I reach for a book in my office, and I get that weird tingly feeling, something like an invisible finger tapping me on the brain. I turn and walk over to another bookcase, pulled along as though I were a migrating insect, and not one of the smart ones either. I’m heading somewhere, but for a reason I can’t quite identify. And then I see it, sitting just left of center on the third shelf from the top: it’s the same book. I must have bought two. I find myself doing a mental re-enactment. At some forgotten moment in the past, I had stood in a store, leafed through some pages, decided that this book was worth reading, paid for it, and took it home. Weeks or months later, I went through the same process, with no inkling that I’d done it all before. It’s the opposite of déjà vu. There’s no vague, nagging sense of repetition, no silent alarm going off in my head, but rather a complete lack of awareness. What are the chances that I’d unknowingly buy a book twice?
One answer is that the chances are excellent. I know this because I’ve done it a half dozen times. But also because I have two copies of the book, and I wouldn’t knowingly do that. It’s like asking, “What are the chances that my windshield wipers will stop working while it’s raining?” It’s almost a sure thing. I rarely turn my wipers on unless it’s raining.
I disclosed those little stories about the books and the windshield wipers because I wanted to convince you that I’m at least capable of logical thought. Maybe you’ll give me the benefit of the doubt when I tell you about these other strange experiences. They’re minor events, I realize, probably not worth noticing. However, my inability to concoct any kind of explanation makes them impossible to ignore. These things happen a lot, and I can’t get used to them.
* * * * *
There’s a song playing on the radio. I almost never listen to the radio, and this song grabs my attention because I haven’t heard it in at least ten years. The next day at a different time, and again compelled by the insect migration instinct, I turn on the radio and change the station. I hear the same song playing.
I understand that these stations play hundreds of songs in a twenty-four-hour period, so there’s going to be repetition. But these are two different stations, at two different times of the day, playing a song that was mildly popular several decades ago. And as I said, I don’t listen to the radio much, yet I managed to hear it both times.
It happens with television, too. There’s this show that everybody loves. I’ve never seen it, but people insist on telling me how great it is, so I watch part of an episode. (I don’t like it, although I keep that to myself, because it’s like saying you don’t like brownies — you just never hear the end of it.) A couple of years later, I turn on the television and that same show is on. Not only the same show, but the same episode that I watched the last time. Not only the same episode, but the same part of the same episode. Now I’ve seen the show exactly twice, and it was the identical ten-minute segment.
One more.
I’m reading a book or a magazine, or doing a crossword puzzle. Someone else in the room is watching the news, and the newscaster says a word at exactly the same moment I’m reading that word. I don’t mean a common word. I mean a word like equinox or valedictorian. A word you come across maybe once in six months. And this doesn’t happen occasionally. It happens almost every time I read.
Mathematicians tell me these are all just examples of coincidence. Non-mathematicians tell me there’s no such thing as coincidence. Sometimes I’ll even hear these opposing theories about coincidence expressed two or three times, from different sources, on the same day. Then I begin wondering if that’s a coincidence, or if I’m wasting limited brainpower wondering about something that may not even exist.
According to probability, the mistake I’m making is that I’m starting with the end result. When you consider all the necessary steps that led up to an event, it often seems highly unlikely that it should ever have happened. If you shuffle a deck of playing cards, then line the cards face-up on a flat surface, the number of potential sequences is equal to more than eight times ten to the sixty-eighth power, an incomprehensibly enormous number. In other words, any sequence of fifty-two cards has very likely never existed before, and as measured by probability, should never appear. And yet, you shuffle the cards and there it is, on the first try.
It’s similar to a thought I have when I go out to eat. I’ll look at my meal and imagine the ingredients that had to arrive from so many different places, all converging at the exact time I was there. It doesn’t seem possible. If I could travel into the past and visit each of those separate foods, and then announce that on a specific day and at a specific time in the future, they would all meet up on a plate at a certain table where I was seated in a restaurant – a restaurant I have yet to choose — you’d surely react with some skepticism.
When you consider the overwhelming odds in a typical lottery, it’s easy to conclude that no one will ever win. Yet, frequently, someone defies those odds. A few individuals have won more than once.
