User:Calton/Sandbox

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aka String Too Short to Be Saved.

Contents

[edit] Testing

Template:UserActual:

  • —The preceding comment signed as by Dbiv (talk • contribs) was actually added by 80.177.212.6 (talk • contribs) - comment

—The preceding comment signed as by Dbiv (talk • contribs) was actually added by 80.177.212.6 (talk • contribs) -

[edit] West Marin

[edit] Self-promotion watch

The following looks deeply suspicious. Hypothesis: part of an concerted campaign of self-promotion:

[edit] Articles


[edit] Editors


[edit] Wikipedia is not paper

Wikipedia is not paper, but it is also not the Library of Babel, nor is it an endless and tedious compendium of every bit of trivia and gossip and useless, insignificant "facts". It is an encyclopedia, not a dumping ground. That means we have a duty not to mindlessly compile facts but to present them in a concise and usable manner, making judgments about which facts are important and which are not. - Gamaliel

I should point out that Wikipedia doesn't make note of my mobile phone, my desk calendar, or my box of Kirkland brand Household Surface Wipes in front of me, and they're not getting articles, either.

[edit] Of Exactitude in Science

...In that Empire, the craft of Cartography attained such Perfection that the Map of a Single province covered the space of an entire City, and the Map of the Empire itself an entire Province. In the course of Time, these Extensive maps were found somehow wanting, and so the College of Cartographers evolved a Map of the Empire that was of the same Scale as the Empire and that coincided with it point for point. Less attentive to the Study of Cartography, succeeding Generations came to judge a map of such Magnitude cumbersome, and, not without Irreverence, they abandoned it to the Rigours of sun and Rain. In the western Deserts, tattered Fragments of the Map are still to be found, Sheltering an occasional Beast or beggar; in the whole Nation, no other relic is left of the Discipline of Geography.

From Travels of Praiseworthy Men (1658) by J. A. Suarez Miranda

The piece was written by Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares. English translation quoted from J. L. Borges, A Universal History of Infamy, Penguin Books, London, 1975.

[edit] International Travels

Spent years:
Months to Days:
Hours:
To go some day:
Idea and layout stolen from User:Guettarda who borrowed it from User:Coolcat

[edit] American States

Spent >4 years:
1-4 years:
Days:
Hours:
Just been through:
Never been to:
Idea and layout stolen from User:Guettarda who borrowed it from User:Coolcat

[edit] Test table

HEAD1 HEAD2 HEAD3
Row 1 Row 2 Row 3
Row A Row B Row C
Row i Row ii Row iii
A Series Formats B Series Formats C Series Formats
size in mm in inches in mm in inches in mm in inches
0 841 × 1189 33.1 × 46.8 1000 × 1414 39.4 × 55.7 917 × 1297 36.1 × 51.1
1 594 × 841 23.4 × 33.1 707 × 1000 27.8 × 39.4 648 × 917 25.5 × 36.1
2 420 × 594 16.5 × 23.4 500 × 707 19.7 × 27.8 458 × 648 18.0 × 25.5
3 297 × 420 11.7 × 16.5 353 × 500 13.9 × 19.7 324 × 458 12.8 × 18.0
4 210 × 297 8.3 × 11.7 250 × 353 9.8 × 13.9 229 × 324 9.0 × 12.8
5 148 × 210 5.8 × 8.3 176 × 250 6.9 × 9.8 162 × 229 6.4 × 9.0
6 105 × 148 4.1 × 5.8 125 × 176 4.9 × 6.9 114 × 162 4.5 × 6.4
7 74 × 105 2.9 × 4.1 88 × 125 3.5 × 4.9 81 × 114 3.2 × 4.5
8 52 × 74 2.0 × 2.9 62 × 88 2.4 × 3.5 57 × 81 2.2 × 3.2
9 37 × 52 1.5 × 2.0 44 × 62 1.7 × 2.4 40 × 57 1.6 × 2.2
10 26 × 37 1.0 × 1.5 31 × 44 1.2 × 1.7 28 × 40 1.1 × 1.6

