Registration open for March 13 Red Circle meeting We look forward to welcoming Sherlockians from near and far to our next virtual Red Circle meeting on Saturday, March 13 at 1:00pm Eastern Time. Our guest will be Catherine Cooke, and full details about the meeting
are here. Zoom registration is easy: Just push the button at the right!
BSI Invests Ten New Irregulars; The Red Circle well represented Peter E. Blau reports that the
Baker Street Irregulars held their first-ever virtual annual dinner on January 8, via Zoom, and the agenda included the usual toasts, rituals and papers. This year the traditional toast to Mrs. Hudson was delivered by the lady herself, splendidly impersonated by
Denny Dobry, from his re-created sitting-room at 221B Baker Street. The BSI's "Wiggins,"
Mike Kean, presented Birthday Honours (Irregular Shillings and Investitures) to ten people, three of them well known to the Red Circle:
Debbie Clark ("Mrs. Cecil Forrester"),
Carla Coupe ("London Bridge") and
Alan Rettig ("The Red Lamp"). Our congratulations to them all.
What’s in a (collective) name? New York Sherlockian Christopher Zordan posed an interesting question recently on the facebook page called “The Stranger’s Room.” He asked us to come up with an appropriate collective noun to define a group of Sherlockians. Elephants have their herds; geese have their flocks. What shall we call a collection of. . .us? Christopher started the ball rolling by suggesting: A canon of Sherlockians, An urchin of Sherlockians and A Boswell of Sherlockians. Many others chimed in, including:
An irregularity of Sherlockians from Amanda Downs Champlin
A scintillation of Sherlockians from Jacquelynn Bost Morris (shameless plug)
A zoom of Sherlockians from George Vanderburgh
A strand of Sherlockians and A hansom of Sherlockians from Aaron Rubin
An argument of Sherlockians from Charles Prepolec
A kinsprit of Sherlockians from Harrison Terry Hunt
An obsession of Sherlockians from William Curatolo
An eccentricity of Sherlockians from Mike Whelan via Vincent W. Wright
A support group of Sherlockians from Greg Ruby
A speakeasy of Sherlockians from Susan Dahlinger
A pipeful of Sherlockians from Erik Decker
A derangement of Sherlockians from Your Webmaster
Can you think of some others? Send them along and we’ll add them to the list!

It was another "virtual" success on Saturday, December 12, as the Red Circle welcomed author and Sherlockian
Mattias Bostrom to its quarterly meeting. Joining us from Stockholm, Mattias focused on
"Sherlock Holmes in the 1920s," and gave a marvelously researched talk, where he zeroed in on the films of Sherlockian actor Eille Norwood. Many people inside and outside the Sherlockian world have wondered whether--after nearly a year of pandemic isolation--"Zoom fatigue" might be setting in, but this meeting set another attendance record for the Red Circle. Our two previous online events counted 115 and 130 participants respectively, while our get-together with Mattias brought 150 people to our virtual clubhouse. Carla Coupe's meeting notes
are available here. The video of the meeting can be seen by clicking the photo.
Malice Domestic honored by Mystery Writers The Mystery Writers of America have announced that Malice Domestic will receive the MWA's Raven Award at the annual Edgar Awards Ceremony on April 29. The Raven Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing. Established in 1989, Malice Domestic is an annual fan convention that celebrates the traditional mystery (books best typified by the works of Agatha Christie, and loosely defined as mysteries which contain no explicit sex or excessive gore or violence). It's our local convention for mystery fans (and authors), and it will be held from April 30 to May 2, 2021 pandemic permitting.
Details are here.
Red Circle Pins Tom Fahres reports that a new supply of Red Circle pins has arrived and is availble for order. The pin has been proudly worn all over the Sherlockian world, from Rockville to the Reichenbach, so Red Circle members (which includes everyone who's ever been to a meeting) will treasure having their own. The price is $14.95 each, which includes shipping anywhere. Send an
email to Tom to order.
Scuttlebutt: One Fixed Point in a Changing Age Our own Peter Blau's monthly Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press has endured for some 50 years, and has a permanent home right here on our website. It's the most remarkable collection of Sherlockian news and notes anywhere, and your webmaster recommends a monthly visit. The very latest edition is available now, as are past numbers. It's just a click away--use the "Scuttlebutt" button at the top of the page.
- Be an Inner Circle Contributor We welcome submissions from all quarters for this page. Please direct materials to the webmaster, alan@redcircledc.org
- For earlier, archived items from The Inner Circle, click here.