Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2022 December 26

= December 26 =

A Roman Emperor invented the Whoopee Cushion
is a factoid repeated on many websites, including Wikipedia's article on Whoopee Cushion (since 2010). The claim's cited book source does indeed mention Roman Emperor Elagabulus' ...practice of seating [...] his guests on 'whoopee cushions' that let out a farting noise but when I checked that book's primary source, Historia Augusta (English translation here, lines 25:2–3 (Latin available by clicking 🇻🇦), it tells a slightly different story: Some of his humbler friends he would seat on air-pillows instead of on cushions and let out the air while they were dining, so that often the diners were suddenly found under the table. The Roman emperor's prank here being not the sound of flatulence, but that the seated unexpectedly found themselves lowered below the table. I'm new to editing Wikipedia and not sure whether or not to remove the claim, considering that it is cited in a source that looks reputable. What should you do when a cited work's own source doesn't line up with its claim? --Vuccala (talk) 00:22, 26 December 2022 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia policy mandates that the content of the source that was cited in the article stays in the article. So, if the source that is being used in the article says Elagabulus was effectively the inventor of the whoopee cushion as we know it today, then that is what the article should say. I hope this helps. Dinglepincter (talk) 04:07, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * If a claimed fact is demonstrably false, it has to go. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 04:40, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * And the citation with it. --Lambiam 10:59, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * As ever, the best place to discuss this is the article talk page, but I agree with Bugs. Simply letting the air out of a cushion would only produce a hiss: to generate a bilabial trill the air needs to vibrate flexible lips of some sort, so it needs to be desgned to do that. Shantavira|feed me 09:11, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * On a practical level, making a whoopee cushion before the invention of vulcanised rubber in the 19th century seems a bit of a stretch. Alansplodge (talk) 12:27, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * And the boy gets a cigar! ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:06, 26 December 2022 (UTC)

By the way, the Historia Augusta is a very strange literary entity, which is distrusted by historians... AnonMoos (talk) 23:31, 26 December 2022 (UTC)


 * So doing things by the book, I have started a request for comment at Talk:Whoopee cushion. Your support would be much appreciated. Alansplodge (talk) 18:41, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

Western Chu
Why was Xiang Yu the Hegemon King of Western Chu? His entire realm was in the eastern portion of the former feudal state of Chu. Google translating zh:西楚 doesn’t seem to get me an answer. KAVEBEAR (talk) 06:09, 26 December 2022 (UTC)


 * Hello KAVEBEAR, I believe this article might have the answers you are looking for. Cheers Dinglepincter (talk) 15:50, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * I believe I linked that article already in the original question so I was aware of it… No it does not answer my question.KAVEBEAR (talk) 15:54, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * I’m glad I could help. Cheers Dinglepincter (talk) 17:01, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * I don’t believe you helped. You relinked an article asked in the original question. KAVEBEAR (talk) 21:12, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * This appears to be scraped and auto-translated content from somewhere with no author indicated, so take as you will. It gives four reasons for choosing Pengcheng for a capital, the question seems to be why not taking Guanzhong for himself? fiveby(zero) 17:36, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
 * The question was why is there a Western before his title and the state ruled if his entire realm is in the eastern portion of the much larger Chu of the Warring States Period. Xiang Yu was a Chu noble who wanted to return and rule his homeland not a foreign region (to him) in Guangzhong. To add more context, Western Chu was a smaller feudal state he carved out for himself after he overthrew the Qin dynasty that is located in former lands of Wu and eastern Chu. The confusion is why historian or him called it Western Chu when geographically it’s not in the western portion of the former Chu state. Anyway, question still not answered. KAVEBEAR (talk) 21:11, 26 December 2022 (UTC)

Never mind figure it out myself. Pengcheng is located in Western Chu according to this map while the former Wu and Yue state is considered Eastern Chu. KAVEBEAR (talk) 21:22, 26 December 2022 (UTC)