Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2015 July 8

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July 8

A question regarding recent work by David C. Mitchell on the Psalms

If you know or have access to David C. Mitchell's work on the Psalms and in particular the following three references:

1. David C. Mitchell "The Songs of Ascents: Psalms 120 to 134 in the Worship of Jerusalem's temples" (Campbell: Newton Mearns 2015)
2. David C. Mitchell "Resinging the Temple Psalmody", JSOT 36 (2012) pp. 355–378
3. David C. Mitchell "How Can We Sing the Lord's Song?" in S. Gillingham (ed.), "Jewish and Christian Approaches to the Psalms" (OUP, 2013) pp. 119–133

could you help with the following question:

David C. Mitchell seems to have some credibility as a scholar of the Psalms (if we go by where his articles are published and who prefaces his books; for example the first book in the above list was prefaced by John Barton, professor at Oxford University).

On the other hand two recent contributions to WP ([1], [2]) claim that David C. Mitchell supports Haïk-Vantoura's proposed "decipherment" of the tropes of the Hebrew Bible.

I have a hard time understanding that anyone with any credibility can lend their support to her work and I suspect that anyone who's read her book and become acquainted with her "methodology" will be left as baffled as I am.

If you can help shed some light on this matter (eg what precisely David C. Mitchell had to say regarding Haïk-Vantoura's proposed reconstruction) I'll be very grateful.

Contact Basemetal here 01:03, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Accessing hard-to-find references is probably better to be asked of WP:REX rather than the ref desks. You may get better luck there. --Jayron32 02:02, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. I've just filed a request. Contact Basemetal here 02:41, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Origin of the name Monthermer

Whence derives the medieval English name Monthermer, as used by the prominent lord Ralph de Monthermer? I presume it is a place somewhere in Normandy or elsewhere in northern France. Perhaps Monthermé in Champagne? Also, any general information about the origin of this family would be useful. Zacwill16 (talk) 09:51, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

A similar research is to be found here while remaining unconclusive. ( The next answer in the same thread is not uninteresting at least as its conclusion, critical of the edition or version used in [3] the Wikisource entry dedicated to Ralph de Monthermer, seems sufficiently authoritative to perhaps be accurate) --Askedonty (talk) 13:19, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Canada / Australia confusion

On the radio this morning, I heard an interview with a politician who was supposed to attend a function in Bucharest, but had gone to Budapest instead. It reminded me of a well-publicized incident from about 15 years ago, when booking flights online was the latest hi-tech exciting thing to do: a couple wanted to go to Australia, but ended up in Canada. To assist me in looking it up, does anyone have any suggestions for the places involved? We need a town in Canada that isn't of international renown but which is big enough to have its own airport, and which has a name which is identical, or at least very similar, to a major city in Australia. Tevildo (talk) 22:06, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

I'm reminded of an indident in The Book of Heroic Failures, where an opera set intended for Bayreuth ended up in Beirut. DuncanHill (talk) 22:08, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Along the same lines: many years ago (1985?) there was a poisoning scare around some Austrian wines which led Japanese customers to start avoiding Australian wines. I've also heard that (in the 1990s?) the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Quai d'Orsay) once summoned by mistake the Ambassador of Nigeria instead of that of Niger to tell them about something the French Government was unhappy about. The Nigerian ambassador was totally baffled. I'm less sure about this one. There's also got to be some stories of people confusing Slovakia and Slovenia but I don't know of any. Contact Basemetal here 22:31, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

According to this, the Slovakia/Slovenia confusion is indeed very common. -Elmer Clark (talk) 03:24, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

There is a Victoria in Canada, and another in Australia. The latter is not a city though. DuncanHill (talk) 22:13, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Sydney, Nova Scotia? There's an airport nearby. Contact Basemetal here 22:15, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Basemetal could be right - our article Sydney/J.A. Douglas McCurdy Airport says "Over the years, several travellers have been sent to this airport after their travel agents mistook it for the Sydney Airport in Australia." DuncanHill (talk) 22:24, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Sydney it is - this is the story. Thanks very much! Tevildo (talk) 22:31, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

