Open Mike: Look What Happened to Them!

["Open Mike" is the anything-goes, often off-topic Editorial page of TOP. It comes around on Wednesdays except on selected occasions.]

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It's Friday the 13th, traditionally an unlucky day. Rational, logical people celebrate this occasion by ignoring it and going about their business—particularly because we know that irrationality, belief in superstitions, enthusiasm for conspiracy theories, fascination with the supernatural, fear of ghosts goblins witches and monsters under the bed, and a whole raft of related primitive ideas all tend to arise together in human thinking—that is, the more a person gives in to one primitive quasi-magical phantasmagorical belief, the more likely he or she is to believe in all the others. It does the enlightened mind no good to overindulge savage instincts.

I'm particularly contemptuous of conspiracy theories, which are typically just a means of making weak-minded people fear things for which there is no evidence. It's just not the way the world works—evil happens out in the open, if you know what to look for and how to recognize it when you see it. Just because a lot of the way the world works is hidden from some peoples' perceptions doesn't mean it's actually hiding. Intellectually, the conspiracy theory is about on the level of the idea that "celebrities" are one's friend-group. What's much more normal is that when conspirators try hard to keep cabals and collusions secret, they can't, because people can't get along. The bigger the supposed conspiracy, the more unlikely it is. Some canary or another will sing; count on it.

The trick is to know which song is the canary's.

The origin of the Friday the 13th superstition is believed to be related to the fact that Jesus was crucified on a Friday—although that Friday's called Good—and there were 13 people at the Last Supper, namely Jesus and his twelve disciples...ignoring the fact that there would logically have been 13 people at every other meeting of Christ and the disciples too.

It could also relate to a "day after" phenomenon. Pool players know that "the shot after" is statistically more likely to be missed—after you attempt and make a particularly difficult shot, you're more likely to let up on the next one and miss it. You're simultaneously relieved and proud, and yet under an odd sort of pressure because after having made a hero shot it would then be all the more embarrassing to miss an easier one. The number 12 is considered fortunate in many cultures for many reasons—twelve months, twelve signs of the Zodiac, twelve Greek gods, etc. In numerology, twelve is the number of balance and harmony. In Chinese superstition it's associated with yin-yang duality, on account of it contains one and two. And of course those twelve disciples again—maybe the consideration is that the 13th was Judas, the betrayer. So, is unlucky 13 the "one after" lucky 12, or a lucky twelve with an evil ringer thrown in...?

People can point to many unlucky things that have happened on Friday the 13ths. Of course, if you search hard enough, you can find unlucky things that have happened on any combination of day and date. For instance, Adolf Hitler got appointed Chancellor of Germany on a "Monday the 30th." That seems pretty unlucky.

Thirteen friends
But then there's this. According to History.com, four U.S. presidents—Teddy Roosevelt, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison—all at one time or another belonged to an organization called The Thirteen Club. Organized by Civil War veteran Capt. William Fowler, the owner of a popular gathering spot for political and social groups called Knickerbocker Cottage, the club consisted of thirteen prominent friends who would meet on the 13th of every month in Room 13 of the Knickerbocker Cottage. "Before sitting down for a 13-course dinner," History tells us, "members would pass beneath a ladder and a banner reading 'Morituri te Salutamus,' Latin for 'Those of us who are about to die salute you.'" This merry little group's purpose was to pooh-pooh the notion that the number 13 possessed any sinister sort of agency.

But just look at what happened to all the members of those variously constituted Thirteen Clubs! Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you the shocking fact (cue spooky music): they're all dead!

To a man. As Tweety Bird (and isn't he a canary?) would say, it's twue, it's twue. Gives you the goosebumps, don't it.

So beware black cats today, friend. I don't mean to frighten you, but if you don't you could wind up dead, a hundred years from now.

Mike

P.S. The writer, editor and chief bottle-washer of TOP takes Saturdays off these days, on account of his age and lack of zing. Check the past week for anything you might have missed, then come back on a Sunday the 15th, when he shall think up something else entertaining.

