Recently created articles
The Wikiworks of JackofOz
For a complete catalogue of my (mis)deeds, see:
To Do List
- User:JackofOz/Redlinks
- Australia in Hollywood
- The Bible set to music
- Birth order
- composers quoting names of other composers in the titles/dedications of their compositions
- composers' opinions of each other, and of their works
- Patron saints
- Shakespeare in Music
- Teacher-student genealogies
The Life and Times of JackofOz
- Aspetti, signorina, le dirò con due parole
- chi son, e che faccio, come vivo. Vuole?
- Chi son? Sono un poeta.
- Che cosa faccio? Scrivo.
- E come vivo? Vivo!
- In povertà mia lieta scialo da gran signore rime ed inni d'amore.
- Per sogni e per chimere e per castelli in aria, l'anima ho milionaria.
My name's Jack and I'm a 5th-generation Australian. I was born at a very young age, somewhere between the 31st of February and the 12th of Never. I live in Maffra (Gippsland, rural Victoria), where I share my life with my male partner. We were recently described as "Maffradites", an epithet we wear as a badge of honour.
Jenny Randles defines the Oz Factor as "the sensation of being isolated, or transported from the real world into a different environmental framework ... where reality is but slightly different, [as in] the fairytale land of Oz" [1]. I can certainly relate to that. Oz is also a nickname for Australia.
I strongly identify with my Celtic roots - Irish mainly, with dashes of Scottish (and a bit of English for good measure). My two adult sons are ethnically half(ish)-Russian (one more than the other), with dashes of Serbian, Polish and Jewish. You can read more about my family connections here.
The term "Jack of all trades, master of none" was coined in my honour, personally. I've been a public servant, internal auditor, human resources manager, taxi driver, and policy adviser in the private health insurance industry (about which I have often said "Anyone who isn't confused by this business doesn't really know what's going on"). My latest gig is employment consultant (which is very appropriate since I myself am highly unemployable). And I'm occasionally writing a book (but who isn't, these days) when I can ever get away from damn Wikipedia.
I am a kind of poor man's polymath ... well, pauper's polymath, more like it. Some people's weight goes to their stomach; I'm lucky - my weight goes to my brain. But I'm not so conceited that my brains have gone to my head. No, they reside in ... other parts. I was once asked to play the title role in War and Peace at my local kindergarten, but decided to let someone less experienced do it, to give them the break they so richly deserved.
I have always thought encyclopedically, so Wikipedia is very much my natural territory, and I spend as much of my spare time here as possible, without being a Wiki-addict about it (well, only sometimes; well, most of the time, actually - but what the hell, it's worth it). I like to take a broad intellectual view of issues and see them in perspective. I'm definitely a "glass half full" person and a "big picture" person. But seeing the big picture can sometimes cause me to sit on the fence, where I can listen, understand and accept opposing views without really knowing what I personally think of the issue. Then there are other subjects about which I have very passionate views indeed - as you might discover.
I'd like to think I have the artistic temperament and bohemian lifestyle of someone like Oscar Wilde ... if only this were true.
When it comes to "Shakespeare", I am a strong supporter of the Oxfordian theory. The evidence for the 17th Earl of Oxford is, to my mind, compelling. By far the best I've come across is contained in Mark Anderson's 2005 book "Shakespeare" By Another Name: The Life of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, The Man Who Was Shakespeare. Another very detailed, but less readable, work on the subject is Charlton Ogburn's The Mystery of William Shakespeare (1988). But I read and debate the upcoming literature with interest.
I have thick skin and broad shoulders, but I am not as ugly as that might lead one to believe. (Moreover, as Konrad Adenauer said, "Thick skin is a gift from God".)
To anyone who dares to disagree with me about anything, I can do no better than quote the conductor Hans Richter:
- Up with your damned nonsense will I put twice, or perhaps once, but sometimes always, by God, never.
Despite, or perhaps because of, all that, it should be clear by now that I am a perfectly wonderful human being. (Oh, and apparently I'm also a horse - [2]).
- Family connections - see here
- Serendipity, Coincidence and Synchronicity - see here
- Who would I be if I weren't JackofOz? - see here
Wikipedia interests and activities
I'm particularly interested in:
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- among many other things, I've created 19 of the articles on chief conductors of Australian symphony orchestras and very substantially beefed up a handful of others, which (without checking) is probably more than any other single editor (there have been about 58 conductors, of which there are currently about 51 articles)
- Australian, British, Russian and European history - particularly from the biographical perspective
- parliamentary and political affairs
- the cinema - see my favourite films, director, film composers and individual film score - here
- words and wordplay
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- These are more of my favourite things.
- I've coined the term Schnitzel Syndrome. This occurs when a person mispronounces a word (e.g. in the stereotypical case, schnitzel is mispronounced "snitzəl"), then re-spells it to conform to their mispronunciation (hence we see restaurant menus offering "snitzels").
- I've also coined the term Crap-Crack Spectrum, referring to the range of ways something could be regarded, from extremely poorly (crap) to extremely highly (crack) (30 April 2009: see here)
- I am an Arch-Anti-Over-Hyphenationist and an Arch Anti Under Hyphenationist, so be warned.
