My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #837

This week, the game is afoot in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #837 from the issue of February 6, 2022. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Robert Leighton.

"I have most of it, Watson. All I need from you is a seven-percent solution."

February 20, 2023 Update:  The Finalists

February 27, 2023 Update:  I voted for the caption from San Francisco.

March 12, 2023 Update:  The Winner

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Gahan Wilson: Isaac Asimov's Sherlockian Limericks

A signed and numbered color print by Gahan Wilson (1930-2019) recently made the rounds on eBay, selling for a discounted $63.75. The seller failed to identify the subjects of the print: science fiction author Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) and the ghost of Sherlock Holmes emanating from his lit pipe. The art appeared on the cover of Asimov's Sherlockian Limericks (1978), one of the more than 500 books Asimov wrote and edited on a wide variety of subjects. The edition size of the print is 500, suggesting considerable expected demand.

Gahan Wilson
eBay listing ended August 6, 2021

https://www.ebay.com/itm/124838484788?hash=item1d10f41b34%3Ag%3AFAQAAOSwBh5hCvFu&nma=true&si=64J6TuENCQvl%252FEQuIbsoMEcDQlw%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Gahan Wilson
eBay item description

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My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #377 for April 22, 2013

This makes the third time I've entered The New Yorker's Cartoon Caption Contest, which is Contest #377 for April 22, 2013. After this, I should probably stop counting my entries. The drawing is by Tom Cheney. The caption is by yours truly.

"I don't care how comfortable he is here, Sherlock, you are
sending him back to Sumatra this instant!"

I had considered going with an alternative caption, one perhaps with a less obscure reference, but I decided against it. The R.O.U.S.'s were suggested by my daughter.

"Rodents of Unusual Size were funny in 'The Princess Bride.'
They are not funny in Teaneck."

April 29, 2013 Update:  The Finalists

May 13, 2013 Update:  The Winning Caption

Note:  My previous entry in the caption contest can be found here. If my submitted caption makes absolutely no sense to you, you might check out this earlier blog post.

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The Noodle Incident

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Autograph manuscript of "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire," signed 

 http://www.christies.com/Lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4300193&SN=1388&LN=0058

At the beginning of "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire," Sherlock Holmes makes a passing reference to "the giant rat of Sumatra." In an aside to Dr. Watson, Holmes states tantalizingly, "Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson, ... It was a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared."

http://thenorwoodbuilder.tumblr.com/post/35789583883/arthur-conan-doyle-and-the-strange-case-of-matilda

Ever since, people have been wondering what incredible tale lies behind this assertion, but we are never to know because A. Conan Doyle never related the full story. The world, apparently, is still not prepared.

The Strand Magazine, Volume LXVII, January - June 1924

 http://www.acdoyle.ru/originals/magazines/strand/my_strands.htm#1924

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Now take a look at this amusing but very short clip from "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension:"

 Watermelon Scene

"The Adventures of

Buckaroo Banzai Across

the 8th Dimension" (1984)

There you have it. “Why is there a watermelon there?” No explanation of the watermelon is ever forthcoming, and it really doesn't matter. For me, it's the most memorable line in the movie. 

Sometimes leaving something unexplained, whether something mysterious as in the Holmes story or even something patently ridiculous as with the watermelon, can result in having it stay with you. Forever. Our brains are programmed to want answers.

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One more. Bill Watterson never really articulated the story of "the noodle incident" in his too-short-lived Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, although the subject did come up several times and he had ample opportunity. Perhaps we don't need to hear the whole story after all. Hobbes's passing references to it may be quite enough! Knowing any more of the actual details might only serve to disappoint.

Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes, Reprinted May 23, 2012

 http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2012/05/23?fb_action_ids=10200497799435882&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

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The Firesign Theatre, The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra, 1973 Album Cover

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