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Happy New Year

Thank you from all my alter egos. It's always a pleasure to hear from you, and to see your contributions. Cheers, 99.12.243.20 (talk) 03:49, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

I can't tell you how surprised I was to discover that I had actually edited the article about you. Sorry I couldn't just nod my head silently as you suggested; I had to mention how truly impressed I was with what I found there. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 10:08, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
Seconded from me, Happy New Year and thank you for all of your hard work!..Modernist (talk) 04:00, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
Thank you both. You are two of Wikipedia's brightest stars. Happy New Year to both of you! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 10:08, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
Will you all knock it off? This mystery is KILLING me! What if 99 is, like, my dissertation director, or an ex-girlfriend? BTW, happy new year to all three of you (including you, Modernist--and as a medievalist I say this with pain in my heart), and a toast to y'alls health--perhaps a nice glass of "bacon beer" would be appropriate. 99, Delirium Tremens is a wonderful beverage--I wish they sold it where I'm at. Mandarax, thanks for your help on Piraat. Now, between the four of us, surely we can bring it up to FA status. Drmies (talk) 18:03, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. Happy new year to you too! I know how you feel about 99's secret identity. I, too, was extremely curious. I did suspect what their Wikiname was, but it wasn't until I received the tantalizing clue that I investigated and discovered the Real Life name. Sorry that my large volume of contributions (and my anonymous edit) made it difficult for you. Of course, the important thing is to respect the person's privacy, but in my case it looked almost like an invitation to discover their true identity. Good luck on bringing Piraat to FA status; I'm not sure how much help I would be, but it looks like you've just got a littttle ways to go. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:57, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

<--BTW, I agree completely with you and Kitty in the discussion of "untimely," above, for what it's worth, and I appreciate the great amount of work (and I saw a lot of it!) you're doing to further the project. Drmies (talk) 21:08, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks a lot! As for my volume of work here, while it's stuff that's useful, what's really important is the creative work done by people such as yourself and the other two people in this thread. Thank you for all of your contributions. (I've made minor edits to at least one other page which you've created: Mary Abbott.) As a vegetarian, I find your infatuation with bacon to be a bit disturbing, but that's okay. I was interested to see the photo of a blue-footed booby on your user page. This bird is featured prominently in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Galápagos, which is the source of my username. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:07, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
Yes, bacon...that kind of came out of nowhere, and I blame Wikipedia for it, and User:ChildofMidnight. I apologize, and that I try to get bacon from happy pigs is not much of a consolation, I know. I applaud your vegetarianism. As it happens, I just got a Vonnegut novel from Sinterklaas--it's a Dutch translation, whose title escapes me now. I can't remember how the booby came about (it's been a while, and it's probably User:Bongomatic's fault) but it's a charming bird. Dear Mandarax, I am glad I ran into you (and I ran into another one of your many edits today, accidentally), and I hope you won't mind if I knock on your door for advice sometime in the future. All the best, Drmies (talk) 22:23, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
I don't normally go around proselytizing for vegetarianism, so I'm not sure why I mentioned it here.... Oh, actually, I think it must've been the chocolate-covered bacon! I hope you enjoy the Vonnegut. As you might have guessed, he's my favorite author. Here's a passage from Galápagos which kind of ties together the discussions of boobies and (non-)vegetarianism: "Another sort of finch was a bloodsucker, surviving by pecking at the long neck of an unheeding booby until it had raised little beads of blood. Then it sipped that perfect diet to its heart's content. This bird was called by human beings: Geospiza difficilis." Thanks for your kind words. I should mention that I probably wouldn't trust any advice I'd be likely to give, but it would always be a pleasure to hear from you. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 01:09, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
LOL! Yes, it killed me to revert that. Every page containing the word "bacon" should also contain the word "puke"! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 02:46, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
Haha, you are right--I didn't realize that it was some sort of alter ego of yours who made that edit, after which your superego forcibly repressed the id. I'm almost done with Vonnegut; I need to read a real book of his, not a collection of essays/stories. Drmies (talk) 02:55, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
You can't go wrong no matter which Vonnegut work you choose. Probably his all-time classic is Slaughterhouse-Five, and you've already said that you enjoy his writings about the bombing of Dresden in WWII. (Oops, I hope I haven't ruined it for you.) My first introduction to him was another collection of short stories, Welcome to the Monkey House, which is also very good. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 03:38, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. One of my colleagues will have a copy of Slaughterhouse-Five for me, I'm sure. I'm watching coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake--the aerial shots are not unlike some of the shots of Dresden. It's hard to imagine possibly 50,000 people dead. Well, I'm signing off; take care, and thanks for the pointer. Drmies (talk) 04:48, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

The Changeling

I don't understand why to the article you put as vandalism. I don't promoting a website, never I did it. I needing a answer from you. --Danilo Andres Ramirez (talk) 18:07, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

You are mistaken. My only edit to the page was to correct one typo. The only person who identified your edits as vandalism is yourself: here and here. It looks like you've only made four edits with Twinkle, and all of them have been to revert your own edits, identifying them as vandalism. Please learn how to use Twinkle properly, before you accidentally revert valid edits made by other people. Or you may want to just disable it. You have it installed as a gadget, so to disable it, go to "My preferences" and in the "Gadgets" tab under "Editing gadgets", uncheck Twinkle. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:58, 14 January 2010 (UTC)
Hello, Mandarax. You have new messages at Drmies's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Would you care to join forces on large tasks?

