BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?

Subject: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Wesley S
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 02:54 PM

I'm always amazed when I think of the father of a friend of mine. He was one of the few survivors of the sinking of The USS Indianapolis

He must have been one of the luckiest people around. Do you know someone who falls in that catagory? Or have any of you had near brushes with death?

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 02:56 PM

I have a brush with death every day.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: gnu
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 03:06 PM

Four times in float planes in Labrador in one summer come to mind. Lab Air was nicknamed Crash Air.

And, that same summer, on one fishing trip up the Fraser Canyon just up from Nain, 4 times between 6PM and 3AM.

And, long story, but, that same summer (I don't know if I was in any danger), I pissed myself trying to get back to shore while fishing amid a boulder field when whatever it was with the 8 foot dorsal fin became "interested".

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 03:29 PM

Me. Without a doubt. I am still alive.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Amos
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 03:33 PM

I always count myself among the fortunate. Good wife, good home, good family, good and adequate material possessions but not enough to swamp the soul, and a good guitar, and still not succumbing to whatever that memory disease is called....


A

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 03:57 PM

:)

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Alice
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 04:18 PM

Any morning I wake up alive, I consider myself lucky.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: kendall
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 04:34 PM

Jacqui married me. That settles that

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 04:41 PM

Luck, eh ?

One of my hobby horses, this.

There is , of course, no such quality as "luck", in the sense that one person somehow possesses luck, and another person doesn't, it is simply a shorthand way of describing a past event.

It is correct and commonplace to say that so-and-so was lucky at a certain time and place, it is a fallacy to say that so-and so is lucky.

It is simply amazing how many people believe that luck is a kind of entity which can be attracted or repulsed by some means or other ...

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Micca
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 04:54 PM

When I was at sea in the mid 1960s (about 20 years after the end of WWII) we had an AB in his 40s who was the grumpiest bastard ever, got on with no one, had a drinking problem etc. We were weather-bound in Rotterdam (westerly gale made it impossible to get out of Hook Of Holland) We had nothing to do but wait for 3 days so we sat in the Messroom and drank beer. We got him drunk and he told us his story. In early March of 1943 he was on a Liberty ship loaded with ammo in a convoy 300 miles east of Cape Hatteras when they were torpedoed, he was on deck on his way to the bridge so he went straight overside. there were 4 survivors in a Carly float in the North Atlantic in March,after a few hours a black shaped loomed up out of the Dark, a Tanker had seen their lifejacket lights and dropped a scrambling net for them, 12 hours later the Tanker was torpedoed with only 3 survivors, He was one of them, one of 4 then 1 of 3, Thats what I call LUCKY!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 06:05 PM

Murray - We don't care! ;-)

****

I'm not sure I know anyone who is spectacularly lucky.

On the other hand, I consider myself to have been reasonably lucky in this incarnation if I stop and think about it...except when it came to my love life, that is. ;-) I've always had pretty lousy luck in that area. You can't have it all, I guess.

And that brings to mind...I DO know a guy who is very lucky in that one respect. Every woman he meets wants to get involved with him. No woman will refuse him if he makes an offer. It's uncanny. Even HE can't explain it. He was talking to me about it recently and saying he must have the right pheromones or something, because there simply isn't any other rational explanation for why the opposite sex apparently finds him so irresistible. And no, I am not spinning tales here...what I am telling you is literally true in this guy's case. And, boy, does it ever bug the rest of us! (the men, I mean)

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Wesley S
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 06:07 PM

I had that happen to me for a weekend once.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 06:13 PM

I bet you were all tuckered out on Monday!

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Bobert
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 06:13 PM

Ahhhh, that's easy... It's the P-Vine for having such a sexy, talented and humble hubby like me... Awwww, jus' funnin'...

Of course, it's me fir havin' such a sexy, talented and understanding wife like the P-Vine and...

,,,for having my many friends here who I absolutely cherish... Ya'll know who ya'll are... Yeah, even you, Capt'n... Sniff... Definately yer ol' lady in that group...

B;~)

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 10 Jun 10 - 09:16 PM

I consider myself lucky that I am not as modest as Bobert !!

