I remember hearing a phrase for this and I just can’t remember it. It’s when an odd name or phrase jumps out at you more often over the course of a day or two. You’re standing behind two people at the grocery store, and overhear one person say to another, “Blah, blah, blah, moo goo gai pan, blah blah.” You think nothing of it. Later, you are reading a book, and a character is eating moo goo gai pan. Watching the television, two people are going out for moo goo gai pan. A friend comes over and the two of you decide to order Chinese food, and sure enough, they order moo goo gai pan!!
It happened to me two days ago with the name “Fiona” and it’s been driving me crazy ever since. Does anyone know it?
Another phrase I read in a book, made a mental note to look it up, but I kept reading, then forgot. :smack: (It was a work of fiction, so I accept that it might not be a real phrase.) According to the book, there is a French phrase for what we Americans call “copping a feel.” (Teenager at the movies puts his elbow a little too far over the armrest to brush his date’s breast with his elbow…man standing in subway car crowds pretty woman in front of him…that sort of thing.) I forgot all about it until I saw a commercial on SyFy in which an odd little man was standing in an elevator with a beautiful woman, and just as he begins to edge closer to her with a strange little leer on his face, suddenly long metal spikes come out all over her body.
Every now and then, when my brain isn’t doing anything else, it asks me what that phrase was, and I have no answer for it.
My guess on why it was named Baader-Meinhoff phenomenon isn’t because of the group themselves but because the first person who named it had just learned of Baader-Meinhof Syndrome.
That would make more sense as historically what they did has nearly been forgotten but their names live on in the behavior of people who, being held captive, tend to develop an attachment of their captors. And that’s the context in which we usually hear those names.
Usually when something like this happens to me the reference is so obscure that it seems otherworldly to keep appearing like it does. But a couple of months ago I was Baader-Meinhofed by Kevin Bacon for about three weeks.
YES!! In my original post I wanted to say that the word reminded me of the French word for cheese, “fromage,” but it seemed so strange to relate the two, I decided it was just a French word, and that was why it reminded me of the phrase I wanted. I chose not to mention it in case I sent someone on a wild goose chase and never got my answer. I now know it was the “fro” that I had fixed on, and THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
I think that it was the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. Confirmation bias seems like “you want to hear it, so you do,” and that is not so much the way I remember the term. And THANK YOU,TOO!!
