Challenging Coincidences

I’m pretty sure I don’t like coincidences. They overtax my limited faculties: are these two things related at all? did the first one cause the second one? The Romans considered that second statement a fallacy, “post hoc ergo propter hoc,” but the first thing does cause the second thing sometimes. Did it this time?

Last night I had a limited time to kill before resuming my preferred occupation as a sleeper, so I thought I’d put in disc three of an Indian action movie, the cover pictures looked pretty bloody, and I thought there might be a nice song and dance number too. A dialogue box appeared with the first scene, “Danger! Threat Detected! Trojan style!” I took the disc out and attempted to quiet the machine down, but it was touch-and-go there for a minute, dialogue boxes wouldn’t close when they should, “End Task” program non-responsive boxes came up, finally I restarted the thing.

It opened up normally and I put in the second disc of “Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla,” I know that one is fine, virus wise. The last bit is a protracted, brutal battle between the two title characters, Godzilla bleeds and screams in pain, the young woman who is piloting the MechaGodzilla is very pretty and very determined, Godzilla is finally overmastered by a freeze-ray.

Then, coincidence struck and the electricity went out. Not the whole neighborhood, but my entire huge apartment building. How could a virus threat do that? I’m not an expert, as John McCain says, so I wondered for a minute if they could be related events. I doubt it.

I continued to watch the movie on battery power and the power came back after half an hour or so. Life can be very confusing for those of us who think too much.