Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2024 October 19

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October 19

Carjacking#Prevention and response

In what parts of the world is this good advice:

• Use of the vehicle as a weapon against the car jacker, or a firearm or pepper spray.

Doug butler (talk) 06:33, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

Nowhere. Those are good ways to get killed. I removed that unreferenced and ridiculous "advice" from the article. Cullen328 (talk) 07:10, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

Years of service as President or Vice President (USA)

If you add up all the time that an individual served as either President or Vice President of the USA, which individual accumulated the most time? In other words, who served the longest? (Excluding FDR, I assume.) Thanks. 32.209.69.24 (talk) 07:01, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

There is no reason to exclude FDR. The top contenders are Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon. FDR was never vice-president but he was elected president four times. He died shortly after his fourth inauguration, serving 12 years and a little over a month. Nixon served two full terms as vice-president under Dwight Eisenhower, and was elected president twice. He resigned a bit over a year and a half into his second term, so he wins the prize with over 13-1/2 years in those roles. Third place goes to John Adams who served two full terms as vice-president under George Washinton followed by one full term of his own as president, for 12 years. Cullen328 (talk) 07:22, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

Just tallied up the number of days every President and Vice President has served in office, a list that has 79 people. You're dead on about Nixon being first (4949 days) and FDR being second (4422 days.) However, while John Adams did indeed serve three full terms, he didn't start serving his first VP term until April 21, 1789 as opposed to the standard March 4, as noted in John Adams#Election. If we go purely by actual service time and not expected term time, this means that he served 4334 days, which would actually be fifth place. In third place would be George H. W. Bush, who served three full terms (twice VP, once president) for a total of 4383 days, and in fourth place would be Thomas Jefferson, who also served three full terms (once VP, twice president) but lost out by a day due to 1800 not being a leap year, for 4382 days total. The only other person to serve more than two terms worth is none other than Joe Biden, whose tally is at 4290 days and counting.

Other interesting notes from the tally:

1. The most common service lengths are 1461 days and 2922 days. 32 people have served the former, and 20 people have served the latter. Of course, this is just 4 years'/8 years' worth of days respectively, including the expected 1/2 leap day(s).
2. 6 people, as mentioned earlier, have served more than two terms' worth of days, 7 people served between one and two terms' worth of days, and 14 people served less than one term's worth of days (although this 14 also includes Kamala Harris, who will likely join the 1 termers, possibly more pending the upcoming election.)
3. Somehow, Thomas Jefferson is the only person whose position on the list was meaningfully affected by the leap year century rule. While John Adams also lost a day to the 1800 lack of leap day, his aforementioned late VP term start day more than offset that otherwise-minor difference. William McKinley's loss of a day in 1900 would have been meaningful if he hadn't been assassinated. Similarly, his first VP Garret Hobart died in office in 1899, and the next VP after him, none other than Teddy Roosevelt, started his term in 1901. Finally, 2000 was a leap year, so no chance for any strangeness there.
4. Even with vice presidents added, William Henry Harrison's 31-day presidential term is the shortest time served, although William R. King's 45-day VP term comes close.
5. Speaking of coming close, by pure coincidence, Henry Wilson's 993-day term as the 18th VP from March 4, 1873 to November 22, 1875 - a term which ended in death by stroke - was one day longer than Garret Hobart's 992-day term as the 24th VP from March 4, 1897 to November 21, 1899 - which ended also in death, except by heart disease.

GalacticShoe (talk) 15:12, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for your excellent research, GalacticShoe. Cullen328 (talk) 16:42, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, all, for the insightful and thorough answers. Does Wikipedia have any type of (single) article about this type of scenario? (Without having to piece together info from separate articles.) Thanks. 32.209.69.24 (talk) 01:34, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Not one I'm aware of top of my head. List of people by time served as President and/or Vice-President of the United States seems to have potential but obv needs editors. ('Fraid I have several irons in the fire I'm working on and can't get right on that at present.) If so inclined, if you make an account you get your very own userspace to work on stuff at your leisure. If you wish to work on that bug me on my talk and I can move it for you when it's in shape to go "live". Slowking Man (talk) 17:55, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

Source location -- Mirabella September 1990, Peter Schjeldahl

Hi -- I was hoping to get some assistance in locating a source for an article I'm editing (Cady Noland). The piece I'm looking for is in the September 1990 edition of Mirabella (WorldCat link for magazine), pp 88-93: "Venice Anyone?" by Peter Schjeldahl. No libraries in my vicinity have a copy of that issue, bound or otherwise, but it's been referenced quite a few times in other literature about Noland, with some pretty great quotes/analysis that I'd love to see in total. Any idea where I might be able to find a full-text transcription or otherwise get access to this? Any assistance appreciated. Thanks! 19h00s (talk) 19:38, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

Someone may be able to help you here, but posting at WP:REX is more likely to connect you with someone who can supply you with the article. Deor (talk) 13:14, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

That was gonna be my next question, wasn't sure if there was a better place to ask! Thanks for this :) 19h00s (talk) 14:32, 20 October 2024 (UTC)