User talk:Mandarax/Archive 14

The illiteracy level of our children are appalling.

A barnstar for you!
Thank you very much! M AN d ARAX •  XAЯA b ИA M  19:32, 4 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Haha, speaking of DYK formatting errors, can you fix Template:Did you know nominations/The Sand-Covered Church and add Hafspajen as a creator? Thanks! Drmies (talk) 20:18, 6 September 2013 (UTC)
 * ✅. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  21:07, 6 September 2013 (UTC)
 * I like the theme of your recent articles: apparently disembodied church towers sticking out of nowhere. BTW, I saw a piece in a museum which was a map of Oceania constructed in an unusual material. Spam&reg; is the new peanut butter! M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  21:21, 6 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Wait--what else have I done? Are you calling August Closs and Mary Dockray-Miller church towers? That's high praise! But I like the idea of having a house interpreter on call who can tell me what I'm doing. It adds some serious meaning and importance to my life. Also, I've been reading Christopher Hitchens, which helps me practice English, and last night I started a collection by Saul Bellow but I'm finding that tough going. And I finally got around to reading "De Bérangier au lonc cul", courtesy of a brand-new edition of 69 of those dirty poems, which at $20 is a steal. Drmies (talk) 15:03, 7 September 2013 (UTC)
 * "...[H]elps you practice English"? I've never exactly thought of you being deficient in your level of fluency... (Of course, I've never read Hitchens, so I don't know how dense he is.) Lady  of  Shalott  18:00, 7 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Well, I think it's great that after all these years in our country you're finally attempting to learn our language. Hopefully some day I'll actually be able to understand what you're trying to say. As for the church towers.... Hehe, I was thinking more of Torentje van Drienerlo, but yes, those two are church towers. (For someone who doesn't like writing biographies, you've sure been doing a lot of them.) M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  18:11, 7 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Who else is going to write up those Anglo-Saxonists and other literary scholars? No one reads them or cares for them. Yes, I forgot about that little tower. Maybe we should have a category, an infobox, and a navigational template. Lady, Hitchens has a pretty firm grip on syntax and occasionally likes to show it off. He's a fine writer and a clear-headed thinker (except when the Iraq War is the topic), and he writes in that wonderful old tradition of the essayist who's read everything and can speak intelligently of it, like Lewis Lapham and the regular book reviewers of Harper's for instance. You can always start gently, by reading Bruce Chatwin, In Patagonia, a book that profoundly changed my view of the world even if only by broadening it. Drmies (talk) 23:41, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

DYK hook help
You are the professional at this. Could you take a look  at the request for help. Bgwhite (talk) 02:30, 12 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Well, if I'm the professional, I've gotta say that the pay's not too good. Anyways, replied there. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  09:22, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

Citation expander
Mandarax et al, I'm getting irritated. This citation expander thing doesn't do anything anymore--not in the book templates (ISBN and URL) and not in the web and news templates. Nothing useful came out of a question at Village_pump_(technical) (and an additional question I asked about JSTOR functionality was commented on in a language I don't understand), and there's no response at User talk:Citation bot. Do you know what's going on? Is it something on my end? I'm at my wit's end--and if you look at the references in TopNotch you realize that I could have gone to bed at least a half an hour earlier last night... In other news, my buddy made me listen to Vista Chino, and it is not bad. Drmies (talk) 15:16, 13 September 2013 (UTC)
 * I tried some of those URLs in the Cite news expander, and all it gave me was the title. But it seems to be fully functional for some sites. For example, for a nytimes.com page, it fills in everything (title, author, pub. date, newspaper, page). The Cite book expander doesn't seem to work by ISBN, but it works fine for Google Books URLs. I think the JSTOR response was answering a question other than the one you asked. Yes, you can use the jstor parameter on Cite journal (and that's what I always do rather than using the URL), but you were requesting jstor functionality from RefToolbar's Cite journal just as there (theoretically) is for URL or ISBN for its Cite book. I agree with you; it's odd that for Cite journal it only provides for DOI. At least you finally got a potentially useful response asking about your browser and referring you to a more specific venue for your queries: Wikipedia talk:RefToolbar. Well, as usual, I've used a whole lot of bytes just to say that I don't know what's going on or what to do about it. Sorry. BTW, when I saw your edit summary, at first I thought you'd written an article about an artist; "kees de koning" sounds like a cross between Kees van Dongen and Willem de Kooning. But then I noticed it wasn't capitalized, so I put it through Google Translate. Then I had to wonder why you were saying "baboon king" in Afrikaans. Well, now I know. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:52, 13 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Ha, I promise you I never knowingly said "baboon king" in any language. Kees de Koning is, in fact, the boss of TopNotch. More on toolbars later. Could it be that there is something wrong on my end? If so, what? (Here on my netbook, at work on my PC.) Drmies (talk) 03:33, 15 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Well, Jim Morrison was the Lizard King; I don't see why Kees de Koning couldn't be the Baboon King. Here are a couple of URLs that work for me with the citation expander, in case you're interested to see if they work for you: Cite book http://books.google.com/books?id=sPGdBxzaWj0C&pg=RA2-PA26 Cite news: http://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/20/arts/long-lost-brooklyn-murals-are-being-restored.html?scp=1&sq=williamsburg+housing+murals&st=nyt Elsewhere, I've provided more disclaimer options at the Troll cat nomination. And are you okay with saving it for Halloween?  M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  04:27, 15 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Nothing. That little circle keeps circling and nothing appears... I responded to your DYK suggestions--thanks. And thanks for trying to help this ole luddite out... Drmies (talk) 04:40, 15 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Sorry to hear it's not working for you at all. But I would hardly call you a Luddite because your equipment isn't cooperating. I get the circling circle when I try to use ISBNs, which is annoying. And sorry about the DYK disclaimers. I know I've done the same thing to you before, but if it's not done now, someone will get upset about it later. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  08:09, 15 September 2013 (UTC)
 * That's fine, Mandarax. I wish I could have met you at Wikimania last year: I owe you a cup of coffee and an entire blueberry pie for all the help you've given me over the years. I'm still bugged about the bug, but apparently there's nothing the world can do about it. I'm gonna take my cause to the United Nations. Drmies (talk) 14:26, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