Which all leads us to questions about luck. Do some people have more luck than others? It sure looks that way. Of course, it depends on how we define our terms, and which circumstances we choose to examine. But there’s no reason to expect that luck will be spread evenly among the world’s population. If it’s truly random, then it will occur in little clusters, just as, when you toss a coin a hundred times, you’ll get strings of heads or tails. Some people have strings of luck, both good and bad. When those strings run longer than we think they should, we may begin to assume those people are blessed, or cursed.
I believe it’s more about the numbers, and that elusive force called probability that lives among them. Create enough connections, or wait long enough, and anything can happen. The extreme example is one we’ve all heard in some form. It says that if you give a monkey a typewriter and an infinite amount of time, it will eventually type the complete works of Shakespeare. I don’t know. I would think a computer would be a better idea, although that creates its own problems. Would the monkey know how to upgrade the operating system, or change the toner cartridge? And what if he joins an online chess club, or discovers Solitaire, or starts a blog? He could end up squandering centuries, and get nothing useful done. Then again, I suppose it wouldn’t really matter. Besides, I already have the complete works of Shakespeare. It’s a two-volume set that I bought right after college. In fact, I’m pretty sure I bought it twice.
FedUpYours
May 21, 2013
Reblogged this on Fedupyours's Blog.
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bronxboy55
May 22, 2013
I’m glad you liked it.
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silkpurseproductions
May 21, 2013
Charles, I thought these things only happened to me. Every time I try to give a program another chance and decide to watch another episode (usually when the season ends and there is nothing to watch of my regular shows) it always turns out to be the one and only episode I have already seen. The reading thing is spooky. It happens to me all the time. I can be looking up a word in the dictionary or even googling it and then someone will use it in context on TV at the same time.
As far as having two copies of the same book…doesn’t everybody buy two copies? You know, for back up. You could drop it in the toilet while washing your hands. Your husband could splatter ketchup all over it because you left it on the kitchen counter. It could have been left behind in the doctor’s waiting room because you never like to touch the magazines in there so you bring your own reading. You could drop it over the side of the boat you were just floating around in. Seriously, anything could happen and then you would never know how it ended. In my case the number of books I have in twos speaks more to how often I don’t lose a book.
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bronxboy55
May 22, 2013
Michelle, I’m starting to think there’s nothing that happens only to us. I’ve returned a few double purchases to the bookstore, each time preparing a long and detailed explanation, but the sales clerk tells me it happens a lot. The TV show thing is always surprising, but I guess the number of episodes is relatively small, so it isn’t shocking. But it doesn’t seem as though the word coincidences should be happening as frequently as they do. I’m thinking of writing down the word each time — maybe I’m receiving some kind of message. Will you try that, too? We could compare the results, and if it turns out they’re the same words, we could write a book and a movie screenplay and become world-famous. Or another blog post, at least.
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silkpurseproductions
May 22, 2013
Charles, that is a brilliant idea! Count me in.
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Michele
May 21, 2013
It’s a relief to know I’m not the only one who buys books twice. I love how you brought chaos into the picture by giving the monkey a computer. Then again, I think that’s how I got here.
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bronxboy55
May 22, 2013
When I first heard this theory, the monkey was given a manual typewriter. Even with an infinite amount of time, it would have been too frustrating, especially when the keys got all bunched up and he’d have to pry them apart and he’d get ink all over his hands. I think a computer would really make the job go faster.
By the way, these last two comments were from Michelle and Michele. How did that happen?
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Andrew
May 21, 2013
It’s street lights for me. It seems like every time I am driving under one, it turns off. I am not driving at dawn – say at 10:00 at night, I’m driving home and the light goes out. This also happens when I pull into parking lots at night. I’ll park the car, get out and the light turns off.
I am thinking that there is some kind of negative energy field surrounding me that sucks the energy out of street lights. Yes, it’s only street lights and no one else I’ve mentioned this to has experienced the same thing.
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bronxboy55
May 22, 2013
I’ve had this happen, too, although not enough times to think it strange. What I have noticed is that when an electronic thing in the house stops working, two or three others will conk out at the same time. It’s like mass hypnosis.
