Talk:Karen Carpenter

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Notes

Hate to be a nudge, but isn't the name of the band "Carpenters" as opposed to "The Carpenters"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.46.248.203 (talk) 20:12, 9 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Context problem?

In the section about her early life it states:

She and Richard made their first recordings in 1965 and 1966. The following year, Karen began dieting. Under a doctor's guidance Karen, who stood 5'5" and weighed 145 pounds, went on the Stillman Diet. She rigorously ate lean foods, drank 8 glasses of water a day, and avoided fatty foods. By September 1975, Karen's weight dropped to 91 pounds.

I have a little problem with this paragraph. Was she dieting on the Stillman Diet from 1967-1975 and lost the 54 lbs over the 8 years? Or did she go on the diet sometime in 1975 to lose the weight? It might be clear to others, but I am a bit confused. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.154.232.44 (talk) 21:43, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Karen went on the Stillman Water Diet in 1966 to 1967. She lost 25 pounds going from 145 to 120. She remained at 120 untill 1974 when she started to diet again and that was the beginning of her slide in to anorexia. Hope that clears that misconception up for you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.198.87.87 (talk) 08:04, 17 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There's another confusing statement here. Right now, this section contains: "She was 5' 4" (163 cm) in height and before dieting weighed 145 pounds (66 kg; 10 st 5 lb) and afterwards weighed 120 pounds (54 kg; 8 st 8 lb) until 1973, when the Carpenters' career began to take off." The 1973 date might be correct about her dieting, but the band's career took off in 1970. By 1973, they were a well-established, highly successful act.

Strange Omission

I think it is odd that this article completely lacks any assessment of her singing by her contemporaries. I mean, isn't that why she was famous to begin with? It was her singing not her anorexia. This article can be summarized as "she was born, sang some songs, made some albums, and died from anorexia". Angry bee (talk) 06:24, 27 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like it is a fairly good summary then. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.158.61.139 (talk) 14:17, 7 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sudden introduction of her divorce

I don't know enough about Karen Carpenter to feel comfortable editing this article, but I think her divorce is mentioned too suddenly. We have:

After a whirlwind romance, Karen married real estate developer Thomas James Burris on August 31, 1980, in the Crystal Room of the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Then, two paragraphs later, out of the blue, we have her finalizing her divorce!

Karen returned to California in November 1982, determined to reinvigorate her career, finalize her divorce and begin a new album with Richard.

No mention of her marriage being in difficulties. No mention of starting divorce proceedings.

Also, the article is inconsistent, calling her Karen sometimes, and Carpenter sometimes. Girlwithgreeneyes (talk) 21:22, 20 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Marriage and Divorce

in response to another person who mentioned the sudden divorce, I created a new paragraph discussing this. I really hope this does NOT get deleted, I would like to say I spent months reading and researching and studying Karen Carpenter. I am pretty knowledgeable in this topic and every article I've read have said the same story — Preceding unsigned comment added by KarenCarpenterFan (talk • contribs) 02:40, 23 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Your contributions are likely to get deleted because they are not verifiable and because the language used is inclined to contravene Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy. Please see Wikipedia:Verifiability, Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources and Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. If you have read and researched around this subject, then please add your sources when making additions to Wikipedia - you can do this using <ref> and </ref> tags around them. Also please sign your contributions to talk pages using four tildes (~~~~), as the Wiki software then automatically inserts your username and time/date. Although I have removed your most recent addition because of the above reasons, if reliable sources can be found, the information can be re-inserted (what you added has not been permanently lost - it is preserved as an old version of the article page, and hence can be retrieved). If you have any questions or need any help, please ask. PaleCloudedWhite (talk) 08:45, 23 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Divorce

Karen Carpenter was set to finalize her divorce the day she died. I think the source is here. http://rockstarmartyr.net/february-4-the-death-day-of-karen-carpenter-2/ I am looking for other sites though. Entertainer91 (talk) 08:09, 17 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Explanation of edit

A recent edit made by myself was reverted by an unregistered editor. The purpose of my edit was to remove hyperbolic language and unreferenced claims. Reverting my edit reinserted these. The following points explain in more detail the rationale behind my edit:

"a drummer of exceptional skill" - This is 'peacock language' which goes against Wikipedia policy of adopting a neutral tone (see Wikipedia:Words to watch ), hence I replaced it with "of notable skill", which is supported by the section later in the article.
"she is best remembered for her vocal performances of idealistic romantic ballads of true love" - I removed the words "of true love" as they are superfluous ("romantic ballads" conveys their nature sufficiently) and ascribe nothing of meaning (if love needs describing as "true", that implies there must be another kind of love which is "untrue", which is nonsense)
"Karen rarely selected the songs she would sing and often felt she had very little control over her life." - I removed this because it is not backed by any reliable source.
"The Carpenters signature song is "We've Only Just Begun" which remains a popular wedding ballad." - Again, without a source therefore I removed it.
Reference number 14: "Dr. Steven Levenkron who has the pill bottle in his desk at work" - This is not a reliable published source, therefore I removed it.

There are various other amendments I made in a similar vein. The act of reverting my edit resulted in an article which contravenes Wikipedia policies, therefore I have reinstated my changes. PaleCloudedWhite (talk) 20:21, 14 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ancestry

I've removed a repeatedly re-added sentence about Carpenter's ancestry as the source is not a recognised reliable source. PaleCloudedWhite (talk) 12:34, 5 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I support this removal. --John (talk) 12:47, 5 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Tribute sites

I corrected the two links to tribute sites which were not working, but I wonder if these sites should be there, since Wiki is not a "link farm", as some people say. Maybe they should be deleted. What about a link to her singing a song on YouTube, ie Ave Maria? Anyone have any views?

Sardaka (talk) 10:27, 25 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]