# Can you top this unlikely event **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 4, 2003, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520 "2003-06-04T05:17:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/61 "2003-06-14T03:54:09Z")
I live in a metropolitan area of about 500,000 people. During the mid 1960’s my husband-to-be and I worked for separate industries which required that we pick up and deliver films to the same small business. But wait… In 1968 my husband-to-be almost sold me a set of used stereo speakers. Frankly, I remember more about the cute salesman than the speakers which I couldn’t afford. From1969-1971 my HTB lived through the block from where I lived. I could see his backyard from my front steps. He walked past my house every day on the way to the grocery to get a six pack. In the mid 1970’s, when I was married to someone else, my husband-to-be’s brother moved into the apartment next to mine. It was a cold night and I carried some spiced tea over to warm them up. My HTB was the one who opened the door. I barely remember meeting him. In the early 1980’s my first husband and my HTB attended the same school at the same time with the same major. Their first names were also the same. In 1983 my first husband joined a club. My HIB was the president. In 1984 I attended a party in the home of a mutual acquaintance. In 1985 I logged onto a small local computer BBS for the first time. My HIB, by then a widower, had logged on three days before. Neither of us realized that we had met. But one of my friends at that time had been with my HTB’s first wife when they met in 1960. And one of his wife’s bridesmaids had been one of my best friends. She attended our wedding in 1986. We’ve been married seventeen years. “Just give me a sign, Lord!” – Steve Martin ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/62 "2003-06-14T06:11:36Z")
This isn’t mine, but it happened to two friends of mine. A man and a woman happen to be standing in line next to each other at Washington D.C.'s Dulles Airport, waiting to board a plane to Newark, NJ. They strike up idle conversation and soon discover that they’re both from Ohio! Wow, that’s interesting. Then it turns out… they’re both from the same small town in Ohio! Holy cow! Then it turns out… they grew up on the SAME STREET in the small town in Ohio! Their families lived literally two houses away from each other when these two people were growing up. They were a few years apart in age, so didn’t hang out with each other, hence the lack of recognition. The punchline? They started dating, and got married about a year later. All because they both happened to be flying from D.C. (where neither lived) to Newark NJ (ditto). ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/63 "2003-06-14T06:44:07Z")
Also not mine, but a good friend’s. Some years back, my friend Bettina took her daughter Lauren to Orlando to Disney World. (They lived in Brooklyn, NY at the time.) Lauren was about 10 years old at the time and had several food allergies, so Bettina decided that they should find a grocery store and buy a few items that they could be sure that Lauren would be able to eat for breakfasts and snacks and so on. They got directions to a nearby store and planned to stop in on their way back to the hotel after their first day in the theme park. But on the way back from the park that first day, Bettina took a wrong turn and ended up getting lost somewhere in a residential area some 15 miles away from their hotel. As they drove, trying to get back onto the highway, Lauren spied a grocery store and suggested “Mom, why don’t we just stop here, shop and then see if the cashier or someone can give us directions, or if they can sell us a map?” Smart kid, that Lauren. (She’s working on a second doctorate at Yale right now.) They went into the store. While walking through the aisles, Lauren heard someone saying “Bettina?! Bettina, is that you?” Lauren said “Mom, someone’s calling your name.” But Bettina said “There’s more than one Bettina in the world, Lauren. We don’t know anyone who lives in Orlando.” Well, of course, Lauren was right… But so was Bettina. Eventually the woman caught up with them. It was Susan, who was the daughter of the pastor of Bettina’s church in Brooklyn. She was in Orlando, on business, _staying at the same hotel as Bettina and Lauren_. To jack up the coincidence factor about tenfold, Susan had also gotten lost on her way back to the hotel after the business meeting and had decided, on a whim, to stop in the store that she happened to pass, grab a few things and seek directions or assistance from someone inside. The odds are just unfathomable. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Harvey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@Max\_Harvey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Harvey)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/64 "2003-06-14T17:49:38Z")
