2012 BIRTHDAY CHALLENGE
Each year we provide an essay topic in a special birthday edition of the Muse which is distributed at the BSI dinner and the Gaslight Gala. This year we also published the Challenge in the Winter issue of the Muse.
The Assignment
The current BBC rendition of Sherlock Holmes catapults the Master and Watson into the 21st century and the world of modern technology. We ask you to step into your own time machine and go into the past—any time you like as long as it’s before 1600—and in 200 words or less (in prose, verse, or artwork), imagine Holmes solving crimes without the telegraph, the daily papers, trains, etc.
Birthday Challenge Winner
This year’s winner was Sandy Kozinn.
When in Rome
Sandy Kozinn
A Senator’s seat is not for him. He declines it with much thanks.
There’s too much crime unpunished yet along the Tiber’s banks,
And little time to search things out, and none to help him find.
For who in all this crowded town is equal to his mind?
It’s hard to smile and nod one’s head at a spotty pigeon’s liver,
When water coming from the lungs says “that man died in the river.”
Who’ll believe him? Just one physic, who shares a place to sleep,
And perhaps some boys, who carry news, and in the Forum keep
Their ears alert, to hear what’s said, and hear what is the talk.
The boys can run quite fast, at least, when dignity makes him walk.
Many there are who think he’s mad, for he only believes his eyes,
And also ears, and nose, and touch, and the thoughts of a mind that’s wise.
But what all say is true, as it’s always been true, he ignores as this city he roams.
Who is this man? He’s never died. This man is – Sherlock Holmes.
Runners-Up
Elaine Coppola and Judith Freeman tied as runners-up.
The Adventure of Hadrian’s Plans
by Elaine Coppola
It was a wet dies lunae when Holmesius and I were interrupted in our Londinium townhouse by a messenger asking us to join Procurator Lestradius at the villa of Governor Quintus Pompeius Falco.
Upon arrival, we found Lestradius in the atrium near an injured soldier and a multitude of muddy footprints. He immediately approached us, saying that the soldier was a messenger from Emperor Hadrian and entrusted with secret documents concerning security arrangements for Hadrian’s forthcoming visit to Britannia to inspect the wall. Upon his arrival at the villa, the soldier had been attacked and the documents stolen. It was imperative that the documents be retrieved before they were seen by rebels.
Holmesius carefully examined the site, leapt to his feet, and asked for all the servants to be gathered together. Once they were present, he examined the sandals of each and quickly singled out one Nicia, a gardener. Nicia confessed and led us to the peristylium where a dispatch bag was concealed in the shrubbery.
Lestradius expressed surprise and asked Holmesius how he had identified the culprit. Holmesius merely held up his codex, Upon the Distinction between the Various Types of Sandals and smiled.
A Playlet
by Judith Freeman
TIME: Circa 17,000 BCE
PLACE: The Hall of Bulls, Lascaux Cave, near Montignac, France
Watson: Holmes, what are you doing?
Holmes: Creating art that future scientists will claim shows the perceptiveness of observation. Plus this charcoal will be able to be radiocarbon dated. In effect, I am leaving clues for the future.
Watson: But, Holmes, you are a detective, not an artist.
Holmes: “Some touch of the artist wells up within me and calls insistently.” (VALL)
Watson: Several of the animals you’ve depicted I recognize, but what are those over there?
Holmes: Ah, “I have been sluggish in mind and wanting in that mixture of imagination and reality which is the basis of my art.” (THOR) I’ll re-work them.
Watson: What are those symbols at the bottom of the wall over there? They look, I hesitate to say it, sexually suggestive.
Holmes: “To the man who loves art for its own sake…it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived.” (COPP)
Watson: And all those odd geometric and enigmatic abstract designs?
Holmes: Well, you know, “art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.” (GREE)
