Entertainment desk
< November 1	<< Oct \| November \| Dec >>	November 3 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

November 2

Hopscotch

While walking through a schoolyard today I saw what looked like a version of hopscotch. I'm wondering if someone can tell me what it's called. It had semi-ovals on each side of a line which were numbered sequentially 1-10. It looked a bit like this (please excuse my lack of ASCII skills)...

 |D
C|
 |D
C|
 |D
C|
 |D
C|
 |D
C|

Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 00:08, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

ASCII, and ye shall receive:

⊂|
 |⊃
⊂|
 |⊃
⊂|
 |⊃
⊂|
 |⊃
⊂|
 |⊃

StuRat (talk) 00:15, 3 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks and I hope you don't mind but I edited your version to better represent the game I saw. Now does anyone have a name for it? :) Dismas|^(talk) 01:59, 4 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Check out hopscotch. I don't specifically see a variety that fits your description, but despite the detailed coverage of its rules, my recollection from childhood is that hopscotch "courts" were drawn quite haphazardly and hopped on just the same. It could also have something do with jumping rope. --BDD (talk) 20:06, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I found Line step playground markings from the UK, which may have a similar function: "designed to promote the development of fundamental movement skills." This all sounds very dull and worthy. When I was a child, adults only told us what NOT to play (which we usually ignored). Alansplodge (talk) 18:02, 4 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

To not play with electricity, for example. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:12, 4 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I ignored that too. Didn't do it again though. Alansplodge (talk) 23:08, 4 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

College sports in the United States and other countries

I have two questions:

1. Are there any other countries apart from the United States where college sports are just as popular, if not more so than professional sports? The only countries apart from the United States I can think of where college sports are popular is Japan, where high school and college baseball is big, and my country the Philippines, where fans flock to college basketball games (especially those of Ateneo de Manila University and La Salle University). Apart from the aforementioned countries, are there any countries where college sports are as big as professional sports? I'm aware that there are college sports in Canada but I'm not sure how popular they are in Canada, or if they have television coverage.

2. How and when did college sports get so popular in the United States in the first place? The article on College athletics in the United States (which is full of POV problems and "citation needed" tags) explains why, but not when or how. Does it have to do with the fact that several states do not have teams in the Big Four (or Big Five) leagues?

Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 05:37, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Partial answer: university football (Canadian football) is relatively popular in Canada, with good crowds at some of the most competitive universities and television coverage of the postseason on mainstream cable sports channels. Surprisingly, in a hockey-mad country, university hockey has almost no following apart from the players' girlfriends. Few other college sports are on the radar screen at all. On the second question, college sports have been popular in the USA since the late 19th century, when college baseball games were already a big fixture; baseball has since been overtaken by football and basketball as the most popular college sport. One of the factors that makes college sports so popular is the quality of athletes; many of them go directly from there to the top professional leagues, or to perform in the Olympic Games, and it's been the case since the 19th century. I don't see the top football (soccer) or basketball leagues in Europe, for example, recruiting players off university campuses, so that type of draw does not exist. --Xuxl (talk) 11:34, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The four major North American sports are Hockey, Baseball, Football, and Basketball. Hockey and Baseball have robust developmental leagues, known as the Farm system or Farm teams: the Minor leagues in both sports have close contractual ties with the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball whereby young (18-22) year-old players are drafted and under contract from a young age to major league teams and then developed in the minor leagues. This is the time when these men would be going to college, so there is not necessarily a robust college sports landscape for these sports (there are some players that do go through college before the pros, but not the majority). There isn't a robust tradition of developmental leagues in either American Football or Basketball (the NFL used the now-defunct NFL Europa for this purpose, and the NBA in the past decade or so has run the NBDL, or "D-league", but this is fairly underutilized. Instead of developing their own talent via the "farm system" as baseball and hockey have always done, professional football and basketball have always used the university system to develop its talent. Why? Because historically, those two sports were well-established in American University system long before there were viable professional leagues. In American Football, for example, College Football became a national sport in the 1880s; the first really viable professional leagues didn't get started until the 1910s, and the NFL wasn't founded until 1920. Furthermore, the NFL didn't become more popular as a sport than college football until the 1950s, so the college game predates the pro game, and for decades was more popular and important while they ran along side each other. Major college stars often forwent professional football for careers that actually paid them. Consider that Jay Berwanger, the first ever Heisman Trophy winner and the first ever draft pick by the NFL in 1936 declined to play professional football. Basketball was also much the same: The game was invented and developed in the Universities: the game had been played at the University level since the 1890s, but the leagues that became the NBA didn't form until the 1940s. Baseball and Hockey's major leagues date from the 1870s and 1910s respectively. So, the reason why College Football and College Basketball are more popular than Baseball and Hockey is that the latter began as college sports and developed into powerful, national leagues as college sports. Baseball and Hockey developed nationally as pro sports, so there was never much impetus to develop them as college sports. --Jayron32 14:14, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The only college sports that attract any media attention in the UK are the annual Varsity Match (Rugby Union) and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race (rowing). Alansplodge (talk) 18:29, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well that's not quite true, as the MCC University matches against the first-class counties command some coverage, even if it's only to report the results and the bones of the game. A bit like the lower football leagues. --TammyMoet (talk) 18:51, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes point taken, although I've never seen any results on the national news. Alansplodge (talk) 21:03, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Not nationally I suppose, but our local BBC news has covered them, especially if they beat the county side. --TammyMoet (talk) 21:38, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

As Xuxl mentioned, University hockey isn't as popular as university football in Canada, but that's because there is such an established junior hockey system (the Canadian Hockey League). Adam Bishop (talk) 00:01, 3 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I see London, I see France!

