As early as the end of the first series of stories in the Strand (1892), ACD was writing to his mother, saying he wanted to kill off Holmes as 'he takes my mind from better things' (probably the historical novels that were ACD's first love and upon which he thought his literary fame would rest). By the time he was…

Very large paycheques.

Frederic Dorr Steele - the illustrator in question - used Gillette's Holmes as a model for his drawings of the great detective, so from around 1904 until 1939, when Basil Rathbone first donned the deerstalker, William Gillette was Sherlock Holmes (at least for Americans).

At least Conan Doyle made Holmes a complete rationalist throughout the 60 stories, even after ACD had converted to Spiritualism. Too bad he didn't manage the same thing with one of his other great fictional creations, Professor Challenger (of Lost World fame).

It was made in 1928, a little less than two years before ACD died in July 1930. Regardless of what you make of the Spiritualist stuff, what's impressive is that ACD has no notes and no teleprompter and no script, but speaks fluently and eloquently, looking straight at the camera (which is no small thing; a lot of…

ACD described the hat Holmes wears to the country in 'Silver Blaze' as an 'ear-flapped travelling cap'. Illustrator Sidney Paget, who provided the drawings that accompanied the stories in the Adventures, the Memoirs, and The Return, and The Hound of the Baskervilles, in the Strand magazine, chose to draw it (for SILV)…

And cookie cutters, presumably. In the shape of gingerbread people, the better to visually demonstrate to the writers what injuries the characters will suffer when they inevitably get attacked.

The scene at the end, where Lizzie breaks down, was beautifully done, and tremendously powerful; but the line that really got me was earlier, when Lizzie is explaining her strategy to Bill (let her husband have the children for now, and then try to get them back). In light of what we subsequently find out - that Bill…

When we were assigned the book, the teacher told us he had one class set of the novel but was teaching it to two classes, so we had to hand it back at the end of the period. I'm a fast reader, and got on pretty well in the reading time we had; then, at lunchtime, I checked the school library and found they had a copy.…

I read it in grade 11 history way back in 1980 (I live in British Columbia). My son is in grade 12 here now, and hasn't had to read it. Mind you, they don't seem to have history and geography classes like they used to; it's all called social studies.

Yeah, I'd love to see Jerry's moment of glory live (and maybe the CBC could film Breedlove's version and air it on the network, like they used to do years ago with productions from the Stratford Festival).

Cole Porter does get a great rhyme out of it in 'Brush Up Your Shakespeare':

I'd go for Elizabeth Garvie in the 1980 version, myself.

At every World Fantasy Convention I've been to since 2005 (which is all but one), the consensus on the 'Year in Review' panel discussion - from a panel of industry bigwigs - has been that zombies are so yesterday's thing. Sigh. I guess they're called the undead for a reason.

I wish I could (choke) like this (snort) more than once (guffaw).

Maybe on yours; not on mine, unless it's for an additional fee, in which case I pay enough as it is, thanks.

Yes, I know about on demand. Don't want to watch TV shows on my computer - between three different jobs I spend enough time on it as it is - and three jobs (plus volunteer work, plus a teenage son) means if I want to watch something I better watch it when it's on TV, or I simply won't get around to it, because…

I brought my son up on a steady diet of classic films on DVD and TCM; to the point where the first time he watched Treasure of the Sierra Madre with me, when he was about ten, he said at one point 'The music sounds a bit like the music from King Kong', without knowing Max Steiner had scored both films.…

Apart from some of the costumes on the punks, my 17-year-old didn't find the movie dated at all. I think he's already planning on watching it again soon.

Been telling my 17-year-old son all summer he should watch this film; he finally did today. He absolutely loved it, as I thought he would, and has downloaded some of the songs from the soundtrack ('Great music!').