Talk:Shimon Stein

A fact from Shimon Stein appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 1 November 2010 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Shimon Stein, a former Israeli ambassador to Germany, and German chancellor Angela Merkel spent "a number of cozy evenings together drinking red wine"?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2010/November.

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Cozy evenings

I'm not sure that those words really imply something beyond what they say. The preceding sentence says they remain "friends" so that and the ambassadorship (mentioned in the DYK hook) clarifies the context. Seems to me to be quite a far-fetched interpretation of what Der Spiegel is really saying. Der Speigel says: [1]

Cozy Evenings Drinking Red Wine
Merkel's ties to Israel extend all the way into her private life. She maintains a friendly relationship with Shimon Stein, the belligerent former Israeli ambassador to Germany. They have spent a number of cozy evenings together drinking red wine. Even Merkel's husband Joachim Sauer, who usually shies away from any involvement in her political affairs, has also joined them on occasion. Stein was even a guest at Merkel's summer home north of Berlin.

They even have "Cozy Evenings Drinking Red Wine" as a subheading. To me, there's nothing in Der Spiegel or in the article that implies anything other than normal personal and political relationship. Perhaps, if we are going to include it, we should also mention that Joachim Sauer, Merkel's husband, joined them sometimes. I wish people would not force their own interpretations of words to innocent-minded folk like me. Christopher Connor (talk) 00:25, 2 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I read the source in full. The problem is just including that single sentence without the full context makes it seem like more is going on than is being reported. Either we should include the full information (which we shouldn't, as that isn't an encyclopedia's purpose) or mention it briefly (e.g. close friends). NW (Talk) 00:48, 2 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(ec) Either you're insinuating there's some kind of inappropriate relationship between the two; or, it's a completely mundane fact that two people have a friendly working relationship. Either way, it's totally unsuitable for our front page; a DYK hook is supposed to be "short, punchy, catchy, and likely to draw the readers in to wanting to read the article". – iridescent 00:51, 2 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's to give more info about how he was with the head of government of the country he was ambassador to, and to give some colour to the article. Also Der Spiegel is a good source; if they thought someone would misinterpret their words, I'm sure wouldn't include it like they did. But if people don't want it, I won't force the issue. Christopher Connor (talk) 01:01, 2 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Would anyone object if I also added that her husband sometimes attended or is the whole thing simply irrelevant? Christopher Connor (talk) 01:19, 2 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The whole thing is pretty irrelevant. "Close friend" (or some synonym of that) covers things well enough. If this were a 5000 word article, perhaps things would be different. Not as it stands though. NW (Talk) 02:13, 2 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]