"We Are in Camden House" [EMPT]

For anyone who's spent some time poking around this site, you may have frequented one of the links in the References section on the sidebar (aptly titled "His Encyclopedia of Reference"). And there, for a long time, I had linked to Camden House, a site that contained images and text from the Canon.

At some point over the last year, the site went down with no explanation. Many online Sherlockians were concerned that something might have happened to the site owner or that there were unpaid bills that they might be able to assist with. It was a site that clearly meant a great deal to people.

I'm happy to say that Camden House is no longer an Empty House. It has reopened under the same management. The site administrators share this message on the sidebar of their site:

We're back online!

For reasons I still haven't been able to get an answer on, my web provider had locked this site out. I got tired of trying to get them to respond and just wiped it out and restarted.

It's been too long.

To which I say, hear, hear! If you haven't had a chance to explore the site, please do so. There you'll find the largest collection of Holmesian graphics online, a comprehensive listing of all stories that are in the public domain, as well as a number of other nifty features that may inspire you.

It's good to see the site back again. I can think of no better quote to honor the reopening than what Sherlock Holmes himself said in"The Adventure of the Empty House,"

"Once again Mr. Sherlock Holmes is free to devote his life to examining those interesting little problems which the complex life of London so plentifully presents."

Only I'd put it this way: "Once again we are free to devote our lives to examining those interesting little pages which the comprehensive site of Camden House so plentifully presents."

"Getting Some Information" [SILV]

The founder of the Baker Street Irregulars, Christopher Morley,BSI ("The Sign of the Four") was a man of many interests and talents. And while he may be known in these parts for his whiskey-and-sodality through the BSI, he was more widely known and appreciated than that in his time.

He was probably most widely known for his novels Parnassus on Wheels, The Haunted Bookshop
and Kitty Foyle, which became an Oscar-winning film. As a founder of The Saturday Review of Books, he was in a unique position to be able to see and observe much of the literary world. This is in part what led to him being one of the first judges for the Book-of-the-Month Club.

If you'd like to hear Morley's voice, it's available on an old-time radio recording of Information, Please. Click on the link and scroll down until you find Morley's name on the Sept. 18, 1942 show (it's a .ram file, so you'll need the free version of Real Audio to listen).

"Information, Please" was a radio quiz show that was extremely popular in the Golden Age of radio. The fact that it was hosted by Morley's contemporary, Clifton Fadiman, the book review editor for The New Yorker, made Morley's appearance a near certainty. It probably didn't hurt that Fadiman was an early attendee of the BSI dinners, either.

What makes this find even more interesting is that the Irregulars are hosting a mini-excursion to Morley's cottage "The Knothole" on Sunday January 11, 2009. The radio program above should put his life into that much more perspective.

"A Genuine Corot" [SIGN]

In his annual letter to all Irregulars, the current "Wiggins" Mike Whelan noted that the Baker Street Irregulars have lost 16 of our own in the last 15 months. I know I've detailed many (but not all) of them here. And today I'm tasked with documenting another.

Only this time, it's someone I knew fairly well.

Paul Churchill ("Corot") passed beyond the Reichenbach over the weekend. He had announced earlier this year that he was suffering from incurable cancer; the end came much too quickly for anyone who knew Paul.

Paul received his investiture in the BSI in 2006, but for anyone who knew him, it was a long time coming. He was involved in many Sherlockian societies from the mid-Atlantic states to New England, and his presence was always a jovial and warm one.

Among Paul's many talents was illustration, document creation, and the compilation of "evidence boxes" - his term for artifacts he found, created, and assembled into collections that supported each of the 60 Canonical stories.

In Paul's own words:

I have illustrated several Sherlockian books by authors such as Steve Clarkson, Steve Tollins, Joe Fink, Don Izban Susan Diamond, David Hammer, Patrick Campbell and Chris Redmond, and did covers for a reprint boxed set of August Derleth's Mill Creek Irregulars. With a colleague, I translated the story The Musgrave Ritual into Latin, the first and, so far, only Latin translation of an entire Sherlock Holmes story to be published.

