This morning when the woman at Starbucks suggested "Sumatra" I thought immediately of the "giant rat" ... the Sherlock Holmes story "for which the world is not yet prepared ". Once the tainted blend hit my bloodstream I knew what I had to do ... why not some quick research ... maybe the "rat" had appeared. It took only a few minutes of googling to learn that this was indeed the case ... the "rat" had surfaced ... in fact, variations on the "rat" were pretty much everywhere.

"The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire" by Arthur Conan Doyle is where it started. Doyle writes there: "Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson," said Holmes in a reminiscent voice. "It was a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared."

The "rat" is now considered #2 in best untold Holmes’ stories but it’s far from untold. The first appearance I could find was one adapted by Edith Meiser for NBC and performed 20 April 1932. This series premiered on 20 October 1930 with The Speckled Band, with an elderly William Gillette, Sherlock in the theater and builder of Gillette Castle, in the starring role briefly with Richard Gordon taking over from 10 November 1930.

From then on it was open season on the "rat". It’s been done by Firesign Theatre, as a Hardy Boys adventure, by Basil Rathbone on the radio, in The Oriental Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Theodore Riccardi, in a play Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra by Tim Kelly & Jack Sharkey at the Charleston Alley Theater, in The Giant Rat of Sumatra : The Baker Street Mysteries (#2) by Jake Thoene and most recently in Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra by Alan Vanneman.

Had enough? Perhaps, if I were to get Sherlock Issue #33, the article "Giant Rats" by Toby Earnshaw would provide a definitive list of appearances. Well, if I needed to know more, I could do that but I’m thinking I’m "ratted" out for now. May be time for a second cup of coffee. May be time to get refocused. Or have a shot of Bushmill's.