The Open and Inclusive Worldwide Online Sherlockian Society (Really, We're about Having Fun)
Hello 2018 Treasure Hunters!
This post is now open for clarifications/questions/discussion concerning the 6th Annual JHWS Treasure Hunt. This forum will remain open through August 31. Please feel free to discuss anything related to the hunt with the exception of posting specific answers to any of the questions. Any questions posted here for the Treasure Hunt Master will be answered as quickly as possible.
Happy Hunting!
Margie
Hello Treasure Hunters!
It is now August 1, 2018, in India; in honor of our returning competitors from The Sherlock Holmes Society of India, I am posting the 2018 Treasure Hunt now although it is not quite August 1 for many of us.
As always, a forum has been opened on the Quiz page for questions, clarifications, complaints, etc. I will respond to any postings as quickly as possible. It is possible you will find an error despite many hours of proofing/checking. If you do not, thank Sheila Holtgrieve (JHWS Daisy) for her excellent proof-reading. If you do find errors, I am at fault as I continued to make small changes to the document after she finished proofing. Any needed corrections will be posted to the forum. Please check it from time to time.
Please don’t forget the hunt is scored on a point system. Therefore, if you know part of a question (Who?), but not the other part (What?), please add the part you do know to your document. You will receive credit for each individual part of the question that is answered correctly. Point values are clearly marked on the document.
I have uploaded the Treasure Hunt in Microsoft Word (.docx) and in .pdf. Please see the rules page for instructions for submitting your finished hunt. Answers will be accepted until it is no longer August 31 anywhere in the world.
Ok, on you go…Happy Hunting!
Margie/ JHWS ‘Mopsy’
‘It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one.’
Hello Watsonians!
We invite you to participate in this edition of The Diogenes Club Quick Quote Quiz. As always, this little game requires no submission of answers to anyone—you are playing against yourself and the clock; it is not necessary for anyone else to take the least notice of what you do.
To play along:
–Read the quote from the Canon provided below.
–As quickly as you can, identify the speaker and the adventure featuring the quote.
–Scroll down a few inches to see if you have the correct answer.
–Leave a note in the comments, if you wish, about your answer and your time.
Ron Lies/ JHWS ‘Chips’
Margie Deck/ JHWS ‘Mopsy’
Quick quote quiz 7/30/2018: ‘Say, rather, into the region where we balance probabilities and choose the most likely.’
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Answer: Sherlock Holmes, HOUN
Prepare your thinking cap and get out your favorite Sherlockian reference books. Nine days from today, we will begin the Sixth Annual John H Watson Society Treasure Hunt.
Our “Mopsy” has designed this year’s Hunt as a special edition of 50 questions, the answers to all of which form a chain from one to the next.
Several teams have already let our Treasure Hunt Master know they’ll be competing, but individuals and teams around the world are welcome to jump in any time during the month of August!
‘It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings true.’
‘It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one.’
Hello Watsonians!
We invite you to participate in this edition of The Diogenes Club Quick Quote Quiz. As always, this little game requires no submission of answers to anyone—you are playing against yourself and the clock; it is not necessary for anyone else to take the least notice of what you do.
To play along:
–Read the quote from the Canon provided below.
–As quickly as you can, identify the speaker and the adventure featuring the quote.
–Scroll down a few inches to see if you have the correct answer.
–Leave a note in the comments, if you wish, about your answer and your time.
Ron Lies/ JHWS ‘Chips’
Margie Deck/JHWS ‘Mopsy’
Quick Quote Quiz 7/23/2018:
‘”At least,” said I, “it gives us another mystery, and one which is even more interesting than the first.'”
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Answer: Sherlock Holmes, MUSG
‘It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one.’
Hello Watsonians!
We invite you to participate in this edition of The Diogenes Club Quick Quote Quiz. As always, this little game requires no submission of answers to anyone—you are playing against yourself and the clock; it is not necessary for anyone else to take the least notice of what you do.
To play along:
–Read the quote from the Canon provided below.
–As quickly as you can, identify the speaker and the adventure featuring the quote.
–Scroll down a few inches to see if you have the correct answer.
–Leave a note in the comments, if you wish, about your answer and your time.
Ron Lies/ JHWS ‘Chips’
Margie Deck/JHWS ‘Mopsy’
Quick Quote Quiz 7/16/2018:
“I soon found out which was the window of his bed-room, and early next morning I took advantage of some ladders which were lying in the lane behind the hotel, and so made my way into his room in the grey of the dawn.”
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Answer: Jefferson Hope, STUD
Hello Watsonians–
As Friday the 13th is upon us, the time for submitting responses to the TH6: Every Link Rings True warm-up game has passed. Correct answers for this quiz — brilliantly re-named by Paul Hartnett as ‘The Singular Warm Up of the Three Canonical Percys’– were submitted by two individuals, and one team practicing for the real thing.
