Words Matching Up
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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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My profession is a writer, which I've done for the past 20 years. I don't recall when I first noticed the phenomenon of words matching up between what I'm doing and what's going on around me, but it's been happening for years. It happens so often that I started documenting it. The following is a list of the occasions when words have matched up just over the past three weeks.
Nov 12, 2018
I'm listing to a Spotify station and a song sang the lyric "hotel while I'm typing out the words "2 nights at hotel" on an invoice to one of my clients.
Nov 12, 2018
I read the word "connected" while someone on TV said it.
Nov 12, 2018
I type out the words "comment period" while a person on TV says "during this period."
Nov 13, 2018
I'm in a hotel far away from my home state reading a magazine article about "applewood bacon" while someone on a TV commercial says "apple."
Nov 14, 2018
A TV commercial says "they are farmers" while I am looking at the Facebook page of a group called Successful Farming.
Nov 14, 2018
I'm typing out an email responding to my editor about an assignment about joy when the person on the TV says "enjoy" right at the same time I'm typing joy.
Nov 15, 2018
I'm moving my phone off airplane mode while a person speaking says "dual mode."
Nov 16, 2018
I'm in the Seattle airport loading cnn.com on my computer as the person on TV says CNN.
Nov 21, 2018
I'm typing out the word "phone" in an article at the same time my son tells me a joke about getting him a flip phone. I type out phone at the same time he says phone.
Nov 21, 2018
I'm reading about the SAP HANA cloud platform while a song with the lyrics "If I could find that Hannah" came on Pandora.
Nov 23, 2018
My boyfriend said Black Friday right as a Black Friday email appeared in my inbox
Nov 26, 2018
A song came up on Pandora with the lyrics "Lets go let's go right now" that said "now" at the same time as I read "now" in my document.
Nov 28, 2018
Writing about a home on the Columbia River while my son is watching a video on YouTube in which a guy said he pulled something from a river.
Nov 30, 2018
Radio says Saturday as I'm looking at Saturday on my calendar.
Dec 2, 2018
I'm editing an article on boric acid and looking up info on boric acid, seeing a page that says it's a drug. Radio Lab comes on and starts talking about the Valtrex drug and says "drug" right at the same time I'm reading "drug."
Date submitted:Mon, 03 Dec 2018 20:44:37 +0000Coincidence ID:10149
