# Examples of improbable real-life events **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 31, 2017, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479 "2017-07-31T04:24:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/41 "2017-08-01T15:19:13Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The weirdest coincidence that ever happened to me: I was driving across country. I stopped at a CD store in New Jersey and bought some used CD’s. One of them was a David Cross comedy performance. Keep in mind this wasn’t some popular recently released CD. > > A few hours later I was driving along, listening to that David Cross CD. I saw a bookstore and I decided to stop and check it out. I parked my car, turned it off, and walked into the store - and they were playing the same track of the same David Cross CD I had just been listening to in my car. Less of a coincidence because of how popular radio works, but the same thing essentially happened to me in my car. I was driving home from an errand when a comedy bit was being played on the XM Comedy channel. Had to go back out and do another errand, and the part that was playing was the exact next line of the bit that I heard a few hours before. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/42 "2017-08-01T15:26:22Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > [The sandwich thing probably didn’t happen.](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gavrilo-princips-sandwich-79480741/) Dumb facts ruin everything 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/43 "2017-08-01T15:43:36Z")
My wife has twice run into relatives unexpectedly while on vacation. Once she ran into a cousin at the visitor center up on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. I forget where the other one was. Back in college my roommate and I drove to the New York City area for spring break. I dropped him off to stay with a friend in Connecticut and then I drove out to stay with friends on Long Island. We ran into each other in the middle of Times Square while we both happened to be in the city one day. Not a complete coincidence since we traveled to the area together, but still highly unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/44 "2017-08-01T15:46:19Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > Dumb facts ruin everything 🙂 The stuff about it being a “sandwich” is kind of missing the point to me from that article. It very well could have been, as others have noted, something like a cheese burek that got translated to “sandwich” since English speakers generally don’t know what the heck a burek is, but are familiar with a sandwich. ---
**Author:** ![wellanuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@wellanuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wellanuff)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/45 "2017-08-01T16:07:10Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > 🙂 > > I actually read an SF short story with that idea as the premise. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the title. > > The first astronauts to visit the moon orbit around to the hidden side for the very first time – and they find out, to their horror, that it’s basically a movie-set false front. They can see scaffolding and braces on the back side. Asimov - “Ideas Die Hard” ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/46 "2017-08-01T17:12:09Z")
I drove off to Prescott, Arizona to visit a friend. Didn’t tell him in advance, and didn’t know where he lived. Figured I’d “wing it”. Pulled into downtown (Saturday night), and found the first parking spot I could find. Walked into the closest bar (Matt’s, I think) and he was sitting on the closest bar-stool to the door. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/47 "2017-08-01T17:47:05Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Violet Jessop, who died in 1971 at the age of 84, worked as a stewardess aboard the _Olympic_, a ship severely damaged by another vessel called _Hawke_. The ship managed to limp back to port. > > In 1912 Violet, still working for the White Star line, took a position as stewardess on the _Titanic_. She survived the sinking. and later worked as a nurse on the _Britannic_. It was struck by a German mine in the Aegean, and sank. Again, Violet survived. > > And she _still_ went back to work on ships, retiring at 61. IIRC a Twilight Zone ep was made out of that (or matched it coincidentally)-the protagonist was a man tho. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/48 "2017-08-01T18:08:08Z")
Presumably when they figured out that Violet Jessop was cursed and the reason all those ships sank, she was forced to retire. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/49 "2017-08-01T18:44:21Z")
Out of 3.2 billion (at the time) people on earth, the woman I was born to turned out to be MY MOM! Weird. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/50 "2017-08-01T19:42:25Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > Then, _that President’s own son_ blithely releases a chain of e-mails including the following incredibly on-the-nose quote: > > \<\\> > > Who talks (writes) that way? Srsly. Anyone else would write “it’s”. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/51 "2017-08-01T19:56:11Z")
