Trump: The Sideways-L Northeast Primaries (April 29, 2016)

This past Tuesday, April 26^th, there was celebration and fireworks at the Trump enclave in Trump Tower, New York. Five Northeastern states held Republican primaries (Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland in geographically southward order) and Trump won them all. He won each with more than 50% of the vote. In two of them he did better than 60%. He cleaned up in the delegate count, adding 151 and stretching his lead over Cruz to more than 400. Counting the New York results the Tuesday before, that makes it sic victories in a row all over 50%. The networks called the races in short order, declaring Trump the Republican winner within about 45 minutes after the polls closed

Earlier in the evening, Trump and Wife #3 (Melania) got dolled up and wowed the crowd, along with the other winners at the star-studded Time 100 Gala of the most influential people for 2016.* What a Party! What a start to a great evening. Trump finally made the list. That made the day and night a genuine two-fer of respect and recognition.

That was the good news.

The Heavens had returned to balance after the falters and disappointments of the first half of April when Trump was rudely handled in Wisconsin, and then in a series of delegate fights in multiple states around the country, where his poorly prepared team was badly overmatched.

Next morning Trump was at it early (it is unclear whether he ever went to bed Tuesday night after the Time Gala and the primary victory celebration) as he resumed his frenetic drive-by TV call-in schedule. Four shows (CNN, MSNBC, ABC, Fox News) without leaving his Trump fortress.

He also inaugurated a new nickname for himself. From now on, we can call him Donald Trump, P.N. for Presumptive Nominee. Some alphabet soup initials after his name to flesh out his resume. Pretty cheeky for anyone but the Trumpster.

The media narrative was reinvigorated; all’s right with the World. The Trump Train is back on a roll. His performance was massive, crushing, sweeping, inevitable, dare we say titanic, huge, and beautiful. The horserace theme was restored to its place and Trump was galloping to the finish line and a virtual sure bet. Even statistics wizard Nate Silver, who has expressed various shades of doubt about Trump’s nomination prospects at FiveThirtyEight, wrote that the Republican nomination was now Trump’s to lose. What a difference a day makes.

A word of caution.

The Nomination Process is a Track Meet, not a Horse Race

Sports analogies are rife in this election cycle for good reason. They are visual and telegraphic, and can convey lots more subtle content than the images offered.

How is the presidential primary process like a track meet? Winning the party nomination has no permanent value. It is simply a guaranteed ticket to the final match-up. It is like a race with many entrants who compete in preliminaries to secure a spot in the final heat. There are no medals awarded for winning a preliminary. To win the gold prize you need only place in the preliminary, but must win in the final. The Presidential race is a little different in that there are two preliminaries and one final heat, but only one combatant from each preliminary wins a place in the final, unlike the usual situation where 2 or 3 runners advance to the final. Should Trump win the Republican nomination he gets only a chance to run in the big race against an equally victorious Democrat from the other preliminary.

One similarity is that in America, both running events and hose races are rum anti-clockwise, that is starting on the right side of the track and circling to the left in a circuit for longer distances.

Another difference is that some track events have dual measurement parameters. So, for example, in the broad jump a competitor gets exactly three chances to make the best distance. Only the best jump counts.

At my high school in the 1960’s, we had an upper athletic field with a natural grass football field, enclosed by a cinder running track (I think it was six marked lanes wide). The track was an oval 440-yards (1/4 mile) in circumference. The usual schoolboy races of the time were easy to follow. We competed in 100-yard and 220-yard (1/2 lap) short sprints; 440-yard (1 lap) and 880-yard (2 lap) middle distance events, and the 1-mile (4 lap) run. This made it dead simple for the runners to concentrate on their race technique and easy for casual spectators to estimate the distances left to cover.