**Zoe’s** post reminds me of those Droopy cartoons where the escaped convict flees to places all over the world but keeps getting caught. “Yeah, I know, he’s gonna be right over there!” I was on a quiz-bowl team in high school, and before one of our regional matches at a community college, we were all chatting and goofing around while waiting for the other team and the moderators. My friend was behind me, stomping his feet loudly. I turned around and jokingly glared at him, and he said “It’s an earthquake! And this is the epicenter.” I didn’t know what “epicenter” meant, so he explained it to me. I said if we had a question about epicenters, then he’d have my eternal gratitude. Sure enough, during the match: “The focal point of an earthquake is known as…?” We were all so stunned that no one rang in to answer. About a year later, I had a job as a grocery bagger, and had an enormous crush on a really cute girl who would come in with her mom. Shallow teenager that I was, I assumed she was “beneath” me academically. Until a few months later, when I was an assistant for the same quiz-bowl association, at the same college, in the same classroom, and she walked in as her school’s captain. (No cool “we’ve been married ever since” ending to this one. I was also a really shy teenager.) ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/65 "2003-06-14T18:15:21Z")
Couple of quick ones that get better as they go on! About 13 years ago, my dad happened to find some old yearbooks at used bookstore here in Indianapolis from my maternal grandmother’s highschool years. She went to high school in Evansville. And she had signed **both** of them. While flipping through the pages, admiring the hairdos, I saw a familiar-looking face, and checked the name. It was my elementary school principal!! (I was in 5th grade.) So the next time I saw him, I asked him if he remembered a girl from high school named Mae Ellen Wright. His response: “Yeah, I remember that name. I think we even dated for a short time.” :eek: * * * Just a couple of months ago, the house across the street from us finally sold. Pretty soon, a roofing crew was at work. After a few days, as I was walking out to my car, I hear a voice call my name. It was my ex-boyfriend - the last guy I dated before I got married whom I hadn’t seen since summer of 2000, who lives on the complete opposite side of town. Turns out, his cousin was the one who actually worked for the roofer, and he was just doing a few jobs with them while trying to find steady employment. ---
**Author:** ![fizgig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f04885/32.png) [@fizgig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizgig)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/66 "2003-06-14T18:55:58Z")
My aunt recently met her daughter whom she gave up for adoption about 30 years ago. It turned out the girl had grown up in a small town where a majority of my family (but not this aunt) live. THEN, she was over visiting in the town at my other aunt’s house and recognized a picture on the wall. She’d spent a significant amount of her time as a child in the house next door, and was in that photo. * * * My parents took a roadtrip across the country several years ago. At the Grand Canyon, they met a park ranger who turned out to be a good friend from Washington state whom they hadn’t seen in over 15 years. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/67 "2003-06-15T19:32:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lieu \* > \*\*I did a complete flip out of the bed of a stranger’s pick-up to the ground below when the driver unexpectedly accelerated, landed on my feet and never spilled a drop of the beer I was holding. > > It was like Mary Lou Retton meets the Dukes Of Hazzard. \*\* I do believe that qualifies you as an Honourary Canadian. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/68 "2003-06-16T00:15:48Z")
In 1991, Mr. Ujest stood up in a friend’s wedding. In this wedding party was one of the groom’s best college buddies, a good looking, blonde haired \*one eyed \* guy named Hector. (He had a bad eye, couldn’t see out of it.) In 1993, whilst on our honeymoon in Cancun, at breakfast one morning, Mr. Ujest says to me, " I think that is Hector." “Hector.” How many non-hispanic guys are there in this world named Hector. " Blonde hair? One eye?" I look over, and sure enough, there he was. (He was having an office romance with a girl he really liked, strictly no no with that company, and they decided to chance a trip. And when Mr.Ujest called his name, Hector and the girl nearly shit their collective pants, thinking they were busted. 🙂 They are married now. ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/69 "2003-06-16T00:29:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by malaka \* > \*\*Not quite as astonishing as some, but… > > I was going to Greece with my brother in 98 to meet up with some friends from home. When we got to Greece, we were to stay one night in Athens, then board a ferry to Mykonos to meet up with our friends. > > When we actually got to Greece, my luggage was lost. I could not leave for the island without it. It took 3 days to find it and return it to me. > > Now, by this time, my friends had left Mykonos and were to be in Paros. Every ferry from Athens to Paros was booked, as were hotels. Plus, we had no idea which hotel, much less which _town_ our friends were staying in. > > My cousin in Athens worked overtime to find us 2 seats on a ferry to Paros and a single room in a hotel on Paros. It was better then nothing. > > When we got to Paros, we asked the hotel manager where the most popular beach on the island was. The next morning, with fingers crossed, we headed to the beach. It was packed and the chances of running into our friends were slim. > > At least thats what we thought for about 5 minutes. After only 5 minutes we saw a group of our friends walking by! Then we discovered that our hotel was next to theirs! > > Pretty lucky, I think… \*\* That reminds me of the time a few years ago that my family went to GM Place for the Canucks Family Carnival. Our friend had mentioned he’d be there, but we thought there was no chance of seeing him… the place was packed, after all. Lo and behold, after a couple hours… we ran right into him. (had his picture taken with Pavel Bure, no less… yes, this was a LONG time ago) F\_X ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/70 "2003-06-16T01:26:43Z")
