Category: Quiz

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Exciting New Quiz Approach

Here at the Doctor’s Consulting Room, we have an idea to keep our valued patients entertained while they await the good doctor’s ministrations.

Up until now, we have set out single question quiz conundrums for almost daily consumption. Not everyone stops by the practice daily, so we are going to tack up on the notice board a Weekly Quiz consisting of 10 to 20 individual questions. These will be set based on a theme. One week it may be poisons in the Canon; another it may be professions; other weekly themes may concern counties, or trains, or hotels, or manor houses, or dates … or even figs for that matter … the possibilities are almost endless.

You will be invited to work out the answers and send an email with your solutions to  buttons@johnhwatsonsociety.com by the final day when the Weekly Quiz closes. Buttons will review your answers with the good doctor (who, after all, is the only one who knows precisely what he meant when he wrote the Canon) and the two of them will announce a Weekly Quiz Master. The successful Quiz Master will be the person who emails first with the highest number of correct answers.

The Weekly Quiz Masters will have an opportunity to participate in a Quarterly Quiz every three months (the 12 Weekly Quiz Masters competing for the Quarterly Quiz Master).

And, as you have already deduced, the four Quarterly Quiz Masters will participate for the Annual Quiz Master designation. Somewhere along the way, there will be appropriate, nice mementos for those members who excel. Sounds a lot like that American quiz program “Jeopardy,” doesn’t it?

Now for the details…

The Weekly Quiz will be posted on the Quiz Page of the Society website by 12:00 Noon (Pacific) each Monday.

Answers (preferably Word documents sent as an attachment) will be emailed to buttons@johnhwatsonsociety.com by 12:00 Noon (Pacific) on the Saturday following (you will have five days to complete the Quiz). To be the Weekly Quiz Master, you will have to email first and have the highest number of correct answers.

The Weekly Quiz Master will be posted on the Quiz Page on the next Monday when the new Weekly Quiz is posted.

We believe this will be great fun… plus there is another reason for developing our skills. The Annual John H. Watson Canonical Treasure Hunt has recently identified a team of Quiz Mavens (the Seattle-based SOB’s) who have proven to be among the best in the world. Soon, we are going to expand upon that unique competition…. a very exciting development to be announced in a few months . . . and we are hoping to identify even more Quiz Masters and Quiz Mavens within the Society for what promises to be a whole new level of Canonical scholarship and quiz expertise.  Stay tuned!  But, until, please participate in the Weekly Quiz events!

The first Weekly Quiz begins 16 September 2013 by 12 Noon (Pacific).  Watch for it!  Try it!  Have some fun!

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A Brain Teaser

Can you work out names of Canonical characters from the names of other Canonical characters? Example:

Victor Savage contains the name Vigor (The “Hammersmith Wonder”)

How many can you find? This will keep you up a good part of the night….

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End of Summer . . . Resumption of Quiz Activity? 

With the last days of summer vacation dwindling, perhaps the participation in quizzes will return … let’s hope so since our members do so well. Here is one to think about:

Thugs, pugs and toughs in the Canon. Who can create the definitive catalogue of these colorful supporting characters?

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The Canonical Horses

No matter where you were in 1895 England, horses abounded. The Canon presents horses often. Can you organize them by story, breed, use, name, colour, etc., as may one day be helpful to scholars of the works?

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Everyone on Vacation?

Buttons is surprised there has not been a response to the lawyer question. On vacation or working on the Treasure Hunt? Feedback appreciated.

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Laugh!

With seemingly no takers on “death” let’s lighten up a bit.

We know Dr Watson has a “pawky” sense of humour which is defined as “shrewd and cunning, often in a humourous manner; chiefly British.”

We also know Holmes rarely laughs, but are there instances of Dr Watson laughing?

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Death in the Canon

Dr Watson writes often of death, either through murder or other causes. Can you catalogue the deaths – of all and any types – mentioned in the Canon? This would make an interesting paper: “Thanatopsis and the Sacred Canon”

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India and the Canon

During the Victorian period, India figured large in British history. How many references to India and its ancient and complex culture are found in the Canon and where do they appear?

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A Cincture of Canonical Chasubles

Dr Watson mentions throughout the Canon numerous of the clergy. Remembering how well you did with Dr, Mr, MD, and their resultant lists, what is the census of the wearers of the tippit and the tunicle? Who are they and how are they identified?

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A Canonical Date

The year 1644 appears in the Canon. What is the year in reference to and where does it appear and who is speaking?

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Description of Canonical Time

How does Dr Watson refer to various times of the day? On a 24 hour basis, the 8 quarters of the day are:

  1. Night
  2. Pre-Dawn
  3. Early Morning
  4. Late Morning
  5. Early Afternoon
  6. Late Afternoon
  7. Early Evening
  8. Late Evening

How does Dr Watson refer to these periods of the day throughout the Canon? Is there a repetitive pattern to his descriptions? Is there a “Standard British”  protocol for these period of the day descriptions?

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Okay! Let’s Get Tough in Preparation for the Treasure Hunt coming in 16 Days!

Here is an example of what you will have to research in the Treasure Hunt (except there will be 100 of these and they will not be as easy as this one).

  1. Find “main-truck” and count forward 37 words. What is the word?
  2. In the preceding story, name the other Canonical story referred to by Holmes.
  3. In that referred to story, find the “glint” and proceed to the 32nd paragraph following. What is the object there?
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For Your Weekend

A bit of research and explication of an abbreviation and several words (source, meaning, background, etc.):

  1. A.D.P.
  2. peltries
  3. snow-clad lawn
  4. breaker
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Rack & Riddle

Buttons has been “racking & riddling” (to use the méthode champenoise term) to come up with a question that will generate new research and scholarship. After several pies and several more pints, he stumbled across something:

Who can complete a compendium from the Sacred Canon of all things that burn?

For example, the lighthouse would have a kerosene lamp and that would create a flame; the lamplight would require a gas flame to throw off light into the foggy evening.

When you begin to go through the Canon with an eye to the absolute necessity of flame in 1895, you begin to find a huge new body of inquiry. And, when you add those things that are outside of normal Victorian life, such as the flaming radix pedis diaboli, we have even more to consider. This is a topic worthy of a significant scholarly paper for The Watsonian.

We’ll give you a few days for this one. Now, back to the bacon and tomato sandwich.