THE PRIMAL SCREAM. The New York magazine issue for February 22-March 6 had a section about experiences that New Yorkers have had with their neighbors. One article by S. Jhoanna Robledo answered one of two questions I had about a recurring event when we lived on the 14th floor of an apartment building on 14th Street.
During the period when we were living in the Manhattan apartment, at some time between ten and eleven on most Saturday mornings, we would hear in our bathroom two or three full-throated screams from another floor in the building. It never happened on other days in the week.
The question that was answered was: Where did the sound come from? The article says: “According to acoustics expert Alan Fierstein of Acoustilog,…sounds [such as of barking dogs] travel down through vents in kitchens and bathrooms: ‘They connect to a hollow, completely unlined duct that runs vertically through most buildings. It’s a perfect speaking tube.’â€
The remaining question is: “Why?”