Statistics in a Modern World 800
Coincidences 2002

A coincidence is a surprising concurrence of events, perceived as meaningfully related, but with no apparent causal connection. Should we really be surprised by these coincidences? Remember that when so many "unlikely" events are possible, according to the laws of probability, some of them are bound to happen. Like these...

(J.A.) This past summer, about 10 of my friends an I went to Ocean City, Maryland for our Senior Trip. I knew that a bunch of my guy friends were going down the same week, but none of us knew where they were staying so that we could all hang out. As it turns out, while we were moving all of our stuff in, they were moving into their place right across the street! I just thought it was strange how all my friends could end up living so close out of all the places to stay at.

(G.B.) In my family, people named Betty tend to die on Birthdays. I know that's a pretty morbid coincidence, but I swear, it's true. My Aunt Betty died the day my niece was born. My cousin Betty died on her mother's birthday. My mom's cousin Betty died exactly a year before I was born. I think it's even more of a coincidence that there are so many relatives named Betty in my family.

(C.B.) One thing that happened to me that I would consider a coincidence is that when I got hired in billing for the E.R. at UPMC, they told me I was the fifth Cindy in the department, how unusual.

(E.B.) My coincidence story is last year, I lived on the 10th floor of Sutherland Hall. My roommate's name was Courtney Caldwell. Well, this year, I living on the 5th floor of Sutherland. Just out of curiosity, Courtney went up to our old room to see who lived there and what the room looked like. We went up and introduced ourselves, and and to our surprise, their names were Erica Caldwell and Courtney Allen. We thought it was weird how out of all the freshmen coming to Pitt, the two that ended up living in our old room had the same first names as us.

(J.H.) This summer, I worked with two other college guys from a high school about 10 minutes from my old high school. I had not known them before I started working with them. So, on one of our first days working together during lunch, they asked me what college I went to, so I told them I go to Pitt. They said that they only knew one person that goes to Pitt. It was a girl that they had been good friends with basically their whole life. So they asked me if I knew a girl named Meredith Minger. I said to them that I definitely do know her. She has been a good friend of mine my whole freshman and sophomore years here at Pitt. Not the best coincidence story but it still shocked me that the only girl they knew at this big campus happened to be a good friend of mine as well.

(M.H.)Every year thousands of Western Pennsylvanians flock to Ocean City, Maryland for their summer vacation. I thought, until recently when a few summers ago I went for a week to Ocean City, Maryland with my best friend. As we were chilling on our balcony when I hear the distinctive voice of one of my classmates. Low and behold two friends of ours were staying right below us! We thought this was strange until the next day as we played in the ocean, another friend from home swam by! To add to this we must have run into at least five other people from our home town and now whenever, or wherever I spend my week at the beach I run into someone from my hometown. I realize now that this is probably more than a coincidence. There are only so many beaches along the east coast and a limited amount of summer weeks.

(C.H.) When I came to school here in Pittsburgh, I was delighted and shocked to find four Jamaican girls who are from the town I lived in for the first six years of my life. Not only that we were from the same area but the high school they went to is the same high school that my mom taught math.

(G.H.) On my two year anniversary of dating my boyfriend, we decided to surprise each other at some time during the week the anniversary fell, with a gift. We didn't specify which day, or wht the gift should be. Everything was to be a surprise. After giving it much thought, I decided on a DVD player which we had discussed a long time before that---that we needed one. Since I figured he'd be getting me jewelry, I thought that he'd enjoy it and I'd also benefit from the DVD player. Since we both had keys to each other's apartment I decided to go over to his while I knew he was at class and set it all up for him, so when he got back, he'd be surprised. I was supposed to be in class at the same time I was setting up the DVD player. So I ended up getting back to my apartment a little earlier than if I had gone to class. To MY surprise when I got back, there Glenn was at MY apartment on the same day, installing the same DVD player for ME! Needless to say, we returned one of them and I got the jewelry I had originally hoped for.

(C.H.) When I was in high school, my girlfriend of my senior year had the same birthday as my mom. Talk about finding a girl that reminds you of your mother. So when it was my mom's birthday and I was out getting my mom's gift, I had to remember it was the girlfriend's birthday as well. So April 3rd was a very expensive day for me.

(G.H.) In grade school I met a kid that was in another class. We met at lunchtime. We talked for a little bit about our families and he talked about his mother and I talked about my mother. After a while we both started talking about our granm-mas. And come to find out that his gram-ma was my father's mother. We both found out at the same time we were related to each other and from that day on we were best friends and still we are best friends and cousins.

