"To Stand the Kicks" [TWIS]

If you haven't had the chance to check out Watson and Holmes on Kickstarter yet, we highly recommend doing so.

We've mentioned Kickstarter previously - first for the graphic novel Moriarty: The Dark Chamber by Daniel Corey, and then again last year for Steampunk Holmes, a multimedia adventure by Richard Monson-Haefel that included a print edition as well as the core iPad edition. That latter project is just winding up now and will be making its way to the market.

One of the unique aspects of so-called crowsourcing development costs for such a project is that there are levels of awards based on the amount of money a benefactor is willing to pledge. So investors will not only receive the final product when the project is complete, but will also have the opportunity to accumulate various other value-added items along the way. For example, backing Steampunk Holmes at the $36 level resulted in the backers receiving all of the lower level rewards (all of the e-publications, lifetime subscription to the website, a print edition, and advance copies of the future e-books).

There's another Kickstarter project that is nearing completion that you have an opportunity to support.

Read more...

"The Celebrated Mr. Sherlock Holmes" [SCAN]

What do you get for the man who's 159 years old?

At first blush, one might be tempted to say, "Oxygen!" or "A defibrillator!"

But in our case, the man is none other than the celebrated Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was born on January 6, 1854. And while his existence has been known to us for 125 years thanks to his first appearance in A Study in Scarlet in Beeton's Christmas Annual of 1887, we trace his birth to the year 1854 and the date of January 6 and the Baker Street Irregulars celebrate it on or around that date every year in New York City.

Read more...

"Just a Suggestion, Perhaps" [HOUN]

With the #BSIWeekend quickly approaching, we thought it might be helpful to provide a series of tips for the veteran attendees and the newbies alike.

After all, it's usually a pretty big deal if you're taking time out of your life to head into New York City for 3+ days of activities with people you haven't seen in a year (or years!) or those you may only know online. Whether you're making the trip for the first or twenty-first time, you know that the Weekend provides the same level of excitement, anticipation and giddiness as Christmas morning does to a child.

It's usually during those anxious moments that our brain-attic tends to forget some of the essentials that help make a great trip perfect. And for the uninitiated, it's just a matter of not knowing what you need to survive the Baker Street Irregulars Weekend.

Not being the type to remember everything ourselves (we swear that on every trip, our mind isn't calmed until we can figure out just what it is that we forgot to pack), we reached out to several members of the Baker Street Irregulars - some newer members who might have a less distant memory of their first Weekend, and some who have been at it literally for decades.

Read more...

"A Community of Interests" [HOUN]

While Sherlock Holmes was a lone practitioner (with the occasional assistance of his friend and colleague John H. Watson, MD), he needed the help of others.

He occasionally enlisted the help of the Baker Street Irregulars, the "unofficial force" that could "go everywhere, see everything, overhear everyone."

So too it would seem that the new Google+ Sherlock Holmes Community aims to have us do the very same: to share what you know and what you see about Sherlock Holmes - on the web, in books, on the screen - and create content and lively discussions. The Google+ platform is open to anyone with a Gmail account, and if you don't have one, it's free to create.

Read more...

"Possible Actors in This Drama" [SECO]

Sherlock Holmes has a long history in the medium of radio, stretching back as far as 1930 and possibly (if certain reports are to believed) even earlier.

Among the notable actors who have played Holmes and Watson on the radio are such luminaries as William Gillette, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Clive Merrison, Michael Williams, Andrew Sachs, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, John Neville, Cartlon Hobbs and Norman Shelley, among many, many, many others. For every screen appearance by Holmes and Watson there are at least three times that number in the medium of sound.

Do you have what it takes to join their ranks?

This July the Post Meridian Radio Players will be presenting an original live radio adaptation of The Hound
of the Baskervilles as part of their Summer Mystery Radio Theater. The Hound will close out an evening of other classic radio mysteries, including a recreation of the Burns and Allen classic "Gracie Take Up Crime Solving" and the Suspense classic "Sorry, Wrong Number."

