Author: Brad Keefauver

You know the drill — join your fellow Watsonians for an hour or two of chat on whatever topics we wander into. This month’s theme “The Toys of John H. Watson” is whatever those words bring to mind — hopefully nothing dark or murderous after last month! March is rolling by at the speed of a hoop and stick being played with by a little Johnny Watson, so take a minute to catch your breath with us.

You are invited to THE Zoom meeting.
When: Mar 26, 2022 12:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada — who knows what that is in Portsmouth after we did the Daylight Savings switcheroo!)

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAodeyrpz8jHtMvLiyA1q0Dpd3CLN59_S2C

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Remember the movie “Without A Clue,” where Watson was the secret genius of Baker Street and Sherlock Holmes was a foolish actor? So take that premise, but keep the Sherlock Holmes we know at full genius level. THEN make Watson a criminal mastermind of a level that Holmes did not even suspect — Eurus Holmes level. How many hidden crimes documented in plain sight in the Canon could he have been responsible for?

“The late Irene Adler?” “The late Elias Whitney?” Paul Thomas Miller has opened up a Pandora’s box, a can of poisonous worms, a horrific possibility that simply must be examined by the John H. Watson Society, whether we want to believe it or not, and your JHWS meeting host is running with it.

You are invited to a Zoom meeting to discuss the full ramifications of this dark path.
When? Feb 26, 2022 12:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada), 6:00 PM Portsmouth Time (UK and Bullpup Buck), and whatever works for the rest of the zones to match those.

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwrf-yrqT0jHdLVvqFXIPQcY-jnYFzaP5Fd

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Since last weekend was a very special “Sherlock Holmes Birthday Weekend” gathering of the John H. Watson Society and friends, and since our actual monthly meetings tend to happen without speakers, agendas, or much planning . . . well, why not have a meeting on our normal weekend of the month?

So here’s our last minute meeting details for any of you Watson fans who just want to show up and see what happens:

When: Jan 22, 2022 12:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwsf-2upz8iG9ONAvF0THmQOsSVOqh6sHzI

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

This week’s Watsonian Weekly is a whole lot of talk (but not all of it, sad to say) from Saturday’s meeting of the John H. Watson Society. Enjoy!

https://watsonianweekly.libsyn.com/january-17-2022-a-whole-lotta-watson-for-ya

This Saturday, at a very abnormal time for us, the John H. Watson Society will be joining in on the weekend festivities with a 2:30 PM EST Zoom gathering to celebrate the birthday of John’s best friend (and etc.) Sherlock Holmes. It’s a little hard to play “Pin The Tail On Holmes or Watson” on Zoom, even if they both identified themselves on the animal in question (Watson in “Reigate Squires,” Holmes in “Bruce-Partington Plans.”) but we’ll figure out something appropriate, especially if you help in the comments below.

When: Jan 15, 2022 01:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqduGoqzwrEtfhaa86i5ltHAcskecexI4F

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

We know, you’ve got all that Christmas shopping to do, family showing up so as not to compete with some other side of the family next weekend, Spiderman: No Way Home matinees, and a thousand other virus-prone things to keep you busy this Saturday, but your good doctor Watson would surely want you to stay inside and come to the John H. Watson Society zoom gathering at the usual time.

Will there be a program? Will bull pup Calder just try to get you to help him plan the Sherlock’s birthday weekend zoom party (and potential Saturday JHWS event)? You just never know with our merry band.

But, all that said, you are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: Dec 18, 2021 12:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvc-2upj0sG90upFLyfo1Kw-U697Afd5XM

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Rather than waiting to call upon Sherlock Holmes AFTER Christmas, the John H. Watson Society will be avoiding a holiday conflict by moving our meeting up a week to December 18. And here’s the registration link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvc-2upj0sG90upFLyfo1Kw-U697Afd5XM

Join us for some unexpected Blue Carbuncle fun and all the usual Watsonian chatter, in directions even more unexpected — you don’t even have to be a JHWS member to attend!

Did we ever mention that you don’t have to be a card-carrying member of the John H. Watson Society to attend a meeting of the JHWS? (Hint: We don’t have membership cards.)

