Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 November 21

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November 21[edit]

New York results for 2020 US presidential election[edit]

Only 84% reported, far behind any other state. According to ABC, Westchester county is only 54% in, but there are low-reporting counties all over the state, rural and urban, leaning red and leaning blue. Anyone know what's taking so long? — kwami (talk) 01:52, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Purely conjecture, but I'd guess it's A. a lawsuit by the Trump campaign, B. equipment failure (a system bug or broken counting machines), or C. both. Squeeps10 Talk to meplease ping me 04:27, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Good guesses, Squeeps10, but incorrect. New York has some really strange election laws. The first date that local election boards can start counting absentee ballots is one week after the election, and some boards did not start counting until Monday, 13 days after the election. When absentee votes were rare, it didn't matter much. During the pandemic, the absentee vote increased dramatically. Here's a New York Times article. Cullen328 Let's discuss it 04:40, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for clearing that up Cullen328. Pinging Kwamikagami with answer. Squeeps10 Talk to meplease ping me 05:00, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! — kwami (talk) 05:05, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Yup, you're welcome! Squeeps10 Talk to meplease ping me 05:08, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
New Yawk is da centa of the frickin' univoise. It can take as long as it likes. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:27, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Lemme guess. The Bronx? Cullen328 Let's discuss it 05:37, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
There's no borough accent actually, there are different New York City accents like Mayor Bloomberg's, Puerto Rican and AAVE that are only boroughy by stereotype. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 17:15, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Not sure if it was the Bronx or Brooklyn, but every American World War II movie had to have someone from one or the other (but never both); it was like a Production Code requirement. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:58, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
2% of Americans lived in one of these tiny counties back then, now they're barely over 1%. Also lots of sons and grandsons of Italian or Jewish, Eastern European etc. immigrants back then, or people who immigrated as children before immigration was semi-banned in the 1920s, maybe they were overrepresented in Axis-fighting infantry. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 01:16, 22 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
It's an old trope. The hero was tall, tow-headed, and spoke in a roughly midwestern accent and the sidekicks in his unit always included the big dumb hick farm boy with a southern accent, and the short and fast-talking Brooklyn-accented car thief. They talk about it briefly in the documentary American Tongues, which is still worth a watch today as an accessible overview of American sociolinguistics. 199.66.69.13 (talk) 17:15, 22 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Engraving[edit]

The image of George Washington on the current one-dollar bill is based on a painting by Gilbert Stuart. The painting is oil on canvas. The image on the bill is an engraving. The creator of the engraving is not mentioned, nor the date it was created, or the medium that was used.

Evidently it was done by an unknown engraver at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. It is a beautiful work with tiny little dots and dashes following gently curving lines. I notice the direction of the lines is somewhat arbitrary. There are many engravings of people done this way. What is the name of that style? Indexguy (talk) 16:22, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I think it's a type of "intaglio" (see [1] etc)... AnonMoos (talk) 21:22, 21 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
In that source it refers to the printing method, producing fine ink ridges. I think the name for the style being sought is "contoured hatching".  --Lambiam 09:38, 22 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]