Sherlockians of Baltimore (SOB) lunch, Saturday July 1st, 2023

Today the Sherlockians of Baltimore met for their quarterly lunch meeting, at their usual  venue: Sabatino's Italian Restaurant in the 'Little Italy' area of downtown Baltimore. Members call themselves the SOBs. There's a facebook page for the group (https://www.facebook.com/SherlockiansBaltimore), and an occasionally used Twitter account: @SherlockBmore . The SOBs were founded around 2016 after trying to relaunch the Sherlockian group called the Carlton Club of Baltimore. It transpires the Carlton Club were actively inactive, and so a new group was created - the SOBs. You can use the contacts on the Fbook page to be added to the email list, and therefore be made aware of upcoming gatherings! 

The Sherlockians of Baltimore pin

Greg tells me that "all who attend a meeting are considered to be a SOB. However, if one gives a presentation, prepares a quiz or leads a story discussion they become a Certified SOB with a Baltimore based investiture".

The scene of the luncheon: Sabatino's Italian Restaurant in the 'Little Italy' area of downtown Baltimore. Can confirm the food was great!

After several failed attempts, today was my first time attending the SOB lunch. Proceedings were chaired by Greg Ruby, who introduced two toasts. The first was by that great Doylean Ross Davies, who proposed a toast to the many Green Bags that appear in the canon (In fact, Ross had two toasts prepared - one that he wrote (and used), and one that ChatGPT wrote for him). The next toast was the traditional toast to Sherlock Holmes, which was surprisingly proposed by Mrs. Helga Hudson herself who stepped out from the cloakroom at the appointed moment. As evidenced by the photos below, Denny Dobry did a spectacular job of the toast - perhaps the best I've seen - certainly the most authentically Sherlockian! 

Mrs. Helga Hudson proposes the toast to Sherlock

The main presentation was Ira Matetsky, who travelled down from Manhattan to present. Ira is a litigator and without notes walked through the background on US Copyright Law as it relates to the Sherlock Holmes, and the twists and turns on the way to the canon being in the public domain. I recorded Ira's talk on a last moment whim, and was lucky enough to have Ira's permission (after the fact) to share the recording. Enjoy!

The final event was a discussion of Chapters 3-7 of the first part of A Study in Scarlet, and an associated quiz for those chapters (posted below), organized by the always entertaining Karen Wilson. Ewy Herzog (of ASH fame) scored 15 out of 15 !

Another wonderful scion, and one worth trying to get to if you are located in the mid-Atlantic region!