Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Superstitious? Today's Your Unlucky Day
That's Right It's A Triple Whammy: Full Moon, Lunar Eclipse
And Friday The 13th
WARNING: The superstitious may want to stay inside
this evening. In a spooky confluence, this Friday the 13th
coincides with a full moon and a lunar eclipse.
"You put those together and you will have a triple whammy,"
said Donald Dossey, founder-director of The Phobia Center in
Asheville, N.C. "It can be just mild anxiety or just a
nagging sense of doom and the symptoms go up to full bloom
obsessive behavior. Some people won't even get out of bed."
Nonsense, according to Matt Nisbet, who is part of a group of
professional skeptics who boldly planned to spend today
passing out chain letters and throwing them away, walking
under ladders and smashing a large mirror.
"Our message, in a nutshell, is you have nothing to fear,"
said Matt Nisbet, whose group publishes the Skeptical
Inquirer, a magazine dedicated to debunking claims of the
paranormal, UFOs and psychic predictions. "We advocate
rational thought based on reason and evidence and logic."
One Friday the 13th, Nisbet's phone
went dead after he was asked to go
on the radio to discuss the illogic of fearing the date.
Still he holds firm.
"Some say that's bad luck, I say it's me having a faulty
phone," he said.
This morning's eclipse -- known as a "prenumbral eclipse" --
was hardly noticeable because direct sunlight still reached
all daytime portions of the moon, unlike in partial or total
eclipses. But it still could be seen through much of the
world, from western Asia to North America.
Full moons last appeared on Friday the 13th in February 1987,
July 1984 and May 1970, said Jack Horkheimer, executive
director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium.
The unease associated with full moons and Fridays
the 13th has a long history. Early Christians
believed worshipers of the Moon-goddess Luna were crazy,
hence the term "lunatic," said Phillip Stevens Jr., an
associate professor at the University of Buffalo who studies
religion and cults.
"The Lunar Effect," a 1978 book by psychiatrist Arnold
Lieber, claimed the moon influences human "biological tides"
and contended homicides increased in Miami and Cleveland near
both the new and full moon.
"There will be a lot of negative energies," said Patricia
Marks, who has told fortunes from her roadside home in Miami
for 23 years. "There should be more boating accidents. I
would stay away from the water because the moon is a dominate
ruler of water."
The taboo of Friday the 13th arises out of the Christian
story of the Last Supper, where Jesus Christ was the 13th
guest among his 12 apostles, the night before the Friday when
he was crucified, Stevens said.
The ancient Norsemen used 13 knots in their hangman's noose.
[13] In the 19th century, Lloyds of London refused to
insure any ship sailing on Friday the 13th. The U.S.
Navy still will not launch a ship on that date.
The ill-fated Apollo 13 space mission was launched at 1:13
p.m. (13:13 military time) from pad 39 (the third multiple of
13) and had to be aborted on April 13, 1970.
For years, many hotels and office buildings have not labeled
a 13th floor.
But Nisbet points out the end of the work week is Friday,
inspiring the motto of "Thank God It's Friday." A baker's
dozen is usually a good bargain. The "Friday the 13th" movies
brought anything but bad luck to their creators. And Dan
Marino, who has thrown for more yards and touchdowns than any
quarterback in National Football League history, wears No. 13
(although he hasn't won the Super Bowl). So relax, but not
for too long.
On Sunday, as the Soothsayer told Julius Caesar, "beware the
Ides of March."
--
Two rules in life:
1. Don't tell people everything you know.
2.
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