One of the things I love about a big Sherlockian weekend is the random encounters that turn into long conversations. Case in point, around seven AM this Friday, I was feeling a bit hungry, and not wanting a full hotel breakfast, went across the street to a coffee shop for some tea and any pastry they happened to have. There I saw the editors of Canadian Holmes, Mark and JoAnn Alberstat, said hello and asked if I could sit with them, which resulted in some lovely talk about Conan Doyle and things Sherlockian. Since we were all in a mood for a walk, we navigated over to the Elmer L. Anderson Library, where the displays and the day’s talks were to take place. None of that would open until 9 AM, of course, so eventually we wandered back to the hotel and took a break before heading to that opening.
In the meantime, of course, many Sherlockian friends had organized a breakfast outing, and were going to be a bit in coming back, so when the displays and 221B recreation opened at nine, I got to get in and photograph everything before anyone was really looking at it. (See previous blog post.) After that, I started to head back to the hotel, but ran into Charles and Kris Prepolec and Mike McSwiggin and just had to see Charles looking over the array of old books that were in the 221B sitting room, so I went back in.
Eventually when I did head back to the hotel, I found my bull pup podcast crew, Madeline and Heather, and set about plotting our recording session in a nice outdoor spot on the way back to the library. We got to that spot, got out the laptop and prepared to record, but found I hadn’t brought the adapter I needed for the microphone, having left it back in the hotel room. It was a little warm out in the sun, so we postponed the recording and headed back to the library, where registration was about to start.
Joe Eckrich stopped me, as he was collecting autographs for the new Holmes in Heartland collection, and somehow that put me into the middle of the growing registration line. Is it cutting if a line seems to grow around you? I don’t know, but Sherlockians are kindly folk and didn’t kick me to the back. Many of us had picked up our name badges the night before, so registration was picking up programs, the big red hardback book that was a part of the conference goodies. yet another book on the display, still another book (a pastiche, I think -- haven’t looked yet) and more. The folks at the registration table nicely bagged all this up in a clear plastic bag with handles.
The University of Minnesota Special Collections had a table of some of their duplicates and donations for sale, and . . . well, I don’t want to get into how much I spent on an impulse buy, but I was helping Kristin Mertz avoid overspending of her own by taking that bullet so to speak. (That’s the story as I’m telling it now. Kristin might tell you something a little different.) In any case, have loaded up with books and needing lunch, the four block walk back to the hotel was necessary once again. I met my old friend Don Hobbs, who was walking with Tim Kline, and we agreed to have lunch together when we got back to the lobby. As I waited for Don, I was talking to Gayle Pugh, who was thinking the walk to the library might be a bit much, so I offered to grab my car and drive her to the library door -- which was actually possible to do. So my fourth trip from hotel to library and back was a little quicker.
Back at the hotel, we headed out for lunch to the pub next door only to find some Sherlockians coming out of said pub with news that the place was too crowded to get us lunch and out in time for the afternoon program. Across the street to the Corner Bar we went, where we were still concerned about eating and making it out on time. Enter Crystal Noll, one of our 221B Con queen bees, and someone I’ll nominate for captain of our starship if we suddenly find ourselves on a starship. She gave the server a series of simple instructions and our willingness to cooperate to speed things along. She not only got eight of us in and our of the Corner Bar as quickly as possible, she also pulled out a Tide stain removal wipe when I dropped ketchup on myself.
And we made it back to the Elmer L. Andersen Library in time for Dick Sveum’s opening remarks and Rebecca Romney’s opening talk on collectors and collecting, past, present, and future. (During which I’ve been writing this blog.) Rebecca’s talk was a great opener, looking forward in ways Sherlockian talks often miss in looking to the past. Jim Hawkins is going to come up next to talk about John Bennett Shaw, but for now, I’ll post this much.
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