(Kelly Hulpa) I was trying out for a traveling softball team from Pittsburgh six years ago, and I was waiting to see if I made the A or B team. I got a call saying that I was on the B team. I was a little depressed. When I showed up to practice they asked why I was there, and I told them who I was. They then realized that a girl by the name of Kelly Hupla had also tried out and she was the one supposed to be on the B team. With the mix-up I missed the A team practice. When all was said and done we just had to laugh because what had happened seemed so far-fetched. It's funny because when people say my name they always pronounce it like Hupla, so I always just answer to that. I finally met someone by the name of Hupla.

(N.J.) The example of coincidence that I encountered years ago is similar to the "surprising experience" you had in Denver. When my family moved to a new hourse a few years ago, I experienced a coincidence with my neighbor. I got two cards in the mail with my name, Nicole Johnson, but not with my address. The first time I received a letter that was not intended for me, but another Nicole Johnson, I decided to figure things out. As any twelve-year-old would think, I was intrigued that somebody had my same first and last name, until I found out that she was my neighbor! Furthermore, she was the same age as I was. She and I have been friends ever since, and we still get each other's mail. (The mailman knows me and apparently gets sloppy.)

(K.I.) I remember a time once, when I met this redhead through some friends in the honors college. We all hung out a few times and had fun together. Though wouldn't it happen that we would have a class that very same semester in which I met her. I would go to class one day, my Philosophy and Film class, and take my time leaving, but then I would see her walking up the aisle on the way out so I call her name out. Then she would see me and be very surprised, as I was. There's more. I have probably run into her twice on the street around campus since sophomore year ( I am now a senior). However it's been nearly a year until Halloween when I saw her at a costume party and didn't expect it. It wasn't only any costume party, but a private one. You know, it's funny when someone you know knows someone else that you know, but you don't know they know each other.

(C.K.) This one kinda reminded me of your Nancy Pfenning story: a good friend of mine took a girlfriend of his (that had only seen me in pictures) to Sea World one summer. While watching an event, my friend said he couldn't help but notice how much the trainer looked just like me. When the day was over and they were walking to the car his girlfriend said, "I didn't know your friend Carrisa worked here." He said, "No she doesn't but that trainer really looked just like her." Then he said his girlfriend gave him this funny look and said, "Oh...I really thought it was her, she said her name was Carrisa." Weird! I still don't know who my look-alike with the same name is!

(C.K.) Well of the many coincidences that have occurred in my life I can only think of few right now, and one that stands out. This is a story of how my girlfriend and I have met. It was the final summer at home after I have graduated from high school and was about to make my transition into the college life at Penn State, when a friend of mine, a really big fan of online chatting, called me up and asked me if I would go on a double date with him. Well of course having nothing else to do that night I agreed and asked who will be my date. Well I thought I was in for it when I got over to his house and he explained that he met a girl online that wanted to meet him and she told him to bring a friend because she was going to bring one of hers. So I prepared myself for the most horrifying night of my life. The night started off with my friend and I going to the mall, because that is the "thing" to do when you were in high school, and eventually, while at the mall, this girl that wanted to meet my friend called him and said that the date is off. He was bummed, so we continued to "prowl" the mall. Later that night she called my friend again and said OK we changed our mind and we would like to meet you, so plans were once again on. It came to the point where we were to meet our dates before a movie and the date would continue on through the movie to an after movie snack at the Eat-N-Park. Walking from the mall to the theater, which was right across the street, we noticed two ladies, which my friend described to me that that was them and which date was mine and which was his. Clearly I made out on the deal, ended up enjoying the show, then the meal, and later that night I pursued to receiving her number, in which I intended on calling her again. Later in the wek, two days later to be exact, I called her and we arranged to meet, single this time and ever since then we became a couple and have been going out for over two years. Interesting enough to say if not for that night we would have never met and we could tell everyone that we met on a blind date gone right. ---Sorry I apologize for the lngth I do understand that you master the field of Statistics and not in English, but I tried to make this story exciting.

(B.K.) Coincidence 1: When my family and I went away to Ohio on a vacation last year, I ran into two people, friends of mine, with whom I attended high school. I haven't sen these two in three years and ran into them both in Ohio on separate days. Coincidence 2: One of my friends is the son of a man who grew up with my father. Both my father and his father share similar interests (sports, cars, etc.). My friend and I also share similar interests, but they run almost exactly counter to our parents'.

