Wow! I Just Learned That Word Earlier Today!
Ace (at that Breitbart conversation thingie):
Suppose you hear something — a fact, a word — for the very first time. You’ve never in your life heard of this thing.
Have you ever had it so happen that you then hear this thing two or three more times in the next few days?
Apparently the killjoys call this the “Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon” (if you’re hip and with it), or the frequency illusion (if they’re total killjoys).
It’s a good illusion, because I think everyone has experienced this. And you really do end up thinking: This is no illusion. I just learned about this concept. Are you trying to tell me that I have heard this same concept mentioned multiple times every day for years and I just now picked up on it?
Bull%^&! I heard it like three times today! That’s a coincidence? That’s an illusion??
Maybe it is, you know. It just seems hard to believe sometimes.
Any crazy examples you have experienced?
ok checkit.
there’s a billboard for jay-z’s ho on ventura they put up not long ago then I wake up and she’s on Drudge AND on the pontifications right here and plus also on TMZ
how freaky is that
happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/9/2013 @ 7:53 pm(Cue the video of the goat shaking it’s head and saying, Nahhh, nahhh, nahhhh!)
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 4/9/2013 @ 7:54 pmI once had never heard of Saul Alinsky, then I heard about him a lot. I had never heard of Cloward-Piven, then I did a lot. I had never heard of Barack Obama…
I never heard about Reverend Wright then……
Gus (694db4) — 4/9/2013 @ 7:58 pmHey Gus, interesting that this concept is related to the Baader-Meinhof gang.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:01 pmCoincidence?
I heard it today, too. About Ashley Judd’s support dog.
And, yes, I hear this kind of stuff all the time.
I have examples.
Chicken and waffles. I first heard of it about a few years ago on some Food Network show. I had never heard of it before and I live in the south if you consider Texas the south.
Now, all of the sudden, it’s the menu bomb. But, that’s silly, of course. I’m sure it was popular somewhere.
How about “gravitas,” when W chose Cheney to be his VP? Was anyone talking about that before?
How about “dry drunk?” That was popular a few years ago in explaining W’s psychology. I had never heard it before and I still don’t know what it means. It was a made-up term to criticize the President.
But it’s not isolated to words. Does anyone remember the photographic fetish of pictures of Sarah Palin’s shoes?
How about comparisons of Obama to FDR or Lincoln? Magazine covers ensued.
I’m sure others can add more.
Ag80 (f872ce) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:02 pmwaffles are a quickbread in this instance, with the chicken
but me I just ask for an extra plate and I eat my chickens and I eat my waffles
and that’s just how I do it
I’m not sayin that’s how everybody has to do it
happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:04 pm“dry drunk?”
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:06 pmit’s a real term. i understand it to mean a person who is no longer drinking, but whose behavior still resembles someone in the grip of addiction… but I could be wrong and even though ispelled it right I may have been disqualified
feets, do you ever waffle, and eat your waffles and then your chickens?
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:07 pm“Dry drunk” means an alcoholic who although he has stopped drinking is still as dysfunctiona as when he was drinking. It’s not a nice thing to be, but nicer than “wet brain”.
nk (d4662f) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:08 pmi tell myself if I fill up on the chicken I won’t need to eat all my waffles and I will be Ahead Of The Game
then I go home and take a nap
happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:09 pmMD: I was not questioning the term, I was pointing out the sudden application to W despite evidence otherwise.
Ag80 (f872ce) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:09 pmWe cross-posted, MD.
nk (d4662f) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:09 pmI think Martin Sheen, an expert on the Presidency having played President many times, started it by calling Dubya a “white knuckler”, a drunk who stopped drinking without therapy, and Dubya-haters snowballed it from there.
nk (d4662f) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:12 pmOK. Let me try it this way:
Homosexual couples should receive fertility insurance because they can’t reproduce when married.
Ag80 (f872ce) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:18 pmComment by Ag80 (f872ce) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:18 pm
Uhhhhh, yeah.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:23 pmOne of the “local” papers, the St. Paul Pioneer Press – Dispatch, has a daily column of tidbits, one of the subheads is Baader-Meinhofs, submissions from readers encountering these. There isn’t a report every day, but it’s a rare week someone doesn’t point out a three or four coincidence string in the paper itself. Once I knew there was a name for the phenomenon, they seemed to become more frequent.
htom (412a17) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:24 pmHow about “gravitas,” when W chose Cheney to be his VP? Was anyone talking about that before?
Yup. Either when Dole was running against Bush 41, or when he was running against Clinton, and both he and his opponent were pictured on the beach in swimsuits. The article heading was something like “Gravity defeats gravitas”. Pretty humorous, actually.
nk (d4662f) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:30 pmMD:
Just wait, you will know what I’m talking about.
Ag80 (f872ce) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:30 pmNevermind, MD:
http://twitchy.com/2013/04/09/weird-science-calif-lawmakers-want-insurance-companies-to-cover-gay-infertility/
Ag80 (f872ce) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:31 pmnk: I’m not saying the term had ever been used before. I’m saying that it all of the sudden it became a term that everyone imitated for political purposes to denigrate.