← Much, much, much more annoying is what happened to me today. I meticulously filled in all of the relevant fields for a Cite journal, then clicked, and *poof* it disappeared into the ether, irretrievably gone. Sure, this isn't a tragedy of earth-shattering proportions, but it certainly was irritating to have to re-enter everything. M AN d ARAX •  XAЯA b ИA M  00:20, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
 * I've had that happen too. Yes, it sucks. But much, much more annoying is that the most obvious truths need verification. Do I need to find sources to prove that Talk Talk's "Living in Another World" is one of the greatest songs ever? (I hope not, since I can't find them.) Drmies (talk) 00:59, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Don't make me slap uw-npov1, uw-nor1, and uw-unsourced1 tags on you. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  02:02, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Oh, I got a for you right here, big boy. (Don't forget I used to do all those templates by hand, including the citation templates.) This is on the DVD I'm watching now. I wish my TV had some decent bass speakers, since the reggae-inflected bass player is quite good and lively; in fact, their rhythm section doesn't get the credit it deserves. The guitarist is a regular touring musician, not a "real" band member--the real band is just singer, bass player, drummer. Anyway, it's great. Drmies (talk) 02:28, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Here, take this as well--it's vegetarian-friendly. Drmies (talk) 02:53, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Sister Christine
The DYK project (nominate) 00:02, 15 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Archive copy of the main page -- Tito ☸ Dutta 05:14, 15 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Aw, thanks. Sorry that my suggested hook almost didn't make it in time because of where I posted it, but I've seen nominations get delayed for long periods because someone made a suggestion, and I didn't want that to happen here, in case you didn't like my suggestion. Glad everything worked out. I still think the mind-reading hook was the "hookiest", but we wouldn't want to go against the Swami's wishes. And this hook, with my phrasing based on your specification, was pretty good. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  05:53, 15 September 2013 (UTC)

Did you know that... Harvard University professor John Henry Wright (pictured), whose range of teaching was "encyclopaedic", described Indian Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda as "here is a man who is more learned than all our learned professors put together'?
 * Thank you very much. Could you please suggest a >200 character hook for John Henry Wright. He was a Harvard professor and wrote many books. In 1893, he helped Swami Vivekananda and wrote credential. I have almost 5x expanded the article. It was a very very very difficult work. There is almost no information on Wright in the internet. I had to read his papers on ancient Greek civilization, American history, philology to expand this article. The article is 4.5x expanded now. I'll request an IAR. I started expanding the article keeping this hook in mind— John Henry Wright.jpg

But, a) it has 255 or so characters, b) this man (Wright) was a giant (please see the career section to learn the works he has done). I am unsure if highlighting Vivekananda will be disrespectful. If needed, I'll remove Vivekananda from the hook and present a fact from his life. -- Tito ☸ Dutta 12:00, 15 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Wow, I'm impressed by the effort you've put in! I assume the reason you began writing this in the first place was because of his Vivekananda connection, so I think it's fine to highlight that in the hook; after how you've expanded his article, I certainly wouldn't consider it to be "disrespectful". I've condensed your hook into the following, which is 198 characters, not counting (pictured):
 * ... that Harvard professor John Henry Wright (pictured), whose teaching range was "encyclopaedic", described Indian Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda as "more learned than all our learned professors put together"? M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  19:47, 15 September 2013 (UTC)

DYK bait
I've gussied up The Thinker: Portrait of Louis N. Kenton if you feel inclined to bring it to DYK. No sex angle, so nobody's gonna read it. And thanks for drawing me back in as a registered account with Talcott, *#$@"& ! Otherwise, all the best, JNW (talk) 02:57, 16 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Hehe, yeah, I've been glad to see you popping up on my watchlist. Sorry. But in my defense, remember that I wrote Talcott at your suggestion. I'd be happy to nominate The Thinker. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  03:59, 16 September 2013 (UTC)
 * ✅. Sorry for the delay. Please, please, please feel free to replace the hook or suggest an alternate. I like to have just a single link in hooks so users don't have the option to click on something other than the article we're trying to feature, so I sneakily piped the article title to get Eakins's name in there without having a link to his article. Feel free to change that too. If the "most restrained, most classical of all the Eakins canvases" quote is to be used in the hook, an inline citation will have to be added immediately after the sentence in the article, or if the source is the same as for the following sentence (which it almost certainly is), the sentences can simply be combined. A question: it says "... led early admirers to describe both the figure and the painting as ugly and awkward". While it's possible to admire a painting which is ugly and awkward, would it be accurate to say "early Eakins admirers"?  M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  07:56, 17 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks, and much appreciated--there were no expectations that you follow through on this, but I'm glad if you found it of interest. I will add the cite after the quote. The 'early admirers' business is an itch: the source states "The earliest admirers of this painting described his appearance--and the picture--as awkward and ugly", so I've practically paraphrased it to the point of plagiarism. Caffin was one of those early admirers who prefaced his admiration for the painting with an acknowledgment of its perceived ugliness, so I wouldn't separate him chronologically or substantially from the rest, except that he was perceptive, eloquent and adamant in his positive conclusions. I'd wondered if another hook could be "Among Eakins's scholars and thinkers, he may be the lone representative of the working class." Just thinking. Cheers, JNW (talk) 12:43, 17 September 2013 (UTC)
 * ...and supporting that suggestion with the observation that "most restrained, most classical of all the Eakins canvases" was written almost a century ago, while the "working class" business is from 2001, if that means anything. Which I'm not sure that it does. JNW (talk) 13:59, 17 September 2013 (UTC)
 * I know better than to question something you write, but that "admirers" thing just seemed odd. Thanks for confirming that it was correct. My hook has already been approved, so if you want an alternate to be considered, it should be proposed soon. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  07:06, 18 September 2013 (UTC)
 * It's a good idea to question everything anyone writes. The hook is fine--all the more so because I confused Caffin with McBride, whose assessment you used was indeed years later. Very best, JNW (talk) 12:13, 18 September 2013 (UTC)




