Back in England now, nursing my sunburn.

It rained on Sunday 15 July (St Swithun’s day) so it will rain for 40 days now!

or will it

So everybody watch out!

While going through the pre-surgical testing reports on the 12th (for surgeries scheduled for the following day), I noticed that the pile was exceeding small. Exactly one surgery was scheduled on a day we would typically expect 15-20.

I imagine even among those that would normally scoff at superstition, they might think, “Well, I don’t HAVE to do this on Friday the 13th, so let’s just be extra safe… you know… just in case.”

OEJ

It might well be that the Berlin researcher was refering to its first appearence in Germany or in German. We often take over things from America with a time lapse. Mothering Sunday (Mothers Day) was introduced into Germany from America many years after the Americans first created it. In the last ten yeras or so we have, to my horror, taken over the American Halloween with its trick or treating and people are already trying to sell it as an old traditions!

I figured it couldn’t be unlucky for both teams. Turned out it was unlucky for Birkbeck.
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Back to 13

What about Apollo 13?

I heard that after that incident, NASA never had the number 13 in any other mission.

The surviving Templars, of course, went on to become the Illuminati, and secretly rule the world for their own nefarious ends – bwahahahaha.

I’d almost wish that bad things would happen to superstitious freaks who refuse to leave their homes on Friday the 13th for fear that something bad might happen, but then that would only prove their delusions right in their own minds.

Then, the next time I flew by plane a number of years later, I happened to be assigned a seat in row 14. After row 11, I stopped looking up at the labels and visually counted the last three. I almost asked someone to get out of my seat, but double-checked the labels and saw that the airline had skipped 13. Aargh!

Well, it is a relatively modern myth, but not as modern as you mention.

Snopes has a pretty good write up at:

http://www.snopes.com/luck/friday13.asp

Here’s the money quote (near the bottom):

Books of English folklore generally cite a 1913 Notes & Queries reference as the earliest known expression of Friday the 13th as a day of evil luck, and this corresponds to what we found when we searched The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times for similar references. In both newspapers the first mentions of the ill-fated date occured in 1908. It’s interesting to note that this very early reference to Friday the 13th already describes it as being an “ancient superstition.”

…

Friday the 13th is AWESOME!

Anybody familiar with THAT aspect of the myth?

GAry 7

Thony C. claimed that the __Friday the 13th__ myth was started in 1950, not that the superstition of unlucky 13 was started in 1950.

1. I am a fan of formula 1 motor racing
2. All F1 cars carry a number (like football jerseys). Each car keeps the same number for a year. (these days based on where they finished in the previous years results).
3. No F1 car carries the number 13 – for luck!
4. The F1 world championship started in 1950.
5. The first race that year was 13th May in Britain
6. 23 Cars were registered for the race, numbering 1-24 missing out 13. (evidence for this can be found here: http://forix.autosport.com/gp.php?l=0&r=19500001&c=1 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_British_Grand_Prix)

So, by at least May 1950 13 was not used on the cars. I suppose the superstition could have sprung up in the first 5 months of the year, but that’s unlikely.