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mastermindreader 1949 - 2017 Seattle, WA 12586 Posts |
I saw the following quote several years ago:
"Coincidence is just God's way of staying anonymous." (I don't really believe that, but I think it's a pretty interesting thought.) |
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George Ledo Magic Café Columnist SF Bay Area 3042 Posts |
Quote:
On Jul 25, 2014, MobilityBundle wrote: Amen to that! There's one that I wish I'd had a witness to, because I still don't believe it. Many years ago, I got into the habit of dropping all my pennies into a bag at home, just because there were so many of them. One day I finally decided to wrap them up and take them to the bank. So I went to the bank and asked for a handful of penny wrappers. The clerk gave me a few, but I asked her for a few more. So I'm sitting on the sofa wrapping the pennies, using a 50-penny plastic tube to count them. One penny dropped between the cushions, but I figured I'd get it later. Finally, I was down to the last wrapper. I put all the remaining pennies in the tube and noticed it was one penny short of fifty. I reached down and grabbed the one that dropped, making fifty. So I ended up with no pennies left and no wrappers left.
That's our departed buddy Burt, aka The Great Burtini, doing his famous Cups and Mice routine
www.georgefledo.net Latest column: "Sorry about the photos in my posts here" |
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S2000magician Inner circle Yorba Linda, CA 3465 Posts |
I have both Innumeracy and Beyond Innumeracy: excellent books. (As is the same author's A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper.)
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Michael Baker Eternal Order Near a river in the Midwest 11172 Posts |
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On Jul 25, 2014, George Ledo wrote: Serendipity.
~michael baker
The Magic Company |
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R.S. Regular user CT one day I'll have 184 Posts |
Quote:
On Jul 25, 2014, S2000magician wrote: I have all those Paulos books too! And I just started reading his "Once Upon a Number". Ron
"It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry." Thomas Paine
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Chrystal Inner circle Canada/France 1552 Posts |
I wonder what the odds were of this occurring? Twins separated at birth, unknowing they even had a sibling as each was adopted by different families. They meet in adulthood and marry - not realizing the other was their twin. As reported by British News.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPT174-VfzQ I have one story to share which involved my Mom. Having first arrived in Canada from France, my mom had to find a permanent residence for the family. She spoke little English,although my dad spoke fluently as he had worked on an American army base in France. However, my dad was at work during the week and it was left up to my mother to find a place to live. Probably looking a little lost and overwhelmed she was asked by a stranger if she needed help. It turned out the woman, Annette, was from France too! What are the chances that the stranger who stopped and helped was from the same country originally? She helped my mom out enormously, not only finding her a place to live but with banking, shopping, all the things one would need to know when moving to a new country. They were friends for a couple years and then Annette and her husband moved away and they lost touch. 10 years later my mom starts a new job at a large upscale hotel. The chef turned out to be Annette! Okay not that coincidental to have a French chef working at a hotel but there are many hotels in this city and thousands of restaurants. Again, the friendship resumed. 7 years later my mom visits her brother in France and he introduces her to his older friend. After dinner one night the friend says,"You're from Canada, my sister lives there...you wouldn't happen to know a woman called Annette would you?" Okay I guess all the times we've heard someone ask if we know someone from a country we've visited we sorta of chuckle as what are the odds of knowing them? In this case - it was the same Annette. I wonder what the even greater odds are of two sibling from two different countries find friendship with the other sibling? Perhaps even more on the side of odds was that both Annette and her brother were far older than my mom and her brother. Not unusual to have friendships with people older than ourselves but again both siblings were good friends with the other siblings in another country. This is poignant perhaps as when Annette passed away in Canada (her husband has passed years earlier and she had no children) it was my mom that made the arrangements and helped with paperwork, financial things, as her brother was finding it difficult to muddle through things when he arrived from France to help settle her affairs. She helped him enormously. Perhaps it was Karma? I've enjoyed reading the stories so far as you have to wonder why things like this happen. Chance meetings especially interest me as a few mins either way and the "meeting" wouldn't have taken place. Keep em coming! |
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S2000magician Inner circle Yorba Linda, CA 3465 Posts |
Several years ago my wife and I flew to Seattle for our daughter's orientation at Seattle Pacific University. On our return trip we decided to fly to Sacramento, then drive to Auburn to look around; we're thinking about moving up there one of these days.
The first coincidence was that the Saturday we arrived in Auburn was the day that they were running the Western States Trail Ride, popularly known as the Tevis Cup, a 100-mile endurance ride from Lake Tahoe to Suburn, across the Sierra Nevada mountains. It's a ride the I'd love to do one day, and we had no idea that it was being run that weekend. The second coincidence was that my wife and I got stuck in the last row on the flight from Seattle to San Francisco (you couldn't get a direct flight from Seattle to Sacramento at the time, maybe not even now), on either side of the aisle. I sat next to a nice couple on the starboard side of the plane. We chatted for a bit and I discovered that they had been next-door neighbors of Dr. Ray Shiflett; he was one of my favorite mathematics professors when I was getting my math degrees. |
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Magnus Eisengrim Inner circle Sulla placed heads on 1053 Posts |
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On Jul 25, 2014, MobilityBundle wrote: I checked Beyond Numeracy, and Littlewood is not in the index. I don't own Innumeracy.
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.--Yeats |
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Magnus Eisengrim Inner circle Sulla placed heads on 1053 Posts |
Quote:
On Jul 25, 2014, R.S. wrote: Perhaps we should do a reading group with Paulos's A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market. I know just the thread for us to post our thoughts...
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.--Yeats |
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S2000magician Inner circle Yorba Linda, CA 3465 Posts |
My wife and I have been looking for a collie puppy as a companion for our pound puppy (a huge, pure-bred rough collie we got at the animal shelter almost 8 years ago) and a future running companion for me. It's virtually impossible to find a collie breeder in Southern California, so we've been looking elsewhere. Last week my wife phoned me to tell me to look a a particular website for a breeder in Sonoma, (Northern) California. I went to the website, then phoned the breeder and left her a voicemail message. The next day she phoned, but I missed the call, so she left me a voicemail message that they'd just bred one of their bitches and would know around August 21 whether she is pregnant or not.
The bitch's (kennel) name is Arielle. Our daughter's name is Arielle. |
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