Basil the Rat!

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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.

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This is true and very funny! About 10 years ago I was watching 'A Life of Grime' presented by John Peel on TV. Mid program I heard my wife and daughter shrieking upstairs. They rushed down into the lounge announcing that they'd been confronted by a rat in one of the bedrooms. You can understand my reaction "Yeh, right, very funny!". They went on and on demanding I did something. In the end, totally unconvinced, I went upstairs to investigate. They told me to look under the bed. I did and could see the outline of something very still under the centre of the bed. I got a torch and a stick. I shone the light under the bed and could see two little eyes looking right back at me. When I prodded with the stick all hell broke loose and the thing went berserk. IT WAS A RAT! A big 'un too! We flung open the front door and up-ended the bed. The rat shot out the room and took off from the landing to hit the deck below and was gone! We couldn't stop laughing at this amazing and hilarious coincidence and christened the rat Basil, after the famous Fawlty Towers episode. Pretty long odds, eh?
Total votes: 222
Date submitted:Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:10:30 +0000Coincidence ID:4966