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Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2014 July 26

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July 26 edit

American white supremacist edit

I desperately need help trying to remember the name of an American white supremacist as I just can't recall it and Google has been no help so far. My exact recollections are hazy but this guy was a figure in either the KKK, one of the sundry other far-right groups or both until he announced that he was done with all that. He subsequently turned up on Geraldo and similar shows discussing his decision to give up racism, meeting African American activists and the like. In this case however he then returned to white supremacy, possibly claiming that his initial abandonment of the ideology had been all a ruse in the first place. I've gone through every article in Category:Ku Klux Klan members and none of them seem to match up so can anybody help or did I just imagine all this? Keresaspa (talk) 01:00, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

David Duke maybe? --Jayron32 03:20, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Tom Metzger famously met with Louis Farrakhan in 1985 and claimed to find common ground, but he never renounced racism. AnonMoos (talk) 11:13, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
No, I know both of them and neither of them were the guy I'm thinking of. If memory serves me right he had a big cowboy-style moustache if that helps. Keresaspa (talk) 19:12, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Is it Buford Furrow you're thinking of? Mogism (talk) 19:19, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
No, don't think that's him either. This guy was pretty thin (assuming I'm not imagining him). Keresaspa (talk) 23:29, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I might have found it: [1] mentions a Greg Withrow (a name also mentioned in Tom Metzger (white supremacist)), though I should emphasize I have not looked into this and have no idea where this story went from that time. The cool thing is, Rivera kept his efforts going, and eventually Johnny Lee Clary appeared on his show expressing a conversion which appears to be genuine and enduring. Wnt (talk) 05:32, 27 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

22nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry edit

Where can I find this but in book form? --KAVEBEAR (talk) 06:03, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I believe that regiment was known as "Henry Wilson's Regiment", and there is a book by that name, which includes the chapter:  Alphabetical Roll —which I suspect would replicate the roster you linked (but haven't checked):
  • Parker, John Lord (1887). HENRY WILSON'S REGIMENT. Boston: Franklin Press. —(Google eBook)
~E:71.20.250.51 (talk) 06:39, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Wow. Thanks. This is a tremendous help. It even has a biographical sketch of the person I am researching.--KAVEBEAR (talk) 06:47, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  You're welcome! ~E:71.20.250.51 (talk) 07:01, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Mosby referred to in this book is John S. Mosby, right?

It seems so; the book mentions "Mosby's guerrillas" which was an alternate nickname for "Mosby's Rangers" (a.k.a.: "Mosby's Raiders"). ~E:71.20.250.51 (talk) 08:35, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

November 18, 1862 letter at Fort Tillinghast edit

Can anybody tell me who wrote the November 18, 1862 letter at Fort Tillinghast, shown in the sources below? The sources says "Our brothers of the artillery writes." Is the letter's writer identifiable or is it just a collection of letters with the name of writers not mentioned? Also a letter dated to November 18, 1862 couldn't possibly be talking about reading a newspaper article about a funeral that didn't take place until March, 1863 (Henry's died around this time), so what is the explanation for that? The letter can be found here:

--KAVEBEAR (talk) 00:45, 27 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2K14 edit

2K14 is a redirect to 2014, but not explained there. Where is this notation used, and where does it come from? Google search is riddled with computer games and confusing. --KnightMove (talk) 16:20, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Looking at the page history, before it was a redirect, someone tried to pretend that it was a common thing, and not just a branding ploy by the company 2K Games. Ian.thomson (talk) 16:24, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps there should be one of those hatnote-things:  " 2K14 redirects here; for the sports video game, see: NBA 2K14.  "  (?) 71.20.250.51 (talk) 16:31, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
It appears to be a once only thing by a user who didn't know about WP:Notability. There's no 2K13, 2K10, 2K06, and so on. (There are redirects for 2k12 and 2k11, but those are for surface to air missiles). If the brand thing was anything beyond 2K Games's cutesy titling gag, I'd be more open to it. Ian.thomson (talk) 16:38, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Presumably it's an outgrowth of Y2K, which was hugely notable (until it proved to be the greatest fizzer of all time. Granted, we'll never know how many aircraft would have "fallen out of the sky" had the companies ignored the issue ...) -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 21:10, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Jack, some of us put in a _great_ deal of work to ensure that sort of thing didn't happen. The way people go on about it nowadays, I get the impression we shouldn't have bothered. I can hope that people will be more appreciative in 2038, but I doubt it'll be the case. Tevildo (talk) 21:35, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
My "Granted" sentence was acknowledgment that the problem was not ignored and disasters were averted, for which I'm sure we're all grateful. But you know what humans are like: they're attracted to disaster and make a big deal out of it, whereas when people act proactively and consequently nothing happens, it's not news. "Fizzer" was a poor choice of word, for which I am flagellating my naked body with a spiked rawhide whip using my left hand while I type this with my right. That is surely an image to die for. -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 21:46, 26 July 2014 (UTC) [reply]
They say that kangaroo hide makes a very good whip for this purpose. Not that I have any contact with them, oh no. :) Tevildo (talk) 22:10, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
IMHO, it was a fizzer, and many innocent but less well informed business people, and even home computer users, were ripped off unmercifully by unethical IT practitioners. HiLo48 (talk) 21:50, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, and 2K14 should not exist. HiLo48 (talk) 21:50, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I think it's reasonable to change the redirect to point to the video game. I agree that it's very unlikely anyone will enter "2K14" if they're looking for the article on the year. Tevildo (talk) 22:10, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I don't know the origin of it, but there seem to be many non-computer-game uses of 2K14 to mean the year 2014. Likewise 2K13 and 2K12. I didn't try any earlier years. -- BenRG (talk) 06:17, 27 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Also, for each of those years there are at least two games with 2Kxx in the title, so it is probably a bad idea to redirect to one of them. -- BenRG (talk) 06:20, 27 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I've changed 2K14 to a proper dab page, in the light of the above. Tevildo (talk) 12:41, 27 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
2K Sports might clear things up. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:27, 28 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Iambic trimeter edit

  • did I do those lines right? I can't truly know if ε in the words "τερπνοῖς" and "καθῆντ" is long or short, right?
 -    -  u  -\  -  -  u   -\ u u  uu u  x
ἦν δ’ ἄγκος ἀ\μφίκρημνον, ὕ\δασι διάβροχον,

x  -    u -\  -   -  u  - \  x    -   u   x
καθῆντ’ ἔχου\σαι χεῖρας ἐν \τερπνοῖς πόνοις.

and "τά" has short vowel? or I can't know? thanks! --84.108.213.48 (talk) 20:56, 26 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In ancient Greek in standard Ionic orthography, ε not part of ει is always short, while the vowel of τα is short in the neuter nominative/accusative plural, but long in the (rather rare) feminine nominative/accusative dual. AnonMoos (talk) 07:41, 27 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
The "ε" in "τερπνοῖς" is short as a vowel, but its syllable is long by position because of the consonant cluster following it. As for the "α" in "καθῆντ(ο)", if that's what you were asking about, it's also short, the word being an inflectional form of wikt:κάθημαι. Your scanning of the metre seems correct to me. Fut.Perf. ☼ 10:03, 28 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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