For those Baker Street Blog readers of a theatrical bent who are in the Boston area, auditions will be held in
Somerville, MA on the evenings of May 21st and 22nd. Further information on the production can be found on the Hub of the Universe website. Check out their site for information on auditions, including sides and sign-up.

All are welcome.


When you make purchases from the links we share, it provides us with a stream of revenue to help keep this site running. Thank you for your generosity.
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"Breaking the News" [HOUN]

BREAKING NEWS

We're pleased to announce that you can participate in a live chat with Mark Gatiss, co-creator and star of Sherlock, right here on The Baker Street Blog at 1 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 14. Details are below.

The #SherlockPBS Twitter chats are one thing, and the  PBS-hosted event in New York was another, but we think this takes things to a much higher level. The PBS Masterpiece Sherlock team are giving you an opportunity to ask questions directly to Mark Gatiss in real-time for all to see! You might consider asking him about the creative process, how he came to realize a Sherlock Holmes for the 21st century, how he collaborates with Steven Moffat, or what he thinks of playing Mycroft Holmes, the much smarter (and usually much heavier) brother of Sherlock Holmes.

In our experience with live chats, there will likely be many more questions submitted than the subject can answer, and not all of the questions may be able to be displayed, due to the rather ponderous administrative task of the moderators. But if you ask insightful and appropriate questions, we can all be the beneficiaries of them if Mark can answer.

If you'd like to be reminded of the chat, simply enter your email address in the form below and select when you'd like to be notified. And if you miss the opportunity to participate live, we'll have the transcript available in the same embedded chat below, so you can replay it at any time. And bookmark this post so you can come back on Monday to participate.

Read more...

"Holmes For the Second Time" [ABBE]

#SherlockPBS - a "hashtag" as it's known in Twitter - is a phrase you should get used to. Because beginning on May 6, it's going to reach a fever pitch when the acclaimed series Sherlock (starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Mark Gatiss, written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss) returns to Masterpiece on PBS for its stunning second season.

This second series is expected to be even bigger than the first, as the stars have come into their own a bit and they and the series has been critically acclaimed. The second series also has the confidence of the creators, as the first was something of an experiment. Having ensured that the experimentation was indeed successful, they mined the Canon for the three most intriguing and popular stories for inspiration in season two. As Steven Moffat puts it in shorthand, this season consists of "the hound, the woman and the professor." More formally, those episodes consist of "The Hounds of Baskerville," "A Scandal in Belgravia" and "The Reichenbach Fall."

Read more...

"His Task Was Successfully Accomplished" [HOUN]

We recently covered the Steampunk Holmes project underway at Kickstarter ("A Decidedly Nautical Appearance" [NOBL]). With support from a variety of sites such as Geeks Are Sexy, AppAdvice and the Baker Street Babes, there was certainly a good deal of attention drawn to the project, which needed $29,000 pledged by the deadline of May 3.

When we wrote about the Steampunk Holmes Kickstarter, only a little more than 50% of the funds had been raised. Last evening, with 41 hours to go before the project pledge period ended, the project met its funding goals. In a note to backers, the team wrote:

"Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

Steampunk Holmes is 100% funded. Thanks to all our fans and followers. Thanks to those who posted and tweeted and blogged about us. Thanks to YOU.

We couldn't have done it without you.
We can't wait to get started.
Any further funds will just go to make it better.

As of the writing of this entry, there are 879 backers for a total of $29,905 pledged. What a thoroughly satisfying conclusion to what seemed like an insurmountable task just two days ago.

If you contributed to the funds or passed along our original post, we thank you for playing an important part in helping to bring this very unique and exciting project to life. We look forward to bringing you further news of its development.


--

"A Decidedly Nautical Appearance" [NOBL]

Your help is needed.

There is a Kickstarter project called Steampunk Holmes that has but three days left of fundraising and is just beyond the 50% mark. We have more information on how you can help below.

