BSI Weekend 2019 Report Page 1 of 12
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BSI Weekend 2019 by Mary Alcaro I’ve been attending Birthweek events since 2012, and always look forward to them, but this year was especially exciting. By now I am lucky enough to have some Sherlockian friends from vari- ous generations; and, predictably, those years between us mean as little as the years between our- selves and Dr. Watson. You always come to the weekend and discover that you have more friends than you thought you did, and leave with even more than you started—no matter how long you have been attending. As is tradition, the weekend kicked off on Thursday evening with a reception for contributors to the Baker Street Journal (see report below). Following the reception was the Distinguished Speaker Lecture, this year given by Ken Ludwig (published in the Spring 2019 BSJ). It was a joy to listen to his anecdotes about the various ways he has brought Holmes to stage over the years (and how he plans to keep doing so in the future!). Of particular note is Ludwig’s own devotion and homage to William Gillette, whom he has written as a character in two of his stage plays. I was reminded at this lecture just how exciting it is to discover that someone you respected for unrelated Holmes achievements—I knew Ludwig’s name from his award-winning comedy Lend Me a Tenor—is also a Sherlockian. Art in the blood is, indeed, liable to take the strangest forms. Friday evening brought the invitation-only Baker Street Irregulars Dinner at the Yale Club. In the days leading up to this year’s Dinner, it was amazing to see the response when I revealed that this would be my first BSI Dinner. To a person, everyone’s eyes lit up and a smile spread over their faces. “Your first dinner!” many said, “How wonderful! Enjoy!” Each encounter brought even more anticipation of the event. A few dear friends fretted that I might be bored, that I might find things stuffily formal or even dull. I smiled at this sympathetic consideration, but myself held no such concerns. Because I, too, am a Sherlockian—which means I, too, was born nostalgic. I first came to Holmes at twelve years old, an age I’ve discovered at which many first read the Canon. I started at the very beginning, with A Study in Scarlet, and devoured it, American section and all. Like so many before me, I found Holmes’s world totally engrossing, a London so near I felt I could reach out and touch it. I was intrigued by Christopher Morley’s (“The Sign of the Four”) prologue to the volume. Morley wrote about Sherlock Holmes as if he knew him, as if they were old friends. And so because I was obsessed, and because I was a shy brainy kid (and because it was 2002), I took to the Internet to find all I could about Sherlock Holmes. And it was there I first discovered the Irregulars, and the Birthday Weekend celebration that sometimes overlapped with my own birthday weekend, which I saw as a kind of fate. In short, I discovered the Irregulars very soon after I first discovered Sherlock Holmes, and so for me, the two always went hand in hand. I dreamed of the day I might somehow become part of that world. Friday night found me positively beaming with excitement. I had the pleasure of getting ready with a friend at the Roosevelt Hotel, and then heading over to an event I had dreamed of attending for more than half my life. The evening began with Evelyn Herzog (“The Daintiest Thing under a Bonnet”) giving the traditional first toast to The Woman, who this year was Nelda Richards. At the cocktail hour, I was thrilled to see so many familiar faces, and relieved to strike up conversation with so many people I hadn’t seen for some time. Sherlockians, I am reminded again and again, are wonderful people: generous, witty, marvelous conversationalists. Friends are soon made and long kept. This could not be better evidenced than in an announcement of the BSI Weekend 2019 Report https://BakerStreetIrregulars.com Page 1 of 12 dedication of a Festschrift for Peter Blau (“Black Peter”) on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of his investiture. Peter is someone I have always admired from afar, a kind of Sherlockian ce- lebrity in my mind, but also a person who has been nothing but wonderfully kind to me on every occasion we’ve spoken. His friends, it seems, feel much the same. What a delight to be in the room to see the unveiling of such a fitting tribute to the man—and what a joy, I am sure, for him to be able to receive it. As we were gently herded downstairs to dinner, I found myself seated with a lovely group of gentlemen, one a dear friend of my own, and another, someone I had met only the day before and who had promised to keep a close eye on me. He hardly needed to