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June 18, 2012
In a recent poll, 4000 people were asked if they would walk under a ladder and 49 percent said they wouldn't. While a separate poll concluded 86 percent regularly practice superstitious behavior like crossing fingers or carrying a lucky charm.
I know I'm doing my part in keeping the averages up. However, one must ask, why do seemingly "normal" people act like this. Since, in giving in to superstitions, we are reinforcing a belief that the dictionary says results from ignorance.
Are you thinking you're immune? Every time you say, "Bless you" you are following a belief that began during the plagues. According to legend, Saint Gregory ordered people to say "God bless you" when somebody sneezed to prevent the spread of the disease.
And since we haven’t had any plagues in the world for a while, it seems to be working. Keep up the good work.
Triskaidekaphobia is a fear of the number 13. A specific fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia that could, in itself, prompt a fear of syllables. It all comes down to the fact there were 13 people at the Last Supper. Some cities skip 13th Ave., but not Sacramento, with an intersection where 13th Street crosses 13th Avenue. You won't catch me there.
"Black cats creep across my path until I'm almost mad...I must have roused the Devil's wrath 'cause all my luck is bad." So, one of my favorite Matt Dennis standards begins.
About 400 years ago, after Charles the First's beloved black cat unexpectedly died, he proclaimed, (so the story goes) "Alas my luck is gone." True enough, he was arrested the next day, charged with high treason and later executed.
(I’ve checked; you can’t get bad luck from a photograph.)
Don't ask me why, but the white cat in England is considered unlucky, while the black brings good fortune, (to everyone except Charles) except in East Yorkshire, where it is lucky to own a black cat but unlucky to come across one.
Wherever you are, do check the cat luck "laws" in your area.
A cracked mirror? Why get rational now. Don't panic about this "window to your soul" business. The good news is you can reverse the curse.
Experts can't agree why the rabbit's foot means good luck, (although not for the rabbit). Do brush up on which pocket to carry it. Don’t forget to pack some garlic to protect you from evil spirits and vampires.
This entire subject seemed to have undone B.F. Skinner, who examined the formation of superstitions by experimenting on pigeons. It all somehow convinced him that humans believe they can influence events by a means of "adventitious reinforcement." If you pick up a lucky penny or let a cricket loose in your house and something good happens, it makes you a believer.
Recent research indicates beliefs like wearing "lucky" socks, counting magpies, carrying an acorn, all reflect a need for control, according to professor Adam Galinksy. "Even if it's imaginary control," chimes in co-researcher Jennifer Whitson of the University of Texas at Austin.
Prevailing thought indicates superstitions originated long ago to make some sense of the inexplicable forces of nature around us.
Seems it's still inexplicable. However, I'm hoping not to you. I just knocked on wood so I know we're going to have a fruitful discussion.
still thinking about today...
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The only thing I fear is paraskavedekatriaphobia -- not the fear of the meaning of it but rather the fear that I might have to spell it.
Scare me.
Speaking at least of long words, Click & Clack had one relating to the shoeless weird eating Mahatma Gandhi: supercallousedfragilemystichexedbyhalitosis.
I believe only in good luck or bad timing.
I'm with you Lotlot!
It's funny, 13 is a lucky number in Asia, It means "will have life"
My new car registration number is 64...I am seriously thinking of changing it ...it sounds like "the road to death"....what can be a worse number for a car!?
Incidentally, I won't walk under a ladder either, not when the rest of the pathway is clear! It wouldn't make sense
BTW, happy Father's day to all the gents here..I did squeeze in the last entry yesterday
I think supersitiousness is at its height in places where we feel the most out of control. A war zone is the height of superstitiousness. "I will stay alive if..." One young lad wore a Vietnamese montanyard bracelet and gave a matching one to his wife. I said a prayer every night that I had composed. I still say it as the airplane I am traveling in takes off. It works just fine. I don't walk under ladders because it seems unsafe somehow. I have owned black cats, and don't care about the number thirteen. I find it odd that some buildings have no thirteenth floor. And like a lot of people, I say, "Bless you" when someone sneezes. I am not superstitious about it, just polite.
