Happiness is a Cold Gun

Another one of my favorite words is serendipity. Its not only the meaning, which is roughly "happy accident" or "accidental discovery", that makes it my favorite, its the spelling; the look of the word. And then you say it and it sounds like a fun word. Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin was serendipitous, after noticing some mould had contaminated an old experiment.

One of my own serendipitous moments came during a bad cold a few years ago when after drinking some Neo Citron I took a some Nyquil. Before I passed out some very funny ideas came to me. Of course, the serendipity came when it occurred to me that I might just as well have slipped into a coma. I hope I don't need to tell anyone that it's not a good idea to try this at home.

Others have made some great discoveries that I'm sure were nothing more than happy accidents. For example, freezer chilled underpants in the dog days of summer, or peanut butter, cheese and mayonnaise sandwiches. (O.K., these are mine too. I get distracted easily.)

Zemblanity is serendipity's opposite and it is defined as "making unhappy, unlucky and unexpected discoveries occurring by design", although it seems to me this could be just plain old stupidity. So tell me about your serendipitous moments. Accidents that paved the way for something wonderful, like my very cold underpants. Underpants by the way is, according to me, the funniest word in the English language. That's for another day, however.