worry. From the moment the dinner began, the magic had begun for me. And what a dinner it was. It began as expected, as Wiggins, Michael Whelan (“Vincent Spaulding”), ascended the podium to greet us with the tra- ditional introductory remarks. As Robert Katz (“Dr. Ainstree”) read the Constitution and Buy- Laws, I found myself mouthing the familiar words along with him, until soon I was joining in a rousing chorus of “there shall be no monthly meeting!” with the rest of the room. Reader, it felt like coming home. Sherlockians choose some truly remarkable furniture for our “little brain attics,” a fact of which I was reminded as Bob Katz and John Bergquist (“The King of Scandinavia”) presented the “Eddies” to honor BSI publications that covered topics as diverse as criminal and civil law, manuscript studies, sailing practices, and Sherlockian history itself. Awarded Eddies this year were Will Walsh (“Godfrey Norton”) and Donny Zaldin (“John Hector McFarlane”) for editing Canon Law; Glen Miranker (“The Origin of Tree Worship”) for Deadly Harpoon; and Leslie S. Klinger (“The Abbey Grange”) for Peter E. Blau: A Festschrift. The program soon moved jauntily through the traditional toasts, given to those patron saints of Sherlockiana: the landlady, the brother, the detective, the chronicler’s second wife. Charles Prepolec (“The Man with the Twisted Lip”) gave the toast to Mrs. Hudson; Bonnie MacBird (“Art in the Blood”) toasted Mycroft; Candace Lewis (“A Little Art Jargon”) toasted the second Mrs. Watson; Bill Mason (“White Mason”) toasted Sherlock Holmes; and Susan Rice (“Bees- wing”) toasted Old Irregulars Clifton R. Andrew (“Shoscombe Old Place”) and Lisa McGaw (“Mrs. Hudson”). Finally, Dayna Nuhn (“Lady Clara St. Simon”) led the recitation of the Mus- grave Ritual (which this aspiring Copper-Beech-Smith was most grateful for the opportunity to practice). No Sherlockian dinner is truly complete without a little themed music, which on this occa- sion was further accompanied with themed military helmets. Over dinner, I discovered that two of my tablemates had been sitting together at BSI dinners for more than 25 years. It’s easy to see how, at BSI Weekend, friends you might only see once a year become valued relationships; this revelation, in turn, made all the more poignant that moment of Standing upon the Terrace to honor all who have died during the past year. At my table, each name Francine Kitts (“Lady Hil- da Trelawney Hope”) read and whose biography she shared elicited a sigh from someone seated near me. It’s remarkable how seemingly unlikely pairings grow into deep friendships at the BSI—but then again, we have that most unlikely pair, our Holmes and Watson, as role models. The evening featured some delightful speakers. Talks celebrated the amateur over the profes- sional, as Andrew Fusco (“Athelney Jones”) detailed the limitations of Scotland Yard, while Emily Miranker (“Lady Hatty St. Simon”) spoke of the original Baker Street irregulars—an ap- propriate contrast for a group of enthusiasts who gather to celebrate the world’s first “unofficial” consulting detective. There were also guffaws, cheers, and harrumphs in abundance; I was not alone in my delight with Jenn Eaker’s (“Mary Sutherland”) tribute to the good boys of the Can- BSI Weekend 2019 Report https://BakerStreetIrregulars.com Page 2 of 12 on—that is to say, the dogs; and who will soon forget Nick Martorelli’s (“Seventeen Steps”) fist- shaking, genre-crossing comparison of Irene Adler to . Boba Fett? (You had to be there.) Soon it was time for Investitures. This year’s class has nine new members: Alexander Katz “Sarasate” John Knud-Hansen “This Lascar Scoundrel” Brigitte Latella “Holmes’s Alpenstock” Michele Lopez “Attenta, Pericolo” Ira B. Matetsky “The Final Problem” Terry McCammon “Young Stamford” Mike McSwiggin “A Seven Percent Solution” Greg Ruby “Bulldog Pin with Ruby Eyes” Monica Schmidt “Julia Stoner” A replacement investiture certificate was presented to Ronald S. White (“The Cabinet Photo- graph”), whose home was destroyed in the Paradise, California wildfire. 2019 also marked a moment of BSI history: Mike Whelan announced that, after 22 years of serving as Wiggins, he will be passing the torch to the very capable hands of Michael Kean (“General Charles Gordon”), who will serve as Commissionaire until he takes over as the BSI’s sixth leader (and third Wiggins) next year. Ray Betzner (“The Agony Column”) closed out the evening with Vincent Starrett’s (“A Study in Scarlet”) “221B,” which he read from an original typescript copy once owned by Star- rett himself, lending even more gravitas and history to an already historic evening; a high- spirited group recited along with him, my own strident tones joining the room’s low rumble.