Well, it finaly happened; a complete technological breakdown. I brought a Radio Shack Cinego projector to do the PowerPoint show. This projector also shows DVDs and has a built in chip of some sort for identifying the input source and detecting what it is being asked to do. With everything hooked up and 35 people looking on, the projector decided it was being asked to show a DVD, even though there was no DVD loaded. For several agonizing minutes I pressed the "select source" control and the answer the projector gave was always the same; "DVD". Of course there is no manual way of selecting the source you want; that would make too much sense. You have to depend on the chip. if the chip doesn't work, you're shot down sitting in the hanger.

    Finally, I gave up fighting with the malevolent projector and simply gave the talk that went with the slides I couldn't show. One of the men held the laptop so that at least a few of the members could see the slides (sort of). It still went pretty well. One man said he remembered passing through Flemington during the Hauptmann trial and seeing people selling miniature "kidnap ladders" as souveniers. Another said he remembered his parents sitting by the radio waiting for word of Hauptmann's execution.

    Unfortunately, the man holding up the laptop was the one I had asked to take pictures, so there is no photo record of this great event. Instead, I will be puting up some pictures of St Michaels at Christmas time.