The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Adventure of the Copper Beeches (p361-380)

The Adventure of the Copper Beeches is the last story told in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. In it, a woman named Violet Hunter went to Holmes for help in deciding whether or not to take a job as governess. She ended up accepting the job and was hired by Mr. Rucastle but told Holmes that she would telegraph him if something went wrong. After some time she did contact Holmes and wanted him to go to the estate that she worked at. Once Holmes arrived there Ms. Hunter told him that many things were strange. For example, she was once told to wear an electric blue dress and read with her back against the window. Also Mr. Rucastle told funny jokes and Ms. Rucastle never laughed at them. Ms. Hunter also noticed that there was a part of the house that was never used. When Holmes investigated, he found out that Mr. Rucastle was keeping his daughter as a prisoner so he could use Ms. Hunter (who looks like his daughter) to convince a man that she is not interested in him. At the end of the story Holmes found out that Rucastle's daughter had escaped and married the same man he was trying to keep away from her.

This is one of the longest stories in the entire Adventure of Sherlock Holmes and it is only 19 pages!

Teenagers, Friends and Bad Decisions

This article by TARA PARKER-POPE was very interesting and gave me somewhat of a different view on peer pressure and decision making by teenagers. It goes into telling how the tests were conducted and what they did with the brain scanners and the magnetic resonance imaging device. The results of the experiment led the researcher to believe that teenagers make bad decisions when they are around their friends. Because this is only one experiment, many more need to be conducted to get a clear result. This article was very informative and I hope many more are made like this.

Monday :)

Today was a very tiring day because I am barely getting any sleep. I am happy that the school schedules are back to normal. For me this week will probably be very busy for me. Knowing this, I should prepare for what is probably going to happen and maybe start my homework a little earlier. I can not wait until the summer and the time to do anything I want. One of these days it will come.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet (p343-361)

In The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet, a man named Mr. Alexander Holder made a loan of 50,000 pounds to a client and he left the Beryl Coronet (crown) as collateral. Holder was in a way paranoid about the safety of this crown and wanted to stay near it most of the time. One day he woke up and saw his son Arthur with the coronet in his hands and trying to bend it. He also notices that three of the beryls are missing. So, he went to see Holmes for help and he also got some police involved. After some time Sherlock Holmes solves the problem and finds out that Holder's niece was partnered with another criminal and escaped. Arthur only made it seem like he broke it because he was in love with her.
This episode was somewhat longer than the others page wise but did not have that much important information. Doyle should have really worked a little longer on his stories. 

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb & The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor (p311- 343)

In The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb, a man named Victor Hatherley went to Doctor Watson because his thumb has been cut off and he needed the wound repaired. After he had repaired it, Watson took the man to Holmes to find out what had happened instead of going to the police. So, Mr. Hatherley told the story talking about him being blindfolded and driven to a house to look at a machine. The machine was a press and he told the people that blindfolded him what needed to be fixed. After he looked at it one last time, Hatherley found out that the press is not being used for what it is supposed to be used for. So, he runs out and jumped out the window to find out his thumb was cut off. So Holmes sums up what happened and told that there were counterfeiters and when Hatherley was running out he dropped his lamp which burned down the whole house.
In The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, tells of a woman who disappeared on her wedding day. Her husband, Lord Robert was confused by this and went to Holmes for help. He talked about an accident that his bride had with a man when she dropped her flowers. Holmes was asking many questions and kept on approaching the answer as time went on. He looked at documents and letters and eventually found out what had happened. The bride saw her old husband and they ran away together. Later on they went back and apologized to Robert and he was sad afterwards.

Michigan

Today I went to Michigan, where I formerly lived and visited relatives and friends. I had fun catching up with them and enjoyed the time we spent. I will be here for two days and one night and hopefully be back Sunday night. Michigan is one of my favorite states to go to and it brings back many memories that are dear to me. I have lived here for 14 years and every once and a while my family and I go back to visit. Above is a picture of the Detroit river where the GM headquarters are and the tunnel which connects the United States to Canada.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle & The Adventure of the Speckled Band (p276-311)

In The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, a man named Peterson took a goose home for a Christmas dinner and his wife found a blue carbuncle (gemstone) in its throat. Holmes wanted to know how the gem ended up in the goose. So, he went to a goose dealer and asked him. The dealer told Holmes that someone was also asking about a goose and Holmes then knew that someone else knew about the carbuncle. But then a man named Ryder showed up and told Holmes what had happened. He thought that he was being followed by a thief so he fed the gem to the goose with a black bar on its tail. The only problem was that there were two geese with black bars on their tails and when he went back to retrieve the gem, it wasn't there. Holmes eventually finds out that the gem was stolen but did not threaten to put the man in jail because it was Christmas so he let him go and the man ran away.
In The Adventure of the Speckled Band, a woman named Helen Stoner went to Holmes and told him that her sister died. So, she tells him the story and Holmes also finds out that if Helen and her sister were to leave their stepfather, he would become very poor and he suspects him. Helen lives with her stepfather in an old house and weird noises happen at night. Later Helen leaves and Holmes finds a place for her to stay. By the end of the mystery Holmes finds out that Helen's father had sent a deadly Indian snake to her sisters room which had killed her. Helen's father tries to attack Helen with the snake when she found out also, but Holmes attacked it and it ran away to Helen's stepfather and kills him.