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Contents 1 David Spade 2 Pronunciation of Birmingham, Michigan 3 Religion 4 External links to photographs 5 Citation needed in education section

[edit] David Spade

Where exactly was David Spade born in Birmingham? At home, in the back of a car, under a bench in Shain Park? Same question for actress Christine Lahti, whose IMDB bio also claims Birmingham as her place of birth? There are not, nor have there been in my 50-year memory, any hospitals or maternity wards in Birmingham. The nearest hospital is William Beaumont in Royal Oak, which opened in 1955, five years after Lahti's birth. Saint Joseph Mercy in Pontiac has been around since 1927. Or maybe they were born in Detroit? T Garth 21:43, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

It doesn't say those people were Italic textbornItalic text in Birmingham, rather that they are Italic textfromItalic text there.

[edit] Pronunciation of Birmingham, Michigan

Is Birmingham, Michigan pronounced like:

1. Birmingham
2. Birmingham, Alabama
3. None of the above

It's pronounced "BURR-meen-HAM." I went to high school there.

66.245.112.204 00:53, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I lived there for 18 years and everybody pronounced the "g". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.171.30.161 (talk) 17:40, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Religion

Should a religion section be included?--JEF 14:17, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] External links to photographs

I'm curious who and why my links to photos of the Birmingham Farmers' Market and the Birmingham Tigers are being deleted. I took some trouble to take the pictures and there is nothing controversial about them. It seems to me that they are of general interest. (I have been a Birmingham resident for 36 years and my hobby is photography.) What's up?Ralph Deeds 15:18, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:External links#Links normally to be avoided. Wikipedia is not a link repository or a web directory. If you'd like to add select photographs to the article or perhaps you could create a gallery of such images, but external links to a personal collection of photographs doesn't constitute a unique resource beyond what the article would contain if it became a Featured article. older ≠ wiser 15:39, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, I've added links, without objection, to quite a few wikipedia entries. I believe the pictures of the Farmers' Market and the Birmingham Tigers do "constitute a unique resource behond what the article would contain." That sounds like doublespeak to me. I seem to recall that there is supposed to be some flexibility/exceptions in the Wikipedia guidelines. How about a little flexibility wrt Birmingham? Your position strikes me as a bit bureaucratic and picayune. Ralph Deeds 17:13, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Why yes, I can see that you have added quite a few links to hubpages.com -- however, many of them have been removed (by editors other than myself). I'm afraid I don't see much value added in linking to a collection of personal photographs. Feel free to solicit other opinions though. The links might make sense on articles specifically about the Farmers Market or the sports team, but seem out of place on a general article about the city. older ≠ wiser 17:46, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Consensus is what we use on Wikipedia to determine what articles should have, so I will help us come to one. It is a small city so it doesn't seem that out of place. The thing is external links should at least relate to the stuff written in the article. If you would go ahead and write a bit about the Farmer's market under a section titled agriculture or on the Birmingham Tigers under a section called sports, then I would feel adding the external link would be an appropriate addition to the article (but you must source your written addition).--Jorfer 17:59, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

The pictures aren't "a collection of PERSONAL photographs"--of my children or my wife's birthday party-- and the pictures of the tigers aren't really about sports. They were used to promote the downtown business district. And the Farmers' Market has become a fairly prominent summer feature of downtown Birmingham. It strikes me as relevant to the wikipedia entry as would be pictures of the Birmingham Art fair or other Birmingham activities.

BTW, what is your connection with Birmingham? Do you live here? As I mentioned, I've lived here for 36 years. My only motive is to help tell people who link to the Wikipedia site something positive about our city. Some of my links to other Wikipedia have remained for nearly a year. Others have been deleted, mainly those on personal biographies that apparently were disliked by the subject of the biography, e.g., I linked a somethat nasty page to Mel Gibson's biograpy after his drunken anti-semitic rant. It was deleted quickly, I assume by Gibson's PR people. Another one referred to Barry Diller as the "number one blue ribbon corporate ceo hog" after he paid himself some un-Godly sum in 1965, the highest in the country. But the person who deleted the link to my page, substituted an entry containing the amount he was paid in 2005. There is nothing that I can see that is even remotely controversial about my pictures of the Birmingham Farmers' Market or the ones of the Birmingham Tigers downtown business promotion (with which I have absolutely no personal connection). They both are pretty innocuous, in my opinion. And, contrary to your opinion, they do add something to the wiki entry on our fair city which might be of interest to people who may be considering visiting or moving here.