Greetings, fellow Senior Editor and WikiGnome. We have quite similar Wikipedia backgrounds (I even borrowed a couple of your user boxes — thanks!), though you have been at it about 8 months longer. I noticed your fine work recently when I went to fix a list of misspellings and found that you had just fixed most of them. If there are more than about 40 articles with a particular misspelling or grammar goof, I tend to get bored, but I hate to give up on them, because I know that there will be even more if I come back weeks later, making the collection of articles even longer and more boring next time. I see that you are proficient with AWB, so I could suggest some of the longer lists where I have run out of steam, if you would like to take a crack at them. Or you may find plenty to do on your own — that's fine, too. I am very proficient with WikEd, especially with its Regular Expression function, so I often do considerable cleanup where patterns can be used, for example, where spaces were not used after periods and commas, or where there are lots of phrases in all uppercase, or where dates are formatted wrong. I would be glad to take on any such articles if you find them and don't feel like doing them yourself. Or we can just go our own ways, if you like, in which case, Happy Editing! Chris the speller (talk) 02:54, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi. I'm glad that you found some of my userboxes to be useful. I've noticed your work and have been impressed with it. I know what you mean; it's satisfying to complete a short list. Unfortunately, that's not something which happens to me much any more when I'm correcting typos. As I correct misspellings, I invariably come across more of them, and AWB annoyingly makes it very easy to search for these new typos and add them to the list while I'm still working on my old list. My current queue of pending typos is well over a thousand articles long. Like you, I grew tired of it, and have temporarily set that aside to work on a project of fixing links to a page which was moved. If you'd like to suggest some typos which are in need of attention, I'd be happy to look at them (but I make no guarantees about how quickly I'd take care of them). Another route, in case you weren't familiar with it, would be to make a request at WP:AWB/Tasks. Keep up the good work. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 09:20, 19 January 2010 (UTC)
Thanks for the tip on AWB Tasks; I hadn't known about it. I manually keep a list of about 100 misspellings that seem to get missed by semi-automated processes like Live Spellcheck; many pop up in about 100 articles a month, so I probably have thousands of articles on my plate at any time. A few of my archenemies are: "Novermber" and the redundancies "now currently" and "debut appearance", though that one shows up mostly in articles about 15-year-old pop singers, adding an extra dose of boredom. Tackle them only of you can stand it. Feel free to contact me for assistance or consultation any time. Happy Editing! Chris the speller (talk) 16:58, 19 January 2010 (UTC)
I finally finished my project of fixing links on 1100 articles, and I've begun on one of your archenemies. I'm now currently (hehe) working on a list of 50 articles containing "Novermber". MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 11:13, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

The Sun

The Sun is not a publisher, it is a piece of work. So it should use the "work" field while the publisher field goes to the publisher of The Sun (which is News International). TJ Spyke 16:56, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing that out, as I was not aware of it. Please note that I haven't added any of these parameters myself; I've only been correcting existing links, changing [[The Sun]] to [[The Sun (newspaper)|The Sun]]. I'm over halfway through my list of about 1100 articles which contain links to The Sun. I don't know how many of those incorrectly use the "publisher" field, but for those that do, I'll fix it. According to {{Cite news}}, the "publisher" parameter isn't needed for major publications (such as The Sun), so if the "work" parameter is already present, I'll remove the "publisher=The Sun", and if only "publisher" is present, I'll change it to "work". MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:03, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
From Cite Web: "Publisher, if any—for example if the website is hosted by a government service, educational institution, or company. (The publisher is not usually the name of the website (that is usually the work)". The Sun's website is hosted by (according to who-is.com) by Newsint.co.uk (it's parent company News International). I haven't checked Cite Video yet, but it looks like Cite Web also lists The Sun as the work and News International as the publisher. TJ Spyke 16:13, 23 January 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. For {{Cite news}} and {{Cite web}}, I'll change "publisher=The Sun" to "work=The Sun" as above. However, {{Cite video}} does not have a "work" parameter. When I encounter a {{Cite video}} listing "The Sun" as "publisher", I'll let it remain, as that seems more relevant and informative than "News International". MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:55, 23 January 2010 (UTC)
Note — I'm now going through hundreds of articles, replacing "publisher=The Sun" with "work=The Sun" as appropriate. Some of these are pages which I encountered before you wrote, but many others are ones which already had the correct link, so I did not process them. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:15, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Mercedes Matter