[edit] Diners

Restaurant Google hits
overall		 Google hits
unique		 Yahoo!
"Chez Panisse" -book -cookbook 161,000 773 78,800
"The French Laundry" -book -cookbook 89,400 718 52,100
"Charlie Trotter's" -book -cookbook 92,400 694 32,300
"Becky's Diner" 528 203 346
Restaurant Google hits
overall		 Google hits
unique		 Yahoo!
"Mary Mac's Tea Room" 56,500 350 2,450
"Swan Oyster Depot" 50,100 397 13,300
"Arthur Bryant's" 38,600 514 25,600
"Doe's Eat Place" 15,500 422 1,790
"Sylvia's restaurant" 12,300 438 1,820
"Becky's Diner" 528 203 346
Newspaper City Largest Reported Circulation Owner
1 USA Today Washington, DC 2,528,437 Gannett
2 The Wall Street Journal New York, NY 2,058,342 Dow Jones & Co.
3 The New York Times New York, NY 1,683,855 The New York Times Company
4 Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, CA 1,231,318 Tribune Company
5 The Washington Post Washington, DC 960,684 Washington Post Company
6 Chicago Tribune Chicago, IL 957,212 Tribune Company
7 New York Daily News New York, NY 795,153 New York Daily News
8 The Philadelphia Inquirer Philadelphia, PA 705,965 Knight Ridder
9* Denver Post/Rocky Mountain News Denver, CO 704,806 MediaNews Group/The E.W. Scripps Company
10 Houston Chronicle Houston, TX 692,557 Hearst Newspapers

[edit] Sam Spade (temp)

Template:Spoiler San Francisco private eye partners Sam Spade and Miles Archer are hired by a woman calling herself Brigid O'Shaughnessy to follow a man, Floyd Thursby, who she says has run off with her younger sister. The two accept the assignment, and Archer begins the tail job.

That night Spade gets a summons from the police, and comes down to a hillside vacant lot over the Stockton Street Tunnel, to identify the body of his partner Archer, shot dead while tailing Thursby. Complicating matters is a later late-night visit by the police to Spade's apartment, informing him that Thursby is now dead -- and they think Spade killed him.

The next day at the office, after a confrontation with Archer's widow (with whom he'd been having an affair) and ordering his secretary to clean up Archer's belongings from the office, Spade gets a visit a dapper little man named Joel Cairo. Cairo offers Spade $5000 if the private eye can retrieve a figurine of a black bird that has recently arrived. Though Spade has no idea what the man is talking about, he plays along. Cairo leaves a card and tells Spade to contact him should anything develop.

Still later, Spade is again contacted by Brigid O'Shaughnessy. Spade, then sensing a connection between O'Shaughnessy and Cairo, casually mentions that Cairo has contacted him. She becomes extremely nervous when she hears this and tells Spade that she must meet with Cairo. Spade arranges a meeting at his apartment, and Cairo and O'Shaughnessy, who clearly know each other, begin negotiating over what Cairo is ready to pay for the mysterious black figurine. Brigid O'Shaughnessy, however, says she does not have it at the moment, and also hints that a mysterious figure known as "G" may also be in town.

Angry words are exchanged, but are interrupting by the arrival of the police detectives, back to question Spade about his affair with his late partner's wife. Spade greets them at the door, but refuses to let them in, but when they hear Cairo and Brigid O'Shaughnessy screaming in the back, they force their way in. Spade invents a story that involves describing how Cairo and O'Shaughnessy were just play-acting, which the detectives are skeptical about. They leave, taking Cairo with them down to the police station for some "grilling".

The next morning, Spade goes to Cairo's hotel, and notices that he's being tailed by a young punk named Wilmer Cook. He confronts Cook, and tells him that both he and his boss, "G," will have to deal with him at some point. Which is soon, when, afterward, Cook's boss calls Spade to set up a meeting at Gutman's hotel.

"G" turns out to be one Caspar Gutman, a hearty 300-pounder (140 kg) who says he will pay handsomely for the black bird. Spade bluffs, saying that he can get the item but wants to know what it is first. Gutman is reluctant to tell Spade, so Spade pretends to become angry with Gutman at this point, and storms out of the hotel, grinning on his way out at how Gutman bought his bluff.

Summoned to the district attorney's office for an "informal chat" about the murder investigation, Spade tells the DA that the best way for him to clear his name is to bring all the suspects in himself, since the police are all incompetent and would only "gum up the works." After the DA visit, Spade is invited back to the hotel to meets with Gutman once more, where Gutman agrees to tell him all about the black figurine everyone seems to be chasing.

The figurine is known as the "Maltese Falcon", a jewel-encrusted gold statue of a falcon, originally sent to Charles V of Spain as tribute by the Island of Malta. The statue was stolen in transit, and over the centuries, it has acquired a layer of black enamel to conceal its value. Gutman learned of its whereabouts 17 years ago, and has been looking for it ever since. He wants the bird since it is worth millions. He traced it to the home of a Russian General, then sent his three of his 'agents' (Cairo, Thursby and Brigid O'Shaughnessy) to get it. The latter supposedly did retrieve the figurine, but learned of its value and decided to keep it for themselves. Gutman then asks Spade when he is willing to produce the bird, and begins to offer him some options of paying him. Spade starts to get dizzy at the point, and passes out. Earlier, Gutman had spiked his drink.