What are some good movies that are set in London or in Normandy between late 19th century and the end of World War 2? (Genre doesn't matter, what I want most of all is to get a feel for what these places looked like back then.) 24.23.196.85 (talk) 05:54, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You could comb through, say Category:Films set in the 1880s and go forward through Category:Films set in the 1940s, then cross reference it with Category:Films set in London. I believe there is a tool that lets you find articles in multiple categories at once, but I can't recall what it is. --Jayron32 13:56, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That would be WP:CATSCAN. Dismas|^(talk) 17:25, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! And then, I'd pick out the good ones based on critical reception, right? 24.23.196.85 (talk) 01:28, 3 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

And then, the same procedure would apply for searching for movies set in Normandy during the same time period -- is that correct? 24.23.196.85 (talk) 01:31, 3 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Just tried it -- found a whole bunch of movies set in London (everything from Sherlock Holmes to Mary Poppins to Seabiscuit to The King's Speech), but nothing for movies set in Normandy. What do I do for Part 2 of the search? 24.23.196.85 (talk) 02:56, 3 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well, any film focussing on D-Day will meet your requirements. I also found the ITV adaptation of the Poirot novel The Murder on the Links, which is set in '20s Deauville. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 08:53, 3 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Many of the adventures of Arsène Lupin are set in Normandy in the first decade of the 20th century. There have been many film and television treatments. Madame Bovary and many of the stories of Guy de Maupassant are set in late 19th century Normandy. Lots of film adaptations there as well. --Xuxl (talk) 17:40, 3 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, everyone! Great ideas! Keep'em coming! 24.23.196.85 (talk) 02:42, 4 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Is Billy Mack from 'Love actually' actually inspired in Jimmy Savile?

Is he? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.58.205.34 (talk) 16:01, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry but I have no idea what you are talking about. --Viennese Waltz 16:09, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What's the point of answering, if you don't know the answer? 80.58.205.34 (talk) 16:25, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, Viennese Waltz is NOT answering, he/she is trying politely to point out that your question, as written, does not make sense. If you can reword it a little more clearly, we may be able to help. Gurumaister (talk) 16:30, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ok. Is the character Billy Mack from the film "Love Actually" actually inspired in the Tv presenter Jimmy Saville? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.58.205.34 (talk) 16:35, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That's much better, I understand you now. I saw that you added quotation marks around the film's title in your heading, as well, which also helped to make your question understandable.

As our article Love Actually states, Billy Mack is an "aging rock and roll legend". I therefore think it's unlikely that he was inspired by (not in) Savile, since Savile was a DJ and TV presenter, not a rock'n'roll star. --Viennese Waltz 16:38, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

OK, now you are answering without knowing the answer. Why you do that? 80.58.205.34 (talk) 16:43, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Because there are no Google hits for "billy mack" + "jimmy savile". Because if Savile had been the inspiration Richard Curtis would have already said so, and he hasn't. Because our article doesn't say anything about it. Because the character in the film is nothing like Savile. And so on. --Viennese Waltz 16:56, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

(e/c)VW is saying we can deduce the answer (no) from the article on Love Actually. Perhaps a better starting point would be to ask why you think Billy Mack might "actually" be inspired by Jimmy Savile. Do you have a source for that?--Shantavira|^{feed me} 16:57, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I, too, was confused by the question. For the future, one usually says either "inspired by" or "based upon".

To the OP, this often happens when people ask questions where they assume that we will know what they're talking about. Often the question will be "Why don't you have an article about (this person)?" But then they never explain who that person is or why that person deserves an article. And the name is often common enough that there are dozens/hundreds/thousands of people by that name in the world. In this case, just a link to the film at least would have helped us know what you were talking about. Dismas|^(talk) 20:03, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Why don't you have an article about Anton Sherwood? That at least is not a frequent name. —Tamfang (talk) 18:23, 3 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Who is this 'you' of whom you speak? -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 21:23, 3 November 2012 (UTC) [reply]

murdock mysteries

what is the chestnut horse's name on Murdock Mysteries. He is single driven and is in almost all shows. White blaze on face, back left leg with white, right leg very small white.TILDES — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.151.61.169 (talk) 20:50, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You may mean Murdoch Mysteries. -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 22:01, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

To sign your post, you must put 4 tildes after it, not the word "TILDES". The tilde ("~") is obtained by holding down shift while striking the grave character ("`"), just left of the "1" on the row of numbers, on most keyboards. StuRat (talk) 00:01, 3 November 2012 (UTC) [reply]

Yes, nothing happens tildes is done. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:39, 3 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Identify the melody

Hi, I would like to know what is the name of that melody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGfQeDd0IgI Exx8 (talk) 23:40, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Most tunes that are written for advertising purposes don't have names, and I think it likely that this one doesn't either. 24.23.196.85 (talk) 02:54, 4 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I doubt it was composed (or recorded) for the vid. —Tamfang (talk) 04:34, 4 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A variation of the Airtel theme song by A. R. Rahman? (see for example here, with Rahman himself ---Sluzzelin talk 11:28, 4 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2012 November 2

Contents