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Off-Topic -- the Coincidences Discussion - 2016
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Fishface
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Oct 06, 2016 08:30AM
TY everyone!
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Fishface wrote: "TY everyone!"
My husband wonders what makes me burst out laughing for no obvious (to him) reason. I say "Oh, just Fishface again." I think he is worried about me. LOL
It's me he should be worried about. *gets out clown mask and knife*
We previously discussed reading while listening to the TV or radio. Today I was reading Evil Mother by Fred Rosen when I read the words 'millions of dollars' at the exact same time someone said it on the TV. Also reading the same book today, Oct. 6, I read that it was Oct. 6, 1994 that Jim Elstad and Joe Brown were arrested in the murder of Aaron Iturra.
Yesterday I played hookey with a co-worker and we hit most of the Ann Arbor indie bookstores: Literati, Kaleidoscope, Aunt Agatha's, places like that. The day was an avalanche of coincidences: >> At the moment I'm reading The Discovery of King Arthur which frequently mentions a British king named Vortigern. At Literati, I spotted a book called The Edge of the World: A Cultural History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe. Wondering if it would make a good review for my fish blog, I opened it at random and the first thing I saw glaring up at me from the page was the name "Vortigern." Sure enough, they were talking about the same guy.
>> Tunneling around in the basement of Kaleidoscope, I found a box of old Playboys. Never having looked at one before, I opened the top one at random and who was looking up at me but Dorothy Stratten. I just watched her biopic, STAR 80, for the first time in many years, more or less on the anniversary of her murder.
>> A few feet away from that I found the exact Ben Cooper Halloween costume that terrified me most as a kid, still in its original box. Those keeping track of discussions on this forum will already have guessed that it was the clown costume. Leering out of the open-topped box was that hideous clown mask with the two soulless holes where the eyes should be. Shudder!
Mod
*gets out clown mask and knife*"
**grabs pitchfork and horse head mask**
Oh, the killer clowns are probably just a metaphor for the presidential race.
Mod
I discovered a daunting coincidence while reading Signature Killers. Apparently, Richard Cottingham -- victimizing mostly hookers who tend to use phony names -- killed Mary Ann Carr, Valerie Ann Street (who was found by a badly-upset hotel chambermaid named Mary Ann Sancanelli), and nearly did away with Leslie Ann O'Dell whose screams brought help in time. That's out of a total of only 7 murders. One of the victims has never been identified, but dollars to doughnuts when DNA testing matches her up with her worried family at least, she's gonna have Ann somewhere in her name.
This was amazing. I have had front-door problems since I moved into my place and I decided that this year, I'm just going to fix it myself -- the complex has been stalling since 1999. I had just resigned myself to starting to shop for a new one when I looked out my defective front door -- lo and behold, a neighbor had propped theirs up by the Dumpster. Free replacement door! And I called my handyman and he just happens to be free on the day I'm taking off this week!
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You're lucky -- I can't even find it showing in my area. What did you think?
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I enjoyed it, except it didn't show her as a stalker, rather as a very depressed woman frustrated with her job and love life, ie: she wasn't allowed to do the stories she wanted, she wanted to get promoted but her depression was hampering her ability to work with the people around her and she had a definite lack of social skills. There was a man she was interested in who wasn't interested in her.
Watching it, I could see a definite change when you realized she had decided kill herself and put the plan in motion.
I heard a review on the radio (NPR) on it the other day. Sounds really interesting.
Here's a hideous coincidence. Ever since I stared reading I Would Find a Girl Walking, I've been unable to get away from the wretched disco music, reminding me that -- like disco duck Gerry Stano -- disco kills. They even mentioned the Bee Gees in the other book I'm reading, Swim to Me. Let me give you a for instance. The drive-thru line was so slow at Wendy's just now that I went inside. Playing on the speakers overhead was "Car Wash" by Rose Royce. If that doesn't kill your appetite, what will? I fled to Dunkin' Donuts for some comfort food.
Fishface wrote: "Here's a hideous coincidence. Ever since I stared reading I Would Find a Girl Walking, I've been unable to get away from the wretched disco music, reminding me that -- like disco duc..."LOL. Another musical coincidence. A few minutes ago I was looking at Facebook. The radio was on. The person posted that he had just lost a friend and that friend was a huge Jimmy Buffet fan. The song on the radio at the exact moment I read this was Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet.
