Amusing Wikipedia Stuff [split topic]

[Obel]

An article on the Guardian today pointed me towards the wiki of erotic fiction author Chuck Tingle and it's made my day:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Tingle

"Tingle presents himself as a taekwondo grandmaster from Billings, Montana, who acquired a PhD in holistic massage at DeVry University (which does not offer such a degree)"

His book titles are phenomenal.

[JesusAndYourBush]

In 1975, Petersen and his wife Joanne Brady welcomed a daughter, Maite. In June 2003, Petersen married longtime girlfriend Gina Cirone. He has two grandsons, Mazrik William (born October 2003) and Indigo August (born August 2009). He is an avid Chicago Cubs fan. In 2004, he described to Playboy a near-death experience he had in the 1980s which gave him "assurance" that there is an afterlife.[26]

On July 5, 2011, Petersen and Cirone (via surrogate) welcomed opposite-sex twins (a son and a daughter).[27]


Love the image of them waving at their baby comes down a ramp

I can't see which part suggests a ramp.  (I even went to the wiki page in case there was a photo featuring said ramp.)

EDIT: Oh, on Googling surrogate ramp, it appears there's *some* sort of a connection bertween the words, but it's written in Double-Dutch so I'm none the wiser.

[PlanktonSideburns]

I can't see which part suggests a ramp.  (I even went to the wiki page in case there was a photo featuring said ramp.)

EDIT: Oh, on Googling surrogate ramp, it appears there's *some* sort of a connection bertween the words, but it's written in Double-Dutch so I'm none the wiser.

Sorry, dunno whee I got the ramp from, reading between the lines I guess

[popcorn]

Reading about the guy who attempted to send a letterbomb to Bjork and then shot himself:

After López's suicide, Björk said in a statement that she was "very distressed" by the incident. She said, "It's terrible, very terrible. It's a very sad thing that someone would shoot his face off"

[Mr Trumpet]

Not wikipedia, but I enjoy browsing fanmade wikis like this one dedicated to One Foot in the Grave. The article for Victor Meldrew contains only one item under "Trivia":

Victor Meldrew was seen naked twice, first time was Hearts of Darkness and the second time was The Exterminating Angel.

https://theonefootinthegrave.fandom.com/wiki/Victor_Meldrew

[famethrowa]

Regarding the demise of arty singer Cathy Berberian:

On 7 March 1983, in a broadcast on RAI Italian Television that marked the centennial of Karl Marx's death, Berberian had planned to perform the Italian version of "The Internationale" in the style of Marilyn Monroe. On March 5, she called Luciano Berio to discuss ideas about the performance, but died the next day of a "massive" heart attack.

[buttgammon]

Brilliant quotation marks there!

[seepage]

Googling Cathy I came across the excellently-named composer & music theorist, Henri Pousseur.

[jenna appleseed]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Isaacs

Hurriedly cut & pasted and abandoned ten years ago.

"Since singer Gregory Isaacs died on Monday, two women have come forward claiming to be his wife. June Isaacs, who lives in Kingston, and London-based Linda Isaacs both say they were the 'Cool Ruler's' number one. Fifty-year-old June-Anne Isaacs told The Gleaner she and Isaacs were married in December 1983. Gregory also had a son Kevin Issacs

Gregory Issacs was a Rastaman"

(my brain: "and so was Michael Fish")

[Bronzy]

An article on the Guardian today pointed me towards the wiki of erotic fiction author Chuck Tingle and it's made my day:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Tingle

"Tingle presents himself as a taekwondo grandmaster from Billings, Montana, who acquired a PhD in holistic massage at DeVry University (which does not offer such a degree)"

His book titles are phenomenal.

Handsome Sentient Food Pounds My Butt and Turns Me Gay: Eight Tales of Hot Food and Beverage Love

[Famous Mortimer]

There's a delightful reading of "Space Raptor Butt Invasion" at a sci-fi convention a few years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kub4OJcWgkg&t=3s

[GMTV]

Derek Fowlds page describes his funeral

He died at Royal United Hospital in Bath on 17 January 2020 at age 82, from complications of heart failure and sepsis, which had followed pneumonia.[4][5][1] His funeral took place at St Katharine's Church in Holt, Wiltshire on 17 February 2020; Basil Brush was among the mourners and recited a self-written poem during the service.[6]

There's a BBC article linked which is a jokey description of basil brush attending, with a few obvious references to the fact ITS A PUPPET. I love the wiki's concise and unflinching summary of him being a mourner and reading a self written poem.

[Jake Thingray]

Not wikipedia, but I enjoy browsing fanmade wikis

Whoever's taken it upon themselves to conceive The Benny Hill Show Wikia is under the impression that when the horrible Hill did a sketch called "Opportunity's Knocking", that's what Hughie Green's talent contest was actually called, also that The South Bank Show was a variety show, and that Godalming is not a town in Surrey but the name of a house.

[kalowski]

Ronnie James Dio

In September 2003, he accidentally severed his thumb during a gardening accident when a heavy garden gnome fell onto it. Dio was concerned he would no longer be able to do his signature metal horns hand gesture, but a doctor managed to re-attach it.

[Hey, Punk!]

The 'Political views' section of John Humphrys page is bizarre, I only know him as the Mastermind bloke so cannot picture him actually saying any of this.

