Superstition

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Discuss.

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 4 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dud. Worrying doesn't help anything.

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 4 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

dud, if only because it makes you do stupid antisocial things like throw salt over your left shoulder

― Menelaus Darcy, Sunday, 4 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

dud, if only because my sister will never pass me the salt (I'm not being facetious here, my sister an otherwise rational person will only evr palce the salt in front of you not pass it hand to hand)

― Ed, Sunday, 4 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dud. Adds to my paranoia. Not a good thing.

― Mascara, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

dud, unless black cats cross your path. then you can cuddle the cat!

― katie, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dud, totally, with the exception of touching wood. Not quite sure how I've got into that, but tempting fate seems a stupid thing to do, psychologically if nothing else.

However, if someone tells me they have even a passing interest in the evil that is astrology, I have to count to ten and try oh so hard not to shout...

― Mark C, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

touching wood = k-phunny if you touch sumwung's HEAD haha!!

― mark s, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

this is like that religion shit but without the books telling you what to think isn't it?

― gareth, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dud, yet compelling. There's 2 magpies live in a tree outside my window, and if I see one I have to wait to see the other one before I am happy. God forbid one of them dies. Also, touching wood. Very necessary.

― alix, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Superstitions are idiotic. Someone I know feels the need to knock on wood if someone says "cheesy". He invented this as a joke, I'm sure, but is most definitely trapped now. I've seen him just knock wood quietly to himself. Pretty bad.

― Nude Spock, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dud, because it has enabled spiders to take over my flat.

― Nick, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Touching wood = rhetorical device to assure listner that even though you are invoking the worst, you do not desire it -- i.e. prevents you from being seen as morbid.

― Sterling Clover, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm a bit superstitious. Always say "Good day my lord, and greetings to your good lady wife" if I see one Magpie (very Dickens-esque)...I don't walk under ladders or there modern equivalent scaffolding. Throw spilt salt over my left shoulder. It's vaguely silly, but I don't really care, life is more fun if it's not totally rational.

― james, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

So, I say classic, in small measures!

― james, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have only one real superstition, and even with that I'm not sure exactly what to believe:

The Modern Grate Theorum is one that has spontaneously erupted across the world. Its concept is simple:- one grate is neutral, two grates are lucky, three grates are unlucky. When it comes to a larger number of grates, however, opinion is divided. Some opine that all grates grouped in numbers over three are neutral, and to be ignored. The majority rule that if it is a number divisible by two, it is counted as however many twos appear, and the same with threes. But then what of the six collection? Of course, you can hold your breath as you walk over it, and convince yourself it is three lucky groupings, but it is just as likely to be a set of two that shake down bad luck. And what of this scenario- a grouping of three of the half-grate types? Does each half-grate count as one, thus creating the afore-mentioned bewilderment of a six, or must they be added together to create normal grate size, thus becoming one set of three? Does one risk the dangers of these puzzles merely for a slice of luck? And, of course, the enduring appeal of the belief in the Modern Grate Theorem is the unquantifiability of luck. If one walks over the two grate proposition yet no instant of what could conceivably be called 'luck' arranges itself in the path of the day, the reassurance that you have narrowly escaped a monster piece of bad luck can always be found. Similarly, if you are fool enough, or merely lack the observance to avoid passing your feet over a three grate organisation, but despite this the day is one that could be regarded as good, the sour knowledge that it is not as good as it would otherwise have been will consistently arrive at the forefront of your mind.

― emil.y, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(Sad fact- that's actually a ridiculously condensed version of something I wrote a little while back, for absolutely no reason other than I am obsessed with those damn grates)

― emil.y, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nick is in grave danger of being on the high end of the spider- swallowing curve.

― Sean, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

emil.y that is brilliant. i feel like i've read the Modern Grate Theorem before in one of those tracts i've been handed in the subway.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 6 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

i'm totally superstitious!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 26 June 2004 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

i knock on wood, avoid walking under ladders, toss salt over my shoulder, never open an umbrella indoors etc etc

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 26 June 2004 22:11 (twenty-one years ago)

i think it's an ocd-like release valve for stress

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 26 June 2004 22:11 (twenty-one years ago)

(not that ocd is a "stress reliever" by any means, but it seems to be connected to my ocd-ish qualities)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 26 June 2004 22:12 (twenty-one years ago)

superstition and religion are pretty much unavoidable in human behavior, no matter what you believe. the capacity for both are hard-wired into the human brain.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 22:16 (twenty-one years ago)

well that settles that.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 26 June 2004 22:17 (twenty-one years ago)

and just to be clear, i don't mean that as a justification for religious belief in general. i just mean that religious and superstitious-type thinking and behavior are present in all human societies, regardless of them being secular or spiritually based. superstition and religion are probably a manifestation of general hominid/homo sapiens behavior. religion is probably best described as this behavior applied to metaphysical beliefs (vs polotical or economic beliefs).

