Ineffable Twaddle “It is my business to know what other people don’t know.” The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle A monthly publication of The Sound of the Baskervilles A Scion Society of the Baker Street Irregulars Since March 31, 1980 Serving the Greater Puget Sound Region of Western Washington Volume 32, Issue 5 Reichenbach Remembered at Our Annual Wreath Throw! May, 2013 Don’t miss our Annual As in years past, we anticipate excellent spring Wreath Throw on Satur- weather! And, the annual rhododendron display! Inside this issue: day, May 4 in Tumwater. Lunch will follow the Wreath Throw at Falls Reichenbach 1 We’ll convene promptly Terrace Restaurant at approximately 1:00 p.m. Remembered at our at 11:30 a.m. in the park Direcons to The Annual Wreath Throw Annual Wreath Throw! on the Deschutes River If northbound on I-5, take Exit 103; follow Deschutes 1 (below the Falls Terrace Way SW (straight) north to the Falls Terrace Restau- The Adventure of the Restaurant and the old Olympia Brewery, on rant (on your right). Deadliest Weapon: Part 3 the east side of I-5, Exit 103) in Tumwater. If southbound on I-5, take Exit 103 (2nd Avenue); stay SOBs James Romnes and Al Nelson will act straight to go onto 2nd Avenue SW, turn left onto Cus- It’s “The Mostly Conan 2 as hosts for the day! There’ll be a short stroll ter Way SE (takes you back over I-5), right onto Boston Doyle Pence Quiz”!!! to the falls, toasting of our honour roll, a return St SE, left onto Deschutes Way SW. The entrance to the park is on the south side of the Restaurant. walk to Falls Terrace, and a guest violinist. Librarian’s Corner 2 Things to See, Buy, 3 The Adventure of the Deadliest Weapon: Part 3 Do & Know An Original Pastiche by and bursting with all the wild vitality of a pu- 3 SOB James Romnes aka Constable John Rance ma. Who is the Model for Dr. Watson? It’s We continue where we left off last month (see “Thank you, Mrs. Hudson,” said Holmes, Ineffable Twaddle, Vol. 32, Issue 4, April 2013, Page “Doctor, may I present the widow of Count Elementary Stuff 1), with Holmes and Watson speculating about Sylvius.” Contributed by SOB whether the victim’s death was suicide or murder: The Contessa’s response was extraordi- Treasurer Al Nelson “Holmes, my mind reels! If it is not assas- nary: she fell to her knees, raised her dainty sination by Venucci, nor murder by the hands heavenward, and cried, “Mr. Sherlock Member News & 4 Contessa, nor death by his own hand, what Holmes, my Patrona, I beg as a lowly peasant Updates remains?” begs, spare my dear Paolo! He has con- “What remains, my fessed only to save me!” dear Doctor, are the Her frock was the finest Parisian but her Count’s final words re- manner and beauty were southern Italianate. ported by our gossiping Her black eyes burned with desperation. cabman. Is it possible Holmes put out his hand to raise her up but you don’t see that the she shook her raven black ringlets. Count was killed by— “No, Mr. Holmes, please, first swear you ?...But wait, we have unexpected visitors.” will show me there is justice in your Eng- Our longsuffering landlady entered, fol- land. I care for nothing else.” lowed by one of the most remarkable indi- Holmes once more extended his long pale viduals ever to grace 221B. hand and said firmly, “Honestly recount for “I’m sorry, Mr. Holmes,” said an embar- us the story of Count Sylvius’s death and you rassed Mrs. Hudson, “I tried to have her will find both justice and mercy in England.” send up her card first.” After Holmes’ masterful words, she docile- “Justice! I demand English justice!” The ly took the wicker chair and began. impassioned speaker was hatless, barefoot, “Forgive my ways… Continued on Page 2 Page 2 Ineffable Twaddle T.S. McHugh’s Public House is at It’s “The Mostly Conan Doyle Pence Quiz”!!! 21 Mercer Street, The May 19, 2013 Regular Monthly Meeting of The Sound of the Baskervilles will Seattle, (206) 282-1910. begin at 4:00 p.m. at T.S. McHugh’s Public House. The social hour starts at 3:00! Come early, order SOB Lauran Stevens will try to stump us once again with another fabulous quiz!! a meal, and catch This time she titles it, “The Mostly Conan Doyle Pence Quiz”!! You may deduce cor- up with the other rectly that it will be mostly about Conan Doyle, with bits of Holmes and London SOBs! sprinkled in. She hopes to have small prizes—straight from London—for every right answer. In addition, there will be two great prizes for the overall winners: a) “221B Baker Street: The Master Detective Game” and 2) two paperbacks—“Sherlock Holmes: From SOB Elliott Black, Fact or Fiction” by T.S. Blakeney published by Otto Penzler and “The Royal Flush Lincolnwood, IL (Solo Mystery Sherlock