Friday (the 13th) Fun Link

Matt Welch | January 13, 2006

Why we feel unlucky.

Comments

|1.13.06 @ 1:39PM|#

As someone who turned 13 on Friday the 13th, I actually like the number 13. Also, I thought that Tuesday was named after another Norse god, Tiu.

|1.13.06 @ 1:51PM|#

The HMS Friday bit is amusing, because the only references I could find with a few lazy Googles were on superstition-monger sites.

|1.13.06 @ 2:00PM|#

That Loki guy sounds suspiciously like a certain flame warrior I know.

|1.13.06 @ 2:35PM|#

In parts of South America it's Tuesday the 13th that is considered bad luck, not Friday.

In fact, the Friday the 13th horror movies are renamed Martes 13 in Spanish markets.

|1.13.06 @ 2:58PM|#

I've heard that Stephen King is afraid of the number thirteen and won't stop writing on any page that is a multiple of that number.

Rich Ard|1.13.06 @ 3:10PM|#

ha!

|1.13.06 @ 3:20PM|#

Friday the 13th is proof that Robinson Crusoe was a cannibal.

|1.13.06 @ 3:42PM|#

Tuesday was named for the Screen Goddess Weld.

The Wine Commonsewer|1.13.06 @ 4:17PM|#

Tuesday was actually named by the Belch. If this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium

Okay, maybe it was the other way around.

What? the Belch is that you call the people of Belgium just as the French is what you call the people of France.

The Wine Commonsewer|1.13.06 @ 4:19PM|#

Nostar, although I see your point, I think you're dating yourself.

|1.13.06 @ 4:51PM|#

Wine Commonsewer,
Since my second wife divorced me and no one else will have me, dating myself seems to be my only option.

But, I am 51 and proud of it.

|1.13.06 @ 4:55PM|#

"In parts of South America it's Tuesday the 13th that is considered bad luck, not Friday.

"In fact, the Friday the 13th horror movies are renamed Martes 13 in Spanish markets."

Tuesday the 13th (and Tuesday in general) is considered unlucky in Greece, too.

|1.13.06 @ 5:02PM|#

What? _the Belch_ is that you call the people of Belgium just as _the French_ is what you call the people of France.

And similar, can't you call people from Scotland the Scotch?

My dad's side of the family came from Deutschland, land of the Deutsch.

My mother's side of the family came mostly from Bohemia and Croatia, so I guess my other half is Botch and Crotch.

|1.13.06 @ 5:07PM|#

If we standardized all of these, we'd get to call Englanders The Britch!

|1.13.06 @ 5:13PM|#

If we standardized all of these, we'd get to call Englanders The Britch!

Well, when I lived in 'strylya I learned to call them "flamin' pommie bastards", only it sounded more like "flymin pommie bahstuhds".

|1.13.06 @ 5:18PM|#

My parents once owned a house in Australia with the number 13 on a street. When they tried to sell some people were definitely put off by the address.

I once worked on the 13th floor of an office building in downtown Toronto. My boss and the other tenants on the floor were rather attached to it. I don't recall ever seeing another building with a 13th floor.

The Wine Commonsewer|1.13.06 @ 6:30PM|#

Stevo, no, the people from Deustchland are the Dutch. The Pennslyvania Dutch....

Nostar, thanks for the LOL re: dating yourself.

Bonar, didn't know that...

Isaac, I've seen a few buildings with 13th floors but not many.

All: When I was skinny high school kid the number13 was connected to smoking pot and was a direct reference. Gangbangers got tattoos of the number 13 with pot leaves around it and the more moderate pot heads drew pictures of the number 13 on their Pee Chee folders.

|1.14.06 @ 12:19AM|#

It always irritates me a little riding in an elevator as you pass from 12 to 14. Calling the 13th floor the fourteenth floor does not make it so. Are superstitious people so foolish as to believe otherwise?

Er, nevermind.

|1.14.06 @ 12:31PM|#

Wow. Christians believe that the only reason bad things happened to Jesus was because he made the mistake of eating dinner at a table of 13 the night before a Friday? I hope not. If there is such a thing as an unlucky number in Judeo-Christian belief, it is 6 (or perhaps 3.5).

A serious investigation of why 13 is considered unlucky might be interesting, but a worthless piece of fluff such as this is just irritating. If all it takes for a number to be unlucky is for some obscure incident in a mythology to refer to it, or for something bad to have happened on that date, then every number would be unlucky.

|1.14.06 @ 1:08PM|#

I vaguely recall someone suggesting that prime numbers that seem to behave haphazardly in base-10 multiplication are considered to have mystical properties. For instance, it's easy to tell whether a number is a multiple of 2, 3, 5, or 11, but the rules for determining whether a number is a multiple of 7 or 13 are more complex. And 7 is considered a lucky number in many cultures.

|1.14.06 @ 1:16PM|#

Kris,

I sympathize. I think it has more to do with people not wanting to put "Floor 13" on their business cards and such.

Then again, it could also be a ploy to hide something on a secret floor between the 12th and 14th floors, as in Douglas Adams' Mostly Harmless.

|1.14.06 @ 2:27PM|#

It always irritates me a little riding in an elevator as you pass from 12 to 14. Calling the 13th floor the fourteenth floor does not make it so. Are superstitious people so foolish as to believe otherwise?

Actually, many highrises put the mechanical equipment on the 13th floor. Sometimes you can see it on the outside of the building because of the difference in exterior treatment. There is an elevator stop there but only authorized people have a key to activate it.

|1.14.06 @ 4:02PM|#

Here is wisdom: There is indeed a lucky number, another prime, but it is not 7. It is an antidote to 13, conjured from the Anti-Christ. Note the mark of the beast, 666. Sum the digits; 18 subtract 13. The number 5 will guard thee against malevolent fortune!

I just made that nonsense up.

|1.15.06 @ 3:02AM|#

I've never been in a building with 13 or more floors that did the "12-14" numbering.

|1.16.06 @ 3:25PM|#

In college I lived in a house with address 13113. The standing-only shower on the second floor would overflow into the kitchen on the floor below, wetting all of the electrical wiring in the kitchen. There was also a vicious pitbull that lived next door. And the landlord was Greek. Scary, indeed.

Actually, many highrises put the mechanical equipment on the 13th floor.Sometimes you can see it on the outside of the building because of the difference in exterior treatment. There is an elevator stop there but only authorized people have a key to activate it.


That's just an urban myth. Everyone knows that in every building with a private thirteenth floor there is a demented, superhuman chainsaw killer.

|1.16.06 @ 3:40PM|#

That's just an urban myth. Everyone knows that in every building with a private thirteenth floor there is a demented, superhuman chainsaw killer.

Thanks for straightening me out, smacky. :o