Everyone on Vacation?

Buttons is surprised there has not been a response to the lawyer question. On vacation or working on the Treasure Hunt? Feedback appreciated.

Welcome to Six New Accomplished Charter Members

Sheila Holtgrieve, JHWS “Daisy”

Sheila joins us from Seattle where she is a member of The Sound of the Baskervilles. She writes:

“I am the librarian of the Sound of the Baskervilles in Seattle, WA. I received the
“Footprints of the Gigantic Hound” award from the club in 2012 for service to
the club. I subscribe to the Baker Street Journal; I am a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and a member of the Hounds of the Internet. My canonical name is Annie Harrison.”

We are most pleased to have Sheila as a new member and look forward to her participation.

Linnea Dodson, JHWS “Dixie”

Linnea joins us from Maryland where she is a technical writer with a  Master of Science in Writing. She is a member of Watson’s Tin Box, The Red Circle, and Sherlock DC. Linnea is also on the Convention Committee of the Scintillion of Scions.

We look forward to Linnea’s participation in the Society and her contributions to The Watsonian.

Denny Dobry, JHWS “Kirby”

Mr Dobry resides in Reading, Pennsylvania. He has a most interesting expertise in The Game: a full-size replica of the sitting room at 221B Baker Street. He writes:

“My Sherlockian background includes Current Gasogene of the White Rose  Irregulars of York, PA, which I consider my ‘Home’ Scion. I regularly attend meetings of Watson’s Tin Box in Baltimore; The Denizens of the Bar of Gold in Cambridge, Md; and the Regency Irregulars of Phoenixville, PA.  I have most
recently attended meetings of the Six Napoleons of Baltimore and The Epilogues
of Sherlock Holmes in Chatham, NJ.

I contributed a chapter to the BSI’s latest publication of its Manuscript Series-“The Wrong Passage,” and will have an article published next month in the Watson’s Tin Box annual publication, “Irene’s Cabinet”.

I am also a member of the Baker Street Builders, qualifying for membership by constructing a full size re-creation of the 221b Baker Street sitting room in my home in Reading, PA.  Some photos are available as a link to the White Rose Irregular webpage: ”  [Ed. note: You’ve GOT to see these!]

http://www.whiteroseirregulars.net/holmespagejuly22_012.htm

We look forward to hearing more about Denny’s sitting room recreation and period furnishings in issues of The Watsonian.

Robert Ryan, JHWS “Caesar”

Mr Ryan joins us from North London, England where he is a very successful and eclectic writer. His extensive biography is fascinating for its diversity:

Robert Ryan was born in Liverpool and moved south to attend university. He graduated from Brunel with a M.Sc. in Environmental Pollution Science, intending to go into teaching. Instead, he spent two years as a mechanic for a Hot Rod team, racing highly tuned Fords (“the fag-end of motorsport”, as Bernie
Ecclestone calls it) where he became addicted to the smell of Castrol R. Weaning
himself off that, he became a lecturer in Natural Sciences in Kent, while dabbling in journalism. His articles on comic (or graphic novels as they were just becoming known) gurus Alan Moore and Frank Miller found their way into Nick Logan’s The Face magazine, which led to work for the American edition of GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Telegraph and Arena.

Eventually he took a position on staff at The Sunday Times as Deputy Travel
Editor. It was while on assignment in Seattle that he came across the setting
for his first novel, Underdogs – the ‘lost’ city beneath the sidewalks of downtown – that was called ‘Alice in Wonderland meets Assault on Precinct 13’ by Esquire.

While learning to play the trumpet for his third book, Trans Am, Ryan met Guy
Barker, who, as well as being a great jazz trumpeter, had worked with Anthony
Mingella, notably on “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” Guy read Underdogs and wrote a
‘theme’ for the book, which opened his Mercury-nominated album Soundtrack.
‘Underdogs’ eventually became a fifty-minute suite, featuring extracts from the
book read by RSC actor Anthony Higgins (most recently seen in Michael Dibdin’s
‘Zen’ on BBC), and was performed at The Barbican and the Brecon Jazz Festival
and filmed by the BBC.

