Synchronicity - What's your experience of it?

[John J.]

Interesting. I also grew up saying "night night" as did my parents.

I did too. Probably most of the other English speakers on metabunk did as well. However, I really don't remember reading it unless the character was a child or talking to a child. I may have just not noticed it. The book was Agatha Christie's "Seven Dials", which is populated with upper class British young adults saying clever things. It seemed so out of character for them that it caught my attention.

Same here (in the UK). It had never occurred to me that "night-night" or "nighty-night" might not be a commonplace phrase (in English-speaking countries) until now!
Just an informal / affectionate "goodnight" at bedtime. I don't think there are any class connotations.

There was a BBC TV black comedy called Nighty Night some years ago, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nighty_Night.

 

[Ann K]

The Irvington Stories
by Dodge, Mary Mapes, 1830-1905; H.H. Bancroft and Company; Darley, Felix Octavius Carr, 1822-1888; Alvord, C. A

HERE (Internet Archive) is the page in the collection of stories with one of the first literary instances of the use of the interjection / colloquialism "night night".

Notably, it's spoken to children. Christie's use of the phrase seems appropriate for her depiction of the sort of idle-rich young adults of the era, using "cute" baby talk with each other.

Edit to add: I wondered where I had heard the author's name before, so looked her up in Wikipedia. She wrote "Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates" which I read a lifetime ago (I think the book was in my school classroom), but her biography is an interesting read.

She was able to persuade many of the great writers of the world to contribute to her children's magazine – Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Bret Harte, John Hay, Charles Dudley Warner, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, and scores of others. One day, Rudyard Kipling told her a story of the Indian jungle; Dodge asked him to write it down for St. Nicholas. He never had written for children, but he would try. The result was The Jungle Book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mapes_Dodge

 

[Todd Feinman]

Notably, it's spoken to children. Christie's use of the phrase seems appropriate for her depiction of the sort of idle-rich young adults of the era, using "cute" baby talk with each other.

Edit to add: I wondered where I had heard the author's name before, so looked her up in Wikipedia. She wrote "Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates" which I read a lifetime ago (I think the book was in my school classroom), but her biography is an interesting read.

She was able to persuade many of the great writers of the world to contribute to her children's magazine – Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Bret Harte, John Hay, Charles Dudley Warner, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, and scores of others. One day, Rudyard Kipling told her a story of the Indian jungle; Dodge asked him to write it down for St. Nicholas. He never had written for children, but he would try. The result was The Jungle Book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mapes_Dodge

Google AI says she was widely read in the US and the UK; we had and still have copies of Hans Brinker in the library where I worked. I remember seeing copies of it.

 

[Todd Feinman]

When I was a kid my mom and dad and I lived in Lake Oswego for a bit while my dad was in law school. My mother taught me to read with a book called Rusty's Spaceship. Great sciencey book for kids. Moved away back to Eugene. Then in my 20s, returned to LO and worked there for 30+ years. I found out the author of the book I read as a kid had been a local author and had passed away while I was at the library, her service was less than a mile away. Many years later when I was in my 40s my mother was able to find a mint condition unused copy, and she gave it to me in my birthday.
<edit> I was just looking at a synopsis of the book, and I see that it was a flying saucer that was used to make the spaceship real and fly; I'd forgotten that part of the story!
I remember the alien; he reminded me of the Cat in the Hat. As I just typed "cat" the guest on Democracy Watch simultaneously said the word. There's the synchronicity connection; childless cat ladies??

 

[Diva]

Synchronicity strikes again! I'm in the middle of watching "Seven Dials" on BritBox.

Great minds think alike, huh?

 

[Diva]

I remember the alien; he reminded me of the Cat in the Hat. As I just typed "cat" the guest on Democracy Watch simultaneously said the word. There's the synchronicity connection; childless cat ladies??

Oh no! I've been outed! Although no cats right now.

 

[Todd Feinman]

Oh no! I've been outed! Although no cats right now.

I am but a tool and messenger from your future cat. For real.
"Meow, Diva, Meow!"
"Prepare the soft bed, and ready the canned tuna!" "Meow, Diva, Meow!"
"Night night, Kitty"
"Night night, Diva"

 

[Todd Feinman]

Okay, this is likely OT, depending on how you look at universe. So, I have a little hobby whereby I go to Wikipedia and put my finger over the random article button. I draw a series of squares (just started doing this), and I close my eyes and visualize the white screen, and draw my visual impression of what will appear when I click the button. Not every Wikipedia page has a picture, so I rule those out. Then I compare my impression of the future with the image that appears on the page when I click the button. Sometimes things are surprising.
I just did three, the second page didn't have a picture.

Drawing 1:

Wiki page picture:

Second try = no picture.


Drawing 3:

And Wiki page 3 picture:

The sheet:

 

[Ann K]

I close my eyes and visualize the white screen, and draw my visual impression of what will appear when I click the button.

I think perhaps you are measuring your own ability to fool yourself, as you search for a meaning that doesn't exist.

 

[Todd Feinman]

I think perhaps you are measuring your own ability to fool yourself, as you search for a meaning that doesn't exist.

Still a fun hobby.

 

[Mendel]

Okay, this is likely OT, depending on how you look at universe. So, I have a little hobby whereby I go to Wikipedia and put my finger over the random article button. I draw a series of squares (just started doing this), and I close my eyes and visualize the white screen, and draw my visual impression of what will appear when I click the button. Not every Wikipedia page has a picture, so I rule those out. Then I compare my impression of the future with the image that appears on the page when I click the button. Sometimes things are surprising.

But these were not.
Any correspondences are "remote viewing" quality, aka the result of an effort to manufacture a connection after the fact that is utterly useless as a prediction.

 

[Todd Feinman]

But these were not.
Sny correspondences are "remote viewing" quality, aka the result of an effort to manufacture a connection after the fact that is utterly useless as a prediction.

I think it would be fun to compare results with an AI tool for visual similarities with the other pictures on Wikipedia.