I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere 

Episode 186: Upon the Turf

Interview with Candace Lewis and Ira Matetsky

Burt Wolder: Support for this episode of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere is

made possible by the Wessex Press, the premiere publisher of
books about Sherlock Holmes and his world. Find them online
at wessexpress.com.

Scott Monty: I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Episode 186: Upon the Turf.

Mycroft Holmes: I hear of Sherlock everywhere since you became his chronicler.

Narrator: In a world where it's always 1895 comes I Hear of Sherlock

Everywhere, a podcast for devotees of Mr. Sherlock Holmes,
the world's first unofficial consulting detective.

Dr. Roylott: I've heard of you before. You're Holmes the meddler, Holmes
the busybody, Holmes the Scotland Yard jack in office.

Narrator: The game's afoot as we discussion goings-on in the world of

Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts, the Baker Street Irregulars, and
popular culture related to the great detective.
Dr. Watson: As we go to press, sensational developments have been
reported.

Narrator: Join your hosts Scott Monty and Burt Wolder as they talk
about what's new in the world of Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes: You couldn't have come at a better time!

Scott Monty: Hello there, and welcome to I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere,

the first podcast for Sherlock Holmes devotees where it's
always 1895. I'm Scott Monty.

Burt Wolder: I'm Burt Wolder.

Scott Monty: Are you at the starting post, Burt?

Burt Wolder: Not only am I at the starting post, but I've got my straw hat on
and a mint julep in both hands.

Scott Monty: I like that, although it isn't straw hat season yet, is it?

Burt Wolder: You're absolutely right. That's not until... When is straw hat
day? Is that May 15?

Scott Monty: May 15, I believe, yeah. That's okay. We'll cut you some slack
and let you sip your julep in peace. Meanwhile, if folks would
like to pour yourself a mint julep and pull up a chair, the show
notes for this episode are available at ihose.co/ihose186, all
lowercase. You can leave us a comment there. You can also
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that as an attachment, we'd be happy to receive your
comment that way.
Scott Monty: Once again we delve into the archives of the BSI Press. There's
a brand new book out called Upon the Turf: Horse Racing and
the Sherlockian Canon, edited by Candice J Lewis, Ira Brad
Matetsky, and Roger Donway. We are lucky enough to have
two of those editors with us in this episode. Let's start with
Candy Lewis.

Scott Monty: Candice J Lewis, BSI, was invested as a little art jargon, is a
recently invested member of the BSI. She was the woman of
the BSI in 2007. Candy received her PhD in art history from
New York University's Institute of Fine Arts and has worked as
an art historian in the field of early Chinese art with a
secondary area of specialty in 19th century in Europe and
America. She's been a member of the Hudson Valley Scientists
of Duchess County, New York, since 1977 along with her
husband Lou Lewis. Lou actually served as president of the
organization for about 30 years or so. Candy, in turn, has acted
as the program chair. We see who does the real work there.
She edited three previous books in conjunction with the
running of the Silver Blaze weekends at the Saratoga Racetrack
for the BSI. That was in 2009, 2012, and 2015. The most recent
was Saratoga at the Rail: From Silver Blaze to Shoscombe Old
Place, co-edited with Roger Donway.

Scott Monty: We also welcome Ira Brad Matetsky, BSI, who's invested as the
final problem. He's a New York City area Sherlockian whose
interests include law in the canon, publication and
bibliographical history of the canon, Sherlockian society history
and traditions, and Doylean and Sherlockian poetry. His
articles have appeared in the BSJ, the Serpentine News, the
Watsonian, and several scion publications as well as the BSI
press book Canon Law. He's a member of the Adventuresses of
Sherlock Holmes, the Sons of the Copper Peaches, and Mrs.
Hudson's Cliff Dwellers. He co-edited and contributed to the
Sherlock Holmes-themed editions of the Green Bag Almanac
and Reader for 2015 and 2016 and is a contributor to the
Baker Street Almanac. His other detective fiction activities
include serving since 2007 as the Werowance: the president of
 the Wolfe Pack. That's the literary society for the Nero Wolfe
novels by Rex Stout, who himself was also BSI. And Ira is a
litigation partner at Ganfer Shore Leads and Zauderer LLP in
Manhattan.

Scott Monty: Candy and Ira, welcome to the program.

Candy Lewis: Thank you.

Ira Matetsky: Thank you. Glad to be here.

Scott Monty: If we are correct in our assumptions, this is a first time for each
of you on the show. Is that correct?

Candy Lewis: Yes.

Ira Matetsky: Yes to me as well.

Scott Monty: Let's kick this off then, shall we? Candy, why don't we start
with you. Ladies first, after all. How did you first discover
Sherlock Holmes? Tell us about how he became more a part of
your life over the years.

Candy Lewis: Thank you for asking. That's a delightful question. Actually,
that's a question that we ask all the people in our scion. It
seems everybody has a answer to that. I always feel quite
stupid when we get the answers to that, because it seems as if
everyone was introduced... or introduced themselves... to
Sherlock Holmes at least by the time they were 10 or 11 years
old. I did not really become aware of Sherlock Holmes until I
was a college student and was supposed to be doing my
assignments and I don't know how but I had a Sherlock Holmes
book in my room and I started reading the stories and I
couldn't stop. I must've been 17 or 18 years old. I just loved
them.

