Breaking New Ground

The well heeled gentleman above is an artist's rendition of one Mycroft Holmes, and by royal (i.e. my) decree today is his birthday. He was "born" in 1847 being by seven years his brother Sherlock's senior. Of course, he is a fictional character, and he really has never been born (perhaps created is a better word), and I doubt he was created on this day by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is my expansion of the hero status into the realm of fictional characters. I doubt that Mycroft will be the last fictional character to make it to hero status, in fact, his brother Sherlock is going to be one in January. I never said that my hero or heroine had to be a living breathing or now deceased human being (hint, hint), and Mycroft is a fabulous character in his own right, and possesses deductive powers even greater than his younger brother. However, Mycroft suffers from an affliction that I also am a victim of, that is terminal laziness. To quote his brother, Mycroft "...has no ambition and no energy. He will not even go out of his way to verify his own solutions, and would rather be considered wrong than take the trouble to prove himself right. Again and again I have taken a problem to him, and have received an explanation which has afterwards proved to be the correct one. And yet he was absolutely incapable of working out the practical points..." I can appreciate Mycroft's position, although I lack the skills that would put Sherlock to shame, generally I can not be arsed to bother with all the actual work. Mycroft spends most of his time at the Diogenes club, which he co-founded, just hanging out, being indolent, and serving as a sort of computer for the British government. He only appeared in four of the Sherlock Holmes stories, but he made quite an impression on me, and so, for being just that damn smart, and that damn lazy, but still being "the most indispensable man in the country." Mycroft Holmes (October 12th, 1847 (by my own invention),- present), you are my hero of the day.