# Weird coincidences. Have we ever done this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 26, 2018, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137 "2018-04-26T01:41:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/41 "2018-07-10T19:18:32Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > My wife and I live near San Diego but right now we are in Eugene, OR where we’ve just bought a house. We’ve been staying in room #409 of a DT Eugene hotel. > > Because our bank has no representation in Oregon and we do not use checks, I had to fly down to San Francisco to get a large cashier’s check. (There might have been an easier and cheaper way to do that, but we were under a time constraint. Part of this was due to its being a weekend which meant I couldn’t ask any local bank if it could coordinate the transaction for me. Based on past experience, they probably wouldn’t have helped me.) > > So I spent Sunday night in a SoMa hotel, where my room number turned out to be… > > wait for it… > > I’m sure you see this coming… > > 1. > > Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk That’s real fine. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/42 "2018-07-10T20:47:55Z")
I’m at work and bored and was just now reading through thread titles. I was thinking I wished I had some chocolate. Just as I read this thread title, someone walked up and handed me two Reese’s Pieces. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/43 "2018-07-10T20:50:42Z")
_I want a cold beer_ _I want a cold beer_ _I want a cold beer_ _I want a cold beer_ _I want a cold beer_ Damn it. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/44 "2018-07-10T20:53:17Z")
I once bought a used paperback book and when I opened it to read, it had my first name and last initial written inside. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/45 "2018-07-11T08:34:39Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > After working for a scuba shop in the Caribbean for a year I took my first vacation back to the States to Miami. After a few days of my visit it was time to head back to the airport to drop off my rental car. I topped off the gas in the car and went in to the convenience store to pay. The clerk was wearing a t-shirt from my exact scuba shop. I’ve only dived through 4 dive centres, all in different countries. There’s a guy on my course now who spent a year working at one of the places I went, in Australia, he regularly shows up to class wearing their logo hoodie. Haven’t mentioned it to him, he’s kind of a dick. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/46 "2018-07-11T14:38:48Z")
I met someone yesterday who was born in my hometown. So what, right? Well, I was born in Juneau, AK when Alaska was still a territory. So was she. We both lived in the same apartment building (of which there was only one at that time) and were born in the same hospital. And we’re both genealogists with Mayflower ancestors. In my 71 years I’ve met very few other people outside of the state who were born in Alaska, and none who were from Juneau. The only reason I met this person is that I was wearing an Alaska t-shirt that I’m fond of and she commented on it. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/47 "2018-07-11T16:07:20Z")
A coincidental pair of coincidences, hotel/TV related. During a period when I was making frequent business trips to Paris, the company would usually put me up in a dingy joint called the Kuntz, overlooking Gare de l’Est. On one trip, I had just a short layover before flying out the next morning, so they got me a room at CDG airport instead. Bored in my room, I turned on the TV and started watching some sort of French police series. At one point, the lead character, playing a plainclothes detective, ducked into a seedy hotel near Gare de l’Est to meet with an informant. Yep, it was the Kuntz. A few years later I went out to Vegas to attend a friend’s wedding. We were all staying at the Luxor (the big pyramid at the south end of the Strip). When I got to my room, I flipped on the TV and it happened to be showing an episode of COPS. The ep was set in Vegas and was showing a guy being arrested for disorderly conduct on a street corner at the south end of the Strip. The Luxor was clearly visible in the background and sure enough, when I looked out the window I could see that exact street corner from my room. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/48 "2018-07-11T17:31:49Z")
When I was moving from California to Memphis, my sister and I stopped at a Las Vegas motel after dark one night. In the morning, I made the comment, “I’m moving to the only city in the U.S. with a pyramid”. Then I opened the blinds, and there, across the street in all its pyramidal glory, was the Luxor. I really had no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/49 "2018-07-11T19:07:11Z")
I met a guy who was from Mansfield, Ohio, a tiny little town about halfway between Cleveland and Columbus, while in my hometown of Houston, TX. We eventually moved to Mansfield, married and had a son. Years later we divorced, and I moved back home with my son. My son was nearly 19 when I met a guy in a bar (what a cliche, huh?) and we got to chit-chatting, where are you from, that sort of thing. Yep. He was born and raised in Mansfield, Ohio! The kicker? Both our mothers are named Dorothy, and called “Dottie” for short. So of course I had to marry him, and we have lived happily ever since! (No, he didn’t know my ex.) ---
