Sherlock Holmes: Trifles

“His life as been academic” [CREE]    Sherlock Holmes and academic affairs are, well, elementary. [Sorry] But have you considered those who hold the title "professor" when it comes to the stories?   Of course you know Professor Moriarty. But there are only two others, which is a tad surprising, given the stories that involved the academy. It's just a Trifle.       Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.   Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles211   Sponsor The BSI Press   Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0   --  

 “you could not celebrate him without being known yourself.” [HOUN]   Every year, the Baker Street Irregulars meet in early January to celebrate Sherlock Holmes's birthday. Why January, or more specifically January 6? It's an interesting story.   We discuss what factors may support that supposition and highlight the scholarship that helped us arrive at this date. It's just a Trifle.     Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.     Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles210 Happy 167th Birthday, Sherlock Holmes (I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere) "What Was the Month?" by Nathan Bengis, BSJ Vol. 7, No. 4 (1957)   Sponsor The BSI Press   Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.

“As I expected, his reply was typewritten” [IDEN]    While handwriting was and is distinctive enough for a detective like Sherlock Holmes to draw some inferences, typography isn't quite so forgiving.    Whether it was through fonts used in newspapers or flourishes of individual typewriters ("the fourteen other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." [IDEN]), Holmes was able to wring more out of typography than the average investigator. It's just a Trifle.   This is our final episode of Season 4. Should we continue into Season 5? Let us know.       Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.   Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles209 The Gorgeous Typeface that Drove Men Mad and Sparked a 100-Year Mystery (Gizm

“Have you ever had occasion to study character in handwriting?” [SIGN]    More than once, Sherlock Holmes used someone's handwriting to guide him toward a solution. Whether it was a hastily-scribbled legal document or a red herring of a note, he was able to discern certain facts by observing the handwriting.    But was this a mere fiction, a literary license to make his powers seem more impressive? Or was it more practical in nature? It's just a Trifle.       Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.   Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles208 Graphology (Wikipedia)   Sponsor The BSI Press   Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band

“Holmes smiled and rubbed his hands” [WIST]    Sherlock Holmes enjoyed breakfast. But it was often interrupted. He had a variable knowledge of botany but knew enough to feel chagrined for missing green peas at 7:30. What can we tell about Sherlock Holmes's food habits from Earle Walbridge's essay from 1940 titled "The Care and Feeding of Sherlock Holmes"? It's the monthly installment of our "Mr. Sherlock Holmes the Theorist" theme, and it's just a Trifle.       Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.     Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles207 "The Care and Feeding of Sherlock Holmes" by Earle F. Walbridge in 221B: Studies in Sherlock Holmes Previous episodes mentioned in this show: Episode 42: A Noble Supper Episod

“Holmes smiled and rubbed his hands” [WIST]   Did Sherlock Holmes care about teeth? There's evidence that he cared about his own teeth, as seen through his recommendation of dental hygiene, and through his remark about losing a tooth.   But what about the potential of dental science as applied to the art of detection? Sherlock Holmes had the potential to be the world's first forensic dentist. Did he make any progress? It's just a Trifle.   Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.     Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles206 The Big Book of British Smiles (YouTube) "The Dental Holmes" by Charles Goodman, D.D.S. in Profile by Gaslight   Sponsor The BSI Press   Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Cham

 “sinister atmosphere of forgotten nations,” [DEVI]  It's not quite a holiday for Sherlock Holmes in "The Devil's Foot," but rather a time away from London to be able to recuperate. "The villages which dotted this part of Cornwall" gave a quaint, other-worldly feeling to the setting.   But so too did the traces of "some vanished race which had passed utterly away, and left as it sole record strange monuments of stone, irregular mounds which contained the burned ashes of the dead." The Cornish coast was the perfect place for this story. And it's just a Trifle.     Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.     Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles205 History of Cornwall (Wikipedia) The Game Is Afoot! by David Hamer (Amazon) "The

  “I have my eye on a suite in Baker Street” [STUD]    In the first part of this two-episode series, we looked at the Baker Street area of Victorian London and the changes that it has seen in the century and a half since that time.   This time, we sharpen our powers of observation and search for the specific address that must have stood in for 221B Baker Street in Holmes's time. Many Sherlockian scholars have attempted to identify it. Who was right? It's just a Trifle.       Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.     Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles204 "Dear Starrett" / "Dear Briggs" (The BSI Archival Series) The eBSJ I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Episode 204: Frederic Dorr Steele   Sponsor The Baker Street Journa

 “we made our way back to Baker Street” [3GAR]    The address is legendary. Synonymous with its famous inhabitant, just as the deerstalker and meerschaum pipe. But it may be just as fanciful as those two accoutrements.   This is the first in a two-part discussion of Baker Street of the Victorian era, and where Sherlock Holmes was supposed to have lived. What was different then? It's just a Trifle.       Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.     Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles203 The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes by Vincent Starrett "The Street and the Detective" by A.J. Hearn from the 1957 Baker Street Journal Christmas Annual (available via the eBSJ) I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Episode 204: Frederic Dorr Stee

 “Holmes, a child has done this horrid thing” [SIGN]    Many of us find our way to the Sherlock Holmes stories as children, yet there is a decided absence of children in the Canon. When we do find them, they tend to be in service of furthering a plot point rather than as fully developed characters.   There are perhaps one or two exceptions, but children in the Sherlock Holmes stories are there in service to Sherlock Holmes. It's just a Trifle. Download | 11.6 MB, 25:57         Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.     Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles202   Sponsor The BSI Press   Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Ba

