Newcomers to the Wikipedia Review may benefit from the following glossary of terms, which explains the origins of certain memorable expressions which have found their way into the lexicon here. Each, in its way, encapsulates something essential about the wacky and wonderful world of Wikipedia.

“The Cabal” — Jimbo Wales first proposed the formation of a “cabal” in this post on the Wikipedia mailing list. He expressed a desire to “empower some shadowy mysterious elite group of us to do things that might not be possible for newbies.”

“Exceptional Well-Honed Linguistic Analytic Skills” — the classic phrase posted by SlimVirgin here on Jimbo’s talk page, explaining why she don’t need no stinkin’ evidence to convict other editors of sockpuppetry.

“Living in England in a Very Similar Way” — another gem, this time from W.Marsh, illustrating another method for convicting someone of sockpuppetry without evidence. This one came from the celebrated ANI discussion of the blocking of Poetlister. The fact that Poetlister turned out to be completely guilty does not negate the charm of this famous turn of the phrase.

“I regard it as a pseudonym and I don’t really have a problem with it.” — Jimbo’s comment to The New Yorker, upon discovering that Essjay was not really “a tenured professor of religion at a private university” with “a Ph.D. in theology and a degree in canon law.”

“Will you be able to watch my back?” — (Jayjg, in an email to wikien-l, December 20 2007) Jayjg’s clarion call to his tag-team troops was mistakenly posted to the public email list, instead of his private one. “I’m planning to go in tonight and do some re-adding and tagging. Will you be able to watch my back?”

“Wikipedia is nothing more than the biggest and most prolific defamation machine that the world has ever known, run by people with varying degrees of personality disorders.” — Rachel Marsden, media commentator and former girlfriend of Jimbo Wales, after Jimbo, having dumped her and announced it on-Wiki, withdrew his special BLP protection from her bio. Rachel, demonstrating once again that Hell Hath No Fury, posted this on Jimbo’s talk page.

“Obscene trolling; knows German.” — This memorable phrase comes from Durova’s Sekret Evidence which was leaked to WikiTruth. She is describing the clues which lead her to indict User:!! as a Ripened Sock, a disturbing term to anyone but Dr. Scholl. User:!!’s “obscene trolling” was in reality an explication of a rather common German insult, “Leck mich im Arsch,” also the title of a canon by Mozart which has its own Wikipedia article.

“Are you Kafkaesque?” – In an exchange reminiscent of the famous Abbott and Costello Who’s on First? routine, an admin misunderstands a hapless user who has been blocked for the offense of removing material that was in violation of the Biographies of Living Persons Policy. Needless to say, the user (”Hullabaloo Wolfowitz”) was puzzled and chagrined by the block, insisting in his unblock request that “This is Kafkaesque.” An Admin with the moniker “Sandahl,” apparently not the brightest crayon in the box, replies: “You say you are Kafkaesque, if you are User:Kafkaesque you need to need to make this unblock request in this account name.”