Hello, I think I remember reading this somewhere, but I can’t for the life of my find it again. Some people believe there is a phenomenon that at certain times after the hour, a room which could be filled with different conversations (think a party) will suddenly quiet down. I thought that some people said that this had a special “title” and was said to be attributed to some author’s ghost or something, but I could be way off.
Any help would be appreciated!
-Brad
Can’t help with anything as exotic as naming an author whose ghost might be abroad, but I think I have heard such a phenomenon (which I have experiecned more than once myself) referred to as “an awkward silence” or “a pregnant pause” (if it all starts right back up again).
I’d bet you want more than simply “quiet.” 
Snopes article about this.
That reminds me of a Far Side cartoon - 7 or 8 dogs sitting around a living room in sofas and chairs nodding off, and the caption was: The conversation was flowing until all of a sudden they all just got dog tired. Maybe that’s the term: ‘dog tired’?
I’ve heard someone once or twice say during this lull that “an angel must have flown over”.
Booo!
Richard Dawkins used an instance of the phenomenon as an example of a positive feedback loop in “The Blind Watchmaker”. It strikes me as a pretty good explanation of why it occurs in most cases, though it doesn’t provide you with a term for it.
Hmm. I remember reading the Snopes article, but I have read about that in precicely one book. It was a sci-fi, cyberpunk type novel… perhaps called “Virtuality”? I think it’s on my shelf at home - I can look for it if it sounds familiar.
Canine social blunders: " Say,i just found out yesterday I’ve got worms."
I’ve heard it called a “hiatus” which is a break or gap in continuity.
What do you call a room full of conversations that simultaneously end??
An E. F. Hutton commercial.
An angel passed.
A friend of mine once told me that whenever this happens, everyone is simultaneously thinking of Abe Lincoln.
This is an example of a viral meme. Now when any of our friends note a sudden lull in conversation, we all think and say “Abe Lincoln!”
If you’re reading this, you’ve caught the Abe Lincoln virus. Sorry.
What do you call a room full of conversations that simultaneously end??
I call it a sign that the person everybody was talking about just walked in.
Bertrand Russell told this anecdote about Benjamin Disraeli, to illustrate the humor of homonyms.
It seems that Disraeli was sensitive about the appearance of his big hairy hands. Once at a dinner party the conversation in the room suddenly languished. After a moment of general silence one woman said, “Awful pause.”
Disraeli, who had absentmindedly rested his hands on the tabletop, was seen to quietly but quickly withdraw them and hide them.
I’ve heard it called the “cocktail party effect”.
I’ve also heard it called “lagniappe”.
I thought the “cocktail party effect” was being able to hear someone say your name amid a roomful of chatter.
Maybe as a non-native speaker I don’t have the necessary linguistic instinct, I don’t get this. What’s the homonym to “awful pause” that’s supposed to be humorous here?
I remember reading the Snopes article already linked to years ago, and then I simply thought this was one of Snopes’s rare hoaxes. Interesting to hear that there are really superstitions told on this phenomenon which all of us know, and even more interesting to hear that those legends include Abraham Lincoln, as Snopes implies. I’ll get the Lincoln biography Snopes is citing via interlibrary lending to see what it has to say.
“pause” ~= “paws”, as in the
Let’s try that again. (Was trying to open another window when I accidentally submitted.)
“pause” ~= “paws”, as in the clawed foot of an animal, or by extension, exceptionally large or clumsy human hands.
Disraeli thought that the speaker was referring to his hands as paws, and calling them awful to boot. Does that help explain??
In college, at the house I lived in we called this the “18 minute gap” (from Watergate fame) since it always seemed to happen about 20 minutes into dinner. We’d all look at each other, omeone would say “18 minute gap”, and conversation would resume.