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: LadyJean
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 12:13 AM

Every year in May the S.C.A has a get together at Cooper's Lake with a pick a prize raffle. If you see a prize you want, buy your tickets and give them to Hollowfox's daughter. She wins steadily. It's rather impressive. As was the look on Hollowfox's face when her daughter won that big samurai sword.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 12:24 AM

If there is such a thing as luck- I know a family that has been spectacularly UNlucky, inexplicably so.

I grew up with the mother, she was the older sister of a schoolfriend of mine. Eventually she grew up, moved to Kansas, married and had a bunch of kids.

Of her kids, three have died, all in accidents. One of her brothers was electrocuted on the job. Another brother died in a car accident.

There are other deaths and tragedies too, although they escape me for the moment.

During the years all this was happening to her and her family, my own family, roughly the same size, had not one death.

Go figure.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 02:17 AM

………one of 4 then 1 of 3, Thats what I call LUCKY!!!


That's what I would called spectacularly UNLUCKY!

The lucky ones were those who made it safely to port without ever meeting a U-boat or, better still, avoided having to sail in convoys in the first place.


DC

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Micca
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 05:13 AM

Doug, it was his philosophy No matter what he did, what risks he took, that he was going to die in his bed of old age!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: mauvepink
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 05:41 AM

It's none of you! it's me! :-Þ

I always think myself as being the luckiest woman on the planet and for all sorts of reasons. But mostly I am lucky because the people I have in my life and the fact I am allowed to live my life each day.

I'm not rich, but I am generally healthy. I don't earn a great deal, but I do have a job. I hate my voice but I can still sing when I wish. I am not tied to one particular religion, but can go to any church I wish and feel good about being there. I can see the beauty in the world and hear it's sounds.

How lucky is all that?

:-)

mp

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 07:01 AM

Very lucky indeed Mauvepink. A great way to look on life and I have to agree with you!

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 07:05 AM

I think I'm lucky to have a husband who will write such a lovely thing.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 01:38 PM

Wait! I know! The luckiest person is the Pope. After all, who else gets to be infallible? ;-D

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Wesley S
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 01:50 PM

Lots of people. Just ask them and they'll tell you they are.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 02:19 PM

Jacqui, I agree. It warmed my heart.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 02:20 PM

I agree with Rapaire... Librarians have to have schloads of dumb luck or incredible people skills to make it home every day without having killed or been killed.

Same applies for staff in museums, record offices, historic houses, etc.

The typical customer frequenting these, is a very scary beast, indeed.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 02:35 PM

Ah, VT, surely not "typical". Unless I'm living in the wrong part of the country. I am a longtime volunteer at museums and that has not in any way been my experience.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: kendall
Date: 12 Jun 10 - 09:41 AM

VT, try being a democrat in a republican town.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Jun 10 - 10:42 AM

It's funny how often people call it "luck" when they have actually had a very bad experience.

Like the guy who survives a plane crash: Was it good luck that he survived, or bad luck that his plane crashed?

"It could have been a lot worse," people often say.

Yes, but it could have been a lot better, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 12 Jun 10 - 11:24 AM

Kendall... I am a labourite living in torytown. most of me work colleagues also tories.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 12 Jun 10 - 11:31 AM

Ebbie... Record Office public service team get all sorts. from grumbling about not being permitted to take photographs of documents without first getting copyright check from an archivist to letters to the CEO of the local authority about not being able to eat and drink in the search room.

Not too long ago staff were called Nazis because man wanted to bring in shoulder bag, but only clear bags (provided free by search room) are permitted. He did not want to leave his bag in the free locker.

Record Office only follows nationally accepted policy regards search room use.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Jun 10 - 01:17 PM

I know nothing about records offices or research rooms (although I have used them); my experience is with museum collections and history. In the 12+ years I lived and worked in a house museum with more than 3,000 visitors a year (it is on top of a hill so it's a rigorous walk) I encountered and dealt with maybe five exasperating or ugly people. Since then I have volunteered in a city museum; haven't gotten a bad one yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Who's the luckiest person you know?
From: Joe_F
Date: 12 Jun 10 - 08:52 PM

I believe I am the luckiest person I know. I have reached the age of 72 without having a serious illness or injury. I have never been poor or in debt. I have always been treated with respect -- deference, even -- tho I am deviant (not to mention vile) in a dozen ways.

There is, however, a trait of character (which luck is not), which I call felicific efficiency, or felicificity: output of happiness per unit input of luck. On that scale I rank very low indeed.