Why Is Friday the 13th Considered a Bad Luck Day?

 

I posted this on another blog of mine (Weekends in Paradelle) but it really is an origin story. 

Today is yet another Friday the 13th. Not really a rare occasion. It happens at least once and at most three times a year. Any month that starts on a Sunday, like this month, will have one. 

The fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia. Frigga, meaning "Friday" and triskaideka for 13 and the Greek phóbos for phobia or "fear". The word itself isn't ancient - it was derived in 1911 and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953. And there doesn't seem to be any real written evidence for a "Friday the 13th" meaning bad luck as a superstition before the 19th century.

So how did it acquire that reputation? The most popular theory is that it's a combination of the superstition that thirteen is an unlucky number and another superstition that Friday is an unlucky day.

I'm not superstitious and the day means nothing special to me, but it's an interesting origin story. I'll play along and schedule this post to go live today at 13:13.

According to Wikipedia, looking at numerology, you find the number 12 to be considered the number of completeness - twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, and so on. That makes 13 irregular, transgressing this completeness.

And poor Friday (which most working folks love as the end of work and the start of weekend) has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales. Some people believe it is an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s. It has also been suggested that Friday has been considered an unlucky day because, according to Christian scripture and tradition, Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Add to that there were 13 people at his Last Supper and you have yourself a combination superstition.

Here's another theory from Charles Panati, a leading authority on origins: "The actual origin of the superstition, though, appears also to be a tale in Norse mythology. Friday is named for Frigga, the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility. When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil — a gathering of thirteen — and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as "Witches' Sabbath."

If you read The Da Vinci Code, you might recall that Dan Brown brought into the story the idea that the Knights Templar (whose mission was to protect Christian pilgrims during the Crusades) became too powerful and wealthy, and King Philip secretly ordered the mass arrest of all the Knights Templar in France on Friday, October 13, 1307 which was a Friday the 13th.

Believe what you will, but have a lucky day. And what series of movies would be the ones to watch today? I think you know the answer.

Boob, booby trap, boobs

Jeremy the Boob, the foolish Nowhere Man in The Beatles' Yellow Submarine

You are probably aware that the word “boob” can be used to describe a “stupid”, “foolish”, or otherwise “clumsy” person. This particular definition is generally thought to have derived from the Spanish word “bobo” which roughly means “dunce.” This Spanish word comes from the Latin “balbus” meaning “stammering" and there is a theory that “boob”, meaning “stupid”, has Gaelic origins.

In English, this meaning appears in the late sixteenth century. later, it was applied to birds of the Sula genus that seem foolish because of their very large feet that make them rather clumsy walkers. They would often land on ships, were easy to catch and sailors began to call them “boobies.”

Much later, other things had the term attached with a similar meaning: the “boob-tube” for stupid TV programming, a “booby trap” being a trap that a foolish person would fall for, and a "booby prize” being a prize for the "top loser."

But somewhere along the way, "boobs" as a noun became slang for women's breasts. This usage seems to have gone wide around 1929 as U.S. slang, but the term boobies for breasts appears in the later 17th century. It may have been derived from the Latin puppa, literally "little girl," though it may also have come from the French poupe ("teat") or the German dialectal bubbi which begat the English bubby.

"Bubby" is defined as a vulgar slang that goes back to 1675 and it may have just evolved into "booby" then to be shortened to "boob." 

An explanation that is almost definitely not true, but is amusing, is that the word itself is a visual representation of what a pair of breasts.
Viewed from above B
Viewed from the front oo 

Viewed from a side view b

In 2013, an Australian women’s clothing chain, Bonds, found in a survey that 74% of Australian women typically used the word “boobs” to refer to their own breasts. The company decided to use the word in their “Bonds for Boobs” ad campaign to advertise their bras and as a partnership with the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Fountains of Wayne

Fountains of Wayne is a Grammy-nominated American power pop band. The group was formed by songwriters Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood. They met as freshmen at Williams College and began playing music together. After college, Collingwood formed the Mercy Buckets in Boston and Schlesinger formed Ivy in New York City, but they connected again in 1996 and formed Fountains of Wayne.