My main specialism is the amassing of Canonical evidence boxes. There is a box for each of the sixty tales. The boxes contain any letter, telegram, weapon, note, receipt, newspaper clipping, or piece of realia mentioned or hinted at in the Canon. My secondary specialism is the creation of genuine faux documents, many of which have seen their way into the packets given out at the annual BSI dinner in NY. Among these documents are Watson's commission, the charter of The Diogenes Club, the citation for Holmes' Legion of Honour Medal, the Bruce Partington plans and a patent for same, the hack licence for John Clayton, the Hotel Cosmopolitan receipt for the Countess of Morcar, the Stapletons' receipt for the Mexborough Hotel in Craven Street, one for the New Street, Birmingham hotel where Hall Pycroft stayed, Watson's chequebook which Holmes kept locked in his desk, the Capital and Counties Woolwich Branch chequebook belonging to Cadogan West and the very naval treaty copied by Percy Phelps.

He was a longtime friend of Steve Clarkson, another Irregular (author of the 2003 BSJ Christmas Annual) who was taken from us too early by cancer. He spent many long hours with Steve, sharing memories and just being a friend. Paul was like that. He was a friend to many, and was never too busy or too involved to chat with or make time for fellow Sherlockians.

Jacqueline Morris, Gasogene XIX of Watson's Tin Box shared the details of Paul's memorial service:

Saturday, November 15, 1:00 p.m.
Burrier-Queen Funeral Home
1212 W. Old Liberty Road
Winfield, MD

Following the service there will be a gathering at American Legion 223 in Sykesville. Directions from the funeral home will be provided at the memorial service.

Greg has asked that in lieu of flowers you might choose to donate to one of Paul's favorite charities, the ALS Association. Many of you know that Paul's beloved wife died from ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease many years ago.

For those who would like to send cards of condolence:
Greg Churchill
Mark Churchill (Mark lives in Nebraska)
3300 Appleton Avenue
Parkville, MD 21234

This January at the BSI dinner, the task that has traditionally been solemnly and dutifully performed by Irv Kamil will twice as difficult one as the volume of Irregular deaths has nearly doubled. More than that, the prestige, magnitude and general likability of these Irregulars makes these passings that much more doleful.

UPDATED: Paul's obituary from the Baltimore Sun.

Do you have memories of Paul that you'd like to share? Please consider adding a comment below. It's free and you don't need to register.

"In the Aggregate" [SIGN]

There are a number of videos and programs that have explored the various actors who have portrayed Sherlock Holmes over the years. Here's a nice 6-minute summary with a music soundtrack that features some of the favorites.

As featured on YouTube, the creator describes A Sherlock Holmes Symphony as:

So, on this video you can see several various moments (films, cartoon, TV series, etc..) & a lot of various actors played the Great Detective, like Jeremy Brett, Ian Richardson, Christopher Lee, Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing, Ronald Howard, Rupert Everett, Michael Pennington, Matt Frewer & others & others surprises ...

"All This is Amusing" [IDEN]

Even though I haven't been posting here regularly, there have been a number of items that have come to my attention that I've either bookmarked or archived for future publication. A number of them have been humorous in nature, so I'm lumping them together for you here.

"No Ghosts Need Apply" [SUSS]

I hope you had an enjoyable Halloween, whether you were out in costume or home handing out freebies to the little folk who wandered by.

With any luck, it was more successful than what Phil Cornell, of the Sydney Passengers represents here.

"A Week-End Gathering" [LAST]

Even though professional life has occupied my daily routine for the past 5 months or so and my commitment to various Sherlockian pursuits has suffered, my interest has not abated.

When one receives an invitation in the mail to the annual Baker Street Irregulars weekend, the thrill of your first time comes flooding back. So if you've not yet had the opportunity to attend, I suggest you take note.

For many of us, it's been nearly a year since we rubbed shoulders with each other from venues such as the Algonquin Hotel, Ollie's Noodle House, a city club or two, or just the streets of New York.

As I did last year, rather than reproduce the entire schedule on this blog, I've posted all of the information on a separate site where you can find all of your BSI Weekend information - from schedules, to maps, to links to travel site and the general RSVP form for download. You can find this and more at the Baker Street Irregulars Weekend site.

Because of my day job, I'll only be attending the BSI Dinner, so I won't be giving updates from all of the events, but you can still follow along on Friday evening in real-time if you'd like to see who the investitures go to. These updates can be found in the upper-left section of the BSI Weekend site. Just think- if you can't make it to the event, you can be the first to know who receives their BSI Investitures, without having to wait for the listserv, Yahoo groups, or disussion forums to update.

I hope to see you in New York in January. If you have any suggestions as to how to improve the BSI Weekend site, or if you have questions about the weekend, please drop me a line.