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Married to Night Train
- Location
- Salford, UK
I like inventing new superstitions...
today's one is:
Never look at bricks on a Wednesday.
Bugger, we dismantled a chimney today.
I like inventing new superstitions...
today's one is:
Never look at bricks on a Wednesday.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yawn Culture.Covering you mouth when yawning isn't superstition. It is manners. The stink of yawny-breath is awful, so keeping it away from other people is just being polite.
Mike
I had an Aunt who wouldn't allow a wooden elephant with the tusk hanging down anywhere near her house.
Was it hard work? I ask because I have an old chimney that needs removing and I've been wondering whether it's the kind of thing you could handle yourself with a cold chisel and a big hammer, or whether it's really hard work/takes a degree of expertise.Bugger, we dismantled a chimney today.
just thinking - seems always been a ''7'' for me somewhere.........
Interesting answer.Interesting question. How people reply will perhaps depend on how they look at the thing they do or believe.
I would say that touching wood, lucky numbers, horoscopes, ghosts and after life can all be lumped in with more nonsense like Christianity and basically all religion. It is all made up beliefs with no foundation with the threat/carrot of upsetting or being on the good side of some imaginary power.
So someone may tick "no" who does not believe horoscopes but does believe in God.
The only thing that gets (wrongly) classed as superstition is walking under a ladder. Surely that is a basic safety thing.
just thinking - seems always been a ''7'' for me somewhere...
raised at #27
left school at 17
apartment in Vancouver was #702
married on 17th
our house was #735
my Jaguar was NAF 127
wife's MG-TC was NTJ 127
our MGB-GT was NEA 472
[ all random - not selected]
divorced in 1970s
bought a townhouse #6371
back to UK, lived at #7 Drummonds
parents left me #7 in Talybont, wales
moved north to #7 Hall Close
taxi plate was 1097
taxi badge was 357
retired in my 70s
... maybe should buy a lotto ticket tomorrow the 27th..?..........................
Amazing! More than 10% of numbers have a 7 in them (more digits = more chance).....
Interesting answer.
I was tempted to reply that superstition is different from religion in that the former is a weaker belief, i.e. the "believer" doesn't really believe in the superstition, but plays along with it anyway.
But I'm pretty sure there is no such distinction in reality. Religion is just organised superstition, and many/most "believers" of religion have a belief which is actually quite weak and vague.
As other examples of superstition which are also safety or common sense based;
Breaking mirrors
Opening umbrellas indoors
Although of course in reality these are just things best avoided, rather than things likely to bring bad luck.
I remember once a friend, who is a horse whisperer (which I always found quite mystical), did what turned out in the end to be a parlour trick which was pretty impressive and because I was drunk, I couldn't figure it out. At that point in my life, I was going out with a girl who was into all sorts of crystals and nonsense. For a few months, I tried to be more open minded about
these things, thinking that maybe this horse whispering friend might have some ability or gift, even though in the back of my mind I knew it wasn't true.
When eventually I discovered that it was just a parlour trick, I was a little embarrassed, and ever since then the scientific cynic in me has been in charge, thankfully.
Although his horse whispering abilities are well respected (he's actually a horse behavioural specialist), his paranormal powers were just horses***.
I could not work it out past one digit but knew it went up with each digit added.19% of all 1 and 2 digit numbers, for example.
Well, 7, 17, 27, 37 and so on up to 97 is 10 occurrences of 7.I could not work it out past one digit but knew it went up with each digit added.
I could not decide if it goes up to 19 or 20%