Dear Veronica… No, that won’t do.
Dearest Miss Belmont. Ack, that won’t work either.
OK, before I get started, I have some confessions to make.
I joined Twitter. I don’t recall if I’ve mentioned it on this blog before, but at one time I told myself I’d never join. So much for that. I got a Droid, and since my brother is on Twitter, I decided to join (just to follow him, of course – he posts some of his artwork there).
Well, after joining I realized that some cool people I like (celebrities) are on there, so I started following them too. People like Adam Savage, David Thorne, Al Yankovic, and yes, even Veronica Belmont now fill my Twidroid application with nonsense all day long. I follow them because they post cool stuff (I know, a lame, super general phrase that is highly subjective) and they are fun people.
About Veronica… You see, I am a nerd. Or maybe I’m a geek. I’m not really sure which one I am, but either way, I think all male nerds (and geeks as well) have to be at least a little attracted to Veronica Belmont in order to maintain their status as nerds. In fact, I’d be willing to bet a soda pop that just about any nerd out there would rather spend a day with Veronica Belmont in a turtleneck than with Shakira in that silly She Wolf outfit.
Veronica is greater than Shakira
Now that I’ve got that out of the way, here is a recent tweet from Veronica that I just had to respond to using a few more than just 140 characters:
Veronica's Tweet
You can click on the image for a full size version, or you can read my transcription:
Veronica Am I the only one uncommonly excited for the Sherlock Holmes movie? It looks like so much fun! But, is Watson really Jude Law-level hot?
No, Veronica, you are not the only one. I’ve been a Sherlock Holmes fan for quite some time, and though I am not as obsessive as to argue about which stories should be considered “canon” and which ones Sir Conan Doyle didn’t want to write, I do believe I am just as (if not more) excited as you are for the new movie. My wife, also, is super thrilled and we are hoping to make it to the theater to see it as soon as we are able (kids and money problems might delay us past the opening night, but we’ll see it alright).
Now, to answer your question about Watson. I take it this (or something like this) is the image of Watson you were expecting:
Fat, Stupid Dr. Watson
Unfortunately for Watson, that is an image perpetuated by inaccurate television shows and cartoons. Allow me to quote from sherlockholmes.wikia.com:
When Watson first returns from Afghanistan, he is “as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut.” His more normal appearance is hinted at in “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton”: “… a middle-sized, strongly built man–square jaw, thick neck, moustache …”. In The Hound of the Baskervilles he notes that he is “reckoned fleet of foot”. By 1914 (in the story “His Last Bow”), he is described as “thickset”. He is evidently not ill-favored, as Holmes several times jokes about Watson’s success with women.
Obviously, the above image is not accurate as he has a thin neck and is strongly built (not “chubbily” built). Even being “thickset” he wouldn’t be chubby. Remember he was a doctor, so he would take good care of himself and he would most definitely not be stupid:
Watson is not a stupid man (he is, after all, a medical doctor, and one whose talents Holmes holds in the highest esteem), but he does not have Holmes’ insight.
The images conjured by these descriptions are actually pretty close to a man as “hot” as Jude Law. I only hope they do not depict him as an idiot in the film. Watson was never meant to be comic relief in the Holmes stories, but the producers and writers of play and television adaptations of the short stories thought that they needed a bumbling fool to balance the serious tone of some of the stories. This was most unfortunate.
My only possible gripe with the new film is the casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a wonderful actor for the part. He just doesn’t have the nose for it. The way I see it, Robert will either do a respectable job portraying a small-nosed Holmes, or he will make the character his own and make everyone forget that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ever described Holmes as having a prominent nose. I’m hoping for the latter, but I see this point as the only possible place for the film to go horribly wrong in my eyes.
Robert Downey Jr. Profile
Versus:
Sherlock Holmes Profile
We shall have to wait and see.
And, Veronica, if you’re reading this. Thank you.
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