My husband came home with two old, fabric-bound volumes the other day. They were the complete set of Sherlock Holmes adventures. Having read everything else in the house that week, I promptly snatched volume one from his hands and began at the beginning-A Study in Scarlet.
The writing was familiar to me. Not because of the recent Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, but because I've already read many of the stories. Still, one can never tire of good writing.
After devouring the first two novels in 24 hours, my brain became locked in Sherlock-mode that did not stop when I went to bed. I spent the next few nights trying to solve criminal cases in my dreams.
The combination of reading and dreaming detective work set me thinking. What if I were to take a page out of Sherlock's book (pun intended) and pay attention to those little details that reveal so much?
Sherlock Holmes can tell a person's profession and quirks upon their first meeting. Is such a thing possible today? I tested his techniques to find out.
When my husband and I went out for coffee, I instructed him to choose someone, and I would deduce at least one fact about that person. He pointed to a man in a neon orange jacket with reflective tape sitting by himself.
"Construction worker," I said without hesitation, not wanting to stare too long.
"No way," said my husband. "He has a communication device on him, and underneath his jacket he's wearing a collared shirt. He works for SaskPower."
It sounded like a good theory, but there was no way to verify his guess unless we asked the man.
As we left, my husband pointed to the SaskPower truck at the back of the parking lot.
He wanted to give me another chance, so as we pulled out of the parking lot he pointed to another driver, saying, "How about that guy wearing a ten-gallon hat driving the later model dusty pickup truck?"
"Farmer?"
"Nope. Why would a farmer wear a cowboy hat? He's a rancher who lives out of town, hence the dusty truck."
At this point I deduced that reading fiction set in London during the late 1800's might not be the best way to become an expert in observation.
I had hoped my experiment would work out cleverly and neatly, so I could end this column by quoting a common phrase of Sherlock Holmes'-"It is simplicity itself."
Instead, I will probably be dreaming of solving complicated detective cases for many nights to come, as I apparently make a better dreamer than detective.