Humphrys has been described as a "natural liberal" and does not view himself as conservative, saying; "I am not conservative, you know. I am genuinely one of those pathetic people who has very strong views about issues".[9]

He also stated that his political views are heavily influenced by what he sees and who he talks to as a reporter. "So every other bloody week I change my mind about something or other, and when you vote, you look for the party that comes closest to what you believe."[9]

When asked if he was happy with having the extracts of his books published in the Daily Mail, Humphreys responded saying: "Yes. They did and they not only did that, but they also sought my approval. I was not particularly happy with the splash [the headline] the Mail used, but you know... I don't give a flying fuck whether people think that a particular newspaper is biased in this way or that way. All I'm concerned with is that my material is presented in the way I've written it and they didn't change a word."[9]

He also responded to a further question titled "Do you understand why some people don't like the Daily Mail?" saying that he has always read the Daily Mail simply because it reaches an awful lot of people. And that it may not always be compatible with his own views, but said that he also thinks the same about The Guardian, which hosted the interview.[9]

He views himself as feminist: "I detest the word feminism, because of course I'm a feminist," he says. "God, why does one have to say it? Obviously, obviously... Racism is a profoundly moral issue, as is feminism. That's why I refused to wear one of those "This is what a feminist looks like" T-shirts. No, it isn't. This is what a white man looks like, who happens to believe that women are equal to men. I mean, even saying it makes you sound like a dickhead."[9]

[petril]

I can picture him saying all that, but also at the end taking a puff of a little rollie in some little caff somewhere

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The final piece of information in this brief entry took me by surprise.

It Doesn't Have to Be this Way is a single released by British band The Blow Monkeys in early 1987. It is one of the band's best known singles, and hit the top 5 on the UK Singles Chart. The song was featured in the 1987 comedy film Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol.

[dissolute ocelot]

I like how Wikipedia really does have an article on everything. From Animal locomotion

Animals move for a variety of reasons, such as to find food, a mate, a suitable microhabitat, or to escape predators.

What about revenge? EDIT: That only gets a subsection, Revenge in animals

Humans are not the only species known to take revenge. There are several species such as camels, elephants, fish, lions,[40] coots,[41] crows, and many species of primates (chimpanzees, macaques, baboons, etc.) that have been recognized to seek revenge.

[Hey, Punk!]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_Richardson#Personal_life

Personal life

She is somewhat interested in falconry.[12]

[petril]

it's like the interest Alan Partridge would bottle out of doing anything with

[Sonny_Jim]

I'm guessing we've all seen the List of unusual articles on Wikipedia?  Apologies if it already has, I always find it interesting to scroll through and spot all the shit that's been on QI.

[Inspector Norse]

Reading about the guy who attempted to send a letterbomb to Bjork and then shot himself:

Reminds me of one I read a while ago, about Björk's Sugarcubes bandmate Einar:

Einar has been described as the first punk in Iceland. He claims he became interested in punk rock after reading about Johnny Rotten vomiting on an aeroplane

[Inspector Norse]

Would there be any interest, I wonder, in a separate thread on People who obviously write their own Wikipedia entries

[Ferris]

Would there be any interest, I wonder, in a separate thread on People who obviously write their own Wikipedia entries

I came across this one while reading about sitcom My Family but felt very much like it was punching down to post it in that thread. Fits in here though.

I think it's just entertainment in general - you have to build your profile and hustle a lot, and at a certain level that means doing stuff like editing your own wikipedia page in case a casting agent goes sniffing about.

[JesusAndYourBush]

I'm guessing we've all seen the List of unusual articles on Wikipedia?  Apologies if it already has, I always find it interesting to scroll through and spot all the shit that's been on QI.

I see a lot of QI stuff on r/todayilearned and wonder if the poster saw it on QI of if it's a coincidence.

[C_Larence]

The entirety of the Personal Life section of Massimo Busacca, the Swiss referee who infamously sent off  Robin Van Persie in a champions league match against Barcelona for kicking the ball away after the whistle was blown.

Busacca is a devout Catholic and was crowned Switzerland's non-smoker of the year in 2006.

[Inspector Norse]

I'm guessing we've all seen the List of unusual articles on Wikipedia?  Apologies if it already has, I always find it interesting to scroll through and spot all the shit that's been on QI.

Badlands Guardian   -A natural topographic feature in Alberta, Canada, which, when viewed from above, looks remarkably like a human wearing a Native American headdress and earbuds.

Is the reason this article is "unusual" that the picture chosen to illustrate the feature does not, in fact, look remarkably like a human wearing a Native American headdress and earbuds?

[NoSleep]

It's unusual because it highlights this feature. The description of the photo you pasted clearly states that it was taken before the road that completed the illusion was built (which is unusual in itself).



It's clearer here (with added earphones)



Lots more erosion has occurred since 1938, so I doubt it will last.

[Inspector Norse]

Yeah, it's pretty clear when you find a better picture - I was more wondering why Wikipedia would have such a bad one to illustrate the article seeing as the strange resemblance is pretty much the main reason the formation has an article in the first place.

[Camp Tramp]

Would there be any interest, I wonder, in a separate thread on People who obviously write their own Wikipedia entries

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Robert_H._Foglesong

A link to the talk page for this US Airforce general. Seems to be a war going on between people (including maybe himself) editing the page positively and his detractors filling it with criticism. The following line is typical of the arguments in the talk.

He didn't save the daffodils! He had them dug up and destroyed the Crepe Myrtles at the sports complex! He also had the Art and Architecture Departments remove work visible outside their facilities. This article has so many inaccuracies that I'm sure it was written by Foglesong or his PR people. What fluff!