Superstitious?

Friday the 13th. One of those mythically dangerous days when one must watch out for black cats, not walk under ladders, and the like. But there's more.

There is a Norse myth about 12 gods having a dinner party at Valhalla, their heaven. In walked the uninvited 13th guest, the mischievous Loki. Once there, Loki arranged for Hoder, the blind god of darkness, to shoot Balder the Beautiful, the god of joy and gladness, with a mistletoe-tipped arrow. Balder died and the Earth got dark. The whole Earth mourned.

There is a Biblical reference to the unlucky number 13. Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th guest to the Last Supper.

A particularly bad Friday the 13th occurred in the middle ages. On a Friday the 13th in 1306, King Philip of France arrested the revered Knights Templar and began torturing them, marking the occasion as a day of evil.

In ancient Rome, witches reportedly gathered in groups of 12. The 13th was believed to be the devil.

Both Friday and the number 13 were once closely associated with capital punishment. In British tradition, Friday was the conventional day for public hangings, and there were supposedly 13 steps leading up to the noose.

It is traditionally believed that Eve tempted Adam with the apple on a Friday. Tradition also has it that the Flood in the Bible, the confusion at the Tower of Babel, and the death of Jesus Christ all took place on Friday.

Numerologists consider 12 a "complete" number. There are 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 apostles of Jesus. In exceeding 12 by 1, 13's association with bad luck has to do with just being a little beyond completeness.

And there's more.

More than 80 percent of high-rises lack a 13th floor.

Many airports skip the 13th gate.

Airplanes have no 13th aisle.

Hospitals and hotels regularly have no room number 13.

Italians omit the number 13 from their national lottery.

On streets in Florence, Italy, the house between number 12 and 14 is addressed as 12 and a half.

Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue

In France, socialites known as the quatorziens (fourteeners) once made themselves available as 14th guests to keep a dinner party from an unlucky fate.

Many triskaidekaphobes, as those who fear the unlucky integer are known, point to the ill-fated mission to the moon, Apollo 13.

If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck . Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names.

Here in sunny Arizona, it's a typical Friday the 13th day. I woke early and suddenly this morning with what sounded like two gunshots. When I got out of bed, both cats were acting nervous and looking toward one side of the house, where there is a sunporch with windows. I looked and looked but saw nothing. No police cars. No bodies. Nothing.

Nothing that is except a very grey day with wet streets indicating a light rain had fallen. Nothing else. One might say "a perfect Friday the 13th day."

All historical trivia courtesy of http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/scary.html#friday

So...I'm picky!

Jazz is very particular about her water dish. She wants it freshened every day. But when it's fresh, there are a bit of foggy bits rolling around in it. So Jazz hunkers down over it and watches it until the water is clear. Then, and only then, can she drink. And drink. And drink.

Cats are so good to live with. They can teach us so much.

How much . . .

. . . . room does it take. Here's a couple of photos of a single-family home in north Prescott.

I'm not sure these photos do justice to this place.

It. Is. HUGE!

Blink!

Much more at http://icanhascheezburger.com

The past is passed

A former colleague of mine and I got in touch recently and have been exchanging some photos from our past. These two, that I received today, are of a going away party when my friend went across town to become my competitor. In the first photo, I have surprised him with a small gift of some kind. In the second photo he is being gracious and saying goodbye.
Two things stand out to me. #1, look how skinny we are! I've put on close to a hundred pounds since those days. #2, notice I am not without a cigarette in either photo. And that was inside of our studio, on the second floor. Nearly everyone smoked in those days and there were no laws about it. "Those days" - this was in 1968, some 41 years ago! (Incidentally, I stopped smoking, finally, 18 years ago but I still had to have a pacemaker installed a few years ago.)

Autumnal Beauty

So, okay. My last trip north to see the fall colors was a failure. But that was several weeks ago. Friday we went to Flagstaff to visit a friend. Saturday morning we came back down Oak Creek Canyon. (As I have said before, it is a place of great beauty on the earth.) And this time we got lucky. The colors were magnificent.

Doesn't this shot, with its apples for sale, look like New England. (I've never been there but I have a very good imagination.)

Governor Kinky?

Let's see . . . Bob Luzius is soon off the Prescott City Council, Steve Blair is back on, along with Tammy Linn and John Hanna. Paul Katan, as expected, finished a distant last. The voters approved an initiative to put any expenditure by the city over 40 million dollars to their approval in special elections. (Read: an attempt to stop the city's plan to pump needed water from the water ranch they bought.)

On the national scene, Republicans elected governors in Virginia and New Jersey (so long, Jon Corzine), Mayor Bloomberg's 100 million dollar gamble to win a third term in the Big Apple was successful, and the voters of Maine turned their backs on a significant part of their population as they reversed same sex marriage. But there was some good news nationally: Whackos Sarah Palin and (my old college pal) Dick Armey and their stooge were defeated in upstate New York as Democrat Bill Owens was elected to Congress.

But the best news of all? Kinky Friedman is running for governor of Texas again. This time he's decided to do it as a Democrat. (As he put it, the last independent elected governor in Texas was Sam Houston and that was a long time ago.) Politico has the full story.