**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:** [July 11, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/50 "2018-07-11T20:04:46Z")
Rudolph Isley of Isley Brothers fame was once in our office, and he and I had a marvelous talk about the early days of rock music and the tour they did with the Beatles right before the group hit the big time. Flash forward a decade later: I’m on a bus one Saturday night, and the young male passenger and the driver are talking about the early days of rock music. i join in, and mention the above conversation with Rudy Isley. The young man asks “Do you know who I am?” I say “No. Should I?” Turns out he was the grandson of one of the Isley Brothers! I still see him from time to time, and we talk about music. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/51 "2018-07-11T21:10:57Z")
Shortly after we moved here, my wife was talking to the woman across the road, and mentioned that she’d lived here as a child, and named the street. “Oh, my parents live there! What number did you live in?” My wife told her the number of the house. “That’s my parents’ house! That’s where I grew up!” “Did you sleep in the little front bedroom?” “Yes!” ---
**Author:** ![Oglomott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oglomott/32/3543_2.png) [@Oglomott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oglomott)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/52 "2018-07-11T22:39:08Z")
Wife and I were riding on the Blue Ridge Scenic Railroad in Georgia. We met an older retired couple who traveled all around the US to ride other scenic and tourist railroads. We introduced ourselves, and he had the same first and last name as me. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/53 "2018-07-11T22:44:09Z")
One day I had to pay someone (ABC for example) some money ($12.34 for example). But first I had to pick up new plates for my car. When I looked at the plates, they read “ABC 1234”. The odds of that happening are 1 in 175,760,000. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/54 "2018-07-11T23:19:00Z")
**This American Life** did a [whole show about coincidences.](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/489/no-coincidence-no-story) Worth a listen if you enjoy these kinds of stories. ---
**Author:** ![Clarisse\_McClellan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Clarisse\_McClellan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clarisse_McClellan)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/55 "2018-07-11T23:39:17Z")
Not me but my parents. They took a trip to Europe in their retirement years. The first week of the trip was in England. They were going down a very long escalator in a London tube station and saw on the other side coming up the escalator a couple from their church back home. The other couple saw them and they yelled and waved as they passed by each other. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/56 "2018-07-15T02:16:42Z")
Just now I was watching James Taylor on youtube, and the song was _Up On the Roof._ I Googled the song to reassure myself that it was written by Carole King. Then I turned on the TV. What came on was an episode of _Full House_ titled\* Up On the Roof.\* ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/57 "2018-07-15T13:46:43Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I’m at the bus stop Friday, headphones on and listening to Abba’s “Does Your Mother Know”, and as I’m swaying and tapping to the music I notice a gothgirl with earbuds moving to the same beat. She grins as she sees this old fart tapping along, but her eye go wide as I start mouthing along with “Well I can dance with you honey, if you think it’s funny…” and she follows with “…Does your mother know that you’re out”. I grin, she gets on her bus and leaves, and that’s it. I am right now sitting in a hotel room waiting for my teenage daughter to get out of the shower so we can get the day started. Guess what song she had playing from her phone when I read this post? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/58 "2018-07-15T16:04:51Z")
Back in 1999 I pulled 3 quarters from my pocket, dated 1974, 1975, and 1976. Doing insurance sales a few years ago, one of my clients had the same first name as my wife and I… and the same birthday as each (but not the same year). ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/59 "2018-07-15T16:57:10Z")
I lived in Californi until I was about 11 years old, when my parents moved the family to Virginia. I attended junior and senior high there and never returned to CA. Seven years later, I enrolled at a college in Boston. By sheer chance, it turned out that my assigned suite-mate was from California. He asked if we might know anybody in common. The very first person I mentioned was Sally Smith (not the real name), who I had a big crush on in the third grade. He immediately responded, “Sally Smith was my date for the Senior Prom last year!” Yep, same person. They didn’t even live in the same city or attend the same high school. He had met her at some student government conference. ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2018, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137/60 "2018-07-16T03:31:43Z")
25 years ago, wife and I went to California for my brother’s wedding. We spent a day by the Sequoias. While staring up at [General Sherman](https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn/nature/sherman.htm) I heard someone calling my name. Looking around, I saw my sister. I did not know she was in town yet. She lives near Miami and I live in Wisconsin. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-coincidences-have-we-ever-done-this/813137.md?page=4)