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 22:24 (twenty-one years ago)

but what do you believe is the cause of this universally repeating behavioral pattern?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 26 June 2004 22:34 (twenty-one years ago)

it probably has an evolutionary advantage. it's possibly rooted in primate social groupings (i.e. those early humans/hominid ancestors who stuck with or grouped around a charismatic leader or elder or whatever tended to survive). or it might be a "side-effect" (or "spandrel" or whatever) of other evolutionary adaptations or behaviors that has been co-opted as an advantage in its own right.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 22:40 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe superstitious thinking is a way of keeping the brain ordered or focused on something (no matter how irrational) that allows it to survive. or perhaps it's like i said, a side-consequence of the brain being structured a certain way (i.e. the capacity to analyze and order things).

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 22:47 (twenty-one years ago)

it also might be like you said, s1ocki, related to ocd or obsessive compulsive thinking and behavior. it might be the brain's way of processing anxiety into something controllable and manageable.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 26 June 2004 22:50 (twenty-one years ago)

with me that last one is definitely probably the case

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 27 June 2004 00:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm only superstitious after the fact. Normally I'll laugh it off, but if I toss a mirror into a dumpster and it shatters, or if I walk under a latter, afterward I get to thinking and blaming my bad luck on it.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Sunday, 27 June 2004 00:22 (twenty-one years ago)

dud. when you believe in things that you don't understand -- THEN you suffer. QE-fucken-D.

― andrew l. r. (allocryptic), Sunday, 27 June 2004 01:38 (twenty-one years ago)

or perhaps it's like i said, a side-consequence of the brain being structured a certain way (i.e. the capacity to analyze and order things).

That's what I think it is: our brains are programmed to try to find correlations between EVERYTHING

― oops (Oops), Sunday, 27 June 2004 06:28 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

don't know how big this is gonna be:
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o170/tremendoid/itunes.jpg

the numbers at the very bottom are freaking me out right now. I'm not especially superstitious except when confronted with, uh spooky shit that comes from straight from the smoky bowels of existence, and this after I just had a long freaky discussion with a numerologically-inclined relative over Christmas dinner, guess my resistance is low. I'm not a metal dude so there is nothing to appreciate here. Pls to explain.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Sunday, 14 January 2007 10:18 (eighteen years ago)

My truck's odometer rolled over to 66666 on June 6, 2006. Carl Jung would've just nodded his head.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Sunday, 14 January 2007 19:18 (eighteen years ago)

Pls to explain.

The playlist of the beast.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 14 January 2007 19:22 (eighteen years ago)

Uh, just rip a disc and change the number? Then the devil won't notice you anymore. But hurry. (xxpost)

I took a huge box of promo CDs to Amoeba once and the guy was running the numbers....said "and that'll be -- YIKES -- $666 in credit. Do you want that or do you want to pull one disc out so the number will be different?" (I left it in.)

― do i have to draw you a diaphragm (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 14 January 2007 19:26 (eighteen years ago)

I appreciate the fact that Little Rock can have a telephone prefix of 666, and no one freaks out about it. There's even a church that advertises their services on television that ends their spot with a 666 number.

Same goes for our license plates, though they did raise a stink in Craighead County when the letters D-W-I started getting randomly assigned to people.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Sunday, 14 January 2007 19:35 (eighteen years ago)

the fax number of the beast

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 14 January 2007 19:40 (eighteen years ago)

I get unsettled when I see a digital clock of any all-one-number palindrome ie 11:11 or 4:44. 5:55 is the worst. I feel weird just typing these. I have to go shake my arms really vigorously until I get over it. That's prolly not superstitious OR OCD but it sure is...something.

― Abbott (Abbott), Monday, 15 January 2007 00:22 (eighteen years ago)

See, like that playlist, 666 doesn't bother me, but the 666 and the 333 combined would really freak me out and I'd have to add a file. TOO MANY

― Abbott (Abbott), Monday, 15 January 2007 00:23 (eighteen years ago)

I love all other number palirdromes tho, just not if they are all the same digit. In fact it always cheers me up to see one. Or to see a house where the address is part of the Fibonacci sequence, like 3455 down the street. I make sure to walk by that house every day. NUMBERS. Saying the word "numbers" just gets the soft cell song in my head. Oh I better smoke to calm myself down. WTF is my problem.

― Abbott (Abbott), Monday, 15 January 2007 00:27 (eighteen years ago)

That was the 55th reply on this thread!

― StanM (StanM), Monday, 15 January 2007 00:31 (eighteen years ago)

(naaah, it wasn't, I'm just evil)

― StanM (StanM), Monday, 15 January 2007 00:32 (eighteen years ago)

See, like that playlist, 666 doesn't bother me, but the 666 and the 333 combined would really freak me out and I'd have to add a file

and 1.8("18", numerologists seem to fudge numbers that way) days was the kicker, though I guess you wouldn't file that under your ocd. I left it as is and this morning there was a few more files showing, dunno what happened.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Monday, 15 January 2007 00:50 (eighteen years ago)

Did Goat's Head Soup mysteriously show up?

― do i have to draw you a diaphragm (Rock Hardy), Monday, 15 January 2007 00:57 (eighteen years ago)

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― indian rope trick (bean), Monday, 15 January 2007 04:05 (eighteen years ago)

The song is great, though.

― max (maxreax), Monday, 15 January 2007 04:19 (eighteen years ago)

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