Off-Topic -- the Coincidences Discussion - 2016

[Fishface]

I was driving up Argentine Road yesterday, and just as I passed the sign for Dunn Road, the announcer on the radio said "this program was produced by Lisa Dunn."

[Rita]

I LOVE IT! It always gives me an energy boost when coincidences happen. :)

[Fishface]

Here's one that doesn't give me a boost. I was just wondering whatever happened to a guy from another department at work who retired over the summer. Well, a co-worker came staggering in and said she'd just talked to the agency director, who told her he was killed yesterday in a car accident.

[Lady ♥ Belleza, Gif Princesa]

I was just about to start a "Coincidences" discussion thread on here and you started one. I guess that's a 'coincidence'?

[Rita]

Wow, now that is a coincidence that makes my hair stand on end. How awful Fishface, that would be hard to forget.

[Rita]

♥Belleza★✰ wrote: "I was just about to start a "Coincidences" discussion thread on here and you started one. I guess that's a 'coincidence'?"

Belleza, now that is a coincidence I like as you both thought of it simultaneously (yikes, I had to look that one up in the dictionary)!

[Fishface]

Great minds think alike, that's all that is... :D

[Fishface]

Here's another from this morning, and this did make me smile. I was reading Conquering Darkness: Memoir of the Serial Killer's Wife and the author said at one point that she was headed to work in Pleasanton, California. That picqued my memory, and I glanced over at the TBR pile next to me. Right on top was the new arrival, Murder in Pleasanton: Tina Faelz and the Search for Justice...

[Rita]

Fishface, where do I go from here so I can post my review? I finished reading I'll See You Again by Jackie Hance.

[Fishface]

Rita wrote: "Fishface, where do I go from here so I can post my review? I finished reading I'll See You Again by Jackie Hance."

Do you want to post it in this discussion? Just go to the text box at the bottom, type it in and press POST. If you want to review it at the book page, pull up that book, click on the title to bring up the book's page, and go underneath to the bar that says whether you've read it yet or not. Rate it by clicking on the star and that takes you automatically to the review page. Fill in the text box and press SAVE at the bottom. Voila.

[Fishface]

Fishface wrote: "Here's one that doesn't give me a boost. I was just wondering whatever happened to a guy from another department at work who retired over the summer. Well, a co-worker came staggering in and said s..."

There's ANOTHER coincidence in this situation. I went to the local paper (online) and found an article about the death of this co-worker. It named the first responders, and one of them, a state trooper, is married to yet another one of my co-workers. This sure is a small county sometimes.

[Koren]

Fishface wrote: "Fishface wrote: "Here's one that doesn't give me a boost. I was just wondering whatever happened to a guy from another department at work who retired over the summer. Well, a co-worker came stagger..."

You should try living in a town of 1200 people. We laugh because we can usually find a way we are connected to someone. My paternal grandparents had 22 siblings between them so I have like a gazillion 2nd and 3rd cousins.

[Lady ♥ Belleza, Gif Princesa]

Rita wrote: "Fishface, where do I go from here so I can post my review? I finished reading I'll See You Again by Jackie Hance."

Please don't post your review in this thread, if you want to post it in a discussion thread, I would prefer the True Crime Read thread.

Thanks!

[Rita]

Yes, Belleza I didn't want to post it here as it isn't the right group. I did post it in True Crime 2016 thread. Thanks Belleza! I hope I did it right!

[K.A.]

So tonight I was reading a chapter in my Healthcare Documentation textbook and listening to a TV show on the Titanic, which was discussing how fast people would have perished in the cold water. Just as I read the words 'Central Nervous System', the narrator on the show said 'Central Nervous System'. It didn't actually click for a moment because it was like he was suddenly narrating my book!

[Koren]

K.A. wrote: "So tonight I was reading a chapter in my Healthcare Documentation textbook and listening to a TV show on the Titanic, which was discussing how fast people would have perished in the cold water. Jus..."

Glad to see someone else reads and watches TV at the same time. This happens to me a lot.

[Fishface]

I'm reading Mountain Madness and came across a person in it named Marion Parker, a sister of one of the many, many suspects. That made my ears prick up and I checked the older edition of the TC Anniversaries at Shelfari. Sure enough, we passed the anniversary of the horrible kidnap/murder of another Marion Parker a few weeks ago. Read about that poor girl in Stolen Away: The True Story of Californias Most Shocking Kidnapmurder.