They are a personal collection of photographs in that they are your photographs displayed at a site you control. They do not contribute much to the article because there is no description whatsoever, no context provided to help anyone not familiar with the subject to make any sense of what the photos are or why they are in any way significant.

Whether or not I have any connection to Birmingham is irrelevant. That you have a personal connection with the subject of the article might in fact give pause that you perhaps are not entirely unbiased. While there may not be anything controversial about your collection of photographs, that alone is not a sufficient criteria for inclusion. They are nothing more than a collection of pretty pictures. There is nothing there that warrants inclusion as far as I'm concerned. older ≠ wiser 19:06, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

In my opinion, you are a narrow minded dictatorial little weenie. Ralph Deeds 01:09, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

Insults are not very convincing or persuasive (neither for myself nor for anyone else who might happen across this exchange--after all, it is in effect "on the record" for all the world to see). If you choose to be known as a petty name-caller, so be it. But if you plan to continue editing here, you might want to familiarize yourself with one of the core policies, Wikipedia:No personal attacks.

That aside, if you really think the photos add that much to the article, why not upload one of what you consider the best of each and add them to the page? Then on the image page you can include a link to your hubpages. older ≠ wiser 01:46, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

Apologies. I believe in avoiding ad hominem comments, except in discussions of Bush, Iraq, etc. But I remain frustrated by your position. And I'm mystified by your comment that the pictures "are nothing more than a collection of pretty pictures with no discription, no context, etc." The pictures speak for themselves and supplement and illustrate the wiki text on Birmingham. However, when I have time I'll add a paragraph of text to the page on the farmers' market and the tiger promotion. For someone looking for information on Birmingham the fact that we have a farmer's market would seem to me to be of interest. Ditto for the Tiger promotion by the downtown merchants. (By the way, as a technical writer you should know that criterion, not criteria, (as in "a sufficient criterion") is the correct singular form of the word.)

"I believe in avoiding ad hominem comments, except in discussions of Bush, Iraq, etc" <-- are you serious? And the Bush Derangement Syndrome article is marked for deletion?! Your comment is about all the sourcing needed to save that one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.173.14.244 (talk) 22:11, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

If the Farmers Market and tiger promotion are significant factors in the culture of Birmingham, then they should be described in the Wikipedia article. Adding a link to a collection of personal photographs is not very helpful for anyone who doesn't already know something about what they are. Re: criteria/on -- I type comments on talk pages fairly quickly and they often contain many typos as well as grammatical and other mechanical errors. You caught me on one. Good for you. older ≠ wiser 12:43, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citation needed in education section

We need a citation for the "second best high school other than Renaissance" comment in the education section. I have yet to see any polls that ranked Renaissance High as the best Michigan public high school. I have seen many that spoke to the contrary, including the Newsweek poll which ranked the International Academy higher than any other Michigan public school, and from what I understand the state has always recognized this ranking. I also understand that the U.S. News and World Report poll (which doesn't include the Academy since it doesn't recognize IB schools) ranked other Michigan high schools higher than these two schools. Since the education portion doesn't have any citations, I will be tagging it for such and remove the reference to the best schools until someone can find proof for it. Beggarsbanquet (talk) 01:22, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

On further examination, I found three other sections which were also lacking citations. I tagged each of them for missing citations and tagged the whole article for needing addition citations. This article, overall, does not have nearly enough references for one of its length and depth. Beggarsbanquet (talk) 01:30, 17 July 2008 (UTC)