We had a P.E. requirement each year to complete a 7-minute mile run. Even in 1965 a 7-minute mile was a fairly leisurely pace. An excellent high-school runner might do it in 4:45 minutes. We were in awe of Sir Roger Bannister** who had broken the impossible 4-minute barrier in May 1954, and in 1965 American high-school student Jim Ryun of Kansas.*** Which is to say running a mile in 7-minutes demonstrates some degree of fitness, but is a modest athletic accomplishment. So the rules for the P.E. mile run at our school included both a distance and a time requirement, dual measurement parameters.

Watch Roger Bannisters Incredible Sub 4-Minute Mile Run (1954) on YouTube

So does winning the Republican nomination. The candidate must get 1.237 delegate votes. Rounding this off to 1,240 delegates for victory, and using our 440-yard cinder track as a comparator, this is equivalent to running an 880-yard (2 lap) race. That works out to 310 delegates per half-lap of distance.

The most accurate current delegate count puts Trump at 997, Cruz at 566, and Kasich at 153. By rough calculation, that works out to a track position at 710 yards, 400 yards, and 110 yards in an 880-yard race. Trump is about 50 yards down the last half-lap, Cruz is 40 yards short of completing the first full lap, and Kasich is only about half-way through the first lap. Trump has a substantial lead in the distance metric. He leads Cruz by more than a half-lap, .and he has already lapped Kasich.

But the time dimension is a different matter. There are only 502 delegates left to allocate. This is almost exactly 20% of the whole timed limit of 2,473; so that 80% of the time has expired. Trump has 997 delegates won; that is 80.6% of the number needed to win. In a timed 880-yard race limited to 3 ½ minutes (210 sec), 502 delegates left means that 42 seconds remain on the clock.

Trump’s count includes 957 pledged (locked in) delegates, and 40 unpledged delegates (from Pennsylvania) who have promised to support him on the first ballot

If he maintains his current average pace using the lower 957 count he would finish in 216 seconds and have 1,202 delegates at the prescribed finish time of 210 seconds. He would come up short by about 35 delegates.

If he maintains his current average pace using the higher 997 count (including the Pennsylvania promises) he would finish in 207 seconds and earn 1,253 delegates at the prescribed finish time. He would have a slim first ballot majority of about 26 votes.

If the pace doesn’t change, Trump is literally on the cusp. The two models suggest he will finish with between 1,202-1,253 delegates on the first ballot. These limits bracket success and failure under the first ballot rules.

A middle distance half-mile race is a mental test as well as a physical trial. It is too long a distance to run in a full out sprint, so pacing and timing are critical. The difference is usually whether the fatigued athlete has a strong enough kick at the end to bring it home, or has used too much energy and falls off the rails.

There are still 170 yards left in this nominating contest. Trump has finally achieved the barest 50.6% majority of delegates selected to date after his last six primary wins (the only majority wind he has had since the beginning 40 contests ago).

If Trump falters, or reverts to his average past performance before April 19 (in the 34 contests until then) he will not win a first ballot majority. The clearest test of his status will occur next Tuesday, May 3, in Indiana with its 57 votes.

One reason the Trump keeps asking for an exemption to the rules about a majority on the first ballot is because the issue is still so close. He wants a track race golf-style gimme if time expires before he crosses the finish line. There are no gimmes in competitive running. As usual, Trump argues the published rules shouldn’t apply to him.

In our schoolyard P.E. setting, the gym teacher didn’t alter the rules because someone broke a shoelace during the race, or got a headache, or had a sore tummy, or because it was their birthday. The teacher would express sympathy for the athlete’s discomfort and disappointment, but rules are rules. You pass or not. No notes from home either.

The Sideways L Primaries

Like most folks following political news the past week, I was terminally overexposed to this group of primaries being dubbed the Acela Primaries by every Tom, Dick, Harry, and Louise. I often took the Amtrak Northeast corridor express trains between Boston and New York, and occasionally to Washington DC where my college roommate and his family lived. It has been quite some time since I have travelled on the newer Amtrak equipment, so I looked up a current schedule. The first thing that jumped out was the fares and how expensive train travel is in America. (I think it is a national scandal that European countries, nowhere near as great as America, arrange to have clean, fast, frequent, and inexpensive trains going every which way at all times of the day and night. (But that is a topic for another day.)

