Wikipedia's worst sentences

[AndyTheGrump]

Apparently some of the Champlain boats were built to Annesley’s design, cross-laminated planking with minimal timbers built over reusable molds. Nice write-up by the Vomit Hysterical Society link

That's the same article I quoted above.

FoolsGreat Minds Think Alike.

PS: this might also belong in the missing article thread. Is the a wiki piece on Annesley?

Wikipedia doesn't seem to include the naval architect, though it has four William Annesley (T-H-L) biographies. Might be difficult finding secondary sources?

Annesley's A New System of Naval Architecture is available online. It starts with a testimonial from Thomas Jefferson, in response to a letter sent by Annesley. link link

The section on canal boats (p.47) is brief, and doesn't tell us much.

This link is kinda interesting, the building technique varies based, it would appear, on ease of construction. Strip planked, roughly speaking, on the slab sides, but conventional plank on frame on the curves of the bow. Lot of other good wrecks linked there, too.

A distinctive wreck, certainly. The centerboard slot must have weakened the hull somewhat. Not ideal in any vessel, and could prove problematic even if it only resulted in a slight distortion of the hull. Wooden narrowboats built for British canals were often prone to (Hogging and sagging (T-H-L)), with the unfortunate result that what was essentially still a sound hull would spread out in the beam enough that it would no longer fit in the locks. They generally built them with very little clearance to maximise useful hold space, which is fine until the clearance disappears. I wonder if the US boats had similar issues...

[AndyTheGrump]

Take a look at the illustration of the Troy wreck: link The centerboard seems to be shown, and you can see the trunk it sat in, too.

[Ming]

Take a look at the illustration of the Troy wreck: link The centerboard seems to be shown, and you can see the trunk it sat in, too.

In fact Chesapeake oystering boats used this form of centerboard up to the end of sail, which technically hasn't happened yet: Maryland law still allows sailing vessels larger harvests than powered boats.

[The Blue Newt]

You know, I have a sneaking feeling this is how Wikipedia is supposed to work.

Pity it doesn’t.

[AndyTheGrump]

You know, I have a sneaking feeling this is how Wikipedia is supposed to work.

Pity it doesn’t.

Actually discussing possible subjects, sources, etc before rushing headlong into creating articles isn't the Wikipedia way.

If people built boats the way Wikipedia builds articles, shipyards would be much more entertaining, if rather less productive.

[rnu]

Actually discussing possible subjects, sources, etc before rushing headlong into creating articles isn't the Wikipedia way.

The German Wikipedia has a page where you can get people's opinions on whether a subject is notable before writing an article: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Relevanzcheck
Through the "other languages" section I found out that enwiki used to have a Notability Noticeboard, too. It's been defunct since 2013: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... oticeboard

[The Blue Newt]

This link superfund cleanup doc has real paydirt.

[AndyTheGrump]

This link superfund cleanup doc has real paydirt.

Nice find:

Unlike a leeboard which dropped off the side of a vessel, a centerboard dropped through the
center of a vessel through a hole in its hull. Also known as a “sliding drop keel,” a “shifting
keel,” or a “drop keel,” a centerboard was placed within a trunk, or well, and dropped through
the keel on a pivot, hanging down diagonally into the water.

Which rather supports my earlier point about the vagaries of sailing vessel terminology. If you can't give the same thing three different names, and then use each name for three different things, you've no business going anywhere near a boat.

[The Blue Newt]

This link superfund cleanup doc has real paydirt.

Nice find:

Unlike a leeboard which dropped off the side of a vessel, a centerboard dropped through the
center of a vessel through a hole in its hull. Also known as a “sliding drop keel,” a “shifting
keel,” or a “drop keel,” a centerboard was placed within a trunk, or well, and dropped through
the keel on a pivot, hanging down diagonally into the water.

Which rather supports my earlier point about the vagaries of sailing vessel terminology. If you can't give the same thing three different names, and then use each name for three different things, you've no business going anywhere near a boat.

