which the game was afoot? It's "Wis- teria Lodge" -- and that's exactly what Watson said: "the game was afoot." Dorlock Homes and Dr. Watkins are on display on Fifth Avenue in New York, in a bas-relief on the War- ner Brothers store (at East 57th Street), in a scene from "Deduce You Say!" (1956). Thanks to Jay Pearlman for the photograph of a prominent tribute to Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. John Ruyle reports that BAKER STREET GALORE! will be the sixth Sherlockian book this year from the Pequod Press, offering more verse (some new, some expanded and revised from previous collections). $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper); John's address is 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. Bob Robinson reports that "Towards the end of May, I felt a twinge of some- thing akin to nostalgia or at least deja vu when my physician telephoned me to state, 'You have an aortic aneurism.'" Much of Bob's aorta now consists of Dacron, and he's still recovering from the procedure, and he has founded a correspondence society called The Companions of Jefferson Hope for those who share (or shared) that ailment with Hope. Prospective members are in- vited to write to Robert E. Robinson, 6117 Lakeshore Drive, Columbia, SC 29206 . Forecast from the Oxford University Press in November: ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: BEYOND BAKER STREET, by Janet Pascal; 144 pp., $22.00, intended for ages 9-12, John D. Clark ("The Politician, the Lighthouse, and the Trained Cormorant") died on July 5, 1988. He was a chemist, in charge of research and develop- ment of rocket propellants at the Naval Air Rocket Test Station and at its successor, the Liquid Propulsion Laboratory, and his history of the search for a power package that would take man into space was published in 1972. His best-known contribution to our literature was his landmark paper "Some Notes Relating to a Preliminary Investigation into the Paternity of Nero Wolfe" (published in the Jan. 1956 issue of The Baker Street Journal), in which he proposed the delightful suggestion (now accepted in many quarters as gospel) that Nero Wolfe was the son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler. He received his Investiture in the Baker Street Irregulars in 1965. Jul 99 #6 William Targ died on July 22. He began his career in the book world at the age of 18 as an office boy at Macmillan in Chicago and at 22 opened his own bookshop there; in 1942 he moved to Cleveland and then to New York with Tower and World Books, rising to editor in chief, and in 1964 joined Putnam's (where he wisely paid Mario Puzo a $5,000 advance for the rights to THE GODFATHER). He retired from Putnam's in 1978, and then founded Targ Editions, publishing some 250 titles, carefully printed and bound, and signed by the authors and illustrators. He once suggested that the trouble with the publishing business is that too many people who have half a mind to write a book do so," but Targ Editions are delightful exceptions: one of them was D. R. Benson's IRENE, GOOD-NIGHT in 1982 (with Edward Gorey's signed frontispiece portrait of irene Adler). His own an- thologies CARROUSEL FOR BIBLIOPHILES (1947), BOUILLABAISSE FOR BIBLIOPHILES (1955), and BIBLIOPHILE IN THE NURSERY (1957), are delightful, and his mem- oirs INDECENT PLEASURES (1975) are a fine tribute to his love of books. If you've been postponing a visit to Gillette Castle in Hadlyme, Conn., you will need to wait until Memorial Day 2000; the state Department of Environ- mental Protection was hoping to keep the castle open through Labor Day this year, but design flaws have left the castle leaking since it was built, and the head of the Parks Division realized that "there was more damage than we thought." According to an article at hand from Tyke Niver, the state will spend $2.98 million repairing the castle roof and stone parapets, and $3.5 million renovating the interior. The DEP now plans to open portions of the castle for the Memorial Day weekend in 2000, when initial repairs have been finished, and hopes the project will be completed in 2001. Seen at Barnes & Noble: new printings of Barnes & Noble reprint editions of THE LOST ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Ken Greenwald, with 13 stories adapted from the Denis Green/Anthony Boucher scripts for the Rathbone radio scripts (1993); and THE FINAL ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, compiled by Peter Haining from material by Conan Doyle and others, with a brief added foreword by Jeremy Brett (1995); $5.95 each. "Impressionists in Winter: Effets de Neige" is on display at the Brooklyn Museum of Art through Aug. 29 (718-638-5000); it's a delightful exhibition that was shown at the Phillips Collection in Washington last year. One of the paintings is Camille Pissarro's "Fox Hill, Upper Norwood" (ca. 1870), and there is a Sherlockian connection: Conan Doyle lived in South Norwood in 1891, and wrote many of the early Sherlock Holmes stories there. John Dickson Carr says in his biography of Conan Doyle that "the house stood in semi-rural country," but the photographs the accompany Harry How's article "A Day with Dr. Conan Doyle" in The Strand Magazine (Aug. 1892) demonstrate that Norwood by then was hardly the rustic village that Pissarro painted. The videocassette with Douglas Wilmer's "The Speckled Band" and "The Illus- trious Client" (1964) issued by BBC Video in 1996 is offered (in the Brit- ish PAL format) for L14.99 postpaid from Blackstar (11 Ravenhill Road, Bel- fast, BT6 8DN, Northern Ireland, U.K.) ; credit-card orders welcome. They also offer an American NTSC-format cassette (L30.99 postpaid). It's delightful to see Douglas Wilmer (and Nigel Stock and many other fine actors) in these pleasant reminders of the days when so much of what one saw on television was in black and white. Jul 99 #7 Antonio Iriarte reports that the second volume of LAS HAZA¥AS DE SHERLOCK HOLMES [that's THE EXPLOITS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr, translated into Spanish by Cris- tian de la Maza] has at long last appeared. The first volume was published in 1990, launching an "El Club Diogenes" series of paperbacks that now num- bers 118 titles, among them Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's HISTORIAS DEL CREPUS- CULO Y DE LO DESCONOCIDO, HISTORIAS ESPELUZNANTES, HISTORIAS DEL RING, HIS- TORIAS DE LA ANTIGUEDAD, LA COMPA¥IA BLANCA, HISTORIAS DE INTRIGUA Y DE AV- ENTURAS, EL MUNDO PERDIDO, LA NUEVA REVELACION/EL MENSAJE VITAL, HISTORIAS DE PIRATAS, and EL CAPITAN DEL "POLESTAR". Valdemar (C/ Gran Via 69, 28013 Madrid, Spain) is the publisher, and all the volumes are in print. La Sociedad de Mendigos Aficionados [that's The Amateur Mendicant Society] continues to keep the memory green in Spain, and their semi-annual journal The Stranded appears twice a year (with 72 pages in the spring 1999 issue), publishing original scholarship from Spain and Spanish translations from other corners of the Sherlockian world. The society's address is Apartado de Correos 35.262, 28080 Madrid, Spain. Christina Foyle died on June 8. She was for decades the managing director and guiding spirit of Foyle's, the famous and eccentric bookshop in Charing Cross Road, founded in 1904 by her father and her uncle. She began working at the shop in 1928 at the age of 17, and (according to an obituary in the Daily Telegraph) encountered Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was browsing the shelves. Knowing he was a spiritualist, she asked him if he had ever been in touch with an author "on the other side." "Oh yes, he replied, "Only last week I was talking to Oscar Wilde. He told me that being dead was the most boring thing on Earth." One of the more interesting tours available in Chicago is a visit to Grace- land Cemetery with Donald B. Izban as your guide; Graceland is notable for the Sherlockian gravestone honoring Vincent Starrett and for much more, and SHERLOCK HOLMES VISITS A CEMETERY offers Don's seventeen-step tour of some of the more interesting sights to be seen at Graceland. The 44-page book- let costs $11.00 postpaid from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada. "Sherlock Holmes & the League of Night" is the mystery that Holmes and Wat- son and participants in the next "Victorian Holmes Weekend" will attempt to solve on Nov. 5-7 in Cape May. The weekend includes a tour of the town's Victorian homes, and additional details are available from the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, Box 340, Cape May, NJ 08204 (609-884-5404) (800-275- 4278) . Their next Sherlockian weekend will be on Mar. 10-13, 2000. Thanks to John Hillen for the news that DirecTV (a direct broadcast satel- lite service with 7.4 million subscribers) has begun airing its mini-series based on "The Lost World" (the first of 20 44-minute episodes premiered on July 30, and the series will run through Feb. 2000, with subscribers paying $1.49 to view each episode). The series pilot was the two-hour "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World" with Peter McCauley as Challenger (Jan 99 #3 and Feb 99 #1); the pilot debuted on DirecTV on Feb. 1, and on TNT cable on Apr. 11. And the mini-series likely will be syndicated to cable this fall. Jul 99 #8 Brian Pugh notes that the Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establish- ment's collection of memorabilia and photographs, now displayed at the Old Dairy at Groombridge Place, will be moved to Crowborough in the fall, when the collection will have a new home at Crowborough Beacon Commu- nity College. Brian also reports that next year's Sherlock Holmes Festival in Crowborough is scheduled for July 7-9. "Photographing Fairies" (1997) is now in the videoshops from Polygram Video ($19.95); the film is based on, though somewhat different from, Steve Szil- aygi's novel (Aug 92 #6), which was an imaginative fantasy that echoed the story of the Cottingley fairies. The film ran in theaters in Britain, but has gone directly to video here; actors in supporting roles include Edward Hardwicke as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Clive Merrison as the theosophist Edward Gardner. The new "Legends of Hollywood stamp honors James Cagney, who has played Lon Chaney, who likely didn't play Sherlock Holmes, but: in the film "The Man of a Thousand Faces" (1957) there is an early scene in which Cagney (as Chaney) shows his pressbook to a theatrical producer, and there is a fleeting glimpse of a sketch of Chaney as Sherlock Holmes and a press clipping about his performance as Holmes. Charles Shibuk has reported that Chaney did act in the theater early in his career, and it is possible that Chaney may have played Holmes in a touring com- pany of William Gillette's play or in some other play, but no one (including Lon Chaney, Jr.) has been able to provide any information on the plays Chaney may have acted in, or to locate any sort of scrapbook from his early career, and it is more likely that the scrapbook in the film was merely a studio prop. The Goose Club of the Alpha Inn and The Tigers of San Pedro have announced Holmes West '99 on Sept. 24-26 at the Occidental College Library in Los An- geles. "Three days with the Master" is their motto, Leslie Klinger will be the guest of honor, and there's much more scheduled. More information is available from John P. Sohl (20446 Orey Place, Canoga Park, CA 91306) . The July 15 auction at Sotheby's in London included some nice Sherlockiana, and yielded some nice prices. The highlight of the sale (at L7,820 includ-ing the buyer's premium) was a autograph postcard written by Conan Doyle in 1927, explaining why the mind-reading scene is found in "The Cardboard Box" and in "The Resident Patient" in many editions of the Canon: "...There was a certain sex element in The Cardboard Box story and for this reason I dis-carded it when I published in book form. As there was a bit of good deduc-tive reasoning in it I took it out and inserted it in another story. Years late I was publishing another S.H. collection and as I was rather short I put in the Cardboard Box after all. But I forgot that a bit of it had al-ready been used." A copy of the first edition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKER-VILLES, signed and inscribed by Conan Doyle in 1902, estimated at L12,000 to L15,000, would have been another highlight, but it went unsold. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Aug 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Monster Rally '99 (on Aug. 6-8 in Crystal City, Va.) was great fun: Chris- topher Lee was the guest of honor, and the last day of the convention there was a chance to hear him sing (opera) (in Italian) during a two-and-a-half hour session of answering questions and telling stories about such things as his appearance as Sherlock Holmes on "Saturday Night Live" in 1978 (the skit was rehearsed but didn't make it onto the air), and being directed by Billy Wilder in "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (Wilder had written the script, and the actors had to get every word right). And there were chances to meet children of famous actors (Ron Chaney, Sara Karloff, Bela Lugosi Jr., and Victoria Price), and genre greats such as Ray Harryhausen and Forry Ackerman. AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND PAST FORGETTING is a new one-volume edition combining both volumes of Peter Cushing's autobiography (first published in 1986 and 1988), with many fine stories about his Sherlockian and other roles (among them the fact that the ugly false teeth he used in "Tales from the Crypt" in 1971 were the same ones he had used as Sherlock Holmes in the earlier BBC television series) and a new afterword by Joyce Broughton, who was his secretary from 1959 until his death in 1994 (Baltimore: Midnight Marquee Press, 1999; 256 pp., $55.00 in cloth or $20.00 in paper covers). The pub- lisher's address is 9721 Britinay Lane, Baltimore, MD 21234 (800-886-0313). Also available from Midnight Marquee is the American edition of Christopher Lee's autobiography TALL, DARK AND GRUESOME (320 pp., same prices in cloth or paper); the first edition was published in Britain (1977), and there was a second (revised and expanded) British edition in 1997 (the American edi- tion has two additional chapters not in the second British edition). Laura Kuhn reports that she received an order from Amazon.com, with a book- mark packed with the book, and with a nice quote from Christopher Morley on the bookmark: "When you sell a man a book, you don't sell him 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue--you sell him a whole new life." Pj Doyle found some electronic conversations with Carole Nelson Douglas at a CNN web-site, where Carole said that she hopes to resume her Irene Adler series in the next couple of years, and that Recorded Books, which has iss- ued GOOD NIGHT, MR. HOLMES unabridged on audiocassettes (Apr 99 #5) will do the same with the other three already-published books. Merlin Holland, grandson of Oscar Wilde, will be the featured speaker at a conference on "The Arts of the British 1890s" in Washington on Sept. 10-12; the interdisciplinary conference is organized by the William Morris Society in collaboration with the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Georgetown University Department of English, and National Gallery of Art in association with the Eighteen Nineties Society. Other talks will cover the music, theater, poetry, fiction, book design, printmaking, photography, and Arts and Crafts furniture designs of the 1890s, with special attention to trans-Atlantic connections between British and American arts. All events are free and open to the public; no registration is necessary. Details are available from the William Morris Society in the United States (Box 53263, Washington, DC 20009 . Aug 99 #2 Constantine Rossakis, who earlier this year (Jun 99 #5) bought the manuscript of "Charles Augustus Milverton" at auction, now is the fortunate owner of two more Sherlockian manuscripts: "The Dying De- tective" and "The Lion's Mane" (purchased from the son of the late Alfred T. Miller, who bought them at auction at Christie's in 1960). Other than the Conan Doyles, Dr. Rossakis is the only person to have owned more than two Canonical manuscripts. Douglas Seale died on June 13. He was a British actor, producer, and dir- ector who launched his acting career on stage in London in 1934, was nomi- nated for a Tony Award in 1983 for the comedy "Noises Off", and in 1996 ap- peared as Archie Rice in a production of "The Entertainer" in New York. He was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and produced and directed plays on both sides of the Atlantic, and in Mar. 1952 he directed William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. The Practical, But Limited, Geologists will meet for dinner in honor of the world's first forensic geologist at 7:00 pm on Oct. 27 at Dixon's Downtown Grill in Denver. If you'd like to join the festivities for local Sherlock- ians and visiting geologists, you can contact Mark G. Langston (1143 South Monaco Parkway, Denver, CO 80224) or me (addresses at the end of this news- letter). Madeline wears Sherlockian costume while doing a bit of detec- tive work in "Madeline and The 40 Thieves" (on a videocassette from Sony at $9.98); it's an episode from the 30-minute animat- ed series that ran on the Family channel in 1993, based on the book by Ludwig Bemelmans and narrated by Christopher Plummer. For completists: Andy Peck reports that the Mystery Guild has its own edition of Daniel Stashower's TELLER OF TALES: THE LIFE OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (item #182360, $16.25); their address is Box 6325, Indianapolis, IN 46206 . Colonel Sebastian Moran's Secret Gun Club (which meets on Leap Year Day in or near Chicago) is planning next year's gathering, and details are avail- able from Nancy Wrobel, 7998 Garfield Avenue, Burr Ridge, IL 60521. Fire- arms will be provided, and the luncheon will feature buffalo meat, accord- ing to Don Izban, the society's founder, who has revealed the full name of the society: CSMSGCEEFTUQCOIIIDDRARSOTDRBDJHWOBTTAHEAUEOMSH. Yes, that's an abbreviation, but I'm sure they'll tell you the full name on Feb. 29. Alan Smith's article on "Smoking and Sherlock Holmes: A Three-Pipe Problem" appears in the summer 1999 issue of Pipes & Tobaccos, with illustrations by Chuck Regan; $3.95. The magazine is published by SpecComm International, 3000 Highwoods Boulevard #300, Raleigh, NC 27604 . Jackie Buckrop spotted a nice coincidence in the 30-minute television pub- lic-television series "The Desert Speaks" (now in its ninth year from the University of Arizona): the series is produced by Fran C. Sherlock, and the tenth episode this year was "An Inside Look at Beekeeping". The program is available on cassette for $18.95 postpaid from WUAT-TV (attn: business ser- vices), University of Arizona, Box 210067, Tucson, AZ 85721 (800-841-5923). Aug 99 #3 Carl Toms died on Aug. 4. A British stage designer whose car- eer spanned more than 40 years, he designed sets for theater, films, opera, and ballet, and in 1969 was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his work as design consultant for the investiture of Charles as Prince of Wales. Toms designed the sets and costumes for the Royal Shake- speare Company's revival of William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes", winning Tony and Drama Desk awards for the show's sets in New York in 1974. Mrs. Hudson's Cliffdwellers have launched their own journal, called (quite appropriately) Cliff Notes on Mrs. Hudson's Cliffdwellers; the first issue has 22 pages, including a report on a recent visit to 221B Baker Street in Morristown, N.J. (the former home of Edgar W. Smith), and costs $3.00 post- paid (or $5.00 a year for two issues) from Henry Boote, 184 Central Avenue, Old Tappan, NJ 07675. Fans of Laurie R. King's five books about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes will want to order the new T-shirt offered by the RUSS-L electronic mailing list (the design is diff- erent from the one offered last year). The cost is $10.00 postpaid (to the U.S.) or $11.00 (Canada) or $15.00 (else- where), and you should send your orders to Jessie Emerson, Box 2812, Huntsville, AL 35804; please specify size (S to 2X for adults; 6 to 16 for children) and background color (parchment or light blue). Size 3X also is available (parchment only) for $2.00 more. The mailing list motto (which is much more easily read in the full-size emblem on the T-shirt) is: "After 1914, Holmes is ours." Ray Betzner spotted the comic-book SCREAM COMICS #1 (Oct. 1998) with a two- page story "The Ghost of Snaggle Castle" (starring Foreclose Holmes and his trusty assistant Batsin); $2.95. The publisher is A List Comics (8332 Mel- rose Avenue, Hollywood, CA 90069 . It can be interesting to judge "cultural literacy" by looking for examples of things that writers assume that all (or perhaps almost all) readers will recognize without explanation. One example might be an allusion to the dog that did nothing in the night-time, with no explanation that the allusion is to a Sherlock Holmes story. And there was an interesting example in the Washington Post's obituary (Aug. 11) for Jennifer Paterson, who was half of the BBC's famous cooking duo whose "Two Fat Ladies" show was syndicated in ten countries. Her partner was Clarissa Dickson Wright, and the obituary noted that "Paterson was filmed for the show driving a Triumph Thunderbird motorcycle, with Dickson Wright riding its Watsonian sidecar." Audio Book Contractors (Box 40115, Washington, DC 20016) offers new record- ings by Flo Gibson of A STUDY IN SCARLET (on three cassettes; $8.95 rental or $24.95 purchase) and THE LOST WORLD (on four cassettes; $11.95 rental or $35.95 purchase). Add $3.50 for shipping ($4.50 to Canada). "Freak Storms as Britain Sizzles in the Sun" was the headline on an article in the [London] Daily Telegraph on Aug. 2, at hand from Francine and Wayne Swift. Seaside towns were crowded, needless to say, and "Coastguards were warning paddlers and swimmers from the Wash to the Thames to watch out for Lion's Mane jellyfish reported on the East Anglian coast." Aug 99 #4 The 26-episode 30-minute animated series "Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century" is scheduled to run weekly on the Fox Kids network at 8:00 am on Saturdays beginning Sept. 18, and possibly also on local stations that pick up syndicated programing from PAX TV. The series began airing in ITV in Britain in May (Jun 99 #3): Holmes, who died of old age and was preserved in honey, has been revived and rejuvenated by Insp. Lestrade (well, an attractive woman who, like her ancestor, works for Scot- land Yard, and has a robot assistant she calls Watson), and does a fine job of battling crime and criminals in the 2100s. The annual Sherlock Holmes Festival in Tryon, N.C., continues to pay trib- ute to local resident William Gillette; this year's dates are Nov. 4-7, and the Tryon LIttle Theater will give five performances of his play "Sherlock Holmes". Additional information about all the festival events is available from Jacquie Ziller, Polk County Travel & Tourism Council, 425 North Trade Street, Tryon, NC 28782 (800-440-7848); and the festival has a web-site at . Bill Barnes reports that Kel Richards' FOOTSTEPS IN THE FOG AND OTHER STOR- IES (Sydney: Beacon Communications, 1999; 304 pp.) now is available, with three Sherlockian pastiches, from Bill (19 Malvern Avenue, Manly, NSW 2095, Australia) for US$24/CA$32/L15 postpaid (air) or US$21/CA$29/L13 (surface). There's more discussion of the "Sherlock Holmes" BBC radio series in the conclusion of Tom Amorosi and Richard Valley's interview with Bert Coules in the latest issue of Scarlet Street: The Magazine of Mystery and Horror; $6.95, or $35.00 a year for six issues (Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452); fu- ture issues will have interviews with actor Douglas Wilmer and scriptwrit- er Charles Edward Pogue. Larry Millett's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE RUNE STONE MYSTERY (New York: Vik- ing, 1999; 317 pp., $23.95) will be published in October; Holmes and Watson return to Minnesota in 1899 to try to authenticate evidence that Norse ex- plorers had visited there in 1362. The book is a sequel to Millett's SHER- LOCK HOLMES AND THE RED DEMON (Sep 96 #5) and SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE ICE PALACE MURDERS (Nov 98 #6), and he continues to make good use of local his- tory, color, and characters. Guernsey has issued a set of six stamps honoring the 200th anniversary of Sandhurst (the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst was founded by a Guern- seyman, Major General John Gaspard Le Marchant); four of the stamps honor people who have Sherlockian or Doylean connections: the Duke of York (Le Marchant's sponsor), and three men who attended the academy: Field Marshal Earl Haig, the actor David Niven, and Winston Churchill: Aug 99 #5 The other two Guernsey stamps show Sandhurst founder Le March- ant and graduate Field Marshal Montgomery, but I don't know of any connections for them. As for the other four, Sherlock Holmes mentions "the Duke of York's steps" (in "His Last Bow"), Conan Doyle wrote the poem "Haig is Moving" (1919), Niven (according to his autobiography THE MOON'S A BALLOON) played the juvenile lead in "The Speckled Band" at Sandhurst in 1928, and John McAleer noted in his biography REX STOUT that in Dec. 1931 prospective bridegroom Stout had "a night out with the boys" at a private club where Churchill was one of the guests (at half-past one, Stout remem- bered, Churchill "was sipping bourbon and discussing Sherlock Holmes with me and three other men"). And what did Winston Churchill have to say about Sherlock Holmes? Accord- ing to Stout, "Churchill knew the Holmes stories fairly well and thought them 'perfect entertainment.'" The third pillar from the left (and the rest of the Lyceum) has been sold, according to a report in The Times (Aug. 5), at hand from John Baesch. The American conglomerate SFX Entertainment paid the Apollo Leisure Group L158 million for more than 20 theaters in Britain, including the Lyceum, where Mary Morstan was directed to meet her unknown benefactor (in "The Sign of the Four"). Apollo spent L14.6 million restoring the Lyceum, which was re- opened by the Prince of Wales three years ago (Nov 96 #6). "Rose is a rose is a rose" isn't a quote from the Canon, but we can hold it in reserve. The U.S. Postal Service's newest rose is a pink coral rose, and unlikely to be regarded by the USPS as a tribute to smokers (but of course we know that "the smoke bubbled merrily through the rose-water" in "The Sign of Four"). The Cambridge Footlights/Amateur Dramatic Club have scheduled a first for Sherlockian theatricals: "Sherlock Holmes: The Pantomime" will be produced at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge from Nov. 23 to Dec. 4; for those unfamil- iar with British traditions, this is not a pantomime in the style of Marcel Marceau, but rather a broadly comic musical (John Cleese, Stephen Fry, and Hugh Laurie have been members of Footlights in the past). You can reserve tickets now from the Cambridge Arts Theatre Box Office, 6 St. Edwards Pass- age, Cambridge CB2 3PJ, England (01223-503333), and more information about the show is available from Gemma Rougier at the ADC Theatre, Park Street, Cambridge CB5 8AS, England (01223-359547) . Copies of the program for the panto (with a synopsis and director's notes) will be avail- able by mail in December for L3.50 postpaid anywhere in the world (sterling checks only, please) from Gemma Rougier at the ADC Theatre. Further to the report (Jul 99 #7) on the 20-episode television series "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World" (with Peter McCauley as Challenger), the series is scheduled to begin in syndication on local stations starting Sept. 27. According to a story by Steve Brennan in The Hollywood Reporter (Aug. 12) executive producer John Landis noted that the two-hour pilot end- ed with the explorers trapped on the Lost World, and that "the syndicated series takes a wacky left turn at that point, and suddenly our explorers uncover a civilization that has evolved between dinosaurs and humans. They look like lizards and live in a society that is similar to ancient Rome." Aug 99 #6 The STUD Sherlockian Society's Founder's Day Festival was both sold-out and enjoyable, Allan Devitt reports, and the society's next function will be an Anglican Holiday at the Eagle Ridge Resort near Galena, Ill., on Oct. 29-31. And their first gathering next year will be in Schiller Park, Ill., on Mar. 3-4. Details are available from Allan at 16W603 3rd Avenue, Bensenville, IL 60106 . The Bird's Nest Theatre in South London) will present "In League with Sher- lock Holmes" on Sept. 8-25 (with new adaptations of "Lady Frances Carfax", "The Copper Beeches", and "The Red-Headed League"). The show runs Wednes- days through Saturdays at 8:00 pm, tickets cost L7.50, and the theater is located above the Bird's Nest pub at 32 Deptford Church Street, London SE8 4RZ, England (0181-694-2255) . The lapel pin of The Scowrers and Mollie Maguires of San Francisco is 5/8" in diameter and black and gold on red enamel; $15.00 post- paid (checks should be made payable to the Scowrers, please) from Jim Ferreira, 753 Oriole Avenue, Livermore, CA 94550. Sherlock Holmes: The Detective Magazine (edited by David Stuart Davies) has a fine variety of articles, essays, reviews, and other material about Sher- lock Holmes and other detectives, old and new. Continuing features include Michael Cox's "A Study in Celluloid" (offering the background story of the Granada series) and Roger Johnson's "Societies Forum" and Pat Ward's "Sher- lock Stateside" (with news from both sides of the Atlantic). And the most recent issues have featured Kathryn White's intriguing "Sherlock Holmes and the Viagra Principle" (a thoughtful discussion of Holmes' enigmatic sexual- ity) and Shane Baldwin's "Confessions of a Sherlockian Punk Rocker" (he was 12 or 13 when he found the Canon, and only 19 when his band Vice Squad made its first performance at the Lyceum Theatre and he was delighted to hasten to the third pillar from the left). Annual subscriptions (six issues) cost L18.00 (U.K.)