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

robert e: "Very amusing, Mike! And typically illuminating. I, for one, had to be led by the nose to see the obvious—-that conspiracy theories are superstitions, or at least fill the same needs and thrive in similar soil. Amusing, enlightening, and scarily apropos of the ongoing crisis in more than one democracy. Yet oddly calming, too, thanks I'm sure to the perspective of a dedicated humanist. Thank you for this. And have yourself a relaxing day off!"

Albert Smith (partial comment): "To quote Michael Scott from 'The Office,' 'I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little stitious.'"

Al DaValle: "I couldn't agree more Mike. The more ominous the conspiracy and the wider the suspected network of conspirators, the more certain is its falsehood."

Ramon Acosta: "The subject of superstitions is one I find interesting. I am living in my third country. I could barely manage the superstitions of two, but I absolutely can’t manage a third country. I currently live in Russia, and when I bring up this subject most russians are genuinely surprised. 'Vat zeperztitonz?' they say. Then I remind them of the few that I have had to learn because people get upset when you don’t. Superstitions are so entwined in their life, that they forget about them, they become rules, until someone breaks them. Then they remember. You should not greet someone at the door frame, in or out, preferably in of course. Don’t take out the trash at night. Don’t carry empty bags or containers. And some older people don’t like to receive money directly on their hands. When I first got here I thought it was so the security cameras could see the money in the supermarket. Like in the casinos. I learned the truth later."

Mike replies: I had a strange thing happen with my own mind. I read a book about Feng Shui, which is an ancient Chinese folk tradition of managing "chi," the life-force, in living spaces—I was interested in the ways some of the recommendations might be practical. And some of them are. For example, if you're single, get a double bed and put a night table on the far side—makes sense, because you're creating a space in your life for another person. Or, bedroom doors should not open in such a way that it allows the person entering to see the bed right away—again, sensible, because it increases privacy, potentially giving the people inside a short warning that someone is entering. But many of the recommendations are either inscrutable, or nonsense—mere superstitions like "don't carry empty bags or containers." But one of the recommendations is to never live in a house where the stairway points directly at the front door, because all your money will flow down the stairs out the front door and you'll become poor. Now, I can't say why, but for some unknown reason that one lodged in my brain and got stuck there. To this day—and I probably read that little book 30 years ago—I can't look at a houseplan (I like looking at houseplans) and see a staircase that begins directly opposite the front door without thinking "bad feng shui." It's almost as if my brain picked out a superstition to believe in all on its own.

(As an aside, a great book about arrangements of living spaces is A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander et al, a perennial best-seller.)

Alexander Thorp: "I agree with you in your despisal of conspiracy theories, but I think that superstitions are maybe a little more interesting than that. I have heard the following theory: being good at pattern-matching probably conferred an evolutionary advantage (e.g. at this time of year this species of duck usually flies up the river at dawn), and it might be that being a little too good at pattern matching was in fact better than being not quite good enough, even if that also brings spurious results such as 'If I wear my lucky hat, then I get off a better shot.'"

Mike adds: There's a scene in the John Wayne / Jimmy Stewart movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (very nice B&W, by the way) in which one of the rooming-house guests, Mr. Peabody, is trying to show the serving girl how the silverware should be placed. "Hallie, Hallie, please—the proprieties concerning the cutlery. Now how many times have I told you, the fork goes to the left of the plate, and the knife goes..." 

"What's the matter with you," she interrupts, "You superstitious or something?"

He has no answer, just stares at her dumbfounded.

Joakim Ahnfelt: "There is another theory, one which I personally find a bit more plausible. But your mileage may vary.

"Friday the 13th, October 1307. Philip IV of France strikes against the Templars, and in a well-planned attack arrests about 15,000 knights, priests, servants etc. all over France in one day. Probably in an attempt to seize their fabled treasures as well as getting rid of a potential enemy.

"Close but no cigar, as Hollywood likes to remind us from time to time: the treasure was never found."

Comments

[Carsten Bockermann]

Hi Mike, it seems you keep spelling the former German dictator's name as "Adolph Hitler". In fact it was "Adolf Hitler".

[Dillan K]

I enjoyed that.

