The JHWS September Meeting: Hounds All Around!

If you were at our last meeting, you know what we’re up to this month. A panel of specially selected Holmes movie buffs are going to fantasy draft their perfect film adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Who will be the stars? How will they make it special? And you get to pick the one you’d want to see!

To pre-register for this Zoom meeting on September 29th (EDIT: no longer the 22nd, sorry!) at noon Central time, just click the link below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwtc-ugpzMoHtb-0ggSNf2Bf9mlESghCfio

The John H. Watson Society Treasure Hunt final week! (And Final Team!)

It’s the last week for doing the annual August treasure hunt of Canonical details from Watson’s writings, and Watsonians around the world are scrambling to get their entries polished up and turned in by the time September 2nd is done. (Scroll down to find the full Treasure Hunt details!)

Meanwhile, here’s the latest episode of the John H. Watson Society’s official podcast, which sadly, contains no audio from Sunday’s meeting:

https://watsonianweekly.libsyn.com/august-26-2024-when-one-watson-runs-short-the-answer-is-elementary

The Watson Challenge Is Coming!

We know you’re all busy testing your wits on the annual John H. Watson Society Treausre Hunt (scroll down if you haven’t started yet), but we wanted to let you prep for our August meeting and the John H. Watson Storytelling Challenge on Zoom this August 25th. How does it work?

Our willing participants will be given the title of one of Watson’s sixty stories at random and be asked to tell the tale in 30 seconds (and only 30 seconds). Each story will have a list of ten items worth a point a piece, and our storyteller, in actually retelling the story, will get a point for every one of those items they mention. It could be a person, a place, an activity, a color — you just don’t know! — that our judge feels is key to that story (or worth bonus points!). Are you up to telling a story with the level of detail only Watson could? Come to our August meeting and find out!

The registration link is still: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZctcumprD4jHdMHHw1JWSYq4kJ_YCDqolE0

Our August Meeting Is Coming!

Mark your calendars now for 1 PM Eastern/Noon Central, etc. on Sunday, August 25th, as the John H. Watson Society and friends gather on Zoom to have a little fun and ease your mind into the last week of the John H. Watson Society Treasure Hunt. What are we going to be up to? A completely different test of your ability to Watson that should be most entertaining to those you aren’t under the bright exam room lights.

The registration link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZctcumprD4jHdMHHw1JWSYq4kJ_YCDqolE0

In the meantime, give that Treasure Hunt a go and we’ll also check in on your state of mind as we round that last turn.

Our July Meeting!

At noon central time on Sunday, July 21st, the John H. Watson Society will Zoom again, with a bit of Watson fun for the middle of your Sunday. Into team sports? It might be something like that . . . you just never know! Here’s the registration link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUscuqgpz4jHdOoAjlVyFGUjr9-8Z6B49zw

And after that, take a listen to the latest Watsonian Weekly. Sure, we just talk about another podcast (“Sherlock & Co.”) most of the time these days, but if John H. Watson has his own weekly podcast, what else do you expect the John H. Watson Society’s official podcast to do? Here’s that link:

https://five.libsyn.com/show/episodes/view/32133542

The Great Watson Debate — Our May Meeting!

The Best Watson Up For Battle!

The greatest Watson?

For the May meeting of the John H. Watson Society at high noon (CST) on Sunday, May 26th, The Great Memorial Day Weekend Watson Debate will be our main event. And when we say “main event,” we mean Main Event!

As most of you know, our humble meeting host has a great and honest affection for a particular portrayal of John H. Watson (pictured above) and is challenging all comers to try to take the crown of World’s Greatest Watson Portrayal from that Watson. Debaters will have three minutes (and ONLY three minutes, after which time a horn will sound, ending their time) to present a case for their candidate of choice. Only positive cases for a chosen Watson will be allowed, and any negative statements about any other Watson will result in immediate disqualification. What makes a great Watson? Can those qualities be put into words? Can you convince a jury of your peers that your favorite Watson is, indeed, better than the actor known as the best John Watson in any theatrical film from 2018?

IMPORTANT NOTE: Only three minutes per Watson will be allowed to keep this competition fair. Multiple debaters choosing the same Watson will be forced to share the same three minutes.

Somebody better show up to make a case for their Watson, or the one candidate already entered will walk away for with the title as easily as he dealt with “Brawn” in his famous Fumbles Gymnasium match. So BRING IT ON!