Inspection of the Amtrak schedule showed that the Acela route starts in Boston, and includes stops in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, DC, So the Acela route includes eight states and the District of Columbia, not just the five in question Tuesday. Kind of a clumsy name. Time to search for a more descriptive nickname.

I am fond of geography and I have loved the look and feel of printed maps and 3_D globes ever since I was given my own Replogle 12” inch Blue Ocean World globe with a semi-meridian and discovered National Geographic magazine and their fold out maps about age 7 or 8. I saw a outline shaded map of the relevant states in the New York Times coverage, and it struck me that they appeared to mirror the letter L tilted about 45% forward on its toes. This led to what I think is a better group nickname, the Sideways-L Primaries, and also reminded me of a cattle brand.

The history of livestock branding (pyroglyphics) goes back to ancient times, and it was critical to identification of ownership in the American West, particularly during the 1800’s with free range grazing and cattle drives.

From the Wikipedia entry on Livestock branding:

The act of marking livestock with fire-heated marks to identify ownership has origins in ancient times, with use dating back to the ancient Egyptians. Among the ancient Romans, the symbols used for brands were sometimes chosen as part of a magic spell aimed at protecting animals from harm.

In English lexicon, the word “brand”, common to most Germanic languages (from which root also comes “burn”, cf. German Brand “burning, fire”), originally meant anything hot or burning, such as a “firebrand”, a burning stick. By the European Middle Ages, it commonly identified the process of burning a mark into stock animals with thick hides, such as cattle, so as to identify ownership under animus revertendi. The practice became particularly widespread in nations with large cattle grazing regions, such as Spain.

These European customs were imported to the Americas and were further refined by the vaquero tradition in what today is the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. In the American West, a “branding iron” consisted of an iron rod with a simple symbol or mark, which cowboys heated in a fire. After the branding iron turned red hot, the cowboy pressed the branding iron against the hide of the cow. The unique brand meant that cattle owned by multiple ranches could then graze freely together on the open range. Cowboys could then separate the cattle at “roundup” time for driving to market. Cattle rustlers using running irons were ingenious in changing brands.

There is an entire formalized code of meaning in brands, unknown to the average 20thh century American city dweller. As I understand it, if the L were tilted 90 degrees to the left lying on its long side, it could be called a Lazy-L. Perhaps the geographic position of these primaries, tilted 45 degrees forward could be described as a Reverse Cowgirl Tilted-L brand (NSFW reference. Sorry, probably too much Trump exposure.)

From Jimmy Stamp, Decoding the Range: The Secret Language of Cattle Branding, found at Smithsonian,com, 2013:

Venture into the highly regulated and fascinating world of bovine pyroglyphics

To the untrained eye, cattle brands, those unique markings seared into animals’ hides with a hot iron, might just seem like idiosyncratic logos or trademarks designed to clearly and simply indicate ownership. However, unlike the graphic logos and trademarked images of popular commercial brands, they must comply with a rigorous set of standards and are developed using a specific language ruled by its own unique syntax and morphology. Livestock branding dates back to 2700 BC, evidenced by Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Ancient Romans are said to have used hot iron brands as an element of magic. But brands are most famously associated with the cowboys and cattle drives of the Old West, when brands were used to identify a cow’s owner, protect cattle from rustlers (cattle thieves), and to separate them when it came time to drive to market (or rail yards or stock yards).

Given his dominance in the five Tuesday primaries, I searched for a while to see if I could identify a Trump appropriate brand, as he seeks to stamp his brand (in CAPITAL Letters) all over the former Republican Party. I found a pretty good candidate below.

Unfortunately, this one has already been taken. It was the recognized commercial brand of the Aztec Cattle and Land company (1884-1902). In case DT gets a hankering to trademark it, as he did with Ronald Reagan’s campaign slogan, this T-brand is already protected. Although, since the Aztec company ceased operations in 1902, the mark may legally be considered abandoned or expired, and revert to the public domain. I leave this question to those with proper training and expertise.

