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The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 60, November – December 2023

• Three new partners
• Google Scholar integration
• How to track partner suggestions

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --13:36, 24 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Women in Red | February 2024, Volume 10, Issue 2, Numbers 293, 294, 297, 298 Online events: New: Alphabet run O & P | Black women Continuing: #1day1woman | Education (year-long initiative) Announcement Please let other wikiprojects know about our February Black women event. Tip of the month: AllAfrica can now be searched on the ProQuest tab at the WP Library. Other ways to participate: Become a member. You can always opt-out of notifications. Join the conversations on our talkpage. Help us plan future events and add any general ideas on developing the project. Follow us on social media: Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

--Lajmmoore (talk 20:11, 28 January 2024 (UTC) via MassMessagingReply[reply]

Greetings, Mr. Blick. First of all, a very belated Happy New Year. Second, I was delighted to see you’ve started work on Skippy Hollywood Theater. Though I’m far from an OTR maven, I had gained at least a glancing familiarity with some of the anthology series in the course of researching the pre-mystery-writing career of my late mother, Jane Speed. The most frequently produced of her radio scripts, “Farewell to Birdie McKeever” (originally "McKeesler") was, I would venture, most successfully realized by Mitchel and Co., feat. the pre-femme fatale Gloria Grahame—really charming in what, esp. in hindsight, seems utterly atypical casting—& Dan O’Herlihy, among others.

Long story short, I’m assuming that the recent Newspapers.com issue is what’s delayed further work on that project. For my part, I have my own NPC sub, as well as access to Proquest. I’d be happy to help in any way you deem appropriate; for example, I’m sure I can dig up citations for every episode title—as well at least one featured player (as well as at least the occasional writer)—for each of the CBS episodes. [BTW, for your wiki-linking info, I already created a wiki for Del Castillo—i. e. Del Castillo (organist).] DavidESpeed (talk) 04:27, 30 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@DavidESpeed, Thanks for your message and for your interest in the Skippy Hollywood Theatre article. You are correct about the delay's resulting from the access problem with Newspapers.com. I had bookmarked more than a dozen newspaper pages during my preliminary research, and I am waiting to get access to them. I think I have pretty well exhausted my other sources. I would welcome your help in adding information about episodes or anything else you might find that would enhance the article.

That's interesting about your mother. I'm sure that makes OTR more significant for you. OTR was part of my childhood, before my family got a TV set. I rediscovered it back in the 1970s via commercially available records and membership in an OTR tape-lending library. In the last few years I have realized that OTR was much more vast than I had thought, as I find articles in back issues of newspapers and trade publications about programs that I did not know existed.

Before I close, let me add that I appreciate your dedication to finding citations for dates of birth and other biographical information for Wikipedia articles. I am impressed by how often my watchlist contains notices of significant improvements that you have made in articles. Wikipedia needs more of that kind of attention to detail from its editors. Eddie Blick (talk) 14:15, 30 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Re dedication & attention to detail, the feeling is mutual, I assure you. As for Skippy, I'll get right on it. And, come to think of it, speaking of my mother, whenever you have a few spare moments, you can both learn more about her and do me a great service with feedback regarding this: Draft:Jane Speed DavidESpeed (talk) 16:42, 30 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Thank you @DavidESpeed. I appreciate your comment.

Please feel free to add anything you might find related to the Skippy program. By the way, I'm never sure with titles like this whether to use "theater" or "theatre", when different sources use different spellings. In this case, John Dunning's On the Air reference book uses "er", and The New York Times uses "re". I went with the latter, but it can be changed when the page is moved to article space. What are your thoughts on that topic?

