Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2023 March 24

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March 24

Puffin' Billy

Hello children everywhere! We all know the tune "Puffin' Billy" by Edward White was inspired by, and named after, a locomotive on the Isle of Wight. We also know that the loco wasn't the one in the Science Museum. So my question is - what loco was it? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 11:31, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

I'm skeptical about the citation in the Edward White article. See this: https://iwsteamrailway.co.uk/2022/10/whats-in-a-name/ There was never a loco officially named Puffin' Billy on Isle of Wight. 41.23.55.195 (talk) 12:46, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

The tune is also not mentioned in the article. 41.23.55.195 (talk) 13:21, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

Melbourne? Puffing Billy Railway? fiveby(zero) 16:04, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

That might be wikigenisis Captain_Kangaroo#Theme song. Could it be in the sense of 'arness a puffin' Billy and not a specific locomotive? A puffin' billy is a bloomin' steamboat, That's what it is. fiveby(zero) 16:39, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

It did strike me, between posting my question and now, that it could just be that White saw a puffing billy, or even that he was told, by some suitable rustic, "Arr zur, we do call 'ur the 'Puffin' Billy' we do" and it wasn't an official name at all. The 1996 album British Light Music Classics has the story of him being on holiday on the IoW, seeing some ancient steam trains, and one bearing the name "Puffin' Billy", so unless the author of the sleeve notes is a time traveller it cannot be wikigenesis. DuncanHill (talk) 00:19, 25 March 2023 (UTC)

Another comprehensive (I cannot swear to "exhaustive") list of locomotives used on the Isle of Wight, here, also includes no officially named "Puffin(g) Billy". From the likely date, I suspect that White most likely saw an LSWR O2 class loco (designed in 1892 and common on the Island after WW2) and merely used what he knew to be a general nickname for old steam locos. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 5.64.160.67 (talk) 10:32, 25 March 2023 (UTC)

Not helping much, but I this book as a small child c. 1960 (I'm not sure that the gollywog engine driver would be allowed nowadays). It seems to have been a near universal nickname for any steam engine. Alansplodge (talk) 10:36, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Shape of the 8 in a deck of playing cards

An 8 in cards has 3 rows of pips; the left and right rows each have 3 pips and the middle row has 2 pips. However, in some computer cards, only the 8 of diamonds looks like this; the other 8's have the arrangement of a 2x4 rectangle. Go to https://www.cs.umd.edu/class/spring2017/cmsc131/Spring17Proj5/playingCard.html and you'll see this. Is there any reason?? Georgia guy (talk) 14:44, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

I don't know if this is the reason, but when the eight of diamonds is arranged in that 3·2·3 pattern the central negative space forms the numeral 8. It's especially noticeable when the diamonds have concave edges. Shells-shells (talk) 15:58, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

Is there a reason this is thought to be specific to "computer" cards? One finds eights of diamonds also in a 2×4 pattern.^[1]  --Lambiam 22:50, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

I just checked three decks of standard playing cards from different manufacturers, plus a deck of Wizard cards. In every case all four 8's are 3-2-3. This pattern spaces the pips out nicely, but for the three suits whose pips are asymmetrical (i.e. all but diamonds), the pattern is asymmetrical because both pips in the middle row point the same way. If some decks use 2-2-2-2 4-4 for those suits, no doubt the reason is a desire for symmetry. --174.89.12.187 (talk) 11:12, 25 March 2023 (UTC)

Do you suspect that the reason would be something that a reliable source would exist for us to direct you to?--Jayron32 18:17, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

By the way This search will confirm that the pattern of 3-2-3 is most common, but other patterns do exist, 4-4 is not unheard of. --Jayron32 18:23, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

All of my American playing cards are in 3-2-3 format. My European (French and Spanish) cards are in 4-4 format. It may be a cultural preference. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 16:49, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

District attorney

Can a district attorney charge people with federal offenses? I thought that federal charges were the US Attorney's job, and DA's dealt with state level stuff. Asking because of Alvin Bragg and Trump. I've read in a few places that the prospective charges against Trump are about federal election laws. So I'm confused. Thanks. 2601:648:8200:990:0:0:0:C255 (talk) 18:23, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

He's enforcing state laws. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:51, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

As our own article on elections in the United States explains "All elections—federal, state, and local—are administered by the individual states, with many aspects of the system's operations delegated to the county or local level."--User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 21:48, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

Which is also why it's a Fulton County prosecutor leading the case against Trump in the alleged election subversion in the state of Georgia. Xuxl (talk) 09:54, 25 March 2023 (UTC)

In contrast to the classified documents situation, which is subject to federal law, hence the DOJ is pursuing it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:31, 25 March 2023 (UTC)

It is not only the classified status of some of the documents that is at issue, but the large-scale (alleged) theft of federal government property and the (alleged) making of false statements to federal agents, or the (alleged) inciting thereof.  --Lambiam 09:59, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

AFAIK, the Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal, the source of the case in question, is about Trump using campaign money to pay Daniels; in this case it could be prosecuted as a matter of fraud at the state level, without specific reference to any federal election laws broken. Money donated to Trump's campaign is not fungible with his own personal finances, and to use campaign money to pay a personal expense is akin to using corporate money to do the same. Every state has analogous laws on the books similar to U.S. federal campaign finance laws, which regulate what campaign funds can (and cannot) be used to do. This discusses some possible charges, such as"falsification of business records", which by itself is a misdemeanor, unless that falsification was done in furtherance of other crimes, at which point it could be a felony; in this case specifically the likely additional crime would be a violation of New York state campaign finance laws.--Jayron32 18:40, 27 March 2023 (UTC)