I think you have an interest in vocabulary and so pay attention to words. I do occasionally notice that I hear or read new words after learning them.

Do do you work crossword puzzles?

PS you are not crazy or weird.

Hi Jae,

If during your multi-tasking ... you've accumulated that number of duplications ... you must have been at it for some time.

Are you sure you're not getting old before your time?

As for "crazy" or "maybe just weird" ...

... I don't feel adequately equipped/competent to judge.

ole joyful

This sounds like one of those, do these pants make my butt look fat, questions.

LOL

It has actually happend to me too, but when it does I just laugh it off.

I think it was explained best in the 1984 movie Repo Man:

Miller:
A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a
bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that
there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o'
everything. Give you an example; show you what I mean: suppose you're
thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate,
or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point
in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness.

Otto:
You eat a lot of acid, Miller, back in the hippie days?

Miller:
I'll give you another instance: you know how everybody's into weirdness right now?...

Happens to me and DH all the time. It is usually expressions you don't hear much anymore like, "Bob's your uncle." Heard it on 3 TV shows in a week or so.

BTW, Repo Man is one of our favorite movies.

It happens to me everyday, usually more than once. But quite often, the coincidences are stronger than that. Just this morning, while I was responding to the thread on sleep, Robert said to me, out of the blue, "Can you believe that it's been so long since you 'graduated' from sleep school?"

Ha, that's what I called my sessions with the therapist; my sleep diary was my homework.

Anyway, not wierd, just observant.

OK, this might sound odd, but ya gotta realize it is Jim doing this.

While on the computer, I will often listen to NPR jazz stations all over the place. Headphones keep me in my own sphere (must to the chagrin of the missus). That is maybe multi-tasking, but not really.

OK, here is the weird part. I am really into multi-tasking. I try to get a lot done in a short period of time, thus allowing me more time on Garden Web! My best multi-tasking time is one the toilet. I know that I will have several un-interrupted minutes to get things done. It is a great time to balance the check book for instance.

The TV and I don't get along, hearing-wise. So I might average 1 hour a week of that. My computer chair is more comfortable that anything in the other room. My computer and I are a team! Therefore, I cannot hear one and make it apply to another.

This used to happen to me a lot. Probably doesn't happen because I don't normally have anything going in the background for it TO happen. Makes sense...

Thanks for all of the responses that now assure me I'm not alone! Socks, I do crosswords every day!

This happens to me very often when I'm doing crosswords, as I generally have the tv on at the same time. Unless I'm pretty interested in the show, I get bored watching tv. I used to tell dh about them but he's not a word guy; just isn't charmed by words and phrases like I am.

I never am on the computer with the television on... but often I am reading a book and will read something (a phrase or a true event that I've never heard of before)... then within maybe 15 minutes the same phrase will be said or the event will be mentioned on TV. I keep a journal of 'strange events/coincidences'.

I like your movie quotes Bob. I believe everything is connected too.

Great post Jae!

Happens to me often enough that I finally mentioned it to DH last month. I made quiche for supper last week, for the first time in oh, 30 years, and the next day one of the answers in the crossword puzzle was 'quiche Lorraine'. I guess I should start memorializing these happenings ;-)

Synchronicity

Or, the skeptics explanation for synchronicity, the law of truly large numbers:
Law of truly large numbers

If you are crazy, you have company! The same thing happens to me. Of course, my TV is almost always on; I spend a lot of time on the computer; and I do all kinds of word games. The other night, I said something to Stan, and within one minute, someone on TV said the exact same sentence--we laughed about the station "bugging" our house.

A week ago we were going to a friend's cookout party where every year one highlight of the party is the fireworks display he puts on. As we got in the car and turned on the radio, Katy Perry's song firework came on.

Nah! You are not crazy. Weird, maybe, observant, YES.

Graywings, Thanks for that large number link! I am fascinated by numbers and love these examples of number play.

Great thread. Yes it happens to me ALL the time. Sometimes I'll be reading, with the t.v. on in the background. Occasionally it's just a single word that is said on the t.v., right as I'm reading the same word in my book. But very often it's a four or five word phrase that is verbatim, in sync with what I am reading. If my DD's in the room, I mention it, as it often happens to her as well. The longest one was when I was reading aloud from a magazine to my DD and at the exact same time, some character on the t.v. also said "some people just have no filter" which is not an expression one writes and says that often. We just laughed and said "Wow, THAT was a weird one!" lol.

I can't find it right now, but I remember reading an article about the fact that the brain searches for and makes connections of unrelated incidents. It explains why I want to believe that when I find dimes in the street, they are signs from friends and family who have died.

Mine is odd, but not phrases--I'll think of something or someone I haven't thought of in ages, and I'll hear from them or about them. I got off on some tangent from the what would you eat for your last meal thread, and got to looking around to see what happened with the beltway (or DC) sniper because I couldn't remember. I read all the info on how he and his accomplice did what they did. There is a show called Monster in My Family, and do you know, they're airing his survivor and family member show next month? When's the last time you heard about him? Weird.

_____________ Probably her

Malvo and his mother, Una Sceon James, first met John Allen Muhammad in Antigua and Barbuda around 1999, where Una and Muhammad developed a strong friendship. Later, Una left Antigua for Fort Myers, Florida, using false documents. She left her son with Muhammad, reportedly planning to have him follow her later. Malvo arrived illegally in Miami in 2001 and, in December of that year, he and his mother were apprehended by the Border Patrol in Bellingham, Washington. (His mother was deported back to Jamaica from the U.S. on December 15, 2002 in the aftermath of the D.C. area sniper shootings.)

Happens to me too, and when it does, I make a wish.