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Chichina
May 21, 2013
I was dreaming of Shakespeare just this morning for some weird reason. I was thinking in my dream that I really appreciated his writing………. And there is the recent coincidence of ” of Mice and Men”……. I think you get my drift. There are no answers….. only questions. I’ve bought doubles of books, too. It’ s embarrassing. And it’s only going to get worse, methinks. Cheers!
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bronxboy55
May 22, 2013
I bought triples once. I’ve never told anyone that.
You dream about Shakespeare?
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Chichina
May 22, 2013
Strangely, yes.
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charlywalker
May 21, 2013
What’s. The probability that an ad will be at the end of your WordPress blog….
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bronxboy55
May 22, 2013
Are there ads on my blog? I never see them. Does WordPress set it up that way, so we only see ads on each other’s blog?
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simonandfinn
May 21, 2013
You have a very interesting mind! Re: your piece, I suppose what one calls probability, others might also call synchronicity. Whatever it’s called, there’s a certain type of magic to it. 🙂
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bronxboy55
May 22, 2013
Melissa, I’ve read a lot about this topic, and while I don’t understand all of the math involved, I accept that a certain amount of coincidence is inevitable. But still, it can get pretty weird sometimes. Okay, and magical.
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The Cutter
May 21, 2013
I can relate to the TV show thing. The first two times I watched Beverly Hills 90210 it was the same episode. The third time, they referenced that episode. I thought that maybe they had only made one episode of the show.
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bronxboy55
May 23, 2013
I’ve never seen that show, but judging from the title, I’d guess one episode would be a good idea. (Unfair, I know, but it’s raining again and I’m feeling kind of cranky.)
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The Cutter
May 23, 2013
Oddly, I got into it in the show’s later years (When most fans abandoned it)
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Allan Douglas (@AllanDouglasDgn)
May 21, 2013
Have you ever considered a vacation in Vegas? I don’t know if you’d win anything, but it would be an interesting experiment. Or you might end up in the basement being grilled by a guy named Guido about how you managed to pull off that unbelievable run of luck.
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bronxboy55
May 23, 2013
I’ve been to Vegas. Good shows. Great food. But any latent interest in gambling was nipped in the bud a long time ago:
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mystudentstruggles
May 21, 2013
I get that with the radio too, it might be because a song you like stands out so even if it’s on in the background that one song is more easily picked out than the rest which fade and are forgotten.
I always seem to see the same bits of films, either that or because I don’t know what’s going on it all looks the same 🙂
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bronxboy55
May 23, 2013
It’s nice to know there are other people who watch movies and don’t know what’s going on.
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Chris
May 21, 2013
It makes my head hurt thinking about how brilliant your head is! Your writing is unbelievably hilarious…and if you’ve heard this more than once, well, it’s more than coincidence…it’s the truth…Sorry I could never be as witty as you or some of the other commentors, so you’ll just have to grin and bear it..or bare it, or whatever!
One question…are these your own illustrations as well?? If so, you are a multibrilliantaire…hey, I just made up a new word! Fancy that!!
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bronxboy55
May 23, 2013
Thanks for the overly-kind words, Chris. About the illustrations, I wish I could say that I draw them. They’re all from a subscription art service called iclipart.com. Most of the original cartoons you see on my blog were done by an artist named Ron Leishman. I combine and modify them, and add captions and dialogue, but he did the drawings.
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carmval
May 21, 2013
My husband and I always say,”Coincidence? I think not.” Especially with the one where you read a word and then hear it on TV, or someone says it right after! Pretty creepy.
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bronxboy55
May 23, 2013
So this word thing must happen to a lot of people. Yet when I tell someone about it in person, they always look at me as though they have no idea what I’m talking about.
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She's a Maineiac
May 21, 2013
Okay, I’m a bit disappointed the same bizarre things happen to you. Here I was thinking I was special. I always happen to be reading a certain word at the very second someone on TV says it. Just happened to me today! The word was ‘assuring’. I don’t feel very assured about anything anymore.
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bronxboy55
May 23, 2013
Apparently, it happens to a lot of people, Darla. When I’m reading and the TV isn’t on, I always wonder which words I would have heard.
And you’re still special.
