Well, of course I climbed atop the slab and I lay down on it

[sovay]

I am having a relatively miserable night, so I have been talking to spatch about various things, including Sherlock Holmes, as one does, and I mentioned the perennial post that goes around about modern AU Holmes and how people are always trying to work out an equivalent for the cocaine habit where the key features are not merely a form of self-medication of which Watson disapproves but also a drug practice popularly considered physically and mentally beneficial and without missing a beat Rob immediately said, "Microdosing." And I hadn't seen that one in the wild yet, so I mention it here.

(In the interests of honesty, he wishes me to add that his first, semi-serious suggestion was kombucha: "It's trendy and people claim it's got super-ass benefits." I have zero difficulty picturing Holmes fermenting his own kombucha, with particular attention to cultivating his own distinctive strains of yeast and bacteria and explaining them to visitors and possibly not warning Watson sufficiently about how much the flat is going to smell like a combination laboratory-brewery, which is in fact what it now is. I don't believe the terrarium in which the vials of E. coli coexisted with the plates of Dictyostelium discoideum to which I fed them ever did cease to smell faintly like hundred-year-old gym socks. I feel nostalgic about it to this day. My parents, considerably less so.)

Comments

[sholio]

Sherlock Holmes, hardline believer in herbal medicine, antioxidants, kombucha and chaga seems extremely believable.

[moon_custafer]

the man eventually does take up beekeeping, after all.

[sovay]

the man eventually does take up beekeeping, after all.

"Botany. —Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally."

[sovay]

Sherlock Holmes, hardline believer in herbal medicine, antioxidants, kombucha and chaga seems extremely believable.

You've made me realize he is probably also into cordyceps tea.

[thomasyan]

Until I saw the criteria, I immediately thought of Adderall. Not sure if there is something similar that fits.

Tangent: Ever watch the War of the Worlds TV series? Clumsy but earnest and somehow really held my interest back in the day (at least, first season or two). The offbeat scientist rings a triangle to help him remember things. I don't recall if it is described similar to Sherlock's house technique.

[sovay]

Until I saw the criteria, I immediately thought of Adderall. Not sure if there is something similar that fits.

I've seen modern AU spitballing posit that Holmes just takes ADHD meds and the issue is more Watson persuading him to stay on them.

Tangent: Ever watch the War of the Worlds TV series?

Never. I have seen the 1953 film and that's it. This is the TV series from 1988?

[rosefox]

Holmes would absolutely be the sort of person to say "The meds are working and I feel fine, so I don't need the meds anymore".

[sara]

Based on a wholly scientific review of my lived experience, yes.

[rosefox]

Truly, whomst among us has not been there and done that.

[sara]

I'd log it as a win if I could just convince my cohabitants that perhaps global pandemic is NOT THE TIME to experiment with their brain chemistry. Perhaps now is the time to be gentle and steady with ourselves. Just a thought!

[thomasyan]

This is the TV series from 1988?

Yes. No prior context from the film required: The intro fills you in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYa90nIcA9c

I'm a little afraid to rewatch the actual episodes, in case the Suck Fairy visited, but I remember that if you overlook the science, that there are engaging characters (I particularly liked Richard Chaves's Colonel Ironhorse) and genuinely creepy aliens, plus music for the end credits that I always enjoyed and made a point of listening to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR46dePtHCo

[selkie]

*hugs* I just feel like, hear me out, there should be less misery for people who are not passing murderous anti-trans legislation or detaining babies at the border or existing as Lindsay Graham.

[sovay]

I just feel like, hear me out, there should be less misery for people who are not passing murderous anti-trans legislation or detaining babies at the border or existing as Lindsay Graham.

Er.

*cries*

[selkie]

*hugs*

I'm so sorry. None of it is fair.

(You ought to make a thousand bucks a day for not being Lindsay Graham, that spineless little fraction of a pool-boy-ogling Fanon Jesus weirdo.)

[asakiyume]

The thing about nowadays is that there is always *some* one who objects to whatever the (supposed) beneficial health regime is--I mean that was probably true in the past too but now we can know about those people's views.

How does canon Holmes feel about restrictive eating practices? That's a whole avenue of health and curativity that people often pursue and that the medical community can be judgy about. But that's *removal* from the diet rather than addition, so maybe not a good route to pursue.

Kombucha sounds good. Or how about probiotics? I guess kombucha provides those...

[sovay]

How does canon Holmes feel about restrictive eating practices?

Holmes canonically forgets to eat if sufficiently interested in a case, or insists to Watson that he thinks better when he isn't eating, or is so emotionally flat in between cases that he just doesn't feel like it, so finding a housemate to go half shares with him on 221B Baker Street may honestly be the healthiest decision he ever made in his life, since Watson's attitude is firmly "EVERYBODY NEEDS TO EAT, HOLMES."