Congratulations to:
Paul Hartnett/ JHWS ‘Scout’
Michele Lopez/ JHWS ‘Reggie’
Sound of the Baskervilles 2018 Treasure Hunt Team– Lauren Messenger, David Haugen, Sondra Even
The answers are found below.
Many thanks for your time and attention,
Margie/ JHWS ‘Mopsy’
1–Find the exciting professional expert who generated considerable interest in his work. Who?
Answer: Percy Trevelyan
After I had graduated I continued to devote myself to research, occupying a minor position in King’s College Hospital, and I was fortunate enough to excite considerable interest by my research into the pathology of catalepsy, and finally to win the Bruce Pinkerton prize and medal by the monograph on nervous lesions to which your friend has just alluded… ‘You are the same Percy Trevelyan who has had so distinguished a career and won a great prize lately?’ said he. (RESI)
2–With Holmes’s questioning description of [ the answer to number one] in mind, find the ahead-of-Watson smart boy who went to college. Who?
Answer: Percy Phelps
During my school-days I had been intimately associated with a lad named Percy Phelps, who was of much the same age as myself, though he was two classes ahead of me. He was a very brilliant boy, and carried away every prize which the school had to offer, finishing his exploits by winning a scholarship, which sent him on to continue his triumphant career at Cambridge. He was, I remember, extremely well connected and even when we were all little boys together, we knew that his mother’s brother was Lord Holdhurst, the great Conservative politician. This gaudy relationship did him little good at school; on the contrary, it seemed rather a piquant thing to us to chevy him about the playground and hit him over the shins with a wicket. (NAVA)
3–Consider [the answers to numbers one and two], and then find the friend who fails to make eye contact, and, therefore, fails his fiancee. Who?
Answer: Percy Armitage
The very horror of my situation lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes… A month ago, however, a dear friend, whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage – Percy Armitage – the second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to be married in the course of the spring. (SPEC)
Hi Watsonians–
I’ve received a couple of good responses to the warmup game. Our players are getting a little tripped up with question three–which makes perfect sense as question three is a bit tricky, and this quiz style is different than our norm.
When working on the actual hunt, you would have a question number 4 that would link back to number 3–giving you more information to help you with number 3 should you need it. Here is a sample of a possible ‘Question 4’ for this game:
4. The fiancee of [the answer to number three] lives with a man who is crushed by a huge debt. Who is the man?
The game is open through the 13th.
Good luck!
Margie/ JHWS ‘Mopsy’
‘It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one.’
Hello Watsonians!
We invite you to participate in this edition of The Diogenes Club Quick Quote Quiz. As always, this little game requires no submission of answers to anyone—you are playing against yourself and the clock; it is not necessary for anyone else to take the least notice of what you do.
To play along:
–Read the quote from the Canon provided below.
–As quickly as you can, identify the speaker and the adventure featuring the quote.
–Scroll down a few inches to see if you have the correct answer.
–Leave a note in the comments, if you wish, about your answer and your time.
Ron Lies/ JHWS ‘Chips’
Margie Deck/JHWS ‘Mopsy’
Quick Quote Quiz 7/9/2018:
‘As to his relations with women, they appeared to have been promiscuous but superficial.’
Who is Watson talking about? Which story?
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Answer: Eduardo Lucas, SECO
Hi Watsonians–
I recently posted the first warm up game for the upcoming Treasure Hunt; however, today I realized I posted my first draft rather than the finished one. Egad!
If you are interested in playing the first game, please find the finished questions below. Please send answers to treasurehunt@johnhwatsonsociety.com by July 13–I am extending the date due to my error.
Your blushing Treasure Hunt Less-than-Master,
Margie/ JHWS ‘Mopsy’
1. Find the exciting professional expert who generated considerable interest in his work. Who?
2. With Holmes’s questioning description of [ the answer to number one] in mind, find the ahead-of-Watson smart boy who went to college. Who?
3. Consider [the answers to numbers one and two], and then find the friend who fails to make eye contact, and, therefore, fails his fiancee. Who?
In honor of one of the possible dates for John H. Watson’s birthday, we are having a sale all weekend long! From midnight tonight through Sunday (8 July) night at 11:59 pm EST you can spend a full weekend with us for just $30. Purchase now at http://www.221bcon.com/index.php/memberships
Hi Watsonians,
We are now exactly four weeks away from the beginning of the 2018 Treasure Hunt. After four months of work, the document is finished. Many thanks to our ‘Daisy’, Sheila Holtgrieve, for serving as reader this year, spending considerable time reading and solving the finished hunt; her feedback was very helpful to me. Her response is favorable, so I think we might be set.
