Question of the Day | 03/12/2009 11:00 pm

It's Friday the 13th. Does this date spook you?

Candice Bergen | 03/12/2009 11:00 pm

Nothing Scares Candice Bergen – Except Meat

No. There are so many other things that might, but Friday the 13th is not one of them. This is in part because one of my smartest friends, Carol, told me it’s lunacy spun from some ancient ceremony involving the Knights of the Templar (that I can’t, of course, remember), and she brushed it aside without a look. And it seems to me, with no finger on any pulse, that people are not familiar with these old superstitions today.

They are a relic of another era. I don’t think anyone under 40 knows about sidewalks with cracks, 13 of anything, salt over your shoulder. They are almost like cheap literary contrivances. Something I do have oddly strong feelings about, bordering on the superstitious, is eating any kind of four-legged animal. Also some two-legged, like duck. I will never eat duck. And I haven’t eaten pork or beef (especially veal) for 35 years. This started because I suddenly started to find people carving into these bloody haunches of meat so disturbing. And after walking through the former huge market square in Paris, with hundreds of carcasses hanging side by side, it just repulsed me and I decided to keep my own half-assed vegetarianism. I don’t mention it at dinners. I just eat around the meat. I’m not a pain in the ass, but I cannot eat meat now — even some that looks and smells delicious, like barbecued ribs or prosciutto — without feeling like I am betraying animals.

So it is almost a superstition. I guess it’s more a personal idiosyncrasy. A principle I won’t break. Oh, one real and old-fashioned superstition I have really kept that is almost like warding off the Evil Eye is knocking wood. But I do that to never take anything good for granted and not to jinx anything by voicing it.

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Jane Wagner | 03/12/2009 11:00 pm

Jane Wagner: Fear of Friday the 13th?

Now that you mention it, I suppose it will. I’m very suggestible, but, luckily, I often don’t keep track of what day it is. Thanks for reminding me.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s famous line — "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" — never seemed as consoling to me as it was meant to be. Having fear to fear, when you think about it, is very, very spooky. I don’t think of myself as being superstitious, and yet, if I should break a mirror, I feel a bit queasy in the pit of my stomach … despite myself. And, for a few minutes, I can be haunted by the fact that I have affronted fate in some shadowy way. But, if I truly had a rational mind, should the idea of fate, tempting it or affronting it, even come up?

4 Comments

Joan Ganz Cooney | 03/12/2009 11:00 pm

Joan Ganz Cooney's Flying Ritual

Not enough to keep me from flying down to Florida. I’m not superstitious although I still cross myself upon takeoff, Friday the 13th or not.

1 Comment

Lily Tomlin | 03/12/2009 11:00 pm

Lily Tomlin's Numbers Obsession

I like to think I’m not superstitious; yet, I almost always reflexively toss spilled salt over my shoulder. I snatch hats off the bed. I used to be obsessive about the numbers 11 or 22. Years ago, I wouldn’t book a flight if the numbers added up to 11 or 22 or 33. I know, I know; if a flight should add up to these numbers, they ultimately add up to single digits: 2, 4 and 6. But that wasn’t my method of computation. I’ve even jumped up and pushed my way past the flight attendant and out the door of the plane because some series of numbers somewhere in the cabin or on the plane’s exterior added up to 11 or its multiple. Then, of course, I had to face all the friends and family who used to be allowed to the gate to see people off. "What’s wrong, Lily?" "Is something wrong with the plane?" Ay yi yi!

Anyway, adding up to a single digit as your final computation doesn’t wash for me. If the penultimate total before going to a single digit adds up to some form of 11, that’s where I stop: For instance, 9/11 adds up to 11 — 9 plus 1 plus 1 equals 11 — before it adds up to 1 plus 1 equals 2. If you’re obsessive, you make up your own reasons and rules. Imagine my reaction when 9/11 DID happen. Friday the 13th isn’t the spooky one here; it is I who am the spooky one. (Note: the nominative use of the pronoun ‘I’ for pleasure of the grammarians.)

I did pretty much get over this obsession with the number 11, even though one friend used to call me "Missus Elebens" and the name still pops up now and then. Years later, when I had to obtain a copy of my birth certificate, the copy was numbered 1122. Does anyone know if that would be the original number or not?

Let me add just for the record: Did anyone else learn the use of the nominative case of "I" by reciting the children’s ditty, "Barnacle Bill the Sailor"? Ditty to come.

33 Comments

Liz Smith | 03/13/2009 9:45 am

Liz Smith's Superstitions

I try not to be superstitious but a few things like a hat on a bed or walking under a ladder or throwing spilled salt over the shoulder I can’t resist. They are fun.

