The Deets

Rex turned me onto an entry on Wikipedia that covers the “Lamest Edit Wars” in the history of Wikipedia. You won’t find that in the Encyclopedia Britannica, now, will you?

I noticed that three of the top edit wars revolved around “Ethnic Feuds” involving Croatians and Serbians. How do you describe the heritage and nationality of someone who was born in a country that no longer exists?

Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars

Ivana Miličević
Is she a “Bosnian actress of Croatian descent/ethnicity” or a “Croatian actress”? Should she be called American without sourcing because she’s resided in America for nearly 30 years? Is she “Bosnian” because she was born in Sarajevo or “Bosnian-born” because Bosnia did not exist as a nation when she was born there? Go ahead and edit the article and see how long your version lasts before someone reverts you!

Nikola Tesla
Born of Serbian parents in a part of the Austrian Empire, which a short time later became a part of the Hungarian half of Austria-Hungary and is now in Croatia; so was he Serbian? Croatian? Austrian? Austro-Hungarian? You decide! But don’t forget to leave an edit summary saying how pathetic it is to choose any other version…

Werner Herzog
Born in Germany, supposedly of a German mother and a Yugoslavian father, and raised in Bavaria, Germany. Does that make Herzog Croatian or Serbian? How about the fact that the relatives live in in Bosnia-Herzegovina? Use edit summaries to publish interviews that you conducted — or heard rumors about. Mirrors and forks are great sources too. After consulting a printed source, it turns out that it was the mother who was from Croatia. Ouch.

Heading South, the battles turn to Albania vs. Greece with Foustanella:

Foustanella
Who first donned a frilly skirt and threatened to kill anyone who questioned his manhood over it? Was he Albanian or Greek? If Albanian, Gheg or Tosk? Thankfully, none of the modern day warriors on this topic have access to real weapons (we hope!)

Can’t we all just get along?

Before continuing my Jucy Lucy expose, I’d like to clear one thing up: The Jucy Lucy is spelled J-U-C-Y L-U-C-Y.

See an “I” there? I didn’t think so. However, there has been precedent set for including an “I” by Dara Moskowitz, who managed to misspell Jucy Lucy throughout a 1998 article on said burger in a 1998 CityPages article.

For those of you who are entirely lost at this point, notice the cheese oozing from the MIDDLE of the above burger. THAT’S a Jucy Lucy. Cheese in the middle of the burger. Get it now? If not, move on.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that Wikipedia had a debate about whether the Jucy Lucy should be sub-categorized under Cheeseburger, but to date this has not happened. It’s kind of like the marsupial of cheeseburgers, where cheeseburgers formed their own species after the break-up of Pangaea.