tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post6589650941329095578..comments2024-03-29T05:33:43.878-04:00Comments on Murder is Everywhere: The Tanganyikan Laughter Epidemic and Other HystericsOvidia Yuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05749549092493567689noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-52917697529309317072015-04-13T20:27:43.167-04:002015-04-13T20:27:43.167-04:00Well... maybe a character. :)Well... maybe a character. :)Everett Kaserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12371555243187874414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-79448666215305929532015-04-13T18:30:08.435-04:002015-04-13T18:30:08.435-04:00That's okay, Jeff, sometimes the things we do,...That's okay, Jeff, sometimes the things we do, without meaning to, reveal a great deal more about our character than the things we mean to do. Not that I'm calling you mean. Or a character.<br />Everett Kaserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12371555243187874414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-44551113147684453922015-04-13T18:06:39.833-04:002015-04-13T18:06:39.833-04:00Very interesting! It makes me wonder if there is ...Very interesting! It makes me wonder if there is a tie-in to the entertainment world's belief that the most insecure folk in the industry are comedians! I also wonder whether early exposure to MPI can explain curmudgeonry in later life...not meaning to be pointing any fingers, EvKa.Jeffrey Sigerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00718317707555064653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-14923397564687618402015-04-13T17:20:14.603-04:002015-04-13T17:20:14.603-04:00Fascinating. I knew giggling and laughter were con...Fascinating. I knew giggling and laughter were contagious, and could go on for a protracted time, but I'd never heard of anything like this!<br /><br />This is why I love this blog. I always learn something interesting here.Susan Spannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03770560542416086762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-30994286569756701462015-04-13T16:16:56.294-04:002015-04-13T16:16:56.294-04:00Funny you should mention Stephen King in relation ...Funny you should mention Stephen King in relation to your experience. I thought of him and Hitchcock as the only people I know of who could do you story justice in print or film.Annamaria Alfierihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12311596277267789834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-36293808596769066332015-04-13T16:05:26.877-04:002015-04-13T16:05:26.877-04:00Yes, it WAS a truly horrifying week, but prime mat...Yes, it WAS a truly horrifying week, but prime material for a novel. It was almost like being on a cruise ship with a madman running around attacking people (or so it seemed at the time). Of course, most of it was entirely in the minds of the people in that tightly packed area, although there were apparently a few non-murderous attacks that contributed to the confusion and fear. I've often thought of that week, both in terms of what happened and what it taught me about human psychology. Reading Stephen King years later definitely sounded echoes in my mind of that week.Everett Kaserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12371555243187874414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-75997996593970975202015-04-13T15:49:06.283-04:002015-04-13T15:49:06.283-04:00YIKES!! Wow, EvKa. How awful that must have been...YIKES!! Wow, EvKa. How awful that must have been for all concerned. And again, all the hallmarks of MPI--a group of people in a confined place, powerless to deal with a situation. In your case, something truly terrifying had happened. NOT to make light of it, but it would make a setting for a horror novel. Horrific as it must have been.Annamaria Alfierihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12311596277267789834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-28487453939615829812015-04-13T15:43:49.119-04:002015-04-13T15:43:49.119-04:00Thank you, Allan. What a lovely thing to say. In...Thank you, Allan. What a lovely thing to say. In all sincerity, I am inspired to keep up the tone set on MIE from its founding, by all our bloggers past and present. Annamaria Alfierihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12311596277267789834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-17600238026388914942015-04-13T14:02:52.296-04:002015-04-13T14:02:52.296-04:00One of the most intense weeks I've experienced...One of the most intense weeks I've experienced was primed for MPI, though I can't say it went that far.<br /><br />I was in my first year of college at Oregon State U when, on Feb 8, 1972, Nancy Diane Wyckoff was murdered in her dorm room just across the street from the dorm I lived in, stabbed in the heart by a large knife. The knife wasn't found until much later. The week before two other women had been attacked on campus (probably rape attempts). In the following week, in the depths of winter, short days, long dark nights, in the highly concentrated population of young people on campus, rumors ran wild and fear bloomed like mold on meat left in a warm dark space. One day a disturbed student lightly cut his neck with a razor blade, then ran into our dorm's office, wildly claiming that someone had tried to choke him with piano wire. Another day, a guy started to walk into a women's bathroom in the colliseum, the women inside screamed and he ran away, and within the hour the story bounced back and forth across campus, turning into another attack. Several other women on other nights felt (or WERE) attacked in the dark of evening, and again rumors ran wild. A program was instituted where women in the "girl's dorms" could request an escort, and men from the "boy's dorms", who'd signed up, would go to their dorm and escort them to the library or a classroom. It was dark from 4:30pm until 7:30am, and the nights seemed to last forever and be filled with fear at every turn. At least once or twice a day a new rumor would run wild across campus, burning through the student body, of a new attack, a new menace. The police interviewed EVERYONE in all of the dorms on campus. I had a singular interview, as my roommate that term was a ...er... unique... individual, very much "out of the norm," and he'd been mentioned to the police by a number of folks as being VERY strange. He was asked to go to the colliseum security office for a lie detector test, and he was PISSED... not for having to take the test, but because it was during the daily 4:00 Wild Wild West rerun that he watched religiously.<br /><br />It was an intense, bizarre, fascinating, strange, scary week. Eventually the hysteria died down, and about 6 weeks later, a young man was arrested for the murder: he was a spurned boyfriend who'd shown up at her door in the middle of the night and, when she answered the door, he stabbed her through the heart.<br /><br />But I'll never forget the experience of that "week of terror and rumor", seeing first-hand what can happen when 15,000 young people are crammed into a 1/4-square-mile area and murder happens...Everett Kaserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12371555243187874414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-47913055628919298622015-04-13T11:14:35.554-04:002015-04-13T11:14:35.554-04:00You have the most interesting posts, Annamaria.You have the most interesting posts, Annamaria.Allan J. Emersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06066540739977912609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-61626288593929734092015-04-13T09:33:40.641-04:002015-04-13T09:33:40.641-04:00Thelma, your description fits the profile for MPI-...Thelma, your description fits the profile for MPI--a group of people all under the same stress with no way of comforting themselves except in hysterical action. Of course you did it too. You were--like all the new students--filled with fear of the unknown. Absolve yourself. And maybe watch some Eurovision. It will make you laugh for good reason. Annamaria Alfierihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12311596277267789834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-29983077228261538782015-04-13T09:11:43.096-04:002015-04-13T09:11:43.096-04:00An episode occurred in an elite Virginia college w...An episode occurred in an elite Virginia college when I was a freshmen: it sounds like a form of MPI. The freshman marched on the sophomore building and trashed it - all the while laughing and shouting - this was never recorded in the hostory of the college - but it was a wild example of mass hysteria. These were girls from fine families and all of high I.Q. T. J. Straw, who was in the crowd, swept along with the mass emotion - now ashamed to have been a poart of it. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com