News

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

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

Whilst the agenda for the November gathering of the John H. Watson Society still has some kinks. to work out, it will be happening on November 26th at the usual noon Central Standard Time time. Here’s the link for those of you who want to make sure you get on board for whatever Watson-based happenings happen!

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

The votes are in, and it’s official: the John H Watson Society has a mascot! The bulldog beat out the bull terrier about 2 to 1 in the final tally. But for those of you that love the bull terrier, fear not! You’ll see him around from time to time. Puppies need friends, after all!

But now… now we have to NAME the bullpup. Stay tuned!

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!”

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!

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

We have decided that it is time that the John H Watson Society should have a mascot, and who better to represent us than Watson’s bullpup? But herein lies a little difficulty! Is this puppy a bulldog or a bull terrier? Which of these two little pups below would you like to see representing us? We will be taking in votes from now through our next consultation (Zoom meeting) on October 22nd.

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

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.)