Ryan’s next book, Early One Morning, broke into The Sunday Times’ top ten
bestsellers’ list, and began a sequence of historical dramas set in the 20th
century.

He collaborated again with Barker on “dZf,” a film noir-ish reworking of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” which had its World Premiere at Wakefield Rugby Club and its final outing, twenty performances later, in Hong Kong. It was narrated by actor Michael Brandon (“Jerry Springer The Opera,” “Dempsey and Makepeace,” and “Captain America”) and is available on Guy’s double CD, “The Amadeus Project.”

Ryan’s previous book, Signal Red, a novel based on “The Great Train Robbery,” has been optioned by World Pictures and the writing-production team behind the TV drama United, starring David Tennant.

His latest novel, Dead Man’s Land (Simon & Schuster) takes Dr John Watson
to the Western Front of WW1, where he has to solve a crime without the benefit
of his old colleague Sherlock Holmes.

He continues to contribute to The Sunday Times and is working on further jazz
projects with Guy Barker. He lives in North London with his wife, three children, a dog and a deaf cat.

The Society looks forward to Robert’s contributions to The Watsonian and to the furtherance of Dr Watson’s place in the literature.

J. Randolph Cox, JHWS “Champ”

We await Mr Cox’s biography and will expand upon it when received.

Bill Mason, JHWS “Billy”

Bill Mason of Green brier, TN, is the author of Pursuing Sherlock Holmes, a collection of essays and sketches collected from among his articles and conference presentations in the U.S. and Canada. He has been an enthusiastic Sherlockian since age 13 when his mother gave him a copy of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. He is the Founder of The Fresh Rashers of Nashville, and his writing has appeared in The Baker Street Journal, Canadian Holmes, The Serpentine Muse, Beaton’s Christmas Annual, and others.

Mr Mason is retired from government service as an employee of the U.S. Congress and the White House. He is presenting at the 2013 Minneapolis Sherlockian conference.

How delightful to welcome these six accomplished Watsonians and Holmesians/Sherlockians into Charter Membership.

Alexian Gregory’s TV Interview

Our Charter Member, Alexian Gregory, JHWS “Byron,” has appeared on television recently in an extensive and well-done interview regarding the Sherlockian tradition. This is an excellent example of Watosonian/Holmesian publicity. You can watch the segment here:  mms://media.edisonnj.org/ClassicMovies4.wmv

(Don’t be concerned about the Microsoft notice you may encounter; the link is safe)

Mr Dan Andriacco and his Kind Blog Post

One of our Charter Members, Dan Andriacco, “Dutch,” has been most kind to post a note about the Society on his very active and always informative website. You may read it here: http://www.bakerstreetbeat.blogspot.com/

Dan is a prolific author of books on our favourite subject, including:

The Sebastian McCabe – Jeff Cody Series

The Disappearance of Mr. James Phillimore (MX Publishing, 2013)
“The Adventure of the Vatican Cameos” (MX Publishing, E-Story, 2013)
The 1895 Murder (MX Publishing, 2012)
Holmes Sweet Holmes (MX Publishing, 2012)
No Police Like Holmes (MX Publishing, 2011)

The Enoch Hale Series (with Society fellow member, Kieran McMullen, “Raleigh”)

The Amateur Executioner (MX Publishing, 2013)

Sherlock Holmes

“The Adventure of the Magic Umbrella” (MX Publishing, E-Story, 2013)
“The Peculiar Persecution of John Vincent Harden” (MX Publishing, E-Story, 2112)
Baker Street Beat: An Eclectic Collection of Sherlockian Scribblings (MX Publishing, 2011)

We appreciate “Doctor Dan’s” support for helping us become better known to the Watsonian world.

Less Than 24 Hours to the Treasure Hunt!