Republicans have some funny names too. For a lesser example, look at the president who tried to win the cold war with high tech weapons with science fiction names. His own name sounds like Ray gun. But my favorite was the republican majority whip, one of the leaders of the macho warmonger party, whose name was Dick Armey. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/52 "2017-08-01T20:04:20Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The life and times of that young lad from the ghetto who became a sports superstar and ended up in serious trouble with the law. TWICE. > > You couldn’t make up OJ’s life in a million years. “Super star athlete from poor background has multiple problems with the law,” isn’t exactly what I’d call a rare narrative. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/53 "2017-08-01T21:01:10Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Republicans have some funny names too. For a lesser example, look at the president who tried to win the cold war with high tech weapons with science fiction names. His own name sounds like Ray gun. > > But my favorite was the republican majority whip, one of the leaders of the macho warmonger party, whose name was Dick Armey. Don’t forget Hyde and DeLay. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/54 "2017-08-02T00:12:40Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Don’t forget Hyde and DeLay. 🙂 I remember in the mid-nineties when the Contract with America came out, and the local liberal weekly rag had a short column on the unbelievable names of the leaders. Dick Armey and Dick Lugar were the best, but DeLay and Newt are pretty great too. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/55 "2017-08-02T02:41:39Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > 🙂 > > I actually read an SF short story with that idea as the premise. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the title. > > The first astronauts to visit the moon orbit around to the hidden side for the very first time – and they find out, to their horror, that it’s basically a movie-set false front. They can see scaffolding and braces on the back side. I saw a cartoon of that image in _Omni_ magazine, back in the 80s. It wasn’t the illustration from a story; just a Gahan Wilson-esque cartoon. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/56 "2017-08-02T03:59:18Z")
Subway in Barcelona (500km from my home town). Gee, that guy looks like the dude who sat right beside me through 6 years of classes. Fuck, it is him! He was in college in another town also 500km from home, but in the opposite direction. He’d come to town for a professional meeting. Lift in YMCA New York. A dozen people enter, all asking “what floor” or answering it in English. The lift starts. The lift stops suddenly. The air is suddenly full of _ostias_, _collons_, _cojones_ and _cagüenlas_. We all look at each other and ask, in Spanish, “where are y’all from?” Except for a lift mechanic who was from Costa Rica and being sworn-in as an American citizen the following day, and for myself, everybody was from Barcelona. Where btw I was attending university. My dorm-mates studying Telecommunications Engineering kept telling me there was a guy in their school I had to know, as he was from my hometown. No, I didn’t know anybody by that name. But you have to know him. I promise you, I don’t. Going to the Defense of one of my friends, I turn around and find myself nose-to-pendant with a silhouette of my home province. “Oh, I guess you’re that guy I really, really, really have never met before, hi, pleased to meet you!” I’m from “downtown” (for values of downtown given in a 30K people town); he’s from “the hill”. I went to the nuns; he went to the other nuns. I went to the private HS; he went to the public one (there’s a third one but it’s trade school). I went to the public pool at the river; he went to the one up the hill (there’s two of them). I went to the dance club close to downtown; he went to the one at the edge of town (again, only two). There’s a bars circuit: my groups of friends generally started from the bars closest to the river and went counterclockwise, his started from the bars closest to the main square and went counterclockwise. Pick anything of which the town had two, we’d done all of them in ways that made it quite difficult we’d meet - and in fact, we hadn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/57 "2017-08-02T13:47:35Z")
I keep a daily journal. When the store I work at got a shipment of leather bound blank books, I bought one of each. The next day the phone rings and someone answers it. She puts the caller on hold and tells another cashier “Go see what colors the journals come in.” I say “Navy, red, purple…” The cashier gives me an astonished look and hands me the phone. I carry on a three minute conversation about the nuances of the journal’s covers colors, while the original person looks on in awe. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/58 "2017-08-02T15:49:06Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > 🙂 I remember in the mid-nineties when the Contract with America came out, and the local liberal weekly rag had a short column on the unbelievable names of the leaders. Dick Armey and Dick Lugar were the best, but DeLay and Newt are pretty great too. Newt Gingrich sounds like the name of the new Professor of Dark Arts at Hogwarts. ---
**Author:** ![Okrahoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/59 "2017-08-02T16:18:25Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > Newt Gingrich sounds like the name of the new Professor of Dark Arts at Hogwarts. It may be a fairly unique name, but there have been other Newts. If it somehow correlated with what his position or interests were (like, for example, if he was interested in or campaigned or against witchcraft, or if he was a herpetologist) that would be interesting. Same with Dick Armey. If he was on the Armed Services Committee or a ganeral or something, that would be interesting. Otherwise - meh, it’s just a name. Just because “Dick” is short for “Richard” is no reason to giggle like Beavis and Butthead about it. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479/60 "2017-08-02T16:46:25Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > Newt Gingrich sounds like the name of the new Professor of Dark Arts at Hogwarts. That’s nothing. from The Energy Daily, May 17, 2017: > [@](#): > > Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Lisa Murkowski announced several key staff appointments Tuesday, including the promotion of **Severin Wiggenhorn** to senior counsel… …and, no doubt, Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-improbable-real-life-events/792479.md?page=4)