Share your amazing coincidence story

latexman said:
Not really amazing, but . . .

In the early '80's I was travelling a lot to Newark, NJ. One flight I was bumped up to Business Class. The guy seating beside me was Harry Reasoner.

In '83 or '84, DW and I were in NYC for the day to have a nice meal, do some window shopping, and get two'fer tickets to a Broadway play. While walking to our play, we passed Gene Berry.

In 1985, while going to our favorite Mexican Restaurant in Princeton, NJ, my wife and I and two friends saw Brooke Shields backpacking it to/from class at Princeton University.

About 2008, I was eating lunch at Houston Hobby Airport waiting on my flight. The waitress brought my burger and hurriedly departed before I could ask for ketchup for the fries. I asked the guy at the high top table next to mine if he'd share his ketchup. He said, "no problem, I have all I need". He was Rex Linn.

In 2018 I was either coming or going to LA. I was making my way to my seat in the back. I spotted Niecy Nash in business class.
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Thread drift alert....

I think the only famous person I rode on a plane with (he in FC, me in cattle car - but I did see him) was Bobby Riggs - not too long after he lost to BJK.

First time I rode in FC I sat across from a guy with a small battery operated fridge in the seat beside him. Every so often, he would open the door and check on the kidney he was transporting.

I've led a sheltered life but YMMV.
 
Here's a double-odd coincidence. My second job was for an agency of NY State, and involved checking marriage records. Just for fun I checked my last name, which is somewhat rare. Lo and behold I found a license issued to a woman with my identical birthdate.
Fast forward some 8 years and I'm working for an insurance company. A man called asking about his payment, and his last name was same as mine. I asked him about that woman, and he told me it was his daughter.
(we were not related, BTW)
 
About 1991 I went fishing with DF and FIL off the coast of the Florida Keys. We were fishing for mahi mahi and watching for signs of baitfish: lines of weeds, birds circling, or other boats fishing. We were 24 miles from the coast, you can't see anything but water and have no idea where you are.

Suddenly we see a boat in the distance, it's small they must be fishing, so we went that direction. It looked tiny compared to the 38' boat we were on but whatever there's fish. As we close it still didn't look right but now we need to see what is going on.

Turns out the boat was broken down and they had a burlap bag for a sail. There were 5 men, 3 women and a 3 year old bambino from Cuba. They had spent 2 nights on the ocean, and had 1 liter of water saved for the bambino. We thought it was odd the Coast Gaurd insisted we stay with them because they couldn't find them without our help. I was shocked to see them sail right by us despite having our location. They had a heck of a time finding us, how we saw that boat I'll never know.

I've seen a lot of happy people none as happy as these. I guess they knew we'd be stopping by to call the Coast Gaurd.
 
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This week is mine & DW's 31st Anniversary, and was reminded of this incident:
We went to a resort in Puerto Vallarta for our honeymoon, and met another newlywed couple from our state, married same night. We told them the town we married in, and the gal asked the name of our photographer. When we told her she got upset and said they tried to get him but he turned them down because we'd already booked him!
 
I’ve run into several people I knew while traveling, but I was traveling a lot for work so it never surprised me too much.

But the first time I brought DH home to meet my extended family he got into a conversation with my uncle. It came up that DH had worked for a well know politician for several years. Randomly my uncle’s closest friend had a daughter who had worked for the same person. It turned out they had worked closely together for several years and had been good friends.

I’m constantly amazed at how small the world is.
 
So here's mine:
Out sailing on my boat with a friend long ago. Nice day sailing, not breezy.

A non-sailor, he has his back to a boat coming toward us about 100 yards away, but of the blue he asks: "Is it possible for a boat's mast to break?"
I reply that it's possible but doesn't really happen often, adding that I've only physically seen it happen once in my 30 years of sailing.

Within 15 seconds......the boat coming toward us dismasts!
 
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Years ago I traveled to La Paz Bolivia the highest altitude city in the world. My hotel was at 12k above seal level and I joined a group to hike Mt Chacaltaya and we were at its peak above the clouds at 18k above sea level. I was chewing on a lot of coca leaves to help with altitude sickness. When returning back to the USA the pilot advised we were cruising at an altitude of 16k over FL and I physically was at a higher altitude on vacation with the air so thin and my lungs gasping for air.
 
