Definitions
      Coincidence: A notable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.       Coincide: Occur at, occupy, same space of time.

The Cause        Carl Jung named it 'Synchronicity', and theorized that it is a natural connecting energy of the Universe, which can bring two seperate tracks of events together.   James Redfield in his books about "The Celestine Prophecy", takes this a little further, and tells us that "coincidences come into being most readily when we are in a highly expectant state", and that they occur when we need them most.   He goes on to say that they are leading us towards our destiny.        You will find this next explanation easier to follow, if you have first read the Path of Understanding to Life.   Each game of life, or incarnation, is outlined on the software that we have chosen.   The ending is already written, and the plot works back from there.   This is why predictions are possible, and a '33' phenomena engineered to happen at a given place and time, at the conclusion of a long series of events.   In fact the 'Syllogism' coincidence below, was telling me that this is what happens.        Imagine that the outline for your next life, is all down on a CD, just like background music for a Karaoke song that you are going to perform.   A stereo track on the CD splits into two different signals, which carry the same music, but amplifies varying instruments depending upon the origin and direction of each sound.   The listener interprets the two as one, even though they are not quite the same.   So it is with a course of events.   Only, there are likely to be multiple tracks, rather than two.   If you listen carefully to a CD recording, you can distinguish which instruments are coming from the left and right speakers.   The melody is almost the same, but there are subtle differences.   On the life CD, you can on the odd occasion, pick up one track, and store it in your subconscious, then replay it separately from the other.   Or, one track falls out of synch. with the rest, in the manner of a sound track lagging behind in a film.   This is one form of coincidence.

Syllogism        This was by no means the first of the long run of coincidences I experienced in 1998.   Indeed, it happened in early March, well after the Gulf crisis that year, had come to a head.   The very meaning of the word is a clue to the nature of coincidence, and so calls for examination and consideration before all others.   My dictionary says that a syllogism is the result of two ideas leading to a logical conclusion.   There it is again.   The conclusion is a fixed fact, and all events clearly work back from that point in time, as if time has gone into reverse.        It all started with my tackling the 'skeleton' puzzle in the 'International Express'.   The clue read, “Golly, Miss could be flummoxed by such a logical argument”. 'Flummoxed' tells us to look for an anagram, and I knew by then that it was a 9 letter word. 'Golly Miss' looks like the obvious candidate, and I used an anagram dictionary to get the answer, 'Syllogism', which isn't a part of my general vocabulary.        Later that same morning I tackled the “General Knowledge” Crossword on the same page of the ‘Express’.   Once again, I admit to cheating.   Clue 18 across read “Sir Toby ______, uncle of Olivia in Twelfth Night.   I pulled out my Shakespeare, and went straight to the Cast for this play, to find the answer - “Belch”.   Now, if I hadn’t then noticed the first line of the Play - “If Music be the Food of Life, Play on” - I would have closed the book, and never noticed anything else.   Whether it was the instruction to play on, or whether some other influence was at work, I can only guess.   In any case, I flicked the page over.        My eyes were immediately drawn to some lines at the bottom of the third page of the Play.   I read nothing on the second page, nor on the third, other than that one passage, which included the word “Syllogism”.        There is one explanation which I am sure many people will immediately jump on, and say, "That's how!"   It presupposes that both crosswords have the same author, who was using Shakespeare for inspiration.   He or she finds the word 'syllogism' in 'Twelfth Night' and composes the first clue.   Later on, the same person draws upon the Cast of this Play for the General Knowledge crossword clue.   If this is the case, then we are still left with the big coincidence of my finding 'syllogism' in the Script, by pure accident, or by guided hand.   Coming as it did after all the other coincidents, one of which was also backed by a crossword puzzle, plus the very meaning of the word, and I have to firmly dismiss the easy exit.        Mrs. C........ and the Airline Record Locators        During my travel agency career, Mrs. C....... always booked to go to Perth, and usually initiated her reservation directly with the Airline, before coming to us for her ticket.   On one occasion, she had copied down the booking reference, but we couldn’t make out the penultimate character - was it an ‘S’ or a ‘5’?   Mrs. C....... wasn’t sure herself.   So I rang the Airline, and tried to retrieve the booking using an ‘S’ for the doubtful figure.   Imagine our surprise when told that the booking had been cancelled by Mr. C......... Since there was no longer a Mr. C........, we were all stunned for a moment, until we tried a ‘5’, and found the correct booking.        The record locators are usually 5 or 6 characters, a mix of figures and letters which can come up in any position.   