When Spade awakens, he returns to his office and tells the story of the Maltese Falcon to his secretary, Effie. Soon afterwards, an injured man, identified as Captain Jacobi of the "La Paloma," shows up at the office carrying a package. He drops the package on the floor and then dies of gunshot wounds. Spade opens the package, and finds out it is the figurine falcon. At this point, Brigid O'Shaughnessy calls Effie (whom she was supposed to have taken shelter with earlier), and says that she's in danger. Effie begs Spade to go help her. Though reluctant, Spade agrees. He tells Effie to call the police after he leaves, and to tell them exactly what has happened but to leave out the package, and to say that he, not she, got the phone call from O'Shaugnessy. To prevent losing the item, Spade then takes the bird to a post office and mails it back to himself at his office address.

He first goes to the dock where the "La Paloma" was anchored, but learns that a fire had been started on board. He then proceeds to the place Rhea Gutman (Brigid O'Shaughnessy in the movie) said she was when she phoned earlier, only to find no sign of her. He realizes that it was a decoy, or "bum steer." Frustrated, he then returns to his apartment.

As he arrives, he notices O'Shaughnessy fainting at his doorway, and rushes to help her. He helps her in to his apartment and notices that Wilmer Cook, Joel Cairo, and Gutman are already there. Cook attempts to be rough with Spade, but each time the kid tries this, Spade challenges him to shoot, knowning that at this point, he has the bird and that they cannot afford to kill him. Gutman hands Spade $10,000 in cash in exchange for the bird. Spade takes the money, but in addition says that they need a "fall guy" to take the blame for the murders of Archer, Thursby, and Jacobi. The others acknowledge this, but reply that it is really two murders since the police will accept that Thursby killed Archer. Spade knows that the police will not accept this as the bullets did not match up.

Spade proposes that the kid Wilmer be made the fall guy, but initially Gutman won't hear of it. Spade replies that without a fall guy, he won't produce the figurine. Gutman then threatens Spade, but Spade replies that in this situation, threats are useless without a hint of death in the background to "tie the person down." At this point, if they force Spade to do something he doesn't want to do, he won't stand for it and will make a point of their having to kill him, knowing that they can't afford to kill him. Gutman replies that this is an extremely dangerous attitude since once men's emotions get in the way, they are likely to forget their "best interest[s]." Spade, in turn, replies that he needs to make his play strong enough to tie them down, but not so strong that it makes them "kill [Spade] against their better judgement."

Eventually, during the standoff Spade attacks Wilmer and knocks him out. Reluctantly, both Cairo and Gutman agree to make Wilmer the fall guy. Gutman then proceeds to tell Spade the missing pieces of the story. It turns out that Thursby and Brigid O'Shaughnessy initially helped Gutman get the bird from the Russian General, but once they had it, they fled with it and came to the US. The night that Thursby was killed, he was first approached by Wilmer and Gutman. The latter attempted to reason with him, but Thursby remained loyal to Brigid O'Shaughnessy and refused to cooperate. Later things escalated, then Wilmer shot Thursby.

Also, Gutman says that recently, he and Cairo have joined together to get the Falcon. Gutman learned from Cairo that during their ship voyage to the US, Brigid O'Shaughnessy had seduced Captain Jacobi and hid the Falcon with him. Later, Brigid O'Shaughnessy instructed Jacobi to deliver the package to Spade. Once Gutman learned of this fact, he attempted to remove Spade from the situation with the spiked drink, and later forced Brigid O'Shaughnessy to act like she was in danger. However, Gutman was ultimately too late to intercept Jacobi. Wilmer managed to shoot the captain, but Jacobi still got to Spade's office to deliver the figurine. After finishing his story, Gutman finally warns Spade to be very careful with Brigid O'Shaughnessy as she is not to be trusted.

Spade then places a call to his secretary, Effie, and asks her to go the office and pick up the figurine, as by now the post office should have delivered it. Effie does so, and brings it to Spade's apartment. Spade hands the package to Gutman, who at this time is overwhelmed with excitement. He checks the figurine, but quickly learns that it is a fake, most likely created by the Russian as a decoy, getting criticised by Cairo at the same time, who blames it on Gutman's hyping up of the worth of the artifact overseas, which caused it to be swapped. During this time, Wilmer manages to escape from Spade's apartment. Gutman quickly regains composure, and decides to go back to Europe to continue the search. Before he leaves, Gutman asks Spade for the $10,000. Spade returns $9000, saying he's keeping the remainder for his time and expenses. Then Cairo and Gutman leave Spade's apartment.