- I see "alot" a lot these days. Please get it right - it's two words. (Unless you're misspelling "allot".) Also see my list of the most commonly occurring spelling errors.
- I claim credit for coining the adjective "novomundane", referring to the New World, or new or other worlds generally. (18 September 2008: see here).
- For some perverse reason, I'm particularly proud of the following (it refers to an edit of mine, the reversion of which I had queried):
- Let's examine the meaning of the word coup: "A quick, brilliant, and highly successful act; a triumph". Juxtaposing "literary coup" with "Pope John XXIII died" is about as tasteless as you can get. Excluding obvious and intentional vandalism, I would nominate that edit as one of the most horribly written statements in Wikipedia history. Ward3001 (talk) 04:25, 21 September 2008 (UTC)
- I now lay claim to the word "philatelonumismatovexillonerdologically", referring to nerds whose main interest is in stamps, coins and flags; bless them. (2 January 2012: see here).
As well as writing articles, I'm a kind of Reference Desk Regular (the best kind, naturally) - see a list of my esteemed colleagues here. I tend to hang out on the Language, Humanities, Entertainment and Miscellaneous desks these days. I occasionally put in an appearance at Mathematics and Science. I'm proud to say I have never even visited Computing, and probably never will.
Honours and awards
Barnstars etc
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An Award |
| I award this Barnstar of Diligence to JackofOz for the endless patience and care he takes in answering questions about all manner of things great and small on all flavours of the Reference Desk. His knowledge, diligence, sense of humour and cool under pressure are an example to all of us mortals. Cheers! — QuantumEleven |
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I Seadog hereby award you (in the form of a box, The Dancing Happy Daisy award, for your countless (yet great) edits in many diverse subjects (and grammer fixings, Cheers! |
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The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar |
| Your service to Wikipedia is most deserving of this barnstar. Good job! Sharkface217 21:42, 31 October 2006 (UTC) |
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An Award |
| Congratulations! Sluzzelîn hereby pins you with the NightFalcon’s award for having a “Z” in your name while at the same time managing to do lots of great work here on Wikipedia! Feel free to give it to anyone else who is doing lots of good work while still having a “Z” in their name! Sluzzelin |
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The Barnstar of Good Humor |
| For making critical comments about my buttocks, I award you this Barnstar. Bottoms-up! --Dweller 15:56, 24 September 2007 (UTC) |
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The Reference Desk Barnstar |
| For being such an amazing WP:RD contributor of course! Personally I’m glad to have your perspective and assistance on the classical music questions too. Rock on --S.dedalus (talk) 01:00, 11 September 2008 (UTC) |
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The Reference Desk Barnstar |
| Thank you for contributing to my "greatest" poll on the Reference Desk! --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 05:02, 13 November 2008 (UTC)) |
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The Special Barnstar |
| In addition, your selection for Greatest Musician, Beethoven, tied for first! Congratulations! --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 05:15, 13 November 2008 (UTC) |
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The Reference Desk Barnstar |
| Thanks for helping with some of my Czech related questions, as well as in other topics. Vltava 68 10:15, 7 December 2008 (UTC) |
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JackofOz has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian,
and therefore, I've officially declared today (19 March) as JackofOz's day!
For your contributions to both the RefDesk and classical music articles,
enjoy being the Star of the day, JackofOz!
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71.236.24.129 (talk) has given you a fresh piece of fried chicken! Pieces of fried chicken promote WikiLove and hopefully this piece has made your day a little better. Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a piping hot piece, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Bon appetit!
Spread the tastiness of fried chicken by adding {{subst:GiveChicken}} to their talk page with a friendly message.
Enjoy!
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JackofOz has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian,
so I've officially declared today as JackofOz's Day!
For being a great person and awesome Wikipedian,
enjoy being the star of the day, JackofOz!
Signed, Neutralhomer
A record of your Day will always be kept here.
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The Barnstar of Good Humor |
| For, in your own words, not being a paedophile. Although mummy says not to trust a man with a beard. Egg Centric 18:45, 17 July 2011 (UTC) |
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Civility Award |
| Having stumbled across a few threads lately that you've been involved in, I've been impressed with your civil and above-board responses to some intemperate editors. You haven't been inappropriately meek, but you have been unfailingly civil, and I congratulate you, sir. Colonel Tom 09:33, 18 December 2011 (UTC) |
What would Jack do?
On 4 May 2007, User:Rockpocket very kindly gave me the great honour of creating an essay called Wikipedia:What would Jack do?.
DYK appearances
Some people I would like to have met
Utterly shameless name-dropping
Some people I have actually met (in some cases just a brief handshake, or even less):
Miscellaneous stuff
- Wikipedia experience
- Wiki ranking:
- 15 October 2005: ranked 1646th (1552 main namespace edits) and 1807th (1838 edits in total)
- 28 November 2005 - 2290 main namespace edits (47% increase), 2786 edits in total (51.6% increase).
- 11 December 2005: ranked 1112th (2933 global = 2571 article; 136 user; 223 project)
- 11 March 2006: ranked 1089th in main namespace edits (3483), and 1037th in all namespace edits (5658)
- My current edit count
- Another count
- Article traffic statistics
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