In this case 5 out of the 6 had matched in the correct order with another ‘C........’, an unknown identity as far as our client was involved.   The record locators are generated by the Airline’s computer, and have no bearing or connection with any of the input names.   The other booking had been made quite some time earlier, when a Mr.C........ redeemed some of his frequent flyer points.   Later on, he decided not to travel to Canberra, which was his destination.        If the past, present and future really are set in different positions in time, then just how did this coincidence occur?   Either everything is happening to a set programme, or all three are taking place at the same time. Duck and Cover        The 'Duck and Cover' coincident came at a very tense time, the February, 1998 Gulf Crisis.   I had already experienced some startling 'Bible' Incidents, and just six days later, this one came up, practically shouting out aloud it's fearful warning.   If warning it were, then it means that either my unseen informant was not sure of the outcome, or that there is a choice of destinies awaiting the World.   Perhaps like many a computer game that has a written gameplan, and the player has to use every ingenuity, skill and learning to reach his goal and win.        On the face of it, it seemed that they hadn’t given up trying to press home a warning.   It was yet another of those odd coincidences that I might have ignored at any other time.   I had been doing a bit of gardening, and decided to call it a day, in the early afternoon.   Settling down in an easy chair, with a sandwich, I flicked the television on.   It happened to be tuned to channel ten, and Oprah had just started to introduce her guest for the day, Goldie Hawn.        They spent some time discussing Goldie’s new film “Hope”, and how she had worked into the film, a personal experience from the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis.   To illustrate what was happening in those days, they showed a clip of John Kennedy announcing that the U.S. was going to stand up to the Russians, and that it could eventuate in Nuclear Warfare.   Afterwards, Oprah or Goldie said that that Clip had once been used in a Government Emergency Film, which they then played back.   This was telling the public of what to do in the Case of a Nuclear Strike.   These ‘announcements’ emphasized the terms, “Duck and Cover”.        A day earlier, I had been to the Video Library, and taken out a number of Movies.   When we settled down after tea, I picked one out at random, and this was a film starring Shirley Maclaine, called “Waiting for the Light”.   In it, she plays an aging ex Magician who has just moved with her family to run a Diner in a new locality.   A silly prank goes wrong, with the result that a Neighbour thinks that he has seen an Angel.   In no time, the Press arrive, followed by the inevitable crowds expecting more miracles, and of course this leads to the Church being drawn in as well.   While all the fuss and commotion are going on outside the Diner, somebody turns on the TV set. I could hardly believe it.   Here again was the same clip that I had watched earlier in the day on the Oprah Show.   Now I could see that the coincidence was pressing home the warnings about nuclear warfare.   Each time the commentator enunciated the words ‘Duck’ and ‘Cover’, it sent a shiver down the spine.   The film itself ends with a ‘Divine Miracle’, which to me, inferred that the coincidence was of spiritual origin.        Nigh on three years later, this same coincidence has popped up again.   I emailed somebody in January, 2001, relating the 'Duck and Cover' case, among others.   Having finished reading about this incident, she decided to shut down her computer, and watch some television.   Immediately a '33' popped up on her clock, and she was then surprised to find that the selected television programme was showing the 'Duck and Cover' story.   Less than two months later, American and British aircraft are making missile strikes on Iraq.   No doubt this was in the planning stage, and in the minds of military leaders, when the warning coincidence was given us again. Simultaneous Word Events - Telepathy?       So often, we shrug off synchronized occurrences as interesting or odd, and then we promptly forget all about it.   When the same type of chance happening keeps recurring within a short time span, then we really must be entering another realm.   The most common of these, and one which I am sure everyone has encountered at some time or another, is the simultaneous word or thought event.   Often the other person will look surprised and say, “I was just going to say that”.   Maybe it is a little bit of telepathy at work, or maybe something simpler like a conversation leading to the same conclusion.   This cannot be the case, when you are reading a book or a newspaper, and at that precise moment, you hear the same word, loud and clear, from the radio or television set.   Once is strange and easily forgotten.   When it happens over and over again, in the same week, it cannot be by plain chance.       The more I began to take notice, the more it would happen.   By accepting the unusual with an open mind, I had turned on some kind of paranormal receiver.   By taking note of what was happening, I was tuning in to the right station. Genuflect        One evening late in February, 1998, my son and his wife, came to visit us.   