Yesterday I attended the opening reception for a great new Mercedes Matter exhibit at Pepperdine University's Weisman Museum of Art. When I returned home, I decided to look her up. I was surprised to discover that, not only was she already on my Watchlist, but I was the last person to edit the article, about two weeks ago. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:07, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Quick Question

Was sifting through recent IP edits and came across some vandalism you had already reverted, however, when I went to the users talk page to see if a warning had been placed, I noticed your signature. Just curious, but how did you do the backwards small-caps? petiatil »speak 09:18, 28 January 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Petiatil (talk • contribs)

The "backwards" И and Я are from the Cyrillic alphabet. There's an easy way to use these characters when editing in Wikipedia. Just below the "Save page" button is a dropdown menu. Select "Cyrillic" then click on a character to insert it. The code to produce the "backwards" portion of my signature is: <small>XAЯA</small>b<small>ИA</small>M. Unfortunately, there's no backwards "D", so I use a "d". (There are small и and я characters but it simplifies the code to clump "big" letters together and make them <small>.) MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 10:01, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Vandal at 209.188.153.23

I see you gave a last warning at User_talk:209.188.153.23 several weeks ago. They are continuing with disruptive edits: Special:Contributions/209.188.153.23 Time to block this address? Tayste (edits) 22:52, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

First of all, I'm not an admin, so I can't do any blocking. When requesting a block of an IP, they're supposed to be active right now, and this one hasn't edited for about two hours. There is generally an assumption that users of IP addresses may change, so warnings issued to an IP may have been intended for a different person, although this one has vandalized some of the same pages as they did previously. I've issued another "final" warning, and if they do vandalize again soon, they should be blocked. Thanks for your note and your work to improve Wikipedia. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:43, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
Thanks for the reply and info. Sorry, I assumed you were an admin. Tayste (edits) 00:35, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Adding more information on Alexandra_Powers article

Hi! I would like to add to the Alexandra_Powers article because I think she grew up in manhanttan because I read on on a website about 5 years ago. Should I add that? Thank you!Neptunekh2 (talk) 03:11, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

This is Wikipedia — you can add whatever you think will improve an article, as long as it's information which is true and can be verified, preferably with sources which you provide. However, you probably should not add something which you "think" is true which you read about on a website five years ago. Please find a current, reliable source. Note that my only edit to the article was to fix one typo, so I have little interest in the subject. Good luck. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 03:44, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Why sort on a misspelling?

Thanks for the reference to the sorting rules at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:MCSTJR#Other_exceptions but could you explain to my brother and me WHY it's desirable to sort on a misspelling of our family name? We have spelled the name this way for at least 5 generations...anyway, the article gave the HOW but not the WHY...thanks... William J. 'Bill' McCalpin (talk) 15:22, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Oh, nevermind...I have found the articles at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Categorization_of_people#Ordering_of_Mac.2C_Mc_and_M.27 and elsewhere...
Still, I can't agree with this archaic convention to lump all Mc and Mac under the same sortkey under the justification that names varied in spelling and so this is how you can lump the various misspellings together. Why don't we do this with other British names whose spellings varied over the years? What it's likely to do is to lump unrelated spellings together as well, which would look to great confusion - why construct a sort process that is not only not obvious but prone to error?
When I read the various arguments in the three sections on that page on this Mc vs Mac issue, the arguments in favor of merging them always make less sense than the arguments in favor of respecting the actual spelling. And especially since fewer and fewer authorities appear to be doing it this way, what's the deal with Wikipedia? Who decides this sort (haha) of thing?
William J. 'Bill' McCalpin (talk) 15:38, 29 January 2010 (UTC)
I don't really have anything to add beyond what you've already read. I had absolutely nothing to do with the decision to sort names this way. It certainly seemed very odd to me when I first encountered it. Ah, the idiosyncrasies of Wikipedia.... MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:10, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Renaissance architecture

The vandalism is getting rather tiresome and timeconsuming. I think temporary protection might be a good idea. Can you it or do I need to request someone else to? Amandajm (talk) 07:58, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

It seems that vandalism in general has been on the rise lately after a few months of relatively low levels. I guess even vandals take some time off for the holidays. Unfortunately, I'm not an admin. For all of your administrative needs, I'd recommend our art admin, Tyrenius. Or, of course, there's always WP:RFPP. However, as of now, Renaissance architecture hasn't been vandalized for over nine hours, and it may be difficult to get protection without higher levels of recent vandalism. BTW, it's nice to finally communicate with you. I've noticed your good work for a long time. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 09:49, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Finally...

The leftovers from making bacon grease.

...after weeks of planning I made paneer--last week I discovered that Winn-Dixie doesn't sell cheese cloth, another delay. Anyway, tonight we had palak paneer, and rice, and some curry. Very tasty! Thanks for your help and encouragement!