(J.L.) My friend and I used to prank call a guy who had a similar phone number to mine. We left him funny messages for about a month and then totally forgot about him. Two years later we were out cruising around town. My friend jumped out of the car and kicked over a mailbox out in an area of houses that we had never been to before. The top part of the mailbox fell off and he grabbed it and put it in the car. As we were driving down the street we decided to check his mail. His name and phone number on his phone bill matched the exact same name and number of the guy we used to prank call two years before. We had randomly selected a mailbox in the middle of nowhere and it was the poor guy we had abused over the phone in ninth grade.

(M.L.) When finding out room selections for freshman year here at Pitt it turns out that my roommate and I are both twins. I thought it was very strange how not only were we both twings, but her sister and my sister are both in the nursing program here at Pitt and my roommate and myself seem to have more similar characteristics and my sister and her sister seemed to be more similar. We both have an older sibling and five people in our immediate family. I just feel that the probability of this is quite low and it just happened by coincidence.

(A.M.) There I was, driving my car to school my junior year of high school. We thought we were so cool, my best friend and I. Listening to some song blasting on the radio with our windows rolled down, we thought we had so much style in my '88 Honda Accord. There we were though, and I was trembling. I was thinking of my fate that lay ahead of me the following day...I was leaving for Ireland. Most people would think that I would be ecstatic...I was about to fly over to a country where several pubs can be found on every corner. I was gripping the wheel so tight, though, that as my knuckles began turning whiter and whiter, my best friend thought I was in the throws of a nervous breakdown. I was shaking in my boots, for lack of better words, and the main cause of it was that trip to Ireland...I was going to be flying . I had never flown before, and this was going to be one experience I'm sure I would never forget. And I was going to take advantage of every cliche. Peanuts? Yes, please. Crappy movies that never made it for more than two days in the theater and now you're going to let us watch them on some 9"*9" TV? You bet I'm staying up to watch them all! Re-heated dinners that you're better off just making a meal out of three packages of Planter's peanuts? You better believe I'll have two helpings. But despite all my optimism, the trembling wouldn't cease. So when my friend tried comforting me by saying...and these were her exact words..."Do you realize that the chances of you getting in a car accident are far greater than your plane crashing?", I began to lose that nervousness. My smile grew wider, and I continued doing some crazy car dance that you only do in the company of a best friend and the confinement of a car. At that moment in time, if I had been smart, I would have pulled the car over right then and there and knocked on some very heavy wood. And do you know, though, I actually felt relieved that she would say such a thing? I think I may have even done a bit of an Irish leap when I got out of my car that day to go to school, because my fears had been assuaged. I'm sure from here, you can tell my tale better than I can. Big Al and I (as I was very close to my car and all his flaws) were never going to share any more wonderful memories together. As a matter of fact, the very last memory that would live with us both was some disgusting green liquid coming out of his engine as he was pulled over to the side of the street. Some guy rear-ended me, and as you predicted, I had just experienced my first car accident. Instead of being angry, though, or crying my eyes out, I should have tried my hardest to conceal the smile that was beginning to spread across my lips. I knew everything was going to be okay. I would be out of the country the next day in a new land, with my pockets stuffed from peanuts...because I was going to fly to Ireland on a smooth flight...Of course I knew "that the chances of getting in a car accident are far greater than your plane crashing."

(B.M.) I was at a friend's house for a party when I heard someone ask if anyone wants to play a game. Three girls, including me, and three boys agreed to play. It was decided that the boys would play against the girls. The strange part was that the three girls consisted of me (Brenda Miller), Brenda Baumiller, and Joey Lynn Miller. We thought that we had to win because of such a coincidence with our names. Turns out we lost.

(K.N.) I was going to give an account of my own coincidental experience, however, while watching Oprah on Thursday afternoon, I would like to share this amazing coincidence that occurred for two young orphans from Russia. Mary and Greg, an American husband and wife, began their search for an adopted child when they eventually found Dominick, a six year old orphan in Russia. After months of paperwork, they took th trip to Russia to bring Dominick back. While they were at the orphanage, Mary and Greg met a little girl named Annya, Dominick's best friend and companion. Annya and Dominick had been inseparable for years, and when it came time for Dominick to go to America, the two children were heartbroken to leave each other. Mary and Greg then decided to try to adopt Annya, but they were stopped short when they learned that her biological mother was in prison and was not allowing Annya to be adopted. During the first years of Dominick's new life in America, he longed for Annya's friendship and often spoke of her. Fourt years later, without the knowledge of Mary and Greg, another couple in their neighborhood, Michael and Megan, was searching for an adoptive child. They saw a picture of a little girl from Russia, and immediately fell in love with her. They traveled to Russia and brought her back to the U.S. Michael was a doctor in the local hospital, and months after the adoption, he was having lunch in the hospital cafe with Megan and their new daughter. In the booth behind this new family were Mary, Greg and Dominick, having lunch after a routine checkup for Dominick. Mary heard a girl speaking Russian and immediately became intrigued as to whether the couple had adopted their child from Russia as well. As Michael, Megan, and the little girl got up to leave, Mary asked Megan if her daughter was visiting from Russia. Meanwhile, the little girl was still playing in the booth, and not visible to Mary. After some conversation, the little girl poked her head out from behind the booth. Mary immediately recognized her. It was Annya. Annya, too, recognized the couple with her beloved friend Dominick. She and Dominick ran to each other in tears and disbelief. As it turned out, Annya's mother had died in prison and she was able to be adoped. She could have been adopted into any family across the continents, but coincidentally, she was adopted by a couple living in the same neighborhood as her long lost friend from Russia, and dined at the same cafe to be reunited. Today, Annya and Dominick are 10 and 11 years old, and they remain inseparable companions. Who knows what may happen down the road? All I can say, is that it's a good thing they didn't become brother and sister.

