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December 10

Ramo Stott#Grand National Series

What do numbers 1-54 and "AUG", "RSD", "DAY 12" etc. mean in this table? Asking because I want to remake it into something like this because it's currently too wide even for a computer's screen. sapphaline (talk) 11:49, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

The numbers are the order of events in the series that particular season (i.e. the first race of 1967 was the Augusta 300, the second was the Motor Trend 500 and so on). The racer in question only participated in some of these races, the ones for which there is a finish number under the race name. If you hover your mouse over the various initials, the full name of the race will appear. Xuxl (talk) 15:00, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

Is it correct to label these cells like so, then? sapphaline (talk) 15:30, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

@Xuxl:? sapphaline (talk) 12:20, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

I haven't worked on any racing articles, so my expertise is limited, but the format looks fine to me. --Xuxl (talk) 15:25, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

December 11

The Q Continuum on Star Trek

Why does the Q continuum on star trek have two genders? Does that mean they came from mortal animals that had evolved sex? Do they realize that?Rich (talk) 03:15, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

Does Q (Star Trek) really have two genders, or is that merely a conventionalization for humans to comprehend, somewhat like with the Organians? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:04, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

If it does, it may merely reflect a desire on the part of the writers to avoid introducing a distraction irrelevant to the actual plot of the story. If instead they had made it explicitly one, or three, people would have spent time wondering how that worked. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2025-31359-08 (talk) 06:18, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

The appearance of having genders may be an artifact of the projection of the Q essence in a form accessible to us humans. It might be interesting, though, to have an episode based on Q experiencing gender dysphoria.  ​‑‑Lambiam 01:47, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

Best budget wireless lav mics with receiver - which can fit into mic input of zoom h1 essential recorder

I am a layman in sound dept. For my very low budget short film - I have purchased a Zoom H1 essential recorder and a Senheiser MKE 400 shotgun. I would use this combination for close-ups. But, for wider shots of actors, I want to use a combination of lav mics+receiver + zoom h1 essentiaal recorder. Kindly comment if this would be OK? If yes, can you kindly suggest any budget mic whose receiver would go in the mic input of zoom recorder. Or, do you think any other budget way would be better. Also, if I record wider shots sounds on phone via lav mic and close-up shot sounds on shotgun+Zoom recorder - How, in post, can I make these sounds from two recording devices sound Similar?? Jesushealedme25 (talk) 10:25, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

Donald Byrd

This musician recorded an album's worth of material in December 1961, but the album itself was not released until October 1966. Our article (which I presume is reasonably accurate) rather glosses over this lengthy delay. Does any jazz buff here know why this occured ? Thanks. - Derek R Bullamore (talk) 21:38, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

Not being a jazz buff I understand nothing of what I'm about to quote:

“Original first pressing on Blue Note NY labels” with VAN GELDER stamp however an anomaly, as 4118 lacks the all important Plastylite “ear” mark in the run-out, indicating the release was possibly out of catalogue number sequence at a later date. Expert opinion suggests the record, recorded at the end of 1961, was released in 1962, however the missing ear usually indicates a Liberty pressing after 1966.

Perhaps you do? It's taken from this webpage. --Antiquary (talk) 21:58, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

I most certainly do not. It looks complete jibberish to me - I am not a fan of jazz either. Thanks for your efforts though - not your fault the website leaves us both clueless ! Perhaps someone else can find a straightforward explanation. Thanks again. - Derek R Bullamore (talk) 22:12, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

If I can make sense of the quote, it claims the record was released in 1962, but with a catalogue number that was out of sequence and makes it appear like a 1966 release. No idea what the "missing ear" is about, however, but it's the sort of thing obsessive collectors obsess about. However, Discogs states that the earliest release was in 1966, and that it was delayed due to Blue Note's sale to Liberty Records. To make things more complicated, our articles on the two labels do not mention such a sale, and on Discogs, it's said to have taken place in 1965, which does not explain the five-year gap in that particular recording's release. Xuxl (talk) 15:11, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

The section Blue Note Records § Lion retires; Wolff dies starts with, "Blue Note was acquired by Liberty Records in 1965". While the company was sold, the iconic label persisted, also after Liberty Records was bought by United Artists Records, United Artists Records was bought by EMI, and EMI was bought by Universal Music Group.  ​‑‑Lambiam 23:32, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

Thank you too for your diligence. I am a Brit, but I sense the beginnings of a US style conspiracy theory emanating from all these curious factors. LOL. I wonder if we will ever find the truth - I bet it will be a bit mundane after all this excitement! Thanks again Xuxl. - Derek R Bullamore (talk) 15:44, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

From googling the subject, the "ear" seems to have been a symbol on this record company's products; a symbol on the record platter that looked like an ear. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:58, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

Plastylite was a record-pressing company that pressed the Blue Note albums until 1966.^[1] The "ear" was not Blue Note's mark, but Plastylite's; after 1966 it no longer appears on Blue Note records.^[2] It was actually the mirror image of a cursive letter P, the first letter of Plastylite's cursive logo.^[3]  ​‑‑Lambiam 23:14, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

This gets more and more entertaining. Thanks to all contributors. However, my original question remains - why was there a lengthy delay (almost five years) between the recording and issue. There must be more to it than the eventual sale of the label (more than three years after the recording date(s)) and "ear", or not, on the vinyl. I could throw in the curveball of Chant (recorded in 1961; released in 1979 on our old friend Blue Note). Ohhhh...the intrigue! - Derek R Bullamore (talk) 14:20, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

PS. Just trawling around with nothing better to do, I stumbled across Blue Note Records § Lee Morgan and Grant Green: high volumes of unreleased recordings; which may be relevant - although neither Grant Green nor Lee Morgan were party to the musicians recording either Free Form or Chant. - Derek R Bullamore (talk) 20:59, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

Konye West

Who is konye West ~2025-40129-81 (talk) 01:34, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

See Kanye West. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:38, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

Kanye's more disreputable brother. P.S. It's actually spelled "Con-ye". Clarityfiend (talk) 11:50, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

Hear Ye, hear Ye!  ​‑‑Lambiam 23:34, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

December 13

If I hear a familiar melody in a song that I’m convinced I’ve heard before, how can I locate it?