 * For what it's worth, I'm beginning to work on a piece about landscape painting for publication, and will probably use a Talcott sketch, along with the standards (Ruisdael, Constable, Homer, and yrs. truly). Fun to weave these different strands together. JNW (talk) 18:34, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Sounds interesting. Do you generally get to select your own topics, or are they sometimes assigned to you? M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:14, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Here's the great thing: nine times out of ten I suggest an article, and they approve it. I'd committed a couple of landscapes in the past few weeks that gave me an idea, which I naturally propped up by proposing a bunch of museum-quality eye-candy, paintings that I'd want to see reproduced. Then I sneak in something of my own, in the staggering misapprehension that it can share a page with a Monet, for instance, to no ill effect. Now's the hard part, the actual stringing together of words into a coherent feature, integrating the images in a sensible fashion. You see, all the practice here has helped with that. Still, it's a struggle, though a very happy one. When I get stuck or just feel like procrastinating I do crossword puzzles or drop by Wiki and revert a high schooler's graffiti. In between letting four dogs in and out of the house. JNW (talk) 20:43, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
 * It's excellent for you, for the magazine, and for the readers, that you get to write about what truly interests you. You deserve sharing the spotlight with Monet. I like doing crosswords too (and I enjoyed the movie from a few years ago about Will Shortz). As for this DYK, I thought it might not get the lead slot since the image is so long and skinny, but it did. It should hit the Main Page on Monday at noon, Eastern time.  M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  18:57, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you, Mandarax. The painters I write about are masters, some of whom altered the way we see things; I'm a craftsman working in an established vernacular. The most radical thing I attempt is to work honestly within my limits. Today I couldn't even accomplish that. Had a lovely woman sitting and didn't do her justice. When it dries it'll be a good underpainting for the next one. As for the DYK with image, how could he miss? An unremarkable looking man in a rumpled suit who cuffed his wife; it'll get 17 hits. Very best, JNW (talk) 23:03, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Wow! In case you hadn't noticed, it got a few more than 17 hits; it got 6434 today, plus there'll be an add-in for tomorrow.  M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  01:53, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Pindakaasvloer
The DYK project (nominate) 08:02, 16 September 2013 (UTC)
 * No, thank you! Drmies (talk) 17:49, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Thanks!
for helping with my DYK nom. --Soman (talk) 04:42, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
 * You're welcome. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  04:55, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Hey, let's not help Soman out any more. I've been trying to catch up with them for years now, and I obviously need outside interference. I could just block them on some trumped-up charges and get the ban approval from a kangaroo court... Drmies (talk) 17:51, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

To go along with your Bush quote
"The Greek who has 100 times higher IQ than Bush" from Evangelos Katsioulis. So many jokes, so little time. Don't click on any refs in the article. They mostly link to his sites and they have javascript bombs. Bgwhite (talk) 06:55, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
 * That's great! I was very disappointed at Bush's running mate choice. I thought that a George W. Bush / Dan Quayle ticket would be the Dream Team. Add Quayle's IQ to Bush's, and Katsioulis's is still 100 times higher than the total. The only thing I was sad about when Bush left office was that I could no longer appropriately throw around a wonderful word by complaining about the kakistocracy. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  07:23, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
 * kakistocracy... I see you haven't met my state legislators. The only thing I'm sad about Bush leaving office is my parents always saying they wish he was still in office. Let's just say they watch Fox News. My mom still misses listening to Art Bell at night. Bgwhite (talk) 08:06, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
 * What's depressing is that I moved to Wisconsin in part because of our progressive history, of the La Follettes, the Sewer Socialists, the Wisconsin Idea and so forth. So now I'm stuck with a true kakistocracy, from our County Executives to our Governor, Lt. Gov. and legislature, who seem to take Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein and Joe McCarthy as their role models, instead of Frank Zeidler or Fighting Bob La Follette. -- Orange Mike &#x007C;  Talk  17:50, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Fucking liberals. Why don't y'all move down to Alabama and you see how we deal with your kind. Oh, I sat next to Martha Roby at our kids' swim practice and guess what: I didn't say a word! My tongue was bleeding, though. Repeal Obamacare! Ban abortion! Give all our tax money to the military and to charter schools! Ban gays, not just their marriages! Teach anti-Tom novels in the public schools, and make those kids pray! Etc. Drmies (talk) 17:58, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
 * You can make fun all you want, but it are appalling. And Drmies, there's no reason to believe that liberals partake in sexual congress any more often than do conservatives. Well, yeah, we probably do . JNW (talk) 18:42, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Maybe you do, but you're an artiste and thus have no morals. Drmies (talk) 22:28, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Sorry ya'all are living under such oppression. Here in California, even Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared; at least, because he wasn't a natural-born citizen, I didn't have to worry about him following the Reagan trajectory of actor → California Governor → President. What's Roby doing in politics? Shouldn't she be at home, pregnant, cleaning the house, polishing her husband's gun collection, and making dinner for her family? I think the only major politician I ever ran into was the wonderful Patricia Schroeder, who is basically the anti-Roby, opposite in everything but gender. It's interesting seeing McCarthy lumped together with those guys. Of course, Dahmer and Gein pale in comparison to Bush, whom I consider to be one of the worst mass murderers in history who, according to acclaimed Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi, in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, is guilty of the crime of murder for the deaths of over 4,000 American soldiers, as well as being responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 innocent Iraqis. Oh, and I still hold out hope for a Dream Team ticket, consisting of Quayle and Sarah Palin. Doesn't matter which order.  M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  19:46, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
 * The article says that Roby was "on the board of directors of Sav-A-Life Montgomery, a Christian organization." Well there are Christians who try to "save a life" by opposing the death penalty. Somehow, I'm guessing that's not the mission of that organization though. I do believe there's a bit of POV involved in phrasing it that way. Lady  of  Shalott  02:10, 20 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Good point, thank you. Note my tweakage. BTW, she's about to head the Congressional committee on the Benghazi investigation and promises to do so in a non-partisan way. AGF everyone. Also, her daughter got picked for more events in the upcoming meet than mine. Hmm. Mine can swim like a mermaid. Mandarax, mind your Bs, your Ls, and your Ps. I'm an equal-opportunity offender when it comes to blocking. Drmies (talk) 04:27, 20 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Also, what other block reason could I give? Drmies (talk) 05:09, 20 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Impressive history.  When in doubt, I always fallback on one principal, pick on The Mandarax.  A good reason would be, "The Madarax edited today".  Better yet, just block The Mandarax. I personaly like torturing him with wonderful writing. Bgwhite (talk) 05:32, 20 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Hehe, I didn't notice the not a typos until now. Very funny. BTW, the one typo of yours that I've noticed very frequently is "alot".  M A d ARAX  •  XAЯA b A M  ← Hehe 00:09, 21 September 2013 (UTC)
 * By which you mean copying my writing, no doubt. Drmies (talk) 05:41, 20 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Drmies, I took a moment to look around, and discovered that I'm certainly not the only person to make such charges. I've struck my comment and inserted sourced text. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  07:46, 20 September 2013 (UTC)
 * OK, I'll let it slide this time. I personally think that "over 100,000" is a serious understatement, but who's counting (we weren't). In regard to our mutual friend, this.
 * Yes, it could be over a million, and the figure for U.S. soldiers is 4,486. And all this from a "President" who I believe was never legally elected. Hehe, I once did on your user page what I considered to be cute or clever or amusing piping of Bush and/or Quayle and/or Palin (it was two of those three, but I don't remember the details, and I'm uncharacteristically not going to go check). After you pointed out that I'd revealed my politics, I coyly deflected, but I guess now the cat's out of the bag. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  18:33, 20 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Yep, I was thinking of the Lancet figures. One of my steaks (I have more than one "beef") with the US is income inequality. There's more robber barons on the R side than on the D side, but that may be a distinction without a difference. Oh, and I can't find that cuteness in the history. Perhaps it was your other boyfriend's user page? Drmies (talk) 19:24, 20 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Ack! I can't believe you did that to me. On this rare occasion I was going to skip my usual practice of finding the relevant passage, and then you had to go and challenge me. Well, I think that when "x" is piped to "y", a Wiki search doesn't find "x" in the text, so I tried to remember other words from the thread. My searching was unsuccessful after many attempts. I even retried all of those searches on my talk page archives rather than yours. I then repeated all of those and then some with Google. Nada. My only option appeared to be a brute-force search while editing the source of each of your archive pages. I guessed which of your 56 archives might be close to the correct one. I started at 18, then in two tabs I worked my way through in each direction, editing each one and using the browser's search to look for "Quayle", which I knew for certain was one of the pre-pipe names. I finally found it as part of a charming little thread in Archive 12. The moral of the story? Never doubt The Mandarax.  M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  21:11, 20 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Ah. Well, I looked at every individual edit you made to my user page. You should always doubt the Drmies, but you are not infallible, god. I did get a userbox out of it, which I think I have since removed. And I do remember those links, yes--but I have to say they were a bit forced, since there were no potatos or (baked) Alaskas involved. Was there confusion there between a political candidate and a wayward socking editor who was banned for invasion of privacy and later successfully ran for admin on another account? No, not really. And what's funny is that my wife is just telling me about the bacon fat she fried sweet potato(e)s in--funny given that in Archive 12 she was baconed out. Drmies (talk) 22:42, 20 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Did I really type "user page" instead of "talk page"? Hehe, I should've known that the one time I say not to doubt me would be right after I made a little typo. (I'm reminded of an episode of Cheers. Nick woos Diane and presents her with a cake saying something like "Nick + Diane" in icing. After she spurns him, Loretta enters. His wooing shifts to her, and he gives her the cake. She notices the writing and asks why it says "Nick + Diane". He reminds her that he was always a poor speller. At first that satisfies her, but a moment later she says, "But, wait, that's pretty bad!" If you haven't seen the episode, you'll have to take my word for it – it was very funny. I guess that's why I write for Wikipedia instead of sitcoms.) M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  23:57, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Bahujana sukhaya bahukana hitaya cha
Thanks for the delicious-looking meal. Indian food is my favorite cuisine.

