The Calendar of the Beast

[filkertom]

Get your superstitious freak on.

So, are there any superstitions you subscribe to? Do you avoid walking under ladders, stepping on cracks, washing your car because it might make it rain? Do you have any lucky clothing or something to help your local sports team win?

Comments

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. Good Question.

There are some little rituals that I have, I think more out of tradition and that they are touchstones for me than superstition.

- When flying, I always kiss my hand, then touch it to the side of the place before entering. I do this cause of my Dad. Before a trip, we watched the movie "Dive Bomber" with Errol Flynn. In it, Flynn's character, a flight surgeon doing research always kissed his hand and touched the plane before a flight. The ONE time he didn't, he spun in to a horrible flaming death. When we boarded the plane, my Dad did his and smiled and winked back at me. I of course did it too and a tradition was born.

- The other is the "No POC" rule. As we've learned in the Dorsai, NEVER proclaim a contract to be a "Piece of Cake". So NO ONE on the contract should ever utter the phrase "Piece Of Cake" cause this will, of course, DOOM US!

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

Not superstitious as such, and no concious rituals that I can think of.

[cktraveler.livejournal.com]

I have a ton of "joke superstitions" -- I'll sometimes jocularly refuse to walk under a ladder, etc., if there's someone nearby who also finds the superstition funny. If I'm alone, though, I ignore all such things completely.

Oddly, though, the "don't pick up face down pennies" one has stuck with me, probably because I got punished for doing so as a child!

[farnex.livejournal.com]

I agreee with the face down pennies rule...I still remember a bad day I had back in Elementary shcool when I did this 20 years ago.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

A penny is a penny is a penny, regardless of whether it's face up or face down. My family legend has it that if it's a penny, my late Uncle Mike left it. Larger change was left by my late grandfather. :)

[catchild.livejournal.com]

I have a few.

I consider cats to be sacred so won't knowinly kill one unless it's obviously the kindest thing to do for it.

I have jewlery I wear to make me feel safe.

I usually put a hand on the roof of the car when going under a tunnle or overpass (to keep the tunnle/overpass from falling) I don't really think it keeps the stuff from falling but it is a reflex action now.

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

I don't pick up money I see on the ground when I'm out walking. It's weird, but I started noticing in high school that if I found a dime or something and picked it up, then an unexpected loss of money occured that day. Not all the time, but enough to go "Hmmmmmm..." Then when I started not picking money, a minor windfall would occure roughly as often.

Once this freaked out a couple of friends. We were walking to the store and I walked by two dollar bills that were blown into a small shrub. When they asked my why I didn't pick them up (as they did) I explained my superstition and they had a good laugh. The next day there was a rebate for $70 in the mail for an item I ordered months ago that they accidently overcharged on, and one of those two friends was there when I got it and had a good laugh. Two days later we were going to the same store and I noticed a quarter on the sidewalk. My friends teased me about it so to prove my point I picked it up. While I was putting away the groceries after we got back, I found about $6 worth of dog food cans among the other canned food I bought. Evidently, the cashier rang up some of the groceries from the person behind me, who we remembered had bought a lot of dog food. These cans must have rolled over that little divider I put down. For the rest of the day those two went around with "Oooo, creepy!" looks on their faces ;-)

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...How was the dog food? (better than a Pot Noodle!)

I'll pick up any money I see....picked up £1.05 outside Watford Met. station....
The Pound was from Gibraltar and the 5p an Canadian 10¢ piece!

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

I'm sure this only applies to me, and the reverse is true for someone else I met. We were at a con room party and the topic of superstitions came up, when it was my turn I told them what I told you. The guy across from me laughed and laughed, got a refill on his drink, then told us his superstition was that if saw money on the ground and picked it up, no matter how small, he'd get more unexpected money the next day. Again, not always but enough to make you go "Hmmmmmmm..."

I think we gave the dog food to an animal shelter. As for pot noodles, I throw out the "flavor" packet and mix my own spices for the noodles. Yummy!

[nelladarren.livejournal.com]

I don't have anything useful to say really, just wanted to make the 7th comment so there wouldn't be only 6, you know?
:oD

oddly enough

[que-sara-sara.livejournal.com]

My first return into training classes for my new position(must know our system inside and out for testing purposes) is on 6/6/6. I'm having a bit of a giggle about that right now.

I do ascribe to natural products of the earth haveing verious properties to them, but only in that they are able to amplify what is already in me. Putting on the necklace Mia made to give me "clarity of thought" would do nothing if I did not already have this ability in myself. It is really more of a focal point.

The same thing goes for my tarot cards that we talked about. I fully believe that all the knowledge I need is actually within myself, the cards are a tool for getting at it in a more comphrendable form.

In general I create my own luck, though I am always much more comfortable sleeping on the side of the bed closest to bedroom door, and I still don't know why. Watch for that revelation coming soon to my lj, I can guarantee it won't be boring.

[phaedress.livejournal.com]

I have quite a few, mostly in the "P.O.C." category as described above. The one I am fanatical about is to never, NEVER say:

"Gee, this traffic isn't nearly as bad as I expected!"

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

When I talk about my good fortune, I usually look for something wooden to knock on. More to avoid the appearance of bragging than anything else, but I have a real feeling that bad things might happen if I forget that God, or the "good luck fairies" and not me, are responsible for my blessings.

Before my wedding, I left a dish of whiskey outside the church, and sprinkled the rest of the bottle around the perimeter of the building to appease the Gremlins. Plenty of things went wrong before I did that. The afternoon of the wedding, it all went just great. Coincidence? You be the judge.