I’ve recently listened to a song (I won’t post it here, my intent is not for someone to just know the answer) whose melody is frustratingly familiar. I don’t even know if it was an intentional interpolation, it could’ve just been a coincidence.

How could I systematically go about finding songs with a similar melody? I could write the melody of this one in musical or MIDI notation, but then how could I cross-reference that with other songs? Does there exist some sort of database with indexing on melodies like this, so one can query and find melodies with certain patterns?

Or even anything like this, or akin to what I’m looking for? I have some basic musical knowledge and decent technical ability, so this seemed like a great place to ask. ~2025-40442-09 (talk) 18:58, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

I googled "identify that tune" and got:

• To identify a tune, use apps like Shazam, SoundHound, or your phone's built-in assistants (Google, Siri, Alexa) by tapping a button to listen, or even humming/whistling the melody into the mic; you can also use browser extensions like Shazam or AHA Music for songs playing online, or websites like Musipedia by playing the tune on a virtual keyboard. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:46, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

  Shazam and the apps it's often grouped together with pretty much only recognizes how the original songs sound like. Humming detection is apparently very different. Aaron Liu (talk) 21:55, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

Midomi used to be excellent at it, but it is now only accessible by installing an app. cmɢʟee τaʟκ (please add {{ping|cmglee}} to your reply) 11:49, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

@Lambiam: once mentioned Parsons code. Doug butler (talk) 22:30, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

Did I? I know several other editors did:

• Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2013 October 14 § Identifying a piano piece
• Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2014 October 19 § moonlight 70s popular song disco?
• Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2016 September 10 § Help identifying a tune
• Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2016 September 27 § Old British triumphant march
• Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2025 June 15 § whats the song that goes like this

(I contributed to the last of these discussions, but not in a particularly serious way.)

Musipedia accepts queries by Parsons code, but also by just whistling the melody or even by tapping its rhythm.  ​‑‑Lambiam 23:44, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

December 14

Zootopia 2

Will Zootopia 2 become the highest-grossing film of 2025? Wonderiousmen (talk) 06:44, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

As you can read above:

• We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.

 ​‑‑Lambiam 16:34, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

Check back again after December 31. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:49, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

December 15

Criminal Minds episode (not) with a Scrubs tribute

Recently I have seen the intro of a Criminal Minds episode (season unknown, but none of the earliest), starting off with two young doctors or medical students preparing an obductionautopsy. The female is scared by the corpse suddenly sitting up and moving, which is just a prank by the male. When the doctor in charge arrives (a female, aging African-American) and they start the obductionautopsy, they note a formerly unrecognized tattoo at the corpse. The doctor suddenly realizes a crime has happened and calls the BAU team. Now I had believed the male doctor/student to be actor Zach Braff, and at first I had believed this to be a Scrubs episode. But apparently Braff has never screened in Criminal Minds, and there never was an episode with a Scrubs tribute. Does anyone know which episode this is, and who was the actor? --KnightMove (talk) 12:14, 15 December 2025 (UTC)

NB. Obduction in this context is an old medical term for autopsy. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 17:48, 15 December 2025 (UTC)

Thanks. --KnightMove (talk) 21:17, 15 December 2025 (UTC)

 Comment: I don't know the episode, but one way you might be able to figure it out, or at least narrow it down, is by looking at episode transcripts (search for "criminal minds episode transcripts"). The ones I found only include the dialogue, but you can still get a fairly good idea of the action and general setting. ―Tosca-the-engineer (talk) 13:47, 16 December 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for the hint. I haven't found the episode yet, but I will keep looking... --KnightMove (talk) 14:50, 17 December 2025 (UTC)

For anyone interested: It is episode Surface Tension, and the guy I was looking for is Andy Cohen. I have to confess, he looks not too similar to Zach Braff. --KnightMove (talk) 17:05, 17 December 2025 (UTC)

Identifying an episode

Good evening. Could someone try to tell me the title of a show i forgot? ~2025-40048-69 (talk) 17:02, 15 December 2025 (UTC)

That is way too vague a question. You need to provide some details. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:11, 15 December 2025 (UTC)

Start with show and work your way from there. It may take you a while. Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:37, 16 December 2025 (UTC)

It was a cartoon. Could have been a Disney one, but it'm not sure. The characters were animals and it was most likely from the 90S. The episode i renember is about the main character spending the night at a castle. Some other characters (might have been the show's main antagonists) made a plan to scare him. ~2025-40048-69 (talk) 15:18, 16 December 2025 (UTC)

Yes, the members of https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/ can try to tell you, if you provide some details. AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 10:37, 16 December 2025 (UTC)

WP:DFTT - Derek R Bullamore (talk) 10:46, 16 December 2025 (UTC)

I'm not a troll, i swear! I'm asking because the cartoon episode is connected to a fond (if minor) memory. ~2025-40048-69 (talk) 15:12, 16 December 2025 (UTC)

Perhaps TV Tropes can help? There are pages for Haunted castle and Haunted house. Matt Deres (talk) 20:39, 16 December 2025 (UTC)

There was an episode of TaleSpin with that plot, but it is a not uncommon trope. Eluchil404 (talk) 23:12, 16 December 2025 (UTC)