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Sherlock Holmes: Trifles

Scott Monty & Burt Wolder

Discussing details in the Sherlock Holmes stories

  • 21 minutes 2 seconds
    Baritsu
    “the Japanese system of wrestling” [EMPT] 

    When Sherlock Holmes defeated Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, he had a secret weapon: his knowledge of a certain style of Japanese wrestling.

    Of course, we don't find this out until his return, and even then, Watson (or is it Holmes?) conveys the wrong name. It's just a Trifle.

    All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and bonus content. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today.   This season, we're adding "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode — as an additional channel of content exclusively for our paying subscribers. Don't miss it!     Do you have a topic you'd like to recommend? Email us at [email protected] and if we use your idea on the air, we'll send you a thank-you gift. Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to us wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes

     

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

    30 January 2025, 4:29 am
  • 23 minutes 59 seconds
    Turkish Baths
    “the sweat was pouring down my face” [BLUE] 

    Turkish baths come up in just two of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Quick—without looking it up, can you name which? We know Watson enjoys both of them; Holmes joins him for one.

    In this episode, we discuss the origins and history of the Turkish bath, and specifically focus on the Victorian Turkish bath. Sit back and relax. This is just a Trifle.

    All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and bonus content. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today.   This season, we're adding "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode — as an additional channel of content exclusively for our paying subscribers. Don't miss it!     Do you have a topic you'd like to recommend? Email us at [email protected] and if we use your idea on the air, we'll send you a thank-you gift. Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to us wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes   Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0  

    23 January 2025, 4:38 am
  • 21 minutes 25 seconds
    Who Wasn't Jack the Ripper
    “when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth” [SIGN] 

    In our monthly discussion of an old piece of Sherlockian scholarship, we find ourselves in the back alleys of Whitechapel, discussing Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes.

    Our source of this discussion is not one but two back-to-back articles from The Baker Street Journal, Vol. 17, No. 4 from 1967. The first is "Who Wasn't Jack the Ripper" by Bruce Dettman, and the second is "Jack in Abyss" by Bruce Kenedy. Both are just Trifles.

    Just for our supporters: photos of William S. Baring-Gould's Sherlock Holmes Society of London tie and supporting documentation. Bruce Kennedy inherited the tie and it is now in Scott's collection. See them on Patreon or Substack.

     

    All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and bonus content. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today.   This season, we're adding "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode — as an additional channel of content exclusively for our paying subscribers. Don't miss it!   Do you have a topic you'd like to recommend? Email us at [email protected] and if we use your idea on the air, we'll send you a thank-you gift.   Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to us wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes   Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0  

    15 January 2025, 7:21 am
  • 34 minutes 17 seconds
    Partnership
    “We shall then take you into partnership” [SIGN] 

    Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are forever linked, thanks to that first meeting at Bart's. They were both looking for someone with whom to share rooming expenses, but found themselves thrust together on some of Sherlock Holmes's greatest cases, becoming one of history's greatest partnerships.

    But what of business partnerships that are scattered throughout the Canon? Some of them are obvious and memorable, while others are obscure and forgettable. It's just a Trifle.

     

    Do you have a topic you'd like to recommend? Email us at [email protected] and if we use your idea on the air, we'll send you a thank-you gift.   All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today.   This season, we're adding "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode — as an additional channel of content exclusively for our paying subscribers. Don't miss it! Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to us wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes

     

      Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0  
    9 January 2025, 4:33 am
  • 33 minutes 53 seconds
    The Origin of 221B Worship
    “a singular set of people, Watson” [WIST]  Image credit: The Baker Street Irregulars

    This podcast is a by-product of being active in the world of Sherlockians. But how did Sherlock Holmes societies first gain footing? What was the origin?

    In the inaugural episode of our new series on Morley-Montgomery Award winners (exceptional Sherlockian scholarship from The Baker Street Journal), Robert Keith Leavitt puts pen to paper in 1961 on what had only been an oral tradition until that time, putting everything in perspective for our little hobby. It's probably a little more than a Trifle.

     

    Do you have a topic you'd like to recommend? Email us at [email protected] and if we use your idea on the air, we'll send you a thank-you gift.   All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today.   In Season 9, we'll be adding "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode — as an additional channel of content exclusively for our paying subscribers. Don't miss it! Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to us wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes

     

      Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0  
    1 January 2025, 7:21 pm
  • 14 minutes 51 seconds
    Christmas with Sherlock Holmes
    “the compliments of the season” [BLUE] 

    There is only one Sherlock Holmes story that takes place at Christmas: "The Blue Carbuncle," which took place on "the second morning after Christmas." 

