User:Cranky old dude

I'm a former newspaper copy editor (for 28 years), now retired. As a WP:Newbie, I thought I'd finally get around to start building a halfway decent User page.

I'm a former newspaper copy editor (for 28 years), now retired. As a WP:Newbie, I thought I'd finally get around to start building a halfway decent User page.

I don't really edit Wikipedia all that much, and when I do it's almost always mostly minor technical stuff that most people would never notice or care about: fixing typos, spelling, grammar, and punctuation; correcting stuff like comma splices and run-on sentences; and splitting non-words that are run together into two words (e.g. lawn mower, not "lawnmower" and copy editor, not "copyeditor"). Wikipedia is rife with all imaginable instances of these sorts of problems, and I could easily spend the rest of my life just fixing annoying little stuff. Apparently there's even a name for this sort of editor: I'm a WikiGnome. (And so I've finally gotten around to inserting a userbox to declare this. W00t! My first userbox!) I don't bother fixing even 1 percent of all the things I see wrong in the articles I read.

I also do minor rewrites to improve flow and tighten awkward or wordy passages. I occasionally add new material, links, and citations. I don't see myself as one who makes wholesale substantive changes, let alone creating articles, etc. At least not until I learn a whole bunch more.

As with anyone, I'm interested in a wide variety of things, ranging from science to history to all manner of popular culture, including current events. I get a big kick out of any and all weirdness, including weird news stories. Among many other things, I'm a big fan of the Beatles, Rush, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Queen, Kate Bush, and countless other rock/pop acts. I also love Star Trek, Jeopardy!, baseball, NFL football, college football, surfing the net, reading, and writing. I've done a fair amount of traveling, having visited all 50 U.S. states, of which I've lived in six. I'm a native of New Mexico, where I spent the first 25 years of my life, and I've lived in Ohio for the last 33 years. I've been to only seven other countries and wish I could afford to see more.

I spend an enormous amount of time just reading Wikipedia. I'm constantly amazed at its vast breadth and scope, and I'm quite overwhelmed by its culture and internal workings. I'm a huge fan of Depths of Wikipedia, which I actively follow on social media. This brilliant brainchild of the incomparable Annie Rauwerda has introduced me to countless fascinating articles and has brought me lots of big laughs. I highly recommend it to anyone, especially Wikipedia editors and users.

I'm impressed by many things about Wikipedia, foremost of which is the fact that it has a very low tolerance for misinformation, disinformation, lack of evidence, and general bullshit. Some of my all-time favorite articles, which I encourage everyone to read:


 * List of common misconceptions
 * List of conspiracy theories
 * List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
 * List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events
 * List of urban legends
 * List of hoaxes
 * List of fallacies
 * Disinformation
 * Misinformation

Yes, I do love lists. They're great for hours of fascinating reading and edification -- as well as, of course, sending one down endless rabbit holes all over Wikipedia and elsewhere. Some of my other favorite lists include:


 * Lists of websites
 * List of U.S. states and territories by population
 * Lists of U.S. state topics
 * Lists of disasters
 * Death-related lists
 * List of unusual deaths

And, the ultimate list article:


 * List of lists of lists

Other superb Wikipedia articles that I enthusiastically recommend include:


 * Unusual articles
 * The Economist Democracy Index
 * Timeline of 1960s counterculture (Hey, it's my generation, man)
 * List of last words (famous, infamous, and ironic)
 * List of one-hit wonders in the United States
 * Human sexuality portal
 * Lists of disasters
 * Erfurt latrine disaster (possibly the most horrifyingly disgusting disaster in history)

Apart from Wikipedia, I have many other favorite websites, only a few of which include:


 * The Skeptic's Dictionary


 * Snopes
 * The Straight Dope
 * The Urban Dictionary (an invaluable resource for hopelessly unhip people like me)
 * Eyewitness to History (firsthand accounts of hundreds of historic events)
 * Open Culture (huge repository of free cultural and educational material)
 * Mental Floss
 * The Baseball Almanac
 * The Theory of Relativity explained entirely with 4-letter words
 * The Onion
 * Landover Baptist Church
 * Mad Magazine archive
 * Fail blog