Cub"s curse
Wallking under ladders is a bit silly - the person up there is clearing gutters, maybe painting, maybe just washing the windows - - - do you really want that stuff in your hair and on your clothes?
Today's topic had me undertaking a perilous mission involving stepladders to the higher reaches of my bookshelves. I knew it was there somewhere - Enyclylopaedia of Superstitions. So the morning went engrossed in Olde English, Irish, Scots and Welsh folklore.
Welcome back, Spring Fragrance, we missed you!
This topic is fertile material for discussion. I remember so well, years ago, trying to decide exactly what B. F. Skinner may have discovered when he postulated the concept that there may be a way that we somehow sublimally create a correlation between our superstitious behavior & the law of probability, thereby essentially validating what we want to believe. Skinner was right when he created the theory behind the "Skinner box," this would merely be a corolllary. I personally think that if we want something to exist then we seek out validation of that theory by subtle actions favoring the connection. Profilers sometimes pay attention to the phenomenon in trying to link up crime scene evidence with specific offenders.
This article,"Believe It or Else," is so engaging and holds my attention, that it properly should be placed on the "Eye Honor Roll,", for sure...!***My cat, Eclipse, a black wonderful cat...looked just like this articles picture..He was definitely lucky...(Oh Yes, My little "mopitisshu" was lucky..).....and all of the above...was rehersed by me...the exception of all these superstitions is that the number 13 is lucky, because my brother was born on Friday the 13th....and my mother told me so....My mother played a big role in teaching us most of these superstitions, too.Entertainment for six children,....on the road to 7Springs Countryside Mountains...throughout many days and years...
Did I ever mention the number 404? The day before 9/11 I drove to the countryside of Uniontown, Pennsylvania to sell a violin and a guitar...that needed refurburhised..on the way, I bought a local firemans lotto ticket my number on the ticket was 404.....then visted Nemacolin, went the Wharton coke/cannon ball furnace...park, saw vision of my New Yorker Father in his pilot Navy times, thought about his life..and saw fire...I was enjoying my outdoor adventures of hiking and also went to the local Fort ....then went onto Ohio Pyle Park bought another local firemen's ticket, the number was 404, too...the odds of this happening were too improbable for belief! The next day, I watched the fall of the Twin Towers on my brand new $3000.00 FPD1810 Gateway Computer...online in color as it all happen, in minutes...seconds of of course cried...wept...and super feared the unforgiving fatal doom.... in all this horrific tradgedy that a plane landed 7 miles from our familys' Mountain home....in the vicinity of my countryside ride....!
As my family watched the computer screen, then the television, My mother being an Architect and pulling out her portfolio file on the Twin Towers stated, "that the building was built to withstand!"...she cried in disabelief...too..so sadened but the next plane hit..her distinguished..heart was wounded........ as I remember the second plane hit! The rest history.....days letter the room number 404 was mentioned on the news....and then an article in the, kind of like magazine extra, Roto...in the Sunday Newspaper...mentioned the Chinese have a similiar unlucky bad curse superstition about the number 404....oooh...how bazaar!....one of my tickets won fifty bucks! Have Horse Camp today...See ya all later Alligators...
Most definitely an interesting article. I'm thankful to say I'm not superstitious about anything. Have a beautiful black cat, with white paws. Since she's been with me, I've had more good luck brought upon me. The number 13 has never bothered me, nor the typical fear that comes from most about Friday the 13th. History will show that this fear was put into people back when the Knights Templars were attacked and hung on this date. I've walked under many ladders on purpose to just prove to myself that nothing bad comes from it. I think it's all in one's perception and belief and no one is wrong :-) My belief... there are no coincidences in life, and everything happens for a reason.
I agree!,CinderRose. To everytime a purpose.
