small world alert/Iowa mafia

The guy who invited Tim Morton to Temple, Prof. Alan Braddock, just happened to mention he was from Iowa. Turns out he’s from Iowa City, played basketball for I.C. West, and used to eat at my parents’ hippiesh sandwich place when they opened it in the early 1970’s.

Now it turns out that the guy who has runs the ice cream place on the waterfront here in Annapolis, who’s had it since 1976 (and I was in there sometimes during my student years), is from Iowa and knows who my mother is. And that was discovered purely by the chance meanderings of random conversation as well. I wonder how many coincidences there are that we simply never hear about. Or maybe there is some minor deity who ensures that all coincidences are drawn to the attention of the relevant parties.