[QUOTE=WotNot]
Going “woo”.
[/QUOTE]
Oh sure, you’re “woo” till they pull their sheet off and eat your brain.
[QUOTE=The King of Soup]
Which is funny, because they don’t look woo-ish.
Around the temple or not, they still don’t look woo-ish.
[/QUOTE]
Are any doing the ‘Curley Shuffle’?
(look-it-the-grouse, look-it-the-grouse! Lottie-dee, lottie dee…)
[QUOTE=FordPrefect]
You should check out the Internet Infidels at iidb. The physicists and other scientists take a rather dim view of medical doctors. “Human mechanics” was one epithet that I recall. 
[/QUOTE]
This from people who believe in stuff like photons, quarks, dark matter, and super-strings? 
[QUOTE=tdn]
Woo is indeed short for woowoo, generally a person who believes in ghosts, Elvis sightings, Bigfoot, alien anal probes, tarotry, the Illuminati, the WTC being bombed by the Bush admin, and the healing power of magnets.
I’m surprised it doesn’t get more usage here.
[/QUOTE]
Heh. I’ve never heard of that word before either. I thought you were trying to say wuss in a different way. And after reading the OP, I still hadn’t changed my thinking on that.
Does the word woo extend to astrology, religion, the idea of multiple universes, quantum mechanics, etc? It sounds like one of those words that’s a pejorative for everything I (the person saying it) don’t believe in.
ETA: Sounds like some of the others here beat me to the punch.
[QUOTE=Heffalump and Roo]
Heh. I’ve never heard of that word before either. I thought you were trying to say wuss in a different way. And after reading the OP, I still hadn’t changed my thinking on that.
Does the word woo extend to astrology, religion, the idea of multiple universes, quantum mechanics, etc? It sounds like one of those words that’s a pejorative for everything I (the person saying it) don’t believe in.
ETA: Sounds like some of the others here beat me to the punch.
[/QUOTE]
I think the term originated with James Randi. You see it used constantly over at the JREF boards. I’m glad to see it getting wider usage.
The only “woo” I’ve ever known was Ronnie Woo Woo, the weird guy who hangs out at Cub games. Now there’s a guy I’d be afraid to have haunt me.
[QUOTE=Dung Beetle]
Me [in sepulchural tones]: Oh, that? That…is the ghost…of Freddy the Pig. Mua-ha-ha-ha!
[/QUOTE]
Next comment: “That Freddy really needs to get an afterlife.”
I work with a bunch of woos too (thanks for the great term, btw.) My boss has told me about how she had to exorcise a ghost from her house (who had apparently moved around some baking pans and pens and turned the TV off…no possible alternate explanations here, folks!) by chanting something like “Jesus Christ has power here, so if you are not of him, begone!” You might suggest your co-worker try this on Albert.
Another co-worker repeatedly sees nickels around her house, and is convinced that it is the ghost of her grandfather putting them there. (Or it could be her three small children getting into some spare change and making a mess.)
I usually say sometihng like “Wow”…because that’s what they want to hear.
[QUOTE=Ogre]
I think the term originated with James Randi. You see it used constantly over at the JREF boards.
[/QUOTE]
It gets pretty wide usage on Bad Astronomy as well. It’s possible that it started there. Plaitt and Randi are friends anyway, so there’s a lot of cross-talk. Much in the same way that snopes phrases find their way here. “Glurge” is one example.
[QUOTE=Tamex]
Another co-worker repeatedly sees nickels around her house, and is convinced that it is the ghost of her grandfather putting them there. (Or it could be her three small children getting into some spare change and making a mess.)
[/QUOTE]
Heh. When people claim poltergeist activity in their homes, the first thing I want to know is if they have cats.
[QUOTE=tdn]
Heh. When people claim poltergeist activity in their homes, the first thing I want to know is if they have cats.
[/QUOTE]
Sounds more Demonic to me.
has 3 cats; the fur hides the horns
[QUOTE=tdn]
Heh. When people claim poltergeist activity in their homes, the first thing I want to know is if they have cats.
[/QUOTE]
She does have a cat, come to mention it.
She insists that it’s not the kids because it’s always nickels–never dimes, pennies, or quarters.
[QUOTE=featherlou]
Oh - if we’re talking about healthcare professionals believing in ghosts and such, that doesn’t surprise me. You work the graveyard shift at a hospital (where of course many people have died), and the conversation naturally turns to hauntings. All the hospitals I’ve worked at were believed to be haunted by the staff.
ETA: A whoooole bunch of the nurses and doctors I’ve worked with smoke, too, so don’t be looking to healthcare professionals to be some kind of shining examples of logic and clear-thinking. 
[/QUOTE]
Only because we happen to be human too, with the same human foibles, and short comings.
I neither smoke nor believe in ghosts, but that doesn’t mean I’m above the human condition anymore than some good ol’ gal with a 9th grade education, living in Tornado Trailer Park.
[QUOTE=Tamex]
She does have a cat, come to mention it.
She insists that it’s not the kids because it’s always nickels–never dimes, pennies, or quarters.
[/QUOTE]
I still wouldn’t rule out cats; cats are all weird in their particular ways, and I wouldn’t put it past one of them to carry nickels (and ONLY nickels, for whatever reason gets in their tiny little brains) around the house. I knew a Siamese cat who loved hair clips of all kinds, especially metal ones, and always played with them and carried them around.
[QUOTE=featherlou]
I still wouldn’t rule out cats; cats are all weird in their particular ways, and I wouldn’t put it past one of them to carry nickels (and ONLY nickels, for whatever reason gets in their tiny little brains) around the house. I knew a Siamese cat who loved hair clips of all kinds, especially metal ones, and always played with them and carried them around.
[/QUOTE]
Oh, I think that it could very well be the cat. I had a cat once that would carry around and bat at marbles…it was like a mini soccer game.
Strange how, when marbles were found scattered around the house, no one in my family suggested paranormal activity.
[QUOTE=Dr. Rieux]
This from people who believe in stuff like photons, quarks, dark matter, and super-strings?
[/QUOTE]
Hey don’t hold it against me, everyone is smarter than me
[QUOTE=Ogre]
I think the term originated with James Randi. You see it used constantly over at the JREF boards.
[/QUOTE]
Ah, that crowd. I used to post with a bunch of people that hung out there. Now I know exactly what the term means. That group clearly has its prejudices.
[QUOTE=Heffalump and Roo]
Ah, that crowd. I used to post with a bunch of people that hung out there. Now I know exactly what the term means. That group clearly has its prejudices.
[/QUOTE]
Sure, if you mean “prejudices against people who believe in demonstrably nutty things.”
[QUOTE=tdn]
It gets pretty wide usage on Bad Astronomy as well. It’s possible that it started there. Plaitt and Randi are friends anyway, so there’s a lot of cross-talk. Much in the same way that snopes phrases find their way here. “Glurge” is one example.
[/QUOTE]
It could just be the voices in their heads.
[QUOTE=tdn]
I assume so, but you never know.
What’s funny is that one person commented that children are really good at seeing ghosts. Hello? Ever hear of imaginary friends?
[/QUOTE]
I had an imaginary friend, a nice old man.
The description this little 4 year old gave matched my great grandfather to a T, including his portwine birthmark. Only extant picture of him was in Florida, I got to see it the year after I described my nice old man to the child psychiatrist. He died about 50 or so years before I was a twinkle in anybodys eye. Explain that.
He made it up out of whole cloth, and included the portwine stain because he’d seen a grocery clerk with one last week at the local Safeway. Easy.