Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2008 June 15

= June 15 =

Major And Minor 3rds & Perfect 5ths
Why do Major and Minor 3rds exist but not Major and Minor 5ths & why do Perfect 5ths exist but not Perfect 3rds?68.148.164.166 (talk) 03:42, 15 June 2008 (UTC)


 * As I understand, the perfect 5th is found in major and minor scales. The major 3rd is found in major scales, not minor scales. The minor 3rd is found in minor scales and not major. Does that help? 79.66.60.129 (talk) 03:48, 15 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks for trying, but that explains Where they occur, not W w hy they occur.68.148.164.166 (talk) 04:35, 15 June 2008 (UTC)


 * The common naming of intervals follows the traditional concept of diatonic scale degrees, not frequency ratios or chromatic scaling (see also the article on Diatonic and chromatic).
 * Îf we labeled intervals according to semitones in a chromatic scale, a perfect fifth would be called an eighth (octave?) (equal to 800 cents), a perfect fourth would be a sixth (600 cents), a major third would be a fifth (500 cents), a minor third would be a fourth (400 cents), and we wouldn't have to worry about consonance or dissonance, major, minor, perfect, augmented, or diminished. (In fact this is one of the philosophical concepts behind twelve-tone technique as opposed to a hierarchical system of tonal harmonies)
 * If we labeled intervals according to frequency ratio, we'd get 1/2 for octaves, 2/3 for perfect fifths, 3/4 for perfect fourths, 5/4 for major thirds, 6/5 for minor thirds (in just intonation). No explicit perfection, but increasing divisors from consonance to dissonance.
 * To answer your question, thirds cannot be perfect, because of the way we define perfection. Perfection is an aesthetic reference to the quality of interference when two tones are played simultaneously, i.e. a harmonic interval. In the traditional theory established before and during the common practice period the line of perfect consonance was drawn somewhere around intervals with a divisor of four (coincidentally they happen to be the fourths in the scale-degree-labeling-system too). Unison and octave, fifths and fourths (sometimes) can be heard as perfect consonance. Thirds and sixths, whether major or minor, are considered "imperfect consonance". Other intervals, such as major and minor seconds and sevenths or the tritone, are perceived as dissonant. The degrees of perfection in terms of harmonic coincidence were already observed in early music, applied for example in the Organum. Subjectively, the hearing experience gets less and less pleasant moving from an octave, to fifths and fourths, to thirds and sixths, to dissonant intervals. A lot of Western (and other) music is acquired hearing too, but this pattern of consonance is also reflected mathematically (see frequency ratios) and neurologically (varying intensity of neural firing with different intervals).
 * I possibly overlinked this post somewhat, but I think you might actually find a more comprehensive answer by reading some of these articles. ---Sluzzelin talk  12:04, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
 * If you have a keyboard instrument (or a guitar) you can try this out by playing a slow series of long sustained fifths for a couple of minutes, followed by a series of major thirds, and observe whether your hearing notices a dfference in pleasantness or irritation. Then you could reverse the exercise (if you like to vary, use minor thirds and fourths this time) and try to listen to what your medial prefrontal cortex, cerebellum, superior temporal sulci and gyri, and your posterior cingulate cortex are telling you. ---Sluzzelin talk  02:17, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Source of Los Angeles Lakers nickname
I've asked this question on Talk:Los Angeles Lakers but I wasn't getting much of a response so I've decided to ask it here. I'm curious how the Los Angeles Lakers, previously the Minneapolis Lakers, got the "Lakers" name. I've found conflicting sources that say either from Minnesota being the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" or from cargo ships on the Great Lakes. My own guess is from Minneapolis being the "City of Lakes". Can anyone find a definitive origin of the name? ~ Eóin (talk) 04:52, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
 * The Official NBA Encyclopedia says it's a reference to Minnesota being the Land of 10,000 Lakes. (It has an entire chapter on the origins of team nicknames.) Zagalejo^^^ 05:03, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Could you add a reference to the intro of Los Angeles Lakers? Clarityfiend (talk) 05:09, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Yep. Zagalejo^^^ 05:17, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Go Celtics! Clarityfiend (talk) 18:42, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
 * That was fast! Any idea how this guy from Sports Illustrated got the cargo ship origin? ~ Eóin (talk) 04:09, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Not sure. A laker is a ship, but Minneapolis itself isn't especially close to any of the Great Lakes. Zagalejo^^^ 04:48, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

I like my men/women like I like my coffee...
I've seen a number of variations of "I like my men/women like I like my coffee" over the years: black, bitter, ground up and in the freezer, etc. What's the origin of this? --67.185.172.158 (talk) 06:01, 15 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I've only seen that joke in Airplane! (1980), and it was very funny coming from a 14-year old girl so people parodied it. Do you have an earler citation?--Shantavira|feed me 08:24, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

The first time I remember hearing it was on an early episode of Good_Times, when Willona (Ja'net Du Bois) told Florida she liked her coffee like she liked her men, hot, black, and strong. That would be 1974 or shortly thereafter. Catrionak (talk) 19:20, 17 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Supersister has a song called "Coffee" with the lyrics "I like my men / like I like my coffee / hot, strong and sweet as toffee.". Although I doubt that this is the origin of the joke... &mdash; QuantumEleven 11:21, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

How many times will they let you hit foul balls?
Would the umpire get involved? Will the pitcher eventually walk you on purpose? As an extreme case would they let the batter stand there for an hour, or what? I seen a couple of games where the guy, like, fouled 10, 15 pitches in row. It felt like forever.--Baseball and and and Popcorn Fanatic (talk) 14:11, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
 * There is no limit. If the pitcher can't get it past you, and you can't hit it fairly, you can foul it off forever. --jpgordon&#8711;&#8710;&#8711;&#8710; 14:19, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Although if you're doing it on purpose, you may get cited for delay of game. Though I'm not even sure baseball has a similar rule... &mdash;  The Hand That Feeds You :Bite 18:18, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
 * The only "delay of game" that a batter can commit is if he refuses to take the batters box; and in that case, the umpire calls strikes. Otherwise, there's no limit to fouls. The maximum appears to be 18 or so. --jpgordon&#8711;&#8710;&#8711;&#8710; 00:50, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Major League Baseball has only kept full pitch-by-pitch statistics since the 1980s, so no official records for longest at-bat or most foul balls (note that the two are not necessarily synonymous) exist. Anecdotal evidence, however, supports Luke Appling with pitch counts ranging from 19 to 24.  The longest documented at-bat was by Alex Cora against Matt Clement in 2004.  Cora's at-bat lasted 18 pitches, including 14 consecutive foul balls.  As jpgordon notes, there are no rules prohibiting an indefinitely long at-bat.  Rules that could impact the theoretical length of an at-bat include 3.05 (no more than one pitching substitution may be made during a given at-bat), though the batter may be substituted as many times as there are available substitutes. &mdash; Lomn 13:32, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Identify these songs?
I was wondering what two of the songs are in this video are. first one plays from start to about 0:49; the second song goes from 3:57 to the end. the lyrics are kind of hard to pick out because the interview go over them. Zealz (talk) 23:20, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

A listen and googling suggest the first one is Lucky Boys Confusion with Hey Drive (you tube link...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqlC_lOI_co) and I couldn't figure out enough lyrics of the second one to get anything on google. I would suggest trying to decipher some of the words and doing a search of say one line in speech marks ("example") and then add lyrics after and search in google. Good luck ny156uk (talk) 18:59, 16 June 2008 (UTC)