Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2013 July 27

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July 27

Steve McQueen gag

Watching The Thomas Crown Affair stirred up a dusty memory of Steve McQueen in a walk-on as himself, showing up in a racecar, in some farce such as Mel Brooks's Silent Movie; but his credits here and at IMDb include nothing that I've seen later than Crown (1968). Any idea what I'm misremembering? —Tamfang (talk) 07:00, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

It sounds like the kind of thing that would have happened in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, but he's not listed in that one. --Jayron32 13:20, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

At the time of Mad World, did he already have a reputation as a racing nut? —Tamfang (talk) 21:42, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

Are you sure it wasn't a TV show ? StuRat (talk) 21:11, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

No; but I don't see any TV credits after Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958–61). —Tamfang (talk) 21:42, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

I see that Burt Reynolds was in Silent Movie. Maybe it was him. —Tamfang (talk) 23:24, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

Paul Newman was also in Silent Movie, where he leads Funn, et al, in a wheelchair case around hospital grounds, presumably following a racing accident. Could you be remembering him instead of McQueen? --some jerk on the Internet (talk) 13:09, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

That's quite possible. Belated thanks. —Tamfang (talk) 03:32, 13 December 2013 (UTC)

How I can watch a film called Bwana Devil

How can I watch Bwana Devil? It's not on video and is never shown on TV. Fanddlovernamedjason (talk) 08:57, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

See Bwana Devil for our article on the film, incidentally. This is the film that the audience in J. R. Eyerman's famous photo were watching. Tevildo (talk) 09:02, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

As per our WP:copyright policy and the terms of use you agree to every time you edit any page, please do not like to external links violating copyright. The copyright for the film was evidently renewed [1] so it is unlikely the film is the public domain. And any copy of the film made available without necessary permission of the copyright holder would very likely be a copyright violation, at least in the US which is what matters (at a minimum) for wikimedia projects. Nil Einne (talk) 17:57, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

Simpsons character, C. Montgomery Burns, Is he left-handed?

Is Mr. Burns left-handed? Waylon Smithers and Mr. Burns visit the leftorioum to purchase a can opener. Would this be considered worthy of adding to Mr. Burns Wiki page?76.28.29.174 (talk) 21:00, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

Seems like WP:TRIVIA to me. Dismas|^(talk) 21:08, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

Agreed. It can go here. Anyway, such questions are more appropriately raised on Talk:Mr. Burns. —Tamfang (talk) 21:46, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

I think all the Leftorium customers should be noted as left-handed, not just Mr. Burns. A bit trivial, but verifiable and only takes a four-word sentence (three, if "left-handed" is one). InedibleHulk (talk) 22:16, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

"Left-handed" is certainly one word. That's what the hyphen does, it joins two things into one. Same with abbreviations like "we've", "it's", "hasn't" and so on. All single words. When people write things like "I'm left handed", they're inviting us to parse their utterance in the same way as "I'm left stranded" or "I'm left holding the ball" or "I'm left out of the loop". Context helps greatly, of course; but depending solely on context to provide the sense of a sentence is the lazy writer's way. Also, leaving the hyphen out of such words has the paradoxical effect of increasing the word count, anathema to those who argue for conciseness. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 00:33, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

Hyphenated compound words are quite different from contractions that use apostrophes. In any case, whether hyphenated expressions like "up-to-the-minute" or "Mr 'so-rich-he-can-afford-an-entire-nuclear-power-plant' Burns" are counted as single words is, itself, trivial. —sroc 💬 07:20, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

The Simpsons is a cartoon, and two dimensional, thus actually lacking a distinction between left and right. μηδείς (talk) 14:40, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

Err, no, two dimensions (not three) are the minimum for chirality. Consider the letters b and d. Tevildo (talk) 17:01, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

But as it's two dimensional, we as three-dimensional beings can in principle look at it from the other side, whence Mr Burns would appear right-handed. C.f. H G Wells' 'The Plattner Story'. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.213.246.168 (talk) 20:20, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

The Plattner Story is here. DreadRed (talk) 12:55, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Trivial, sroc? In what context? InedibleHulk was unsure, so I put his mind at rest. Where there is doubt, let us bring certainty (to misquote Maggie Thatcher misquoting Francis of Assisi). That's what we do here. Also, I'm not sure why you told us that compound words are different from contractions. Nobody ever said they were the same thing. I mentioned them in the same breath simply because if anyone is unsure whether "left-handed" is a single word, they might also be unsure about things like "shouldn't've". -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 18:47, 28 July 2013 (UTC)