Template:Did you know nominations/The dog ate my homework

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Allen3 talk 12:02, 31 October 2012 (UTC)

The dog ate my homework

edit

Bad dog! Bad dog!

  • ... that the earliest known variant of "The dog ate my homework" (purported proof, pictured) as an excuse dates to 1905?

Created/expanded by Herostratus (talk), Daniel Case (talk). Nominated by Daniel Case (talk) at 21:28, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

  • New: Good. Length: Definitely. Policy: No obvious close paraphrasing. But there is a need for a bit of copy-editing, as some reference coding shows up in the article body. Hook is good. QPQ satisfied. Just polish it up. What a fun article! Abyssal (talk) 14:55, 19 October 2012 (UTC)
 Done Found one instance of the superfluous tag and removed it. Hope that was all. Daniel Case (talk) 22:35, 20 October 2012 (UTC)
  • I have some factuality concerns. Does this really qualify as an idiom given that it was originally a literal excuse used by school children and not a figurative expression? It seems more like a meme (in the original sense of the word). Abyssal (talk) 11:58, 22 October 2012 (UTC)
  • I wasn't the one who originally categorized it. Yes, I'd say you could consider it a meme, and almost a catchphrase, too. Think I should rewrite the lede a bit and add the appropriate cats? Daniel Case (talk) 14:46, 25 October 2012 (UTC)
  • Yeah, I like this article and all, but I have to be a bit finicky given that it'll end up on the main page. Abyssal (talk) 21:36, 25 October 2012 (UTC)
 Done I tweaked the lede and added Category:Memes. Daniel Case (talk) 13:20, 26 October 2012 (UTC)
  • I tweaked the opening sentence, it's probably more accurate to call it an expression than a meme, although that label is probably accurate enough that it can still be categorized as a meme. Do you agree with my changes? Abyssal (talk) 14:31, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
I actually was just thinking that myself. I have no objections; it's better now. Daniel Case (talk) 14:35, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
There's an issue with the hook. The article doesn't cite a source for the idea that the 1905 issue of Cambrian magazine, just the magazine itself, which would be a WP:OR violation. Abyssal (talk) 15:12, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
I assume you're missing a word there. I will put a cite to the Slate article in; that was where the "earliest known" comes from. Daniel Case (talk) 16:52, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
 Done Do you have any more issues? Daniel Case (talk) 16:55, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
  • Finally! Articles like this are the reason Wikipedia is the greatest information source to ever exist. Abyssal (talk) 17:45, 30 October 2012 (UTC)