Books & Movie & Drama: Sherlock Holmes VS House M.D.

Time flies when you have already missed an entry, and in a blink of an eye it is already Wednesday. I am still stuck with my ear pressure, but less serious now, at least I can do a little ear clearing.

Image from Google

I remember reading The Hound of the Baskervilles when I was little. Didn't really understand fully about the flow of the story, but it was intriguing enough to draw my interest in reading more novels about Sherlock Holmes. I forgot when my interest in the character disappeared and why it disappeared, but after watching the latest movie, it has definitely rekindled this long lost feeling of excitement and the will to become as observant and intellectual as he is.

The Statue of Sherlock Holmes on Baker Street, London
Image from sherlock-holmes.org.uk

It is a natural behaviour for one to admire another who is better than he is. This is an important part of the human evolution (as well as the natural selection of all species). As for me, I admire those who are more intellectual than I am, preferably, much more intellectual than I am, because I enjoy learning from them.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum 221B Baker Street, London

Image from flickr

Since this Chinese New Year holiday, I have been all crazy about the TV drama House M.D.The creator of the series, David Shore, is a big fan of Sherlock Holmes, and thus the character Gregory House (acted by one of my favourite actors Hugh Laurie) is a lot based on Holmes. The most obvious of all, are the use of inductive reasoning and his reluctance to accept cases he finds uninteresting.[1] . Because of the coolness of Dr. House, I am now watching season 5 and I must say I am a lot influenced by him. The largest benefit for me so far is that I have become much more observant than I used to be, and I am using a lot more of my brain than I have ever done.

House M.D. Season 5

Image from shockya

Say, for example, I realised that a lot of the ladies and school students nowadays are having abnormal shoe wear.

Image from bayside-orthotic-clinic

There are many possible reasons for that, but the fact that it happens in school students most often, I guess, is due to the external weight of their school bags. I used to see a lot more before schools use lockers!

How about ladies? Ladies don't usually wear school bags, so it shouldn't have much to do with external weight. Then what could be the reason? First, I have to state one more observation. Ladies wear both high-heels and flat-bottom shoes, most likely Converse for the latter. It is common for all to see that high heels do not guarantee as much balance as flat-bottoms, so ladies who often wear high-heels have a higher tendency to develop unstable postures when walking, which means they will have a higher possibility of developing abnormal shoe wear than ladies who seldom wear high-heels.

Another possibility could be the design of the shoes, which I vaguely remember had been researched by the Consumer Council some years ago. However, since I don't have the proof with me, I should not go on with this point.

Anyway, my main point is, through observations, you will get to learn a lot more than you normally can, which is crucial if you want to improve in your English vocabulary.

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Before I end this entry, let me tell you how I managed to deduce correctly a man I saw on the MTR who had dandruff on his shoulder is actually recovering from a cold.

First, he caught my attention because he had dandruff on his shoulder, and at the same time he was wearing a black colour down jacket. Normally, if one knows that he has dandruff on the shoulder, he would fan it off, but he didn't. So there are two reasons why he didn't -- 1) he didn't care; 2) he didn't know. Since he was not dressing too badly, I believe he didn't belong to reason 1), so 2) seemed more likely. But white dandruff on a black down jacket is highly noticeable, which left the fact that he hadn't removed his jacket for a long period of time, which means he did need to wear that down jacket, which meant he did feel cold, which was further confirmed when I saw him wearing a turtle-neck sweater. Since he was wearing both a thick bottle-neck sweater and a down jacket for a long time, it meant that he was having a lower body temperature than normal, so he must be ill. However, he had no sign of sneezing, sniffing or runny nose, I couldn't conclude that he was having a cold.

So I looked at his nose. His nose was thin at the sides, with red capillaries, which means either 1) he was born that way or 2) he had been rubbing for some time. It could have been both, but the slightly dry skin around the nose compared to the oily level of his face showed that he had been using oil absorbing substance which I guess would be tissue, so it would fit better to choose 2). And since he didn't have those typical symptoms of a cold, I suppose he was recovering from one, which was further confirmed when suddenly a lady came into the compartment and started talking to him and he spoke. His voice was obviously blocked, which meant that he did have a cold and it was still contagious. Case solved! I quickly moved away from him.


"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." -- Sherlock Holmes

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Vocabulary:
in a blink of an eye -- extremely quickly
rekindle -- to make someone have a feeling that they had in the past
wear (from wear and tear) -- the damage which happens to an object in ordinary use during a period
postures -- [C or U] the way in which someone usually holds their shoulders, neck and back, or a particular position in which someone stands, sits, etc
contagious -- describes a disease that can be caught by touching someone with the disease or a piece of infected clothing




Resources:
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2010/03/medicalear-pressure-and-ear-clearing.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=D5qPEyQm9BkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Hound+of+the+Baskervilles&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2009/12/movie-sherlock-holmes-for-holiday.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2010/01/tv-drama-house-with-medical-terms.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Shore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_House
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Laurie
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_md#References_to_Sherlock_Holmes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductive_reasoning

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=96618&dict=CALD
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=66628&dict=CALD
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=89537&dict=CALD
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=61846&dict=CALD
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=16589&dict=CALD&topic=passing-on-illness-and-causing-disease