Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2020 May 9
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May 9 edit
Does it refer to anal intercourse, either voluntary or forcible? Or does it refer to flatulence, as Brett Kavanaugh said, or something else?Rich (talk) 05:32, 9 May 2020 (UTC)
- This was a much-debated question in the media during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination. Given that plus the inherently hyper-regional and even idiolectical nature of slang, I hope you're not expecting any sort of definitive answer here. The best I can do is point you to Wiktionary's entry on "boof", which has some citations for the "anal intercourse" meaning (although none are earlier than 2000), but nothing specifically about flatulence (although "poof" does mention that usage). -Elmer Clark (talk) 19:44, 9 May 2020 (UTC)
- My memory is that I knew the word in the eighties, and that I understood it to be a contraction of "butt fuck". I don't have a source to point anyone to.
- To be clear, I take no position on the veracity of Kavanaugh's testimony. His social circle may have used the word in a different way, or he personally may simply have misunderstood what it meant. --Trovatore (talk) 20:22, 9 May 2020 (UTC)
- Or he may not have understood the difference. Vox has an extended discussion of the issue.[1] Wiktionary lists seven senses of the verb boof, none of which is “to fart”. The term occurs over there in connection to Brett Kavanaugh on the page Citations:Devil's Triangle. --Lambiam 06:57, 10 May 2020 (UTC)
- It reminds me of a passage in "Valley Girl (song)" (1982): "Like my English teacher, he's like mister bufu, we're talking lord god king bufu [...] Like he sits there and like plays with all his rings and he like flirts with all the guys in the class" —Tamfang (talk) 00:50, 11 May 2020 (UTC)
Where can I find the death tolls for the worst-affected cities and/or metropolitan areas worldwide in one place? 24.50.167.62 (talk) 08:22, 9 May 2020 (UTC)
- Worldwide stats per nation are here together with a long list of other breakdowns, but not by city. Here in the UK, the figures are only issued by Level 1 Regions (being Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland and 9 regions of England), shown here and I suspect that EU is the same, so there are no figures for individual cities. Also not that some countries report only confirmed deaths in hospital, while others include suspected deaths in care homes and the wider community, so comparing one nation's figures with another is not going to produce a definitive result. This article, What is the fairest way to compare COVID-19 deaths internationally? discusses the issue. Alansplodge (talk) 11:34, 9 May 2020 (UTC)
- This tool from the Washington Post can get you pretty close for the US. You can eyeball for the worst-affected areas and then zoom in to see the numbers by county (and if you're not sure what metro area you're looking at you can just look up the county name). Of course, counties don't line up perfectly with cities or even metro areas, so this won't be good enough if you need precise data. -Elmer Clark (talk) 00:33, 10 May 2020 (UTC)