Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2016 October 3

= October 3 =

St. Leon Bembo
Who was this figure, if he even existed? Our article says that St. Leon, Indiana was named for him, and a Google search for his name produces references to Indiana and occasional mentions of places in Venice and Croatia (supposedly he was a Venetian figure who was buried in today's Croatia), but everything's really sparse, and these sources (largely not WP:RS) can't even agree on whether he were canonised or merely beatified. I'd expect there to be some coverage in reliable sources for a mediaeval Italian saint, but again, I'm finding nothing that's solidly historical; he doesn't appear in the online Catholic Encyclopedia (I checked their indices and searched for without success), I'm not finding any hagiographies, and I can't think where to find a comprehensive directory of Catholic saints. Nyttend (talk) 02:49, 3 October 2016 (UTC)
 * On the [] Italian wikipedia there are two mentions of two bishops in the 11th century called Leone Bembo. No mention of them being saints though. Sleigh (talk) 05:36, 3 October 2016 (UTC)


 * There apparently was a Saint Leon Bemno. He's buried in Croatia. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:42, 3 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Indeed, Venetian. Buried there because it was part of the Stato da Màr. Muffled Pocketed  13:42, 3 October 2016 (UTC)

Nixon in China libretto - Kissinger
In the following exchange in Nixon in China, Alice Goodman seems to be insinuating that Kissinger was involved in some sort of sexual shennanigans. It's 1972. Was that ever the case? And does CHOU's gris sentence mean more than that he can translate into French at inappropriate times? --Tagishsimon (talk) 16:16, 3 October 2016 (UTC)


 * NIXON- My right hand man. You’d never think to look at him that he’s James Bond.
 * CHOU- And all the time he’s doing undercover work.
 * KISSINGER- I had a cover.
 * MAO- In the dark all diplomats are gray.
 * CHOU- Or ‘’gris’’ when their work takes them to ‘’Paris’’.
 * KISSINGER- I pull the wool over their...
 * NIXON- Stop!
 * MAO- He pulls the wool over their lap.
 * NIXON- He’s a consummate diplomat. Girls think he’s lukewarm when he’s hot.
 * MAO- You also dally with your girls?
 * NIXON- His girls, not mine.
 * KISSINGER- He never tells.
 * CHOU- And this is an election year.


 * See here. -- Jayron 32 16:44, 3 October 2016 (UTC)


 * gris in French may also mean drunk. (per Larousse) 174.88.11.149 (talk) 17:18, 3 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Thanks both. --Tagishsimon (talk) 00:54, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
 * The proverb is la nuit, tous les chats sont gris, which is what I would speculate Chou or the fictional Chou of the musical, I suppose had in mind. --Trovatore (talk) 04:57, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
 * A reference to Kissinger as an Éminence grise perhaps? Rmhermen (talk) 05:28, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
 * No. I already answered this.  It's the proverb. --Trovatore (talk) 07:27, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
 * But Mao already essentially says the proverb, Chou translating two words to French adds little. Rmhermen (talk) 17:05, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
 * As I always heard it, it's a French proverb, which would be why he said it in French. It's true that the picture on searching is a bit more muddled than that.  But that's the way I always thought of it anyway. --Trovatore (talk) 18:43, 4 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Conceivable allusion to how Benjamin Franklin enjoyed his time as an envoy in Paris? —Tamfang (talk) 07:26, 5 October 2016 (UTC)

Mau or Chou says, a few line before the above "I see Paris can spare you now". What was going on in Paris prior to this ping-pong summit? --Tagishsimon (talk) 16:25, 5 October 2016 (UTC)


 * See Paris Peace Accords, for which Kissinger won his Nobel Prize. -- Jayron 32 01:36, 6 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Oh yeah, well, that. I'm sure I'd have got there in the end. I'm just a bit focussed on British India right now. Ahem. Thanks.

Problematic nature of classification
Wikepedia has little direct coverage of what I'd call the problems of classification. classification problem is a redirect to the DAB classification. Category is also not helpful. SEP has a nice entry on "categories" here, and I think that's closest in spirit to what I'm looking for, but I'd like more, possibly a little more grounded in application and more contemporary in perspective.

Is there some WP page I'm missing that discusses the general problems and difficulties with classifying things? Are there any other (relatively brief) scholarly sources you could direct me to? I don't want a whole text book on mereology or an essay on strongly typed computer languages, or an implementation of document classification. Rather, a bird's-eye view review article or something designed for upper-level college students would be preferred, ideally something that is general enough to pertain to both e.g. cladistics and genre. Thanks! SemanticMantis (talk) 17:03, 3 October 2016 (UTC)
 * The book titled Everything Is Miscellaneous may be what you are looking for. -- Jayron 32 17:35, 3 October 2016 (UTC)