Contributors

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Weird Coincidences

There was a composer who recently died who had more-or-less the same name I do. (His middle name may not have been the same as mine, but he has the same initial.) Here's his obituary

The name is not the only thing we have in common. I majored in physics and went on to get my Ph.D.; he started out in physics before switching to music. I got my masters and Ph.D. at Florida State University, which is where he got his masters degree. We both did our earliest important professional work in Tokyo. 
 
I've read enough books to know that weird coincidences like this, if spread out in time, have been used as "proof" of reincarnation. Of course that is nonsense. In this case, the nonsense is explicit -- we overlap in time!

I tried to find a way to contact this other Howard L. Richards through Florida State several years ago, sadly with no success. I suspect he would have enjoyed the coincidences as much as I do. You can hear a sample of his work on Youtube

I did manage to contact this Howard Richards, who is also a musician. And of course, there's the much more famous Howard Richards who played for the Dallas Cowboys, then worked for the CIA.

1 comment:

  1. My mane is the same as a murder victim who was roughly the same age as me. Her parents were Irish too. And she wanted to be a teacher and I am a teacher. It's always creeped me out a bit.

    ReplyDelete