PS Do you care to guess what I used to fry the cheese in, besides butter? ... Drmies (talk) 00:35, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

LOL! Please tell me you didn't fry it in bacon grease! I thought there was hope for you when you scored a mere 69 on the bacon addict quiz. BTW, I took the quiz and answered based on when I was still a common meat-eater, and I scored 32.
In any case, I'm glad to hear that you made the paneer and that it was good. I've had paneer dishes at least twice since our discussion began, but I must confess that it's been a long time since I've made my own.. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 00:59, 6 February 2010 (UTC)
Ooooh yes. I cooked some triple-thick bacon for a lunch snack, and it seemed a waste to not use the grease. But just a little bit, I assure you. Making that paneer really was a lot of fun, and I will do it again. The star, however, was the spinach: I found a few recipes on the internet and sort of mixed it up--with onion, bay leave bell paper, garlic, cumin, jalapeno--and it turned out real nice. And now that I know how to do it, and really how easy it is, I'll be doing it again. I think I am going to throw a dinner party soon and impress the guests. Hey, thanks again, and until next time! (BTW, this has a familiar ring to it.) Drmies (talk) 02:52, 6 February 2010 (UTC)
Sounds like you're sure to impress with your culinary skills!
Yes, I had noticed the "Thanks for the welcome" note on your talk page. I found it surprising, as the IP starts with "98" rather than "99", and the contributions don't seem to fit the usual pattern. I did notice another of the "99" ones had reverted another "I love bacon" edit besides the one I previously mentioned to you. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:56, 6 February 2010 (UTC)
Well, thanks--but remember, you're only pretending to be puzzling, while I am actually in the dark! OK, it's lunchtime: I have leftover rice, curry, and palak paneer from yesterday...with some spicy mango chutney... Drmies (talk) 19:13, 6 February 2010 (UTC)
Thank you for this also. I have a soft spot for her--as chance would have it, she rolled by on Recent Changes, vandalized and all, the same day that I had discussed her in a class using the WP article. Serendipity? I think not... Drmies (talk) 17:38, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
Sure. Artemisia Gentileschi's been on my Watchlist for a long time. For my version of a recent wiki-coincidence, see #Mercedes Matter above. That was eerily similar to what happened with 99/98. BTW, I'm surprised that 99.153.141.240 hasn't been welcomed yet. They certainly don't need another welcome, but your average potential welcomer doesn't know that. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:10, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

<--Interesting. And indeed a nice coincidence. 99 does need a welcome--you should do it, just to keep the tradition alive; you have a good sniffer for finding their work (which is excellent). I make it a point, on Recent Changes, to welcome IPs and new users when they do something helpful; many IPs do lots of useful things here. Well, until next time--the protein that shall remain unnamed is merrily cue-ing away and should be ready for kickoff. I hope you enjoy a nice beer and a nice batch of tofu buffalo wings while Peyton Manning does his thing. Later!

PS I spent way too much money on a beer last night--it was worth it though. Drmies (talk) 21:31, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I see you've already issued a bacony welcome for 99. I've noticed several of their incarnations which I haven't bothered to welcome. In general, though, I do welcome new users, both IP and registered, no matter how small their constructive contribution may have been.

I'm not a big beer drinker, but I guess that makes me appreciate it more when I do indulge. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:18, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Tofu buffalo wings? That's an insult to vegetarians and carnivores. Cheers, 99.153.141.240 (talk) 22:22, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
Hehe. I know that some vegetarians show disdain for veggie versions of meat dishes, but I like 'em. I go to several Chinese vegetarian restaurants which feature full menus with items such as twice cooked pork or kung pao shrimp, and some amazing fish with realistic texture and even including skin, all made with mock meat. (Drmies, if you're reading this, shield your eyes from the sacrilege which follows.) I sometimes make a delicious BLT using veggie bacon bits which I've soaked in water.

99, I hope you don't feel snubbed because I haven't greeted you on each new IP, but I don't go around greeting other users every time I see them editing.... MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:22, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I will take your word on the cuisine. Personally, I will eat most anything, but remain wary of foods pretending to be what they're not. And I don't feel in the least bit snubbed. Cheers, 99.153.141.240 (talk) 03:04, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks

Hey MANdARAX, thanks for the tips! Very helpful! --ETphoneOhm (talk) 07:09, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Sure! It's always good to see a new editor contributing constructively. Again, welcome! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:14, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Hello Mandarax! A question for you, at your convenience -- I seem to find myself hanging about the RC list. How long do you have to be here/how much do you have to do before it's appropriate to join the RCP? Thanks! Fliponymous (talk) 04:02, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Hi. You're talking about Recent Changes Patrol, right? You say that you're "hanging about the RC list"? Well, congratulations! You're already a part of it. You can do it from your very first day, and it's always appropriate for any constructive user to "join". It's not really anything formal, other than maybe putting something like {{User wikipedia/RC Patrol}} on your user page. Again, welcome to Wikipedia! Your helpful contributions are very much appreciated. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 05:28, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Sweet. Thanks again for the welcome and the advice.Fliponymous (talk) 14:51, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

