Re: OT - new tsunami on its way towards Indonesia

"Eric Stevens" <eric.stevens@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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On 27 Dec 2006 15:38:51 -0800, "Tom McDonald" <kiltmac@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


Alan Crozier wrote:
"Eric Stevens" <eric.stevens@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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On 26 Dec 2006 19:48:38 -0800, "Tom McDonald" <kiltmac@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


Inger E.(Norah) wrote:
"Alan Crozier" <name1.name2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Inger E.(Norah)" <noninger_none.Johansson@xxxxxxxxx> wrote
in
message
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"Alan Crozier" <name1.name2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Erik Hammerstad" <egeha.is.all.you.need@xxxxxxxx> wrote
in
message
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IE_Json wrote:
Read it first in a Swedish paper, Expressen,
http://www.expressen.se where more information is
given
than in
the
short
Breaking news on
http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/


Called off, even where it was supposed to hit (the
Philippines).

Well, that's a relief for the people of Myanmar.

Alan

Yes it is. Anyhow I thought I better send an alert when
the
news came
as
'Extra' with high priority. Once in my life I missed to
send an
alert
in an
other case when I could have, maybe should have, I will
not see
that
happening again.


Better to cry "Wolf" once too often than to regret the
omission?

Once is once, twice is twice and three times a habit as my
teacher
of
Chemistry and Mathematic used to say.

Once is happenstance; twice is circumstance; three times is
enemy
action.

Robert Heinlein


And I grew up thinking it was Goldfinger...

I was thinking Fleming, too. Although Heinlein also makes sense.

Though on some days, Heinlein might have left off the first and/or
second bit.

Actually, thinking about it, and not looking it up, what I think
Heinlein wrote "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three
times is enemy action".

Thinking more about it and looking it up I find that most sources do
attribute it to Goldfinger but some attribute it to Heinlein. Some of
both groups of sources attribute it to a Chicago gangland saying.

If he didn't use it sooner, Heinlein certainly used it in "Stranger in
a Strange Land' published in 1961. Goldfinger used it in the film made
in 1964. I don't know whether Ian Fleming used the same statement in
the book published in 1959.

If Ian Fleming did not use the saying in the book then it can be
traced back to Heinlein whose book preceded the Goldfinger film.
Either way, it may not have been original with either Fleming or
Heinlein.

I remember it being in the book Goldfinger. It was the first time I ever
encountered the word "happenstance".

Alan


.

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