Trivial coincidences from everyday life.

[KaiYeves]

While home for Spring Break, I tried to find a photograph of the STS-51-L crew (The gag photo of them dressed like little kids in socks and mortarboards) that I thought I'd seen in a book at my local library. It turned out not to be in any of the books at the library where I thought it would be, so I realized I must have seen it in another book I'd gotten on interlibrary loan from another library. I wasn't going to be home long enough to get the book on interlibrary loan again, so I resigned myself to not being able to find the picture until the summer. Two weeks after coming home, I got a new space book that I'd ordered from Amazon in the mail and started reading it. To my surprise, it included the very photo I'd been looking for!

[Gemini]

Another one: Back in 2009, I went the theater to see the new Star Trek film that I had been anxiously awaiting. After sitting down, I looked over at the guy next to me. Turns, he was the guy I had been interning under for the last two years with Cullman City Hall. However, when I first met him back in the early 90's, he was that older guy (he was in either middle or high school at the time, a tall, imposing nerdy fellow with glasses that played trombone) with the cool Star Trek models in his room and I was the annoying little kid that his parent's friends brought over with them when they visited. His dad, who passed away in 2007, helped inspire my interest in astronomy, but that's another story altogether.)

Back to 2009, he was working in a lucrative position as the IT manager for the City of Cullman and was sitting in the theater with some of his friends and his wife Leia ( which I find slightly ironic) and I was a tall, imposing nerd with glasses that played trombone.

I though it was funny how things had come full circle like that...

[Tensor]

Ok, how's this one?

in October of 1967 I was in seventh grade in Wisconsin. I was in one of my classes and there was a knock on the classroom door (this was well before cell phones and our building didn't even have phones in the classrooms, linked to the office) and our teacher had to run off as his wife went into labor. He's back in a couple of days and we find out his wife had a boy. In 1974 I move to Florida and in 1978 I join the Air Force. In 1986 I was in Iceland to train some people. I was there as the guy who was supposed to go had a emergency medical problem, and since I'd been in Iceland before, I was chosen to go for a couple of weeks. Turned out, one of the guys there was a guy I had worked with at another base and the night I got there, were were talking about about things over beers. One of his guys (and one of the guys I was to train) came over and my buddy introduced us and told me Bill was from my home town. Bill was the son of the teacher that had to leave class back in 1967.

[Extravoice]

In high school, each classroom had a speaker mounted above the door for use as an intercom, PA announcements, etc. One of its functions was to indicate class transitions by generating a very annoying tone.

One day, the tone sounded in the middle of class...and it didn't stop. After several minutes of this annoyance, my teacher pretended to remove an arrow from a quiver on his back, drew a bow, and shot the speaker with his imaginary arrow. At exactly the right moment, the tone stopped.

[Jim]

... I was in one of my classes ... our teacher had to run off as his wife went into labor. He's back in a couple of days ...

Please don't tell me the class waited all that time for him to return.

[Tensor]

Please don't tell me the class waited all that time for him to return.

Of course, we were well behaved children. And if you believe that, I have some land I'd like to sell you. It's about 30 miles west of Tampa, with water on the property....

[Ara Pacis]

A could weeks ago, with the big MegaMillions drawing of 640 Million, I tried to visualize the numbers. I kept seeing several numbers pop up multiple times, which was unusual since they usually drift by. Consequently I had a feeling there would be multiples. So, on one of my 3 picks, I reused a couple numbers 37, 56, 19 and 09 and even used 09 as both a regular ball and the megaball on the same ticket. In the drawing, 23 was both a regular ball and the megaball, and that was the only number on any of my tickets to be right. Not a big deal. However, 09 did come up twice on two of my Quick Picks on the same tickets so, the sensation that that number would be chosen was true, it just happened to be a different random drawing (the computer not the balls). Moreover, besides sharing 09 with my picks, the two QPs on my ticket shared 3 numbers between them (09, 34, 50). How odd is that? On the other hand, perhaps the Quick Pick was not random.

[NEOWatcher]

I was watching a recorded show yesterday, and stopped the viewing during a commercial break (instead of forwarding through it)
When it switched over to normal broadcast viewing, the same commercial was on and within about 2 seconds of where I left it from the recorded show.
Maybe it's not that interesting considering the rate that some commercials run, but it was to me.

[Buttercup]

On Monday husband and I took a drive through the southern portion of this valley; agricultural, some livestock, pecan groves. Very pretty.

We passed "Buttercup Lane." About 2 miles further on we passed "M----- Lane" (our last name).