(Replace DEFAULTSORT template with the magic word using AWB)

You are clogging up my watchlist! You made this change to five pages today where I made this error. But I am slowly starting to get the message. Thanks - I appreciate your valuable work. :~) Aymatth2 (talk) 01:05, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

Scrolling up, I saw some comments on Bacon. I strongly caution you against getting involved in any way with the Bacon Challenge 2010 or any related projects, which could lead to reputation-destroying articles like Iceland – South Korea relations. I mean this very, very sincerely. Aymatth2 (talk) 01:20, 15 February 2010 (UTC)
You're welcome. Thank you for creating the articles! Using the DEFAULTSORT template isn't a big deal, but the magic word is preferred. As you may have noticed, I usually try to do other minor cleanup at the same time as I replace the "|" with a ":".
Thanks for the caution about the Bacon Challenge, but the only bacon article I might be interested in editing, other than for typo fixing or vandalism reverting, would be Francis Bacon (painter). MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 03:12, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks for the welcome mandarax. Haven't decided on a username yet is why am still ip :)110.33.247.206 (talk) 11:03, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

It's always nice to see a new user editing constructively, whether as a registered user or as an IP. Keep up the good work! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 11:09, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Cheers!

Thanks for your note. Your opinion would be appreciated re: this edit [1]. I don't doubt its veracity or that it's done in good faith, but there's a problem with the name. Isn't he still known as Fra Angelico, consistent with the title? Thanks, 99.11.4.238 (talk) 00:11, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

I must admit that when I saw it in my Watchlist earlier today, I didn't even look at it, because of the edit summary ("correcting religious facts and style"). I would suggest that you ask someone more knowledgeable than myself, but in my opinion, I agree with you that changing "Fra Angelico" to "John", "Blessed John", or "friar John" seems wrong, inconsistent, and unnecessarily confusing. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 01:47, 19 February 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. I've asked for input at the article talk page. 99.11.4.238 (talk) 02:12, 19 February 2010 (UTC)
Me, I'm just butting in here to say hi. Hi! Drmies (talk) 04:59, 20 February 2010 (UTC)
Hi Drmies. You recently indirectly facilitated a chuckle for me. I was amused to learn from the link on your talk page about the magical transformations between rats and mice. The scary thing is, the edit seems to have been serious and not intended as vandalism. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 09:38, 20 February 2010 (UTC)
Somewhere on my talk page or Ucucha's is a note from said Ucucha, our resident rodent expert, that the difference between rats and mice actually has little to do with biology. (It's fun working with them, actually; nice sense of humor, good and prolific writer, and broad interests.) Hey, when you get to 100,000 edits, will there be a party? I already have a gift for you! Drmies (talk) 14:11, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

← Well, now you've gone and directly elicited an LOL from me. Thanks for the wildly inappropriate link to the Bacon of the Month Club. I had no idea such a thing existed. Wow, $190 for six packages of bacon! I guess it's worth it to go for a whole year for just $315. And then who could pass up the bargain to double up for only $375?

But the 100,000 mark may be quite a while away. I've slowed down considerably since December when I made over 11,000 edits. I never would've guessed when I started this thing that making three or four thousand edits a month would be what I consider "slowing down". In an ideal world, I would make just a fraction of that, and would devote my Wikitime to writing instead of vandalism-fighting or WikiGnoming. But, alas, I'm a very slow writer and those other pursuits are so quick and easy.

Which brings me to the rodents. I was surprised and pleased to hear that your Alabama rodents are such good and prolific writers. Here in California, we can barely get 'em to produce a coherent sentence! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:52, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

  • Aww come on Mandarax, you should know that as a professional in the field of English I use "they" to refer to humans whose gender I don't know, in this case Ucucha. You're just being silly here--and I'll have you know that such insults to our rodents ("they smarter than the rats in Californ-i-a") are fighting words. But I'll give you your LOL!, which you richly deserve. BTW, I ran across you again, in List of Gakuen Alice characters. What I was doing there I'll never know. Keep up the good work!

    My wife informs me she is "all baconed out"... Drmies (talk) 16:53, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I hate writing about people of unknown gender, as "they" usually ends up awkward or ambiguous, I don't like "he/she" or "s/he", and constructions such as "the user" can be unwieldy. I wish everybody would specify their gender in their Preferences or on their User page. For future reference, according to {{gender|Ucucha}}, they is male.

It's not surprising that you've encountered my handiwork again. In spite of my saying that I've "slowed down", I've ended up performing more edits in February than in January. I can't help myself.

I'm sure your wife will find that your bacon proclivities will return to their usual, albeit elevated, levels after the Big Day's events of tomorrow. Good luck with the Bacon Challenge and enjoy National Pig Day! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:22, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Shoot, did I forget to look at my calendar today? What did I miss? I found that I am already late with my book orders for the fall. Today, really, can only get better. :( Drmies (talk) 16:05, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

((Surname)) and ((given name))

Hi Mandarax. I have left a message for you at Template talk:Disambig#((Surname)) and ((given name)).

