Etsy

Monday 21 May 2012

The world’s most severe case of déjà vu

The world’s most severe case of déjà vu was attributed to Glenn Mackerbie, of Harare, Zimbabwe in May 1998, after he spent fifteen years insisting that every day was one he remembered from before. His wife Gladys said,
“It has had such an effect on our life. I know he can’t help it, but my feelings were hurt slightly when I organised a surprise fiftieth birthday party for him, and he just said, ‘Didn’t we do this yesterday?’”
 The previous title holder, Nicole Panacetti, of Lisbon, Portugal, was disqualified when it was discovered that she had lived in the same room for 9 years, listening to the same Gladys Knight & The Pips LP, and reading the same copy of Barbara Cartland’s book Passion in the Ironmonger’s, and thus forcibly conditioning herself to constantly experience a ‘synthetic déjà vu.’
 Glenn and Gladys Mackerbie, pictured on vacation in the United States in 1997. Glenn's déjà vu continued on the trip, much to the annoyance of Gladys. She wrote in her diary of the trip, "Again, Glenn is asking if we have been here before. We haven't even visited this continent before!" Photograph by Mangrove Mike.


©2012 James Mathurin