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cat
May 21, 2013
I have similar experiences regarding my ex patients. Out of the blue, I am starting to think of one I haven’t seen for months, and voila! there he is back ill in the hospital, or stands in my line at the till in the store … or shows up in the obits …
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bronxboy55
May 24, 2013
I’m not surprised, cat, especially given your claim to be a witch.
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unsolicitedtidbits
May 22, 2013
I love this post. You’ve captured that odd moment of coincidence so well!
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bronxboy55
May 24, 2013
Thanks, Gwendolyn. There’s so much more to say about the subject, but I think I’ll move on.
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lostnchina
May 22, 2013
I’m so disheartened to know that a monkey can write on the level of Shakespeare and I’ve got twenty half-finished posts with only half a sentence each sitting on my computer. What’s the likelihood that my intelligence might increase if I wear one of those little monkey Fez hats? If it doesn’t increase, at least I’ll look as stupid as I am now. Great post again, Charles!
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bronxboy55
May 24, 2013
Susan, I’m impressed that you have all those future posts in progress. The hat might be worth a try, but I really don’t think you need the help.
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knotrune
May 22, 2013
The blog post next to this one on my blog reader is also about odds – what are the odds of that?! The funny thing about the monkeys and Shakespeare is that along the way they will most likely have quite a lot of near misses. The odds of the first thing they produce which has more than 80% similarity with the complete works would be way higher than the odds of it being close but no cigar. And those near misses might contain quotes from this blog. Or have all the commenters here as characters. Or aliens. There might be a version where every time Romeo and Juliet meet instead of getting all lovey-dovey they gave long involved conversations about chance and coincidence.
What would be a truly freaky person is someone who never ever experienced a coincidence. The chances are, such a person exists or has existed. But it is also very likely that they would never notice or realise, except when their friends were going on about their latest coincidence. Apparently the designers of the ipod had to reprogramme the software for picking a random song because people complained it kept picking the same one too much. They had to make it less random.
The odds of me enjoying your posts are consistently high though 🙂
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bronxboy55
May 24, 2013
I wonder if humans are the only creatures capable of recognizing coincidence. Many other animals recognize patterns, but picking out the unexpected ones is another level of thought. I would think.
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icedteawithlemon
May 22, 2013
“What are the chances that I’d unknowingly buy a book twice? One answer is that the chances are excellent.” Not only have I bought the same book twice (more times than I’m willing to admit), but I have also re-read the same book–or at least the first half–before realizing that it all sounds vaguely familiar. MY excuse is that there is just SO MUCH knowledge and information packed into my tiny brain that it stands to reason I would occasionally have difficulty retrieving something so minute as whether I’ve already purchased/read a particular book. (Perhaps that’s your problem, too!)
What I know for sure is that you do not have “limited brainpower,” and I would be ever-so-disappointed if you stopped “wasting” that power on your delightful wonderings and ponderings. Squander on!
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bronxboy55
May 24, 2013
If I put it all together, then, what you’re saying is that I have unlimited brainpower in my tiny brain. Did I get that right?
I recently watched a movie that came on two VHS tapes. Without realizing it, I watched Part B first, all the way through. The next night, I watched Part A, all the way through. I have trouble following most movies anyway, so I didn’t think there was anything wrong. I assumed the entire second part was just a really long flashback.
Thanks, Karen. I hope you’re feeling good.
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icedteawithlemon
May 24, 2013
(The tiny brain I was referring to was mine.)
I could easily make the same mistake with a two-part movie since I have a tendency to sleep through about half of every movie anyway (although I probably wouldn’t have been watching them on VHS). 😉 And thank you–feeling better every day and even posted a “Part B” blog this morning.
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scribblechic
May 22, 2013
Please tell me you also find yourself glancing at the clock at a precise time.
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bronxboy55
May 25, 2013
I see 10:10 almost every day, sometimes morning and night.
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architect of the jungle
May 27, 2013
I see 11:11
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"HE WHO"
May 22, 2013
I remember buying “a” book and realizing too late I already had it on my bookshelf. But I have bought many books the second time just to pass them on. Books that had really made an impact. “Women’s Room”, “Autobiography of a Yogi”, “Webster’s New World Dictionary” for instance. When I used to meditate, things popped up exactly when I needed them. I would open a text to the page I needed to find. I was in the loop. So are you, Charles, so are you. And by the way, thank you for taking the pressure off me when Michelle decides to tell someone something. As long as she has you, she won’t have the need to tell me. Aah, the not so secret world of blogging.