Nick12 said:
...... When returning back to the USA the pilot advised we were cruising at an altitude of 16k over FL and I physically was at a higher altitude on vacation with the air so thin and my lungs gasping for air.
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Did you ask the flight attendant for some coca leaves?
 
Ha - another one I had forgotten, although only 30 months ago.

Stayed with friends about 50 miles south of London, then ferry to France. Hired a guide to see Normandy beaches, historic sites, etc.

Second night in Bayeux at Maison Mertens (I cannot say enough about nice this was!) - wandered down streets and into a nice cafe without reservations. Had a corner table - way in the corner and was just prior to folks beginning to come in for reservations.

Bottle of wine, giggling with wife over snacks ... waaaay in the corner ...

Fellow walks over and says, "Hi." Work colleague from two years earlier.
 
One more:
We always joke that wherever mom goes she runs into someone she knows.

Forty years ago, she came out to San Francisco for the first time. I met her at the airport and we drove into town. We were stopped at a light and a car pulled up next to us. Mom looked over and said: "Hey, I know that guy!"

Rolled down the window and it turned out 'that guy' remembered mom, had moved to LA 5 years earlier and was in SFO for a convention.

She had only been in California (for the first time) for half an hour and already saw someone she knew!
 
Koolau said:
Okay, full disclosure, I asked the same question but waited for your response to look him up. He's one of my favorite character actors, though YMMV
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Yeah. I did the same thing. Never knew his name, but he has been around for a while.
 
I believe there’s no such thing as coincidences.
 
RetireeRobert said:
Second question: how many besides me here have never watched a single episode of "Breaking Bad"? :greetings10:
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Probably an interesting question.

I just picked the first thing I saw where I recognized him as being "all over TV" for years. It wasn't specifically the BB or BCS connection, so much as the visual that said "Oh, yeah. I know this guy." Funny how you "know" someone but don't even know their name. Heck, I would have known his VOICE anywhere.

Not quite worthy of this thread, but my Megacorp had 10s of thousands of empl*yees. One of the Megacorp folks I had w*rked with spent a fair amount of his time in another country - he was a citizen there. I'd never met him but spent hours on the phone with him over a 2 year assignment. One day at our Corporate HQ, I was walking down a hall and heard him speak. I knew instantly who he was and introduced myself. Some voices/accents are so distinctive you'd "know them anywhere" though YMMV.
 
reawilliams said:
Same here; my wife's birthday was the same as my best friend from childhood.
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My DH and my only other long term boyfriend shared the same birthday. As did my last boss. Too many men in my life with that birthday!!! (It makes things easy though :D)
 
RetireeRobert said:
Second question: how many besides me here have never watched a single episode of "Breaking Bad"? :greetings10:
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Me. I have never seen most of the shows (series? what do they call them?) that are part of popular culture. Never saw The Sopranos, something-something (Game of?) Thrones, , Walking Dead, and a bunch others. I try to learn a little about them sometimes, just so I can catch the many references to them (Game of Thrones - a lady with beautiful braids?, Sopranos, mobsters, a strip club?, I assume Walking Dead is zombies, but could be inmates on Death Row?). Kinda like I know "War and Peace" is a big book, by Tolstoy, something to do with Russia?

Not a big TV person. But I did/do follow Seinfeld (did you know "War and Peace" was going to be named: "War, What is it good for?" :) ), Big Bang Theory, The Office, some of Modern Family.

meleana said:
I believe there’s no such thing as coincidences.
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Most of what people think of as "what are the odds?" coincidences are due to them not understanding probability. Like the "Birthday Paradox", some things are more likely than they seem, usually because some part of it is undefined, or not understood.

I recall my BIL talking about the NY lottery number coming up as "911" on some 11th of September. "What are the odds!" he kept saying. What I just couldn't get across to him that for a three digit lottery pick, the odds of any specific number coming up are 1 in 1000. It doesn't matter what the date is. If you are looking for it ahead of time to match the date, that's your number, and the odds are 1/1000 (well, at least for 3-digit dates). And he'd repeat, "but what are the odds of it happening on that day!" But the trouble is, if it wasn't the date, someone would try to match it up with something else, that increases the chance, you have an almost infinite possibility of matches if you look hard enough.

So I'm not sure how to define "coincidence" in a strict term. But is kinda interesting/funny how things happen.

