h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

NaJoPoMo finishes today - the recap will be in next week's issue of .

This month, I've been sharing Freebie Film Tips from around the internet: films and video clips you can enjoy without paying extra for it. I hope the archive proves useful and enjoyable. You can find it at A87775924.

Just for lagniappe, as they say in New Orleans, here's a Freebie Film Extra for the last day. It's a 1927 film interview by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who appears with Scottish accent and dog:

http://www.openculture.com/2012/11/arthur_conan_doyle_discusses_sherlock_holmes_and_psychics_in_a_rare_filmed_interview_1927.html

Love those rolled r's.

Doyle shares those titbits we crave: how he invented Sherlock Holmes, the fact that he gets mail addressed to Holmes and Watson, and that there are groupies who would like to be Mrs Hudson. Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, take note.

Even more interestingly, Doyle talks about his passion for psychic research. Doyle had psychic experiences of his own, which probably surprised people in such a logical thinker. He says, 'it's not as foolish a thing as people suppose.' He says, 'I'm talking about what I know...about what I've handled, what I've seen...' In other words, he took a scientific approach to the subject, as far as he could with the state of knowledge the way it was in 1927.

Doyle provides us with one glimpse into why exactly people in his day were so fascinated by seances. He refers to the Great War, when so many died. You see, they worried about all those people, and desperately wanted reassurance that these lives, which had been so horribly cut short, continued in a better place. Makes sense.

You can use the internet to learn more about Doyle and his work:

- You can read some of the Strand Magazine stories here: http://sherlockholmes.stanford.edu/readings.html

- You can listen to a talk by Michael Dirda, who explains what may be the first fan cult phenomenon in literary history: the Baker Street Irregulars. Find it at http://archive.org/details/MichaelDirda-OnConanDoyleOrTheWholeArtOfStorytelling

- You can watch the Dinosaur Fight Scene from Doyle's 'The Lost World'. Go on, you know you love dinosaurs: http://archive.org/details/DinosaurFightSceneFromTheLostWorld

- You can watch a rare 1931 Sherlock Holmes film called 'The Sleeping Cardinal' - http://archive.org/details/SherlockHolmes-SleepingCardinal-AVI (Not Basil Rathbone.)

- Like silents? You can watch the 1912 version of 'The Copper Beeches'. This one was supervised by Doyle himself: http://archive.org/details/TheCopperBeeches

- You can watch a failed British TV pilot from 1951: http://archive.org/details/SherlockHolmes-TheManWhoDisappearedfailedPilot The voice-over narrative by Watson is pretty funny.

- You can go surreal, and watch this 1930 marionette parody of Sherlock Holmes (not authorised by Doyle, we suspect) called 'The Limejuice Mystery, or Who Spat in Grandfather's Porridge?' http://archive.org/details/TheLimejuiceMysteryOrWhoSpatInGrandfathersPorridge Starring 'Herlock Sholmes' and 'Anna May Wrong'. You think you won't like this. You are wrong. By the time Sholmes changes into a Scotsman behind a pillar box, you will be cheering. This is amazingly good.

Apparently, as Doyle found, Holmes simply will not die.

Maybe we should hold a seance.

great for insomniacs

I knew I wrote this for somebody.