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.
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.
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.
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!"