I sat in the Beetle and cried. It wasn’t an ugly cry or an evil cry. Emotion had bubbled to the surface and, like an unstirred pot on the stove, boiled over. “I like your Grover mask,” said a little girl to me when I was leaving the ballpark, and what followed was the perhaps … Continue reading Talking Grover with a Little Girl
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I like digging through the Library of Congress’ photo and print archives. Inspired by the newspaper article on William Gillette’s 1900 Sherlock Holmes tour, I found theater posters from that tour. I did some clean-up of the backgrounds, and I might print these out, put these in frames, and decorate my home or office with … Continue reading Sherlock Holmes Theater Posters of 1900
It’s mid-September, and this week has really started to feel like autumn. There’s a chill dampness in the morning, and the nights feel downright cold. I had to throw extra blankets on the bed last night, and I worked part of the day at home while wearing a hoodie. The weird thing is the sky. … Continue reading An Eerie Sunset
An anonymous triple parody, from the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Evening Farmer, January 29, 1910, though it can be found in other newspapers across the country at about the same time. Sheer-Luck Blake The modern Sexton Blake climbed through the kitchen window, followed by his faithful ally, Bunny–or was it Watson? “Ah,” exclaimed Blake, surveying the surroundings. … Continue reading A Triple Parody
While doing some genealogical research in old newspapers — see here — I came across this fascinating piece in the Baltimore Sun of October 26, 1900, copied from the New Orleans Times-Democrat. It’s not just fans of today’s media, like Marvel Comics films and HBO prestige dramas and comic books, speculating about what’s next for … Continue reading A Perceptive Sherlockian of 1900
On June 9, 1886, the Washington Nationals and the St. Louis Maroons met at Swampoodle Grounds in Washington. That same day, a dozen blocks southeast of the ballpark, following a funeral service that morning in Baltimore, Annie Atwell was laid to rest at Congressional Cemetery in a family plot with the remains of her daughter. … Continue reading Three Newspaper Clippings and a Genealogical Puzzle
It was a pleasant afternoon — sunny and not too hot. The clouds were numerous and billowing. All in all, a nice late August afternoon. For no particular reason, I decided to go for a walk over to the baseball field on the hill opposite mine. According to June Lloyd‘s article in the York Daily … Continue reading The Old Baseball Field
With the affiliated minor league baseball season cancelled — and, in Pennsylvania, the unaffiliated season, too — my local baseball teams have been having non-baseball activities, including movie nights on the weekends. Sit in the outfield, socially distance, watch a film on the video board. I’ve not done one of these, though I was mildly … Continue reading The Sandlot
I took a brief walk this afternoon. An urgent project — a “red ball,” to use the parlance of Homicide: Life on the Streets — landed on my (virtual) desk this morning. After three hours on the project, I had a video conference call, and after that another hour of work on the red ball. … Continue reading An Afternoon Walk
I’m pleased to announce that my short story, “The Adventure of the Cursed Ruin,” will appear this December in Belanger Books‘ In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson, now available for pre-order on IndieGoGo. In the Footsteps is “a collection of seventeen all new Sherlock Holmes stories written specifically for young adults. The … Continue reading The Cursed Ruin
Based upon the sky at sunset, Earth’s orbit is taking us through the Mutara Nebula. Witness it now, for in three centuries a protomatter accident will destroy it.
Somehow I’ve become the kind of person who buys vintage cookbooks. In the spring, shortly after the COVID shutdown began, I bought a cookbook from 1912 published in conjunction with Washington, DC’s Heurich Brewery. At the end of July, I bought another cookbook through eBay, this one a Peanuts-themed Chex cereal cookbook published in 1991. … Continue reading A Vintage Peanuts Cookbook