“Stop at a telegraph-office, cabby!” [SIGN]

Cabbies are everywhere in London – indeed, so common in some cases that they're simply overlooked (we see you, Jefferson Hope!). Could Sherlock Holmes have passed himself off as a cabby?

There are certainly points in his career when it would have made sense. And a paper given at a Sherlock Holmes society in Denmark points in that direction. Hop on board with us in this monthly travel series episode! It's just a Trifle.

• "The Thomas Hogram Letters" by Sven Ranild is an expanded and translated version of a paper delivered in Copenhagen on September 19, 1987, at the Centenary Dinner of the Sherlock Holmes Klubben i Danmark and it appeared in the Summer 1991 issue of The Sherlock Holmes Journal.
• Episode 124 - Odd Jobs
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“very curious phraseology” [WIST]

Here's an interesting little subject that ought to intrigue many Sherlock Holmes fans: words. We are a literate bunch, and when we get to learn more about words — especially words with which we're unfamiliar — that makes us happy.

This topic was suggested by listener Jennifer Cassasanto, who was curious about some of the foreign and antiquated terms in the Canon. Fair warning, though: this is a pun-filled zone. Word nerds unite! It's just a Trifle.

• An Irregular Anglo-American Glossary of More or Less Unfamiliar Words, Terms and Phrases in the Sherlock Holmes Saga by S. Tupper Bigelow
• Episode 124 - Odd Jobs
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“kept as a secret among them” [DEVI]

When Dr. Leon Sterndale said there was only one known specimen of radix pedis dioaboli – devil's foot root – in a laboratory in Buda, it was clear that it was a poison unknown to science.

Just what was it that was "used as an ordeal poison by the medicine-men in certain districts of West Africa"? Dr. Robert Ennis had an idea related to a substance we know well today, based on his observations in emergency rooms. And it’s anything but a Trifle.

• The eBSJ
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“His collaboration may be very necessary” [ILLU]

There's a curious phrase in the beginning of A Study in Scarlet that requires a little more consideration. Do you know what it is? John Ball, Jr. did.

And his theory about what that phrase signified is an intelligent and plausible one, lifted from a 1954 issue of The Baker Street Journal and The Baker Street Reader. Along the way, we uncover a surprising fact about Ball. And it’s anything but a Trifle.

• John Ball Jr. (Wikipedia)
• The Baker Street Reader (Abebooks)
• The eBSJ
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“we shall certainly have to go to Norwood” [SIGN]

The latest in our travel series takes us to Norwood. In particular, the Norwood in The Sign of Four. Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Mary Morstan take a cab to a seedier part of London, and then a four-wheeler south to Norwood.

How long would it have taken them? And what else might we find in this London suburb? Michael Harrison assists with an essay from In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes, and it’s just a Trifle.

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Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts.

• In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes by Michael Harrison

• The Crystal Palace Fire

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Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra

Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band

Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

“consult me over that Manor House case” [GREE]

• History of UK House Names
• English Country House Names Explained
• Experience Sherlock Holmes Filming Locations Up Close
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“one of biscuits” [GLOR]

• Playlist: Trifles episodes about food
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“the weaver by his tooth or the compositor by his thumb” [COPP]

• Find Schenck's article in the eBSJ
• Episode 43 - Sherlock Holmes' Monographs
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