17 June 2016
The Berenst#in Bears Controversy
The Berenstain Bears used to be the Berenstein Bears. LOTS of people remember it as being that way. I do also, to be honest. I had always thought that that was just the more natural way to spell that name, but I also figured that things aren't always as they "feel" right to spell, especially with names. I find myself triple-checking the name when I write about it.
But then? Adelaide Dupont left a comment on my blog about the Mandela Effect, so called because apparently plenty of people also remember Mandela dying in the 1980's. Thousands of people out there distinctly remember the BerenstEin Bears from their childhoods as well.
Another jump: because so many people remember things happening differently than we understand they did today, it's really just proof of parallel universes and these are remnant memories of some kind before things switched. Go ahead and google it - there are a lot of people talking of this. Wow.
Know what? I think we'll find with a bit more research that humans have some sort of logical thought process and sometimes get stuck in certain pathways. Mandela could have easily died in the 1980's and the Berenstains could easily spell their name differently and it wouldn't have been an unusual thing to have had happen. And then our thoughts travel that way but that's not how it really is. Perhaps human brains have "thought grooves" and we tend to think along a certain line.
There's my theory anyway.
Edited to add: I'm not alone. Russell Smith calls this difference between memory and reality Shrodinger's Nostalgia, whereby two distinctly different thoughts are perceived to be true at the same time.
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Look Out, Dad!!
My father is the purple dot above the blue weather station. He's juuust outside Milton's evacuation zone. Well! My brother and I jus...
I've grown up knowing them as BerenstEin, pronounced 'steen' or 'stine'; and always thought this was because the stories originated in Germany and that's how things are spelled and pronounced there.
ReplyDeleteDon't quote me on this because I can't be 100% sure, but that's what I learned growing up.
See? Proof of a parallel universe!
DeleteOr that we have a different memory for some other reason. I remember BerenstEin also. :)
Hi Happy Elf Mom and River:
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I like the # or *: it's a good hashtag or wildcard in the world of computing [the 1981-1990 world pre-Windows when people still used Microsoft DOS and its forks].
And when I'm not sure about something I like to mash a few symbols. Tricked me in Mavis Beacon.
How cool is Schrodinger's Nostalgia?
Yes, we can and do hold multiple thoughts.
The Bears have been nothing but all-American to me. When I learnt about Stan and Jan later in life, I thought "Assimilated!" [as in this Central European Jew].
I was much more into Mercer Mayer and the Little Critter when I was younger.
There are lots of thought trees and rivers and it is about the way we represent and feel our thoughts and where they come from.
Interesting! See, I love Mercer Mayer and never thought about his Jewishness until you just now said something. I can't even find mention of it on wikipedia but it would make sense with the surname.
DeleteMy fave thing with the Little Critter books is asking my little children to find the spider on each page. :)
I never even looked for the spider.
DeleteI've seen it in the inside covers sometimes, for one book in particular, where Little Critter plays baseball.
Would be great to do an investigation into MM.