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August 26

English king who has to live as a villager

A while ago somebody recommended to me a novel set in middle ages England where a king wants to travel incognito and/or gets lost and has to live as an ordinary villager for a while because nobody could identify him as a king (I think the point was that royal portraits on coins didn't adequately much resemble the royals themselves). I think the novel was set in the era between Norman conquest and Black Death. There may have been a gimmick like time travel involved, but more likely I'm conflating something else. Ring a bell for anyone? 93.142.102.222 (talk) 04:54, 26 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

You may be thinking of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. The title Yankee, Hank Morgan, travels back in time and eventually persuades King Arthur to go incognito and see the plight of the peasantry first-hand. Clarityfiend (talk) 06:08, 26 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

No, this was more serious, pretty sure it was a 20th century book. The king was also involuntarily a villager, in the style of The Prince and the Pauper. Best ignore the time travel thing, my brain is probably confusing it with Doomsday Book. 93.142.102.222 (talk) 07:01, 26 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There's a whole bunch of possibilities at [1] (scroll down to the Literature section). --Viennese Waltz 08:31, 26 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hm, no luck with any of those. I'm pretty sure it was historical fiction, definitely not fantasy of any kind and I think the king in question was a real historical figure. 78.1.146.196 (talk) 19:26, 27 August 2020 (UTC) (OP)[reply]

Ben Hecht's birthdate

USHMM and Newberry Library say he was born in 1893, whereas EB and JVL (with reference to USHMM [sic!], Wikipedia (!), Times of Israel & Jewish Theatre News – the latter two actually do not give his birthdate, though!) claim 1894. And the New Yorker states "in 1893 (or thereabouts)" … Now what do the experts say? (Wouldn't this apparent discrepancy in fact need to be discussed as such also within the article itself, after all?)--Hildeoc (talk) 21:46, 26 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Various documents within Ancestry.com are consistent in his assertion that he was born on Feb 28, 1893. However, Findagrave has 1894 on his headstone.[2] Dates on headstones, while literally carved in stone, are not necessarily accurate. Nor are someone's claim as to his own birthdate. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:27, 26 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Ancestry.com does not have a birth certificate for him, but they do have the 1900 census sheet for his family, and 1900 was the one census that asked for birth year and month, as well as age. The census sheet is dated June 7, 1900. It gives the age of "Benny" Hecht as 7, with birth month and year as Feb 1893. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:35, 27 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

August 28

Help me find a video!

I saw a win/fail compilation video on Facebook, the kind where someone does something awesome and then someone else does the same thing and royally screws up. The very first clip pair if I remember correctly was the basketball beer challenge (I.e. dropping a beer on a basketball and catching it and drinking). The “win” was this high production value clip of a younger guy leaving a house and all while in motion dropping a beer on a ball, catching it, tearing the cap off, and taking a swig. Super suave. It almost looks like it might have been from a music video or something. That clip or that full video or anything pertaining to it is what I’m looking for, but I can’t for the life of me relocate the original compilation.

Other fails from that compilation are a woman tripping and falling face first into a pool, and a guy throwing a beer to his buddy in a boat and it konking him in the noggin. Lol! Maybe that helps.

If anyone can help me, would be greatly appreciated!! Jared (t) 03:29, 28 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Facebook has recently added a new way to look for recent posts you've already looked at so you can find them again. If you're working on the mobile (android) version, there is a menu that will appear on the top of the screen while you are scrolling that says "Home - Recent - Seen". If you click "Seen" it will bring up recent posts you've looked at. Perhaps that will help you find it again. As far as the functionality on other operating systems/platforms I don't know if this has been changed on those, but that's my best idea for how to find it again. Good luck! --Jayron 32 12:40, 28 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

