The Baboon Congress

On Flight 666 to HEL

66 Comments

today’s post comes from tim

i am superstitious.

i heard the comment that i never miss a day on the blog and sure enough i missed two days in a row for the first time in however long because of the stupid busy schedule i had in front of me.
i went to the saints game the other night with my kids and my son said the pitcher had a no hitter going through 3 and sure enough the next pitch was hit for a bloop single into right, then later he said the pitcher had not had someone get a good swing at it the whole night and the next pitch was a home run for the bad guys.
we won the game but only because my son shut up. im convinced.
i will not do the number 666 or i will pass on an opportunity if it is there or be suspicious if it shows up.
13 gets my attention
heres a news item  remember from a while back when a friday the 13th happened.

(NEWSER) – Would you board flight 666 to HEL on Friday the 13th? For superstitious travelers, that might be tempting fate. But Finnair passengers on AY666 to Helsinki—which has the 3-letter designation HEL—don’t seem too bothered. Today’s flight is almost full. “It has been quite a joke among the pilots” says one Finnair veteran, who will fly the Airbus A320 from Copenhagen to Helsinki. “I’m not a superstitious man. It’s only a coincidence for me.”

The daily flight AY666 from Copenhagen to Helsinki falls on Friday the 13th twice in 2013. Some airlines, like Scandinavian Airlines, take superstitions seriously and don’t have a row 13 on board. However, the negative connotations are a relatively new phenomenon for northern Europeans, and Finnair and other regional carriers like Norwegian and Estonian Air keep row 13. As one expert on comparative folklore points out, “Less than 100 years ago, the number 13 did not have this sinister meaning; it’s quite recent in the north.”

id knock on some wood, turn around 3 times and throw some salt over my shoulder. my kids say break a leg before they go on stage, i notice baseball players who wont step on the line going on or off the field.

you?

66 thoughts on “On Flight 666 to HEL”

  1. Good morning. It wasn’t too long ago when I would avoid stepping on cracks in sidewalks. I finally decided that was silly and no longer do that. Step a crack and break your mother’s back? Really?

    The number 13 does make me a little nervous. I don’t avoid using that number. However,something in the back of mind tells me that 13 might be an unlucky number and gives me an uneasy feeling about that number.

    I also am slightly superstitious about walking under ladders although I don’t avoid walking under ladders. I guess any of the well known superstition make me a little nervous. How do I know that in some way or another they might have some validity. There is no way to completely prove that anything is wrong, even a very silly superstition.

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  2. Morning all.

    If you missed the excitement late yesterday… the first broadcast of “Keepers By Request” is Friday, Sept. 4th at noon. It will be repeated Sunday, Sept. 6th at 7pm. AND it will be posted on the Radio Heartland website afterwards.

    AND, Dale will be co-“dj-ing” for part of the show!!!

    And now back to our regularly scheduled program…..

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. the big news was that dale is the programa director at kfai.
      dales got a job that fits his abilities. hes getting too damn good at delegating though. he used to post that the only time you heard him on the radio was when he failed to get someone to be the broadcaster and now look whats hes doing on the trail. he has turned himself into the ultimate delagator model.
      congrats dale and thanks for getting involved in the radio heartland ditty. we appreciate it.

      Liked by 4 people

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      1. Congratulations to Dale on the J-O-B! Well deserved.

        I suspect the Trail will be delegation model from now on with that kind of a job for Dear Leader. Maybe he will consent to be a contributor.

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  3. I don’t think I’m superstitious but then again, I do sometimes worry about jinxing something (like not telling everybody about Dale doing the Keepers show tomorrow in case something fell through).

    I also don’t walk under ladders, but mostly because it doesn’t seem like very smart thing to do!

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  4. I don’t walk under ladders because there might be paint on that ladder that will fall on my head. I have a scar on my knee that comes from a broken mirror (long story). I say “break a leg” more out of tradition that superstition, but I do refer to that Shakespeare play about the murderous Scot as “The Scottish Play” because I can’t bring myself to use its proper name outside of an English Lit discussion. Black cats, however, well…they’re just fuzzy and cute.

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    2. I dare to say “Macbeth” as long as I’m not actually in a theater! I thought it was referred to as “The Scottish Tragedy”. 🙂

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  5. Rise and Don’t Look Into That Cracked Mirror Baboons!

    I can be sort of superstitious, but not very. I don’t like Friday the 13th, but I have never experienced a disaster that day either. I don’t walk under ladders but that is because stuff can fall, ala Anna’s comment. Cracked mirrors don’t reflect an image all that well.

    I have had a fair amount of bad luck and good luck. The luck does not seem related to factors above. Yet the only prize I ever won is a free ham. But maybe that is because I never remember to buy a lottery ticket.

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  6. Husband and I like to comment on what we consider good omens. Large birds of prey on fence posts, dreams with animals (especially pugs), result in a “that’s good luck” comments. One of our native friends says that ravens are portents of snow storms, and that he can predict the depth of the snow in the coming winter by the height of the bee hives in the trees in the draws in the autumn.

