Michael has these new pair of rain boot galoshes that he thinks are really amazing. When I first saw him wearing them, I thought he bought a new pair of bright orange, pointy bowling shoes. But these galoshes, these bright orange galoshes, aren’t a pair of shoes, but are simply covers for Michael’s regular tennis shoes. They slip right on and off. So now, when it rains, which is often, he doesn’t have to sit in his office with wet sneakers or bring an extra pair of shoes. He just has to, before he leaves his apartment, remember to slip on his new, bright orange galoshes.
—Jessica Man
The title is a play on the term odd sympathy, which was first coined by the physicist Christiaan Huygens. He used the term to explain the strange behavior he noticed in two of his grandfather clocks: no matter when the pendulums were released they always migrated to a sympathetic swing, one pendulum always opposite the other.
The term also defines several other behaviors:
The fireflies of Southeast Asia (the Pteroptyx malaccae) who flash in unison. (A trait which is mimicked by the the Photinus carolinus and Phoruis frontalis of North America during an annual mating ritual.)
The possible marshaling of menstrual cycles known as the Whitten effect.
The chirping of crickets, which always trob in time.
The moment when an applauding crowd suddenly constricts and finds synchronicity.
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