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Coincidences

Here's an odd one, Reading Terry Pratchett's The Truth and getting to a bit where a character speculates on how much trouble they're in, on a scale of one to ten. She plucks a random number out of the air and says they are {{several thousand, several hundred and a bit}} out of ten on the "being in trouble" scale. Except that the random number chosen by Terry: it's a sequence of numbers I have used, in the past, as part of my main computer password... exactly so. Number for number and in the correct order. Now if he'd got the alpha part as well as the numeric, I'd be worried...
 
Here's an odd one, Reading Terry Pratchett's The Truth and getting to a bit where a character speculates on how much trouble they're in, on a scale of one to ten. She plucks a random number out of the air and says they are {{several thousand, several hundred and a bit}} out of ten on the "being in trouble" scale. Except that the random number chosen by Terry: it's a sequence of numbers I have used, in the past, as part of my main computer password... exactly so. Number for number and in the correct order. Now if he'd got the alpha part as well as the numeric, I'd be worried...

I bet you're relieved all his computer files were destroyed after he died.
 
Here's an odd one, Reading Terry Pratchett's The Truth and getting to a bit where a character speculates on how much trouble they're in, on a scale of one to ten. She plucks a random number out of the air and says they are {{several thousand, several hundred and a bit}} out of ten on the "being in trouble" scale. Except that the random number chosen by Terry: it's a sequence of numbers I have used, in the past, as part of my main computer password... exactly so. Number for number and in the correct order. Now if he'd got the alpha part as well as the numeric, I'd be worried...

A couple of years ago I was reading about someone who'd been conned out of money by being induced to invest in fine wines. I laughed and said aloud 'Ohh, fine wines, eh!'

Techy was sitting next to me. He gaped and said 'Why'd you say that?' :actw:
He was setting a password using that phrase.

I just said oh ya know, psychic an' all that! :D
 
This morning I wrapped up a present and wrote a card for my friend's daughter who is getting married again on Saturday.
I don't usually visit my friend till mid-afternoon but thought I would drop it in anyway.
When I got there, her daughter had dropped in on her way to do some last minute shopping as she had a day off work so I was able to give it to her directly, as she left 5 minutes later.
 
We have several coincidence threads so I'm not sure if I've already bored you with this.

Anyway, here goes - a while ago I was chatting with a colleague whom I don't know well. I mentioned the fact that disabled people should get some help when they're out and about, even if only because any of us could become disabled, just temporarily.

I said 'YOU could break a leg playing rugby and end up in a wheelchair for a bit!'

He said 'I broke BOTH legs playing rugby! How'd you know that?'

er, a guess?
 
Watching Netflix, I accidentally knocked some control on the doofer and the language/subtitles options appeared. The characters then began speaking German with English subtitles.

I cursed a bit and began searching for the options to turn them off but got nowhere. They seemed to be already on English/Subtitiles Off, though that wasn't what I heard and saw on screen.

Eventually I gave up and switched off the satellite box altogether and restarted it, and rewound a bit, and found that the characters had actually been speaking German with English subtitles...

It was The Secret Of Crickley Hall. The Secret, if you need to know, is that
I'm an idiot.
 
A typical but very striking case of The Radio Angel today.

I got up very late, so wasted no time on breakfast or internet or news. Togs on and up to Oldham, for a root around before dusk.
I was very pleased to find a copy of Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 in Oxfam. It's a film I knew of but had never managed to see. Thoughts of the French director always lead to reflections on his early death.

Back home at 5.45, I set about sorting some washing and arranging a very late breakfast. It was not until about 6.10 pm that I went upstairs to get the computer running and turned on the radio. The very first words I heard were, "he was camera-man for Truffaut on Fahrenheit 451 . . . " It came into focus as an obituary of Nic Roeg, who died yesterday! :freak:
 
October half term we went to Norfolk and were shopping in Cromer Morrison's for some dinner. Cromer is about 3 hours from where we live. Anyway, someone shouted my name and it was my gym instructor I had not seen for about 7 years....
 
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It's not an earth-shattering coincidence, but perhaps a slightly surprising one. I was searching eBay for old photographs and a press image of a boy intently playing chess in the 1930s turned up. Out of idle curiosity I clicked on the listing and the 'blurb' on the back of the picture gave his name as A. J. Fishwick and then the name of my old school. The combination of initials and name immediately rang a bell and set me off playing with the various possible pronunciations of his surname (it is just Fish-wick, is it?) and I got a real sensation of déjà vu while doing so. A lot of Googling turned up the reason: this name appears on a war memorial plaque--in my old school library! I must have gazed up at it for hours when I was younger and probably puzzled over his surname just as I had recently done once more. The plaque bears seventy names, but this one stuck. Further googling and help from some knowledgable people reveal that he was killed (presumed drowned) aged just nineteen as an apprentice on the merchant navy vessel S.S. Goolistan, when it was torpedoed by a U-boat in 1942. Further genealogy work turned up that he and his family lived on the same road as I used to live on (years later).His parents must have had a pretty miserable time because Hilda, one of Arthur's two sisters, had already died (aged just 8 or 9) in 1935.

