Wikipedia:Did you know/Monthly wrap/November 2022

DYK's November (and October! and September! and August!) wrapped, 2022

I agree with Josh, and I agree with C. J., and I agree with Sam, and you know how that makes me crazy.

– Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff), from The West Wing's "Pilot" (1999)

Welcome back to the DYK wrap, everyone! It's definitely been a while since I've had the opportunity to hop back on this horse, but the saddle's comfy and I'm quite excited. Hopefully, y'all have been doing all right as well, and my thanks to Bruxton for covering for me while I was out :) We've got a lot of ground to cover, but first, a ~~shameless plug~~ word from our sponsors:

Shameless plug

PSHAW hard at work

@DYK admins: Are you an admin who regularly finds yourself hard at work, moving sets to DYK's queues? Do you often get wrapped up in all that cutting and pasting and incrementing? There's got to be a better way! Here at the Prep Set's Half Assed Workbench, our new, patent-pending technology (pictured) can do all that heavy lifting for you–

–Okay, the infomercial bit is getting a little tired :) I added a new feature to PSHAW, so it'll now automatically handle the manual bits of moving sets to queue. It can't do any verification work, obviously, but it'll move the set to queue (with the {{DYKbotdo}}), clear it out, and increment the prep counter so that you don't have to do that on your own. You can find it under the "more" tab in the prep set you wish to promote. You can install it at WP:PSHAW – happy queueing!

Back to the wrapped

Whew, glad that's over. Now, of course, to our best performing hooks in the last four months! Did you know...

Article	Date	views	vph	DYK hook
Royal Navy State Funeral Gun Carriage	2022-09-20	61,966	2,581.9	... that a coffin carriage used in British state funerals (pictured) has been pulled by sailors since an incident at Queen Victoria's funeral in 1901? by Msrasnw and Dumelow
Jack Johnson vs. James J. Jeffries	2022-10-18	26,765	2,230.4	... that The New York Times claimed that if Johnson beat Jeffries (fight pictured), black people would "misinterpret his victory as justifying claims to much more than mere physical equality with their white neighbors"? by Onceinawhile
Elver Eating World Championships	2022-09-06	26,036	2,169.7	... that no elvers (examples pictured) are eaten during the Elver Eating World Championships?by Dumelow
Shieling	2022-10-14	25,696	2,141.3	... that the isolation of shielings (examples pictured) might have given opportunity for "sexual experiment[ation]"? by Chiswick Chap, nominated by LordPeterII
Flag families	2022-11-19	45,668	1,902.8	... that most national flags belong to a flag family with similar designs? by NotAWittyFish
Ring theory (psychology)	2022-09-09	22,166	1,847.2	... that Susan Silk developed ring theory (pictured) when a colleague said that Silk's breast cancer wasn't just about her? by Valereee
Mutilated chessboard problem	2022-10-22	21,647	1,803.9	... that if you remove two opposite corners of a chessboard, you cannot cover all squares with dominos? by David Eppstein

Notes

2022-09-20, of course, was when DYK ran its hook set commemorating the death and state funeral of Elizabeth II. The set received significant pushback from those who saw the commemoration as undeserved, but the set was never pulled or moved regardless.

DYK has undergone... (yeesh) quite a few RfCs in the time the DYK wrapped has been away, especially the past month. By my count, we've gone through three: Sdkb started one on 2022-11-07 that ran relatively quickly, garnering a quick consensus to reverse a 2015 policy blocking article from appearing at DYK if they've been at ITN or OTD before. That came out of an IAR exemption request in which we discussed whether a pending DYK nomination for Thurgood Marshall (a new GA!) really should be closed because he appeared at OTD years back. We even discovered the Glass story, how it appeared at DYK after being promoted to a featured article, running at TFA, getting demoted, and then qualifying as a newly listed good article. The exact details of implementation of the new rule are currently being decided in a follow-up RfC.

Well, that's only two. Our third – and longest – RfC of the recent period was borne out of a hook being pulled from queue by Amakuru, who questioned whether or not one hook really met our "interesting to a broad audience" criterion. One huge discussion snowballed into an even huger RfC; rather than gaining consensus to relax the guideline, the discussion actually slightly tightened the guideline after a late stage proposal from EEng gained consensus in a second Runoff! that dragged maybe a liiitle too long. Proposals for an RfC to determine whether this RfC needed a formal close went nowhere (presumably after an RfC determined that that RfC RfC would not be appropriate).

We've even had some non-RfC drag-out discussions – Maile66 started a discussion to move-protect articles at DYK after they and I bemoaned the logistic mishaps that occur when bolded articles at DYK get yoinked out from under our feet; and we discussed whether those dang Swifties had taken over DYK and abused their privileges. (Spoiler alert: not really.)

I also want to give a big hand to RoySmith, who have been doing fantastic work in promoting and nominating since they joined up recently. Welcome to the crew! Beware of the burnout. But let's go to our lovely-yet-unappreciated quirky hooks :) did you know...

Article	Date	views	vph	DYK hook
Rockstar Lincoln	2022-11-05	3,570	297.5	... that Rockstar Lincoln used to keep live tarantulas at its offices? by IceWelder – there was a joke going around on the Wikimedia Discord that some of these tarantulas could be send to the WMF, but that obviously definitely probably shouldn't happen :)
WJZR	2022-10-15	3,449	287.4	... that North Coast Radio went silent after playing the song "In a Silent Way"? by Sammi Brie
British logistics in the Western Allied invasion of Germany	2022-10-05	6,517	271.5	... that British logistics in the Western Allied invasion of Germany involved buffaloes, duck bills and weasels?Hawkeye7
The Faulkland Quiz	2022-11-01	3,006	250.5	... that Delaware weekly newspaper The Faulkland Quiz was founded, edited and published by an 18-year-old? by BeanieFan11
Archbishop William Henry Elder	2022-09-13	2,857	238.1	... that artist Thomas Eakins remarked "I think you've got a heap of impudence" upon receiving the Temple Gold Medal for his portrait Archbishop William Henry Elder? by Petropoxy (Lithoderm Proxy)
Hani al-Rahib	2022-08-05	3,649	152.0	... that Syrian novelist Hani al-Rahib had a deaf-mute father and an illiterate mother? by Ruwaym

Notes

That's all I've got for this time around, folks! I should probably... stop procrastinating on studying for finals. Until next time, hold onto your hats, and thanks very much for contributing to DYK!