Chris and Adam performing in New Jersey (2007)

The band name was taken from a garden and lawn ornament store in Wayne, New Jersey by that name. Adam Schlesinger grew up in nearby Montclair. The store can be seen in The Sopranos episode "Another Toothpick" but it closed in 2009.

The entrance to the kitschy Fountains of Wayne store in NJ (2007)

Their biggest hit single was "Stacy's Mom." The single was powered by a popular music video, directed by Chris Applebaum, about an adolescent boy's attempts to get closer to the mom of his girlfriend Stacy. The mom was played by model Rachel Hunter. The clever video includes allusions to the 1962 film Lolita and 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Adam Schlesinger says "Stacy's Mom" was a tribute to a band they liked, The Cars. The Cars' song "My Best Friend's Girl" has a similar instrumental intro. Cars frontman Ric Ocasek thought that the intro was a sample from his song "Just What I Needed" but the band says they performed it in the studio. Ocasek was asked to be in the video for the song but declined. (Wikipedia)

The band stopped recording but toured for a while after the album Sky Full of Holes.

Collingwood recorded an album as the singer/guitarist in Look Park. 

Schlesinger went on to record with Tinted Windows. This "supergroup" was formed by guitarist James Iha of The Smashing Pumpkins, singer Taylor Hanson of Hanson, Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick and Schlesinger. Adam also wrote many songs for other artists and for TV, Broadway and movies. Adam Schlesinger died of complications due to the COVID-19 virus in April 2020.

The band released 5 studio albums and one collection of alternate takes, covers, and rarities, Out of State Plates.

OFFICIAL BAND SITE http://www.FountainsOfWayne.com

ALBUMS

Sky Full of Holes
Welcome Interstate Managers
Traffic and Weather
Fountains of Wayne
Utopia Parkway
Out of State Plates

MP3 Downloads for Fountains of Wayne
Fountains of Wayne: No Better Place - Live in Chicago (DVD)   

Napster

Napster was a file-sharing service founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker that operated between June 1999 and July 2001. 

It was an innovative project by Fanning to create an independent peer-to-peer file-sharing service. When launched it allowed people to easily share their MP3 files (music) with other participants. It was followed by many other decentralized projects that used Napster's P2P file-sharing example, such as Gnutella, Freenet, BearShare, Soulseek, AudioGalaxy, LimeWire, Scour, Kazaa, and Grokster.

The idea of file-sharing from a decentralized, multi-user locations was a new and important piece of technology.

Napster and other services were shut down by court order for copyright infringement after strong legal actions against them from the record industry.

But why was it called Napster? Shawn Fanning joined a hacker chat to share his ideas and used the handle Napster. That was a name given to him by a junior high school basketball rival because of his nappy hair. In that hacker group, he connected with Parker and they started on the file-sharing network which would be given the nickname.

The reuse of the name has a complicated history. According to Wikipedia, as of this posting:
"Napster's brand and logos were acquired at a bankruptcy auction by Roxio which used them to re-brand the Pressplay music service as Napster 2.0. In September 2008, Napster was purchased by US electronics retailer Best Buy for $121 million. On December 1, 2011, pursuant to a deal with Best Buy, Napster merged with Rhapsody, with Best Buy receiving a minority stake in Rhapsody. On July 14, 2016, Rhapsody phased out the Rhapsody brand in favor of Napster and has since branded its service internationally as Napster and expanded toward other markets by providing music on-demand as a service to other brands like the iHeartRadio app and their All Access music subscription service that provides subscribers with an on-demand music experience as well as premium radio. On August 25, 2020, Napster was sold to virtual reality concert company MelodyVR. On May 10, 2022, Napster was sold to Hivemind and Algorand. The investor consortium also includes ATC Management, BH Digital, G20 Ventures, SkyBridge, RSE Ventures, Arrington Capital, Borderless Capital, and others."

