We got a hit! We got a hit! We got a hit!

Ahem.

I'll climb down off the ceiling now. (I have to take the mistletoe down anyway.)

To the point: In the belated WGAW inspired Christmas episode on January Late, House received a First Edition of the Works of Conan Doyle from his Secret Santa. You really have to see the episode "A Wonderful Lie" for all of the levels of that comment to pan out but suffice to say, he got the book.

Whee!

A Sherlock Holmes Reference!

Well knock me over with a feather! Finally, after months in the arid desert, the kind writers over at House included a Sherlock Holmes reference...and I'm not even convinced they are aware they did it.

In the latest episode, House is recruited in a super sekrit sneaky mission to diagnose an agent who is dying of a mysterious disease! Has he been poisoned a la the now famous Russian? Has he been irradiated? Does he have cancer of the blood?

In order to answer the cancer question, House calls Wilson on his super un-sekrit cell phone. After managing to convince Wilson that he really is calling from a CIA hospital room with an icky lookin' dude on the bed in front of him, he gets his answers about the cancer possibility.

With a last jab, House ribs Wilson by adding, "And don't worry. I'm sure they know all about your smuggling heroin in from Afghanistan."

A panicky Wilson blurts, "But I've never been to Afghanistan!" just as House hangs up.

Okay, the writers were probably merely referring to the fact that we are currently in a rather long term war in Afghanistan, Afghanistan is known for it's, er, popular poppy production and Wilson's complete paranoia. (And, after his experience with Tritter, I can't blame him.)

However, there is most definitely a Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson reference embedded in there. When Holmes and Watson first met in A Study in Scarlet, Watson was just recovering from a gunshot wound and subsequent terrible convalescence from his war service in......you guessed it....Afghanistan.

For Wilson to deny ever having been there is hilarious!

I hope the writers knew they did that (they could have chosen Bolivia or Iraq, I suppose) because it's really cute. Panicking Wilson is always adorkable.

Ah, on a personal note, it's nice to be back! Bring on the Holmes references, people! Bring 'em on! (After you finish striking, that is. Good luck with that, folks.)

At Long Last.....

At long last, we get two Holmes references in one episode! Wow! It's like Christmas, Hannukah and Kwanzaa all rolled into one! :-)

The episode of which I speak is "Family" and aired last night, May Day.

The first reference is rather blatant. Wilson's dog, Hector, has destroyed House's cane (with an hilarious aside by Wilson, "It wasn't me this time!"). So, House must go cane shopping. Of course he insists on Wilson's presence....not for his taste, either.....but to pay for the cane given that Hector is his dog and it's Hector's fault.

House drags Wilson to a rather dodgy looking "antique" store. (Looks more like a junk store and head shop to me....not that I'd know what a head shop looks like. Hey! I went to college. I've been in one of those places! A friend of mine bought a little pewter straw at one of those joints. (hee, pun intended) and it was shaped like a Hoover vacuum cleaner. I thought that was hilarious.....and I'm not saying what she used it for.)

But, I digress.

The point is that when Wilson opens the door of Joe's Junk and Joint Shoppe, House has a pipe in his mouth that is the classic pipe associated with Sherlock Holmes. Now we just need to get the guy in a cape and a deer stalker hat. (Never gonna happen.)

The traditional Holmes pipe is this guy:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ce/Sherlock_holmes_pipe_hat.jpg/450px-Sherlock_holmes_pipe_hat.jpg

However, the original artist for The Strand Magazine, Sydney Paget, who brought Holmes into visiual two dimensions, envisioned a more ordinary one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Paget_holmes.png

Just for grins and for anyone who didn't know, Holmes kept his tobacco in a Persian slipper that resided on the mantelpiece at 221B Baker Street. (Right under the bills he had impaled to the wall with a dagger.) That kind of trivia makes for ~great~ cocktail conversation.