If you're not familiar with Kickstarter, it's a platform by which people with ideas can seek small amounts of funding from their communities, thus kickstarting their projects. But projects don't get funded unless the goals of the campaigns are met. And if you're not familiar with Steampunk, it's a genre that incorporates elements of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, horror, and speculative fiction, usually in a Victorian or Old West setting.

In this case, we have a passionate group of individuals, namely author P.C. Martin and the Noble Beast team led by Richard Monson-Haefel who are proposing to write a series of seven books across a variety of media - the Web, e-readers (Kindle, Nook, iBooks, etc.), audio players, tablets (Galaxy Tab, iPad, etc.), and print. The first in the series will be Steampunk Holmes: The Legacy of the Nautilus.

The plot sounds quite exicting:

The series starts in the year 1885, when Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are called in by Sherlock’s sister, Mycroft Holmes, to help find the stolen plans of a very advanced submarine, the Nautilus, recovered from the watery grave of the most notorious terrorist of the British Empire, Captain Nemo. Who stole the plans and what will they do with them? This is a job for the world's greatest Amateur Detective and his trusty bionic sidekick.

Read more...

"Relics of My Adventure" [BLUE]

We all have a favorite Sherlock Holmes story. Whether it's the first one we read, or one that has characters, scenes or a plot that particularly resonates with us, we develop an emotional attachment to it.

We're reminded of Michael Dirda's description of the scene of himself as a fifth-grader reading The Hound of the Baskervilles for the first time, thunderstorm raging outside while he was curled up underneath the covers with an Orange Crush. [Incidentally, Mr. Dirda just won an Edgar® Award for Best Critical/Biographical Work for On Conan Doyle: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling.] When that classic phrase is shared, it sends chills up our spine:

“Footprints?”
"Footprints.”
“A man’s or a woman’s?”
Dr. Mortimer looked strangely at us for an instant, and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered:
“Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!”

As we're certain that you must have your favorite story or scene, Steve Mason, a listener of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, is certain that you must have a favorite thing in the Canon. To wit, he has organized a survey that he would like your assistance with. Please use the form below to participate (and if you can't see this form due to reading this update on email or a feed reader, please click through to see the form).

Read more...

"Hung About and Screened" [BRUC]

Would you like a chance to meet Benedict Cumberbatch, the star of the new Sherlock series? Or co-creator Steven Moffat and producer Sue Vertue?

Even better: how would you like a chance to see excerpts from the first episode in Season 2, "A Scandal in Belgravia"? Well, here's your chance.

We have a special offer from the nice folks at PBS Masterpiece (the very same people who gave us a chance to host a Twitter chat when Season One aired in October of 2011) have presented to us and we in turn present to you. We hope that you'll be able to take the time to share this news and participate in this offer for "super fans."

Click image to enlarge

Masterpiece and PBS are hosting an evening event in New York City on Wednesday, May 2, celebrating the premiere of Sherlock, Series 2. There are limited tickets to this public event, but PBS would like you to have the chance to attend! RSVP's will only be taken via e-mail, so get your note in and please feel free to spread the word.

In case you're not convinced, here's a video clip of what you may expect to see:

Watch Sherlock Season 2: A Scene from Ep. 1 on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

And for those of you who are really into the show, here's an opportunity to lock in a pre-order of Sherlock: Season Two (price guaranteed) from Amazon.

When you make purchases from the links we share, it provides us with a stream of revenue to help keep this site running. Thank you for your generosity.
--
Pre-order Sherlock: Season Two:

"I Think That We May Get Started" [LAST]

No doubt you're familiar with the board and video game Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective.

Well, it's the digital era and that means there are all sorts of ways to enjoy the great detective and the various forms of media about him. Or at least, there should be.

Until now, no one has thought to make it a priority to make this fun and interactive game available on multiple devices - such as PC, Mac and mobile devices. But Zojoi has decided to take it on, and here's how they describe how the game will work:

The game is a storytelling/mystery/adventure based on an award-winning board game and revolves around using game "tools" where you choose who/what to investigate and where to direct Holmes and Watson to solve a mystery that appears to be stumping Scotland yard. Using many of these tools will costs you "clue points." Your goal is to solve the case in the fewest number of "clue points" as possible.