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bronxboy55
May 25, 2013
I didn’t realize I was taking the pressure off, HW, but I’m happy to do it, especially if it means I’m in the loop. Most times, I can’t even find the loop.
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"HE WHO"
May 27, 2013
There’s always the Loop d’ Loop at Palisades Park in Jersey. And the song will make you happy!
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bronxboy55
May 28, 2013
Great memories, HW, but Palisades Amusement Park closed forty years ago. This song is still etched in my brain, though:
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"HE WHO"
May 28, 2013
Damn. One more place I’ll never see.I really like the song. I hope the etching was good for you.
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shoreacres
May 22, 2013
Just remember – improbable doesn’t mean impossible. On the other hand, things often happen for no apparent reason, which begs the question – what would be an inapparent reason?
See? I can do it, too!
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bronxboy55
May 25, 2013
There’s a big gap between improbable and impossible. But now you have me chasing my own tail with that question about inapparent reasons.
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Jac
May 22, 2013
What you call reverse deja vu, I call reverse senility. It’s when I think I forgot to do something and go to do it again, only to remember that I forgot that I remembered to do it and actually did it.
“Ya folla?”
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bronxboy55
May 25, 2013
It’s hard to know how to feel when that happens, isn’t it? Are you proud that you remembered to do it, or disappointed that you forgot that you remembered?
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Jac
May 22, 2013
Now that I go back and re-read your blog (yes, I did remember that I actually read it) I see that you didn’t call it reverse deja vu. But I think you should.
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bronxboy55
May 25, 2013
How about un-deja-vu?
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silkpurseproductions
May 23, 2013
Charles, Have you ever heard of “Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon”? This series of posts kept niggling at me about it and I wanted to mention it to you. This is a short piece on it http://www.damninteresting.com/the-baader-meinhof-phenomenon/.
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bronxboy55
May 26, 2013
I’d never heard it called that, Michelle, but I have read about the phenomenon. Whenever I buy a car, I try to get one that isn’t the same color everyone else seems to be driving. After my purchase, I’ll notice that half the cars on the road are the color I chose. I guess the explanation is that I hadn’t been paying attention to that color until it had some personal relevance to me. Or maybe I’m just a trendsetter.
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cecilia
May 23, 2013
You know i went looking for you in the internet the other day to see what you were up to, I had keyed in Bronx Boy and after reading the endless hits of bronx boy in drive by shooting, bronx boy shot in the foot, bronx boy arrested for murder, bronx boy arrested with paper bag over his head in liquor store, well I gave up in horror, you bronx boys are a busy lot! Now which are the books you bought twice, because I have a few doubles here, maybe we can do a swap! So, when are we going to see a pic of the Bronx back door view then?.. take care.. and really enjoyed reading this page, it all makes perfect sense to me.. have a lovely day! c
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bronxboy55
May 26, 2013
Actually, those were all me — except the one who shot himself in the foot. I haven’t done that in months.
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cecilia
May 26, 2013
I did wonder.. c
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JM Randolph
May 23, 2013
I have bought the same book twice, more than once. When I was moving all the time in the late 90’s, every time I packed up and headed out, it was Rush’s Fly By Night on the radio. Many different states, mind you. So I started taking this stuff as a sign. I seem to come into the exact same places in movies a lot. Maybe it’s one of those quantum-whatevers that I never actually bothered to study, the idea where the experimenter’s hope for the outcome of the experiment actually effects the outcome.
At work, I say the script along in my mind as the show goes on– that’s how I can tell if the sound is intelligible or not (I do the sound). 95% of the time when an actor goes up on a line I have also drawn a blank just before. Coincidence? Altered perspective of time? Or collective unconscious? Sometimes it just feels like my fault.
Great post.
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bronxboy55
May 26, 2013
Mathematicians would likely jump on your 95% estimate. They’d assume you’re remembering the instances when it did happen, and forgetting the many more times when it didn’t. That’s why I usually tell mathematicians to just shut up. In my mind, I tell them that. And sometimes they do.