Now, for the more esoteric reference....and, I admit it's a reach but things have been dry here recently.....Holmes did have a dog named Toby. I've mentioned him here before in reference to Steve McQueen the Rat. Steve's comparison is more apt because he actually helped solve two mysteries with House in the same way that Toby helped Holmes.

However, House had Hector if only for one episode and, therefore, like Holmes, House had a dog. (Personally, I think Hector is perfect for House and he should have kept him. Especially since rats only live two years so Steve is going to shuffle off this mortal coil soon if he hasn't already. Plus, we know that House can be cold but, dood, you gave the dog a limp and a Vicodin habit. Don't you think you owe him a home now?)

Last reach.....and it's a small, piddling ridiculous one but I gotta make it. Holmes was British. House's dog Hector Wilson is a scruffy little West Highland Terrier. Last I checked Scotland, much to her dismay, is still part of the United Kingdom. So, there is a UK connection there between Holmes, Toby, House and Hector. Whew, that was a tough one.

Miss Me?

Well, Holmesians! It's been quite a while!

Check this article out! http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/artslife/story.html?id=1c0836b9-4a9a-4e7f-97fb-d95388107b57&k=39854

Now it would be a really cool and amusing idea to put Laurie in a deerstalker cap while smoking a Merschaum pipe. I bet in the hands of David Shore and Katie Jacobs it would be a hoot!

All the News that's fit to print!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/arts/television/30hous.html?_r=1&ref=television&oref=slogin

Scroll down and you'll see The Man and The Woman themselves admit to the comparison which we all so obviously see.

Whac-"a"-Itchy-Foot

A blatant Holmes reference but with a horrible grammar error. Did I miss something? Is there a joke there and I'm just too dunderheaded to get it? Please, someone tell me. You won't hurt my feelings.

In this latest installment, "Whac-a-Mole", House sets a puzzle for his team. He claims to already have diagnosed the PotW and writes his answer on a piece of paper. He sticks it in an envelope pins it to the White Board with a magnet.

As he sends the other doctors running, we get a close up of the envelope. On it, House has written, "The Game's A Itchy Foot!"

First, before I complain about fingernails down "a" itchy blackboard, let me say that the quote is a take off on one that Holmes made to Watson in The Hound of the Baskervilles. The actual line is "The game's afoot!" and off he and Watson race to solve the mystery.

Now. As for grammar. "Itchy" starts with a vowel. The correct word to place before it is "an" not "a".

GAH.

That grates.

Holmes/House Fanfic

Fanfic is not for everyone but this one is cute. I haven't finished reading it yet so if it falls off the deep end, don't email me. LOL

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3145416/1/

Reichenbach Falls and Toby vs. Getting Shot and Steve

I'm still hunting for Holmes/House comparisons and recently, the best one I can come up with is that getting shot by your Moriarty can come quite close to being shoved off the Reichenbach Falls by the same guy, I suppose. Both are equally life threatening and both are committed by the same character.

With that in mind, both Holmes and House return in fine fettle. Both returns also have an unexpected aspect to them.....In RL, ACD did not want Holmes to return. ACD viewed himself as a "serious" writer and felt he was getting "type cast" (for wont of a better term) by Holmes so he bumped him off. It was only public pressure (and, perhaps finances) that forced him to bring Holmes back. In House's case, the unexpected aspect is that the Ketamine Experiment worked and he was hale and hearty.

(Personal opinion? I loved seeing a healthy House. Loved it. Laurie finally had a chance to use his prodigious physical acting skills unfettered by a limp and a cane. But, I'm glad we're back to ouchy House. The pain is such a fundamental part of the character that losing it would alter the entire conceit of the show.)

I snooped around The Canon to see if Holmes was ever shot and, no, he wasn't. Watson is the only one of the pair who was shot and a) that was before "he" narrated and wrote Holmes annals and b) there is some debate whether it was in the shoulder or the leg. (Even with the debate, neither war wound was in the neck or the abdomen...as were House's.)