Candy Lewis: Then I put them down for a while and an encounter with a
certain gentleman who you all know... a fellow by the name of
Judge Albert Rosenblatt... brought my husband Lou Lewis and
 me into his fold. That would've been in the mid 1970s. He said,
"You have to come and join us. We have these parties and we
like Sherlock Holmes and you're going to like it, too." So we
started going and that was how we got back to Sherlock
Holmes again.

Scott Monty: That's great.

Candy Lewis: Your turn.

Scott Monty: I'm curious though, Candy: how did that book end up in your
dorm room?

Candy Lewis: I don't recall, sorry. I don't remember.

Scott Monty: It may have been a plant.

Candy Lewis: I just remember that I loved it.

Scott Monty: That's great.

Candy Lewis: I don't remember.

Scott Monty: Ira, how about you? When did you first run into Sherlock
Holmes and how did this momentum build on your end?

Ira Matetsky: I may have had... at the beginning, at least... a bit of a more
stereotypical Sherlockian introduction. As Candy suggests, I
believe I was in 6th grade in Meadow Elementary School in
Baldwin, New York. Our 6th grade reading teacher decided
that we were going to spend a year focused on Victorian
literature. We read A Christmas Carol by Dickens and we read
some Stevenson and we read some Gilbert and Sullivan and we
read the Red-Headed League. I enjoyed the Red-Headed
League. I remember doing an oral report on it and the teacher
suggesting that I read the entire Adventures. I read the entire
Adventures at the age of 11 or 12. Don't know whether I
understood them all, but I read them all.
Ira Matetsky: Sherlock Holmes a part of my life. Not an everyday part of my
life, but something I was aware. I remember reading a couple
of stories in high school and college and law school. What I had
not yet done was discovered or become a participant in the
organized Sherlockian community. You'll hear people say that
they didn't know that it was out there. I always knew it was
out there, and in either college or law school I was given a
copy of Baring-Gould and I read it. I knew there was this whole
organized Sherlockian world out there and what the BSI was
and so forth, but I could never quite figure out what the right
entry point was, so I never pursued it. I was more of a casual or
background Sherlockian.

Ira Matetsky: My entrée to the more interpersonal Sherlockian world that

we all know and enjoy came around 2012 or 2013. I was in a
meeting of a group that I chair of another detective fiction
character. We call it the Wolfe Pack, which is the literary
society for Rex Stout's group. Peter [Groupie 00:11:36], who
was a Wolfie and also a Sherlockian... a well known BSI... was
the proprietor of a scion called the Montague Street Lodgers of
Brooklyn. He invited slash ordered me to come to one of his
meetings. So I came to a couple of Montague Street meetings
and enjoyed them. Christopher Zordan, another well known
BSI... I think when he saw me there for the second or third
time we said, "You know, this isn't the only scion," and pointed
me to the Sherlockian calendar.

Ira Matetsky: I started attending meetings of the Priory Scholars here in

Manhattan where I live and the Three Garridebs in
Westchester and the Hudson Valley Sciontists, which of course
is the scion now run primarily by Candy and her husband Lou
Lewis and some groups in New Jersey. Right around the same
time, Ross Davies, who I know has also been on this show,
decided to devote an issue of his annual Green Back Almanac
to Sherlock Holmes and asked me to co-edit it with him.
Ira Matetsky: So it was kind of a synergy. The whole world was saying, "Ira,
you need to be spending much more of your time reading and
writing and thinking about Sherlock Holmes." So I am.

Scott Monty: We're glad that you listened. We're all the beneficiaries for
both of your involvement.

Scott Monty: Let's talk a bit about horse racing and Sherlock Holmes. Many
people are familiar with Silver Blaze as the leading horse racing
story in the Sherlock Holmes canon. Of course, Shoscombe Old
Place is another story where horse racing plays a role. Candy,
maybe you can bring us through the history of how the BSI or
other Sherlockian organizations have gotten involved with
horse racing and what that has meant in years past.

Candy Lewis: Oh my. That's a tall order. What I can tell you is that the BSI
used to hold horse races in the New York City area. This was
true in the early years. It was particularly popular in the 1950s
when the sticks was very prominent in the organization. That
got dropped in later years. It became expensive to go to the
track and people began to lose interest in that sport.

