Jeff and Rod Were so Right, Touch Wood

I originally wandered around in this space in the ether about all things (not really but it made for a grand statement) Friday the 13thish a number of years ago. Funnily enough a mirror balanced on a ladder fell and landed on a black cat but nothing adverse happened to me so I figured I'd revisit that earlier meander and hope to heck that history repeats itself. What's the worst that can happen? Really? Well, I stand corrected then.  

It's interesting that there are so many more concerns about Friday the 13th in a nation of fifty states, founded from thirteen original colonies than just about anywhere else on earth 

From the notion of seven years of bad luck if you break a mirror while crossing the path of a black cat and not throwing salt over your right shoulder, to dozens of local and regional variants, we all know people who, today, are as quiet and immobile as they can, 'just in case...'

And before you or I tsk-tsk those concerns. Have you ever actually tsk-tsked anyone or anything? Me neither. It requires a permit in some jurisdictions, and can only be accomplished in the presence of consenting adults. As I recall, your mileage may vary. 

Here's a puzzler, filed under 'Things from England' (with apologies to the late Scott Muni), that suggests if you worry enough about anything, you can, and will, get sick. Like that old saw about how paranoids are convinced people are out to get them and when, because they alter their behavior, people are indeed out to get them, does this mean they are cured?

I, like so many others, tend to visit the snopes.com website for all the latest in debunking junk I see on TV, mostly on Faux Gnus. That's where I can check out topics ranging from 'the public option will grow hair on your knuckles' to 'Amelia Earhart is Barack Obama's Secret Santa' and just about any combination of either of those we could think of. But Friday the 13th is a slippery slope even for snopes. 

So after I've suggested you not step on a crack, or do anything else with it, or have any interaction with a ladder of any kind for any reason, I'd offer, in a half-full glass kind of world, perhaps we're all better off if we consider today as the second coming of Thursday the 12th, only supersized.
-bill kenny