But sheer fear of the unknown is something I try to guard against. I was told as a child that Friday the 13th was unlucky because it was the day of the crucifixion of Jesus. (Oh, that good old, bad old, old-time religion!)

So, no. There are too many things to be truly worried about without my worrying about the date on a calendar devised by men.

7 Comments

Read more about: Entertainment, Friday the 13th, Superstition

73 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

I find myself to be extra careful at work each Friday the 13th; you need to be when driving in this town - some jerks treat the streets as their own personal racing strip. I really don’t like Friday the 13th and I haven’t got the slightest idea why…

On superstition: what’s this with a hat on a bed? Never heard of it. Here, a lot of people panic if (or when) they see keys on a table. That’s a big "no-no", as is new shoes on a table. We too have "no walking under ladders", "knock-on-wood when seing a black cat" and "no walking on the cracks in/on the sidewalks". Another strange thing, at Christmas: if you’ve left the people you’ve visited, and have to go back to get something, the hostess often insists you eat something. It doesn’t have to be more than a tiny cookie, you just have to eat something. Why? Otherwise you’ll bring Christmas with you. Yep, I know it sound very strang, but most superstitions are!

By Christina on 03/13/2009 3:14 pm

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Not at all! Today is my daughter’s birthday (she is 19) and it is one of my favorite dates. In our family we have someone celebrating a birthday on 1/13, 2/13 and 3/13.

By J Holmes on 03/13/2009 3:52 pm

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My wedding was on Friday the 13th. Both are considered extremely unlucky for brides. So I am not superstitous. We even used to have a black cat. My husband tried to convince me to hold out to deliver our son last month on the 13th but our son had other ideas.

By Laura Kemp on 03/13/2009 5:19 pm

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It used to but not anymore.

By Joan Brown on 03/13/2009 6:10 pm

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As to the significance of Thirteen, all are aware that it has come down to us as a number of ill-omen. Many superstitions cluster around it, and various explanations are current concerning them.

Unfortunately, those who go backwards to find a reason seldom go back far enough. The popular explanations do not, so far as we are aware, go further back than the Apostles. But we must go back to the first occurance of the number Thirteen in order to discover the key to it’s significance. It occurs first in Gen. xiv.4, where we read "Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and the Thirteenth year they REBELLED."

Hence every occurance of the number Thirteen and likewise of every multiple of it, stamps that with which it stands in connection with rebellion, apostasy, defection, corruption, disintegration, revolution, or some kindred idea.

From "Number In Scripture.

By HA BIBI on 03/13/2009 9:04 pm

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Friday the 13th, to me, is my lucky day! I have always ‘chosen’ the number 13 for my uniform number, when I played high school basketball, softball, and track.

My first and only grandchild, Tayvin Lee, was born on the 13th of November. Inevitably, she will celebrate one or more b-days on Friday, the 13th!

I am not superstitious, per se, just a bit psychic, I think.

Enjoy each and every day, as if it were your last!

By Cynthia Robinson on 03/13/2009 10:56 pm

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Cynthia….

What a beautiful name your grandchild has!!! R5

By Reign 5 on 03/14/2009 9:56 am

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Thank, but when I first heard the choice my son and his wife made for the girl’s name, I didn’t like it….not feminine enough. I have gotten use to it though, and she is also beautiful!

By Cynthia Robinson on 03/14/2009 3:13 pm

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Cynthia again:

I’m not sure if this is the correct comment section to share my son’s suspicious death story, but I have to give it a try…….

Please support my fight for justice: www.americaiswatching.org (Joshua Robinson) Attached documents.

Petition/Comment section also attached.

Thank you.

By Cynthia Robinson on 03/13/2009 10:58 pm

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No way! Thirteen is one of my favorite numbers. Now March 17th scares me to death! Not only was it my ex-husband’s birthday but, a few years back I got totalled in my new car of 2 weeks five blocks from my house. YUCK! CA

By C A Rose on 03/14/2009 1:12 am

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THE ONLY THING THAT SPOOKS ME IS THE NEWS, WASHINGTON, AND POLITICIANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PEGGY D

By peggy delprete on 03/14/2009 2:00 pm

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Why the fuss about Friday the 13th? I mean, it’s FRIDAY - how bad can it be? Now a superstition about Monday the 13th would make a lot more sense.

By B Clark on 03/14/2009 6:13 pm

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I look forward to Friday the 13th. Thirteen has been a good number for my husband and I. We got engaged on November 26th (13 x 2), there are thirteen tiny diamonds set in a heart that surrounds the center stone in my engagement ring, several good things have happened on the 31st of some months (13 reversed), etc. This year is great. There are three Friday the 13ths.

By Mary Jo Lewellen on 03/16/2009 10:23 am