Tag Archive: Hollywood


Uncommon Roots

(Submitted by friend of the blog, Jerry Buchanan)

Many years ago, I started a new job in a small company in Hollywood with only eight employees. One of the other employees had the same last name (not a particularly common one) as mine.

Since we had this bond, we spent several lunches together. We eventually learned that we were both from Indianapolis, Indiana!

Interestingly, we had both had our family trees researched, and there were no common ancestors between us.

[EDITOR: Before you say anything, I know this is a rather simple story compared to most. And some might not even find it that big of a coincidence. I personally have known several Buchanans (including Jerry), which made me not even initially accept that it’s an uncommon last name.

But the reason we chose to share this story anyway is because it highlights a thought process that a lot of people go through. What’s mundane or simple to you might be startling to me. What I shrug off as irrelevant or barely a blip on the radar is startling and telling to someone else. And it’s often these little events that mean the most to people. And for someone who’s already on the edge of superstitious, these events add up.

Do you have any friends who claim these things ALWAYS happen to them? That they’re constantly surrounded by strange events, coincidences, numbers that follow them, etc.? Odds are you know or have met SOMEONE with this mind set, and to them a little event like this isn’t something to be shrugged off. They plug it into the greater tapestry of what they believe to be a pattern, and signs, and it informs their life views.

So recognizing and tracking even these small events and realizing what they can mean to people is an important part of understanding the overall phenomena. If it’s important to someone, it should be important to us, too, even if it’s not for the same reasons. – Jarrett]

Not a Trivial Coincidence

(Submitted by reader Donald Chesebro)

I watch hundreds of movies a year, much more than the average person, and take notes during most of them as part of preparing for an annual trivia contest in my hometown.  Thus, whenever a character drives or otherwise encounters a motor vehicle, I will write down (for example) what type of vehicle it is and what its license number is, if it’s visible.

Yesterday lunchtime, for no particular reason but for the first time in the over 15 years since I’ve owned my 1993 teal Accord, I wondered why I’d never seen anyone with my model of car in a movie.  I probably see another teal 91-94 Accord on the streets of LA at least once a month, but I’ve never seen it in the thousands of films and TV episodes I’ve watched since I bought my car (used) in 1995.  I figured it had something to do with Hollywood having deals with Detroit, or the like.

This morning, less than a day after I wondered if I’d ever see my car in a movie, I started watching the 2011 remake of “Fright Night,” the first movie set in the U.S. that I watched since framing my question (the only film I watched in between was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 the night before).

Four minutes into the film, there’s a ’91-’94 teal Accord parked in the driveway of the character named Doris.

[EDITOR: Meanwhile my car’s bumper sticker is “My other car is a Nimbus 2000,” so I probably would have seen my second vehicle the first night and made it even crazier a coincidence!]

Justin Time!

(Submitted by friend of the blog, Brian Hart)

My wife and I were driving to Hollywood and she put on a random Podcast of Terry Gross’s Fresh Air for us to listen to for the drive.  It happened to be an interview with actor/musician Justin Timberlake.  We got out of the car and started to discuss the only movie of Timberlake’s that we had ever seen, Black Snake Moan.  Walking to our destination building, I a saw a glint on the ground and stooped to pick it up.  It was a home-made DVD of…Black Snake Moan (below)!

Odds Blood, that was quite a coincidence.