Have I compared Steve to Toby, yet? I forget. The most apt comparison is that Steve helped House in Euphoria and Toby helped Holmes in "The Boscome Valley Mystery. (Toby was Holmes' bloodhound who, like Steve, didn't make too many appearances but when he did it was HUGE.)

It is also to be made of note that Toby's owner, Sherman, is the only character to ~ever~ call Holmes by his first name. Stacy, Steve's owner, used House's first name frequently and (as far as I can remember) she's the only character who ever has.

Very Nice Article on House/Wilson

Here is a very nice article by Diane Werts for Newsday.com comparing House/Wilson to Holmes/Watson!

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-ffmus4871466sep03,0,3428668.story?track=rss

Dr. Cuddy and Inspector Lestrade

For those who don't know, Inspector Lestrade was a Scotland Yard plod ("the professionals" as Watson called them) who frequently crossed paths with Holmes and Watson while they were on criminal cases.

Holmes rather looked down his nose at Lestrade with vague amusement but did take advantage of his services in several stories.

While noodling about character relationships in House/Holmes I ran it this way: House/Holmes, Wilson/Watson, the Ducklings/the Baker Street Irregulars, Vogler/Moriarty (he was for a while...until "No Reason") and Cuddy/Lestrade.

Lestrade represents the Establishment....complete with all of its rules and regulations, attention to duty and Victorian properness.

In the same way, Cuddy represents the Establishment at PPTH by virtue of being the Dean of Medicine. She's part and parcel of the "system" that runs PPTH. She reins House in and enforces the Clinic duty hours on him. She is a workaholic and understands her duties well. As for Victorian propriety? Okay, she dresses provocatively but, quite honestly, with all the frills and skirts, she really dresses rather fussily for a Dean of Medicine. She pays close attention to her appearance.

So, I'm reading "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" and come across this description of Lestrade: "A shower of rain fell while we were in the train, and the heat was far less oppressive in Croydon than in town. Holmes had sent on a wire, so that Lestrade, as wirey, as dapper, and as ferret-like as ever, was waiting for us at the station."

Now, I'm the last person to call the glorious Lisa Edelstein "ferret-like" but she is thin and angular. So, the comparison remains apt. (That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.)

Vacation Truncated

Without going into the gorey details....I broke a tooth last Monday night. Really. Broke the damned thing eating a cheese pizza. I mean, really. How dumb is that?

Waited until Wednesday to get a temporary cap. It turned into bona fide, full blown dental surgery. So, to make myself feel better....while still in the flush of adrenaline and "What The Fuck Just Happened to Me?" I went next door to the bookstore and picked up a very portable copy of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Go Bantam Classics!

Much pain on Thursday/Friday. I told Mr. C that I felt like someone had taken a chisel to my head. He just stared at me in that "House" way....you know the one....the big eyes stare, the head tilts, the chin rises?

Yeah, that one that silently says, "You're an idiot, woman. Someone DID take a chisel to your head."

I was supposed to leave for vacation last Monday.

So, what with being waylaid for a few days....I took the opportunity to relax at home, and use Anbesol liberally (honestly, Mr. C wants me to take Vicodin and said, I quote, "Ah, yes. Anbesol! That well known gateway drug. Next stop, heroin.")

So, instead, I drink Cheap White Wine ("CWW") in copious amounts and read my Sherlock Holmes.

For some strange reason I picked up the second volume first. Dunno why. Blame it on the pain. I've finished "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (yeesh) and am just now wrapping up "The Valley of Fear."

While I really have no screaming comparisons to make between "House" and the Holmes stories from my current reading, I did want to quote a little something from the introduction.

It's about Watson and I've really been dwelling (perhaps unhealthily?) on the Watson/Wilson respect debate I mentioned previously.

"ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BOSWELLS

I submit for your inspection one John H. Watson: medical man, late British Army surgeon, raconteur, journalist, connoisseur of women, Knight of the Battered Tin Dispatch-Box, valiant and loyal friend.