To register for the meeting go to: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcuc-GsrzsqHd3ahReFZwkkA7gwiOAAxcIw

The March Meeting of the JHWS: The Great “Watness” Experiment!

On Sunday, March 17, at noon CST, the John H. Watson Society will gather on Zoom to decide the final rounds of “Watson Watness,” a horribly named process to determine what John H. Watson’s best characteristics are. What are his “sweet sixteen” aspects? And of those, what are his “great eight?” Four things he wouldn’t be Watson without?

It’s a bracket style tournament to see just what makes Watson so lovable, and you’ll get to help decide the finals if you can make it to the Zoom. Here’s the link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwvcOisrzgtHNIJZtNOyVMbJqAg5-3xp6z7

Sign up now and you might get to help decide the second preliminary round later this week before the meeting!

February 18th for the John H. Watson Society meeting!

Due to an online symposium from the Legion of Zoom that most of of members will want to attend, this month’s meeting of the John H. Watson Society will be held on Sunday, February 18th at noon. The Watson Consultation will be back, and this month’s guest meeting host, bull pup Maddy, will be interviewing a special bull pup guest! You won’t want to miss that!

Here’s the registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItcOmppzgsH9Sz9wFJhkGd84E1Yrpkc7ns

And while you’re clicking links, here’s this week’s episode of the Watsonian Weekly: https://watsonianweekly.libsyn.com/february-5-2024-watsons-car-and-his-rants-about-the-rich

A January Pitch Meeting for the JHWS!

January may start with Sherlock Holmes’s Birthday and all the attention on the birthday boy, but at the end of the month, it’s time to pay attention to our old friend Dr. Watson once more! On Sunday, January 28th, at noon CST (or whatever that works out to in your home zone), the John H. Watson Society will again gather for our typical discussion and fun — but with a current news twist!

You’ve surely heard — and if you haven’t, listen to this week’s Watsonian Weekly on that — there’s going to be a new television show with Watson as it’s main character coming soon. We’ve seen Watson featured over Holmes on TV before, as in Netflix’s The Irregulars, but as any good Watsonian knows, there’s more to Watson than just two TV shows can show.

So our January meeting is going to be a pitch meeting! Come with your thirty-second elevator pitch for a TV show that features John H. Watson as it’s lead, and our panel of fake TV executives will be awarding the one we like best a special Watson prize package. (Books! You know it will be books! Watson books, enough to fill a Priority Mail box, if the winner is in the US. There will be an alternate prize if one of our friends across the ocean comes up with the best pitch.) Any time period, any setting, any casting, just a somewhat recognizable version of John H. Watson in a premise that would make a good TV series! (No straight Canon adaptations allowed. We’re not going to force the judges to vote against Canon.)

Here’s the registration link for our January fun, so get that pitch together and come join the fun:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUudOytrjMsGtIEBCQksQh2ukMctwZF6B2U

The Twelve Days of Watson, Our December 17 Meeting!

Yes, it’s time for a holiday party, and the John H. Watson Society’s meeting on Sunday, December 17th at noon Central Standard Time (and whatever that translates into for your personal time zone)) is going to be all that in a Watson-type celebration of the season!

You may have heard mention of caroling and holiday cards and thought, “It’s Zoom! That stuff doesn’t work well on Zoom!” But where there’s a Watson will there’s a Watson way!

If you have the skills to put together a PNG, JPEG, or PDF version of a “Compliments of the Season” card, we’ve got a chat to pass those out in. And caroling? Lucky for us there’s a holiday song that can be voiced (singing encouraged, but not required) by multiple people on a Zoom call and actually work. It’s called “The Twelve Days of Watson,” and so easy to do that we’ll learn it together at the meeting.

We know December 17th, the Sunday before Christmas, is going to be a busy day for a lot of folks, but if you’ve got ninety minutes to spare, here’s the registration link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZclceyqrD4iG9TvQwKcgwWgODrKLxEegzyF

Our December Meeting Comes Early!

Since we don’t want to attempt to gather on any major holidays, the John H. Watson Society’s Zoom Christmas Party will be Sunday, December 17, 2023 at noon Central Standard Time. Put on your fancy hat, get out your favorite Sherlock Holmes Christmas card to show off, and warm up your vocal cards for some Watson caroling. Here’s the link to register!

