Sherlock Holmes

Marshall H. Pinnix Sr., a retired insurance executive, volunteer and a Sherlock Holmes fan, died Dec. 8 at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care of complications from brain surgery. The longtime Stoneleigh resident was 80. Mr. Pinnix was born and raised in Oxford, N.C. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in accounting, he moved to New York City when he took an accounting position with Texaco Oil Co. He lived in Puerto Rico and Dakar, Senegal, before leaving Texaco and moving to Baltimore in 1955, when he went to work as an assistant vice president for Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Co. In the early 1980s, he left the bank and became a group manager and senior financial analyst at Alexander and Alexander, now AON Corp.

In Baltimore CountyDrawbridge scheduled to reopen tomorrow over Bear CreekDUNDALK -- The Route 157-Peninsula Expressway drawbridge over Bear Creek -- which has been closed for replacement and rehabilitation for about a year -- is scheduled to be open to vehicles by noon tomorrow, state transportation officials said.The new structure of the bridge was completed this summer, but unexpected problems with support towers required additional work.The project cost about $8 million.Sudbrook Middle to provide magnet course applicationsPIKESVILLE -- Sudbrook Middle School officials will distribute applications for its magnet program in computer applications, performing arts, visual arts, Spanish and Japanese at a meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Robert Curtis Prem, an estate lawyer and avid Sherlock Holmes fan who had been active in local Republican politics, died Saturday of liver disease at Union Memorial Hospital. He was 70.At the time of his death, the longtime Original Northwood resident was of counsel to the law firm of Prem, Saltzman and Jablon Inc.Mr. Prem, who was considered an expert in estate planning, probate and trust administration, had practiced law with the Baltimore firm of Niles, Barton and Wilmer for 40 years before founding his own firm in 1985.

Something strange is happening in Relay.Jack Herbert's two-story Victorian home is breaking apart. Down the street, Elizabeth Bennett's kitchen is threatening to detach itself from her 115-year-old house. Another neighbor's porch has crumbled. Even the street, Viaduct Avenue, is pockmarked with cracks, crevices and dips.Parts of this historic railroad town near Patapsco Valley State Park in Baltimore County's southwestern corridor are sinking. But finding the root of the problem might require the detective skills of a Sherlock Holmes -- or an expert in the physical sciences.

Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He attended Jesuit schools and entered the University of Edinburgh, where he studied medicine. It was there he came across Dr. Joseph Bell, whom he later used as a model for his Sherlock Holmes character.He began writing only after attempts at a medical career failed. In 1888 he published his first book featuring Holmes, "A Study in Scarlet." By 1891 his character had a large following and though Doyle wanted to write more serious literature, saying that Holmes "takes my mind from better things," the author wrote two dozen stories about his most famous character.

THE ELECTION of officers and board of governors tops the agenda of a meeting of the Point Pleasant-Shoreland Improvement Association at 7: 30 p.m. tomorrow at the Church of the Good Shepherd, 1451 Furnace Ave.The nominees are Robert Everhart, president; Mike Williams, vice JTC president; Linda Schanne, recording secretary; Karen Pappas, financial secretary; Dee McPheron, treasurer.Nominees for the Board of Governors are Leo Brukiewa, Julie Forney, Joyce Sheibe, Joan Valenti, Marge Cary, Doris Heinl, Edward Trott and Bud Valenti.

They gather together every other month for an evening of mystery and crime. These salespeople, lawyers, government workers, psychiatrists, bank employees and others seem an unlikely group to wallow in such debauchery.But their wallowing takes them back to earlier times. Much earlier. Those who gather are Sherlock Holmes aficionados, and darn proud of it, thank you. Now, one such group in Baltimore is celebrating 50 years of coming together to enjoy, dissect and discuss that "great Victorian detective" Sherlock Holmes and his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Actor Jeremy Brett, 59, who immortalized the brilliant but troubled detective Sherlock Holmes on British television for 10 years, has died of heart failure.Hailed as the definitive Holmes, he died peacefully at his London home, a spokesman for Granada Television said yesterday."He was an actor of immense talent who has given us the defining characterization of Sherlock Holmes for years to come," said Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of MYSTERY! and Masterpiece Theater.His portrayal of Holmes was regarded as one of the finest.

A trio of interesting movies tonight includes an Oscar-winning 1950s romance, a Sherlock Holmes classic and the sequel to the epic "2001: A Space Odyssey."* "Sayonara" (8 p.m.-11 p.m., WNUV, Channel 54) -- JamesMichener wrote the novel on which this 1957 romantic drama was based, Irving Berlin had a hit with the title song, and Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki won best supporting Oscars. Marlon Brando is the romantic lead, in a story about love between U.S. soldiers and Japanese women during the Korean War. UPN* "The X-Files" (9 p.m.-10 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45)

James L. FryeDisability examinerJames L. Frye, a retired disability examiner for the Social Security Administration and a Sherlock Holmes fan, died Feb. 22 of a stroke at Montgomery General Hospital in Olney.He was 66 and had lived in a Silver Spring nursing home for the past five years.He retired in 1981 after a 33-year career with the federal agency. From 1956 to 1958, he was a disability examiner for the state of Maryland.He was born in Pittsburgh and reared in Sharpsville, Pa., where he attended local schools.