Hmmmm.... Shortening that hook.... You give me some tough assignments. Of course, the easiest way to shorten it would be to pipe the article title to its translation: "for the happiness of the many, for the welfare of the many". But I assume you'd rather not do that, so I managed to condense your original hook into ...

... that the Rigveda dictum Bahujana sukhaya bahujana hitaya cha ("for the happiness of the many, for the welfare of the many") was suggested by Gautama Buddha (pictured), Swami Vivekananda, and Sri Aurobindo?

... which is 195 characters, not counting the (pictured). M AN d ARAX •  XAЯA b ИA M  18:32, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, that was a difficult one. Researchers have found 8723123245 people don't read long numbers carefully — I read this one liner joke somewhere. I have a hunch that DYK readers don't carefully read non-English words/phrases and skip to the immediate next English word. And, if it is so, your suggestion is wonderful: ... that the dictum for the happiness of the many, for the welfare of the many was first enunciated in the Rigveda and was suggested later by Gautama Buddha (pictured), Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo? Tito ☸ Dutta 01:01, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

Copyright violation is a Good Thing
On three occasions over the years, an article which I had researched for eventual creation or expansion popped up on my watchlist, and I discovered that the added text was a copyright violation. In each case, this has prompted me to step in and write a proper article.

In the most recent case, the user added text again after I had reverted their initial copyvio. I found that at least part of the new addition was also copied, but I didn't bother to fully investigate. I figured they'd keep adding things, so I decided to just scrap the entire existing article and rewrite it from scratch. This is actually my usual way of "expanding" short articles; they're usually unreferenced or inadequately referenced, and it's easier for me to rewrite than to find references that fit the existing material. In this case, I realized that if any of the new text from that user wasn't a copyvio, it would be considered the start of expansion for DYK purposes. So I wrote the entire article within five days.

Incidentally, the first time it happened, I wrote the article within one day! And I wrote the other one in about a month and a half. Now, anybody who's read my comments on the subject of article writing knows that writing any article usually takes me months, at least. So, the moral of the story is "copyright violation is a Good Thing!" M AN d ARAX •  XAЯA b ИA M  23:17, 27 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Hah, well that's an interesting take on it. I would suggest some modification to it though: "copyright violation is a Good Thing iff it's on a topic that will catch Mandarax's eye!" Perhaps that's not quite as catchy... Lady  of  Shalott  23:26, 27 September 2013 (UTC)
 * P.S. Did you get a ping when I made an edit to my userpage recently? Lady  of  Shalott  23:30, 27 September 2013 (UTC)
 * No, I didn't. (I think notifications only work for signed comments, and I dunno if they work on User talk pages at all.) And somehow I missed in on my watchlist too. Hehe, thanks! But I must point out: the very fact that I didn't notice it is reason enough to doubt me. Plus, when I first read your comment, I went to your talk page to see what you meant. Just as with the above incident where I ironically told Drmies not to doubt me, I seem to have great difficulty distinguishing between User pages and User talk pages. Oh, and I see that I also mentioned the "moral of the story" then. I'm apparently getting forgetful and/or repetetetitive. (But at least I'm still able to turn words into autonyms.) M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  00:39, 28 September 2013 (UTC)
 * I just noticed that I erroneously said "User talk pages" above. That was more than seven weeks ago, so I don't remember if I was trying to be amusing and ironic. More likely, it was just another symptom of the phenomenon I described later in the paragraph. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  21:29, 18 November 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Maximilien Luce
— Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:02, 29 September 2013 (UTC) That was fast. On the Main Page just 13 hours after getting promoted to Prep. Unfortunately, it's in the worst possible slot for France. C'est la vie. M AN d ARAX •  XAЯA b ИA M  00:49, 29 September 2013 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

 * Thank you very much! It's great to get positive feedback on an article which I've written, and I really appreciate your doing this. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  18:26, 29 September 2013 (UTC)

DYK for The Thinker: Portrait of Louis N. Kenton
The DYK project (nominate) 16:02, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

DYKSTATS August 2013
Hi Mandarax, I see you are a regular contributor at WP:DYKSTATS and thought you might be able to help with my query. I had a DYK, HMS Superb (1710), appear on the main page on the 13 August this year and after checking the number of views (6057) I was looking forward to seeing it in the DYK stats for that month. Disappointingly though, it doesn't appear to be there. Have a misunderstood something? Regards--Ykraps (talk) 08:57, 1 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Well, I'm far from being a "regular contributor" on that page. I think there may have been a person or persons who often took care of adding hooks to the stats, but maybe they're no longer actively doing that. The notation on a DYK credit which is placed on a user's talk page is a little misleading when it says " it will be added to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000"; this implies that it will somehow be taken care, but it's really a do-it-yourself project. If you see that a hook has qualified, go ahead and add it. I've taken care of this one for you. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  19:25, 1 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Ah, I thought it might not have qualified for some reason or I had misunderstood the rules. I didn't realise it was okay to add it myself, if I'm lucky enough to get another, I'll do that. Anyway, thanks for sorting that out.--Ykraps (talk) 21:05, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

