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March 2[edit]

Help me with this question[edit]

What book by Laura Numeroff is going to be titled "If you give a _____ a brownie"?? Some Internet sites answer this question with mouse; others with bear, but I can't find any pictures of the cover of either version online. Those that say mouse are all predicting 2014, which is now in the past. Does anyone have a clue on what's going on with this title?? Georgia guy (talk) 01:44, 2 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

If You Give a Bear a Brownie was published in 2014, according to our article: Laura_Numeroff#Works. But I concede; I cannot find cover images, and stockists have none for sale. --Tagishsimon (talk) 01:49, 2 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently, Noel beat her to it by a year (minus pictures). Hard to find what he'll want next in the "official story". Leaning toward tea, based on a YouTube comment.InedibleHulk (talk) 01:59, 2 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

But Blake was a year earlier [1]. And Gauhar the same year [2] and does include pictures. (Actually I'm pretty sure all of these were released before the real Brownie book was, see below.) Nil Einne (talk) 15:18, 2 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I can't help thinking the book was never published. While our article and some other sources may say 2014 (e.g. [3]), other sources say it was coming out in 2009 [4], or this 2005 source which lists it like it was already out [5], likewise this 2010 source [6]. This seller meanwhile doesn't really know when it was released (lists 1900) [7]), this library thinks it was published in 2007 [8] and has 34 copies on order (no archive I can find but I suspect they may have had this for a long time), Worldcat thinks 2004 [9], OpenLibrary thinks 2007 from Worldcat [10].

This seller thinks it's unreleased and expected at the end of the year [11] as does [12] [13], [14] thinks it was 2006, meanwhile [15] thinks it was the end of last year. Although I strongly suspect both this and the previous are just that they for some reason though it was being released in 2015 or 2016, may be the 2016 ones are even automatically updated after they didn't get it in 2015 or maybe this is their data source perhaps the publisher.

GoodReads thinks 2013 first published 2006 [16], from the reviews/ratings there it was added in 2008 or earlier. It was listed in our article in 2009 as being published in 2009 [17].

Meanwhile this suggests the author was working on it I think in 1998 (or before) [18], although the other book mentioned wasn't released until 2008 [19] [20]. And interesting enough, the book she just finished working on doesn't seem to have been published, unless it published as one of the other books (some of the others involve Christmas, Merry Christmas, Mouse! in particular a Christmas tree although they seem to be published a long time after 1998). Again someone else has written their own version [21] with pictures.

From her wikipedia page and looking at the other books, it sounds like she's resonably popular. So the lack of a cover or any real info on the Bear book is quite suspicious. GoodReads and some of the other pages included random reviews and people tagging having read it but if you compare to the books which definitely exist [22] the number is at least an order of magnitude less [23]. Also although it's a simple chilren's book following a formula, still you could surely say something about it, but none of the reviews do.

Plus as mentioned no one, not even Abebooks [24] [25] or other second hand sellers seem to have any copy. Actually one of those is to what I think is a supplementary/tie-in recipe book also listed on Goodreads [26] and another is to a version which may come with a doll. These and others have ISBNs which combined with all the other stuff likely means the publisher has listed them as upcoming at some stage (perhaps they still are hence why some sellers suggest them coming in 2016 and why a library still has copies on order), but likely they still haven't been released for whatever reason.

Current version of the authors webpage includes a video, some description of another book and links to Amazon US so isn't very helpful. Amazon US interestingly only seems to list the recipe book [27]~~, I wonder if this is because the either manually or automatically removed the other version because it still doesn't exist as a published book likely a long time after the publisher first listed it~~. Amazon UK lists the doll version [28]. There is a third party seller who claim to have the recipe book [29] for £989.99, but I strongly suspect this is some automated system and they will look for the book when your order and fail to find it.

Of course there is a small possibility the book was really published in a very limited run (perhaps the doll version was the only one) but I fairly doubt it, I strongly suspect even in that case there would be more sign of it existing including people trying to sell it or talking about it.

Actually from looking in to those ISBNs, I found that some of them are just called If You Give #9 by some including Amazon [30]. (That lists end 2016 while US Amazon lists 2014 [31].) I don't know how they count, but if you include the ones not titled "if you give", there's more than 8. And there doesn't seem to have been 8 titled if you give (not counting the recipes), unless perhaps you include If You Give A Moose A Matzoh which I'm also not sure exists. (Although it sounds like the kind of thing which may be limited circulation if it did exist and I didn't look hard.)

The ISBN number itself is interesting, presuming the published gives them somewhat sequentially, it sounds like it's somewhat old when you compare to other books (although those are also a bit weird when compared to publication date, perhaps reflective of the fact these changed). I wonder how long it's been called #9, unfortunately my archive search didn't find anything useful about that. (My first look a the ISBN found the doll version.)

