We were cruising social media and saw this question, “What Rare Statistic Are You a Part Of?” with about 10,000 answers! That got our attention.
Birth date synergy, lots of medical oddities (LOTS), babies early or late at birth always being early or late in life, people legally casting votes for others, and several one-offs that are just plain amusing. Which one are you? Are you that rare oddity that is REALLY rare?
My Birthday Is Your Birthday, My Name is Your Name, and Everything is Messed Up
Mistaken identities? This can be a headache…
“I was born on the same date as another guy of the same name, and his mom had the same name as my mom. So, the Social Security Dept. issued us both the same social security number. It took 18 years to figure out the mistake when I was denied a student loan because the other guy applied first. Also, his tax returns got denied for a while because I always submitted mine first.”
“My daughter has the same name as another child, born the same day, at the same hospital, and insurance keeps getting mixed up. When I call to fix it, they try to refuse because I’m not the policy holder since I’m not the other child’s mom.”
“When I applied for federal student aid I was declined because they already approved a loan to another college not far away. My mom looked up the current student body and found a guy with my exact same name. After she called the college with our story, she got a phone number for the other mom. I still remember her saying “hello Margaret Bailey? This is Margaret Bailey… The other mom understood right away and was ecstatic to finally figure out what was going on.”
“There’s a woman who lives interstate, who has basically swapped names with me (she married into my maiden surname the same year I married out of it, if that makes sense). She was born in the same month and year as me, in an area where I have a lot of family. Her husband’s family isn’t actually related to mine though, as far as I can tell. Our email addresses have only a couple of digits difference, and mine is what she would usually have used as her address, only I got in first. I suddenly started getting all these emails sent to me about her kid’s sports teams and school newsletters and stuff. She had accidentally put in my email address into a bunch of her forms without realizing. I kept emailing the groups back to tell them to check with her, and mostly got sorted out easily. Finally got one I couldn’t respond to, but she obviously really needed. Texted her on the number on the email, thinking she’d think I was a scammer or something, but she was so relieved!! Turned out that she had got stuff meant for me as well, but couldn’t find me, since my name had changed on my socials.”
And Then This One That Felt Like A Stephen King Novel
All we can see in our minds are the twins from The Shining…
“At the age of 6, on the playground near the house, I met a girl whose name was the same as me (rare name) we were born on the same day in the same hospital, with a difference of 25 minutes, our dads had the same name (I didn’t ask about her mother because we were only with dads) and we were even in T-shirts of the same color, she had the same hairstyle as me, the same color hair and eyes, and even the shoes were similar, and this was the first and last time that we saw each other.”
Medical Oddities: Teeth
There were so many medical oddities that we had to divide them up. Let’s start with teeth.
“My dad and I both have/had 3 sets of teeth. Baby teeth and then two sets of adult teeth.”
“My husband has an extra set teeth too! His dentist had to make up an entirely new billing code when one had to get pulled.”
“I had an uncle with this, we called him Mr. Shark.”
Medical Oddities: Eyes
Do you actually know what color your eyes are? Can you use them as a weapon?
“I got bacterial meningitis when I was 20, which changed my eyes from blue to green.”
“My eyes have changed colors a total of three times in my life.”
“I’m ambidextrous. And have heterochromia. One green eye, one brown eye.”
“I can shoot water out of the corner of my left eye.”
I’m cross-eyed dominant. I’m right handed, but my left eye is dominant over my right. In certain cases, like aiming down gunsights, I have to use my left hand because otherwise I won’t be able to see properly. I have a degree of mixed handedness, though, so it’s not the worst.”
“I have Anisocoria. That means I have very differently sized pupils.”
Medical Oddities: Grey & White Hair
Grey and white hair are the new, desirable hair color.
“My hair started going Grey at 13. By the time I was 23 it was completely white.”
I’ve had grey hair since high school, and I’ve always been a little self-conscious about it. The girl I’ve been dating now says she likes it and I’ve always wondered if she was just being nice, or she really does.”
Dozens, and we mean dozens, of people chimed in to say how sexy they think grey and white hair is and that the GF is telling the truth.