[Lady ♥ Belleza, Gif Princesa]

I keep forgetting to post this. A while back I posted about Derrick Todd Lee dying. The day I posted that I started reading Delivered from Evil: True Stories of Ordinary People Who Faced Monstrous Mass Killers and Survived and one of the cases in there is the woman who survived an attack by him. And the person who posted on Facebook about him dying was Ron Franscell.

[Fishface]

I'm still reading Mountain Madness and noticed that the suspect was arrested on my birthday. This morning I looked up a criminal I learned about in a discussion with a client, using the state database. The criminal absconded and became a wanted woman on my birthday.

[Fishface]

Here's another! I was watching MEN IN BLACK last night, for the first time since it came out in the theaters, and remembered for the first time in all these years that the MiB's director is named Zed and is played by Rip Torn. Well, the same day, I got my copy of THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH in the mail, which has Rip Torn in the cast. I also got my copy of Murders in the Mist: Who Killed Dian Fossey? that day in the mail, and looked at the photo section. There's a guy in there named Zed!

[Lady ♥ Belleza, Gif Princesa]

Fishface wrote: "Here's another! I was watching MEN IN BLACK last night, for the first time since it came out in the theaters, and remembered for the first time in all these years that the MiB's director is named Z..."

Spooky

[Koren]

This was weird. Reading Shattered: Reclaiming A Life Torn Apart By Violence by Debra Puglisi Sharp. Her husband's name is Nino. Not a common name, at least not in my world. The TV is on but I'm not really watching it. It's just on for noise. The show that's on I think is a TLC show about pregnant women. Cant remember the name. Anyway, the husband's name on the show is....you guessed it...NINO!

[Fishface]

I was at a session and my client cheerfully brought up Charlie Manson, comparing him to a relative. When I got in the car to drive back to the office, I turned on the engine and "Helter Skelter" blasted out of the radio at me.

[Rita]

Fishface wrote: "I was at a session and my client cheerfully brought up Charlie Manson, comparing him to a relative. When I got in the car to drive back to the office, I turned on the engine and "Helter Skelter" bl..."

Fishface, I LOVE it when that happens! lol

[Fishface]

I was reading in Killer on the Road: Violence and the American Interstate this morning, and it mentioned the murder of Curtis Walker. You guessed it -- tomorrow's the anniversary of his murder. RIP Curtis:




And: fork you, Wayne Williams.

[Lady ♥ Belleza, Gif Princesa]

Fishface wrote: "I was reading in Killer on the Road: Violence and the American Interstate this morning, and it mentioned the murder of Curtis Walker. You guessed it -- tomorrow's the anniversary of..."

So sad.

[Rita]

What a coincidence Fishface and it is very sad!

[Fishface]

Here's a lighter one. A client was telling me his yearly Chinese horoscope reading, which interested me greatly as we are both Rabbits. Well, when I got home and checked the mail, a copy of THE NIGHT OF THE LEPUS had arrived from Amazon -- a movie about killer bunny rabbits.

[Fishface]

Another! I started Black Wave: A Family's Adventure at Sea and the Disaster That Saved Them this morning, a story that takes place on the open ocean in a sailboat. So when I got in the car this morning I turned the radio on and the first words I heard were Dennis de Young singing "...the viiiirgin seeeeeaaaa..." Not liking his band, I change to another preset station and heard Sammy Hagar singing "I'll send a message in a bottle/Trust to the mercy of the sea..." I had JUST read in the book linked above that some French sailors who overheard their "mayday" and literally got a message to the Coast Guard using a message in a bottle. Which seems fairly inefficient to me.

[Koren]

Reading Safe Harbor: A Murder In Nantucket by Brian McDonald. The other day at work we were discussing where our dream vacation would be. My co-worker said she had always wanted to go to Nantucket.

[Fishface]

Koren wrote: "Reading Safe Harbor: A Murder In Nantucket by Brian McDonald. The other day at work we were discussing where our dream vacation would be. My co-worker said she had always wanted to go to Nantucket."


Did you warn her? :)

[Rita]

Funny thing, I was going through a small box of books I forgot about and the first one I pulled out was Safe Harbor: A Murder In Nantucket by Brian McDonald. Wow....I love when that happens Koren! lol

[Koren]

Fishface wrote: "Koren wrote: "Reading Safe Harbor: A Murder In Nantucket by Brian McDonald. The other day at work we were discussing where our dream vacation would be. My co-worker said she had always wanted to go..."