--David Göthberg (talk) 07:13, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! I think what you've done will be very helpful. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 07:33, 22 February 2010 (UTC)
Could you add that response over at Template talk:Disambig too? Since I think that addition perhaps will cause some discussion.
--David Göthberg (talk) 07:46, 22 February 2010 (UTC)
Done. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:12, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the greeting

:) Peaceblissharmony (talk) 21:26, 25 February 2010 (UTC)
You're welcome. And thanks again for your contributions. Keep up the good work! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:30, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Rick McCarty

Thanks for fixing the "Mc" on the above article. Sorry, I forgot...oops! --Funandtrvl (talk) 18:42, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

No problem. That's a very frequently forgotten (or unfamiliar) sorting rule. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 18:49, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Defaultsort on Anthony McGee

Thanks for the fix: I didn't know about WP:MCSTJR. MuffledThud (talk) 21:03, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Sure. Judging by the many thousands which I've corrected, there are lots of people who don't know about it. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:02, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Howdy

Hey Mandarax, still fighting the good fight, I see! Rock on. I got some nice paneer in the fridge that I made yesterday. Maybe I should go and buy some spinach. Enjoy your weekend! Drmies (talk) 20:53, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, you're just putting me to shame here. It's been so long since I made any of my own. I guess I just got spoiled by a great restaurant which provides me with my frequent paneer fixes. It's just a cafeteria section which dishes out vegetarian food from a corner of an Indian grocery store. I've eaten at most of the many Indian restaurants in the area in all price ranges from very fancy to plain, and this little cheap hole-in-the-wall has, by far, the best food. I think I'm the only non-Indian I've ever seen in there. Anyways, enjoy your homemade paneer! Hopefully, this time you'll fry it in something other than bacon grease, especially since your wife was apparently close to a bacon OD. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:26, 5 March 2010 (UTC)
Oh, I came home from work today and found her outside the door, asking if I'd been cooking bacon today...I didn't have the heart to tell her that my daughter and I had bacon sandwiches for breakfast and for lunch. I am jealous of you and your metropolitan life; we have one Indian restaurant in town and it's not very good. It'll probably be out of business soon anyway. Now, if I fry my paneer in schmaltz, would that be better? ;) Drmies (talk) 03:38, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

77,000

Congratulations! I hit this a few days ago, but then I have no life. Rodhullandemu 23:22, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, and congratulations to you too! I see that you're now over 79,000 edits. In case you don't remember, you're actually the one who made it a lot easier for me to achieve the big numbers when you approved me for AWB a little over a year ago. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 02:11, 7 March 2010 (UTC)
Not to spoil the fun or to suggest to the public that you don't always work on morally upstanding topics, but THANKS FOR YOUR HELP ON SEX DICE! Hehehe. (Gentlemen, congrats to both of you, BTW.) Drmies (talk) 02:40, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
I learn about a lot of things from you which I'd never heard of or even imagined before, from chocolate-covered bacon to sex dice. As for the congratulations, let's face it... edit count is nothing to get worked up over. Now you, on the other hand, should be extremely proud of your accomplishments. My watchlist is constantly getting clogged up with the bot informing you of one successful DYK after another. Congratulations! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 05:23, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Spoonerisms

Thod, at. Cheers. --RrburkeekrubrR 22:46, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

A bit of editing help?

Hey Mandarax, if you get tired of correcting typos, you are more than welcome to help me out with an (admittedly, rather useless) guideline I'm working on: WP:SUCKLINGPIG. Should I have prefaced that with an "explicit content" warning? Drmies (talk) 19:10, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

It looks very good to me as is. I just added one word. The big problem is getting people to see it before they submit their article prematurely. But I guess they could be pointed to it after the speedy deletion. I'm amazed at how often people create articles which clearly are nowhere close to being ready, sometimes with an edit summary promising more to come. I always wonder why. Do they think that their topic is so hot and desirable that they must submit an article immediately, before someone else beats 'em to it?

BTW, I live in a blissful fantasy world where I believe that all pie crusts are made with vegetable shortening rather than lard. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:37, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Don't tell the rest of the Bacon Cabal, but I never use lard when I make pie crusts--and since we had kid #2, I just buy my pie crusts, and they're all veg. Hey, thanks for the useful edit! In case you were wondering, this thing started with the redirect, from which the essay took inspiration--I was jealous of a fellow editor, who has WP:BACON in his honor. And can you tell I'm teaching Freshman Comp this semester? All the best, Mandarax!