For clarity while this functionality may be new, you've been able to look at the videos you've watched on a Facebook account for many years now. Since at least 2016, it's been part of the activity log [3]. (The activity log should be under settings & privacy. You probably need to click on filter to find the "Videos you've watched" filter now.) This post suggests it was somewhere else since at least 2015 [4] unfortunately it's been updated since then and I can't find an archive and my searches failed to uncovered where or earlier evidence. I have the vague idea I may have checked out watched videos back in 2012 but I'm not certain. Nil Einne (talk) 00:35, 29 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! I actually figured that out and did a complete search (twice!) before posting here but the history only went back a few weeks, not sure if it was capped at number of videos or at time period. I think the video I’m looking for I watched a little over a month ago. Appreciate the suggestion though! Jared (t) 01:28, 29 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Jared: Are you sure your browser didn't just break or you didn't wait long enough for it to load after scrolling or something? (I assume you gathered that this is one of those infinitely scrolling pages?) Note that the filter for the activity log also allows you to filter by date (year and month on the browser on a desktop, range on the app) if you're having problems of your browser not being able to cope with a long list.

Anyway, I'm not convinced there is any limit to watched videos in the activity log. This is Facebook after all a data mining company and even with all the controversy they got in to, and EU regulation etc, I find it unlikely there is much of a limit. (And keeping a record but hiding it from you seems likely to be worse for them.) And even if there is a limit, a few weeks sounds a very, very short limit. Unless you managed to watch 5k videos in that time or something. (Definitely Youtube doesn't seem to have a limit, if they do it's something extremely massive.)

My watched videos goes back 21 May 2015. To be fair, this is long after my account creation but I think this most likely is because the feature only started sometime in 2015 or maybe 2012-2014. I don't use Facebook that much and especially not for videos so can't be sure I watched a video in 2015 (but I do think I probably did see some in 2012 as a I was a bit more active for a while then). The number of videos is 624 (and odd number for a limit and the last/earliest video didn't change even when I "watched" a bunch more to test (it was 608).

Another reason I think you may be mistaken, even if you did watch 5k or even 1k or something which did reach a limit, how did you analyse all your watched videos? Did you use a script or something? Because even with my 624 over several years, if I did want to search all of them but had absolutely no idea when I watched it, I don't know if I'd bother without a script. While the video might be there, as they don't even show the title and just show that tiny screenshot thing, working out what it is is likely to be difficult.

BTW, while testing, I did find out that Facebook only records a video as watched if it's 75% or something, compare to Youtube's history which seems to record a video much more readily. (Even if you aren't counted in the number of views.) Also again unlike Youtube, Facebook seems to only show a video in the log once. If you watch it again, it will remove it from the earlier date.

Nil Einne (talk) 10:48, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Song- The Lovely Northern Lass

Wikipedia search shows no result for the song "The Lovely Northern Lass" but I have a recording of it, sung by an unknown singer & I have discovered the lyrics elsewhere*. It is apparently a very old song about an innocent maid who suffered as a result of the beguiling charms of a young man & is sung to a haunting Scottish tune called "The broom of Cowden Knowes" I only raise the query because it would be a shame if the song & especially the tune were to disappear completely & Wikipedia might be able to help keep it from being lost. I tried to upload a copy of the lyrics but seem to have been prevented by copyright concerns, even though the web site I copied it from had copied it from a University of Glasgow source which had itself copied the page from a version printed for Fr Coles of the Old Bayly [sic] [Date unknown]. How many centuries does copyright last?

-https://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/ballad/31921/xml

Egregious Guern — Preceding unsigned comment added by Egregious Guern (talk • contribs) 22:46, 28 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

To answer your question regarding copyright - please see: Public domain music. "In the United States, any musical works published in 1924 or earlier, in addition to those voluntarily placed in public domain, exist in the public domain. In most other countries, music generally enters the public domain in a period of fifty to seventy-five years after the composer's death." Maineartists (talk) 01:55, 29 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but he's talking about the text of the song, not a particular recording. It's hard to believe that the lyrics of a centuries-old folk song are protected by any kind of copyright. In answer to the OP's other query: we can only have a Wikipedia article about this song if you can prove it's notable, i.e. has already been written about in reliable sources such as newspapers, journals and books. If you can find such sources, go ahead and start the article. --Viennese Waltz 07:32, 29 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This isn't legal advice. But the centuries old lyrics are unlikely to be. The lyrics of a specific modern recording may be in part. Any creative elements of a modern or semi modern interpretation, including lyrical changes may be eligible for copyright protection. The details in the link above don't really give us much to go on for those particular lyrics. But this does provide info on certain sets of lyrics [5]. Nil Einne (talk) 06:37, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