Candy Lewis: If we fast forward a number of years... We actually have a

whole history of this in our new book. If we fast forward quite
a number of years, we find that Michael Whelan, who is our
Wiggins... the head of the BSI... and has been for over 20 years
until very recently, he and his wife Maryanne Bradley had gone
to the Saratoga Racetrack and had enjoyed it enormously,
because it's a Victorian track. It's beautifully taken care of. It
has marvelous red flowers, red impatiens that build up in
mounds out in front of the old buildings. They had enjoyed
that so much when they had gone with friends that Michael
thought it would be a good idea to revive the old tradition of
putting on a Silver Blaze race. He knew that since it was so far
from a major population center, it would probably idea to do it
less frequently. In other words, not try to do it every single
year.
Candy Lewis: He asked Lou Lewis... my husband... to see what he could do:
try to work it up. Lou started a triennial running of the Silver
Blaze at the Saratoga Track in the year 2000. That was
repeated in '03, '06, and thereafter each three years. I helped
him. In '09, we went to Chicago and joined up with the Chicago
group who had been running yearly Silver Blazes at their
location. Since we didn't have to do as much work for that, I
said, "How about we do a book?" So we began the tradition of
producing a book. I persuaded somebody else... Roger
Donway, who at that time lived locally and was a fine editor
and writer... to help with that project. He didn't co-edit with
that first book, but he co-edited with me on the subsequent
two books that we did for the next two. That would be in '12
and '15.

Candy Lewis: In '18, we were planning to do this... I'll let Ira pick up the story
here.

Ira Matetsky: I first attended the Silver Blaze at Saratoga in 2015 and again in
2018. What happens is that the horse race is on Saturday
afternoon and then on Sunday morning there is a program of
talks back in Albany about 45 minutes away. Candy and Roger
had, for the past couple of times, organized the write-ups of
articles based on the talks into a booklet or pamphlet... short
book... Saratoga Studies was one of them... that was sold and
was of great interest to Sherlockians everywhere. Articles
about horse racing in the canon... Silver Blaze and Shoscombe
Old Place... And in the summer of... I guess... 2018, another
Sherlockian who is well known to listeners to this program,
Robert Katz... Bob Katz... and I had dinner one night.

Ira Matetsky: He invited me to dinner and mentioned to me that he had

recently become the co-publisher of the BSI Press, which is the
publishing arm of the Baker Street Irregulars, of course, and
that this time around the BSI Press intended to publish a larger
book on horse racing in the Sherlockian canon with not just
four or five or six chapters drawn from the Albany talks after
the Saratoga race but a book of two to three times that length
 to be an even more comprehensive treatment of horse racing
and all of its aspect to do with Sherlock Holmes and the
greater Sherlockian world. He either asked me or told me... I
won't put a verb... that I was going to co-edit this book. He
said, "Do you know anything about horse racing?" I said,
"Neigh." But he said, "Well, you'll edit the book anyway along
with Candy and Roger and so forth.

Ira Matetsky: So I became the third member of the editorial team. I

remember sitting with Bob between courses of our fine Italian
with a paper napkin. Candy and Roger of course... it's idea of
topics for the book. Bob and I spent some time thinking about
every Sherlockian we knew with an area of expertise that
related directly or indirectly to horse racing. We came up with
a number of ideas for people who would be asked to
contribute and topics they'd be asked to contribute on.
Certainly not all but many of the chapters in the book trace
themselves to that napkin. Others trace themselves to Candy
and Roger's expertise and the people they knew, but that was
where my involvement came in.

Scott Monty: That's great. So this is all brand new material? It's not a
compilation of the previous booklets?

Ira Matetsky: It's all new.

Candy Lewis: It's all new.

Ira Matetsky: My understanding is that in general the BSI Press's policy is-

Candy Lewis: We signed a contract to that effect.

Scott Monty: Excellent. I'm glad you kept your word. I want to get through
some of these, but why don't we start with each of you? You
each had at least one contribution in the book other than
editing. Candy, you talked about something that is near and
dear to your own heart and your profession expertise. Tell us
about art, horse racing, and Holmes.
Candy Lewis: Okay. Several times now I've written about art and the canon.
In this particular case I wrote in the general way about the
availability and the pervasiveness of images of horse racing in
the world of Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 19th
and early 20th century. That was my subject. It's high art and
low art, basically. These images could be found in newspaper,
print... They would be on the walls of a men's club. They could
be found just about everywhere. They could also be very fine
paintings.

Candy Lewis: The 19th century witnessed an explosion of visual materials as

compared with earlier times. If we compare that period with
today, we are submerged in visual culture today by
comparison with 120 or more years ago. But at that time, they
were a world different from what had happened two and three
generations earlier. That's what I talked about in my essay.

Scott Monty: That's wonderful. I recently found a print of the Durham Ox. I
found it in a link to a story in Atlas Obscura titled In 19th
Century Britain the Hottest Status Symbol was a Painting of
Your Cow.

Candy Lewis: Really? I love paintings of cows, I have to say.

Scott Monty: This was around the early 1800s. The Durham ox was hauled
around and Scotland and people had portraits taken of the
Durham ox. Wealthy British landowners were breeding animals
larger and fatter than ever, so it became a status symbol. It
was like taking a picture of your luxury automobile, as it were.

Candy Lewis: Excellent.

Scott Monty: I would imagine that having portraits of horses around...

especially if you were involved in the sport in some way... was
a bit of a status symbol.

Candy Lewis: Exactly. You're right.

Scott Monty: That's wonderful. Ira, you brought in your own profession and
your own contribution here: the law of dogs that do nothing in
the nighttime. I didn't realize there was a law to that effect. I
certainly know the phrase. What was your piece all about?