My conclusion is it's a book that may or may not one day be published (whether before or after the next "if you give..." book). It may or may not be finished. If the story is finished, it could be the illustration is hold things up or other things (e.g. the tie in doll or recipe book or some dispute). Considering how long it's been since it was first talked about, it could be there are changes etc too. You could try emailing or contacting the author if you're really interested.

P.S. I've removed it from our article.

Nil Einne (talk) 16:32, 2 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The LibraryThing page If You Give a Bear a Brownie has a note saying "This book has not been published. According to Laura Numeroff's web site: "IF YOU GIVE A BEAR A BROWNIE, ANY RECIPE BOOKS, PIG PUMPKIN, MOOSE MATZOH... Many people ask me when these books will be available! These were tentative titles that AMAZON and BARNES & NOBLE got, but will never be published! Sorry about that!" DuncanHill (talk) 00:49, 3 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

If you give a pig a pumpkin, she will want to party. And if you give a bear a peek, he will want to share. If you give another pig a party, you will see no pumpkins there. InedibleHulk (talk) 00:25, 4 March 2016 (UTC) [reply]

If you give a pig to Brownie, she will bake a cake. And then we'll all want ice cream, even bears love to partake. InedibleHulk (talk) 00:31, 4 March 2016 (UTC) [reply]

Number of postal codes in Singapore[edit]

Approximately how many postal codes are in Singapore?

Postal codes in Singapore doesn't seem to have this information. Johnson&Johnson&Son (talk) 04:05, 2 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

With 80 area codes, and hypothetically 10,000 codes per area, there are 800,000 possible codes (or probably a bit under that as some number combinations are probably rejected). How many are in current use doesn't appear to be indicated anywhere obvious - though with lots of development going on I doubt the number stays fixed for more than a few days.109.150.174.93 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 16:21, 3 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Button factory runner-up[edit]

Today I learned Qiaotou makes a lot of buttons. About 60% of all the buttons. Is there a clear leader (a district or company) among the rest of the button industry? Bonus question: Which individual factory in Qiaotou is the most efficient? InedibleHulk (talk) 06:37, 2 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

For anyone wondering which of the dozens of Qiaotou Towns or Qiaotou Villages in China InedibleHulk is talking about - it's the one in Wenzhou, in Zhejiang: Qiaotou, Yongjia County. Apart from buttons, it is also officially crowned "Home of Chinese Zippers". --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 12:59, 2 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that's the one. It's also rolling in buckles and snaps. InedibleHulk (talk) 23:56, 2 March 2016 (UTC) [reply]

This recent news story gives a figure of two to three million buttons *every day* for a company called Mailifa. And this claims that jfdbutton.com is one of the biggest of the 200 to 300 button factories in the town. Have you considered asking on the Language desk for help searching Chinese-language sources? 184.147.122.76 (talk) 15:47, 3 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Sweet, thanks. I'll consider that. InedibleHulk (talk) 00:33, 4 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

They apparently also go by Malypha. InedibleHulk (talk) 00:39, 4 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Shell shock (WW1)[edit]

How did shell shock psychologically damage individuals? Were their identities as men and as soldiers diminished? --Milloanard (talk) 17:24, 2 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Shell shock is our article, it is fairly long and well-referenced. Let us know if there's something specific you want to know that is not covered there. SemanticMantis (talk) 17:54, 2 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Some sources also link "shell shock" to post traumatic stress disorder. --Jayron 32 19:11, 2 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This [32] recent article from National Geographic discusses possible physiological underpinnings of shell shock.--Wikimedes (talk) 16:26, 3 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

What stars is the Emir of Bokhara wearing?[edit]

Can anyone identify the stars which the Emir of Bokhara is wearing in this photo? DuncanHill (talk) 23:27, 2 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

According to this article, they're the Order of the Crown of Bukhara (no article), the Order of Noble Bukhara (no article), the Order of St. Anna, and the Diamond Cipher of Tsar Nicholas II. Tevildo (talk) 00:34, 3 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks, DuncanHill (talk) 00:41, 3 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Incidentally, we do have File:Order of Noble Bukhara.jpg, but that doesn't look very much like the Emir's decoration, and I've not been able to find any other illustrations of the "triangle" star. This page has an image of the Order of the Crown star. Tevildo (talk) 00:48, 3 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Now I wonder how many Prokudin-Gorski pix we have. Years ago I downloaded 1930 of them from the Library of Congress ... —Tamfang (talk) 03:37, 4 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]