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No. 354, March 15, 2009

The Reduced Canon
By Don Hobbs

On Saturday my lovely bride Joyce and I were driving around, taking care of things we neglect during the week due to our hectic travel schedules. I had the radio tuned to NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon. The story that caught my ear and imagination was "On Twitter, A Downsizing Trend That's Not So Bad." Mr. Simon was talking to Austin Tichenor of the Reduced Shakespeare Company. The group performs highly condensed and comedic treatments of the Bard, the Bible and other classics all over the world.

During the interview, Mr. Tichenor noted they had begun to "reduce" the name of famous rock groups. One was the Beatles who became the "Beats." Another "They Might Be Giants" became "They Are Midgets." They also started reducing the names of Broadway plays such as "Rhode Island" (Oklahoma!).This was about the point where I started tuning the radio out and thinking about this week's article, "The Reduced Canon." I thought I should apply the reduction method to the Sherlockian Canon and see what came about.

Below are the titles I have come up with to reduce the Canon. They follow the original Table of Contents for the Doubleday edition of the Complete Sherlock Holmes.

  1. A Cliff Note in Scarlet
  2. The Sign of Three
  3. A Faux Pas in Bohemia
  4. The Red-Headed Couple
  5. A Six-Pack of Identity
  6. The Boscombe Valley Open House
  7. The Orange Seed
  8. The Man with a Lip
  9. The Adventure of the Blue Cubic Zirconium
  10. The Adventure of a Worm
  11. The Adventure of the Engineer's Pinkie
  12. The Adventure of the Divorcee
  13. The Adventure of the Beryl Rhinestone
  14. The Adventure of the Copper Beech
  15. Silver Spark
  16. The Yellow Chin
  17. The Stock-broker's Maid
  18. Gloria
  19. The Musgrave Random Behavior
  20. The Reigate Answer
  21. The Thief
  22. The Transient Sick Person
  23. The Greek Student
  24. A Slip Agreement
  25. The First Question
  26. The Adventure of the Empty Shed
  27. The Adventure of the Norwood Construction Worker
  28. Fred Astarie
  29. The Adventure of the Unicyclist
  30. The Secondary School
  31. The Adventure of a Black Peter Rabbit
  32. The Adventure of Charles Low-life Milverton
  33. The Adventure of the Five Napoleons
  34. The Adventure of the Coed.
  35. The Adventure of the Tin Monocle
  36. The Adventure of the Missing Eighth
  37. The Adventure of the Chapel Grange
  38. The Initial Stain
  39. The Hound of Baskerville
  40. The Depression of Fear
  41. The Adventure of the Wisteria Jail Cell
  42. The Adventure of the Paper Envelope
  43. The Adventure of the Red Semi-Circle
  44. The Adventure of Bruce's Idea
  45. The Ill Cop
  46. The Appearance of Frances
  47. The Adventure of the Imp's Foot
  48. Act One
  49. The Adventure of the Dumb Client
  50. The Adventure of the White Boy Scout
  51. The Adventure of the Mazarin Pebble
  52. The Adventure of the Flat Roof
  53. The Adventure of the Sussex Mosquito
  54. The Adventure of Mr. Garrideb
  55. The Problem of Thor Stepping Stone
  56. The Jerk
  57. The Adventure of the Tabby's Mane
  58. The Adventure of the Over Night Guest Wearing a Mask
  59. The Adventure of the Shoscombe New Place
  60. The Redundant Honky

I am sure you can come up with your own different reductions. I hope you enjoy mine.

Happy Collecting!

 

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2002 to 2008

Past 2009 Columns

January 4, 2009
Sherlockian Potpourri

January 11, 2009
Sherlocking in NYC

January 18, 2009
UNESCO Translation Index

January 25, 2009
This Week in My Sherlockian History

February 2, 2009
Sherlock's Last Case: A Review

February 8, 2009
More Sherlockian Potpourri

February 15, 2009
I'm A Star

February 22, 2009
Six Degrees of Sherlockian Separation

March 1 , 2009
The Sherlock Files: The 100-Year-Old Secret, A Review

March 8, 2009
The Adventures of a Foreign Book Collector

March 15, 2009
The Reduced Canon