“When I met a girl once she had this awesome hair, black with some wide white streaks and it looked very artsy and elegant. I exclaimed: ‘I love your hair! Can I get a contact to your hairdresser?’ She looked at me weirdly and said she started going gray around 20 (she was 30 at the time of the conversation). I felt silly and rude.”
“My husband says he is finally turning into a wizard.”
“Last time I got a haircut the hairdresser showed me the dye job she had just finished.
It was identical to my grey hair, and that really made my day.”
“Thank goodness I can just say I’m part Targaryen now. I’m sure the ladies are buying it.”
Medical Oddities: “Face Blindness”
Some people cannot remember faces…
“I have prosopagnosia (face blindness), a mild form. I think this is actually more common than people think, but some people don’t know they have it. I didn’t figure it out until I was like, 35. You just go through your life thinking you’re a dumdum who’s not paying attention, or not realizing that other people can recognize faces well.”
“I think this is the reason I like cartoons so much. I can’t tell two blonde women apart, or two white men with the same haircut (unless I’ve seen them in a bunch of previous films). But I’m never going to mix up Marge Simpson and Maude Flanders.”
Yes! “The characters are all distinctly drawn, and rarely, if ever, change clothes!”
“I was describing face blindness to some family and friends over dinner, and I gestured to the pitcher and said, ‘It’s just like any other object! Once I look away, it’s gone.’ Our friend said, ‘If I go home, I could draw that.’ Blew my mind.”
“Same. I couldn’t give a description of my wife’s face and I absolutely adore her. We’ve been friends for 30 years and even if I could draw like an artist, I couldn’t do it.”
Born Past Your Due Date And Always Late?
If you are born prematurely, do you try to be early to events? If you were born past your due date, do you tend to be late? You are not alone.
“I was 4 days late and been late to everything ever since.”
“I was born a month overdue, and I’ve been late to everything ever since.”
“My daughter was 3 weeks late and absolutely cannot hurry up in any circumstance.”
“3 ½ months early, and always 40 minutes early to wherever I’m going.”
“Haha! I have been saying this for years. I was 2 ½ weeks late, and I’ve been late for everything since.”
“Omg I was two weeks early and my anxiety makes me arrive early to places.”
“I was a month early and I always try to be just slightly early to everything.”
“I was born 3 days late & am chronically late to stuff, I need to start using this ASAP.
‘Sorry I’m late, I missed my due date by 3 days and I’m still trying to catch up’.”
“I tell people I’ve been procrastinating since day -3.”
Medical Oddities: Aphantasia
Aphantasia is the inability to visualize mental imagery. Otherwise known as, image-free imagination. This in itself is hard for most of us to imagine.
“I have Aphantasia, the inability to picture things in my mind.”
“I found out about it because I was talking about a book with a friend who has always disliked reading, and I mentioned something about it being basically not that different that watching a movie play out and he was shocked, that’s when we discovered it’s a thing. He can’t see pictures in his head and had no idea that wasn’t typical for everyone. Makes a lot more sense why he wouldn’t like reading, I wouldn’t either if I couldn’t see the characters and everything.”
“I can picture what’s happening in a book, but really struggle to picture things I’ve already seen. I can “see” them for a brief second, but then they go, and I can’t bring them back.”
“Same, I was so depressed when I found out I had it. I just always figured ‘picture this’ was an expression and not that people could literally picture this.”
“I have the issue of only being able to hold an image for a few moments. I found that pretending I’m going through the moment of when I saw it, with my eyes closed, helps the most. Even then, if someone interrupts me, it disappears immediately, it can be very frustrating. I’m great at looking at objects and telling if they can fit into places though. I don’t see the image in my mind, I just somehow “know” if it will fit into something. Another annoying thing is I can never look at something and tell how long it is. It could be an inch or 3 inches, I won’t be able to tell. I can compare things, but it is like measurement numbers don’t stay put in my head. It is so annoying since no one wants to believe I can’t tell if something is so many inches but can look at an object and tell them if it will fit in their lunchbox. Like, I know my brain is odd, I can’t help it.”
Medical Oddities: Blood
Some statistics say that up to 47% of the US population does not know their blood type. For those with rare blood types, it is good to be aware!
“My blood is both O- and CMV- meaning I can donate universally to both adults and babies.”