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZclceyqrD4iG9TvQwKcgwWgODrKLxEegzyF

And if you missed the latest meeting, and want to hear a good share of it, take a listen to the latest episode of the Watsonian Weekly!

https://watsonianweekly.libsyn.com/november-27-2023-watson-mason-and-mason-attorneys-not-at-all

Watson’s November Consultation

The big Thanksgiving weekend is coming up here in America, and as it’s a family time, we’re doing something a little different for our November John H. Watson Society Consultation. For our meeting this Sunday, November 26, at noon CST, we’re doing our Watson best to learn what we can with a combined interview of those hard-travelling Sherlockians Steve and Rusty Mason. No Jungian testing this time, but another experimental testing procedure to try on them which you might recognize will be added to the fun. Unique questions, followed by the chance to make your own inquiries, the usual general discussion, and . . . will the Tea Brokers of Mincing Lane eventually try to do a meeting takeover? Rumors abound.

Join your fellow Watsonians and friends by signing up for Sunday’s Zoom at:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZModeCurjIpGtJuInPHzvieO3-ckbjJWsBf

Watsowrimo!

November will be here soon, and at least one Watsonian has promised themselves to devoting this November to a particular novel-length story they want to tell. It’s not a pastiche, but it does feature a Holmes and a Watson, by those names. If you’ve ever participated in National Novel Writing Month, or Nanowrimo, as it is affectionately called, you know it’s a marathon for writers, a month-long challenge to get 50,000 words into your own novel. It’s a great motivator and a good way to get a nice feeling of accomplishment going into the holiday season.

And as I said, there’s one among us who is dead set on turning Nanowrimo 2023 into Watsonwrimo. It may just be me. But Nanowrimo is all about community and support, even while the task itself is a lonely and individual one. That said, if you’d like to join in Watsowrimo and try getting 50,000 Watson words, of any sort, with encouragement on the Watsonian Weekly podcast and a little friendly encouragement, JHWS style, drop an email to podcast@johnhwatsonsociety.com and join our little Watsowrimo crew, either under your real name or a pseudonym, if you’re shy about letting anyone know you’re writing a novel before the thing gets done. (We get it. Even Holmes kept his revelations until the climactic moment.)

The John H. Watson Society is about paying tribute to that great man in so many ways, and one of those is carrying on his legacy of writing about Sherlock Holmes. So let’s make November a month Watson is remembered . . . with 50,0000 words.

“Compound of the Busy Bee and Excelsior. We can but try — the motto of the firm!”

Our October Consultation, Sunday, October 22

Just a reminder that the monthly meeting of the John H. Watson Society is coming up this Sunday, October 22, at noon Central time. Here’s that link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUodu-qrD4pE90gC36ovW__Yk3TjfNitCm9

This month’s Consultation will be trying something new as we bring in author, editor, symposium host, and inveterate reader of Sherlockiana, Rob Nunn into Watson’s examination room for a probing interview on his Watson-based afflictions. (Our “patients” will remain fully clothed for their examinations, don’t get excited.) After some rounds of questions by our Resident, we’ll open things up to the group to make sure we leave nothing out in diagnosing the seriousness of Rob’s case.

Be sure to check that link above to see what we find!

Let’s talk about Watson’s new podcast!

This week saw the start of Sherlock & Co., a new weekly podcast by John H. Watson, M.D. about his life with Sherlock Holmes. It’s a lively modern romp that’s not BBC Sherlock, but an original riff that aims to do modern takes on all sixty original Canonical tales. Two 35 minute episodes came out this week on all sorts of podcast sources ( I use Apple Podcasts, myself — https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/sherlock-co/id1710121792 )

If you’d like to help review the new podcast on the Watsonian Weekly, this Sunday, October 15th at 1 PM Central time, there’s going to be a chat on Zoom that you can register for with the link below. Be forewarned, however! Your podcast host is enthusiastic about this show and will only be taking POSITIVE opinions for the podcast. Grumblers and Canon-only Watsonians need not apply. That said, we’d love to hear your happy thoughts on the matter, if you’ve got the time. Here’s the gathering link (not an actual meeting of the JHWS — that’s later this month):

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvceCvqzwuGNRhgOur1_zY8srUU_rdAMvV

The JHWS October “Consultation” is coming . . .

