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FT394

FrKadash

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Messages
2,069
Presents! Got mine today, good timing for a birthday present! Contents looking good so far.

Bday presents, 13 June 2020.jpg
 
The Mandela effect, medium talking to Martians and ghostly presences, in normal times I would say it doesn't look like a very good issue, but I am just glad it's here.
Happy birthday Frk!
 
Arrived this morning. Funny thing is: I've been digging out and re-reading archived back copies. I have FT260 (dated July 2010) near me as I speak. So I unpacked 394, and something felt not quite right: the magazine felt thinner, skimpier, not as substantial. I went to FT260 - no mistake, this definitely felt thicker and more substantial. First thought - have they reduced the number of pages? so i checked. no: page numbers end at 78 in both copies: the next-to-last page with Phenomenomix on it doesn't carry a number and then you're at the back cover - so totals 82 actual pages. In both the 2010 and the 2020 copy. But FT394 with the same number of pages still feels distinctly lighter and skimpier. No inserts in the 2010 copy that could explain the sensation of "this is thicker". .

So the only thing I can think of is that the quality and type of paper used to print the mag might be thinner, the change, if any, has occured here. Has anyone else noticed this or am I imagining things?
 
Ha! No FT for me but I've just taken delivery of some Ceylon Kenilworth and Chelsea Breakfast from Whittards.
Happy Birthday.

Thanks Dave, and titch!

I was just considering buying 393 from Mags Direct, as the subscription started with 394, when Mrs K found it in Asda today! They had a single copy, and the strange thing is I've never seen it in there before...
 
Arrived this morning. Funny thing is: I've been digging out and re-reading archived back copies. I have FT260 (dated July 2010) near me as I speak. So I unpacked 394, and something felt not quite right: the magazine felt thinner, skimpier, not as substantial. I went to FT260 - no mistake, this definitely felt thicker and more substantial. First thought - have they reduced the number of pages? so i checked. no: page numbers end at 78 in both copies: the next-to-last page with Phenomenomix on it doesn't carry a number and then you're at the back cover - so totals 82 actual pages. In both the 2010 and the 2020 copy. But FT394 with the same number of pages still feels distinctly lighter and skimpier. No inserts in the 2010 copy that could explain the sensation of "this is thicker". .

So the only thing I can think of is that the quality and type of paper used to print the mag might be thinner, the change, if any, has occured here. Has anyone else noticed this or am I imagining things?
No you’re not imagining it, the paper stock did change giving a noticeably different feel and thickness to the magazine.
 
Not quite mandela, as that encompasses a suspicion that something has changed but intangibly, with no way of proving it; here there's physical evidence dating from 2010...
 
The thing about phantom phones - a person imagining, and feeling, mobile phones "vibrating" but no call actually coming in. Could this be an update of the old thing with landlines - which I've had myself, being in a different room of the house and being absolutely sure the phone is ringing, but nothing there. There's the next level up from this: you think the phone is ringing, you get a strong feeling you know who is ringing you, but nothing is actually happening. But five, ten or fifteen minutes later - the phone rings, and it's that person.... this must happen with mobiles too?
 
Only said to the war office this morning that I should be due a new FT. She said it’s too soon since the last one and, hello, nothing in the post. Will hopefully arrive Monday.
 
The Berenstein Bears. I'd never come accross the books and never seen or heard of the TV cartoon. So until I saw it playing in the background on the TV in a chinese eaterie sometime around 2015 - "Oh, Kids' cartoon about a family of bears. right, got it. When does Goldilocks show up?" - under my cultural radar without a blip.

And I got it as "Berensteins" right from the start - association of ideas from the name spelt that way had me thinking "Right. Bears in yahmulkahs", with Mama Bear coming over as Beverly Goldberg or Beattie from the old adverts, telling the kids "So we're omnivores. Omnivore schnomnivore. Promise me you'll be omnivores who keep kosher.." ("Berenstein" has more of a narrative to it as spelt this way it makes the Bear family Jewish - ish. Rounds them out, makes them more three-dimensional, adds lots of layers. "BerenSTAIN", on the other hand...... a stain. nothing. No doors open. )
 
Mondegreens could be a specialised sub-set of the mandela effect. A day or two ago, for instance, I was politely requested to check out the last verse of Bob Dylan's Tangled Up In Blue . I've been listening to this song for thirty-odd years. And that last verse has always quite clearly been

So now I'm goin' back again,
I got to get to her somehow;
All the people we used to know,
They're an illusion to me now.
Some are mathematicians,
Some are carpenters' wives,
Don't know how it all got started,
I don't know what they're doin' with their lives.
But me, I'm still on the road,
Headin' for another joint,
We old wasters feel the same,
We just saw it from a different point of view...
Tangled up in blue!


