Com'c #33

Publiseringsdato: 12.des.2013 14:28:44

"Boss, someone voted on Friday 13th."

"Which Friday 13th?"

Commentary

Early update today, mainly because I made the str'p ahead of time for once. Yay! (I usually start working on Com'c around 4 PM (CET), often having it up around 5-5:30 PM. For reference, it's now about 3 PM.)

Saint Lucia's Friday!

So, yeah, tomorrow is Friday the 13th of December, although I care more about St. Lucia's ^{(or Lucy's)} Day than Friday the 13th. I'm not religious, but there's something cozy about the celebrations of St. Lucia's Day (especially in the Nordic countries), Christmas and Easter that makes me not care all that much about their origins.

However, what about the combination of the traditional candle lights in the St. Lucia Day school processions (especially the Lucia crown), with Friday the 13th? It'll probably be a good way to find out if the superstition around Friday the 13th has any basis in reality. If it does, the fire department's going to have a busy day tomorrow. (For the record, I don't believe in it.)

By the way, John's claim that accident counts go down on a Friday the 13th is true. (Most of his claims are, if not his silly conclusions.) At least traffic accidents. Basically, enough people believe in the bad luck of the day and stay home because of it. More people stay home -> less people go out driving -> less traffic -> fewer accidents. So at least you'll be slightly safer than usual in the traffic on Friday the 13th. ^{(Note: I'm pretty sure the stats come from the U.S., which has a huge population. I'm not sure just how big of a decrease the superstition causes, but at least it's large enough to be noticable in the U.S. Granted, the amount of superstition also varies by country.)}

(P.S. 17.45: I forgot to mention that a new vote incentive is up at TWC. Make sure to vote if you want to see it!)