Tomorrow at 12 Noon Pacific time the questions for First Annual John H Watson Canonical Treasure Hunt will be posted on the Treasure Hunt page. Simply click on “Download File” and save and print it for your use. Good Luck to All!

International Friendship Day: An Article by JHWS Member Kumar Bhatia of Dubai

Our esteemed member, Kumar Bhatia of Dubai, UAE and India, a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of India, has written a poignant view of the friendship between Dr Watson and Mr Holmes. It is particularly appropriate as this is the time of year the United Nations designates as “International Friendship Day.”

We thank Mr Bhatia for his contribution and look forward to its appearance in The Watsonian.

Please click on the link below for Mr. Bhatia’s article in a PDF form (saved in Word 93-2000 so all can access).

rtf.pngDownload file:
a_study_in_friendship_by_kumar_bhatia_w93

New Members’ Comments Page

We have added a Members’ Comments page. This is an old-fashioned “Bulletin Board” where you can ask questions, request information, seek collectibles, post your own quiz questions, discuss the Canon and start a dialogue with other members. It’s just for you. Enjoy!

Laugh!

With seemingly no takers on “death” let’s lighten up a bit.

We know Dr Watson has a “pawky” sense of humour which is defined as “shrewd and cunning, often in a humourous manner; chiefly British.”

We also know Holmes rarely laughs, but are there instances of Dr Watson laughing?

Death in the Canon

Dr Watson writes often of death, either through murder or other causes. Can you catalogue the deaths – of all and any types – mentioned in the Canon? This would make an interesting paper: “Thanatopsis and the Sacred Canon”

Six Days to the Treasure Hunt

Start NOW to assemble your references and resources for answering the 100 questions of the First Annual John H Watson Canonical Treasure Hunt.

Read the new page devoted to the Treasure Hunt. All of the Rules, Resources and Directions have been listed for your information.

If you don’t have some of the references or resources, it is perfectly okay to call on other Society members or other Sherlockians and Watsonians for assistance with research. Ours is a collegial Society and so are other Sherlockian clubs and organisations. If we work together, we strengthen the Society as a whole.

Note: The document on the Treasure Hunt page is only a test document. It will be replaced by the Treasure Hunt questions at noon (Pacific), August 1, 2013.

Please consider working with a student and mentoring them in Canonical Scholarship by assisting them with the Treasure Hunt. Any success with this historic quiz could create a future, life-long Watsonian and Sherlockian and a new generation of enthusiasm.

Good Luck!  Have Fun!

 Welcome to James McArthur, JHWS “Max”

We are delighted to welcome into Charter Membership, Mr James McArthur of New Orleans.

James writes:

“I don’t presently belong to any other Sherlockian societies. I was formerly a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. I recently became busy with another interest of Dr. Watson’s literary agent: that of Spiritualism.

I don’t believe there are any Sherlockian societies in the New Orleans area. I understand there was a group called Le Cercle de Sherlock Holmes, but they became inactive about the time (2007 or so) I started to become interested in the Canon.

I am also interested in the Nero Wolfe stories and am a member of The Wolfe Pack: the only member in Louisiana or Mississippi, I’ve been informed.”

We extend a warm welcome and look forward to James’s participation in our Quizzes and activities, and we invite his articles for the journal. Please join in the Society greeting to James:

“You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”

Welcome to Cade Deverell, JHWS “IVY”

The Society extends a warm welcome to long-time Napa Valley Napoleon of S.H. and The Scowerers and Mollie Maguires of San Francisco member Cade Deverell who resides in San Francisco.

Cade’s memberships include:

» The Napa Valley Napoleons of S.H.
» The Scowrers and Molly Maguires of San Francisco (Reilly)
» The Noble West Enders
» The Knights of the Gnomon

She is an accomplished Quiz Master and devoted Sherlockian with an equally high regard for Dr Watson. We look forward to her participation.

Please extend our traditional greeting to Cade as a new Charter Member:

You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”

India and the Canon

During the Victorian period, India figured large in British history. How many references to India and its ancient and complex culture are found in the Canon and where do they appear?

