Posted by Robert Dilley on September 13, 2004 at 20:57:34 from 65.39.13.79 user rdilley.
In Reply to: Re: A Ransome Moment... posted by Jonathan Labaree on September 13, 2004 at 19:48:05:
I have always thought that a peculiarly silly comment by Holmes. The stories show that he had a considerable store of "irrelevant" knowledge. I can easily think of Holmesian situations where knowing that the earth revolved around the Sun could be useful -- more useful, I suspect, than a knowledge of the polyphonic motets of Lassus.
However, my point was not my sister-in-law being ignorant of the order of the planets. I could have accepted that she had never been taught that. It was her indignant assertion that she didn't need to know it. I think that is silly, too.