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FT432

First observations:

the Mythconceptions/Mythbusters about whether all babies are born with blue eyes (and the discovery that over 60% are in fact not). The article wonders how this cultural myth began and still carries force when the evidence is so against it.

I find myself thinking: cats. Specifically, cute appealing cuddly kittens. I know from time spent on Facebook Reels (truly an entire warren of rabbit holes) which I'm never going to get back. There are a lot of people out there, including people I might think are otherwise rational, who simply cannot make a distinction between actual human babies, and pets. To people who think this way, kittens are "fur-babies", our "fur-children", I am their mummy, and other pets in the house, even those of other species, are their brothers and sisters.

Kittens tend to be born with startlingly blue eyes, which later on settle down as other colours.

So is it possible that the idea of human babies being born blue-eyed and this then settling down as grey or brown or whatever, is down to leakage from observation with cats, via people who think in terms of "fur babies"? People who observe cats with more attention, interest, and absorbed devotion than they might apply to mere human infants....
 
gordonrutter said:
Well, 432 has just dropped through the door. That's put a stop to my gardening.
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Mine arrived an hour ago while i was moving furniture.
I thought there was a five-week gap between 431 and 432. But it Gordon R posting early last month.

I'll actually start reading it now.

oxo

edited: to realign the cosmos
 
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"It Happened to Me", from the person sure they'd heard radio news about author Stephen King dying in an incident involving the collapse of a theatre balcony. From inference, the correspondent doesn't appear to be based in Britain or to have English as a first language. (Their English is possibly a lot better than my - inferred from their name - Danish or German).

I should go and look up these details, but in the time frame they give - the early part of the 2000's - I'm sure there was a spate of structural failures in old theatres in London, possibly due to indifferent maintenance of old buildings. At least one theatre balcony collapsed in the West End and perhaps a hundred people were injured, with nobody killed. And that wasn't the only one; there was a less spectacular failure in another West End theatre a year or two later, with no casualties.

Is it possible the correspondent might have been listening to the news of the theatre collapse in London - a genuine event - and for some reason conflated that with the name of Stephen King? Could one of those theatres have had "King" in its name, or the name of the play that was on might have associated with the word "King", or it could have been on a "King Street", or one of the actors was called "King" (EDIT - okay, or Stephen...) - and this set up a half-remembered misunderstanding?
 
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AgProv said:
...Is it possible the correspondent might have been listening to the news of the theatre collapse in London - a genuine event - and for some reason conflated that with the name of Stephen King? Could one of those theatres have had "King" in its name, or the name of the play that was on might have associated with the word "King", or it could have been on a "King Street", or one of the actors was called "King" (EDIT - okay, or Stephen...) - and this set up a half-remembered misunderstanding?
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I think there have been a few incidents of plaster falls, but the most dramatic that I can recall was when part of the ceiling collapsed at the Apollo Theatre, damaging the balconies below in the process. But that was 2013, rather than the early 2000's mentioned in the story. (Also - if my memory is correct - reports of the balcony actually 'collapsing' were a little misleading.)

I too wondered if the writer had misheard something - there are plenty of Kings Theatres in the UK and beyond.
 
lordmongrove said:
'Orange' pendek?
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Well here's an Orange Chimp.

chimpor.jpg
 
AgProv said:
"It Happened to Me", from the person sure they'd heard radio news about author Stephen King dying in an incident involving the collapse of a theatre balcony. From inference, the correspondent doesn't appear to be based in Britain or to have English as a first language. (Their English is possibly a lot better than my - inferred from their name - Danish or German).

I should go and look up these details, but in the time frame they give - the early part of the 2000's - I'm sure there was a spate of structural failures in old theatres in London, possibly due to indifferent maintenance of old buildings. At least one theatre balcony collapsed in the West End and perhaps a hundred people were injured, with nobody killed. And that wasn't the only one; there was a less spectacular failure in another West End theatre a year or two later, with no casualties.

Is it possible the correspondent might have been listening to the news of the theatre collapse in London - a genuine event - and for some reason conflated that with the name of Stephen King? Could one of those theatres have had "King" in its name, or the name of the play that was on might have associated with the word "King", or it could have been on a "King Street", or one of the actors was called "King" (EDIT - okay, or Stephen...) - and this set up a half-remembered misunderstanding?
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I have not yet read this IHTM, but Stephen King almost died when hit by a van in June 1999. So maybe the person joined two different stories, if there was a theatre balcony collapse close to that time?
 
mine dropped this morning so that's my commute tomorrow sorted!
 
AgProv said:
There are a lot of people out there, including people I might think are otherwise rational, who simply cannot make a distinction between actual human babies, and pets. To people who think this way, kittens are "fur-babies", our "fur-children", I am their mummy, and other pets in the house, even those of other species, are their brothers and sisters.
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This is rather like how pet dogs are believed to view the people and animals of the households they live in, as their pack.
Works for Fido.
 
The Bloody Mary article was interesting, but basically dismissive. It would have been interesting to have, you know, a Fortean article, rather than folklore-cum-psychology. Many articles in the FT these days are veering towards skeptical/materialistic debunking. Where are the anomalies? What about some accounts of people who claim to have had something weird happen after the "summoning"?
 
SimonBurchell said:
The Bloody Mary article was interesting, but basically dismissive. It would have been interesting to have, you know, a Fortean article, rather than folklore-cum-psychology. Many articles in the FT these days are veering towards skeptical/materialistic debunking. Where are the anomalies? What about some accounts of people who claim to have had something weird happen after the "summoning"?
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I said "Bloody Mary" three times in the mirror and got a tomato based alcoholic drink.
 
I'm not able to download the latest issue on my ipad. It's telling me "Unable to verify your purchase. There was a problem with the authorisation service." My subscription is still valid until March of next year.

I messaged the email listed in the app. Frustrating.
 
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