[asakiyume]

His subliminal will to live triumphing--A++

[ashlyme]

I hadn't heard of microdosing before now, but that works. I could see Holmes dabbling with kombucha too. Some of the pictures I found of it online make it look like bad home-brewed bitter.

I'd forgotten you had a thing for slime moulds! There's something really loveable about the image of you pottering around with microscopic life. I can totally get that nostalgia. Also *hugs* and hopes for a better day. Sending love.

[sovay]

I hadn't heard of microdosing before now, but that works.

I'm not sure how old it is as a practice—I associate it originally with Silicon Valley, but it's mainstreamed significantly since then. As soon as spatch said it, it felt like the sort of chemical self-experimentation Holmes would cheerfully engage in and Watson would be wanting to know if there had ever been peer-reviewed research.

I could see Holmes dabbling with kombucha too. Some of the pictures I found of it online make it look like bad home-brewed bitter.

Original Japanese kombucha is an herbal tea brewed from kelp, which I would go for in a big way. Did you see the recent article about sea grain?

I'd forgotten you had a thing for slime moulds! There's something really loveable about the image of you pottering around with microscopic life. I can totally get that nostalgia.

Thank you! I took many pictures of myxamoebae and aggregations and fruiting bodies through my microscope. I will try to scan and post some of the better ones sometime. (The slime mold themselves were released humanely into the wild.)

Also *hugs* and hopes for a better day. Sending love.

*hugs*

[ashlyme]

I'd drink the original kombucha too. I'd not seen the article on sea-grain - thank you! Really want to try that.

If you do ever get a chance to scan the micro-pictures, I'd love to see them!

[sara]

Oh God, my problematic housemate produced kombucha in the closet. I had to clean it up after she left and it was dire.

[sovay]

Oh God, my problematic housemate produced kombucha in the closet. I had to clean it up after she left and it was dire.

It sounds dire.

(I once discovered mother of vinegar in some vinegar I thought had been comfortably motherless, but that wasn't hazardous, just surprising.)

[sara]

The Evergreen State College produces a lot of former students who are far more dingbat than I am prepared to tolerate in my personal space, and that says something.

[pameladean]

Why, I don't really wonder, am I thinking of Janie in The Long Secret?
P.

[sovay]

Why, I don't really wonder, am I thinking of Janie in The Long Secret?

I haven't read The Long Secret!

(Remember that I don't care about spoilers; please tell me.)

[pameladean]

I'm sorry, my brain is bollixed. I meant Harriet the Spy. If you haven't read that, I will be happy to provide a salient quotation.

P.

[sovay]

I meant Harriet the Spy. If you haven't read that, I will be happy to provide a salient quotation.

I haven't read it since elementary school, so please, remind me.

[pameladean]

So Janie is more like a distant cousin than a sister of yours, and her parents are certainly nothing like yours. But having started, I will quote the passage, which is rather more violent than anything you describe but still seems akin, to me.

"One corner of her room had been stripped bare. The rug had been pulled back, exposing one corner where Janie had started to cut off the excess to get it out of the way, but which she had been stopped from doing by her mother in an hysterical fit. At that time there had been a large fight through which Janie grinned broadly, and her mother let her know it didn't make a whit of difference if they didn't ordinarily have rugs in labs ("They catch fire," Janie had said, which set her mother off again), that Janie had a rug in her room that was going to stay there, and that the very best she could hope for was to have it rolled back. So there it lay in a roll at the end of the room.

"The lab itself was very complex and frightened Harriet whenever she looked at it, although she would never have admitted this to Janie. It consisted of rows and rows of shelves filled with bottles, all filled with suspicious fluids and looking as though you would turn into Mr. Hyde if you drank them. Only Janie understood anything whatever about them, and she wouldn't explain but instead called everyone a cretin who asked her. The maids wouldn't go near Janie's room, so years ago she had had to learn to clean it herself."

--Louise Fitzhugh, Harriet the Spy

[sovay]

At that time there had been a large fight through which Janie grinned broadly, and her mother let her know it didn't make a whit of difference if they didn't ordinarily have rugs in labs ("They catch fire," Janie had said, which set her mother off again)

I see how we got here!

[starlady]

Microdosing is a very good suggestion. So is Watson having to persuade Holmes to stay on his ADHD meds.

[sovay]

Microdosing is a very good suggestion. So is Watson having to persuade Holmes to stay on his ADHD meds.

I cannot take credit for either and I am glad you approve!