Wikipedia:Did you know/Monthly wrap/October 2021

DYK's October wrap, 2021

Hi everyone, and welcome to DYK's October wrap! I thought it'd be fun to try and take a look at the past month through hooks, policy proposals, prep-set things, and generally summarize what's been going on. Let's get into it!

First, let's give a big round of applause to our most-viewed hooks of October 2021! Did you know ...

... that Anne Wyllie, also known as the "Spit Queen", now has a Wikipedia biography because a healthcare executive asked who she was? (without an image for half the time, too—not too shabby, DrThneed!)

... that Muang Thong Thani (street pictured), intended as a satellite city of Bangkok, has been called "one of the greatest planning disasters of the 20th century"? (of course there's an Epicgenius building here)
... that Jimmy Carter reported that he had seen a UFO?
... that many 15th- and 16th-century European paintings included a conspicuous depiction of a common fly (example pictured)?
... that parsnips serve as sawed-off tibiae in feetloaf (pictured)?

Speaking of feetloaf, that was our lead-off in our special Halloween set, which did quite well—four of the eight hooks are on the Wikipedia:DYKSTATS page for the month, which is great! Thanks to everyone who contributed a hook there!

In terms of the prep sets, we ran one a day right up until the last third of the month, when we switched to two a day—thanks to all the admins who promoted preps to queues during this time, it's much appreciated and I'm happy we're past that now. I understand that Kavyansh.Singh has been getting their sea legs at the prep sets of DYK—welcome Kavyansh, it's nice to know that you're helping with something much more valuable and long-lasting than your fifteen bajillion Featured Articles or whatever (i only jest). As always, thanks to SL93 and Cwmhiraeth for helping fill prep sets as well, and to Ravenpuff and Mandarax for doing all the formatting fixes we keep forgetting about.

For policy proposals, we have EEng's dug-up find from a couple of years ago on hook etiquette, a DYK gadget that looks quite fancy from SD0001, a proposal from Valereee and myself to move the Special Occasion Holding Area to the top, a half-baked idea from me to include audio narrations of different items on the Main Page, a possible 4/20 set from Valereee, and a proposal to loosen up on our "no DYK runs twice" rule, all of which are also ongoing. There was also a proposal from me to include an emergency hook storage area, which was shot down, a pedantic spat on whether or not to include (pictured) in every single lead hook, and a discussion prompted by an IP on whether we were just too obsessed with WandaVision (I know I'm nuts for the show). We also wrapped up some of the details from the proposal for "unreviewed backlog mode" from August.

Lastly, I want to highlight some hooks that didn't make the stats page, but I found to be quality quirkys regardless:

... that Janet Wilmshurst paints pictures of the past with poop?
... that the apartments and hotel rooms at Time Warner Center did not have internet from Time Warner because it was too expensive?
... that one of the smallest known species of frog is Mini scule?
... that the Marsh Family's parody of Les Misérables's "One Day More" required pizza?
... that Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Rawlins proposed that the Rhodesian Army employ witchdoctors as psychological warfare during the Rhodesian Bush War?
... that Dieter Trautwein gave his 2003 autobiography the same title as his hymn "Komm, Herr, segne uns" (Come, Lord, bless us), for which he wrote the text and music in 1978? (it's not quirky, but I did quite enjoy it so it goes here)
... that the impatient sea cucumber readily expels sticky white cuvierian tubules when handled?

That's all I've got for you, i did try to keep it brief—thanks to everyone who helped keep the wheels of DYK spin, be it nominations, reviews, prep building, queue promotion, or the mere act of existing as BlueMoonset—and here's to a enjoyable, but maybe quieter, November! theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (they/them) 21:10, 1 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]