Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2007 September 19

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September 19

Marching Band

Can anyone tell me how well this show was done? [1] --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 00:13, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Just opinion here: Sounded pretty good for a high school band, especially one that was not extremely large. The marching during the playing of the music looked fine. I thought the entry onto the field was too casual, and the band sort of wandered to the initial formation from the initial block band formation. There was a lot of delay for setting up the tower and for the director getting ready to direct.This is anticlimactic. I would encourage getting the tower set up and the director in position, with the band entering from the sidelines, via a quicker and more dramatic entry to the field, organized marching to the first formation, and then a more organized exit from the field than the casual slow marching off at an angle. Edison 03:26, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

egypt battles

Link Title —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.35.230.192 (talk) 01:35, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Excuse me? I'm sorry, I do not understand what it is that you want. Clio the Muse 03:15, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps you are looking for: Category:Battles involving ancient Egypt, Category:Battles involving Arab Egypt, or Category:Battles involving Egypt? :--hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 05:25, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Or Battle of Actium - Battle of Alexandria - Battle of Kadesh - Battle of Megiddo - Battle of Navarino - Battle of the Nile.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:30, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Or is this more metaphorical, about Egypt's struggles to develop and become a modern country, in which case Egypt is quite a good place to start. --Dweller 13:20, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Music schools and academics

Could you list a few music conservatories (in other words specifically arts collages) in the US which have agreements with other schools that allow students to take non-arts related subjects please? I know that students at Juilliard may take classes at Columbia University and that student at Eastman regularly study academics at University of Rochester. Are there any others? For instance does Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, or Mannes College of Music have similar arrangements set up with external academic institutions? Thank you. --S.dedalus 06:33, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Odd/amusing articles on Wikipedia

Ages ago while I was poking around on Wikipedia I found a page of weird articles all gathered together (longest place names, a leech-powered weather predictor, exploding whales, that sort of thing). I can't for the life of me find it again. Can anyone help please? I've got a very boring essay to write and I need a distraction. 86.142.111.71 13:17, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Was it Wikipedia:Unusual articles? Adam Bishop 13:18, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Ooh ooh ohh that's it. Guess that essay is just going to have to wait ... Thank-you Adam. 86.142.111.71 13:22, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Prolific birth year

i have always heard that there are more people born in the year 1957 than any other year before or after. is this true? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.171.224.83 (talk) 16:04, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

This article states that America hit a post-war birthrate peak in 1957 with 25.3 babies for every 1000 people, but it does not cite any sources for this claim. GreatManTheory 18:43, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Two things that would have put a dent in the birth rate around 1960 would have been the combined oral contraceptive pill and China's one-child policy. FiggyBee 18:50, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

And see Post-World War II baby boom. Xn4 23:46, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

• Still, I don't think that's enough evidence to say that the world has seen an absolute decrease in the number of babies born since 1957. By way of counterexamples, look at Demographics of India and Demographics of Africa, showing an exponential increase in childbirths in these two places, which together account for 30% of humanity. --M@rēino 18:23, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Fencing

Why is fencing called fencing? where does the word come from? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.215.49.227 (talk) 18:16, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology the word 'fence', as a sport with any of several types of sword, was first recorded in the 16th century and is a corruption of 'defence'. I assume this is the meaning to which you refer. The dictionary is less forthcoming on fencing, the slang term used to denote the disposal of stolen goods. Richard Avery 18:24, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

And the fence around a yard is the same word - it's a wall for defence. FiggyBee 18:37, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

(ec)see" "fence". Online Etymology Dictionary.

Caius. By gar, de herring is no dead so as I
vill kill him. Take your rapier, Jack; I vill tell you how I vill kill him.
Rugby. Alas, sir! I cannot fence.
Caius. Villainy, take your rapier.

The Merry Wives of Windsor II.iii.12-16.

—eric 18:38, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

I seem to have misplaced my rapier, but I do wonder why the Americans have changed their spelling of defence to "defense", but haven't changed their spelling of fence to "fense". -- JackofOz 00:05, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Isn't "defence" the noun and "defense" the verb? That's what I use, here in the northern colony. Bielle 01:04, 20 September 2007 (UTC) No more wine for me! Apologies, and thanks to an oh-so-polite Marco polo. Bielle 01:51, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

I am not familiar with "defense" as a verb. (Isn't it "defend"?) I think that the spelling "defence" was not so established in the 18th century when British and American English diverged. "Defense" may have been preferred by Noah Webster for etymological reasons, based on the Latin "defensus" (past participle of "defendere"). On the other hand, the spelling "fence" may have been more established, and the etymological connection to "defens/ce" might not have been recognized. 01:37, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Language desk.martianlostinspace ^{email me} 08:23, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Westward Ho!

