Our 15th Meeting!

Meeting number 15 was conducted on Tuesday, June 19, 2018, and began at 7pm as usual. Attending was Henry, Barry, Candace, Barbara, Adam, Pat, Michelle, Bill, Rick, and myself (Tom).

• Opening Remarks:  Toasts all around! 15 meetings is an accomplishment, and Tom felt that the dedicated members who show up meeting after meeting deserve to be recognized. Therefore, Tom brought a bottle of cheap wine and some plastic cups (seemed appropriate), and all who were present took turns toasting the club as well as the main characters on which this club is based. 
• The story quote:  Six members (Barry, Bill, Candace, Barb, Adam, and Rick) were able to successfully guess that the quote came from the story entitled "The Red Headed League". Well done!
• The character identification: Tom gave us clues about a male who appeared in the story entitled "Adventure of the Dancing Men". Several members were able to guess the name of the story, but no one was able to remember that the person being referred to was "Hilton Cubitt". 
• The puzzle/mystery: The mystery was entitled "Jack Knifed", and a complete solution to this mystery was definitely a group effort.  Barry's question about whether Jack Cutnick and Archie Gore were the same person really helped unravel the mystery.  The rest of the solution which involved bigamy and insurance fraud was easy once that fact was uncovered.

• The story discussion: Rick led the group in a discussion of the story entitled "The Noble Bachelor", and did a fine job! 
• All that remains:  Just before I ended the meeting, we decided that we would not meet in July, because many of the members would be on vacation. Therefore, the next meeting will take place on Tuesday, August 20, 2018.  As a side note, my superior "Sherlockian skills" caused me to observe that instead of leaving right away, members who attended the meeting tonight sat around and talked about various and sundry topics. The only conclusion I can make about this unusual behavior is that I brought wine to the meeting.  Elementary, my dear reader!

Preview of our next meeting...

• Our next meeting will take place on August 20, 2018, at 7pm, at the usual place. 
• The quote to be identified is as follows:

“God help us!” said Holmes after a long silence.
​“Why does fate play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such a case as this
that I do not think of Baxter’s words, and say, ‘There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.’ ”

• Michelle has volunteered to bring us the description of a character from one of the stories our club has already discussed. 
• Pat has volunteered to lead the discussion on the story entitled "The Musgrave Ritual."

• ​The mystery to be solved is shown below: