Talk:Boothby

Archived votes for featured article

 * Boothby: Well written, plenty of detail for a minor charicter only mentioned a few times. AmdrBoltz 02:16, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Support. --Jaz 04:38, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Support. --Scimitar 13:58, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Support. —-THOR 16:23, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Support. --Gvsualan 22:11, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Support. --User:Tobyk777 25 June 2005
 * Support. --Shran 13:30, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I do not support as long as there is no list of appearances and a list of episodes he was mentioned in. --Julya 18:04, October 24, 2010 (UTC)

His Age
I think we could narrow down Boothby's birthdate a bit, currently "mid- to late-23rd century can be anything between 2250 and 2299. Picard was on the Starfleet Academy from 2323 to 2327 when Boothby was about the same age as Picard in 2368 (63). So if he had been exactly as old as Picard, his birthyear would've been 2260, 2261, 2262, 2263 or 2264. Add about to it the "about" and he was certainly born in the 2250s or 2260s. Kennelly 17:42, 28 March 2006 (UTC)


 * There is also reason to believe that in 2368 Boothby and Captain Janeway were habitually stealing lawn gnomes from Boothby's own garden and selling them to Andorian spice runners. The reason being that Boothby could continue to purchase more gnomes and eventually raise his budget beyond reasonable levels.  That is why he always had the dopest garden, also he blew all of his gnome selling cash up his nose.


 * Yeah, um, what? --OuroborosCobra talk 03:02, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
 * That happened. Here's the quote, from :
 * JANEWAY: I remember when me and ol' Boothby had this crazy scheme to "steal" his own decorative lawn gnomes, sell them to the Andorian spice market, and hope the Academy would raise Boothby's credit allowance. It helped finance the grounds for at least three years. Of course, ol' Boothby had trouble keeping his credit flow under control...
 * CHAKOTAY: Yeah, um, what?
 * --Tim Thomason 03:34, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Present Tense
Why is this article written in present tense? It doesn't really fit right since most other articles are written in past tense. 24.158.198.170 21:44, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Roses
Does anybody else find his relationship with Janeway and the roses creepy? - unsigned

Protected
I've protected this from being edited by new and anonymous users due to constant stupi...er, I mean, vandalism. --From Andoria with Love 13:23, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Since the page is no longer linked on the Main Page, I have lifted protection. --From Andoria with Love 15:39, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

The page has been protected again due to the reasons above, and the vandalism has been cleared from the article's history. --From Andoria with Love 08:12, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Protected again. And it will be for quite some time. --From Andoria with Love 18:16, 23 November 2007 (UTC)


 * It would seem that this article may need to be protected from anon only, perhaps on a permanent basis, seeing as this page has been v*nd*lized more than a dozen times by them. Update: There are literally more vandal edits to this page than *real* edits. The most prominent would appear to be coming from an IP range of 206.123.177.218 to 206.123.180.113, with 11 separate "attacks" over the past year and a half. --Alan 04:32, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

I agree, permanent protection from anons might be in order. I hate to do it, but if it protects the page from the constant swell of stupidity that's been plaguing the article for nearly two years, then that's the way to go. --From a College Campus with Love


 * I set it to 6 months. We'll see if it is still needed after that. -- Sulfur 14:14, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Curmudgeonly?
Are you kidding me? Is the purpose of this website to make people look things up in a dictionary? There are dozens of synonyms that can be used that aren't the most uncommonly used word in the English language.
 * Expanding your vocabulary is a good thing, not a bad thing. --OuroborosCobra talk 04:07, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
 * (Edit Conflict) The only real problem here is that you didn't know what "curmudgeon" means, so... why bring it up here? Grab a dictionary, learn the word, and then all will be solved. Then, the next time you run across the word, you'll be like, "Hey, I know what that means! Thanks, Memory Alpha!" In the meantime, we'll assume that most people capable of reading will know what the word means. If not, that's what the dictionary's there for. Memory Alpha -- educating people one long word at a time. --From Andoria with Love 04:09, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Ah yes, I was expecting someone to insult my intelligence in that manner to discredit my concern. That was quite predictable. It's not about me knowing the word or not, it's about writing the article in a reasonably readable fashion. Using obscure words when plenty of more common synonyms are available is not reasonable. If this were a college paper and you inserted a bunch of words like that in there, you'd get points taken off even if the professor knew every word 'cause part of being a good writer is learning how to write so people can easily read your work. If you want the site to be about learning new words then why don't I go around editing articles by inserting a bunch of obscure synonyms so all your readers will have to stop every 2 seconds to check a dictionary and learn new words. Thanks for the suggestion. 24.31.118.241 15:05, 11 March 2008 (UTC))
 * Nobody insulted your intelligence, just pointing out that expanding one's knowledge is a good thing. Just because you don't know a word doesn't make you unintelligent; everybody learns something new everyday. That said, your making a very small, personal problem into a major, public problem. The word is valid and, believe it or not, commonplace (despite your insistence that it's "obscure"). Also, not sure what college you've been to, but in most universities it's the complete opposite. I actually get compliments for my use of such words. There's nothing worse than treating your audience/readers like they're idiots. Lastly, try not to exaggerate things: it's one word that you didn't know. Assuming you've looked up the word now, the problem is solved. If you haven't, then that still doesn't make it an issue requiring the attention of the MA community. --From Andoria with Love 03:57, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
 * 24.31.118.241, "It's not about me knowing the word or not"? But, what? You're howling for all the poor wiki-citizens who don't? Risking the callusing of their fingers from all the turning of the pages of their dictionaries as they struggle to comprehend our inscrutable articles here at MA? Well. That makes you the very intelligence-insulter who you think you're defending us oppressed Trektards against, doesn't it? My hero. At least, I think you're my hero. I heard that word somewhere and I hope I'm using it right. Can you help me? I am sorry if I used a word that is too elite and I fvched it up. But I do know "curmudgeonly". It's the right word for this article. The only right word. I believe you when you say you know what a synonym is, but, I bet you don't know what a synonym for "curmudgeonly" is. If you do, be bold and prove that you're not better than anyone else here. SennySix 06:32, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