/L20.00 (continent)/$40.00 (U.S.), and the address is Box 100, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 8HD, England ; their U.S. representative is Classic Specialties (Box 19058, Cincin- nati, OH 45219) . Back issues are available, and credit-card orders are welcome at both addresses. And there's interesting news in the latest issue of Sherlock Holmes: The Detective Magazine for fans of the radio series starring Clive Merrison and Michael Williams: BBC Radio 4 will extend the Merrison/Williams series into the unrecorded cases, with five original pastiches written by Bert Coules. The new shows will air next year. But Bert's not planning to do the Giant Rat of Sumatra: "some things should be left shrouded convenient Watsonian fog," Bert told the magazine. The digital video disk (DVD) market is expanding; "The Seven-Per-Cent Solu- tion" (1976) was issued by Image Entertainment last year (Sep 98 #2), and Tom Kowols has noted that Ian Richardson's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1983) will be released by Image Entertainment on Oct. 12 ($19.99). Jeremy Brett fans will also welcome his "Macbeth" (1981), due on Oct. 19 ($29.99). The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Sep 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Further to the item (Jun 99 #1) on the BBC's "Blood Line: The Dark Begin- ning of Sherlock Holmes" (about Joseph Bell and Arthur Conan Doyle), an ar- ticle in the Daily Telegraph (Aug. 14) reported that filming was to start in Glasgow in August, with Charles Dance and Ian Richardson starring, and Dolly Wells as a medical student who battles prejudice against women in the profession and ends up falling in love with Conan Doyle. "I'm learning how to kick a man in his balls," she explained. "I've never done it before but it doesn't sound that difficult." Barbara Michaels (who also writes as Elizabeth Peters about Amelia Peabody Emerson) presents two unsolved ghostly mysteries from the 19th century in OTHER WORLDS (New York: HarperCollins, 1999; 217 pp., $23.00), and she uses Frank Podmore, Nandor Fodor, Harry Houdini, and Arthur Conan Doyle to offer and briefly debate possible solutions to the mysteries. G A M E Credit Matt Demakos for using word-transformation to demonstrate F A M E that the game is a foot, in five changes. Can anyone do it in F A R E four? Matt, in turn, credits Lewis Carroll with inventing this F O R E kind of puzzle. Note that you're not allowed to change more than F O R T one letter in each more, and that each step must be a real word. F O O T If you can do it in four, stop: it can't be done in three moves. Aziz Bin Adam noted some interesting items in catalog 174 from Bibliophile Books ("Britain's Best Postal Book Bargains"): UNRAVELLING PILTDOWN: THE SCIENCE FRAUD OF THE CENTURY AND ITS SOLUTION, by John Evangelist Walsh, with discussion of Arthur Conan Doyle and many others (1996, 279 pp., now L5.00) and THE VICTORIAN TOWN CHILD, by Pamela Horn, with details on just what sort of life the original Baker Street Irregulars led (1997, 248 pp., now L8.00). Their address is 5 Thomas Road, London E14 7BN, England; and they welcome credit-card orders, but postage can be expensive: to the U.S. by cheapest rate it's L2.50 per order plus L2.00 per book. Members of The Parallel Case of St. Louis are celebrating their society's tenth anniversary with (among other things) an anthology of new articles and artwork titled THE PARALLEL CASES OF ST. LOUIS. The 56-page pamphlet costs $10.00 postpaid to the U.S. ($11.00 to Canada and $12.00 elsewhere), from Joseph J. Eckrich (914 Oakmoor Drive, Fenton, MO 63026). Jim Suszynski spotted THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES in the Parragon Child- ren's Library (Avonmouth: Parragon, 1994; 316 pp.), with a color dust jack- et and some uncredited black-and-white illustrations; discounted at $1.99. The "Dover Thrift Editions" ($1.00 to $2.00 each) continue to offer a wide range of good literature: their latest catalog, at hand from Laura Kuhn, has four titles by Conan Doyle: THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, SIX GREAT SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES, and THE ADVENTURE OF THE DANCING MEN AND OTHER SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES ($1.00 each), and THE LOST WORLD ($1.50). There's also a new "Dover Audio Thrift Classics" series that includes LISTEN & READ SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES ($6.95, with SIX GREAT SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES and an audiocassette with readings of "The Red-Headed League" and "The Final Problem"). Dover's address is 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, NY 11501. Sep 99 #2 Hugh S. Scullion's THE FATAL MISTAKE and the late Douglas More- ton's THE RISING RANSOM are available in one volume (144 pp.) from Cadds Printing (56 Lancaster Avenue, West Norwood, London SE27 9EL, England); Scullion's pastiche involves Wiggins, now a detective in his own right, investigating a case in Dulwich, and Moreton's pastiche has Holmes in pursuit of kidnappers near Lancaster. L12.00 postpaid to the U.K. or $20.00 postpaid elsewhere (dollar checks payable to Hugh Scullion, please). Issue #32 of Sherlock Holmes: The Detective Magazine is a "Special Statue Issue" with much about the new statue of Sherlock Holmes in Baker Street (including an interview with sculptor John Doubleday). And a report on a new sight for Sherlockian visitors to London to see: The Sherlock Holmes Memorabilia Company (at 230 Baker Street) has mounted an exhibition of fur- niture and props used by Granada in their television series, accompanied by Linda Pritchard's scrapbooks of Jeremy Brett's career. An annual subscrip- tion (six issues) costs L18.00 (U.K.)/L20.00 (continent)/$40.00 (U.S.) and the address is Box 100, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 8HD, England ; Classic Specialties (Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219) is their U.S. representative. Back issues are available, and credit-card orders are welcome at both addresses. Jerry Margolin reports that the second issue of Caliber Comics' SHERLOCK HOLMES READER is in the shops ($3.95), with the second installment of "The Loch Ness Horror" (story by Martin Powell and artwork by Seppo Makinen) and other Sherlockian articles, puzzles, and artwork; 225 North Sheldon Road, Plymouth, MI 48170 (888-222-6643) . What is small, lives underground, and solves crimes? The "special millennium issue" of British Heritage (Aug.-Sept.) includes a review of British art and literature by Chris Smith; with a portrait of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and credit to him for having "created one of the most popular characters in fiction and provided material for hundreds of adapta- tions this century in film, television, and radio." $4.99 on newsstands, or $6.00 postpaid (6405 Flank Drive, Harrisburgh, PA 17112) (800-358-6327). And there's a web-site at . There's more news about the BBC's "Blood Line" (Sep 99 #1), from a story in the Daily Mail (at hand from Jay Hyde): Ian Richardson will play Joe Bell, Robin Laing will be Arthur Conan Doyle, and Charles Dance will be hospital patron Sir Henry Carlyle. The Arthur Conan Doyle Society celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, and the ninth issue of its journal ACD (June 1999) offers 180 pages of ess- ays, articles, reviews, and scholarship, including Pierre Nordon's address to the Sherlock Holmes Society of London's annual dinner in Jan. 1999, ar- ticles and letters by and about Conan Doyle found by John Michael Gibson in the pages of the [London] Daily Mail from 1909 to 1930, Conan Doyle on Hou- ini's Last Escape" (from the Mar. 1930 issue of Ghost Stories) and Douglas G. Greene on "Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr". Membership in the society (including two issues of the journal) costs $27.00 a year (CA$33.00 /L16.00); credit-card orders are welcome, and the address is Box 1360, Ash- croft, BC V0K 1A0, Canada . Sep 93 #3 THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES is the first of a series of five limited editions of Sherlock Holmes stories, with illustrations in full color by Jason Powers and published by Micawber Fine Editions. The price varies from $395 to $95, depending on how many signed prints are in- cluded; shipping is extra, and an illustrated flier is available from Janis Frame at Book Buffs, Ltd., 1307 Bannock Street, Denver, CO 80204 (800-265- 9552) . An illustration can also be seen on the Web at : search for Micawber Fine Editions as the publisher. What is small, lives underground, and solves crimes? Sherlock Gnomes! Ac- cording to Tod Hageman, in Betty Debnam's "The Mini Page" (Sept. 5). The seventh and eight Sherlockian books this year from John Ruyle's Pequod Press are THE CHIMNEY-CHILD (poetry old and new) and THE MELLOW FACE (a new case from Dr. Fatso's archives, in which Turlock Loams joins forces with the famed private eye Philip Merlot). The hand-set and hand-printed books cost $40.00 each (cloth) or $20.00 (paper); John's address is 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707, and you're invited to request his sales-list of earlier titles still available. Arthur C. Schroeder died on Aug. 26. He was an insurance underwriter and marketing representative, and an enthusiastic member of the Sherlockian so- cieties in the Saint Louis area. Art was the sparking-plug as well as the skilled handicapper for the local running of The Silver Blaze, and he wrote a series of amusing radio dramas performed at society meetings. The Friends of Dr. Watson (a branch of The Franco-Midland Hardware Company with an interest in the medical aspects of the Canon) are organizing their second annual prize-essay competition (open to all) for the best essay dis- cussing Dr. Watson's medical abilities, knowledge, and skills, with a dead- line of Mar. 31. Details are available from Richard Stacpoole-Ryding, 14 Western Close, Letchworth, Herts. SG6 4SZ, England; please send an SASE (in the U.K.) or two International Reply Coupons (elsewhere). Further to the report (Aug 99 #6) on the 20-episode television series "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World" (with Peter McCauley as Challenger), TV Guide (Sept. 11) noted that there are two versions: the "slightly more risque" series is airing on pay-per-view DirecTV, and the other one began in prime-time syndication on Sept. 27. Larry Millett will be on a book-signing tour for SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE RUNE STONE MYSTERY in October: here's the tentative schedule: 16 Minneapo- lis, MN, Once Upon a Crime; 23 Stillwater, MN, Valley Bookseller (1:00; 25, Dayton, OH, Books and Company, 7:00; 26, Madison, WI, Booked for Murder, 7:30; 27, Seattle, WA, Seattle Mystery Bookshop, 12:00; 28, Portland, OR, Murder by the Book, 7:00; 29 Los Angeles, CA, Mysteries to Die For, 12:00; 30 Los Angeles, CA, Coffee, Tea and Mystery, 1:00. Jean Dutourd's novel-length pastiche MEMOIRES DE MARY WATSON was first pub- lished (in French) in 1980 (Apr 81 #4), and it has now been translated into Russian and published in Ukraine; if you would like to add to your collec- tion of foreign pastiches, contact Lora Sifurova (49-1, Apt. 65, 9th Parko- vaya Street, Moscow 105425, Russia) (7-095-463-6803) . Sep 99 #4 Reported: THE AUTHENTIC WORLD OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: AN EVOCATIVE TOUR OF CONAN DOYLE'S VICTORIAN LONDON, by Charles Viney (God- alming: Quadrillion, 1999; 168 pp., $14.99; almost certainly a reprint of his SHERLOCK HOLMES IN LONDON (Oct 89 #3) under a new title, and aimed for the bargain tables. SHERLOCK HOLMES IN LONDON was a delightful book, with more than 200 sepia-toned contemporary photographs, accompanying appropri- iate quotations from the Canon; recommended then, and now. The summer issue of The Magic Door (the newsletter of The Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library) offers the first part of Barbara Rusch's report on interesting ephemera in the coll- ection, and Victoria Gill's account of what is old and new in the Arthur Conan Doyle Room, and much more; copies are available from Doug Wriggles- worth, 16 Sunset Street, Holland Landing, ON L9N 1H4, Canada . And (for the electronically enabled), the collection web- site is at . Ed. Lange's play "Sherlock's Secret Life" premiered at the N.Y. State Thea- tre Institute in Mar. 1997, and it's now available in the Institute's "Fam- ily Classic Audio Book" series on two cassettes, with the original cast and narration by Karl Malden, and it's nicely done indeed. The cost is $21.90 postpaid; 155 River Street, Troy, NY 12180 (credit-card or- ders are welcome). Marcus Geisser