I ain't superstitious, but a black cat crossed my trail ..... Poll

Funny but today being Friday the 13th got me thinking ..... I know .... that is bad whatever day it is ..... but I am a 21st century man with a fair level of education. Intellectually I know that 'there ain't no such thing' but emotionally I have an underlying apprehension of some of this stuff. I don't walk under ladders, feel a bit of dread on Friday the 13th ..... don't throw a hat on a bed, open an umbrella in the house .... are any of ya'll superstitious ? What superstitions ring your bell ?

An octopus being thrown at me at Joe Louis Arena. Really hated that.

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Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

An octopus being thrown at me at Joe Louis Arena. Really hated that.

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Now that is an example of bad luck for sure .... :beer2:

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Now that is an example of bad luck for sure .... :beer2:

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Those thing REALLY stink.

You create your own outcomes. If you believe a certain behavior will bring misfortune it's bound to come true.

I respect nearly every superstition that I have heard. Now this doesn't mean that I let them rule how I live my life, but you can be sure that you won't find me today lining my hallways with ladders with an umbrella opened in each hand, stepping on mirrors and kicking black cats on my way to sing at the dinner table.

... I mean, who would do that anyways?

Friday the thirteenth has been like every other Friday...Great and TGIF!!!

Most of my superstitions seem to be at a subconcious level. For instance, I don't freak out if a black cat crosses my path, but i have caught myself avoiding stepping on cracks in the pavement without realizing I was doing it.

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Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

An octopus being thrown at me at Joe Louis Arena. Really hated that.

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I've always wondered this, and never had the chance to ask someone with 1st-hand experience... do the octopi do anything to mess with the ice surface? Or is it a matter of just getting the thing off the ice and play on?

Also, I've always thought of this as a missed opportunity for the players. You could skate over, do a quick two-step and be well on your way to preparing dinner. :)

"Dont step on the cracks, it'll break your mother's back," we used to say when I was a kid. To this day, I compulsively avoid sidewalk and floor tile cracks, but not out of superstition-just one of those weird compulsions, I guess. But I also own two black cats, so you can't go by me.

Interesting little tidbit-my son and I came home early from a mountain fishing trip this morning in which the rivers were blown out by rain. I don't have even the vaguest belief in any of those old superstitions, but I did get skunked on Friday the 13th.:boohoo:

Anyway... back to the thread...

Slightly unusually for a Canadian prairie boy, my sports obsession (and hence main source for superstitions) is European football in general, and Arsenal FC in particular. When I was a grad student in Scotland I had a number of footie-related superstitions that came and went:

Ordering a pint only before kickoff or at half-time, never while the match was in play. OK. Make that ordering two pints to make sure I could make it through the 45 mins... I was convinced that either I would miss something crucial, or more importantly disaster would strike if I wasn't watching. And one of the few times I broke that rule, Ryan Giggs scored *that* damn goal in the FA Cup semi, so I may have been on to something.

I used to travel up to Forfar (Mom's ancestral hometown) to watch the abysmal Forfar AFC on a regular basis and of course had to stand in the same spot on the terrace every time. That one didn't really work as disaster strikes as a general rule if you're a Forfar supporter. :)

But to be honest now that I'm away from the saturation of football in which I used to live, I think most of my superstitions have disappeared as well.

I firmly believe that if a banker, lawyer, stockbroker,politician, reporter, newscaster,CEO, CFO or just about anybody who's making a million bucks or more a year lips are moving, they're probably lying. Is that a superstition?

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Originally Posted by Cangooner

I've always wondered this, and never had the chance to ask someone with 1st-hand experience... do the octopi do anything to mess with the ice surface? Or is it a matter of just getting the thing off the ice and play on?

Also, I've always thought of this as a missed opportunity for the players. You could skate over, do a quick two-step and be well on your way to preparing dinner. :)

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They are VERY slimy and leave their residue on the ice. JLA staff are very good about shoveling the ice off afterwards by tossing snow on top of the spot it landed on and skidded to a stop. Then the shovels come out to scrape the ice. NO ONE hung around the bldg. mgr. after he swung it around his head!
Octopus for dinner -- yeah! If you like chewing on used tires.

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Originally Posted by DGilloon

I firmly believe that if a banker, lawyer, stockbroker,politician, reporter, newscaster,CEO, CFO or just about anybody who's making a million bucks or more a year lips are moving, they're probably lying. Is that a superstition?

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No I think that's a perfectly rational and reasoned conclusion. :)

Cangooner:
The correct plural form of "octopus" is "octopoda" or "octopuses."

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Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

Cangooner:
The correct plural form of "octopus" is "octopoda" or "octopuses."

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Actually, if I can correct your correction, I think the first option should be 'octopodes' rather than 'octopoda'... :) I fell into the old linguistic trap of assuming it was a 2nd-declension Latin noun. Man, I hate it when that happens...

But either way, mea culpa.

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Originally Posted by Cangooner

Actually, if I can correct your correction, I think the first option should be 'octopodes' rather than 'octopoda'... :) I fell into the old linguistic trap of assuming it was a 2nd-declension Latin noun. Man, I hate it when that happens...

But either way, mea culpa.

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Sorry, I was going on what the nuns taught me decades ago in Latin (damn them to HELL!!). Besides, Mickey Redmond is the idiot who started all that "octopi" crap. He's got more hair now than he did 30 years ago!

Had a goalie in college who kissed his jock before every game. UUUGGGHGHH!

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Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

"Dont step on the cracks, it'll break your mother's back," we used to say when I was a kid. To this day, I compulsively avoid sidewalk and floor tile cracks, but not out of superstition-just one of those weird compulsions, I guess. But I also own two black cats, so you can't go by me.