While John was installing a new hard drive into my computer, the two ladies settled down to watch “Ballykissangel” on television.   It happened to be the episode, where the Statue of the Virgin Mary is spattered with Cooking Fat, by Quigley’s two minions, so that people would think that there had been a Miracle.   One scene showed a lot of coming and going in the Church, and L...., asked why everyone in the Catholic Church kept kneeling in the Aisle as they crossed from one side to another.   I said that we had always had to ‘genuflect’ at the Altar, as we crossed before it, and that it wasn’t just the Catholic Church.        Both Edith and L....., then said they had never hear of the word, genuflect.   So I explained, and read out the dictionary explanation, which reads “Bend the Knee, esp. in worship”.   Again both re-iterated that they hadn’t heard the term before, and L..... said it’ll probably turn up in a Crossword.   I didn’t have long to wait!        It was after 9.30pm before John, and his family were on their way home.   I went straight to bed, but, took with me the “International Express”.   I had another look at the “Cryptic Puzzle”, which was almost half done.   I got two or three words in straight away, and then, there it was......26 Across - “Be Reverential getting information on flute playing, about to be taken in.”        Very often when doing a puzzle, an answer comes to me, without studying the clue, almost as if it was being given to me.   This sensation hit me straight away.   I knew what the answer was.   All I had to do was to try and fit the word to the Clue.   As I did so, I was almost overwhelmed by that “Wow” feeling that comes with nearly all coincidental discoveries.   So for any reader unfamiliar with Cryptics - “Be Reverential” is referring to the whole answer.   Getting information means write in “Gen”.   “Flute playing” calls for an anagram of Flute which is “Uflet”.   “About” is invariably used to denote the letter ‘C’ (for circa....about), and it - the ‘C’ is “to be taken in”.   Thus, we get “Genuflect”.        Some intelligence must be setting up all these strange clues.   But, why, how, and when?   Are they instantaneous, prepared well in advance, or after the coincidence has been set in motion?

Coincidences from June 2001 to October 2002 21.11 16th June, 2001.     While playing Freecell on the computer the next game I wanted was 7201.     The random selection came up as 17121.     Later on, in the Evening while watching "The Bill", there was a scene where the police officers were looking at a Security Camera recording of what had happened in a hotel corridor.     The time shown on the film was 21.11.      Maybe it was seeing the time that triggered me to look round at the microwave.     The time displayed on the cooker's digital read out was 21.11. Allo Allo Allo! 1st November, 2001.     While we were watching "Ready Steady Cook", the Italian Lady Cook was asked what she would call a dish, and she replied "Ciaou, Ciaou, Ciaou".      She then explained that it was because the contestant was a policeman, and it was the Italian for "Allo Allo Allo".      Less than two hours later, when we were watching "Goodnight Sweetheart", Reg came into the Pub, looked across at somebody sitting at a table, and called out "Allo", then immediately he spotted another friend, and said "Allo", again.      He then noticed the Show's stars at the Bar and called out "Allo" for a third time.      Nicholas Lyndhurst muttered the line, "So that's how it started". Elephants 10th November, 2001.     Around Midday I checked the TV Programme and noticed that there was a programme on National Geographic about an elephant, Motala, who had a leg smashed up by a land mine.      Instead of watching it, I turned to Discovery Channel, to a programme called 'Wild and Dangerous'.     This was about various wild animals in Africa, but at that very moment it was showing some elephants.      I then tuned in to the 'TV1' channel to see what their film was about.     It was a Circus story, and at that very moment was showing somebody riding an elephant.     The odd thing here is that whilst one programme was about an elephant, the other two weren't, and I just happened to turn to them at the very moments when elephants appeared. Stopped Tape Recording with a Thought. 1st February, 2002.     We were watching 'Holby City' on a tape recording, when suddenly I realised that it was about time to stop tape to watch "The Royle Family".      I looked at time which was 20.30 on decoder, and simultaneously thought, "must stop tape and…….." At this very instant, the screen went blank and the stop sign appeared on the screen.     The tape had stopped at the very microsecond that I had the thought that I must stop it.     Ironically, I had the time wrong, and had another half hour to wait before "The Royle Family". So I switched the decoder off again, and restarted the tape.     Seconds later I looked up at the decoder and I don't know why, since I knew the time roughly.      It was showing 20.33. A case of precognition. 9th February, 2002.     Having prepared a bottle of home brew, I decided not to use a new label, but just to alter the date on the old label.      The amazing thing was that I must have made a mistake the previous time, for the label was already dated 9/02/02.     I cannot see how this could have happened as the last time that I used this bottle, would have been in December.      So the month and year should have been 12/01.      