 “I desire you to spare no expense and no pains” [WIST]    Sherlock Holmes had to go places, see people, investigate things. And doing so meant that he incurred expenses. If we itemized what some of these were—absent the specific amount—what would that tell us about Sherlock Holmes?   Where did he go? How did he travel? Where did get get the funding when there wasn't a well-off client behind his cases? It's just a Trifle.       Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.   Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles201 Related episodes:  Episode 74 - The Administrative Side of Baker Street Episode 75 - Nummi in Arca, or The Fiscal Holmes   Sponsor The Baker Street Journal   Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Mar

 “Yes, this is the great Agra” [SIGN]  It's where Jonathan Small met Mahomet Singh, Dost Akbar and Abdullah Khan and together they made a pact known as the Sign of the Four. The Fort of Agra, in the city of the same name.   Small described it as a queer and enormous place, with deserted halls and winding passages. In other words, the perfect setting for a treasure hunt and murder. We explore the ins and outs of the great fort. It's just a Trifle.     Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.     Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles200 Agra Fort (Cultural India) Agra Fort (Wikipedia) Agra Fort (Lonely Planet) Battle of Agra (Wikipedia) Agra Fort Directory according to the Census taken on the 27th July 1857 by Asst Surgeon JP Wa

 “You have been cruelly used” [SPEC]  We're at the end of our four-part series on Women in the Canon from The Best of the Sherlock Holmes Journal, Vol. 2. This time we look at "The Victims."   That may seem a broad topic for a 20-something minute podcast. And it is. But we hit some of the highlights on which women were the most cruelly used and Conan Doyle's take on women's rights.  It's just a Trifle.   Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.   Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles199 The Best of the Sherlock Holmes Journal, Vol. 2 Previous episodes in this series:  Episode 185 - Women of Influence Episode 190 - The Working Girls Episode 194 - Ladies of Title   Sponsor The BSI Press   Music credits Performers: Uncredited v

"we did not meet to talk about the cut of my socks" [3GAR]    When you think of attire in the Sherlock Holmes stories, the mind usually turns to the deerstalker and Inverness, and perhaps Sherlock Holmes's disguises.   But what about day to day attire, specifically of Holmes's clientele? We picked up on an article from The Sherlock Holmes Journal and ran with it.  It's just a Trifle. Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.     Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles198 Gaiters (Wikipedia) Shepherd's check The Best of the Sherlock Holmes Journal, Vol. 2 Three previous episodes mention disguise:  Episode 96 - Trick or Treat Episode 105 - Beards in the Canon Episode 148 - Aliases and Disguises   Sponsor The Baker Street Jour

 "Have you the dates of those letters?" [HOUN]  The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of Sherlock Holmes's most famous cases. But what can we say about the date of the case? Watson never specifically mentions a date, but many chronologists fix it in October 1889.    How did they come to that conclusion? And what else do we know about Holmes and Watson that make such a date worthy of questioning? It's just a Trifle.        Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.      Links / Notes  This episode: ihose.co/trifles197  "The Date Being—?" by Andrew J. Peck and Leslie S. Klinger  I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Episode 144: The Chronologies of Sherlock Holmes    Sponsor  The Baker Street Journal    Music credits  Performers: Uncredi

"something further from Brook Street" [RESI]  When Percy Trevelyan went to open up his practice, he found that he had more in brains than he did in his pocketbook. Until a shrewd businessman came along and made a business proposition that suited them both nicely.   All was well until that benefactor-cum-landlord met an untimely end. What became of the good doctor after that? And of his residence? It's just a Trifle.   Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.   Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles195   Sponsor The Baker Street Journal   Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0   --  

"forbear from crossing the moor in those dark hours" [HOUN]     One of the most iconic characters in the Sherlock Holmes stories is not a character at all. It's Dartmoor. As Holmes himself said of it, "Never been there? Ah, well, I don’t suppose you will forget your first visit.”    Dartmoor is a land that's filled with beauty, mystery, and intrigue. In other words, the perfect setting for a Sherlock Holmes story. It's just a Trifle.   Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles    Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.   Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles195   Sponsor The Baker Street Journal   Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution

  "Title and money—who could carry them better than she?" [ABBE]    We've investigated which women were influential in their own right in the Sherlock Holmes stories, and then those who had to work for a living. Next up, we look at women with titles. In her article in The Sherlock Holmes Journal, Vol. 10, No. 3, Pat Dalton reviewed some such ladies.   Of course the term "lady" is a title granted to a certain class, but in late Victorian times it was becoming a title based on behavior and deportment as well. Which characters might we be talking about here? It's just a Trifle.   Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.     Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles194 Episode 185: The Women of Influence Episode 190: The Working Gi

"Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession" [SPEC]   When he was facing off against Dr. Grimesby Roylott, Sherlock Holmes asserted "When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession."   Claiming that Roylott struck even deeper, we wondered: just what did Palmer and Pritchard do that might compare to Dr. Roylott's ophidian crimes? What we discovered was more than a Trifle.   Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.   Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles193 William Palmer (Wikipedia) Edward Pritchard (Wikipedia)   Sponsor The Baker Street Journal   Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Ch

"Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero," [FIVE]  Sherlock Holmes called Professor Moriarty "a genius, a philosopher, and abstract thinker" in "The Final Problem." But what did Holmes know about philosophy? According to Watson's initial list titled Sherlock Holmes—His Limits, his knowledge of philosophy was "Nil."   But Holmes called out a few philosophers by name, and had an attitude that reflected a combination of traditional and modern British philosophy. Join us to ponder this Trifle.   Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts: Listen to Sherlock Holmes: Trifles      Have you left us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts yet? You don't need to own an Apple device, and every review helps more people find the show.  And please consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.     Links / Notes This episode: ihose.co/trifles192   Sponsor The Baker Street Journal   Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: W