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Double-13 Friday Gives Crazies Pause


Paraskevidekatriaphobics think on numbers too much.

This is not a good day for paraskevidekatriaphobics — those who fear Friday the 13th. It’s double-13 Friday. All the numbers in the numerical notation — 10/13/2006 — add up to 13 as well, giving great pause to the superstitious.

The phenomenon hasn’t happened in 476 years, said Heinrich Hemme, a physicist at Germany’s University of Aachen who crunched the numbers to find that the double-whammy last occurred Jan. 13, 1520.

“Pure chance,” the good professor told the press yesterday.

But it’s not exactly TGIF for the 21 million Americans who fear the day. Some may not travel or even get out of bed, said Donald Dossey, a North Carolina psychologist who coined the term “paraskevidekatriaphobia” 20 years ago. He estimates that the nation is out $900 million in lost productivity because of Friday the 13th sick-outs.

“It’s just ingrained in our culture — one of those collective, unconscious fears stretching back about 2,800 years,” Mr. Dossey said. “But it will be all gone tomorrow. By the time you learn to pronounce ‘paraskevidekatriaphobia,’ you’re cured.”

Friday the 13th has had unlucky baggage for centuries, with references to “bad” Fridays cited in the Bible, Norse mythology, Chaucer, French and British history, numerology and folklore sources, Mr. Dossey said.

Presidential hopeful John Edwards must be phobia-free. The former Democratic senator from North Carolina begins his 13th campaign trip to Iowa today, according to the Des Moines Register.

(via 7d and the washington times)

This entry was posted on October 13, 2006, 20:32 and is filed under Grammar, Holiday. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.