Very weird theory that I found on the Internet

Well I hit the book stores today, only to find a few books imprinted with BerenSTAIN.

The store owners reactions were really funny. They ALL claimed the spelling was stein.
I left each store with the owner frantically typing into google, and muttering "What the?".
One man called his wife and asked her to check their son's books when she got home, lol.

I didn't get a return e-mail from Random House, but on their site I did a search for authors...the only ones showing were 'stain' so I'm not expecting anything back from them.

So basically...I got nothing.
I reman...flummoxed.
jacy

a reply to: jacygirl

Damn, Jacy...you are on this case like a blood-hound. Tip of the hat for tenacity. I hope the answer, if you find it, doesn't drive you mad like a character from a Lovecraft story.

a reply to: skunkape23

Hey skunkape!
Tenacity...I like that word, lol.

You see, the thing is....I don't argue much, I really don't. I only argue when I'm really sure that I know what I'm talking about. I'm the person other people call to remember things for them. Actors names, song lyrics, proper spellings....I'm their go-to word person.

It's not that I can't be wrong...far from it. If I'm wrong about something I will apologize most profusely. But this...this is driving me mad (like you said). Every fibre of my being is telling me that something weird is going on.

I have a feeling that I'm never going to know. Finding proof is proving to be a fruitless venture.
I haven't given up, but the wind has definitely been taken out of my sails.
jacy

originally posted by: yeahright

The following is my opinion as a member participating in this discussion.

And for our next exercise, we can put someone in a round room and tell them to go stand in the corner.

As an ATS Staff Member, I will not moderate in threads such as this where I have participated as a member.

You're running a little late to the smart arse party aren't you? By a few days at least. Get 'em in while you can...

And there it is. You are so convinced your memory CAN'T be wrong because your idea of yourself is that you have an amazing memory. I think your best option here is to just realize your memory was altered by your perception of how it should be spelled. Many people in this thread have linked scientific studies that show how this occurs.

a reply to: jacygirl

This is insane...I clearly remember it as Berenstein, though I agree it was most likely at one point Bernstein. I grew up on those books, among others, and now to find that its supposedly Berenstain... Grates against me. I pride myself on being a great speller, and my memory. I'll have to call my mom up later and see if she can't dig them up... Post with the update.

a reply to: LucidWarrior

Welcome to the club...

a reply to: LucidWarrior

I have the original books as documented earlier in the thread, copyright 1963. You won't find them spelled berenstein. It is Berenstain.

originally posted by: raymundoko
And there it is. You are so convinced your memory CAN'T be wrong because your idea of yourself is that you have an amazing memory. I think your best option here is to just realize your memory was altered by your perception of how it should be spelled. Many people in this thread have linked scientific studies that show how this occurs.

a reply to: jacygirl

You are correct....I do not believe that I am wrong.
jacy

originally posted by: jacygirl

originally posted by: raymundoko
And there it is. You are so convinced your memory CAN'T be wrong because your idea of yourself is that you have an amazing memory. I think your best option here is to just realize your memory was altered by your perception of how it should be spelled. Many people in this thread have linked scientific studies that show how this occurs.

a reply to: jacygirl

You are correct....I do not believe that I am wrong.

jacy

There ya go! Stay strong. The books....they lie. ~ Andrew Zimmer(ma)n

originally posted by: jacygirl
Yes...you are right, I am wrong. My memory is gone, my mind is addled and I likely shouldn't have access to a computer.
Please have someone remove all pointy objects from my home, I just might decide to run with scissors.
jacy

Hahahahha...thanks for the best laugh all day....hell all week.

I'm with you here!

a reply to: raymundoko

I don't think anyone is arguing the fact that your books say "Stain". Matter of fact, I see most of us admitting that we may never even find a misprint at this point. What we are saying is that we remember the spelling being different. CLEARLY we all have noticed that the books have "Stain" on them now. There is not point in repeating it over and over... We know.

The memory is still there and that is what we are trying to figure out.

When I was in high school I believed the Universe was vibrations. Consciousness was bio-electric impulses. When I finished college I realized that I had been wrong. Consciousness was non-local and the brain was a receiver, like a radio, but not a receiver of electromagnetic vibrations. There is something else that permeates the Universe, ( maybe so called dark matter ) we being conscious animals are part of this matrix if you will.

Every once in a while there's a hiccup in the matrix and our perception of something changes.