The new version of Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective is being developed via a Kickstarter campaign. What's that, you ask? You contribute to the cause (and get others to help as well), and get the satisfaction of collectively bringing a product to market.

And in this case, you may get a credit in the game as well: levels of donation reap different accolades, such as London Constable ($9 or more), Hound of the Baskervilles ($20 or more) Moriarty's Henchman ($30 or more, targeted for the mobile app), Inspector of the Yard ($50 or more) and Reporter of the Times ($100 or more). Each level comes with some benefit, described on the Kickstarter page.

Here's a video to describe the project (please click through to the article link if you're reading this on email or an RSS reader):




And some screenshots of the game itself as it will appear on various devices. The full set is also available on Flickr.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


But this vision will never come to life without your help. Will you join me in making a donation to this very worthy cause? It's a great way to help spread the word of Sherlock Holmes and another fun way to experience his world.

When you make purchases from the links we share, it provides us with a stream of revenue to help keep this site running. Thank you for your generosity.
--

"I Have Had No Proof Yet" [SIGN]

Recently, Sherlocktron, a long-time Internet information center for Sherlock Holmes, was forced to move to a new Internet service provider at http://sherlocktron.hostoi.com/Sherlocktron.html.

The site owner, Willis Frick, has now updated the files at the new web site. But he he is looking for your help to make sure the listings are up to date.

At this point, he has been able to verify the Web addresses (URLs) and email addresses of the purveyors of Sherlockian items and of the society publications listed. However, many Sherlockian purveyors and societies do not have a means to contact them electronically to verify the information - and that is where he needs your help, dear readers.

Please take a few minutes to looks at these files:
Sherlockian Publication List (PDF)
Sherlockian Purveyor List (PDF)

If there are any additions, corrections or deletions required, please notify Willis by email: sherlock1 [AT] cox [DOT] net. 


For information about these lists see: 
About Sherlockian Publications (PDF)
About Sherlockian Purveyors (PDF)

It would be a wonderful gesture to extend to Willis, as he finishes up this project. After all, someday you may be looking for something Sherlockian or for a newsletter from a society, and this resource may come in handy.


--

"The Signature is Typewritten" [IDEN]

The current state of Unders

[Editor's note: Updated with current photos, courtesy of Catherine Cooke, BSI ("The Book of Life")]

We've previously mentioned the plight of Undershaw in these pages. The home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for a decade - and a decade of very prominent work - is in a terrible state of disrepair and under threat of development rather than preservation.

For a very thorough history on the situation, please take a look at "An Effort to Preserve It" [IDEN] written by Jacquelynn Morris, the U.S. representative for the Undershaw Preservation Trust. It gives a good background of what's happened to date.

We have been regularly active about and supportive of these efforts here. Other posts, in chronological order, include:

• "Possibly You Have Seen Pictures and Read Descriptions of the Old Building" [MUSG]
• "...You've Surely Saved the Lodge" [VALL]
• "Let Us Now See the Letter" [TWIS]
• "I Can Hardly Explain It" [NOBL]
• "Shall I Sign Here?" [BLAC]
• "Sombre Face of the Old House" [VALL]
• "An Effort to Preserve It" [IDEN]

The lead image above and the three images below show the sad current state of the building and the grounds of Undershaw. They were taken in Hindhead on Saturday, September 10, 2011 by Catherine Cooke. Click the images to enlarge.

    

 
Undershaw Needs Your Help
This historic building faces near destruction if we don't do something now. There are a few simple things you can do to help.

1. Sign the petition to show your support by Friday September 16, 2011.
2. When signing the petition, if you log in with your Facebook account, you can share it as a status update.
3. Share this post with everyone you know and tell them something like this:

If you believe that Undershaw, former home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Homes, should be saved from development, please sign this petition! We need as many American Sherlockians as possible to sign this no later than Friday, September 16. Share this with all your U.S. Sherlockian friends! 