Thanks for sending the link to your draft article about your mother. I look forward to reading it when I have time to focus more on it, and I added it to my watchlist. Eddie Blick (talk) 17:08, 30 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Eddie, regarding "er" vs. "re", it's very straightforward, at least as regards the 1949-'50 CBS run. Searching on Proquest, which also includes a generous helping of relevant trade papers (e.g. Variety, Hollywood Reporter & Broadcasting), it's 64 to 47 for "re", with the 64 almost entirely consisting of trades and the 47, almost wholly dailies. So, again, I think its safe to say that the official title, at least for that period, was Skippy Hollywood Theatre. DavidESpeed (talk) 18:34, 30 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Thanks for checking on that, @DavidESpeed. I'll stick with the "re" version, then. Eddie Blick (talk) 22:00, 30 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Another Skippy question

@David, I'm sure you noticed that I listed the episodes alphabetically, rather than by dates, for the syndicated version of the show. I thought that might be better because in syndication a given episode might have been broadcast on diffent dates by different stations. Do you think it would be better to include each episode's date as found in the source (and use chronological order) anyway? Eddie Blick (talk) 02:58, 31 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

To be honest, I've never really given much attention to the pre-CBS period, so I can't really give a helpful or informed response. On top of which, in about half an hour, Im headed to the hospital where my significant other is undergoing surgery today—in fact, I don't even know what degree of internet access I'll have while waiting around. In any event. we should be back uptown by this evening, and, at the very least, I should have all those CBS titles, stars and citations filled in by late tonight or tomorrow. DavidESpeed (talk) 11:55, 31 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

P.S. Turns out I do have internet access at the hospital. I see now that the Cloudflare issue's been resolved and that you've sprinkled in a few more titles. (You were probably wondering why, despite my progress report, no titles had yet been added from my end. This, in fact, is simply my longstanding habit of never recording my pre-publishable article building–as in "user drafts'–on Wiki but simply saving such work in Text Edit files until ready unleash upon an unwary public.) Anyhoo, seeing as how no subsequent additions have yet joined those first three, I will, with some trepidation, start plugging in my finds thus far wherever they're not yet redundant. DavidESpeed (talk) 15:12, 31 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Thanks, @David! I appreciate your help, and I hope the surgery goes well. Eddie Blick (talk) 16:18, 31 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Thanks, Eddie. As it happens, it went fine–plus, we got out much earlier than expected. So, following a brief celebration, nose has been reattached to grindstone. Oops! I see you've filled in a couple more in the interim. Ah well, once again, I'll proceed with caution and fill in whichever gaps appear to be lingering. DavidESpeed (talk) 18:33, 31 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@David, Yes, I filled in a few as I went through tne bookmarks that I had saved for Newspapers.com. I have almost exhausted those bookmarks, so any episodes or other content that you can add will be a plus. I'm glad to hear that the surgery went well. I'm sure that's a relief for both of you. Eddie Blick (talk) 19:40, 31 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Ready to move?

@David, Thanks for your recent improvements. I appreciate the additions that you have made to the article (especially with regard to tables of episodes). I think that it is ready to move to article space. Do you agree, or do you have other changes in mind that would merit keeping it as a userpage? Eddie Blick (talk) 20:45, 2 February 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Eddie, first of all, thanks so much for asking. As it happens, I had already found a large number of additional syndicated episodes (saved in my text-edit mockup of the original, no-date table), which I had not yet plugged into the actual wiki when it finally occurred to me to adjust the format of that table after all. Unfortunately, this is a big multi-tasking moment for me, as I make some last-minute adjustments to a video I was hoping to publish and share tonight or tomorrow morning on FB. In any case, I should be able to add those titles by sometime tomorrow at the latest.

With all that said, I don't know if that consideration should be a deal-breaker if you are otherwise strongly inclined to publish now. OTOH, there is one other thing. I am also now suddenly of the opinion that, despite a more than passing resemblance to the long-departed journalist Bill Bird currently on WP, this Bill Bird, his still-salient blockquote notwithstanding—is somebody else entirely. Just to be on the safe side, until I can definitively resolve that uncertainty, I'm de-linking that name. And ... done! OK, now I will of course defer to you on whether or not to wait until I make those table additions to publish. Thanks again for including me in the project; it's been a lot of fun.