On November 23rd, 1942, the British cargo ship GOOLISTAN, built in 1929 by Short Brothers and owned by Common Bros., on voyage from Archangel to Loch Ewe with a cargo of timber and cellulose, was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-625, between Bear Island and Spitzbergen. The crew, abandoning the burning GOOLISTAN, went for the boats, but 52 people (42 crew and 10 gunners) lost their lives.

Arthur is also commemorated on the Tower Hill monument in London (see below).

Rest in peace, Arthur John Fishwick.

View attachment 8917View attachment 8918View attachment 8919View attachment 8920

I have a slightly longer account with more details of the sinking here:

At 00.56 hours on 23 Nov 1942 the unescorted Goolistan (Master William Thomson), a straggler from station #53 in convoy QP-15, was hit by one of two torpedoes from U-625 between Bear Island and Spitzbergen. The U-boat had spotted the ship one hour earlier and approached for a submerged attack, but experienced some difficulties due to the ice cold weather as important gauges were frozen, the periscope became stuck on twelve metres and the periscope head had to be constantly freed from ice by diving. The explosion set the cargo on fire and the crew began to abandon ship when she settled slowly. At 01.45 hours, the burning vessel sank after being hit underneath the bridge by a coup de grâce at 01.18 hours. The Germans questioned the occupants of the lifeboats and were told that the master had remained aboard when they asked for him. However, the survivors were never found, the master, 41 crew members and ten gunners were lost.
More details, including a list of the crew and information about the U-Boat that sank her:​
A combination of your mind's eye and this map can probably provide a mental picture of what conditions would have been like in the early hours of the morning in November 1942.

Screen Shot 2018-12-02 at 14.11.50.png
 
At 01.25 this morning, I posted a Youtube video of some horrible Armenian music on the Music thread in Chat.

I had also explored some of the poster's other gems, including ones on the Bilbil label. He explains on one of the posts that the word Bilbil means nightingale, the bird featuring on the label design.

Shortly afterwards, I retired to bed, where my bedside reading is Flann O'Brien's surreal novel, The Third Policeman. I had reached Chapter 5 and started reading . . .

On the second page of that chapter, the Second Policeman, MacCruiskeen, quizzes the unnamed narrator . . .

'Can you notify me of the meaning of a bulbul? . . . A bulbul is a Persian nightingale. What do you think of that now?'

:actw:
 
I'm being bombarded with the Defenestration Of Prague; which is a sentence I never thought I'd write.

Since explaining it to someone last month it crops up everywhere. The latest being BBC iplayer today "The History Of Christianity".
 

I did wonder if O'Brien's policeman's question was inspired by that once-celebrated song. I remember Frank Crumit's version and wondered if he wrote it.

But no, it was Irishman Percy French, back in 1879!

The Wikipedia page gives a colourful variant, sung by rugger-buggers:

The wager was won, Ivan shouldered his gun
And bent down to polish the pair
When something red hot up his back passage shot

It was Abdul Abulbul Amir! :omg:

. . .

The sad, Grecian maiden her long vigil keeps
With a husband whose tastes have turned queer
With the nights growing long, she longs for the dong
Of Abdul Abulbul Amir.


None of the lyrics refer to the nightingale, so I assume the name was chosen for its sonorous effect.
 
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Yesterday someone showed me a cartoon on Facebook of Trump and Putin playing a board game. Putin has chess pieces and Trump has draughts/checkers.

Took me a moment to get it but yeah, it's quite funny and, I thought, original.

Tonight we're watching Breaking Bad and I googled a detail about the episode.

This came up, posted 7 years ago, explaining why one character always came out best -

Its checkers (Walt) vs. chess (Gus).

So, not so original after all!
 
October half term we went to Norfolk and were shopping in Cromer Morrison's for some dinner. Cromer is about 3 hours from where we live. Anyway, someone shouted my name and it was my gym instructor I had not seen for about 7 years....
On the second day after I'd moved to Cromer, I went for a pint on the pier .. I didn't know anyone in Cromer yet then I overheard a customer starting to order some drinks and his voice sounded familiar .. "Yes, can I have an orange and passion fruit J20 .." so I continued with " .. and his wife will have a 175ml pinot spritzer with soda not lemonade and a single ice cube" .. he was only bloody well one of my regulars from the tiny pub I'd just stopped working in in a village in Derbyshire four plus hour drive away !? .. weird ..

How's your old gym instructor getting along ? (or how's he getting on in Norfolkese)

edit: and equally weird, I got chatting to a barmaid in what used to be the Dolphin Pub (I hadn't met the Mrs yet and I secretly fancied the barmaid) .. she told me she'd moved to Cromer from Leicester :

Me: "Cool, I used to go clubbing in Leicester and I lived in a village called Oakham near there for a bit"
Her: "I'm from Oakham!"
.. then we chatted about the place and she started name dropping people including **** **** ..

Me: "No fucking way! .. **** **** .. she was my girlfriend!?"
Her: "She was my best friend!"

.. so I'm not sure why I never met this barmaid at the time in '97, our paths should have crossed before.

