Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2015 May 25

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May 25

Was Anne Meara considerd influential in her field?

I am curious whether Anne Meara was considered an influential comediene or actress according to her obits or not? It appears that she wasn' at WP:ITN, although there was no question of the importance of Jack Klugman and Mike Nichols. μηδείς (talk) 02:26, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

"We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate." This should be hatted, per norms here. The Rambling Man (talk) 20:29, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Personally I would answer "yes," but disagreements from the "In the News" page should not be imported to the Reference Desk. Newyorkbrad (talk) 20:36, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Aside: This too doesn't belong here, but while we are at it, can someone figure out the number of Emmy nominations she received? Abecedare (talk) 20:52, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

What I was hoping for was refs to obits, but the question is moot, and the article doesn't need improving. Other than Michaels and May (who weren't married) I remember Stiller and Meara as being top of the couple-comedy-duo field prior to Seinfeld. So we can hat this if no one objects, and it's considered debatemongering. μηδείς (talk) 21:02, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Googling "anne meara influence" brings up plenty of material about her career, but whether anyone credited her with a direct influence is a bit unclear. Obviously, without Anne Meara there is no Stiller and Meara, and no Ben Stiller. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:41, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

I remember thinking, the first time I saw him on Seinfeld, "Oh, look, it's Anne Meara's husband." μηδείς (talk) 06:06, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

This is a perfectly reasonable and answerable question to ask, even if ITN didn't exist. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:21, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

If Verne Gagne can't get a RD notice for revolutionizing pro wrestling from the clear top of his field, it's not surprising half of a comedy husband and wife duo who was one of the most successful in hers (but no Gracie Allen) can't. No offense to comedy husband and wife duos, wrestling's just objectively been bigger, for longer, in more places. But they're equally as lowbrow, no matter how high they get, I'm afraid.

Even the respectably bespectacled David Letterman, who basically shaped the way we view the most famous people in the universe, couldn't catch an ITN break with his last show ever, for being too US-centric. But Marques Haynes, now there was a real globetrotter, I guess? InedibleHulk (talk) 02:43, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

I just noticed Medeis supported the Haynes RD. The above bit wasn't a jab (at Medeis, anyway), only a coincidence. The Letterman thig may have been a bit "personal". InedibleHulk (talk) 02:49, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

Egtved Girl's cause of death

Couldn't find the cause of death of Egtved Girl, only that it was some kind of "ritual death" (murder?). The paper also doesn't seem to clarify that. Could someone drop a source? Brandmeister^talk 11:01, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

The cause of death is unknown. Ritual death would be speculation. The first author of your paper is Karin Margarita Frei who here is quoted for "Hvad hun og barnet døde af vil vi nok aldrig finde ud af. Måske har de begge pådraget sig en smitsom sygdom eller måske døde Egtvedpigen i barselssengen under en mislykket fødsel. Men det er ren spekulation". My translation (I'm Danish): "What she and the child died of, we will probably never find out. Maybe they both contracted an infectious disease or maybe the Egtved girl died in childbirth during a failed delivery. But this is pure speculation". PrimeHunter (talk) 12:13, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Safe to assume the most immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest, like everyone whose heart wasn't utterly destroyed first. Not a very satisfying answer, I know, but that's history, sometimes. InedibleHulk (talk) 23:07, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Most would say the heart stopping is a sign or definition of death and usually not the cause of death. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:59, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

I'm definitely one of them. Not a distinctive cause. It's been one of my peeves at the "Deaths in 20xx" articles for a while. That's how I know at least quite a few people feel differently.

There is a short interlude between a heart stopping and mass programmed cell death, so restarting a heart isn't exactly raising the dead. Death certificates often have it at the top of the cause chain, but many explicitly warn against the signee writing only that, because it's pretty much meaningless. But still true, in a boring way. InedibleHulk (talk) 07:11, 26 May 2015 (UTC)

Masons Manual of Legislative Procedure

Anyone know if the current edition is available online or as an ebook? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.92.186.232 (talk) 18:30, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Seeing how the copyright holders are only selling it in hardback, probably not. Well, not legally at any rate, but we can't/won't provide any information as to illegal options, though I will at least note that this is probably not something that would be pirated. Ian.thomson (talk) 18:45, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

I'm afraid that's not the case, Ian. I don't know about this book in particular, but there is an enormous amount of pirated scientific, technical, and other specialist literature available. I was never in the scene much, but it seemed that the more abstruse or detailed the material, the more likely it was to be available. Most books exist as soft copies somewhere and that's what gets copied and pirated; few pirated books get scanned in the way, say, pirated comics are. With such a low threshold of effort, almost everything gets released somewhere. Matt Deres (talk) 20:12, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

I don't see any sign that this book is available other than in hard copy. Newyorkbrad (talk) 20:34, 25 May 2015 (UTC)