Humanities desk
< October 19	<< Sep \| October \| Nov >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

October 20

US presidential line of succession

I guess there is no official Speaker of the United States House of Representatives right now. There is an Acting Speaker threatening to quit, but assume he doesn't. Assume also that Biden and Harris both actually do quit tomorrow. Question: is the Acting Speaker next in line? Or do it skip over him and go to the President pro tempore of the United States Senate? And if the current Acting Speaker quits, is there a procedure for putting someone else into that spot? The current one apparently got there because former Speaker Kevin McCarthy sealed his name in an envelope, as an emergency successor under a continuity-of-government process. But idk how many levels of backup speaker they have. Thanks. 2601:644:8501:AAF0:0:0:0:86EA (talk) 03:46, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There's a lot of discussion in United States presidential line of succession. It seems likely the Speaker would be skipped over, but this is uncharted territory in reality. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 08:32, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

¶ See Wikipedia's (rather confusing) article on the United States presidential line of succession. —— Shakescene (talk) 11:08, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

If the vice presidency happens to be vacant at the time an incumbent president becomes unable to discharge the powers and duties of their office, this rung will obviously be skipped in going down the ladder seeking the person to become acting president. It seems equally obvious to me that this likewise applies to the House speakership. --Lambiam 09:48, 21 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

An officer ineligible to the Presidency (like more than one member of the Cabinet, e.g. Henry Kissinger) will also be skipped. —Tamfang (talk) 15:51, 26 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Did Nicholas II of Russia understand Swedish?

I saw a sketch of Eugen Schauman's letter to emperor Nicholas II of Russia as an exhibit at the National Museum of Finland. It was written in Swedish. Did Nicholas II understand Swedish? Or did he have it translated for him? Or did he even read the letter in the first place? JIP | Talk 11:20, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

His mother was Danish, if that means anything. I'm getting conflicting results from a simple Google search, but it seems he definitely knew English. AnonMoos (talk) 12:00, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Airport security

(edit conflict) Wizz aircraft boarding pass details typically commence:

Name Maariyah Fulani

Gender/Passenger type Female/ADT

Typically you may arrive at the airport by 04:30, leave checked-in bag by 05:00, complete security check by 05:30, have your boarding card and passport checked at the gate (which closes at 06:30) by 06:15, and depart at 07:00, having shown your boarding card to the cabin crew when getting on the plane. My questions:

What does "ADT" mean? (I would guess it's an abbreviation of "adult")
What happens if you are "trans" and your "gender" does not obviously correspond to the details on your boarding pass? 2A00:23C5:E103:3301:A401:F969:8C08:4F5B (talk) 11:32, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

In many cases, the airline gate people in charge of boarding probably wouldn't care, but the security checkpoint people might. Here's a simple Google search which turns up some info: [1]... -- AnonMoos (talk) 12:20, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Commonly used passenger type codes are as follows:^[2]

ADT: adult
CHD: child
INF: infant without a seat
INS: infant with a seat
UNN: unaccompanied child

--Lambiam 13:40, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Gender is self reported. It is up to the passenger to report their own gender, which is used in case of an accident where the bodies need to be identified. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 23:35, 21 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That's a pleasant thing to think about when filling in that box on the form. HiLo48 (talk) 00:10, 22 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I doubt this is the case and don't believe it would be of much use anyway to know the gender for id purposes. Gender info is required by the airport security process, not the airlines. Bumptump (talk) 09:37, 27 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The boarding card says PLEASE BOARD USING REAR DOOR and immediately above the notice is a seat number. When I took a long-distance flight, at one intermediate stop (where many people boarded and disembarked), after passengers returned to the aircraft the staff walked round asking each one to confirm his or her name. I would imagine that the "gender" would figure in their calculations - you can't necessarily surmise a person's "gender" from his or her given name, especially if you are not familiar with the culture. 2A00:23C5:E103:3301:981C:8E9E:EF8A:8BB7 (talk) 12:15, 27 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

UK TV drama about royal serial killer

I'm trying to find details of a TV drama I vaguely remember watching, probably in the 1980s. It featured an establishment cover-up after it was discovered that member of the UK royal family was a serial killer. I seem to recall a scene where Simon Callow, wearing a dinner jacket, is machine gunned by a frogman who emerges out of a lake or river.

I can't find it in our article about Callow, or his IMDb entry, nor by Googling, so I could be wrong about the ID of the actor involved Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 20:22, 20 October 2023 (UTC).[reply]

Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (predeceased Queen Victoria) in Jack the Ripper (1988)?
Sleigh (talk) 21:20, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Link: Jack the Ripper (miniseries). --Lambiam 23:56, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It was Dead Head (TV series). 2A02:C7C:4007:EE00:90CE:638B:4BE:B724 (talk) 08:12, 21 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This section is resolved and can be archived. If you disagree, replace this template with your comment. Thank you. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:08, 21 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Israeli art historian Zehava Jacoby

I have a draft ready for an article about Israeli art historian Zehava Jacoby. It is about 1500 characters long and reasonably engaging; it broadly resembles German Wiki's article about her. Unfortunately, I am unable to to find more than a single source that says anything about her, let alone significant coverage in multiple sources. I hope there is more coverage in Hebrew but I am very much out of my depth there (I have tried). Am I missing any coverage? Does she pass our notability standards? Surtsicna (talk) 22:18, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I did not find any further usable material, also not by using זהבה יעקבי as the search term. You might attempt to enquire at the German Wikipedia from which sources the creator of the article, Benutzerin:Ktiv, garnered the information. She is fluent in English. --Lambiam 09:26, 21 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You may consider contacting the University of Haifa / the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library. directly. The latter seems to be currently closed for obvious reasons.

Ms Zehava Jacoby has had an academic function on this Institute until the year of her death. --2001:871:6A:C5:D866:F418:7997:5DC6 (talk) 16:55, 22 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I would say she is just about notable, based on the German el to her publications; others might disagree. Johnbod (talk) 17:36, 22 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]