town coincidence

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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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In the RAF I was once based in Digby north of Sleaford,and for a time went out with a local girl.When I left the RAF I eventually went to a college in Essex,and my colleagues on the course knew I went to Sleaford at the weekend.A few years later I became a salesman and one night was staying in a hotel in Sleaford(I had stopped seeing the local girl some years before).Over breakfast at the hotel the receptionist gave me a letter addressed "Simon Meek, Sleaford"The people who had been on my college course were having a reunion and the only idea they had about my wherabouts was that at one time I used to go out with a girl from that town.The postman had obviously used his initiative and tried the local hotels,and by pure coincidence I happened to be staying there for one night only because my home was too far away to drive to my customers in the morning."Of all the hotels in all the world" to paraphrase that film.
Total votes: 1067
Date submitted:Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:18:04 +0000Coincidence ID:3309