After many, many years of estrangment, I decided to contact my father pretty much out of the blue. We saw each other in person a month or so later and I convinced him to give my niece her 16th birthday present (a car!) a few days early so I could be there to see her get it. He died two days later on her birthday of a sudden, unexpected heart attack. I will be forever grateful that I finally decided to contact him, and that I did it before it was too late. ---
**Author:** ![LtningBug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/73ab20/32.png) [@LtningBug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LtningBug)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/71 "2003-06-16T05:04:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Satisfying Andy Licious \* > \*\*My mom knew a lightning bug that was struck by an albino. \*\* ☹ ---
**Author:** ![RahRahMah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@RahRahMah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RahRahMah)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/72 "2003-06-16T07:26:19Z")
There are 8 people in my family with the same birthday as me. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/73 "2003-06-16T07:52:27Z")
One day at the races I collected a winning bet and the topmost note had my then mother-in-law’s name on it. Since it was an uncommon name I kept the note until next time I saw her. She looked at the note and recognised the handwriting as that of her boss. It had been in her pay sometime before. When I first went overseas I got to London, arrived at the hotel, slept for about 16 hours, got up in the morning to go for a walk and the first person I saw on the street was a guy I went to school with in Canberra. ---
**Author:** ![ace22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f05b48/32.png) [@ace22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ace22)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/74 "2003-06-16T15:22:19Z")
A couple years ago I met the roommate of one of my very good friends’ romantic interest (at the time). My friend already knew that she was from Nebraska, same as me. We got to talking about Nebraska (it being a dear subject to me) and I discovered that she lived in the small town of Fremont (I am from around Omaha, which is quite a ways away), which is near the Boy Scout camp (Camp Cedars) where I spent a lot of time in the summers as a kid. Then she told me that she used to volunteer in the kitchen at Camp Cedars during the summer, although she didn’t tell me what years. But since she is just a couple years older than I am, there is a very high likelyhood that not only did I possibly meet her there, but it is entirely possible that she cooked for me! We met in Arizona, having gotten there by completely different routes. She was cute, too. Too bad she was Mormon… ---
**Author:** ![flonks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3ab097/32.png) [@flonks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flonks)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/75 "2003-06-16T17:59:09Z")
Talked for 10 minutes with a friend about a mutual friend (or so we thought) but then we found out that we were talking about 2 different people with the same first name and same last name — and opposite sex!!! “Are you talking about Pascal XXXX” “Yes, I am talking about Pascale XXX!!!” Pascal and Pascale are pronounced the same in french 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/76 "2003-06-16T23:06:32Z")
My wife and I spent a summer’s day at a local water park a couple of years ago. In the middle of the day, we went into the wave pool. Y’know, gigantic body of water, big pumps that make it slosh back and forth, boogie boards, and all of that. I went down for a dunk, and when I came back up, I found myself squinting against the glare. Because, you see, I had lost the clip-on sunglasses that were attached to my regular glasses. Normally they attach pretty solidly, but this time, for whatever reason, the water had caught them just right and pulled them off. They’re expensive to replace, so my wife and I immediately started looking for them. We paced back and forth in the chest-high water, looking at the filters over the outflow pipes, scooting our feet over the dark stripes on the bottom (where the clip-ons would be invisible). She looked for half an hour; I looked another ten minutes past that. Finally, we had both given up. They were gone. No way of knowing whether they got sucked into a drain, or if undertow had dragged them way the hell out into the deepest part of the pool, or what. Either way, I wasn’t getting them back/ So I climbed out of the pool and slouched off to find the bathroom. Grumble grumble, squinting in the sunshine, gotta pay like eighty bucks now, blah blah blah. I come back from the bathroom and lean against a fence bordering a sidewalk that overlooks the wave pool. My wife’s still swimming, but I’m in a bad mood now, and don’t want to get back in. So I stand there for ten minutes or so, feeling sorry for myself, hands in my pockets, occasionally glancing around to ogle the hotties but then remembering to feel sorry for myself again. And then at one point for some reason I looked down at my feet, and my clip-ons are sitting on the ground right next to me. Blink. Blink. Long pause. Bend down. Pick 'em up. Yep, these are mine. A little scratched, but otherwise fine. Put 'em back on. Click. No problem. Huh. Apparently, somebody had found them in the pool, brought them out, and put them down next to the end fencepost, where by pure chance I would come stand five to thirty minutes later. Given the fact that the pool is 150 by 50 yards, the odds of my ending up standing basically on top of where somebody tossed them are amazingly low. I still have 'em, too. And then I was struck by lightning. ---
