I thought of the fact that starting in 1800 and going in multiples of 44, all six incumbent presidents weren't re-elected (or weren't elected for the first time if they became president during a term): 1800: John Adams became the first incumbent to lose when he lost to Thomas Jefferson. Adams was a Federalist, and it led to the end of the Federalist party. Jefferson was a Democratic-Republican, which became the Democrats. 1844: John Tyler was kicked out of the Whig party while he was president and didn't get to run. He became president on April 4, 1841 when William Henry Harrison died a month into his term. At that time presidents and Congresses started on March 4, not January 3 for Congress and January 20 for president like it is now. James K. Polk was elected. 1888: Grover Cleveland became the first incumbent to win the popular vote and lose the election. That has now happened five times, and it's still the only time that an incumbent lost. Benjamin Harrison won, but Cleveland beat Harrison in 1892. Cleveland is the only nonconsecutive president. He's the 22nd and 24th president, and I don't like that he gets two numbers. Because Cleveland has two numbers, Trump is the 45th president, but he's the 44th person to be president. Trump wants to do what Cleveland did and beat Biden in 2024. 1932: Early in the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover lost to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 1976: Gerald Ford, who is the only president who wasn't elected president or vice president, lost to Jimmy Carter. 2020: Trump lost. Two became president without being elected, and two left during horrible economic times. Adams and Cleveland were the only incumbents to lose without one of those things. I wonder what will happen in 2064. I'm 35, and I hope to be alive then.
That is a crazy coincidence! My life is more fuller knowing this odd factoid. The Sun also has an 11- (or 22-) year activity cycle. However, I think that has only been regular over the last century-ish. 88 years is another solar cycle.
Here is another crazy coincidence. Diego Maradona always said that Fidel Castro was like a father to him. They both died on November 25th. (4 years apart).
When I was a kid, I was VERY VERY VERY aware that the presidents elected in 1840, 1860, 1880, 1900, 1920, 1940, and 1960 all died in office. Then Reagan made it through. Good luck Joe!
But then W got through it okay from 2000. Well, in terms of being alive. The country, on the other hand . . .
Blatant Localism was one of my favorite 7" EPs as a teenager. Cokes and Snicker! (actually a pretty terrible combination)
Speaking of meaningful patterns: the Crew won MLS Cup in '08, and Obama was elected. The Crew won MLS Cup in '20, and Biden was elected. Need I say more?
It's one of those causation paradoxes in which something that happened later in time causes something that happened sooner. In 2016 the MLS Cup was played on foreign soil and a foreign team played in it. We all know what else happened that year.
This is a good one. The correlation between the consumption of margarine and the divorce rate in Maine -
If my wife brought margarine home, I would divorce her. So I say the latter, albeit with a sample size of one.