Now I was on the Stein side, but I remembered an incident from a few years ago when I was on Facebook for a time. I need to explain that when I was in school, I went to a local school that had both elementary and high school grades. More than 75% of the pupils went through their education, like me, from third grade right up to senior high school grade. Basically you sat in a room for eight hours a day, nine months of the year with the same people, year after year. Now I got a message on Facebook from an old classmate and during some reminiscences we posted back and forth I reminded him of an incident from our sophomore year in high school with a particular teacher. He informed me that I got the incident right, but it was in sixth grade and a different teacher. So, this coming from the horse's mouth so to speak, I accepted the fact that I had mis-remembered the incident.

Now I think it is the same thing. I distinctly remember reading my youngest daughter The Berenstein Bears. The physical evidence from both the authors themselves and the book covers show that Berenstain is correct. I have to accept this evidence and chalk up my mistake as a false memory.

Or was it a hiccup?

originally posted by: Diderot
a reply to: LadyGreenEyes
You know, I was really struck by the absolute certainty of your convictions. No doubt whatsoever. But the same can be said of those in the opposite camp. The "-stain" camp says sorry "-steiners", but all many thousands of you are flat wrong.
The "-stein" camp says they are right and something about time or space or whatever.
But you know what, LGE? I happen to agree with you 100%. Having said that, I have great compassion and empathy for the
"-steiners". There but for the grace of God go I... Perhaps the hardest thing for me to do is admit that I am wrong. Some day I will experience that. (Just kidding!) By the way, did you know that "stein" is German for stone. How ironic is that?

That is Ironic, and I did know, but hadn't related it to this. Funny!

Yes, they are sure, because false memories will do that. I am sure because I have had the books around for decades, literally, clearly remember trying to spell the name as a child, and thinking it was an odd spelling, and of course, because we can see image after image after image of "-stain" on the books. I really do understand where the "-stein" crowd is coming from, though. It's easy to see that many would read it quickly, and assume the more traditional spelling was used, and learn that from adults, and thus have that as a "memory" of how it was actually written.

I have some weird "memories" myself, that are serious enough to make me consider something strange happening, but they are most likely the same sort of false memories. Example, I was SURE the post office was down one street, when it was down another a few blocks further along. I was SURE I remembered driving to it on the one road. Did the town change? Seems far more likely to be a false memory, but it's very clear to me. In this case, it's a more common error, so a LOT of people have the same issue, and thus it's easier to believe something changed.

Being wrong........that could be interesting. :barfjoke)

originally posted by: jacygirl
a reply to: skunkape23

Hey skunkape!
Tenacity...I like that word, lol.

You see, the thing is....I don't argue much, I really don't. I only argue when I'm really sure that I know what I'm talking about. I'm the person other people call to remember things for them. Actors names, song lyrics, proper spellings....I'm their go-to word person.

It's not that I can't be wrong...far from it. If I'm wrong about something I will apologize most profusely. But this...this is driving me mad (like you said). Every fibre of my being is telling me that something weird is going on.

I have a feeling that I'm never going to know. Finding proof is proving to be a fruitless venture.
I haven't given up, but the wind has definitely been taken out of my sails.
jacy

I can understand that, even though we are on opposite sides of this issue. There is a book I first read years ago, called Carnosaur, in which I clearly remember a scene with a boy, in a second floor bedroom, seeing a tarbosaurus (sort of like a smaller t-rex) in his backyard, at the pool, and after the dog. Kid had a fish tank, and parents didn't believe him when he said there was a dinosaur in the yard. I read the book several times, and always loved that scene. Then, The Lost World (movie) came out, and I saw the SAME SCENE in it. I was a bit ticked. Now, I can't find the scene int he book. The copy I used to have drowned in my basement, and the replacement I have does NOT have that scene in it. I suspect that the movie people hunted down and destroyed the old copies, but I can't prove it. It does drive me a bit nuts, though, so I can imagine how you feel about this one.

I'm the same as you. I clearly remember asking my mom how to say it (she told me stein because it was German) and she told me people can spell their names however they want...she didn't know it was actually stayn. I think that's why I read it to my brother as bernsteen.

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

False memories...

I remember stain and I have the books to back me up. My brother remembers stein and has zip. He is now convinced I'm his brother from another universe. Hippy artists are the woooorst.

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

a reply to: raymundoko

Probably the case with most. I don't recall asking the parents, but then, we were taught how to read pretty young, and I wanted to learn for myself, only asking if I couldn't figure something out. A lot of German in my family as well, so if I had asked, I might have heard "-stein" as well. I am sure I always said it as "-stein", though, even knowing the spelling was "off".

Names are funny. I have relatives with the surname "Daugherty", who pronounce it, "Darty", but I have heard others with the same spelling pronounce it quite differently.