Our next meeting is tomorrow (Saturday, November 27th at) at the magical hour of 10 AM PDT, 11 AM MDT, 12 Noon CDT, 1 PM EDT, 6 PM BST, 7 PM CEST, etc. , and in the grand tradition of the best pub trivia we’ll be testing Watson knowledge while we share some as well. Calculate and double-calculate what time that happens in your time zone and join us for some fun.

The registration link is  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0vduihrj0tHdI1bceHd20aq5eKeP8XxO2n

Here we go again! Yes, it may be a holiday weekend in one of the countries we’re based in, but when is a meeting of the John H. Watson Society anything but a holiday? We’re going to have some fun little Watson pub trivia that you can enjoy even if you don’t have his immortal words memorized, along with the usual chatter, so take a break last Saturday of the month for a visit.

When is it happening? Saturday, November 27th at 10 AM PDT, 11 AM MDT, 12 Noon CDT, 1 PM EDT, 6 PM BST, 7 PM CEST, etc. — and be sure to double check that time against your local time zone. Need a reminder? Get a Watson reminder buddy!

If you haven’t got a Watson reminder buddy, if you’d like to get invited to the Zoom, and or if you haven’t gotten the link already from some back-alley source, just email podcast@johnhwatsonsociety.com to get in on the event.

Time again to summon the Society of Watson to speak of the things of which no one else speaks. And this being October, as the darkness claims the land, and the spirits of the dead come closer to the veil, even matters Watsonian must turn to shadowed tales of . . . well, you’ll just have to come to the October meeting to find out! 

When is it happening? Saturday, October 23rd at 10 AM PDT, 11 AM MDT, 12 Noon CDT, 1 PM EDT, 6 PM BST, 7 PM CEST, etc. — and be sure to double check that time against your local time zone (especially if your name rhymes with “Doll Lomax Killer”).

If you’d like to get invited to the Zoom, and haven’t gotten the link already from some back-alley source, just email podcast@johnhwatsonsociety.com to get in on the event.

John H. Watson: Doctor, writer, detective agency partner, and. . . . documentary film-maker?

At the next meeting of the John H. Watson Society — Saturday, September 25th at 10 AM PDT, 11 AM MDT, 12 Noon CDT, 1 PM EDT, 6 PM BST, 7 PM CEST, etc. — we’re indulging a couple of conspiracy theorists and testing Watson’s documentary footage with a JHWS-meeting sized group of test subjects. You may have heard of this sort of experimentation being done before on janitors and robots in isolated space stations, but rest assured — no robots will be present at this meeting.

If you’d like to get invited to the Zoom, and haven’t gotten the link already from some back-alley source, just email podcast@johnhwatsonsociety.com to get in on the event.

And while you’re feeling in mood for being open to the great panorama of life that includes John H. Watson, M.D. take a listen the the latest episode of our society’s own podcast, the Watsonian Weekly at https://watsonianweekly.libsyn.com/september-20-2021-three-continents-of-watsonians and wherever fine podcasts are streamed. (Want to be on the Watsonian Weekly? Got ideas or just a hankering to do Watsonian audio content? Just write to podcast@johnhwatsonsociety.com and find out how. )

Yes, it’s Watsonian Weekly time again — it does happen every week, remember? You may have listened once a long time ago, but that means you haven’t heard more recent features like “What’s on Watson,” “Roxie’s Bull Pup Poetry Corner,” “Want Them To Be Watson,” or the latest, “The Watson View of . . .” (Insert story name here.) It’s less than twenty minutes long, so not much commitment there at all.

You can find “The Watsonian Weekly” every week at:
https://watsonianweekly.libsyn.com/
or on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and all those places podcasts tend to show up.

This Saturday, the bull pups and friends will finally be gathering again to discuss our old friend John H. Watson and those who came after him — his literal heirs! Who in his life might have gathered for the reading of the will? Who took something of Watson with them when he was gone, either in a tin box or their DNA? The matter needs discussed, and we shall certainly do it this Saturday. (And probably record something of it for the society’s podcast.) And who knows where else the conversation might ramble, as always!

Saturday, August 28 at 10 AM PDT, 11 AM MDT, 12 Noon CDT, 1 PM EDT, 6 PM BST, 7 PM CEST, etc. is the time, Zoom is the place. If you need the Zoom invitation, please send a request to podcast@johnhwatsonsociety.com and we’ll get you the link.