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nailingjellotoatree
May 23, 2013
I got a little hung up on “not liking brownies.” But once again you enchanted me with your probability stories. My hubby likes to say, “You can prove anything with a sufficiently small sample size.”
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bronxboy55
May 26, 2013
I’ve found two or three other people who also don’t like brownies. Using that small sample, I can prove that no one likes them.
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Bruce
May 23, 2013
Great post and thanks for the good laugh over the restaurant cartoon. A funny illustration and it’s probable that such dinner conversations and thoughts like this occur frequently.
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bronxboy55
May 26, 2013
Thanks for the kind words, Bruce. I’m glad you liked the cartoon.
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oneenglishteacher
May 23, 2013
I just brought home a book I already owned from the library book sale the other day. That’s the danger of going crazy when the paperbacks are marked down to 25 cents I’m afraid. And, I’ve experienced the radio phenomenon before too. As an English teacher, my plagiarism antennae go up and I suspect those disc jockeys of plagiarizing each others’ playlists.
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bronxboy55
May 26, 2013
Those library book sales and clearance tables at retail stores are at the heart of the problem. We buy more books than we can possibly read, and before we know it, we’re buying another armload — including a book we already have.
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morristownmemos by Ronnie Hammer
May 24, 2013
Just as I was about to respond to your blog it occurred to me that I probably already responded to it.
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bronxboy55
May 26, 2013
I just hope my reply isn’t a repetition of what I said last time.
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kasturika
May 24, 2013
I hardly watch movies on TV. And when I do, I always miss the beginning. And even if I watch that same movie again, I miss the exact same portion. What’s more, I manage to miss the beginning of movies even in the movie theatre! And how about that… There was a part three after all 😀
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bronxboy55
May 26, 2013
Missing the same part of a movie is similar to what happens to me, but in reverse. I always see the same part. Where I live, you have to be running really late to miss the beginning in a theater, though; the pre-show and commercials go on for about twenty minutes.
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marymtf
May 25, 2013
I’ve watched a movie half way then picked it up again a week later exactly where I’d left off. Spooky. Does that count? I keep bringing books home that I had sold or donated over the years because I lacked the space to keep them. I still lack the space but I have to have them. I know that’s not quite on the topic, but I wanted to mention it.
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bronxboy55
May 27, 2013
Mary, you can stray from the topic any time you want. It’s always good to hear from you.
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Philster999
May 25, 2013
Another great blog, and a nice wrap up to your “probability trilogy” (though given the feedback these blogs have received I imagine we’ll “probably” being hearing more on this topic in the future!).
Charles, your prose is a joy to read. Your cadence is so neatly modulated and paced, and the references within your posts loop back upon themselves with such facility and wit that one simply can’t help but embrace the lure and the work-a-day epiphanies with which you continuously reward us.
And where the monkeys are concerned, you’re 100% correct — as soon as they start blogging, they’re never gonna have time to finish those plays!
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bronxboy55
May 27, 2013
The strangest part of all, Phil, is that when the monkeys decide to do a public reading, we’ll probably be in the audience.
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earthriderjudyberman
May 25, 2013
Charles, I also have bought more than one copy of the same books, and of movies I already have. I’m often too embarrassed to return them, so I give them to my daughters. Coincidentally, I also have seen portions of the same show over a long period of time.
I believe there are no accidents. But randomness and frequency of events … you raised some good points.
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bronxboy55
May 27, 2013
Judy, one of the things I forgot to mention was that I’m usually reading several books at a time — books about completely different subjects. I might be in chapter 15 of one book and chapter 4 of another. Yet, there’s the same topic or idea mentioned in both. I’m not even surprised by those things anymore.
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rangewriter
May 25, 2013
Even worse is to discover that you’ve bought the same book twice, but then to go looking for that book a year later because your book group has decided to discuss it, only to discover that you have misplaced BOTH copies of said book. Grrrr.
I believe some people make their own luck. There are people who live in, what seems to us, dire poverty and yet they feel lucky and blessed. Luck is how you look at the hand you’re dealt.
