Harper’s Weekly
Happy 2016 Everyone!!!!!!
Because I’m writing this well in advance of the actual date, I haven’t seen any articles about New Years’ resolutions, but I imagine that for the past week the internet has been swimming in them. We tend to like new beginnings–they give us the opportunity to imagine our better selves and, occasionally, the chance to actually create them. So it is that when the calendar rolls over again, many of us make those little promises to ourselves. If you spent New Year’s Eve in church, you likely set some new spiritual goals. If you spent it at a wild party, you may have one that involves less excess…or more ibuprofen. If you’re a student starting a new semester, you may wish to study harder, become more organized, or go out for a team. If your clothes are too tight after the holidays, you likely want to purge the cabinets and go for a run. If you’re a mom…you just wanna get through the rest of vacation with your sanity.
No. No it isn’t.
Noble goals, all of them. But what about your Sherlockian self? A post by a friend, Resa Haile, about future Sherlock Holmes projects got me wondering…. For many of us, being a fan of Sherlock Holmes is more than just enjoying the Canon (not that there’s anything wrong with that). There are plenty of 221B-related activities out there if you’re looking to branch out. This year could be your chance to:
- Start a blog
- Read a pastiche
- Write a pastiche
- Write a paper to submit to your local newsletter, The Serpentine Muse, or the Baker Street Journal
- Write a book. Seriously. Do it.
- Join a scion society
- Start a scion society
- Go to a conference
- Do some cosplay
- Watch a film version you’ve never seen
- Wear that deerstalker or that Sherlock t-shirt in public
- Learn the violin
- Get out of that shipboard pact–those never end well
If you’d like to start the new year with a new Holmes story, this is your chance, for today’s prize is a wonderful collection of pastiche, edited by the Grand Master of Mystery, Otto Penzler (founder of The Mysterious Press and owner of New York’s Mysterious Bookshop). And as with most resolutions, the sooner you get started the better, so here’s today’s question:
If you were to learn the violin, which Sherlock Holmes-related piece would you want to try the most?
As always, send your answers via FaceBook PM, Twitter DM, or blog comment, and I’ll rush this book off to the winner!
Congratulations!
Well, the response to the Gillette giveaway was really tremendous! Congratulations to Karen Hayes! There was, of course, a huge number of actors to choose from. Entries mentioned:
John Barrymore
Clive Brooks (Jaime Mahoney’s very favorite, hahaha)
Harry Benham
Arthur Wontner
Eille Norwood
Tod Slaughter
Reginald Owen
Cecil Hardwicke
Raymond Massey
Robert Rendel
Georges Treville
H A Saintsbury
and, of course, William Gillette!
The Well-Read Sherlockian 