I've been fascinated by this alleged "Mandela Effect" ever since Jim pointed out the fifth Young One, the existence of whom is right there - and obviously so - on my dvds.
Of course, it's entirely possible that she was there all along and that I simply failed to notice her. Perhaps it's just my own refusal to believe that I could have been so blissfully unobservant for so very long that makes me want to consider the possibility that it's reality going wrong rather than my memory.
However, I've recently noticed another detail that has me semi-baffled. This one has to do with punctuation, of all things.
I was taught at school that the word "and" negates the need for a comma. For example, "I have a Prog, a Megazine and a floppy to read" was how I'd always write that sentence. However, I have recently noticed, in books old and new, that this sentence structure now seems to be, "I have a Prog, a Megazine, and a floppy to read." There is now a comma and an and.
I spoke to an old friend about this, a man who was in the same English class as me at school and he also remembers being taught that the word "and" in a list negates the need for a final comma. I suppose that Mr Occam would explain that our English teachers were simply wrong, or teaching us a form that was only briefly in vogue, or that we are both misremembering, or that as an writist I find it difficult to accept that I could have been wrong about such a fundamental (if otherwise entirely trivial) detail. The idea that reality has somehow changed seems rather outlandish but, still, it does have a certain "more things in Heaven and Earth" appeal - especially to a sci-fi fan.
Anyone else having similar experiences? Are we all simply susceptible to false memories or is the Matrix glitching? Either way, I find this to be a fascinating aspect of reality.