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bronxboy55
May 27, 2013
I agree with your last statement, Linda. That’s what I was trying to say with this: “Do some people have more luck than others? It sure looks that way. Of course, it depends on how we define our terms, and which circumstances we choose to examine.” It’s a matter of perspective. If I could find a book that helps me keep a healthy outlook, I’d probably buy three copies. Or more.
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architect of the jungle
May 27, 2013
I’m glad I read to the end of these comments, it helped me somehow to have a better outlook…luck, probability, coincidence…all such interesting topics. You should write a book about them. Maybe then you could forget you wrote it, and write it again. Years (or days ; ) ) later you could find it at a bookstore and read it and later go out, find it at bookstore and read it again. Each time you discover it you will be happy, and each time you read it you will be relieved to have found yet another book that helps you keep a healthy outlook. And you will say, hey, was this written by the same Bronx Boy as me? And then remember that there are many Bronx Boys, but you’re the one who shoots himself in the toe less frequently. This reminds me of the fact that your ability to resist the urge to shoot yourself in the foot is in itself a wonder. What are the chances of encountering someone with a mind like yours who is also capable of keeping both his feet on the ground?
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bronxboy55
May 27, 2013
I never claimed to have both feet on the ground. Fortunately, I don’t own a gun.
A book about probability — I’ve thought about it. But what are the chances anyone else will buy it, except me?
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Sandra Parsons
June 15, 2013
I know, I’m a little late but, as always, some of your observations simply resonate with me. I had the radio thing happen to me the other day and my dad happened to be with me both times that song was played. I pointed it out to him and he just shrugged. I guess he just has 22 more years of experiencing these coincidences under his belt.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know how much I admire your ability to finish every post with a clever loop to something you said earlier – I just never get tired of reading your musings!
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bronxboy55
June 17, 2013
It’s always great to hear from you, Sandra, and I appreciate your kind words. Are you visiting your Dad, or is he visiting you?
I hope your growing family is doing well. I look forward to your next post, whenever that may be.
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Sandra Parsons
June 17, 2013
We were in Germany recently, followed by a visit from my parents here in paradise. The radio thing happened in Berlin though, the stuff that’s playing on the radio here in Cape Verde would definitely not trigger any memories for me – not the music that I grew up with 🙂
I actually have a post growing in the back of my mind, just waiting for a quiet evening to let it out. Thank you for your encouragement, Charles.
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bronxboy55
June 29, 2013
I’m heading over to your blog right now to see if there’s a new post. (But I’m not nagging.) (Yet.)
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Wyrd Smythe
June 24, 2013
I have experienced that weird coincidence with TV shows many times. And at times, exactly the same. A show others like, but which never called to me (e.g. Big Bang Theory, a show I just can’t like no matter how hard I try… but I do like brownies). So I watch an episode. I think, “Meh.” Some time in the future, channel surfing, and there’s that very episode again!
Chances are this is self-selection bias on our parts. We likely see parts of many shows, nearly all of which we never see again. But when that weird coincidence occurs, it really stands out. (This is exactly why people insist a full moon brings out the crazies.)
Regarding the Shakespearian Monkeys… here’s a mind-blower: The monkeys thing is all about how, in random information, given enough time, any sequence must occur (the amount of time we’re talking about here passes human understanding).
Consider that the digits of pi are random and go on forever. That means that, somewhere in the digits of pi, is buried the entire works of Shakespeare. And every other author who ever wrote (or will write).
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bronxboy55
June 29, 2013
I agree, at least in part, about the memory bias. I’ve begun paying more attention to my luck with traffic lights, and have noticed that I’ll catch a string of greens more frequently than I’d ever thought. I tend to remember the red lights, because I’m usually running late.
About the Shakespeare thing: I would like to see a happier ending for Macbeth.
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Wyrd Smythe
June 29, 2013
It is very surprising (and perhaps a little scary) how much reality we create in our own heads. The degree of perceptive filtering, substitution and filling in can be astonishing. As you may know, we see color only directly in front of us. Any “color” we see peripherally is generated by the brain. Which also fills in those two blind spots we all have in our retinas. That’s the one that gets me. Two “holes” in vision, but you’re never normally aware of them.
The Scottish play, perhaps as a light-hearted musical with a happy ending? 😀
But will it play in Poughkeepsie? (Or do I mean Peoria?)
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