Immediately after Cairo and Gutman leave, Spade phones the police department and tells them the entire story. Wilmer killed Jacobi and Thursby. He also tells them what hotel Gutman is staying at and urges them to hurry since Gutman and Cairo are leaving town soon. Afterwards, Spade angrily asks Brigid O'Shaughnessy why she killed Miles Archer. At first, Brigid O'Shaughnessy acts horrified at this accusation, but seeing that she cannot lie anymore, she drops the act. She wanted to get Thursby out of the picture so that she could have the Falcon for herself, so she hired Archer to scare him off. When Thursby didn't leave, she killed Archer and attempted to pin the crime on Thursby. When Thursby was later killed himself, she knew that Gutman was in town and that she needed another protector, so she came back to Spade.

However, she says that she's also in love with Spade and would have come back to him anyhow. Spade coldly replies that the penalty for murder is most likely twenty years, and he'll wait for her until she gets out. If they hang her, Spade says that he'll always remember her. He goes on to say that while he despised Miles Archer, the man was his partner, and that he's going to turn her in to the police for his murder as that was a line he could not cross in the industry of detective work. Brigid O'Shaughnessy begs him not to, but he replies that he has no choice. When the police get Gutman, Gutman will in turn finger Spade and Brigid O'Shaughnessy as accomplices. Thus the only way Spade can avoid getting charged is to say he played both sides against each other. He tells Brigid O'Shaughnessy that he has some feelings for her, but that he simply can't trust her. From what Spade has seen, Brigid O'Shaughnessy makes a profession out of using men to get what she wants, and he simply doesn't want to be another one of them. Just before the police arrive, Brigid O'Shaughnessy asks Spade if the Falcon had been real, and he'd gotten the entire $10,000, would it have made a difference. Spade replies that while she shouldn't be so sure that he's crooked, more money would have been one more item on "her side."

When the police finally show up at Spade's apartment, Spade immediately turns over Brigid O'Shaughnessy as Archer's killer. They tell Spade that the kid Wilmer was waiting for Gutman at the hotel and shot him when he arrived. Spade also hands over the $1000 bill, and the falcon to the police as evidence.

Later, when Spade arrives back at the office, he tells his secretary, Effie, the entire story. She asks Sam if he sent Brigid O'Shaughnessy to jail. He smugly replies "Your Sam's a detective." She is disgusted by his actions, and asks him not to touch her. The novel ends when Archer's widow again shows up at the office.

[edit] Impact

In this novel, Hammett defines many of the conventions of the "Hard Boiled" Detective genre. Spade is essentially a bitter, sardonic character that is in a world of deceit and corruption. Brigid O'Shaughnessy is the classic femme-fatale. Everyone else also is manipulative and self-centered with no concern of anyone's well-being except their own.

However, unlike classic detectives who have a strong sense of idealism underneath the cynical shell, we are never truly given a glimpse of Spade's morality. At the time of Miles Archer's death, Spade is having an affair with his wife. And while he does "do the right thing" in the end, it is somewhat ambiguous as to why he does so. It is implied that he does this because the money was simply not enough("...a lot more money would have been one more item on your side") for the risk.

[edit] Table test

Authors Dewey Class ISBN LOC Subjects Title
Anthony Bourdain 641.013 1582341400 Cookery. - Food. A Cook\'s Tour
Mort Rosenblum 641.013 786864656 Gastronomy. - Toulouse (France)--Description and travel. - Toulouse (France)--Social life and customs. A Goose in Toulouse and other Culinary Adventures in France
Alan Ridenour 641.3 1891661094 Food--Miscellanea. - Food--Social aspects. - Food habits. Offbeat Food: Adventures in an Omnivorous World
Richard Sterling 641.3 1885211090 Food -- Anecdotes - Food habits. - Travel. Food: True Stories of Life on the Road (Travelers\' Tales Guides)
Joel Denker 641.3009 813340039 Food--History. - Food habits--History. The World on a Plate: A Tour through the History of America\'s Ethnic Cuisine
Nicolle Aimee Meyer - Amanda Pilar Smith - Paul Bocuse 641.30944 3829046243 Paris in a Basket: Markets: The Food and the People


[edit] Table test 2

[edit] ISBN Test