Meeting Minutes - SECO 2025
Max Magee
Meeting Minutes
Notorious Canary-Trainers
Show and Tell
Johanna with lots of items (rubber duckies and some kids lit and a comic) from her visit to London
Max with lots of journals and newsletters that have arrived in the last month or so (BSJ, Canadian Holmes, SH Journal and more)
John complained about Andrew Lloyd Weber
Announcements
Tom shared that the SHSL published Occasional Papers is pretty good
Max mentioned their invitation to visit the Reichenbach
Glen said that reminds him of something but Max didn’t record it in time to remember it
221b Con has a new non-profit
Escape Room - going to be the next excursion for Comrades of the Order
Next Torist International meeting coming up in September 27th - Scott Monty
Next month, our group will host a special guest speaker, Detective Captain Dan Nale of the Madison Police Department. He'll talk about his real-world experience in detection and law-enforcement.
Introductions
Johanna - President (~10 years)
Glen - Has to ask John how long it’s been (Kent’s daughter is Glen’s
John - Almost on our 3rd Run on this go ‘round
Max - Group ne’er-do-well (~5 years)
Kate - 10 years…old (Max’s daughter, only here because we didn’t have other arrangements, although we did read the story together)
Tom Smith - From Kenosha ~a year with the group
Cherry Smith - looking forward to continuing driving here
Andrew Jones - Visiting from Elkins, West Virginia, staying with family in Verona
Kent Miller - Been around a while (April 2014)
Jim - Joined sometimes in the aughts ‘06 or ‘08 (claims to be undistinguished)
Vicki - We joined in ‘06
Diane - Joined in 1985, lapsed in the late ‘90s, rejoined in late 2014 (His Last Bow; Tom Drucker)
Mary - Came by way of Austin, Texas (a couple of years)
Kevin - New boy, here for the wines and pickles (first time through)
John - great movie, Days of Wines and Pickles, November 2009 is when I started
Dave - I’ve been around about the same amount of time as Kent (just after)
Story Discussion
Dave: I liked it a lot. There weren’t a lot of cul-de-sacs. Why did Lady Trelawney Hope take both the first and last names of her husband?
John: I very much enjoy this one, and I always have! I remember—sort of—the story (table, rug), but there’s a lot of treaties. It’s got a lot of classic bits in it, Holmes’ reasoning…the social importance of First Love. If somebody sent you a love letter 15 years ago, and somebody finds out, it’s going to completely destroy your life, marriage, career, etc.
Kevin: I wasn’t terribly impressed with this one—it staggered around before it finished. Seemed like Doyle had a hard time. Seemed overly convenient, so it is a lesser one in my view. Writing style seemed overly-florid, average.
Mary: Kind of have the same, mish-mash of the Milverton story with the blackmail. Kind of an average story.
Diane: I liked this one considerably less than what I remembered of it. The more I thought about it, the less impressed I was. The more I thought about it, Holmes doesn’t really do anything. There was no danger anymore, perhaps she would’ve thought to put it back.
Vicky: I agree about the women, they were there because of the love letter, but didn’t contribute much to the story. I liked it in the beginning and I think overall, it was mediocre. Why didn’t he lock it in the vault, instead he brought it home and put it in the dispatch box. I found it amusing in that way. I don’t think I have a question. Statement or sentence written down: “Between thin blue-veined hand closed tightly gaunt ascetic face looked gloomily from Holmes to me.”
Jim: I have to add to the luke-warm criticism. We hear about this story touted quite a bit in Holmes discussion. Answer to John’s question, I think, is “Yes.”
Kent: Because I’m not as familiar with the stories as the rest of you, I am going to go against the grain and say this is one of my favorites! It was relatively new (first I had read was Devil’s Foot) and I’ve thought it was a little on the long size, but it was no trouble to keep going because I was entertained. Crazy introduction, where he was always a bee-keeper. Watson went on one of his little things about how beautiful that woman was. Passage that stuck out—if it were a movie, dramatic scenes “All that demonic energy…paroxcysm of energy”
“Down on her knees, face wet with tears…”
If I had a question, why was fainting so common in books and shows in this period?