Oh, there’s no doubt about that. Many, many nautical terms are ambiguous. Blue links often are not, however.

[The Blue Newt]

This link superfund cleanup doc has real paydirt.

Nice find:

Unlike a leeboard which dropped off the side of a vessel, a centerboard dropped through the
center of a vessel through a hole in its hull. Also known as a “sliding drop keel,” a “shifting
keel,” or a “drop keel,” a centerboard was placed within a trunk, or well, and dropped through
the keel on a pivot, hanging down diagonally into the water.

Which rather supports my earlier point about the vagaries of sailing vessel terminology. If you can't give the same thing three different names, and then use each name for three different things, you've no business going anywhere near a boat.

Oh, there’s no doubt about that. Many, many nautical terms are ambiguous. Blue links often are not, however.

PS: another decent pic link.

[Ming]

From Long-tailed duck (T-H-L):

This duck is now the only species placed in the genus Clangula that was introduced in 1819 to accommodate the long-tailed duck by the English zoologist William Leach in an appendix to John Ross's account of his voyage to look for the Northwest Passage.

[AndyTheGrump]

From Long-tailed duck (T-H-L):

This duck is now the only species placed in the genus Clangula that was introduced in 1819 to accommodate the long-tailed duck by the English zoologist William Leach in an appendix to John Ross's account of his voyage to look for the Northwest Passage.

Did the duck block the passage? Would laxatives help?

[Midsize Jake]

Did the duck block the passage? Would laxatives help?

Not if Leach had to accommodate the duck in his own appendix. For laxatives to work, they have to be taken by a living person — I can't tell you how many times I've been tripped up by this so-called "rule."

[Elinruby]

fact-free sentence, naturally unsourced as well:

Some objects of great cultural significance remain missing, though how much has yet to be determined. This is a major issue for the art market, since legitimate organizations do not want to deal in objects with unclear ownership titles.

in Nazi plunder (T-H-L)

[eppur si muove]

fact-free sentence, naturally unsourced as well:

Some objects of great cultural significance remain missing, though how much has yet to be determined. This is a major issue for the art market, since legitimate organizations do not want to deal in objects with unclear ownership titles.

in Nazi plunder (T-H-L)

Let's look at the full paragraph.

Some objects of great cultural significance remain missing, though how much has yet to be determined. This is a major issue for the art market, since legitimate organizations do not want to deal in objects with unclear ownership titles. Since the mid-1990s, after several books, magazines, and newspapers began exposing the subject to the general public, many dealers, auction houses, and museums have grown more careful about checking the provenance of objects that are available for purchase in case they are looted. Some museums in the US and elsewhere have agreed to check the provenance of works in their collections.[66]

That all makes sense and is a good paragraph in that it all talks about the same thing and is referenced to a Metropolitan Museum of Art page in which they talk about measures that they have taken in line with a policy they helped to develop that has been adopted by two different umbrella organisations for museums. The sentence in the middle of the paragraph has informaiton that isn't referenced but what it says is neither controversial nor surprising.

[Elinruby]

all makes sense and is a good paragraph in that it all talks about the same thing

is a very low bar and using "how much" to refer to countable items makes my head hurt

Also, I submit that if you cut everything that comes before "many dealers" nothing will have been lost. And the paragraph will be more readable.

and is referenced to a Metropolitan Museum of Art page in which they talk

I'm just doing a light copyedit while scoping out some organizational stuff, so I haven't actually checked the reference, but usually one reference at the end of a long paragraph doesn't cut it in an article about Nazi anything. This one possibly would be far enough removed from gore that English grammar won't be controversial,,.but it does discuss Poland so strictly speaking the references should all be academic, There is uncertainty about whether that only applies to the section on Poland in these articles, but the wording is "articles or edits" so i think not.