So here's mine (just a story, for amusement), which I thought of as we were out to dinner tonight (nice spring day, outdoor seating, good food, good beer, pleasant wait staff). I ordered Korean Chicken Tacos, which reminded me of another meal, at another restaurant.

My son and his wife lived in Chicago, and enjoyed going to some high end restaurants. We would sometimes say - pick one, our treat, so we could experience something new and trendy. I heard about "The Girl and the Goat", but they were booked out for months. But the "Girl" (owner/chef) also owned a diner (The Little Goat), and you could get in w/o too long a wait. So we went to The Little Goat for lunch one day when we in the city for a w/e.

Our waitress was very attractive, in that non-glamorous kind of way, just really, really pleasantly pretty. Even DW commented on it. I ordered a Kim-chee omelet (which was the connection to our meal tonight). Excellent.

We went back about 3 years later. Same waitress (co-incidence?).

Then, a year after that, our son sends us a picture text, our 2 YO grandson enjoying a meal at... The Little Goat. In the background, I look, and say to DW "That's our waitress, isn't it?", she was sure of it.

OK, same restaurant, but an odd coincidence (or whatever you want to call it) to show up like that. No, I can't calculate the odds!

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
Not a big TV person. But I did/do follow Seinfeld (did you know "War and Peace" was going to be named: "War, What is it good for?" :)
-ERD50
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I did know from Seinfeld that "War and Peace" was going to be named "War, What is it Good For"!

Since Seinfeld reruns have been on continuous loop for how many decades on how many stations, that is one show I have watched many, many times. It was (and is) one really funny show. :popcorn:
 
I have a couple.
1. DH and I were in China on a boat on a lake. There were 2 other American couples on board. One of them lived in our area and was close friends with someone we knew well at work!

2. DH and I were in St. Chapelle enjoying a beautiful sunny day on the top floor. Getting ready to leave, we hear my name called. I didn't think much of it as my name is a very common European name. Here in the good ole' U.S. I would have taken note. Then I realized, I know that voice. A co-worker and his wife were enjoying Paris just as were DH and I.

We have also run into him in DC, DH and I passing through on our way home from vacation, he coming home from a biz trip. DH has run into him a couple of other times during biz travel.

Just remembered another one. DH was sitting next to an unnamed pol coming home from DC. This was pre 9/11 so I was able to meet him as he disembarked. They were chatting and he introduced me to her. I didn't think much of her then and I think much less of her now!!!
 
Koolau said:
Okay, full disclosure, I asked the same question but waited for your response to look him up. He's one of my favorite character actors, though YMMV
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He’s probably best known for Detective Sergeant "Frank" Tripp on CSI: Miami, but I’ve seen his face and credits for many years on many things.
 
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Okay, another one:

DW and I had a college friend (male) who had just gone through a BRUTAL divorce at age 23. We'd been friends with both of the partners in the marriage. The female half of the couple sang at church, taught Sunday School, and on and on. One day, out of the blue, she said she wanted a divorce. We helped the guy get the evidence he needed to show that the woman was involved with a guy from her PT job. It wouldn't have been so important, but the woman was suing for an unbelievable amount of money in the settlement and our (male) friend had no money and existed on HIS PT j*b and school loans. FF a year. Divorce settled for 0.00 'cause the woman was pregnant with other guy's baby. A no-no back in the '60s - at least if you wish to get money from the other partner.

I often mention the "Old Homestead." My mom got a call from some folks within her faith-based circle of influence at the local university. This was while I was finishing my Sr. year at said university. These folks asked mom if she knew where a nice young lady from FL could find housing off-campus to transfer from FL to 'my' university. She said the young lady could live in the Old Homestead for that year.

Lights flashed in DWs and my head. Perfect fit for our divorced friend. SO, we got them together to attend our (and mom's church) together and then go out afterwards. All clicked and the two became an instant "thing." Perhaps 3 days into their "relationship" the young lady asked our male friend when he was going to tell her about his recent divorce. Of course, he WAS planning to tell her, but maybe not for a whole week. Turns out HER parents KNEW HIS parents from some church interactions some years back. Neither our friend nor the young lady were aware of the parents friendship as it was long distance (1000 miles now). What are the chances?

Oh, the couple DID marry had 3 kids half dozen grand kids and are still married 50+ years later and we're still friends.
 
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