# Can you explain this coincidence? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 5, 2001, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-this-coincidence/91601 "2001-11-05T14:40:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-this-coincidence/91601/21 "2001-11-06T08:31:14Z")
That’s **Duck Duck _Goose_** , not **Duck Duck _Gander_**. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-this-coincidence/91601/22 "2001-11-06T14:22:20Z")
I heartily recommend a read of this: [Spoonbending with Mr Nude](http://www.geocities.com/mmemym/bits1/fal0006.htm) ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-this-coincidence/91601/23 "2001-11-06T16:11:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mangetout \* > \*\*Coincidence; if it [hadn’t happened], you wouldn’t have been struck by the strangeness of it [not happening] and you wouldn’t be asking us “wow, can you explain why this [didn’t happen]?” \*\* I was going to say all this, in exactly the same way. Wow: that must prove that crop circles are made by aliens… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-this-coincidence/91601/24 "2001-11-06T18:14:48Z")
Armstrong didn’t ‘flub’. A tiny break in transmission, of which you can hear plenty others during the broadcast, just happened to cut the ‘a’. DopeyDave’s experience was a coincidence. They happen. That’s why we have a word for them. It was be more of a mystery if they never happened. To wander into hiijack territory: Geller is nothing but a average magician with a talent for self promotion. You can’t get any kind of consistancy to his statements or explantions simply because he will say anything that he thinks will attract the most publicity at any given time. I’m sure the thought of yet more talk in SDMB about him warms the cockles of his little showman’s heart. ---
**Author:** ![CheapBastid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8baadc/32.png) [@CheapBastid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheapBastid)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-this-coincidence/91601/25 "2001-11-06T19:21:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Futile Gesture \* > **Armstrong didn’t ‘flub’. A tiny break in transmission, of which you can hear plenty others during the broadcast, just happened to cut the ‘a’.** […when he returned to Earth he admitted his error.](http://www.snopes2.com/quotes/onesmall.htm) ---
**Author:** ![DopeyDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@DopeyDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DopeyDave)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-this-coincidence/91601/26 "2001-11-07T01:25:37Z")
Thanks for all the replies, Dopers. Certainly my experience was a coincidence. But it still amazes me. Remember, the TV commercial came on immediately after I had read Armstrong’s error on the monitor, not one minute afterwards or one hour or some time later that night. I have experienced plenty of other coincidences but none that wowed me as much as this one. I don’t for one moment think that any supernatural power was at work, but what if a similar thing happened again?) What if it happened three times in one month? (For that matter, what would qualify as ‘similar’?) How do we decide if something is not just coincidence? Does it have to be replicable? That would probably be contradictory with ‘supernatural’ since natural forces would have to be at work. Thus, it seems impossible to tell. PS: Loved the sketch about Mr Nude that Mangetout linked us to ([Spoonbending with Mr Nude](http://www.geocities.com/mmemym/bits1/fal0006.htm)). Is it coincidence that Mr Nude reminded me of Uri G, or did I read too much into it? Probably the latter, since Uri G has not been observed to bend spoons with his bare hands. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-this-coincidence/91601/27 "2001-11-07T01:34:05Z")
Let me offer a hypothetical case, one that sort of parallels that of the original poster. I can recall a few moments in my life when I was humming an old, obscure song to myself. Moments later, I turned on the radio and… WOW! By sheer coincidence , that song I was just thinking of was playing on the radio! Spooky… weird… must be magical, right? Well… Fact is, I’m one of those people who’s ALWAYS humming songs to himself. I’ve probably hummed hundreds of thousands of tunes to myself at one time or another. In the overwhelming majority of cases, when I turn on the radio (in my car or at home), it DOESN’T play the song I was just thinking of. It’s only in those tiny handful of cases when the radio DOES play the song I was just thinking of that I even notice! And when that DOES happen, I’m momentarily tempted to think something miraculous is happening. To the OP: I guarantee, you’ve turned on the TV a million times in your life. 99.99999% of the time, the first thing you see on the TV has NOTHING to do with what you were just thinking about. Only when there IS a parallel (which is almost never) are you struck by the cosmic importance of it all. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-this-coincidence/91601/28 "2001-11-08T00:14:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DopeyDave \* > \*\*Is it coincidence that Mr Nude reminded me of Uri G, or did I read too much into it? Probably the latter, since Uri G has not been observed to bend spoons with his bare hands. \*\* Actually, he has. There is videotape of him appearing on ‘People are talking’ with Oprah Winfrey (before she became simply ‘Orpah’) in the 1970s in which you can see him do precisely that. Also, just a few years ago on a UK TV show called ‘Noel’s House Party’ he was clearly seen to bend a spoon very quickly with his hands. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-this-coincidence/91601/29 "2001-11-08T00:36:19Z")
Perhaps a link to the Skepdic is in order at this time: [Coincidences, The Law of Truly Large Numbers](http://skepdic.com/lawofnumbers.html) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-this-coincidence/91601/30 "2001-11-08T00:49:47Z")
From **[Space Ghost Coast to Coast:](http://doorbell.net/tlr/96.htm#bobcat)** SPACE GHOST: Bobcat, what is your superpower? BOBCAT GOLDTHWAITE: I can bend forks. SPACE GHOST: With your mind? BOBCAT GOLDTHWAITE: Yeah. But only the ones at Denny’s. And you have to look away. For a little while. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-this-coincidence/91601/31 "2001-11-08T10:12:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mangetout \* > \*\*I heartily recommend a read of this: > [Spoonbending with Mr Nude](http://www.geocities.com/mmemym/bits1/fal0006.htm) \*\* :D:D:D:D:D Loved it… > [@](#): > > …and I shall be talking to a woman who claims she can make flowers grow just by planting seeds in soil and watering them. ROFL Gp ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-this-coincidence/91601/32 "2001-11-08T11:22:16Z")
Fry and Laurie (the authors of _Spoonbending with Mr Nude_ are among my very favourite comedians, check out some more of their scripts (from the same website) [here](http://www.geocities.com/mmemym/FandL.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-this-coincidence/91601.md?page=1)