Ira Matetsky: My piece was about the best known story about horse racing
in the canon: Silver Blaze. The best known line within that
story is, of course, the dialogue between Holmes and the
inspector where Holmes is asked, "Is there any point to which
you'd wish to draw my attention?" and Holmes says, "To the
curious incident of the dog in the nighttime. The dog did
nothing in the nighttime, that was the curious incident,"
remarked Sherlock Holmes. That line has been used, oddly
enough, in a lot of court decisions, both in the US Supreme
Court and in lower courts around the world, although I focused
on the United States.

Ira Matetsky: What it's used for is the implication that if a certain thing had
happened then someone would've drawn attention to it. Since
nobody drew attention to that thing, that thing must not have
happened. This comes up in any context ranging from burglary
cases in which literally the dog didn't bark or nobody wakes up
and therefore the court concludes that it was an inside job, or
in more abstruse situations such as where the court is trying to
determine the intent of a statue passed by Congress. The
argument is that by passing certain legislation, Congress made
an important change in the law. But when Congress passes a
law, there's usually a committee report or a discussion on the
floor of the House and Senate in which the bill is discussed. If
no members of the House or Senate... none of the committee
staff... reference the important change, then the inference is
drawn that that change may not have happened.

Ira Matetsky: What I did... and I tried to do this in straightforward language

and not in what we'd call legalese... is survey a number of the
court decisions of the US Supreme Court and lower courts in
which reference is made to this type of reasoning. For several
years, there was a split of opinion within the nine justices of
 the US Supreme Court on whether this type of reasoning was
valid or not. The late Justice Stevens was a strong proponent of
that sort of argument. Justice Scalia did not agree with it. In
fact, I found in Justice Stewart's papers at Yale while looking
for something completely unrelated some amusing
correspondence which I printed in the book in which Justice
Powell talks about his view on his topic.

Ira Matetsky: As of now, it looks like all of the current Justices subscribe to
this theory. They find this to be reasonable. In fact, in an
argument in 2018... there was an argument about whether a
large part of a state was really still an Indian reservation, such
that... Well, it had certain technical implications for the
criminal law. Justice Alito asked the lawyer who was arguing...
There's a fundamental principle of law that derives from
Sherlock Holmes, which is the dog that didn't bark. How can it
be that none of this was recognized by anyone or asserted by
the Creek Nation for 100 years? That case hasn't been decided
yet, so we'll see whether court cites. A law professor referred
to this argument from the dog that didn't bark, from Congress
that didn't say anything. These aphorisms are called canons of
construction. She refers to it as the Sherlock Holmes canon.
We move from the Canon... capital C... to the Sherlock Holmes
canon. That's what I wrote about.

Scott Monty: That's wonderful.

Candy Lewis: That's cool.

Burt Wolder: Martin Freeman, Nigel Bruce, Edward Hardwicke, Jude Law,
James Mason, Ralph Richardson, Robert Duvall... the list of
actors who've played Dr. Watson is just as rich as those who
have donned the deerstalker. Generations have discovered
Sherlock Holmes because of the mysteries, but they come back
again and again for the characters and for the indispensable
Dr. Watson. That's why you will enjoy Ann Margaret Lewis's
The Watson Chronicles, a Sherlock Holmes novel in six
connected stories that begin as Holmes contemplates
 retirement in 1900. It's a series of baffling mysteries, including
one of the biggest of all: Watson's wives.

Burt Wolder: The Watson Chronicles by Ann Margaret Lewis understands

there's always more to learn about Watson, so it's perfect for
those of us who believe the noble doctor never gets enough
page time. It's available right now from our wessexpress.com.

Scott Monty: As you were assembling the authors who you hoped would
contribute to this volume and as you were assembling their
pieces, who did you go about organizing all of this? The book is
divided into four discreet sections. I think it flows very well.
How did you begin to think all of this through?

Candy Lewis: Are you asking me? I can give you an answer.

Scott Monty: I'll let you go first and then Ira can fill in the gaps.

Candy Lewis: I can give you a fun answer.

Scott Monty: Please.

Candy Lewis: I left it to Ira.

Scott Monty: [Laughing] I like that! Well, over to you, Ira.

Ira Matetsky: It was left to me. What happened was that we assembled...
Candy and Roger and Bob and I assembled a list of about 25
people to be invited to submit chapters. 18 said yes, including
the three editors. We waited for the contributions to come in
and then I gave some thought to how to organize them. As you
say, we broke it into four parts and it seemed to flow relatively
logically. Basically, I started at the part that I thought was most
central to what people would think of as horse racing in the
Sherlockian canon.

Ira Matetsky: Part A of the book, which is the first six chapters or so, is about
racing in the Sherlockian canon. Roger Donway, our co-editor,
wrote about the pedigree of Silver Blaze, the horse.
 Christopher Zordan, who is a professional chemist, wrote
about what Silver Blaze, the horse, might've been painted with
or coated with to change his appearance. Marina Stajic, who is
a toxicologist, wrote about opium. Candy wrote about art and
horse racing in Holmes. Donny Zaldin wrote about some
sources that might've inspired Silver Blaze in terms of actual
races that occurred in Victorian England in which attempts
were made to tamper with the results. Charles Prepolec wrote
about film adaptations of Silver Blaze. There's six topics
directly related to racing in the canon.

