Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2016 February 18

= February 18 =

Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
Was Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey released as a single in the UK or Europe? And if so, how did it do? -- SGBailey (talk) 10:24, 18 February 2016 (UTC)
 * The article itself has information on chart performance in West Germany. I may need to look again, but I think that was in Europe...-- Jayron 32 11:14, 18 February 2016 (UTC)
 * OK, a badly phrased question. There are lots more countries to Europe, and I find it strange thatthere is no mention of UK. -- SGBailey (talk) 11:57, 18 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Discogs shows physical singles for the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Brazil, and India. A search for "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey in the UK" results in several sites that state that the song was not released as a single in the UK (the first single from Ram in the UK was "The Back Seat of my Car"); none of the sites that I looked at seem particularly reliable. -- LarryMac  | Talk  13:58, 18 February 2016 (UTC)


 * It certainly didn't chart in the UK, if we can take Guinness British Hit Singles as authoritative, which I think we can. DuncanHill (talk) 14:09, 18 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Yup, anything I can find (for example this and this) says that it wasn't released as a single in the UK and The Back Seat of My Car was released instead (and didn't do particularly well).  FlowerpotmaN &middot;( t ) 14:34, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

Thanks -- SGBailey (talk) 20:07, 18 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Here's an interesting tidbit that I discovered during research ... there is an instrumental version of Ram, entitled Thrillington. It was recorded approximately at the same time as "Ram", but not released until 1977; and was not officially credited to McCartney (details in the linked article). There evidently was a single of the Thrillington version of "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" in the UK, but I don't know how it charted.  -- LarryMac  | Talk  15:52, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

RV - Filming
When did filming of the road comedy film RV began and when did it end?5.81.235.210 (talk) 19:11, 18 February 2016 (UTC)
 * The article you linked to has this section RV (film) which has the dates listed. MarnetteD&#124;Talk 19:39, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

A U.S. quarter-cent coin in Thoreau's Walden?
Hello. In Walden (1854), Thoreau lists various expenses, including such items as "1.73 1/2", "1.04 3/4", or "a balance of $25.21 3/4", from https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Walden/Chapter_I

But half cent (United States coin) states, "The half cent is the smallest denomination of United States coin ever minted."

So, how did Thoreau make such 3/4 expenses? Thanks, 62.147.62.247 (talk) 19:18, 18 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Maybe he didn't pay cash immediately. Maybe he had a charge account with the merchant, and paid periodically.  (Charge accounts with individual merchants did exist in the nineteenth century).  Robert McClenon (talk) 19:33, 18 February 2016 (UTC)


 * I am fairly sure this question has been asked before. This Bit (money) will answer some of your question. There is also some info Spanish dollar in this article. I have a memory (perhaps apocryphal) that a large coin would be cut into fourths or eighths and those would be called "bits" that add to the confusion over this. Other editors will likely have better info then this. MarnetteD&#124;Talk 19:37, 18 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Hence the Psittacoideally popular "pieces of eight". {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 185.74.232.130 (talk) 18:13, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

Thanks, but the bit was 1/8th of a dollar, 12 1/2 cents, so how would that explain Thoreau's 3/4 values? Were they cutting half-cent coins to make quarter-cent coins in Thoreau's area? (The only quarter-denomination coin I can think of is the British farthing, 1/4th of a penny, and I wondered if maybe such coins were informally used as quarter-cents in Thoreau's area, but that's totally hypothetical too.) 62.147.62.247 (talk) 19:52, 18 February 2016 (UTC) -- P.S.: Oh, did you mean the picayune, 6 1/4¢? 62.147.62.247 (talk) 19:55, 18 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Did he only buy one at a time, or was that the cost per item and he bought several? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:39, 18 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Several, it's from a list of his total expenses. (It's buried in the first chapter, but you could search within the Wikisource link above for "3/4" to see it directly.) 62.147.25.64 (talk) 18:09, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

In the 20th century some US states issued sales tax tokens denominated in mills (1/10 cent). Is it possible that for some reason 19th-century Massachusetts had state tokens of some sort, or some place within Massachusetts had local ones, that were denominated in 1/4 cents? Alternatively, could Thoreau have not literally meant what he wrote in these passages? --69.159.9.222 (talk) 06:14, 19 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Yes, Thoreau can be ironic or sarcastic, but I don't think that's the case in this list? He's just trying to make a point about the costs of his lifestyle. 62.147.25.64 (talk) 18:09, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

Well, it seems his odd 3/4 cent values could be explained away at least by the use at the time of the picayune. (Though probably under another name in New England, from https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fippenny_bit and its note.) Plus the half-cent coin and/or the bit for the 1/2 cent totals.

Maybe there were additional means to generate fractional cents in Thoreau's area (such as your sales tax tokens suggestion), but I think these ones are enough to clear my puzzlement. (I've posted the results on the talk page for Walden so that its maintainers can integrate them if they wish.) Thanks to all! 62.147.25.64 (talk) 18:09, 19 February 2016 (UTC)


 * We still have 9/10ths of a cent listed on every gas station price per gallon of gas. We simply total all of it up, then round at the end (I'm not sure if that's rounding up or down, though).  Of course, back then portions of a cent would be far more valuable than they are now, so rather than rounding, they may well have kept the fractions on the account until they added up to a full cent. StuRat (talk) 18:22, 19 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Yes, but I should have mentioned that his list is about totals for 8 months of expenses. Why would he end up with 3/4 cent in a total of what he actually paid? I mean, any rounding up or down would have eventually occured several times after 8 months, right? Also, I suppose he'd make his list after clearing any balance owned. So I think any remaining 3/4 in his totals would have to be something he physically paid. 62.147.25.68 (talk) 16:04, 20 February 2016 (UTC)
 * So the total ends up with 3/4, rather than it being the unit price? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:36, 20 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Yes: "The expense of food for eight months, namely, from July 4th to March 1st" has such totals as "Rye meal ................. 1.04 3/4", and another list has "Clothing, etc., eight months ............  8.40-3/4". That's why I have to suppose something such as the picayune was used at some point to actually pay for it. 62.147.25.68 (talk) 18:53, 20 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Possibly he had bought a year's supply, and was budgeting in 8 month intervals for some reason? MChesterMC (talk) 09:56, 22 February 2016 (UTC)


 * The total of all the items purchased in one place may have then been rounded to the nearest cent, but he kept the individual prices separate in his accounts. I believe this same process is used today for commodities, where fractions of a cent per kg, etc., may still apply. StuRat (talk) 03:30, 23 February 2016 (UTC)