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

I generally do this sort of thing in reverse. For instance, I'm blaming the three days of rain this week on the fact that I wanted to stain the deck this weekend (the deck needs to be three-days dry in order for the stain to adhere properly).

Anytime money shows up unexpectedly, I have to assume that a major expenditure is right around the corner, and not go blow it on something fun. The most extreme case of this was about 14 years ago, when I won $1500 in a raffle at a hamfest I hadn't wanted to attend, and learned about it the day after my transmission went out in my car.

At ConFusion, we routinely schedule a "Snow Sculpture Contest," so that we'll have to cancel it due to lack of snow. After several snow-free years, it was left off the schedule in 2004 and 2005. Guess what: we got blizzards. Guess what else: we put it back on for 2006, and while there was a dusting of snow, it wasn't enough, and we had to cancel the event. It will be on the schedule for 2007! :-)

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

I have the same money thing, except that if I spend it on something fun, the nasty expense will not show up. Case in point--unusually large tax return, responsible plans for savings derailed by matching car breakdown. Second case in point--random check from the IRS (different year), spent within the week on a sword and a bunch of gifts for friends, and everything was fine. On the other hand, if I need money, I tend to discover a bank account I thought I'd closed or something. I'm still trying to find workarounds so that the universe will let me have a cushion.

[jonnorthwood.livejournal.com]

A pinch of spilled salt gets tossed over the left shoulder with the left hand, and--because I was in theatre so long--I don't mention the Scottish play on stage, and I never say "G__d L__k," it's always 'Break a leg!'

Other than that, I don't have a lot of superstitions.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Well, through high school and college I had a lucky T-shirt that I wore for every exam from freshman algebra through the MCATs. And every time I watch the Superbowl, the Patriots win.

And there's a very widespread superstition among the veterinary community that whenever someone in the office says, 'My, what a slow/boring/uneventful day,' within the next hour you'll wind up swimming in a vast and overwhelming ocean of emergencies, hopeless cases, and crazy clients.....

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

I have a 78 of the Paul Whiteman orch playing "Don't Mind The Rain"....
and whenever I played it, it used to pour.

Rain also follows the Govt. deciding to take action over a percieved drought....

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to consciously purge superstitious behavior. I added one in 2000, when I flew commercially for the first time (three times in three months, actually) and was getting nervous about it. A friend suggested giving the plane a friendly pat on the fuselage before boarding, and it worked to calm me down... even though I know it's meaningless.

The superstition I know of that I reliably have is when I go on a roadtrip. If I discover I've forgotten something minor, then I count the trip as pre-disastered and know that nothing else can go wrong. You'd think I would've had a miraculous OVFF last year, having forgotten my patch cables, going home, getting them (thankfully, OVFF is only twenty minutes from home), then discovering I'd forgotten the power pack for my theremin, going home, getting that... and then finding I'd only packed one change of clothes. REALLY thankfully, it was only a 20 minute drive home. :D

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

Well --

This isn't really a superstition, and I can't use it because I don't smoke, but it's well known that the best way to make a subway train arrive is to light a cigarette (which you have to put out before you board). But you have to really want the cigarette; it doesn't count if you're just trying to fool the subway.

[signy1.livejournal.com]

My main superstition-- a family thing; I'm the third generation to follow it-- is to avoid green cars. And green clothing, as much as possible. Green cars crash, you see. My granddad, after several bad experiences with green cars, believed this so devoutly that no one else in the family feels comfortable driving one.

[sarahtoalaska.livejournal.com]

Generally I stick to the thought that if I don't believe in a superstition... I means nothing. Despite that I have a couple of things I HAVE to do. When I go through a yellow light I kiss my fingers and touch the cieling of the car. Kind of a.. please let me get through the light... thanks for getting me through the light thing. The best thing about this is once people see you do it often enough... they will do it too. I've passed it on to at least 8 people. My mom taught me to never pick up 'tails up' pennies, she also told me 'heads up' was good luck. One day I saw my mom reach down for a 'tails up' penny, when I warned her it was 'tails up' she told me she knew and flipped it. At first I thought it was a way to get around that superstition, then she left it behind. Face up. When I asked her why, she told me that someone out there needed the good luck, more than her. So now I do the same thing. It may be silly but it makes me feel good all day.

[technocracygirl.livejournal.com]

During the recitation of the Ten Plagues at the Passover Seder, the Sephardic tradition is for the head of the house to fill up a wineglass. He then recites the plagues and pours out the wine into the bowl. At the tenth plague, the rest of the wine is poured out. While he's doing this, the female head of the house is pouring in water, and washes the hand of the man so that all of the plagues are in the bowl. This is all supposed to be done in silence (except for the recitation.) Then, all the females at the table get up and escort the bowl of plagues outside where it is thrown away from the house (usually onto plants who can use the water) and the silence is broken with the cry of, "Tov!" (Good!)

I am absolutely rabid about the silence. It has to be silent, and the plagues absolutely have to be taken out of the house. Don't ask me why I got this bone-deep conviction, but I did. It doesn't help that one year, we had a joint seder with another family. The other family would not shut up during the plagues. Later that night, one of the guests had a not-quite heart attack and had to be rushed to the hospital.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

I don't walk under ladders because it's usually too tight a squeeze.

[deadpool247.livejournal.com]

During the UofL football season, I usually wear this hoodie during the game; I have to put it on during a certain time. Otherwise, they lose.