Sherlock Holmes: Trifles: April 2025

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Episode 435 – An Aborted Avatar

“a strange, loud whiz” [EMPT]

We came across a quite unusual observation — a Trifle, if you will — in an old issue of The Baker Street Journal. An article by Antony Boucher called "An Aborted Avatar."

Boucher discovered a turn of the century play called The King of Gee-Whiz that involved Sherlock Holmes in a quite unusual setting. The play was co-written by L. Frank Baum, of The Wizard of Oz fame. It's just a Trifle.

Another "Trifling Trifles" episode — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode — is coming your way in a few days. As a reminder, this is 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

Download | 19.8 MB 20:58

Music credits

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

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Episode 434 – Gypsies

Scott Monty 2:21 PM 0

“general resemblance to an itinerant” [VALL]

A term we don't hear as frequently these days is "gypsy." Unless you're headed to see a Sondheim musical, which is about an entirely different Gypsy (and one with Sherlockian connections too).

Anyway, our focus here is on stories in which gypsies are mentioned (there are two; can you name them?) and a bit of historical context of gypsies in the Victorian era, including the documented experience of one exalted person. It's just a Trifle.

Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episode here or wherever you get podcasts

Download | 23.9 MB 25:32

Music credits

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

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Episode 433 – On Stage and Off

Scott Monty 2:21 PM 0

“before my biographer had come to glorify me” [GREE]

Once again, we find ourselves in a "Mr. Sherlock Holmes the theorist"-themed episode, where we look at a piece of old scholarship. This time, we share a chapter from William S. Baring-Gould's groundbreaking biography of Sherlock Holmes.

Chapter V "On Stage and Off in England and America: 1879–1881" finds us in the two years leading up to Holmes and Watson meeting each other, while Holmes was beginning to run low on funds. His decision would mean a remarkable set of experiences ahead. It's just a Trifle.

And we have some bonus content related to a particular footnote of Baring-Gould's in this chapter. It's available exclusively for our supporters.

Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episode here or wherever you get podcasts

Download | 27.6 MB 28:26

Music credits

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

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Episode 432 – The Man with the Watches (The Apocrypha Part 2)

Scott Monty 2:21 PM 0

“I would read as easily as I do the apocrypha” [VALL]

The second in our series on the Apocrypha of Sherlock Holmes — stories that are not in the original Canonical 60 but that have some relevant interest. In this case, we have a story written by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1898 and set in 1892 involving the mysterious death of a passenger on a train. The murderer is nowhere to be found and the man has an unusual number of watches on his person.

A "well-known criminal investigator" writes a letter to the press with an explanation. We briefly discuss the story and the many theories as to the authorship of those letters over the years by numerous Sherlockians. It's just a Trifle.

This season, we've added "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode — as an additional channel of content 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

Download | 26.9 MB 23:05

Please leave us a rating and review on iTunes or Google Play, and consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or Substack.

Music credits

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

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Episode 431 – The Alleged Use of Cocaine by Mr. Sherlock Holmes

Scott Monty 2:21 PM 0

“you are mistaken about my alleged agents” [MAZA]

Along with the calabash pipe, deerstalker cap, and Inverness cape, one of Sherlock Holmes's traits is the use of cocaine. But should it be?

William H. Miller, M.D. F.A.C.P. won the Morley-Montgomery Award for his article in Vol. 19, No. 3 of The Baker Street Journal in which he asserted that we're mistaken in believing that Sherlock Holmes used cocaine. Don't believe us? Well, it's just a Trifle.

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Do you have a topic you'd like to recommend? Email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com and if we use your idea on the air, we'll send you a thank-you gift.

Download | 23.9 MB, 25:22

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