The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon and Ashley Judd's Puffy Faced Dog

Ever hear something for the first time in your life, then, in the next several days, you hear it two or three more times?

I just had that happen with "Psychological Support Dog," something I never hear of until @nkronos linked an article about Ashley Judd's dog.

Then I randomly put on an Adam Carolla podcast while I was cooking -- I picked this one because his guest was the only recent one I'd heard of, the Dollar Shave Club dude -- and he spent the first 20 minutes of the show talking about Carrie Fisher's Psychological Support Dog, and how this was a complete fantasy and no one needs a dog to fly on airplanes or to go to work. (His evidence is compelling: Because no one had a Psychological Support Dog four years ago, and no one noticed the absence of such things.)

Anyway, this phenomenon is called the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. For no known reason, but it's guessed that whoever dubbed it such had heard of the Baader-Meinhof terrorist ring several times in a few days and so gave it that name. (Actually, update: That does seem exactly why it's called that.)

I think it should be called "dopplewissensehen," which in German means "a whale's vagina."

thanks to @amish1979 and @kingkurmudgeon for putting a name to it.

posted by Ace at 08:00 PM

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