Traveling Man
By Don Hobbs

I was in Latrobe, Pennsylvania last week. Latrobe is the home of Arnold Palmer, Fred Rodgers, the banana split, and Rolling Rock beer. The home to all of these thing but not a single Sherlockian that I know about. How a town so small, population 7,634,  produce all of these things and not have any Sherlockian significance is downright mind boggling. The town was founded in 1852 by Oliver Barnes who was an engineer for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Barnes named the borough of Latrobe after Benjamin Latrobe, his best friend and college roommate. It was Latrobe's father Benjamin Henry who rebuilt the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. after the war of 1812.

Since today is Super Bowl Sunday, I thought it was appropriate to mention Latrobe because it is thought that the first professional football game was played there. Latrobe is just 40 miles from Pittsburgh and it is the home of the Steelers's training camp. When the "Big-Game" is played today in Glendale, Arizona, the residents of Latrobe will be bleeding black and gold, wishing it was their beloved Steelers in the game instead of those "New" teams from York and England.

I travel this week back to San Diego, where there will be sadness in the air because the Chargers did not make it to the Super Bowl. I can relate to their feeling since my Cowboys failed again this year to win a single playoff game. I am not one to cry over spilt milk and I will watch the game with all of the enthusiasm of a bump-on-the-log with my best couch potato attitude. Even though my team is not playing in the Big Game, I will still have a plethora of commercials to watch. It is sad that when your team is not in the Super Bowl that the rampant commercialism is what is talked about the most on the ensuing Monday.

What if someone produced a Sherlock Holmes related Super Bowl Sunday commercial? I can just imagine the kind of discourses that would follow. It would be all over The Hound of the Internet; The Baker Street Blog; Scuttlebutt form the Spermaceti Press; and Sherlockpeoria.net. Your would find it My Space and You Tube but would it generate the snowball effect that The Seven Per-Cent Solution did back in 1976? Just a thought from a traveling Sherlockian.

It does not matter which "New" team you are pulling for as long as you enjoy yourself!

Happy Collecting!!