Welcome

The Red Circle is Sherlock's home in Washington DC. Now in our seventh decade, we continue to celebrate his immortality and enjoy each other's company.
All are welcome to join us and share our interest in all things Sherlockian and Doylean.
read more

Next Meeting

September 19, 2014
Hyatt Regency Bethesda
7400 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD
Drinks at 6:00 -- Dinner at 7:00
Program to be announced
*
*

the details

Writings

open the index

 

 

How Many Sherlocks does it take. . .?  Well, 113 London Holmesians donned the customary attire and gathered in one room recently to attempt a Guinness record. Proceeds from the event went to help preserve Conan Doyle's Undershaw home, and the BBC was on hand to document the festivities. See their report here.

 

. . .and so can never die! Sherlock to begin shooting new programs in January  At exactly 2:21pm in London on Wednesday, July 2, the BBC revealed that Sherlock will return for a special episode, followed by three new episodes. Shooting of the special will begin in January, with the series going into production later in 2015. Producer and showrunner Steven Moffat said, “It's a record-breaking run! Of course, it's far too early to say what's coming, but we're reasonably confident that the very next thing to happen to Sherlock and John is the very last thing you'd expect.” There's also been tacit confirmation, in the form of semi-reliable speculation, that Moriarty will indeed reappear in at least one of the new productions, even though he seemed to commit suicide on the roof of Bart's in the sixth film. This would be an obvious homage to the Rathbone films, where Moriarty exhibited a remarkable penchant for reincarnation without the writers seeing any need to deliver annoying explanations.The return of Moriarty would also be a fitting tribute to the fine actor Andrew Scott, whose delicious turn as Sherlock's arch-nemesis is worthy of at least one curtain call before. . .curtains again? Air dates for the new programs have not been announced.

 

 Klinger Prevails on Appeal: Sherlock Holmes character and most story elements may be used freely in US  Many Sherlockians have followed with interest the federal lawsuit brought against the Conan Doyle Estate by the well known Sherlockian, author and attorney, Leslie S. Klinger. In the face of demands by the estate that Klinger pay it a licensing fee before publishing a collection of Holmes pastiches, Klinger sued the estate contending that since the 50 Holmes tales published before January 1,1923 are no longer covered by copyright in the United States, the use of the characters and plot elements in those stories are not subject to rights payments. The estate's position was that since there are still ten stories covered by US copyright, any subsequent use of the characters was indeed subject to rights payments. On December 23 an Illinois federal district judge found in favor of Klinger, ruling that characters and story elements in the pre-1923 stories may be used freely without paying licensing fees to the estate. The estate appealed the decision, but on June 16 a three-judge panel from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court's finding in favor of Klinger, noting that the estate's appeal "borders on the quixotic." Your webmaster is delighted to say that he is not an attorney; nevertheless, he finds the appeals court decision fascinating. No matter how one may feel about the issue personally, the ruling is clearly and understandably written, and contains unexpected comparisons. Where else can you find Holmes and Watson, Amos 'n' Andy, Henry IV and Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Star Wars, and The Pink Panther in a single legal document? (Of course, Peter Blau and/or Roger Johnson will probably tell us!). These references, along with unmistakable wisps of humor, contribute to making 15 pages of legalese a worthwhile read. Click it up here, and see if you agree. It's no surprise that Judge Richard Posner, who wrote the opinion, has been dubbed "the most cited legal scholar of the 20th century" by The Journal of Legal Studies. Despite the unambiguously firm rulings by both the district court and the appeals court, the estate has announced that it is considering a further appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.

 

We have four winners! There were four prizes available for successfully solving Washington Mix-Ups, the Sherlockianagram quiz from Dana Richards. We're pleased to announce that we now have four winners, so it's time to congratulate them and reveal the answers. Complete and correct solutions were submitted by Verna Suit, Mary Burke, Caroline Bryan Atkins and Lee Alexander. Well done! If you haven't tried your hand at the quiz, it's worth a go just for the fun of it. And if you've been stumped, the answers now appear on the second page of the pdf document, which you can access here.

 

Holmes on Jeopardy  Back in October 2012 we reported that Jeopardy contestants performed poorly in a full category devoted to Sherlock Holmes (read that story, including the questions asked, in our archive). Now, history has repeated in Jeopardy's uber-tournament of its best players from across the decades. In the program that aired on May 9 contestants once again answered correctly only two of the five questions asked in the category entitled "Sherlock Holmes Stories." Here are the questions. We trust you won't need to look up the answers. 200 Poison darts turn out to be the cause in "The Adventure of the Sussex" one of these Slavic fiends. (no answer attempted)  400  Sea captain "Black Peter" Carey is killed with this weapon. (no answer attempted)  600 There's "The Sign of" this group--Akbar, Khan, Singh & Small. (answered correctly)  800 "The Final Problem" culminates at this cataract. (answered correctly)  1000  "The Man with the Twisted" this feature turns out to be an actor in makeup. (no answer attempted).  As James O'Leary points out in calling our attention to the broadcast, while almost everybody seems to know who Holmes is, the general depth of Canonical knowledge seems remarkably shallow, even among Jeopardy's superstar contestants. 

 

We Smell a Rat  One of your webmaster's behind-the-scenes duties is to monitor the performance of our website--the statistics that tell us how many of you visit, along with a host of other details. Buried in the blizzard of information is a list of the "search terms" people insert in their web browsers that bring them to The Red Circle. In March someone asked for "The Giant Rats of Sinatra Holmes Society."  Many Sherlockians will remember that in "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire" Holmes says, "Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson; it was a ship which is associated with the Giant Rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared." The notion is so outlandish that it has been resurrected liberally in both Sherlockian and non-Sherlockian contexts, often in pastiches like the one by Bob Bishop shown above, and usually with a wink. Naturally, when we saw the substitution of Sinatra for Sumatra, it seemed likely that our internet researcher was alluding to the infamous Rat Pack, the legendary troupe of entertainment "bad boys" that included Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop and other supporting players. Peter Blau reports that there is no Sherlockian group called "The Giant Rats of Sinatra" in his annals, but recalls that back in 1991 British Sherlockian Roger Johnson asked, "What is huge and furry, has vicious fangs, big ears and a long tail, and sings 'My Way'?" Of course the answer is "The Giant Rat of Sinatra." Roger not only remembers the joke, but adds that his wife Jean Upton memorialized it in a delightful drawing which she's kindly shared with us.

 

Meeting Notes from The Red Circle's March 14 meeting are available here.

 

A Tree Grows in England  The featured speaker at the Red Circle's March meeting was Alan Rettig, who gave a well-received presentation called "My Sherlockian Family Tree." In it, Alan discussed the intersections between his recently-completed research on his mother's family and the world of Sherlock Holmes. You can read the illustrated text of "My Sherlockian Family Tree" here. (.pdf)

 

  • Scuttlebutt: One Fixed Point in a Changing Age  Our own Peter Blau's monthly Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press has endured for more than four decades, and has a permanent home right here on our website. It's the most remarkable collection of Sherlockian news and notes anywhere, and your webmaster recommends a monthly visit. The very latest edition is available now, as are past numbers. It's just a click away--use the "Scuttlebutt" button at the top of the page.
  • Be an Inner Circle Contributor We welcome submissions from all quarters for this page. Please direct materials to the webmaster, alan@redcircledc.org
  • For earlier, archived items from The Inner Circle, click here.