I'd also have to check whether the HiP decision modified the referencing standard to allow museums. Even MMA and the Louvre used to not be RS. I think I asked for that change and I *think* it may have gotten included. But possibly it was only the Holocaust.Musem and Yad Vashem. Those were the two VM was talking about

[rnu]

Grundzüge der Mengenlehre (T-H-L)

Chelsea Publishing Company reprinted the German 1914 edition in New York City in German in 1944, 1949, 1965, 1978 and 1991 but never issued an English translation of this first edition (or the 1927 second edition) to date.

Reprinting the German edition in a language other than German would be quite the feat of alchemy.

[Bezdomni]

This isn't entirely fair because it's likely a non-native speaker who appears to have copied their lecture notes into en.wp

The issues posed by the EU’s GMO regulation have caused major problems in agriculture, politics, societies, status, and other fields.[41][42] 12 [...] The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) provided certain rights and protection for GM biotechnology in the EU.  However, the value of human dignity, liberty, equality, and solidarity, as well as the status of democracy and law, as emphasized in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, are considered the ethical framework governing the employment of scientific and technological research and development.

source

Gather up courage for the next paragraph which contains

• a trainwreck
• some lesser mishaps
• some choice misinformation

Due to the political, religious, and social differences in EU countries, the EU’s position on GM has been divided geographically, including more than 100 “GM-free” regions. Different regional attitudes to GM foods make it nearly impossible to reach a common agreement on GM foods.[42] In recent years, however, the sense of crisis that this has generated for the European Union has intensified as several of the larger and more powerful member states.[43] Some member states, including Germany, France, Austria, Italy, and Luxembourg, have even banned the planting of certain GM food in their countries in response to public resistance to GM foods.[42][43] The whole thing is set against a backdrop of consumer holding the attitude that GM foods are harmful to both the environment and human health, revolting against GM foods in an anti-biotech coalition.[40]

According to a government webpage I just checked (§), there is only one GM food crop it is legal to plant for commercial use in Europe -- MON810 (T-H-L) -- and only two countries grow it (Spain & Portugal).

It's a wonder anyone thinks there's anything wrong with the industrial agriculture topic on en.wp

[rnu]

This isn't entirely fair because it's likely a non-native speaker who appears to have copied their lecture notes into en.wp

The issues posed by the EU’s GMO regulation have caused major problems in agriculture, politics, societies, status, and other fields.[41][42] 12 [...] The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) provided certain rights and protection for GM biotechnology in the EU.  However, the value of human dignity, liberty, equality, and solidarity, as well as the status of democracy and law, as emphasized in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, are considered the ethical framework governing the employment of scientific and technological research and development.

Gather up courage for the next paragraph which has a trainwreck, some lesser mishaps, and some choice misinformation.

Due to the political, religious, and social differences in EU countries, the EU’s position on GM has been divided geographically, including more than 100 “GM-free” regions. Different regional attitudes to GM foods make it nearly impossible to reach a common agreement on GM foods.[42] In recent years, however, the sense of crisis that this has generated for the European Union has intensified as several of the larger and more powerful member states.[43] Some member states, including Germany, France, Austria, Italy, and Luxembourg, have even banned the planting of certain GM food in their countries in response to public resistance to GM foods.[42][43] The whole thing is set against a backdrop of consumer holding the attitude that GM foods are harmful to both the environment and human health, revolting against GM foods in an anti-biotech coalition.[40]

According to a government webpage I just checked (§), there is only one GM crop allowed to be planted for commercial use in Europe -- MON810 (T-H-L) -- and only two countries grow it (Spain & Portugal).

It's a wonder anyone thinks there's anything wrong with the industrial agriculture topic on en.wp

Guardian: Strongest opponents of GM foods know the least but think they know the most

[Bezdomni]

Lol. Typical, you spend a lot of time pointing out what en.wp gets wrong and someone spends two seconds linking to an article saying all those countries that ban GM are stupid.

That's not the point. An encyclopedia is not meant to right great wrongs about all those stupid Europeans. It documents the regulations as they exist.

[rnu]

Lol. Typical, you spend a lot of time pointing out what en.wp gets wrong and someone spends two seconds linking to an article saying all those countries that ban GM are stupid.

