Category: Stories


Baseball Odds

Filed Under: Stories by Reader submission — 1 Comment
January 2, 2012

(Submitted by reader David Newell)

Three years ago I had a business trip to attend in New York. As an attendee I was to receive tickets to a Yankees game. Before leaving, I asked my young boys what they wanted me to bring them back. The older one replied a foul ball. But not just any foul ball, but one hit by A Rod.

Right, I thought to myself. I have been going to Dodgers games for 40 years and have never caught a foul ball – Ever!

So be it. We go to the game and come the 7th inning, not a whiff of a foul ball coming my way. I had already purchased two souvenir balls to bring back to the boys just in case. There was a bus leaving at that inning to take us all back to the hotel, but there was no way I was going to leave the game early – not just because I hadn’t caught a foul ball, but this was the last season before Yankee Stadium was going to be demolished – and I wanted to enjoy every minute of it.

So, 7th inning comes and goes, 8th inning comes around and sure enough A Rod will be coming to bat. I had recently read a book that had talked about visualization and the power of suggestion – so as he’s coming to bat I’m repeating a mantra of A Rod hitting a foul ball my way.

The next thing I know, he pops up a foul ball close to where I am. I can see by the trajectory that it’s going into the next section over, but if somehow everybody goes for it and no one catches it cleanly – I can play the deflection. So I run out of my seat into the aisle where I think I might have my best shot at this. Sure enough the ball comes down – no one gets it cleanly and it pops back up right toward me. It lands on the ground and I scramble down and swoop it up – and sure enough, there was my foul ball from A Rod.

I was so blown away by all of this, that I decided to keep the ball myself here in my office as a reminder to what the power of positive thinking can do.

Besides, I can’t really split the ball in half to give to each kid, can I?!

[EDITOR: Now that we’ve established this super power of yours, let’s get cracking on world peace, shall we? Or at least a lottery win…]

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A Common Name

Filed Under: Stories by Wendy Hughes — Leave a comment
December 30, 2011

We were on the phone recently for almost 45 minutes with our friend Dawn who has moved to Northern California. We’ve been friends with her for ‘way over 20 years, and about half that time she was married  to a man named Jim, Jim Thomas.

Later, I was scrolling through an online bulletin board, and one of the messages was from Jim about Dan Ackroyd.

This past weekend, I happened to see a documentary about comedians who died young, including John Belushi, and included shots of him with Dan Ackroyd in the Blues Brothers… And the name of the man who posted the bulletin board message is Jim Thomas. So — that’s like a pattern seeking triple whammy. Of course, Jim Thomas is a pretty common name, like Wendy Hughes, that lends itself to coincidences.

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Not a Trivial Coincidence

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December 27, 2011

(Submitted by reader Donald Chesebro)

I watch hundreds of movies a year, much more than the average person, and take notes during most of them as part of preparing for an annual trivia contest in my hometown.  Thus, whenever a character drives or otherwise encounters a motor vehicle, I will write down (for example) what type of vehicle it is and what its license number is, if it’s visible.

Yesterday lunchtime, for no particular reason but for the first time in the over 15 years since I’ve owned my 1993 teal Accord, I wondered why I’d never seen anyone with my model of car in a movie.  I probably see another teal 91-94 Accord on the streets of LA at least once a month, but I’ve never seen it in the thousands of films and TV episodes I’ve watched since I bought my car (used) in 1995.  I figured it had something to do with Hollywood having deals with Detroit, or the like.

This morning, less than a day after I wondered if I’d ever see my car in a movie, I started watching the 2011 remake of “Fright Night,” the first movie set in the U.S. that I watched since framing my question (the only film I watched in between was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 the night before).

Four minutes into the film, there’s a ’91-’94 teal Accord parked in the driveway of the character named Doris.

[EDITOR: Meanwhile my car’s bumper sticker is “My other car is a Nimbus 2000,” so I probably would have seen my second vehicle the first night and made it even crazier a coincidence!]

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Trucks Just Want to Have Fun

Filed Under: Stories by Reader submission — 1 Comment
December 20, 2011

(Submitted by friend of the blog, Paula Lauterbach)

I have had my truck for about 4 years.  Sometimes I have needed to add water to the radiator, but the interior temp gauge never rose above the halfway mark.

In mid July 2011, I drove from Los Angeles to Las Vegas (Remember…JULY) to attend a conference of atheists, skeptics, free thinkers and the like.  I brought water in case something happened because of the heat, but I had no problems.

Then yesterday (July 24), I drove a much shorter distance to Orange County to see a friend speak at a Christian Church and answer questions about what it means to be a non-believer.  Very nice talk.

Within five minutes of leaving the venue, my “check gauges” light buzzed loudly and my temp gauge was all the way over to the red right area.  I pulled over ASAP and used all the water I had for Vegas.  It made it to the restaurant I was going to next (and then a gas station for more).

Now my truck seems ok.  But I thought it was funny it was all fine and dandy traveling to Vegas to be near heathens and then had an issue after visiting a church!

[EDITOR: If this doesn’t sound like perfect confirmation bias to reinforce my preference of Vegas over church, I don’t know what does.]

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Favorite Worlds Collide

Filed Under: Stories by Jarrett Kaufman — Leave a comment
December 13, 2011

At the end of 2009 I started contract work at Current TV in Los Angeles. During my first week there the premises in which they’re located held a company Christmas party to which I was invited. I ended up having a long conversation with one individual about science fiction novels, short fiction, and Escape Pod, my favorite SF podcast. He hadn’t heard of it, but was interested in checking it out.

