Today’s discussion topic is from our fellow JHWS member “Dash.” Thank you!
Holmes is known for his ability to look at someone and make insightful deductions… which are proven to be correct. Have you had any Sherlockian moments yourself?
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One afternoon, I was standing at the arrivals gate of Narita Airport with my boss. We were waiting for a group to arrive and it was taking quite a long time.
So as we stood there, I started watching the people coming through the arrivals gate and trying to deduce who they were and where they were coming from.
For example, I spotted two young Japanese women with small rolling luggage and a magazine in their hand. I told my boss that they must have just gone on a trip to Singapore over the weekend, a quick vacation to go shopping on Orchard Road. She was amazed and couldn’t figure out how I could deduce that, but to me it was pretty, ah, elementary.
For one thing, the two women didn’t have enough luggage to signify a long trip, but they were wearing fashionable clothes and batik scarves – the sort that would be cheaper to buy around Orchard than *shudder* the hyper-expensive Ginza fashion district in Tokyo. Also, I had happened to spy that same travel guide they were carrying at the bookstore last week and all of the monthly travel guides (that’s a popular specialization of magazine in Japan, I’ve found) had just come in that day.
It just so happened that I had observed the cover of the Singapore magazine-guide at the bookstore earlier because, at the time, that’s where my family lived, so the cover featuring the Merlion caught my eye and made me miss home. So seeing it again in the young women’s hands led me to that ridiculous deduction.
I don’t know if it turned out to be true or not – if they had actually come back from a weekend jaunt to the island nation or if I was totally off the mark. But, hey… it impressed my boss. 🙂
“I have found it wise to impress clients with a sense of power, and so I gave him some of my conclusions.” [BLAN]
It works with bosses, too. Well done. Carla!
I don’t have such exploits to tell because I am much more Watsonian. I see but I do not observe, and most of the time I don’t see at all. I usually don’t pay conscious attention to the surrounding environment. Much more likely I’m lost in my thoughts about various things (including, sometimes, the Canon).
Great story Carla! I did it a bit yesterday. We were in a restaurant, and we noticed two men sitting across from us working on computers. They were plugged into the wall behind the server’s computer, but sitting out at a table with the diners. They had backpacks on chairs, small notebook computers on the table; they each had a phone on the table and an empty plastic water bottle. I said to my husband: ‘corporate must be here checking something out, or they are auditors.’ Husband said if two at the table then probably a visiting corporate, and a local manager. I said : No, two from somewhere else. He asks why? I say: matching backpacks, and matching computers–obviously issued to them, and brought along from somewhere else. Also, in from somewhere for inspections/assessment–the usual servers were being way too nice, almost to the point of obnoxiousness; the servers were over doing it in their effort to impress.
Both very good examples of observation,ladies. My most Sherlockian moment came at a family reunion years ago. It was full of people I hadn’t met. One distant cousin brought over an older woman who smiled and said, “I’ll give you three guesses who I am.” I looked her over and announced she was Vivian Hudson (yes, Mrs. Hudson), my father’s second cousin who had flown in from California as a surprise. Disappointed, she said “Oh, somebody told you.” “No,” I replied,”but you were the only one I could think of who would be wearing a California State DAR pin.”