Two in two days! Last night I was watching a movie, looked up at the wall clock and realized its battery must be dead. At that moment, a character in the movie got his instructions about where to meet at 9 a.m. the next day; the address was 504 Battery.I just logged on to update my Currently Reading books. I was eager to announce that I've started on the book by Henry Kyemba that "outs" Idi Amin as a cannibal. Well, my GR homepage had a quote from someone else's book that includes the sentence, "Cannibals! You will be eaten by cannibals!"
Well, the last book I finished, Swim to Me, jolted me a few times with reminders of my childhood, including a sentence that had the first and last names of my recess-yard bully in it. Well, sir, now I'm reading A State of Blood: The Inside Story of Idi Amin and not even halfway in, the author describes the murder of a relative of another, less important recess-yard bully. He made sure to say who his family was so I know it's not a coincidence -- it's the same family. I even think I remember that kid mentioning this guy one day.Brrrrrr!
This is a gobsmacker of a coincidence. More like an avalanche of them. My anniversary date in this program, doing home visits with mentally-disturbed children, is Halloween. So today -- Halloween -- I was assigned a new case, right, and I was reading what it said in the intake. The kid lives in an apartment complex overlooking a cemetery and her presenting issue is that she sees ghosts and does what they tell her to do. While I was poring over this information, I was dressed like Baron Samedi, who's sort of like the WalMart greeter for the afterlife.
Fishface wrote: "This is a gobsmacker of a coincidence. More like an avalanche of them. My anniversary date in this program, doing home visits with mentally-disturbed children, is Halloween. So today -- Halloween..."
Love it. My house overlooks a cemetery and I have never seen a ghost. However, I assume everyone thinks she is wacky but who's to say...maybe she really is a medium. I would give her the benefit of the doubt.
Yeah, remember when Dr. Thurman misdiagnosed Donnie Darko as schizophrenic? She was all wet!
All. Wet.
Maybe she's a medium, or maybe she's a large, which is more likely these days.
OK, this is interesting. I noticed at the first appointment this morning that the new client was born on the day Coral Eugene Watts died. Just now, at the last appointment of the day, I glanced over at the paper a foster-care worker was holding and noticed that an adoptive family member shares Coral's birthday. And of course, when I was looking up the state for that trivia question about how many serial killers were born in November, the very first photo that popped up belonged to guess who.
Fishface wrote: "OK, this is interesting. I noticed at the first appointment this morning that the new client was born on the day Coral Eugene Watts died. Just now, at the last appointment of the day, I glanced ove..."Only you would even know when Coral Watts' birthday is, Eileen.
Mod
Only you would even know when Coral Watts' birthday is, Eileen."
yep
He has the same birthday as 2 of my best friends in H.S. and my main recess-yard bully. It makes it easy to remember.
Fishface wrote: "He has the same birthday as 2 of my best friends in H.S. and my main recess-yard bully. It makes it easy to remember."***shaking head***
I know! The other thing that makes me shake my head today is the fact that I carefully wrote out a list of TC anniversaries for the weekend, and somehow managed not to bring them when I logged on. I was sure I had them in my bookbag.
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:::sobs uncontrollably:::
OK, I went on the Offender Tracking Information System (OTIS) to see how Ann Arbor serial rapist and murderer Ervin Mitchell is getting along in "the big house." I expected to be frustrated because in the past I have not been able to find him there at all, filling me with terror that he may have cut a deal and gotten himself released. Well, sir, this time I found THREE Ervin Mitchells. Mine is tucked away for the rest of his natural life, thank Scrod. But here's the thing. He's Ervin Dewain Mitchell, Jr., meaning that somewhere out there is his namesake. But there's a much younger guy, already discharged after serving his time for auto theft, and he's Ervin Dewain Mitchell III. (The rapist's son???) The third Ervin Mitchell lists no middle name but like my Ervin, he's a sex offender, and old enough to be the dad of my Ervin, who in turn is just old enough to be the young Ervin's dad. I've heard of 3rd-generation welfare recipients, but 3rd-generation convicts? That's far more depressing.
