Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2015 November 4

= November 4 =

Fictional Character
In Dad's Army, Captain Mannering's wife never appears on-screen, although she is talked about frequently. What do we call this type of character? KägeTorä - (影虎) ( もしもし！ ) 02:50, 4 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Nevermind, the article has it - "Unseen character" KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( もしもし！ ) 03:20, 4 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: Although pronounced 'Mannering', it was spelt Mainwaring. The dumb-ass nephew always called him /Main-wearing/ and had to be corrected repeatedly.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  17:22, 4 November 2015 (UTC)
 * It was Cheeseman, not Pike, who pronounced Mainwaring as written. AlexTiefling (talk) 09:33, 5 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Pike was not Mainwaring's nephew. He was Wilson's nephew, though rumoured to be Wilson's son, due to his relationship with Mavis Pike, Pike's mother. KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( もしもし！ ) 22:11, 5 November 2015 (UTC)
 * From memory and our Private Pike article, Wilson was Pike's "honorary uncle" rather than an actual relative. Alansplodge (talk) 21:03, 7 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Private Pike also says (poorly referenced, but also mentioned here): "The writers, Jimmy Perry and David Croft, confirmed after the series that Wilson was Pike's father." (There was a similar device in It Ain't Half Hot Mum, also by Perry & Croft, where the Sergeant-Major believed that Gunner Parkin was his son). AndrewWTaylor (talk) 21:27, 7 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Quite right; a slip of the keyboard. The relationship was (implied) father and son rather than related uncle and nephew. Being both father and real uncle would have been sailing too close to the wind. Alansplodge (talk) 01:25, 8 November 2015 (UTC)


 * "The Ghost" at TV Tropes has a lot more examples. -- BenRG (talk) 05:52, 4 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Did Columbo's wife ever appear as a character in the TV series, or did Columbo only talk about her a lot? --NorwegianBluetalk 10:53, 4 November 2015 (UTC)
 * No, and the Unseen character article mentions that example. Of course, she did appear elsewhere. Deor (talk) 11:17, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

Translation into Hebrew
I would be grateful if a user could please translate the following into Hebrew. "... a mother who only wanted the best for me, but had to go on her hands and knees to get me. ... She was twice as protective, twice as smothering, twice as emotional." Thank you. Simonschaim (talk) 18:06, 4 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Suitably translating this passage (excerpt of a dialogue?) is beyond the capacity of my non-native Hebrew. As several days have gone by with no takers here since the original posting, you might directly approach users on this list of translators who describe themselves as having native-level Hebrew, or those using the Babel box Category:User he-5. -- Deborahjay (talk) 10:17, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

Walk the stars
At 2:07:30 there's what looks like phraseologism, "to walk the stars" ("Humanity has not changed much since last your kind walked the stars"). In my quick search "walk the stars" doesn't show up anywhere else in the internet. Is it indeed a phrase meaning interstellar travel? Brandmeistertalk  20:30, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

That is exactly what I would think of if I heard/read that phrase. Hotclaws (talk) 20:59, 4 November 2015 (UTC)


 * You can "sail the seas", plus they're (presumably) aliens, so you need to cut them some slack for the walking part. Reminds me of a story about humans actually going sloooowly home on their disabled spaceship by walking/pulling a tow rope attached to some sort of space "anchor". Clarityfiend (talk) 00:13, 5 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Anybody remember the title/author of that story? He's somebody reasonably well known.Clarityfiend (talk) 00:19, 5 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Never mind. I think it's "The Long Walk Home" by Fred Saberhagen. Clarityfiend (talk) 09:49, 5 November 2015 (UTC)
 * It's "The long way home" - one of my favorite short stories. SteveBaker (talk) 15:39, 8 November 2015 (UTC)
 * I stand corrected. Clarityfiend (talk) 12:04, 9 November 2015 (UTC)