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On June 10th…

June 10, 1889: Hall Pycroft was supposed to start work with Mawson & Williams (STOC)
June 10, 1900: Beppo destroyed two more busts of Napoleon (SIXN)

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On June 9th…

June 9, 1888: Jeremiah Hayling was killed by Colonel Lysander Stark (ENGI)
June 9, 1889: Hall Pycroft began marking off all of the hardware sellers in Paris (STOC)

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“No Great Harm Was Done” [FINA]

Stutler's Drawing of 221B Baker Street
221B Baker Street, as imagined by Russell Stutler

 

Brad at Sherlock Peoria posted recently about the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to the fire at 221B Baker Street in “The Final Problem”.

“They set fire to our rooms last night. No great harm was done.”

So says Sherlock Holmes to Doctor Watson. It does indeed seem to have caused very little harm, since three years later, in “The Empty House”, Holmes says that “Mycroft preserved my rooms and my papers exactly as they had always been.” An impressive feat, considering how quickly paper burns.

That fire came up in a quiz a couple of years ago, and there was a discussion in the comments in which Ariana (“Carla”) suggested that Holmes set the fire himself.

What do you think? Did Moriarty (or his agents) set the fire? Did Holmes set it himself? Or perhaps Holmes fibbed, and there was no fire at all?

(Click on Russell Stutler’s illustration of the Baker Street rooms to see an enlarged version.  Be sure to visit his site for his annotations!)

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On June 7th…

June 7, 1889: Arthur Pinner offered Hall Pycroft a job with Franco-Midland Hardware Company (STOC)
June 7, 1900: Beppo destroyed the first bust of Napoleon (SIXN)

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On June 6th…

June 6, 1889: Hall Pycroft received a letter offering him a berth with Mawson & Williams (STOC)
June 6, 1890: Napoleon busts were sold to Morse Hudson and the Harding Brothers (SIXN)

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June 1: Buster has the goods and things are warming up

Hello Watsonians!

It is now June 1, warm weather is upon us, and it is only some sixty days until the 4th Annual John H Watson Society Treasure Hunt begins.  I’ve been hearing inklings of previous competitors returning, and I’m hoping some new teams might be in the works.  Over the next two weeks I will be writing to many Sherlockian groups to invite new competitors.  Thanks to the hard work of Chris Redmond (JHWS ‘Buster’), a treasure trove of contact information is readily available at sherlockian.net. I can’t thank him enough for this amazing resource.

Speaking of warming up and returning competitors, I encourage you to head over to Brad Keefauver’s always entertaining Sherlock Peoria to read the April 30, 2016 blog post titled ‘Team Building’ to see how one of our Down in Illinois team members is warming up for the competition.  You will laugh, and perhaps be inspired to compete.

The 2016 edition of the Treasure Hunt will celebrate  “that mixture of imagination and reality” which is the basis of our shared fun where it is always1895.   To help get you into the spirit of things, you will find below our first warm up question for this year: Give it a go and let us know how you fare.

The recent BBC Sherlock Special The Abominable Bride explored the possibility of Holmes and Watson being men ahead of their time.  In reality, Holmes noted once to his dismay that he and Watson were before their time. On what day of the year were they too up to date?

Margie

2016 Treasure Hunt Master

JHWS ‘Gwen’

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Doctor Watson’s Afghanistan Campaign Medal

“The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster.” – A Study In Scarlet (STUD)

With that comment, within the first two hundred words of STUD, we are given a strong viewpoint of Dr Watson’s regarding his participation in the Second Anglo-Afghanistan War of 1878 – 1880. That said, Dr Watson was honoured, as were all surviving troops that took part in the skirmishes of that conflict, for service to Queen and country.

Greg Ruby, JHWS “Darth” and “Mycroft” of The Fourth Garrideb, shares his article on Doctor Watson’s Afghanistan Campaign Medal on TFG’s blog today. The article first appeared in the Spring 2016 Watsonian.

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A Quiz from the Archives

This week, we’re dipping into the archives for one of our dear Buttons’s quizzes. It originally ran in October, 2013. It’s a little bit different from the traditional Sherlockian trivia challenge.

Submit your answers by 11:59 PDT Sunday, June 5 to selena@johnhwatsonsociety.com. Include your answers to the all of the questions as well as the final result. (Please do not post answers in the comments to this post.)

This week’s quiz is on Canonical Numbers. Determine the number or numbers that are indicated by the textual clues. Each question is answered with a number. When you have answered all of the questions with their respective numeric answers, total all of the numbers and proceed to the final division and Solution.

Questions:

The enumeration in his mind for Anatomy.
Number of years of the unit.
The final three numerals.
St Luke’s scout’s tenure in rooms.
Beaten.
Number of inclusive years Holmes was a very busy man.
White sea’s distance away.
Number of lads who had supper in the kitchen.
Number of free citizens.
Numeric address of machinery assessors.
English governess’s age thereabouts.
Convert to numbers the time Holmes will be pleased to dine.
The object of the idiot’s love had been at boarding school ‘x’ years.
Amount of the maiden aunt’s capital.
At what hour on Monday was the office closed?
Page number of account in the big ledger.
Number of figures in only child’s marriage inter-vivos.
Shade of the elm.
Whistle ‘x’ minutes before the descent.
Number of the day of the month of the intrusive vicar.

Total of all Numbers: _____

Divide the Total by 28.66: _____

Final Number Answer: _____

Note: The Final Answer Number is your “Check” answer. If it is Canonically logical, you have correctly provided accurate numbers for all 20 questions. If it is not logical, you have one or more answers incorrect.

(Those of you who completed this back in 2013, shhhhh! Don’t spoil the ending! 🙂 )

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Brett, Burke, and the Greatest Friendship Ever

Some excerpts from a lovely interview with Jeremy Brett were making the rounds on Twitter recently. (The full interview was published in the Fall 1985 issue of The Armchair Detective.) In the article, Brett talks a bit about how he and David Burke approached character development, especially for Doctor Watson:

We asked ourselves, “Who’d stay with Holmes? Well, Watson does. But therefore why does he stay?” All right, he’s fascinated with deduction – he still has never recovered [from the surprise at] Holmes’s knowing he had just come back from Afghanistan – but there’s more than that.

Holmes was obviously not an easy person to live with, what with the indoor shooting practice and the chemical experiments and the impromptu violin practice at all hours. Yet, Watson stays.

I think that what I found in what I call the under-bedding of the part is that somehow Watson sees this man’s need. First of all, Holmes falls apart when he’s not working. […] So he’s obviously a problem child as well as a brilliant friend. Watson sees that. Watson sees that Holmes can’t say “Thank you”; he can’t say “Good night,” can’t say “Help.”

Best friendship in human history, Holmes and Watson. They balance each other. They need each other.

If Watson suddenly decided to go and live, let’s say, in Madagascar, Holmes would be dead inside of six weeks. And that’s what we chose to play.

Selena Buttons went in search of the original magazine issue to read the full interview, but, while the local used bookshop had several issues of The Armchair Detective from the mid-90s and even more from the late-70s, they did not have this particular one from 1985.

What do you think of the way the Granada series portrayed the relationship between Holmes and Watson? Do you have a favorite moment?

But what Holmes does occasionally is rather sweet little things like in “A Scandal in Bohemia” he tells Watson, “You see, I did remember you were coming; here are your cigars.” And it’s the little things that mean a lot. I tried to show how much Holmes does actually need Watson without actually saying it.