Sherlock Holmes: Trifles

"I can't stand his lordship" [MAZA]   For hapless Americans, the titles used by peers in the Sherlock Holmes stories can be vexing indeed. One would think that Sherlock Holmes would be able to keep things straight.   Between his devil-may-care attitude toward the upper class and Conan Doyle's own lack of breeding, Damian Thompson found a decided gap in the way certain members of the peerage are titled. And it's just a Trifle.     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   There's a new "Trifling Trifles" episode out — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. The latest episode is about the questionable judgment of the head of the Baker Street irregulars. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Our Merch Store is now open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers can be yours (or so

"It confirms my diagnosis, as you doctors express it." [SIGN]   Our latest Morley-Montgomery award episode features another dive into the medical world of Sherlock Holmes. But this time, it's about a diagnosis made by Dr. Watson.   In 2004, Costa Rossakis, MD, BSI ("St. Bartholomew's Hospital"), a trained cardiologist, investigated exactly what was going on with the nervous Thaddeus Sholto. His article (but not his diagnosis) is just a Trifle.     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   There's a new "Trifling Trifles" episode out — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. The latest episode is about the questionable judgment of the head of the Baker Street irregulars. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Our Merch Store is now open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers

"we have had a close shave" [SIGN]  Holmes was always clean-shaven, Watson always had a mustache. This is the way of the world of Sherlock Holmes as we know it.   But they didn't arrive at that state naturally. Like any good Victorian gentleman who eschewed whiskers, they had to shave. As did others in the Canon. We explore a bit of the history of shaving and its applications. It's just a Trifle.     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   There's a new "Trifling Trifles" episode out — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. The latest episode is about the questionable judgment of the head of the Baker Street irregulars. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Our Merch Store is now open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers can be yours (or someone else's, if you'd like to

"a bit of professional business between two gentlemen" [3GAR]   In this month's Mr. Sherlock Holmes the theorist, we turn again to a bit of British scholarship from the 1950s.     James Edward Holroyd's chapter "Dr. Watson and Mr. Wilde" in Baker Street By-Ways does an exemplary job of comparing the timelines of the great detective and the great wit, who each had a connection to a certain dinner with J.M. Stoddart of Lippincott's. It's just a Trifle.     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   There's a new "Trifling Trifles" episode out — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. The latest episode is about the questionable judgment of the head of the Baker Street irregulars. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Our Merch Store is now open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stic

"a methodical revenge" [STUD]     They say revenge is a dish best served cold. But what about when it's just threatened?   In this episode, we do a sweep of figures in the Sherlock Holmes stories who promised or exacted revenge. Did we catch them all? It's just a Trifle.     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   There's a new "Trifling Trifles" episode out — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. The latest episode is about the questionable judgment of the head of the Baker Street irregulars. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Our Merch Store is now open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers can be yours (or someone else's, if you'd like to make it a gift). Start shopping today.     Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episo

"some strange and inexplicable horror in the background" [CARD]   This Morley-Montgomery award-winning article is the only one written under a pseudonym (thus far). In "The Case of 'J': A Psychoanalytic Case Study with Particular Attention to `Marriage Neurosis', one D.K. Andrews provides a 1920s medical journal-like case study.   In it, Dr. Andrews presents the background of an individual every Sherlockian is familiar with, providing some Freudian analysis on decisions this individual has made. It's a fascinating approach and it's just a Trifle.     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   There's a new "Trifling Trifles" episode out — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. The latest episode is about the questionable judgment of the head of the Baker Street irregulars. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check i

"You evidently do not know the Earl" [CHAS]     For modern audiences (particularly those not familiar with British aristocracy), the titles of the nobility could be a bit confusing. In the Sherlock Holmes stories, we find our fair share of dukes, barons, and lords. But what about earls?   There are only a handful of earls in the Canon, so in this episode, we spend a little time investigating the duties of earls and what it is their female counterparts are called. So grab your coronet! It's just a Trifle.     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   There's a new "Trifling Trifles" episode out — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. The latest episode ponders a message we never quite see. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Our Merch Store is now open: Trifles mugs, notepads