To better acquaint you with the style/structure of this year’s 50-question hunt, I will post a few sample links for you to practice with. You will find the first warm-up link below.
Drop me a note to treasurehunt@johnhwatsonsociety.com if you wish to play along; answers will be posted next Tuesday, July 10.
Thanks,
Margie/ JHWS ‘Mopsy’
“It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings true.”
1. Find the exciting worker who generated considerable interest in his work. Who?
2. With Holmes’s questioning description of [ the answer to number one] in mind, find the smart boy who went to college. Who?
3. Consider [the answers to numbers one and two], and then find the friend who fails to make eye contact, and, therefore, fails the lady. Who?
(Source: A Day by Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes according to Zeisler and Christ, compiled by William S Dorn.)
July 3, 1895: At 2 a.m., Patrick Cairns killed Peter Carey with a harpoon. [BLAC]
And there in the middle of it was the man himself, his face twisted like a lost soul in torment, and his great brindled beard stuck upwards in his agony. Right through his broad breast a steel harpoon had been driven, and it had sunk deep into the wood of the wall behind him. He was pinned like a beetle on a card. Of course, he was quite dead, and had been so from the instant that he uttered that last yell of agony.
‘It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one.’
Hello Watsonians!
We invite you to participate in this edition of The Diogenes Club Quick Quote Quiz. As always, this little game requires no submission of answers to anyone—you are playing against yourself and the clock; it is not necessary for anyone else to take the least notice of what you do.
To play along:
–Read the quote from the Canon provided below.
–As quickly as you can, identify the speaker and the adventure featuring the quote.
–Scroll down a few inches to see if you have the correct answer.
–Leave a note in the comments, if you wish, about your answer and your time.
Ron Lies/ JHWS ‘Chips’
Margie Deck/JHWS ‘Mopsy’
Quick Quote Quiz 7/3/2018:
‘What do you make of that?’ he asked. The paper was covered with tracings of the footmarks of some small animal. It had five well-marked footpads, an indication of long nails, and the whole print might be nearly as large as a dessert spoon.
Who is speaking? What is he speaking about? Which story?
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Answer: Sherlock Holmes, Teddy the Mongoose, CROO
‘It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one.’
Hello Watsonians!
We invite you to participate in this edition of The Diogenes Club Quick Quote Quiz. As always, this little game requires no submission of answers to anyone—you are playing against yourself and the clock; it is not necessary for anyone else to take the least notice of what you do.
To play along:
–Read the quote from the Canon provided below.
–As quickly as you can, identify the speaker and the adventure featuring the quote.
–Scroll down a few inches to see if you have the correct answer.
–Leave a note in the comments, if you wish, about your answer and your time.
Ron Lies/ JHWS ‘Chips’
Margie Deck/JHWS ‘Mopsy’
Quick Quote Quiz 6/26/2018: ‘You seem to know everything, so I expect that you know that I met her when she was a passenger and I was first officer of the Rock of Gibraltar.’
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Answer: Captain Croker, ABBE
‘It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one.’
Hello!
We invite you to participate in this edition of The Diogenes Club Quick Quote Quiz. As always, this little game requires no submission of answers to anyone—you are playing against yourself and the clock; it is not necessary for anyone else to take the least notice of what you do.
To play along:
–Read the quote from the Canon provided below.
–As quickly as you can, identify the speaker and the adventure featuring the quote.
–Scroll down a few inches to see if you have the correct answer.
–Leave a note in the comments, if you wish, about your answer and your time.
Ron Lies/ JHWS ‘Chips’
Margie Deck/JHWS ‘Mopsy’
Quick Quote Quiz 6/19/2018: Today, we have a quote from Holmes. What is it that he and Watson are going to pull off after all? Which case?
‘I’m afraid…that all the Queen’s horses and all the Queen’s men cannot avail in this matter.’ He had spread out his big map of London, and leaned eagerly over it.’Well, well,’ said he presently, with an exclamation of satisfaction, ‘things are turning a little in our direction at last. Why, Watson, I do honestly believe that we are going to pull it off after all.’
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Answer: Sherlock Holmes, the recovery of the Bruce Partington Plans, BRUC
Later this summer, the very first Holmes in the Heartland conference will take place in St. Louis, IL. It promises to be a welcoming gathering for all sorts of Holmes fans and lots of fun. A number of Watsonians are planning to attend; I wish I could be there, too!
