http://www.southcom.com.au/~seymour/serendipity2/3aprinces.
htm or http://tinyurl.com/54vuv (shorter, less likely to break up) is
one of the most delicious ways to savor our Aspie ability to be
interested in a variety of things in a way that some folks all EDF.

Well, some of the world's best inventions come from folks who
make curious connections and follow their bliss to discover all
sorts of things that the PeopleOfTheBox consider irrelevant or
deeply suspicious -- or even distressingly OutsideTheBox.

Such deviations from 'normal' behavior brings awful negative
forces to wreak havoc in the life of those who habitually think
OTB -- OutsideTheBox. That's where Aspies thrive. Be joyful
about our Aspie gifts. And enjoy these sites that celebrate the
gift of serendipity (aka EDF, according to my lights).

http://livingheritage.org/three_princes.htm explains the origins of
the word 'serendipity' by tracing it back to the 16th century, thus:
==> The Three Princes of Serendip was published in Venice in
1557 by an enterprising printer called Michele Tramezzino. That
Tramezzino was well-respected can be judged by the fact that
the book bears the imprimatur of Pope Julius III.
==> The title page of The Three Princes of Serendip claims that
one Christoforo Armeno translated the book from Persian into
Italian, but there are serious doubts as to whether Armeno ever
existed, except in the fertile mind of Michele Tramezzino. Most
likely Tramezzino was himself the compiler of the various tales,
which were probably of ancient origin, mostly Indian.
==> It has been suggested that Tramezzino used Serendip in the
title of his book not only because it imparted an exotic flavour, but
also because the island was topical in 1555 when the book was
being compiled. News was seeping through from Rome that the
Spanish Jesuit Francis Xavier (who was canonized in 1622) had
introduced Christianity to the island a few years earlier.
==> As Sir James Emerson Tennent reports in Ceylon (London,
1859), "It was by the fisher-caste of Mannar that he was invited to
Ceylon in 1544." For devout Venetians, this represented a victory
for God and the Church, a victory in a strange and far-off land
variously known as Ceilao, Zeylan, Taprobane and Serendip.<<
Source: http://livingheritage.org/three_princes.htm