004 Lottery paradox

At least as of August 15, 2018, the Wikipedia entry on Henry Kyburg's The Lottery Paradox does not yet mention that a restatement of this paradox appears in Andrew Crumey's 1996 novel D'Alembert's Principle. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lottery_paradox

In Crumey's novel, it is attributed to a fictional philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment -- one Magnus Ferguson -- who seeks to defeat D'Alembert's vision of an ordered and rational universe by reducing reality to the principles of chance and probability.

I find the statement of the paradox in the novel, by the way, more compelling and more obviously paradoxical than the Wikipedia description. To paraphrase from Crumey: imagine two scenarios: 1) a winning ticket is included in a thousand-ticket lottery; 2) a die is cast such that the number of possible outcomes is 1,000, and a gambler bets on one of these outcomes. In both scenarios, a participant in the game would have a 1/1000 chance of success. Yet -- scenario (1) guarantees a winner. Scenario (2) does not. So shouldn't the odds be better in scenario (1)?

003 Jeanne Julie Éléonore de Lespinasse

At least as of August 15, 2018, the Wikipedia entry on French Enlightenment salonnière Jeanne Julie Éléonore de Lespinasse does not include -- among its list of fictional treatments -- her extended appearance in Andrew Crumey's 1996 novel D'Alembert's Principle. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Julie_Éléonore_de_Lespinasse#Publications

However, I do have to credit the comprehensiveness of the Wikipedia editors with this: Crumey's novel does appear on the D'Alembert page.

002 Monkey brains

At least as of August 15, 2018, the Wikipedia page on the fictitious (and derogatory) dish "monkey brains" does not include at least two of its other appearances in pop culture: 1) in the great Christopher Guest movie Waiting for Guffman, the characters discuss it over dinner in the scene in the restaurant (the one involving, among other things, penis-reduction surgery); and 2) in Tama Janowitz's novel/story collection Slaves of New York, one of the characters describes the preparation of the dish in horrifying detail, and says it was the second most disgusting thing he's ever eaten (we never learn what the first most disgusting might have been).

To repeat, this dish does not actually exist. Nobody eats it. It's just a terrible idea that found its way into Western pop culture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_brains

001: Sam Selvon

At least as of August 15, 2018, the Wikipedia entry on Trinidadian writer Sam Selvon does not yet mention the interesting fact that he was romantically involved with Kamla Tewari (née Naipaul) -- the sister of writers V.S. Naipaul and Shiva Naipaul.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Selvon

For that, we must rely on Patrick French's great biography of Sir Vidia, The World is What It is.