Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2017 November 12

= November 12 =

sales [of real estate by lottery in Japan]
I was reading about real estates sales in Japan and how when there are multiple buyers for the same unit, the developer would use a lottery to randomly select a buyer. Wouldn't it make more sense to run an auction-type system where the buyer with the highest bid is selected? Presumably that would yield a much higher sales price. Mũeller (talk) 03:38, 12 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Presumably most buyers would not even try to bid with a high perspective to be outbiddet. Additionally auctions are regulated in many countries, so you need a professional, licensed auctioneer or agency which usually claim a fixed percentage of the auction result as their payment. Besides that real estate professionals usually know very exactly how high they can try to sell, so they dont want to waste money on auctioneers. Besides they are usually hired themselves to organize the sale for the owner, so they only have a minor percentage as payment for themselves which they likely dont want to split if they dont have to. --Kharon (talk) 07:04, 12 November 2017 (UTC)
 * By "an auction-type system", I mean how 99% of all residential real estate transactions are conducted in the West: each buyer makes an offer to the seller, and the seller selects the highest bid. AFAIK there's no auctioneer involved here to take a cut. Mũeller (talk) 13:00, 12 November 2017 (UTC)
 * An auction-type system (buyers making an offer or sellers slowly lowering the price until a buyer shows up) may be common, but 99% of the cases may be overstating it. In particular when dealing with new housing, when people buy from a developer instead of from the previous occupant, the municipality (in particular those with a leftish municipal council) may have set a maximum price even before building began. It's in the interest of voters who currently rent a place but want to buy something that the price remains low. In this case, a lottery or first-come-first-served (with a single waiting list for all social housing development in the municipality) makes a lot of sense. PiusImpavidus (talk) 16:25, 12 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Judging by that link "the West" has real estate agents the same as we have estate agents.  Do these not charge a commission?   Or are sales largely conducted online?   Even so, I would expect the website to take a cut. 82.13.208.70 (talk) 18:20, 13 November 2017 (UTC)

Translation of The Order of Things
Who translated Michel Foucault's The Order of Things from French into English? FreeKnowledgeCreator (talk) 08:07, 12 November 2017 (UTC)
 * The book doesn't say. A web search turned up two people's names in this query and the linked followups, but nothing that looks reliable. --69.159.60.147 (talk) 11:15, 12 November 2017 (UTC)
 * The New York Times review of the first English-language edition, in 1971, states the following: "The translator (whom, with maddening disregard for human effort and responsibility, the publisher leaves anonymous)". See the full review here: . A bit more searching led to this page posted by Alan Sheridan where he claims to be the translator (among a list of other books he has translated). --Xuxl (talk) 17:37, 13 November 2017 (UTC)

"May the road rise to meet you" and other "traditional Irish" blessings
Hi! Over at German Wikipedia, we have a page on this topic and I am asking myself whether this could be a case of an invented tradition. Can you help me trace the roots of the poem/song/blessing "May the road rise to meet you" and the term "traditional Irish blessing" to a reliable source? Like, really reliable. Thanks, --Gnom (talk) 14:11, 12 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Sorry, a thorough trawl of Google failed to find any really reliable source but...
 * In respect of the first phrase, a poster at the Irish Translation Forum says: "Go n-éirí an bóthar leat" DOES NOT mean "May the road rise to meet you". That is the most infamous mistranslation of Irish to English.... it means "May you have a successful journey" - literally "May the road succeed with you".
 * For the text of the full poem, in reply to the same question at Quora, a poster claims that "it was made up by an Episcopal Youth Minister, Rev. Richard Krejcir at All Saints Church, Carmel, California, in 1982 for a youth Irish party and dance, evangelism event in at The Mission Ranch Restaurant... He took Numbers 6:24 and merged it with a Celtic blessing". Alansplodge (talk) 15:32, 12 November 2017 (UTC)
 * The same (unreferenced) etymology is given for Rise (Public Image Ltd song) LongHairedFop (talk) 15:51, 12 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Irish proverb: "If the road rises to meet you, you know you've drunk too much Guinness". Alansplodge (talk) 19:52, 12 November 2017 (UTC)
 * But, I trust, not so much as to break any kind of record. :)  --   Jack of Oz    [pleasantries]   22:08, 12 November 2017 (UTC)
 * An old story, that you know you've had too much to drink when that concrete wall you've been trying to climb over turns out to be a curb. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:24, 13 November 2017 (UTC)


 * I am sorry, but California? The land of remakes?  Episcopalian?  1982?  The Church whose main source of income is selling its churches to become mosques?  A "youth minister (!)"?


 * Next we'll be hearing that shamrocks are native to San Diego, and that the last name Garcia is actually Black Irish. Lets have some independent RS for corroboration on this fairytale. μηδείς (talk) 00:22, 13 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Sadly User:Medeis, there seem to be none. However, have a look at When Irish Eyes Are Smiling for some more fake Irishness. Alansplodge (talk) 15:10, 14 November 2017 (UTC)


 * How does a song written by Chauncey Olcott (and George Graff, Jr., of unknown-to-WP nationality) and made famous by John McCormack become fake because it was written in America? When my mother (born in America) cooks a whole dinner of Rusyn cuisine in the US, is it fake?  Is Jackie Mason a fake Jew?  Was Sonny Davis Jr. a fake African, and a fake Jew?


 * I begin to feel like Christopher Hitchens, who was asked as he crossed the Republican and Northern Irish border if he was Catholic or Protestant. Upon replying "atheist" he was asked, "Yeah, but Catholic atheist, or Protestant atheist?"  Where are the "race is a construct" crowd when you need them?  μηδείς (talk) 02:20, 16 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I'm reminded of a line from Finian's Rainbow: "What does America have more of than Ireland?" ... "Irishmen?" ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 03:00, 16 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Here's a song from an Irish Rovers album, containing that expression. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 04:27, 13 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Thank you, Alansplodge! It really seems to be an invented tradition. --Gnom (talk) 08:36, 13 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Well leaving out the road as in 'Go n-éirí leat' is a good wish too so you can see it doesn't really relate to the road but the person. Dmcq (talk) 14:20, 13 November 2017 (UTC)
 * By the way the Languages reference desk would have been much better for this. Dmcq (talk) 14:25, 13 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Languages, Dmcq? My question concerns history and theology, this is why I posted it here... --Gnom (talk) 14:50, 13 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Theology? Dia is Muire duit might be scraping towards theology but hardly Go n-éirí an bóthar leat. Dmcq (talk) 15:03, 13 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Looking again, yes all those 'Irish Blessings' that are put onto tea towels and suchlike are like a modern day Santa Claus going Ho ho ho. Like that though there is a long history of protection prayers and blessings as in Lorica (prayer) and probably long before. Dmcq (talk) 15:46, 13 November 2017 (UTC)