A Cincture of Canonical Chasubles

Dr Watson mentions throughout the Canon numerous of the clergy. Remembering how well you did with Dr, Mr, MD, and their resultant lists, what is the census of the wearers of the tippit and the tunicle? Who are they and how are they identified?

Only 12 More Days Until the Treasure Hunt!

Buttons is working away at the final questions for the Treasure Hunt. Just to give you an idea of the difficulty, Buttons had to discard 30 questions in the string because he could not remember the answers!!  He is now writing them down!  He’s up over 60 questions, all inter-related, and is in high hopes of having the other 40 finished by the end of the weekend.

Don’t miss this if you like quizzes and puzzles!  Great prizes, too!  Tell students!

Col. Ted Schulz, BSI “The Amateur Mendicant Society,” JHWS, “Captain”

An Emeritus Member We All Shall Miss

1923-2013

The Life and Times of Ted Schulz

4023737.jpg

Now and then–but rarely–one is privileged to have passed this way and known a true gentleman and wondrous person. These are the ornaments of a life, and they come to us spontaneously and with little fanfare. They are ethereal in their goodness and perfection; one knows instinctively that one is in the company of a Higher Spirit. Such a person was Ted Schulz who returned to the The Reichanbach Falls on January, 24, 2013, and we believe did so with joy in his sight, as he would be meeting his dear Mary in the mist of the Falls they both loved so much.

Col. Ted Schulz in his own words:

“I have lived a good life, you might say a charmed life. Married to the beautiful, gracious Mary Chizuko Iwaki for 54 years. She was a pharmacist, I a soldier. We achieved modest success in life. Mary was Chief Pharmacist at a large California hospital, I got to be a Colonel in the U.S. Army.

I was born in San Francisco at Mt. Zion Hospital on June 2, 1923 of William John Schulz and Marie Hortense Grandi. I have only one sibling, a younger sister, Wilma Horwitz. She is a widow and lives in Orinda. My parents lived in a pair of flats at 2332 and 2234 Divisadero St., in The City. My father’s mother “Grandma” and my father’s sister “Louise” aka “Aunt Lou” lived in the upstairs flat. In addition to Aunt Lou, my Dad had a younger brother, Fred. Fred was married to Audry, who was a “Schultz” before she became a “Schulz”

My parents loved me and protected me and my sister. During the “Great Depression” I never missed a meal or didn’t have a bed to sleep in. I was completely unaware that those were “hard times.”

*    *    *    *

Ted was a ray of sunshine. A realist and a deep thinker, he has collected many Sherlock Holmes collectibles. He read Sherlock Holmes and was a widely-regarded Canonical expert. He referred to himself, with his unfailing graciousness, as an “enthusiast.”

His catalog of Sherlock Holmes books, magazines, pamphlets and ephemera listing over 1,000 items offered to collectors in the 1990s is a collectible itself. He was long a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, invested by Julian Wolff in 1961 as “The Amateur Mendicant Society.” He belonged to San Francisco’s scion, The Scowerers and the Molly Maguires and the Persian Slipper Society. He was a loyal member of the scion club, The Napa Valley Napoleons of S.H. He had belonged to The Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis, and ran the famous “221B Detachment” of the Soldiers of Baker Street (The S.O.B.’s), more familiarly known as “The Flying Squad” while stationed in Washington, D.C. On his twenty-fifth anniversary of the BSI, he was duly recognized and honoured with the Two-Shilling Award.

Along the way, John Ruyle, BSI “Baron Dawson” wrote a poem about Ted Schulz and Watson:

Ted Schulz and Watson

Between Ted Schulz and Watson
there is little to choose.
They’re both trusty comrades
who are always of use.

Yes, Teddy and John,
the sound is melodious.
This is a case where
comparisons are not odious.

Both are old soldiers
who stalked down their quarry,
And both found a treasure
in a wife named Mary.

Both have a humor
which is frequently pawky:
Ted’s son’s “William Sherlock,”
Fondly called “Shocky.”

