Whenever I think of death I think of sex (page 3)

Country Girl

I'd always "heard" that the birth rate went up 9 months after natural disasters. Now I have great doubt about this:

Claim: Nine months after the Great Blackout of 1965, the birth rate in New York City increased dramatically.

Status: False.

Origins: Despite

initial reports of New York City hospitals' seeing a dramatic increase in the number of births nine Oh, baby

months after the 1965 blackout, later analyses showed the birth rate during that period to be well within the norm.

A series of three articles appearing in The New York Times from August 10-12 in 1966 reported larger-than-average numbers of births at several area hospitals, leading many to declare that the ten-hour overnight blackout the city experienced nine months earlier had led to an unusually high number of conceptions that evening. As often happens, however, people formed predetermined conclusions and then tried to fit the data to them. The birth rate nine months after the blackout did not show a statistically significant difference from the rate of birth recorded during the same period in any of the five previous years.

It is a common belief that the number of conceptions increases during natural disasters or crises that keep people confined within their homes for unexpectedly long periods of times. Nine months after such events ? blackouts, blizzards, earthquakes, erupting volcanoes, ice storms, and even strikes by professional football players ? reports about "baby booms" in local hospitals invariably appear in the media. However, these "booms" always turn out to be nothing more than natural fluctuations in the birth rate (or, in many cases, no variation in the birth rate at all). Of course, we never hear about these fluctuations when they are not preceded by some unusual event. (Conversely, when these fluctuations do occur, reporters go scrambling to find some earlier event to "blame" them on.)

As J. Richard Udry stated at the conclusion of his article about the effect of the New York City blackout on the birth rate, it "is evidently pleasing to many people to fantasize that when people are trapped by some immobilizing event which deprives them of their usual activities, most will turn to copulation."

Additional information:

Births Up 9 Months After the Blackout
(The New York Times, 10 August 1966)

Theories Abound on Birth Increase
(The New York Times, 11 August 1966)

Hospitals Report Birth Rates Gradually Returning to Normal
(The New York Times, 12 August 1966)

The Effect of the Great Blackout of 1965 on Births in New York City
(Demography, August 1970)

Last updated: 7 March 2000

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Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2003
by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson
This material may not be reproduced without permission

Sources Sources:

Arnold, Tom. "The Chilling Truth Behind Ice Storm Baby Boom: There Wasn't One!": National Post. 27 November 1998 (p. A5).
Brunvand, Jan Harold. The Baby Train.: New York: W. W. Norton, 1993. ISBN 0-393-31208-9 (p .37).
Tolchin, Martin. "Births Up 9 Months After Blackout.": The New York Times. 10 August 1966 (p. 1).
Tolchin, Martin. "Theories Abound on Birth Increase.": The New York Times. 11 August 1966 (p. 1).
Tolchin, Martin. "Hospitals Report Birth Rates Gradually Returning to Normal.": The New York Times. 12 August 1966 (p. 1).
Udry, J. Richard. "The Effect of the Great Blackout of 1965 on Births in New York City.": Demography. August 1970 (pp. 325-327).

ColdRedRain

Whenever I think of death, I think of sex too. It's not because of the big A, it's because of the big S&M.

Elsewhere

lmao... yeah when I was a young dubie I was terrified that I would die or Armageddon would come before I got to do the nasty.

xjw_b12

Stef said:

I stopped wondering about the big A

The Big O is much more interesting !

Fed Up

If you can't have sex, what's the point of living?

The JWs don't believe there will be any sex involved in the "afterlife"?

That should tell you right there their religious beliefs are WRONG!

Stephanie, your husband doesn't like to try new things in bed? And was TURNED OFF when you tried "spicing" things up by talking dirty to him?

For a man...he's just not right! Someday you will work up the courage to leave him and after you find the first guy who shows you how much FUN sex really is, you will be kicking yourself for staying with the jerk as long as you did!

iiz2cool

Whenever I think of death I think of sex

I'm dying for some good sex. I think about it all the time.

Walter

Stefanie

For a man...he's just not right! Someday you will work up the courage to leave him and after you find the first guy who shows you how much FUN sex really is, you will be kicking yourself for staying with the jerk as long as you did!

Right on!

Obviously Secret

The JWs don't believe there will be any sex involved in the "afterlife"?

Lol honey, most JW's wouldn't be in it if that was true.

gods vigilante

Hey wait! Isn't Paradise where I'll receive 77 virgins!? That's what I was in it for.