RESULTS: You are all SO good at this! First in again was Melissa Anderson “Faith” from Peoria with 20/20 and a couple of alternative answers that expand the horizons. Perfection also from Denny Dobry “Kirby” and our Team members from Seattle, Margie Deck “Gwen,” Sheila Holtgrieve “Daisy,” and Airy Maher, Loyal Member. Ever so close were Elinor Gray “Misty” and Michele Lopez “Reggie.”
Buttons is behind his time! Too many patients to see the Doctor. Sorry. Please submit solutions by 7pm Wednesday, May 7, 2014.
This week’s quiz is about dates. It’s a tough one! Good Luck!
One of the questions asks for a person’s birth and death years. Two different years are found for the birth year in two reliable sources. Either will do.
I’m sorry but I must raise an issue.
It is true that the Battle of Diamond Hill was fought in June 1900, or so historians have mantained until now.
But the Canon clearly says that James M. Dodd had joined up in January, 1901. After that he became friends with Godfrey Emsworth and it is clearly later still that “that morning fight at Buffelsspruit, outside Pretoria, on the Eastern railway line” (in which Emsworth was wounded and Anderson and Baldy Simpson killed) happened.
That’s why I had ruled out this answer, because 1900 seems to me plainly wrong.
On one side we have the Canon that plainly says 1901 or later; on the other, a simple historian’s gossip telling us that a battle called “Diamond Hill” was fought in 1900. Who must we believe? There can be only one answer to that question! 😀
Hi “Reggie”: I feel your pain: I made myself crazy with that one too. I kept looking and looking. I eventually had to accept this was one of those instances when our good Doctor’s sloppy handwriting must have come into play with the ‘1901’…. 🙂
“Gwen”
But we can’t blame the good Doctor, since the story comes from Holmes’s case-book! 😀
The only alternative is to surmise that the poor James M. Dodd was a bit confused about his time spent in South Africa and when he said “January 1901, just two years ago” he actually meant “January 1900, THREE years ago”.
It would make for an interesting debate about this minor point in chronology… 😀