Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2017 November 27

= November 27 =

A question about the images on the page on heraldic attitude
What is that thing between the legs of the lion? Not-bot (talk) 07:50, 27 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Pizzle is the technical term. Tevildo (talk) 08:18, 27 November 2017 (UTC)
 * There is a convention that all heraldic beasts are male (apart from the pelican). Wymspen (talk) 11:34, 27 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Knossos fresco in throne palace.JPG (μηδείς (talk) 16:43, 30 November 2017 (UTC))]]
 * And the (winged) griffin; a "male griffin" is wingless, nobody knows why, and I don't know if it's even attested. —Tamfang (talk) 07:41, 28 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Attitude (heraldry), to save someone a search. —Tamfang (talk) 07:41, 28 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Griffins are generally assumed to be pre-modern interpretations of the fossils of various ceratopsians, especially Protoceratops. μηδείς (talk) 16:45, 30 November 2017 (UTC)
 * ..." though this hypothesis has been strongly contested" per our article. Alansplodge (talk) 18:11, 30 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Alan, the source for that claim in that article is a post at blogspot. The Greeks and certainly other oriental cultures were long acquainted with both the British Isles and Hyperborea (assumed to be China, beyond the Dzungarian Pass.  The Minoan civilization was not Greek, but preceded the Mycenaean civilization. And ceratopsians were not limited to Mongolia, although due to geological factors (rock strata) their fossils are more common there.  Triceratops was found in North America, for example.  In any case, fossils (or their rumours) of beaked four-limbed beasts were known to (if not understood by) the ancients. μηδείς (talk) 20:46, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

What happens when a poet laureate dies?
For example, when Peggy Vining died (I know it may be controversial to ask a question related to that), does she still remain the poet laureate of Arkansas for a bit afterwards until a new laureate is chosen, does a vice/acting poet laureate takes her spot, or is there a brief "interregnum", or does something else happen, or is a new laureate chosen right away and no editors have added that to Wikipedia yet? -- MrHumanPersonGuy (talk) 12:40, 27 November 2017 (UTC)
 * For Arkansas, it appears to be up to the Governor. See and . Nanonic (talk) 13:01, 27 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Old poets never die! —2606:A000:4C0C:E200:5BE:8B3:6285:3518 (talk) 19:47, 27 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Some particle analogous to kingons may be involved. HenryFlower 12:46, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Just to carry this discussion along this tangent, this is why relativity of simultaneity matters, and why information cannot travel faster than the speed of light. If the information did travel instanteously, then there would exist some frames of reference where the kingon particle (or queon) arrives before it left.  That breaks causality.  I know we're just being goofy, but if we're also trying to consistently goofy, it bears following the train of thought till it reaches the station.  -- Jayron 32 14:52, 28 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Regulars in rec.heraldry and related newsgroups, back in the day, included a monarchist named Louis (er, I can't now recall his surname; only that it is common among American Jews); possibly a troll, but quite polite about it, and a good participant otherwise. I said that if the heir to a throne were off at another star when the king died, and the news of the king's death reached that star after the heir died, then whether or not the heir should be counted as a king depends on the frame of reference; and Louis said that proves that relativity is bunk. —Tamfang (talk) 19:05, 2 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Louis Epstein maybe? —Tamfang (talk) 02:50, 18 May 2023 (UTC)