**Author:** ![ace22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f05b48/32.png) [@ace22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ace22)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/77 "2003-06-17T08:05:19Z")
Mwah, I came up with another. This one is bizarre and freaky and not a little disturbing. When I first came to Arizona State as a geology major, there was a geography major with the same name as me (last name spelled differently, but pronounced the same). I did not ever meet him. I did not know about him until my third semester here, when he died in a car accident. He was on a deparmental field trip and his van rolled over. The **same** weekend, I was also on a deparmental field trip in a school van, to the same general area. The accident was initially reported as having happened on a geology field trip, rather than a geography field trip. Concern mounted, as an unaware me continued the field trip. Matters were cleared up, and concern died down. But my roommate did apparently receive more than one condolence phone call. “I’m so sorry your roommate died.” “He’s not dead, I saw him this morning!” This comes up because another consultant in my field here in Phoenix shares the same name, and was involved in a movement to secure ASU vans for an Arizona Hydrological Society field trip. The eerie coincidence of his name being the same as the dead geography major came up. I have not as yet replied to share my part of the story. ---
**Author:** ![pierre72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b2d939/32.png) [@pierre72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pierre72)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/78 "2003-06-17T10:23:22Z")
Not long ago, my car was broken into by some no-good little turd. This policewoman came round to check up and take statements (in the UK). We got talking, and it turned out she last saw me very drunk and very naked in a college dorm almost ten years earlier. 4000 miles away in South Carolina. And she remembered! Whoops… ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/79 "2003-06-17T10:49:13Z")
Top this confluence of events, I dare you. About ten years ago, me and my ex were living in Hong Kong. The ex’s cousin A\_\_\_\_\_\_ was on her way to Australia from Ireland, and stopped over for a few days. On the Tuesday of that week, I took a sickie from work, and we went to a little café on a little island in Hong Kong harbour for a morning coffee. We were sitting out on the patio overlooking the harbour, and A\_\_\_\_\_\_ was getting all excited about her trip to Australia. There was only one other table occupied on this terrace. The girl at this other table was eavesdropping, and she turned to A\_\_\_\_\_\_ and said “you lucky thing, going to Australia!” A\_\_\_\_\_\_ looked at her, open-mouthed, and said “Is your name M\_\_\_\_\_?” “Yes!” said the other woman. “How did you know that?” “Because I gave you a lift from Portlaoise to Cork two weeks ago.” She opened her purse. “And here’s the lighter you gave me.” Years went by, and I went to visit a friend in Wales. His brother was living with him. His brother introduced his girlfriend: “This is R\_\_\_\_\_.” We got to talking, and I told her I was living in Hong Kong. “I only know one person there,” said R\_\_\_\_\_. “Her name is M\_\_\_\_\_\_. We grew up together - she’s like a sister to me.” Yup, same woman. Many more years go by, I move to Ireland. I get a job with my current employer. I walk in to meet my new colleague: it’s A\_\_\_\_\_\_. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520/80 "2003-06-17T12:23:31Z")
My wife was raised in a foster home, and got to be very good friends with her foster mother’s daughter, Ella Mae. Recently Ella Mae was at a wedding and was telling one of her cousins about this fabulous guy that her foster-sister had married. (I’m not bragging, that’s the way the conversation was described to me. Ella Mae, for some reason, is seriously impressed by the fact that I’ve stuck by my wife with all her problems; it also may have something to do with the fact that her own ex-husband was a jerk.) Anyway, at some point she mentions my last name and the cousin stops her and asked if the person she was talking about works for Social Security. It turns out he was one of my former managers who had retired several years ago. He then starts telling her about how impressed he had been with me as a worker. (Well, that’s the way Ella Mae reported the conversation to my wife.) My wife, BTW, was having trouble keeping a straight face when she passed this story on to me. She claims to be constantly amazed by how well I keep everybody else from knowing what an idiot I really am. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-top-this-unlikely-event/179520.md?page=5)