[Daniel]

13 is definitely unlucky. Just as eating Carrots is unlucky.
Do you realize that everyone worldwide who ate Carrots in 1813 is now dead? Yep, every one of them.

Lots of crazy beliefs around...

[Albert Smith]

I lived all over Asia for many years and found that their cultural "unlucky" number was 4. They used a clever workaround to avoid the danger by simply skipping it in many sequential situations.

Check into a hotel and go to the 5th floor which comes directly after the 3rd floor in the elevator.

To quote Michael Scott from "The Office", "I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little stitious."

[JoeB]

MJ,
As a long time lover of cats I can assure your readers that black cats are as loving as any other. Don't give black cats a reputation they certainly don't deserve!
Jb

[Richard Nugent]

MIKE! Eight lines and 84 words!! That second sentence in the first paragraph must set an all-time new TOP record!! You must have been completely out of breath by the time you finished typing it. I couldn't even hold my breath long enough to finish reading it... Well done.

[MikeR]

On a basketball team in the USAF back in the early sixties, I deliberately picked 13 for my jersey number.

I loved the comment on conspiracy that John Bolton made this morning in an NPR interview, about a "conspiracy ... so vast and so successful, that apparently there’s no evidence of it,”

[Q]

So how do you account for the fact that I lost my job - the same job, in fact - on Friday the 13th, twice?

[Now that really is bad luck. --Mike]

[Moose]

"Pool players know that "the shot after" is statistically more likely to be missed—after you attempt and make a particularly difficult shot, you're more likely to let up on the next one and miss it."

Citation please.

If you have none, read about the Basketball Hot Hand Fallacy, here or search for it yourself.

I suspect you will find that your "day after" phenomenon is a similar fallacy.

[Hi Moose,
The DAY-after idea was mere speculation, analogizing from the shot-after idea. Citation for the shot-after:

https://youtu.be/2SCrnKxi79E?t=543

If you're looking for something more rigorous, I'm afraid it won't exist. Because not only is there no way to accurately qualify a "hard shot," but different shots create different levels of stress for different players. Some players have good control of their minds, some less so. Obviously all have different skill levels. Who's to say, for instance, whether a tournament setting, or a betting situation, or making a public video creates more stress for a player, for example? So a "seat of the pants" conclusion from experience (and Ralph has a whole lot of experience) is about the best it would get on this.

...Of course that's speculation on my part as well.... :-) Mike]

[Rudy L Mack]

Not a Dan Brown fan?

[Rob L.]

As a leader in Pack 13, Troop 13G(Girls), and Troop 13b(boys), I gotta say we enjoy giving other units Triskaidekaphobia when they encounter us at scored events:) We've been around since 1921, I guess the bad luck is after the first century?:)

[hugh crawford]

Mike, there were at least 14 attendees at the last supper. You are forgetting that apostle who had to leave early.
As for the date it wasn’t on Friday but probably Tuesday or Wednesday the first or second of April in the year 33. Or not, depending on whether you believe astronomy.

[hugh crawford]

@ Albert Smith
About that number four thing:
I was in a booth at NAB in Las Vegas demoing a hardware add-on for the video toaster and software I had written to play switcher macros. The demo was that you press button four on the panel, the live video of the person you are doing the demo for starts spinning around, shrinks into a ball then unfolds as a video from another camera.
Needless to say this did not go over well with the Japanese, and I spent all night re-writing the demo.

[KeithB]

I did not even remark it until you mentioned it. Of course, this has been a pretty unlucky year anyway, what more can a Friday the Thirteenth do to us?

[John Krill]

Knickerbocker is 13 letters.

So "watch out for that tree!" From George of the Jungle. I loved that show. I also see no reason to include it in this comment.

[Yonatan Katznelson]

The logic of avoiding a 13th (or 4th) floor by renaming them makes me a little crazy. Should we rename Friday the 13th Friday the 12.5 or Friday the 13.6?

Time to go say `Bloody Mary' at the mirror now...

[Stephen S. Mack]

Mike, if a black cat crosses your path, it means the animal is going someplace.

