




Not-So-Great Britain The British tourist board called “VisitBritain” is under fire for publishing a “literary heroes” map that excludes heroes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from the otherwise clever cartography. On the colorful map, only England is populated with literary figures while Scotland and Wales seem to be limited to the occasional tree and bird. The map features a mixture of authors and characters, and while Sherlock Holmes appears prominently in the vicinity of London near Dickens and Roald Dahl, Brits in Scotland point out that Conan Doyle, who is missing from the map, belongs to them, and Brits in Wales quite properly claim Mr. Dahl as their native son. The tourist outfit has apologized and said that the map was intended to be published by its sister organization VisitEngland and not VisitBritain. People in the rest of Britain are not amused. Might this be yet another data point in support of a separatist movement? A .pdf file of the graphic is here if you’d like to take a closer look.

- “It may be that you are not yourself symptomatic, but you are a conductor of COVID-19.” - S.H.
- “Wash your hands if convenient--if inconvenient wash them all the same. - S.H.”
- “I am lost without my face mask.” - S.H.
- “There are many men in London, you know, who, some from shyness, some from misanthropy, some from the need for social distancing, have no wish for the company of their fellows. . .It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started." - S.H.
from Bob Katz. . .
- "You have been in quarantine, I perceive." - S.H.
from Larry Miller. . .
- "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the toilet paper, whatever remains, however improbable, must be of use? - S.H.
- "I know there are 6 feet, because I have both seen and distanced.” - S.H.
- "I should be very much obliged if you would slip a roll of toilet paper into your pocket. A Charmin Ultra-soft is an excellent argument with gentlemen for whom empty shelves have tied bowels into knots. That and a tooth-brush are, I think, all that we need.” - S.H.
- "You have a grand gift for flattening, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a distancer.” - S.H.
- “I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is mere hand sanitizer.” - S.H.
- “Am dining at Goldini's Restaurant, Gloucester Road, Kensington. Please come at once and join me there. Bring with you a face mask, alcohol wipes, a six-foot measure, and a roll of toilet paper, S.H." "It was a nice equipment for a respectable distancer to carry through the dim, virus-draped streets.” - J.H.W.
- "There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my hand sanitizer and let us try to forget for half an hour this miserable virus and the still more miserable ways of our legislators.” - S.H.
from Roger Johnson & Jean Upton. . .
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"As you value your life or your reason keep away from crowded places." - Anonymous (?)
from Bill Barnes. . .
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"She is the daintiest thing behind a face mask on this planet." - S.H.
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"Come, Watson, come! The supermarket has toilet paper! Not a word! Into your clothes and come!" - S.H.
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"There's the scarlet thread of a virus running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, isolate it, and treat every inch of it." - S.H.
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"If you approach me, Watson, I shall order you out of the house." - S.H. (note, no change to canon quote)
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"Self-isolation is a subject upon which I have sometimes thought of writing a monograph." - S.H.
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"My collection of face masks is a fine one." - S.H.
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"Have a cigarette, Mr McFarlane. Beyond the obvious fact that you use hand sanitiser, I know nothing about you." - S.H.
from Monica Schmidt. . .
- "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious cough." - S.H.
- "The game is a face mask" - S.H.
- "Crime is commonplace. Face masks are rare. Therefore it is upon the face masks rather than upon the crime that you should dwell." - S.H.
from Julie McKuras. . .
- "Besides, it is the season of Coronavirus 19. Chance has put in our way a most singular and deadly problem, and its solution is its own reward." - S.H.
- "I paid the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three standing six feet apart from each other in front of the altar, practicing good social distancing." - S.H.
- "A cardboard box was inside, filled with coarse salt. On emptying this, Miss Cushing was horrified to realize that she should have waited at least a day to open the box since COVID 19 can survive that long on cardboard." - Newspaper account

Archive 2020
Here are items that have appeared on our front page feature section, "The Inner Circle," in 2020. We have included those items that may have some continuing interest; however, some of the links in the items may no longer function due to the removal from the internet of the underlying material.
To review the archives of other sections of our website, click here