To most of the world, Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character, a master of deductive reasoning created by British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle over the course of 60 novels and short stories. But true Sherlockians, like those who will be gathering at the Pratt Library on Saturday for the 30th year running, know better. "There's a belief on our part that Sherlock Holmes was a real person," says Andrew Solberg, a member of Watson's Tin Box of Ellicott City, one of three Baltimore-area Holmesian societies putting together Saturday's gathering, which will feature talks and discussions by some of the area's leading Holmes authorities.

TV 'V': Elizabeth Mitchell of "Lost" (above) stars in this polished revamp of the '80s classic. Some of the surprise may be gone. (We already know that the "peaceful" alien visitors are really evil lizard people with a hankering for live meat.) But it may be even scarier (for the GOP at least); these visitors promise universal health care. Airs 8 p.m. Tuesday on WMAR, Channel 2. THEATER Stoop Storytelling Series: The popular monologue show is hungry for more tales from Baltimoreans.

Sherlock Holmes fans antsy with anticipation for the forthcoming extravaganza starring Robert Downey Jr. as the great detective and Jude Law as his sidekick, Dr. Watson, can settle down this weekend with the 1939 version of the most famous of all Holmes adventures, "The Hound of the Baskervilles." It's got the stately pace of old Hollywood glamour, camera work as static as England itself and a pervasive, soft-gray light that only dazzling black-and-white evening clothes cut through. But it's suffused with the qualities that made even that mystery-hating critic Edmund Wilson call the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle detective tales "among the most amusing of fairy tales."

Baltimore's an Edgar Allan Poe kind of town, never more so than in 2009, with the Poe House, a football team named for his most famous poem and a yearlong celebration honoring the macabre author's death. Naturally, Baltimore's repertory movie house would want to feature a Poe movie at some point, if only to bask in the reflected glow of this long-term love affair. Problem is, when it comes to movies based on Poe's stories, there's a curious dearth of material. There's certainly a dearth of good material.

Happy birthday, Edgar! Tomorrow is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, the great writer who for a time called Baltimore home. He was a true genius. Some call him America's first literary critic. Some say he wrote the first detective story (and established sleuthing characteristics made famous by Sherlock Holmes). Some credit him with creating the horror genre. We asked authors, scholars and others to describe Poe's influence on them - and on the world. What was the source of his genius?

Mention the name of Christopher Morley these days and maybe, just maybe, someone will remember that the Haverford, Pa.-born writer, essayist and Sherlock Holmes and Joseph Conrad scholar, whose eventual literary output reached 50 books during a prolific 35-year career, was the author of The Haunted Bookshop, Parnassus on Wheels and Kitty Foyle. The latter was made into a 1940 Hollywood film starring Dennis Morgan, Gladys Cooper and Ginger Rogers, who won an Oscar for Best Actress that year.

Paul Gabriel Churchill, a retired Howard County educator and avid Sherlock Holmes enthusiast, died Friday of complications fromprostate cancer at his Eldersburg home. He was 63. Mr. Churchill was born in Washington and raised in Allanwood and Riverdale, where he graduated from Riverdale High School in 1963. He earned a bachelor's degree in Latin from the University of Maryland, College Park, with minors in Greek and history. In 1985, he earned a master's degree from what is now Towson University.

Former Howard County resident Sara Beck will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday at One World Coffeehouse at Owen Brown Interfaith Center, 7246 Cradlerock Way. Beck now lives in Nashville. She will perform a blend of classic folk, old country, bluegrass and acoustic rock and roll with the Maryland-based Waterson. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $12; $6 for students. The One World Coffeehouse is sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia. Information: 410-381-0097. Mystery writer Seitz due at book signing Mystery writer Stephen Seitz will speak about and sign copies of his novel, Sherlock Holmes and the Plague of Dracula, at 2 p.m. today at Borders Book & Music at Columbia Crossing.

Brig. Gen. Philip Sherman, a Baltimore attorney and Sherlock Holmes fan whose career with the Maryland National Guard spanned more than four decades, died of heart failure yesterday at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital. The longtime Pikesville resident was 80. General Sherman was born in Baltimore, the son of Abe Sherman, a well-known newsstand and bookstore owner, and Ann F. Sherman, a homemaker. He was raised in the Easterwood Park neighborhood and graduated from Polytechnic Institute in 1945.

Marshall H. Pinnix Sr., a retired insurance executive, volunteer and a Sherlock Holmes fan, died Dec. 8 at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care of complications from brain surgery. The longtime Stoneleigh resident was 80. Mr. Pinnix was born and raised in Oxford, N.C. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in accounting, he moved to New York City when he took an accounting position with Texaco Oil Co. He lived in Puerto Rico and Dakar, Senegal, before leaving Texaco and moving to Baltimore in 1955, when he went to work as an assistant vice president for Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Co. In the early 1980s, he left the bank and became a group manager and senior financial analyst at Alexander and Alexander, now AON Corp.