Moriarty Playlist

1. Flesh - Simon Curtis
2. The Thieving Magpie - Rossini
3. Staying Alive - Bee Gees
4. I Can't Decide - Scissor Sisters
5. Good 'n' Evil - Jekyll & Hyde
6. Intermission - Scissor Sisters
7. Drink You Sober - Bitter:Sweet
8. Girls That Glitter Love the Dark - Hannah Fury
9. Teach Me To Be Bad - Thea Gilmore
10. Kiss With A Fist - Florence & the Machine
11. Evil Night Together - Jill Tracy
12. She is the Madman - Revue Noir
13. Circus Apocalypse - Vermillion Lies
14. Sometimes, Sunshine - Revue Noir
15. Runs In the Family - Amanda Palmer
16. Lover I Don't Have to Love - Bettie Serveert
17. Dr Jekyll & Mr Fame - Black Cards
18. My Evil Twin - They Might Be Giants
19. The Beast - Concrete Blonde
20. You Leave Me Cold - Jill Tracy
21. Skullcrusher Mountain - Jonathon Coulton
22. I'd Love to Kill You - Katie Melua
23. Lips Like Morphine - Kill Hannah
24. My Angel Put the Devil In Me - Yamit Mamo
25. Poker Face - Mika (blame fanfic for this one)
26. Every You Every Me - Placebo
27. Instant Pleasure - Rufus Wainwright
28. Flower - Liz Phair
29. Meathook - Hannah Fury
30. Pretender - Sarah Jaffe (think this might be more Sherlock but oh well)
31. Defenestration - Hannah Fury
32. Hannah Peel - Tainted Love

How To Spot Your Antagonists

1. Recognise that enmity breeds accomplishment. Since we thrive on challenge, a nemesis and an archenemy are the two most important characters in the life of any successful hero.

2. Understand the distinctions. Your attitude determines whether an antagonist qualifies as a nemesis or as an archenemy. If your nemesis invited you to tea or cocktails, you would accept the offer. Though you dislike him, you feel a grudging respect for your nemesis. You would never, however, have drinks with your archenemy, unless you were attempting to spike his tea or gin with hemlock. For instance, though Batman's nemesis was the Joker, his archenemy was really Superman.

3. Make positive IDs. Your nemesis was probably once your best friend. You are more alike than different even though you are on opposite sides. Conversely, if you meet someone with even the same name as your archenemy, you immediately like them less. You are more different than alike even if you're on the same side.

Neil Gaiman on How to Seduce A Writer

In my experience, writers tend to be really good at the inside of their own heads and imaginary people, and a lot less good at the stuff going on outside, which means that quite often if you flirt with us we will completely fail to notice, leaving everybody involved slightly uncomfortable and more than slightly unlaid.

So I would suggest that any attempted seduction of a writer would probably go a great deal easier for all parties if you sent them a cheerful note saying “YOU ARE INVITED TO A SEDUCTION: Please come to dinner on Friday Night. Wear the kind of clothes you would like to be seduced in.”

And alcohol may help, too. Or kissing. Many writers figure out that they’re being seduced or flirted with if someone is actually kissing them.

The Carlton Lassiter

Chocolate Espresso cupcakes with Irish Cream frosting. Top with sugar handcuffs or guns.

The Shawn Spencer

Pineapple upside down cupcakes.

The Burton Guster

Monkey bread cupcakes with honey cinnamon frosting.

The Juliet O'Hara

Chambord chocolate cupcakes with strawberry/raspberry filling. Strawberry frosting infused with raspberry Chambord.

The End

Lie Still
View the smoke rising from the incense
See it morph into doves flying away from the world
White, pure, innocence
Listen to the soothing mature sound of a
Young, angry woman
The world bites
I want to fly away with the doves
To a land where the aliens look down
And laugh at us
Shaking their heads
While waving their tentacles
To the legendary sounds
Of Jim Morrison
Saying; "Yes, this truly is
The End."

The Reichenbach Fall: Taste of Switzerland and desperation

Absinthe cupcakes with green fairy glaze. Top with absinthe-doused sugar cubes set ablaze.

The Irene Adler

Raspberry Champagne cupcakes with mixed berry Champagne truffle frosting. Top with sugar masks or dusted berries.

The Moriarty: Dark & fruity with a bite. And honey, you should see them in a crown.

Dark chocolate and lime cupcakes with mango frosting. Top with dark red edible glitter and royal icing crowns & skulls.

Try to imagine with the toppings.

The Mycroft

Cherry Brandy cupcakes with dark chocolate Brandy butter cream and cherry frosting swirl. Top with black sugar umbrellas.

The Molly Hooper

Jasmine cupcakes with Rose frosting. Top with sugar skull & bones (optional).

The Lestrade

Chocolate Bourbon coffee cupcakes with Bourbon espresso frosting topped with chocolate covered espresso beans.

The Mrs. Hudson

Earl Grey cupcakes with Lemon-Lavender frosting topped with crystallised violet petals.

The Harry Watson

Margarita cupcakes with Tequila-Lime frosting topped with sea salt (optional) and lime.

