“those” coincidences
Last Thursday night, after a friendly dinner closing the ICMS workshop, I was rushing back to Pollock Halls to catch some sleep before a very early flight. When crossing North Bridge, on top of Waverley station, I then spotted in the crowd a well-known face of a fellow statistician from Cambridge University, on an academic visit to the University of Edinburgh that was completely unrelated with the workshop. Then, today, on my way back from submitting a visa request at the Indian embassy in Paris, I took the RER train for one stop between Gare du Nord and Chatelet. When I stood up from my seat and looked behind me, a senior (and most famous) mathematician was sitting right there, in deep conversation with a colleague about algorithms… Just two of “those” coincidences. (Edinburgh may be propitious to coincidences: at the last ICMS workshop I attended, I ended up in the same Indian restaurant as Marc Suchard, who also was on an academic visit to the University of Edinburgh that was completely unrelated with the workshop!)
Xi'an's Og 
June 21, 2014 at 3:06 am
It’s fully possible that I recently went through passport control in Oslo behind Andrew Gelman. Or, possibly, behind an American who looked like Gelman. Or, possibly, behind someone who looked nothing like Gelman and I wasn’t wearing my glasses.
In hindsight, this is a much less interesting story.
June 23, 2014 at 9:44 am
Nice one: it is always easier to spot coincidences when looking for some. Esp. when not wearing glasses. Still had another of “those” last Saturday when I met both my PhD student Clara and my nephew Alexis whithin a matter of minutes among the hundreds of thousands enjoying La Fête de la Musique in down-town Paris.