I'm sure I wouldn't have mistaken both the month and the year, so I must have foreseen subconsciously today's date. The Antique Dealer 6th March, 2002.    In an episode of "The Bill", Tony Stamp goes to a dating agency and not wanting to say that he is a policeman, he says he is an Antique Dealer.      During the night I had recorded an old broadcast of "Hancock's Half Hour". When I checked it, I found that the recording had continued long enough to pick up a few minutes of "Never the Twain".      At that particular moment just before the end of the recording, Donald Sinden who plays an Antique Dealer, tells a lady that he is a Stockbroker.     There would have been several years between the making of these two programmes. Ferry Disaster Foreseen in Crossword Clue? 12th April, 2002.       I was idly watching the news on TV while doing a crossword in Cairns Post.     Glancing at the screen I noticed that they were reporting and showing a burnt out Ferry in the Philippines.      At this moment I looked at the next clue which was 23 down.     While still looking at the clue number, I heard the newscaster saying that 23 lives had been lost.     Coincidence I thought.     Then I read the clue, "Exercise on public transport".      I immediately looked back at the screen and at that very moment it went blank for a fraction of a second and a screen came up saying that it was 'Searching for Channels' for the satellite signal had been lost.     Just as quickly this was replaced with the Austar information screen.     The oddest thing though as far as I was concerned was that the answer to the clue was 'train' and not 'ferry'.      Some time later I checked the time on my computer clock, and it was showing "2.33 PM". The Tummy Bug. 24th July, 2002.      Ede and I both picked up some kind of 'tummy bug'.     It was a big mystery how and why, for we are both so careful about what we eat and drink.     Once when I was suddenly hit with stomach cramp I grabbed the book "The Magic Power of Your Mind", and fled to the toilet.     I opened the book which was still then new, and I had only read various passages from parts of the book before this moment.      Opening it at random I found myself reading on page 142, "The whole field of nutritional disease, and those focussed in the gastro-intestinal tract, have been of great interest to the doctors in this new field of medicine."     It went on to explain that many stomach complaints are caused by conflict in the mind, and emotional upsets. Sage and Souls 14th August, 2002.      Having listened to a cassette tape recommending that one should purify one's house, freeing it from mischievous spirits with a Sage Smudge Stick, and having read a piece in a book about Angels which also said that Sage Smudge sticks ought to be used to cleanse the aura, I decided to see whether such an item was available in Cairns.     Despite the wide range of incense sticks, candles and so forth available in our nearest shopping malls, there was next to nothing resembling my quarry.     Still curious, I placed a message on the Shirley Maclaine Encounter Board, and received a number of very helpful replies.     From these I learned that the essential ingredient is not common Sage which I have in abundance in our garden, but the American Sagebush.     Apparently it has been used from time immemorial by the Native Americans to get rid of bad souls.     I might have known as I must have seen countless Indian films where smoke is wafted around a tepee.       Back at home my attention focussed elsewhere, and when I got back on line, I checked my email, and found a message that had been posted on the County Durham Genealogical Mailing List.      I could hardly believe it when I found this request appeared - Is there any kind sole out there with access to the 1871 census? If so, I'd be really grateful if they could look up the family of Robert and Mary Ann Preston in Brandon. Many thanks indeed to anyone who can help, Best wishes to all, Ian Sage      Then is if to emphasise the word, he had posted a second message - Sorry, I meant soul!     Didn't mean to suggest anyone on list is downtrodden, though a sole respondent would be just fine. Ian       There is a subtle humour behind this coincidence.     Looking at the mechanics side of it though, there had to be somebody named 'Sage' already interested in family history research.     Or, foreseeing my quest for Sage Smudge Sticks, Ian Sage may have been nudged into this hobby at some earlier date in our time scale. Old Bones 25th August, 2002.      On this morning I found that the Stereo unit had been left on all night. Or had it? There have been a number of seemingly isolated incidents when the VCR has stopped recording, and also come to a stop during a playback.     I felt very sure that I had turned all the units off before going to bed.     Also I double check each display to be certain that they are all off, before leaving the room.     For some days I had been wondering about the stoppages that occurred when I was trying to tape "Hetty Wainthrop" in the previous week.      The first programmed recording stopped about half way through.      The second went off before it even got started, and I only noticed what had happened some 15 minutes later.     When I eventually had a look at a repeat of the programme, it turned out to be an episode about a Schizophrenic youth who disappears from home.     He keeps seeing a skeleton marionette which he calls 'old bones'.     They find him dead in a hut at the end of the story.      