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World Health Day is observed every year on April 7 to mark the founding of the World Health Organisation (WHO), a UN agency whose main objective is to promote "the highest possible level of health" in all people. Coordinating international efforts to prevent, control, and treat illness, it has worked to successfully eradicate smallpox and has made notable strides in checking polio, leprosy, cholera, and malaria. What steps has it taken to promote tobacco-free work environments? More...
1990 - An arson attack on the passenger ferry, Scandinavian Star, kills 159
Insurance fraud is today considered the most likely motive for the attack. According to a 2013 report, 9 crew members started the fire and sabotaged the fire crew's attempts to extinguish the blaze.
1969 - The internet is born
The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) awarded a contract to build a precursor of today's world wide web to BBN Technologies. The date is widely considered as the internet's symbolic birthday.
1948 - The World Health Organization is established
The WHO is a United Nations agency concerned with fighting disease and epidemics worldwide, building up national health services, and improving health education in its 194 member states.
1827 - The first friction match is sold
English chemist John Walker produced and sold the first operable matches. They were soon banned in France and Germany because burning fragments would sometimes fall to the floor and start fires.
1724 - Johann Sebastian Bach's St. John Passion is premiered
The sacred oratorio is the oldest extant Passion by the German composer. The highly popular work is a dramatization of the final days of Jesus Christ, according to the Gospel of John.
Historic Trivia pick - The Confabulation Of “Elementary, My Dear Watson”
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote Sherlock’s most famous line
Sherlock Holmes remains the most well-known fictional detective in history. The brainchild of Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes holds the title for the most prevalent character on film. He’s appeared in 254 movies, beginning 120 years ago with the silent movie Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1900).
Despite the nagging fact that he’s a fictional character, Holmes is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He gained membership in 2002, and the award was fittingly presented to one real-life Dr. John Watson outside Baker Street station where a statue of the famed detective stands.
Of course, the character is best known for his pop culture utterance, “Elementary, my dear Watson.” But did Sherlock Holmes ever really say this?
Doyle was inspired to create Sherlock Holmes after meeting Dr. Joseph Bell. Bell worked as a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh where Doyle attended medical school, and he had the uncanny ability to diagnose patients on sight. Thoroughly impressed by Bell’s exceptional skills of perception, Doyle reconfigured these talents into a fictional representation. In the process, he crafted the ultimate detective. Unbeknownst to him, Doyle was setting the stage for a genre that still enjoys wild popularity—think CSI, NCIS, Bones, and Monk.
The author presents his famed character to us through the lens of Dr. John Watson. It’s safe to say that Watson represents Sherlock’s polar opposite. Where Watson is meticulous, conscientious, and thoughtful, Holmes is a pendulum veering wildly between messy bouts of mania and depression, fueled by cocaine, violin playing, and an obsession with forensics.
Of course, Doyle had a penchant for writing fundamentally flawed, though brilliant, characters. Watson didn’t escape this treatment, either. In several short stories and The Adventure of the Dancing Men (1903), Doyle provides us with clues that Watson suffered from a gambling addiction. So much so that Sherlock kept Watson’s checkbook under lock and key in his office!
Readers first encountered Watson and Holmes in Doyle’s novel A Study in Scarlet, published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. Although the public proved underwhelmed by this first installment in what would become the canon surrounding Sherlock Holmes, Doyle’s subsequent works soon won the adoration of fans. What’s more, A Study in Scarlet represents the first detective novel to incorporate the use of a magnifying glass in a forensics investigation.
What eventually won over audiences? The combination of Holmes’ superior skills of observation and his use of unconventional methods, cutting edge means of catching even the most sophisticated criminals. In some cases, the investigator relied on technology and methodology years before real-life police forces started adopting them.
Across 60 short stories and novels, Doyle incorporated everything from fingerprinting and footprint analysis, to in-depth studies of handwriting and typewritten documents. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) didn’t even get around to adding a document investigation section until 1932!
All of this brings us back to the fundamental question. Did Sherlock Holmes ever utter the phrase, “Elementary, my dear Watson” in any of Doyle’s canon work? The answer’s a resounding, “No.” The closest we ever get to such an utterance is a conversation between Watson and Holmes in the short story “The Adventure of the Crooked Man” (1893):
The World Health Organisation is established
World Health Day is observed every year on April 7 to mark the founding of the World Health Organisation (WHO), a UN agency whose main objective is to promote "the highest possible level of health" in all people. Coordinating international efforts to prevent, control, and treat illness, it has worked to successfully eradicate smallpox and has made notable strides in checking polio, leprosy, cholera, and malaria. What steps has it taken to promote tobacco-free work environments? More...
