Last week I was doing a crossword puzzle and the clue was "An Oldsmobile model". I hadn't a clue but from other clues I had a-blank-ero. I don't remember if I took a guess at Alero or saw it in the next day's paper. A few days later I was in a gas station and noticed an Oldsmobile up on a hoist; it was an Alero.
Also last week I was asked at coffee if I knew what the name Pomfret had been attached to as a condition or a situation. I looked it up on my iPod and found only that pomfret was another name for the fish pampano. A few days later I saw an article in a newspaper written by Keith Pomfret (or was it John Pomfret of "Pomfret's China").
Did the first instance of each of these links forewarn me that the second instance would occur? Or did the first instance prime me to see the second instance. That is, if I hadn't seen the reference in the first instance then I would have never noticed the second instance.
I'll go with the second case. There are so many references that I see that I never see anything similar for many weeks thereafter.
And then serendipity strikes. Trying to find a reference to Pomfret in the Washington Post, I found "Why China Won't Do More With North Korea" by John Pomfret. It is worth your consideration; so often we take a view of world events congruent with our own interests and don't delve into what the interests of others are.
