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Strange Coincidences?

A little TV coincidence -

Just now I was reading online about the rescue of a boy of 6 in the sea off Black Rock Sands in Wales.

It's a notoriously dangerous beach. The tide creeps up behind you and cuts you off.
Years ago I took my kids there and nearly killed us all when we didn't notice the sea doing this and we ended up running for our lives!

Sadly, around the same time a man from the next town along from ours was drowned while rescuing some children there.

Anyway... the other notable thing that happened there was that as the ex was learning to drive practiced by running our vehicle up and down the beach. I was thinking about this when I glanced up and saw Walter White on t'box letting Walter Junior drive his car round a car park, heh!
 
I don't know if they're strange in themselves, but the sheer volume is - I'm getting about five or so big coincidences every day, mostly thinking about something then it appears in what I'm reading/watching/listening to a few hours later. Too many to mention! I'm beginning to worry I have a condition (jamais vu, is it?)
 
One night during my college years my friend and I went to a local bar to meet a couple of friends, Dick and Henry. When we entered the almost empty bar we saw Dick and asked him where Henry was. Dick said he had gone to the restroom. Henry, a semi-professional American football player, was one of the biggest individuals I have known. He was 6’ 7”, weighted close to 400 lbs., had huge hands, and was immensely strong.

We had driven to the bar in a convertible and so headed for the restroom to comb our hair so we did not scare off any young ladies who might show up. When we entered I noticed a large pair of feet under one stall door. While we were at the sink, I made a (admittedly weak) joke about Henry’s size by saying loudly “Look there are two guys in that stall”. Suddenly a voice called out from the adjacent stall saying “You better mind your own business or you’ll be sorry”. Looking that direction we could see two pairs of shoes in that stall. Henry recognized my voice and took offense to the threat from next door. He yelled “You better shut up or I’ll kick your #$%#”, grabbed the bottoms of the walls of his stall and lifted ripping the stall off the floor. Since all the stalls were connected, the adjacent stall also started to come loose. He then let it drop back down with a loud crash. Seeing Henry’s huge hands and display of strength seemed to impress his neighbors and they became silent.

My friend and I exited the restroom, followed by Henry a couple minutes later. The four of us had a good laugh while we waited to see who would emerge from the restroom. After about 20 minutes two guys skulked out and almost ran for the exit. They must have been hoping whatever the giant thing next to them was, it would depart if they delayed their exit.

Our best guess was a drug deal was the reason they were sharing a stall. Whatever the reason, that was the only time I ever made a comment like that and it seems to me to be an incredible coincidence that it actually was true when I made it.
 
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Another coincidence from my college days.

On the first day of classes second semester of my freshman year an odd coincidence occurred that I still remember. My philosophy class had about 25 students and the professor started the class by reading the roster to see if anyone was missing or in the wrong class. When he had read a few names he announced “Jones, John” and then “Jones, Robert”. At that point he stopped because those two individuals were identical. He stated he had been teaching for 30 years and never had a set of identical twins before and it was going to be difficult keeping trying to figure out who he was talking to. He proceeded on with the roll call until he got to Wilson, John and Wilson, Thomas. Yep, another set of identical twins. The stunned look on his face was priceless.
 
GNC said:
I don't know if they're strange in themselves, but the sheer volume is - I'm getting about five or so big coincidences every day, mostly thinking about something then it appears in what I'm reading/watching/listening to a few hours later. Too many to mention! I'm beginning to worry I have a condition (jamais vu, is it?)
Click to expand...

You're thinking of déjà vu, the feeling that you've already experienced what's happening now.
Are you suddenly thinking ''old on, I've seen this before!' though you can't predict that happens next? Like a strong impression of a memory, almost as if you're back there?

It can be a sign of certain neurological conditions. If it's happening a lot you might want to see your doctor.
Maybe have a read around it first because the implications can be serious for your driving licence and occupation.
 
tucker said:
One night during my college years my friend and I went to a local bar to meet a couple of friends, Dick and Henry. When we entered the almost empty bar we saw Dick and asked him where Henry was. Dick said he had gone to the restroom. Henry, a semi-professional American football player, was one of the biggest individuals I have known. He was 6’ 7”, weighted close to 400 lbs., had huge hands, and was immensely strong.

We had driven to the bar in a convertible and so headed for the restroom to comb our hair so we did not scare off any young ladies who might show up. When we entered I noticed a large pair of feet under one stall door. While we were at the sink, I made a (admittedly weak) joke about Henry’s size by saying loudly “Look there are two guys in that stall”. Suddenly a voice called out from the adjacent stall saying “You better mind your own business or you’ll be sorry”. Looking that direction we could see two pairs of shoes in that stall. Henry recognized my voice and took offense to the threat from next door. He yelled “You better shut up or I’ll kick your #$%#”, grabbed the bottoms of the walls of his stall and lifted ripping the stall off the floor. Since all the stalls were connected, the adjacent stall also started to come loose. He then let it drop back down with a loud crash. Seeing Henry’s huge hands and display of strength seemed to impress his neighbors and they became silent.

