When leaving the Victoria airport the day before our Colloquium, I saw a van of the Dunsmuir Lodge marked with big letters which I read as "Alcohol Colloquium." I do often make such blunders because of the global, casual, and careless way in which I read various ads, and checked myself quickly to read it correctly as "Algol Colloquium." Millions of fellow citizens could easily make the same mistake, and no apology could be expected. Even I read and hear the word alcohol more frequently than Algol, although I must say that Algols have given me more pleasure and fewer headaches over the years;...

The proposal to organize a Symposium on circumstellar matter and extended atmo- spheres in binary systems was first made by the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory to the Executive Committee of the International Astronomical Union in the summer of 1969. It received the support of the presidents of Commissions 29 (Stellar Spectra), 30 (Radial Velocities), 36 (Stellar Atmospheres), and 42 (Photometric Double Stars). Approval in principle was given by the Executive Committee almost immediately, and the Committee further suggested that the Symposium be officially designated the Struve Memorial...