Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin
The strange business history of the Ouija board (thehustle.co)
42 points by paulpauper on Nov 1, 2022 | hide | past | favorite | 10 comments


And to think how far we have come. Now we have bots and social media to create a veil of deniability over our preferences, and to attribute their veracity to unseen forces, while duping the credulous and trusting.


> Kennard suggested they go into business together, but Reiche failed to see a profit in something people could make themselves.

Why I too suck as a businessman.


I always thought it was odd growing up that everyone called it a “weegee” board. Because that’s certainly not what its spelling would suggest. Is that pronunciation universal, or just local to where I grew up?


Anecdata - where I grew up in the central US, it was specific to families and friend groups. Even in the same grade school, some people called it wee-jah, some called it wee-gee.


The right pronunciation is Luigi board.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=15nNY7uofNw


i grew up in Daytona Beach FL and Abilene TX during the satanic panic even and it was known in both places as "weegee" board. Given what i was told about it growing up you'd think it was a loaded handgun with a hair trigger pointed at your head 8 days a week haha.


We said oh-WEE-gee in Kansas, ha ha. Since the “oui” is purportedly a reference to “yes” you are probably closer than us Kansans.

(Not in this article but another I read suggesting “oui” + “ja” to get “yes-yes” in French/German.)


Not a native speaker, but that's how it is commonly pronounced in TV shows. I also found it odd, but got used to it


Do you not have a word for glass-displacement? That's the name of this practice in German, Gläser-Rücken.


I don't know an English word for that. "Seance" is the word for an attempt (usually in a group) to talk to spirits.

I think most Americans are used to seeing the commercial-style boards with the teardrop shaped indicator, not a drinking glass, so that idiom would not translate.

Is it used as a shorthand for anything spooky? "We are doing science here, not glass-displacement!"




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: