more Scandinavian synchronicity

How's this for Scandinavian synchronicity?  I was waiting for the light to cross the street today when a passerby on a bicycle asked me if there was an ATM nearby.  "In there," I replied, pointing to the cafe where I myself was heading.  "Where are you from?" I asked on an impulse; he had an accent, but I couldn't place it.  "Norway," he said.

We wound sitting down and discussing the Scandinavian 78 at the cafe for about an hour.  His English is excellent and he did seem genuinely interested in the details of my pet project.  I indulged him by sketching out a list of some of the more prominent Norwegian candidates.  (Amundsen, Nansen, Brundtland, Munch, Undset, Olav Trygvasson, and so forth: the only one he hadn't heard of was G.H. Hansen.)

He asked me which living Norwegian will rank highest.  "Gro Harlem Bruntland," I replied immediately, underlining her name.  My ranking system is no system at all, and of course everything at this stage is highly preliminary--but Brundtland, to my current state of knowledge, has no rival among living Norwegians in terms of world historical influence.  My new Scandinavian acquaintance agreed.  "But," he added ruefully, "if you asked most Norwegians that question, they would say the name of a soccer player."

I pounced.  "Who?"  Athletics remains unrepresented on the 78.  From this portion of the conversation, I took away the following names: Marit Bjoren, Kjetil Andre Aamondt (skiiers), Ole Gunnar, John Carew (?) and  John Arne Riise (soccer players, or more properly, "footballers.")  These talented worthies will receive due consdieration.  At the moment, I especially feel the lack of at least one outstanding female athlete.  Marit Bjoren may well fill the niche. 

The most important name I learned today, however, didn't belong to an athlete, but to a Norwegian mathematician.  Niels Henrik Abel was born in 1802 and died in 1829.  In his brief life he (according to Wikipedia) "proved the impossibility of solving the quintic equation in radicals."  I don't really know what that means.  But my companion, himself a mathematician, assured me that Abel's achievement was one of the most important in the history of mathematics. 

So much to learn.  So much to know. 

Now for the best part of my story.  My new Norwegian contact once attended a ceremony commemorating Gunnar Sonsteby!  Sonsteby gave a lecture on his experiences as a resistance fighter in Nazi occupied Norway, answered questions from the audience, and recieved a medal his valor in his service to humanity.

A young Norwegian mathematician, studying abroad for three months in an exchange program at the University of Washington, wanders on his bike to my neigborhood.  He has seen and heard Sonsteby      
(my personal favorite Scandinavian) with his own eyes and ears.  He asks a random stranger a question, and that stranger is me.  Had either of us arrived at that stoplight five seconds earlier, or five seconds later, we would not ever have met.

How can I doubt the existence of synchronicity?