The following day, on my ride home, I decided it was time to start catching up on Escape Pod as some changes in my life had cut down on my podcast listening and I was a few months behind. The first story I put on was entitled Mr. Penumbra’s Twenty-Four-Hour Book Store, and as I was quickly informed by the moderator, it was (brilliantly) written by Robin Sloan… a then employee of Current TV.

So in the very same week I started work at one of my all-time favorite workplaces and had a conversation about one of my all-time favorite podcasts, both were tied inextricably together by one science fiction short story, which also immediately became one of my all-time favorites. The odds MUST be crazy…

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Awkward Encounters

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December 13, 2011

(Submitted by reader Heather F)

I got married a few years ago (and am now happily divorced), and visited San Francisco with my then-new husband on our honeymoon trip. While we lived in Washington, DC at the time, I am originally from Amherst, Massachusetts.

During out sightseeing we visited SFMOMA (Museum of Modern Art) and wandered around, hand-in-hand, like the oblivious newlyweds we were. But our bliss was suddenly derailed when we ran smack into a man I hadn’t seen in five years, when I lived in Massachusetts… where we’d had a rather intense affair.

The odds were clearly crazy, and there just aren’t enough Dear Abby columns available to tell you how to introduce your new husband (who has a jealous streak) to an ex-lover who you’ve always wished you could’ve had just a few more nights with…

[EDITOR: The same thing happened to me in San Francisco, although instead of a new married partner it was a sandwich, and instead of an ex-lover it was a restaurant that served another delicious sandwich. But otherwise exactly the same. Especially considering the food poisoning from the first sandwich left me regretting that commitment…]

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Doggone Perfect

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December 10, 2011

(Submitted by friend of the blog, Kathleen Scott)

We’ve been talking about rescuing a small dog for about a year. Problem is, neither of us have dealt with a dog in an apartment or ever owned a small dog.  Would we be able to deal with daily walking, greater need for attention, and all the other not-cat traits that come with dog ownership?

One day we were running errands, talking it over in the car.  We decided that what we really needed was a test-dog but it had to be perfect – small, liked cats, house-trained, didn’t chew up the house, etc.

Got home that day to find a Facebook message from a friend. She’s going out of town and needed someone to watch her Pomeranian – who is small, sweet,  likes cats, is house trained and doesn’t chew on things.   We decide what we need, it happens!

(Although it must be said that we had been talking about rescuing a dog for a long time.  We really want a dog in our house and the subject is raised weekly.  It took an entire year before an ideal situation presented itself.)

[EDITOR: Personally I’m shocked at the odds of a small dog who’s house trained and doesn’t chew on things. I have enough gnaw marks around my house to be impressed by that one.]

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Coincidence Curry

Filed Under: Stories by Wendy Hughes — Leave a comment
December 7, 2011

A girlfriend and I were planning to have lunch at an Indian curry restaurant one weekend day; she was going to pick me up about Noon, but was about a half hour late. We sat for about 15 or 20 minutes visiting and talking about her husband’s new play before we got into the car and drove the six blocks or so to a tiny, obscure Indian restaurant in the San Fernando Valley. We almost went to a more modern Thai restaurant instead, but decided to stick with our original choice of the Indian curry place.

We were seated and reviewing the menu when another friend of ours entered the little six-table establishment and we all recognized one another. He was with his friend who lived in the neighborhood. What was an unusual coincidence, besides the fact that we would have missed each other if my friend had been on time, was that we had just been discussing the theater my restaurant partner’s husband almost performed at (the stage wasn’t large enough), and our coincidental new dinner guest was the theater’s manager! Go figure the odds!

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Travelling Travel Buddies

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December 4, 2011

(Submitted by reader Ron F)

In January of 1978 I decided to take a trip to Bryce Canyon, in Utah as I had always wanted to see it in the winter. While there, I met a nice German couple at a canyon overlook and talked with them for a while.

Two days later, after driving over 550 miles to the south rim of the Grand Canyon I pulled into an overlook and was startled to find the same couple.

Considering the distance involved, the number of scenic opportunities along the ways, and the timing of it, I was pretty impressed by the long odds.

[EDITOR: We’re happy to receive this story, mainly because we’ve seen too many horror movies to not assume stalking, chloroform, and missing body parts were next, and it’s nice to know that some people get out of these situations alive.]

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Mutual friends found in email

Filed Under: Stories by Wendy Hughes — Leave a comment
November 1, 2011

I live in Los Angeles, CA. My friend who lives and works in Washington DC announced on Facebook that she has a new Twitter account name, so I entered that into the Twitter Find People feature, and followed her. We otherwise were Facebook friends, but I had not been following her on Twitter.

Within minutes, my email showed that she was following me, too. We exchanged Direct Messages. I told her I barely ever used Twitter to announce what I was doing, but preferred to use it like little emails, just for Direct Messages.

My cousin Steve also lives and works in DC. She wrote back the following: “Your cousin Steve (I think) was my Mac instructor the other day. How do I know? We were in my email and he saw you sent me a message.” I immediately thought: The Odds Must Be Crazy 🙂

[EDITOR: The same thing happened to me last week. Only instead of Twitter it was on <CENSORED> and instead of my Mac instructor it was my <CENSORED>. But otherwise exactly the same.]

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