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  7. Well, it’s kind of hard to be in my line of religion and not come off as a bit superstitious. OTOH, we usually have a reason for doing/not doing something, which will sound bogus to rationalists but at least makes sense in context. like doing things in threes, stirring pots clockwise (which for some reason is really hard for me to do!), and so on. Black cats are hardly likely to bother me (I’ve had 3 so far), and I take oracles from crows so I’m always glad to see some. I do say the “find a penny” rhyme, in order to encourage the spirits to pony up with the good luck. The number 13 is just the number of moons in a year, far as I’m concerned, and walking under ladders…just doesn’t seem safe.

    I could tell I’ve gone a long way into a pagan mindset when I was at our last poetry group meeting. One of the others had written a facetious poem about elves and fairies, and during the discussion I caught myself thinking, “They’re being really disrespectful about the Fair Folk. They’re talking about them like they’re not even real…oh, wait…” Yeah. All of my friends are atheists of one stripe or another, and I think I’m a bit of an embarrassment. I’ve learned I’m not supposed to talk much when I’m around them.

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    3. Now that you have brought it to my attention, I realize I stir counter-clockwise too (mostly).

      Should see how things turn out if I reverse that.

      For science!

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    1. I’ll never forget the woman I worked with at the MN Revenue, who took vacation on Friday the 13th, because she was so scared of something bad happening. Judging by her cube, she was a member of the dominant monotheism, so I found her fear extremely confusing. I thought I remembered being taught in parochial school that superstition was a sin because it denied the power of God, but hey, not my religion any more, so I didn’t say anything.

      Steve, sorry for your bad experience, no matter what day it was! I don’t blame you for your touch of PTSD.

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      2. My friend, Tia, is of Polish descent and brought up strictly Catholic. Her parents were both born in the old country. I have never met people more superstitious than they. Tia is extremely smart, but apparently, intelligence has nothing to do with it. I’ve asked her explain to me how she can possibly believe that if you are trying to sell your house quickly, it helps to bury a statue of St. Joseph, upside down, in your yard. Apparently, there are even places who sell St. Joseph home sale kits.

        Steve, was that the trick you used?

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        1. Sorry. I’ve had medical stuff today and haven’t been here much. The “trick” that sold my house was mostly cosmetic improvements and careful styling to create a home that would not turn off prospective buyers. I invested a significant amount to upgrade the home, especially the kitchen. From a different perspective, the “trick” was having wonderful friends who worked so hard to make the place attractive.

          Liked by 1 person

    2. That’s nothing. I’ve seen squirrels hang upside down by their toes while eating out of a bird feeder. Funniest damn thing ever.

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  13. Not superstitious in the least. Some events are happenstance and nothing I could do would change the outcome. More often than not, I have control of my life.

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  14. A couple of times I’ve left a store with something on the rack below the cart or eating a pastry while I shop for which I’ve forgotten to pay. The devil in me convinced me to refrain from going back into the store, do the honest thing and pay for the item. Within a moment of driving home, I felt a dark cloud of karma descend and envelope me. For days, I’d feel guilty and unhinged, believing that I’d brought some unknown fate upon myself which would show up as a lesson (negative event). I’ve also had this happen if I’ve shared information about another person which bordered on gossip. Or was gossip.

    Doing anything less than forthright and above board fills me with dread and is never worth the cost. Believing in karma, however, feels like superstition.

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    1. Yes, but doing the right thing because of fear of retribution still has you doing the right thing. Ideally, we’d all do the right thing because it is right and not because we fear the consequences if we cheat. But in this world, with all of its flaws, I’m happy to see folks doing the right thing for the wrong reason. Maybe that’s as good as it gets, y’know?

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  15. Sometimes at work the printer on our floor breaks down, and one of my coworker fixes it by making the sign of the cross over it. Superstition? Dumb Luck? Who knows.

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    1. Fifteen years ago we had an old computer that only worked when my son was in the house. He went to college, it stopped working. He came back at Christmas, computer worked.

      He is a techie now.

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  16. I will occasionally knock on wood (if available) but otherwise am not very superstitious. I don’t walk under ladders for safety reasons. My sister has two black cats that I adore. Friday the 13th is just another day. I dreaded full moons while still working because that usually meant a very busy shift on the NICU – but since retirement, they no longer bother me.

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  17. When Friday the 13th hits on a Friday (as per Pogo’s dread) I lay low, when it lands on other days of the week (as per Pogo), not so bad.

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  19. I have no problem touching wood or tossing some salt over my shoulder.

    It hurts no one and life if plenty chancey enough as it is.

    I always say the s&h was born under a lucky star and as he is hearing the stories of his early life, he is beginning to believe it too.

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    1. Interesting! I like the bit about the hotel that seats a cat sculpture at your table if your dinner party comprises an unfortunate number. That would be fun.

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