Shock! Horror! Sherlock Holmes missing!

Famous Detective and medical sidekick missing for 9 days. Scotland Yard in race to solve possible murder! Is this a scam -  or isn’t it?

Scotland Yard have launched an immediate investigation into the disappearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson after Britain’s most famous detective and his assistant were reported missing this morning, said The Old Post, London’s daily newspaper.

The Old Post said, “In a mystery worthy of one of Holmes’ most peculiar cases, police were called to 221b Baker Street, Westminster, when they received an anonymous telegram stating they have just hours to prevent a murder.”
                                             

“Our best are on this case and working around the clock.”
Inspector Lestrade said.

Inspector G. Lestrade of Scotland Yard is leading the case. Lestrade told The Old Post, “ I can confirm that I received a report on  Mr Holmes and Dr John Watson … and the threatening nature of a  telegram. We are treating this as gravely serious.”

Baker Street has been sealed off while police search the area.

Lestrade told The Old Post, “we have our best officers on the case and will work around the clock to solve it”, He added:. “I would urge any members of the public, who may have seen something suspicious to come forward as soon as possible.”

​– FM and the Sherlock Holmes Papers.
 

NEW SERIES: DAUGHTER AND SHERLOCK HOLMES - SBS. 7PM. EVERY THURSDAY.

Front Lines, 1984: Curley, Bumper, 
Chang, Nifty, Bozo, etc

THE MIGHTY CHANG: “He could do marvellous things … that turn the tide,” said Frank Facer.
 

Taxi drivers, politicians and sportsmen have one thing in common – they are prone to be called by a nickname.

The Premier, Neville ‘Nifty’ Wran is no different to Bob ‘Bozo’ Fulton or Fred ‘Swatter’ Jackson a Sydney cabbie who, as legend has it, acquired his nickname because of his deftness at swatting  flies with a rolled up newspaper.

Nicknames are common all over the world.

According to a four-year study by British researchers Jane Morgan, Chis O’Neill and Rom Harre, nicknaming has “an important role in the social world …and in every culture.”

The term “nickname” is derived from eke-name, which is based on the Old English verb ecan, meaning to “add to or augment.”
                                                     

Can you identify the real names behind these famous nicknames?
Iron Lady, Tricky Dicky, Wombat, Pig Iron, Kermit and the Big Fella.

You’ll find the answers below.

Explained the researchers: “Thus, nickname augment a given name with a richer and more explicit denotation.” They added: In the rigidity of institutions, such as schools, prisons and army barracks, it is better to be called ‘sewage’ than merely John.

“People who have no nicknames in institutions are regarded by the official hierarchies as non-people.” There are times when a nickname tends to confuse the issue.

Take New Yorker Marvin Mantleman, for instance. At first, he was called ‘Marble Mantelpiece’, but still, nobody could remember his name. In the end, just plain “Face” had to do.

ANSWERS: Margeret Thatcher, Richard Nixon. Graham Eddy, Bob Menzies, Nick Greiner and Jack Lang.

“A great honour”

“This is a great honour,” comedian Buster Noble.
 

Buster Noble, one of Australia’s best-loved club comedians, was honoured with the John Campbell Fellowship Award at the 9th Annual Mo Awards ceremony. The veteran showman underwent major surgery for a burst heart valve twelve months ago where he remained in a critical condition for several months.

When Noble was handed the gleaming silver Mo statuette, he said: “This is a great honour for me. I have spent 53 years in showbusiness and have loved every minute of it.”

In a tribute to her father, actress Trisha Noble said: “Buster has given unselfishly of his time to the encouragement of young Australian entertainers and to countless charitable organisations.”

<< The Front Lines column appeared in newspaper and magazines from 1970 to 1984.

Chronicles: Accidents, disasters!

How did the fracas happen?

A 1904 Sunbeam that has collided with a telegraph pole. This probably would have been one the earliest motor accidents ever recorded. Th e highpoint is, of course, that road accidents are as old as motor cars. How did this fracas happen? The driver has come down the road and lost control after he had ‘run over’ a slight slick on the main throughfare. In The Sydney Morning Herald, dated 1908, raised a few eyebrows! A headline:  “Motor accident near Bowral,” and it shows 1908 Tourer that was involved in crash in its way to  the south coast.

<< Adapted by Frank Morris; Restored Australia Cars, Mar-Apr 2017.
 

What do you think?

Art modernism denied: The Prize portrait is done in the Rembrandt manner, Dobell told the court. William Dobell said in the Equity Court yesterday that he liked to think that his Archibald Prize winning portrait of Joshua Smith was in the traditional of Rembrandt. He said he has never been called a modernist until he returned to Australia in 1939. In London, he has been regarded by art students as academic.

<< Adapted by Frank Morris, from The Case thar Stopped a Nation by Peter Edwell.
 

What a 1930 car crash looks like