Whilst this is not a coincidence, it is an odd event.     I rather think that 'somebody' did not like the subject matter, and so switched off our VCR. Telepathy?........Perhaps? 16th September, 2002.      It was my grand-daughter Paige's birthday today.    Having mailed her her presents, I only gave it a passing thought in the morning.     Yet at lunch time, just as I had settled down with my tray in the lounge, I suddenly remembered again, and thought that I really should give her a quick call on the 'phone.     The urge was to put my tray to one side, get up and make the call there and then.     The logical thing to do would be to wait until after lunch.     In any case, without giving it any further consideration, I decided to forget it, and get on with my sandwiches.     This thought like the first was only held for a fleeting moment, for it was interrupted by the 'phone ringing.     It was John saying that Paige wanted to talk to me. 20th September, 2002.     Only a few days later, and before we settled down in the evening to watch our programmes, I decided to call Fiona to see how she was getting along in her new job.     When she answered the 'phone, she was chuckling, and said that she was actually just on the way to the 'phone to call me.     It is sometimes months between calls, so this wasn't just a regular call, or anything like that.       With Fiona, maybe it could be telepathy, as either one of us, have on a few occasions, taken the words out of the other's mouth.     Only this time, the dual intention repeated within the same week. Schindler's List 2nd October, 2002.      I spent ages trying to work out the answer to a puzzle in the "That's Life" magazine.     It was one of those cases where the answer was on the tip of my tongue.     At long last it came to me - "Schindler's List".      After lunch I drove round to our local shopping Mall for some odds and ends.     Then, on a sudden impulse I bought the International Express.      Now I hadn't bought a copy of this weekly paper for many months.     When I got home and sat down to read it, I felt that familiar 'amazed' sensation.      For among the first few pages, there was an article headed "Schindler Honoured".      It was all about a Czech who was described as Britain's "Schindler". Spartacus 12th October, 2002.     It must be close on two years, since I bought the "Weekend Australian".     I cannot explain just why I felt a need to purchase a copy, but on Friday 3rd October, I decided that when I went to the Milk Bar on my morning walk, I would get a copy.     I do know that this 'need' to read the paper, was really focussed on the Magazine.     I ignored dismissive thoughts such as it rarely having any or few articles that interested me.     In the end, I rushed out to start my early morning exercise taking only sufficient coin to get a copy of the "Cairns Post".     I only remembered when I saw that they had plenty of copies of the "Australian", and thought that I would have no difficulty in getting one on the morrow.     As luck would have it, there was one left on Sunday morning, and this time I had remembered to carry a $5 note.       I am setting all of this down to illustrate the point when I think the coincidence actually started.     I left the paper and magazine for Ede to read first, although she was finished with them by the evening.     I started to peruse the magazine in the odd moments, between routine chores and other diversions.     By now it was almost half hearted, and the magazine lay half read on the coffee table for most of the week.     Each time that I went back to it, something else would intervene to command my attention, within moments of picking it up.       The week went by, and I still hadn't finished reading the magazine.     Yet, I was well into an article about Peter Ustinov which I found particularly interesting and wanted to read with full attention, rather than a quick scan.     Saturday came round again, and this time I did remember to take enough money with me.     After my walk, I sat down with paper and the new Magazine to read them outside in our verandah area, before Ede was up and about.     I completely ignored the first one, with the half read article about Peter.     It wasn't until much later in the day, that I finally had a decent free spell to relax, and finish it.     I had turned the television on with the sound low, so that it would be warmed up and ready, when Ede came to sit down for the evening.      I only had to read a couple of paragraphs to come to a sentence which read, "Hollywood decided that he looked his best in a toga and cast him in Spartacus (1960) for which he won an Oscar."     At the very second that I read the word 'Spartacus', I heard a voice from the television saying 'Spartacus'.    Immediately I raised my head to look at the screen, and just had time to read the first line of programmes for the evening, which was entitled, "The Real Spartacus".     I'm sure that I didn't hear a word that was said, beforehand, although I realise that the mind can subconsciously follow extraneous noises and events.      This type of coincidence seems to be the most prevalent, but what makes me marvel at and pick this one out, is the long lead up to the moment when it had to happen.     I've had so many instances of reading a word just as it has been pronounced on either television or radio, that I almost ignore them now.     Perhaps this is why this one was strung out for so long.

