Under the dome

[MadaBidyoni]

Hi
i just saw an episode & they said there "IT TAKES THREE TO MAKE A PATTERN".
i googled it & didn't find anything about it.
of course it makes sense but i wanted more info - & there isn't.
could you find more info about this? in general... nothing to do with the show...

 

[sojourner]

could you find more info about this?

Nope, but here's a link to google.com. A great website for searching for answers to random topics.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

^ Well, to be fair, this time he said he actually already checked Google. Plus, the answer wasn't quite so simple.

Hi
i just saw an episode & they said there "IT TAKES THREE TO MAKE A PATTERN".
i googled it & didn't find anything about it.
of course it makes sense but i wanted more info - & there isn't.
could you find more info about this? in general... nothing to do with the show...

It's a quote dating from at least the 1920s in literature in the following two forms (uncertain origin):

“Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a habit.”

“Once is nothing, twice is coincidence, three times is a moral certainty.”


But where it really gained popularity was in the 1959 James Bond novel Goldfinger by Ian Fleming (and later the film), where Auric Goldfinger says:

"'Mr Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: ‘Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, the third time it’s enemy action.’”


From that several more derivative quotes came, such as:

"Once is happenstance; twice is coincidence; thrice is sabotage."

"Once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern."

"Once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, three times is a tradition."

"Once is happenstance, Twice is coincidence, Thrice is the Devil's hand"


It became part of the so-called "Moscow Rules" of spycraft, though it's largely a fictional list at this point rather than whatever the original "rules" were (though the ones at the bottom of the page are probably pretty close).

But the concept of things coming in groups of three --"Bad things come in threes," "Celebrities die in threes," "Third time's the charm"-- and three being a significant number and the establishment of a pattern is ancient.

 

[Borgminister]

Third time's a charm!

and three's a crowd.

Go figure.

 

[MadaBidyoni]

thanks Locutus of Bored