August. Not too bad. I'd love to see the face of someone who's booked a flight in order to escape European winter weather for a few days and who arrives in Sydney, Nova Scotia in the middle of January. Contact Basemetal here 22:39, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Give me Nova Scotia in January over New South Wales in January any day. DuncanHill (talk) 22:50, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

If anyone finds a story on the net about a guy who thought he was going to Sydney, Nova Scotia, ended up in Sydney, New South Wales by mistake and complained about it, we know it's gotta be Duncan. Contact Basemetal here 01:43, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Then there was the time a would-be terrorist named Stosh hijacked a flight from Moscow to Warsaw, and demanded to be taken to Poland. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:55, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

(ec) Which is why it's properly called Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:32, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Three years ago the same thing happened to a bunch of Athletic Bilbao fans when they flew to see the Europa Cup final but went to Budapest while it was being held in Bucharest. MarnetteD|Talk 22:36, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Here is an article confirming a couple who were sent to Sydney airport in Canada when they wanted to go to Australia. It is only from five years ago so it could be a separate incident from the one that Tevildo is asking about. MarnetteD|Talk 22:42, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Oops I see that while I was typing they the incident from '02 was discovered. MarnetteD|Talk 22:44, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Similar... a friend of mine who works for an airline says baggage that is supposed to go to Auckland, NZ often ends up being sent to Oakland, CA (and vice-versa). He has not heard of this happening to passengers however. Blueboar (talk) 01:06, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

The internet delivers. Hack (talk) 02:09, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

For a while Facebook places confused Sydney, NS with Sydney, NSW. Hack (talk) 02:09, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Sidney, Montana also received a lost tourist.[4] Hack (talk) 02:25, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, you should see the look on people's faces at Hobart International Airport when they discover they aren't in Tanzania.

(Not true of course: the pretentiously named Hobart "International" Airport hasn't had scheduled international flights since 1998. And those so-called "international" flights were to New Zealand.)

Apart from a six-month period in 2004 when flights to Fiji were scheduled, the equally pretentiously named Canberra International Airport has never had any scheduled international flights in the 17 years since it became "International". I'm all for positive affirmations and forward thinking, but this seems to be an extraordinarily long gestation. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:45, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Imagine the disappointment on finding oneself in CIA when one expected another CIA entirely. DuncanHill (talk) 23:00, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Being forced to visit Canberra is a form of torture as some recent US visitors found out. Hack (talk) 00:37, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

They were hardly "visiting Canberra". They were diverted from a planned Sydney landing because of a hazard, and were stuck inside the plane, on the Canberra tarmac, for 4+ hours, because United Airlines chose to handle the situation that way and at no time did they request permission from the airport for their passengers to disembark. This reflects poorly on United Airlines, but on Canberra not at all. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 14:07, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

Pete in New Zealand (as I plan to pretend I am for the duration of the 2015 Rugby World Cup) aka --Shirt58 (talk) 11:16, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

• Couple flown to Grenada in the Caribbean and not Granada in Spain lose $34,000 lawsuit. μηδείς (talk) 03:28, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Might float someone's boat to compare Locations in Canada with an English name to Locations in Australia with an English name. Those English sure got around. InedibleHulk (talk) 05:31, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Same with those Scots (except for article name consistency). See here and here. InedibleHulk (talk) 05:42, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

A few years ago a news article told of a Japanese man, who spoke no English, who wanted to fly from Japan to Washington DC for a vacation. He wound up in Washington state, and had a fine time, viewing public buildings in the state capitol of Olympia, and was not aware for some time that he was in the wrong place (perhaps not until he got home and showed people his snapshots). Edison (talk) 16:24, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

A recent news story in the UK concerned a busload of Belgian football fans going to see their national side at the recent UEFA Euro 2016 qualifier in Cardiff, Wales, but ended up in Wales, South Yorkshire instead. [5] Alansplodge (talk) 17:09, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

And then there's the Italian family who went to meet their daughter's train in it:Monaco di Baviera rather than the other Monaco. —Tamfang (talk)