Artist names on Houbraken page
Hi Mandarax, I see that you have helpfully corrected the name spellings on the Houbraken page, but the whole reason I created all the redirects on that page was so I could use *his* spelling as it appears in the text. For the more prominent painters, perhaps both spellings should be used? Such as Pieter de Hoogh (Pieter de Hooch)? Jane (talk) 07:22, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure what you're talking about. I looked through the last several thousand of my edits over the last three weeks, and I found no edits that I've made to any page with "Houbraken" anywhere in the title. From the context, it appears that you're talking about Arnold Houbraken, but I've never edited that article (and it doesn't doesn't contain a bunch of links which are redirected.) I've also never edited Jacobus Houbraken, Antonina Houbraken, or Houbraken. Do you mean instances in other articles which used Houbraken's spellings of artist names? If that's what you're talking about, I feel that, this being one encyclopedia, it's very good to have uniformity of spellings. If there's a quote from Houbraken, then of course his spelling should be used, but otherwise, consistent spelling should be used throughout the encyclopedia. An artist article should mention alternate spellings, but other articles should consistently refer to that artist using the same spelling. Otherwise, it could be confusing to readers, who might wonder if Pieter de Hoogh is a different person from Pieter de Hooch. It's good to have redirects so that when someone adds a link with an alternate spelling, it's not red, but I think it's also good to change those to the consistent spellings. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  09:35, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I didn't mean to send you off on a wild goose chase. I was referring to the book, not the biographical articles. Here are your changes to Hooch, Rembrandt, and Van Dyck. Since the list of names is from the book, I feel the name spellings on the page should stay with the book's spellings. Jane (talk) 22:56, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Okay, I've undone my edits, and piped or put the names in templates to help indicate that that's how they should be spelled on that page. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  06:09, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Jane (talk) 07:02, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Bahujana sukhaya bahujana hitaya cha
The DYK project (nominate) 16:04, 6 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Archived copy Tito ☸ Dutta 16:22, 6 October 2013 (UTC)

A cookie for you!

 * Thank you very much for the cookie, and you're welcome for the edits to the article. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  18:20, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

Neutral notice
This is a neutral notice to all registered editors who have edited Jack Kirby in 2013 that there is a discussion on its talk page regarding the article's infobox image: Talk:Jack Kirby.. --Tenebrae (talk) 22:40, 11 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I made just one edit to the page, and it was exactly about that issue. However, hehe, my only input regarding the image is that it shouldn't be the one I reverted. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  07:19, 12 October 2013 (UTC)

Template:Did you know nominations/Hasan Fehmi (Ataç)
Mandarax,

I know that you are good at setting the proper DYK format and fixing small but critical grammar mistakes of hooks and such. Can you please check out this nomination and provide a better way of positioning the alternative photographs? Also, please take a glance at the grammar of the hook. I feel pretty uncomfortable for some reason about this one. Thanks in advance. Proudbolsahye (talk) 20:00, 12 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I did very minor formatting of the images. The hook seems perfectly fine to me, grammatically, syntactically, and in terms of interest. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  21:14, 12 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks Mandarax! Your work is greatly appreciated :) Proudbolsahye (talk) 22:32, 12 October 2013 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

 * Thank you very much for the barnstar! M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  05:48, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

A huge favour
Hi Mandarax, could you do me a huge favour, please? I think that Jamie Fleeman is eligible for inclusion on the DYK stats but whenever I try to update tables I seem to break them. Would you be kind enough to add it (if it is eligible, of course!). SagaciousPhil  -  Chat  06:03, 13 October 2013 (UTC)
 * ✅. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  06:49, 13 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you, very much appreciated! I know it's a bit childish but still nice to see....   SagaciousPhil   -  Chat  08:06, 13 October 2013 (UTC)
 * You're welcome. But acknowledging a successful DYK isn't childish at all. (At least not for a DYK such as yours which succeeds on its own merits. Don't get me started on when someone tries to exploit a subject which is in the news or for which an article otherwise gets a large number of hits completely unrelated to the DYK, and then the user claims a spot on the Stats page....) M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  08:33, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

A thought
I just saw this new article, Street dogs in Bucharest, and thought of you. That is, it might make an interesting DYK. Cheers, JNW (talk) 20:07, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
 * It's nice to know that stray dogs who go around eating children remind you of me. The first thing I noticed is that the refs are in need of cleanup. Before I'd nominate, I'd want to work on those. I went to start on that project, but I discovered that they're in Romanian. (Also, it strikes me as odd that each of the 33 refs is used exactly once.) So I think I'll pass, but, of course, feel free to nominate it yourself. (As you probably know, a QPQ review is not required when you nominate someone else's article.) BTW, you get credit for the most recent article I worked on, as a secondary effect of your Talcott suggestion. While writing that article, I noticed how shamefully inadequate the Frank DuMond article was. I started writing a new version, but got interrupted when a copyright violation on Maximilien Luce forced me to rewrite that article. When I returned to DuMond, I discovered that in the interim someone else had expanded it somewhat. To meet the DYK five day rule, I quickly integrated what I had already written into the article (well, let's be honest – I replaced all areas of overlap with my version), and lazily accepted the other parts written by the other person. Some day I may get around to further expanding the rest.  M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  01:49, 15 October 2013 (UTC)


 * I guess that came out kind of wrong. But it was justifiable that I assume, given the breadth of your knowledge, that Romanian would be no obstacle for you. Very good work on Dumond. He's never done much for me, but he taught just about everyone, and now I tromp around painting the same landscapes he did, and teach in the same or adjacent studio. JNW (talk) 02:46, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Well, I knew what you meant. I see that I've fooled you into thinking that I know anything about anything. Yeah, DuMond's probably one of those guys whose significance is more in his teaching than in the works he created. As I implied, the article's somewhat deficient, but hopefully I or someone else will eventually fill in the gaps. I like that you teach in a place with so much history (and you're making your own history). M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:05, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

