QUOTE(Rhindle @ Wed 2nd December 2009, 9:15pm)
I get a kick out of how FA's and GA's an author writes make someone a more qualified arbitrator. I have always thought that Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Thoreau, and other well-known writers would have made great Supreme Court Justices.
Not a good analogy. If the only purpose of the United States of America were to write as many Great American Novels as possible, then yes, they would have made great Supreme Court Justices.
Point being, the reason why they wouldn't in reality, is that because in reality the Supreme Court adjudicates a very diverse society whose only "purpose" is something like "pursuit of happiness" or whatever. Wikipedia on the other hand has a much more narrow, specific purpose - write an encyclopedia.
A better analogy would be something like a regulator of a particular industry - got to pick somebody who at least has some clue how the widgets are made. Or here's another, crazier, one; chaplain on a ship out at sea - definitely need somebody who understands the travails of ordinary sailors, not some stinkin' land rat.