The petition now includes the ability for Americans (unlike the one mentioned in "Shall I Sign Here?" [BLAC] that only applied to British citizens and ex-pats. If you would like to help save this historic monument to a particularly creative time in Conan Doyle's life - one that included The Hound of the Baskervilles, please do your part to help get the word out.

We all bear some responsibility in keeping his memory alive.

--

"With His Pen in His Hand" [BOSC]

We've got a few Sherlock Holmes pens in our possession and we'd like to make a couple available to our readers. For those who haven't seen this particular design previously, it was designed after a sketch by Tom Richmond and made for sale by David Ian Davies. It's a unique and handsome pen, made of resin and fashioned with a replaceable ball-point cartridge. You'll definitely be the envy of fellow Sherlockians with this one!

We thought an interesting way to share the wealth would be to run a contest that involves you, dear readers.

Here's how you can be eligible to win one of the two pens we have available:

1. Leave a comment on this article describing what likeness of Holmes you picture when you read the stories.
2. Share this post from bakerstreetblog.com with at least one other person - using email, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or whatever social network you prefer - and tell them about the contest.
3. Share another post from this site with at least one other person - using email, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or whatever social network you prefer - and leave a link to that mention in the comments section of this post.
4. Mention @bakerstreetblog on Twitter with a link to this post.
5. Like The Baker Street Blog on Facebook.

The contest will be running until 11:59 p.m. EDT on September 15, 2011, after which we will choose two individuals at random. Good luck!

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"I Would Willingly Give Five Hundred" [REIG]

500. That's a nice round number. Or half-round if you consider the Roman numeral (D).

It also happens to be the number of entries we've posted on this site. This is our 500th posting since we opened for business in August 2005 with this little entry. Over the course of the last five years, we've had busy months as well as times of relative drought (mostly related to work duties that kept us otherwise occupied). Now that we have a system in place for contributors, we're confident that we can keep a steady stream of Sherlockian / Holmesian news on its way for you.

We recently heard from one of our email subscribers that he wasn't aware that he could click in the email. Every time we present a link - whether it's the headline in the email or a hyperlinked bit of text in the entry on the site - it's meant to provide you, dear reader, with more information and context to help bring the article to life. Please feel free to click through.

"My old favourite" [3GAR]
In keeping with the notion of clicking through, we thought we would provide a Baker's [Street] Dozen of our favorite posts from the first 500, in chronological order.

1. "The Second Morning After Christmas" [BLUE] - 29 December 2006: the first installment of our annual Christmas greeting.
2. "It Is a Hobby of Mine to Have an Exact Knowledge of London" [REDH] - 18 May 2006: a great collection of resources for the Sherlock Holmes fan visiting London.
3. "Rejoicing in the Music..." [SOLI] - 1 October 2006: music is a passion of ours, and this entry is a look at three soundtracks for Sherlockian works, including stage, screen and television.
4. "Odd, Watson - Very Odd!" [SOLI] - 14 February 2007: the discovery of Ernie Gilbert's (an animator for The Fairly Odd Parents on Nickelodeon) sketches of Sherlock Holmes and the integration of the finished artwork into this site's branding.
5. "There Is the Long Row..." [VEIL] - 1 April 2007: the date should have given it away, but this April Fools Day "news" item was picked up by a handful of entertainment blogs who didn't think to click on the final embedded link in the article.
6. "I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere" [GREE] - 18 June 2007: the premiere of "the first podcast for Sherlock Holmes devotees, where it's always 1895."
7. "Date, July 7. Hum!" [SIGN] - 7 July 2007: an auspicious day that involved the number 7 and some interesting facts about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fact that we were able to find a Canonical quote with the date in question was even better.
8. "We Nearly Passed Over a Little Ford" [LAST] - 19 June 2008: a more personal one that noted our transition to working for the global company that made one of two automobiles mentioned in the Canon.
9. "Perfectly Fresh" [SPEC] - 31 May 2010: the historic transition of the Baker Street Journal to a new printer with a new format.
10. "More To Me Than the Twitter" [ILLU] - 25 October 2010: the first use of Twitter as part of a collective viewing experience of a Sherlock Holmes item. In this case, PBS Masterpiece Mystery asked us to host a chat on Twitter while the BBC series "Sherlock" aired. It was an unrivaled success.
11. "Where All Gossip Is Welcome" [VALL] - 31 January 2011: the official start of our integration of Peter Blau's "Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press," in which we provide a visual of the newsletter as well as links to the sites mentioned within it.
12. "The Little Village of Meiringen" [FINA] - 27 February 2011: Sherlockian travel comes of age when Michael Meer, BSI ("The Englisher Hof") creates an interactive Google Map with points of interest for Sherlockians visiting the Meiringen/Interlaken area of Switzerland.
13. "The Intelligence of Your Correspondent" [VALL] - 6 March 2011: the announcement that our site would be collectively authored by anyone who presents appropriate credentials. This was supported with the appearance of the About page at the top of the site, as well as New Here? and Resources.

