Elementary, my dear Kriton...

[danshane@bellsouth.net]

KRITON WRITES:

> > Sherlock Holmes is hardly obscure, at least not in English 
> speaking lands.
> > He has appeared in more movies than any other fictional character 
> > (Tarzan is second), and is very well known as the first 
> novelized consulting detective.
> 
> I assume that you forgot a smiley or two in the above 
> paragraph! While I do not expect anyone to remember my 
> mentioning that I am a Holmes fan in an earlier posting this 
> summer, I hardly think that there is anyone in the western 
> world who is not even marginally aware of who Sherlock Holmes is. 
> (Recognizing distorted versions of his name, such as 
> "Shamrock Bones", is a different matter, of course.)

AND I REPLY:

I don't use smileys or any other emoticons in my messages.  But if I did, I would not have placed any in my last post.  Since I missed the significance of the emoticon at the end of your original message about Holmes being an "obscure" character, I suppose others could have done the same.  It's still hard getting used to what is common knowledge among this group of international friends.  I completely failed to pick up on the sarcasm in your Holmes reference, smiley or no, so you'll have to excuse me for being a bit dull yesterday.

Dan