We are but three weeks out from the Fourth Annual Gathering of Southern Sherlockians in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and having cancelled a planned trip to Florida between now and then, that event is now looming large in my sites. Last year’s trip the third such gathering was rather impromptu, with a single day spent in that fine city, but this year’s is suddenly shaping up to be a fuller Chattanooga experience, with maybe a touch of Nashville thrown in. What can one expect from a gathering of Southern Sherlockians?

Well, Southern hospitality, for starters. And a kind of laid-back, but enthusiastic fun that makes a Sherlockian weekend a pure pleasure to take in. The event’s slogan, “Not a symposium, but a gathering of and for Sherlockian joy,” pretty much sums it up. Everybody’s just there to have some fun, even if the Saturday night banquet does get a little dressed-up, as banquets tend to do. (Last year I didn’t dress up, and wound up at a table with the mayor, feeling a bit sheepish. Not saying one has to dress for dinner, but you just never know who you might wind up sitting with.) Rumor among Sherlockian circles is that several new-to-the-Gathering faces will be showing up this year, so I expect there to be even a little Yankee friendliness sneaking into the event this year.

One much-talked-about entertainment that the Gathering has been trying to get in years past has been something called “Hee Haw Holmes.” As some Sherlockian somewhere seems to be into every known enthusiasm in addition to Sherlock Holmes, it should come as no surprise that a goodly number among us were also fans of the country version of “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in.” This year appears to be the year that this long-dreamed of goal will be reached, and Sherlockian comedy on a Junior Samples plane will take to the stage (or floor, as most banquet rooms have no stage).

An excellent array of presenters has been lined up, though no word on just what sort of things they will be presenting. I will let you in on one rumor I’ve heard, however, and that was that after his poor showing in the 2000 presidential election, due to a plot by none other than Professor Moriarty himself, a certain consulting detective might be planning to announce a 2008 bid for our nation’s highest office. Politics are a great American past-time in the South, and Chattanooga may just be the start of something big (barring, of course, more machinations of the evil Professor . . . you know how that goes).

But I’ve said enough for now. Chattanooga awaits, and I must prepare.

Your humble correspondent,

Brad Keefauver