Talk:7 O'Clock News/Silent Night

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I was incredibly surprised that there was no article on this song. Please don't delete it without discussing here first.

Actually
Special:Diff/776198206 I have restored the use of "actually" to correct misstatements in the lyrics. This Special:Diff/765855032 was changed on the basis that WP:NOTE. That says
 * Avoid such phrases as remember that and note that, which address readers directly in an unencyclopedic tone. They are a subtle form of Wikipedia self-reference. Similarly, phrases such as of course, naturally, obviously, clearly, and actually make presumptions about readers' knowledge, and call into question the reason for including the information in the first place.

Now compare with
 * The death of comedian Lenny Bruce from an overdose of narcotics at the age of 42 [actually 40].
 * The death of comedian Lenny Bruce from an overdose of narcotics at the age of 42. (He was 40 years old).

I submit the contradiction between 40 and 42 is more confusing in the second case than in the first. The use of square brackets makes clear the difference between text and commentary. We are not making second-guessing the reader's previous knowledge, we are commenting on Paul Simon's lyrics. It is not a self-reference to Wikipedia, it is a reference to the preceding statement. jnestorius(talk) 15:33, 19 April 2017 (UTC)