We’re just a couple of weeks out from our next Zoom meeting of the John H. Watson Society, and what do we have planned? Well, there was a suggestion of Watson and sports, following a certain Olympic-minded ACD thread, but a more intriguing possibility came up: The potential or non-existent offspring of the good doctor!

So on Saturday, August 28, the Watsonians will gather at the usual time and open our minds to the possibilities with a 15-20 minute radio play entitled “The Will of Watson.” Following that, we shall discuss any and all potential threads of the Watson line. Whether it’s one wife or six, a wounded reproductive system or a healthy one, John H. Watson was surely survived by someone, and it’s time we figured out who.

If you would like to take a role in our little radio play, send off a note to podcast@johnhwatsonsociety.com . (Did I mention that it will most likely be recorded for The Watsonian Weekly, the closest thing we have to radio at present? It will be.)

With both additional bull pups and a full review of this weekends “Scintillation of Scions” event, the John H. Watson Society’s weekly podcast is firing on all cylinders this week, clocking in at a half-hour longer than normal. Don’t miss the fun, and find The Watsonian Weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or right here from this link:

https://watsonianweekly.libsyn.com/august-9-2021-a-scintillation-of-watsoniana

And if you’re still puzzling over a certain question or two on the JHWS Treasure Hunt on our society’s favorite podcast — or if you want to just see how much things have (or haven’t) changed over three seasons — here’s a link to the very first episode:

https://watsonianweekly.libsyn.com/the-watsonian-weekly-for-monday-may-20-2019

Due to a family obligation of the usual host and the lack of a backup plan, the usual monthly Zoom won’t be happening for July. Hopefully we’ll be back to normal in August, but if you have any potential alternatives for fellow members of the society to gather, post them in the comments.

The June meeting of the John H. Watson Society today featured a lively discussion of John Watson’s childhood, which somehow took Watson from traveling via balloon to whether nannies counted as “experience of women,” a a lot of sideroads along the way. Would Paul Newman make a better Watson than a Holmes? And why was he in that convent with one of our members? How did you stop a monowheel? Did young Watson have toffee?

If you needed a reminder, which we failed to send, we’ll try better next time. What does “next time” mean? Our July meeting will feature a recognizable and colorful passage from the good Watson as read in as many different languages as our members can speak! Which passage will that be? We need suggestions!

What part of the Canon would you know even if it were in a language you don’t speak? What paragraph or dialogue is Watson at his best? Throw your suggestions in the comments and we’ll pick one a couple weeks in advance for our next meeting.

Others may start to gather in person, but the John H. Watson Society Zooms again! Saturday, June 26 at 10 AM PDT, 11 AM MDT, 12 Noon CDT, 1 PM EDT, 6 PM BST, 7 PM CEST, etc. is the next appointed meeting time, and we’ll get together to discuss John Watson’s childhood and all that it might have held. Favorite sweet? Favorite games? Favorite books? Family drama is for adults, so let’s let Watson be a kid and see where that takes us. Come one, come all. If the Zoom invitation doesn’t turn up in your mailbox somehow, drop a line to podcast@johnhwatsonsociety.com and we’ll see you get one.

So, summer’s here, and you find yourself sitting around the Shingle of Southsea with fifteen or twenty minutes on your hands, and you’re just tired of listening to the cries of the various sea birds . . . what do you do? Remember the Watsonian Weekly?
https://watsonianweekly.libsyn.com/june-7-2021-the-coronet-of-watsons-summer-place (Also in all those places you find random podcasts. Just search “Watsonian Weekly” — nobody else is using that name, trust us!)

Miss Saturday’s meeting of the John H. Watson Society and need a report on it? Want to hear what brand new feature that Paul Thomas Miller has concocted for podcast listeners? All that and the features you’ve come to know and hopefully have some measure of affection for, on this week’s latest Watsonian Weekly. Find it online at:

https://watsonianweekly.libsyn.com/may-24-2021-hats-on-for-watson

Or you can always check your favorite podcast provider to see if they carry it! There are plenty of Sherlockian podcasts out there, but still only one Watsonian Weekly!