By Jove

Marble statue of Jupiter from c. 100 AD

There are some milder, euphemistic substitutes for using the name of God, such as “gosh darn it,” “for Pete’s sake,” “by George,”and “good golly." "By Jove" is another one but is also different. "By Jove" did not start as a euphemism, and when it first showed up in English. 

Both “by Jove” and “by Jupiter” were originally Latin oaths as pro Iovem and pro Iuppiter. Roman would use this literally in the way we might say “my God!” or “good God!” Jove or Jupiter was the top deity for the Romans. This sender of thunderbolts was Zeus to the Greeks and equated to Germanic Thor.

Today, the phrase is used to express surprise or to emphasize a statement. "By Jove, that was some explosion."

In classical times, the name was written as Iovis or Iuppiter
(Iuppiter was a compound of the archaic Latin Iovis and pater).
There was no “j” in classical Latin.
The letter “i” was both a consonant and a vowel;
as a consonant, it sounded like the English letter “y.”

Fender bender

 A "Fender Bender" is a term for an auto accident, generally a not very serious one. 

Obviously, this expression references protective covers for a car’s wheels. Older cars once had prominent fenders covering the wheels that were vulnerable to side impacts. Having owned a classic Volkswagen Beetle back in my youth, I can attest to the vulnerability of the fenders to scrapes and hits.

The term "fender bender" originated in the late 1950s. Its appeal is at least partially due to the rhyming nature of “bender” and “fender.” 

Of course, there are lots of other fenders. Fenders on bikes and motorcycles, on western saddles, inflatable ones on the sides of boats to protect them in docking and in front of trams. In British English, the fender is called the wing. 

Interestingly, the word “fender” dates back to the 13th century, initially as a shortened form of “defender”. Originally it was the fender hung over the side to protect the hull of a ship. It was also used to refer to part of fireplaces since the 1680s. It has been used with automobiles since 1919.

Clipped Words

Periwigs? 

Clipped words are defined as words that are formed by dropping one or more syllables from a longer word or phrase with no change in meaning. 

When some man calls another guy his "bro," most people know he is clipping "brother." However, I have found that some younger folks don't know that deli comes from delicatessen and that flu is a clipped influenza.

Less obvious is that "varsity" comes from "university," "hack" comes from "hackney" or that "margarine" was once "oleomargarine." 

You know "wig" but have you ever heard of periwig, an archaic term for a highly styled wig worn formerly as a fashionable headdress by both women and men.

Some clipped words and their original form have just fallen out of usage. I think few people talk about "stereo" sound any more, but no one uses "stereophonic."

A FEW OTHERS
alum alumni
mart market
auto automobile
math mathematics
bike bicycle
memo  memorandum
bra brassiere
bro brother
mike or mic  microphone

Naming the Clouds

I came across a book that looks at a story from modern meteorology about an overlooked man, Luke Howard. The Invention of Clouds is a detailed and informative examination of Howard's life and achievements. What did Howard do? He named the clouds, classifying them in terms that remain familiar to this day: cirrus, stratus, cumulus, and nimbus. 

A shy young Quaker who was an amateur meteorologist, Luke Howard, defined what had hitherto been random and unknowable structures ― clouds.

In December 1802, Luke Howard delivered a lecture that was to be a defining point in natural history and meteorology. His cirrus, stratus, cumulus, and nimbus were a new and precise nomenclature that sparked worldwide interest and captured the imaginations of some of the century's greatest figures in the fields of art, literature, and science. Goethe, Constable, and Coleridge were among those who came to revere Howard's vision of an aerial landscape. Legitimized by the elevation of this new classification and nomenclature, meteorology fast became a respectable science.

