If You Think Friday The 13th 2017 Is Bad, Wait Until April 13, 2029

Joan Baez's brother-in-law, Richard Fariña, immotalized an aphorism in — Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me (1966) and a film by the same title in 1971. The aphorism has become this blogger's mantra in these drear days. On top of that, today is Friday the 13^th. If this is (fair & balanced) numerophobia, so be it.

PS: The usual Friday essay by Eags (Timothy Egan) will appear tomorrow.

[x Austin Fishwrap]
Feeling Lucky? Here Are 5 Things To Know About Friday The 13^th
By Roberto Villapando


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anagram andes arrested ashley bad born cannibalism castro consider crashed days dekatria ease fear fidel foot-wide greek happen hitchcock https imminent infamously italians luck lucky mo occur ok olsen paraskevidekatriaphobia people phobia pronounce regard resorted roberto satellite spanish-speaking starts suffer supposedly survivors therapist things tortured twins unlucky used year

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As Stevie Wonder put it in “Superstition,” his classic song from 1972, “when you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer.” So to help ease your fears about Friday the 13^th, here are five things to know:

1. It happens every year: This year, we had a Friday the 13^th in January and October. A standard year (not a leap year) can have three such Fridays if the year starts on a Thursday. The next time that will happen is 2026, when Friday the 13^th will occur in February, March and November.

2. It’s not unlucky for everyone: Famous people born on Friday the 13^th include Alfred Hitchcock, Fidel Castro and twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

3. It has its own phobia: Paraskevidekatriaphobia comes from the Greek words for Friday (“paraskevi”), 13 (“dekatria”) and fear (“phobia”). The therapist who coined the term in the 1990s used to tell people that when you can pronounce paraskevidekatriaphobia, you’re cured.

4. Other days are “unlucky”: Superstitious people in Greece and in some Spanish-speaking countries regard Tuesday the 13^th as a day of bad luck. Italians consider Friday the 17^th unlucky, supposedly because an anagram for XVII, the Roman numeral for 17, is VIXI — or “I lived” in Latin — which suggests imminent death.

5. OK, it’s unlucky for some: The Knights Templar were arrested and tortured on October 13, 1307; a plane crashed in the Andes on October 13, 1972, and the survivors infamously resorted to cannibalism; and on April 13, 2029, a 1,200-foot-wide asteroid will come within 18,000 miles of Earth, which is closer than some satellite orbits. # # #

[Roberto Villalpando is the mobile/breaking news editor at the Austin American-Statesman. His journalism career at the Austin American-Statesman began in 1998 and has included a variety of newsroom jobs, such as graphic artist, page designer, copy editor, wire editor and assistant news editor. Villapando received a BA (journalism and history) from Northwestern University (IL).]

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