15 Comments
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Silver Surfer's avatar

You forgot vuja de, the feeling that somethings about to happen again....

Benjamin Errett's avatar

Or is it the feeling that everything's happening anew? Either way, I tucked it in the colophon, though when I went back to check it was a gentle surprise!

M. Louisa Locke's avatar

Loved the clip of the show! Gave me today's chuckle.

Benjamin Errett's avatar

Can recommend! Though I have the eeriest feeling that I've seen Tracy Morgan playing this character somewhere before...

Bob Welland's avatar

I wonder if you considered repeating a paragraph or quotation in the article to give a more immersive experience for your readers?

I wonder if you considered repeating a paragraph or quotation in the article to give a more immersive experience for your readers?

Benjamin Errett's avatar

I thought about it but decided to leave the setup for an enterprising reader. Thank you!

Stephen D Forman's avatar

I may have to give that Anne Cleary article a closer read, but I didn't see what I *thought* was the leading hypothesis: that deja vu results when a long-term memory forms in the brain without having first been created as a short-term memory. This processing error creates the mistaken identity.

Benjamin Errett's avatar

Seems like there are several competing ideas, none of which are Freudian. Another nugget left unexplored: Why does it happen more often in the young than the old? More actual memories to crowd out the fakes?

Stephen D Forman's avatar

"...déjà vu in a dream is about 'invariably the genitals of the dreamer’s mother....'"

No, Dr. Freud, you're thinking of déjà ew.

Benjamin Errett's avatar

Invariably!

Myq Kaplan's avatar

Dear Benjamin,

Great piece on déjà vu! (Though haven't you done that topic already?)

Some of my fave quotes from this time (or possibly other times):

“Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory.”

— Franklin Pierce Adams

“It’s not true that life is one damn thing after another — it’s one damn thing over & over.”

— Edna St. Vincent Millay

“Right now I’m having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I’ve forgotten this before.”

— Stephen Wright

Thanks for sharing as always!

Love

Myq

Benjamin Errett's avatar

I'd done The Wit's Guide to Memory ... I think?

Ben Kaplan's avatar

I also loved this one so much!! “It’s not true that life is one damn thing after another — it’s one damn thing over & over.”

— Edna St. Vincent Millay

John E. Canuck's avatar

You had me at " Yoggi Berra ". I smile upon hearing his name. To be inside Yoggi Berra's head. Voices I'd love to hear :)

Benjamin Errett's avatar

As I discovered a few years back, his wit was 90% made up, though the other half of it was real...

https://wit.substack.com/p/wisecracks-of-the-bat