(A.P.) One year my family and I decided to pick a different vacation spot. Usually we visit Ocean City, Maryland but this year we decided to go to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. When we got to the hotel we started unpacking. Just as we got our bathing suits on and headed down to the beach we saw a few family members from Georgia that we have not seen in years. After talking to them for a few minutes, we discovered that they were staying at the same hotel and at the room right next door to us. It was soooo strange. Of the hundreds of hotels to stay at we ended up at the same hotel and right next to each other. What a coincidence!

(F.P.) This story actually was told to me by my father concerning my sister and myself at childbirth: My sister was being born on a very cold December day in 1965 and my father was taking my mother, obviously in labor, to the hospital. Apparently, the car would not start so he asked the neighbors, the Williams, if they could drive them to the hospital. They did so. About a year later on an extremely cold January 5th day my mother was in labor with me. Only now my family lived 2 to 3 miles away in a different neighborhood. My father told me that the car was running fine until he had to take my mother, once again in labor, to the hospital. Similar to last year, the car failed to start. Similar to last year, they went to the new neighbors to ask for a ride to the hospital. Similar to last year it was exceedingly cold (below average), and similar to last year the neighbors' name was Williams.

(C.P.) One time I forgot my ID in my dorm. So, when I came back I had to go to the front desk to get a pass to go through security. She asked me my name. I told her it was Casey Pickard. Then she asked me my social security number. I told her mine, but the numbers didn't match the name. It turned out she was looking at the Sutherland east side names and I was on the west side. So there was another Casey Pickard. First off, I've never known anyone, outside my family, with the last name Pickard. The last name was a coincidence, but the first name surprised me most. It also turned out there were four other people living in Sutherland with the last name Pickard.

(I.P.) I was born on Thanksgiving Day. My older sister was born on Saint Patrick's Day. My younger brother was born on Valentine's Day. And not too long ago, my mother gave birth to my younger sister on my birthday . Even though Thanksgiving falls on the third Thursday of November, (I think) we all still connect Thanksgiving with both mine and my little sister's birthdays.

(N.R.) During my sophomore year, I bought a black coat with fur around the collar. I loved this coat. However, so did a young girl named Tyaisha. It just so happens that we shopped at the same stores. Well, this one day in particular we were dressed the same from head to toe. Coat and all. We even had the same hairstyle. This was an outrageous coincidence. Everyone thought we looked alike. People would ask if we were sisters. To this very day, my friends continue to think she and I look alike. In my opinion we have no like features. I believe it was the coat!!

(G.T.) My dad and some friends were going on a fishing trip where they were flying in a charter plane across the Great Lakes. He was to be on the first plane. His friend who had brought his son, was also supposed to be on the first plane. The son asked my dad if he would mind switching seats because he wanted to fly on the first plane with his dad. So my dad said that was fine and he took the kid's seat on the second plane. It turns out the first plane crashed and although not everybody was killed, the kid that was sitting in my dad's seat was killed. Another coincidence that is not so much a story, is that me and my two roommates all have the same birthday.

(J.T.) A coincidence that happened to me was that about a year and a half ago me and my friend were rocking on the guitar and we researched a couple of songs on his computer. Then when I was driving to work in the summer I heard a song called Amber by 311 and it used the same exact riff as me and my friend. Which was weird because it was a pretty unorthodox sounding guitar riff.

