Talk:The Most Perfect Thing

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. Track your hook after promotion. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Crisco 1492 (talk) 02:35, 9 May 2026 (UTC)

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• Comment or view
• Article history

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• ... that Tim Birkhead wrote a book about bird's eggs after watching a presenter spin an egg on television?

• Source: Tim Birkhead, The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird's Egg, page ix–x (preface): "This book has had a long incubation but was spun into life by a chance encounter. I was watching a wildlife programme on television one evening in 2012 when a well-known presenter appeared beside a cabinet of eggs in a museum...he placed the egg on the surface of the cabinet and spun it..."

• • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Terry Ball's snail farms
  • Comment: Note that the Terry Ball's snail farms review was for three articles - this QPQ is for the review of the last article, Michael Gove (I have already claimed the other two QPQs).

This doesn't affect the DYK, but there is no legal fair use in New Zealand so I am not able to upload a cover image of the book. If anyone outside NZ is able to add one I'd be grateful. (The cover with four guillemot eggs is quite attractive).

Created by DrThneed (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 32 past nominations.

DrThneed (talk) 05:44, 15 April 2026 (UTC).

• The article is fresh and sufficiently long. Sources abound, and are of excellent quality. I see no copyright or neutrality concerns. QPQ is done. The hook checks out. I enjoyed reading the article, and I believe the proposed hook will do a good job enticing others to read it as well. Surtsicna (talk) 22:34, 23 April 2026 (UTC)

This is unnecessary as already reviewed but an alternative hook just occurred to me, so I offer it for the promoter's consideration:

• ... that The Most Perfect Thing inspired The Impossible Thing?

DrThneed (talk) 23:35, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

I do not see The Impossible Thing in the article, DrThneed. Surtsicna (talk) 05:52, 26 April 2026 (UTC)

An excellent point Surtsicna! I could add it in but now I think further it gets complicated. The story of the Metland Egg, contained in this book, is what inspired The Impossible Thing, but it isn't really a large enough part of this book to merit mention in the article....which is probably why I didn't use this hook to start with! And I've nominated The Metland Egg article separately anyway so.... as you were! Sorry. DrThneed (talk) 06:15, 26 April 2026 (UTC)

Article (sub)title

Hi @DrThneed, I would expect this article to be at The Most Perfect Thing per WP:SUBTITLE, but I saw you moved it away from there - not attempting to move war, but would you object to moving it back? ScalarFactor (talk) 23:20, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

Pretty much all the sources I read used the long title first and only subsequently the shorter one, so I don't think it is clear that the shorter one would be the common name. All the links I turned blue on Wikipedia were also from the longer title. DrThneed (talk) 03:43, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

In my experience that's (generally) an indicator of the things WP:SUBTITLE is mentioning - not that {{R to short name}} isn't useful to have, of course. This is pretty common for these sorts of non-fiction books (e.g. the full titles in reviews for The Tigress of Forlì, The Jakarta Method, Going Infinite, etc.) The exceptions are typically when the non-subtitle isn't enough to disambiguate well enough (e.g. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder). ScalarFactor (talk) 04:01, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

Requested move 20 April 2026

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Jeffrey34555 (talk) 02:52, 27 April 2026 (UTC)

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The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird's Egg → The Most Perfect Thing – Full title unnecessary for disambiguation, and per WP:NCBOOK/WP:SUBTITLE. ScalarFactor (talk) 02:15, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Books has been notified of this discussion. ScalarFactor (talk) 02:15, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

• Support per WP:NCBOOK and WP:SUBTITLE and the lack of the need to disambiguate as explained above. --PoliticalPoint (talk) 20:04, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.