Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2010 September 22

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September 22

Actress Lala Sloatman

I am writing to you because there are two films that are not listed in my filmography. "L.A. Story" 1990 and "Somewhere" 2010. They are not listed on IMDB either. I was cut out of LA Story I receive residual checks for it. I play the mother in Somewhere which is Sofia Coppola's new film being released in Dec. I don't know why it's so difficult to get this information verified. I can send you copies of residuals or contracts or pay stubs. I do not have representation right now. But you can verify with American Zeotrope Films or The Directors Bureau ask for Roman Coppola. This is a huge part for me and I like people to know I'm still working.

Thank you kindly,

Lala Sloatman —Preceding unsigned comment added by Joangatt (talk • contribs) 01:10, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

I think this is a matter for the article talk page, so I'll copy it there. I'm sure you (Ms Sloatman) are already aware of WP policy on autobiography. Ghmyrtle (talk) 08:46, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

This ref desk entry apparently got the attention of none other than Jimbo Wales (see the history of Sloatman's page). 63.17.51.71 (talk) 01:39, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Formula One points system

In the early days of Formula One, what's the rationale for not counting all the races' points (only taking n best points, sometimes for each half of the season)? I mean, if you got a number of races and points for each driver (and team) for each race, the most obvious way to determine the champions is to simply sum all the points, right? Of course, I must have missed something here and that's why I am asking this question here. 125.163.235.52 (talk) 01:20, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

If you do that, you often get a situation where the seasons champion is determined well before the last race. There have been cases on various racing circuits where the season's champion could literally have sat out the last 3-4 races and still win the championship. NASCAR introduced a two-tiered system a few years ago in an attempt to make the end of the season more interesting, called the Chase for the Cup, whereby the points "reset" for the last 10 races of the season. This keeps the leaders from running away with it. The Chase is only open to the top 12 drivers in the seasons points total, but this is better than the old system where realisticly only the top 2-3 drivers had any shot of winning with ten races to go. --Jayron32 02:48, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

That could be a possibility. Another possibility I've come up with is that, initially, the system favored top results over reliability (by only awarding points to top 5 finishers and only counting 4 of 7 [or even 8 or 9] best races in each season) then, gradually, the system favored more reliability over top results (by awarding points to more top finishers and by counting all the races in each season). Although gradually favoring more reliability, the system as is today is still slanted toward top results (as opposed toward reliability): a system so heavily slanted toward reliability would probably award points in this manner: n for first place, (n-1) for second, (n-2) for third, (n-3), …, 3, 2, and 1 for last (n^th) place.

Sources (i.e., interesting articles you might also want to read):

• http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2009/12/22/think-the-new-f1-points-system-is-weird-weve-seen-much-stranger-than-that/
• http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/racing/indycar/columns/story?columnist=oreovicz_john&id=3655113

125.163.235.52 (talk) 05:02, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Following up on what 125 said, by not counting all of the events you reward top finishes in another way. Not all of the drivers in the old days entered all of the events, so if someone did and only had average finishes in all of them, he could end up winning the championship over someone who only entered a few but finished much better. Recury (talk) 17:04, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Stories with the theme: The power was in you all along.

I'm just having a complete mind blank, I'm sure this is a common theme in a bunch of stories but I just can't think of any specific ones and am not having any luck googling it. I thought it was the Samson story: He had hair which gave him power, his hair was cut off so he lost his power, but in his time of need he re-found his strength; it was there all along, not his hair. I've just read the Samson article and it looks like I have it totally wrong, his hair grew back before he pulled the pillars down! So it WAS his hair. Lol… I also thought it might have been The little engine that could, but it's not that either. I'm sure there is more then one other story with this theme, any suggestions? I'm sure there's probably episodes of Simpsons, or harry potter or whatever that has this theme, I'll take anything, but if there's an Aesop's fable, or parable, or Greek myth, those are the ones I'm really after.Vespine (talk) 23:43, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

TV Tropes lists it as "Magic Feather". Being TV Tropes, it doesn't have any references to antiquity though. ---Sluzzelin talk 23:49, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

TV Tropes usually does have examples from folklore, mythology and earlier literature, where relevant. I'm not sure that I'd expect them for this trope, although I might expect them for similar tropes like Stone Soup. The 'magic feather' storyline is one that subverts the expected workings of traditional fairy tales, like stories where the Princess can't feel a pea through even one mattress, but it doesn't matter. Or stories where the Princess/Prince is replaced by a changeling, but everyone prefers the fake so the real royal child gets a sensible job and marries a blacksmith, ending up much happier. These are storylines I have seen often enough that they are tropes in their own right, but I would not expect to find them in traditional stories. 109.155.33.219 (talk) 00:32, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

You are quite correct that it often does refer to classical literature etc (the magic feather entry mentions The Wizard of Oz :-), and I do love TV Tropes. Struck it. ---Sluzzelin talk 02:30, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Probably not what you're looking for, but this is exactly the plot of an episode of Toot and Puddle... Adam Bishop (talk) 02:31, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Ella Enchanted, at least the movie version, has a very nice example. --Anonymous, 05:55:55 UTC, September 23, 2010.

Spaceballs incorporates this situation with Lone Star and the power of the Schwartz, with Mel Brooks memorably saying that the "magic ring" was just something he found in a Cracker Jack box... The Masked Booby (talk) 08:27, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

I believe that the Magic Feather reference points to (since I don't see it mentioned above) Dumbo, who discovered that it wasn't his magic feather that allowed him to fly. Kingsfold (Quack quack!) 13:16, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

About Samson, and I may be nit-picking here, the impression I get is that God returned the strength to him after he prayed for it. True that his hair had grown back, but the strength came from God, not the length of his hair. And, at what point would it be exactly long enough? As I understand the Nazarite vow, it was not that the hair just had to be long, but never cut.

For a power-within-oneself example: The Black Unicorn. PrincessofLlyr ^{royal court} 17:26, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

It might be listed somewhere in Vladimir Propp's Morphology Of The Folk Tale. 92.15.8.96 (talk) 21:05, 23 September 2010 (UTC)