Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2018 February 28

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Language desk
< February 27 << Jan | February | Mar >> March 1 >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.


February 28[edit]

Lack of leadership[edit]

I was leafing through the 16 February edition of the London Daily Telegraph on Saturday afternoon and almost fell off my chair in astonishment. It had no "leaders" (the unsigned articles which represent the paper's view) and no "Letters to the Editor", which usually sit alongside them. Page 2 trailed an article on page 16 by Nigel Farage (these articles appear on a page headed "Comments" which is the left-hand side of the spread which includes the Letters page). However, page 16 consisted of international news - the Comments page was actually page 18, with the edition code *** at the top but no Farage article. The Times has published leaders and letters every day since 3 January 1785 and other papers are no different. Is the omission unique?

Another edition of that Friday's paper had presumably been printed later because the edition code at the top of the Comments page was ***A. That was page 16, and it did have an article by Nigel Farage, although the other articles were different. Pages 1 - 14 and 19 - 32 were identical in both editions. The later edition had an advertisement on page 15, letters on page 17 and puzzles on page 18. The earlier edition had news on page 15 and an advertisement on page 17. 92.31.136.24 (talk) 18:43, 28 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Why don't you call them and ask? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 19:09, 28 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Or write an angry letter to the editor. --Jayron32 19:37, 28 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Mary Sue[edit]

Where does the term Mary Sue (female character in a work of fiction who is made too perfect, so that with all their amazing talents and no flaws, their victory is utterly assured) come from? Miss Bono [hello, hello!] 19:34, 28 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Does the article Mary Sue help you answer your question? --Jayron32 19:36, 28 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Holy ship! Wikipedia has an article for everything lol! Thanks Jayron32, I should really look for stuff before asking. Miss Bono [hello, hello!] 19:48, 28 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

If you really want to get crazy, Wikipedia even has an article for "Wikipedia has an article on everything". See Wikipedia:Wikipedia has an article on everything! --Jayron32 00:14, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
That's a mere essay, the article you want is Everything ;) -- Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 14:06, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Touché. --Jayron32 14:34, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
LOL! Miss Bono [hello, hello!] 20:34, 1 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I take it you didn't really mean Holy ship! but something else. WP really does have an article on everything. Akld guy (talk) 03:55, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]