Most clouds can be divided into groups (high/middle/low) based on the height of the cloud's base above the Earth's surface. Other clouds are grouped not by their height, but by their unique characteristics, such as those that form over mountains (lenticular clouds) or beneath existing clouds (mammatus clouds).

Clouds seen from above give you a different perspective

Charon

 

Charon (KAIR-on, or SHAIR-ən) is the largest of the five known natural satellites of the dwarf planet Pluto. It was only discovered in 1978 at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. by astronomer James Christy. After its discovery, Charon was first given the temporary designation S/1978 P 1, following the then recently instituted convention.

Christy soon after suggested the name Charon as a scientific-sounding version of his wife Charlene's nickname, "Char". His colleagues at the Naval Observatory proposed Persephone, since mythological characters are often used in naming stars, planets, and moons. Christy decided to use Charon because he discovered in an interesting bit of serendipity that it is also the name of an appropriate mythological figure. Charon is the mythological Greek ferryman of the dead, closely associated with the god Pluto. The IAU officially adopted the name in late 1985, and it was announced on January 3, 1986.

But I find it even more interesting and serendipitous that in 1940 science fiction author Edmond Hamilton invented three moons of Pluto for his novel Calling Captain Future. He named them Charon, Styx, and Cerberus after mythological characters. He thought he was writing about fictional moons, though one might suspect that a planet (back then Pluto had full planet status) would have at least one moon. Pluto has five known moons. Charon, the largest, followed by Styx; Nix; Kerberos; and Hydra. Hamilton seems to have predicted 2 of the 5 correctly.

In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon is the ferryman of Hades, the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the worlds of the living and the dead.

Charon as depicted by Michelangelo
 in his fresco The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel

Archaeology confirms that, in some burials, low-value coins were placed in, on, or near the mouth of the deceased, or next to the cremation urn containing their ashes. This has been taken to confirm that at least some aspects of Charon's story are reflected in some Greek and Roman funeral practices. In Virgil's epic poem, Aeneid, the dead who could not pay the fee, and those who had received no funeral rites, had to wander the near shores of the Styx for one hundred years before they could cross the river.

avenue, street, lane

An avenue does not have to be intended for vehicles,
such as this avenue at Alexandra Park, London

Avenue and street are such common words that you might think their meaning and origin would be obvious. 

An avenue is defined as a broad road in a town or city, typically having trees at regular intervals along its sides. "The beautiful tree-lined avenues that lead to the city park."

In the early 17th century, the word comes from the French, feminine past participle of avenir ‘arrive, approach’, from Latin advenire, from ad- ‘towards’ + venire ‘come’. 

Though it is not always the case now, once an avenue led to something in particular. Today, most people would probably define an avenue as "a big street."

Avenue can also be more figurative and mean a way of approaching a problem or making progress toward something, which clearly is similar to the literal roadway. "the scientists are exploring three promising avenues of research into a cure for the disease."

In prehistoric archaeology, an avenue is a long, parallel-sided strip of land, measuring up to about 30m in width, open at either end, with edges marked by stone or timber alignments and/or a low earth bank and ditch. These avenues are thought to have been ceremonial or processional paths and to be of early Bronze Age date. They seem to have been used to indicate the intended route of approach to a particular monument. Examples in Britain include Stonehenge Avenue, and Beckhampton Avenue and West Kennet Avenue at Avebury. An example in Ireland is the avenue going up the Hill of Tara.

A street is defined as a public road in a city or town, typically with houses and buildings on one or both sides.

The Old English strǣt, of West Germanic origin, from late Latin strāta (via) ‘paved (way)’, the feminine past participle of sternere ‘lay down’.

You have probably been on a smaller street that was called a "lane." A lane is defined as part of a roadway that is designated to be used by a single line of vehicles to control and guide drivers and reduce traffic conflicts. Most public roads - streets and avenues - have at least two lanes, one for traffic in each direction, sometimes separated by lane markings. 

besides being a quaint little roadway, a lane can also be designated for a special purpose, such as for bicycles, buses or emergency vehicles.