That's not the point. An encyclopedia is not meant to right great wrongs about all those stupid Europeans. It documents the regulations as they exist.

My point was that it is no surprise that this is an issue where people write a lot of nonsense.

[rnu]

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) provided certain rights and protection for GM biotechnology in the EU.  However, the value of human dignity, liberty, equality, and solidarity, as well as the status of democracy and law, as emphasized in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, are considered the ethical framework governing the employment of scientific and technological research and development.

I have tried to figure out what the hell that is supposed to mean. From google books preview of the source:

The EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) makes EU regulation of science and technology, including GMOs, subject to the general rights and protection offered by the Convention. The European Charter of Fundamental Rights, which emphasizes that the Union is founded on the indivisible and universal values of human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity, and on the principles of democracy and the rule of law, is recognized as part of the broad ethical framework in the EU regulation of research, development and the use of science and technology.

tl;dr: Science and technology in the EU are subject to the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. Like literally everything in the EU.

[Bezdomni]

My point was that it is no surprise that this is an issue where people write a lot of nonsense.

I apologize for the misunderstanding. I think it may have happened because the person who wrote that text about European regulations is pretty clearly not a strong opponent of GMOs.

The lede of the larger regulation section (§) is no worse. While at least it mentions that there were only two crops it was legal to grow in 2013, it neglects to mention that the SciAm source it cites says that one of them -- the BASF (Amflora) potato -- was taken off the market in 2012.

[rnu]

My point was that it is no surprise that this is an issue where people write a lot of nonsense.

I apologize for the misunderstanding. I think it may have happened because the person who wrote that text about European regulations is pretty clearly not a strong opponent of GMOs.

The lede of the larger regulation section (§) is no worse. While at least it mentions that there were only two crops it was legal to grow in 2013, it neglects to mention that the SciAm source it cites says that one of them -- the BASF (Amflora) potato -- was taken off the market in 2012.

No problem, these misunderstandings are bound to happen when people just lazily post links without giving context.
The approval for Amflora (T-H-L) was even revoked in 2013 (although after the Scientific American article was published). Maybe it would be time to update the article after ten years.

[Bezdomni]

Another fun fact is that that bit was added in 2021. (diff)

[rnu]

Another fun fact is that that bit was added in 2021. (diff)

[Elinruby]

When English grammar is controversial:

Talk:Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine/Archive_15#passive_to_active_voice (T-H-L)

I mean I am just saying. I got them to update the casualty numbers; this is not worth the fight. But why should it be a fight? That Cinderella guy is Australian so likely a native English speaker. Ah well.

[Dan of La Mancha]

Sparkle (1976 film) (T-H-L)

Sparkle was previewed by an appreciative audience in Baltimore in March. The crowd of 1300 is said to have applauded, screamed and displayed loud attestation to their feelings that it was a good movie.

[Háčky]

Map symbol (T-H-L)

One of the many signs in this map is the dark green patch. Its corresponding interpretants are the concepts of "country" and "Poland," and its object is the actual country of Poland. This is an ad hoc symbol, because there is nothing intuitively "dark green" about Poland.

I checked Geography of Poland (T-H-L); it has satellite photography showing that Poland is, in fact, dark green (though not at this time of year).

[rnu]

Map symbol (T-H-L)

One of the many signs in this map is the dark green patch. Its corresponding interpretants are the concepts of "country" and "Poland," and its object is the actual country of Poland. This is an ad hoc symbol, because there is nothing intuitively "dark green" about Poland.

I checked Geography of Poland (T-H-L); it has satellite photography showing that Poland is, in fact, dark green (though not at this time of year).

And

[The Blue Newt]

In the Lucy Drexel Dahlgren House (T-H-L) article, we learn that “It features "gentle restications and bas-reliefs," which would be a terrible surprise to anyone who knows enough about masonry to recognize rustication. This would be only a minor thing if anyone had bothered to correct Beyond My Ken (T-C-L)’s error in the 8 or so years since he made it.

Luckily, it hasn't spread yet.

[The Blue Newt]

In the Lucy Drexel Dahlgren House (T-H-L) article, we learn that “It features "gentle restications and bas-reliefs," which would be a terrible surprise to anyone who knows enough about masonry to recognize rustication. This would be only a minor thing if anyone had bothered to correct Beyond My Ken (T-C-L)’s error in the 8 or so years since he made it.

Luckily, it hasn't spread yet.

PS: Why does the map show Central Park as “Menhetn?”. Slavic, influenced by Yinglish?

[rnu]

In the Lucy Drexel Dahlgren House (T-H-L) article, we learn that “It features "gentle restications and bas-reliefs," which would be a terrible surprise to anyone who knows enough about masonry to recognize rustication. This would be only a minor thing if anyone had bothered to correct Beyond My Ken (T-C-L)’s error in the 8 or so years since he made it.

Luckily, it hasn't spread yet.

PS: Why does the map show Central Park as “Menhetn?”. Slavic, influenced by Yinglish?

I'm guessing someone messed up the language setting: https://sr.wikipedia.org/sr-el/%D0%9C%D ... 1%82%D0%BD

[The Blue Newt]

In the Lucy Drexel Dahlgren House (T-H-L) article, we learn that “It features "gentle restications and bas-reliefs," which would be a terrible surprise to anyone who knows enough about masonry to recognize rustication. This would be only a minor thing if anyone had bothered to correct Beyond My Ken (T-C-L)’s error in the 8 or so years since he made it.

Luckily, it hasn't spread yet.

PS: Why does the map show Central Park as “Menhetn?”. Slavic, influenced by Yinglish?

I'm guessing someone messed up the language setting: https://sr.wikipedia.org/sr-el/%D0%9C%D ... 1%82%D0%BD

Yeahbut…Menhetn? Nobody says that except some really, really old New York Jews. The “a” sound is heard across almost every dialect and sociolect.

It seems to be a pattern: the city is on the mouth of the “Hadson, “apparently. I dunno anyone at all they could have borrowed that pronunciation from. Outside downtown, the names are more in line with English - “Kvins, Bruklin, Bronks,” and “Staten Ajland.

[rnu]

In the Lucy Drexel Dahlgren House (T-H-L) article, we learn that “It features "gentle restications and bas-reliefs," which would be a terrible surprise to anyone who knows enough about masonry to recognize rustication. This would be only a minor thing if anyone had bothered to correct Beyond My Ken (T-C-L)’s error in the 8 or so years since he made it.

Luckily, it hasn't spread yet.

PS: Why does the map show Central Park as “Menhetn?”. Slavic, influenced by Yinglish?

I'm guessing someone messed up the language setting: https://sr.wikipedia.org/sr-el/%D0%9C%D ... 1%82%D0%BD

Yeahbut…Menhetn? Nobody says that except some really, really old New York Jews. The “a” sound is heard across almost every dialect and sociolect.

It seems to be a pattern: the city is on the mouth of the “Hadson, “apparently. I dunno anyone at all they could have borrowed that pronunciation from. Outside downtown, the names are more in line with English - “Kvins, Bruklin, Bronks,” and “Staten Ajland.

I think it is set to Serbian.

[The Blue Newt]

In the Lucy Drexel Dahlgren House (T-H-L) article, we learn that “It features "gentle restications and bas-reliefs," which would be a terrible surprise to anyone who knows enough about masonry to recognize rustication. This would be only a minor thing if anyone had bothered to correct Beyond My Ken (T-C-L)’s error in the 8 or so years since he made it.

Luckily, it hasn't spread yet.

PS: Why does the map show Central Park as “Menhetn?”. Slavic, influenced by Yinglish?

I'm guessing someone messed up the language setting: https://sr.wikipedia.org/sr-el/%D0%9C%D ... 1%82%D0%BD

Yeahbut…Menhetn? Nobody says that except some really, really old New York Jews. The “a” sound is heard across almost every dialect and sociolect.