Holmes)” by Milt Creighton. So study up!! What glorious kismet to open the De- cember issue of “BBC History Librarian’s Corner Magazine” (vol. 13, no. 12) and see the article entitled “Jujitsu suffragettes”— “It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own." women who gave as good as they got. —Sir Arthur Conan Doyle To suffragettes—frequently engaged in The Lloyd Hedberg Collection (Stephen Adkins, caretaker) hand-to-hand combat with police and SOB Lloyd Hedberg recently gave SOB Stephen Adkins a collection of over 70 other indignant males (Some contempo- rary gents might thrive with these in- books and monographs of Sherlockian scholarship. The collection is now cata- struments in carnal pursuits...I’m just logued and managed for safe-keeping and preservation. The catalog and items in sayin’)—these weapons were required the collection are available to SOB Members by request to Stephen. armor: dog-whips for keeping rowdies Here is a sample of this fabulous and very generous gift: at bay; Indian clubs; leather flails; Baker Street and Beyond. A group of essays by Lord Donegall, a founder of the “toffee hammers” for window- Sherlock Holmes Society of London. smashing; and the hairpin. Baker Street By-Ways by James E. Holroyd, another founder of the London Socie- Hairpins may not strike us as being ty. particularly menacing weapons today, Essays in Satire by Ronald A. Knox—contains Knox’s essay “Studies in the Litera- but back in the Edwardian era— when ture of Sherlock Holmes,” which some say started Sherlockian scholarship. women's hats were huge and the pins My Dear Holmes by Gavin Brend, a biography of Holmes by a well-known Eng- themselves could be up to 16 inches lish scholar. long—they were potentially lethal. Sherlock Holmes and Scotland Yard: A Love-Hate Relationship by John Pforr Newspapers were certainly alive to their and Phillip Weller. dangers, filling their pages with stories of hatpin suicides, accidents, and mur- The Standard Doyle Company: Christopher Morley on Sherlock Holmes, ed. ders. In The Adven- Steve Rothman, essays by the founder of the Baker Street Irregulars. ture of the Abbey Watsoniana by Elliot Kimball, essays on John H. Watson. Grange (1904), Sir Special Sets: Eustace Brackenstall David L. Hammer books The Sherlock Holmes Natural History Series by stabbed his wife with Donald G. Jewell and “A Canonical Dog’s Life” and “Horses of a Different Color”, her own hatpin. Had just two of several monographs. she been jujitsu- Stephen’s e-mail contact info is on the SOB Membership list. trained, she could have Sheila Holtgrieve, SOB Librarian, [email protected] leveled the playing field. Jujitsu was all the rage once Japan opened its doors to the west in the 19th The Adventure of the Deadliest Weapon Continued from Page 1 century and became allied with Britain. ...but I was not born in this gray, wet cruel spider. There were always whis- Britain adapted to Japan’s exotic cus- toms and thus Gilbert & Sullivan creat- land of yours. My home was Sicily where perings I heard. Whisperings of his rob- ed the Mikado and suffragettes enthusi- the sky is always blue fire. And I would beries, of his outrages, of his murders. astically practiced its martial arts, prac- have stayed there except for this brute Even here in your country.” ticing jujitsu. Sherlock Holmes, too, who impressed my father with title and Holmes interjected, “Would this in- became a proficient (though of money. I was told he was a great man clude Ricoletti of the club foot?” “bartitsu”, famously misspelled as and it was a great honor that he marry “Dio Caro! You know of that? His abom- “baritsu” in Adventure of the Empty me. But he wasn’t a great man, he was a inable wife shocked Paolo.” House [1903]), where Holmes acknowl- great monster. “Paolo Venucci, your cousin?” asked edges that this talent helped propel “Sicilians are passionate and fierce in Holmes. Moriarty over/into the Reichenbach. our love. But the Count was a cold and Stay tuned for next month’s installment!! Vol Volume 32, May 2013, Issue 5 Page 3 ume More from Omaha SOB Things to See, Buy, Do & Know Carl Wirth’s Graphic Novel Collection • Received from both SOBs Margie Deck & use his logic, his method of Amber Ackerson: PBS’s “How Sherlock deduction. That's how we Beginning in 1986 Renegade Press Changed the World” is a 2-hour special—slated do it today, solving cases began the series “Cases of Sherlock to premiere this fall—that will “reveal for the first based on Sherlock Holmes' Holmes”—a lot more small print of time the astonishing impact that Holmes has had logic." “How Sherlock the stories to go with its illustra- on the development of real criminal investigation Changed the World” will tions.