Superstition and tempting fate : Tue Jan 17, 2012 4:23 pm  

I'm not superstitious - as such. But I do reckon there is something about the number 13 (which, if I have one, is my lucky number )

It being Friday the 13th, for example, doesn't mean everyone is doomed on that day. But maybe, just maybe, it is a date on which you don't want to be tempting fate, for example by sailing your cruise ship insanely close to a rocky island.

Perhaps if Captain Francesco Schettino (which, weirdly enough, is an anagram of "Catastrophic insane confect") had been superstitious he'd have kept straight down the middle that day.

There really is something about number 13. For example, if you put it on your Lotto ticket, that doesn't mean you can't win. On the contrary, it comes out lots of times. Like all the numbers. And yet - the lottery began in 1994. Guess which number has come out of the machines less than any other number? 18 years is a pretty good sample and the least successful number is ... 13.

Re: Superstition and tempting fate : Tue Jan 17, 2012 4:27 pm  

So basically, 13 is not unlucky at all.
Sh1tt happens ... but when it happens on the 13th, oh wow, it was Friday 13th.

Re: Superstition and tempting fate : Tue Jan 17, 2012 4:32 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

I'm not superstitious - as such. But I do reckon there is something about the number 13 (which, if I have one, is my lucky number )

It being Friday the 13th, for example, doesn't mean everyone is doomed on that day. But maybe, just maybe, it is a date on which you don't want to be tempting fate, for example by sailing your cruise ship insanely close to a rocky island.

Perhaps if Captain Francesco Schettino (which, weirdly enough, is an anagram of "Catastrophic insane confect") had been superstitious he'd have kept straight down the middle that day.

There really is something about number 13. For example, if you put it on your Lotto ticket, that doesn't mean you can't win. On the contrary, it comes out lots of times. Like all the numbers. And yet - the lottery began in 1994. Guess which number has come out of the machines less than any other number? 18 years is a pretty good sample and the least successful number is ... 13.

Have you been smoking crack this afternoon?

Re: Superstition and tempting fate : Tue Jan 17, 2012 5:08 pm  

If the Captain hadn't tempted fate that day, he'd not have crashed.

13 IS the de facto least drawn ball in the Lotto.

Some would add "FACT" but there is no need. What to make of it all is the question.

Re: Superstition and tempting fate : Tue Jan 17, 2012 6:26 pm  

I am feeling very tired all of a sudden.

Re: Superstition and tempting fate : Tue Jan 17, 2012 6:28 pm  

When I was about 8 I had this thought that if I ran under a ladder instead of walking under one it wouldn't be bad luck a kind of loophole so to speak. So I ran under and tripped over a step that was just the other side and fell flat on my face. I've never walked or ran under a ladder since.

Re: Superstition and tempting fate : Tue Jan 17, 2012 10:05 pm  

Fate???

A few years ago when we transferred our mortgage, the bank sent us a letter saying they didn't need all the documents on the history of our house would we like them.

Upon receipt of the history.

We found the builder received approval for planning on my first birthday.

The house was complete and first put up for sale on my Wife's first birthday.

The first people moved in on the 15th of April, twenty four years later we got married on this date.

Re: Superstition and tempting fate : Tue Jan 17, 2012 10:14 pm  

There is a reason why many hotels and other high rise buildings don't have a 13th floor, why many planes don't have a 13th row, etc. Many otherwise seemingly rational people take the view not that 13 would be especially unlucky, but they don't want to tempt fate.

It's not compulsory, though. Some are happy to tempt fate. Such as NASA, with Apollo 13

Re: Superstition and tempting fate : Wed Jan 18, 2012 8:08 am  

Rock God X wrote:

Have you been smoking crack this afternoon?

This is someone who thinks the guinea pigs are out to get him ...

Re: Superstition and tempting fate : Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:45 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

I'm not superstitious - as such.

Neither am I, but so far this week I've investigated three separate incidents from Friday that to me ought to have been impossible.