Twelfth Night Giveaway: Day 12

Arthur Conan Doyle completed his first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, in the spring of 1886; his last, The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place, was published in 1927. In that span of just over four decades, the world saw a tremendous amount of change, particularly in the areas of science and technology, but also in the arts, fashion, and politics.* A read-through of the Canon highlights these developments–sometimes over time, and occasionally in the same story. You don’t need to be a brilliant detective to deduce the topic of today’s question, then:

Give one example of change we can find in the Canon, either in one story, or over the course of the entire oeuvre. Your answer can be from any field: science, technology, crime, the arts, fashion, politics, transportation, communication–use your imagination! The only restriction is that you back up your answers using the original stories and novels.

Now, if you notice, we are now on Day 12 of the Twelfth Night Giveaway, and I find myself in an interesting situation. Basically, I have too many prizes. Way too many. I know what I will be offering tomorrow, and as it’s unique and exciting, I would like to feature it on its own. I also know what the grand prize will be on January 6th. Therefore, today I will be doing, basically, a “prize dump,” with several items up for grabs. When you send in your answers, be sure and include which prizes you would like to try for, and PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO INCLUDE MORE THAN ONE!  Also, if you are not a fan of BBC’s Sherlock, I apologize in advance for…well…keep scrolling and you’ll see….

Prize 1:

Elementary, Season 2

I must admit, I haven’t seen this season, but if you’re a fan, this is your chance. Right now, I can only offer a Region 1 DVD set, so make sure you have a Region 1 or all-region player. It may be possible to send you an iTunes or Kindle version as well.

Prize 2:

If you’re a Rathbone fan, you might be interested in this 3-photo set, including a nice family group of Basil, his wife Ouida, and his son, John Rodion. All are 8×10 prints.

If you are not a fan of BBC Sherlock, look away now. You were warned.  😉

Prize 3:

If you are a fan of BBC Sherlock, and of Mr. Cumberbatch, then you know we had an embarrassment of riches this year. So much press!  So many photoshoots! So many interviews!!!  Because of this, I ended up with a tremendous number of magazines which I realized it would be impossible to use as one prize, as originally intended. There are too many of them–and they’re too heavy–to ship without incurring some damage, both to my pocketbook, and to the mags themselves. I’ve therefore divided them into 7 lots of 3-4 each. Note that some of these, particularly Empire and EW will have other Sherlockian actors in them as well–I saw Martin Freeman, Mark Gattiss, RDJ, Jude Law, and Sir Ian McKellan. I also have some strays, so don’t be suprised if you end up with a small magazine stowaway. Because our mail deliverer has a predilection for stuffing envelopes of every size in the mailbox, conveniently disregarding the “Do Not Bend” stamp, some of these–particularly the GQs–are not in pristine condition, but I tried. If you have any questions about the content, feel free to contact me via PM or in the comments–and feel free to put your name in for more than one if you like. Here they are:

Lot 1:

Lot 2:

Lot 3: 

Lot 4: 

Lot 5:

Lot 6:

Lot 7:

And there you are!  To enter the drawings, just send your answer and prize choices to me via blog comment, FaceBook PM, or Twitter DM. For full rules, see the blog post for 20 December. Thanks for playing!

Footnotes:

*Watson, Holmes, and Sir Arthur were all born in the 1850’s; Mycroft Holmes in 1847. Obviously 3 of those individuals are still alive, but give everyone a natural lifespan of 70-85, and you have men who were born in the age of the crinoline and died just before the Second World War and the atom bomb. In a similar vein, imagine the experiences of men and women who were born in the 1870s and survived into the 1950’s and 60’s. Even if I get 40 more years, I can’t imagine that I’ll see change on nearly that level; it must have been incredible.