There's something that's always bugged me. What's with the doom and gloom over Friday the Thirteenth?
I just don't get it. What's the difference between it and, say, Wednesday the Eleventh? Monday the Seventeenth sounds pretty unlucky to me. Anybody who ever actually had a job would take Friday with any number attached to it over any Monday that's ever been.
But there are people out there who'll be hiding under their beds all day today and won't come out till Saturday morning. Why?
Wikipedia lists a couple of things that may or may not have happened on a Friday the Thirteenth throughout history. But not a thing that anyone could name as epic in bad day lore. There's not even agreement on when Friday the Thirteenth became a thing.
Thirteen is considered unlucky because its one more than twelve. I've never heard anyone complain when receiving a baker's dozen, though.
Friday was considered unlucky in some cultures, though once again nobody really understands why. I guess some arbiter of doom and gloom in 18th century social media came along and decided combining the two would make for undeniable bad juju.
Well I'm here to deny.
If Friday the Thirteenth is so bad, we'd all be living way more epic bad days than we are. In my lifetime, this one makes 113 Friday the Thirteenths. I am here to tell you no more than one or two of them have been even remotely bad days.
And what about all the bad things that happen on days that aren't Friday or the thirteenth? 9/11 wasn't on a Friday or the thirteenth.
It's time to be honest. I have it on authority that Paul Simon, Jerry Rice and Pat Day all agree with me this particular one is worth celebrating. Even Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be raising a glass.
Happy birthday to us!
If Friday the Thirteenth is so bad, I"m sure this one wouldn't make ten of them that have fallen on my birthday. I've barely had one bad birthday at all, much less 9. And it came on a Thursday that was also my grandfather's funeral.
I"m betting very, very few of you have celebrated a birthday on Friday the thirteenth. I did on my third, ninth, fourteenth, twentieth, thirty-first, thirty-seventh, forty-second, forty-eighth, fifty-ninth and, now, sixty-fifth birthdays.
Numerologists will notice right off the bat there's a pattern in years between Friday the Thirteenth birthdays. Six, five, six, eleven. Repeat. My next scheduled FTT birthday will be number seventy, followed by seventy-six. If I'm lucky I'll make the next one on my eighty-seventh birthday.
That would make thirteen birthdays on Friday the Thirteenth in a lifetime. Did I mention this one is my 113th Friday the Thirteenth overall? Seems like a lot of thirteens flying around.
I'm not saying I'm especially lucky to be celebrating 65 years on Friday the Thirteenth. It's probably just a coincidence people have been calling to see where to send the checks this week. Another confused person even called and offered me a job.
I took it, too!