Image: CC0, Link

Masochism and Sadism

A female dominant with a male submissive at her feet,
 from Dresseuses d'Hommes (1931) by Belgian artist Luc Lafnet

These two words are eponyms. 

Masochism means to derive satisfaction from another’s pain. Chevalier Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was a 19-century Austrian journalist and writer. In 1869 he persuaded his mistress to serve as a slave for him for 6 months. 

He then used the experience to write the novella Venus in Furs. The novella described the degradation of the main character. 

It was so influential that in 1886, esteemed Austrian psychiatrist Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing coined the term ‘masochism’ to depict satisfaction from another’s pain.============

Sadism, or more properly sadomasochism, is the giving and receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation.

Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual pleasure from their acts. The terms sadist and masochist refer respectively to one who enjoys giving and receiving pain.

The abbreviation S&M is commonly used for Sadomasochism (or Sadism & Masochism), although the initialisms S-M, SM, or S/M are also used, particularly by practitioners. Sadomasochism is not considered a clinical paraphilia unless such practices lead to clinically significant distress or impairment for a diagnosis. Similarly, sexual sadism within the context of mutual consent, generally known under the heading BDSM, is distinguished from non-consensual acts of sexual violence or aggression.

The term "sadism" has its origin in the name of the Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), who not only practiced sexual sadism but also wrote novels about these practices, of which the best known is Justine. 

 

A Horatio Alger Story

I have always heard the phrase "a Horatio Alger story" and took it to mean that this Horatio person had a rags-to-riches success story. The phrase is not in very common usage today and it turns out that my definition is not completely accurate to its origin.

There was a real Horatio Alger Jr. who was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1832. He was the oldest of five kids, and he was nearsighted and asthmatic. He was accepted to Harvard when he was 16, and he said, "No period of my life has been one of such unmixed happiness as the four years which have been spent within college walls." 

He studied under Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was named Class Poet, and wrote essays, poetry, and short sketches. After graduation, he didn't enjoy much publishing success, so he made his living by taking a series of temporary teaching jobs.

He moved to New York City and began working with homeless and delinquent boys, establishing boarding houses and securing homes and public assistance for them. It was during this time that he started writing dime novels for boys. It was his fourth book Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks (1868) that finally made him a literary success.

The book followed a formula that he would return to often - a young boy, living in poverty, manages to find success and happiness by working hard and never giving up. The books created a kind of American concept that if you worked hard, and lived virtuously, and had a combination of "pluck and luck," you could go from the gutter to the mansion.

The popularity of the books - and maybe that idea - decreased as the century turned. He revised his style, making the stories more violent and gritty, but they had peaked.

He died in near-poverty in 1899. So his story is more of a riches-to-rags story. 

wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger

Baby Names Update

 

Photo via Pixabay

BabyCenter parents share their baby's name, so the website doesn't predict the top names but just gives a live look at trends. If you are reading this in the second half of 2023 or later, the 2023 list I mention here is probably different by year's end.

Olivia and Liam were the most popular baby names of 2021 and 2022. In fact, the top five baby girl names all remained the same in 2021 and 2022. Here's an oddity - look at how many girls' names end in "a." 

The top five boy names from 2021 to 2022 were the same though the order shifted, no new names broke into the top of the list.

BabyCenter is kind of unique as they track names in real-time so the list is always being updated. We are halfway into 2023 and it looks like Liam who has held that top spot for boys since 2019 has dropped and Oliver and Noah are battling it out for the top. 

BabyCenter is a digital parenting resource and this year's list changes as parents share what names they’ve chosen for their newest additions.

Check your name or the name of your kids by their birth year. My name was in the top 20 the year I was born and doesn't even appear on lists now. Such is the popularity of names.