If Arthur Conan Doyle were around today, would he have a blog? I'm willing to bet yes, and that it would boast record-breaking numbers of visits, especially from the gay community. The world of Sherlock Holmes feeds on repressed sexuality and elegant homosexual aesthetics — imagine what a good Web designer could do with such wealth of material.

Besides, as many Sherlockians have agreed, Holmes had a definite thing for Dr. Watson. They shared rooms, they shared meals, and until Watson left their cozy abode on 221B Baker Street to marry a client, the pair were inseparable. Years later, when Holmes re-entered Watson's life, he did so knowing that the wife had conveniently died and persuaded his friend to come back, assuring him that work is the best cure for sorrow.

This is pure Holmes rhetoric; Doyle always clothed the detective's motives in a mantle woven of English work ethics. Work was both Holmes' excuse and raison d'être. His feelings for Watson (when he dared express them) were always couched in relation to the criminal case at hand. One always suspected, however, that Holmes wasn't quite the cold fish he was made out to be.