2024, animals, Media, Music, Mysteries

More Baader-Meinhof

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It’s been quite a while since I experienced the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon… when something you’ve just become aware of suddenly pops up seemingly everywhere.  It’s also called “frequency illusion” – even though you think you’ve discovered something for the first time, it’s just that you’ve noticed it for the first time.  Anyway, I’ve had a bunch lately:

Ljubljana, Slovenia.  Friends visited there this fall and wrote about it in their holiday newsletter.  First time I had heard of this city.  Then a couple of days letter, Ljubljana was mentioned in the National Geographic that I was reading. 

Tasmanian Tiger.  Also in National Geographic (although a different issue), there was a mention of the tiger.  Then the next day there was a sidebar in Scientific American.  I’d never heard of this dog-like “tiger” that went extinct in Tasmanian in the 1930s.  It’s been in the news because a paper came out in 2023 that they may have survived longer in the wild before the species died out.

Straight No Chaser.  While baking cookies right after Thanksgiving, I heard a funny carol on the radio – turned out to be a men’s acapella group called Straight No Chaser.  First time I heard of them (but I adore them already).  Then a week later, a friend of mind posted on Facebook that he was going to a Straight No Chaser concert that night. 

I do understand that the universe is not trying to send me coded messages but it’s hard to believe that the information is all around you and you’re just not registering it.  I do wonder why all three of these just popped up in the last month for me!

Any coincidences in your life lately? 

27 thoughts on “More Baader-Meinhof”

  1. None pop to mind that have occurred in my life lately. However, I’ve noticed in numerous crime novels, movies, and TV shows that the phrase “There are no coincidences” is frequently said. Not sure if it’s a recent phenomenon, or it’s just my cumulative reading and watching these shows that brought it to mind.

    Chris in O-town

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  2. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    The “Straight No Chaser” thing happened to me, too. Shortly after you mentioned it on the blog, I heard them on a streaming feed, and I thought, “OH, there is VS’ new group.” In the spirit of “there are no coincidences” my thought is that they hired someone to market their particular brand of music. That explanation is not so woo-woo, but I think it is realistic.

    I do have these experiences pretty often, but right now, other than Straight No Chaser, I cannot think of any. Maybe later.

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    1. I thought of a weird one that happened in December. I was watching the PBS show “Finding Your Roots.” Jeff Daniels, a favorite actor of mine, was featured. The host took him back to the Salem Witch Trials and a family named Chandler. The names and places were sounding familiar, so I looked them up and sure enough we had a common ancestor by that name in the trials.

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  4. A really minor B-M occurrence to borrow from yours, but just the other day I noticed a car with a Slovenia badge on their back window and it struck me as unlikely and obscure.

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  5. Perhaps this is where you read about the Tasmanian Tiger but thylacines are one of the extinct animals certain scientists are trying to revive/recreate.

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  7. I was looking at Road Scholar trips online. I signed up to receive newsletters from them and they come often. They’re really interesting to me but I’m a little hesitant to sign up. It’s a lot of money and I feel uncertain about the world. I’m kind of a chicken, I know, and I should just do it. Life is short.

    Anyway, one of the trips was to the Dry Tortugas NP. I’ve read about it before and I’m attracted to the crystal clear water and the white sand. The trip includes ferry service, lodging, and tours. It’s about 9 days long. I almost clicked on it, but hesitated.

    Then, on Saturday night a group of my Mankato friends got together. A couple of my friends just got back from a trip to Florida over the holidays. They were talking about the things they wanted to see but hadn’t paid for in advance. One of those things was Dry Tortugas NP. They said it’s almost impossible to go there over the holidays, due to demand, and they had made a mistake by not reserving a tour in advance.

    I’m still thinking about it, hesitating. I also want to go on one that goes to the west coast. I was thinking of riding Amtrak out to Portland, then joining up with the Road Scholar tour group to see the California redwoods, some national parks, and Crater Lake. It sounds tame to some of you seasoned travelers, I know. But it’s a really big deal for me.

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    3. Krista, for what it’s worth, I’d like to encourage you to sign up for a Road Scholar adventure. Signing up for something that seems safe, and not too far outside of your comfort zone, can be a victory in itself. I’d be willing to bet you’ll find a person, or two, or three within each and every one of their programs that you’d enjoy doing things with. In the process your comfort zone expands along with the number of people to explore it with.

      I know you have a trip to Ireland planned for this spring, and I’m so excited for you. I hope it’s a wonderful experience for you.

      As you know, I’ve one a fair amount of traveling, but I wish I had done more. Alas, my traveling days are over.

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      1. Thanks for the encouragement, PJ. I guess I know those things in my head but I lack the confidence to just go do it on my own. I hope the coming trip to Ireland boosts my confidence.

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  8. Coincidence: my son who has not flown in years is flying to Dallas over the storm, except he switched planes in Denver in strong winds. Meanwhile my granddaughter is riding home on a bus from Dallas. The plan is to get as far north until drivers don’t feel comfortable. How many cross country buses does it take to carry 460 people plus instruments and uniforms? They just stopped for lunch in Topeka and are on their way again. How do you stop for lunch with 460 people? Must take some logistics managed by company headquarters stopping at multiple exits.
    Clyde

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  9. I just took my book club over to a wonderful bookstore in downtown LaCrosse (with adjoining coffee shop) – of course I ran into a fellow folk dancer there…

    One of my friends was looking for A Tangled Tale by Lewis Carroll. I had never heard of this book till last week, when it showed up in a FB post by Winona’s Chapter 2 Books (used and vintage), where the owner photographs a stack of books that have just arrived – it was, of course, in that stack.

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  11. About a week ago I was considering some decorative jars I have on a tea cart with things like beans and rice and pasta in them. I had some navy beans in one. Thought I should probably use them up, because although the jar looks pretty filled with navy beans, it really should get new tenants every now and then.

    Dried beans aren’t the easiest thing, because they take a long time to cook, and it’s disappointing to make a bean soup and then find the beans are still a bit crunchy.

    So I put a cup of beans in a crockpot and put it on high, let the beans heat to steaming, and then shut it off and let them soak overnight. Then I rinsed them and put them in the freezer. Freezing and thawing helps them soften.

    On Saturday, while I was thinking about what I might have for dinner, something popped up in my e-mail about National Bean Day. It was from Dunn Brothers coffee, so they were thinking about a different sort of bean, but I felt as if my dinner decision had been made for me. Maybe I received a whisper from the universe that led me to prep the beans ahead of time.

    Soup of the evening, beautiful soup.

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