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Franco-Midland Anniversary Banquet 2025: the distinguished ones are...

Updated: 21 hours ago

As every year, the Franco-Midland Committee of Twelve Wise Men held its banquet on January 14, to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the ironmongers company thirty-two years ago, and to unveil the list of the nine Holmesians distinguished for their action in 2024.

The twelve were present around the table set in a place that, as required by the rules, will remain secret.

The evening began with the reading of the Franco-Midland Ritual.

As a reminder, here is the hiring questionnaire asked by Arthur Pinner at Hall Pycroft:

- À combien sont les Ayrshires ?

- 105 à 105,25.

- Et le New Zealand Consolidated ?

- 104.

- Et les British Broken Hills ?

- 7 à 7,6.

This year, the speaker, our dean, chose to "read" it using the signs of the Dancing Men code, accompanied on the piano by the head of the "Music Paper" section who performed Erik Satie's first Gymnopédie.

A moment of grace and flexibility, a true performance for a person of canonical age. The triple toast bottoms-up, which had not been seen since the last century, was a deserved reward.

The canonical menu

Year in 5 obliges, the wise men swallowed five orange pips as an aperitif. Then the traditional menu was served, pencil on the ear, during a warm and copious banquet.

Pâté de foie gras pie (NOBL)

Excellent wild duck shooting in the fens (GLOR)

Flowing salmon-coloured (3GAB)

Slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard (BERY)

Cheese in the darkness (BLAN)

This really takes the cake (TWIS)

The little village of Meiringen (FINA)

Cup of coffee, and then off to violin land (REDH)

Some wine and water (TWIS)

Scholarly lectures at the banquet

As etiquette requires, the agape was punctuated by schorlar interventions given by the Quatuor D (four members out of twelve intervene, once every four years since the creation of the Franco-Midland, thirty-two years ago).

The wise Nine chose A Study in Scarlet, to illustrate the quote "in nine cases out of ten, the height of a man can be determined from the length of his stride" and what this tells us about penguins in the southern hemisphere and Penguin Books.

For the wise Ten, the subject of study was the mention of "ten o'clock" in the Canon and what it tells us about life on Baker Street.

For the wise Eleven, the debate is based on the quote from A Study in Scarlet, "as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be".

"To be or not to be", "the sun of man is man", "the withdrawn man has bad odors", etc.

Finally, the wise Twelve, quoting The Adventure of the Priory School, "I think twelve thousand pounds is the sum that I owe you, is it not?" launched into a study of the 1920 sterling trap that left his family broke, denouncing at the same time his nickname "Douze no flouze".

With these words of Entente cordiale, the banquet was adjourned.

The nine distinguished 2025

The list of the year's promotions was then unveiled to applause and the clanking of hardware, as is fitting at Franco-Midland.

The CREE, the "Comité Réglementaire Elitaire Elémentaire des 12 sages de la Franco-Midland", distinguished the following Holmesians to celebrate their authority on the subject and their skills according to the criteria of the Franco-Midland "Quality" charter that the world envies us and tries, without success, to imitate:

- "A certain gracious lady" (BRUC)

Aude Loring Hainich Joos (Switzerland)