Episode 209 – Typography

“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.

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Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · Typography

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Links / Notes

• This episode: ihose.co/trifles209
• The Gorgeous Typeface that Drove Men Mad and Sparked a 100-Year Mystery (Gizmodo)

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• 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

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Episode 208 – Handwriting

“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.

Only one more episode left in Season 4. Stay tuned for that and for what's coming in 2021!

Download | 11.1 MB, 22:06

Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · Handwriting

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Links / Notes

• This episode: ihose.co/trifles208
• Graphology (Wikipedia)

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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

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Episode 207 – The Care and Feeding of Sherlock Holmes

“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.

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Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · The Care and Feeding of Sherlock Holmes

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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
• Episode 54: On the Side Board
• Episode 158: British Food

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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

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Episode 206 – Smile When You Say That

“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.

Download | 10.4 MB, 20:58

Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · Smile When You Say That

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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

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• 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

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Episode 205 – The Setting of Cornwall

 “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.

Download | 11.4 MB, 23:13

Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · The Setting of Cornwall

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Links / Notes

• This episode: ihose.co/trifles205
• History of Cornwall (Wikipedia)
• The Game Is Afoot! by David Hamer (Amazon)
• "The Devil's Foot" episode of The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Granada (BritBox)
• Previous episodes mentioned:
• Episode 195: The Setting of Dartmoor
• Episode 200: The Setting of Agra

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• 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

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Episode 204 – The Location of 221B, Part 2

  “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.

Download | 11.1 MB, 23:39

Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · The Location of 221B, Part 2

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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

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• The Baker Street Journal

Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band
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Episode 203 – The Location of 221B, Part 1

 “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.

Download | 11.3 MB, 25:18

Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · The Location of 221B, Part 1

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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 Steele

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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

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Episode 202 – Child Psychology

 “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

Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · Child Pscyhology

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Links / Notes

• This episode: ihose.co/trifles202

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• 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

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Episode 201 – Spare No Expense

 “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.

Download | 10.9 MB, 22:01

Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · Spare No Expense

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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

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• 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

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Episode 200 – The Setting of Agra

 “Yes, this is the great Agra” [SIGN] 

Image credit: Wikipedia 

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.

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Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · The Setting of Agra

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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 Walker, MD (Families in British India Society)
• Previous episodes in this series: 
• Episode 195 - The Setting of Dartmoor 

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• 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

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Episode 199 – The Victims

 “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.

Download | 13.3 MB, 26:41

Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · The Victims

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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
  
  

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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

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Episode 198 – Clothing in the Canon

"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.

Download | 11.3 MB, 25:14

Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · Clothing in the Canon

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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

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• 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

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Episode 197 – The Dates in The Hound of the Baskervilles

 "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.

Download | 13.1 MB, 26:13

Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · The Dates in The Hound of the Baskervilles

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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

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• 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

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Episode 196 – The Brook Street Business

"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.

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Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · The Brook Street Business

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• This episode: ihose.co/trifles196

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• The Baker Street Journal

Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band
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Episode 195 – The Setting of Dartmoor

"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.

Download | 10.5 MB, 23:24

Sherlock Holmes: Trifles · The Setting of Dartmoor

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• 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

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