The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
Published in the Strand Magazine, January 1892, later collected into
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Read the story here.

I HAD called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the purpose of examination.

Hear Burt Wolder read Christopher Morely’s introduction to BLUE in this 6-minute video published on YouTube by Scott Monty and Mr. Wolder on their podcast I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere. Morley’s introduction was written for the 1948 publicatrion of BLUE by the Baker Street Irregulars. It was that organization’s first publication.

There are no more meetings for 2025

Meeting Dates for 2026. Stories will be posted soon.
January 17
February 21
March 21
April 18
May 16
June 20
Summer Meeting in July is a pot luck lunch. No assigned story.
August 15
September 19
October 17
November 21

We announced the passing our dear friend Gael Stahl this past September.
A service of remembrance and celebration for Gael
was held at our January 2025 meeting.

He was our Final Problem, often the spark of creativity and progress for our Three Pipe Problem Scion Society. His enthusiasm and energy were never lacking until his health waned in the past few years.

Please see our 3PP Newsletter, 1st Quarter of 2024 for a special issue produced when we learned that Gael and SuSun were moving to Indianapolis, IN earlier this year.

More about Gael Stahl is on our Remembrance page.

When Gael’s health began to fail, he joined our monthly meetings via Zoom. I asked him to be prepared to read Vincent Starrett’s poem 221B to close our meetings. He was thrilled to do so. We are pleased to have this memory of Gael reading this famous Sherlockian benediction from a meeting in 2023.

221b
by Vincent Starrett

Here dwell together still two men of note

Who never lived and so can never die:

How very near they seem, yet how remote

That age before the world went all awry.

But still the game's afoot for those with ears

Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo:

England is England yet, for all our fears—

Only those things the heart believes are true.

A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane

As night descends upon this fabled street:

A lonely hansom splashes through the rain,

The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet.

Here, though the world explode, these two survive,

And it is always eighteen ninety-five.

March 11, 1942