    In his Gas-Lamp for the 1959 Baker Street Journal Christmas Annual, editor Edgar W. Smith, BSI ("The Hound of the Baskervilles") entertained the idea of what was happening at Baker Street on Christmas Day. And that seemed like a Trifle.

    Do you have a topic you'd like to recommend? Email us at [email protected] and if we use your idea on the air, we'll send you a thank-you gift.   All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today.   And in Season 9 (debuting in 2025) we'll be adding "Trifling Trifles" as an additional channel of content only for our paying subscribers. Don't miss it!     Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to us wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes   Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0  
    25 December 2024, 8:04 am
  • 28 minutes 45 seconds
    Sherlock Holmes Was No Burglar
    “I have always had an idea that I would have made a highly efficient criminal” [CHAS] 

    In some cases, Sherlock Holmes was a bit of a vigilante in his pursuit of justice. He didn't mind breaking the law in a good cause. That led to him burgling various households. 

    Or did it? S. Tupper Bigelow, BSI ("The Five Orange Pips") was a lawyer by trade and disabuses us of the notion that Sherlock Holmes was a burglar. Some of it is a mere technicality, but it's all a Trifle.

    Do you have a topic you'd like to recommend? Email us at [email protected] and if we use your idea on the air, we'll send you a thank-you gift.   All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today. Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to us wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes

     

      Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0  
    19 December 2024, 3:13 am
  • 34 minutes 35 seconds
    Battlestations!
    “You look like a general who is planning a battle” [HOUN]  The Battle of Marengo, by Louis-François Lejeune (public domain - Wikimedia Commons)

     

    One simple sentence in "The Abbey Grange" served as the spark to the fuse of this Trifles episode. In one sentence, Sherlock Holmes referenced two of Napoleon's battles — each with a different outcome.

    But it made us curious: what other famous battles were mentioned, either outright or by implication, throughout the Canon? We chose to discuss six of them. It's just a Trifle.

    Do you have a topic you'd like to recommend? Email us at [email protected] and if we use your idea on the air, we'll send you a thank-you gift.   All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today.     Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to us wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes

     

      Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0  
    12 December 2024, 3:41 am
  • 34 minutes 23 seconds
    The December Cases
    “He disappeared upon the 3d of December” [SIGN] 

     

    "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" is inextricably linked with the month of December. But what about the other cases Sherlock Holmes handled in the final month of the year?

    Our research picked up only one other, and it isn't obvious by a careful reading of the Canon. Jay Finley Christ helps us out with a clever bit of detection and chronology to identify that second story. We compare and contrast these two December babies and it's just a Trifle.

    Do you have a topic you'd like to recommend? Email us at [email protected] and if we use your idea on the air, we'll send you a thank-you gift.   All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today. Leave Trifles a five-star rating and listen to us wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes

     

      Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0  
    5 December 2024, 3:59 am
  • 24 minutes 55 seconds
    The Newgate Calendar
     “You seem to be a walking calendar of crime” [STUD] 

    Sherlock Holmes used the calendar to help him determine the significance of certain cluse and actions, noting phases of the moon and recurring events.

    But there was another calendar that was useful to Holmes, which he mentioned in passing: the Newgate Calendar. It wasn't a calendar the way we refer to calendars. What was it and why was it of use? It's just a Trifle.

    Do you have a topic you'd like to recommend? Email us at [email protected] and if we use your idea on the air, we'll send you a thank-you gift.   All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today. Leave Trifles a five-star rating and listen to us wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes

     

      Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0  
    27 November 2024, 11:15 pm
  • 26 minutes 49 seconds
    A Touch of the Dramatic
     “it was a dramatic one” [GLOR] 

    One of Sherlock Holmes's traits was that he was a master of disguise. And in the very first short story, "A Scandal in Bohemia," we find him in not one but two disguises.

    However, it's more than costuming that made him successful at subterfuge. Curtis Armstrong shares his insights on why Sherlock Holmes was able to fool so many people, including Watson.  And it's just a Trifle.

    Do you have a topic you'd like to recommend? Email us at [email protected] and if we use your idea on the air, we'll send you a thank-you gift.   All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today.     Leave Trifles a five-star rating and listen to us wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes

     

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

     

    21 November 2024, 2:25 am
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