I don't even know what the word is supposed to be implying. The word means someone who is ill-tempered or full of resentment. I don't remember what the guy's demeanor was like to be honest. But, how can the article say he is ill-tempered and then say a sentence or two later that he would often offer up "helpful advice and kind words"? Is the article saying he's bipolar? It makes no sense. And, if by some twisted logic it does make sense, it needs to be written in a clarified manner. And take the word out and use a synonym while you're at it for goodness sakes. 24.31.118.241 23:16, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
 * A synonym won't solve that problem, will it? SennySix 23:30, 12 March 2008 (UTC)


 * 24.31.118.241, I think the general consensus here is: end it. Please. Really. If I must be particularly frank – nobody cares. It's one word which nobody other than you seems to have a problem with. Please stop making a mountain out of an ant hill. The word is used adequately; one can be a curmudgeon but have a heart of gold. In fact, such character is almost stereotypical by now. Anyways, this discussion's gone on longer than it needed to, so I think it best if we just end it now. --From Andoria with Love 03:43, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

How can one be curmudgeon and offer "helpful advice and kind words" on a regular enough basis to include it in the article as such? That's a contradiction, plain and simple. 24.31.118.241 08:08, 15 March 2008 (UTC)


 * That is EXACTLY the point of the character. In fact, any character who does not have contradictions within themselves are generally boring. There are literally thousands if not millions of characters appearing in films and television shows who resemble or are exactly like Boothby (Gruffy from Gummi Bears and even Frank Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond come immediately to mind). If you want to complain about it, you will have to take it up with the writers of the episodes or maybe even the actor himself, although the latter will be particularly difficult to do. Having said that, unless you have something to discuss that pertains to article's quality (this isn't it), this off-topic, general discussion should end now. See Help:Talk pages for the reasons why. --From Andoria with Love 13:08, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, I just rewatched "In the Flesh" the other day for something else and I actually found the dude's personality quite pleasant, though granted it wasn't really him. I didn't find him ill-tempered or "Frank Barone-like" in the slightest. So, unless his demeanor was different in other episodes, I still think the description is inaccurate. 24.31.118.241 06:31, 16 March 2008 (UTC)


 * It isn't. Inaccurate, I mean. --From Andoria with Love 06:36, 16 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I agree the word should be altered in something more common English. You also have to take into account the fact that not all MA-readers are native English speakers. Indeed, an encyclopedia is not a good encyclopedia if you need an other encyclopedia to understand what it says! Instead of finding synonyms, you can look for a way to describe the concept you need. Perhaps Boothby is 'grudgy', 'grumpy', a 'groaner', or 'grumbler', a 'sourpuss', or 'peevish'. --Julya 18:02, October 24, 2010 (UTC)


 * Those words are all rough synonyms for "curmudgeon" or "curmudgeonly" (except for "grudgy", which I don't think is an English word). I think that "curmudgeonly" perfectly describes Boothby, and I don't think that it's so uncommon a word as to present an insurmountable challenge to our readers, be they native speakers of English or not.  It's also worth noting that the German-language version of MA has an article on Boothby, and speakers of any other language are invited to create articles in their respective languages via the Internationalization page. —Josiah Rowe 18:37, October 24, 2010 (UTC)

Parker Lewis
Does anybody see any similarities between Boothby and the character "Augie" from the "Parker Lewis" Season 1, Episode 26, "Parker Lewis Can't Win"? In that episode he's the school's janitor which gives Parker Lewis advices on how to proceed on bad situations, very like Boothby would do with Wesley in STTNG's "The First Duty".--wmaffet 14:23, June 6, 2012 (UTC)


 * If there is a similarity there, there would need to be some documented discussion of it by Trek staff to be included in the article. If the makers of that show based their situation on Star Trek, then it could be noted on the Star Trek parodies and pop culture references (live action television) page. 31dot 14:51, June 6, 2012 (UTC)

Never saw any evidence of this, it's only a hypothesis of mine, since both characters are played by Ray Walston. In fact I'd be suggesting that the Star Trek producers were inspired by the "Parker Lewis" character, for its episode aired on 19 May 1991, preceding Boothby's first appearence in Star Trek by almost a year.--wmaffet 05:16, June 7, 2012 (UTC)