Ted like Watson is loyal
and you can’t circumvent him.
If he didn’t exist,
we’d have to invent him!

*    *    *    *

Ted was also an enthusiast of August Derlith’s Solar Pons stories. With his usual enthusiasm, he rose to become The Lord High Warden of the Pontine Marshes, the Solar Pons Scociety and did much to further the aims of this distinguished group.

Tributes by John H Watson Society Members

There have been many who have honoured Ted Schulz with their reminiscenses and memories, and several from our own John H Watson Founding and Charter Members provide us with a view of the high regard Ted Schulz engendered in everyone he met during his fascinating and interesting life: (These are from the catalogue showcasing Ted’s book collection prepared by Mr. Vincent Brosnan in the late 1990s.)

Peter Blau, BSI “Black Peter,” JHWS “Curly”

It’s been forty-one years, actually, since I first met Ted Schulz, in the same place I’ve met many other Sherlockians: in the pages of The Baker Street Journal. Ted was in the U.S. Army in Japan in the 1950s, when I was briefly in Japan in the U.S. Navy, but neither of us knew the other was there. In fact, neither of us knew of any Sherlockians, Japanese or American, in Japan at that time. I returned to the United States in July 1956, but he stayed out in Japan for another year.
And Ted was more enterprising than I had been: he went to a Japanese bookstore in search of translations of the Canon, and he found one: Mei Tantei Homuzu (with The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Red-Headed League”), and he bought not just one copy, but rather a hundred of them, and he wrote to Edgar W. Smith about his discovery, and offered the books to his fellow Sherlockians, in the October 1957 issue of The Baker Street Journal, at cost: $1.00 each.
That was the first Japanese translation to find its way into my modest Sherlockian collection (all Sherlockian collections were modest in those long-ago days, of course, because there wasn’t all that much Sherlockiana to collect). It was a wonderful introduction to Ted, of course; we began a correspondence, and soon we were able to meet, what with both of us being members of the same late-50s-early-60s Sherlockian generation, and we have been friends ever since, and we’ve met often, most recently in New York this year when he proudly watched his wife Mary toasted as “The Woman” at the cocktail party before the annual dinner of the Baker Street Irregulars.
The room was full of Ted and Mary’s friends, because they have so many of them acquired over the decades, and treasured. It is the friendships formed over the decades that have made the Sherlockian world so much fun for us, and I’m looking forward to seeing some of the other stories told by other friends in this well-deserved tribute.

Peter Blau

Michael Kean, BSI “General Charles Gordon,” JHWS “Toby”

A tribute that even begins to capture the generosity of Ted Schulz would take all of the pages of this catalogue; his heart is truly that big. There are few people as caring and considerate as Ted, and I’m blessed to be one of those individuals who has experienced it firsthand.
I met Ted at one of my first BSI dinners in the late 70s, and when some years later we again crossed paths, and I told him of the Kean family’s planned move to the Monterey Peninsula, he was delighted. It was through Ted that I received invitations to the Scowrers meetings and becmae part of the Persian Slipper Club. It was Ted who, over a dozen years ago, helped this enthusiastic amateur collector fully appreciate the magic of spending time together in a Sherlockian library.
The Kean family has visited the Schulz’s home on numerous occasions, and I’m happy to say, Ted and Mary have often returned the favor of visiting our home and The Diogenes Club. I recall a July 4th weekend visit to Marin when our children Megan and Adam were both quite young, and how patient and genuinely loving Ted was. I think he took special delight in knowing that someone else had also gifted his son with a Canonical name.
In this day and age it may not be fashionable to use the term “sweet” when referring to a man, but it readily applies to Ted Schulz, as does generous, caring and enthusiastic. But the term I value the most when describing Ted is “friend.”
Thank you, Ted.
Michael Kean

Bruce Parker, BSI “A Garroter by Trade,” JHWS “Oxford”

