Both of these come from my Uncle John's calendar:
Somebody upstairs likes Billy:
In 2004 nine-year-old English soccer fan Billy Harris had a dream that Middlesbrough, his favorite team was going to beat Bolton 2-1 and win the English League Cup and that a specific player, a gent named Zenden, would score the wining goal. Billy's dad, who had never bet on a game before put the equivalent of $27 dollars on the team. On February 29th the game was played and Middlesbrough, a 60-to-1 long shot, beat Bolton and won the cup. The score was 2-1 ... and Boudewijn Zenden scored the winner. Dad won $1,600 and mom gave Billy a notepad to write down all his dreams.
Somebody like Rolla? Not so much...
In 1949 Rolla Primarda of Taranto, Italy, was struck and killed by a bolt of lightning. According to weather experts, the odds of that happening to anyone are about, 600,000-to-1. Having said that, what makes Primarda's fate so amazing is that his dad had been struck down by lightning 20 years earlier in the exact same spot. Spooked yet? 3o years before that, his grandfather had died ... in the same place, in the very same way.
Is there a blurred line between destiny and luck? Are there forces behind some of these occurrences or simply the law of averages stretched out through the ages? In the coming blog postings I'd like to look at some of these types of things. You are welcome to play along.
First of all, are these coincidences or not?
Tom