"one of the brightest intellects of the University" [3STU]     Of the long-running debates about the Sherlock Holmes stories (the location of Watson's wound, the true dates of "The Red-Headed League," the location of 221B Baker Street), one of the most perennial is Sherlock Holmes's university.   There are cases to be made for each of the great universities, but it was Gavin Brend who made a definitive case in a chapter of his 1951 book My Dear Holmes. This Mr. Sherlock Holmes the Theorist episode may be academic, but it's just a Trifle.     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   There's a new "Trifling Trifles" episode out — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. The latest episode ponders a message we never quite see. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Our Merch Store i

"I must really know more before I leave him." [MISS]   Professor Moriarty. We know him as the arch-rival of Sherlock Holmes. In many ways, he was the original model for the supervillain. But what do we really know about him?   The answer is surprisingly little. And what we do know about him comes primarily from Sherlock Holmes. Join us as we dig a little deeper (or as deep as we can) on this Napoleon of crime. It's just a Trifle.     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   There's a new "Trifling Trifles" episode out — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. The latest episode ponders a message we never quite see. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Our Merch Store is now open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers can be yours (or someone else's, if you'd like to make i

"whose interest is it that the letter should come out?" [SECO]   Season 10 kicks off with another Morley-Montgomery Award winning article from The Baker Street Journal — a series we're continuing in which we look at notable pieces of Sherlockian scholarship about certain trifling issues.   In Vol. 52, No. 4, Robert Schultz, BSI ("The Gloria Scott") examined "The Second Stain" for historical clues and then applied them to British foreign relations to discover, despite earlier scholars' results, that there is only one possible author of the dangerous letter. It is most definitely a Trifle.     Find all of the Morley-Montgomery series in one place (Patreon | Substack).     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   Don't forget to listen to "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode, released at the beginning of every month. The latest episode wonders about J pens. This is

"that is the biggest mystification of all" [CREE]  You thought we were done with the Apocrypha of Sherlock Holmes? Silly you. As Inspector Baynes said, "I thought I had squeezed all the juice out of it, but I see there was a little over." [WIST]   Now we turn to a fascinating study: dating the Apocryphya. Or at least part of it. An entry by Brett Graham Fawcett in Timelines, the newsletter of the Chronologist Guild, looks at how we might assign dates to some of the stories. And it's just a Trifle.      Find all of the Apocrypha series in one place (Patreon | Substack).     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   Don't forget to listen to "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode, released at the beginning of every month. The latest episode wonders about J pens. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Our Merch

"evidence was wanted" [GOLD]  The final installment in our series on the Apocrypha of Sherlock Holmes brings us to "The Case of the Man Who was Wanted." Its discovery and provenance seems to have been both wanted and not wanted by the Conan Doyle brothers, who discovered it thanks to a biographer of their father in the 1940s.   How it came into their possession and the story behind what was once assumed to be the 61st Sherlock Holmes story — and its eventual debunking — is anything but a Trifle.    Find all of the Apocrypha series in one place (Patreon | Substack).   If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   Don't forget to listen to "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode, released at the beginning of every month. The latest episode wonders about J pens. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Our Merch Store

"Oh! a mystery is it?" [STUD]    When Charles Dickens died in 1870, The Mystery of Edwin Drood was only six chapters into its 12-chapter run. There were no sketches or outlines of what would come next, so for a century and a half, scholars have puzzled over the solution.   In 1968, Colin Prestige, BSI ("Captain Jack Croker") made a bold claim: that Sherlock Holmes could have handily solved the case, in "Sherlock Holmes and Edwin Drood," which appeared in Vol. 18, No. 3 of The Baker Street Journal. It's this month's "Mr. Sherlock Holmes the theorist" episode and it's just a Trifle.    If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   Don't forget to listen to "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode, released at the beginning of every month. The latest episode wonders about J pens. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).