reports that he is now working for the International Commit- tee of the Red Cross, and is on his way to Congo-Kinshasa (formerly known as Zaire), where he will be for the next ten to twelve months. He doesn't have e-mail yet, but will welcome letters, which will be forwarded if they are addressed to: Marcus Geisser/Lubumbashi/R.D.C., c/o CICR, 19 avenue de la Paix, CH-1202 Geneva, Switzerland. Our new set of six stamps honoring Hollywood Composers includes one for Academy Award-winner Bernard Herrmann, whose lengthy list of credits included conducting the orchestra on Orson Welles' Mercury Theater radio broad- cast of William Gillette's play "Sherlock Holmes", and writing the score for the 1976 film "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution". Vincent Starrett, who was described by Julian Wolff as "the greatest Sher- lockian of all time" when he wrote Vincent's obituary for The Baker Street Journal in 1974, was photographed by Laura V. Page at his home in Oak Park, Ill., in 1972. She also designed the imaginative grave-marker installed at Vincent's grave in 1986, and she now offers high-quality prints of three of those photographs; $25.20 each postpaid. An illustrated flier is available from Laura (Box 5283, Madison, WI 53705) . It's nice to see that Christopher Morley's not forgotten: John Pforr noted an article by John Rivera in the Baltimore Sun (Sept. 16) on the 100th an- niversary of the Gideons, an organization that still distributes Bibles "in the human traffic lanes and streams of national life." And the article be- gan with a quote from Morley: "Why do they ut the Gideon Bibles only in the bedrooms, where it's usually too late, and not in the barroom downstairs?" Sep 99 #5 Bill Dorn's Sherlock Holmes Calendar for 2000 has the dates for 55 of the cases (he uses the Zeisler and Christ chronologies), founding dates for more than 80 Sherlockian societies, and other dates of significance in the Sherlockian world; $11.95 postpaid ($12.95 to Canada or $13.95 elsewhere) from William S. Dorn, 2045 South Monroe Street, Denver, CO 80210 . The film "The Ninth Gate" is scheduled for release on Dec. 22, but it's not going to be a Christmas-holiday film. Directed by Roman Polanski and star- ring Johnny Depp and Lena Olin, the film is based on Arturo Perez-Reverte's book THE CLUB DUMAS, which one reviewer called "a cross between Umberto Eco and Anne Rice," and "a beach book for intellectuals." The book is literate and mysterious, and has Canonical echoes, including a woman who says she is Irene Adler; I reported on it earlier (Jun 98 #5), and took far too long to get round to reading (and recommending) it. EL CLUB DUMAS was published in Spain in 1993, and in English in 1997 as THE CLUB DUMAS, and it's available now as a trade paperback (New York: Vintage Books, 1998; 362 pp., $13.00). Marco Zatterin noted last year that Perez-Reverte has said that there are pictures of three people on the table where he works: Stendhal, Dumas, and Basil Rathbone. In an interview with an Italian crime magazine, Perez-Rev- erte said that "Rathbone represents the real Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was one of the first authors I read, and he is still an import- ant point of reference for me." And as a war correspondent, "Wherever I went, Beirut or Sarajevo, I would take some books with me. By the light of a candle, I was traveling in the world of Sherlock Holmes, or the world of Hans Castorp." And Don Pollock has reported that there are many Sherlockian references in Perez-Reverte's earlier THE FLANDERS PANEL, as well as more subtle referen- ces in his later THE SEVILLE COMMUNICATION, whose "whole plot is borrowed from the Canon (though one could make that claim about a large percentage of mysteries...)." The Palm Pilot is a small (hold it in the palm of your hand) computer that is useful for various things, including reading books (as long as you don't mind reading them on a very small screen), and you can download books from the World Wide Web; Cliff Goldfarb reports that the books available at the web-site include Sherlockian and non-Sherlockian titles by Arthur Conan Doyle, and Christopher Morley's THE HAUNTED BOOKSHOP. Carl Heifetz has reported that the Avenue Players Theatre will present Hugh Leonard's play "The Mask of Moriarty" in Tarpon Springs on Nov. 5-20. The box-office is at 324 Pine Street, Tarpon Springs, FL 34689 (727-942-5605). President Clinton has selected Jim Lehrer as one of this year's recipients of the National Humanities Medals. Lehrer, a novelist and playwright as well as the anchor of "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS-TV, provided a quote that every collector ought to memorize, in an essay on the pleasures of collecting, in the Mar. 1990 issue of Smithsonian: describing himself as a world-class collector of depot signs and other memorabilia, Lehrer sug- gested that collectors are not odd. "We are merely possessed with a need to collect certain things that some people might consider odd." Sep 99 #6 Moonlight Cinema (416 West 3rd Street, London, KY 40741) has an interesting list of old and new Sherlockian and Doylean films on videocassette, with seldom-seen titles such as "Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour" ["The Sleeping Cardinal"] (1931) with Arthur Wontner, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1937) with Bruno Guttner, and "The Hound of the Basker- villes" (1977) with Peter Cook, and a high-quality transfer of "Sherlock Holmes" (1932) with Clive Brook; write to Moonlight for the complete list. Richard Carleton Hacker, author of THE ULTIMATE PIPE BOOK, has celebrated its 15th anniversary with a new title: RARE SMOKE: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO PIPE COLLECTING, with thorough coverage of collection 20th-century estate pipes. Rick reports that he includes information on commemorative Sherlock Holmes pipes, and some previously untold stories about his adventures with the late Jeremy Brett. The 288-page book retails for $37.50, and is avail- able from the author (Box 634, Beverly Hills, CA 90213); $42.00 postpaid. Ben Wood (9840 Sucia Circle, Parrish, FL 34219) offer his compact Sherlock- ian Calendar (Noting Red-Letter Days) for 2000; it measures 5.5 x 4 in. un- opened, and costs $2.00 postpaid to U.S. addresses. Masamichi Higurashi is continuing his work on the MEITANTEI HOLMES [HOLMES THE GREAT DETECTIVE] series of translations of the Canon (with four stories in each volume), published by Kodansha with illustrations by Hitoshi Wakana and "Ki". And the first two of Laurie R. King's novels about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE and A MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN) have been translated by Kumiko Yamada and published by Shuisha with cover art by Goro Sasaki (the publisher hopes to do more of the series). "Seers and Believers: A Symposium on Victorian Spiritualism" will be held on Oct. 16 at the Town & Country Club and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Hartford's celebrated 19th century community, Nook Farm, was home to several prominent believers (and a few skeptics), including author Harriet Beecher Stowe, theologian Calvin Stowe, suffragist Isabella Beecher Hooker and attorney John Hooker. Additional information is available from the Harriett Beecher Stowe Center, 77 Forst Street, Hart- ford, CT 06105 (860-522-9258). Reported by Susan Dahlinger, who notes that Wililam Hooker Gillette was born at Nook Farm. George C. Scott died on Sept. 22. He was an award-winning actor on stage, screen, and television (and refused to accept the Oscar he won for "Patton" in 1971). His many great films included "They Might Be Giants" (1971), in which he played Justin Playfair, a psychotic judge who believed that he was Sherlock Holmes (Joanne Woodward was his pyschiatrist, Dr. Mildred Watson). The unveiling of the statue of Sherlock Holmes in front of the Baker Street underground station on Sept. 23 was well received by the Sherlockians who gathered for the event. According a story by T. R. Reid in the Washington Post (Sept. 24), Lord Tugendhat, chairman of Abbey National, noted that his bank was "proud to be associated with the world's greatest fictional detec- tive," and looked stunned when he was booed by the assembled fans. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Oct 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The six days of festivities arranged by The Sherlock Holmes Society of Lon- don to celebrate the unveiling of the statue of Sherlock Holmes at the Bak- er Street underground station on Sept. 23 delighted the large contingent of Sherlockians who assembled from many nations and more than three separate continents, according to accounts from all quarters received. The Guardian noted the ceremony in an editorial, and T. R. Reid had a story in the Wash- ington Post (with a photograph of Joe Moran and a quote from June Kinnee); his story was reprinted in the Houston Chronicle, the Denver Post, and the Japan Times. I'm not aware of other reports in the general media, but I'm sure there will be lots of coverage in the Sherlockian press, "Sherlock Holmes got me to Oxford, says Ukraine girl," was the headline on an article in The Sunday Telegraph, at hand from Garth Hazlett. The girl is Eleonor Suhoivy, who spoke no English when she arrived in England four years ago at the age of 14; she became fluent in English largely through comparing translations of the Sherlock Holmes stories with the originals, she said in an interview, and good grades in her A-levels won her a place at Oxford, where she began her degree course this month. "The book combines the pastoral charms of THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS (1908), the urbanity of James Branch Cabell, the wackiness of Thorne Smith, and the mysticism of a whole pot of Inklings," is the way Paul Di Filippo describes Christopher Morley's WHERE THE BLUE BEGINS (1922) in the June issue of Fan- tasy & Science Fiction. "Morley's dialogue and characterizations are abso- lutely brilliant, his touch light and assured," Di Filippo continues, "This quintessentially Jazz Age novel simultaneously encapsulates and transcends its era." The book is great fun to read, and the praise well-deserved. Alexander Orlov has forwarded a long article from the Moskovsky Komsomolets (Sept. 4) by Stanislav Kuvaldin, noting the 20th anniversary of the Russian television series that starred Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin. Accord- ing to Kuvaldin, Russian Public Television recently commissioned Igor Mas- lennikov (director of the original series) to produce "Memoirs About Sher- lock Holmes" (which will have as its central figure Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, played by Alexei Petrenko). Sorry about that: Bernard Herrmann's credits did not include the score for the 1976 film "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" (Sep 99 #4). As noted by David Morrill, the score was written by John Addison. Philip Cornell has noted that Herrmann is reported to have been signed to write the film score, but ill health intervened and he was replaced by Addison. Herrmann does have one Sherlockian film credit: the score for "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), which is one of the very few films to include a member of The Baker Street Irregulars in the cast. This year's Kennedy Center Honors will be presented on Dec. 4, recognizing the life-long artistic achievements of musician Stevie Wonder, actor Jason Robards, comic pianist Victor Borge, dancer Judith Jamison, and actor Sean Connery, who starred in two films of interest to Sherlockians: "The Molly Maguires" (1970), in which he played Jack Kehoe, and "The Name of the Rose" (1986), in which he was William of Baskerville. Oct 99 #2 THE STRANGE AFFAIR AT GLASTONBURY (Bridgwater: Big House Books, 1999) is Eddie Maguire's fourth pastiche; Holmes and Watson are in Somerset, where a series of apparent practical jokes conceal a far more serious mystery. The 37-page pamphlet costs $10.00 postpaid from Ian Henry Publications (20 Park Drive, Romford, Essex RM1 4LH, England). Our new set of six stamps honor Broadway Songwriters includes one for Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, who wrote together from 1942 into the 1970s, with hits such as "Brigadoon" (1947), "Paint Your Wagon" (1951), "My Fair Lady" (1956), and "Camelot" (1960). And they might have had a Sherlockian connection: according to Maurice Zolotow (BILLY WILDER IN HOLLYWOOD, 1977), Wil- der Billy Wilder purchased the rights to the characters from the estate in 1955 for a musical play, with book and lyrics by Lerner, and music by Loewe, but let the option lapse; after the success of the film "Irma La Douce" he tried again, proposing a Tech- nicolor musical film with score by Lerner and Loewe, starring Peter O'Toole as Holmes and Peter Sellers as Watson. Yes, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) includes a member of The Baker Street Irregulars in the cast. When the alien spaceship landed in Washing- ton, there were lots of news reports, and one of the reporters was newsman Elmer Davis, played by himself. Elmer Davis was one of the early members of the BSI, and wrote its Constitution and Buy-Laws. And Michael Ross has reported a possible Sherlockian television credit for Bernard Herrmann: "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1972), broadcast by ABC- TV, starring Stewart Granger as Holmes. According to the 9-10/1988 issue of ARD Magazin, published by the German public television station ARD, the music was written by Herrmann. But he's not mentioned in the credits. The latest issue of The Sherlockian Times, the catalog/journal/newsletter from Classic Specialties, has 28 pages of news and offers of books, audio, and other Sherlockiana; Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219 (toll-free 877-233- 3823) . Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine often celebrates Sherlock Holmes' birthday by including something Sherlockian in the issue that's available during the birthday festivities, but that's not the only time that intriguing stories appear in the magazine: Ian Rankin's "The Acid Test" (Aug. 1999) will be of interest to Doyleans as well as Sherlockians. Mark Alberstat's 2000 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. Sherlock Hemlock is alive and well, in Singapore (and perhaps other Asian countries), where McDonald's has a tie-in promotion of Sesame Street mini bean pals, 5.5 in. high, that includes a cute little Sherlock Hemlock. And if you're not planning to be in Singapore soon, the mini-bean pals turn up at auction on the Internet at eBay (less than $9.00 postpaid). Oct 99 #3 Plan well ahead: The Sherlock Holmes Society of London Golden Jubilee Cruise is scheduled to the Baltic, departing Harwich around Aug. 23, 2001, for a 12-day voyage with stops at Oslo, Tallin, St. Petersburg, Riga, and Kalliningrad, returning to Harwich through the Kiel Canal. Details are available from Arena Travel, Freepost 1H 1037, Felix- stowe, Suffolk IP11 7BR, England . Our "Celebrate the Century" souvenir sheets have reached the 1960s, and one of the new stamps honors Gene Roddenberry's television series "Star Trek". First broadcast in 1966, it led to a series of films; in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" (1991) Spock says "An ancestor of mine maintained that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, how- ever improbable, must be the truth." The ancient Jarawa people of the Andaman islands face the threat of extinc- tion because of the spread of disease resulting from the growing links with the outside world, according a story by Rahul Bedi in the Sept. 29 issue of The Telegraph noted by John R. Clark. At least 50 of the 300 or so surviv- ing Jarawa, who live deep in a rain forest and traditionally shun contacts with outsiders, are ill with measles and pneumonia, to which they lack im- munity; the outbreaks have followed efforts by local officials to encourage contacts with the tribe. In the 1950s contact groups attempted to woo the Jarawa, leaving them gifts such as bananas and coconuts. Construction of a major road a decade ago led to wider exposure to the outside world. And in 1998, a Jarawa teenager found by police with a broken leg was treated in a hospital in Port Blair. He was fussed over and treated to bangles, sweets, cakes and color television; when he returned home, his tales of his adven- tures and luxuries prompted others to venture out, seeking modern treats. This week, six Jarawa boys, naked and armed with bows and arrows, stopped all vehicles on the road passing through their reserve, located about 50 miles north of Port Blair. Slapping their bellies and mumbling the Hindi word for "hunger", they lunged at all packages, presuming they contained food, before police chased them away. Local officials now advise travelers passing through the Jarawa reserve to carry bananas and biscuits to appease them. This has upset anthropologists, who demand more positive measures to preserve the tribe. Les Klinger has forwarded a report in Daily Variety (Sept. 23) that Centro- polis Entertainment ("Independence Day" and "Godzilla") has purchased an option to produce a Victorian thriller "Cast of Characters" from a script written by Larry Cohen. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson )and other charac- ters from the Canon) are involved in the story. The 50-minute BBC documentary "Queen Mary's Dolls' House" was produced by the BBC in 1989 ("tour the sumptuous rooms and enchanting garden in this miracle of miniature craftsmanship"), but when it was issued on videocass- ette (Oct 90 #5) there was no report that it showed the manuscript of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "How Watson Learned the Trick" (specially written for the library). Frank Darlington now confirms that the manuscript is indeed shown in the documentary, which is available ($24.20 postpaid) from Discov- ery Channel Video (Box 4055, Santa Monica, CA 90411) (800-207-5775); it's item E1788 in their catalog. Oct 99 #4 Further to the report (Apr 98 #3) about Sherlock and Morse (the pedigreed bloodhounds working for the Essex police), the dogs are doing quite well, according to a story in The Sunday Times (Sept. 19), at hand from John Baesch: in one case, Sherlock followed a 13-day-old trail (German shepherds with the same training were able to follow trails only up to 48 hours old). and in another case Sherlock found a smash-and-grab raid- der in Harwich, following the trail down several roads and eventually iden- tifying the thief's house even though he had driven home after the raid. Jerry Margolin reports that Disney has celebrated the videocassette re-re- lease of "The Great Mouse Detective" by adding Basil, Dr. Dawson, Olivia, and Ratigan to their "mini bean bags" line, available in Disney stores, or by phone (800-237-5751), or at the Disney web-site ; the mini beans are about 4" high, and cost $6.00 each or $24.00 for the set of four (item 20078WW). Boston University is planning an Alumni College in the Swiss Alps on Sept. 17-25, 2000, Scott Monty reports, and one of the long list of attractions is: "Walk through the Rosenlaui Gorge, with lunch under the glacier. Then, view the Reichenbach Falls of Sherlock Holmes fame." There's no need to be affiliated with the university, Scott notes, and you can request a brochure with much more information from: Alumni Travel Program, Boston University, 599 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 (800-800-3466) . The 20 stamps in our new "Insects & Spiders" set have a nice assortment of them, and there are many mentions of flies, butterflies, beetles, and spiders in the Canon. And there is one mention of a bug-hunter (in "The Three Garridebs"), providing a nice excuse to show an assass- in bug ("this predator, which hunts from ambush, feeds on many insects including bees," according to the U.S. Postal Service's note on the back of the stamp). Trevor Raymond notes that Simon Callow now is a CBE (Companion of the Order of the British Empire); he is a director and an actor (he played Inspector Lestrade in Charlton Heston's "The Crucifer of Blood" on TNT cable in 1991, and Sherlock Holmes in "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" on BBC Radio 4 and in "The Unopened Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" on BBC Radio 5 in 1993, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a one-man play "In Defence of Fairies" in London in 1997), and his fine biography of another Sherlockian actor (ORSON WELLES: THE ROAD TO XANADU) was published in 1995. Trevor also reports that Tim Kelly's play "The Hound of the Baskervilles" will be produced by the Mystery Company at the Lancaster Opera House on Jan. 14-23, 2000. The box-office address is 21 Central Avenue, Lancaster, NY 14086 (716-683-1776). George MacDonald Fraser's FLASHMAN AND THE TIGER, AND OTHER EXTRACTS FROM THE FLASHMAN PAPERS (London: HarperCollins, 1999; 320 pp., L16.99) offers the first (and long-awaited) book appearance of the story first published in the Daily Express, Sept. 29-Oct. 3, 1975. It's a delightful tale: the "tiger" is Colonel Sebastian Moran, with whom Flashman had three encounters (this being the third, in an empty house in Baker Street in 1894). Oct 99 #5 Richard B. Shull ("An Actor and a Rare One") died on Oct. 14. Dick was a fine actor indeed, on stage and screen and televis- ion (N.Y. Times theater critic Frank Rich once praised him as "that amusing character actor who looks like a bloated fish"), and he performed with wit and humor at many of the annual dinners of the Baker Street Irregulars. He was director of the North American Araucania Royalist Society, a knight of the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem and of the Orthodox Order of St. John of Jerusalem, and a member of the Society of the Colonial Wars, the Veterans Corps of Artillery, the Military Society of the War of 1812, the Colonial Order of the Acorn, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, the Honorary Order of Kentucky Colonels, Washington Irving's St. Nicholas Society, the Dutch Treat Club, and (since 1986) the BSI. The ninth volume of The Shoso-in Bulletin, edited by Yuichi Hirayama and Mel Hughes and published by The Men with the Twisted Konjo, has 201 pages of articles, essays, pastiches, parodies, verse, and artwork contributed from Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States, all in English and as usual nicely done. $12.00 postpaid from Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219 ; credit-card orders welcome. Another report of Lion's Manes on display in the U.S.: ac- cording to Mark Andersen, there are several (small) speci- mens on view at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps in San Diego. Stu Shiffman's "The Game Is Afoot!" artwork is available (white on purple) on T-shirts (size XL only) for $20.00 postpaid; his address is 8616 Linden Avenue North, Seat- tle, WA 98103. If you're interested in other colors or other sizes, or in polo shirts or caps, just let Stu know . The ninth Sherlockian book this year from the Pequod Press is BAKER STREET ANTICS, in which (as John Ruyle reports) he sheds poetic new light on dark corners. Hand-set and hand-printed; $40.00 each (cloth) or $20.00 (paper), and his address is 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. Jean Shepherd died on Oct. 16. He was one of America's greatest humorists, described by Marshall McLuhan as "the first radio novelist," and in 1956 he began a 21-year career on WOR-AM (New York), creating an audience of "night people" that stretched from Canada to Florida. In 1969 he introduced the broadcast of "The Priory School" by Chris Steinbrunner and other members of The Priory Scholars of Fordham on WFUV-FM, and when he visited the Okefeno- kee Swamp in Georgia for his television series "Jean Shepherd's America" on PBS-TV in 1985, he happily reported that the mists reminded him of Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles. Further to the report (Jun 99 #1) on the campaign to raise funds for David Cornell's life-size bronze statue of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Crowborough, the Crowborough Conan Doyle Trust offers 34.5 cm. bronze maquettes (L890) and bronze-resin maquettes (L390), according to a flier at hand from David Rush. A leaflet is available from the Trust (The Town Hall, The Broadway, Crowborough, East Sussex TX6 1DA, England). Oct 99 #6 The Oct. 1999 issue of Hayakawa's Mystery Magazine offers the Japanese a nice variety of Sherlockiana in Japanese: original stories, pastiches by Jacques Futrelle, Laurie R. King, John T. Lescroart, articles by Paul Chapman and Kathryn White from Sherlock Holmes: The Detec- tive Magazine, and an excerpt from DINING WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Julia Carlson Rosenblatt and Frederic H. Sonnenschmidt; many of the translations are by Masamichi Higurashi, who also contributed an article on "Holmes Nev- er Dies: A Guide to Overseas Books and Events". Daniel Stashower will be in Toronto on Nov. 7, at the Beeton Auditorium at the Toronto Reference Library (789 Yonge Street) at 1:00 pm, reading from his biography TELLER OF TALES: THE LIFE OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE; there's no charge for the event, which has been arranged by the Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection. And Victoria Gill, curator of the collection will display and discuss some of the collection's treasures. The Practical, But Limited Geologists met at Dixon's Downtown Grill in Den- ver on Oct. 27, for a dinner honoring the world's first forensic geologist, during the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, and we were welcomed by Dr. Watson's Neglected Patients. Our next dinners will be in New Orleans in April, and in Reno in November, and in Denver and Boston in 2001 (there is a tentative possibility that there will be a formal session on forensic geology at the GSA annual meeting in Boston). Sarah Andrews was at the GSA meeting to sign copies of BONE HUNTER ("a mys- tery featuring forensic geologist Em Hansen, the dust jacket notes); it's Sarah's fifth mystery novel, and it's a fine one (New York: St. Martin's Minotaur, 1999; 340 pp., $24.95). Donald W. Marshall died on Apr. 20, 1999. He joined the editorial staff of the New York World in 1926, and worked for the New York Times from 1931 to his retirement in 1959, and he was a member of the faculty at the Columbia School of Journalism, and for many years a distinguished member of The Five Orange Pips (in which his title, appropriately, was "Horace Harker"). Our new 40c stamp shows the Rio Grande, and can be used to send postcards to Mexico. "To the right of the Sierra Blanco -- so we shall reach the Rio Grande," said one of the Mormons (in "A Study in Scarlet"), creating consider- able confusion for Sherlockian geographers. Richard Wein reports that Bits & Pieces (1 Puzzle Place, Stevens Point, WI 54481) (800-544-7297) offers two new mystery jigsaw puzzles in "The Continuing Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (the puzzle pic- tures help you solve the crimes); "The Watson Inheritance" and "The Case of the Fallen Actress" are $10.95 each (or $17.90 for the pair) (or $29.95 for the four most recent puzzles). Great for meeting prizes, Richard notes. Trish Prehn's attractive painting of the sitting-room at 221B is available as a full-color print (18 x 14.5"), accompanied by a key to the stories in which things are mentioned; $67.00 postpaid to the U.S. ($70.00 elsewhere), and her address is 312-B West 34th Street, Austin, TX 78705 (512-302-4064) A postcard-size reproduction is available on request. Oct 99 #7 Sherlock Holmes' 146th birthday will be celebrated on Friday, Jan. 14, with the traditional festivities in New York, but the celebration actually begins on Thursday afternoon, with The Morley-Montgom- ery Reception (by invitation only) honoring winners and this year's recipi- ent of the award for the best paper published in The Baker Street Journal each year, and recent contributors to the BSJ. And the BSI Distinguished Speaker Lecture begins at 6:15 pm on the 6th floor of the Williams Club at 24 East 39th Street (between Madison and Park Avenues); the speaker will be Michael Dirda, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for criticism and the senior editor of the Washington Post's Book World ($10.00; seating is limited, and you are advised to reserve early; details below). Then there's time for supper and theater, and this time there will be some Sherlockian theater: There are plans for a New York production of David Stuart Davies' one-man play "Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act!", which has been performed by Roger Llewellyn on tour in the provinces and in London this year. If all goes well, there will be performances on Thursday and Saturday evenings, some- where, and possibly also on Sunday morning. And (sorry) there's no firm information yet on the venue or prices, which will be available soon from Mike Whelan (see below). 