With best regards, Stephen

[Rev. Jim]

"...I submit to you the shocking fact (cue spooky music): they're all dead!..."

That's what they want you to believe...

[Jeff Markus]

Mike,

I never knew that Tweety Bird had said "It's twue, it's twue". I first heard it from the famous movie heroine Lili von Shtup.

[hugh crawford]

My uncle had a thing for avoiding the number 11. He was crossing the street in Berkeley California on November 11, got hit by a car and broke his leg. The next year he was crossing the street in Berkeley California on November 11, got hit by a car and broke his other leg. From then on he made a point of avoiding the city of Berkeley on November 11. He admitted that the sample size wasn’t very big but he saw no reason to try and demonstrate that it was a random coincidence.

[Russell Guzewicz]

Laughing here. Just back from the ER after an incredibly tough day. I'm glad you're here.

[Ken Owen]

Triskaidekaphobia, would you believe. As one does, I stumbled across a fascinating entry in the Wikipedia about the composer Arnold Schoenberg's terror of 13. He was 76 (7 + 6 = 13) when he died on a Friday 13. Self-fulfilling prophecies, eh?

[HVJ]

Hitch called conspiracy theories "the exhaust fumes of democracy." 8^)

[Patrick D Perez]

Jesus et al go to the restaurant for the last supper.

JC ask's the maitre'd for a table for 26.

The M'd replies "but there's only 13 of you"

JC: Yes, but we're all going to sit on the same side.

Patrick

[mikegj]

No mention or musing on a "baker's dozen?"

A bonus 13th item always seemed lucky to me!

[JH]

Interesting. Superstitions are something that people find easy to believe, like conspiracy theories and religion. There seems to be a human gene that in some part of the population enhances belief in the unlikely while leading them to simultaneously dismiss scientific proof.
I am not sure it's "weak-minded people" though. I've known some very intelligent people who act very superstitious. When questioned about this behavior, the reaction is usually "can't hurt!"
My theory on human behavior is based on the assumption that most human traits can be described by a Gaussian distribution, the "bell-shaped curve." We all know it from measures of intelligence, but that same curve seems to describe many other human traits: empathy, greed, hate, power/authority, religious belief, etc. In fact, I think the whole bit is three-dimensional or multidimensional, e.g. empathy/hate or greed/power.
But that's probably what you get from taking philosophy and psychology courses while getting a degree in physical science.

[Richard Conolly]

There is also a theory that the superstition surrounding Friday 13th comes from the dissolution of the order of the Knights Templar. From Wikipedia “At dawn on Friday, 13 October 1307 (a date sometimes linked with the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition)[37][38] King Philip IV ordered de Molay and scores of other French Templars to be simultaneously arrested.”.

[Edward Taylor]

My new unlucky number is 2020.

[Jim Arthur]

I’ve also had a really tough day but I’m sitting here laughing at Patrick’s comment. Thanks everyone. TOP is a great way to end the day.

[Dave Stewart]

Thanks for the reminder. I must go back and capture the scene with a fish-eye lens. Assuming the place is still there, this scene:
https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2444602461701276202

[Richard Parkin]

I think that thing with the bed position is common Western interior design practice though I think it’s expressed as “not being able to see the face of the bed occupant from the doorway”. I suspect it’s just describing the usual situation since beds are not usually placed under windows and the doors are commonly in a non-windowed interior wall. So we are back to practicality rather than superstition, like not walking under ladders.

[John Ironside]

I suspect that superstitions may arise from a feature of human nature that make us prone to gambling.
The hypothesis I favour is that for early humans there was a big advantage to be had from recognising patterns, whether in the behaviour of prey or dangerous animals, or the growth of plant food resources. So our brains evolved to be very good at it. But there was little evolutionary pressure on us to avoid seeing patterns where there was just randomness. So we're remarkably vulnerable to seeing patterns when there is no pattern.

[Ian Hunter]

I'm reminded of Nils Borh and the horseshoe!

[Paul McEvoy]

My mother, a bad packrat just shy of a hoarder, used to collect books on feng shui. The irony was burning.