John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

What happens when you mix Sherlock Holmes with Snoopy?

Why, you get something like this. As seen here. 

Gregory House, meet your kid, Sherlock Holmes

When House was launched, the inspirations that it drew from Sherlock Holmes - a dyspeptic, antisocial genius with a drug problem and an inclination to humiliate those closest to him - were obvious.

This is a fun video that makes those connections deeper, featuring Harry Chapin's Cats In The Cradle, with scenes from House (starring Hugh Laurie), Sherlock (starring Benedict Cumberbatch) and Fortysomething (starring both).

A terrible, terrible Sherlock Holmes joke

There are even more, and even worse, here. I'm sorry ... but I know you'll laugh. 

A Game of Shadows

The new trailer is just out for the Sherlock Holmes sequel, starring Robert Downey, Jr.

Eye candy, with clues!

Sherlock Holmes: Language pedant

A snippy, funny scene from the relaunched, reinvented Sherlock Holmes on the BBC. Apart from being a modern-day detective, this Sherlock doesn't mince words in correcting the grammatical errors of others. 

Sherlock

Later tonight, the PVR will record the second episode of Sherlock, the bright re-imagining of the Sherlock Holmes legend from the BBC. We watched the first episode this weekend, and loved it; it's set in present-day London, and it works. Instead of jotting quick notes through the post, this Sherlock uses his cellphone; he retains the same cerebral edge and an unblinking power of observation, and is a little bit brattier in his dealings with the police. Dr. John Watson is still a medical doctor with war experience, but in a wholly different context. Lestrade  (Rupert Graves, a world away from Freddy Honeychurch of A Room With A View) is a modern investigator, but calls on Holmes for a clarifying view.

We're in a bit of a Holmes upswing, what with the reboot with Robert Downey Jr. that put more of an accent on the detective's willingness to get dirty and/or in a fight. This one, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch (beat that for a British name!), is about the brain. The show uses visual effects and neck-snapping editing to display the lighting-fast process that Holmes uses to connect dots.

I like it, so far, and am a little disappointed there won't be much more to sample. Remarkably, there are only three episodes in the first season.

Daily Dot: Arthur Conan Doyle

On July 7, 1930, Arthur Conan Doyle died. Doyle had very broad literary interests, and delved in science fiction, poetry and historical fiction, but will always be known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. More than a century after Holmes's debut, he's a fascinating detective, and indeed a fascinating character of literature. Most summers, for whatever reason (I think it's the relaxed feeling in the air, and the inclination to sit on the deck in the dusk with a beer), I work through a few Sherlock Holmes stories, which never fail to entertain.

Now copyright-free, Sherlock Holmes lives comfortably in cyberspace. An illustrated version is here, and you can read through Project Gutenberg's collection here. The Sherlock Holmes Public Library offers old BBC renditions of Holmes stories here.