The Anthea

Dark chocolate & blackberry cabernet cupcakes with blackberry Cabernet frosting topped with sugar-dusted blackberries.

The John Watson: A hint of Afghanistan with the steady British backbone of tea.

Orange cardamom cupcakes with black tea frosting topped with candied oranges.  Don't have a picture of this one yet.

The Sherlock: For our favourite 'Dark & Stormy' detective

Rum & ginger cupcakes with rum & lime frosting. Top with crystallised ginger and half a key lime hollowed, filled with rum & set ablaze.

Iron

• Romany mothers would place a piece of iron under the cradle pillow to ward off evil spirits
• Irish mothers used to put iron in their babies cribs to prevent fairies or elves from switching the body for a changeling
• In European folklore witches can't pass over cold iron
• Greeks and Romans kept iron out of their temples and cemeteries because they wanted spirits around
• Iron fences around cemeteries are there to keep spirits in
• Cold iron - iron that isn't smelted out of ore, but hammered pure without heating - is best but any iron will do in a pinch
• Iron repels spirits
• Pliny, in his "Natural History," states that iron coffin-nails affixed to the lintel of the door render the inmates of the dwelling secure from the visitations of nocturnal prowling spirits.
• Among French Canadians, fireflies are viewed with superstitious eyes as luminous imps of evil, and iron and steel are the most potent safeguards against them; a knife or needle stuck into the nearest fence is thought to amply protect the belated wayfarer against these insects, for they will either do themselves injury upon the former, or will become so exhausted in endeavoring to pass through the needle's eye as to render them temporarily harmless
• Discovery or invention of iron was attributed to various gods: Osiris was thus honored by the Egyptians, Vulcan by the Romans, and Wodan or Odin by the Teutons.
• Those mythical demons of Oriental lands known as the Jinn are believed to be exorcised by the mere name of iron; and Arabs when overtaken by a simoom in the desert endeavor to charm away these spirits of evil by erving, "Iron, iron!"
• In Scandinavia and in northern countries generally, iron is a historic charm against the wiles of sorcerers.
• The Chinese sometimes wear outside of their clothing a piece of an old iron plough-point as a charm; and they have also a custom of driving long iron nails in certain kinds of trees to exorcise some particularly dangerous female demons which haunt them
• In Ireland, at the present time, iron is held to be a sacred and luck-bringing metal which thieves hesitate to steal.
• In Sicily, iron amulets are popularly used against the evil eye
• In Morocco it is customary to place a dagger under the patients pillow, and in Greece a black-handled knife is similarly used to keep away the nightmare.
• In Germany iron implements laid crosswise are considered to be powerful anti-witch safeguards for infants; and in Switzerland two knives, or a knife and fork, are placed in the cradle under the pillow. In Bohemia a knife on which a cross is marked, and in Bavaria a pair of opened scissors, are similarly used.
• In France, also, a favorite panacea for children's diseases consists in laying on the child an accidentally found horse-shoe, with the nails remaining in it; and in Mecklenburg gastric affections are thought to be successfully treated by drinking beer which has been poured upon a red-hot horse-shoe.
• In Bombay, when a child is born, the natives place an iron bar along the threshold of the room of confinement as a guard against the entrance of demons. This practice is derived from the Hindu superstition that evil spirits keep aloof from iron
• In Finland there is an evil fairy known as the Alp Nightmare. Its name in the vernacular is Painajainen, which means in English "Presser." This unpleasant being makes people scream, and causes young children to squint; and the popular safeguard is steel, or a broom placed beneath the pillow.
• The Highlanders of Scotland have a time-honored custom of taking an oath upon cold iron or steel. The dirk, which was formerly an indispensable adjunct to the Highland costume, is a favorite and handy object for the purpose. The faith in the magical power of steel and iron against evil-disposed fairies and ghosts was universal, and this form of oath was more solemn and binding than any other.

