ceci n'est pas un pipe

Just kidding, yes it is.  (Sorry, Magritte; things just got real.)  Unlike the original art, this is no mind-bending ontological statement, but, like the art, it is someone's idea of a joke.

Say what you will about my sense of humor, but when my husband found this old pipe among the belongings he was unpacking, I thought it would be funny to make a little Sherlock display.  The book, with its yellowy green spine, was already out on the coffee table.  The magnifying glass already topped the stack of books.  Why not add a pipe, which no one is going to smoke anyway, and finish out the Baker Street ensemble? I guess technically we still need a deerstalker hat and a lockpick set...but this small grouping gets the point across.

Have you guys read this book?  Since the movie came out not that long ago, the cover is modernized and ad-laden, but the content is the same as what you'd find in the library's oldest battered copy.  These stories are great to read in the winter, or whenever you find yourself trapped in a stretch of dreary weather.  Cloudy skies add the ominous atmosphere that perfects a vicarious "cops"-and-robbers experience.

The only bummer is that often Doyle withholds the pivotal clue, so readers (like me) who want to try to beat the detective to a solution find themselves stymied by a lack of information.  Even with his advantage I still can't help but admire Holmes.  The movie doesn't do justice to his subtlety.