The Sign of the Sherlock

Like most logical folk who run across the horoscope section in any daily newspaper, I’ve often pondered over the strange way the astrological universe seems to want to divide all of humanity into twelve groups. It seems a harmless enough diversion, especially as those twelve groups are probably the only segmenting of man that hasn’t caused a war or hate crime at one time or another. But only twelve groups? That can’t be nearly enough, can it? Especially when one starts to consider a fellow like Sherlock Holmes.

If one-twelfth of humanity (that’s 8.33 percent, for those of you into decimals) are of a personality anything similar to Sherlock Holmes . . . well, consider the problems that landlords alone would be having. With one-twelfth of all tenants blasting initials in the walls, conducting bizarre experiments, and running most unusual business enterprises out of their apartments, the rental business would have to be decidedly worse than it is (and I’m sure any landlord you’ll meet already has their share of horror stories). And that’s not the only area in which might get our attention if one out of every twelve of our fellow men and women were like Sherlock Holmes. On the good side, the legendary Holmes aversion to the opposite sex might help keep population growth to a tolerable level. On the bad side, the detective’s disrespect for local law enforcement and his tendencies to break laws when he saw fit would not help to keep society running smoothly, not at all.

Sure, you might think, one out of every twelve people might be bad tenants. One out of every twelve might be asexual or scofflaws. But look at the big, big picture. There are currently six billion people inhabiting planet Earth. That being the case, there should be five hundred million people currently existing with a personality type somewhat similar to Sherlock Holmes. Take the entire New York metropolitan area, including the southern tip of Connecticut to the northern part of New Jersey, and duplicate it thirty-three times side by side. When you’re done you’ll have an urban area that can contain all those Sherlock Holmeses. It fairly boggles the mind. And what’s worse, what was once a rare and special commodity suddenly becomes not only commonplace, but downright irritating when running about in the hundreds of millions. Rats, pigeons, and Sherlock Holmeses! At that level of infestation, we should be exterminating those pesky Holmeses at a rate that would make Moriarty’s head whirl with glee.

Of course, that’s just the assumption of basic, daily newspaper astrology.

Luckily for us, there is only one man truly born under the sign of the Sherlock . . . that especially unique individual known as Sherlock Holmes of 221B Baker Street, London. Our detective friend was, and is, not only a unique fellow, but also somewhat mysterious in all the things that combined to make up his being. This issue, the roundup of writers who kindly contribute their material to The Holmes & Watson Report make yet another effort to fathom the depths of Mr. Holmes and produce something of a “horoscope” of his personality. Will they succeed?

Well, not for lack of trying . . . .

Enjoy.

The publisher and editor-in-chief