Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2020 December 22

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December 22

Amiga record label etymology

Everyone knows that the American home computer company Amiga got its name from the Spanish word amiga meaning "female friend", because it sounded friendly, and came before rivals Apple and Atari alphabetically.

But Amiga is also the name of an entirely unrelated German music record label. Does anyone know where that name came from? JIP | Talk 03:36, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

A bit off-topic: Spanish amiga comes from Latin amica of exactly the same meaning, which would be even earlier in alphabetical order. :) --CiaPan (talk) 07:42, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

And there exists a home appliances' label Amica in Poland. --CiaPan (talk) 07:44, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

I see no plausible argument for another theory than that this label name too came from Spanish amiga. A sister label was named Eterna (likely from Spanish eterna). The creator of these labels, Ernst Busch (actor), had joined the International Brigades in Spain in 1937 in the fight against the Nationalist faction, where he sang revolutionary songs, many in Spanish.  --Lambiam 10:03, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Does the former USSR have anything comparable to a Walmart?

Does the former USSR have anything comparable to a Walmart? If so, what and where? Futurist110 (talk) 03:53, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Not sure whether GUM meets the criterion. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 10:31, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Category:Retail companies of the Soviet Union may be a good place to begin your research. While places to exchange money for goods was as necessary for modern life in the Soviet Union as it was in any other country of the time, all such endeavours were state-run (as is the way under a Communist dictatorship) and there really isn't an equivalent of a private, family-owned chain store like Walmart. The list of such places we have at Wikipedia is likely incomplete, but any such chain will not be on the scale of Walmart, in terms of number of stores or size of individual stores, nor diversity of goods available. --Jayron32 12:13, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

FWIW, I was also asking about the former ex-USSR countries here. So, this hypothetical Walmart equivalent could have been created after 1991. Futurist110 (talk) 23:51, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Comparable in what way? --Khajidha (talk) 00:21, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

In terms of providing a lot of good products–especially, but not only, food–at a low price. Futurist110 (talk) 06:39, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

Search for hypermarkets, yes hyper like Carrefour, they're French but have very distant stores. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 00:31, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

Interesting! Thank you! Futurist110 (talk) 06:40, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

See List of supermarket chains in Russia. Also Supermarkets and Hypermarkets in Russia has some information. Alansplodge (talk) 16:05, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

Fixing an error in a map?

A map of the historical territorial evolution of France.

Is it please possible for someone here to fix an error in this map to the right?

The slide for 1798 here is before the slide for 1797 even though it's supposed to be the other way around. Futurist110 (talk) 08:02, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

1662 and 1661 are also out of order. You can put in a request at Commons:Graphic Lab/Illustration workshop.  --Lambiam 09:41, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks; will do! Futurist110 (talk) 06:38, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

What is the expiration date on my Matzos?

I know this is not a big deal. And sure, "I'll live" without an answer, or even if I use them if stale, and waste time cooking them if they're no good, but I thought I'd ask nevertheless.

I want to make a matzoh-based dish. I always check expiration dates, and so I can tell you that (not only is it the law in NY, in the U.S., that they are required), but boxes of matzoh's always have one in my past experience. In fact, I have an (almost empty) box of an American Matzoh brand that has printed on the bottom "02/02/2021". Anyway, I bought two boxes of matzoh some time back, of a brand I had never seen before (can't remember where I bought them, possibly Cosco). It's Israeli: "Yehuda Matzos". I Googled that brand name and "expiration date" and only got false positives.

I have carefully looked at every side of the box and cannot find anything that looks like an expiration date to me. What I have found, on the bottom (in the normal spot for an expiration date) is the following verbatim (with no spaces or hyphens): "1165619315". I also find, when I open the box, underneath one of the side flaps: "M.Y. 221-6".