“I’m O- too. Have no idea about CMV- never heard of it before. Looked it up. CMV (Cytomegalovirus) is a flu-like virus that most adults are exposed to at some point in their lives. As with other viruses, once someone has had CMV, their body retains the antibodies.
CMV is generally harmless to adults but can be fatal to babies. For this reason, babies needing transfusions as part of their medical care should only receive blood from donors who have not been exposed to CMV (CMV negative).”
“I didn’t have it (CMV) but got it from an organ transplant at age 30!”
“A friend of mine needed a kidney transplant and that was one of the risks they told him about beforehand. However, you don’t ‘get it’ from the transplant from what I understand. It’s like chicken pox or herpes where you probably had it years ago and didn’t even realize it. When you have an organ transplant it can reactivate the virus from the dormant state in your body and it can be very dangerous due to the immune suppression required for that surgery.”
“Yes, that’s true! The virus also can live in the organ! So, when you are on the list, they ask you if you would accept a ‘compromised’ liver. This means that liver would come from someone who was CMV positive, EBV positive or HIV positive. They also asked if you would take a criminal/felon’s liver. I was advised and did sign off on anything. I needed a liver ASAP, so we weren’t picky. My team actually turned down two ‘offers’ because of size and liver health/age. So, I went from CMV neg to positive although right now my CMV and EBV are undetectable!”
“I am CMV-. They get excited and tell me every time I give blood.”
Medical Oddities: Burpless & Jaw Winking
There are people that cannot burp. Cricopharyngeal dysfunction can be caused by esophageal muscle enlargement, changes in the nerve signaling pathways, scarring of the muscle, radiation, trauma, stroke, or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
“I have retrograde cricopharyngeus dysfunction. Meaning, I am physically unable to burp.”
“Do you feel the pressure of the gas? But can’t release it?”
“Yes. Leads to bloating, cramps, nausea. Eventually it comes out, it sort of feels/sounds like a hiccup, very inefficient.”
“I have Marcus Gunn Syndrome, also called ‘jaw winking.’ Something is messed up with the wiring of my cranial nerves. My right eyelid bugs out when I move my jaw or swallow hard.”
“So, you glitch a little bit LOL.”
“My grandma has this! I always think it’s a little strange to watch her eat! She just laughs about it.”
“Me too! For me, it is my left eyelid.”
“My mother has this she always was embarrassed but now she uses it like a party trick!”
Medical Oddities: Miscellaneous
And then there were some that we just couldn’t categorize.
“I basically have no circadian rhythm. It’s called irregular sleep-wake phase and is mostly present in people who are blind or have brain damage. I have the sleep habits of a newborn baby – my life is a series of naps, and I sleep when I sleep and I’m awake when I’m awake and it has no connection to day or night. It also means I’m always tired. I’m also bipolar so the amount of sleep I manage to get in a day is inconsistent.”
“When I was 12 in 6th grade I started lactating and had hormone levels double of a pregnant women. I went to a neurologist and found out I had a tumor on my pituitary gland (non-cancerous). It’s rare for adults to get them and even more so in children. from what I’ve read, 1 in a million children (2-6%).”
“I sneeze every time I go from shade to sun.”
“That’s called ACHOO! Autosomal Dominant Compelling Helioopthalmic Outburst. My mother and I also have it.”
“I’m allergic to my own sweat.”
“I can read upside down as easily as right side up.”
“I can wiggle my ears and jet saliva like a snake spits venom.”
“Wandering spleen. Had a doctor try and find my spleen one time and had difficulty. Told me that some people have spleen that wander around a bit. It’s a rare superpower.”
“When I wear watches, I stop them. I drain anything with batteries.” which is pretty annoying.”
“I was the first baby to be born in a car at Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston— they didn’t have a code to send out to the staff for that situation, so they created one after my birth. Also, I’m technically allergic to water. Small rashes over my body when I get out of showers, pools, and even when I sweat.”
Medical Oddities: Success Stories
Sometimes medical oddities take a turn for the better.