On my first day in Cromer, I got headbutted by a muntjac deer that I was asked to rescue from some over excited dogs on the beach .. I walked back into town from the beach with deer blood all down me and that's when I realised this was the right place for me.
 
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Recently had a coincidence to do with TV, Facebook and our dear and much-missed fellow poster Pete.

I was looking at Facebook and half-listening to a TV programme about the role of European railways in the Holocaust.

On Facebook there was a silly meme, something like 'Share this bacon if you LOVE bacon! Ignore it if you worship Satan!' or summat.

Our dear late friend Pete had replied 'What if you're Jewish?'

At that moment, someone on TV mentioned that the trains were full of Jews. (Yes, it was put more or less like that.)

I thought ooh, what a coincidence! and then the advert break started, and I heard 'Bacon!' spoken to the actor Kevin Bacon.

Bacon and Jewish people - the Cosmic Joker is pushing it a bit. Or was it Pete deriding me again?
 
Just now I was looking at a Facebook memory from 2016. It was the St Albans Organ Scholar playing Life on Mars in tribute to David Bowie who'd then recently died.

My comment on the original posting was 'I didn't know until last week that Rick Wakeman played piano on Life On Mars.'

Just then Rick Wakeman began talking on t'wireless about his musical memories. He was specifically describing his relationship with his late father whom he hopes to meet again some day. How very apt.
 
I had just resisted posting a lame reference to Lassie, the famous canine star, on the Food & Drink thread, where posters were discussing the correct spelling of the yoghurt drink of similar-sounding name.

Immediately after, I moved on to the thread about Old-School Cool, with its references to Vivien Leigh and Gone With The Wind. I had memories of first seeing the blockbuster on its First Television Showing in the UK, so I used the BBC's Genome site to check the date. It turned out to have been spread across two nights: Boxing Day and 27th December, 1981 on BBC 1.

I scrolled up the page and next-door-but-two is The Magic of Lassie, a late-entry musical version of the dawgie-saga!:actw:
 
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I had just resisted posting a lame reference to Lassie, the famous canine star, on the Food & Drink thread, where posters were discussing the correct spelling of the yoghurt drink of similar-sounding name.

Immediately after, I moved on to the thread about Old-School Cool, with its references to Vivien Leigh and Gone With The Wind. I had memories of first seeing the blockbuster on its First Television Showing in the UK, so I used the BBC's Genome site to check the date. It turned out to have been spread across two nights: Boxing Day and 27th December, 1981 on BBC 1.

I scrolled up the page and next-door-but-two is The Magic of Lassie, a late-entry musical version of the dawgie-saga!:actw:

My youngest was nearly 2 one xmas when Lassie was on TV. Her father switched over and she spoke her first sentence - 'Dog back on!'
 
Re post from IHTM

Lots of odd things have happened to me over the years I don't really know where to start tbh. There has also been a lot of synchronicity going on over the years and some of it is very music related.There seems to be a very close link for me with music and TV and this covers decades. When I used to listen to Radio 1 years ago I would think of a song and next thing it would be on the radio when I switched it on or when I listened to it. Tunes specifically relative to goings on in a daily life etc not general ones. Way too many examples of this. So I was wondering if anyone else finds synchronistic events linked to music? It is weird but I find it comforting as it tells me I am tuned in to something positive and sort of on the correct path if that makes sense. It can increase at times too, can speed up in frequency and last for various amounts of time. Find it hard to explain as I am a bit nervous posting in case I bore you all to death!

Here's one for example. Out shopping one day and saw the most lovely photo frame in a shop window. It was a pair of silver antiqued Angel wings and I wanted it for my late Dads photo. I spent a good 5 mins peering at it in the window and decided to go in and buy it. The shop had a radio station on and as I stood by the counter paying for the frame the tune There must be an Angel by the Eurythmics came on. One of my favourite tunes but so unexpected. I knew I had to have it and was right to buy it. Felt it was a subliminal message and it comforted me.

Would love to hear your experiences of this.
 
'Not Dead Yet' tour: Man resuscitated at Phil Collins gig
7 Feb, 2019 12:39pm
2 minutes to read
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Phil Collins rocked Napier from his seat on the Mission stage. Photo / Paul Taylor
Hawkes Bay Today


A man who collapsed at Wednesday night's Phil Collins concert is in a serious but stable condition after another concertgoer noticed his fall and gave him CPR.
St John Hawke's Bay territory manager Brendon Hutchinson said the man had suffered a cardiac arrest at the English pop star's Napier stop of his global "Not Dead Yet" tour.
A family member said the man "clinically died" after collapsing near toilets at the Mission Estate winery venue. A member of the public gave him CPR.
etc

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/...ZBFaSf8eG7ex2mtS7M1EA4CrYvcXnrQW86aitvGaZ2Bfg
 
Will the next tour be called 'Like Death Warmed Up', I wonder?
 
Just now I was on way to bed via the bathroom and thinking about Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, about Gary Gilmore. Gilmore's final words inspired the Nike slogan just do it, which I then heard spoken on t'wireless in my bedroom. Yow.
 
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