Cambridge Coincidences Collection

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

The Count of Monte Cristo appears in "Room"

During the week that I began watching a DVD of "The Count of Monte Cristo", 400 minutes of the 1998 French tv-mini-series adaptation of the classic novel by Alexandre Dumas père, taking it in over four days, we interrupted the sequence after the third night by viewing a Netflix DVD of "Room", which had arrived by mail (we wanted to send it sent back the following day), not knowing that the movie of a young woman held captive for seven years along with the five-year-old child she’d conceived & given birth to would include a significant reference to the Count of Monte Cristo’s own incarceration & means of escape.

strange photo coincidence

In March many years ago, I was in Florida and went to a Spring Training game for the Philadelphia Phillies. I had a camera and took many pictures at the game. In those days, you had to take the film to a photo store to be developed. I was in no rush and took my film to the store in May. When I went to pick up the photos, I was browsing through them and saw the pictures of the baseball game. But wait, there were pictures of the Panama Canal, which were not mine. Apparently, somebody else's pictures got mixed in with mine. After investigation, it turned out that I was mistakenly given the order for a person who had dropped off their film immediately after me (approx 2 months after the game). They had been to the same baseball game. They had also sat on the third base line, which is where we sat. I've always wondered whether they were in my pictures or we were in their pictures. Also strange was that the orders were confused and that I actually browsed the pictures while at the store.

College friend living on same street (with other connections)

A few days ago I got a friend request on Facebook from someone I had been friendly-acquaintances with in college 10+ years ago. I would have ignored it, as I'm usually pretty selective about Facebook friends, BUT upon looking at his page I noticed that he and his wife have 3-year-old twin boys. What a coincidence, I thought: I am 35 weeks pregnant with twin girls. So I accepted his friend request (parents of multiples gotta stick together!). A few minutes later, he messaged me to ask if I lived on [certain street] in [city 300 miles from where we both went to college]. I said yes, we did up until a few weeks ago, when we moved to a larger house a few miles away. He said, What a coincidence: I live on that street and I could have sworn I saw you walking by my house recently. We shared a "wow" moment, and then I told him about our twins - another "wow" moment. I ALSO mentioned to him something else he didn't know: he's not the only parent of twins on that street - another family on the same block has 2-year-old twin boys.

Long-distance emotional connection

(Important context to understand the story: I am female.) When I was in high school in the mid-90s, I dated a girl whose dad was rabidly homophobic. We had discussed the fact that if he ever found out about our relationship, he would probably flip out and kick her out of the house. We also agreed that I would never call her at home or contact her in any way that he could find out about. One evening I was sitting at my desk doing homework, when all of a sudden I experienced a distinct wave of fear and panic that I knew was somehow connected with her. About an hour later, I got a phone call from her to tell me that her dad had found out about our relationship and, as we had predicted, reacted in a very scary and threatening way. After some discussion we worked out that he had started yelling at her at about the same moment I experienced the sudden wave of fear. I've never known what to make of the fact that I seem to have shared some of her emotions without knowing why.

Went across the country to meet my neighbour

In an ill-fated tree-planting experience in Northern BC, Canada, I met a nice young couple, who were joining my planting team. They spoke French, as I did, and found out they were from Montreal, like me. I chatted with them some more, and found out they were in the same neighbourhood as me. Chatting with them even more, and it turned out that they lived across the street from me! We had to go over 4,000km to meet!

Grandparents of married couple were in the same choir without knowing.

One day my friend's father came back with a photo from an old box in the loft of his Grandfather singing in his choir. My friend's mother looked at the photo and recognised her Grandparents in the photo and assumed her husband has found one of her photos. But then they realised that both their Grandparents were in the same choir and that they hadn't realised it.

Friend`s phone call.

This happened to an unrelated military friend and myself in 1977. My buddy not having a phone went to his mother`s house to call me out of the blue. We had had no plans beforehand. Thinking about this person I not having a phone went to my sister`s house to call him. After saying my hello`s etc. I went to the rotary phone to call my friend. Before any ring I picked up the receiver to start dialing and my friend was on the line.

Two unconnected French friends of mine meet on Dover to Calais ferry

Some years ago, I was being visited by a friend ( Patrick) from Paris. During his visit, I received a postcard from another French friend( Jean-Pierre, from Grenoble) who was at the time on a walking holiday in Scotland. I was gobsmacked to hear later from Patrick that, on his return trip on the Dover-Calais ferry, he had sat next to another chap and started up a conversation. The chap was also French, and it turned out they both had a friend in Cambidge. Yes, it was Jean-Pierre.....

A bizarre sighting

At some time in the late 1990s, on a Sunday afternoon, I was sitting next to a stranger in a bar on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. I started talking to her, found out she was Canadian, and mentioned that I had spent quite a bit of time in Canada and was there during the tenure of Brian Mulroney, the former prime minister. She said that she disliked Brian Mulroney and probably (I can't remember exactly) gave me some reasons. During this very brief exchange, I looked out the window of the bar, and there was Brian Mulroney, unmistakable, on the other side of Lexington Avenue, walking down the street by himself. Perhaps every bit as strange as that is the fact that, when I said, "That's Brian Mulroney!" she made no comment and didn't bother to look.

Sing a song of sixpence

Yesterday (1st March) for some unknown reason,I started contemplating the words of 'Sing a song of sixpence' and how at odds it is,with today's green philosophies, for it to be considered 'dainty' to bake blackbirds in a pie,and that the blackbirds subsequently sing from within a pie. Add to that the nose of the maid being snipped off,and it all seems a tad gory to be telling a child. Blow me down,if today,Richard Herring in the Metro newspaper (e-edition.metro.co.uk/2016/03/02/) on page 31,remarks that 'nursery rhymes are bloody twisted' and gives some examples of the noxious things found in children's nursery rhymes. The blackbird's were not in the examples,all the same for the very same subject to appear the very next day......!?

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