The happy dogs pictured reminded me of this one, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:23, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Yeah, the article focuses on the impact the dogs have on humans, while ignoring the difficulties facing the dogs themselves. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:40, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
 * That photo is heartbreaking. Mandarax, I'm trying to make a living, not history--no illusions about the latter. I do have a catalogue from a 1990 Dumond museum show..... JNW (talk) 21:49, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Heartbreaking is also a good word for the, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:54, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Today we talked about me blushing because of your cherished award ;) (look for your name or "blush") --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:20, 16 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Well, Gerda, if you want to stop blushing so much, you'll have to stop being so nice, helpful, supportive and friendly. Otherwise, people will just keep saying nice things about you. Uh oh; I'm afraid I may have just made you blush again.... M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  22:25, 16 October 2013 (UTC)
 * You should watch me grinning now! You obviously missed that I was told that I treated Wikipedia as if it were a battleground and that articles I touch are unclean ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:55, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Mandarax, if I get to sitting down and reading the DuMond I'll try to add something. Best, JNW (talk) 22:05, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I wasn't hinting that you should be the "someone else", but your contributions are always extremely welcome. Of course, it's fine if you don't get around to it (especially since he doesn't "do much" for you), but if you do, feel free to do anything from adding a comma to rewriting the entire thing. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  22:29, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Hey, I should be half as successful as he was. And you don't need me to do a rewrite, you do just fine. JNW (talk) 00:10, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Frank DuMond
— Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:02, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

DYK for John Henry Wright
The DYK project (nominate) 00:03, 19 October 2013 (UTC)

Template:Did you know nominations/Elizabeth Freeman Ussher
Hello Mandarax,

I know you're good with DYK nominations. The page has recently been moved to Elizabeth Barrows Ussher. Can you help me fix the template and the rest of the requirements for the DYK nomination to complete the move? For example, the nomination still has its old name along with other parts of the template. Is it good to go as is? Thanks in advance. Proudbolsahye (talk) 22:09, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Done. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  22:38, 23 October 2013 (UTC)

Template:Did you know nominations/John Saylor Coon
Hi, the maximum allowed length of a DYK hook is 200 characters, but the one you supplied is 256. It will have to be edited or replaced with a shorter hook. M AN d ARAX •  XAЯA b ИA M  19:22, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the feedback. This proposed hook has been revised. Please let me know if the number of characters for this proposed hook needs to be reduced further? - Mistercontributer (talk) 00:08, 24 October 2013 (UTC)
 * It was 203, which would be fine with me, but some reviewers may be sticklers for exact adherence to the rules, so I did some very minor edits, bringing it down to 193. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M
 * Thanks for your help! - Mistercontributer (talk) 01:15, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
 * You're welcome. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  02:13, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

Tom Wills revisited
Hello Mandarax, in June you gave me advice after my DYK nomination for Tom Wills failed. Do you think I can renominate the article? It's near the 70k mark, up from 20k since I made my first edit around the same time last year. I've taken my time because I consider it to be an article of high importance and I'm incredibly wary of stuffing up. It would be nice for Wills to get exposure on the front page, hopefully it will attract more (better) editors. - HappyWaldo (talk) 16:52, 24 October 2013 (UTC)
 * First, DYK goes by number of prose characters, not file size; the article is currently 36k of prose. (See WP:DYKcheck for determining this.) And a five times expansion must be completed within five days. Even going back long before that, to the start of the month, it was already 34k, so you're nowhere near the required amount. As I mentioned previously (see the link you provided above), a good strategy is to do all of your expansion work in a userspace sandbox, and only copy it to the article when you've completed the sufficient expansion. However, there's good news. The eligibility rules were recently changed, and now articles which have been designated as Good articles are eligible if nominated within five days of that designation. I see that the reviewer of your DYK nomination said that it was "a strong candidate to become a good article", and you've done considerable work on it since then. I can't offer you any advice about submitting it for GA, as I've never participated in any way, but I hope you go for it. Good luck.  M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:34, 24 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks again Mandarax. I think I will take your advice and build each section in sandboxes to GA stand. - HappyWaldo (talk) 07:04, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

DYK nomination
Hi, would you mind fixing what I have messed up with this please? Thank you, Mat  ty. 007 13:31, 26 October 2013 (UTC)
 * The article creator got there first. Thanks anyway, Mat  ty  .  007  18:19, 26 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Sorry I wasn't around, but I see that the major problem got fixed just 20 minutes after the nomination was created. Still, I found a couple of minor things to adjust. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  22:00, 26 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much! Mat  ty  .  007  08:18, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

My sandbox
Hi Mandarax. Thanks for your help here. I was wondering if you could assist me with my sandbox. I used it to create the BEAST article and now need it returned to the sandbox function. At the moment it is still redirecting to the BEAST page. If you can help, I would be most grateful. Cheers  Rob van  vee  10:54, 27 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi, it may have been confusing that whenever you tried to go to the page, it redirected you to another page. But whenever this happens, there's a notation under the page's title saying "(Redirected from )". If you click on that link, you can access the original page. For this one, I've taken care of clearing your sandbox. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  18:37, 27 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much Mandarax!  Rob van  vee  05:50, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

Some baklava for you!

 * You're welcome. And thanks for the baklava. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  21:13, 3 November 2013 (UTC)

A quarter of a million edits
Boy, if I spent my day changing Soren to Søren, I'd have a ton of edits too. You AWB users make me sick. You just click 'save' all day long. For a change of pace, why don't you create an article and do a DYK for it. Bgwhite (talk) 23:11, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Hehe. Hey, it's important work – Søren Kierkegaard was a renowned philosopher, but Soren Kirkegard is probably just some guy in New Jersey. You're right; I should get back to writing an article which I sorta started. This "Søren" stuff is just my way of putting off writing. Maybe what I need to motivate me is for someone to come along and create a huge copyright-violating version of the article. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  00:49, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
 * You've only done, what, 100 DYKs. You've probably helped another couple hundred get there.  Only reasonable that you take "time off".  But, what matters most in the end is that I'm still ahead of you. :)  Bgwhite (talk) 01:32, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Just 24 (I don't count the ones that people include me in on for helping with the hook or for minor edits to the article). Basically, it takes me a quarter of a million edits for every quarter of a hundred DYKs. Yes, you're ahead of me in edit count, but what really matters is that I'm ahead of you in number of Breaking Bad episodes watched. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  02:23, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
 * A quarter million is pretty impressive, even if assisted. Kudos.-- S Philbrick (Talk)  02:50, 5 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Congratulations, Mandarax. Very impressive. Thanks for all the hard work! BlueMoonset (talk) 03:20, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks S Philbrick and BlueMoonset! M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  08:00, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes indeed, excellent job. Coldcreation (talk) 11:29, 11 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks! As I've mentioned before, you're one of the people who shows up most frequently on my Watchlist. Thanks for all of your good work. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  19:58, 11 November 2013 (UTC)
 * May I also add my (belated) congratulations? Thanks for fixing all my edits! Mat  ty  .  007  20:07, 11 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks! And you're welcome for the tweaks. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:18, 11 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Would you mind fixing my nomination here please? Thanks! Mat  ty  .  007  11:43, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
 * ✅. I see you had already fixed most of it, but I took care of the remaining things. BTW, notifications are not triggered in Template space, so linking to a user on a nomination template will not generate a notification to that user; if you need to get their attention, you should leave them a note on their talk page. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  19:36, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! I didn't know about the template space thing either, so thanks also for that. Mat ty. 007 19:40, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Judging by what I've seen in nominations, I'd say that a lot of people aren't aware of the notification issue. I wish they'd just change it so it works for Templates. (And while I'm wishing, it would be nice to work on edit summaries too.) M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  19:47, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
 * That would be good. Is there any particular reason it doesn't work? Thanks, Mat  ty  .  007  19:48, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I think they work on any talk page, plus Wikipedia space. It's unusual for discussions to be taking place on Template, so I guess the developers didn't feel that notifications would be necessary there. As for the edit summaries, that's been suggested, and they may (or may not) be working to get that implemented. That would be good because you could get your notifications in without cluttering up the page with links to user pages, and it would work for any namespace. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:09, 17 November 2013 (UTC)


