Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2023 July 2

= July 2 =

after movie drinks
When I was in my teens back in the 1980s, I used to fly TWA. As part of their in-flight entertainment, they showed movies. When the closing credits were rolling, flight attendants served lemonade to passengers. I was wondering what after-movie drinks, if any, were served to passengers aboard Pan Am flights. Anyone know?2603:7000:8641:810E:EC94:8C1C:C72B:3835 (talk) 07:01, 2 July 2023 (UTC)
 * I flew the TWA route from SF to NY in the 1980s. I don't recall ever receiving lemonade. Were you in first class? Viriditas (talk) 10:25, 3 July 2023 (UTC)
 * No, I was in coach.2603:7000:8641:810E:338:32DA:589A:8A1B (talk) 01:16, 4 July 2023 (UTC)
 * By the 80s, they had full drink service. Previous to deregulation, the service was very different. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 21:24, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Estonian Fraktur source on 1917 election
Can anyone decipher the first word in this Estonian Fraktur text? I have the rest of the article under control but I cannot match the first word with any village or area in the county. (ping, ). -- Soman (talk) 10:56, 2 July 2023 (UTC)


 * I think it is Reiust, seen here, the elative of Reiu. For a similar use of the elative, see Londonist here, page 2, rightmost column, above the middle. --Lambiam 12:59, 2 July 2023 (UTC)

History of the Conservatory of Flowers
In our article on the Conservatory of Flowers it says:


 * During the winter of 1995–1996, a series of large storms exacerbated the ongoing deterioration of the wood structure. The 100 mph (161 km/h) winds blew out 30,000 fogged white glass panes in the conservatory, shattered the white glass dome, and weakened the structure. In addition, 15 percent of the plant collection was lost due to exposure to the cold, wintry air and flying glass.

I was living in the city at that time, and I remember the squalls, but I don’t recall the wind. I also remember that the conservatory was shutdown. Does anyone have any good links to news coverage of this storm? Was the wind storm centered in Golden Gate Park, or did it damage other parts of the city? Viriditas (talk) 23:58, 2 July 2023 (UTC)
 * , my father was employed by a general contractor in San Francisco called Anderson Contructors that ran the renovation of that splendid building from 1978 to 1981, so I have long been familiar with the structural problems of this beautiful edifice. I have toured it several times. I have a son who was born in 1989 with a variety of birth defects including a heart valve defect that was scheduled to be surgically corrected at the UC San Francisco Medical Center on Parnassus the day of that storm. The procedure went fine and we spent the night at my wife's aunt's home nearby in South San Francisco. We drove through Golden Gate Park the following day, and witnessed the widespread distruction. I went by the conservatory a week or two later, and the damage was shocking. My recollection is that this particular windstorm came from the opposite direction than usual. Strong winds hitting San Francisco usually come off the Pacific Ocean generally from the west, and the trees are grown and naturally shaped to deal with these prevailing winds. This particular storm blew in from the northeast, and the trees were unprepared for the onslaught. Countless trees fell and may more lost branches that were flung as projectiles. I am reasonably sure that the damage was more widespread than just San Francisco, and must have affected other cities like Berkeley and Oakland and many others as well. I am certain that the archives of the San Francisco Chronicle would have extensive coverage of this particular storm, but I am no longer a subscriber. Cullen328 (talk) 08:01, 3 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks for sharing, Cullen. Isn't it amazing how the longest lasting memories are the ones associated with emotions?  That's the key to the art of memory, by the way.  In any case, I will take a look at the Chronicle archives.  It's just a little upsetting to me that I don't remember how damaging this storm was, but given that you were so close to it (UCSF is relatively close to the Conservatory, maybe five minutes by car), it makes sense that you do. Viriditas (talk) 08:38, 3 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Perhaps A storm to remember—25 years ago, powerful tempest pounded Bay Area about the California weather on December 12, 1995. Alansplodge (talk) 12:53, 3 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks. That's a great place to start, but says nothing about the conservatory, so I haven't added it.  But I will continue to look. Viriditas (talk) 07:36, 5 July 2023 (UTC)


 * I lived in Sutro Heights then, and that may be the storm that provoked me to say to my flatmate, "There be times when I'm just as pleased not to be livin' in a quaint old fishin' village!" But I don't recall any damage other than in the Park; indeed my only specific memory is of seeing a huge tree knocked down in the Panhandle. —Tamfang (talk) 20:25, 3 July 2023 (UTC)
 * That kind of touches on my original concern. The link provided up above says that 1000 trees were downed by the storm in GGP.  I'm wondering if this was an unusual weather phenomenon of some kind like a highly localized microburst.  Although I don't know much about meteorology, where I live now in Hawaii, seems to have microbursts as part of their normal weather.  In fact, before moving here, I had never visually seen a microburst before.  But for whatever reason, you can visually see them here quite regularly, probably because of the ocean and the horizon providing line of sight.  I'm wondering if that's what SF experienced. Viriditas (talk) 07:42, 5 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Another alternative is that you've forgotten it. In the UK, the Great storm of 1987 is well known, but an almost-equally destructive storm in January 1990 is mostly forgotten (I didn't know it was called the Burns' Day Storm until I Googled it just now). I remember it because I was on a Venture Scout night-hike which had to be abandoned, but nobody else seems able to recall it. Alansplodge (talk) 20:18, 5 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Yes, I’m sure you’re right. Like Cullen up above, I have distinct, unambiguous, long-term memories of weather events where something impacted me directly, such as getting stuck in a blizzard and being buried in six feet of snow, or driving through a flooded valley and having my engine go dead, etc.  I also think the damage in the storm in question might have been highly localized, which is why I can’t recall it personally, as I lived in another neighborhood outside that impact zone. Viriditas (talk) 03:02, 7 July 2023 (UTC)