If there were - hypothetical - three mice waiting to be named, and someone - hypothetical - considers naming them after his favourite detectives on Baker Street but stood before the problem of really liking Archie as a mouse name, which, due to there only being three mice would mean another detective having to sit this mouse naming out, which three would you choose as name patrons? Archie, James, Madge or Hampton?

Ok, first of all, @angryducktimemachine , !!!

Second, I will attempt to view this objectively for advice giving reasons and address the question not on personal preference, but on your very astute pre-stated criteria: the best objective names for a mouse.

As you’ve noted, Archie is an excellent mouse name. There is no possible room for doubt here. It is both cute and distinguished, the perfect combination. It is funny for a mouse’s full legal name to be Archibald, but it innately feels right to call a small critter something like Archie when they have done something adorable or mischievous. Obviously correct, good call you.

Next, I would argue: Madge. Mouse, Madge. Alliteration from the start. Evokes the image of something small—dramatic irony for our canonically tall detective, but also objectively correct for a mouse. The choice.

That leaves us with: James or Hampton. Correct in their own ways. We face a dilemma. There are multiple ways to approach this conundrum:

Even though Hampton is a human name, I would argue it has more whimsical energy. It FEELS like a cartoon name. It’s why we chose it for the show. Cartoon names work well for mice.

Conversely, James is a human name, this cannot be denied, which would appear to be a strike against it, but NO! There is something perhaps more innately whimsical in a human name for an animal companion. You imagine him with a job, with a briefcase, with taxes, which clearly he cannot have. He is a mouse. That’s absurd. Even funnier, he is a mouse named after a man who is hot. These are the building blocks of humor themselves. You can also pair him with Mouse!Archie and make humorous tableaus about how they are in love. That is adorable. I would argue James may have the edge here.

However, there remains one factor at your disposal still in determining the answer: the vibes and style of the mouse. Is this mouse innately pathetic? Do they give the vibes of insecurity? Are they light-colored or small but trying desperately to seem big? Does this mouse enjoy puzzles, mazes, exploring, or pretending to be other mice in elaborate disguises and voices? Does this mouse struggle to stand out among the other mice? If so, Hampton.

Is the mouse innately pathetic? Do they give off the vibes of insecurity—wait, sorry, that’s not helpful, both characters have that. But does this mouse’s pathetic energy have the sheen of cool? Could this mouse day drink at 10:30 in the morning and kinda pull it off? Does this mouse just kinda, like, vibe rather than puzzle? Are they good with other mice and show an effortless charm every time they waltz into a room? Does this mouse stand out? Most importantly, is this mouse hot by mouse standards? If so, James.

I hope this helps. I doubt it will, but I had a great time!

*throws in Ambrosius as a wildcard option*

Sounds like a dire situation, but I doubt anyone here can help XD

I shouldn't have picked up Sherlock & Co cause I caught up in two days and now my brain goes brrr on that alone (plus i just started the 1984 show and my brain goes even more brrrrr for Jeremy Brett) pls send help

“I crawled into every corner of my imagination to find out what made [Holmes]. I have this whole history of him as a child which I used to fill this chasm—to find out what he’s made of. He’s very private. To help to discover what he’s like inside I had this whole story of his life. He was tied very tight as a child in the cot as they used to do in those days to keep them quiet. Children were seen but not heard—especially in the Holmes household which I’ve always placed in my mind in Cornwall … very remote. A bleak house. Never knew his father at all until he was 21. Saw him but never spoke to him. He had an elder brother who was fat and a little bit far ahead of him. They didn’t have much in common either. They were kissed by their mother on her way down to dinner, but that’s all. Typical Victorian upbringing. I think that he had more in common with his mother—she was the brains—but, of course, women were not allowed to say much in those days and this reserve rubbed off on Sherlock. His father was a fat, ex-army toad, I think. Anyway, he escaped to Eton— or one of the major public schools. He was a spidery person, with no colour in his face, no friends—scared of friendship—but brilliant at certain subjects. Brilliant at fencing and boxing, but always the person who walked away from personal encounters. He was devastatingly unattractive: white as a sheet, spotty probably, with all the complications of puberty and no one there to guide him through it. Probably loved singing and joined the choir. University. I would plump for Oxford. Oxford id darker. Cambridge is too full of light. Then brilliance—growing—mind developing—debating societies. Probably saw a girl—a woman, whom he fancied, but she didn’t see him. That one rejection did it. The one time he placed himself in a vulnerable situation and to see her turn away and choose someone else snapped the door shut like a steel trap, never to be opened again. What should he do now? Return home to his family and take up some dreary duties associated with the estate. He wanted to escape that, Mycroft, ahead of him, had escaped: he’d waddled out of university to get a junior post in the current government. Mycroft also joined a club only a Holmes would join—one in which no one spoke. Sherlock, isolated as he was now, forced himself to find his own way—his own job—and therefore become himself.”