There is, however, a serious point to be made here. The Republican brand in politics goes back more than 150 years There have been a number of Republican presidents, hundreds of governors, hundreds more U.S. senators, thousands of U.S. congressional members, and tens of thousands of local, city, and state officials who have been Republicans. There was nothing resembling a Trump political party or movement before barely a year ago. There is no history whatever of any Trump election success, office holding, foreign policy involvement, military service,, or political or governmental policies enacted anywhere during his 70-year lifetime. Trump truly qualifies as a Johnny-come-lately with a Big Mouth.

There is a serious internal struggle going on between Trump supporters and other Republicans. There seem to be two main warring camps. The majority of long-standing traditional Republicans, party activists, local officials, office holders, and party officials have little use for Trump. There is on the other hand, a large vocal group of fallen-away voters, fade in-fade-out voters, and frustrated people who are so angry and frustrated they want to dismantle the historic Republican infrastructure and policy platforms. They may win and overwhelm he traditional party ecosystem.

Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln memorial, Washington, DC

Even Donald Trump expresses admiration for our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln.

Trump’s proposed Party does not look anything like Lincoln’s party, or that of Teddy Roosevelt, or even Ronald Reagan’s party. That may be good or bad, but it is a very serious shift in political ground. Republican voters need to think hard about what Trump will shake up and break down very carefully. He may be at the head of a seismic shift or an enormous fizzle.

Analysis of the Sideways-L Primary Results

Let me offer a note of respect and thanks to the Associated Press, the  New York Times, the folks at RealClearPolitics, and Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections for their constant attention to the data nuts and bolts of this election season. They perform an invaluable public service in making masses of information freely available so that ordinary citizens may preserve our valuable American political heritage.

Here is the simple five state summary from April 26. The states of Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland all held Republican and Democratic primary elections on the same day this week. In each state both political parties voted on the same day, for the same hours, at the same polling places, under the supervision of the same election monitors, and with the same voting equipment. In other words, a large number of people voted together in similar circumstances, making large scale comparisons a reasonable thing to attempt.

Trump won across the board, capturing more than 50% of the Republican popular vote in every state, and more than 60% in two of them (Delaware and Rhode Island). These are the two states with the smallest populations, around 1 million each. Trump received 1.3 million votes overall, roughly three times more than either of his opponents. So far, so good.

There is not much helpful to report for either Cruz or Kasich. Neither broke 25% in 10 attempts, except that Kasich got 28% in Connecticut, where Trump still doubled up on his total. Cruz finished third across the board except in Pennsylvania, where he finished number two, but Trump outpolled him there by 550 thousand votes.

These five states combined have a population of 24.4 million, about the same amount (5 million) more than New York, and the same amount less than Texas, and about twice as many as Ohio. In total they represent 44 electoral votes in the fall election, or 16% of the number needed to win.

Now for the not so great news. In the six presidential elections held since 1992, a total of 30 chances, Republicans have come up goose eggs every time in these five states; they are 0 for 30. This is true despite the fact that Bush was elected President in two of those contests, so they are also 0 for 8 chances when a Republican won nationally during the last 25 years. The past does not always predict the future, but the two decade pattern in the Northeast is not encouraging.

Now for more bad news. Republicans versus Democrats: mangled again, just like what happened in New York the week before. The only arguably competitive contest was in Pennsylvania, though Republicans still lost by 80 thousand votes in total. Clinton won the popular vote comparison with Trump 5 out of 5 times. Bernie Sanders finished second among all candidates in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maryland. Trump finished second in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Clinton’s margins over Trump were 296 thousand in Maryland (more than double), 47 thousand in Connecticut, 26 thousand in Pennsylvania, 13 thousand in Delaware, and 13 thousand in Rhode Island. Overall Clinton beat Trump 1.73 million to 1.33 million in the Sideways-L primaries, a margin of nearly 400 thousand votes.