1990 - An arson attack on the passenger ferry, Scandinavian Star, kills 159
Insurance fraud is today considered the most likely motive for the attack. According to a 2013 report, 9 crew members started the fire and sabotaged the fire crew's attempts to extinguish the blaze.
1969 - The internet is born
The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) awarded a contract to build a precursor of today's world wide web to BBN Technologies. The date is widely considered as the internet's symbolic birthday.
1948 - The World Health Organization is established
The WHO is a United Nations agency concerned with fighting disease and epidemics worldwide, building up national health services, and improving health education in its 194 member states.
1827 - The first friction match is sold
English chemist John Walker produced and sold the first operable matches. They were soon banned in France and Germany because burning fragments would sometimes fall to the floor and start fires.
1724 - Johann Sebastian Bach's St. John Passion is premiered
The sacred oratorio is the oldest extant Passion by the German composer. The highly popular work is a dramatization of the final days of Jesus Christ, according to the Gospel of John.
Historic Trivia pick - The Confabulation Of “Elementary, My Dear Watson”Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote Sherlock’s most famous line
Sherlock Holmes remains the most well-known fictional detective in history. The brainchild of Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes holds the title for the most prevalent character on film. He’s appeared in 254 movies, beginning 120 years ago with the silent movie Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1900).
Despite the nagging fact that he’s a fictional character, Holmes is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He gained membership in 2002, and the award was fittingly presented to one real-life Dr. John Watson outside Baker Street station where a statue of the famed detective stands.
Of course, the character is best known for his pop culture utterance, “Elementary, my dear Watson.” But did Sherlock Holmes ever really say this?
The Birth of a Literary Sensation
Doyle was inspired to create Sherlock Holmes after meeting Dr. Joseph Bell. Bell worked as a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh where Doyle attended medical school, and he had the uncanny ability to diagnose patients on sight. Thoroughly impressed by Bell’s exceptional skills of perception, Doyle reconfigured these talents into a fictional representation. In the process, he crafted the ultimate detective. Unbeknownst to him, Doyle was setting the stage for a genre that still enjoys wild popularity—think CSI, NCIS, Bones, and Monk.
The author presents his famed character to us through the lens of Dr. John Watson. It’s safe to say that Watson represents Sherlock’s polar opposite. Where Watson is meticulous, conscientious, and thoughtful, Holmes is a pendulum veering wildly between messy bouts of mania and depression, fueled by cocaine, violin playing, and an obsession with forensics.
Of course, Doyle had a penchant for writing fundamentally flawed, though brilliant, characters. Watson didn’t escape this treatment, either. In several short stories and The Adventure of the Dancing Men (1903), Doyle provides us with clues that Watson suffered from a gambling addiction. So much so that Sherlock kept Watson’s checkbook under lock and key in his office!
Innovative Forensics and the Birth of a Genre
Readers first encountered Watson and Holmes in Doyle’s novel A Study in Scarlet, published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. Although the public proved underwhelmed by this first installment in what would become the canon surrounding Sherlock Holmes, Doyle’s subsequent works soon won the adoration of fans. What’s more, A Study in Scarlet represents the first detective novel to incorporate the use of a magnifying glass in a forensics investigation.
What eventually won over audiences? The combination of Holmes’ superior skills of observation and his use of unconventional methods, cutting edge means of catching even the most sophisticated criminals. In some cases, the investigator relied on technology and methodology years before real-life police forces started adopting them.
Across 60 short stories and novels, Doyle incorporated everything from fingerprinting and footprint analysis, to in-depth studies of handwriting and typewritten documents. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) didn’t even get around to adding a document investigation section until 1932!
“Elementary, My Dear Watson”
All of this brings us back to the fundamental question. Did Sherlock Holmes ever utter the phrase, “Elementary, my dear Watson” in any of Doyle’s canon work? The answer’s a resounding, “No.” The closest we ever get to such an utterance is a conversation between Watson and Holmes in the short story “The Adventure of the Crooked Man” (1893):
Close, but no cigar.“I see that you are professionally rather busy just now,” said he, glancing very keenly across at me. “Yes, I’ve had a busy day,” I answered. “It may seem very foolish in your eyes,” I added, “but really I don’t know how you deduced it.”
Holmes chuckled to himself.
“I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson,” said he. “When your round is a short one you walk, and when it is a long one, you use a hansom. As I perceive that your boots, although used, are by no means dirty, I cannot doubt that you are at present busy enough to justify the hansom.”
“Excellent!” I cried.
“Elementary,” said he.
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61-BLUES