'Tis a small world: I just noticed that you had worked on Honda CBX1000, just as you worked on just about every article I ever looked at. And why did I look on this one, you may ask? Well! Because I hope to get one soon, that's why. Drmies (talk) 21:35, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

You got me curious, so I checked and discovered that there are 502 pages which we've both edited. Your wife can't be happy about the prospect of you getting a motorcycle. Just be careful and always wear a helmet. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 01:56, 12 March 2010 (UTC)
Oh, not to worry; I'm no Ben Roethlisberger (in many ways). Haha, my old helmet was in the shed for a few years (I used to ride a Yamaha Riva), and birds build a nest in it. Drmies (talk) 15:59, 12 March 2010 (UTC)
Hello, Mandarax. You have new messages at Drmies's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.
  • Dear Mandarax, in regards to this, first of all, thanks! and second, my senior moments are getting longer and longer. I thought I had it straight after having it wrong. I should do nothing without oversight, and I'll start an ANI thread indicting myself. Drmies (talk) 14:51, 13 March 2010 (UTC)
Hehe.... No problem. It only seems logical to use "publisher" for the name of the newspaper. Normally I wouldn't have checked out the parameters, but I noticed that the newspapers weren't italicized.

It's amazing that that ingrate who created the article tried to undo all of your improvements, saying "this is my article, stop editing it". Hmmmm, is it just me, or does the word "ingrate" look weird to you? MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:14, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Hmm yes, that's just you, sorry! (And did you see I nominated his article for DYK?) No, somewhere back in time I kept using the wrong field, the one that at the time seemed logical to me, and then I was set straight--but now, and after that refcite thing, I don't know anymore what's right and what's wrong. I'm just going to do whatever you tell me to. So, tonight I saw a few bands--The Rocket Summer and OneRepublic. One of them was OK. Hope you're enjoying your Saturday! Drmies (talk) 05:14, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
Yes, I had seen your nomination, and had even reverted someone trying to change the figure used in your hook.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why more people don't just blindly do whatever I tell 'em to, but I'm glad to be able to count you among them. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:54, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Wow, that article is causing some consternation. A storm in a teacup, no doubt. Thanks for looking after it! Oh, I finished my Handke novel, so Vonnegut is next. Drmies (talk) 20:59, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Angus McLaren

Thanks for the fix at Angus McLaren. I spent a good fifteen minutes trying to find that particular page because I recalled some kind of sortkey thing regarding that, but when I couldn't locate anything via the various Defaultsort help pages, I went ahead with the change. We seriously need to get all Defaultsort and sortkey information on a *single* page rather than having them spread out amongst sections on three, four, or five different pages. — Huntster (t @ c) 04:49, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Also, looking at the section above, I'm glad there's other trying to help folks understand the right way to use the cite templates...seems like it would be easy enough to understand..."work" is for the publication, "publisher" is for the company behind the publication. That's why 'cite press release' demand "publisher" rather than "work", since it is the actual *company* issuing the press release, not the publication or website. Though, I kind of wish there was still an author field for that template, since an actual person can typically be attributed to writing the thing.... — Huntster (t @ c) 04:54, 21 March 2010 (UTC)
You're welcome. Yes, it can be challenging to keep track of all of the guidelines. I know just what you mean. It's frustrating when you know something's around somewhere but you can't find it.

Ever since I discovered that people were erroneously using publisher where they should be using work, I correct it whenever I happen to notice it.

Anyways, keep up the good work. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:52, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks for fixing my edit to Marilyn McCoo's talk page. I saw what I thought was a typo and didn't realize that it was supposed to be that way. Lesson learned. :-) –BMRR (talk) 23:56, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome. It's the kind of sorting criterion which you wouldn't expect if you hadn't encountered it before. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 00:56, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Egads for Ansel Adams

Egads. I should have known that was a copy/paste. Thanks for removing that text from Ansel Adams. —Mono·nomic 03:07, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 06:53, 25 March 2010 (UTC)
I am also working on Ansel Adams. Thank you for recognizing a copyright violation. As a relative newcomer to Wikipedia, can you please tell me how you discovered the copy/paste? Do you use a software tool of some sort? I am always happy to learn something new. Cullen328 (talk) 03:12, 25 March 2010 (UTC)
I don't use any kind of tool for that purpose. I just had a feeling that it seemed suspicious, partly because the first letter was missing, so it looked liked someone had carelessly copied and pasted it. To check it out and discover the source, I just copied a portion and did a Google search.
Thank you both for your work on that article and elsewhere. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 06:53, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Book...book...

Did I tell you that I finished Slaughterhouse-Five? I thought it was real, real good; I was very impressed. As a matter of fact, I was at a conference last weekend and they sold literary paraphernalia--I picked you up a Vonnegut button. Send me your address, and I'll send you the button! And now back to, ahem, serious matters. Feel free to help me beef up Heroic Age. Drmies (talk) 21:45, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Wow! That's very kind, thoughtful, and generous of you! Thank you very much!