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 hotel provides its guests with a continental breakfast, and others are welcome to attend each day (and pay $15.00; details below). The William Gillette Memorial Luncheon starts at noon, at Moran's Chelsea Seafood Restaurant at 146 Tenth Avenue at 19th Street; $36.00 (Susan Rice, 125 Washington Place #2-E, New York, NY 10014). And Otto Penzler will hold his traditional open house at The Mysterious Bookshop (129 West 56th Street) from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm; Sherlockian authors will be on hand to sign their books. The Baker Street Irregulars will gather at 6:00 pm at the Union League Club at 38 East 37th Street. The Baskerville Bash (which is open to all Sher- lockians and their friends) offers dinner and entertainment at 6:30 pm at the Manhattan Club at 800 Seventh Avenue (at 52nd Street); $55.50 (Maribeau Briggs, 46 East 29th Street #2-R, New York, NY 10016) . Early reservations are advised for the William Gillette luncheon and the Baskerville Bash. Those who wish to have seasonal souvenirs in the dinner packets can send 175 copies (for the BSI) to James B. Saunders (3011 47th Street, Astoria, NY 11103) and 125 copies (for the Bash) to Francine Kitts (35 Van Cortlandt Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10301); your material should arrive by Dec. 15. On Saturday a wide variety of Sherlockiana will be available in a dealers room on the 2nd floor of the Hotel Algonquin at 59 West 44th Street, from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm; for information on vendor tables, contact Ralph Hall, 2906 Wallingford Court, Louisville, KY 40218 (502-491-3148) . The BSI annual reception, which is open to all Sherlockians and their friends, will be held on Saturday afternoon from 3:00 to 5:30, at the National Arts Club at 15 Gramercy Park (on 20th Street between Third and Park Avenues); open bar, and hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, and the cost is $35.00 (details below) or $45.00 at the door. Oct 99 #8 The Baker Street Irregulars are a tax-exempt organization, and Mike Whelan has arranged with the Hotel Algonquin for single or double rooms at $195.00 a night (Tuesday through Sunday); this is the total cost, since there is no tax due on reservations arranged by the BSI (the special rate is the equivalent of $170.00 plus tax). Other charges (room service, telephone calls, meals, drinks, etc.) are not covered. The offer is available to all Sherlockians; contact the Algonquin directly (and don't delay), and ask for the Baker Street Irregulars rate (212-840-6800). And here are the details: you can request a reservation form for the Thurs- day lecture, the Martha Hudson breakfast, the Saturday reception, and the David Stuart Davies play, from Michael F. Whelan, 7938 Mill Stream Circle, Indianapolis, IN 46278; the forms will be mailed to you by mid-November. Mary Ellen Rich has 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. You should ask for weekend specials, or winter promotional rates, and if you plan to arrive on Thursday, you should confirm the rates, and that the weekend rates include Thursday. Portland Square (132 West 47th St.): $99 (single) $109 (double) (212-382-0600); Quality Hotel (59 West 46th St.): $99 (and up) $139 (suite) (senior discounts available); Gershwin (7 East 27th St.): $127 (212-545-8000); St. Moritz (50 Central Park South): $125 (212-752-7760); Grand Hyatt Grand Central (42nd St. at Park Ave.): $139 (212-883-1234). And Mary Ellen recommends as a web- site for economy-rate hotels in New York. The Dr. John H. Watson Fund offers financial assistance to all Sherlockians (membership in the BSI is not required) who might otherwise not be able to participate in the weekend's festivities. A carefully pseudonymous John H. Watson presides over the fund and welcomes contributions, which can be made by check payable to John H. Watson and sent (without return address on the envelope) to Dr. Watson, care of The Baker Street Irregulars, at 7938 Mill Stream Circle, Indianapolis, IN 46278; the checks are forwarded unopened, and Dr. Watson will acknowledge your generosity. Requests for assistance can also be mailed to Dr. Watson at the same address. Norman S. Nolan ("Godfrey Norton") died on Oct. 17, 1999. Norm was first an engineer, and then a doctor, and a ringleader in Sherlockian affairs in New Jersey, where he was the sparking-plug of The Scandalous Bohemians and The Ostlers, and among the Baker Street Irregulars (for whom he began the tradition of providing identification keys to the photographs of the annual dinners) (and from whom he received his Investiture in 1972). He also was an energetic collector, and one of the few fortunate Sherlockians to own a Canonical manuscript ("Black Peter"). Congratulations to Steve Rothman, who will take over as editor of The Baker Street Journal with the March 2000 issue. Manuscripts, letters, and other BSJ submissions can now be sent to: Steven Rothman, 220 West Rittenhouse Square #15-D, Philadelphia, PA 19103. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Nov 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Snoo Wilson's one-man play "In Defence of Fairies" was performed by Simon Callow in London in December 1997, in association with an exhibition of "Victorian Fairy Painting" at the Royal Academy of Arts. Wilson was at the time reported to be writing a play about Conan Doyle, and the play (titled "Moonshine" opened in London in October. "Guaranteed to empty Hampstead Theatre faster than a powerful laxative," Michael Billington wrote in The Guardian (Oct. 27), "it already has the makings of a myth, and, as with any play that sinks in the water, one wonders why anyone thought it seaworthy in the first place." The play stars Robin Soans as Conan Doyle, who meets a sun god Abraxas (played by Ian Gelder); Abraxas has spawned the monstrous Moloch, an Australian media magnate, who is planning to destroy Earth with a meteorite unless Abraxas takes on the guise of Sherlock Holmes, with Con- an Doyle as his doggedly faithful Watson. The play was scheduled to close on Nov. 13. Tess Connors notes that Blackstone Audio has added two Canonical titles to its list of unabridged books on audiocassettes. Both are read by Frederick Davidson: "A Study in Scarlet" is on 3 cassettes ($23.95 purchase or $8.95 rental) and "His Last Bow" is on 5 cassettes ($39.95/$10.95). The address is Box 969, Ashland, OR 97520) (800-729-2665) "Griffin, Dis to Investigate 'Holmes'" was the headline on a story in the Hollywood Reporter (Oct. 12), spotted by Nancy Beiman. Buena Vista Motion Picture Group is developing a feature film about a streetwise American pri- vate eye on assignment in Britain as a starring vehicle for comedian Eddie Griffin (who stars in the UPN sitcom "Malcolm & Eddie" and recently wrapped a Disney comedy "Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo". In the script by Colby Carr ("Blank Check"), when the American detective arrives in Britain, he is as- signed a stuffy Englishman as his partner, and the two opposites must learn to work together to solve a crime. It's not very Sherlockian, of course. And one wonders what Walt would say when he learned that Disney had made a comedy about a male gigolo . . . George V. Higgins died on Nov 6. He was a crime novelist best known for THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (1972), and an assistant United States attorney for the district of Massachusetts, and a newspaper columnist. In 1985 he reviewed Granada's dramatization of "The Crooked Man" for the Wall Street Journal, noting that Jeremy Brett was "unsettlingly good," but complaining about some of Granada's changes in the stories: "I have some reservations about such alterations, dramatically desirable as they may be," he wrote. "Watching Sherlock Holmes bound around like Jimi Hendrix in a frock coat doesn't delight me. This Holmes should be detoxed." "Nero Wolfe: The Doorbell Rang" was broadcast by ABC-TV in 1979, starring Thayer David as Nero Wolfe and Tom Mason as Archie Goodwin. And now "The Golden Spiders" is being filmed for A&E cable, with Maury Chaykin as Wolfe and Timothy Hutton as Goodwin. Winnifred Lewis has an informative report on her visit to the set, on the web at , and Walter Doherty has suggested to the Nero Wolfe electronic mailing list that the film is likely to air early next year. Nov 99 #2 Reported: Wayne Worcester's THE MONSTER OF ST. MARYLEBONE: THE JOURNALS OF DR. WATSON (New York: New American Library/Signet, 1999; 272 pp., $5.95); "A madman is terrorizing London's St. Marylebone district and Scotland Yard is clueless, but when Sherlock Holmes himself is injured by the killer, Dr. Watson is forced to step in to investigate." Further to the item (Sep 99 #1) on the BBC's "Blood Line" (about Joe Bell and Arthur Conan Doyle): according to new reports, at hand from Jon Lellen- berg, the big-budget period drama will air in two parts on BBC-2 next year, with Ian Richardson as Bell, Robin Laing as Conan Doyle, and Charles Dance as hospital patron Sir Henry Carlyle. Nancy Beiman also spotted a report in the Hollywood Reporter (Nov. 5) that Columbia Pictures has purchased Michael Valle's script for "Sherlock Holmes and the Vengeance of Dracula" for production by the Mutual Film Co. "Film- maker Chris Columbus may come on board to develop and direct the project, which is described as an action-adventure-horror film in the vein of 'The Mummy'" (Chris Columbus directed the 1998 film "Stepmom" with Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon, and wrote the screenplay for the 1985 film "Young Sher- lock Holmes"). Stephen Davies reported to the Gaslight mailing list on the Geminis (those are the Canadian television awards): among the winners was Meredith Hender- son, who received award (for best performer in a series about children or youth) for the series "The Adventures of Shirley Holmes". The series ran for three seasons in Canada, and started in Britain earlier this year, but no longer airs in the United States. There's an excellent fan web-site at , and in case you've been won- dering, at the end of the third season Shirley found and rescued her long- lost mother. And Peter Calamai reports that shows for a fourth season have been filmed and are in post-production; the new episodes will air in Canada on YTV cable beginning in February. The weekly syndicated radio series "Imagination Theater" continues to air 22-minute Sherlock Holmes programs written by Jim French (Apr 99 #3). A dozen Sherlockian shows will have aired by the end of the year, and they are available (along with many other shows) on cassette or CD ($7.99 each postpaid) from TransMedia, 719 Battery Street, San Francisco, CA 94111 (800-229-7234) (credit-card orders welcome). There's still time to consider a triple play that's reminiscent of Tinkers- to-Evers-to-Chance (although this one covers more distance: Copenhagen-to- London-to-New York). You can attend three different Sherlockian events in three different countries in one week: the 50th-anniversary dinner of the Sherlock Holmes Klubben i Danmark at the Hotel Ascot on Jan. 7, the annual dinner of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London at Lincoln's Inn on Jan. 8, and the birthday festivities in New York beginning on Jan. 13. Details on Copenhagen are available from Bjarne Nielsen (Sherlock Holmes Museet, Agade 3, DK-4500 Nykobing Sjaelland, Denmark) ; on London from Pamela Bruxner (2-B Hiham Green, Winchelsea, East Sussex TN36 4HB, England) , and on New York in my newslet- ter (Oct 99 #7) and from Michael F. Whelan (7938 Mill Stream Circle, Indianapolis, IN 46278). Nov 99 #3 Watson & the Sherlocks contribute two tracks ("Funky Walk" and "Standing on the Corner" to a CD called "All Night Soul Stomp!" (STOMP-S-4001) available for $14.75 postpaid from Midheaven Mailorder, 2525 16th Street (3rd floor), San Francisco, CA 94103 ; the 24 tracks on the disk are soul dance and stomp, mainly from the mid 1960s. "ABC has green-lighted a script for a drama series called 'Holmes & Watson' in which Sherlock Holmes and his partner, Dr. John H. Watson, are now pri- vate eyes working the Venice Beach area of Southern California," Lisa de Moraes noted in the Washington Post (Nov. 2). The project is "in develop- ment," so there's no further comment from ABC, but yes, Venice Beach is the place where all those people flex all those muscles, and we may get to see the series next year. Brad Keefauver reports that the comic book SCOOBY-DOO #30 (Jan. 2000, from DC Comics, $1.99) features a cover that has young Fred as Sherlock Holmes, and a story ("Spring-Heeled Jack") that takes place in "The Sherlock Holmes Gallery". Reported from Britain: THE INTELLIGENCE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, by John Radford (Sigma Forlag, L9.95); "in which the author, a distinguished psychologist, charges through the Holmesian oeuvre asking intriguing questions." ATLAS OF THE EUROPEAN NOVEL, 1900-1900, by Franco Moretti (Verso, L12.00): "this is a book which makes maps out of where books are set" and a map of Holmes' investigations shows that murders in Sherlock Holmes' London were far more likely in the best, rather than the worst, neighborhoods. Bill Dorn offers wristwatches with portraits of Holmes and Watson (in men's and women's sizes) for $24.95 postpaid ($25.95 to Canada, $26.95 overseas); an illustrated flier is available from William S. Dorn, 2045 South Monroe Street, Denver, CO 80210) . Bob Hess has a new sales-list of interesting Sherlockiana (posters, pins, postcards, statues, dolls, and much more); available on request from Rob- ert C. Hess, 559 Potter Boulevard, Brightwaters, NY 11718 (631-665-8365) . Ev Herzog spotted some attractive poly-resin Victorian figurines at a CVS store; they're made by Lemax Village Collections (25 Pequot Way, Canton, MA 02021), and are about 2" high, and they show people wreath-hanging, tree- trimming, snowman-building, street music-making, etc., and two of the