User:1brianm7

Who the hell is Webb?

Frank Elbridge Webb was the Farmer–Labor Party's nominee for president in 1928. That was all the article had and I could find precious little else. I stumbled across an old Time article, and... it wasn't exactly the revelation I was hoping for.

The tragedy of minorities^[c] usually is that their leaders are unknown men whom the minority has neither the wit nor the money to publicize. And usually a minority is no greater than its biggest man. Bravely facing this fact, Nominee Webb has been issuing leaflets headlined: “Who the hell is Webb?”

My question of "Who the hell is Webb?" was answered with "Nobody knows who the hell Webb is, so he's publishing pamphlets headlined 'Who the hell is Webb?'" I would've been hard pressed to pick a more inaccessible topic. I eventually concluded that I could find more information in old newspapers, and I then discovered that I could get a subscription to newspapers.com through The Wikipedia Library once I got 500 edits, and so it was. With my subscription, I discovered that the esteemed Senator James A. Reed had also asked "Who in hell is Webb?" Naturally, the San Francisco Chronicle concluded that Webb had baited him into saying "Who in hell is Webb?" and called it a brilliant strategic move. The pamphlets and strategy don't seem to have worked, he was never elected president and died "forgotten".

I was able to make progress after lots of work, and Webb eventually got through AFC on March 13, 2025, and then through DYK, all without a hitch.^[d] While making the article, I got interested enough to stick around here. I made one edit a day every day from February 17, 2025, to February 17, 2026 (by ET). As vices go, I could do worse than Wikipedia.

Memorable doings and sayings

I didn't stop editing about Webb when his article was accepted. I have been working on improving his article, and that sometimes has to be done by improving/creating other articles. I made an article on Henry Quincy Alexander, whose interaction with Webb was limited to a single telegram. When he heard the question "Who the hell is Webb?" he was so outraged that he decided to run for vice president.

I also like improving articles whose presence on the encyclopedia amuses me. I greatly improved Maru (cat) after his passing, ensuring that the encyclopedia had a competent article that didn't make readers forget the subject was a very cute cat. I made an article on The Highest Court in the Land, the U.S. Supreme Court's basketball court. It is... surprisingly encyclopedic. I also made an article for the Unterrified Democrat. Unfortunately, the fun name didn't extend into the article itself.

I have also made articles on Takanashi Kiara and Inugami Korone and I'm working on improving Neuro-sama. I'd be willing to bet that the American politics^[e] → VTuber pipeline is much more natural than it looks.