Ira Matetsky: We then moved broadly from racing in Sherlock Holmes

specifically to racing in England more generally. We had an
article by Mary Alcaro about a day at the races: bookies,
booze, women, horses. Jennifer Kneeland, who has an interest
in clothing and historical fashions wrote about what people
would wear to the races.

Ira Matetsky: Then we moved onto to something that's very central... part C
of the book... to horse racing both past and present, which is
gambling. Gambling in the Sherlockian canon. We had by
Francine and Richard [Kits 00:33:28] about how gambling runs
through the canon, a piece by Charles Blanksteen about
Watson's betting habit. At one point in Shoscombe Old Place,
Watson says, "I pay for my wagering with about half of my
[inaudible 00:33:44] pensions." Does that mean that Watson
was a profligate spender? Or what does that say about him?
Charles went into that. Relatedly, Monica Schmidt, who was a
mental health professional with an expertise in the treatment
of addictions, wrote about whether Watson displayed a
gambling addiction or not. And Jenn Eaker wrote about money
lending, which of course you'd need to borrow money either
to fund wagers or pay them off. It's closely related to
gambling.

Ira Matetsky: Then in part D, the final section of the book, we moved into
moving outside of the canonical orbit. Burt Wolder, the
distinguished co-host of the podcast, wrote about actual
 Sherlockians... actual Baker Street Irregulars... who influenced
the world of sports racing: people like the sports writer Red
Smith or Judge Tupper Bigelow, who codified the rules of horse
racing in Ontario. The late Susan Diamond... unfortunately, we
lost her last year... and Greg Ruby wrote about the history of
Silver Blaze races over the past 20 years. There had been
previous coverage of the different Silver Blaze races that had
been run in New York City and Chicago and Toronto and
elsewhere through the 20th century. Susan and Greg updated
that for the past 20 years. My piece about the law and judges
in Sherlock Holmes... And then Clifford Goldfarb wrote about
Brigadier Gerard... another memorable character of Arthur
Conan Doyle's... who happens to be the namesake of a
historically important race horse in Great Britain. Then Lou
Lewis wrote about Dick Francis and Sherlock Holmes, of course
horse racing having an important role in all of Francis's books.

Ira Matetsky: As most BSI Press books conclude, we concluded with

suggestions for extensive further reading in the Sherlockian
literature related to all of the different aspects of horse racing.
Maria Fleischhack and Roger Donway put that together. The
approach was from the more central to the more peripheral,
but the chapters are all freestanding. You can read them in any
order as you wish to dip in and you'll enjoy them.

Scott Monty: That's wonderful. That's a very comprehensive overview.

Thank you for that, Ira.

Scott Monty: As you were going about this... as the contributions came in
and as you read through them... and I'll start with you, Candy...
were there any surprises that stuck out? I mean, you've done
this for a while. You've been involved with the Saratoga races.
You've edited two other pamphlets with regard to these races.
What about these contributions struck you as different or
something that was interesting that really caught your
attention?
Candy Lewis: That's an interesting question. I did jot down some notes and
they didn't have to do specifically or exclusively with the
authors that I worked with necessarily, although some of them
I did. But I just thought I would mention a couple of people,
because sometimes the essay that's about something hugely
specific can end up being one of the ones that you feel like you
want to dive into and it becomes very interesting. There are
three of those that I would mention in this book that are kind
of fun to become involved with. There are more than that, but
I'll just mention them quickly.

Candy Lewis: One is by Monica Schmidt. It's about gambling addiction. I

didn't know anything about that, not really. It's all in
relationship to Dr. Watson. Another is Jennifer Kneeland:
clothing at Victorian tracks. She describes that in considerable
detail and I find that fascinating. But then I'm interested in
clothing and I watch the Oscars to see the clothing, so this was
interesting to me. Christopher Zordan is a chemist and he talks
about how you would dye a horse's leg in order to disguise it:
in other words, how it could've been done at the time of the
events described in Silver Blaze.

Candy Lewis: Those are just a couple of examples. They're very specific. The
people who wrote them have very specific expertise and they
aren't the only ones. There are others in our lineup who do
also. There are also people who wrote more generally. I, for
example, wrote a bit more generally, although I guess you
could say that I... I mean, I have specialized knowledge too, but
it was fun to get to know these people and to get to dive into
some of their areas of expertise.

Candy Lewis: Also, it was my first time working with BSI Press. We were able
to work with Bob Cats and with John Bergquist. I have worked
with John Bergquist before so I was familiar with him, and it
was a pleasure to work with both of them.

Scott Monty: That's wonderful to hear. Now, Ira, as Candy was enumerated
some of these specifics... these very detailed papers that focus
 on one particular area... as you were doling out the
opportunities for authors, were these the very subjects that
you wished them to write about? Or did you simply leave it
open to them?