My friend and I exited the restroom, followed by Henry a couple minutes later. The four of us had a good laugh while we waited to see who would emerge from the restroom. After about 20 minutes two guys skulked out and almost ran for the exit. They must have been hoping whatever the giant thing next to them was, it would depart if they delayed their exit.

Our best guess was a drug deal was the reason they were sharing a stall. Whatever the reason, that was the only time I ever made a comment like that and it seems to me to be an incredible coincidence that it actually was true when I made it.
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Reminds me of one of my own favourite stories -

Back when texting (then still known as 'phone paging' or summat) was very new you could send texts from your AOL account. I decided to try this by sending my friend Kath a message. I was at home and I didn't know where she was.

The silliest phrase I could think of was the very slightly suggestive 'Put that sausage down, you don't know where it's been!'

The text arrived as she was walking along the high street in her work break, eating a sausage bap.
She pulled her phone out and read it, and looked around for me, assuming I was standing nearby.

When I wasn't readily visible she thought I must be watching from a shop or upstairs window like a sniper. No sign!

It rattled her so much she didn't mention it to me for a good while.

Another Kath-related coincidence was when she was telling her husband about how tatty her beloved X-Files teeshirt had become and whether it was time to consider investing in a new one. Later that day she found an X-Files teeshirt in her hall. I'd picked it up for 50p at a car boot sale, brand new in its packaging, thought she'd like it as I'd seen her in one and posted it through her door on my way home.

I didn't leave a note and forgot all about it so she thought it was from the mindreading aliens! :rollingw:
 
escargot said:
You're thinking of déjà vu, the feeling that you've already experienced what's happening now.
Are you suddenly thinking ''old on, I've seen this before!' though you can't predict that happens next? Like a strong impression of a memory, almost as if you're back there?

It can be a sign of certain neurological conditions. If it's happening a lot you might want to see your doctor.
Maybe have a read around it first because the implications can be serious for your driving licence and occupation.
Click to expand...

No, it's not deja vu, I do get that sometimes, though not very often. It's like, an example from this board yesterday, I had read @EnolaGaia 's post about Venus and once the sun had gone down, I looked up in the sky and there was Venus looking massive. But mostly it's pop culture: I think of a song and a few hours later it's on the radio, I think of an actor and the next thing I watch, he's in it or mentioned, like that. Not "experiences", more references.
 
Another TV related co-incidence. We were watching an episode of pointless where the questions related to celebrities who had written children books. One of the more obscure answers was DD- David Duchenovy, one the others that we could not get was JM- turned out to be Juilanne Moore.

Much later I came in to find partner and dog watching Evolution- one of "our" films which he had found whilst channel surfing, the stars of which are David Duchenovy and Juilanne Moore.
 
A few years ago I witnessed an accident between a motorcycle and a car. The Police called on me later for a statement and it turned out that the rider and the driver both had the same name and although of different ages shared the same birthday.
 
PeteS said:
A few years ago I witnessed an accident between a motorcycle and a car. The Police called on me later for a statement and it turned out that the rider and the driver both had the same name and although of different ages shared the same birthday.
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I guess that's a more unfortunate version of the "2 out of 30 people in one room will share a birthday" thing (or whatever the number is).
 
GNC said:
No, it's not deja vu, I do get that sometimes, though not very often. It's like, an example from this board yesterday, I had read @EnolaGaia 's post about Venus and once the sun had gone down, I looked up in the sky and there was Venus looking massive. But mostly it's pop culture: I think of a song and a few hours later it's on the radio, I think of an actor and the next thing I watch, he's in it or mentioned, like that. Not "experiences", more references.
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This could, at least in part, be down to the fact that you might be taking on board more culture/media (TV, net, radio) than before, which would logically increase the likelihood of coincidences like that happening.
 
cycleboy2 said:
This could, at least in part, be down to the fact that you might be taking on board more culture/media (TV, net, radio) than before, which would logically increase the likelihood of coincidences like that happening.
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I don't know if it's possible to take on more than I usually do! Maybe this has always happened, and the repetition has recently become more apparent.
 
Min Bannister said:
Maybe you are just having a cluster of clusters? That has to be possible, even if rare.
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Yup, I had a mere cluster of coincidences about my brother Ivor some years ago, culminating in my kitchen ceiling falling down after a fire and revealing his name as a truncated version of the label 'Ivory'.
 
Minor but genuine coincidence - I complained in another thread about my immersion heater. Late yesterday. Got up this morning for the Sunday bath - no hot water!

