Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 July 7

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July 7

Trump TV ad in California

I'm in a Democratic part of California and yesterday saw a Trump attack ad against Biden on TV. No issue with the ad per se (attack ads are part of the process), but in past elections California has been mostly free of any presidential campaigning, due to it not being a swing state. Seeing an ad this early in the season was especially surprising. Without getting too political I'll disclose that I dislike both Trump and Biden (they're not equivalent, they're just both distasteful in differing ways), so I had no intention of casting a meaningless vote for either of them. That's why 3rd parties were invented, after all.

Q: am I suddenly to believe that California is somehow in play? How can that be possible, without the entire electoral map being similarly on tilt? Or is Trump pursuing an unusual ad strategy, e.g. to soften up Biden's support among donors rather than to affect votes directly? Or is this really nothing new and I've just not happened to notice it in earlier elections? I do manage to avoid a lot of TV but happened to see an ad this time. Thanks. 2602:24A:DE47:BB20:50DE:F402:42A6:A17D (talk) 00:18, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Sure it wasn't a national buy? --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇} 02:00, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Does that exist? I guess it could have been then. California is where I saw it. I thought campaigns were at least a little bit careful with their media buys, and campaigning for Presidential votes in CA is useless for both major candidates, so usually they concentrate on less lopsided states. 2602:24A:DE47:BB20:50DE:F402:42A6:A17D (talk) 02:28, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Well first off, was it from the Trump campaign or a PAC? Because there are PACs running attack ads against Biden. And in either case, there's an argument to be made for demoralizing democrat voters in CA given Biden's unpopularity with anyone more than a little left-of-center; not to give Trump a victory, but to decrease voter turnout and decrease Biden's margin of victory, improving republican performance in down-ticket elections without directly campaigning for them, perhaps general pot-stirring/controversy generation. Could also be as jpgordon suggests, that it was a national buy. Alternatively, it could just be incompetence; see Hanlon's razor. 199.66.69.67 (talk) 05:28, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Presumably "PAC" is Political action committee? Alansplodge (talk) 16:18, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Yes, I assumed OP (as someone from California) would be familiar with the term. 199.66.69.67 (talk) 23:28, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Even if the ad was a local ad buy instead, there are still some areas in California that still lean Republican. See United States congressional delegations from California#Current U.S. Representatives, particularly the Cook Partisan Voting Index (CPVI) column. Even though Trump is extremely unlikely to win the state's electoral vote, as another commentator pointed out, the larger goal could be to still get Republican voters in those areas out to the polls, and they would vote on those down-ticket elections. For example, part of the California's 4th congressional district lies within the Sacramento area, so they would have to advertise on Sacramento stations. Likewise, there are several congressional district in the Los Angeles area like the 25th and the 39th that the CPVI index indicates that they are essentially swing districts. And of course, it would be an embarrassment for the Republican Party if House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy looses his reelection; his 23rd congressional district extends south into Los Angeles County and the City of Lancaster (which I believe also receives Los Angeles stations). Zzyzx11 (talk) 03:24, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

I live in the Napa Valley which is in California's 5th congressional district, a highly Democratic district. I see official Trump campaign ads on cable TV in my area several times a week, even though the odds of Trump winning my district or California are tiny to nil. My guess is that these are the more moderate Trump ads, designed to test arguments tailored to the swing consistencies identified by Trump's social media operation. When I see one of these ads, I briefly feel like I am in a test tube, but that happens a lot in 2020. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 04:18, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

I would also add that some of media markets of Arizona and Nevada, which are swing states, cross over into California slightly as per this map. Zoozaz1 (talk) 22:53, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

What is the provenance of this mysterious necklace worth 30 000 pounds?

It has come to my attention that the painter Georgiana Hare-Naylor never knew her mother-in-law, because the latter died of a surfeit of fun. I was looking at the biographies of Georgiana and her husband, and was able to add this anecdote to his page:

He was the eldest son of Robert Hare-Naylor of Hurstmonceux in Sussex, canon of Winchester (son of Francis Hare), by his first wife, Sarah, daughter of Lister Selman of Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire. Sarah died when Francis was a child. The raconteur Augustus John Cuthbert Hare attributes the loss of his kinswoman to:

a chill brought on by eating too many ices when over-heated by dancing at Sir John Shaw's, at Eltham, leaving to the Hares a diamond necklace, valued at 30 000, and three children, Francis, Robert, and Anna Maria.

The young couple were introduced by her cousin Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, so there's no difficulty in believing tales of money and glitter, at least at that generation. And of course AJC Hare was known for telling a good story - the copy of his memoirs, from which I extracted that nugget, ran to at least 18 editions. But 30 grand then is about 3.5 million now -- that is one hell of a necklace, even if you tone it down by an order of magnitude.

I am guessing that the diamonds came with Sarah Selman to her marriage with Robert Hare (later Naylor), either directly from her father, or possibly from her mother's family. Is that a reasonable guess? The wording suggests it didn't come from any of the Hares, and surely if it came from an admirer there would have been pistols at dawn. So my question is two-fold. Is there any way of finding out where the jewels came from, and what happened to them? And secondly, where did the money arise? The National Archives have the 1752 marriage settlement of Robert Hare and Sarah Selman. It lists her father as "Lister Selman, of Oldford in St. Mary Stratford Bow, Middx., esq." - in other words, Old Ford, what was then just outside the City of London. But the 1885 DNB entry, also written by AJC Hare, has her father settled in the more salubrious rural air at Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire. Our sources for Chalfont Park say that the property was mortgaged to him in 1736 and sold in 1755. One might suppose him to be a City merchant with a pleasant country retreat. But if so, what was his trade or business? Fortunately, A Strong Supporting Cast: The Shaw Lefevres 1789-1936 (2015) gives some background, saying Lister Selman (born 1708) was "always described as a dyer, though clearly one rich enough" to indulge his literary interests. Lister's wife Sarah Mitford was orphaned around 13 years old; given her background, there must have been records of what was held in trust for her. How did a dyer get to be that rich? What did Sarah Mitford's parents do? Where did diamonds for British necklaces come from, in the mid C18th? I'm thinking India rather than South Africa, but I can't see any Indian family connections. Any help in chasing either the money or the jewels would be welcome. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 13:40, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Such a great question, sorry no one is answering.86.172.130.137 (talk) 08:13, 10 July 2020 (UTC)

Thank you, that's very kind of you. The Humanities Desk used to be great at this sort of question. Sic transit. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 11:45, 11 July 2020 (UTC)

Sorry Carbon Caryatid, I somehow missed this one. Memorials of an ancient house : a history of the family of Lister or Lyster (p. 341) describes in 1703, Daniel Selman "of Old Ford, Turkey merchant" who marries Sarah Lister, and goes on to mention Lister Selman (if I'm reading this correctly) as Sarah's brother-in-law, i.e. Daniel's brother. Having the first name of "Lister" suggests that his brother's marriage into the Lister family was a big step up the social ladder (he was born 5 years after the wedding). Our Levant Company article says that a "Turkey merchant" was somebody who traded with the Ottoman Empire rather than a wholesale poultry dealer. My guess is that the Lister's dyeing activities were connected with rare Oriental fabrics. Alansplodge (talk) 16:51, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

To answer your inquiry about the origin of diamonds in the 18th century, see Georgian Diamonds: The Birth of the Brilliant. Not much help there I'm afraid. Alansplodge (talk) 17:05, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

Vata dosha in varsha season (Ayurveda)

I'm trying to undestand the philosophy behind the Ayurvedic principles of ritucharya, or the seasonal routines. All sources I've consulted say that vata, the dosha that is associated with dry and cold qualities, is aggravated, or rapidly increased, during varsha, or the monsoon season. Maybe there's something I don't understand about the climate of India, but I thought the monsoon season is rather hot and certainly not dry. So how is it that it aggravates the dry and cold vata? — Kpalion^(talk) 17:15, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

For example (and to prove I did try to do my own research), Health And Consciousness Through Ayurveda And Yoga by Dr. Nibodhi Haas [1] maintains that "cold, dry weather increaes vata" and, on the same page, provides a table which says that vata is accumulated in the summer and aggravated in the monsoon season. Is it just me or it doesn't make sense? What am I missing? — Kpalion^(talk) 20:15, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

I am not conversant with Yogic principles, but is it not possible that the external monsoon conditions provoke an opposite, compensatory effect in the body? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.56.20 (talk)

But it doesn't seem to be the case with the two other doshas: pitta (hot and wet) increases in the monsoon season and autumn, and kapha (cold and wet), in winter and spring. — Kpalion^(talk) 20:37, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

Is Frederick Taylor Gates related to Bill Gates?

Is Frederick Taylor Gates related to Bill Gates? 21:59, 7 July 2020 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2804:7F2:688:3746:9954:3E8F:BC7C:B99F (talk)

Google tells me unlikely. --Golbez (talk) 22:06, 7 July 2020 (UTC)