sets echo "The Blue Carbuncle": "The Christmas Goose" has a small tree, a frock- coated gent with an unplucked white goose in a basket, and a bonneted lady with shopping baskets ($2.99); and "The Turkey Seller" has a poulterer with plucked fowl, a young lady with a shopping basket, and a young lad ($4.99). Stu Shiffman spotted a press release from Pizza Hut (Nov. 4) that reported that "Dr. Seuss Tops Governors' Favorite Book Survey" (Pizza Hut sponsors a program that offers free pizza to children in elementary schools and child- care centers as an incentive for reading). Nine governors listed Dr. Seuss books as their favorite childhood reading, THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD and TREASURE ISLAND were named by five governors each, and one governor (John Engler of Michigan) included SHERLOCK HOLMES on his list. Nov 99 #4 Christopher Roden has news from Britain: Christopher Frayling, who presented the television series "Nightmare: The Birth of Victorian Horror" on A&E cable in 1996 (broadcast by the BBC as "Nightmare: The Birth of Horror" in 1997), is working with Penguin on a new Complete Sherlock Holmes with introductions and annotations. THE HOUND OF THE BAS- KERVILLES is one of the first volumes planned, and will be out next year. When you visit the Antarctic (and you certainly can, even as a tourist) you might want to visit Cape Evans, where you can see the world's southernmost copy of a book by Arthur Conan Doyle: THE GREEN FLAG AND OTHER STORIES OF WAR AND SPORT, which was brought there by Robert Falcon Scott in 1910, in the small hut from which Scott set off on an ill-fated attempt to reach the South Pole. Scott had led an earlier expedition to the Antarctic, in 1901- 04, and his third lieutenant then was Ernest Shackleton (who, fortunately for Shackleton, was not a member of Scott's second expedition). But Shack- leton did return to the Antarctic, and in 1914-16 he led an expedition that is the subject of one of the greatest stories of exploration ever told. That story's at the heart of an exhibition about "The Endurance: Shackle- ton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition" at the National Geographic Society's Explorers Hall in Washington (through Feb. 6); it's well worth seeing, as it was last year in New York (May 99 #5). Gene Levitt died on Nov. 15. He was a journalist, and served as a Marine in World War II, and then became a writer, director, and producer in radio and television (with credits for "Barnaby Jones" and "Hawaii Five-O"); his biggest success was the series he created in 1978: "Fantasy Island" (which in 1982 included a segment called "Save Sherlock Holmes" that starred Peter Lawford as Holmes, Donald O'Connor as Watson, and Mel Ferrer as Moriarty). R & E Pipes (219 Patterson Place, Alton, IL 62002) offer a 221B Series of their own blends of pipe tobacco: Black Shag ($6.30 for 50 grams) and Arcadia ($8.75 for 50 grams); a price-list of pipes and tobacco is available on request. The 19th annual Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes Symposium (Mar. 10-12 in Fairborn, Ohio) has launched a pastiche contest (and you don't need to reg- ister for the symposium to enter the contest); the deadline for pastiches is Feb. 15, and more information (about the symposium and the contest) is available from Greg Sullivan (39 Sherwood Avenue, Danvers, MA 01923) . Ronald B. De Waal's latest bibliography is rather shorter than THE UNIVER- SAL SHERLOCK HOLMES: it's an annotated list of all his published writings and awards, Sherlockian and otherwise; eight pages, $2.00 postpaid ($3.00 overseas) from Ron (638 12th Avenue, Salt Lake City, UT 84103. "Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective" was first a board game (Dec 81 #3) and then a CD-ROM disk game (Dec 91 #1), and now it's a DVD game (from DVD International, $25.00); according to a Los Angeles Times review (Nov. 17), at hand from Willis Frick, "It's a great concept and fun for a while, but the production values are almost nil, and the performers playing Holmes and Watson are strictly elementary when it comes to acting talent." Nov 99 #5 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS AND OTHERS is the first new Ellery Queen book in almost 30 years, Doug Greene has reported, offering a long and detailed plot outline for the last (and unpublished) Ellery Queen novel, six hitherto uncollected EQ short stories, and a section of remin- iscences written by family, friends, and others (one of whom is Bill Vande Water, who has contributed an essay on "Frederic Dannay, BSI"). The cloth edition is already exhausted, but the trade paperback costs $18.25 postpaid from Crippen & Landru, Box 9315, Norfolk, VA 23505 . MORE HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon L. Lellen- berg, and Carol-Lynn Waugh (New York: Berkley Prime Crime, 1999; 262 pp., $21.95), is an excellent sequel to HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAY (Nov 96 #2); the eleven stories are all originals, and of course seasonal, and the authors include Anne Perry, Daniel Stashower, Peter Lovesey, L. B. Greenwood, Jon L. Breen, Barbara Paul, and Edward D. Hoch. Andy Peck and Laura Kuhn report that MORE HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS also is available in a Mystery Guild edition, discounted to $10.98. And that Ann- ette Meyers' FREE LOVE is discounted to $11.98 (from $23.95); private in- vestigator Harry Melville is known as "Sherlock" and has a group similar to the Baker Street Irregulars called the Hudson Dusters. The Mystery Guild address is Box 6325, Indianapolis, IN 46206 . THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: ORIGINAL STORIES BY EMINENT MYSTERY WRITERS was a fine celebration of the centenary (Sep 87 #6); the new (and expanded) edition, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Carol-Lynn Rossel Waugh, and Jon L. Lellenberg (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1999; 404 pp., $13.95), offers the stories in the original edition (by authors such as Lillian de la Torre and Stephen King) and three new tales (by Daniel Stashower, Bill Crider, and Anne Perry). There's no overlap between the stories in this volume and in MORE HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS, by both books are recommended to those who enjoyed well-written Sherlockian pastiches. "There's a bunch of detective stories that have been important to me," Jake Kasdan told an interviewer, "and Sherlock Holmes is certainly among them." Kasdan wrote and directed the film "Zero Effect" (1998), with Bill Pullman as a dysfunctional and emotionally-handicapped detective named Daryl Zero, and Ben Stiller as his sidekick Steve Arlo (Mar 98 #1); it has been in the video shops for a while, and it's now on television, and it has quite a few Canonical echoes. Bruce Beaman reports that Barnes & Noble offers some attract- ive Sherlockian prints and posters: you select the design you want, and it is shipped to you printed on paper ($19.95) or canvas ($99.00 and up). You may also be able to see the artwork (and Sherlock Holmes is only one of the many categories available) at Barnes & Noble stores. Dorothy R. Shaw died on Nov. 24. She was the widow of John Bennett Shaw, toasted by the Irregulars as *The* Woman in 1974, and she received the BSI's Queen Victoria Medal in 1995. She created the magnificent miniature of 221 Baker Street (the entire building) now on permanent display at the Special Collections at the University of Minnesota, and happily welcomed (and put up with) the many pilgrims who journeyed to visit their home in Santa Fe. Nov 99 #6 The Pleasant Places of Florida have a new lapel pin, with the society logo and name, in orange, blue, and black on gold, and the cost is $12.00 postpaid ($13.00 outside North America) from Wanda Dow, 1737 Santa Anna Drive, Dunedin, FL 34690. And their new round-robin pas- tiche "The Adventure of the Glorious Scot" costs $6.00 postpaid from Carl Heifetz, 3693 Siena Lane, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. Don Izban notes in the latest issue of the SBIOS Post that the quadrennial meeting of the Colonel Sebastian Moran Secret Gun Club on Feb. 29 (Aug 99 #2) will include another Hunt for the Mongoose Named Moriarty ("no greater sport," Don writes); details are available from Nancy Wrobel, 7998 Garfield Avenue, Burr Ridge, IL 60521. "New Life for Noted Lions?" was the headline on an Associated Press story by Sue Leeman in the Philadelphia Inquirer (Nov. 26). The noted lions are Barbary or Atlas lions, and the Port Lympne Wildlife Park in Kent (England) and Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Unit hope that hybrid descen- dants of Barbary lions in the King of Morocco's zoo in Rabat can be used to breed a new Barbary line that can be restored to the wild. Sahara King (in "The Veiled Lodger") was a North African lion, and the breed was recorded as extinct in the wild in the 1930s (killed by the likes of Count Negretto Sylvius). They were larger (and fiercer) than the lions of East Africa and South Africa, with spectacular black manes on the males, as members of The Red Circle of Washington know from their "Cat House Picnic" at the National Zoo in June 1977: the National Zoo had bred them back from hybrids, but did not maintain the experiment. But Morocco has now earmarked 98,000 acres of land in the Atlas Mountains as a potential refuge, and local Berber people hope that Barbary lions will become a tourist attraction there. Stephen Kendrick's "A Sherlock Way of Knowing: Five Spiritual Teachings of a Fictional Detective" was published in the Nov.-Dec. issue of World: The Journal of the Unitarian Universalist Association; the article is adapted from his book HOLY CLUES: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING THE SHERLOCK HOLMES (Jun 99 #1). The magazine costs $4.50, and the address is Lock Box 5971, Boston, MA 02206 . An addendum to the birthday-festivities forecast: Susan Rice notes that the Friends of Bogie's (Andrew Joffe, Susan Montague, and Paul Singleton) will (as in years past) present original theatrics at the Gillette Luncheon at Moran's Chelsea Restaurant on Jan. 14. The luncheon costs $36.00; details are available from Susan at 125 Washington Place #2-E, New York, NY 10014 . The BBC television mini-series "Clouds of Witness" (with Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey) was produced by the BBC in 1972 and broadcast here in an age when VCRs were not ubiquitous. And now it's available on cassette (on five NTSC cassettes, actually, about 45 minutes each); the boxed set costs $59.95 (plus $8.95 shipping, for a total of $68.90) from Signals, but I am happy to offer one boxed set, viewed once only, at a discount: $50.00 post- paid (first come, first served). The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Dec 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press A last-minute addition to the birthday festivities: The Clients of Adrian Mulliner (devotees of the works of both P. G. Wodehouse and John H. Watson will hold a Junior Bloodstain (a rather less than totally reverent gather- ing) at the Hotel Algonquin on Saturday, Jan. 15, at 12:30 pm (possibly in the lobby, or elsewhere, depending on how many people show up). If you're planning to attend, please let Anne Cotton know (12 Hollywood Street, South Hadley, MA 01075) . And Judith Freeman reports that Spinning in Their Graves Productions will present staged readings of "The Sign of the Four" at 8:00 pm on Thursday, Jan. 13, and Saturday, Jan. 15, at the Theater at St. Clements at 423 West 46th Street (212-613-3023); $15.00. The fall issue of The Cormorant's Ring (published by The Trained Cormorants of Long Beach and edited by Jim Coffin) offers a nice mix of material, in- cluding Don Hardenbrook on "Sherlock Holmes and Raffles", Rick Mattingley on John LaBarbera's Sherlockian jazz, and John Farrell on Sherlock Holmes' musical tastes. $7.00 a year (two issues), and back issues are available; Jim's address is 6570 East Paseo Alcazaa, Anaheim Hills, CA 92807. Plan ahead: the Bimetallic Question has announced their Second Bimetallic Colloquium, to be held at McGill University in Montreal on June 2-4, 2000. Details are available from the society (Box 883, Stock Exchange Tower, Mon- treal, QC H5Z 1K2, Canada) . Mike Ockrent died on Dec. 2. He began his theatrical career as a director in Perth, Scotland, moving to London in the late 1970s and then to New York where he was nominated for three Tonys (for his direction and work on the score and book) of a revival of "Me and My Girl" in 1986, and for another Tony as director of Ken Ludwig's "Crazy for You" in 1992. And it was in Perth, in 1971, that he directed Joan Knight's dramatization of "The Hound of the Baskervilles". Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine celebrates Sherlock Holmes' birthday in its Feb. issue, with cover art by Keith Richens Hauff, a new pastiche ("The Ad- venture of the Cipher in the Sand") by Edward D. Hoch, and a poem ("Shaggy Dog") by Dennis Upper. Ev Herzog reports that the ENGLISH PUBS 2000 CALENDAR (Browntrout, $12.00) shows (for October) an interior view of The Sherlock Holmes in London. And there's lots of Victorian (though not Sherlockian) atmosphere in an ADVENT CALENDAR MUSICAL VICTORIAN STREET SCENE ($14.95) and a MILLENNIUM CALENDAR 2000 ($14.95) in a catalog from Past Times (7201-A Intermodal Drive, Louis- ville, KY 40258) (800-621-6020) . Past Times also off- ers a Millennium Party Pack of eight masks ($12.95), one of which (eyes up) is Sherlock Holmes in standard deerstalker. Sherlock Holmes was Entertainment Weekly's sleuth of the week in their Dec. 10 issue: Focusfilm Entertainment has announced that it will release four fully-restored Basil Rathbone films on DVD early next year, with extra mat- erial that will include the filmed interview with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Dec 99 #2 Stu Shiffman reports that in January the Kellogg Co. will make new Sesame Street mini-bean toys available in specially-marked boxes of cereal: four toys (including Sherlock Hemlock) will be available in Apple Jacks and in Honey Crunch Corn Flakes. "This will be a hot cross- category promotion for those collecting cereal boxes and premiums as well as Sesame Street items. There will also be special games, quizzes and cut- out-and-color versions of the Sesame Street buildings." Judith Freeman edits an occasional newsletter ("Pound Notes") with informa- tion about the Baskerville Bash, and other items of Sherlockian interest; if you'd like to be on her mailing list, she's at 280 9th Avenue #1-C, New York, NY 10001 . Madeline Kahn died on Dec. 3. She was a wonderful comedian, nominated for Oscars in as Trixie Delight in "Paper Moon" (1973) and as Lili von Shtupp in "Blazing Saddles" (1994), and was once described (as her obituary in the N.Y. Times noted) as "a Botticelli angel cracking a malicious grin." And Sherlockians will remember her as a delightful Jenny in Gene Wilder's "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother" (1975). "Black Shag" was the first in a "221B Ser- ies" of pipe tobaccos from the McClelland Tobacco Co. (Jun 99 #4), and the second is "Arcadia" ($9.25 for a 50g tin), offered in a catalog from Georgetown Tobacco (3144 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20007 (800-345-1459) . They also have "Full Virginia Flake" from Samuel Gawaith & Co. in England ($8.95 for a 50g tin). Both may also be available from your local tobacconist. David Bradley reports that John Chaffin's dramatizations will continue next year with "The Hound of the Baskervilles" at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, Aug. 29 through Oct. 21, 2000 (8204 Highway 100, Nashville, TN 73221) (800- 282-2276) . BURIED BLUEPRINTS: MAPS AND SKETCHES OF LOST WORLD AND MYSTERIOUS PLACES, by Albert Lorenz with Joy Schleh (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999; $19.95), offers imaginative views of 14 places, some real and some imaginary, from The Garden of Eden to Dinosaur Island (the Lost World of Arthur Conan Doyle rather than Michael Crichton). Edward Lear reports that Sherlock Holmes is shown on the front of (and one assumes also on at least some of its pages) the N.Y. Public Library's THE 2000 366-DAY MYSTERY LOVER'S CALENDAR ($10.95). Liberton Bank House in Edinburgh has received a temporary reprieve, thanks to a campaign by Doyleans and Sherlockians to thwart plans to demolish the building so that McDonald's could build a restaurant on the site. In the 1860s the house was owned by the sister of historian John Hill Burton, and Arthur Conan Doyle lived there when he was five to seven years old. Histo- ric Scotland (a government agency) now has six months to decide whether the house should be added to a statutory list of buildings of architectural or historic interest. "Sherlock Holmes still has his magic, it seems," Rich- ard Lancelyn Green told a reporter for the Associated Press. Dec 99 #3 "It is not eight o'clock, and a Wagner night at Covent Garden!" Holmes said to Watson (in "The Red Circle"). The first Covent Garden opera house opened in 1728 (with John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera"), and the current Royal Opera House was built in 1858; it closed for recon- struction in July 1997, and was reopened on Dec. 1 with a gala celebration that headlined Placido Domingo serenading Her Majesty. M. J. Trow's LESTRADE AND THE MAGPIE (Washington: Regnery, 2000; 224 pp., $19.95) will be in the stores next year in an American edition: it's the tenth novel in his delightful series about Inspector Sholto Lestrade (with the usual name-dropping, bawdy humor, and puns). The nine earlier titles are still available from Regnery (same price), and Regnery plans to issue all sixteen to complete the series. Sherlock Holmes has made it into the current campaign for the presidency: a report on "The Life of Bill Bradley" by Barton Gellman and Dale Russakoff in the Washington Post (Dec. 14) discusses Bradley's 1965 journey from bas- ketball stardom at Princeton to his Rhodes scholarship at Oxford. Bradley shared a cabin on the Queen Mary with Jack Horton, an older Rhodes scholar. Informed that the British press awaited the American sports star at South- ampton, Bradley winced, and Horton offered to shake them. "Jack put on a Sherlock Holmes hat and a pipe, picked up a violin case," tucked a Bible and a volume of Shakespeare under his arm, strode ashore, and declared him- self to be Bill Bradley in the flesh. Jerry Margolin has reported a new comic book: THE GREAT DETECTIVE: SHERLOCK HOLMES #1 (Avalon Communications, $2.95), with a reprint of "The Problem of Thor Bridge" from the 1954 comic strip written by Edith Meiser and drawn by Frank Giacoia. The publisher's address is 2800 Halpern, St-Laurent, QC H4S 1R2, Canada. Don Hardenbrook notes that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's autobiography MEMORIES AND ADVENTURES is available read (unabridged) by Robert Whitfield on ten 90-minute audiocassettes ($69.95 purchase or $13.95 rental) from Blackstone Audio (Box 969, Ashland, OR 97520 (800-729-2665) . Our "Celebrate the Century" souvenir sheets have reached the 1970s; the latest sheet includes a stamp that honors Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to travel to Jupiter and send back data and images (eleven years later it became the first man- made object to leave the solar system). Jupiter can be seen in the background ("Jupiter is descending today," said Sher- lock Holmes in "The Bruce-Partington Plans"). John Hillen notes a mention of "The Lost World" in an Associated Press dis- patch endangered wildlife in Venezuela: the government is building a high- voltage electricity line through Canaima National Park, which is one of 100 World Heritage Sites designated by the United Nations, and critics say the plan is a recipe for environmental catastrophe. Canaima, the sixth-largest national park in the world, has Angel Falls (the world's tallest waterfall) and the mysterious flat-topped mountains said to have inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World" (the park is the size of Belgium and is protected by 14 park rangers, most of whom have only bicycles for transportation). Dec 99 #4 Sir Rupert Hart-Davies died on Dec. 8. He began his publishing career as an office boy at William Heinemann, and after serving in the Coldstream Guards in World War II, started his own publishing house, which he named after himself. Hart-Davies was known "as much for the care he took in publishing books as for his almost complete lack of business ac- umen" (as Sarah Lyall noted in an obituary in the N.Y. Times), and he was an accomplished editor and writer. His company published the first British edition of William S. Baring-Gould's SHERLOCK HOLMES: A BIOGRAPHY OF THE WORLD'S FIRST CONSULTING DETECTIVE (1962), which unlike the first American edition was illustrated, and had on the dust jacket and as the frontispiece a delightful photograph of Sherlock Holmes, taken in Montenegro and discov- ered by the late James Montgomery. Richard Lowry spotted a new mail-order catalog for chess enthusiasts, with Sherlockian artwork and a portrait of Moriarty, available from Chessco, Box 8, Davenport, IA 52805 (800-397-7117) . Another collectible for "Wishbone" fans: Wishbone as Sherlock Holmes (with deerstalker and Inverness) in the Snap-On Costume Collection manufactured by Equity Toys (Los Angeles); he is 3.5 in. high and "fully poseable" (you can move his head and legs), and there are four other literary characters available (spotted by Phil Attwell in a bargain store in England). Hugh Haynie died on Nov. 25. He worked as a syndicated poli- tical cartoonist at the Louis- ville Courier-Journal from 1958 to 1995, and his critical comm- ents on Watergate earned him a place on Nixon's enemies list. Haynie often used the Sherlock- ian icons; these cartoons were published on Aug. 29, 1972, and Aug. 4, 1994. Further to the report (Nov 99 #2) that a fourth season of television series "The Adventures of Shirley Holmes" is in post-production in Canada, the first two seasons are being broadcast in Britain, and there are some book tie-ins published by Harper- Collins: THE ESSENTIAL CASE FILE, compiled by Stella Paskins and Sue Mon- gredien, with profiles, tips for detectives, and an episode guide (94 pp., L3.50); and novelizations of four of the episodes. The Canadian Institute for Mediterranean Studies will present a lecture by Clifford Goldfarb on "Arthur Conan Doyle--the Napoleonic War Tales: History or Romance?" on Jan. 19 at Emmanuel College (room 119) at the University of Toronto (5 Queen's Park Crescent); there's no charge for the event, which is open to the public. Discovered by Ratana Ngin: SHERLOCK'S MISSING BONE: A PICTURE PUZZLE BOARD BOOK, written by Dawn Bentley and illustrated by Siobhan Dodds (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1999; $9.95); a 12-piece jigsaw puzzle helps children help a dog dressed in Sherlockian costume solve a mystery. Dec 99 #5 Further to the item (Sep 99 #1) on the BBC television program Blood Line" (about Joe Bell and Arthur Conan Doyle), it's now titled "Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes" and it will air on "Mystery!" on PBS-TV on May 18 and 25 (60 minutes each), according to the press release at hand from Otto Penzler. The program features Ian Richardson as Bell and Robin Laing as Conan Doyle. Otto now is a consultant to Amazon, and writes a monthly column ("Penzler's Picks") for their web-site, recommending six mysteries a month. The elec- tronically-enabled can read all about it at . Lamba Aaman reports from India: there's a Sherlock Holmes Pub in Bangalore. Plan well ahead: the centenary of the first publication of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (in The Strand Magazine) will be celebrated in Toronto on Oct. 26-28, 2001, which also will mark the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library. The festivities will include scholarly and social activities, and an exhibit at the library, and other events. If you'd like to be on their mailing list, the address is HOUND2001, 18 Jackson Avenue, Etobicoke, ON M8X 2J3, Canada . Alan Addlestone ("The Addleton Tragedy") died on Sept. 2. He was a member of The Scowrers and Molly Maguires of San Francisco for many years, and a fine punster, and remembered for his ferocious quizzes. He received his Investiture from the Baker Street Irregulars in 1985. Charles Schulz has announced that he will stop drawing the "Peanuts" comic strip to focus on recovering from colon cancer. The strip first appeared on Oct. 2, 1950, in seven newspapers, and now runs in 2,600 newspapers and reaches an estimated 355 million readers. Rare among cartoonists, Schulz has drawn every frame of every one of the strips; the final original daily "Peanuts" will be published on Jan. 3, and the last Sunday strip on Feb. 13. He said in PEANUTS JUBILEE: MY LIFE AND ART WITH CHARLIE BROWN AND OTHERS (1975) that "in my high school years, I became a Sherlock Holmes fanatic and used to buy scrapbooks at the local five-and-dime and fill them with Sherlock Holmes stories in comic-book form." And in his contribution to BOOKS I READ WHEN I WAS YOUNG, edited by Bernice Cullinan and M. Jerry Weiss (1980), Schulz wrote, "When I was a teenager, the three books that gave me the most enjoyment and probably led me on to more reading were the Sherlock Holmes stories, *Beau Geste*, and *Ivanhoe*." Snoopy has often paid tribute to Sherlock Holmes: here's an extract from his first known S'ian appearance, on Jan. 28, 1962: Dec 99 #6 The latest volume in Jon L. Lellenberg's archival-history ser- ies is IRREGULAR CRISES OF THE LATE 'FORTIES (New York: Baker Street Irregulars, 1999; 508 pp., $28.95), with accounts of how Edgar W. Smith rescued the BSI after Christopher Morley's decision that there would be no more annual dinners, the trials and tribulations of The Baker Street Journal and other BSI publications, an irregular visit to the White House, the mysterious Helene Yuhasova, and usual) much more; recommended. $31.90 postpaid ($32.90 outside the US) from The Baker Street Irregulars, Box 465, Hanover, PA 17331. Christopher and Barbara Roden continue to published a wide variety of Sher- lockian and Doylean books from their Calabash Press (Box 1360, Ashcroft, BC V0K 1A0, Canada) , including AS IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN: A COLLECTION OF SHERLOCKIAN PARODIES FROM UNLIKELY SOURCES, ed- ited by Robert C. S. Adey; his research in humor magazines from the 1890s onward has uncovered many previously unreprinted examples of what writers have done with and to Sherlock Holmes. Denis O. Smith's THE CHRONICLES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, VOLUME TWO offers three atmospheric pastiches, two old and one new. John Hall's THE ABOMINABLE WIFE AND OTHER UNRECORDED CASES OF MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES is a thoughtful examination of the cases mentioned by Dr. Watson but never recorded for posterity, as well as the apocryphal cases and the Canonical and Uncanonical plays and parodies. Christopher and Barbara Roden also edit THE CASE FILES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, a series of anthologies of essays devoted to single stories. THE MUSGRAVE RITUAL and THE SPECKLED BAND have already been examined, and THE DYING DE- TECTIVE contains some delightful scholarship, including (for those who en- joy discoveries in the manuscripts), Christopher's interesting thoughts on who may have written which parts of the story. Prices and shipping costs vary, credit-card orders are welcome, and you can write to the press for their catalog with all the details on these and on other books available. "Millennium Hugo" is a lapel pin marking the fourth annual Baskerville Bash (2" high, showing Sir Hugo in full color); available from Warren Randall (15 Fawn Lane West, South Se- tauket, NY 11720) for $16.50 postpaid. Michael Lawrence offers full-size reproductions of London street signs, and is happy to include one for Baker Street ($135.00). His company is Signpost International (19 Bram- all Court, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire PE3 9RD, England) ; details available on request. The Cercle des Sites Holmesiens Francophones (a French-speaking group of Sherlockian web-masters) has announced a Sherlock Holmes millennium con- test for short stories about "Sherlock Holmes and the Millenium" (stories can be written in French or English, and the deadline is Jan. 31). Rules and other information about the contest is available by mail from Francois Hoff (19 avenue Marechal Joffre, F-67000 Strasbourg, France) and at their web-site . The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808)