The Diary — Old Hoax or New or Not a Hoax at All?​

[Herlock Sholmes]

No, it's that he works through you.

That ludicrous statement says far more about you, Scott, than it does about me.

[Lombro2]

It was a second hand report related to a third person around Christmas 1992.

It tells us nothing about when the original event happened.

Unfortunately for you, Mr Hopelessly Confused (
or more like Mr Hopelessly Trying To Confuse), it probably happened March 9, 1992.

[Herlock Sholmes]

It was a second hand report related to a third person around Christmas 1992.

It tells us nothing about when the original event happened.

Unfortunately for you, Mr Hopelessly Confused (
or more like Mr Hopelessly Trying To Confuse), it probably happened March 9, 1992.

The only reason why Christmas 1992 was mentioned in one of the varying accounts is due to pure mathematics, because it was two months after the APS store opened (assuming it opened on 26th October 1992 as claimed) and Tim and Dodgson both said that they thought that they were told about the diary a month or two after that opening. There is nothing in the story, in other words, which suggests that it did in fact occur at Christmas, just a recollection that it happened soon after the APS Bootle store opened. But you've ignored the fact that the story told by Tim in 1994 didn't involve the APS Bootle store at all. It involved a pub.

As for the "original event", yes Mike Barrett is known to have telephoned Doreen Montgomery on 9th March 1992. That, as far as we know, is the original event in this story. Then the next thing he did was seek out a Victorian diary with blank pages

[caz]

It may have been slightly more than a matter of pure maths and a Christmas past, Herlock, on account of when Tim's birthday is. Most people are able to pinpoint a specific event in their lives to within a couple of months of their birthday, if they keep a basic appointments diary every year and are able to cast their minds back to how they celebrated their special day in any particular year. They can also seek confirmation using a variety of other resources, human or documented.

Without knowing what other information was available to jog, correct or confirm an individual's personal memories, you can't be dogmatic about the limitations of their powers of recall.

Consistency with other people's memories of the same event or conversation is a bonus and not to be sniffed at. It doesn't always indicate a conspiracy and, in this case, an unlikely one between people who didn't all know one another, or have personal or professional associations in common.