The Mystery of the Red and White Scarves
The sun shone briefly this morning as I made my way to the Highbury and Islington station. Foot traffic being lighter on Sundays, made it easier for me to get a seat on the train. As I settled in for my four-stop ride towards North West London, I noticed a young man in his mid-20s casually adjusting a red and white horizontal striped scarf around his neck. How very Dr. Seuss of him I thought laughingly as the train made way for Euston Station. I paid little attention to him after that until we reached the next stop.
There, three more men, wearing the exact same red and white scarf entered the train! Curious. I wondered what all these scarves meant. Perhaps it was National Dr. Seuss day or something. But that couldn’t be right, Dr. Seuss was American, why would they have a national holiday for him here? Hmmm…curiouser. At the next stop two of the red and white scarves descended the train and four more got on! Amongst them a young boy was not only wearing a red and white scarf, but he was wearing a red and white striped hat as well! What was going on? I needed to find out and fast, and I knew just the person to ask. Why, Sherlock Holmes of course.
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| Sherlock Holmes' Office |
221B Baker Street is the fabled address of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. It is here where the famed Holmes and Dr. Watson lived and worked. It is here where they solved many mysteries including The Sign of Four and The Hounds of the Baskervilles. It is here where I would go to get all my questions answered about the Red and White Scarves. The house was a narrow, creaky, three floor museum recreated from various scenes in the Sherlock Holmes stories. The sun had all but faded away by the time I reached the front door and the rain began to fall, and fall hard. I swiftly shook the water clinging to my umbrella with a quick flick and made way to Holmes' upstairs office.
Prepared with a list of questions, and a bag of coins to enlist his services, I was sure I would have the answers to this growing mystery by day’s end. But alas neither Holmes nor Watson were anywhere to be found! I searched all three floors from top to bottom, nothing. Hmm, they must be out on another case. Left to my own devices with coins and questions still in hand, I looked around a little more and then left disheartened in my pursuit. Feeling helpless that I would ever get this mystery solved, I wearily made my way back to the tube. 
On my walk there I heard singing. Yes singing. Loud singing. Loud men singing. At a nearby pub, standing outside in the rain, were a group of men singing and cheering with pints of beer in their hands. Some of them were wearing the same red and white striped scarves I had seen earlier! I couldn’t make out what they were singing, or why they were singing, but I felt I was getting closer to the answer. 
Maybe I wouldn’t need Holmes after all. I walked on a bit more. More and more red and white scarves began to hurry past me. Across the street another loud-pub-of-men-with-pints-in-their-hands-wearing-red-and-white-scarves was singing. There was something going on in this City and I was going to get to the bottom of it. Using my powers of deductive reasoning (modeled after Sherlock Holmes' methodology of course) I concluded: It could not be National Dr. Seuss Day because Dr. Seuss was American and therefore would not be celebrated to this magnitude in the UK, nor would any national Dr. Seuss day include pints of beer (I think).
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| The Hound |
Nor could it be National Where’s Waldo Day because although Where’s Waldo wore red and white horizontal striped sweaters and hats, he never wore scarves! A, ha! This could only mean one thing! It must be National Birmingham City vs. Arsenal for the Carling Cup Football Final Day! And the red and white scarves were in support of team Arsenal! Of course! How stupid of me not to have known. I mean after all, when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth!
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| I left Holmes a note |
How could I have missed it before! I'm, after all, such a huge football fan! (ahem)
It wasn’t until I reached home and turned on the TV to discover the 2-1 victory of Birmingham City over Arsenal for the football cup final and the hordes of disappointed faces in red-and-white scarves being interviewed about it, did I realize I really didn’t need Sherlock Holmes to solve this case for me after all. I had solved the Mystery of the Red and White Scarves all on my own. Pleased with myself, I lit my pipe, sat by the fire and settled in with a hot cup of tea. Perhaps Sherlock Holmes would be enlisting my services soon instead of Dr. Watson's. Dr. Sircar, I presume sounded so much better anyway.
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| The Red and White Arsenal Scarves |
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| As usual |
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| Whole lotta nothin' goin' on |
After all, it was elementary, my dear reader, elementary.
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| A lotta rain |
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| A Little Sun |
The sun shone briefly this morning as I made my way to the Highbury and Islington station. Foot traffic being lighter on Sundays, made it easier for me to get a seat on the train. As I settled in for my four-stop ride towards North West London, I noticed a young man in his mid-20s casually adjusting a red and white horizontal striped scarf around his neck. How very Dr. Seuss of him I thought laughingly as the train made way for Euston Station. I paid little attention to him after that until we reached the next stop.
There, three more men, wearing the exact same red and white scarf entered the train! Curious. I wondered what all these scarves meant. Perhaps it was National Dr. Seuss day or something. But that couldn’t be right, Dr. Seuss was American, why would they have a national holiday for him here? Hmmm…curiouser. At the next stop two of the red and white scarves descended the train and four more got on! Amongst them a young boy was not only wearing a red and white scarf, but he was wearing a red and white striped hat as well! What was going on? I needed to find out and fast, and I knew just the person to ask. Why, Sherlock Holmes of course.
Prepared with a list of questions, and a bag of coins to enlist his services, I was sure I would have the answers to this growing mystery by day’s end. But alas neither Holmes nor Watson were anywhere to be found! I searched all three floors from top to bottom, nothing. Hmm, they must be out on another case. Left to my own devices with coins and questions still in hand, I looked around a little more and then left disheartened in my pursuit. Feeling helpless that I would ever get this mystery solved, I wearily made my way back to the tube. 
On my walk there I heard singing. Yes singing. Loud singing. Loud men singing. At a nearby pub, standing outside in the rain, were a group of men singing and cheering with pints of beer in their hands. Some of them were wearing the same red and white striped scarves I had seen earlier! I couldn’t make out what they were singing, or why they were singing, but I felt I was getting closer to the answer. 
Maybe I wouldn’t need Holmes after all. I walked on a bit more. More and more red and white scarves began to hurry past me. 
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