I have an interesting story, but first you’ll need some background.
My brother Juan has a best friend I’ll call Pepe. They’ve been best friends since first grade. Both Juan and Pepe know each others families and extended families quite well. In Juan’s case he even knows some of Pepe’s relatives who live in England and Australia. I’ve met some of them as well.
And now the story.
Last night I went to the airport to pick up Juan and his wife, Juanita. They were returning from their 2 week Mediterranean cruise honeymoon. They started out in Turkey, cruised to some Greek islands, then Egypt, more islands, and ended up on the Greek mainland.
During one of their last days in Athens they were walking around in some sort of plaza that Juan describes as kind of a giant flea market when he saw a guy who looked familiar. So my brother went up to him and called him a dirty name. The guy looked at Juan, paused long enough for Juan to worry that he had just called the wrong guy a dirty name and was going to get punched in the mouth, and said “What the f*&k are you doing here, mate?
Yep. It was one of Pepe’s cousins from Australia. In freaking Athens. How in the hell is it possible for 2 people from 2 different continents who happen to know one another to bump into each other on a 3rd entirely separate continent?
Now you many know Juan and you might know that he is a congenital liar. But this time he has photographic evidence. I saw the picture (still in the camera and unedited) of him and Pepe’s cousin standing around in Greece! He’s got indisputable proof.
I keep hearing that there are something like 5 or 6 billion people on this planet. If that was true a coincidence like this should not be possible. I’m going to need some proof that there are that many people. Otherwise there’s got to be something going on.
Anyone out there good at figuring out probabilities? Juan is from Michigan. Pepe’s cousin is Australian. They met up in Greece with no planning or forethought. It was entirely coincidental. Seriously, what’s the statistical probability of that happening?
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3 comments:
I am not into the stats, but the odds must be just astronomical.
I woul be afrai to go up to someone in those circumstances, becaue I would most certainly be mistaken and get my butt kicked by someone shrieking in a foreign language.
Oh, it is very, very small. I have seen people I know in odd places (very far from home odd places) almost every place I visit. Isn't that strange?
It's a small world, after all.
It's a small world, after all.
It's a small world, after all.
It's a small, small world.
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