"He sent in his card with a message" [CROO]    In our own digital age, business cards are nearly artifacts of the past. And calling cards? They're so outdated we had to create this episode.   Numerous individuals in the Sherlock Holmes stories present their cards to Sherlock Holmes and Holmes presents his card to a few people as well. What's the history behind calling cards and visiting cards and how did they play into the stories? It's just a Trifle.    We have bonus content for our supporters: images of Victorian calling cards that might surprise you. If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   Don't forget to listen to "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode, released at the beginning of every month. The latest episode wonders about J pens. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Our Merch Store is now open:

"Nine to seven." "Seven to five." [STUD]    For anyone who has first experienced Sherlock Holmes through A Study in Scarlet, Chapter VIII is a shock to the system, placing us squarely in the Great Akalai Plain with John and Lucy Ferrier, and narrated by... who?   Ben Vizoskie had that same question in the 2000 BSJ article "Who Wrote the American Chapters of A Study in Scarlet?" which was awarded the Morley-Montgomery Award that year. Many scholars have pondered this over the years, but Ben seems to have cracked the code. And it's no Trifle.    If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   Don't forget to listen to "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode, released at the beginning of every month. The latest episode wonders about J pens. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Our Merch Store is now open: Trifles mu

"upon the track of the avenging angels" [STUD]  The Apocrypha of Sherlock Holmes series continues with a three-act play that wasn't published until over a century after it was written by Arthur Conan Doyle.   The story of its discovery and dating is even more interesting than the play itself, which is reminiscent of the American chapters of A Study in Scarlet and is... Well, you'll hear. It's just a Trifle.  If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   Don't forget to listen to "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).     Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episode here or wherever you get podcasts   Links The Apocrypha of Sherlock Holmes (The Sherlock Holmes Reference Library) The Apocrypha of Sherlock Holmes episode collectio

"all the main ones in the press reports" [THOR]  Sherlock Holmes new how to use newspapers to his advantage. Time and again, we see him scanning the agony column and making clippings.   He told Watson "The press is a most valuable institution if only one knows how to use it." Just how did he use it and in which cases? It's just a Trifle.    If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   Don't forget to listen to "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode, released at the beginning of every month. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).     Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episode here or wherever you get podcasts   Links Other episodes mentioned: Episode 50 - The Agony Column New Sherlockian merch! All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock Email us

"thirteen in number" [HOUN]  Ask the average citizen about the number thirteen, and it is likely to inspire terror, or at least some slight trepidation. Right up there with black cats and overturned saltshakers, the number thirteen has a long history associated with bad luck.   But what about in the Sherlock Holmes stories? Where does the number thirteen pop up and what can we infer from it? It's just a Trifle.    If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   Don't forget to listen to "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode, released at the beginning of every month. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episode here or wherever you get podcasts   Links All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock Email us at trifl

"and actor and a rare one" [SIGN]  The monthly feature of Morley-Montgomery Award-winning articles continues apace, when we share these top-notch pieces of Sherlockian scholarship from the pages of The Baker Street Journal.    This episode is from S.E. Dahlinger's truly remarkable 1999 article "The Sherlock Holmes We Never Knew," which gives us a better understanding of William Gillette and the play that made him a household name (and a fortune). It's a large article and a very significant Trifle.  If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   Don't forget to listen to "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode, released at the beginning of every month. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Links The Morley-Montgomery Award The Morley-Montgomery Award series of episodes (Patreon | Substack) Long Lost William

"I have never seen so tall a man" [SIGN]  Our series on the Apocrypha of Sherlock Holmes continues on, with a slightly different entry this time. Previous examples have been fully developed stories; this is simply a story outline.   How it surfaced is just as interesting as the outline itself, perhaps more. The reader/listener will be left to decide if this could have made a full-blown story. Ultimately, it's just a Trifle.  If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   Don't forget to listen to "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episode here or wherever you get podcasts   Links The Apocrypha of Sherlock Holmes (The Sherlock Holmes Reference Library) All of our social links: https://l