George Ponderevo

Retired

This user is no longer active on Wikipedia.

Precious

Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
Thank you for quality articles and expansions such as There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, for tireless copy-editing, and for "it's always good to learn something new", - let me tell you as gently as I can that you are an awesome Wikipedian!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:05, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Thanks very much Gerda. You're not such a bad Wikipedian yourself. :-) George Ponderevo (talk) 13:39, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

'tis the season

I like to share, recommended reading ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:12, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

I miss the photographer of the gem (who said Peace some hundred times to awesome Wikipedians, did you know?). My Christmas music is on my user, also for you, wish you could listen in reality today and tomorrow, my favourite line: "verbannet die Klage" (ban complaining), --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:46, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks Gerda. I don't know why it is, but thinking about Christmas music I've always found Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht to be much more moving than Silent Night, which sounds so prosaic. I wonder if it maybe has something to do with the stories of the First World War Christmas truces. George Ponderevo (talk) 06:21, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

Many times, I think, a different language offers the chance to be less prosaic. We sang "Stille Nacht" in church on Christmas Eve (many churches ban it as "kitschig"). A trumpet came in as a surprise in the third stanza, not kitschig ;) This year's Peace music was connected to a Second World War siege. Did you see that I decorated my talk with Messiah today, thinking of two gentlemen who invited me to share its FA honours although I only wrote the supporting articles, for example Messiah Part I, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:51, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

New decoration on my talk is "Letting go of the past", - I see so many old stories that I didn't take part in, connected to strong feelings. Things that look complicated and loaded with history can be so simple, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:49, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

A very worthy idea Gerda, but I can't see it catching on here. George Ponderevo (talk) 10:58, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

If it was we didn't have to ask ;) - Do you know the poet? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:14, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

ps: I was amused to find "precious" in that poem three times --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:19, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

I'm afraid I don't, no. I have a confession to make though, which is that I feel the same about poetry as I do about opera, musicals and ballet. I find them all pretentious and I pretty much hate them all. George Ponderevo (talk) 11:29, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

Taken. (I respect strong feelings, as said before, and accept that facts don't easily change them.) So next: do you know the editor with another story about having been despised? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:51, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

Thinking of you, with thanks, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:59, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

I mentioned you here in WP:Great Dismal Swamp, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 16:14, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

I mentioned you again, with thanks for being a great model, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:36, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

My promised article became GA (you signed the promise, remember?), pictured on my talk, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:33, 8 October 2013 (UTC)

Remember (or not) that you were the 291st recipient of my PumpkinSky prize, and the second one in br'erly style, - I miss you, all mentioned and several others, - gentleness seems to have left with you ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:25, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Precious and missed

I gave the prize a better name, Project Quality Article Improvement/PumpkinSky Prize. - I mentioned you, again. (Look for Little Moreton Hall.) - Did you know that we now have not only the Great Dismal Swamp but also Ethics of Dissensus? - I miss the concealed you, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:53, 25 March 2014 (UTC),

two years and still missed --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:03, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

ps: "ban complaining" still needed, - you don't miss much ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:05, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

seven years and missed --Gerda Arendt (talk) 17:34, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

Planyavsky

Thank you for your interest in the article. I recommend to read his website (now not in the box, but in the external links), full of surprises (too bad that it's only in German). Sample "Kaum hat jemand nichts zu sagen, stellt er es auch schon ins Netz, damit möglichst viele nichts erfahren." (As soon as someone has nothing to say he puts it on the web so that many can learn nothing.) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:54, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Planyavsky is an interesting case (his article I mean). If the lead were expanded, as it ought to be, I'd have no particular objection to an infobox. My major objection is to those infoboxes that bleed interminably down the page, disrupting everything in their path, or those that simply repeat what's in the first sentence of the lead. Contrary to what some may think I'm agnostic about infoboxes, neither for nor against, but I do believe they need a serious rethink. George Ponderevo (talk) 22:15, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Feel free to expand the lead. - I think to see from when to when he held which post is easier to read in the box. (I didn't try to add for what part of his time as cathedral organist he was director of music there.) More generally: numbers to the box, personality in the text. - I am also an agnostic, but - repeating - if someone supplied a box for me I would just say thank you, no discussion. - The next TFA without a box is Messiah (Handel), the box is "hidden" in the structure, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:32, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

I hear all the arguments about accessibility, and I agree with many of them, but not to the point of compromising the basic article layout. As Giano said, we have to be in somebody's comfort zone, else we're in nobody's comfort zone. The way to handle devices with different form factors and so on is to offer different interfaces, not to compromise the base interface. This is all just so basic I really can't understand what the objections are. Anyway, I'll have a go at expanding the lead, and you can see what you think. If you don't like it then you know what you can do, revert it. :-)

BTW, there's an article on the BBC's web site today about how Germans are coming to love us Brits, even to the point of preferring tea to coffee. Have you seen it? George Ponderevo (talk) 22:48, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Do you see what I mean now? With a proper lead the infobox doesn't bleed into the article. George Ponderevo (talk) 23:41, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for the lead! (I hope it is ok with you that I removed "also", twice.) - For the box, you will watch the "heart of the matter". I resisted the temptation to mention "homework", also, or likewise ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:21, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

ps: (quoting you) I have a confession to make --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:43, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

Looking at your exquisite wording in that lead (and elsewhere), please have a look at another with insufficient lead (and more), Andreas Scholl, - I came late to the article, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 18:00, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for picking it up, looks much better already. Did you know that he sang He was despised for us? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 23:22, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

I haven't finished yet Gerda, I'll be back tomorrow to add a little more. I'm always a little puzzled as to why it is that many editors seem to find it so difficult to write leads, when I think it's like falling off a log. Is it perhaps something to do with the way that our education systems have changed? I recall sitting in primary school classes listening to the teacher read a story and then asking us to summarise it in a paragraph or two. Wasn't so hard then and it isn't so hard now. What do you think? George Ponderevo (talk) 23:33, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

BTW Gerda, I'm no musician. I just like hammering away on the keyboard of my Yamaha concert-sized synthesiser until my ears bleed. George Ponderevo (talk) 23:44, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

take up that lead again, please, up to the MET. - Looking at the standard bios of singers, not much of a lead seems wanted. - I would like to expand BWV 76, would you help me? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 00:19, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

I found help for that lead. - Did you get to reading: "A review describes his perfect timing in the recitatives, his pronounced declamation, technically perfect interpretation and phrasing of the arias, and his devotion to Handel's music and Jennens's text. The Air "He was despised" was regarded as the center of the concert." - I noticed only today that you copy-edited my articles at least since 2011, and I never thanked you. Thank you! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:44, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

What I said above rather belongs in this context: I learned from you and said so, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 16:22, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Planyavsky again, believe it or not, "contentious area", believe it or not ... - Did you know he composed Psalm 269? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:23, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

MOS:IMAGES

I have opened a formal RfC at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Images#Request for comment on the deprecation of left-aligned images under sub-headings,an issue on which you commented in previous discussion there. DrKiernan (talk) 09:52, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

Old news

Hi George--thanks for these edits. I'm somewhat surprised, though, that you let all that sophomoric chit-chat stand. If you ever unretire, please don't be afraid to hang a pair of brass balls from your truck. Best, Drmies (talk) 14:19, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

Precious anniversary

Precious

Eight years!

miss you, the kind one --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:49, 1 November 2020 (UTC)