Fall Meeting Report
The annual fall meeting of the Amateur Mendicant Society of Detroit took place October 1, 2017 at the Station 885 restaurant in Plymouth, Michigan with 33 members and guests enjoying an afternoon of Sherlockian fellowship.
Gasogene John Kramb gaveled the meeting to order at 2:08 p.m., welcoming all and introducing the society’s board. He also noted that two of the society’s past gasogenes, Ed Stein and Tom Voss, were in attendance.
There was also a moment of silence for two recently departed longtime members, Walter Young, a board member for more than 15 years and Ray Mandziuk, who with Roy Pilot, brought the society out of hiatus more than 17 years ago.
Also introduced was Doug Bianchi, who first indicated an interest in the group back in 1987 but whose query was apparently intercepted and purposely mislaid by one of Professor Moriarty’s minions. Other guests included Tamara Christie and Kelly Aydlott of Royal Oak Briars ?????, which crafts custom hand-made pipes and displayed several at the meeting.
Next, the society’s traditional toasts were offered up, with Bev Sobolewski saluting “The Woman,” Al Calderini honoring Mrs. Hudson, Commissionaire Chris Music toasting Mycroft Holmes and Chris Jeryan calling on the assembly to hoist their glasses to Watson’s Second Wife.
Speaking of Mrs. Hudson, the restaurant served up a hearty afternoon meal of roast turkey with gravy, baked salmon and all the usual accompaniments topped by a dessert of white chocolate mousse.
Gasogene Kramb then went over the significant points of the assigned story, “The Adventure of the Three Garridebs,” noting among other things, its resemblance to at least two other Canonical tales.
Then, publisher George Vanderburgh dished up the afternoon’s main course, a presentation on the book covers and internal art for the Battered Silicon Dispatch Box. Among the highlights were drawings of Holmes as a marionette operated by Arthur Conan Doyle and a constellation of stars forming an interstellar Holmes pictured with the U.S.S. Enterprise of “Star Trek” fame.
The society’s Tantalus Rob Musial then took a minute to update the assembly about two recent Sherlockian developments, the recent publication of “From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon” by Mattias Bostrom and the world premiere of a rousing new play, “Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of The Elusive Ear” coming to the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea, Michigan.
The play, which features Holmes and Vincent Van Gogh in a most unusual case, runs from March 29 to May 26, 2018 and the AMS is considering a group outing to see it. In an unplanned and welcome surprise, the playwright, David MacGregor, was in attendance to offer a brief preview of the work.
As the meeting wound down, Musial then did the drawing for the door prizes, with MacGregor taking home (what else?) a Sherlock Holmes book, Bobbie Gorevitz scoring a Sherlock Holmes scarf and Kramb being awarded a Moriarty coffee mug.
Kramb also announced that the next meeting of the society would be at the Commonwealth Club in Warren on January 6, 2018 -- the same date as the actual 164th birthday of Mr. Holmes.
In the meeting’s finale, Anne Musial led the multitude in the singing of “God Save the Queen,” Music recited the traditional closing poem “221B” by Vincent Starrett and Kramb adjourned the proceedings at 4:28 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Robert Musial, AMS Tantalus