As was the case the previous week in New York, Democratic turnout was better than Republican voter strength in every single state, and overall by 690 thousand votes out of 5.4 million cast. These are simply miserable numbers for Republicans to contemplate.

One of the bright spots for Republicans through the primary season until the middle of April was the large advantage they had over Democrats in voter turnout. In all elections before April 15, Republicans had a 57% to 43% advantage of 5.6 million votes. In the 6 elections (including New York) during the seven days from April 19 to April 26, this super advantage was completely reversed with Democrats receiving 60% of the votes, and Republicans just shy of 40%, a Democratic advantage of 1.6 million votes. In all voting since February 1, Republicans still hold an overall advantage of 54% to 46%, but they have just lost nearly 30% of their entire election season advantage in 7 days. This is hardly a record a front runner Republican should be proud of or brag about.

There is no objective evidence whatever in these results of a Trump bump with new voters, or disaffected Democrats, or an angry silent majority. Trump and all the Republicans have been skinned in these six states, including Trump’s own home ground. I suppose you could say that Democrats  all of a sudden woke up and caught fire, but this is wishful thinking. The only plausible explanation is that Trump in the mix has massively depressed total Republican turnout, as he has advanced in the delegate race, and the candidate choice for Republicans has dwindled. Where is there any objective evidence for massive Trump enthusiasm even in the Republican party.

Trump as party nominee will not make any of these states competitive for Republicans in November with the possible exception of Pennsylvania, where the Republicans and Trump still lost by 3% of the total vote.

Since February 1, 46.8 million Americans have voted in 40 state contests. This is fully 36% of all the 130 million anticipated voters in November 2016. Head to head, Trump has received 10.06 million votes, and HC has received 12.14 million. She has been chosen by 2.08 million more voters than Trump so far. How is this record a demonstration of strength and voter appeal for Republicans as a whole? How could any Republican feel comfortable with this situation, that just seems to be getting worse, not better, the longer the Trump campaign goes on?

What Primary Battles Are Left For Campaigns To Wage?

Of all 50 U.S. states, by the end of April, 40 will have voted in primary elections or caucuses. There are 10 contests left, five each in May and the rest during the first week of June. The map below shows a breakdown.

A powerful geographical feature running north to south down the middle of America is the fabled Mississippi River. We have a generous and life-giving portion of America’s mightiest river here in Louisiana. The river delta, flood plains, and brackish estuaries that make up its outflow tract are the nursery for our seafood and fishing bounty, the basis for our historic port and transportation economy, a spiritual force, and a frightening flooding adversary when the weather turns ugly.

The primary election season east of the Mississippi is now nearly over, with only Indiana and West Virginia left in May, and New Jersey bringing up the tail end in June. For the rest of May the focus moves west past the Mississippi River boundary to Nebraska, and then the Pacific Northwest coast in Washington and Oregon. For June there are elections in South Dakota (Plains state), Montana (Mountain state), New Mexico (Southwest), and the biggest prize in California, with its 172 delegates. All the states west of the Mississippi are not expected to be so friendly to Trump, if the patterns active before the last week reassert themselves.

There are 502 delegates left to claim, with a total of 199 on tap during May. Indiana has the largest number of delegates. Trump is now 240-280 votes short of a simple majority. Even if he were to make a 100% clean sweep of all the May delegates on offer, he is mathematically eliminated from clinching the nomination during May. He likes to brag that Cruz has been mathematically eliminated. So is Trump before the very last primary voting day on June 7. If he wins a tiny majority before Cleveland, it will be a squeaker. Hardly the triumphant entry to the political capital city expected of the conquering general Trump imagines himself to be.

The end of the Republican Primary season can happen no sooner than June 7^th, and it is likely that California will tell the tale, of a last second buzzer beater or an open contested convention, harkening back to 1976 and Ronald Reagan’s fist run.