BTW, one additional distraction which might prove interesting—and not entirely irrelevant. While I was previously working on an as-yet still unfinished wiki for Les Mitchel, I took a second look at the life of the woman who, it turns out, was his 3rd of five wives, the former Madelon Grayson (né Baker), whom I'd thus far been aware of solely via the tiny supporting role she'd played on the Skippy production of one of my mother's scripts. It turns out that Ms. Baker—who, ironically re-acquired her birth name in the end by finding happiness the third time around with someone also named Baker—also had longer, more varied, and arguably more substantial career than did Les. In any event, I finished that wiki, Madelon Baker, while poor Les waits wstfully in the wings. OK, I think that's enough out of me. What do you think? DavidESpeed (talk) 22:26, 2 February 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@David, I will hold off until you can add that content. We have no need to rush to publish the article. I think what might work best would be for you to move the article to article space when it's ready. I don't know of anything else that I can add, so that approach will simplify things.

Your anecdote about Madelon Baker Grayson Baker illustrates some of the fun of working on Wikipedia. We never know how research on one person or topic will turn up useful information on another. Many of the articles that I have created have developed from something that I read in a source while I was doing research like that. Developments like that keep life interesting.

Thanks again for all of your work on the Skippy article. I appreciate it. Eddie Blick (talk) 00:48, 3 February 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

I will do that. Once again, thanks so much for being the proverbial—and, better yet, real-life and literal—mensch. One thing I'm curious about, though; and please excuse my ignorance, as I've never before done any sort of pre-pub collaboration. Although obviously only one party can literally pull the publication 'trigger,' do both–or, if applicable, all–contributing editors get credited? I would hope, for example, that in this case, you would, at the very least, get top 'billing', esp. seeing as how you not only started the article but also did the lion's share of work. DavidESpeed (talk) 06:05, 3 February 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@David, I don't know how the crediting process works, but it doesn't matter to me. You probably have seen on my user page the list of articles that I have created; my number is pretty high already. I hope to add more as time goes on. Anyway, I think you ended up doing more work than I did on Skippy. Even though I started it, you invested a lot of work in research and additions -- especially regarding episodes. I greatly appreciate all that you did. Eddie Blick (talk) 17:29, 3 February 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Ooops. Well, Eddie, I don't know if I'm having an extended 'senior' moment, but it does appear that no one except the originator of an article has the authority to publish. In any event, I am not being allowed to publish this one, each attempt simply ending up back at User:Teblick/Skippy Hollywood Theatre. DavidESpeed (talk) 07:48, 4 February 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Oh? I didn't know that either, @David. Thanks for letting me know. I will move it now. Eddie Blick (talk) 20:40, 4 February 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

https://www.realtor.com/realestateagents/607ddcd97a1ac000127c61ae Explained? Xx236 (talk) 09:21, 30 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Thank you for writing, @Xx236.

I assume that your message is a response to my reversion of the addition of "-Morrissey" to the lead in Karin Argoud. If you had included a citation to the page linked above when you added "Morrisey", I would not have reverted the addition. As it was, nothing in the article supported that new last name. I suggest that you add "Morrisey" back to the article, with a citation to the www.realtor.com page immediately after it. I notice, however, that the page you linked does not show a hyphen in her name, so I suggest that you not include a hyphen when you revise the article. Eddie Blick (talk) 13:56, 30 January 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Hi. What do you think about using this source for Shawn Batten's birth date? https://www.geocities.ws/TelevisionCity/Studio/1210/library/shawn-interview.html. It says Steve Lukather is 14 years her senior. Since he is born in 1957 that would make her born in 1971. Or does that count as original research? DrKilleMoff (talk) 23:07, 6 February 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@DrKilleMoff, That sounds to me like a reasonable approach, but it still won't give a specific date of birth. You will need to use Template:Birth based on age as of date, which will display two possible years of birth, and then cite the article that you linked. As you mentioned, some editors might consider that original research. I think it's just calculation, but be prepared to deal with that topic if it should arise. Eddie Blick (talk) 01:47, 7 February 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

But there is no specific age mentioned in the article. It just says that Lukather is 14 years her senior. DrKilleMoff (talk) 11:53, 7 February 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]

@DrKilleMoff, It probably would be best, then, to wait until something more definite becomes available. I apologize for misunderstanding your first message. Eddie Blick (talk) 14:46, 7 February 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]