2012 BIRTHDAY WEEKEND
ASH played a prominent role throughout the weekend, which began with the traditional ASH Wednesday gathering at O’Casey’s attended by over 50 enthusiastic Sherlockians. The next morning Doré Nash co-hosted the Morley walk with Jim Cox.
On Friday, the Gillette luncheon was hosted by Susan Rice in conjunction with Mickey Fromkin. The entertainment included a skit by The Friends of Bogie (ASH Sarah Montague and Andrew Joffe, along with Paul Singleton) involving Holmes and Watson and the Titanic. ASH Al Gregory presented The Beacon Society with a check for $1,000 as a matching grant for donations to the Jan Stauber Fund. Al then announced that ASH Karen Murdock won the 2012 WHIMSEY award for her piece “Do You Write Like Arthur Conan Doyle?” which appeared in Vol. 27 No. 4 of the Muse. Karen received a handsome certificate and a check for $221.17. The WHIMSEY Award in memory of Jan Stauber was established and funded by Jan’s husband Al Gregory. It is given to the author writing the most whimsical piece during the Muse volume year (i.e., from the December to September issues). All articles, verse, etc., appearing in the Muse are eligible except for the entries in the Birthday Challenge and pieces written by the judges (the Muse editorial board, Francine Kitts, and Sue Vizoskie) or their spouses. Our sincere thanks to Al for sponsoring the award and to Karen for delighting us and our readers.
At the BSI dinner, Mary Ann Bradley received the investiture of “Mary Morstan.” Mary Ann also received the BSI’s “Eddy” award for her editing of the 2011 BSJ Christmas Annual, The First Lady: Lenore Glen Offord. Offord’s ASH investiture (and also her BSI) was The Old Russian Woman.
Lyndsay Faye gave the toast to Mrs. Hudson, while Andy Solberg performed the honors for Mycroft. Bob Katz gave another one of his delightfully whimsical talks and a Peter Blau celebrity lookalike was feted in a special skit. Francine Kitts led attendees in remembering those BSI who had crossed the Reichenbach in the past year, and Marsha Pollak ended the evening with a reading of Bill Schweickert’s “A Long Evening with Holmes.”
The Beacon Society meeting was held on January 14 at the Roosevelt Hotel. The Society was founded by ASH Maribeau Briggs to support educational experiences that introduce young people to the Canon and to recognize exemplary efforts that do so. Currently all of the Beacon Society officers and committee chairs are ASH. For more information, go to BeaconSociety.com or the Society’s Facebook page.
At the BSI cocktail party, Betsy and Al Rosenblatt presented their traditional poem recounting humorously the events of the past year. Peter Blau did his usual adept stint as auctioneer, while Mary Ann Bradley introduced “The Women.” And ASH Francine Kitts won the raffle for Maggie Schpak’s rendition of Lady Frances Carfax’s jewels. Sunday concluded with the ASH brunch, once again ably hosted by Lyndsay Faye.
