At the beginning of the celebration of the 149th birthday of Sherlock Holmes, Wiggins welcomed several noteworthy attendees to the dinner, including Janet Hutchings, editor of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.
The Buy-Laws were read by Joseph Coppola. Mark Gagen gave the toast to Mrs. Hudson. Richard Sveum had us "stand or sit and salute Sherlock's sibling," Mycroft. Julie McKuras raised her glass to Watson's second wife. Bill Vande Water toasted Howard Haycraft, who, among his many accomplishments, holds the distinction as the only Irregular to have a work appear in a Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce feature. Haycraft’s book Murder for Pleasure: The Life and Times of the Detective Story is visible on the shelves in The House of Fear (1945).
W. Scott Monty toasted Sherlock Holmes, surprising all with his singing of a rewritten Frank Sinatra tune, renamed "What Sherlock Holmes Means to Me," accompanied by Henry Boote. Ely Liebow recited the Musgrave Ritual—in Yiddish!
Bill Hyder chose to believe that Holmes did travel to Tibet and Mecca, and he reported on what everyone else was doing while Holmes was away. Philip Shreffler and Mary Ellen Rich enacted Holmes' dealings with a thoroughly confused travel agent arranging his itinerary for the Great Hiatus. Marilynne McKay explained the Great Hiatus through the contents of diaries and letters of women, most likely Adventuresses. Though Dorothy L. Sayers was the first to use the term "the game" for the study of Sherlock Holmes, Marina Stajic and Paul Singleton showed us what would have happened if Christopher Morley had called a game manufacturer. Iry Kamil resumed the difficult job of Standing upon the Terrace and remembering those whom we have lost.
Janice Fisher was fêted as The Woman. Six stalwart Irregulars received their Shillings. The Two-Shilling Award was presented to Donald E. Novorsky.
Bob Thomalen delivered Bill Schwiekert's poem "A Long Evening with Holmes," with corrected verses, at the evening’s close.
At the next day’s Sherlockian Cocktail Reception, Janice Fisher introduced The Women, her predecessors who were in attendance. Judge Albert Rosenblatt and his daughter Betsy Rosenblatt, once again, performed their remarkable summation of the previous year and of the Festivities in verse.
Dinner Details: January 10, 2003
Union League Club, New York
Dinner Photo Information
Click on the above photo to see a larger version of it, and maximize your browser window to see the most detail.Key to People in the 2003 BSI Dinner photo (not available at this time)
BSI Honours List
Investitures:Ed Christenson as Antonio
Joseph A. Coppola as The Stranger's Room
David Greeney as Uncle Ned
Alexian A. Gregory as The Grimpen Postmaster
Mia Stampe Lagergaard as The Dynamics of an Asteroid
Susan Vizoskie as Mrs. Saunders
* received Investiture at another event during the year
What is an Investiture?
Two-Shilling Award:
Donald E. Novorsky
What is a Two-Shilling Award?
The Woman:
Janice Fisher
What is The Woman honour?
"Stand with me here upon the terrace..."
(as named at this Dinner, not their year of passing)
Kenton A. Johnson (A Remarkable Invention, 1981)
Frederick C. Page (The Arcadia Mixture, 1990)
Geoffrey S. Stavert (The Shingle of Southsea, 1994)
Eve Titus (Young Master Rucastle, 1993)
Don Werby (Old Abrahams, 1986)
What is the origin of “standing on the terrace?”
Morley-Montgomery Award:
Robert S. Schultz, "Upon the Dating of Blood Stains"
The Baker Street Journal v52 n4 (Winter 2002): 34-40 (available in the eBSJ)
What is the Morley-Montgomery Award?
The BSI Distinguished Speaker Lecture:
Douglas G. Greene, “The Only Women: The Female Sleuth in Fiction”
The Baker Street Journal v53 n2 (Summer 2003): 6-13 (available in the eBSJ).
What is the BSI Distinguished Speaker Lecture?
Reports on the Dinner
The Baker Street Journal v53 n1 (Spring 2003): 5-10 (available in the eBSJ).Blau, Peter, Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press, (January 2003): 1.
List of 2003 BSI Dinner Attendees (not available at this time)
Recordings
The BSI Archive does not have a recording of the 2003 BSI Dinner at this time. If you have one or know where one exists, please contact the Chair of the Trust.Related Material
Rosenblatt, Albert M., and Betsy Rosenblatt, “The Sherlockian Year In Verse: 2003,” The Baker Street Journal v53 n1 (Spring 2003): 11-12 (available in the eBSJ). The Rosenblatts’ rhyming retrospective, delivered at the January 11, 2003 Sherlockian Cocktail Reception.Previous dinner: the 2002 BSI Dinner
Next dinner: the 2004 BSI Dinner
For an index to all BSI Dinners and photos, see our BSI Dinner Summary list.
The BSI Archive is located at the Houghton Library at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Archival material may be used by any qualified scholar, subject to the normal rules and regulations of the Library. For links to a detailed finding aid and related information, see our BSI Archive at Harvard page.
Page composed on 10/5/2016 by Tamar Zeffren
This page last updated 10/8/2016 by Andrew Solberg.
