Talk:John Fasel

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. Track your hook after promotion. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Dclemens1971 (talk) 12:58, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

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• ... that John Fasel ate nails for a living?

• Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1900/08/06/archives/junk-eater-critically-ill-he-says-that-some-men-compelled-him-to.html

https://www.newspapers.com/image/369211867/?match=1&terms=%22John%20Fasel%22%20eater

• • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Argelia Laya; Template:Did you know nominations/Humus form (2/2)
  • Comment: Could change the object in question for any other object he ate mentioned in the article. Nails feels best though.

Created by Guerreroast (talk). Number of QPQs required: 2. DYK is currently in unreviewed backlog mode and nominator has 36 past nominations.

Roast (talk) 20:46, 14 March 2026 (UTC).

• The article is new enough and long enough. I did not find any close paraphrasing. Two QPQs have been provided; however, only the Argelia Laya review appears to have been a full one; Humus form does not appear to have been a full review (or at least did not explicitly check all the criteria), so a different QPQ has to be provided. The hook is interesting but misleading: the article does not explicitly say he ate nails for a living (i.e. that was his job), but rather he did it as part of his job. A rephrasing is needed. I'm also a bit concerned about WP:DYKCOMPLETE since it doesn't say exactly when he retired, if he pushed through with it, what happened to him after, and most importantly stuff about his personal life and when he died. If none can be found, that's okay, I am just bringing this up here in the interest of transparency. The sources are paywalled (Newspapers.com has a hard paywall and NYT is soft paywalled) and I don't currently have TWL access, so I am requesting excerpts for the relevant statements. For the QPQ issue: I am giving you 24 hours or so to provide a replacement QPQ, otherwise this will be closed. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 02:58, 15 March 2026 (UTC)
  • @Narutolovehinata5: Template:Did you know nominations/Pierre Wibaux. I could not find personal life information besides for alproximate birthdate; I would've used floruit if not for the birthdate. ALT1: "... that John Fasel was hospitalized after eating nails?" I'm pretty sure it's the same source, but give me some time because I'm eating as soon as I publish this edit. Roast (talk) 03:07, 15 March 2026 (UTC)
    • @Narutolovehinata5: quote from the NYT source above: "He was removed to the hospital Saturday night, suffering from abdominal pains which followed the swallowing of two wire nails." Roast (talk) 03:55, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

ALT1 is better and a step in the right direction, but it doesn't seem to be reflected in the article either. For one, the hook suggests that he was hospitalized specifically for eating nails, but actually it was discovered that he ate nails after he was hospitalized. More rewords are probably needed here: I would suggest proposing multiple wordings and angles around the nails thing so we can pick the best one. One possible option could be him claiming that he was coerced to eat nails, but I'm not sure if that really happened or if he only claimed it happened. Or maybe it could be that him eating nails happened multiple times? Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 12:51, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

@Narutolovehinata5:, ALT2: "... that doctors removed six knives from John Fasel's stomach during a surgery?" Source: https://www.google.com/books/edition/McClure_s_Magazine/8nZRrlshmOEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=John+Fasel+eater&pg=PA486&printsec=frontcover. ALT3: "... that John Fasel had nails removed from his stomach – which he had eaten?" Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1900/08/06/archives/junk-eater-critically-ill-he-says-that-some-men-compelled-him-to.html. Roast (talk) 21:47, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

Thank you. ALT3 is cited multiple times in the article, so that should be okay (although the first mention needs to meet DYKHFC). ALT2 is also good, but the source only mentions a "Fasel" and is not explicitly about him but only implicitly. How is it certain that the "Fasel" mentioned in the source is John Fasel and not another person with that name? I'm sorry if this seems like nitpicking, I just want to avoid an ERRORS or WT:DYK discussion. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 03:05, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

@Narutolovehinata5:, https://www.newspapers.com/image/369211867/?match=1&terms=%22John%20Fasel%22%20eater (source 1) also mentions a John Fasel going to German Hospital for indigestion of metal. The chances of two John Fasels having this issue are so astronomically low that it's safe to assume. And if you care enough about it, you can add source 1 to stand beside the McClure's Magazine source. Also, please say which hook you prefer, for whoever puts this onto a queue. Roast (talk) 03:48, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

I was actually thinking of leaving the choice to the promoter, so this should be good to go once the reference is added to the relevant sentence. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 03:59, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

@Narutolovehinata5: Done. Roast (talk) 13:02, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

I can't access the Newspapers.com link due to a paywall (and I don't have TWL access at the moment), and the NYT link is soft paywalled and I don't want to make an account to waste free reads, so I'll need relevant quotes for them. In addition, the DYKHFC issue regarding "Doctors removed three or four nails and a piece of bone, and was released from the hospital on August 8." remains unaddressed. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 13:17, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

@Narutolovehinata5: 3 or 4 nails thing: NYT's "Human Ostrich Relieved" states that he "swallowed two wire nails [...] two ordinary nails, and a piece of bone". In "Junk Eater Crtitically Ill", it states the same but only one ordinary nail, hence three or four. Added to end of sentence. Roast (talk) 14:11, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

• Thank you. I will let the promoter choose between ALT2 or ALT3. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 04:36, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

Contradictory information

One paragraph of the article begins

> On August 4, 1900, Fasel was admitted to Saint Catherine of Siena Medical Center for indigestion.

But the article for that hospital states that it opened in 1962. I don't have access to the source for this claim, but something seems to have gone wrong here. ~2026-17089-22 (talk) 15:53, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Yeah, it appears that the Saint Catherine's Hospital mentioned is a different one in Brooklyn that closed in 1965, and not that one in Long Island which opened in 1962. I've fixed it. 1brianm7 (talk) 16:42, 21 April 2026 (UTC)