As Trump frequently boasts, he can’t stand to be boring. Acting Presidential, not so much; boring never.

A Note on Stealing Delegates: Rigged and Crooked Voting Rules

A constant stump speech harangue for the last month or more is Trump whining about how other candidates are stealing his delegates, that voters’ choices are being ignored, that the delegate system is rigged and crooked, that the RNC procedure is disgusting and a disgrace. It is almost as common a refrain as “I will build the Wall”, and “Let’s Make America Great Again”; sort of a three-legged stool of campaign slogans. Like conditioned reflex behavior, the crowds begins to growl and cheer for the lines, even before he can finish the words.

Not surprisingly Trump’s accusations are made with volume, venom, and bluster, but not much evidence as proof. Let’s look a little closer at the actual results from the Sideways-L Primary cluster to check it out. As noted before, Trump received 56.7% of all Republican votes cast in the five primaries combined. According to the latest New York Times summary of information based on the Associated Press analysis, Trump was awarded 151 of 172 delegates at issue Tuesday. This is 87.8 % of all delegates selected. So Trump was given 32% excess unearned delegates, or a neat total of 53 unearned delegates beyond what the voters gave him. Any stealing of delegates ended up in his pocket. Thus, he scarfed up 53 delegates for his campaign that he did not earn by voter choice, under the rules he is so bold to challenge. He is the biggest sinner, if there is any chicanery.

The fact that there is not an exact allocation by popular vote is well known and embedded in our primary system for decades. This is so because we have 50 individual states to deal with, and partly because delegate totals are only given in whole number amounts. See the attached chart about the Sideways-L states. On simple inspection, it is plain to see that states with small populations (like Rhode Island and Delaware) are regularly over represented in delegate counts, and large population states like Pennsylvania and Maryland, are given short shrift. Using the metric of delegates per 1 Million population in each state, the difference is as much three-fold. In fact the ratio is almost a linear inverse proportion; the smaller the population, the more undeserved delegates are assigned.

In exploring further, the same penalty for more populous states is baked into the electoral college voting as well. The chart demonstrates about a two-fold undeserved difference in favor of small population states. Here the reason is more easily discerned. One electoral vote is given for each of the nation’s 435 congressional districts, plus one for each U.S. Senate seat. All U.S. states, no matter how small their population, gets two electoral votes for Senators since each state has two Senators, adding 100 more to the total. This organization of votes is all part of the U.S. Constitution (Article II, Section 1). The final 3 electoral votes, for a grand total of 538, are assigned to the District of Columbia, which could be considered the poster child of electoral over-representation, given its population (659 thousand).

So, some deviation from strict proportional delegate allocation by popular vote has been an integral part of our representative democracy since the days of our forefathers. No surprise or controversy there. Any reasonably prepared eighth- grade student knows all this from social studies or civics classes. Trump is deliberately misrepresenting well settled facts, is willfully ignorant, has incompetent political staff, or is too ill-informed to be trusted with the keys to the White House. Take your pick.

Most likely, it’s just another sham designed to rile up people not paying much attention. “Tell it like it is” and Straight Talker indeed. Red Meat for the distracted and gullible.

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*From the Wikipedia entry for the Time 100 (pardon TIME 100):

Time 100 (often written in all-caps as TIME 100) is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the American world assembled by the American news magazine Time. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, politicians, and journalists, the list is now an annual event. Although appearing on the list is often seen as an honor, Time makes it clear that entrants are recognized for changing the world, regardless of the consequences of their actions. The final list of influential individuals is exclusively chosen by Time editors with nominations coming from the TIME 100 alumni and the magazine’s international writing staff.[1] Only the winner of the Reader’s Poll, conducted days before the official list is revealed, is chosen by the general public.[2]

Included in the list eleven times, Barack Obama is the person who has been listed most often.

