I love the Sherlock Holmes Encyclopedia.

Or The Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana, rather. I bet you didn't know this:

"British Birds," the title of a book carried by Holmes in his disguise as an old bibliophile (EMPT).

Damn, that was a pretty good disguise.

Or: Midianites, an Arabian tribe, represented in the Old Testament as the descendents of Midian, son of Abraham. They dwelt in the land of Moab, to the south-east of Canaan. Dr. Shlessinger was said to be preparing a monograph upon the kingdom of the Midianites (LADY).

Also: Marl, a kind of incoherent clay (LION).

As you suspect, what I'm supposed to be working on has nothing do with this.