We're sure there are many more, but these are just the first few that came to mind. But what about you? Is there a past entry here that you particularly enjoyed? If you can't think of one off the top of your head, you can always browse through the Archives section ("File It in Our Archives") over in the right column of the site, or click on the Random button in the toolbar the bottom of your screen, or simply click through some of the boxes at the end of each article captioned "You might also like..."

Let us know what you've enjoyed so far or what you'd like to see more of in the future by leaving a comment below. Thank you for being part of this amazing journey with us!

Please consider visiting our sponsors (in the right column and footer of the site) from time to time. It helps defray the costs associated with running this site.
--

"Goaded it to Fresh Madness" [STUD]

Photo credit: kirinqueen (Flickr)

Some of you remember Mad Libs, that fun series of books that combined storytelling, humor and the  knowledge of grammar for some fun road trips or sleepovers. Over time, the Mad Libs formula has worked its way into Star Wars, Spongebob Squarepants, iCarly and more.

Well now it seems that you can have fun with the Canon by participating in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes as Mad Libs. Francis Cleary has started ClozedBooks.com, in which you - yes, you! - can help create Mad Lib versions of the stories. He has already finished "A Scandal in Bohemia" with the help of a handful of participants. You can read the Mad Lib version by clicking through.

Other tales are in the process of being written: "The Red-Headed League," "A Case of Identity," "The Boscombe Valley Mystery," and "The Speckled Band." If you head over there now, you can suggest nouns, verbs and adjectives to be used within the stories. Participants have the choice of logging in with Facebook or Twitter, or contributing anonymously; those who do log in will be given credits on each story's title page.

We think this is a fun way to enjoy the core of the Canon that we all know so well. While we're not certain what level of editing or screening goes into the vetting of grammatical phrases, we'll see what a crowdsourcing exercise does for it.

Please consider visiting our sponsors (in the right column and footer of the site) from time to time. It helps defray the costs associated with running this site.

      
--

"An Effort to Preserve It" [IDEN]

[Editor's note: Jacquelynn Morris, ASH is an Undershaw Preservation Trust Representative—Maryland, USA. She is also the sparking plug behind A Scintillation of Scions.]

The Undershaw Preservation Trust

It was an old, tumbledown building in a crazy state of disrepair… the grass-grown drive in front of the blotched and weather-stained door…the whole place was depressing.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once wrote these words about Wisteria Lodge, but they have come to be sadly prophetic about a house nearer and dearer to his heart. Not Wisteria Lodge, but Undershaw, the home designed by and lived in by Conan Doyle and his family for over ten years, during which time he wrote some of his most memorable work.

Undershaw came into being after a conversation Conan Doyle had with his friend, novelist Grant Allen, in 1895. Allen suffered from tuberculosis, the illness which left Conan Doyle’s wife, Louise, an invalid for the last 15 years of her life. In this conversation Conan Doyle had with Allen, Allen claimed the healthy air of Hindhead, in Surrey, England, cured him of tuberculosis.