August 29

Science

Branches of science More about medicine — Preceding unsigned comment added by 105.112.117.120 (talk) 16:23, 29 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Start with Science. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:08, 29 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Next: Medicine. Students of medical science generally start with Biology. 107.15.157.44 (talk) 19:36, 29 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Night Court

I've been searching now for months trying to find this bit of trivia about the TV series: Night Court. If anyone remembers, there was a particular, distinctive, laugh that came from the studio audience; it was also added into the end credits of the show after "Starry Night Productions" Night Court Opening / Closing Themes. If I remember correctly, this person was a relative of someone who worked on the show; and that's why they were there every week during filming. Does anyone know who it was? Thanks in advance. Maineartists (talk) 23:43, 29 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

If you search for "Starry Night Productions" (the vanity card shown) and "Chuck Weege", you get plenty of hits. I found an interview with Tom Reeder about the show in which he said that Reinhold Weege used his dad's laugh because it was distinctive and appeared all over the shows because his dad was always in the audience. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 13:07, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

That is fantastic. Thank you so much! I really appreciate this! Best. Maineartists (talk) 13:33, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

That could be an interesting fact to add to one or both pages. I vaguely recall that Milton Berle's mother served somewhat the same purpose. She went to many of his TV shows and her hearty laugh could be heard. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:04, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, her name was Sadie. I'll definitely be adding the above information at least to the Night Court page. Thanks! Maineartists (talk) 13:30, 1 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

August 30

Joe Gibbs NFL Hall of Fame timing

According to Pro Football Hall of Fame players or coaches must be retired for 5 years to be eligible. Coach Joe Gibbs retired in 1992 but was inducted in 1996. Did he get an exception or is the article wrong about the 5 year rule? RudolfRed (talk) 22:40, 30 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Don Shula went in just a couple of years after he retired. There must have been a rules change, but I haven't found just when that was done. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:43, 31 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The current rule is five years.[6] Dunno about back then. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:08, 31 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The five year rule has been around for a long time. I remember arguing against it with Joe Montana's retirement. When Shula was inducted, I wondered how he got in after two years and I never found a reason why. It just seemed to happen and nobody questioned it. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 11:25, 31 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I believe the 5-year rule only applies to players. Coaches and Executives do not have such a restriction. For example, Al Davis was inducted in 1992 as a team executive; he was still active as such until 2011. Tom Landry and Chuck Noll were each inducted only 2 years after they retired from coaching. Several coaches, including Gibbs and Paul Brown returned to active coaching even after being inducted into the HOF. --Jayron 32 14:36, 31 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Quoted from the Hall of Fame website: "The only restriction is that a player and coach must have been retired at least five years before he can be considered." 97.82.165.112 (talk) 16:09, 31 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks,everyone, for the replies. RudolfRed (talk) 16:21, 31 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

September 1

Film question

In the film Ford v Ferrari Ken Miles wife Mollie and their son Peter are shown watching him race in the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans on TV at their home in California. My memory of the coverage of Le Mans in the 60's and 70's here in the US was that there was no live airing of the race. Instead it would show up on ABC's Wide World of Sports sometime (weeks or even a month or more) after the race. They would show the start and then intersperse highlights of the race with other events that they were covering that day and then close with the finish. I'm curious if the film uses some other countries broadcast of the race for dramatic effect or if there was some coverage in the US that I was too young to be aware of. Thanks ahead of time for any info that you find. MarnetteD|Talk 01:59, 1 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Nope.

The first live, international satellite broadcast, a variety show called Our World (which featured The Beatles playing "All You Need is Love"), was staged in 1967, which obviously went down after the 1966 Le Mans race.

Boone, Brian (18 November 2019). "10 times Ford v Ferrari lied to you". Grunge.com.

