The Diogenes Club of Dallas
By Don Hobbs

Last week, I was asked to lead the monthly meeting of the Diogenes Club of Dallas. Jim Webb and I co-founded the D.C.D. about 10 years ago as an alternative to The Crew of the Barque LONE STAR. At the time, the Crew was going through changes that were not necessarily to everyone's liking. We met secretly during the first year, mainly at the Londoner, a great little English pub in Dallas. Out meetings were Sherlockian by nature and social by habit. Slowly, the best members of the Crew were siphoned off and brought into the D.C.D. Eventually the cause of unrest in The Crew of the Barque LONE STAR moved away and no longer was a problem. However, by this time the Diogenes Club of Dallas was the only Sherlockian society in town that was meeting.

I was technically still the Third Mate of the Crew and I also ran the Maniac Collectors so it was a joint decision for Jim Webb to lead the D.C.D. Because of my hectic travel schedule, this was the most prudent decision. I have missed more meetings than I have attended over the past five years. Luckily for me, I did not have Sunday travel plans on the first Sunday of April and was able to run the meeting. At each meeting, there is an assigned Canonical story to read. The person who answers the most questions correctly wins a prize.  The last time I was asked to lead the meeting, I used The Ragged Shaw as a resource to create the quiz.

I explained that John Bennett Shaw was famous for many things including his quizzes. I also explained that a Shaw quiz was full of puns, play of words, and the likes. Well after a grand build-up the quiz was passed out and soon the was groans up and down the table. No one was able to answer any of the questions correctly. So I took a different approach for the April quiz. The story for the meeting was "The Red Circle" and I made sure it was a simple, straight-forward quiz. I could not help adding the bonus question with a twinkle in my eye for John Bennett Shaw. The question was "What was the name of  my great-great uncle, who introduced me to Sherlock Holmes?" The answer was Fairdale Hobbs. Thankfully there was a quiz winner and we did not have to resort to the bonus question. I still know that several people did not get it right either.

By all counts, the meeting was a ripping success. The dozen or so Sherlockians who attended received an additional surprise gift. Bruce and Linda McCall were in town from Austin and brought pint-glasses from the now defunct Sherlock Holmes Outpost in Fort Davis, Texas. The outpost closed soon after the Great Whimsical  Sherlockian Tour of Oklahoma and Texas visited it. Bruce and Linda happened to be in Fort Davis on the day that all of the outpost's assets were being auctioned. They bought several cases of the pint-glasses that feature the outpost's Sherlock Holmes silhouette embossed on the front.

The meeting ended after a quick round of Sherlockian Show-and-Tell. I brought several of the older Danish editions that recently arrived at my house. Tim Kline, author of The Games of Sherlock Holmes had a copy of the new Sherlock Holmes-Arsène Lupin computer game.

Happy Collecting!!