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I still avoid stepping on sidewalk cracks and the blue painted lines (for handicap parking spaces) in supermarket parking lots. I also owned a black cat at one time. Hadn't thought about that in years. Could that account for the economic downturn ? :confused:

Right now there are only 3 who admit to "maybe a little" superstitious ...... but there are 13 votes so ....... :w past the graveyard .

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Right now there are only 3 who admit to "maybe a little" superstitious ...... but there are 13 votes so ....... :w past the graveyard .

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Eerie observation!

Superstitions are the tools of of the devil,god dictates what happens to me and mine on a daily basis.not some stupid azz cat.

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Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

Eerie observation!

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13 steps on the gallows, 13 loops in a hangman's noose ..... 13 stars in the Confederate States Of America's flag, and the 13th letter of the alphabet is M .... need I say more ?

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

13 steps on the gallows, 13 loops in a hangman's noose ..... 13 stars in the Confederate States Of America's flag, and the 13th letter of the alphabet is M .... need I say more ?

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13 stars on the original American flag!

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Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Superstitions are the tools of of the devil,god dictates what happens to me and mine on a daily basis.not some stupid azz cat.

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Technically, that is not entirely true. Some stuff is God, some stuff is Satan (or their proxies) but the bulk is just people doing things that affect you. It's not like God himself is sitting there, watching every single human being, carefully measuring out the droplets of rain that touch your head or guiding that car running through a puddle of water which will hit you as a result.

Besides, many superstitions were born not out of religious grounds but practical grounds. In particular, not walking under ladders was born in a time when large construction works (such as churches and palaces) were surrounded by hundreds of ladders. In those days, work safety counted for nothing, and tools, bricks, stones, buckets, and other crap fell down regularly because everything had to be carried up by hand, using those ladders.

Thus, it was considered bad luck to walk underneath ladders because if you did that regularly, you'd have a chisel sticking out of your skull sooner or later. I will not walk underneath ladders or scaffolds. Not because I am superstitious about bad luck, but because it is still dangerous. Even at work, our safety training tells us not to do it.

So many superstitions are not inherently bad to observe. Often they were born out of good practical sense. Just because we no longer remember the origins (such as the sotry about the ladders) doesn't mean it is wrong to observe.

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Originally Posted by Bruno

Technically, that is not entirely true. Some stuff is God, some stuff is Satan (or their proxies) but the bulk is just people doing things that affect you. It's not like God himself is sitting there, watching every single human being, carefully measuring out the droplets of rain that touch your head or guiding that car running through a puddle of water which will hit you as a result.

Besides, many superstitions were born not out of religious grounds but practical grounds. In particular, not walking under ladders was born in a time when large construction works (such as churches and palaces) were surrounded by hundreds of ladders. In those days, work safety counted for nothing, and tools, bricks, stones, buckets, and other crap fell down regularly because everything had to be carried up by hand, using those ladders.

Thus, it was considered bad luck to walk underneath ladders because if you did that regularly, you'd have a chisel sticking out of your skull sooner or later. I will not walk underneath ladders or scaffolds. Not because I am superstitious about bad luck, but because it is still dangerous. Even at work, our safety training tells us not to do it.

So many superstitions are not inherently bad to observe. Often they were born out of good practical sense. Just because we no longer remember the origins (such as the sotry about the ladders) doesn't mean it is wrong to observe.

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The ladder superstition has various sources. Some say it was religious in that since it forms a triangle, you would be breaking the Holy Trinity by walking under it. Other say it represented the gallows. The practical reason would result in either common sense or etiquette, not superstition; I've never heard of anyone superstitious about walking under scaffolding. :)

I've always enjoyed Neil deGrasse Tyson's thoughts on superstitions:

Neil deGrasse Tyson - Children Are Not The Problem - YouTube

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Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

13 stars on the original American flag!

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The original flag of the United States was actually the Continental Colors, 13 red and white stripes and the British union flag, adopted in 1775. This flag was flown on the Alfred commannded by Lt. John Paul Jones.

The flag with 13 stars instead of the British Union in the canton, was used in 1776 and made official by the Flag Act of 1777, passed by the Second Continental Congress.

My burden in life is a mountain of useless information in my head. I don't know why I know this stuff, I just do.

As far as I recall, Friday the 13th was considered bad luck because that was the day the Pope had all the Templar's rounded up for heresy.

Fact is, the church was a big part of our past and many superstitions... well many everything came to be somehow via the church. ; )

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Originally Posted by earcutter

Fact is, the church was a big part of our past and many superstitions...

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Including deities.

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Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

Including deities.

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Well, no, there were plenty of deities before the church existed.

Bad luck things aside, does anyone else here believe in it? I will admit that there is a lot that I hold to be true. Any other takers?

I believe superstition is quantum theory at work. "the observer affects the observed reality."

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Originally Posted by onimaru55

Well, no, there were plenty of deities before the church existed.

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Agreed. It's their demand for recognition as a formal authority that causes problems. That's for a whole other topic, though.

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Originally Posted by onimaru55

I believe superstition is quantum theory at work. "the observer affects the observed reality."

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Yes. In psych it is referred to as the Hawthorne effect.

Although, if I were to operationally define superstitious behaviour, I would do so as "non-contingent behavioural reinforcement."

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Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

Although, if I were to operationally define superstitious behaviour, I would do so as "non-contingent behavioural reinforcement."

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Puttin' on the foil! LOL

Did you finally read my sig tag?

Which part?
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/u...trangelove.gif
AND having fun with SLAP SHOT quotes. :p

The one below my name.

Bloody 'ELL!!

Totally missed that one.

VERY NICE! :)

you might want to check the status of your "precious bodily fluids" there, Wullie!
GOTCHA!
:gwh: