User:The stuart/The Secret History of Wikipedia
On occasion I stumble across confrontations on wikipedia that I find really intresting. Soes I cut and paste them here. I called this project "Secret history of Wikipedia" because the first one I found was this first excerpt a user wrote on his user page in 2002 about how wikipedia is doomed. All of his prediction have been completely wrong by the way. I felt like it was historical because it was old, and sercret because you had to dig back in his hitory to find it. Anyway, enjoy
On 20 Nov 2002, 02:45 (Wikipedia time) User:TMC updated his user page:
I believe Wikipedia is doomed to uselessness at best or failure at worst. This is not the same as saying that I have ill wishes for Wikipedia, simply that I am pessimistic about the future. Despite this, I hope to make useful contributions to Wikipedia as I can.
It is my opinion that there are three attributes that are necessary for any encyclopedia, including Wikipedia, to be useful.
1. It must have a useful hierarchy of information. 2. It must have a useful flow of importance. 3. It must have a useful point of view.
Wikipedia has a constantly evolving hierarchy of information, flow of importance, and point of view. I don't believe, as it exists at this moment in time, that Wikipedia expresses these attributes in a useful form. I unsure whether I believe Wikipedia can evolve to the point where it does possess all these attributes in a useful form.
A good digression at this point would be to clarify what it is for an enclopedia to be useful, or more specifically, who it is that an encylopedia should be useful to. Clearly there are currently a large number of people who have made contributions to Wikipedia, so it could be said that these people found it useful to make their contributions. But that is like saying that a book is useful merely because the author enjoyed writing it, and although that is true it misses the point of what Wikipedia is striving to be. Wikiepedia wants to be an encylopedia, which means that the usefulness of Wikipedia should be measured by how much utility it provides to the encylopedia.
User_talk:Joshuapaquin/List_of_interesting_Google_Maps_satellite_images
- Do the original contributors still get credit for adding all these on the original page? -- Riffsyphon1024 16:35, Jun 22, 2005 (UTC)
- Hadn't really thought of that. I don't know. If you added some of the images and want to put your name in, go right ahead - I have no objection. -Joshuapaquin 04:19, Jun 23, 2005 (UTC)
- Well that would look just tacky wouldn't it? -- Riffsyphon1024 15:22, Jun 24, 2005 (UTC)
- I suppose it would, but I don't have another solution right now. -Joshuapaquin 20:39, Jun 24, 2005 (UTC)
- Since when was open source creative commons Wikipedia about giving credit to contributors?!?!?!--The_stuart 23:01, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Heh. Good point. So here's my thought: Do whatever you want. -Joshuapaquin 04:59, Jun 25, 2005 (UTC)
- Since when was open source creative commons Wikipedia about giving credit to contributors?!?!?!--The_stuart 23:01, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- I suppose it would, but I don't have another solution right now. -Joshuapaquin 20:39, Jun 24, 2005 (UTC)
- Well that would look just tacky wouldn't it? -- Riffsyphon1024 15:22, Jun 24, 2005 (UTC)
- Hadn't really thought of that. I don't know. If you added some of the images and want to put your name in, go right ahead - I have no objection. -Joshuapaquin 04:19, Jun 23, 2005 (UTC)
This entire article about a lipogram is written as a lipogram, omitting the letter "e".
| Author | Ernest Vincent Wright |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel, lipogram omitting the letter e |
| Publisher | Wetzel Publishing Co. |
Publication date | 1939 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 260 pp |
| OCLC | 57759048 |
Wright's book Gadsby: Champion of Youth is a 1939 work of fiction that puts forth an account of goings on in a fictitious city, "Branton Hills." It primarily has to do with a transformation, through youth's vigor, of this moribund and slothful community. John Gadsby, its protagonist—a man of fifty or so—calls upon his town's girls and boys to aid him in his plan to bring activity and vitality back to that vicinity.
This story of about 50,000 words is most famous as a notably ambitious lipogram, in that it painstakingly omits a most common glyph from all of its paragraphs. It is an inspiration to similar vanguard authors; books such as A Void follow in its tracks.
Plot summary
[edit]John Gadsby, a thoughtful and forward-thinking man, finds with alarm that his town of Branton Hills is stagnant, sinking into sloth. His solution is to look to his city's young and form an "Organization of Youth" so as to spur transformation and twist local capitalists' arms to fund institutions such as a library, a park, and a bandstand. Against occasional opposition (such as from grumpy councilman Old Bill Simpkins), our protagonist and his youthful army transform Branton Hills from a stagnant municipality into a bustling, thriving city.[1] To honor such hard work, Gadby's gang gain diplomas and a grand show is put on for all.[2]
Thrust onward by a can-do spirit, this organization campaigns for original civic construction, and Gadsby soon gains a post as mayor.
| “ | If youth, throughout all history, had a champion to stand up for it; to show a doubting world that a child can think; and, possibly, do it practically; you wouldn't constantly run across folks today who claim that "a child don't know anything." A child's brain starts functioning at birth; and has, amongst its many infant convolutions, thousands of dormant atoms, into which God has put a mystic possibility for noticing an adult's act, and figuring out its purport. | ” |
| — Gadsby, first paragraph | ||
An anonymous narrator, who continuously complains about his own poor writing and circumlocution, is actually Wright, a Californian from Boston. This is shown with his allusion to Wright's own nonlipogrammatic introduction:
| “ | (Now, naturally, in writing such a story as this, with its conditions as laid down in its Introduction, it is not surprising that an occasional "rough spot" in composition is found. So I trust that a critical public will hold constantly in mind that I am voluntarily avoiding words containing that symbol which is, by far, of most common inclusion in writing our Anglo-Saxon as it is, today. Many of our most common words cannot show; so I must adopt synonyms; and so twist a thought around as to say what I wish with as much clarity as I can.) So, now to go on with this odd contraption .... | ” |
| — Gadsby, part 2 | ||
Wright calls his book a rollicking story of courtship and patriotism, a stand against liquor, and a portrayal of amusing political aspirations in a small growing town (Gadsby, introduction). Its chronology starts around 1906, passing through First World War days and continuing up into Prohibition and Harding's administration.
Individuals
[edit]Gadsby portrays Branton Hills' many inhabitants. This fictional city has a population that grows to about sixty thousand. Many individuals in this story marry during its narration—and usually quickly, "thanks to rascally 'Dan Cupid'".[3]
- John Gadsby: a family man and "loyal churchman" of "around fifty," with four kids (two boys, two girls). Our protagonist it is who forms an "Organization of Youth" to aid his stagnating town of Branton Hills.
- Julius (natural historian) and Mary Antor Gadsby (Salvation Army girl)
- William "Bill" (tailor) and Lucy Donaldson Gadsby (trio vocalist)
- Addison Gadsby (baby)
- Frank and Nancy Gadsby Morgan (radio station staff)
- Lillian Morgan (child)
- John "Johnny" (organist) and Kathlyn "Kathy" Gadsby Smith (biologist)
- Councilman and Madam Antor (drunkards)
- Norman Antor (youth coach)
- Tom Donaldson (patrolman)
- Tom Young (councilman)
- Paul (odd jobs man) and Sarah Young Johnson (night school solicitor)
- Bill (grouchy councilman) and Nina Adams Simpkins (widow of Irving Adams)
- Harold (aviator) and Virginia Adams Thompson (trio vocalist)
- Patricia Thompson (baby)
- Harold (aviator) and Virginia Adams Thompson (trio vocalist)
- Lady Sally Standish (rich animal rights activist)
- Arthur "Art" (soapbox orator) and Priscilla Standish Rankin (night school solicitor)
- Anna (Arthur's aunt) and four orphan Rankins (Arthur's siblings)
- Arthur "Art" (soapbox orator) and Priscilla Standish Rankin (night school solicitor)
- Parson Brown (pastor)
- Tom Wilkins (doctor)
- Clancy and Dowd (night patrol)
- Old Man Flanagan and Old Lady Flanagan (Irish townsfolk)
- Marian Hopkins (funds solicitor)
- Pat Ryan (railwayman)
- Councilman Banks (councilman)
- Allan Banks (funds solicitor)
- Tony Bandamita (Italian councilman)
- Doris Johnson (trio vocalist)
- Mayor Brown (prior mayor)
- Miss Chapman (cook)
- Mary (girl with puppy)
- Harry Grant (highway patrolman)
- John Allison, Dorothy Fitts, Cora Grant, John Hamilton, Oscar Knott, William Snow, Abigail Worthington (additional youths)
Branton Hills's radio station is KBH, from trans-Mississippi radio call sign "K", plus "Branton Hills". Broadway, a main highway, is in its financial district.
Lipogrammatic quality
[edit]Gadsby is famous (if not notorious) for its particular innovation: for all its 50,110 words,[4] it is a long lipogram, a composition avoiding a particular glyph throughout.[5] A lipogram is a form of artistic constraint that arbitrarily limits an author's vocabulary.[6] A typical short lipogram is Carroll Bombaugh's "Bold Ostrogoths, of ghosts no horror show. On London shop-fronts no hop-blossoms grow", which contains only typographic consonants and "o"'s.[7] Gadsby, by contrast, skips from "d" to "f"[8] in its subvocabulary of around 4,000 valid words, thus omitting a symbol ubiquitous to Anglic-family idioms.
Notwithstanding this artistic constraint, Wright's narration is fully grammatical and lucid, though still conforming to orthographic norms. His introduction holds that his primary difficulty was avoiding typical suffixation for past actions; ablauts, modal auxiliary forms, and a short list of participials accomplish that function in Gadsby. Scarcity of vocabulary also drastically limits discussion of quantity, and availability of pronouns and many common words; Wright dryly broods about his inability to count from six to thirty (Gadsby, introduction). Word Ways, a linguistics journal, says that Wright's vocabulary could contain fully half of W. Francis's Brown Corpus, a computational analysis that lists common words; a lipogram with tight constraints, by comparison, would allow only a sixth of such a list.[9]
At upwards of fifty thousand words, Wright's book allows short forms on occasion, but, as its introduction points out, only if a full form is similarly lipogrammatic, as with "Dr.", "P.S.", and "T.N.T." (trinitrotoluol). This standard holds for common contractions, including "ain't" (is not), "atta" (that a), and "dunno" (do not know); and for non-standard forms by an Irishwoman ("shmokin'" for "smoking"), an Italian ("buncha" for "bunch of"), and a young vagrant ("brung" for "brought"). Wright's subvocabulary also contains such long words as "dissatisfaction", "hospitalization", or "philosophically". Wright turns famous sayings into lipogrammatic form, such as "Music truly hath charms to calm a wild bosom", and "A charming thing is a joy always".[3]
Composition and publication
[edit]"Author Wright is a kindly, vivacious chap in Company D at National Military Barracks .... A World war musician, Wright's hobby always was to do unusual things. Alumnus of a famous Boston campus class ... Wright's classical foundation is thorough" (Walt Burton). Wright said his motivation for writing Gadsby was his noticing a four-stanza lipogram in print that had won significant acclamation (author now unknown), and his chafing balkily at claims that such a composition could not flow smoothly in styling and grammar.[10] In initial drafts, Frank Morgan was originally cast as "Bob": "First 'Bob' was Wright's romantic swain, but a kibitzing companion said Bob was short for a word containing a taboo symbol, so it is 'Frank' now, not Bob".[11] Wright found it "particularly annoying" that "almost through a long paragraph you can find no words ... and must go way back and start" from scratch, as if "stuck" in a hand of cards. Starting his manuscript in longhand, Wright brought it to fruition through manual typing—but "blacking" (Indy), or tying down, a solitary typing bar with string, so as to forbid nonlipogrammatic words that "might slip in ... and many did try to do so" (Gadsby, introduction).
