Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2021 February 4

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February 4

Another Ronald Reagan assassination attempt question

So, I have another question about the Ronald Reagan assassination attempt: What are the odds of someone getting shot at the specific angle and bodily location at which Ronald Reagan was shot actually surviving? As in, was Reagan's survival a fluke or was getting shot at the same angle and bodily location (so, on the left side, right under the armpit, I believe) as Reagan generally not fatal?

Also, what about if Ronald Reagan would have gotten shot slightly to the left, or slightly to the right, or slightly above, or slightly below the bodily location that he was shot at in real life? Then would Reagan's odds of survival have increased, decreased, or remained the same? This question is speculative but is factual in the sense that you could rely on other real life shooting stories to draw conclusions about what might have occurred to Reagan had this shooting been done slightly differently–as in, at a slightly different location/place in Reagan's body. Futurist110 (talk) 00:06, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

President Reagan's chest x-rays are apparently on display at the Reagan Museum in Simi Valley, CA. I can't really say anything from the photos of the single x-ray on that page though, in terms of how close his wounds came to being mortal. 69.174.144.79 (talk) 01:14, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

It was indeed widely mentioned at the time that Reagan was very lucky to survive the shooting. He needed immediate medical attention, major surgery and the transfusion of a lot of blood to survive, and that's even though no major organs were impacted by the bullet. You would need to search some of the newspapers of the period to get more precise info. Xuxl (talk) 16:12, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

A lung isn't a major organ? Futurist110 (talk) 04:27, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

I think it's probably wise to take news reports with a (big) grain of salt, even if Reagan's own doctors are quoted, simply because of just how sensationalized this sort of thing gets, and how conservative any doctor in that position is going to be in terms of prognosis. 69.174.144.79 (talk) 20:52, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

Who's the chap to the right of Patrick Ewing (likely a US president)?

Hi, who's the guy to the right of Patrick Ewing (likely a US president)? TIA! Fossa_?! 00:17, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

Ronald Reagan, per the image description. RudolfRed (talk) 00:24, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

Arguing for argument's sake. Please don't do this. --Jayron32 15:29, 5 February 2021 (UTC)
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
I also used to confuse left and right at some point in my life ;-) Fossa?! 01:13, 4 February 2021 (UTC) The question specifies "to the right of Patrick Ewing", President Reagan is to Mr. Ewing's right. The picture of Franklin is to the left of Mr. Ewing. It is, however, to the viewer's right. --Khajidha (talk) 12:20, 5 February 2021 (UTC) To the right is typically assumed to mean from our viewpoint. Otherwise you would say "to Ewing's left." In fact, it's not flatly to Ewing's left; it's behind him and to his left, at maybe the 8:00 position. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 14:41, 5 February 2021 (UTC) Obviously not everyone makes that assumption. To me, "to the right of Patrick Ewing" and "to Ewing's right" mean the exact same thing. --Khajidha (talk) 15:15, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

• If you mean the painting... it’s Benjamin Franklin - painted in 1759 by Benjamin Wilson (painter). Blueboar (talk) 00:33, 4 February 2021 (UTC)
  • That's what I meant. Thx! Fossa_?! 01:13, 4 February 2021 (UTC)
• I know it wasn't asked, but for completeness sake the other person in the picture is John Thompson. He died fairly recently. --Jayron32 12:22, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

What happened to Faringdon's Rolls Royce?

Our article about Gavin Henderson, 2nd Baron Faringdon says "Henderson donated his Rolls Royce car and had it converted into a makeshift ambulance to serve republicans and anti-fascists. This ambulance saw frequent use and was saw action during the Battle of Teruel where it was used to evacuate people with serious abdominal wounds. Henderson's Rolls Royce ambulance, though heavily damaged and covered in bullet holes, survived the war and was shipped back to Britain in September 1938. The ambulance was then displayed at a conference for officials of the UK Trades Union Congress (TUC), where it was used to raise monetary funds for Spanish medical programmes". Do we know what happened to it after this? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 12:19, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

It appears to have gone on a tour of English seaside resorts to raise funds in late 1938. MilborneOne (talk) 14:41, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

There's a couple of pictures here (p. 5) in 1938, but no other luck so far. Alansplodge (talk) 15:07, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

[1] seems to indicate it was in use in the 1950s to transport vegetables to market at Buscot Park - "Sadly, most of these glass houses were torn down in the 1950’s when they became too expensive to maintain; and the economy was such that the family’s 1915 Rolls Royce Limousine (which had served as an ambulance in the Spanish Civil War) was used to transport vegetables to markets" MilborneOne (talk) 15:16, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

D'oh! You beat me to it. I suspect that its next move was to the scrap heap. Alansplodge (talk) 15:18, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

Any chance this inspired The Yellow Rolls-Royce? Clarityfiend (talk) 03:59, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

There don't seem to be many points of similarity, except for the Rolls, and even that's a different model. It might make a good film plot though! Alansplodge (talk) 12:26, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

@Alansplodge:, @MilborneOne: Thank you both, a shame we can't pin it down definitively, and a greater shame if it did go for scrap. It would make a good film, or museum exhibition. DuncanHill (talk) 01:08, 9 February 2021 (UTC)

Orangutans in early 1800s London.

It says on our page for orangutans (in the section about captivity) that there was an orangutan at the Exeter Exchange in 1817, and then describes details about the behaviour and pastimes of the orangutan. It gives (I think) a book as its reference, but short of buying this book, I can't find any details anywhere about an orangutan that lived at the Exeter Exchange. Does anyone know any details about this particular ape and its time at the exchange?95.150.37.129 (talk) 12:45, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

There are several leads here. --Jayron32 12:56, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

A good reference is:

"Closely tied to the culture of museums of natural history, the English naturalist Edward Donovan became interested in the behavior of an orangutan from Borneo that arrived, alive, in England in 1817. The ape was kept for two years at the menagerie at the Exeter Exchange in the Strand. He drank tea, ate with a spoon, liked brandy, and showed a lot of affection for his keeper. He easily recognized the person who had brought him from Java, the doctor Abel Clark, when he came to visit, searching the doctor's pockets for sweets as he had when they traveled together".

• Herzfeld, Chris (2018). The Great Apes: A Short History. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0300221374.

Alansplodge (talk) 13:55, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

Donovan's original account is in The Naturalist's repository, or, Monthly miscellany of exotic natural history: Volume II, London 1823 (p. 156) with a rather amusing colour plate. After a long diatribe about mermaids, his description of the Exeter Exchange orang-utan begins on page 212. Alansplodge (talk) 14:16, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

By the way, the doctor's name was Clarke Abel, not Abel Clark as stated above. Alansplodge (talk) 14:47, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

Abel wrote an account of the Orang-utan in the snappily titled Narrative of a journey in the interior of China : and of a voyage to and from that country, in the years 1816 and 1817, containing an account of the most interesting transactions of Lord Amherst's embassy to the court of Pekin and observations on the countries which it visited, London 1818, starting on p. 318. Alansplodge (talk) 14:57, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

And finally, a modern perspective in Wild Man from Borneo: A Cultural History of the Orangutan (pp. 64-64) by Robert Cribb, Helen Gilbert, Helen Tiffin. Alansplodge (talk) 19:40, 4 February 2021 (UTC)