"Elementary, My Dear Watson!"

[Al Sisti]

Picked up a few more solvers on Nudge Wednesday...

69 Steve M
70 mkmf
71 Adam Simon Levine
72 THC
73 Guffman 
74 bhamren
75 Johnny Luau
76 Adam Doctoroff 
77 Cindy Heisler
78 CPJohnson

[mkmf]

Off the couch before the nudges. Very fun meta and clues. Loved 58A & 60D.

Speaking of autographs, what's the story of the baseballs in your last picture?

[Al Sisti]

Got a couple more, but definitely slowing down:

79 michaelm
80 Jaclyn
81 mkmf 

[Al Sisti]

Off the couch before the nudges. Very fun meta and clues. Loved 58A & 60D.

Speaking of autographs, what's the story of the baseballs in your last picture?

All from our minor league baseball team, the Utica Blue Sox. One of them was from when I got hit in the face with a line drive. It's been a good program -- short season A ball, for most of its years -- but we have had some hall of famers and future hall of famers.

[Al Sisti]

Ah, looks like we're out of solvers. Reveal is tomorrow.

[Al Sisti]

As the greasy pall of a London fog settles on the hallowed halls of 221B Baker Street, it’s time to reveal the answer to this week’s MMM.

We’re looking for “an element found in many of Holmes' solutions.” But where to start? For one, there were four clues with enumerations whose entries were spelled-out numbers:

17A – TWENTYSEVEN with the enumeration (1)
23A – TEN with the enumeration (4)
44A – FIFTYTHREEwith the enumeration (3) and
67A – TWENTY with the enumeration (2)

Ah, maybe if I look up the numbered squares 10, 20, 27 and 53; that’s gotta be it (even if it *is* too easy)! And they spell… N-O-P-E. Nope? Nope! Ohhhh… okay, back to square one.

So what else do we have? The title! “Elementary, My Dear Watson” (which, by the way, Holmes never once said in the entire canon). Parsing “elementary” in a different way is the key: The numbers are atomic numbers of elements, and in “enumeration order,” they spell:

#27 – Cobalt, or CO
#20 – Calcium, or CA
#53 – Iodine, or I
#10 – Neon, or NE… spelling out the answer to the prompt -- COCAINE.

(As referenced in a few of Holmes’ cases and in Nicholas Meyer’s “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution,” a cocaine-based solution was often used by Holmes to counteract his ennui when his brain was not engaged in a case).

The randomly selected winner from the 83 people who did crack the case is Steve M. Steve, let me know if you'd rather have a Blarney Rebel Band CD, or a Utica Club keepsake, or $15 donated to a charity of your choice. Congratulations!!

[markhr]

That IS an impressive SH book collection, Al. I got through the entire canon with just a set of Berkley Medallion paperbacks. "The Speckled Band" (4-Down) was the first Holmes story I read, and I was hooked from then on. Also was a big fan of "The Seven Percent Solution" and, to a lesser extent, Solar Pons.

I wonder if you ever came across stories about Schlock Homes, from 221B Bagel Street. Clever parodies by Robert L. Fish which I found very amusing at the time. Ah, memories...

[ship4u]

@Al Sisti , the title of this puzzle was ingenious and masterful!

More Holmes puzzles, please!!!

[sharkicicles]

Off the couch before the nudges. Very fun meta and clues. Loved 58A & 60D.

Speaking of autographs, what's the story of the baseballs in your last picture?

All from our minor league baseball team, the Utica Blue Sox. One of them was from when I got hit in the face with a line drive. It's been a good program -- short season A ball, for most of its years -- but we have had some hall of famers and future hall of famers.

Picture1.png

That’s pretty neat. As you can tell from my profile pic I’m a fan of Chicago’s minor league team.