Talk:Fat pope, thin pope

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Launchballer talk 15:32, 28 April 2025 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

Pope Pius XII and his successor, Pope John XXIII

• ... that a fat pope follows a thin one?

• Source: Belton, Paddy (20 February 2025). "Right-leaning cardinals frontrunners as Pope Francis' successor". Brussels Signal. Retrieved 24 April 2025.

• Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/África Brasil
• Comment: Running during the upcoming papal conclave, which is set to begin May 5th and will probably run for two or three days, would be nice.

Created by Darth Stabro (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 35 past nominations.

~Darth Stabro^{Talk • Contribs} 03:26, 24 April 2025 (UTC).

• New enough and long enough. No copyright concerns on earwig or in spotchecks. The hook is good. The image seems reasonable and correctly licenced, if a promoter wishes to choose it. QPQ is done. Article seems in good condition, even the footnote is sourced.
  This is almost ready, however I can't verify "The "austere" and "aristocratic" Pope Pius XII was followed by the "gregarious and seemingly unsophisticated" Pope John XXIII." which seems important for the image. Is the page number correct? I also feel a tweak needs to be made to "some have disputed the accuracy of the phrase"; it's an adage, it's not intended to be 100% accurate. Softer wording might perhaps say that exceptions to the adage have been noted, and then give the examples. (I can't access Bellitto, Christopher M. (2008), but taking that on AGF.)
  I think this may technically violate our no posting election-related materials 30 days before an election, in some readings, but given the voters will be literally locked up with communications blocked, posting during the conclave is probably in line with the spirit of the rule. CMD (talk) 17:29, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

@Chipmunkdavis: thanks for the review. Unfortunately that online edition of the book doesn't have page numbers listed; in the physical book, it is page 117, but the e-book is counting the cover, prefaces, etc and so it is on page 128 according to the Archive viewer. I've swapped it out for a slightly lower-quality scan that has accurate pagination. I also slightly reworded the phrase about accuracy, and would be open to other suggestions you might have as to its wording. Also, in addition to the reason you described, I don't think this would run afoul of WP:DYKELECT as hooks about "election candidates" are forbidden, not about the elections themselves; I wouldn't anticipate any dispute over that from preppers.~Darth Stabro^{Talk • Contribs} 17:40, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

A hidden note on the page number discrepancy would also work if you have a preference for the higher-quality scan, but either way that source fully checks out, fat pope skinny pope and all. On the wording, I would avoid any wording which starts from the assumption the phrase is going to be 100% accurate, I wouldn't expect that from any observations of electoral trends. However, not something to hold the DYK up over. I do read this hook as somewhat commenting on the candidates by implying a particular rotundness should be selected next, but either way, this should be fine and I'm trying to make that clear before it gets to preps. With that in mind, on this considering all above, I'll move it to SOHA. CMD (talk) 17:52, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

@Darth Stabro and Chipmunkdavis: BBC article published around four hours ago says this is due to start on 7 May, which is open. Any objections to me assessing this for that date?--Launchballer 15:23, 28 April 2025 (UTC)

@Launchballer: May 7th sounds great. I proposed May 8th as it will be the first full day - only one votes takes place on May 7th. Either is fine though. ~Darth Stabro^{Talk • Contribs} 15:25, 28 April 2025 (UTC)

Rotundness in question

Love the article. I have a concern that the image caption may be a bit of original research, as we should have a source acknowledging the weight disparity (beyond euphemisms of "austerity") before making a comment about it. Really appreciate keeping it short and to the point, though. ~ Pbritti (talk) 17:41, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

@Pbritti: The last sentence of the article does talk about the literal difference in appearance between Pius XII and John XXIII, or were you looking for something more concrete? ~Darth Stabro^{Talk • Contribs} 17:49, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

Huh. I'm editing while traveling, so I guess you can chalk up my concern to simply missing that sentence. That addresses my concerns in full. ~ Pbritti (talk) 18:17, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

Long pontificate, short pontificate

I've always understood the phrase to mean, a long papal reign followed by a short papal reign. GoodDay (talk) 19:47, 11 May 2025 (UTC)

That doesn't seem supported by any sources I've seen, though if you can find some we can add that meaning. ~Darth Stabro^{Talk • Contribs} 13:55, 13 May 2025 (UTC)