Salt

• Romans salted their wine
• There's an old Scottish tradition in which a pinch of salt was added to a batch of mash to keep witches out of it
• Romanian legend has it that pregnant women who don't eat salt will give birth to vampires
• Japanese folklore - troublesome ghosts are packed in jars of salt
• Japanese restaurant owners daily put mounds of salt outside their establishments for good luck
• To get rid of a spirit, salt and burn the remains
• From the mythical lore of Finland we learn that Ukko, the mighty god of the sky, struck fire in the heavens, a spark from which descending was received by the waves and became salt. The Chinese worship an idol called Phelo, in honor of a mythological personage of that name, whom they believe to have been the discoverer of salt and the originator of its use.
• Among the Mexican Nahuas the women and girls employed in the preparation of salt were wont to dance at a yearly festival held in honor of the Goddess of salt, Huixtocihuatl, whose brothers the rain-gods are said, as the result of a quarrel, to have driven her into the sea, where she invented the art of making the precious substance.
• In Eastern countries it is a time-honored custom to place salt before strangers as a token and pledge of friendship and good-will.
• Owing to its antiseptic and preservative qualities, salt was emblematic of durability and permanence; hence the expression "Covenant of Salt." It was also a symbol of wisdom, and in this sense was doubtless used by St. Paul when he told the Colossians that their speech should be seasoned with salt.
• On one occasion this gallant robber had forcibly and by stealth entered the palace of a prince, and was about departing with considerable spoil, when he stumbled over an object which his sense of taste revealed to be a lump of salt. Having thus involuntarily partaken of a pledge of hospitality in another man's house, his honor overcame his greed of gain and he departed without his booty.
• Homer called salt divine, and Plato described it as a substance dear to the gods.
• The Hindus have a theory that malignant spirits, or Bhuts, are especially prone to molest women and children immediately after the latter have eaten confectionery and other sweet delicacies. Indeed, so general is this belief that vendors of sweetmeats among school-children provide their youthful customers each with a pinch of salt to remove the sweet taste from their mouths, and thus afford a safeguard against the ever-watchful Bhuts.
• Among the Jews the covenant of salt is the most sacred possible. Even at the present time, Arabian princes are wont to signify their ratification of an alliance by sprinkling salt upon bread, meanwhile exclaiming, "I am the friend of thy friends, and the enemy of thine enemies." So likewise there is a common form of request among the Arabs as follows: "For the sake of the bread and salt which are between us, do this or that."
• Gypsies likewise sometimes use bread and salt to confirm the solemnity of an oath; as did ancient Greeks and many other cultures
• The natives of Morocco regard salt as a talisman against evil, and a common amulet among the Neapolitan poor is a bit of rock-salt suspended from the neck. The peasants of the Hartz Mountain region in Germany believe that three grains of salt in a milk-pot will keep witches away from the milk; and to preserve butter from their uncanny influences, it was a custom in the county of Aberdeen, Scotland, some years ago, to put salt on the lid of a churn. In Normandy, also, the peasants are wont to throw a little salt into a vessel containing milk, in order to protect the cow who gave the milk from the influences of witchcraft.
• In the Province of Quebec French Canadians sometimes scatter salt about the doors of their stables to prevent those mischievous little imps called lutins from entering and teasing the horses by sticking burrs in their manes and tails. The lutin or gobelin is akin to the Scandinavian household spirit, who is fond of children and horses, and who whips and pinches the former when they are naughty, but caresses them when good. In Marsala, west Sicily, a horse, mule, or donkey, on entering a new stall, is thought to be liable to molestation by fairies. As a precautionary measure, therefore, a little salt is placed on the animal's back, and this is believed to insure freedom from lameness, or other evil resulting from fairy spite. Common salt has long enjoyed a reputation as a means of procuring disenchantment. It was an ingredient of a salve "against nocturnal goblin visitors" used by the Saxons in England, and described in one of their ancient leech-books; while in the annals of folk-medicine are to be found numerous references to its reputed virtues as a magical therapeutic agent. In Scotland, when a person is ailing of some affection whose nature is not apparent, as much salt as can be placed on a sixpence is dissolved in water, and the solution is then applied three times to the soles of the patients feet, to the palms of his hands, and to his forehead. He is then expected to taste the mixture, a portion of which is thrown over the fire while saying, "Lord, preserve us frae a' skaith."
• In India the natives rub salt and wine on the affected part of the body as a cure for scorpion bites, believing that the success of this treatment is due to the supernatural virtue of the salt in searing away the fiends who caused the pain. An ancient Irish charm of great repute in cases of suspected "fairy-stroke" consisted in placing on a table three equal portions of salt in three parallel rows. The would-be magician then encircles the salt with his arm and repeats the Lord's Prayer thrice over each row. Then, taking the hand of the fairy-struck person, he says over it, "By the power of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, let this disease depart and the spell of evil spirits be broken." Then follows a solemn adjuration and command addressed to the supposed demon, and the charm is complete.
• In Bavaria and the Ukraine, in order to ascertain whether a child has been the victim of bewitchment, the mother licks its forehead; and if her sense of taste reveals thereby a marked saline flavor, she is convinced that her child has been under the influence of an evil eye.
• The holy water of the Roman Catholic Church is prepared by exorcising and blessing salt and water separately, after which the salt is dissolved in the water and a benediction pronounced upon the mixture. In the Hawaiian ritual, sea-water was sometimes preferred.
• Among the peasants of the Spanish province of Andalusia the word "salt" is synonymous with gracefulness and charm of manner, and no more endearing or flattering language can be used in addressing a woman, whether wife or sweetheart, than to call her "the salt-box of my love." The phrase "May you be well salted" is also current as an expression of affectionate regard.
• Scotch fishermen have a traditional custom of salting their nets "for luck, and they also sometimes throw a little salt into the sea "to blind the fairies."
• It may be that this natural craving for salt, which is common to man and beast, may have suggested a custom of etiquette in Abyssinia. For when a native of that country desires to pay an especially delicate attention to a friend or guest, he produces a piece of rock salt, and graciously permits the latter to lick it with his tongue; a custom not a whit more ridiculous than the ceremonious offering of snuff and the social sneeze of modern civilization.