When I saw a flock of birds flying and then they looked like a black and white version of a Hitchcock film I knew it was not good.
My sickness started 2 months later and lasted 3 years.
Thank God those birds kept flying!!
It's not so much superstition with me as a sign or wake up call to look at or interpret what is really going on.
Well, lotlot, at least you accomplished copying that $50 word. I'm not even brave enough to try that.
I'm with Hazel on the ladder. Always figure something could fall.
Otherwise, owning two black cats, brother and sister, has neither brought me luck nor denied me luck unless you want to consider that I feel lucky to have them.
Do say "Bless you." It's expected, and you'd be thought rude if you didn't.
Our tanned and spotted old neighbor, Mr. Simpson, was thoughtful and generous with all of his comments except when it came to belief in luck which he considered: evidence of a lack of faith, of ignorance and of irresponsibility.
It was not as easy as you might think to avoid the word.
The reason many of us feel unblessed or unlucky, if you must, is that we have an idea of the optimal way for events to unfold before us and fail to recognize the better result when we see it.
What great luck to have stumbled,been pushed,or lead,to the eYe....or love....
All my life school friends told me I was lucky. I didn't think I was one way or the other. Then I found out it was in my genes!! LOL
My great grandfather was from Wales and his name was Luckman!!
Well, Carolbabcock~ Dyma ni, as they say in these parts.
See what I mean Hazel? I'm not lucky enough to know the translation.
In Florida with friends and playing Mexican dominoes about 4-5 hrs. a day, driving the beach, munching shrimp, seafood, and so far I have won at dominoes, so maybe I am having a lucky streak...may go over to the casino while this luck is holding....If I lose, I'll be quiet, but if I win, I'll crow! ....In the pool and hottub at 11:00pm last night with friends and stars overhead....Nothing like good friends, good fun, good fun, and good luck! Glad to see you again here, Spring!
Carolbabcock~ it 's a useful Welshism that means 'There you go' or'There we are' - covers all converstional chat of that nature.
Although I don't really notice it, its is frequently pointed out to me that I throw salt over my shoulder. Constantly. I don't use a shaker, I use a cellar so the need is continual. Its a habit, rather than a superstition.
Ha! Chefdeb, I do that too!
I just can't help it, I'm truly superstitious. In fact, I'm afraid to read any of these posts for fear that I will pick up yet another. I'm not the Friday the 13 th kind, nor the black cat kind, but certain things take on a lucky aura.....or, unlucky. And so I really don't want to test it since its worked so far.....2 years and counting.
Thanks Hazel! :D
Logic is my normal modus operandi. But I am a spiritual man and that moves my soul here and yon. However there is no question there are also things going on that we don't know. Bermuda Triangular Hocus Pocus Voodoo shamanism that remain A MYSTERY TO ME. So here's some Fleetwood Mac before they were the reinvented Fleetwood Mac...Hypnotized. Listen it seems like a dream zzzzzzzzzzz. http://youtu.be/8yA2i60AVIw
I think that whatever makes you feel better, be it supersitions, traditions or curtural ritual all helps mankind to find their homeostasis. I gotta ssy though the mystery of it all is what draws us in. I will only hit the send button once :) Hi Tommy Typical!
Well said, STONEY, as always.
Pigeon references in today's essay are new to me; I worry that PeterLake may be upset by them, kind and generous as is he to them. On the other hand, he's also knowledgeable about them, and will know right away if the comments are of superstitious
origin, or truth.
...who couldn't love "adventitous reinforcement"? Thanks for that swell one, Mr. P. as well as those too long to type, farther up.
I swear on a black cat AND a white one that I didn't steal "swell" from today's clever Pun Day page; IVAN and I decided months ago that we like "swell," and our use of it may return it to its former glory. It is, after all, a swell word, which well befits our many Village swells. Drawn to preserving historically-significant buildings, trees, thoughts, clothes, people, I could not but be drawn equally to words such as "swell," whether or no JP likes them too.