[kpatz]

Back in 1982, I was a teenager and was vacationing on a lake with my parents and younger sisters. We live in NH and the lake was in NH as well. My mom's sister and their family came up from NJ and spent a few days with us. One day I was outside and I found a set of keys lying on the gravel driveway. Not knowing whose keys they were, I tried them on the cottage door and it worked, so I told my folks that I found the keys to the cottage in the driveway. It turns out that the keys belonged to my aunt and uncle from NJ, and it was their house key that fit the cottage door lock!

A few years ago I received a letter from a town's police department about an unpaid parking ticket. It was a town I had never been to, so I should not have had any parking tickets there, so I called them. When the officer looked up the ticket, it turns out it was given to someone with the same make, model, and color car I had, and also the same plate number, but they were Massachusetts plates while mine were NH. Somewhere in the processing of the ticket someone crossed out MA and wrote in NH so I got the letter. It seemed freaky that someone in a neighboring state drove the same make, model, and color car as mine and had the same exact plate number too.

[HenrikOlsen]

It seemed freaky that someone in a neighboring state drove the same make, model, and color car as mine and had the same exact plate number too.

It seems incredibly backwards to me that it's even possible to have two cars with the same plate number, I guess it's a USian thing that you don't consider that odd.

[caveman1917]

It seems incredibly backwards to me that it's even possible to have two cars with the same plate number, I guess it's a USian thing that you don't consider that odd.

Why would that be odd? I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere in the world someone had the same plate number as my car. I can see you might consider it odd if you look at the US as a single country, rather than each state being its own entity wrt plate numbers. But even then, i think there are other countries that also prefix your plate number with the province the car is registered in, and then have each province have a full set of plate numbers, so you might have the same plate number as someone from another province but with a different prefix, just like kpatz had with "NH" instead of "MA".

In Belgium we recently ran out of free plate numbers, so we started anew but the new ones have a "1" prefix. Is it so fundamentally different to have two same plate numbers where the new ones have a "1" prefix from having each state/province have its own "NH" or "MA" prefix?

[Trebuchet]

In Belgium we recently ran out of free plate numbers, so we started anew but the new ones have a "1" prefix. Is it so fundamentally different to have two same plate numbers where the new ones have a "1" prefix from having each state/province have its own "NH" or "MA" prefix?

Except that the state designation is not part of the plate number, as your use of "prefix" seems to suggest. A quick Google indicates there were 254,212,610 cars registered in the USA in 2008. About .80 cars per person! That would require a LOT of unique numbers.

[caveman1917]

Except that the state designation is not part of the plate number, as your use of "prefix" seems to suggest.

The state designation is printed on the plate before/above/after/below the actual plate number, same difference

[Jim]

Oklahoma used to issue plates that had a prefix based on the county... 1 thru 77, IIRC. After that duplicate numbers were possible.

Texas used to do the same with a two-letter prefix, then four numbers. Large counties had more than one two-letter prefix.

Numbers may be infinite, but license plates have only so much room.

[Lurking Nerd]

That's how it's done in Montana as well. There is a prefix number that corresponds to the county. It's often followed by a P or T for passanger car or truck, I think. So, I imagine it's possible to get the same number within the county and the only difference being the prefix letter.

[DonM435]

I heard that some guy in some state requested a personalized license plate with the letters "NONE" on it. That suggests a rather boring person, but never mind that.

Anyway, one fine day this guy gets a ton of traffic violation notices in the mail, and gets more and more every day.

Turns out that, when the license number/label on the vehicle that caused an accident or violation is unknown, the police would record "NONE" in that field of record. Once their computer program discovered that it had a matching miscreant in the data base, it dutifully sent out the notices.

I always bring this up when we discuss "missing values" in computer applications.

[Paul Beardsley]

This didn't happen to me but I witnessed it.

I was on half-day at work so I caught the lunchtime train home. A pretty young woman of about 20 sat across the aisle from me. She was - how can I put this politely? - the sort that most men would like to look at (etc) but wouldn't want a long-term relationship with.

Also on the train was a rather older man, well into his 40s I would say. He was one of those overbearing extroverts looking for a conversation. If I'd been the only one there he probably would have sat opposite me and gone on about asylum seekers or stupid things the government had done. Fortunately he saw the young woman, and she was obviously of much more interest than I was. So he sat opposite her and started chatting her up*.

Although she wasn't interested, she didn't mind the attention, as far as I could tell. Clearly they'd never met before, but as he was chatting away about himself, she started piecing the information together, and realised she probably knew who he was.

"So what are you doing this afternoon?" he asked.

She replied, "I think I'm visiting your son in prison."