Ira Matetsky: Most of the time we approach someone with a suggested

topic, not so much to try to pigeonhole anyone as to avoid too
much overlap in the different chapters. I think one or two
people suggested that they write on slightly different topics or
areas of emphasis from what we had proposed but most of the
contributions fell in line and most of the authors were happy
to write about the topics we had suggested. I was impressed
by the high quality of the submissions that came.

Ira Matetsky: Interestingly enough, one of the tougher parts of editing the
book was choosing the title. The subtitle, which is Horse Racing
in the Sherlockian Canon, came to us fairly easily. But we had a
difficult time coming up with the main title. We settled on
Upon the Turf, which is a phrase that appears in Silver Blaze, as
a consensus title after Candy and Roger loudly shouted down
my initial suggestion, which was the Game is Ahoof.

Scott Monty: For people who don't know Ira... he does frequent a few
Sherlockian places online... he is known for his puns. I do note
as I was reading through the book that the game is ahoof did
make it in there in some fashion, did it not?

Ira Matetsky: I think it's somewhere in the back cover copy? It was definitely
used somewhere. Maybe in the introduction. It was definitely
used somewhere in the advertising, but not on the cover with
both Candy and Roger's names.

Scott Monty: Well, I applaud you sticking with your brand, Ira. I think we're
all glad that we came out with Upon the Turf. It's a wonderful
book. It's red and black, which were Silver Blaze's jockey's
colors. The book is paperback. It's $25.95, available from the
BSI Press at bakerstreetirregulars.com. It clocks in at just a
little over 200 pages. It is worth every single penny. Go on and
 get yourself a copy of Upon the Turf: Horse Racing and the
Sherlockian Canon, edited by Candice Lewis, Ira Matetsky, and
Roger Donway.

Scott Monty: Before we shut things down here, any final thoughts for our
listeners? Candy?

Candy Lewis: You asked if there were any disappoints. I will say there was
one thing I was trying to achieve. I wanted one of authors to
be a veterinarian: a specialist in horses. I tried and tried. I was
not successful. I just could not make that happen. But there
you are. Sometimes things don't work out.

Scott Monty: I understand completely. How about you, Ira? Any final
thoughts, disappointments, etc?

Ira Matetsky: I really enjoyed contributing to this book, both as an author

and an editor. I've been doing a certain amount of Sherlockian
writing over the past few years. This has been a great year in
general for Sherlockian publications. I don't know whether
you'll be having some of the other editors on on other shows,
but in addition to this book, Terry and Linda Hunt's Aboriginals,
which is about the earliest Irregulars or proto-Irregulars, came
out in November. There's a new book on educators and
education in the profession series. There's a new manuscript
series book on Charles Augustus Milverton. There's a
biography of Julian Wolfe by Sonia Fetherston coming out at
the West Point Conference this summer. And over at Wessex
Press, Steve Doyle and his team have put out a number of
outstanding books. The BSJ has been having an excellent year.
There's quite a lot for us to read and quite a lot of
opportunities for those of us who like to write.

Scott Monty: Ira, you are like a walking, talking bibliography. I love it.

Ira Matetsky: I don't know if that's a compliment.

Scott Monty: You're talking to bookish people. It's the highest complement
we could give you. And quite frankly, you've just laid out a
 number of our episodes for the future, so if nothing else, if
your career in law doesn't work out you could become an
advance publicity man for I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere.

Candy Lewis: Good idea.

Scott Monty: I think Ira may have dropped the phone after that. Thank you
Candy and Ira for being part of this discussion here and for
taking us on the inside of what it was like to participate in
editing Upon the Turf. I hope every Sherlockian who may or
may not be interested in horse racing takes a look at the book
and adds it to their library. Thanks again for being with us.

Candy Lewis: Thank you.

Ira Matetsky: Thank you.

Burt Wolder: I'm so sorry to have missed that conversation with Ira and
Candy.

Scott Monty: I know. We missed you, too. But technical difficulties happen
and we do what we can. Since you weren't there, I'd like to
turn the focus on you, Burt. I'd like to hear about your own
contribution to this volume where you looked Sherlockians
who were involved in the sport of kings. It's titled Off to the
Races: Baker Street Irregulars and the Sport of Kings.

Burt Wolder: I was asked to investigate that topic: the connection between
Baker Street Irregulars and racing, following the particular
strategy of finding someone who is completely ignorant about
a subject and then putting them in the position where they
have to climb out of the pit of their own ignorance. For the
longest while I was really stuck, because when you look at the
Baker Street Irregulars and the subject you find that people
over the years... of course, they've been well noted, so I don't
give you the whole list of people who were involved in Silver
Blaze related activities. I said to myself, there's been a lot
written about Silver Blaze. The Baker Street Journal over the
years has covered all the races.
Burt Wolder: I was baffled for the longest while and read through all the
Baker Street Journals and... Well, part of the attraction of
doing something like this if you're research oriented... many of
we Sherlockians like these kind of explorations... are the
discoveries. My essay bout all of this is really a list of the
discoveries. It begins with Tom Stix, who was influential in
restarting the Silver Blaze, but what was interesting to me was
that I knew or remembered from what I had known in the past
very little about Tom Stix's career. I had forgotten or never
knew that what he did professionally was he was an agent for
writers and news personalities whom he booked for radio and
television appearances. You have to remember that Tom was
very active in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and among his clients
was Eleanor Roosevelt, who made the decision... this is after
she was first lady... to capitalize on her celebrity by appearing
in a margarine commercial, which Stix brought to her. That got
her a fee, which she donated to charity. And then he booked
her on a Frank Sinatra TV special.