Here's a little Stevie Wonder?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5lVUaLeD14
"Swell"...used by Van Lohnson in WW II movies a lot.
My mother always said...."if it weren't for bad luck, he/she wouldn't have any luck at all." I've always thought that a swell sayingl...........
Ivan, where are you. Seems I can't send messages through the Eye cause you don't get them so I'm asking right here: Where you be? I miss my swell friend.
GEORGE: I've been saying, "Swell" since I'm a kid ... and have been surprised in the last thirty years how many people have asked me what that means ... Especially if I was referring to, "The Swells" rather than using it as an adjective .......
We are preparing for the Annual Juneteenth Blowout, tomorrow ... Big Day in The South , for w hile now ....... I have had a Bushel of Black Eyed Peas soaking in brine for two days, and we have cleaned and deveined a couple of Tow Sacks full of fresh Mustard and Turnip Greens, with about thirty pounds of Hocks in the Smoker gettin' ready to throw in the cauldron ... We've got two huindred pounds of Cornbread Dressing in the Ice Box waitin' to Bake off in the morning, Six Briskets in the Smoker and about two hundred pounds of fresh made Andouille Sausage ... We'll have a couple of washtubs full of fresh-made Limeade, and ten cases of Coldbeer iced down in the back of a Pick-Up Truck, covered with Road Salt ... Half a dozen Pans of Jalapeno Cornbread, and three or four pansfull without Jalapeno, to cover with Cold Buttermilk and make dessert ....... Some of the women will show up with other Cakes & Pies too, and the whole thing will kick off at Noon !!! And there will be Live Country Music, Live Zydeco, and Live Conjunto ... Something for everyone !!!
At somepoint in the evening, all the Pickers will get together and Jam, and we'll have Great sounds to Dance to and finish off the Coldbeer .......
OK~ storytime - randomly from my book of the day on the subject of superstitions ........
CHICKORY (Who would have thought it)
Chickory was believed to have the power of making its possessor invisible. It also shared with moonwort and springwort the perhaps more useful gift of opening locked doors or boxes if it was held against the locks. These charms, however, would only work if the plant was gathered at noon or at midnight on St James's Day (July 25th) It had to be cut with gold, and in perfect silence; if the gatherer spoke during the operation he would die, either at once or shortly afterwards...........
The text rambles on and on, but it is more interesting than black cats, walking under ladders and all the well known superstitions.
Yay! Ivan! Great to see you. Have a wonderful day.
Totally off topic but I am watching the Welsh News and very amused by a group of children raising money for their church by organising a teddy bear bunjee jumping competition from the top of the church tower. Poor teddies - hope it doesn't knock the stuffingout of them.
magicangel- Mahalo with shaking hand extended- As Wavy Gravy said we are all the same person trying to shake hands with our self.****Ivan- Me likes me cornbread in me buttermilk in that mason jar Ma Typical kept in her ice box. She always liked the predictive power of the Farmer's Almanac where folklore and gumption come together and I got my 2012 edition but combine with it with the horse sesnse of that old saying -Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a Rain dance.
Georgia ~
It is a considerable gift to have been brought up in family and cultural circumstances that consider duck and quail entrees as opposed to synonyms for cowering in fear before odd bits of happenstance called luck.
I would have chipped in earlier save for a Georgia peach induced coma. The truck came to the west side last week and we picked up a big box on our side of town today.
You might just as well stand over the sink, and I do, eating them. They are amazingingly delicious.
Often when the Beauty and I take a walk of an evening, a smallish black cat makes a beeline through a couple of back yards straight for me. I sit on the sidewalk for a word or two: "How you doin' buddy?"
When I get up, he sprints back home… the perfect expression of cattitude if you ask me.
Okay, I'm not standing behind either Hazel or ChefDeb in the kitchen… point made.
Y'all thought you could run for a day without your old buddy
Paolos?
Well your luck just ran out.
