Sherlock Holmes: Trifles

"A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" [BLUE] One thousand pounds sounds like a lot of money — now and in Sherlock Holmes's time. How much would £1000 in 1895 be worth today? In which stories do we find a mention of "a thousand pounds"? And what is going on around each of those sums? Answers to all of these questions and more are ahead. It's just a Trifle. If you have a question for us, please email us at [email protected]. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift. Our Merch Store is open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers can be yours (or someone else's, if you'd like to make it a gift). Take a look around. "Trifling Trifles" is back — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. This time, "Watson's Cases" show the influence of the good doctor. Make sure you're signed up so you don't miss this is exclusive benefit 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

• Episode 445 - £100
• Check out all of our money episodes, handily curated in these collections on Patreon and Substack
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Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band. Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

"departed to my rooms with a goodly volume under my arm" [ILLU] In this month's "Mr. Sherlock Holmes the Theorist" episode, it's a matter of a listener-suggested topic. After our Trifling Trifles look at Lomax the sub-librarian, Maxine Reneker wrote to us with an idea. In 2020, Maxine teamed up with Marsha Pollak to pen "Watson, Lomax, and the Goodly Volume: Observations on the Illustrious Client," in The Baker Street Journal. It gives us a much better idea of what Watson was reading as he prepared for his encounter with Baron Gruner. And it's just a Trifle. If you have a question for us, please email us at [email protected]. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift. Our Merch Store is 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. "Trifling Trifles" is back — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. "Watson's Cases" show the influence of the good doctor. Make sure you're signed up so you don't miss this is exclusive benefit 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 London Library
• Trifling Trifles: "Lomax" (Patreon | Substack)
• The Baker Street Journal
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com

Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band. Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

"a little wisp of pink" [STUD] The Sherlock Holmes stories are filled with colors, from the stories with colors in the titles to the rich scenic details in each. What a great opportunity to explore the rainbow! We take this opportunity to explore the context of the color pink across the Canon. We even set it up like something of a quiz so you can play along in real time. Do you think you have what it takes to name the stories? It's just a Trifle. If you have a question for us, please email us at [email protected]. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift. Our Merch Store is open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers can be yours (or someone else's, if you'd like to make it a gift). Take a look around. "Trifling Trifles" is back — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. This time, "Watson's Cases" show the influence of the good doctor. Make sure you're signed up so you don't miss this is exclusive benefit 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 trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com

Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band. Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

"him who has the Holland Grove beat" [STUD] Harry Murcher. There's a name from the Sherlock Holmes stories that could be the answer to a particularly dastardly quiz. In this episode, we'll get to meet Harry, courtesy of Sonia Fetherston, BSI ("The Solitary Cyclist"), whose article "I Met Harry Murcher: Getting Acquainted with Holland Grove's Elusive P.C." appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of The Baker Street Journal and won the Morley-Montgomery Award that year. It's just a Trifle. If you have a question for us, please email us at [email protected]. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift. Our Merch Store is 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. "Trifling Trifles" is back — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. This time, "Watson's Cases" show us the good doctor's influence. Make sure you're signed up so you don't miss this is exclusive benefit 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 Morley-Montgomery Award episode series (Patreon | Substack)
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com

Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band. Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

"some novel and suggestive circumstance" [BRUC] We've talked about victims before — people down on their luck, women powerless to do anything, and the like. Then we thought a little more about victims of circumstance. There are a handful of clients and even side characters in the Sherlock Holmes stories who, through no intention of their own, find themselves in difficult straits. These are such victims. And it's just a Trifle. If you have a question for us, please email us at [email protected]. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift. Our Merch Store is 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. "Trifling Trifles" is back — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. This time, "Lomax" emerges from the sub-library. Make sure you're signed up so you don't miss this is exclusive benefit 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 referenced:
• Episode 199 - The Victims
• Episode 257 - Damsels in Distress
• Episode 493 - Up Against It
• Episode 495 - Female Villains
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com

Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band. Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

"I see that there was nothing in it, after all." [REDH]

In this month's "Mr. Sherlock Holmes the Theorist" episode, we're getting aggressive: we're taking on a number of trifling things at once. Greg Darak, BSI ("The Engineer's Thumb") wondered about various troubling items in "The Red-Headed League," a story popular not only for its plot but for its many problems. Dates, practical matters and more face Holmes and readers. These are many Trifles. If you have a question for us, please email us at [email protected]. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift. Our Merch Store is 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. "Trifling Trifles" is back — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. This time, "Lomax" emerges from the sub-library. Make sure you're signed up so you don't miss this is exclusive benefit 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 Baker Street Journal
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com

Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band. Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

"a clear reach of the river" [SIGN] Once again, a listener has inquired about a trifling topic that we hadn't given much thought to. And as the reference only appears in one place in the Canon, we were concerned there might not be enough to cover. He wondered about the Thames River police force as mentioned in The Sign of Four. There's not much else to go on in the stories, but we found plenty from the historical record that gave us a sense as to what Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Athelney Jones were working with. And it's just a Trifle. If you have a question for us, please email us at [email protected]. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift. Our Merch Store is 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. "Trifling Trifles" is back — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. This time, "Lomax" emerges from the sub-library. Make sure you're signed up so you don't miss this is exclusive benefit 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 Thames River Police Museum
• Dismemberment in Victorian London: The Thames Torso Murders (The Power of the Criminal Corpse, University of Leicester)
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com

Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band. Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

"several international spies and secret agents" [SECO]

One of the wonders of "His Last Bow" is a snapshot of Britain before the Great War. We're treated to Sherlock Holmes still in top form in the last recorded case of his career, pitting him against the German spy Von Bork. Michael Pollak, BSI ("The Blue Carbuncle") won the 2010 Morley-Montgomery Award for his article "The Spies Who Never Were with Some Observations on Holmes's Retirement" for his analysis of Conan Doyle's handling of espionage in the Canon, particularly when spy hysteria was running rampant. Was it sensational? Restrained? Accurate? It's just a Trifle. If you have a question for us, please email us at [email protected]. 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 "A Peculiar Party". And peculiar it is. 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 episode here or wherever you get podcasts Links

• The Morley-Montgomery Award episode series (Patreon | Substack)
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com

Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band. Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

"I would willingly give five hundred" [REIG]

Five hundred! It's astounding to think we've managed to notch 500 episodes of Trifles. But, do this weekly for nine and a half years, and the math seems to work. To celebrate our quincentennial, we took an unorthodox approach — one inspired by a scene in The Valley of Fear. Random text on a given page. The exercise was a fascinating one and it produced a number of Trifles. If you have a question for us, please email us at [email protected]. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift. Be sure to investigate our "Trifling Trifles" series of episodes — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. 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). Explore the store. 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 trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com

Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band. Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

"my friend and rival, Mr. Barker" [RETI]

We occasionally get suggestions for topics, and this is one of those cases. Kaj Johansen wondered "who was Barker?" — as in "Barker, my hated rival on the Surrey shore," in "The Retired Colourman." It led us to a short article in The Baker Street Journal by William Schweickert (Vol. 43 No. 2) that takes us through Mercer, Shinwell Johnson, and Langdale Pike and then proposes that Barker held a particularly important role. What was it? It's just a Trifle. If you have a question for us, please email us at [email protected]. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift. Our Merch Store is 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. "Trifling Trifles" is back — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. This time, "Lomax" emerges from the sub-library. Make sure you're signed up so you don't miss this is exclusive benefit 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 trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com

Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band. Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0