Fishface wrote: "OK, I went on the Offender Tracking Information System (OTIS) to see how Ann Arbor serial rapist and murderer Ervin Mitchell is getting along in "the big house." I expected to be frustrated because..."That is horrifying if they all are the same family!
Dewain: I bet that is pronounced DeWAYNE.
Shelley wrote: "Dewain: I bet that is pronounced DeWAYNE."LOL
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Yeah, it's close enough for government work, that's for sure.
At the last minute yesterday I signed out one of the agency cars for a home visit. I was the second one to have used it that day. As I wrote my employee number, 1035, on the log sheet, I noticed that the other user that day was employee number 1305.
I know this happens a lot but last night I was reading My Sweet Angel: The True Story of Lacey Spears, the Seemingly Perfect Mother Who Murdered Her Son in Cold Blood and skimming through the TV guide on the television when I just happened to see the name Lacy Spears. There is a show on the ID network on Sunday that deals with this crime. Of course, it is set to tape.
I was whipping up my list of TC anniversaries to bring to the office and add to the discussion here; one of them, on 11/26, was the murder of Carrie Lenz. After I got done with that I opened my new book, Paralyzing Summer: The True Story of the Ann Arbor V.A. Hospital Poisonings and Deaths, I immediately found a character named Lenz.
Fishface wrote: "OK, this morning I was very excited to be able to donate DNA to the National Geographic Society to map as much of human ancestry as possible -- it was a birthday present to myself. I'm especially i..."Did you get the results back? I am thinking of getting this done. Anyone know if ancestry.ca or ancestry.com would be good? They have an offer right now for $79 CDN.
Shelley wrote: "Fishface wrote: "OK, this morning I was very excited to be able to donate DNA to the National Geographic Society to map as much of human ancestry as possible -- it was a birthday present to myself...."I did, and they were a lot more general than I was led to expect. I have heard only good things about ancestry.com. The price is certainly right.
Today's coincidences: I noticed when reading book jackets that Theodore Roscoe, who wrote the third-to-last TC book I read, bears a striking resemblance to Howard Whitman, who wrote the one I just finished. And Whitman has a house in the same town -- Westport, CT -- as the author of the book I just started, Alan Hynd.
It seems to happen a lot that we read something on the anniversary of when it happened but no less surprising when it does. Reading Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story and found out today is the 10th anniversary of her baptism into the Mormon faith.
Which reminds me of one I forgot to write down from Terror in the Streets. I learned on November 25th, 2016, that that was the day in 1949 that Jean Brusco's skull was split open before the astonished eyes of her neighbors, who immediately called the police. The police couldn't find the house, never thought to call the dispatcher back to clarify the address, and just left, assuming the caller had been a crank. Meanwhile, Jean was being raped and murdered a few feet from where the neighbors were asking each other, "When are the police going to get here?"I'm going to remind myself of Jean Brusco next time I see the police, a firetruck and two ambulances screaming to the site of a missing wallet and start to shake my head at the excessive response.
Last night I watched a documentary on Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (Soyuz Conspiracy) right before bed. Then I got in bed and picked up a crossword, which I usually do until I fall asleep. One of the clues was "Soviet cosmonaut ____ Gagarin". I knew that one!
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It's very rare for me to run into one of my clients outside work, and the other day I ran into two of them. Even more unlikely, both of them have the same last name.
I brought home some movies from the library, including a Hammer film I never knew existed, about the life of Rasputin, who was played by Christopher Lee. Well, sir, this morning after watching the movie, I opened my copy of The Complete True Crime Diaries, wondering why I still have a bookmark in there because I haven't picked it up since I first read it a few years ago now. Well, needless to say, the bookmark was placed at December 30, the anniversary of the murder of Grigori Rasputin.Another odd detail was that the sound was a little spotty in this movie, and it kept sounding as if they were calling Christopher Lee's character "Putin." I never noticed before that they shared syllables in their names...
Interestingly, it's not uncommon in Russian society for illegitimate children to be given a shortened surname - such as Rasputin to Putin. Vladimir Putin's surname appears to be a mystery, as the name appears suddenly in the mid-19th century with no direct antecedents. The only similar one at that time was Puyatin. So who is the dude, really?
Ew. Fully as creepy as many of the TC gifs.
And if that wasn't creepy enough, try this on for size:
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Obsessed with True Crime
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