Latest Coincidences from February, 2003 "The 12th of Never" 20th February, 2003.  (21st - See below)    Yesterday for some obscure reason, I was much influenced when I heard a song on the television.     I cannot even recall looking at the screen and seeing what it was all about.     It was an old favourite sung by Johnny Mathis, "The 12th of Never".     Now there are often old songs that I really like that come up on the box or on the radio, and I never take a lot of notice afterwards.     Yet this time I really felt that I wanted to read all the words, and resolved there and then to make a note, which I did, jotting the title down on a scrap piece of paper.     Then putting it aside, I promptly forgot all about it….until this morning that is.      About three days ago, I decided to embellish my memoirs by inserting the titles of songs that Mum used to sing or hum away, in the kitchen.     I went through my CD's and cassette tapes, but only a few of them had the years that they were released, printed against each title.     The day after that, I made a search on the net, and found a very good web site which lists all the hits year by year.     I started off by copying and pasting the lists into a 'Word' file.     Then going through them I picked out all Mum's old favourites, plus all those that I had really liked at the time, and also any others that I remembered.      I've graded them by changing the font colours to red, green, teal, and blue.     It's taking some time to do all this, as the songs all need setting out again, after pasting them.     Having worked through from 1933 to 1949, with yet another six to do, I returned to the Net this morning to copy another batch.     Having brought up the first page, for 1957, I went to the bottom of the list, to select them page upwards.      There right on the bottom where I needed to point the cursor, was "The 12th of Never" by Johnny Mathis.       When I typed the above paragraph, I opened the above mentioned file to check the year again, and as I did so, noted the time - 2.33.       So how was this coincidence organised.     Was I prompted to undertake the song selection project first, and then knowing which song I was likely to see next, somebody on the television station had the thought planted by 'them', to play that song?     Or knowing that it would be played at a time when I was likely to hear it, 'they' inspired me by thought to look for the songs year by year, and then made me feel that I had done enough for the day, when I had copied 1956, so that I would see "The 12th of Never", when I went back to the web page the next time?       Having written this account up in my records, I decided to update this page.     When entering the 'update' date, I couldn't help noticing the 'created' date, 20th February, 2001.     In other words exactly two years before I heard "The 12th of Never" being played over the air.     But, there is yet another strange thing.     Earlier in the week, I had made a mistake with the date, and consequently, I had Friday down as the 20th, instead of the 21st.     What led me to make this mistake?     Was it yet another factor in making me note the date?      5th March, 2003.    This morning I decided to search the web for the lyrics to an old song, "In the Middle of an Island", that I had heard the evening before in the background, during a television programme.     I soon found a likely site, and when the page came up the first lines that I read were, " The Twelfth of Never was requested by a visitor from the Czech Republic.     Born Free came as a request from Denmark.     And Have You Met Miss Jones came as a suggestion from Belgium." "Palmer"       Only one day after the last coincidence, the name "Palmer" came up on television in three different programmes, all within the space of 40 minutes. 1. - While we were watching live broadcast from UK-TV of "Pie in The Sky".     The villain was named Vincent Palmer. 2. At 6pm we watched a little of "Silent Witness" which I had recorded from night before.     Again one of the characters was called 'Palmer'. 3. Ede went to kitchen so I stopped the tape, and watched the end of "As Time Goes By", which is being repeated on ABC.     When the titles came up, there of course was the name of the main actor, "Geoffrey Palmer".     Earlier in the day, I had read an article in the Courier Mail about the best small varieties of Mangoes for the home garden, and one of the two that were recommended, was the "Palmer".      The following evening, "Taggart" started on UK-TV.     We hadn't previously seen this episode, but what was remarkable, was that one of the murder victims was a Mr. Palmer, and his wife Mrs. Palmer was a suspect.       It is quite possible that there is a penchant by writers towards the name of Palmer, but I have never noticed it before, and it is still very odd that all of these should occur within such a short space of time.      Also it was a sheer fluke that I watched that small piece of "As Time Goes By" starring the actor, Geoffrey Palmer.      A few days later, I decided to have a look for CD's that had "The Twelfth of Never" on them.    When I called in to one of the discount stores, the first CD on one of the racks that I looked at, was entitled, "Robert Palmer".    This inicident seems to link the two coincidences.      3rd March, 2003.    Checking TV Guide, couldn't help noticing a programme scheduled on Channel 7 for 8.30pm - "24:1.00pm-2.00pm".     The description read "Jack interrogates Nina.     Palmer learns someone has ordered a military evacuation without his approval."      So that is now 5 instances of this coincidence within nine days.