— Jeremy Brett on Holmes’ childhood, from Bending The Willow

@alienfuckeronmain sent this to me last night and I laughed so hard I hurt myself

An early Edwardian woman taking a mirror selfie with a Kodak Brownie box camera in 1900

faeries are not real but i wish thwy were so i could spray one with raid

“No writing is wasted. Did you know that sourdough from San Francisco is leavened partly by a bacteria called lactobacillus sanfrancisensis? It is native to the soil there, and does not do well elsewhere. But any kitchen can become an ecosystem. If you bake a lot, your kitchen will become a happy home to wild yeasts, and all your bread will taste better. Even a failed loaf is not wasted. Likewise, cheese makers wash the dairy floor with whey. Tomato gardeners compost with rotten tomatoes. No writing is wasted: the words you can’t put in your book can wash the floor, live in the soil, lurk around in the air. They will make the next words better.”

— ERIN BOW

SHERLOCK HOLMES (1984-1994) ♦︎ 40th Anniversary ♦︎

“To me, the Sherlock Holmes stories are about a great friendship. The two men are interdependent; without Watson, Holmes might well have burnt out on cocaine long ago. And Watson leads a pretty dull life, enlivened only by his adventures with Holmes. I hope the series shows how important friendship is.” – Jeremy Brett

This man deserved all the awards. Such a talented man 🖤

It seems like Watson is rather used to Holmes touching him rather frequently, but I like to think that sometimes he still can get surprised (and flustered)

random thoughts

Visiting Fulworth

Today @jeremys-come-to-bed-eyes and I went on something that I might have been classified as a "research trip" for The Beekeepers Picnic, if it had happened a few years ago! As it is, there's no hiding that it was just a geeky fan trip.

I didn't invent the idea of Holmes retiring to keep bees in a village called Fulworth - it gets alluded to a few times in the stories, and there is one story set there, 'The Lion's Mane'.

We know Holmes' retirement home is either a 'cottage' or a 'villa', it's a few miles out of Eastbourne, and it's clearly somewhere where it's possible to walk to the sea for a swim. Sherlockian tradition is that the real-life place fitting this description is the village of East Dean.

So, that's where we went - walking from Eastbourne.

This area is famous for it's white chalk cliffs, which are eroding away very quickly. Here is a path to nowhere!

These cliffs are known as the Seven Sisters. They all have names but the only two I remember are Short Bottom and Rough Bottom.

The beach there is all pebbles - I knew that when creating my game, but I felt like a pebble beach just wouldn't look right all in pixels, so I made it sandy instead.

East Dean is absolutely gorgeous, basically everything I could have hoped for.

Here is the village green - flying a Ukrainian flag in solidarity!

And here is Mr Holmes' official cottage. As far as we could tell its now an office of the local estate rather than someone's house, so we didn't feel too weird taking lots of pictures! The Lions Mane implies his cottage is a little way out of the village, but I'll forgive them for putting it in the centre instead.

(I think that the dates are obviously the dates he lived there as recorded by his biographer - our last information on Holmes is from 1917. I think they made the right call not to try to invent a date for his death.)

A lot of the cottages in the area have this really distinctive mixture of pebbles and brick which I think must be a hallmark of the local area, but I was pleased to see a few whitewashed buildings like the ones I put in the game:

Thank you for reading, please enjoy this adorable foal.

sunset/sunrise and the Victorian intimacy of a first name

reblog if you'd go on a roadtrip with your pfp

:)

On this day in 1984, 40 years ago, Granada premiered a much anticipated new series: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, on the ITV network. Starring Jeremy Brett and David Burke.