Stole that title from WNYC. Oh, did I have a good time these past few days, hangin' with the Sherlockians! The Baker Street Irregulars held their annual weekend here in NYC, with lectures, cocktail parties, dinners, book signings, all kinds of events. Many of these are open to the public, but the Friday night banquet is by invitation only. Les Klinger very kindly proposed that Jan Burke and myself be invited. See, that's how it works: you need to be proposed, and only if accepted by the organization's current leader (known as "Wiggins," after the leader of the original Baker Street Irregulars, the street urchin gang in the Holmes Canon) are you invited. The banquet takes place at the Yale Club, with papers and presentations (twice during the evening it was proposed that Teddy Roosevelt was a friend of The Great Detective). Singing and skits, too. The food's not bad, the drink flows freely, the conversation is marvelous. At our table, besides Jan, Les, and myself, were, among others, Laurie King and Neil Gaiman. They, and Les, are not only members, they're invested members. Meaning what? Well, like the dinner, you can't join the BSI unless you're invited to. Once you do, you're a member; but there's another level, also, when, after a number of years, if you've done distinguished service, you get invested. At that point you get your BSI name. These names refer to people or objects in the Canon. Laurie King, for example, is The Red Circle, and Neil Gaiman is The Devil's Foot. I don't remember what Les Klinger is, but that evening I exchanged words with Colonel Baskerville, The Chemical Laboratory at St. Bart's, and The Gap Upon the Second Shelf. The whole thing is at once serious, and tongue in cheek. There was a photo of the whole room taken with an ancient wooden box camera. When I get my copy I'll scan it for youse. Meanwhile, here's me with Jan Burke and Daniel Stashower:



And here's the link to the WNYC piece on A STUDY IN SHERLOCK.

I'm not much of a Sherlock scholar, myself, but I sure do like these folks!