Ted and I first met at a meeting of the Scowrers and Molly Maguires in San Francisco shortly after I moved to Californina. Although I had known Sherlockians most of my life, I had never met anyone as enthusiastic as Ted. The beauty of Ted, of course, is that he is as enthusiastic about life in general as he is about Holmes in particular. When it comes to relieving a down mood, Ted is better than Prozac.
By the early 1980s he and I, prodded by our wives, decided that we had to dispose of some books from our overly-loaded libraries. It seemed that it would be more fun to sell at book fairs or through the mail than to just dispose of them through established dealers. We registered with the State of California, had business cards and bookmarks designed by Laura Parker, and went to our first fair at Dominican College in Marin County. The turnout was modest, the sales poor, but Ted made friends with every dealer present. Our next venture was a book fair at Stanford University. The crowds were excellent, the selling brisk, and it looked like we had a going concern. Ted, however, showed his true colors as a bookman. Periodically he would leave me in charge of the booth while he went out to greet other dealers. Unfortunately for the bottom line, he invariably returned with more books than we sold! Parker and Schulz, book dealers, met an early demise after the Stanford Book Fair.
I have been privileged to meet many wonderful people in my life but none so genuinely human as Ted Schulz. As Sherlockian collector, husband, father, grandfather, teacher, and friend, he sets a standard few of us can ever hope to match. Ted’s book collection has been a source of pride to him for years. Those people wise enough to purchase one of his books will receive not just another book, but one that was always treated with love and respect by one of the most decent human beings God ever created.

Bruce Parker

Don Yates, BSI “The Greek Interpreter,” JHWS “Pal”

When Joanne and I moved to California from MIchigan in 1982, I recall that we enjoyed no welcome more immediate and cordial than the warm reception accorded to us–as relocating Sherlockians–by Ted Schulz, of nearby San Rafael. Someone in the BSI had alerted Ted to our plans and he was promptly on the phone to us in Calistoga, making us feel like visiting royalty. This was especially important at the time because we were not yet sure that our rose-colored determination to pursue our lives in California was feasible or merely foolish. Ted really did make us feel at home out here and, in the end, we were able to make our hoome in our chosen Napa Valley–within hailing distance of other eventual west-coast pals whom Ted introduced us to: Laura Parker, Ray and Grets De Groat, Bob Steele, Bruce and Nan Parker, to name but a few of these “kinspirits” as Ted is wont to call them.
Ted, who was awarded a noble investiture, “The Amateur Mendicant Society” (my very first exposure to scion activities was with the Amateur Mendicant Society of Detroit), has probably performed more yoeman service in the interest of the BSI and Sherlockain studies in general than anyone else in the American west. Others will surely invoke Ted as an archivist, as a collector, an information center, and as a cohesive force who has for years kept the memory of Sherlock Holmes alive and thriving in this part of the world. But I want to stress here especially the unswerving friendship and inexhaustible hospitality that he, together with Mary, have treated so many of us to for so long, in the essential and characteristic spirit of Baker Street Irregulars conviviality.

Don Yates

*    *    *    *

Ted served in the armed forces for a long time; World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. during the war. He became a Regular Army officer, and retired as a Colonel. He thought himself fortunate that he never came under direct fire, and that he never fired a shot in anger.

Ted’s John H Watson Society moniker, “Captain” is not a military reference, rather the name of a loyal and faithful dog who visited his master’s grave every day until he himself passed on. Such was the pure loyalty, steadfastness and devotion of Ted Schulz.

Perhaps Ted’s summary best expresses his gentle life: “I’m a most fortunate fellow! I was born healthy, I married very well (I married “up”), I have (am blessed with) two fine children.”

When one comes to The Reichenbach Falls, turns and looks back for a moment, there can be no satisfaction greater than having lived a life as full, loving, kind and gracious as that attested to by these good friends and fellow Sherlockians. And so, we celebrate a Life in the Limelight, a good and meaningful life. Please stand and raise your glass and give a final toast to “Ted Schulz, Sherlockian, Kind and Good Human “KinSpirit.””

8123006_orig