Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 May 30

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May 30

LGBT novels

Can anyone recommend any novels with a LGBT theme set in college or university? 50.68.118.24 (talk) 04:48, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

Brideshead Revisited. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 16:56, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

Interesting that that one isn't listed @ Category:British LGBT novels. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:32, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

Arlington yellow flowers

File:Arlington flowers 2016.jpg

Yellow flowers in Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day 2016

Is there any significance to the yellow flowers at the base of certain headstones in Arlington National Cemetery?    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 18:12, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

Certain groups will go to military cemeteries to lay flowers on gravestones. They may have picked yellow due to the color's association with remembrance, e.g. Yellow ribbon#United States. Dismas|^(talk) 18:31, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

I found Korean War hero from South Jersey memorialized at Arlington National Cemetery which mentions "yellow flowers and yellow ribbons signifying coming home". Not much else though. (BTW: is "memorialized" a real word?) Alansplodge (talk) 19:41, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

According to the first axiom of English, Alansplodge, it's a real word if you understood it; which obviously you did. Dates are commemorated, so I am not sure what alternative you think there might be for people.

See also, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon". BTW, this song is on the first album I ever owned. μηδείς (talk) 05:42, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

On Monday, it being Memorial Day, Google showed a yellow ribbon overlaid on an American Flag. The article yellow ribbon has some info about ribbons, maybe none about flowers. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:51, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

Your first album was Lawrence Welk's Most Requested TV Favorites (Champagne Style)? A one and a two... ---Sluzzelin talk 12:58, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

No, @Sluzzelin:, it was Autmn of '73, a 20-song compilation album whose cover says "recorded by the Sound Effects, although the songs (Leroy Brown, Sweet Gypsy Rose, Saturday Night's Alright for Fightin) were all by the original artist. μηδείς (talk) 19:13, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

"Memorialize" has been a word since the late 18th century.[1] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:45, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

I stand corrected; it looked very odd to me. "Commemorated" would be the usual word in England, for example: "On his death, when proposals were made for the writer to be commemorated in Westminster Abbey..." [2] Alansplodge (talk) 17:42, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

Both "commemorative" and "memorial" come from the same root, which has to with remembering or bringing to memory. In America, "memorial" seems to be a subset of "commemorative", in that it's mostly about remembering the dead, whereas "commemorative" can be about most any memory. Such as a commemorative postage stamp marking the anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, or the Lindbergh flight, or whatever. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:43, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

Quite right, I should have Googled it before commenting. A search using the "ise" ending more commonly used here (but not universally) reveals a number of results, mostly in 19th century publications, so it seems to be a word that we've largely discarded. Alansplodge (talk) 18:02, 2 June 2016 (UTC)