The Law of Sod

[mickthecactus]

Here's a fine example.

Mrs Cactus has mislaid a credit card. We know it's not stolen and have spent a couple of weeks sporadically searching for it. This morning I rang the credt card company to cancel and reissue it.

1 MINUTE LATER I found it.........

Thus The Law of Sod applies once again.

[onlymark]

My wife lost her mobile phone. She had put it 'somewhere safe' when we went away for a few days and it wasn't needed. Of course on our return she couldn't find it. We searched every where for several days, it was switched off so we couldn't ring it.
We went and bought another one, got it in the car to return from the shop and she found it in the door compartment.

[bixaorellana]

Damn, Mick ~~ you didn't just get affected by Sod's Law on that one, you got positively bitten in the butt.

Mark, your wife and I are sisters under the skin. I had intense identification with her mobile phone incident.

[Deleted]

I have a law of the 5th search. When I am sure that something must be in a specific drawer but can't find it, I come back to the drawer about every 15 minutes to search again (after searching in other places in the meantime), getting hot under the collar with sweat on my brow if it is something important. Each time I search more carefully than the previous time. Generally on the 5th search, it practically jumps into my hand as though it has just arrived in the drawer. (Which it probably has with the help of evil gremlins or imps.)

[tod2]

Once after an overseas trip we put our passports away in a "safe" place. A year later we needed them for yet another holiday and couldn't find them despite having looked in all our 'safe' places.
Then started searching behind cupboards and in drawers we swore we would never have put them.
In the end we had to apply for new ones.
We had the new passports exactly a month when my son rang us up and guess what - "Mom, Dad, I found your passports in the family file you left at the office"
Law of Sod........

[Kimby]

I had not heard of the Law of Sod or Sod's Law till this thread appeared. Being an American, I immediately thought of Murphy's Law. But apparently there is some fine distinction between the two. From Wikipedia:

Sod's Law is a name for the axiom "Anything that can go wrong, will".[1] "Toast will always land butter side down" is often given as an example of Sod's Law in action. The phrase is seemingly derived, at least in part, from the colloquialism an "unlucky sod"; a term used to describe someone who has had some bad unlucky experience, and is usually used as a sympathetic reference to the person.

The term is still commonly used in Britain, though in North America the newer eponymous "Murphy's law" has become more popular.[2]

Sod's Law is similar to, but broader than, Murphy's law ("Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong"). For example, concepts such as "bad fortune will be tailored to the individual" and "good fortune will occur in spite of the individual's actions" are sometimes given as examples of Sod's Law in action. This would broaden Sod's Law to a general sense of being "mocked by fate". In these aspects it is similar to some definitions of irony, particularly the irony of fate. Murphy's technological origin on John Stapp's Project MX981 is more upbeat - it was a reminder to the engineers and team members to be cautious and make sure everything was accounted for, to let no stone be left unturned — not an acceptance of an uncaring uninfluencable fate.

Some examples of "bad fortune will be tailored to the individual" include

Ludwig van Beethoven's loss of hearing—loss of hearing is bad fortune for anyone, but it is Sod's Law that it would happen to a brilliant composer.
Adolph Coors III, who was allergic to beer, was the heir to the Coors beer empire—being allergic to beer is bad fortune for many, but it is Sod’s Law that someone allergic to beer would inherit a beer empire (and, due to a botched kidnapping attempt, die because of the empire's wealth, thus being killed by beer, if only indirectly).
Jason Becker developed ALS, a paralyzing neurological disorder, but it is Sod's law that this would happen to a world class guitarist.
Some examples of "good fortune will occur in spite of the individual's actions" include

If you take your raincoat and umbrella with you, it will be sunny—any attempt you make to control your destiny (in this case how wet you get) will be thwarted by fate.
You move to another city, only to meet and fall in love with someone from your home town.

[Kimby]

Oct 14, 2010 16:55:53 GMT kerouac2 said:

I have a law of the 5th search. When I am sure that something must be in a specific drawer but can't find it, I come back to the drawer about every 15 minutes to search again (after searching in other places in the meantime), getting hot under the collar with sweat on my brow if it is something important. Each time I search more carefully than the previous time. Generally on the 5th search, it practically jumps into my hand as though it has just arrived in the drawer. (Which it probably has with the help of evil gremlins or imps.)

I operate under a corollary to K2's 5th search law, which is that the lost item will always be in the first place you search, even if you don't find it there the first time you look.

[Kimby]

I found this at Heretical.com

Sod's Law and its Corollaries
or
The Twelve Laws of Inaccurate Perception


SOD'S LAW, ALSO KNOWN AS MURPHY'S LAW. If anything can go wrong, it will.


O'TOOLE'S COMMENTARY ON MURPHY'S LAW. Murphy was an optimist.


THE FIRST COROLLARY TO SOD'S LAW. Anything that is to go wrong will do so at the worst possible moment.


THE UNSPEAKABLE LAW. As soon as you mention something, if it's good, it goes away; if it's bad, it happens.


NON-RECIPROCAL LAWS OF EXPECTATIONS. Negative expectations yield negative results. Positive expectations yield negative results.


HOWE'S LAW. Every man has a scheme which will not work.


ZYMURGY'S FIRST LAW OF EVOLVING SYSTEM DYNAMICS. Once you open a can of worms, the only way to re-can them is to use a larger can.


SKINNER'S CONSTANT. The quantity which must be multiplied by, divided by, added to or subtracted from the answer you get to give the answer you should have got.


LAW OF SELECTIVE GRAVITY. An object will fall so as to do the most damage.


JENNING'S COROLLARY. The chance of the bread falling with the buttered side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.


BARTH'S DISTINCTION. There are two types of people: those who divide people into two types and those who do not.


NINETY-NINETY RULE OF PROJECT SCHEDULES. The first 90% of the job takes 90% of the time, the last 10% takes the other 90%.


FARBER'S RULE. Necessity is the mother of strange bedfellows.

[Deleted]

I am definitely living under most of those laws, although I feel that I must mention that I dropped a bottle on the floor this week and it didn't break. (Exception that proves the rule)