Friday, February 4, 2011

Norwegian Explorers 40th Anniversary / Annual Meeting

Two more tapes have been uploaded from the Sherlock Holmes Collections to the U Media Archive. These are recordings of the proceedings of the fortieth anniversary gathering and annual meeting of the Norwegian Explorers of Minnesota, a local Sherlockian literary society. The first tape runs to just over 57 minutes and the second tape runs to about an hour.

The meeting begins with a note that E. W. McDiarmid, while not present (having just received a pacemaker and recuperating), was there very much in spirit. The Canonical toasts were given (including one by Explorer founder Bryce Crawford and another by Raymond Shove). The audio quality is not the best, given the position of different speakers in the room (especially for the toasts), but we've tried to compensate a bit in the recording levels on these softer passages.

Pj Doyle was the master (or mistress) of ceremonies. On a registration form for the event (found in the archives of the Norwegian Explorers) the evening was billed as "The Norwegian Explorers Annual Dinner and Holiday Celebration." It was held at the Campus Club at the University of Minnesota on December 8, 1988. In addition to the toasts the evening included: two Sherlockian songs (Aunt Clara being one of them), sung by Bill Teeple, with some audience participation; the business meeting and election of officers for the Explorers; "The Victorian Christmas Tradition" by Linda Reed; "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle," a talk by Pj Doyle; and a dramatic presentation based on a script by Edith Meiser of "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" (including audience participation). A good time, it seems, was had by all.

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