In fall of 1930, Wright was living not far from Tampa, Florida, and told a local columnist about his work so far in producing an initial lipogrammatic draft story. By his own account, Wright had in hand at that point a long, grammatical, flowing story, without any abnormally short phrasing or implicit missing idioms; Wright did not wish to show his manuscript around, but had told his story to a handful of fans, for whom it was without rival in its bulk and in its clarity of lipogrammatic composition. Wright thought that his local daily might want to sponsor a lipogram showdown by proposing a 250-dollar award ("if you think you can outdo ... a man of 60"), thus jump-starting lipogrammatic construction and possibly inspiring thousands to try such a writing constraint. (In fact, only at that dollar amount was Wright willing to risk his own story, worrying vocally about "[losing] all control of it and it is worth fully that.") But Indy staff said "that it was hardly worth" fronting a high capital award for such a poor opportunity, and did not follow through on his proposal, anticipating a scarcity of rival contributions.[12]
From starting his final draft of Gadsby: Champion of Youth in 1936 during almost six months at a California military nursing facility (Walt Burton), Wright took thirty months locating a publishing firm. Finally choosing vanity publication, Wright saw his manuscript into its first run of author drafts. Rumors of his dying within hours of his book's publication lack much support, as a print copy is known with an August inscription, two months prior to Wright's passing away.[13] Gadsby was his fourth and final book.[3] Tragically, most by far of its printing run was lost in a printing-plant conflagration; a public library microform's proof copy informs most printings today (Amazon.com softback). Accordingly, an original hardback is today worth up to four thousand dollars.[13]
Criticism and acclaim
[edit]Upon this book's publication, critics said, "It is amazingly smooth. No halting parts. A continuity of plot and almost classic clarity obtains",[14] and, "On and on it flows. No shortcuts of words on phrasing is found, which in full would contain taboo symbols".[15] But commonly, its plot was found "languorous" and its quality both "lofty ('It is an odd kink of humanity which cannot find any valuation in spots of natural glory') and rambunctious ('Books!! Pooh! Maps! BAH!!')".[3] With authors awarding Jay Gatsby honors as most famous fictional individual (Book 2002, in Park 2002), journalists jokingly brought up Wright's circumlocutory stylings. "Lipogram aficionados—folks who lash words and (alas!) brains so as to omit particular symbols—did in fact gasp, saying, 'Hold that ringing communication tool for a bit! What about J. Gadsby?'" said a typical column.[3] David Crystal, host of a BBC Radio 4 linguistics program, found Gadsby comparing favorably to "Cat in a Hat",[16] calling it a "most ambitious work", painting a social portrait contrasting starkly with that of its famous inspiration, Gatsby.[7]
La Disparition (in translation, A Void) is a similarly lipogrammatic book, arguably taking inspiration from Gadsby.[17] "Possibly in honour of Gadsby it was also 50,000 words".[13] Its author was drawn to Wright's book via a pal of his in Oulipo, a multinational wordplay organization.[18] Still, Wright was also a warning for his Gallic imitator: publication of such a work "was taking a risk" of finishing up "with nothing [but] a Gadsby", that is, a book of no fascination to critics.[19] As a nod to Wright, La Disparation contains an Oxford don and Auctor Honoris Causa known as "Lord Gadsby V. Wright",[20] a "grand anglais savant" and tutor to protagonist Anton Voyl, or Vowl; a composition of Voyl's is actually a quotation from Gadsby.[3] In addition to La Disparition's author, aspiring lipogrammatists still point to Gadsby as an inspiration today.[21] A thick work about Marot and linguistic music contains significant parts of Gadsby, for illustration;[22] its author, writing "occasionally lipogrammatically", also now has a thousand-word "autolipography", or lipogrammatic autobiography, put into publication by Stanford.[23]
=
[edit]Kid in Bed is a logo used for DiC_Entertainment from 1987 to 2001, though it has also been used since 2003. The logo is nicknamed "Kid in Bed" because it starts with a boy and his dog asleep in bed with a Window above. The kid in the bed was played (but not voiced) by Anthony Aronowitz.
Summary of the logo
[edit]After starting with a boy and his dog asleep in bed, the camera pans towards the window above where the kid is sleeping. Outside the window, a spiked-shaped star appears. The star morphs into a ball, and the silver, 3-D word "DIC" zooms in and rotates 90º below to face the viewer. The ball is the dot in the letter "i" in "DiC". Then, a kid says the company name, though one variation had no voiceover.