(M.T.) A series of fortunate coincidences have happened to me since I've been at Pitt, although I didn't notice at first. My first semester freshman year I took General Writing, which is a class of 22 peple. I think I only talked once to this nice blond girl in the class, and I had no idea what her name was, nor had I known her before I took the class. The next semester she was in two of my classes, Reading Poetry (35 students) and Italian Renaissance Art (almost 100 students). Since I recognized her, and saw her almost every day that semester, we started to talk before and after class. Her name was Kim. We started to become good friends, and one day in art we were talking about the schedules we had made for the next semester. Neither one of us had planned it, but it turned out that we both had signed up for the same Intro to Cultural Anthropology class (450 students) for the fall! We both laughed and said how cool it was to have another class together. In the spring semester of my sophomore year, Kim and I tried to meet up every now and then because our classes did not correspond. We decided to plan to take a painting class together---which never happened. Our schedules were not as flexible, basically because we each had too many other requirements for our different majors that we needed to take, and the closer you get to graduating, the more limited and specified your classes become. But coincidentally, we wound up in another class together---this Statistics class! It will be the last class we'll overlap in, because Kim is graduating a year early (in the spring of this year) and I am studying abroad in Ireland next semester. To have 5 classes within 5 semesters with a person by pure coincidence seems so bizarre, but I'm really glad it turned out that way. I've gotten a great friend out of it all.

(P.T.) Last year I met a girl through a friend of mine. After a couple weeks, we started dating. We soon learned that we had both previously worked at Wendy's and both of us had also worked for Eckerd, her in York, Pa., and myself here in Pittsburgh. Later we learned that my father and her mother were from the same city/town in Italy and had once dated each other! Needless to say, Lauren and I soon broke up.

(A.W.) I was boarding a plane in Orlando, Florida with my friend Kelley (also from my hometown) on December 23. We had just watched Pitt play in the Tangerine Bowl. It was the earliest flight out and really no one was leaving Orlando two days before Christmas should be heading to Elmira, NY, let alone be from Athens (a town of only 1,800 people). Kel and I boarded, and surprisingly a few others got on the plane. Next thing we know, this man comes up to us and shows us the Orlando morning newspaper---we're on the front page, but the scariest part was the guy was our neighbor Joe. We couldn't believe it.

(A.W.) Recently I had a dream about Michael Myers (the scary man from the "Halloween" movies. When I awoke from my dream/nightmare I decided to turn on the television so that I might calm myself. Well, as it happened when I turned the television on I was confronted with the face of Michael Myers. Apparently the television channel had been showing a "Halloween" movie marathon. Needless to say, I was a little perturbed.

(S.W.) By coincidence one day I decided to play the lottery for some reason. It was unusual because I never played the lottery before, and never had the desire to. For some reason I had this urge to and I ended up winning 500 dollars. Another coincidence (not related to my life) is abut two men, who are firefighters, and for some reason felt this urge to drive from Pennsylvania to New York on the night of September 11 to help with the New York City firefighters. When they arrived at the firestation in New York, they looked up to see a picture of two firefighters that had died the previous year fighting a fire. The weird thing about this was that the two firefighters in the pictures shared the exact first and last name of the two firefighters who traveled from Pennsylvania to help.

(L.W.) Before I came to Pitt, I attended a branch campus of Pitt in Greensburg. The school only consists of 1,500+ people, so you pretty much knew who everybody was (or so I thought). Well, one day, my friend and I were in the nurse's office and I hear people calling my name. I took a look at these people and thought, "Hey, I don't know them." Meanwhile, there was a girl outside in the hall talking to them, but it never occurred to me that domebody on that campus could have the same name as me. So, when this girl comes into the nurse's office, the nurse tels her to have a seat. A few minutes later, the nurs calls out, "I'll be with you in a minute, Lacey." I sat stupefied and answered with an okay. Then the nurse says, "Come on back, Lacey." I look and I realize that the girl from the hall has the name of Lacey too, but as she later told me, with a different spelling. We laughed and I realized that I'm not the only Lacey in the world. What a shame!

(T.W.) I don't think I've ever experienced such a big coincidence until last Thursday, the 17th. I had an appointment with the eye doctor down at the Eye and Ear Institute. Since I have never been a patient there, I had to arrive early to fill out some paperwork. Well, as I was waiting one of the assistants came up to me and asked if my name was Tiffany. I said yes and she then asked Tiffany White, and you're a student at Pitt, right? Again, I said yes and she said you've been here before, right, because we have you in the computer? Since this was my first time, they obviously had the wrong Tiffany White. Surprisingly, there were three people with my exact name who were patients at the Eye and Ear Institute. Luckily we settled everything, by my social security number that differed from the rest. I rarely know people with my first name, let alone three other who have my same last name as well. It was a huge coincidence that I highly doubt will ever happen again. It's a good thing for social security numbers!

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