At a time when wealthy tuberculosis sufferers were encouraged to go to the Swiss Alps for a better chance of survival, Conan Doyle himself had taken to moving the family about for Louise’s health from Switzerland to Egypt. Hindhead certainly offered an alternative closer to London.

Immediately after this conversation with Grant Allen, Conan Doyle visited Hindhead, about 40 miles south of London, and decided it was his “English Switzerland.” He purchased a plot of land where he planned to have a house built and drafted the first designs of the house himself before passing them on to architect and friend Joseph Henry Ball to complete.

Read more...

"The Intelligence of Your Correspondent" [VALL]

A little over five months ago, without much (or any) fanfare, this humble online publication celebrated its fifth anniversary. In real life, that is but a blink of an eye; but on the Web, it may as well have been a lifetime ago. To give you a sense of what was happening in the world just five years ago:

• Pope John Paul II died
• Tony Blair was elected for a third term
• London was hit by terrorist bombings 
• Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast
• More than 350 million digital songs were downloaded (current download rates are 10 million a day)
• Facebook still had another year before it would be open to the general public

Our first blog post was on August 10, 2005 and compared with the other 492 posts since then, it wasn't all that earth-shattering. But over time, our efforts have both expanded and contracted, and the resultant site is what you see today. It has largely been a single-handed effort, but that is about to change - with your help.

A New Model
Because the world of Sherlock Holmes is so full of news, information, events and new material every day, we determined that a single-proprietor model simply will not do. Our mission:

To be the definitive site for news and information

about Sherlock Holmes in popular culture.

For that reason, we're turning this site into a multi-author publication, wherein contributors can each cover topics of interest to them, on a cadence appropriate to each. You may have already seen examples from Steven Doyle and Francine Kitts, who are regular contributors; we have also welcomed first contributions from a handful of others as well. You'll continue to see some this week.

If you or someone you know would like to contribute to our site and help educate the world on what's new in the world of Sherlock Holmes - events, book reviews, games, etc. - please visit the About page you'll find at the top of the site. There you'll find an entry form that will allow you to become a contributor.

We look forward to expanding our coverage and our editorial team. We're looking for people who write well and who have an ear to the ground for Sherlockian developments. And it should go without saying that an avid interest in Sherlock Holmes is also required. For example, someone who would know to post an image from "The Five Orange Pips" in a post marking our five years in existence...

Thank you in advance for considering this opportunity and for sharing it with those you know.

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"A Favourite Ditty" [LAST]

As you may know, we have a Facebook Page. We use it to notify our fans that we have new content on the site here, but we also try to use it for other purposes, such as quick posts that might not seem to warrant a full entry here, lighthearted observations, and an opportunity to interact.

One of the regular things we're sharing include quotes from the Canon. We certainly have our own favorites, but as you can imagine, everyone has his or her preferences as well. We love hearing from our fans - on Facebook or below in the comments section - so we recently asked our fans on Facebook a relatively innocuous question (well, for Facebook, anyway):

Here are some of the responses we received:
"But there are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them."

- "The Adventure of the Three Gables"

"Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

- "A Case of Identity"

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data."

- "A Scandal in Bohemia"

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

- The Sign of Four

"You're not hurt, Watson? For God's sake, say that you are not hurt!"

- "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs"

"Is there any other little service that I can do you, my friend?"
"A match and a cigarette."

- "The Adventure of the Dying Detective"

"The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply."

- "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire"

Some of our favorites include:
"For once you have fallen low. Let us see in the future how high you can rise."

- "The Adventure of the Three Students"

"Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last."

- "The Adventure of the Red Circle"

"When one tries to rise above Nature, one is liable to fall below it."

- "The Adventure of the Creeping Man"

If you'd like to see what some of the most popular quotes are, as ranked by Randall Stock, check out The 10 Most Famous Sherlock Holmes Quotes, which includes an explanation of the ranking criteria as well as the complete context around each quote.

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