After last month’s little history lesson on the John H. Watson Society, our meetings are getting referred to as they once were as “Consultations,” whether in-person or over video. While it is true that John Watson did not yet have tele-health visits at his disposal, our regular meetings sprang from the technology, so we think he would approve.

Here’s the link for October. More to come as the month progresses!

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUodu-qrD4pE90gC36ovW__Yk3TjfNitCm9

Hear the JHWS meet, and then help us meet some more!

Firstly, if you want to hear the wide range of John H. Watson Society folk discussing some Watsons we found, listen to this week’s Watsonian Weekly!

https://watsonianweekly.libsyn.com/september-11-2023-three-watsons

Secondly, we want to know what you’d like to see/hear at our meetings! Take our survey!

https://forms.gle/gxHWUJexZhR6RpF17

Thirdly, the John H. Watson Society meets again in two short weeks on September 24th at noon Central time. Here’s the registration link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYufuusqz4vEtwN9YTd_4ivNegUVARZzJAE

Hit all three links and the site will send a time-travelling psychic emotional message to Watson in autumn 1891 and he will have a moment of happiness without knowing why. (As far as anyone in 2023 knows. Not scientifically proven or tested.)

The JHWS 2023 Final Results!

The 2023 John H. Watson Society Treasure Hunt is over and it was the closest contest in many years. Entries were received from around the world including Canada, Australia and France.

The overall and individual US champion, once again, was Michael Ellis of Plymouth, Michigan who answered all questions correctly, except one, for 198 points. He was one of only four contestants whocorrectly solved the dreaded cipher. Ellis is a multiple champion who was edged out for first place last year by Stephen Mason and Todd Winegar (each getting 181 points) who fell to a tie for fourth place. 

Paul Thomas Miller solved the cipher and won the International individual championship with 189 points, edging Enrico Solito (182).

The US team championship went to the Sound of the Baskervilles from Seattle, Washington, who scored 192 points and were comprised of Cameron Brandon, Margie Deck, Nancy Holder, Naching Kassa and David Merrell.  They correctly solved the cipher, too, as did the Maughan Family (Carrie, Michael, and Caitlyn) from Canada (175). The US team of Brad Keefauver, Sandy Kozinn and Madeline Quinones finished second with 185 points. 

The International team champions, La Fayette (182), came from France and were comprised of Daniel Henocq, Léandre Helbecque, Nicolas Maurel-Lalague, Florence Turenne, Anne du Ranquet, Thomas Bataillon (age 12), Véronique Chapperon and Thierry Saint-Joanis (Tristan JHWS).

Here are the top scorers:

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

Michael Ellis                198  US Champion

Paul Thomas Miller     189  International Champion

Enrico Solito                 182

Steve Mason                181

Todd Winegar               181

Mark Doyle                   180

Johanna Freeman        178

Ellie Lo                         175

TEAM LEADERS

Sound of the Baskervilles     192 US Champions

Keefauver, Quinones, Kozinn   185

La Fayette                                182 International Champions

The Maugham Family               175

Corrected answers were e-mailed to all participants. Congratulations to all who participated. 

The August JHWS Treasure Hunt Final Team!

The month of August went pretty fast for most of us, and the John H. Watson Society’s annual Treasure Hunt challenge has been completed by many teams and individuals already. Yet there are those of us who might have been a little too busy, a little nervous about attempting the challenge on our own, or just didn’t get on the ball nearly early enough. For all of us falling into that category and functioning anywhere close to a Central US time zone, however, there is one last chance: The Final Team.

The Final Team will be a team of whatever ne’er-do-wells, lazy eccentric geniuses, and champions of the last minute who show up for a Zoom on Wednesday, August 30 at 7 PM Central time to start the quiz from scratch and see how much they can cobble together for a last minute team entry. Three hours have been booked, but c’mon, such an misfit band won’t even need that, right? You’ve seen the movies!

Oh, yes, and The Final Team, as it shall be known, will be recorded in their labors for a special post-Treasure Hunt episode (edited like craze for entertainment value, of course). Is this a crazy scheme? YES! But it’s just crazy enough that it just might work!

If you’d like to be a part of The Final Team, here’s the Zoom link to sign up for Wednesday night’s fun. Let’s go get it and show those early-month know-it-alls how it’s done!

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUvduyorDMqGtMBgJ7zhHjyezv-PofdSlmi