The Time 100 listing was established in 1999, and an annual event since 2004. There have been 14 compilations since the Time 100 was begun. Trump made the list in 2016. He was not selected in 2015, or in any previous year. Photographers were very busy with a cooperative DT in a tuxedo mixing with the influencers.

Thumb Up: Trump Makes the Time 100 for 2016

See both the one thumb and double thumb versions of a red carpet Trump.

Er.. Do Over  Thumbs Up:Trump Makes the Time 100 for 2016

There is one photo taken that shows Trump with a definite universal language “Not Face” at the event. No context was provided.

Perhaps it was because 2016 is the first and only time Trump made the cut, and others have been multiple selectees, sometimes for years on end. Fellow honorees in 2016 included Cruz, Clinton, Sanders, as well as Obama, John Kerry, Paul Ryan, even Reince Priebus.

More distressing for he who must be first are the multi multiple-time winners: Obama (11 times), Hillary Clinton (10), Oprah Winfrey (9), Kim Jong-un (6), Vladimir Putin (5), Bill Clinton (4), Pope Francis (4), David Koch (3), Rupert Murdoch (3), Elizabeth Warren (3), Mark Zuckerberg (3), Michelle Obama (3), and Jeff Bezos (3),, among others.

Some have said that Trump’s burning motivation to run for President is deeply rooted in an effort to be taken seriously by the famous and powerful, to enjoy their respect. The 2016 TIME 100 selection may be a small step forward, but there are a bunch of folks way ahead of DT with this brand of gold chips.

No wonder he’s cross. He just can’t help it, if he’s not the firstest and the bestest and the mostest.

For those who need even more Trump photo excess from the TIME 100, see this Daily Mail celebration.

**From the Wikipedia entry on Roger Bannister:

Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, CBE (born 23 March 1929) is an English former middle-distance athlete, physician and academic, who ran the first sub-four-minute mile. In the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Bannister set a British record in the 1500 metres but finished fourth. This strengthened his resolve to be the first 4-minute miler.

He achieved this feat on 6 May 1954 at Iffley Road track in Oxford, with Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher providing the pacing. When the announcer declared “The time was three…”, the cheers of the crowd drowned out Bannister’s exact time, which was 3 min 59.4 sec. Bannister’s record lasted just 46 days. He had reached this record with minimal training, while practicing as a junior doctor.

Bannister went on to become a distinguished neurologist and Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, before retiring in 1993. When asked whether the 4-minute mile was his proudest achievement, he said he felt prouder of his contribution to academic medicine through research into the responses of the nervous system.

***From the Wikipedia entry for former Congressman Jim Ryun of Kansas:

James Ronald (“Jim”) Ryun (born April 29, 1947) is an American track and field athlete who won a silver medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics in the 1,500 metre run. He was the first high school athlete to run a mile in under four minutes. Ryun is the last American to hold the world record in the mile run.

A Republican, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1996 to 2007. Ryun represented Kansas’s 2nd congressional district.

In 1964, as a high school junior, Ryun became the first high school athlete to run a mile in under 4 minutes. His time was 3:59.00. His time of 3:55.3 in 1965 was a high school record that stood for 36 years. In 2001, it was broken by Alan Webb’s time of 3:53.43. Ryun ran a sub-four minute mile five times while in high school. He is the only high school athlete to have run more than two sub-four minute miles. As a high school senior he was voted the fourth best miler in the world by Track & Field News. ESPN.com named him the best high school athlete of all time, beating out people such as Tiger Woods and LeBron James. He was Track and Field News “High School Athlete of the Year” in 1965.

****From the Wikipedia entry on the Aztec Land and Cattle Company:

The Aztec Land & Cattle Company was a cattle company that operated in northern Arizona Territory between 1884 and 1902. In its heyday, the Aztec Company was the third largest cattle company in the United States, with a range spanning over 2,000,000 acres from the border of New Mexico west to an area south of Flagstaff. The Aztec brand resembled a hashknife, a type of hook used by cooks attached to a chuck wagon. For this, the Aztec Company was also known as the Hashknife Outfit.