The Library of Improbable Events
April 18, 2008 3:04 PM Subscribe
What improbable events have you experienced in your daily life that made you stop and say "Wow, that's bizarre"?
Today's little vignette: Mockingbirds were eating my seeds in the garden this afternoon, so I picked up an acorn and threw it at one of them. Hit him in the head and knocked him out cold. (He's OK, flew away later.) Not "aliens landed in downtown Cincinnati today" spectacular, just unusual. Mundane but improbable, these events tend to stick in my memory.
Today's little vignette: Mockingbirds were eating my seeds in the garden this afternoon, so I picked up an acorn and threw it at one of them. Hit him in the head and knocked him out cold. (He's OK, flew away later.) Not "aliens landed in downtown Cincinnati today" spectacular, just unusual. Mundane but improbable, these events tend to stick in my memory.
This post was deleted for the following reason: This is pretty much undiluted chatfilter. -- cortex
There was a tomato plant growing from the cracks between the curb/sidewalk and the ashphalt of the parking lot at the Children's Hospital.
posted by porpoise at 3:14 PM on April 18, 2008
posted by porpoise at 3:14 PM on April 18, 2008
I have a painful one that just happened: stepped on a toothpick and stabbed it right into the sole of my foot. Intense pain. About an hour of my boyfriend tugging away at it with a pair of pliers later (ouch!!!): an inch and a half of toothpick emerged. Toothpicks: mostly harmless, my foot.
posted by peacheater at 3:17 PM on April 18, 2008
posted by peacheater at 3:17 PM on April 18, 2008
When I was about 11 or 12, I was sitting with my friends, talking about whatever it is we talked about back then. One boy made an outlandish claim, and I told him I didn't believe him. He replied, "I swear I'm telling the truth -- if I'm not, may a bomb blow me up right now."
As soon, and I mean as soon, as he said that, we heard this booming whistling noise that for the life of me sounded exactly like a bomb or a missile falling from the sky. I wasn't the only one who thought so because I have never seen such a mixture of surprised and terrified faces ever again in my life.
We were silent for a moment after the noise stopped (no doubt bracing ourselves for the BOOM), and then laughed till we cried. Even to this day when i think of that day I smile, it was so improbable and so funny.
posted by DrGirlfriend at 3:17 PM on April 18, 2008
As soon, and I mean as soon, as he said that, we heard this booming whistling noise that for the life of me sounded exactly like a bomb or a missile falling from the sky. I wasn't the only one who thought so because I have never seen such a mixture of surprised and terrified faces ever again in my life.
We were silent for a moment after the noise stopped (no doubt bracing ourselves for the BOOM), and then laughed till we cried. Even to this day when i think of that day I smile, it was so improbable and so funny.
posted by DrGirlfriend at 3:17 PM on April 18, 2008
Once, while sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan, I saw a woman pushing a child that looked to be about 8 years old in an old fashioned pram. His head was propped up on a large white pillow and his legs were hanging over the side, and he was kicking them back and forth. Both acted as if this were the most natural thing in all the world.
I once heard a rustling in the bushes outside the front door of my apartment building. I bent down and peered under the bushes - there sat a squirrel with its jaws clamped around a sparrow's neck.
In college, I once passed an elderly woman on the sidewalk with bright orange rouge circles on her cheeks who was carrying a five-shelf bookcase under one arm as if it were as light as a loaf of bread.
posted by TryTheTilapia at 3:20 PM on April 18, 2008
I once heard a rustling in the bushes outside the front door of my apartment building. I bent down and peered under the bushes - there sat a squirrel with its jaws clamped around a sparrow's neck.
In college, I once passed an elderly woman on the sidewalk with bright orange rouge circles on her cheeks who was carrying a five-shelf bookcase under one arm as if it were as light as a loaf of bread.
posted by TryTheTilapia at 3:20 PM on April 18, 2008
This was approximately 40 years ago, when I was 14. As our school bus approached, I finished my can of Coke and threw the empty can onto the roof of the church. The can rolled off the roof and landed precisely in a small trash container, the opening of which was about 12 inches wide.
Nothing since then.
posted by megatherium at 3:26 PM on April 18, 2008
Nothing since then.
posted by megatherium at 3:26 PM on April 18, 2008
I was in Houston in winter 2004 and looked out the window on Christmas Eve. It was snowing. I thought I was hallucinating. According to Wikipedia, it caused the first ever White Christmas in Houston.
posted by loulou718 at 3:32 PM on April 18, 2008
posted by loulou718 at 3:32 PM on April 18, 2008
I saw an approximately 50 year old man dressed like Shirley Temple in a little baby doll outfit and carrying a giant lollipop on the NYC subway.
posted by Frank Grimes at 3:35 PM on April 18, 2008
posted by Frank Grimes at 3:35 PM on April 18, 2008
Not so long ago, I was driving down the street and arguing with my mother about something mundane. All of a sudden, a naked dude (well, he was wearing a hat) came into view, walking toward us with intense purpose, wiener swinging in the breeze.
Stopped that argument cold.
posted by mewithoutyou at 3:36 PM on April 18, 2008
Stopped that argument cold.
posted by mewithoutyou at 3:36 PM on April 18, 2008
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I could never expect repeat this event in a million years of trials.
posted by tachikaze at 3:13 PM on April 18, 2008