Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 January 7

= January 7 =

War Memorial in New Jersey
(This ought to be in Humanities, but that page is currently protected)

I have come across a plaque adjacent to a WWI memorial in Vincenttown, NJ with the following poem:


 * In war's grim hour that tested all,
 * Among the first they heard the call.
 * In many lands, far-flung and wide,
 * They bravely fought and bravely died.
 * A grateful nation mourns their loss,
 * A sacrifice in freedom's cause.
 * In alien climes their bodies lie,
 * 'Neath tropic sun and arctic sky,
 * But here they shall forever be,
 * Enshrined in hallowed memory.

Googling the first line of this poem I find exactly three hits: a WWI memorial in Matawan, NJ (50 mi from Vincenttown), a WWII Memorial in Paw Paw, West Virginia, and a paywalled Florida newspaper from 1973.

The question is, can anybody find anything more about the origins, author, and spread of this poem? Not that it's great art exactly, but it's curious how something once at least somewhat widespread has fallen into complete obscurity.68.84.34.56 (talk) 04:48, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Reformatted verse & added title Rojomoke (talk) 06:24, 7 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Googling on the second line finds part of the same verse on another war memorial, this one in in Harriman, NY. Googling on the third line finds, in addition to some of the above, two sources quoting the poem but also not attributing it.  (One is a memorial page to a particular soldier from Maryland, the other a speech given on Memorial Day in Mississippi.)  Googling on the fourth line produces a number of false hits (those words are a bit more generic) as well as repeats of some of the rest.  I'm stopping there. --76.69.45.64 (talk) 10:38, 7 January 2016 (UTC)


 * I selected a line that had the most obscure phrasing, one likely not repeated elsewhere (which was Line 7: In alien climes their bodies lie). I got the same exact results as the original poster.  Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:55, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Googling the first AND second line showed me a WWII memorial in Paw Paw, West Virginia. Alansplodge (talk) 16:56, 7 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Yes, the OP had mentioned that one already. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:58, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * D'oh! Alansplodge (talk) 17:02, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Curiously, the phrase "A sacrifice in freedom's cause" also appears in a eulogy for Hendrick Theyanoguin by an English writer called William Rider; see London magazine or Gentleman's monthly intelligencer, Volume 24 (1755), but this seems likely to be just a coincidence. Having plumbed the very depths of Google, I give up. Alansplodge (talk) 17:32, 7 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Looking for the eight line of the eulogy. The specific plaque with the poem in the WWI memorial in Matawan, NJ is dated 1961, making that there is, on that side, no indication that the poem was written before WWII. One found 1922 article published in a Paradise of the Pacific periodical, by L.H. Daingerfield and titled "On arctic peaks, 'neath tropic skies"  could hypothetically have indicated coinage, or influence.  Google ngram is not at all decisive about it unfortunately. --Askedonty (talk) 19:39, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Unless I'm mistaken, there weren't many US troops engaged in either the tropics or the Arctic in World War I, so it seems likely to me that World War II was the subject. Alansplodge (talk) 10:44, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * A minor quibble, and not that it's likely, but did no US Navy ships in the North Atlantic ever cross the Arctic Circle? I don't know of any naval engagements, but it seems possible that some allied ships did so to reach, say, Murmansk. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.1195} 185.74.232.130 (talk) 14:51, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Quite possibly, however the poem specifically says that that's where "their bodies lie". In World War II, I thought of the Aleutian Islands Campaign but that appears to be further south than London, so I'm struggling to think of which "arctic sky" the poet was talking about. Alansplodge (talk) 22:30, 8 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Accordingly I should have extended the denomination of the memorial in New Jersey to that of a "War memorial" ( like the OP in the title, not a "WWI memorial"). I wanted to make the correction now, but I do not know how it should be called; the official New Jersey War Memorial is the Trenton War Memorial . The memorial we are considering is located in Aberdeen ( in New Jersey). --Askedonty (talk) 11:50, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Post
Please provide me with videos on youtube of people singing Please Mr. Postman to Royal Mail employees


