A fundamental observation in Katz-Sarnak's study of the zero spacing of L-functions is that Frobenius conjugacy classes in suitable families of varieties over finite fields approximate infinite random matrix statistics. For example, the normalized Frobenius conjugacy classes of smooth plane curves of degree d over F_q approach the Gaussian symplectic ensemble as we take first q to infinity, then d to infinity. In this talk, we explain a sideways version of this result where the limits in d and q are exchanged, and give a Hodge theoretic analog in characteristic zero.