Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2019 March 27

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 27

Spoiled ballot

Is an election-day ballot for Chicago elections counted if it is spoiled due to a voter writing or drawing on it? 147.126.10.152 (talk) 04:48, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

It looks like the answer is "yes" under Illinois law. I don't know if there are some city or council regulations that might override that for a city-only election. --47.146.63.87 (talk) 06:05, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

A common trick to rob a voter of his vote when he did not vote the way the political machine wanted was for an election judge to have a bandage on his thumb. A piece of pencil lead was protruding from the bandage so he could easily and secretly add a stray mark and spoil a ballot marked the "wrong" way. Edison (talk) 16:20, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

Thank you for the source. Can you point to the section that you are referring to? 147.126.10.156 (talk) 18:55, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

Section 24B-10.1. If your Web browser has a search feature, searching that page for "spoil" will take you to that section as the third result. --47.146.63.87 (talk) 00:31, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Relief

Good faith replies have answered the question MarnetteD|Talk 10:17, 27 March 2019 (UTC)
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
If a Kingdom has a King and an Empire has an Emperor, what does a Country have? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.131.40.58 (talk) 09:00, 27 March 2019 (UTC) Various. There are some hints at: Category:Countries by form of government --Askedonty (talk) 09:14, 27 March 2019 (UTC) A country is just a distinct area of land, usually (but not neccessarily) a region that is identified as a distinct entity in political geography. It doesn't imply any specific type of rule, and I'm not aware of any generic term for "ruler of a country". Except maybe just "ruler", but I don't think that's really appropriate for democratic or republican regimes. Iapetus (talk) 09:35, 27 March 2019 (UTC) Come on boys and girls, its a joke, lets not be spoilsports. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.131.40.58 (talk) 10:03, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

US Supreme Court case where Congress decided a court case

I remember reading an article on Wikipedia about US Supreme Court case, and no matter what I search for on Google, DuckDuckGo, or Wikipedia, I can't find it again. Congress passed a law that referred to an ongoing court case by case #/docket # and stated who won the court case. This was an example of the legislative branch bypassing the judicial branch, and it went to the US Supreme Court. Unbelievably, SCOTUS ruled that the law was constitutional and let it stand. The issue in the original court case was due to the US seizing/freezing assets of a foreign government. Can you help me find the article for the Supreme Court case? Thanks! —danhash (talk) 15:32, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

Bank Markazi v. Peterson? 70.67.193.176 (talk) 16:14, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

It's not at all unbelievable. Supreme Court cases arise when existing legislation is either unclear or is potentially unconstitutional. It's the high court's job to address those matters. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:04, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

@70.67.193.176: That's it! Thanks so much! @Baseball Bugs: Didn't mean to debate the matter :) —danhash (talk) 18:07, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

Awesome! Glad we could help. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 15:15, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

You're Welcome, Willie Stewart

Anyone know who/what this song is about?[1] Anything to do with the Stuart dynasty? Thanks. 67.164.113.165 (talk) 22:05, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

Apparently not; from [2]:

Robert Burns became friendly with William Stewart during his time at Ellisland Farm. Stewart was the resident grieve of Closeburn in Dumfriesshire, the property of the Rev. James Stuart Menteith, Rector of Barrowly in Linconshire, England. Willie Stewart's sister was the wife of R Bacon, the owner of the Brownhill Inn, Thornhill, situated a few miles south of Ellisland. A howff regularly visited by Burns when returning from his fatiguing Excise rounds. The verses were scrathed by the poet on a crystal tumbler. The glass was acquired by Sir Walter Scott and preserved at Abbotsford. The song was first published by Lockhart in 1829.

—107.15.157.44 (talk) 23:13, 27 March 2019 (UTC) –ps: what's a "resident grieve"?

Thanks! "Grieve" might be a Scots re-spelling of grave, in its usage as an English re-spelling of Graf (equivalent to an earl or count). 67.164.113.165 (talk) 23:25, 27 March 2019 (UTC) Added: see also margrave, which later morphed to marquess. 67.164.113.165 (talk) 23:28, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

Since it refers to a person, my guess would be a gravedigger (?). —107.15.157.44 (talk) 23:35, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

In the OED, the first given meaning of the word (as spelled) is "The governer of a town, province, etc.", but this comes from Old English (various other spellings including greff, greve, greeve and greave). The second given meaning, specific to Scotland and the North of England and sometimes instead spelled greave or greve, comes from the Old Northumbrian gráfa and means "The overseer, manager or head-workman on a farm; a farm-bailiff." some spellings of each word have at times been influenced by those the other, and doubtless they both (along with continental cognates) stem from a common Proto-Germanic root. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.200.138.194 (talk) 01:24, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

That all being said, the Stuart dynasty used to be the "Stewart" dynasty, with the respelling coming some time later; when the Stewart of Darnley cadet branch changed the spelling to Stuart, and then remarried into the senior branch and the name was changed for them too. The Stewart family is old and prolific, and it would not have been outside of the realm of possibility that the William Stewart that Rabbie Burns knew was a distant cousin of the monarchical family, the name as a family name for the Lord High Steward of Scotland dates to at least the 13th century. By the time of Mr. Burns, it would have been in use for 550 years; in that much time the early Stewarts could have had thousands of living descendants, and many of them may have kept the Stewart name directly. The article Clan Stewart gives some sense of the size of the family; I know that strictly speaking not all clan members are lineal descendants of the clan founder, but many still are. It would not be outside the realm of possibility that the William Stewart in question was a relative of the Royal Stewarts. --Jayron32 23:38, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

What does Burns' "fatiguing Excise rounds" refer to? —107.15.157.44 (talk) 23:48, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

As his article says (in the sub-section titled Ellisland Farm) "He also trained as a gauger or exciseman in case farming continued to be unsuccessful. He was appointed to duties in Customs and Excise in 1789 and eventually gave up the farm in 1791." These duties would have required him to tour around an area, probably on horseback, to collect taxes. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.200.138.194 (talk) 01:01, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

 Comment: Another example of interesting refdesk tangents —2606:A000:1126:28D:8459:15B0:EDB2:9940 (talk) 03:02, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Jayron32, yeah I heard the song without knowing it was by Burns, didn't understand the lyrics very well, and wondered if it was a Jacobite song of some sort. I still don't understand the lyrics much even after finding and reading them, but it doesn't seem political even if William had a tenuous connection to the more famous Stuarts. Thanks. 67.164.113.165 (talk) 06:25, 28 March 2019 (UTC)