Meeting Minutes for MAZA (1921)
Max Magee
Meeting Minutes
Notorious Canary-Trainers
This time with a Photo Album!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4KpLyvH83299BvmKA
15 Members in Attendance
Johanna
Diane
Kevin & Mary
Tom & Cherry
Dave
Max
John
Sophie
Tyler
Kent
Glen
Jim & Vicki
Johanna just got back from London, got some souvenirs
Tom Baker Sherlock Holmes kickstarter
Sherlock Roach and the case of the Crunchy Crumb
Mary & Kevin - Sherlock Holmes Tea
Glen - Original Strand Magazine with Mazarin Stone in it! (WOW!)
Tom - En La Ment De Sherlock Holmes Vol 1, 2 (en le ment looks a lot like elementary, doesn’t it?)
Story Discussion
Kent - Agrees with About 60, this was great! Did Billy the Page appear in other stories? Words like gudgeon, peached,
Glen - Watched Jeremy Brett version, then I went and I read it. Not my favorite, but I read About 60 this guy makes a lot of good points! Like Kent, “peached” threw me. I question the quality of the gramophone back then.
Kevin - I thought this was going to be a good discussion, based on what everybody had said about it. Taking it as it is as a story, I thought it was silly in places and chatty. Interesting that it was told in the third-person. Sounded like Watson’s voice in my head. Overly convenient that he had the stone. Larky and entertaining. The Brett adaptation flummoxed me and is a mashup. Couldn’t hardly follow it.
Mary - I liked it. I thought it was fun. Holmes seemed to be having a good time, dressing up! Was happy to see the dummy come out.
Cherry - Won’t disappoint Johanna (who expected folks to complain): After I finished reading it, I thought “stupid.”
Tom - When Cherry said it was stupid, I thought “Well, somebody agrees with me.” I like almost all of the Holmes stories and found it hard to find something in here to like. It’s maybe my least-favorite story. The parts that keep it from being Olympically stupid, Billy the Page, who can get along with the Prime Minister and Home Secretary but can’t stand Lord Camplemere. “No rough stuff, Billy” fun comic relief.
Dave - “I was happy it was so short.” Seeing it in context of the Crown Diamond (play), I think the play is better in some ways. I do wonder how Sherlock Holmes was able to sneak the dummy out of the chair. Most of the characters were not really interesting—Watson was not really in the story. A lot of talking and not a lot of action.
Max - Empty House, Crown Diamond, Voice of Science. Sarcastic one thumb up. It was dumb, but I enjoyed it. It was farcical.
Diane - I am the hater in this story. You don’t see Holmes doing anything except chit-chatting at the end. You don’t see any of the investigation. The characters don’t behave like themselves. The About 60 guy is on drugs. This has always been ranked the last story in the Canon. If you take all the names and change them, maybe
Sophie - I enjoyed it, didn’t like that Watson wasn’t featured as much. Liked Sherlock being dramatic (putting his leg up at the table).
Tyler - Listened to it an hour ago. “I didn’t think it was that bad.” I do wish John was in it more. It was interesting that it was not this time, but still wished he was there. It was interesting to see Billy just show up in the BBC Sherlock.
Vicki - At first I was getting worried, because I heard a bunch of people saying they liked it on that side of the room (Kent-Mary). I do not like this story. I prefer the first-person Watson point of view. Weird things keep happening, and I was wondering “Am I going crazy!?”
Jim - Well, at considerable risk, I will say I liked it quite a bit. I liked the humor, thought Watson’s behavior was consistent, Sherlock was humorous as he is in other stories. This story was a step out of the realistic, but not too much. He did recite the steps he took on the way to solve it. We’ve had a century of dioramas and reconstructed 221b apartments to explore. But I don’t think Doyle has ever laid those out. I think it’s plausible that if someone were playing a violin a few rooms away we might be able to tell that it was recorded vs. live, but THEN it was a new thing!
John - Agree with you completely about the recording, and these ruffians probably haven’t heard a lot of recorded music; I think it IS Holmes, but he’s a trickster Holmes. Lots of disguises, recording, turning the head, tricked the guy into revealing the gem, pocket of Cantlemere. I would not put it in the top-10, not my favorite story. I read these as Doyle stories, not necessarily Holmes. I enjoyed this, but it does have a goofiness to it.