I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying Vonnegut. I really should get around to reading what I haven't yet, and re-reading what I have. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:31, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

It's in the mail! PS: in regards to below, you are really a nice guy, and I'm glad I ran into you. Now for the bad news: I made breakfast for my youngest daughter the other day, and she didn't eat the biscuit, or the bread, or the cheese--only the bacon. Sorry. Drmies (talk) 15:12, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
Thanks again! And thanks, too, for your kind words. I'm also glad that 99 brought us together. Over the weekend I was at a nursery and I saw some avocado trees of the "Bacon" variety, and I thought "who but Drmies could possibly make a DYK-worthy article about one specific avocado cultivar?" I actually don't think even you could do that (no, this is not a challenge). Although there is a possibility for James Bacon, the farmer who developed it (and no, this is not a challenge either). MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:08, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
Wow, those are some tough non-challenges you are issuing. Did you get any of those trees? I might look into planting some avocados myself. Take care! Drmies (talk) 22:13, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
No, I'm something of a mass murderer when it comes to avocado trees. I think most if not all of my victims have been Hass, and Bacon is of comparable hardiness. If I tried again, it would probably be something hardier. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:45, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

The button arrived! Once again, thank you very much for your kindness, thoughtfulness, and generosity. I like that the button says "So it goes", as only Vonnegut fans would recognize it as a tribute to him, being the phrase he uses in Slaughterhouse-Five when mentioning someone's death. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:41, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

  • I am glad you got it. The novel has become quite popular lately; I loaned my copy out once or twice already, and more than a few students are walking around saying "so it goes," a universally applicable phrase (just to clarify: no one died in our department recently). As it happened, the other day in class I got to talking about maps and mentioned the Ebstorf Map--Hannover is not Dresden, but it was enough of a link. All the best, Drmies (talk) 03:01, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks

I've been mildly active on wiki for a few years, from a selection of IPs, but never received a welcome. Thanks for your hospitality... though I probably won't register, because I've always had a fear of being recognized here by other internet folk. and because I'm strange. Regardless, it was a very thoughtful gesture; thanks again. :3 67.222.201.194 (talk) 22:58, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome. As for registering, you could certainly select a name which wouldn't likely be recognized, but if you prefer using an IP that's obviously fine too. In any case, it's always good to see users contributing constructively. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:39, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Assistance Needed

Single purpose user TruTelr (talk) has repeatedly vandalized the Barry McCarty page. He keeps removing referenced material, but refuses to discuss the issue on the talk page. Can you do anything about that? alan1701 (talk) 17:28, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm neither an administrator nor someone with any interest in the subject. My only edits to the page have been to fix the sort key (twice). If the user continues to make edits which you consider to be vandalism, you should continue to revert those edits and issue a stronger warning each time. If they continue after the fourth and "final" warning, you may report them to WP:AIV. However, if the edits would not reasonably be considered vandalism (and it looks like they claim it's not vandalism), then some sort of content dispute resolution with neutral, uninvolved parties may be called for. Good luck. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:58, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
Cool, thanks for the advice. Alan1701 (talk) 09:33, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Lucky Mike

I saw you changed the defaultsort on Mike Torey from "Torey, Lucky Mike" to "Torey, Mike". I think this is incorrect. His formal and official name as it would appear on a birth certificate is in fact "Lucky Mike Torey". Sources seem about evenly split between including or skipping the "Lucky" given name. This type of name is not unusual in southern Nigeria. E.g. the current vice-president is Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. In that case, sources mostly skip the "Ebele" given name. But I am not sure I understand the name sort rules. ? Aymatth2 (talk) 13:07, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

The DEFAULTSORT which I changed it to is correct for the article as currently titled, according to WP:NAMESORT, which states that "the sort key should mirror the article's title as closely as possible." From what you're saying, it seems as though the article should be moved. I see that the actual title of the article you mentioned is Goodluck Jonathan, so I don't know if this one should be "Lucky Mike Torey" or just "Lucky Torey". I'll leave it to you or someone else more knowledgeable than myself about such things to move the article. Thanks for your note. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 17:47, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

I think I will leave it as is. The article name should be the most commonly used form of the person's name, which I think is this case is plain "Mike Torey", marginally. "Lucky Mike Torey" and "Lucky Torey" are a bit less common. Confusingly, "Mike Lucky Torey" is sometimes also used! The main thing is it is easy enough to find. Thanks - I will try to follow this rule going forward. Aymatth2 (talk) 18:53, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

talkback from Auntof6

Hello, Mandarax. You have new messages at Auntof6's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Not waving, but drowning

I never heard from you, so I had a Struis. It's good, but a little sweet for my taste. If you and 99 want to drop by, I still have a half a dozen abbey and other beers in the fridge here. Drmies (talk) 00:04, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, this is my first time online today. But I probably would've recommended the Struis anyways, so all is right with the world. Thanks for the offer. It's very tempting. I hope you're having a good weekend. Oh, well, of course you are... you've got beer in the fridge! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 02:14, 25 April 2010 (UTC)
Not only that, but I also rode a really big bike today. Take care, and I hope you enjoy your weekend too, Drmies (talk) 12:08, 25 April 2010 (UTC)



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