"Cat-Like Love of Personal Cleanliness" [HOUN]

It's amazing to think, but it looks like the end is near for the famed lobby cat of the Algonquin Hotel.

The Algonquin Hotel, which until recently was the unofficial headquarters of the Baker Street Irregulars weekend, has had a tradition in place since the 1930s, when Frank Case owned and ran the hotel that was the favorite of the literati in New York. There was always a cat in residence, which had the run of the hotel (except the cooking and dining areas). While the original cat was named Rusty, because of the theatrical connections, he was known as Hamlet. In the course of the hotel's history, there have been 10 cats, males always being referred to as Hamlet and females as Matilda.

Now it seems that New York City is cracking down on this health hazard (as the city's Department of Health would have us believe). Last week came the news that the city is banishing Matilda from interacting with the guests in the hotel lobby, forcing the hotel staff to keep her behind the front desk. So technically, she's no longer the "lobby cat," she's just the hotel cat.

It's almost a relief that the BSI has relocated to the Yale Club just down the street. We find it hard to believe the tried-and-true Sherlockians descending on New York in chilly January, searching fruitlessly for little Matilda as they wait in the lobby.

If you'd care to express your opinion directly to Matilda or the Algonquin, there are ways to do so.

• Matilda has her own Facebook page - perhaps you can "like" her and show your support
• You may email her directly
• You can tweet the hotel staff at @AlgonquinNYC or visit their Facebook page.

Since the hotel simply has to comply with DOH wishes, perhaps you can direct any negative opinions or feedback to the NYC Department of Health:

• Give them a 140-character piece of your mind on Twitter: @NYCHealthy
• Drop by their Tumblr blog and leave a comment
• Sorry, no Facebook page for them. Although they do have pages for condoms, HIV status, healthy eating, poison prevention and smoking cessation.

We wonder what Holmes would have made of all of this...


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"Yes It Is, Ted" [VALL]

The TED Talks have become a global stage for the world's innovators in the arts and sciences, all in 18 minutes. In this presentation, Stanford's Dr. Abraham Verghese reminds us of the importance of physical observation of and contact with the patient - essential, Vergheses says, in this computer-coordinated and genomic-centered age.

Verghese is a writer as well as a physician, and the role models he presents in this talk from TEDGlobal 2011 recorded in Edinburgh, Scotland  include, not surprisingly, Arthur Conan Doyle and a certain Dr. Joseph Bell...

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"Many Thanks to You" [NAVA]

Enjoy this BSI-themed turkey for Thanksgiving [hint: check the feather colors].

You can customize and share your own on the Google homepage.

If you're celebrating the American holiday of Thanksgiving this week, we wish you the best. If not, we hope you have some turkey and enjoy that just the same.

For our part, we'd like to express our sincere thanks for having you with us here on the Baker Street Blog. If you look at the "File It In Our Archives" [RETI] header over in the right column of our site, you'll see that we've created 99 posts this year. That's more than in any of the last three years. And it's because we have your readership.

We're thankful for having such a unique and unending source of material for you and we're grateful that we have a such a unique audience as yourselves. We hope to be able to continue these efforts indefinitely. If you'd like to help in any way, please see the "About" tab on our site for how you can do so.

And until next time, thank you.

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"Two Knight-Errants To the Rescue" [SIGN]

(NOTE: Promotional art was provided for purposes of review only, and are kindly used with permission. Special thanks to Ken Janssens and Matthew Martin for their time and insights, and to Brant Fowler at Comic Related for bringing this to our attention)

Holmes and Watson seem to be making a "comeback" of sorts in comics and graphic literature, appearing in a wide range of stories such as Victorian Undead and Sherlock Holmes: Year One. This December, Bluewater Productions will be publishing the first issue of the Sherlock Holmes: Victorian Knights four-issue miniseries, just in time for the release of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

Writer Ken Janssens and artist Matthew Martin were gracious enough to offer some of their insights around the upcoming series. For many Sherlockians who read this blog, this is a great opportunity to learn how writers and artists approach the canon when reinterpreting the character for a modern audience.

According to Ken Janssens, the four-issue Sherlock Holmes: Victorian Knights is actually "...two interconnected stories. The first two issues deal with the murder of a prostitute and a haunting by a black spectre. The second two issues deal with the murder of one of the suspects from the first story." As a lifelong Sherlockian who was introduced to the canon via the Brett series (and who counts The Hound of the Baskervilles as his favorite Holmes novel), Janssens saw a unique challenge in writing the characters:

Writing them together in a scene is easier than writing them alone. There is a give and take, a yin and yang, that you get to play off of that is extremely fun. They love each other like brothers, but just like vastly-different brothers, they are constantly annoyed and rag on each other.

Artist Matthew Martin, who resides in England with his wife and daughter, grew up with Holmes as part of his culture (and he, too, considers The Hound of the Baskervilles his favorite novel). For him, capturing not only the characters of Holmes and Watson - but the era in which they live - presented unique challenges:

... I used the Robert Downey Jr version of Holmes more as inspiration than the classic look, which will probably be a contentious choice for some fans....With Watson I went the opposite way, going a bit more classical with choices like the facial hair...I loved creating the buildings and setting the scenes, I always find the more challenging aspect character related in terms of being consistent and really bringing them to life.

Thankfully, both Janssens and Martin are not only fans of the character, but have some very unique tastes when it comes to adaptations of the canon. For Janssens, his personal favorite is "...the 1985 Barry Levinson-directed Young Sherlock Holmes. Not only is it a fun ride, the story and atmosphere just pulls me right in". Although Martin enjoys the Downey film, he admits, "Harking back to my youth though I still have a real soft spot for Disney’s Basil the Great Mouse detective"


It's good to know that Holmes and Watson are in good hands. Sherlock Holmes: Victorian Knights comes out in December - please visit your local comics shop to pre-order your copy.

Editor's note: Gordon regularly covers the intersection of Sherlock Holmes and the entertainment industry. You can also find him at Blog THIS, Pal! and Comic Related.

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