That shut him up for a few seconds. But he quickly recovered, they laughed about the coincidence, chatted some more, and he gave her a slobbery kiss before she got off the train. I can't help wondering what sort of family situation prevails there, but I wish them well.

*"Hitting on her" in the US.

[NEOWatcher]

The state designation is printed on the plate before/above/after/below the actual plate number, same difference

Only if they look.
I agree that it should be standard to look, but in any scheme of identifiecation it turns out to be a different field on a form somewhere.
An identifier in the plate number itself (or keeping them unique) eliminates that additional piece of information (even though the amount of information may be the same).

[caveman1917]

Only if they look.
I agree that it should be standard to look, but in any scheme of identifiecation it turns out to be a different field on a form somewhere.
An identifier in the plate number itself (or keeping them unique) eliminates that additional piece of information (even though the amount of information may be the same).

The problem then seems to be more about the identification forms than the plate itself. They could just put it in the same field on the form, say "MA-12345" as the identifier. There's no need to change the plates themselves, only the way they are handled. If the current way of doing it consists of ignoring part of the plate designation, which is already printed on the plate, then of course there will be issues where two different plates will be handled as identical.

[Van Rijn]

Only if they look.
I agree that it should be standard to look, but in any scheme of identifiecation it turns out to be a different field on a form somewhere.

It's usually pretty hard not to notice out of state plates. Most of them have different color or color patterns, different graphics, etc. I often notice them even though I'm not looking for them.

[NEOWatcher]

The problem then seems to be more about the identification forms than the plate itself. They could just put it in the same field on the form, say "MA-12345" as the identifier.

I agree, but those sloppy people that don't have the discipline to check the state and enter it in the first place might just be the same people that don't prefix the plate number with the state.
And if some don't follow the procedure, it might get confusing if the MA is the state or an actual part of the plate.
They should at least put the fields immediately next to each other.

[NEOWatcher]

It's usually pretty hard not to notice out of state plates. Most of them have different color or color patterns, different graphics, etc. I often notice them even though I'm not looking for them.

Yes; especially to a (allegedly) trained eye.
Many states do not retire plates (where it's mandatory to switch plates) so there may be several designs in one state at a time (right now, I have 4 vehicles/trailers with plates of 3 different designs)

[ToSeek]

Yes; especially to a (allegedly) trained eye.
Many states do not retire plates (where it's mandatory to switch plates) so there may be several designs in one state at a time (right now, I have 4 vehicles/trailers with plates of 3 different designs)

Then there are states that have half-a-dozen different designs depending on which cause you want to support. My state (Maryland) even allows any organization with at least 25 interested members to have their own license plate (based on a generic template). I have my alma mater's logo on mine, and there are bunches of folks here at Goddard with HST, NGST, and JWST license plates, not to mention a host of other alma maters.

[Jim]

Then there are states that have half-a-dozen different designs depending on which cause you want to support. My state (Maryland) even allows any organization with at least 25 interested members to have their own license plate (based on a generic template). I have my alma mater's logo on mine, and there are bunches of folks here at Goddard with HST, NGST, and JWST license plates, not to mention a host of other alma maters.

Pfft, small potatoes.

Try https://rts.texasonline.state.tx.us/...teOrderServlet

You can even special design your own.

[Tobin Dax]

It's usually pretty hard not to notice out of state plates. Most of them have different color or color patterns, different graphics, etc. I often notice them even though I'm not looking for them.

Kentucky and Illinois (and even Washington [state]) plates are similar enough that it takes a second look for me to recognize the latter. Maybe I'm just not looking at first, but even though they letters/numbers are different colors, they all have light blue symbols on a white background.

[Paul Beardsley]

Here's an incredible coincidence. I was reading a novel about some astronomy fans who got together to talk about incredible coincidences, only to find the topic strayed off into a really incredibly boring discussion about car number plates...

...and then it turned out my cousin was reading it too!

[mike alexander]

In... what, 1973? I was giving the introductory safety lecture for the freshman chemistry lab; don't pour solvents down the drain, gloves and so on. Several minutes in the safety globe surrounding the lightbulb over the lab bench came loose and fell ca. twenty feet to shatter on the bench a foot or so from one of the students.

[Jim]

I hope you took credit for that very realistic demonstration.

[ToSeek]

Pfft, small potatoes.

Try https://rts.texasonline.state.tx.us/...teOrderServlet

You can even special design your own.

Weak!

Maryland can't even list all theirs on one page. This is just the "M"s:

http://www.mva.maryland.gov/Vehicle-...NG=m&CATID=3|4