JGR is walking in

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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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When I was a student (many years ago), I spent a year in France as a teaching assistant in a school. During the Christmas break I travelled to Italy (Milan) to visit a fellow student who was also spending her year abroad. During my visit, we often talked about one of our lecturers (JGR I'll call him after his initials) whom we both liked and she had a bit of a 'thing' (intellectual rather than romantic) about him. He was of part Mediterranean background and could easily have been taken for Italian in looks. So as we went around Milan and saw people who vaguely looked like him, one of us would suddenly say 'there's JGR' and we'd both laugh. This happened on many occasions during my week there. On the day of my departure, we arrived early at Milan Central Station, so we went into the buffet ('Tavola Calda') to have a drink and wait. As we were sitting there, my companion who was facing the door suddenly said to me 'JGR is walking in'. I, with my back to the door, smiled and said 'Yes of course'. She said 'He is, you know'. And then suddenly he, JGR was there, at our table. Unbelievable. And how he came to be there made the whole thing even more unbelievable. He was actually on his way to visit a colleague in Turin, but he'd inadvertently got on the wrong train and had had to get off at Milan and wait for another train to his correct destination. Since he had time to wait, he'd come into the buffet! After all these years (nearly 50), you can still knock me down with a feather. And by the way I'm still in touch with both of them.
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Date submitted:Mon, 16 Apr 2018 16:08:00 +0000Coincidence ID:9987