Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2013 October 6

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October 6

Reagan (or anyone else) on Mount Rushmore

This might be a stupid question I can find the answer to myself . . . but: There is a strong drive that has been going on for years to put Ronald Reagan's face on Mount Rushmore. I'm not at all opposed to this, but my question is, is Mount Rushmore intended to be an artwork with room for future expansion? What was the original artist's intent concerning that, if any? Was Mount Rushmore intended to be some kind of pantheon to any Presidents who achieve greatness in the future? I always thought it was just to honor the four men that were originally depicted. Thanks. Herzlicheboy (talk) 04:34, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

I'd be more interested in whether people can just leave nature alone. Mountains look better without faces carved into them. HiLo48 (talk) 05:13, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

As I understand it, it was only ever planned to put the four faces there. The sculpture was left unfinished because the government stopped funding after 14 years. They were intending to draw them all with suits halfway down, and also with some kind of text to the right. At this point I doubt they would do anything more with it, for fear new dynamiting might damage the other sculptures. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:37, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Also, any change would fatally date North by Northwest. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 10:48, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

My favorite part of that movie is in the café at Mt. Rushmore where a kid in the background plugs his ears before the gunshots are fired. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:51, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

• Why are so people so fond of thinking that this is an error? Kids play with toy guns. They watch TV shows and movies with guns. They know that guns make noise. He sees the gun, of course he plugs his ears before it's fired. It's a joke, not an error. (There is an error, though: from the direction the kid is looking, it doesn't seem likely that he's actually see the gun.) --65.94.48.181 (talk) 09:12, 10 October 2013 (UTC)

There's a handful of continuity errors in most of Hitchcock' films, not that they're unique to him. Rear Window's seminal moment is based on a camera flash defeating someone with a gun an able bodied man who only needs to close about 10 feet... always annoyed me that such a great movie is concluded on such a dumb final turn. Shadowjams (talk) 20:16, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Oh man, you wanna talk about Hitchcock screwing up the ending? What about Vertigo? The greatest movie of all time (don't talk to me about Citizen Kane; not even in the same league), and he phones in the ending, makes no sense at all. Not that I could write a better one (I have thought about it), but I'm not Hitchcock. --Trovatore (talk) 20:20, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

I agree completely. I updated my previous post too, I guess the villain didn't have a gun in Rear Window... but 4 awkwardly changed flash bulbs kept him at bay for a good 10 feet... Shadowjams (talk) 20:25, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Not sure I'd place Vertigo quite that high, Trovatore, but I renewed my acquaintance with the music score last week. I heard the whole thing, and there was not a single wrong note anywhere. Bernard Herrmann was a genius, and will one day be commonly acknowledged as such. (He did Citizen Kane too, for good measure.) -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 07:17, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

Is it possible to watch the AfterMASH episode "Wet Feet"?

The internet says it never aired. But does that mean we really have no way of seeing it? --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 10:49, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Has the series ever been released on DVD? If not, the chances are pretty slim. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:52, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Colour catchers

Do colour catchers really allow fast coloured items, non fast coloured items and whites to be washed all at the same time? 194.66.246.2 (talk) 12:59, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

For context, the relevant article is Colour Catcher, which unfortunately says neither how these things work, nor evidences that they do work. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 14:33, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Which?, the UK consumer magazine, didn't think much of the product.[1] Thincat (talk) 21:14, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

A restaurant name

I'm looking for a name for a fictional high-end restaurant in the Southern US, quintessential Southern food, not specific to any region of the South. All I can think of is {Insert city} Country Grille/Bistro. I don't really like it. I'm not creative at names, perhaps someone is.--ɱ (talk) 16:42, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Fried Green Tomatoes, The Hushpuppy. Assuming you have access to google, go to yelp dot com and put in the city, price range, and type of restaurant, and it will give you ten real ones matching your request. Imagine from there. μηδείς (talk) 17:06, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Yelp gives me some good ideas, thanks. I am open to more ideas from anyone and everyone.--ɱ (talk) 17:16, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Is there some reason you are "biting" Miss Bono with this? μηδείς (talk) 19:28, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

To be honest, I've been trying to think of this on my own for a couple of weeks now, and just looking through the reference desk seeing if I could answer any questions, I did spot that question and decided that perhaps editors could give as useful advice for my situation.--ɱ (talk) 19:34, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Doesn't seem like biting to me. Plus, WP:AGF and all that. RudolfRed (talk) 19:52, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

So, are you writing a book as well? μηδείς (talk) 19:58, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

How long until some good-faith editor who thinks he/she knows more than all the other editors here about Ref Desk policies races in to shut down and hide the thread on the grounds that requests for opinions are not permitted, as happened on a similar thread a bit ago? Edison (talk) 23:39, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

"Bubba's" would cover just about any establishment. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:02, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

What does biting means here? Miss Bono ^{[hello, hello!]} 17:36, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

Copying your style. μηδείς (talk) 17:39, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

hehe, I have a style? Miss Bono ^{[hello, hello!]} 17:54, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

Endorheic lake

Is Mansarovar lake an endorheic i.e. it drains to nowhere? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.199.220.186 (talk) 18:14, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

According to Manasarovar Lake, no. The lake drains to lake Rakshastal. RudolfRed (talk) 18:21, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Yes, what is strange is the Manasarovar Lake article says Lake Rakshastal is endorheic while the latter article says "the Sutlej River originates at Rakshastal's northwestern tip". And Sutlej (a tributary of the Indus) clearly says its source is Lake Rakshastal. To add to the complications Manasarovar "can be connected to the Ganga River basin through a fifteen km long tunnel". Thincat (talk) 20:54, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

Our article says that Lake Rakshastal has extremely salty water, so if it has any drainage, it can't have much. Manasarovar, in contrast, is fresh. Looie496 (talk) 17:30, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

About the old "Deletionpedia"

Remember that wiki back in the day that archived articles deleted from Wikipedia? I was wondering if they had any "quality control," as in did they archive everything that was deleted, including incoherent and total nonsense articles? Or did they just archive the deleted articles that were at least coherent but not notable, or were hoaxes or joke pages, etc? On a related note, what happens to articles now that would have been sent to BJAODN back in the day? Herzlicheboy (talk) 23:37, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

See [2] for a description of what Deletionpedia archivied and what they tried to avoid. I don't know what BJAODN is. RudolfRed (talk) 00:03, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:08, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

That appears to be still active. See Wikipedia:Still_more_Best_of_BJAODN, which is still being added to. RudolfRed (talk) 01:53, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

Cold War Classic is pretty good. I found myself wishing it was true Effovex (talk) 03:47, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

There are tons of old discussions regarding BJAODN which you should probably be able to find in the archives. BJAODN itself was shut down in 2007. As for adding to the old pages, they're not supposed to be added to... though I guess the best of pages aren't marked "historical" so you can't blame people. Really too bad - I've been wishing BJAODN would be restored ever since I discovered it around this time last year. However, there is a wiki where BJAODN "lives on", called bjaodn.org, where you can find all the original BJAODN pages that were removed off of Wikipedia in 2007 (what remains here is just a sparse "best of" collection) plus some other pages too. On that site they are currently at 67 pages... not totally sure how many of them were actually on the original Wikipedia, though. I've thought to ask that before, at the help desk. I would wager 65 or 66 of them because that site (bjaodn.org) has all it's pages semiprotected and there are basically no edits made to it anymore... oh well at least the old archives live on! ;) --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 02:57, 8 October 2013 (UTC)