Apparently those last few lines are


But me, I'm still on the road
Headin' for another joint
We always did feel the same
We just saw it from a different point of view
Tangled up in blue


The thing is - when did it change? Who changed that line? Speaking as an old waster, this version makes as much sense and maybe more. Did the "We always did feel the same" line drop in from a parellel universe somewhere? My Dylan experience has been Mandela'd here.

 
Mondegreens could be a specialised sub-set of the mandela effect. A day or two ago, for instance, I was politely requested to check out the last verse of Bob Dylan's Tangled Up In Blue . I've been listening to this song for thirty-odd years. And that last verse has always quite clearly been ...
The thing is - when did it change? Who changed that line? Speaking as an old waster, this version makes as much sense and maybe more. Did the "We always did feel the same" line drop in from a parellel universe somewhere? My Dylan experience has been Mandela'd here.

The version you didn't recognize is the version I remember (and I listened to Blood On The Tracks a lot starting with its initial release).

Dylan had a habit of changing lyrics during live performances, and TUIB is one of the songs he most often modified this way. The version of the song that appears on his 1984 Real Live album was noted for including radically different lyrics to TUIB. However, these quite different lyrics aren't the ones you'd remembered:

So now I'm going on back again
Maybe tomorrow or maybe next year
I gotta find someone among the women and men
Whose destiny is unclear
Some are masters of illusion
Some are ministers of the trade
All of the strong delusion
All of their beds are unmade
Me I'm still heading towards the sun
Trying to stay out of the joint
We always did love the very same one
We just saw her from a different point
Of view
Tangled up in blue

Here's the Paris 1984 performance that's almost certainly the source of the live album version above:


Bottom Line: I don't doubt you may have first known the song from a variant version, but I don't know where or when Dylan may have used the lyrics you remember.
 
Enjoying Paul Sievking's A Life in Print, Part Two - The Nineties. The selection of vintage FT stories is great reading. I had never heard of 'The White Brotherhood' (Belye Bratya) cult, strange stuff indeed!
 
Have you spoken to HQ about the delay?
I'm in the U.S., so I called IMS, the folks who handle U.S. subs, a couple of weeks ago. I thought I hadn't gotten an issue in a while because I renewed my subscription late (it was to expire with 390) but apparently not so. They said they'd send me a copy of 391, which arrived just a few days after my regular copy of 391 did. They said they didn't have any copies of 392 yet.
 
Still waiting for mine too.
Please keep in mind that even Royal Mail's First Class Signed For service is slow still. I send stuff out regularly and a small package I sent thus to my daughter on Friday only arrived today. So magazine delivery service is bound to be patchy.
 
Gordon Rutter said:
No you’re not imagining it, the paper stock did change giving a noticeably different feel and thickness to the magazine.
Nope, Mandela Effect again, it was always like that.

Took rather longer than I expected but here's some quant evidence:

issues empty total empty weight​
empty temp weight temp per issue​
251-5 empty 864g empty 172.8g​
301-5 empty 837g empty 167.4g​
351-5 empty 838g empty 167.6g​
389-93 mess 829g empty 165.8g​

so looks like there was a change around ten years ago. I'm not sure my kitchen scales are accurate enough to show any changes more recently.

Oxo
 
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Haven't read Brian J Robb's article yet as I'm still reading 391, 392 and 393! Because I ended up getting them all quite close together and then my subscription started and 394 arrived.
Did anyone see the 2019 film The Mandela Effect? I thought it was a pretty good story, by no means perfect but better than I expected.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6544220/
 
Mine arrived at last - don't give up hope, subscribers! The IHTM is a good one this ish.
 
Really enjoyed the Mandela Effect article, and also Paul Sieveking's collection of highlights.

Interesting to read about the Hermit of Hainault Forest too, someone I'd never heard of before.

I felt really sorry for Barry the pig (page 8), but glad that he was rescued!
 
Arrived today. Liked the IHTM letter from the housing officer, some interesting characters and a spooky happening. Republic of Lies - conspiracies book review sounds good - on my list.
 
Still waiting for this issue to arrive...
 
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