It's Friday

12/13/13


Before I blog, first there must be coffee, one or two cups depending on how well or not well my creative juices are flowing! 


Sometimes it's just hard to come up with something to write about.  Today, however, wasn't one of those days, because I decided to treat and/or bore you to death with trivia about the number 13.

So after doing some research (what did we do before the internet?), here's a few things you may or may not know about the 13th. I was surprised with some of the things I learned, so I'm going to share them with you.

Any month that starts on a Sunday contains a Friday the 13th, and there is at least one Friday the 13th in every calendar year. There can be as many as three Friday the 13ths in a single calendar year that starts on a Thursday such as it did in 2009.  And if it's a leap year that starts on a Sunday, there is also three.  There were only two this year - September and December.

Okay here comes some trivia:

• Many hospitals don’t have a room number with 13 in it as well as a 13th floor. The same thing goes for tall buildings. Normally the 13th floor is skipped. Some airlines omit Gate 13. 
• A 13th guest at a table is considered unlucky, and in Paris sometimes a quatorzieme is hired to be a professional 14th guest and balance out the luck!
•  President Franklin D. Roosevelt would never have a 13th guest at a meal, nor would he travel on the 13th day of any month.
• The number 13 is considered lucky by Italians

Ever wondered why a baker's dozen consists of 13? The story goes that a witch in New York used to demand 13 items whenever she visited a particular bakery. When the baker could not afford the extra item one time, the witch supposedly cursed the baker and he suffered horrible luck. It wasn't until he brought the witch another 13 rolls that things changed and he apparently broke the curse. The custom is still sometimes practiced today.

 The fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia. The fear of the number 13 is called triskaidekaphobia, and both Napoleon Bonaparte and President Herbert Hoover suffered from it.  

Because I want to provide all of you with trivia, and as a bonus have something to talk about around the water cooler, I found two really cool (and useless) words to share with you:

hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia  

(a fear of long words - ya think?)

and logophobia (a fear of words)

Well, I didn't know that I suffered from a fear of long words and now that I know what that phobia is, I will probably develop another phobia - the fear of not being able to pronounce what my phobia is!

Happy 13th. 

P

 

No phobia found for the fear of mispronouncing a word. Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is the fear of long words and Logophobia is the fear of words. - See more at: http://www.chacha.com/question/what-is-the-fear-of-pronouncing-a-word-wrong#sthash.GdwpMXmc.dpuf

No phobia found for the fear of mispronouncing a word. Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is the fear of long words and Logophobia is the fear of words. Thanks - See more at: http://www.chacha.com/question/what-is-the-fear-of-pronouncing-a-word-wrong#sthash.lBCF90ih.dpuf