“On a sour note, I have multiple sclerosis. On a sweet note, I’m one of the rare cases where daily treatments have seemed to almost make my brain lesions disappear in my scans now. They went from very large to barely there, and some have even completely gone away. I’ll still always have the condition and will still always need to live life on the low and slow/chill so as not to bring on a relapse, but so far, I count myself blessed given how things can be with this disease.”
“I’m 32 years out from my liver transplant and one of the rare few to have been successfully weaned off immunosuppressants.”
“Male breast cancer survivor, I was 42yo at the time, 53yo now.”
Find This Person A Date
Well, this is sad.
“Match.com told me I’m in the 1% of the population of people they can’t match a partner to. Awesomeness!! Their only matches are a bunch of guys only looking for a best friend.”
Getting Arrested – Falsely
Getting arrested is one thing. Getting falsely arrested is on a whole other level.
“False arrest. I got pulled over and arrested for bank robbery, because I happened to be driving away from the area where it just happened, in the same make/model/color vehicle as the robber, wearing the same color hoodie, same age and description – right down to the level of baldness. The guy was known as the ‘grumpy bandit’ because apparently, he was more rude than your typical friendly bank robber.”
Voting – For Others
“The first voting ballot I ever cast wasn’t my own. Was the surrogate for a learning-impaired person who was in line in front of me because her immediate relatives weren’t allowed to assist.”
“Yup, in Ontario you are allowed to bring someone with you if you need assistance to vote, you can even request (not guaranteed) for the polling station to provide you with someone a couple of weeks before voting. (Such as a sign language interpreter) So I’m sure other places allow it to. You have to sign an affidavit that you won’t choose a different person then the person your helping wants. And if I remember correctly you had to be eligible to vote to help someone. So, the family might have not been legal citizens or old enough to vote.”
Grapheme-Color Synesthesia Explained
This is a condition that is very hard for many to understand, including us! We will let this person who has it explain:
“I have grapheme-color synesthesia. That means I associate numbers with colors and can remember them for much longer than most people.
For me: 0 is black, 1 is white, 2 is yellow, 3 is blue, 4 is red, 5 is green, 6 is pink, 7 is brown, 8 is gray, and 9 is orange.
And so, I remember numbers by the colors associated with them. My favorite number is 23 (Don Mattingly’s Yankee uniform number), but to me it is yellow & blue.
One time when I was young (between 10-15) I was at my grandparents’ house and helped them put together a plastic cabinet and put the padlock on it for them. 5 years or so later they called my mom asking if there was a chance, I knew the combination because they forgot what it was; I thought for a few minutes, remembered the colors and said, “36-18-10”. They tried the numbers and to their surprise the lock opened, and they wanted to know how I knew the number and honestly, I had no idea. I just told my mom I remembered the colors and she had the most confused look on her face. Years after that she saw an article about synesthesia and knew that’s what I have.”
Music Tasters, Child Marathoners, Unfashionable Gay Men & More
“I can taste music.”
“I’m the only homosexual Inuit that I know.”
“I ran a marathon at the age of 12.”
“I belong to the 5 percent of the population of the earth who has seen a ball lightning.”
“I’m one out the ten thousand people who was permanently banned from Napster for downloading Metallica.”
“I’ve written a daily diary for over 8 years. I don’t know anyone who has.”
I’m a gay man born with no sense of style or fashion. It’s very sad.”
18 of the World’s Deadliest Foods: How Many Are You Eating?
Whether you eat to live, or live to eat, let’s make sure you live to see another day! These are some of the world’s deadliest foods. They can bring on extreme symptoms, ranging from paralysis to seizures, choking and even death, so don’t go tucking these into your lunchbox. Click for 18 of the World’s Deadliest Foods: How Many Are You Eating?
10 Of The Worst Tasting Drinks People Pretend To Like
Hold onto your taste buds, because we’re about to embark on a flavor-filled adventure through the realm of beverages! Sure, we all need water to survive, but let’s be real – drinks are so much more than just basic hydration. Recently, the question of which beverages people secretly think taste awful sparked a fiery debate. Boozy elixirs, non-alcoholic refreshments, and everything in between were thrown into the mix. Brace yourself as we unveil the truth behind the drinks we pretend to love. Get ready for a wild ride of taste revelations! Read 10 Of The Worst Tasting Drinks People Pretend To Like