--2606:A000:1126:28D:3D84:1399:DBD4:E6F2 (talk) 19:13, 1 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Nice work IP. Many thanks. MarnetteD|Talk 19:40, 1 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

September 2

Vibraphone in Classical Music

Repost from the vibraphone talk page; Many of the sources I've found (e.g. James Blade and Britannica) place Berg's Lulu as the first use of the vibraphone in classical music. This contradicts another piece in the vibraphone repertoire, Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite composed in 1931, 4 years earlier, which uses it in the second movement albeit as more of an effect. Can anyone weigh in? I would hate for something so notable to go uncorrected. | Why? I Ask (talk) 00:19, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I've seen some other sources, such as yours, list Milhaud's L’Annonce faite à Marie (1933) as the first use of the vibes. Unfortunately, I can not find the piece's sheet music or any recordings anywhere so I have taken that notion with a grain of salt. I am not quite clear on what you mean by "used" vs. "scored." The sheet music you linked is only the fifth movement which I'm fairly certain doesn't have the vibes (the vibes do appear in the score of the second [7] movement above the piano). This still leaves Grofé's use of it as its first use in an orchestral setting nonetheless, right? Edit: Above user deleted his reply. | Why? I Ask (talk) 04:02, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Me? Uhmmm, my reply was mostly wrong: I made the distinction between the 1st use vs. 1st score; however, I did find that the Grand Canyon Suite vibraphone part was actually scored. My deleted reply did have a semi-useful quote, however: The vibraphone was first scored for the orchestra from about 1933... Vienna Symphonic Library --2606:A000:1126:28D:3D84:1399:DBD4:E6F2 (talk) 05:03, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the piece that "The vibraphone was first scored for the orchestra from about 1933..." references is supposedly Darius Milhaud's L’Annonce faite à Marie, Op. 117 (according to your source, written in 1933; on his Wikipedia page, written in 1932). However, I have not been able to find any actual recordings of it or its sheet music to verify this claim. Even if it did have a vibraphone scored, the Grand Canyon Suite would still undeniably predate it. Would it not? | Why? I Ask (talk) 07:15, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

For WP editing purposes, claiming "first" for GCS might be considered WP:OR without a source to verify -- but yes, 1931 does predate 1933. 107.15.157.44 (talk) 18:20, 2 September 2020 (UTC) [editor formerly known as 2606:A000...E6F2][reply]

Maybe this will help: New York Philharmonic Database: Cloudburst Maineartists (talk) 18:54, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Zac Efron (once again)

At List of Jewish actors, he is referenced with an article on a comical (!) appearance of his, allegedly proving his Jewishness. But how can this comedy performance actually serve as a real "proof", as implied by the mentioned list? (It does not seem evident to me, in fact, whether his "revelation" there really fits the facts …)--Hildeoc (talk) 02:38, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The answer is "it doesn't". --Jayron 32 14:35, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

However, there are several interviews where he publicly identifies as ethnically Jewish and religiously agnostic. See [8] and [9] for example, you can find many more examples. Whether or not those references would be better than the used in the list you found, I'll leave that up to you. If you think one of those, or one of the many other ones out there where he discusses the matter, is better, feel free to fix the article. No one else here is more responsible for fixing mistakes than you are. --Jayron 32 14:38, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Looking for a specific science-fiction book

Over a year ago, I recall finding a science fiction novel about a robot that murders humans, in critique of Issac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. I can't remember anything about it, other than that the title of the novel was the name of this robot. His name was a typical one, something like 'Reggie', or 'Danny', or something. I've been racking my mind for a while, can anybody help me out?

One of Asimov's most famous Robot books is The Caves of Steel, which revolves around a robot accused of committing murder. One of the main characters is R. Daneel Olivaw. --Jayron 32 12:29, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

And the main suspect is a robot named Sammy. --Jayron 32 14:34, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

But it turns out the murder is not committed by the robot, nor is it "in critique of Asimov's Three Laws" (whatever that means), nor is the title "Summy". So... --174.88.168.23 (talk) 20:05, 2 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]