Burt Wolder: There were things like that I found really interesting. Then just
from going through the Baker Street Journal and looking at this
reference and that reference I discovered a couple of other
people who I had never heard of. For example, Alexander
Moore Robb was invested as "The Addleton Tragedy" by Julian
Wolfe in 1961. He had written a paper in the Baker Street
Journal, but what was interesting about Robb... in addition to
the fact that he made arrangements for many of the Silver
Blaze races... was his writing.

Burt Wolder: In one of his essays in the Baker Street Journal, he touched on
the topic of fraud and chicanery in racing. He wrote at the time
that there were a lot of congressional inquiries at the time into
the honesty of racing. But he wrote in this essay, "There's
nothing new about this. Sometime between 450 and 400 BC,
the Athenian politician and general Alcibiates and his cronies
bought off a betting coup. It was a two-chariot race. One driver
was a veteran. The other was a neophyte. Alcibiates and his
bully boys loosened the nuts and buts on the wheel of the
 favorite's chariot and they cleaned up, but they were caught
and exiled." I love the fact that there were people writing for
the Baker Street Journal who were quoting these kinds of
things that happened all the way back in the age of the
classics.

Burt Wolder: Then I found out that Alexander Moore Robb, who was an
Irregular, was a manager of the racing interests and the
breeding interests of somebody named Willis Sharpe Kilmer.
Kilmer was a character who made a fortune promoting his
uncle's swamp-root patented medicine, which was this quack
remedy. Kilmer was the breeder of the winner of the 1928
Kentucky Derby. You find out all of these things. Then I also
dug into the career of S. Tupper Bigelow, somebody that we've
talked about and his many contributions towards
revolutionizing the conduct of racing in Canada and all of his
Sherlockian contributions.

Burt Wolder: Then I discovered a lot I didn't know about Red Smith. Red
Smith was a famous sportswriter. He had filled a couple of
columns with speculation about Holmes's honesty when it
came to the turf. But even interestingly, I found out another
Irregular... Joe Palmer, who I had never heard of... was a mate
of Red Smith and something that Red Smith thought was a
superior writer who died suddenly of heart failure in 1952.
According to the research, he was with Edgar Smith and Tom
Stix Sr... Palmer created the original recording of the Wessex
plate, which was first played at the BSI dinner in 1951. And
Palmer received the investiture of "Silver Blaze" posthumously
in 1953.

Burt Wolder: At the end of my essay, I got to write a bit about Tom Stix Jr,
which gave me the opportunity to talk to Dorothy... Tom's
widow Dorothy Stix, who is living in retirement in Florida... and
also her son Steven, and that was a lot of fun. The inside story
about that is that although Tom Stix Jr was very visible in
running the Silver Blaze races, the one who did all the work
was Dorothy. She gave me some stories. One was that they
 had a bus. They would meet at The Players in New York in
Gramercy Park and then go out to the track. One year instead
of going to The Players in Gramercy Park, he went to the
Playboy Club. Another year the driver got lost. So I had a bunch
of stories about that.

Burt Wolder: But it was really charming to find out that so many Irregulars
had such interesting connections not only to reviving Silver
Blaze and this particular aspect of Sherlockian interest but also
in the racing industry. I never got to do anything with Henry
Lauritzen, which was my great regret because Henry founded
the race in Denmark. We just ran out of space for a mention of
his contributions.

Scott Monty: That's fascinating. That sounds like a lot of fun. What
wonderful stories came out of that?

Burt Wolder: For me, that's the value of writing something like this: the little
funny things, the little serendipitous things, the odd
contributions, the odd connections. But then what do you
expect from a Sherlockian? I'm goofy anyway.

Scott Monty: Those dulcet tones mean that it's time to get ready for
everyone's favorite Sherlockian quiz show. That's right, it's
Canonical Couplets. We give you a couple of lines of poetry
and you need to identify the Sherlock Holmes story that it's
referring to. The last time around we gave you this clue: "Do
you ken John Clay in his dark room safely hid? That's a lot more
than Jabez Wilson did." Burt, do you know which story that
refers to?

Burt Wolder: I do. That's a dead giveaway when you use that word, "Do you
ken John Clay?" That's that famous early adventure of Sherlock
Holmes: A Study in Scotland.

Scott Monty: Gosh, it was right there. It was ripe for the taking. Burt. You're
not even close on this one. I will say that there a lot of gingers
in Scotland as well as Ireland, but this was "The Red-Headed
League."
Burt Wolder: Oh no.