It seems to be a pattern: the city is on the mouth of the “Hadson, “apparently. I dunno anyone at all they could have borrowed that pronunciation from. Outside downtown, the names are more in line with English - “Kvins, Bruklin, Bronks,” and “Staten Ajland.

I think it is set to Serbian.

Yep. My question is why the Srp stuff looks so odd. Comparing it with yer Hrvat take, you see that the Croats usually use the English names directly, and only comment on variants in pronunciation that aren’t obvious to their readers. They take as a given, for instance, that “Manhattan” doesn’t need a phonetic spelling, but “Brooklyn” does because of the last syllable.

(Obviously, the different alphabets plays into this.)

[AndyTheGrump]

In the Lucy Drexel Dahlgren House (T-H-L) article, we learn that “It features "gentle restications and bas-reliefs," which would be a terrible surprise to anyone who knows enough about masonry to recognize rustication. This would be only a minor thing if anyone had bothered to correct Beyond My Ken (T-C-L)’s error in the 8 or so years since he made it.

Luckily, it hasn't spread yet.

PS: Why does the map show Central Park as “Menhetn?”. Slavic, influenced by Yinglish?

I'm guessing someone messed up the language setting: https://sr.wikipedia.org/sr-el/%D0%9C%D ... 1%82%D0%BD

Yeahbut…Menhetn? Nobody says that except some really, really old New York Jews. The “a” sound is heard across almost every dialect and sociolect.

It seems to be a pattern: the city is on the mouth of the “Hadson, “apparently. I dunno anyone at all they could have borrowed that pronunciation from. Outside downtown, the names are more in line with English - “Kvins, Bruklin, Bronks,” and “Staten Ajland.

I think it is set to Serbian.

Yep. My question is why the Srp stuff looks so odd. Comparing it with yer Hrvat take, you see that the Croats usually use the English names directly, and only comment on variants in pronunciation that aren’t obvious to their readers. They take as a given, for instance, that “Manhattan” doesn’t need a phonetic spelling, but “Brooklyn” does because of the last syllable.

(Obviously, the different alphabets plays into this.)

Quite possibly the Serbs do it that way because the Croats don't. See also India and Pakistan...

[The Blue Newt]

“ In Bengal the term Bania is a functional catch-all for moneylenders, indigenously developed bankers, readers of grocery items and spices, irrespective of caste.[3]”

(From Bania (caste) (T-H-L)).

Guys, I know you are supposed to paraphrase, but “reader” for “dealer” might be just a little too free a translation.

The article as a whole seems to suggest that “neutrality” means “alternating praise and condemnation.”

[Disgruntled haddock]

Today's featured article, Sun in fiction (T-H-L), begins with this gem:

The Sun has appeared as a setting in fiction since at least classical antiquity, but for a long time it received relatively sporadic attention.

[Háčky]

Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (T-H-L)

Since Unicode unifies different glyphs in same characters,[21] font support must be present to display the correct variant. Programs like Mozilla Firefox, LibreOffice (currently[when?] under Linux only), and some others provide required OpenType support. Of course[why?], font families like Fira, Noto, Overpass, PT Fonts, Liberation, Gentium, Open Sans, Lato, IBM Plex Serif, Croscore fonts, GNU FreeFont, DejaVu, Ubuntu, Microsoft "C*" fonts from Windows Vista and above must be used.

Of course they must be used. At the very least, each font must be used by the editor who added it to that sentence.

[Elinruby]

From Long-tailed duck (T-H-L):

This duck is now the only species placed in the genus Clangula that was introduced in 1819 to accommodate the long-tailed duck by the English zoologist William Leach in an appendix to John Ross's account of his voyage to look for the Northwest Passage.

Wot

[Elinruby]

Because I just had to, alright?

