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June 3, 2016 12:52 am  #1


How I became obsessed with Sherlock

When I was in junior High school I would hang out with a group of friends who were mostly geeks. We were into things like science fiction, fantasy and horror, but not mysteries. One of the group, named Jeff McKnight called our group "The Weirds ." Some of the Weirds were making super 8mm films of horror scenes remeniscient of something out of H. P. Lovecraft. The leader of that group whose name was Eddie Zap invited me to join, and so I did. As time went by, Eddie and I became good friends an he often invited me to his house to talk about fiction. It turned out he was very much into James Bond novels and also Sherlock Holmes stories. Now, up until this time my only exposure to Sherlock had been the Basil Rathbone  movies which I did like, but not a lot. Eddie told me that the thing that made Sherlock unique from all the other fictional sleuths was his methods of observation and deduction. It was enough to get me to read the books. After the first book I was hooked and read the whole series. Since then I have watched every movie and TV series that came out. In addition, Eddie  and I would practice using observation and deduction every chance we could get. We would smoke pipes and pretend to be Holmes or Watson. And all this was just the beginning. 
 


sirdenis
 
 

June 4, 2016 2:05 am  #2


Re: How I became obsessed with Sherlock

Eventually Eddie and I decided that we had to do more than just play at Sherlock Holmes. We felt that we could use observation and deduction to do good things. We felt that we should do what we could to make the world a better place by using observation and deduction. We also felt that we should try to get other Sherlockians to join the effort to use Holmes' methods to do good. We had trouble coming up with a name for such a group. But we decided that for the time being. We should just watch for an opportunity to do something good. 


sirdenis
 
     Thread Starter
 

June 5, 2016 2:20 pm  #3


Re: How I became obsessed with Sherlock

Well, I was never obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, even though I've known about the character for as long as I can remember. My first encounter with "Sherlock" was Basil Mouse comics, and then House. 

I didn't get properly obsessed until a geek friend of mine was trying to get me engaged in this "Benedict Cumberbatch" who presumably had a great voice. I didn't really care much, although she nudged me into the direction of BBC Sherlock.

Then one day I was sitting at home with nothing to do. BBC Sherlock was on Netflix. I knew about Martin Freeman and I liked him, so why not give it a shot? So having nothing better to do, I put it on and gave it a go.

... and became so in love with Benedict, Martin and Sherlock that it borders on being ridiculous for a woman in her late 30s. 

Last edited by Vhanja (June 5, 2016 2:21 pm)


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June 5, 2016 2:22 pm  #4


Re: How I became obsessed with Sherlock

You think you've got problems?
I'm 54! 
Mind you, I do like to feel I'm not quite as much of a fan girl as some...


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June 6, 2016 12:46 am  #5


Re: How I became obsessed with Sherlock

LOL!  I'm 55, myself. =)
 

 

June 6, 2016 2:07 am  #6


Re: How I became obsessed with Sherlock

I am one of the kids of this forum at 20 years of age.

I, too, was aware of Sherlock Holmes for pretty much my entire life. A few years ago I read one of the books, but it was during a trip and I didn't remember much.
The Sherlock series, when I saw it, was very interesting for me, and got me interested in the original stories again, and I have read a couple more since watching the show. The rest is history, I guess. I'm a Sherlockian now!



Clueing for looks.
 

June 6, 2016 4:46 am  #7


Re: How I became obsessed with Sherlock

Ah young ones. I'm so old my younger friends tease me by trying to guess my age. But since I look younger than I am they are never very close..
  I finally figured out why Eddie and I couldn't do much with our observation and deduction. We hadn't encountered a problem. Sherlock had that same issue, He was very bored when he didn't have a problem to solve. We were still in High School, and there just weren't any cases to solve. I was the first to leave school. I enlisted in the USAF and became a medic. While I was training as a regular medic I came upon my first real case which took me years to solve. Someone in the medic school was stealing things from the students, Mostly field jackets. There was nothing I was able to observe or deduce. 
Soon I was given the opportunity to attend the Medical Laboratory School at Gunter AFB in Alabama.
This was during the Civil rights era, just after the shooting of JFK. I was surprised that the thefts had followed me to Gunter, which was just outside of Montgomery Alabama where Governor George Wallace presided. All at once I had many problems to solve and the Vietnam war had started. 


sirdenis
 
     Thread Starter
 

June 6, 2016 4:06 pm  #8


Re: How I became obsessed with Sherlock

Sounds like a good story for a book!



Clueing for looks.
 

June 7, 2016 3:55 am  #9


Re: How I became obsessed with Sherlock

I have the motherly (and the teacher's) impulse to tell you not to give away your identity like that on the internet! And that of your friend.

Otherwise, thank you for sharing your story.


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June 8, 2016 1:44 am  #10


Re: How I became obsessed with Sherlock

Before I go much further, I want to point out that it is not always possible to use observation and deduction to accomplish good things. For instance, although gave George Lucas a lot of helpful ideas for Star Wars films, I can't say that observation and deduction helped with that. I was, however, my interest in Sherlock Holmes that drew me to the desire to help filmmakers make movies more to what I thought fans like me would really love. My meeting and connection with George was mostly just miraculous luck. While I am immensely pleased at how the films turned out. However,  George  is a wonderful filmmaker and it is quite possible that had he and I not met he would have made even better films. I do think, however, they would have been different than Star Wars.   I must admit that although I never wanted anything from George, he did offer to take me to a private screening when Star Wars came out. It was extremely hard for me to turn down his offer, after all he had done for me and the fans. And it would have been a great experience for me, even priceless. But by that time I was so rabid to see it in a public theater with all the cheering screaming fans, I had to go get in line like everyone else, and it took me 6 hours to get in. I regretted that George could not see it in a public theater (he would have been mobbed  ).  I saw what happened to Spielberg when he watched E.T. in a public theater( it didn't go well). 
It's important to me to help make the world a better place. Sometimes I need to use observation and deduction to do it. Sometimes I don't.


sirdenis
 
     Thread Starter
 

August 14, 2016 11:03 pm  #11


Re: How I became obsessed with Sherlock

Sometimes observation and deduction can help you with something in the distant past, something that happened before you had become a sherlockian.  I believe it was in the mid fifties, when I had been sent to stay at my grandmothers house for a few days. When i awoke on the next day I thought I would play on her piano for a while. I couldn't play anything but "chopsticks". This drove my grandmother to distraction. She told me to go outside and play with the other kids in the neighborhood. i went outside and looked for some other kids to play with. Eventually I found about four or five kids and asked them if I could play with them. They said they didn't have any toys to play with. I told them if we cold find a few things we could make a scooter. I told them what we needed, but we could only find roller skates and at 2 by 4 . We needed an orange crate to finish the scooter. We nailed some parts of the skates to the 2 by 4. I told them we could try to ride it like it was. I was about to try it but one of the other kids wanted to go first. I was amazed at how well he rode that thing. Before I could try to ride it a new girl came to us and said the scates were hers.. She had her father with her and he took our board and skates and they went home. I pretty much forgot about this event util many years later. When I had read Sherlock books and learned observation and deduction, I realized that those kids must have made another "skateboard" xand taught themselves how to skate on it. This all happened in Venice California. I have recently deduced that this must be how skateboarding came about. I would have loved to have skateboarded back then, but due to my mothers illness I was sent to live in an Episcopal Church Home For Children. 

Last edited by ojisan (August 14, 2016 11:07 pm)


sirdenis
 
     Thread Starter
 

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