Andrew: Interpersonal communication- “take your partner into your confidence” is good, solid relationship device. Holmes’ failure to grasp the ways of women, and relies on Watson to interpret.
Who is the prime minister? Who is Lord Bellinger?
Cherry: Contrary to what most of you have asserted, Lady Hilda was more intelligent than many of you are giving her credit for. I did find it interesting that in such a hopeless case, the last name of the client is Hope.
Tom: I find Lady Hilda very interesting—she only faints when she needs to. She goes out and meets with Lucas, takes the letter, she’s there when the wife comes in and raises the knife and she’s out the door. Then she RETURNS and dupes the constable. She’s an extremely strong woman, particularly in this era. “If Britain were to join the war with one confederacy, make the other stronger?”
Max: Cycles like Jefferson Hope from Study in Scarlet and Trelawney Hope—beginning and ending, like Star Wars (even the incalculable odds), Ring Cycle (Wagner, not Lord of) Question is, which other stories were spy thrillers?
Kate: Kate liked the part where we ended the story, because she’s not into Sherlock Holmes.
Glen: Reads About Sixty and the essay begins “The Second Stain is one of the greatest and most important Sherlock Holmes stories in the entire Canon.” That’s how they should do it. The second night, she says she’s going to the theatre. Advertising by professionals was considered unseemly.
Johanna: I thought this was terrible, I really really dislike stories where if they had only bothered to talk to one another, then that never would’ve happened at all. The only thing I liked about Sherlock and Daughter was “I shall retire and keep bees.” And the daughter goes “Keep BEES!?” The thing I like best are the lines “It’s a capital mistake to theorize in advance of the facts” and “Watson, the fairer sex is your department.” Woman from Milverton, plot from Bruce-Partington Plans.
Fainting:
Corsets contributed
Removing ribs
If the rug stain had been matched to the spot on the floor, there would be no clue or story.
Max posits Lady Hilda - International Woman of Mystery? Perhaps she is playing everyone in the story, masterful interview to find out what Holmes knows, husband doesn’t suspect a thing, would’ve gotten off scot free without Holmes interference, easy story about Lucas’ crazy wife.
Connections between Scandal in Bohemia (first loves, international scandal, revealing hiding places)
Diane mentioned that Noel Coward play where this was the plot of the 1950s
Tom says that it was interesting that they were both sleeping in the same bedroom, unlike most well-to-do couples. Diane suggests that perhaps they were trying to cultivate A New Hope
Hope should’ve left the letter in the vault! -most of us (brought up by Vicki) But then it would’ve been a one-paragraph story, according to John.
Vicki points out that the Brett series followed the story pretty well, there were just a few deviations. One was pretty good! They simplified the letter exchange. She used the time when she was at the theatre to get the letter and make the exchange.
Was picking on the woman because she was French, but had Creole blood.
Sherlock Monthly invitation - Still needs hosts for Golden Pince-Nez in September. Reach out to Ed Pettit at the Rosenbach if you’d like to join him. He says these are the main requirements “1.) A love of the Sherlockian Canon, 2.) The ability to talk entertainingly on a live show.”
https://www.rosenbach.org/programs/biblioventures-sherlock-monthly-november-2025
Next month’s story: Wisteria Lodge (1908)*
Next month's discussion leader: Who knows!?
*Note: We've arranged this year's reading schedule according to publication dates, so although the collection of stories (and the short story of the same name), His Last Bow, wasn't published until 1917 and Valley of Fear was serialized between 1914 and 1915, almost all of the other stories in that collection were published (many of them several years, for instance, 1908 in the case of WIST and BRUC) before Valley of Fear.
Yeoman Purser of the Barque of the Lone Star & Cap'n Basil's Mignonettes