[snip]

Watson was the first to confess that his friend's analytical mind worked on a plane he himself could scarcely conceive, and although in The Hound of the Baskervilles he poked some good-nautred fun at himself for fancying he had mastered the science of deduction in the matter of Dr. Mortimer's stick, he never pretended to skills beyond his own considerable ones. (emphasis mine)

[snip]

A man for his time, then; for the detective himself was not above bludgeoning cadavers in the dissecting rooms or attempthing for no little time to transfix a dead pig with a harpoon in a butcher's shop, all in the pursuit of criminal knowledge. But to his credit, a cipher without key or a pair of spectacles abondoned at the scene of a crime were of infintiely more interst to him than an unimaginative corpse. So they are to us, and hence the reason for this collection [of stories].

If there is a Valhalla for superhuman sleuths and their all-to-human compatriots, it will allow them freedom at night to catch the racing hansom cab in the mustard fog and provide them a cozy cluttered place by day to feast upon cold pheasant and tales from the tin box. If the detective should suffer over much from the artistic temperament, and his fellow lodger should dwell overlong upon the fairness of a wrist or the timbre of a feminine voice, so much the better, for us and them. Literature never produced a relationship more symbiotic nor a warmer and more timeless friendship."

Excerpted from "On theSignificance of Boswells" by Loren D. Estleman. Introduction to both volumes of Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories; Bantam Classics, NY, NY 1986 reissued in 2003.

vii-xviii

Boxed Set: ISBN 0-553-32825-5

The reason I quote these passages is because I'm convinced that the Sherlockians and the Holmesians (who are quite in the know on these matters) would agree that Holmes held Watson in high esteem.

Also, I just think it would be amazingly cool if, at the end of the House's run, we find that it's all been told through Wilson's eyes.

The Pacing Detective

During the summer hiatus there hasn't been much to write home about but my tiny mind has been pacing much the same way Holmes paces when thinking about a case.

When I was a kid, I read everything written by a man named Ernest Thompson Seton. He wrote pretty up front and honest animal stories. They weren't all happy and cute. Some of them were downright cruel. But it taught a little girl about the vagaries of Nature. How She can be truly wonderful and then suddenly downright evil. I recommend them.

The subject heading of this post is a play on Seton's "The Pacing Mustang" and I use it because I did my homework. While there are far too many stories to quote in which Holmes paces during a case......well, that's my point exactly.

Both House and Holmes pace when concentrating.

That might be an apt comparison but, as with everything in House, it's not cut and dried. Holmes paced to think and to burn nervous energy. House does 8,000,000 other things to get the same effect....the pacing isn't quite the focus that Doyle made of Holmes'.

Also, of note, House paces when he's in pain. Holmes did not. House uses it more to work through the agony of his "bum leg" than to think. For thinking he has the BOUO (Ball of Unknown Origin) and his cane. (Among other things.)

(Shallow shameless request, Shore & Co., when we get Citizen Cane to make a return appearance could we puhlease go back to the Derby Cane? I know that it's fun to watch House play jai alai against the wall with the shepherd's crook but it's just lost a certain j'en c'est qua.)

Whining is so unattractive. LOL

Interestingly enough, over on www.televisionwithoutpity.com, there is a discussion of who is the superior sidekick....Wilson or Watson. Or, more to the point, who is more respected by his House/Holmes.

Predictably most are saying Wilson. However, some of the rationale has been because Watson wasn't Holmes' peer as Wilson is to House.

Which, aside from our Pacing Mustang, is what brought me over here during these hot, House-less days of summer.

I respectfully disagree with the conclusion that House respects Wilson more than Holmes respects Watson.

I was watching "Silver Blaze" last night (Brett) and it occurs to me that this would be a fair comparison: House and Wilson are, in fact, peers. House is the Head of Diagnostics; Wilson the Head of Oncology. House is a genius; Wilson is the "Oncology Boy Wonder". That's what they are. Peers.