Are either of these a translatable expiration dates in some Israeli format? Any idea? (I am thinking, they are simply not, it has none, and oh well).--108.21.51.204 (talk) 20:11, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Just to correct one falsehood in your post Expiration dates on food are not required by any federal law, although some states require such dates on meat or milk. Furthermore, New York isn't even one of those states that require milk to be sold by its printed expiration date. Expiration dates are not required by any law, food products (with some exceptions in some states, of which matzoh do not appear to be one) are not required to have them, and stores are not even required to pull many products by any expiration date even if it passes. There's a very good chance that the particular brand of matzoh you have purchased has no meaningful expiration date, or at least any that you could discern from the particular lot codes (which is likely what you have found) on your products. Wish I could be of more help, but all I can find is that there's no law that requires them. --Jayron32 20:19, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello Jeyron. Thank you for answering. You are correct. There is no federal law, nor NY state law, as I've confirmed; I stand corrected – and am glad to actually know this now! I had always assumed (and you know what they say about assumptions...). If I may, I don't think you meant to imply how it reads, but "falsehood" is a word choice with certain connotations of intentional deceit. I'm sure all you intended was the equivalent of "incorrect", but please take note. Anyway, I'm going to trust that my nose knows. There's a slight mustiness. I'm tossing 'em. Thanks.108.21.51.204 (talk) 21:03, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

In case you haven't already seen it, we have an article Shelf life which goes into some detail about these matters. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.56.237 (talk) 02:26, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

Open front toilet seat

An open front airplane toilet seat. 84.209.119.241 (talk) 22:47, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

My mom's apartment bathroom has an open front toilet seat with no lid, like this. I've seen those in public restroom stalls where I guess they don't want people standing on the lids and looking into other stalls or whatever. Can anyone explain why someone would install one in a residence? I'd like to take it out and replace it with a normal lidded seat, in order to not spray poop droplets all over the place, which among other things can apparently spread covid.[1] Thanks. 2602:24A:DE47:BB20:50DE:F402:42A6:A17D (talk) 21:48, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Purpose of Open Front Toilet Seats notes that international Plumbing Code 411.3 requires public water closet seats to be "of the elongated type and either of the open front type or have an automatic seat cover dispenser." and explains that the omitted front part potentially harbors body waste products. Further, "The open-front seat design ensures that women can reach down to clean their genitals without scraping their hand on the....toilet seat". Possible reasons someone would install an open-front toilet seat in a residence are economy or a male unwilling to raise the seat to urinate standing. See Toilet seat#Open front toilet seats. 84.209.119.241 (talk) 22:47, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Given that all Europeans get by just fine without such a peculiar gap, you have to wonder where they got those ideas. Fgf10 (talk) 16:03, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

From time to time, toilet seats can become worn and their fixings unserviceable through regular, significant strain, and have to be replaced, typically by the homeowner (or occupier?) who purchases and fits a new seat (with or without a lid), as I myself have done. It may be that whoever fitted the current seat in your mom's apartment (assuming it's not from the original WC installation) chose for some reason (cheapness, immediate availability, personal preference, access difficulty, etc.) to both buy the open-front seat design and to not buy/fit a lid. Alternatively, someone may in the past have stood on the lid, broken it, and not replaced it.

One possible reason for deliberate lid omission: some WCs are so positioned relative to other plumbing features (pipework, the cistern) that a lid will not stand upright and has to be held – not a problem if sitting, as one's back will do so, but problematic for a male who prefers to urinate while standing. Is it possible that this was a factor for some previous owner? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.56.237 (talk) 02:24, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

@Fgf10: I'm not sure they do. See bidet. 82.13.210.231 (talk) 17:12, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

That is completely unrelated to any of the purported advantages of an incomplete toilet seat. Fgf10 (talk) 23:05, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

It depends on what you mean by "Europeans", Fgf10. As a Brit, I am a European geographically and culturally (Brexit being irrelevant to such considerations), and I can assure you that the gap-front seats are common in UK public and commercial premises' toilets. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.56.237 (talk) 23:32, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

Where? I can't think of a single time I've seen one here. Fgf10 (talk) 10:31, 24 December 2020 (UTC)

Common on trains, and in public conveniences, shopping centres, and the like in my British experience. DuncanHill (talk) 12:30, 24 December 2020 (UTC)

Speaking as someone whose employment sometimes includes the cleaning of toilets, I can assure you all that both ladies and gentlemen sometimes pee on the front of the seat (the exact mechanics of this trait are best not enquired into). Alansplodge (talk) 14:35, 24 December 2020 (UTC)