Today’s considered by many to be an unlucky day, but so far, so good. Of course, I’m still in my pajamas and haven’t left the house, so I haven’t given bad luck a chance to locate me.
This is one of three Friday the 13ths we’ll have in 2009. The other two are in March and November.
There’s a word for the fear of Friday the 13th: Paraskavedekatriaphobia. Just saying that word might be bad luck. It certainly could be a risk for tongue injury.
More familiar to word nuts is the term for fear of the number 13: triskaidekaphobia. The powerful idea that 13 is unlucky is the reason most skyscrapers don’t have 13th floors. Row 13, I’ve noticed, is usually the last row that fills up when people are booking airline flights. Very superstitious.
- The latest chaper of the never-ending “Friday the 13th” horror saga arrives in theaters today, apparently bumping “The Wrestler” from Redding-area cinemas. Dang. I really wanted to see “The Wrestler,” especially after our own Jim Dyar praised Mickey Rourke’s Oscar-nominated performance. Guess I’ll see it on DVD. Sigh.
- I don’t get the whole slasher movie thing. I know those movies are aimed at thrill-seeking teens, but I didn’t like them when I was a teen and I don’t like them now. Some images stick in your brain forever, and we’ve got to worry about a nation full of teens fixated on chainsaw murders and exploding heads. Give me a nice, clean shoot-em-up or some martial arts bone-wrenching, but not “Saw IV” or “Friday the 13th XXXII: Jason Sweeps the Kitchen.”
- Random Question: Is there an emoticon that expresses the sentiment “Drunk When I Wrote This E-mail.” Shouldn’t there be?
- What We’re Reading: I really enjoyed “The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death” by Charlie Huston, one of the hot young writers in crime fiction. Huston’s trilogy featuring Hank Thompson is a modern classic and I also enjoyed his standalone novel “The Shotgun Rule.” The new book is about a troubled slacker who goes to work for a company that cleans up trauma scenes. Set in Los Angeles, this novel has a brisk pace and a lot of local color. Be warned, though: It contains more profanity than “The Big Lebowski.” For a whiplash change of pace, I’m now reading “A Mercy” by Toni Morrison, a sedate, interesting novel about slaves and society in 1690 Maryland.
Tips appreciated: Send news and tidbits to steveb.anewscafe@gmail.com.