 * You can possibly earn another edit by fixing this complicated nom, I added an article later, and the author of the original seemed not credited at all when I looked. - Thanks for all the uncountable noms that you fixed without me asking! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 23:41, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Hey, I'm getting two edits out of it, including this reply! I tweaked a few things in the nomination, but I'm not sure exactly what you meant about the credit. I adjusted the text about credits to include you, but the author of the other article was already credited both there and with a DYKmake. You're welcome for any previous fixes, but I don't think I've had to do many of yours. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  00:31, 18 November 2013 (UTC)

Your Comments
Hello, both of the edits in question were accidents caused by lag on my end. When marking an edit for vandalism, my client would click through the next edit on the list as vandalism also, without me either seeing it or knowing what page it was. I am unsure how to deal with this problem, but will be extra careful and will be looking into it. Thank you for riverting the accidental edits. Steel Mariner Talk  04:22, 15 November 2013 (UTC)
 * As I mentioned on your talk page, it was not just those two. Many of your reverts as "vandalism" were unjustified. I looked through some of your contributions, and more than half of the edits which you most recently reverted as "vandalism" clearly were not vandalism, including many where the user obviously was attempting to edit constructively. Some of these may be things which actually should be undone, but it is absolutely wrong to simply revert them, misidentifying them as vandalism, without leaving a reason. Please see WP:Vandalism, especially where it says "Even if misguided, willfully against consensus, or disruptive, any good-faith effort to improve the encyclopedia is not vandalism. ... Careful consideration may be required to differentiate between edits that are beneficial, detrimental but well-intentioned, and vandalizing. Mislabelling good-faith edits as vandalism can be considered harmful." When you do five reverts a minute, it doesn't give you time for "careful consideration". All edits which you make are your responsibility. If a tool you're using makes edits which you did not intend to do, you should immediately stop using the tool, and go back and correct any errors. I'm going to post at WT:STiki to see if anyone else is experiencing this problem.  M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  23:04, 15 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Hello, as I said, this is a problem on my end. It may have happened to other people as well, or may not have. As to the assuming of good faith even in cases that appeared to be non-constructive, I will be careful to that from this point forward, and will carefully review my procedures while using STiki.  Steel Mariner  Talk  04:06, 16 November 2013 (UTC)

Editor of the Week
User:Matty.007 submitted the following nomination for Editor of the Week:
 * I nominate Mandarax for his consistent minor tinkers to articles, and many DYK hook formatting errors (quite a few of mine). Take, for example, his last ten edits (as of now). Four of them are to DYK nominations, fixing simple formatting errors in a manor which is quiet, yet efficient. Mandarax seems to be alone in his work, at least, he is the only one who corrects my formatting errors. For example, take this WikiGnomish edit, bolding without making a fuss, or this simple fixing of one of my many mistakes (I don't know how he even saw that...). Mandarax's edit count of 248340 shows the time he has put into Wikipedia, and despite his 3164 days on Wikipedia, has not been blocked even once. To surmise [sic], Mandarax is a massively hard working (his average day edit total is 78), especially behind the scenes at DYK.

You can copy the following text to your user page to display a user box proclaiming your selection as Editor of the Week:

Thanks again for your efforts!  Go  Phightins  !  00:14, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Wow! Thank you very much! This is quite an honor, and I greatly appreciate it. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  00:38, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Well deserved, - and thanks for the one exra edit mentioned above! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 00:49, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks Gerda! M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  01:39, 18 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks for all you do. ```Buster Seven   Talk  04:18, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you, Buster Seven, and thanks for the Editor of the Week page; however, I noticed that the image used, of the Vonnegut book cover, is not free. It should be replaced with a public domain image. Since all of the articles I write are about artists, it's easy to find an acceptable free image from one of them. Maybe one of the images below, or another of your choice from the articles listed on my user page. (BTW, I would also consider those artist articles to be my "notable works", but maybe that's just for what's mentioned in the nomination.) Thanks again. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  09:20, 18 November 2013 (UTC)

✅ Buster Seven   Talk  15:00, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Congrats, Mandarax! Thanks for your long-term dedication to the project. -- Khazar2 (talk) 10:50, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks Khazar2! And thanks, Buster Seven for replacing the image. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  21:35, 18 November 2013 (UTC)

monongy
Please note that there is an annual search for the beast and river race in it's honor. Please google search "search for Monongy" here is an article from the pittsburgh post gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/life/lifestyle/2010/07/12/52-take-a-swim-in-tepid-Allegheny.print — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.169.126.15 (talk) 22:24, 21 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks for supplying a source here. As I noted on your talk page, a reliable source should be included with material which you add to an article, especially when it's about legends of a "man-fish". Feel free to add the material again, but include the reference. For your convenience, I've constructed a properly formatted reference, so simply copy and paste the following onto the end of your text:
 * Also, note that when leaving messages on talk pages, they should be signed by adding four tildes: ~, and new messages should be added to the bottom. Thanks for your contributions. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  22:47, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Also, note that when leaving messages on talk pages, they should be signed by adding four tildes: ~, and new messages should be added to the bottom. Thanks for your contributions. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  22:47, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the welcome!
Hey, man. Just wanted to say thanks for the nice welcome letter on my page. I know it's copypasta but it's still nice of you to go through the trouble of welcoming new editors.