I’ve been here all along, just counting crows.
Seven to be exact.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ePfsdr94ow
Go ahead, give a listen, it will keep you youngish.
Hi Bert, hi Gwen, hi all! It is good to be back!
Seapansie, I am chinese. Yes, the number 4 sounds like death in Chinese. Amongst the Chinese, the Cantonese, from the province of GuangZhou, and the main dialect group of Hongkong, are the most superstitious. The number 8 sounds like good fortune so anything with lots of eights for cars, telephone numbers are bid for, and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The record so far I think is about US$2 m for the number 18 (everyday lucky/wealthy) paid in 2008. Check out the car park of Chinatown in your area...you are likely to see a large number of cars with combinations of eights. Even in little Hobart, Tasmania where I live, I was surprised to see that when I first moved here in 2002.
Not surprising, the Bank of China building in HK has 88 storeys
Incidentally 404 sounds like "sure to die"
MISS SPRING FRAGRANCE: Enough of that dyin' stuff !!!
You will find that the, 404ci PercolEight does NOT die, and starts on the first cranki, like a BIC Pen ... First Time Every Time ....... (a Bored and Stroked Chrysler 383ci V8, built by Speedwell Engine Co.)
Don't let 404 be a Buggaboo for you .......
TOMMY: You're Dead On with the Mason Jar, but I find I make fewer trips for Seconds if I mix it all up in a Serving Bowl .......
I prefer to think of my superstiious behaviors as traditions. I am certain that my behaviors are truly comic fodder for the dieties that rule the universe, even after laughing at my naivety at thinking my behaviors can have such impactful consequences on things so far out of my control.
.....but i suppose they do not cause negative consequences either. That's the good news.
Georgia, it is always such a treat when you are around
MISS RUSTY: Haven't a Clue why you cannot reach me across the Back Porch ... Many others do ... But you can contact me directly at the following Addresses:
jalopkin@engineer.com
speedwellengineco@post.com
speedwellgarage@mail.com
Always Glad to Hear From You .......
Tommy Typical, I agree we are all the same person trying to shake hands with ourselves.There is a lot to that saying. CIAO!Peter Lake, You DO have an imapct with your behavior even with things you THINK you have no control over. Cognative behavior allows us to set in motion that which we desire. Your responses and preception make your world what it is. You are not an island, you are in integral part of the whole.
Tommy Typical, I agree we are all the same person trying to shake hands with ourselves.There is a lot to that saying. CIAO!Peter Lake, You DO have an imapct with your behavior even with things you THINK you have no control over. Cognative behavior allows us to set in motion that which we desire. Your responses and preception make your world what it is. You are not an island, you are in integral part of the whole.
Is it me???? What's with this send button!!??Any suggestions?
Peter Lake ~
Home run derby.
Spring Fragrance, thanks for explaining historical accounts of Chinese numerical tabus/taboos..(numeral superstitions) Super cool.."brain...thinking" ...it is unnerving at times.....but ancestry belief is inherent....and truism..one should carry on family visions... embraced..lifes future..plans or visions from a ancestors past...Superstitions and life strong powers to forge ahead....are authentic, however, too, I believe that quantum physics is at play in ones daily life..I always felt that my plans and ideas are inherent.or intrinsic....and therefore, not of my doing...but my relatives..work..geeze....gee....wilikers....its late I have to be at 5:00 am to help with 50 wonderful horses start their day....I am admiring a beautiful Painted Pony.and exceptional ...spotted grey...all the horses show perkyness..and gentile....behavior...one horse is snorting constantly and I dare say will keep all the horses up tonite.....also,... I am happy to play 888 to the Pa daily number this week...I try....my luck!
Stoney, too bad the Sox didn't set off the scoreboard for the Cub!s four baggers. Nice to see their bats wake up but wish they could have banked a few of those for those one run games they trip over.
Magicangel, hiccup posting happens to all of us here. Thank you for you comments. Be well.
Thanks Peter!