If the book Westward Ho! published in 1855 was the cause of the name for the town Westward Ho!, when did the town get named? Did it exist before/what was there? -- SGBailey 23:12, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

The settlement now called Westward Ho! is near Bideford in Devon, which was Charles Kingsley's home town. After Kingsley's novel was published in 1855, people came to visit the area he described, which gained the convenient name of Westward Ho! It became more developed after the United Services College was established there in 1874 and kept the name of the book. Xn4 23:26, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

My recollection is that a developer named it Westward Ho! in the hope of selling land and houses there. He failed, and some of the houses were sold cheaply to the newly formed USC. Don't have refs to hand, but will try to dig them out. DuncanHill 23:30, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

There's an article about the development of Westward Ho! in Devon Life, volume 9 (1972) pp. 34-35. Xn4 23:34, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

This from Devon Libraries Local Studies page :

"WESTWARD HO [in the parish of Northam] is an entirely modern settlement. Following the publication of Kingsley's book in 1855, a 'company was formed to develop this site as a watering place. The Westward Ho Hotel was built, a church (Holy Trinity) followed in 1870, and by 1872 there were two or three rows of terraces, many scattered villas, and a single line of shops. A golf course was laid out on the Burrows which became known as one of the finest in England. The United Services College for the sons of officers was opened in 1874, and is the mise en scène of Kipling's Stalky& Co. Within the next thirty years much more building took place in a planless way, but worse came in the 20th century. To-day Westward Ho is a sad spectacle of what uncontrolled speculative building can do with a fine site. Many of the buildings are alien to Devon, and most of them could be anywhere else. The golf course remains superb. The Pebble Ridge is a remarkable natural phenomenon nearly 2 m. long, about 50 ft. wide, and 20 ft. high." Carrington's biography of Kipling adds that USC bought a row of twelve lodging houses, and converted them into a school by running a corridor along the length of the terrace.

DuncanHill 23:45, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

According to Adrian Room, A Concise Dictionary of Modern Place-Names in Great Britain and Ireland (Oxford 1983), the Northam Burrows (North Devon) Hotel and Villa Building Company was formed in 1863 and the Westward Ho! Hotel opened two years later. "The name had been proposed by a friend of Kingsley, Dr W. H. Acland of Bideford, although it appears that the author had not been consulted and that the friendship between the two men was endangered for a time." —Tamfang 04:45, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

That's a fair description, but it actually isn't quite so terrible as the above might lead you to believe! I'm thinking of another part of England where since I was a child an equally beautiful coastline has been buried under field after field of permanent caravan and 'mobile-home' parks, a lot of which have to suffer the winter weather without any coats of paint when the spring comes... but there you are, we're warned "Never go back!" Xn4 23:56, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

"... No-one is waiting and nothing is there." -- !! ?? 09:04, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Anyone going to revise the Wikipedia article Westward Ho!?--Wetman 04:56, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

As a very small coda, The book's title comes from an exchange in Twelfth Night between Olivia and Viola, thus:

Olivia: There lies your path, due west.

Viola: Then westward ho!

SaundersW 08:20, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

This Q and A set has left me greatly perplexed, visualizing a British Horace Greeley telling Brits "Go West, young man.". resulting in great wagon trains heading toward Western Britain, where the pioneers encounter British Indians, and a British Gold Rush, as part of British Manifest Destiny. Say it aint so, Clio! Edison 07:35, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

I jump in here not, I have to stress, to tie myself in the glory of Dweller's thread, but in response to Edison's challenge! Let me see; are there any parallels between the English and the American experience? Well, the west could be pretty wild, especially if one had the misfortune to run into the Doones! As SaundersW points out, the term predates Kingsley. It was, in fact, used by Thames boatmen, who called out 'Westward ho!' or 'Eastward ho!', to indicate the direction they were travelling in. Clio the Muse 23:50, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Dweller's thread of the week. It's an 'out of the box' idea.

Congratulations to all contributing here. This 'chicken-or-egg' debate wins the fifth User:Dweller/Dweller's Ref Desk thread of the week award. Good job. --Dweller 10:22, 21 September 2007 (UTC)