The Next Decade of ASH

M.E. Rich

As presented at the ASH Autumn Dinner, 2 December 2006

and published in The Serpentine Muse, Vol 23, No. 1, Winter 2007

The Adventuresses gather tonight with their glasses raised on high to celebrate the Autumn, the approaching Solstice, and the coming joyous rituals of Twelfth Night. This is the Sherlockian Season, bringing not only the Birthday Revels, but also the quiet, dark evenings by the fire with Canon in hand and snow frosting the windowpanes. Now is the time for reflection, thanksgiving and epiphanies. In this lovely French restaurant, I am reminded of a long-ago dinner at Larre's French restaurant just around the corner, where several young women plotted a feminist Holmesian renaissance.

Tonight I look at my friends, women and men, and realize anew that there are too many absent friends, too many dear ones lost. The ASH was formed by a group of college friends who wanted to play the Great Game as led by the Baker Street Irregulars, but who were deemed unqualified to do so, having only X rated chromosomes. We approach the 40^th anniversary of our protest in 2008 with a mixture of pride and wonder. In the memorable words of a Bordelaise tour guide, back in 1968 we were infused with l'insouciance de la jeunesse. Now we view our membership and find that the march of time has brought us into our Middle Ages with trademark insouciance intact, but without the stamina of the ingénue.

Fifteen years ago the Baker Street Irregulars finally admitted the first six ladies into that august sodality, and in turn the Adventuresses honored four men with investitures, four who had exhibited significant and enduring efforts on behalf of Sherlockian women. And while the BSI has, somewhat reluctantly, I believe, continued to invest one or two women each year, our society has been unable to decide on how to invite male colleagues to make an ASH of themselves.

We're taking the most direct route: we're inviting men to make an ASH of themselves, for investiture beginning in our anniversary year, 2008. The process will be identical to the way in which ASH have always been inducted into our coterie. An applicant will address a formal request for membership, with a preferred nom d'ASH cited, to Evy, our Principal Unprincipled Adventuress, who will approve an appropriate number of investitures annually. Sherlockians must have solid credentials as well as a history of supporting feminism, particularly with writings in the Muse, the BSJ, and other publications, or by contributing to our various events and carousings. Buying an Adventuress a brandy alexander is all well and good, fellows, but it could be subject to misinterpretation—or interpretation for that matter. And in the interest of clarity, we note that gentlemen will be addressed as ASH, not Adventuresses, lest there be further misinterpretation. All rights and privileges will be extended to those who join us in our fifth decade, and we anticipate a vigorous future brightened by sprightly conversation, Canonical challenges, and continued insouciance.

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