Ag80 (f872ce) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:35 pmhow about tax expenditures
happyfeet (8ce051) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:38 pmHow about federal revenues?
Thanks happy, at least you know what I’m trying to say.
Ag80 (f872ce) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:39 pmThere isn’t a word for this, that can be used in polite company.
http://twitchy.com/2013/04/09/dennis-rodman-takes-credit-for-starting/
narciso (3fec35) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:40 pmI get it, Ag80. I read Orwell’s essay, too, about words being used or misused either as a product of fuzzy thinking or to create fuzzy thinking. But words can be such fun toys. That’s why Spartans were laconic, they hated fun. (And no worries, Patterico, I will not link a boy band.)
nk (d4662f) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:48 pmIt’s great if the process of learning to spell a word leads to a better understanding of the meaning of the word, but I think spelling bees should be about spelling words and not defining them. Of course, maybe I feel that way because I grew up in an era when all kids participated in spelling bees and learned penmanship — both of which seem to be lost arts.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:48 pmI put my comment on the wrong thread. I blame the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:51 pmOK, I am being too obtuse, I suppose.
My point is that memes, for a lack of a better word, suddenly appear.
You can see them almost every day if you watch the news or read the internet.
In my mind, they are always designed to insult or indict the thinking of most people who see the importance of social mores (not a typo) that keep society productive and centered for progress (not the lefty term) for the benefit of the next generation.
Sorry to be a bother.
Ag80 (f872ce) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:58 pmIt’s the Baader-Meinhof Syndrome, you have adopted happyfeet commenting attitudes.
nk (d4662f) — 4/9/2013 @ 8:59 pmI get it, I get it, Ag80, and you are by no means a bother. It’s like always bringing up Greece (with Spain and Italy on the side) when talking about the deficit. Right?
nk (d4662f) — 4/9/2013 @ 9:02 pmI never heard of Autism Service Horses being used to keep the cray-cray away until Mary Kate Day-Petrano showed up to tell us about them and prove hers did not work for what ailed her. Then I heard about them all the time because Crazy Mary Kate Day-Petrano kept showing up. I think her Autism Service Horse was named Beelzebub.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/9/2013 @ 9:04 pmnk: Yes, but more so. Everyone knows that Sarah Palin can see Russia from her porch, right? I’m talking about more insidious things that people know.
My boss thinks that NRA members are dangerous. Not because they have guns, but because since they have guns, they want to kill people. I swear this is true.
Or, Tea Party members are racist. Not because some may be, but because they don’t think the federal government may have all the answers.
Or all opposition to the President is based on race.
There is a whole swath of this country that has lost what America means and why the Constitution is important That is what I’m talking about.
All they know is what they hear and we are losing the hear war.
Ag80 (f872ce) — 4/9/2013 @ 9:21 pm“Double down”. I’d never heard that, and then, all of a sudden, it was everywhere.
I was just scanning a fed report and noticed this beauty: “poststratify”. Yes. Please, don’t let that one catch on.
Basta (2648f1) — 4/9/2013 @ 9:37 pm“Double down” is just *so* last millennium ! (Not to mention Las Vegas …)
One that seemed to suddenly appear a few ears ago was “It is what it is.”
Pardon my français, but WTF does “It is what it is.” actually add to a conversation ?
Alasdair (a28b33) — 4/10/2013 @ 1:53 amAg80 – No doubt. I am always interested in where these memes first appear. I don’t have the google-fu necessary to track them back to their roots, but it always seems so very coordinated.
JD (b63a52) — 4/10/2013 @ 5:33 amThis has happened to me, and it’s probably very real and not an illusion.
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 4/10/2013 @ 1:16 pmI stick to the Murray Gell-Mann phenomenon for all my “Gee whiz!” moments…
SPQR (6862c1) — 4/10/2013 @ 1:21 pmI’ve had a similar experience several times, when I encountered multiple references to an obscure fact, story, or person in a short time, by coincidence.
A few years ago, a very obscure WW II incident came up on an Internet forum, a day after I’d stumbled over a old book in the public library that mentioned it. I’d heard of the incident before, so it doesn’t quite match the pattern, but the coincidence factor is high.
Several times I’ve astonished friends with knowledge of something – which I’d only learned about a few days before. And no, these were not cases of something that was getting general attention.
Rich Rostrom (47c4e2) — 4/10/2013 @ 1:22 pmIt just seems hard to believe sometimes.
It works on the same principle that if you have 23 people in a room the odds are over 50% that two of them will have the same birthday.
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 4/10/2013 @ 1:28 pmIt’s like deja vu all over again.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/10/2013 @ 4:01 pmNothing. But c’est la vie, eh?
Moriah Jovan (2309cc) — 4/10/2013 @ 7:24 pmMe too. For instance, reading about a place I’d never heard of before, and the next day I meet someone from there, and the following week some newsworthy story happens there.
But I’ve known about psychological support animals for a long time; I know several people who have them. Ace may mock, but they’re stress relievers. For instance, I know someone who’s subject to anxiety attacks, so she has a dog, and when she feels herself ramping up to an attack she cuddles the dog and that relieves the stress and averts the attack.
Milhouse (15b6fd) — 4/10/2013 @ 9:28 pm