The water was just lukewarm, so it must have gone off overnight.
 
It's all in the air. Recently I was showing Techy photos of a former workmate who has tattoos of spiders all over her arms and a web round each elbow, spooky.
We've done a lot of rural cycling and see a lot of small churches and chapels converted into homes. This reminds me of 'Whispering' Bob Harris, who lived in such a home and would find strangers wandering in because 'We were married here' or 'My kids were christened here!'

So after the Spider Lady and a mention of Bob, the trailer for Loose Ends announced the guests, two of whom were a Tattooed Lady and Bob Harris.
 
A couple of minor coincidences this week

Firstly, I was reading a book set before and during the 1st world war in London - "Toby's room" where the main character is an artist but attends a medical lecture to learn anatomy. Here she hears about the infamous Burke and Hare.
During the same time period (I always have more than one book on the go) I was reading Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid set in Edinburgh and Catherine reads about Burke and Hare.

Two very different books, and the same mention of an infamous pair, where I can't remember the last time I read about them,

And second coincidence, we were watching a sit com last night and talking about how long running sitcoms work around continuity. My partner used the example of whether the scriptwriters would note if someone had an appendix or not, so that a future plot device wouldn't mess with the continuity. Then just at that moment on the TV, one of the characters got a phone call that someone was in the hospital with appendicitis.

Small little ones, let's wait and see if any more appear this week.
 
Little_grey_lady said:
My partner used the example of whether the scriptwriters would note if someone had an appendix or not, so that a future plot device wouldn't mess with the continuity.
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Sheesh, then why don't they (the writers) use cancer, or MS or Lyme disease or panic attacks or irritable bowel syndrome -- that way they could be as sloppy as they wanted and never worry about continuity, as long as they just used the same disease for the same character. I oughta be in charge!
 
This afternoon, I've been browsing the 'net while CBBC (children's TV channel, in case you're reading this outside the UK) is blaring away at high volume.

Anyway, Danger Mouse was on, so I did a quick Google of the cast because I thought I recognised one of the voices - and yes, it was indeed Stephen Fry! I noticed that another part was played by Rasmus Hardiker, a great name, and one I remembered from Jack Dee's underrated (IMO) Lead Balloon, a sort of British Curb Your Enthusiasm. Anyway, Rasmus, quite a distinctive name - apparently his mother's Danish. Anyway, I hadn't thought about this actor in years, but his name leapt off the page, and I had a nagging feeling that there was something else I should remember about him.

I then went back to a bit of random browsing, and the very next article I read mentioned someone with the first name Rasmus. Annoyingly, as I type this, I can't recall his surname, and I can't find the article again!

CBBC once again intruded into my reading, and there was yet another animation where I recognised a couple of the voices. Another Google, and it turns out I had been listening to Tyger Drew-Honey and Claire Skinner, probably better known for playing son and mother in the UK sitcom Outnumbered. Scrolling through the rest of the cast (the programme was called Scream Street), and guess whose name turned up? Rasmus bloody Hardiker again!

This was 3 Rasmusses in 5 minutes (we'll, only 2 different ones, technically...), so I re-Googled young Mr Hardiker, and I found out what was nagging at me: he was born, and went to school, just a mile or two from where I grew up.
 
Mr Hardiker is quite a prolific UK voice artist: he does a lot on the Thunderbirds reboot, as well.
 
Peripart said:
I obviously haven't been watching enough children's TV lately!
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To be honest, Thunderbirds is the only kids' TV I watch, but I do like to see what the voice artists of animation look like, so look them up online!
 
The coincidences keep coming. I'm reading the Kenneth Williams Diaries at the moment, so of course he gets a mention on here today, not THAT unusual, but today I read him sympathising with the plight of the whales less than 24 hours after listening to a documentary on the subject, and someone mentions Joss Ackland on this board, so obviously minutes later I read about Kenny meeting... Joss Ackland. He liked him, for the record.
 
GNC said:
No, it's not deja vu, I do get that sometimes, though not very often. It's like, an example from this board yesterday, I had read @EnolaGaia 's post about Venus and once the sun had gone down, I looked up in the sky and there was Venus looking massive. But mostly it's pop culture: I think of a song and a few hours later it's on the radio, I think of an actor and the next thing I watch, he's in it or mentioned, like that. Not "experiences", more references.
Click to expand...
Venus has been in the morning sky all summer, so you didn’t see Venus after the Sun went down. Probably a Pleidian scout ship. Or possibly Jupiter if it was in the South.
 
IamSundog said:
Venus has been in the morning sky all summer, so you didn’t see Venus after the Sun went down. Probably a Pleidian scout ship. Or possibly Jupiter if it was in the South.
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It's almost as if we're on different sides of the world!
 
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