Mid-Afternoon Musings
Kirstie Alley is to play the lead role in a US version of 'The Vicar of Dibley'. (Source: BBC News)
Oh. My.
I don't think that a US version of Dibley would work. I don't think that sort of humour works well in the US - look what happened with the US version of 'Red Dwarf'.
Oh dear.
Apparently, people who are lonely are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease according to a 'large' US study. I'm screwed then.
(Source: BBC News)
Whilst listening to episodes of the radio SH series (specifically - 'The Three Students' and 'The Missing Three Quarter') I got out my annotated version and followed the arguments for Oxford vs. Cambridge. Holmes seems very familiar with Cambridge, he knows about Pompey (a draghound... which does conjure an amusing mental image). Considering that Watson was quite happy to name the university town in MISS, and not in 3STU is this perhaps a hint of where Holmes attended? I personally don't know although someone did point out that for Holmes to be studying what he is in 3STU then he would have been making use of the library at Cambridge as Oxford didn't use clay in their long jump (neither did they hand out a blue for the sport). Apparently as well, Holmes's lack of knowledge of rugby and Godfrey Staunton is where people draw their conclusion that Holmes was a woman in disguise... I would like to point out that Watson is a rugby man and he didn't seem to have any knowledge of Staunton either ;-). Chances are H & W are a little too older to be taking part in amateur sport and there are probably more interesting things in the paper to attract their attention.
Never having been to university I don't really know what to say... lol
Another thing about MISS is that Watson claims to have weaned Holmes off cocaine... if that's the case then why did Holmes bring his syringe with him?
"I was horrified by my first glimpse of Holmes next morning, for he sat by the fire holding his tiny hypodermic syringe. I associated that instrument with the single weakness of his nature, and I feared the worst when I saw it glittering in his hand. He laughed at my expression of dismay, and laid it upon the table."
I started to read 'Subcutaneously, my dear Watson' last night and it's very interesting. If anyone can find a copy I recommend it. Anyway, concerning the 'side effects' of cocaine, it pointed out a very interesting one regarding impotency:
"While cocaine is almost universally declared to be an "aphrodisiac" - i.e., it makes one highly sensitive to sexual stimuli while under its influence - in men at least, part of the depressive after-effect is impotency and a prolonged sexual indifference sometimes lasting a month or more. How Holmes might respond to a heightened sensual awareness in the sexually-repressed Victorian age remains an open question, but his cocainism does much to explain the asexual lifestyle stressed in The Sign of Four and The Copper Beeches."
During our 'six mile limp' spacefall and myself amused ourself with comments about Watson making Holmes stop so that he (Watson) could make use of one of the hundreds of urinals they passed - from reading last night...:
"There are some signs of habituation which Watson's sense of Victorian propriety would and did suppress, notably what was then genteelly called "great bodily wasting" - profuse perspiration, watering mouth, running nose, diarrhoea, frequent urination - though not all of these manifestations will appear together in the same person."
Heh, I wonder if it was Holmes that made Watson stop ;-)
Perhaps I should do a version of my comedy drabble that's a little more serious.
Ode to the Convenient Tree
Oh. My.
I don't think that a US version of Dibley would work. I don't think that sort of humour works well in the US - look what happened with the US version of 'Red Dwarf'.
Oh dear.
Apparently, people who are lonely are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease according to a 'large' US study. I'm screwed then.
(Source: BBC News)
Whilst listening to episodes of the radio SH series (specifically - 'The Three Students' and 'The Missing Three Quarter') I got out my annotated version and followed the arguments for Oxford vs. Cambridge. Holmes seems very familiar with Cambridge, he knows about Pompey (a draghound... which does conjure an amusing mental image). Considering that Watson was quite happy to name the university town in MISS, and not in 3STU is this perhaps a hint of where Holmes attended? I personally don't know although someone did point out that for Holmes to be studying what he is in 3STU then he would have been making use of the library at Cambridge as Oxford didn't use clay in their long jump (neither did they hand out a blue for the sport). Apparently as well, Holmes's lack of knowledge of rugby and Godfrey Staunton is where people draw their conclusion that Holmes was a woman in disguise... I would like to point out that Watson is a rugby man and he didn't seem to have any knowledge of Staunton either ;-). Chances are H & W are a little too older to be taking part in amateur sport and there are probably more interesting things in the paper to attract their attention.
Never having been to university I don't really know what to say... lol
Another thing about MISS is that Watson claims to have weaned Holmes off cocaine... if that's the case then why did Holmes bring his syringe with him?
"I was horrified by my first glimpse of Holmes next morning, for he sat by the fire holding his tiny hypodermic syringe. I associated that instrument with the single weakness of his nature, and I feared the worst when I saw it glittering in his hand. He laughed at my expression of dismay, and laid it upon the table."
I started to read 'Subcutaneously, my dear Watson' last night and it's very interesting. If anyone can find a copy I recommend it. Anyway, concerning the 'side effects' of cocaine, it pointed out a very interesting one regarding impotency:
"While cocaine is almost universally declared to be an "aphrodisiac" - i.e., it makes one highly sensitive to sexual stimuli while under its influence - in men at least, part of the depressive after-effect is impotency and a prolonged sexual indifference sometimes lasting a month or more. How Holmes might respond to a heightened sensual awareness in the sexually-repressed Victorian age remains an open question, but his cocainism does much to explain the asexual lifestyle stressed in The Sign of Four and The Copper Beeches."
During our 'six mile limp' spacefall and myself amused ourself with comments about Watson making Holmes stop so that he (Watson) could make use of one of the hundreds of urinals they passed - from reading last night...:
"There are some signs of habituation which Watson's sense of Victorian propriety would and did suppress, notably what was then genteelly called "great bodily wasting" - profuse perspiration, watering mouth, running nose, diarrhoea, frequent urination - though not all of these manifestations will appear together in the same person."
Heh, I wonder if it was Holmes that made Watson stop ;-)
Perhaps I should do a version of my comedy drabble that's a little more serious.
Ode to the Convenient Tree