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Jordan Stokes and Pete Fenzel take on the traffic-waylaid Matt Wrather’s challenge in our now-annual holiday literary episode: contrast the forms of knowledge in two enduring 1890s holiday classics. Jordan and Pete take on the New York Sun editorial commonly known as “Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus” by Francis Pharcellus Church, and the Sherlock Holmes holiday adventure “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

On one hand is faith, feeling, and phenomenology, and on the other, observation, measurement, and deduction. In both cases the mentor moves the mentee from ignorance to knowledge, though of different sorts, and from thence, to the Christmas Spirit, be it childlike innocence or goose-oriented Victorian mercy.

Marvel as Stokes calls for the triumph of human investigation over every dark corner of material reality. Stir as Fenzel invokes faith even in Sherlock Holmes’s assurance of a happy ending. Revel seasonally in the moral philosophy of Santa Claus.

As a bonus, the two also tackle Pursuit to Algiers, a latter Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes feature – perhaps the Fast & Furious 6 of 221B Baker Street. In this, they reflect on the middle career of clinical psychologist Marjorie Riordon, who between modeling for war bonds and her study in speech pathology took a few special moments to sing and play piano with Dr. Watson on an international steamboat thick with campy assassins.

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Further Reading

• “Is There a Santa Claus?” originally published in the New York Sun, included in “Virginia’s Letter & Church’s Editorial,” on the website of The Studio School, New York City


• “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus” assortment of readings, from LibriVox Audiobooks on Youtube


• “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes VII. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,” by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Strand Magazine, Volume 3, January-June 1892,(featuring original illustrations) on Wikisource


• “How “Do We Know Things About the World,” grade 8+ version, from the Canadian vaccine advocacy group and UNICEF partner Kids Boost Immunity


• “Great Minds – Part 4: Hegel: The Phenomenology of Geist, presented by Dr. Michael Sugrue


• “Yes, Harry, there IS a Santa Claus…” excerpted from Cold Days by Jim Butcher, courtesy of Random Ramblings of an Absent-Minded Professor, by Kent G. Hare


• “Sherlock Holmes and the Power of Observation,” by Christopher Roosen, February 28, 2019


• “Giant Penny” on the Batman Wiki


• Pursuit to Algiers (1945), Starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, and Marjorie Riordan as Sheila Woodbury, on YouTube


• “Actress Teaches Children: Finds Real Success Is In Serving Others,” by Jean Gallagher, Los Angeles Mirror, May 31, 1956, p. 26