A Week ago Friday, Ed (my mate) and I flew to Las Vegas to attend the annual meeting of the Richard III Society, American Branch. Friday evening we registered and caught up with old friends and met new ones.
After a buffet breakfast Saturday, Kate Skegg presented her theory on what caused the English Sweating sickness. By her reckoning, it's a cyclical disease that's highly infectious, but not easily caught from person to person. Her research strongly points to Tularemia, an infectious disease carried by ticks, although there are other modalities that can spread the disease to humans.
Susan Higginbotham gave the next talk--one befitting the venue of this year's meeting--gambling! Dice were popular from ancient times, as was Backgammon, dating back to Mesopotamia. Even the 14th-century Luttrell Psalter has an illustration of two young people playing Backgammon in the garden. (If you're interested, you can see many images contained in the Luttrell Psalter, including this one, in Google images.) The modern deck of cards are derived from the Tarot deck and while many believe the Queen of Hearts may be that of Elizabeth of York and wife of Henry VII, the connection seems to be one of hindsight.
Following the buffet luncheon, Dr. Sharon Michalove gave the keynote speech on the reinvention of Richard III. Depending on which side of the fence you stand on, you may think of Richard as either a good king or evil as epitomized by William Shakespeare. Interestingly, as Dr. Michalove pointed out, not only has Richard been reinvented through the centuries since his defeat in 1485, but so have the the interpretations given to Shakespeares villain of the same name.
The banquet (buffet of course) followed the business meeting where many of us dressed up in our finest 15th-century style dress and we were treated to a play by Joyce Tumea,
What Was That?: a modern medieval murder mystery.
As all things must, this came to an end after the Sunday breakfast, where I had the opportunity to participate in an author's panel with Susan Higginbotham, Maria Elena Torres, Sharon Michalove, and Joyce Tumea. This was my first experience participating in this sort of panel, and I found it a most enjoyable experience. I'm sure it helped that I was among friends.
Ed and I took advantage of a five hour break to drive out to Red Rock National Park, about 20 minute drive out of Las Vegas. I've taken many photos, but hopefully these two images will give you an idea of the magnitude of this park:
Ed and I stayed on with about twenty other Ricardians to attend the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur Hotel. We had a grand time watching the fabulous horsemanship, and acrobatic show while eating a roasted chicken with our fingers--knives and forks were not allowed to be consistent with medieval times, although I couldn't help smirking at the anachronistic home fried potatoes and steamed broccoli.
Here's a photo of a bit of Las Vegas at night:
We left the next day to tour a few of the national parks and to see some of the southwest. More on this later.
