Random AsidesSkepticism

Happy Friday the 13th!

Happy Friday the 13th everyone! To celebrate, at the top of this post is a totally adorable picture of my friend Sara’s “unlucky” black cat Link. I realize that being happy about Friday the 13th is just as silly and un-skeptical as being superstitious about Friday the 13th… or black cats, for that matter. However, while recognizing the silliness I find myself adopting all Friday the 13ths as days of skeptical celebration. I always smile happily when I realize it is Friday the 13th.

Friday the 13th also happens to be the pseudoanniversary of my engagement. My fiance and I became engaged on Friday, March 13th, 2009. We didn’t pick this Friday the 13th date on purpose. Rather, we only realized we had become engaged on Friday the 13th when some of our friends and relatives pointed it out to us later. As skeptics, we were delighted that we accidentally became engaged on Friday the 13th. What a wonderful, skeptical coincidence! In any case, the “inauspicious” date of our engagement has not affected our relationship. We’ve had a long engagement, but we’re still happily together with the wedding planned for October.

So, go out today and celebrate skepticism!   And maybe propose to your skeptical girlfriend or boyfriend, if that’s something you might be interested in doing.

Evelyn

Evelyn is a geologist, writer, traveler, and skeptic residing in Cape Town, South Africa with frequent trips back to the US for work. She has two adorable cats; enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and kayaking; and has a very large rock collection. You can follow her on twitter @GeoEvelyn. She also writes a geology blog called Georneys.

Related Articles

10 Comments

  1. Then congratulations are in order!

    I too find that Friday the 13th brings an anti-superstitious smile to my face.

    One could argue that it is indeed just as superstitious to believe that this will be an excellent day without any misfortunes. However, I, as most people here in Sweden, know it is just a day like all the rest.

    The fact that there is such a myth just awakens the rebel in me, and makes me focus on all the good things of the day. This is hardly a bad thing :-)

    So I too declare a happy Friday the 13th to you all!

  2. Is this where we all post photos of our black cats? I dunno if that’s allowed here. I had absolutely no idea, back when I got my cat, that black cats are the last to be adopted and frequently looked down on. I had always had the opinion that pets should have black fur. Based loosely on having more than one black dog as a child, and on nothing else.

    In spite of a religious upbringing, I always said 13 was my favorite number. Whether I was an early unacknowledged skeptic, or just a rebel, I dunno.

  3. Is this where we all post photos of our black cats? I dunno if that’s allowed here. I had absolutely no idea, back when I got my cat, that black cats are the last to be adopted and frequently looked down on. I had always had the opinion that pets should have black fur. Based loosely on having more than one black dog as a child, and on nothing else.

    In spite of a religious upbringing, I always said 13 was my favorite number. Whether I was an early unacknowledged skeptic, or just a rebel, I dunno.

    1. Yay, Friday the 13th! My favorite number is 13, and I obviously love black cats. In fact, because I heard of this problem — that black cats take longer to be adopted from the shelter — I specifically went out of my way when I adopted my third cat and picked a black one. She is one of the sweetest cats I have ever met, and black is definitely a very beautiful color.

  4. Happy the Friday the 13th to you too! I just realised how glad I am I don’t believe Friday the 13ths are bad luck. I had a rotten start to my morning and I’m sure that if I believed I could have taken that as a sure sign it would be a dreadful day and, ya know, had a dreadful day as a result.

  5. I was just reminded of a song a German singer wrote back in the 70s (my parents listened to his stuff a lot when I was little).
    In the song, a guy gets a telegram from his girlfriend, announcing her visit for Friday 13th. He decides to cook her a big dinner, but it all goes wrong: Everything he does ends in disaster, he almost burns his house down, wrecks his car and breaks a bone on his way to the supermarket etc.
    In the end he comes home, takes a look at the calendar, and notices it’s Thursday 12th.

    I guess I need to thank my parents for exposing me to a dose of skepticism before I even learned to read.

  6. Happy anniversary! Did you know that according to Deepak Chopra, “Coincidences are not accidents but signals from the universe which can guide us toward our true destiny”? I’m not sure what that means, but what I think he’s trying to say is that anyone who doesn’t buy every one of Chopra’s books is heading towards some kind of false destiny, and that sort of thing makes the universe sad :( . Oh, and animals never had a war. Who’s the real animals?!

    1. I’m not sure what that means, but what I think he’s trying to say is that anyone who doesn’t buy every one of Chopra’s books is heading towards some kind of false destiny, and that sort of thing makes the universe sad
      .
      And those who do buy his books are headed for true density, so maybe it evens out.

  7. The strange thing is may shelter will not adopt out black cats near Halloween or Friday the 13th. True for the few that I have checked near here including a couple of pet stores. You do not want to hear the stories that led to this decision by the way, trust me.
    .
    Any way, congrats and go have dinner a t.g.i.friday’s store #13 if you can find it. It seems fitting.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button