Golden Anniversary Symposium and Celebration
(L to R) Monica Schmidt, Laura Duncombe, Lynn Westbrook and Will Thomas were the featured speakers at the Golden Anniversary Symposium.
The Afghanistan Perceivers celebrated their Golden Anniversary with a free symposium at the University of Tulsa's Allen Chapman Student Union, Great Hall B. About 25 people witnessed featured presentations by:
That evening, more than 30 Perceivers and their guests celebrated at Ti Amo restaurant in south Tulsa. Entertainment for the three-course dinner was provided by the Holmes Peak Players, who performed The Case of the Rain in Spain, a radio play by Dean Clark, a founding member of the Perceivers and a BSI member. (Clark has had seven other pastiche radio plays performed at the annual BSI conference over the years.) The Holmes Peak Players comprised: Paul Henry (Announcer); Robert Young (John H. Watson); Steve Barker (Shinwell Johnson/Alfred Doolittle); Liz Masters (Irene Adler/Eliza Doolittle); Angela McLaughin (Violet Westbury); and Brian Wilson (Sherlock Holmes/Henry Higgins).
- Lynn Westbrook, Ph.D., a longtime University of Texas at Austin professor of library science, who discussed "From Bloody Shoes to Brandy." She showed how she is building a comprehensive, objective database of the Sherlock Holmes canon of 56 short stories and four novels. An internationally known lecturer, Westbrook has retired to Fort Collins, Colorado, and has been a Perceiver since 2022.
- Monica Schmidt, LMHC, a member of the Baker Street Irregulars (the preeminent Sherlockian group in the world), director of marketing and sales for BSI Press, a nationally known Sherlockian speaker, and a respected mental health counselor in Iowa. She discussed "John H. Watson's Invisible War: PTSD," in which she took canonical selections about or by Watson and compared them to clinical descriptions and symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
- Will Thomas, a Tulsa County writer and Perceiver since he was 17. A martial arts instructor and author of the Cyrus Barker/Thomas Llewelyn novels, he discussed "Sherlock Holmes and the Martial Arts," some of which showed the possible distinction (or error) by Arthur Conan Doyle having Holmes employ baritsu, not bartitsu, a martial art practiced by eclectic late Victorians.
- Laura Duncombe, a Tulsa attorney, who used the audience as jurors in her presentation "Sherlock Holmes and the Law." In "A Scandal in Bohemia," Holmes has some questionable behavior, and Duncombe, citing Oklahoma law, presented the prosecution against and defense of the world's greatest consulting detective. It was a tough crowd as Holmes was convicted of several offenses and sentenced to 11 years in gaol. Duncombe, part of the Perceivers' Privy Council, has been a member since since 2018.
That evening, more than 30 Perceivers and their guests celebrated at Ti Amo restaurant in south Tulsa. Entertainment for the three-course dinner was provided by the Holmes Peak Players, who performed The Case of the Rain in Spain, a radio play by Dean Clark, a founding member of the Perceivers and a BSI member. (Clark has had seven other pastiche radio plays performed at the annual BSI conference over the years.) The Holmes Peak Players comprised: Paul Henry (Announcer); Robert Young (John H. Watson); Steve Barker (Shinwell Johnson/Alfred Doolittle); Liz Masters (Irene Adler/Eliza Doolittle); Angela McLaughin (Violet Westbury); and Brian Wilson (Sherlock Holmes/Henry Higgins).