 * How come you can't search for these yourself, ? Or are you asking for somebody to make such a video? If so, Wikipedia is not the right place for that kind of request. And please sign your posts with four tildes ( ~ ). --ColinFine (talk) 13:35, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Looking for an Australian ad
Hi, there was an ad on Australian tv a while back, but I can't remember what it was for, and I can't find it on youtube. It was set at a wedding, and the bride throws the bouquet to her bridesmaids. Then a bloke rushes and catches it, as if taking a spectacular mark in Australian Rules Football. He screams out, "It's gotta be the grab of the year!" Then everyone is looking at him, and he just goes, "What?" and looks dumbfounded. Does anyone know anything about it, so I can try and find it on Youtube? Cheers, IBE (talk) 17:34, 7 January 2016 (UTC)


 * There was a similar trope in an ad in the US, whether or not it was for the same company. I can't remember the deails enough to say mor than that I seen it. μηδείς (talk) 19:49, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I definitely remember the ad, but the details are hazy, was it a KFC ad? Owing to their sponsorship of the cricket? Vespine (talk) 22:43, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

number of German people killed by eisenhower
how many German people were killed by president Eisenhower following world war 2? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hillman12 (talk • contribs)


 * Personally, I'd guess zero. How many died because of his actions or inactions is a hard question that is unlikely to have an even approximately correct answer - there are just too many assumption, and many hypotheticals. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 21:24, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Well, I thought I remember having read somewhere that it was 1.7 million.Hillman12 (talk) 22:53, 7 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Some shocking number of people died in the "population transfers" (expulsion of ethnic Germans from what's now western Poland, and Poles from what's now western Belarus and Ukraine; I'm probably forgetting some). Did Eisenhower have a role in that? —Tamfang (talk) 22:26, 7 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Well, such claims are part of the standard trifecta of Holocaust denial/Holocaust apologetics. "It didn't happen, they had it coming, the others did the same". Unless there are reliable sources being offered I'd ignore the claim. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 22:43, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I have never seen the use of the term "trifecta" in this context - is it usual? --KnightMove (talk) 07:15, 9 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I've seen (and heard) it used in that way, particularly by people who want to impress with their large vocabulary ;-). It's not particularly common, I think. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 08:51, 9 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Well if we were talking about the holocaust it would be a tipical example of whataboutism, (What about the Allies' atrocities!) but we are not talking about the holocaust, are we? --Lgriot (talk) 20:37, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * The OP was implying it, but he won't be back. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:45, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Your mind-reading ability amazes me, Sir Bedivere. —Tamfang (talk) 21:25, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Ya know, sometimes I'm so smart it actually frightens me. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:22, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

In a subsequent book, Crimes And Mercies (1997), Bacque claimed that Allied policies (particularly Soviet, but with significant numbers in other allied countries) led to the premature deaths of 5.7 million German civilians, 2.5 million ethnic German refugees from Eastern Europe and 1.1 million German P.O.W.s due to Allied starvation and expulsion policies in the five years following World War II. Read more. Raquel Baranow (talk) 22:49, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * See also: Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50) Raquel Baranow (talk) 00:46, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Whoever this Bacque is, he apparently neglects to mention that Hitler is the root cause of all of that misery. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:06, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * James Bacque is a well-known, but discredited author who first made theses claims. You need to see the talk page as much as the article there. Rmhermen (talk) 06:58, 8 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Please note, this user has been indeffed as distruptive. μηδείς (talk) 21:30, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

new high school grading system in South Korea
Your article "Academic grading in South Korea" mentions the high school grading system used before and after 2004, and then mentions that a new 5-point grading system that "will" be implemented in 2014.

I suppose this was written a few years ago, and not updated. I could not find anything about the new grading system online.

Kindly update the article. Thanks.109.255.252.223 (talk) 22:00, 7 January 2016 (UTC)


 * You could have done it yourself.
 * You could have clicked the 'talk' or 'discussion' link at the top of the article, and put your request on the article's discussion page where it belongs.
 * If that didn't help, you could have noticed at the top of the discussion page a notice about where to find people who are specifically interested in contributing to Korea-related articles, and followed its implied suggestion to raise the issue at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Korea. (Hm, those boxes could be reworded to make that invitation more explicit.)
 * Instead, you went out of your way to bring the issue here, where there's no reason to think that anyone who reads it has any particular knowledge of or interest in Korean schools. —Tamfang (talk) 22:36, 7 January 2016 (UTC)


 * You could have put that more kindly. --76.69.45.64 (talk) 02:26, 8 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Someone more diplomatic than I am could make a template, which I could then invoke next time. —Tamfang (talk) 21:34, 8 January 2016 (UTC)