I used to be pretty active here on Wiki years ago but haven't used my account for quite a while. It's good to see there are still active and kind users like you. Cheers! 108.6.202.243 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 15:33, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
 * You're welcome for the welcome, and thanks for the thanks. I hope you don't encounter any problems with other users who are not as welcoming to IPs. Thanks again for your contributions. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:40, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
 * You're lucky to have come across Mandarax, one of the best Wikipedia editors that there is. Mat  ty  .  007  20:44, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Awwwwwww, thanks. I greatly appreciate your kind words. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:57, 26 November 2013 (UTC)

Ah, crap. This thing has to stop. The accolades in this thread, the Editor of the Week award and all the lovey dovey messages have to end. If Mandarax lets this go to his head, he will run for Administrator. We all know what will happen next... he will become polluted with anger, become full of self-righteousness and will always vote Republican. No more I say. From now on, Mandarax is evil, a lousy editor and a scourge upon Wikipedia. Bgwhite (talk) 21:54, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Forget this admin nonsense. I was thinking more in terms of something better suited to my stature, such as Earth Overlord, or maybe Emperor of the Universe. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  01:49, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
 * As a worshiper of the Mandarax, I pray to Burning Man for your world domination plans to be fruitful and look forward to you not only being my Overlord, but the entire Earth's as well. If you dare think about becoming an admin, I will be part of La Revolución and instill Fielding Mellish as the next Mandarax.  Bgwhite (talk) 06:02, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Halloween (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Hi, can you take a look at my edits on Halloween (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)? I don't know if I did it correctly.--NeoBatfreak (talk) 19:35, 30 November 2013 (UTC)
 * It looked more or less okay to me. (Although I haven't seen the show, so I can't vouch for the accuracy.) I made a few minor grammatical edits. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  22:17, 30 November 2013 (UTC)

Merry Christmas!
  Mat ty. 007 is   wishing   you   a   Merry   Christmas  ( quite possibly a   White   Christmas . '''

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
''' This greeting (and season) promotes WikiLove.

Spread the Christmas spirit  by adding    to someone's talk page with a friendly message. If everyone who got this put it on two talk pages, we would have... lots of Christmas spirit! Have fun finding links  in this message!


 * Thanks! Happy holidays to you too. I must have accidentally entered some kind of time vortex or something; I have no other plausible explanation as to how it could possibly be December already. I won't be getting snow for Christmas, although they do sometimes truck some in to a local park or mall for the kids to frolic in. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  03:55, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

You're invited to join WikiProject Women artists!
SarahStierch (talk) 20:57, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

Thanks Mandarax
Thanks for posting the DYK template - its appreciated. Seasons wishes Victuallers (talk) 08:40, 4 December 2013 (UTC)
 * You're welcome. Season's greetings to you too. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  10:55, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Library Survey
As a subscriber to one of The Wikipedia Library's programs, we'd like to hear your thoughts about future donations and project activities in this brief survey. Thanks and cheers, Ocaasit &#124; c 14:45, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

Thank you ...
... One of these days I will remember not to copy/paste hooks over from Word so the apostrophe isn't curly! - thanks for the tweaks to the gingerbread house hook. SagaciousPhil  -  Chat  22:46, 10 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much for your note! It was quite a refreshing change from another user who recently refused to switch to the correct apostrophe and rebuked me for pedantry when I mentioned the relevant guideline from the Manual of Style. (A different user eventually fixed the apostrophe.) M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  23:24, 10 December 2013 (UTC)
 * On the note of fixing DYKs, would you mind telling me/helping me fix whatever I did wrong here, as I honestly have no idea... Thanks, Mat  ty  .  007  20:42, 14 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Been fixed thanks. Mat  ty  .  007  21:09, 14 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Well, hehe, pedantic ol' me still found a few things to change. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  02:59, 15 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much! Mat  ty  .  007  11:19, 15 December 2013 (UTC)

Thanks
Thank you so much for illustrating Saving Grace. The page looks wonderful. You might have encouraged me to bash out the other two Rockwells in the sale now! Gareth E Kegg (talk) 02:05, 11 December 2013 (UTC)
 * You're welcome. Yeah, it makes a big difference to have an image of the work being discussed. I hope you do write the others, and I'm glad if I really did encourage that in any way. (Too bad the paintings aren't public domain....) M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  04:27, 11 December 2013 (UTC)

Talkback
Mat ty. 007 19:05, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

Sand or pudding?
Hi Mandarax, have I got my stupid head on (again) today? I'm looking at the article Mazurek (cake) that's the lead hook in Queue 5. I always thought dessert as in a pudding was spelt with two s's? Or is it spelt 'desert' - as in lots of sand - in some countries? SagaciousPhil  -  Chat  10:37, 24 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Dessert: "Not to be confused with desert.". When did you last have your stupid head on, it seems to have been working very well, rooting out errors? (Fixed.) Mat  ty  .  007  10:49, 24 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Hehe, nice section heading. Let's not hear any more talk of "stupid head" – you were as sagacious as usual. I'm also sometimes reluctant to fix misspellings that I suspect might be considered correct elsewhere. Thanks to both of you for finding and fixing it. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  22:43, 24 December 2013 (UTC)

Happy Holidays
...Modernist (talk) 03:33, 25 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Modernist. Season's greetings to you. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  20:11, 25 December 2013 (UTC)
 * If you like you can pick up my Christmas card on my talk, look for A Boy was Born, - with best wishes, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:50, 25 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you Gerda. Merry Christmas. I got some delicious brandy filled chocolates, made in Germany. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  21:00, 25 December 2013 (UTC)

Template:Did you know nominations/Ruth A. Parmelee
Mandarax, Template:Did you know nominations/Ruth A. Parmelee What's the best way of phrasing the hook for this nomination? I'm have trouble getting the grammar correct on this one while reflecting the source and the article. Proudbolsahye (talk) 08:07, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Well,  first of all, hehe, remember that the last time you asked me a similar question, I replied that your hook was fine, but it turned out that the reviewer didn't like it, and an alt was used. Having given you the disclaimer, I'll say once again that your hook seems fine to me. However, it doesn't really address the cause of the deaths. I might suggest something like: ... that physician and relief worker Ruth A. Parmelee (pictured) reported that it was "too harrowing to try to describe the outrages committed day by day for weeks, on these thousands of deportees"?  M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  09:14, 27 December 2013 (UTC)

Help with a DYK review?
Greetings Mandarax: I reviewed a DYK that you had previously edited - Template:Did you know nominations/Rocky the Musical - but I cannot get my edits to show on the DYK-nom page. Can you help? I must have made some mistake I can't see. Thank you! Ellin Beltz (talk) 04:37, 30 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Your comments show up fine for me. Maybe you're getting a cached copy? Try to bypass your browser's cache and see if that helps. M AN d ARAX  •  XAЯA b ИA M  05:42, 30 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your help, I will try to bypass cache! Ellin Beltz (talk) 05:49, 30 December 2013 (UTC)