Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine 11. Jack Grochot
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In this wise, I shall do the same and present two of my own dietary concoctions.
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LAMB CURRY
Do note, first, that this is not a dish from India, but rather, because of the presence of so much ginger, derives instead from Mongolia; second, this is indeed a spicy dish that demands an ample supply of beer or ale to wash it down—though if beef is substituted for the lamb, it will be a wee bit less fiery.
INGREDIENTS
1 lb lean lamb
1 tblsp set butter
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
3 tomatoes
1 large green, red or yellow bell pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon curry powder
¼ oz ginger
½ teaspoon chili powder
1 1/2 cups hot water—though beer or ale is a better choice
PROCEDURE
1. Slice, wash, defat meat
2. Fry minced onion, bell pepper, garlic, ginger, pepper in butter
3. Add turmeric, curry powder, salt and chili
4. Sizzle up to 3 minutes
5. Add meat and mix for a few minutes
6. Cover with lid and cook 35 minutes
7. Add sliced tomatoes
8. Fry for 2 or 3 minutes
9. Add liquid and bring to boil
10. Low flame for approximately 35 minutes, or till tender
11. Serve over flavoured rice (use wine, not water to make the rice)
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Deviled Lima Beans
(One may also use butter beans)
INGREDIENTS
A small quantity of lima beans
1 teaspoon of very spicy mustard
6 ozs beer or ale
Seasoned pepper mixture (combine black, red, and white ground pepper)
PROCEDURE
1. Place ingredients in a saucepan
2. Add mustard and beer
3. Stir till mustard is well blended (but do not break beans)
4. Simmer slowly till liquid is reduced by approximately ½
5. Season with pepper mixture to taste
6. Serve in soup bowls with spoons
Very Truly Yours,
Mrs Amalie Warren
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOOSIER, by Dan Andriacco
How Rex Stout Had Fun
with Sherlock Holmes
The announcement last year that the actress Lucy Liu would be playing the part of Dr. Watson in the new CBS program “Elementary” attracted a great deal of interest—and also shock, skepticism, cynicism, derision, and scorn. In other words, the gimmick worked.
But a well known Sherlockian of the last century would not even have lifted one eyebrow at the news that “Watson was a woman.” For Rex Stout knew that decades ago. On the evening of January 31, 1941, at the Murray Hill Hotel in New York, Stout declined to toast “the Second Mrs. Watson.” In the talk that followed, he set forth for the assembled Baker Street Irregulars a scandalous theory that “the Watson person” who wrote the Canon was actually Mrs. Sherlock Holmes. Frederic Dannay, writing as Ellery Queen in the book In the Queen’s Parlor, called Stout’s speech an H-Bomb—H for Holmes, of course.
Stout cited many passages from the Sacred Writings that sounded to him as if they were written by a woman, and especially a wife, such as “I believe that I am one of the most long-suffering of mortals” and “I must have fainted” and “the relations between us in those days were peculiar.” The coup de grace, however, was an acrostic spelling out IRENE WATSON from the first letters of canonical tales. Stout insisted at the end of his speech that the wedding related in “A Scandal in Bohemia” was actually Holmes’s own, and speculated that the fruit of the union might have been Lord Peter Wimsey.
“As Rex reached his last sentence,” John McAleer reported in Rex Stout: A Biography, “pandemonium ensued.” He added: “In certain quarters 1941 would be remembered as the year that began with the Stout hypothesis and ended with Pearl Harbor—two nightmarish happenings.”
Although Stout spoke from notes, a written version quickly found its way into print. So did an official BSI rebuttal from Dr. Julian Wolff called “That Was No Lady.”
Upon entering into a literary controversy with Mr. Stout [Wolff wrote], one is immediately conscious of being at a great disadvantage. It would require the knowledge and the pen of an Edgar Smith, the experience and the skill of a Vincent Starrett, as well as the genius and the beard of a Christopher Morley, to equalize the contest.
Wolff proved equal to the task, however. His response included an acrostic of his own that spelled out NUTS TO REX STOUT.
Long an admirer of Stout’s Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin mysteries, I wrote Stout a letter when I was but 14 years old, asking him which story he considered his best and positing the bold theory that Archie was the true author of “Watson Was a Woman.”
Stout fired back an ingenious response dated December 8, 1966. The postage on the note was five cents, but to me the contents have always been priceless. “Dear Master Dan,” Stout wrote, “If your surmise, that Archie Goodwin wrote that gem, ‘Watson Was a Woman,’ is correct, I would be silly to admit it, and I try not to be silly. So the answer to your question, what do I consider my best story, is ‘Watson Was a Woman.’ Sincerely, Rex Stout.”
Clearly, Stout liked to have fun with Sherlock Holmes. But he did so as a true believer who was one of the original Baker Street Irregulars and the Guest of Honor at that infamous 1941 meeting.
Born in 1886 in Noblesville, Indiana, Stout began reading Holmes as a boy and devoured the later stories as they were published. In 1903, having moved to Kansas at a young age, he saw William Gillette portray Sherlock Holmes in Kansas City. He returned again the next night.
More than a generation later, in 1931, Stout found himself among a select group of men drinking bootleg bourbon with Winston Churchill at a hotel in New York until the wee hours of the morning. One of the subjects of their conversation was Sherlock Holmes. Stout was forty-five years old, and Arthur Conan Doyle had died only the year before—just three years after the publication of his final Sherlock Holmes story.
When Christopher Morley founded the Baker Street Irregulars in 1934, he asked Stout to be one of the first members. That same year also saw the publication of Fer-de-Lance, the first of Stout’s more than 60 Nero Wolfe stories. More about that rotund gentleman later!
Stout’s relationship with the BSI was a long and happy one. In 1949, despite the “Watson Was a Woman” blasphemy, he was presented with his Irregular Shilling and the investiture name of “The Boscombe Valley Mystery.” For the first five years of the BSI’s Silver Blaze Stakes at Belmont Race Track, Stout and his wife Pola attended, and presented the trophy in two of those years. In 1961, he was awarded the BSI’s first Two-Shilling Award “for extraordinary devotion to the cause beyond the call of duty.” Five years later, the annual BSI dinner again honored Stout and also toasted Pola as “The Woman.”
Although best known as a mystery writer, the tart-tongued Stout was also a perceptive critic who was never shy about sharing his thoughts on his craft—or any other subject, for that matter. In January 1942,