Every so often, I stumble into blatant episodes of synchronicity and/or pure coincidence. Say, I’ll be driving to work, and a conversation on the radio will contain some completely random word or phrase at the exact moment I see it transcribed on a billboard or the side of a truck. Perhaps, this is commonplace (or at least, inevitable) in our over-stimulated society, but that doesn’t make it any less weird…
Today, through the magic of our Electronic Unconscious, I was introduced to Seyyid Mir Mohammed Alim Khan, the last emir of the Manghit Dynasty.
Twice.
To whom do I owe this brush with long-deceased Asian monarchs? I’m glad I just asked!
My typical workday usually begins with a few cups of coffee and a visit to Kottke.org. This morning, one of his links led me to a ridiculously challenging New York Times trivia puzzle. Go ahead—- try it. Relying on equal parts Google and Intuition (and just plain forfeiting the BSG quote), I managed to solve its outer ring, leaving the two central anagrams to answer. The “band” question is obvious to any autoharp aficionado, but the “Summer clothing” one had me scrambling to Wikipedia, where I found this dapper fellow. Alas, he was little help in decoding a 16-letter jumble, and I forfeited once again.
Not five minutes later, I followed another Kottke link to a story about Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky’s early experiments in color photography. Well, if it isn’t my new friend! Fancy meeting you here, in a completely unrelated context…
So, what have I learned from this eerie escapade? Nothing much, really, except that Jason Kottke is the string that ties ALL internet knowledge together.
