Trifling Issues in June

by Scott Monty July 13, 2018

"it's not a time to stick at trifles" [BRUC]

By now you'll have heard our 11 year-long show, in which we interview notable Sherlockians who are doing their part to keep the memory of Sherlock Holmes green. The program I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere has evolved over the years, but we're on a steady cadence of long-form interviews on the 15th and 30th of every month.

Meanwhile, over on Trifles, we're engaged in something different: we have short discussions of about 15 minutes in length every week in which we talk about one or two issues that we've noticed within the Sherlock Holmes stories. It's an approach that we hope brings more people into our fold who are new to Sherlock Holmes and are fascinated with the details within the story, or who may have some questions about what they read.

And now, on with the recap of our June shows.

June Update

If you've listened to more than one episode of Trifles, just a word of caution: don't skip the intro or the final few seconds of each show! We vary the introductions and the closing quotes. You may be amused.

We began the month of June with kind of a continuation of the final episode in May, in which we addressed the ins and outs of running a consultancy. Episode 75 - Nummi in Arca: Or, the Fiscal Holmes finds us ruminating about the payments that Sherlock Holmes extracted from various clients.

On to Episode 76, where we continued our monthly feature "Inside 221B" that looks at some of the physical objects we find in the flat at 221B Baker Street. It turns out that Sherlock Holmes had quite a few Destructive Habits within his flat. Given that the sums he paid to Mrs. Hudson were "princely," was it enough for her to turn a blind eye to his willful abuse of the environs?

Our next regular monthly feature, "Unpublished Cases," has to do with tales that didn't make it to the public. Normally we turn our focus on Watson's famous tin box. However, upon a close reading of "The Musgrave Ritual," we find that Holmes's Tin Box is equally as full of adventures worth telling.

And finally, in Episode 78 we turn our attention to the other half of the "pair of professional beauties" that we come across in A Study In Scarlet. And in doing so we wonder, Where Are They Now? Inspector Gregson.

A Question for You

Do you have burning questions you'd like answered? Or perhaps you just noticed something on your umpteenth reading of the Canon. We'd love your suggestions! Simply email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com and we'll add it to our queue of topics.

Also, if you like what you hear, please subscribe to Trifles via the podcast provider of your choice, or to the email updates.

If you'd like to learn more about Tom Richmond, the talented artist behind the show's logo, you can hear his story in Episode 65: Art in the Blood.