Sometimes, I just want to understand what it is you’re saying

Sometimes Wikipedia can go overboard with the academic language and tone. Take this entry on Cheese Sandwiches:

cheese sandwich is a basic sandwich made generally with one or more slices of any kind of cheese on any sort of bread. It may have lettuce, tomato, pickles and/or condiments such as mustard or mayonnaise added. Cheese sandwiches can be raw, or heated so that the bread toasts and the cheese melts (a dish referred to as a grilled cheese sandwich or toasted cheese).

Cheese sandwiches with added meat are generally referred to by more specific names; if ham is included, for example, the result is a “ham and cheese sandwich”.

It basically describes what a cheese sandwich is and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s an encyclopedia entry about a cheese sandwich, a detailed explanation of what exactly a cheese sandwich is is expected. If like me, you read the above paragraph with a documentary-type voice, you’d probably be rolling your eyes and wanting to kick some snobbish scholar’s posterior.

But okay, I need to chill. It’s an encylopedia article on cheese sandwiches. I should go rant about something more academic, something that makes more sense. How about my usual Wikipedia experience?

1. Open topic
2. read first few lines
3. run into an unfamiliar term/jargon/concept
4. Open topic on unfamiliar term/jargon/concept
5. repeat 2 - 4

It gets worse when the topic goes mystical. Here’s an excerpt from the entry on “Prima Materia,” a term used in Alchemy:

Thus, prima materia is the seed of the process, which takes place in the natural mind; it is the seed of enlightenment. The Crown of Creation is an overarching symbol equating with the top sphere Kether in Qabala. It triumphs over the terrible Dragon of the primal, unrefined condition, represented by the dragon or Terrible Mother. In the bottom-center is Atlas holding the earth to symbolize the material sphere of Malkuth. All is one magical movement from Kether through Malkuth.

“WTF?” is right. Unless you’re a scholar of obscure topics like the Qabala (or however it’s spelled) and Alchemy, the entry itself is just some weird gibberish that seems to have been written by some guy high on crack.

I just want to read a Wikipedia article that’s simple, easy to read, and informative. But then I probably shouldn’t go to Wikipedia that much anyway >.>