Charles Is Back!

Pictured to the left is Charles, the greatest Great Horned owl in Forest Park. I have been following his story for years now, both through personal observation and more often, both vicariously and virtually through the writings of Mark H. X. Glenshaw of Forest Park Owls fame. Last summer, Mark announced that Charles’s long time mate, Sarah, had mysteriously disappeared and was feared dead. This pair, Charles and Sarah have raised many owlets over the years, a few of which I have seen myself. This week, Mark announced that Charles has a new mate, who he has dubbed Olivia. We were walking in the park yesterday and with this good news in hand, decided to try to look Charles up and to my own personal amazement, we found him straight off the bat. I had kind of lost track of Charles, a few years ago, when his favorite tree died, but now that I know where his new favorite tree is, he should be easy to find in the future. He is such a creature of habit. He was also fast asleep in the afternoon sun.

I think that it would take a wise old owl like Charles to explain to me last night’s new Sherlock episode, The Abominable Bride. [Spoiler Alert] Was it all just a dream or some cocaine induced hallucination? We are reintroduced to Holmes and Dr. Watson as they first meet, again, this time in Sherlock Holmes’s traditional setting, 1885 Victorian London. The atmosphere is murky and thick with fog, read coal smoke and the game’s soon afoot. The bride, with blood red lipstick a pair of blazing revolvers is first met as she proceeds to empty said guns from her balcony, into the scattering throng below. She effectively garners everyone’s attention, without hitting a single person, until she eats the last bullet. Unusual, but hardly Holmes worthy until the next night, when the bride is again seen discharging firearms in public, this time both barrels of a shotgun into her estranged husband’s chest, “a shotgun wedding”. What we have next is one part mystery, one part ghost story and two parts WTF? Were the murders perpetrated by cabal of really pissed-off suffragettes, or was it all the doing again of Moriarty or was it just a dream? You tell me, because this convoluted plot then starts bouncing back-and-forth between 1885 and the end of the last episode in 2014. Thank God that this special episode is a one-of-a-kind and should have no relevance for future shows. I hope.