The author of a book I'm now reading quotes liberally from a variety of sources. When I recognize the source of a particular quote, he cites it; when I don't recognize the source, he doesn't. Is that not annoying? Forsooth, it is, particularly since the quotes are so provocative. I want to know, "Are there any more at home like you?" Should I become a scholarly bloodhound, a source sleuth? As Hamlet would and did say, "That is the question."
Verily, I did not have an answer, but now I do. Verily.
Even though I'm not Sherlock, I knew my scholarly bloodhound nose was capable of sniffing out authorship. Having done it before, I can do it again. Sherlock would probably help me. He's the cat who lives next door. He simply adores investigating. I see no reason why we couldn't sniff out authorship together.
Whenever I encounter a quotation minus a citation I ponder and mull. What does it all add up to? With or without Sherlock, I will never take the time and trouble to track down the authorship of these quotes. I'm too lazy. What a self-indictment! "Joe, Joe, tell me I'm wrong. Say it ain't so, Joe. Say it ain't so."
"No."
It ain't so Joe. Forget about Sherlock, the cat or Holmes. Go to Google type quote "text of the quote" Click search voila!
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Quote "Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life" Search Voila! The Bible Proverbs 4.23
Quote "I shot an arrow into the air, where it fell" Search Voila! The Arrow and the Song by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Quote "Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible." Search Voila! Fyodor Dostoevsky
Now get to Googling Joe.
How do you think the bloodhound sniffs out authorship? And it is impossible to ignore either Sherlock the human or Sherlock the cat here in Minnesota. The archives of the University have the largest Holmes collection in the world, preserved in underground chambers that are deeper than the bed of the Mississippi which flows nearby. Sherlock intrudes. And so does the cat who is my next door neighbor. And I'm not Joe. Joe was chiding me for being lazy.
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