OTH, Holmes, I would venture to argue, sees Watson as more than a peer. As a matter of fact, as I read the canon, watch Brett's interpretation and reflect fondly on Rathbone's.....I would argue that Holmes admires Watson as something quite a lot more.

Holmes first meets Watson while he (Holmes) is tinkering with Blood ID (ASiS). Holmes, we must remember, is an "amateur" dectective. The idea of "detecting" in Doyle's era was still a blossoming business proposition. Appropriate only in Edgar Allan Poe novellas and as entertainment in salon tea parties.

My distinct impression is that, unlike House and Wilson (who are literal peers), Holmes looked up to Watson as a professional man of medicine--an MD, which Holmes certainly was not. (Nor, I venture, would a man who didn't care that the Earth revolved around the Sun, want to be.)

One other thing that differentiates Wilson from Watson in the respect category is that Shore makes Wilson sticky. Watson was a clean character. Yes, he'd been married three (arguably) times but one was a bit of a mystery, one ended in widowerhood and the other carried on. Wilson is a cad. A rogue. A philanderer. (Until the tables get turned.)

Much as I think Doyle made Holmes revere Watson.....Shore makes House find Wilson to be both amusing and a bit of a puzzle.

There's much more to their relationship than that (thanks to Laurie and Leonard in the main) but my comments focus on who is the more respected sidekick.

I would have to go with Watson.

Holmes and Pacing

Just a small note.

I mentioned earlier that I had a feeling there was a connection between House's pacing in the season finale and Holmes' pacing.

A quick Google search came up with references to Holmes' habit of pacing during particularly sticky cases. Now, House uses pacing to try and defeat the nervous energy caused by pain in his leg.

But, I was right. They both frequently pace.

The Napoleon of Crime!

Well, we are introduced to The Napoleon of Crime!

In one of the more obvious examples of the parallels between House and Holmes, we discover that House has a nemesis.

For those interested in Holmes and Moriarty, may I suggest you read "The Final Problem". Moriarty also appears by reference in several other adventures.

Interestingly enough, there have been arguments made in Sherlockian and Holmesian circles that Moriarty was a figment of Holmes' cocaine fevered brain. See: Meyer's, "The Seven Percent Solution".

So, it's a fascinating parallel here that Shore, et al, made House's Arch Enemy be his own subconcious.

Or did they?

The Obvious and the Not So Obvious

I noticed one obvious Holmes reference in "Who's Your Daddy?"......which, in my opinion was a GREAT episode. The cast and crew are reaching a happy level and WYD showed real mastery and confidence on every level. It was like the calm before the storm of the finale. Way to go!

And I think I noticed a more subtle hint at The Great Detective's methods.

The obvious Holmes reference has already been mentioned here....that Holmes used a 7% solution of cocaine to fight the boredom between cases. In the WYD teaser, House is in tremendous pain and pulls out his morphine stash. Just as he's about to shoot up, Cuddy calls with Leona's strange case. He stops the injection and gets moving to the hospital.

Differences: Holmes used cocaine for boredom. House was clearly in pain and was using the morphine (upping the dosage from just Vicodin to a stronger cocktail) but he didn't have a case, either.

Similarities: The minute he got a case, he put the morphine away and got to work. Damn the agony; full speed ahead!

No matter what, he's still an addict and uses drugs to numb pain. In Holmes' case, it was boredom. In House's, it's boredom AND pain.

The bit that I'm not sure is that obvious or, frankly, even right is House's pacing. House uses pacing to take his mind off the pain.....but something in my mind recalls that Holmes paced as well.

To be clear, I'm writing it here, to remind myself to look it up.

I'm not sure I'm right but something is niggling at the back of my brain about it.

I also must look up and see if Holmes ever solved a case.....not based on the victim in his study... but based on a third party's music skills. Wouldn't surprise me.

Next week? The Napoleon of Crime. O_O