I started to warn her but then she looked at me funny so I stopped.

[Fishface]

I got a bunch of coincidences going this week. While I was reading Jack Of Jumps the first week of March, I learned that Mungo Ireland, a wildly popular suspect in that case, killed himself in the first week of March. In that book there was a guy named Cornelius who used the nickname "Connie;" in the book I picked up next, The Love-Murders of Harry F. Powers, there is a guy named Cornelius who uses the nickname "Connie." By the way, they are both guys you should cross the street to avoid if you see them coming.

In that same book, another awful coincidence: poor Luella Strother was married twice, and both grooms turned out to be killers. And I thought my love life was bad!

[K.A.]

Never name your boy Connie.

[Lady ♥ Belleza, Gif Princesa]

K.A. wrote: "Never name your boy Connie."

**Fist bump**

[Koren]

Fishface wrote: "I got a bunch of coincidences going this week. While I was reading Jack Of Jumps the first week of March, I learned that Mungo Ireland, a wildly popular suspect in that case, killed ..."

Quite a few years ago there was a resident in the nursing home I worked at named Cornelius AKA Connie. Funny, I had forgotten all about him until you mentioned it.

[Koren]

Fishface wrote: "I got a bunch of coincidences going this week. While I was reading Jack Of Jumps the first week of March, I learned that Mungo Ireland, a wildly popular suspect in that case, killed ..."


The last 3 books I have read have made a mention of Ireland and now you mention it is in a book you are reading. May I mention that my oldest son's birthday is on St. Patrick's Day.

[Fishface]

I was struggling to change the cover of a book I added to our TC shelf, Ken Englade's Murder in Boston; there are 3 perfectly good covers attached to the book page and I couldn't get any of them to stick, so it shows up coverless on our shelf. After giving up in disgust and going to buy lunch at Wendy's, I heard a radio announcer discussing someone named Charles Stuart. Murder in Boston is the story of Charles and Carol Stuart.

[Fishface]

I was just adding a book to the TC shelf and pulled up the book's page to make sure it really fit. I noticed there was a little blurb along the side about the author, and dang if her birthday isn't tomorrow.

[K.A.]

I was entering information in a form for an exercise connected with a class I'm taking, when I entered 'Check 1051'. Sounded familiar, so I looked, and sure enough, that was the number of the last check I wrote from my own checkbook!

[Lady ♥ Belleza, Gif Princesa]

I was checking my Goodreads notifications, of which there were more than a few, and noticed Eileen had 'liked' a book I put on my to-read shelf.

Then as I was reading new posts in one of the discussion groups, the author of the book and another member were talking about the book.

A Voice out of Nowhere

[Fishface]

Two in one day! A kid I knew in second grade, Leigh Smith, has been popping into my mind a lot lately. Well, I heard an interview on the radio yesterday with the author of a book called Dimestore: A Writer's Life. Then I opened this week's newsmagazine and there was a piece on her in there. Her name turns out to be Lee Smith.

At the same time, I just finished The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, which mentions a guy named Bob Ross over and over. Well, someone I know mentioned an odd conversation yesterday that her son had with his imaginary friend: "Don't call me Bob Ross!" he said; "That's not my name!"

[K.A.]

Bob Ross? Many ASMR videos feature Bob Ross.

[Fishface]

I'm pretty sure Shilts was talking about the OTHER Bob Ross.

[Fishface]

This one was a doozy and it just happened. I was racing home from a school meeting and saw a mysterious sign by the side of the road, with an arrow pointing into the woods, that read MEATLOAF. Just as I passed it and started wondering "what could that be about?" the deejay put on a song by Meatloaf. (Since you asked, it was "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad.")

[K.A.]

You know what to eat for dinner tonight. It is fated.

[Fishface]

That crossed my mind, but I was too tired to fix meatloaf and too hungry to wait an hour for it to bake. I ate some pie filling leftover from a test batch. Maybe tonight, though...

[Fishface]

So today I was at a school meeting and learned that the guidance counselor for the student in question was named Gigi. It struck me because she has the same last name as my best friend in middle school and high school, but the friend's name is Gidget.

[Koren]

Fishface wrote: "So today I was at a school meeting and learned that the guidance counselor for the student in question was named Gigi. It struck me because she has the same last name as my best friend in middle sc..."

Gidget... named after a TV show I will bet.