Versions
[edit]Versions of the DiC "Kid in Bed" logo:
- 1987-1990: This version had a spooky-sounding, fading synthesized tune, a basic starfield, and a voiceover. **One variation of this version used had the same tune, starfield, and voiceover, but was sped up. **Another variation had the same tune and starfield, and was also sped up, but did not have a voiceover. **An extremely rare variation of this version has the same tune and starfield, but the voiceover was replaced with a choir singing "DIC". This variation was often seen at the end of The_Real_Ghostbusters.
- 1990-1999: This version had a new dreamy tune, a more spiffy-looking starfield, and a new voiceover kid. **One variation of this new version had the same music, starfield, and voiceover, but was sped-up. **Another variation of this version, seen between 1991 and 1994, also had the same music, starfield, and voiceover, and a speed-up, but below the "DiC" logo is a byline reading "In Association with RETITALIA s.p.a. and TELECINCO".
- 1999-2001: A new version with a new dreamy tune, the same starfield as the 1990-1999 version, and a new voiceover kid.
- 2003-present: While this new version has the same music and voiceover as the 1999-2001 version, the silver DIC logo does not appear. Instead, a globe with the words "The Incredible World of DIC" (which replaced the Kid in Bed logo in 2001) appears, with light rays shining behind it. The light rays flash after the globe stops. Another difference from the 1990-1999 and 1999-2001 versions is that this version has a new, rotating 2D starfield.
Criticism
[edit]To date, the Kid in Bed logo has been considered one of the scariest closing logos of a television production company, ranking along with Viacom's V of Doom and Screen Gems' S_from_Hell logos of the late 1960s and 1970s, which were notorious for giving younger audiences, primarily toddler-aged children, nightmares. This, for the most part, is due to the darkness of the logo, the creepy fading synth music as well as the sudden appearance of the silver "DiC" in a virtually starless nightsky. However, the very fact that this was a production logo for a popular cartoon producer whose target audience was young children under the age of eleven only made matters worse. In some circumstances the sudden appearance of the logo only exacerbates the spooky nature of this logo. An example of this can be found in several syndicated episodes of the animated Dennis_the_Menace series where the logo appears immediately after the credits, as opposed to the traditional Fade-to-black, along with the use of the creepy music. The logo's scare factor only slightly decreased after 1990, when it was given a makeover; the music was replaced with a more tolerable jingle, and more stars were added to the night sky, making the "Kid in Bed" less creepy to look at, let alone listen to.
Current use of the logo
[edit]The logo, especially with the fading synth music, has long departed the airwaves, as most DIC-produced shows now have the current "Incredible world of DIC" logo plastered. However, the Kid in Bed, in all forms, has been found on several DIC-produced cartoons which can be viewed on the Yahooligans! web portal, such as The_Super_Mario_Bros._Super_Show and The_Legend_of_Zelda, as well as on video and some DVDs.
External Link
[edit]- DiC Nightmare This 3 minute, 45 second long online video has a number of closing logos on it. The Kid in Bed are the first two (the 1st is the dreamy tune used from 1990-1990 & the second with the creepy faded music). Category:DiC_Entertainment
- ^ Wright 1939, chapter one
- ^ Wright 1939, chapter two
- ^ a b c d e f Park 2002
- ^ Lederer 1998, p. 284
- ^ Baldick 2004
- ^ Grambs 1984
- ^ a b Crystal 2001, p. 63
- ^ Gross & Murphy 1964
- ^ Ross, Jr 1986
- ^ Park 2002, Burton 1937
- ^ Bellamy 1936
- ^ Staff 1937, p. 11
- ^ a b c Bookride 2007
- ^ Burton 1937
- ^ Bellamy 1936
- ^ Crystal 1988
- ^ Abish 1995, p. X11
- ^ Bellos 1993, p. 395
- ^ Bellos 1993, p. 399
- ^ Sturrock 1999
- ^ Kitson 2006
- ^ Hofstadter 1998
- ^ Hofstadter 2006