Lumiere/Great Train Robbery
Johanna - A lot of the other Strand content was WORSE. That’s why this one stuck around. I like it particularly because of what it is, which is an adaptation from a play. I adore the opening, where Watson is taking stock of the elements of the rooms. It’s neat that it’s adapting the story to the right medium. That it all takes place in the one room because it was staged in one scene.
The play vs. story
Count von Count, Elaborate Magic Routine, Layout of Baker Street Rooms
Framing device of Watson looking back
Recorded music
Jim asks about the eating habits of Sherlock Holmes - Does fasting encourage better brainwork? Definitively, scientifically, no. Brainfood - nuts, snacks, something sugary encourages.
Perhaps Holmes had indigestion or ailment. Maybe he was back on the “sauce” and had no appetite.
Love the Lord Cantlemere sleight of hand/diamond drop scene - Stuffy old Statesman “He’s a stiff ‘un sir”
Glen mentioned the radio play from 1947, and was impressed by how much better the quality of the recording had gotten from the last time I listened to it (a couple of decades ago).
Vicki - I wasn’t aware it was based on a play. I was wondering how far apart the play and the story were published.
Both 1921, James Montgomery found it and proved definitively that the Crown Diamond came first
A lot of riffs on different, previous stories: Voice of Science, The Crown Diamond, The Empty House
What exactly is a “hidden pocket” and how does it prevent the police from detecting a giant rock in your pocket?
The Mazarin Stone as cane topper in Grenada (inside the chalice):
BBC’s Audio Drama adaptation.
Is the Mazarin Stone THE worst SH Story?
http://observanceoftrifles.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-adventure-of-mazarin-stone-worst.html
In the Crown Diamond, Cardinal Mazarin was not mentioned, instead the stone is mentioned as a 77 carat yellow diamond. There happens to be a 77 carat yellow diamond that passed through an auction house in Hong Kong recently:
Cardinal Mazarin’s diamonds were very different species:
https://gem-a.com/gem-hub/mazarin-passion-for-diamonds/
Next month's story: The Problem of Thor Bridge (1922)
Your Brother in Holmes,
Max Magee
Sotheby's top lot clearly has auspicious ties to the number seven, a fact that should widen the diamond's appeal at auction. For the Chinese, seven is a lucky number that also signifies togetherness. In the West, seven is considered the luckiest of all numbers and many a gambler has dreamed of a 7-7-7 slot machine jackpot.
For potential Asian buyers, the vivid yellow color of the diamond is desirable because it symbolizes royalty and power.
The number 4 (四, pinyin: sì; Cantonese Yale: sei) is sometimes considered an unlucky number particularly in Cantonese because the way it is pronounced in the Cantonese dialect is nearly homophonous to the word "death" (死 pinyin: sǐ; Cantonese Yale: séi).
Max Magee
Greenling
Grenadier
Green spotted puffer
Ground shark
Grouper
Grunion
Grunt
Grunter
Grunt sculpin
Gudgeon
Guitarfish
Gulf menhaden
Gulper eel
Gulper
Gunnel
Guppy
Gurnard
Haddock
Hagfish
Gargoyle
Garuda
Genie
Geryon
Ghost
Ghoul
Giant
Gnome
Goblin
Gogo
Golem
Gorgon
Gremlin
Grey
Griffin
Grigock
Grogoch
Grogock
Gryphon
Gyascutus
https://www.americanarachnology.org/fileadmin/documents/arachnids/arachnid_common_names2003.pdf
In part it says:
As Gurney (1953) noted, “It is clear that too long a name is awkward to use and would tend to
defeat its own purposes.” Three or fewer words are used for arachnid common names. Four words
are allowed, provided justification is given for the additional word. The most common reason is the
inclusion of a geographical proper name composed of more than one word. Costa Rican zebra
tarantula is an example of an acceptable common name containing four words. A non-geographical
case is the pineapple false spider mite. The name “false spider mite” represents the group; in this
case, mites of the family Tenuipalpidae; and pineapple is apparently the major host for this
particular species.
Most arthropod common names contain two parts, one representing the taxonomic unit; the
second composed of a modifier.
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"It was not your agents but your play-acting, busybody self! You admit that you have dogged me. Why?"