THE GREEK INTERPRETERS

On Wednesday, February 18th, fifteen members of the Greek Interpreters and three welcome visitors met at Park Lake Grill restaurant in East Lansing for our winter meeting. The story selected for study was "The Man with the Twisted Lip". The meeting opened with the customary Canonical Toasts to Mrs. Hudson, Mycroft Holmes, the Second Mrs. Watson and The Woman. A quiz on the selected story was provided by Bill Reusch (The Chemist). This quiz and some earlier quizzes may be viewed on this web site.
Following the quiz, discussion of the "Twisted Lip" ranged over many topics. These included the name "James", used by Mrs. Watson when referring to her husband, and its possible derivation from "Hamish" (Watson's middle name?). Inconsistencies in Mrs. St.Clair's account of seeing her husband on the upper floor of The Bar of Gold and Neville's later description in the Bow Street station were also debated. The ease with which Holmes removed Hugh Boone's makeup with a wet sponge was attributed to Doyle's artistic license. Charlie Press (Message-Boy) provided an analysis of Conan Doyle's familiarity with London street geography in a number of stories, including this one.
The Foulest Antecedent encouraged members to select Investiture Titles for identification. The meeting concluded, as usual, by reading Vincent Starrett's "221B" poem, and the singing of The Anthem.

221B

Here dwell together still two men of note
Who never lived and so can never die:
How very near they seem, yet how remote
That age before the world went all awry.
But still the game's afoot for those with ears
Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo:
England is England yet, for all our fears--
Only those things the heart believes are true.
A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane
As night descends upon this fabled street:
A lonely hansom splashes through the rain,
The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet.
Here, though the world explode, these two survive,
And it is always eighteen ninety-five.

-- Vincent Starrett
 

Meeting Attendees

Foulest Antecedent
The Swamp Adder
Silver Blaze
Mr. Patrick
Violet Hunter
The Provincial American
The Engineer
Elise
Colonel Ross
Message-Boy
The Chemist
Will and Jean Maples
Bill and Josephine Schwan
Duane Pajak
Barbara and George Platsis