Rob Nunn (JHWS “Beacon”) shares the details:
Holmes in the Heartland will be happening on August 10-12, as we celebrate the installation of the new St. Louis Sherlockian Research Collection at the St. Louis Public Library and highlight the city of St. Louis. We will celebrate with a weekend full of BBQ, blues, tea, history and plenty of Sherlockian discussion! The weekend’s schedule includes:
Friday, August 10:
Welcome to St. Louis 221BBQ and Blues Carbuncle Night
Tour of the National Blues Museum and dinner at Sugarfire Smokehouse
Saturday, August 11:
A Curious Collection: The St. Louis Sherlockian Collection
We will be displaying the St. Louis Sherlockian Research Collection and have a full day of Sherlockian presentations at the central branch of the St. Louis Public Library. Speakers include:
Dinner Saturday night will be at historic Favazza’s on The Hill.
Sunday, August 12:
Medical History and Afternoon Tea
Tours of The Bernard Becker Medical Library with a focus on Victorian era medical treatments starting and 9:00 and an afternoon tea at The London Tea Room following.
You can register for one, two or all three days of Sherlockian fun! More information can be found at https://parallelcasestl.wixsite.com/home/holmes-in-the-heartland. We would love to have you! Come at once if convenient!
It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one.’
Hello Watsonians—
We invite you to participate in this edition of The Diogenes Club Quick Quote Quiz. As always, this little game requires no submission of answers to anyone—you are playing against yourself and the clock; it is not necessary for anyone else to take the least notice of what you do.
To play along:
–Read the quote from the Canon provided below.
–As quickly as you can, identify the speaker and the adventure featuring the quote.
–Note how long it took you to arrive at the answer.
–Scroll down a few inches to see if you have the correct answer.
–Leave a note in the comments, if you wish, about your answer and your time.
Ron Lies/ JHWS ‘Chips’
Margie Deck/JHWS ‘Mopsy’
Quick Quote Quiz 6/12/2018: Sherlock Holmes said or wrote ‘my dear Watson’ some 89 times. In one instance, he wrote it twice in the same note. Which note? Which adventure?
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Answer: Holmes’s Goodbye note to Watson, FINA
My DEAR WATSON, he said, I write these few lines through the courtesy of Mr Moriarty, who awaits my convenience for the final discussion of those questions which lie between us. He has been giving me a sketch of the methods by which he avoided the English police and kept himself informed of our movements. They certainly confirm the very high opinion which I had formed of his abilities. I am pleased to think that I shall be able to free society from any further effects of his presence, though I fear that it is at a cost which will give pain to my friends, and especially, my dear Watson, to you. I have already explained to you, however, that my career had in any case reached its crisis, and that no possible conclusion to it could be more congenial to me than this. Indeed, if I may make a full confession to you, I was quite convinced that the letter from Meiringen was a hoax, and I allowed you to depart on that errand under the persuasion that some development of this sort would follow. Tell Inspector Paterson that the papers which he needs to convict the gang are in pigeon-hole M, done up in a blue envelope and inscribed “Moriarty”. I made every disposition of my property before leaving England, and handed it to my brother Mycroft. Pray give my greetings to Mrs Watson, and believe me to be, my dear fellow,
Very sincerely yours, SHERLOCK HOLMES.
‘It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one.’
Hello Watsonians—
We invite you to participate in this edition of The Diogenes Club Quick Quote Quiz. As always, this little game requires no submission of answers to anyone—you are playing against yourself and the clock; it is not necessary for anyone else to take the least notice of what you do.
To play along:
–Read the quote from the Canon provided below.
–As quickly as you can, identify the speaker and the adventure featuring the quote.
–Note how long it took you to arrive at the answer.
–Scroll down a few inches to see if you have the correct answer.
–Leave a note in the comments, if you wish, about your answer and your time.
Ron Lies/ JHWS ‘Chips’
Margie Deck/JHWS ‘Mopsy’
Quick Quote Quiz 6/5/2018: “Be at the third pillar from the left outside the Lyceum Theatre to-night at seven o’clock.”
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Answer: Thaddeus Sholto (writing to Mary Morstan), SIGN
‘It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one.’
Hello Watsonians—
We invite you to participate in this edition of The Diogenes Club Quick Quote Quiz. As always, this little game requires no submission of answers to anyone—you are playing against yourself and the clock; it is not necessary for anyone else to take the least notice of what you do.
To play along:
–Read the quote from the Canon provided below.
–As quickly as you can, identify the speaker and the adventure featuring the quote.
–Note how long it took you to arrive at the answer.
–Scroll down a few inches to see if you have the correct answer.
–Leave a note in the comments, if you wish, about your answer and your time.
Ron Lies/ JHWS ‘Chips’
Margie Deck/JHWS ‘Mopsy’
Quick Quote Quiz 5/29/2018: “That’s Prescott’s machine, and those bundles on the table are two thousand of Prescott’s notes worth a hundred each and fit to pass anywhere. Help yourselves, gentlemen. Call it a deal and let me beat it.”
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Answer: ‘Killer’ Evans, 3GAR