Ivanovovsky reported that Tarbagatai Torgouts (Kalmyks) revered kurgan obelisks in their country as images of their ancestors, and that when a bowl was held by the statue, it was to deposit a part of the ashes after the cremation of the deceased, and another part was laid under the base of the statue.[5]

from Kurgan stelae (T-H-L)

[Ming]

From Manfeild: Circuit Chris Amon (T-H-L): "The name "Manfeild" was derived from "Manawatu" being the region the circuit is in and "Feilding" the town it is in."

[The Blue Newt]

While on tour in Burgos in 1828, his left leg was broken by a horse's hooves when he tried to stop it from eloping.

From Hippolyte Triat (T-H-L), now highlighted on the Disgrace of the Day, Do You Kare section.

Just another Wiki calque up.

[AndyTheGrump]

While on tour in Burgos in 1828, his left leg was broken by a horse's hooves when he tried to stop it from eloping.

From Hippolyte Triat (T-H-L), now highlighted on the Disgrace of the Day, Do You Kare section.

Just another Wiki calque up.

The DYK itself looks dubious:

.. that pioneering bodybuilder Hippolyte Triat was kidnapped by vagabonds at the age of six and sold to a troupe of Italian acrobats?

'Kidnapped by vagabonds' (or gypsies) is an ancient trope. The actual historical evidence for such things happening is sparse, to say the least. There are legitimate grounds to suspect that most such alleged 'kidnappings' were nothing of the sort, and that it was a convenient excuse given when a child ran away from abuse of one form or another, or was sold off as cheap labour by the parents.

And then again, the alleged kidnapping victim may have been a 'vagabond' child in the first place. The 'kidnapping' trope adds a layer of romance to such tales, and enables those writing eulogies of strongmen and the like to imply that mere 'vagabonds' were incapable of achieving greatness themselves.

[eppur si muove]

'Kidnapped by vagabonds' (or gypsies) is an ancient trope. The actual historical evidence for such things happening is sparse, to say the least.

One of the people that claim is made about is Adam Smith, the Scottish economist. I was surprised to hear it repeated in a modern biography of Smith that was serialised on BBC Radio 4. Wikipedia handles it a typically clumsy manner.

[rnu]

While on tour in Burgos in 1828, his left leg was broken by a horse's hooves when he tried to stop it from eloping.

From Hippolyte Triat (T-H-L), now highlighted on the Disgrace of the Day, Do You Kare section.

Just another Wiki calque up.

The DYK itself looks dubious:

.. that pioneering bodybuilder Hippolyte Triat was kidnapped by vagabonds at the age of six and sold to a troupe of Italian acrobats?

'Kidnapped by vagabonds' (or gypsies) is an ancient trope. The actual historical evidence for such things happening is sparse, to say the least. There are legitimate grounds to suspect that most such alleged 'kidnappings' were nothing of the sort, and that it was a convenient excuse given when a child ran away from abuse of one form or another, or was sold off as cheap labour by the parents.

And then again, the alleged kidnapping victim may have been a 'vagabond' child in the first place. The 'kidnapping' trope adds a layer of romance to such tales, and enables those writing eulogies of strongmen and the like to imply that mere 'vagabonds' were incapable of achieving greatness themselves.

The article is largely plagiarized taken from a public domain source published in 1911.

[Elinruby]

"It was home to Shefatya ben Amitai and Shabbethai Donnolo, one of the first Hebrew writers who was native to Europe.*

They were both born in Oria. Or so their Wikipedia articles say.

Oria, Apulia (T-H-L)

[Elinruby]

Map symbol (T-H-L)

One of the many signs in this map is the dark green patch. Its corresponding interpretants are the concepts of "country" and "Poland," and its object is the actual country of Poland. This is an ad hoc symbol, because there is nothing intuitively "dark green" about Poland.

I checked Geography of Poland (T-H-L); it has satellite photography showing that Poland is, in fact, dark green (though not at this time of year).

[The Blue Newt]

A sample of the sediment and no doubt it was Saharan sand was kept for microscopic examination

From Bordighera (T-H-L). The whole thing betrays translationitis.