Issue #61 Summer 2010

T HE NORWEGIAN EXPLORERS OF MINNESOTA, INC. ©2010 Summer, 2010 EXPLORATIONS Issue #61 EXPLORATIONS from the president Check out our new web site at collections and give us seed money for the www.norwegianexplorers.org. next conference. In addition, I have heard a Thanks to John Bergquist for setting it up rumor that Larry Millet may show up to the and maintaining it. conference on Saturday. This year’s If you enjoyed Guy Ritchie’s movie conference is unique, and every Norwegian Sherlock Holmes (December 2009), you are Explorer should take advantage of a world eagerly awaiting the sequel, scheduled for quality conference at a local setting. release in December 2011. By the way, a number of Explorers attended the Park Square Theatre’s production Fellow Explorers Dr. Paul Martin and of “Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Tim Johnson will be speaking at the July 10 Inside this issue: Jersey Lily.” Larry Millet led a discussion meeting of Jane Austen Society. Dr. Martin with the cast following the production. 2 will speak on medical care during the late InsideHolmes thisSightings issue: For the last half of the year, watch for 19th Century and Mr. Johnson will lead a 221B Baker Street 3 notice of a fall meeting of the Explorers; the talk and tour of the University Special September study group will meet and discuss “Dummies” Book Review 4 Collections at Andersen and Wilson the Hound (start reading now); and finally, our Red-Throated League 5 Libraries. Contact Karen Titrud at annual winter dinner will be on Thursday, 651.647.9217 for more information. “Five-Fifths…” Review 6 December 2, 2010 at the Minneapolis Golf Case of the Jersey Lily 7 Once again, I am going to add a plug Club. for the conference on August 6-8 this Epizeuxis 8 “I think, Count, that it would be as well to have summer. These tri-annual conferences are a your friend Sam at this conference.” Canonical Quiz 9 major money maker for the Explorers. We (The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone) The Resident Patient 10 make enough on these conferences to keep the dues low, contribute a little bit to the The Greek Interpreter 11 ~Gary Thaden Conference Registration 12 Conference Information 13 from the editor’s desk The sitting room at 221B Baker Street is Featured on page 3 of this issue is Soren hallowed ground for Sherlockians. Eversoll’s sitting room research. Soren’s Representations have appeared on stage and tour of six relevant areas, reveals the 221B screen, in print, in miniature, and even full- forged and nestled in his “lumber-room.” size recreations exist (including the late This issue also features articles from Explorer Allen Mackler’s superb room that is other talented Explorers such as: Robert th exhibited on the 4 floor of Wilson Library Brusic, Charles Clifford, Pj Doyle, ASH, BSI, at the University of Minnesota as part of the Mike Eckman, Mary Loving, and Karen Sherlock Holmes Collections). However, I Murdock, ASH. think the only true sitting room for each of us I look forward to seeing the readers of is the one we’ve created in our own mind. Explorations during the August conference! On occasion we should dive back into the Canon to confirm our room’s contents. ~Tim Reich, Editor Page 2 EXPLORATIONS Holmes Sightings Holmes and the Market Holmes and Shakespeare In Justin Fox’s recent book The Myth of the In his book Contested Will, James S. Rational Market, he notes that Austrian Shapiro argues that Shakespeare really did economist Oskar Morgenstern illustrated why write his plays rather than serving as a front for certainty could never exist in human affairs by Francis Bacon, the Earl of Oxford, or any of the citing Professor Moriarty’s pursuit of Sherlock other contenders. Shapiro does note that Holmes in The Final Problem. Since as Holmes “When Sherlock Holmes was brought out of is departing on the train to Dover he sees retirement to solve the mystery of who wrote Moriarty at the station, Holmes assumes that Shakespeare’s plays, the famous detective Moriarty will engage a special to take him concluded that it was Rutland who did it.” directly to Dover. Holmes then decides to get Rutland was Roger Manners, fifth Earl of off at the intermediate station. But, Moriarty Rutland. This story is in Claud W. Sykes’s “there is exhibited might guess what Holmes will do and also go to book Alias William Shakespeare. Other an endless chain the intermediate station so Holmes should pastiches deal with Shakespeare and the continue to Dover. The guessing by both parties authorship issue, but Doyle the man rather than of reciprocally could go on and on. Morgenstern wrote that Doyle the literary agent inspired at least one conjectural “Always, there is exhibited an endless chain of more attempt to resolve the authorship issue. reciprocally conjectural reactions and counter- Shapiro reports that in 1946 Percy Allen was reactions and reactions. Unlimited foresight and economic elected president of the Shakespeare equilibrium are thus irreconcilable with one Fellowship and sought “a solution of the counter- another.” mystery of the authorship by psychic means.” reactions.” Fortunately, the Hungarian mathematician “A year later Allen published his findings in John von Neumann who wrote Theory of Games Talks with Elizabethans, a detailed account of and Economic Behavior with Morgenstern his conversations with Oxford, Bacon, and addressed the problem. “According to von Shakespeare.” Allen was inspired to Neumann’s calculations, Holmes should choose communicate with the dead when he heard randomly with a 60% probability of getting off Doyle speak about psychic matters in the at the intermediate station, while Moriarty 1920s. should pick with a 60 percent probability of proceeding straight to Dover.” In the original ~Mike Eckman story, no mention is made of calculations by Holmes, but who knows how the Professor made his choice to go directly to Dover. As always, submissions for Explorations are welcome. Email them directly to me in plain text or in Word format at [email protected]. ~Tim Reich, Editor Page 3 EXPLORATIONS The Sitting Room of 221b Baker Street The Mantelpiece The Bookshelf The mantelpiece in Baker Street probably Holmes’s bookshelf ran across one side had a shelf on the top and an ordinary of the room. It was the number one place for mantelpiece going down. On the shelf was a information at Baker Street. On the bookshelf jackknife to which uncorresponded letters were bound books of criminal records, were skewered. A Persian slipper containing Bradshaw’s timetable, reference books from tobacco was on the shelf. Also, Sherlock’s A-Z, newspaper clippings and more. cocaine bottle and a clock rested in the middle of the shelf. There would usually be a fire in the fireplace. The Dining Table The shape of the dining table was Holmes’s Desk “In the drawer probably an oval. In the middle was a gas lantern and on either side of it were the were things he Holmes’s desk was an ordinary wooden dinner plates for Holmes and Watson. The would hide from desk with shelves. On the front of the desk tablecloth was probably light blue with a were all the writing materials: blotting paper, pattern. Watson.” pen and inkbottle. Also, the picture of Irene Adler was there too. In the drawer were things he would hide from Watson: the hypodermic The Chemical Table syringe, for instance. On the shelves would be criminal records, his revolver, bullets, etc. For a chair there was an acid-stained bench, which Holmes used often. Scientific charts were nailed to the wall above the Watson’s Desk chemical table. On the table itself were test tubes, scales, bottles of every shape and size, On Watson’s desk there was a miniature and corked containers containing acids, bookshelf filled with William Clark Russell’s hence the acid stains on the bench. Holmes’s fine sea stories, for they were Watson’s violin rested in the corner. favorite books. Oranges were in a cupboard above the desk. His drawer contained his ~Soren Eversoll service revolver. Soren lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his mom, dad, and sister. He finished third grade this spring and is a member of the Norwegian Explorers. 221B Baker Street Page 4 EXPLORATIONS Sherlock Holmes for Dummies A book by Steven Doyle. Hoboken NJ: Wiley Publishing, Inc. 2010. Pp 360. (paper). Some might recall that a dummy is a figure last in popularity, but that, “objectively speaking, made in human form who occupationally sits on it’s an underrated masterpiece, a perfect amalgam the knee of a clever and entertaining of classic Holmes with hard-boiled detective ventriloquist. The antics of Edgar Bergen and story, with both halves succeeding.” (186) Charlie McCarthy come to mind, though it is not The book is contrived so that one can read it easy to remember anymore who was the dummy sequentially or dip in at any point. The book is a and who was the voice thrower. Perhaps it is smorgasbord of Holmes and Watsoniana time for someone to publish a book like organized into five parts. One could sample the Dummies for Dummies. fare in Part I: Elementary Beginnings and Until that time we have to inform and Background. Or one could skip ahead and chew educate ourselves by perusing books like Cats for on what is revealed in Part IV: Beyond Baker Dummies, eBay for Dummies, or iPod and iTunes Street. In between the reader could pick on such “The book is a for Dummies. Riding the wave of such life- dishes as What a Bunch of Characters! or smorgasbord of enriching works is Steven Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and His Adventures.

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