HEAR this is what every fashionable Sherlockian is wearing this year.

ANY people consider Holmes’ Victorian era as a time when exceedingly rigid guidelines were in place for almost any social situation, a time when gentlemen were real gentlemen, ladies were real ladies, and de’il-may-care rogues were real de’il-may-care rogues (in other words, not gentlemen). Myself, I frequently shame and disgrace my dinner companions through the use of an inappropriate fork, an ill-timed request for passing the salt, the occasional elbow upon the table, and –if the meal encourages it– a deafening belch.

Yes, I’m kidding (I do keep my elbows to myself), but it was still with no slight trepidation that I took a few minutes to play the Victorian Manners Game at the Québecois Musée McCord, in which you may “Adopt the role of a late 19th century character, and try to earn your place in a world where every move is governed by the rules of etiquette.”

For those even mildly curious, I did score the full 500 points (as a man — I have yet to play the woman), but it was mainly through textual clues rather than any inherent gentlemanliness I might accidentally possess. The game proved to be quite a lot of fun, although I did expect the giant Monty Python foot to come hurtling down to squash me at any moment.

This link was mentioned in the Conan Doyle Yahoo! Group by the inestimable Bert Coules, whom I suspect actually is a proper gentleman.

NE thing I love about most Sherlockians is that they are aware of the line that exists between serious scholarship and self-parody, and cross over it frequently. Ironic cartoons, terrible limericks, and –of course– silly songs then become the order of the day, as you’ll see with Craig Hilton’s mash-up of Gilbert, Sullivan and Sherlock entitled The Very Model of a Modern-Day Sherlockian:

I am the very model of a modern-day Sherlockian,
I rank Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with Asimov and Tolkien,
I’m versed in all the works, both imitative and canonical,
Through setting each to memory by strategies mnemonical;
I hold the view from Reichenbach of Holmes’s spark unstoppable,
Believe in all remaining things, no matter how improbable,
I’ll proudly tell you how to pace the ritual Musgravian,
And why you get a limp from being shot in the subclavian.

(And why you get a limp from being shot in the subclavian.
And why you get a limp from being shot in the subclavian.
And why you get a limp from being shot in the subclavi-avian.)

Read the rest (from The Sherlock Holmes Society of Western Australia).

ART of the fun of being an educator is exploring new ways of approaching a subject. While teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to pupils in France, I was personally known to leap atop desks to recite Shakespeare, conduct a square dance, and lead a sing-song taken from the score to Camelot. (All of which is somewhat ironic, given that I’m tone-deaf and look rather odd in tights.) However, if I taught elementary school math, I now know one tack I’d certainly take….

Students in Susan Hoffman’s sixth-grade class at Jacks Valley Elementary School got a math lesson Tuesday afternoon that they’re possibly not soon to forget. After all, the lessons the elementary school students were learning were … “elementary.”

“Mastering Math - A Sherlock Holmes Problem Solving Mystery” is a musical play, featuring several musical numbers including, He’s Mastering Math, I Just Want to Solve a Mystery, Guess and Check, Work Backwards, Draw a Table, Act It Out, A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words, Find a Pattern and Four Steps.

Read the full story at the Record-Courier. Educators looking to order the play/CD package or sample the songs can find it at Bad Wolf Press.