Scott Monty: The Red-Headed League, yeah. We had a lot of new entries
this time around I think folks saw that Baring-Gould Christmas
Annual offering there and they thought, "I want to get in on
that." We will just spin the big wheel here and watch it go
round and round as it slows down and lands on number 31. 31.
That corresponds to Helayna James. Congratulations. We'll be
in touch and get you your copy of the 2019 BSJ Christmas
Annual.

Scott Monty: And now, it's time for this episode's Canonical Couplet. We do
have another fine prize this time around. We have a limited
edition pamphlet which was distributed to the attendees of
the BSI Conference at the Lilly Library in November of 2019. It
is called Commissionaire: Julian Wolfe and His Baker Street
Irregulars by Sonia Fetherston. It's a pamphlet that represents
part of a publication that is coming out later this year by Sonia.
If you didn't attend the conference, this is your only way to get
a copy of it, so make sure that you get your response in so that
you can have a chance to win this prize. The clue is: "We gaily
watch a wicked man's disease, While Holmes and faithful
Watson break the peace."

Scott Monty: If you know the answer to this Canonical Couplet, jot it down
in an email. Send it to comment@ihearofsherlock.com with
Canonical Couplet in the subject line. If you are among the
correct answers and we select your name at random you win
that prize. Good luck.

Scott Monty: All right. We did promise you some listener mail and indeed
we did get some. This is a repeat offender. We heard from this
individual previously and his newborn son, and he's back for
more.

Antonio: Hello gents. It's Antonio from New Jersey. I'm calling from
Dallas on a business trip tonight. It's been some months since I
last talked to you. I believe last time I left a voicemail, my
 newborn son was in the middle of throwing up on me. Glad to
say that things have gone relatively easier.

Antonio: I just wanted to call to give you a quick nod, because it

definitely came at a wonderful time my life. I am a analytics
guru for a major e-commerce platform. Much of my day-to-day
from the workload is producing reports: data points, highlights,
nuggets, whatever you want to say. But then for the next 72
hours, I was poked, prodded, needled, questioned and taken
down a notch. That skepticism can sometimes wear on
anyone, really. It's one of those days today, where a bunch of
reports I produced were great but then also led into a lot of
discussion. With that being said, after a long day of that
prodding you come home back to a hotel room and you feel
questionable about X, Y, and Z, and that's okay. That's part of
life.

Antonio: But then I listen to the latest podcast as I start to fall asleep. I
got to the part of Mr. Gould's response to criticism of his
efforts. It was everything that I needed. I was laying in bed and
listening to this drifting off and one of them was, "Mr. Gould's
knowledge of Sherlock is immensely deep. Too bad he didn't
use it." Just the litany of all those and his way of digesting that
and spitting it back out was not revelatory but almost there.
My message to y'all is that was great to hear and I appreciate a
great show and the great effort you put through, because on a
long day hearing how someone as experienced as Mr. Gould is
to be able take certain things in stride, and not only take them
in stride but then to spit them back out for a few laughs. Very
interesting and very inspiring.

Antonio: Thank you guys very much for what you do. As a former Time
Inc, employee, it was nice hearing another Time Inc employee
take his criticism, put it in stride, and get a few laughs out of it.
While we're both no longer at the company, it was a nice
lineage and something that I truly wanted to hear and needed
to hear over the course of a long workday. Thank you guys
again. Keep up the great work. Bye.
Burt Wolder: That's great. How nice to make that kind of contribution and to
keep Bill Baring-Gould's name and attitude alive today and
provide a little relief. It means a lot for us to hear that example
because it tracks closely to what my best hopes for doing all
this stuff was all about.

Scott Monty: I remember getting a comment back from the late Peter
Calamai, who used to take us with him on long
transcontinental commutes or commutes out to the
countryside, and was laid up with hip or knee surgery at one
point and we were his companions for the time. I can't tell you
how many people tell us that they go asleep to the sounds of
our voice. I don't know whether to take that as a compliment
or as an insult, but it's nice to know that we're there for people
in the times that matter.

Burt Wolder: That's very well said. Nice to know we're there for people at
the times that matter. It's lovely to remember Peter. I miss
Peter.

Scott Monty: Well thank you for being part of this program that matters. We
couldn't do it without you as a listener. If you would like to
contribute to seeing the show through, we have that nice
orange Patreon button or PayPal where you can take out a
subscription and support us on a monthly basis and show that
you care and that what we do matters to you. In the
meantime, I remain the all-caring Scott Monty.

Burt Wolder: And I remain the completely invincible Burt Wolder.

Scott Monty: Together, we say the game's afoot.

Burt Wolder: The game's afoot.

Holmes & Watson: The game's afoot!

Sherlock Holmes: I'm afraid that in the pleasure of this conversation I'm
neglecting business of importance which awaits me elsewhere.
Narrator: Thank you for listening. Be sure to join us again for the next
episode of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, the first podcast
dedicated to Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes: Goodbye, and good luck, and believe me to be... my dear
fellow... very sincerely yours, Sherlock Holmes.