This week the girls take aim at Extraordinary Coincidences...
Coincidences are statistically inevitable. However, when they occur we tend to react with shock and disbelief. We don't usually expect coincidences and will often read into these occurrences concluding there is something strange afoot. Tonight we take a look at some extraordinary coincidences that have occurred throughout history.
But first, what were we drinking?
Bianca was drinking Rock it like a Redhead Sauvignon Blanc
Sarah was drinking nothing because the fun police got her
Amy was drinking Carpenter Rocks Pinot Gris
Bianca introduced tonight's topic by explaining our topic choice. A coincidence is a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances that have no apparent causal connection with one another.
From a statistical perspective, coincidences are inevitable and often less remarkable than they may appear intuitively. Usually, coincidences are chance events with underestimated probability.
After explaining the Magic numbers of Dr. Matrix, Bianca invited Amy and Sarah to play a game of coincidence or conspiracy. You'll have to listen to see who won that one.
Sarah being the meat in the sandwich this week discussed two extraordinary coincidences. The first was the love story of Ester and Paul Grachan. The day Paul received a dollar bill with his girlfriend's name on it he put it down to coincidence. However, Esther believed that it was in fact a sign Paul was the one she was to marry.
Sarah then discussed the fate of a man called Richard Parker. Richard coincidently shared the same fate as a character in an Edgar Allen Poe novel. Strangely both the character in the novel and the real-life man shared the same name as well as their fate.
Amy is often the resident "Captain Logic" and tends to dismiss many strange occurrences as coincidences. Tonight she was excited to tell our listeners the coincidences that plagued the son of Abraham Lincoln, Robert Lincoln.
Firstly, Robert Lincoln, was either present or nearby for three presidential assassinations. After the third occurred it is said that Robert refused any further invitations by other presidents to attend events they would be present for as he believed that it was guaranteed to end in an assassination.
A young Robert Lincoln was saved from bodily injury or even death at a train station by a man named Edwin Booth. Edwin's brother, John Wilkes Booth, would then go on to assassinate Robert's father, Abraham, years later.
Edwin apparently told reporters at the time he did not know that the man he rescued at the train station that day and only found out later the man was the President's son.
Amy concluded with a fun fact she didn't realize before which was despite the sun and the moon being different in size, they appear the same size from Earth. Bianca and Sarah collectively told Amy she was a moron for not figuring out why this is.