Does the number thirteen bother you? How much?

[aceplace57]

Cecil's Column. Fear of the number 13 is very old and real.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...idered-unlucky

I don't like the number 13. I wouldn't live on the thirteenth floor of a building. I wouldn't visit a doctor or dentist that had offices on the thirteenth floor. I do go to work on Friday the 13th. But, don't like traveling any great distance on Friday the 13th. If possible, I'd reschedule a trip for another day.

I'm not pathological about it. If my boss sends me on a plane for a computer conference, then I'll go on the 13th. But, will buy travel insurance and say a few prayers.

How about you? Fess up.

WTF are we going to do about 2013? Me? I will always refer to it as 2013. Never as the year 13. Anyway 2013 isn't evenly divided by 13. That's a relief.

[PandaBear77]

Nope, doesn't bother me. I hate all numbers.

[Hampshire]

Doesn't bother me a bit. Give me room 13 on the 13th floor on the 13th of any month and pay me $113K to throw a 13th birthday party for 13 kids and I'll be there.

[Emtar KronJonDerSohn]

I like primes and squares. 13 is prime.

[Leaffan]

No.

[kayaker]

It's a number. Just like 666, etc. I do like me some 420 though.

[aceplace57]

You guys should have booked seats on Apollo 13. NASA was laughing at the superstition too. Right up until that astronaut flipped the switch to stir up the cryo tanks.

At least I don't worry about cracks on the sidewalk or ladders. Most superstitions I totally ignore.

[aruvqan]

Originally Posted by kayaker

It's a number. Just like 666, etc. I do like me some 420 though.

LOL - this
<passes the bong along, no bogarting here!>

[Lanzy]

Bakers dozen is a good thing.

[Balance]

It doesn't bother me a bit. It's not my favorite number, but that's not its fault--I just like pi. It's an irrational preference.

[DrDeth]

In America, 13 is a Lucky number. This is why in the Winchester Mystery House e.g. you have a lot of 13's.

[Eyebrows 0f Doom]

It's just a number. Who cares?

[papergirl]

It doesn't bother me at all, but when I worked in surgery in the hospital, we had 13 surgical suites--and they were numbered 1-12, and 31. The "31" was a paper sign taped over the orignal "13." No one would admit to being superstitious; everyone blamed another group of medical people for it.

[Red Wiggler]

In my youth, it was always the jersey number I requested.

[silenus]

It concerns me a lot, because it is my "lucky" number.

[Sr Siete]

Just the opposite, like Emtar, I like primes.

[apollonia]

I won't fly on the 13th (willingly), nor on the 13th row of a plane/bus/train. I wouldn't live on the 13th floor, buy a house numbered 13, or rent apartment number 13, if I had any other option.

I am especially wary of scheduling anything important (medical procedures, dental procedures, airplane flights, etc.) on a Friday the 13th.

[Senegoid]

Friday the 13th? Bah!

If Walt Kelley were still with us, he would not fail to remind us that Friday the 13th falls on a Monday this month! If I may take in vain the name of another Straight Dope contributor: Rowrrbazzle!

[thelurkinghorror]

Originally Posted by DrDeth

In America, 13 is a Lucky number. This is why in the Winchester Mystery House e.g. you have a lot of 13's.

For every American who considers it lucky, there are 99 who consider it unlucky.

I wouldn't, say, buy a condo on the 13th floor because I would be worried about superstition affecting resale. Otherwise I don't care. I don't have a bad luck wind blowin' on my back.

I greet every Friday 13th with: "Bwuh? That's today?"

[Asimovian]

As someone who was born on Friday the 13th, I can honestly say the number doesn't bother me at all. The rest of you, however, should be VERY worried...

[Hampshire]

Originally Posted by kayaker

It's a number. Just like 666, etc.

The little girl across the street from me was born on 6/6/2006. She's 6 now and has done nothing as of yet to convince me that she is the anitchrist.
The 10 year-old boy that lives next to us on the other hand....

[Anaamika]

I don't care and I really really don't understand why anyone still subscribes to these old primitive superstitions. But then, I am so non-supersititous I must be whatever the opposite is. I will do anything on the 13th and barely notice when it is.

[Chimera]

I blame Jesus.

After all, it's his fault that he chose 12 guys to hang out with, making 13 total. You'd think it would be a 'lucky' number based on that, but nooooo...

[SpoilerVirgin]

I first learned about Friday the 13th when I was about 10 years old. I was having a very good day (I can't remember why, but I think there was cake involved), and someone explained the superstition to me. I thought, "Well I'm having a great day, so Friday the 13th must be lucky for me," and that's what I've believed ever since. I don't think too much about 13 as a number (my lucky number is 11), but when it comes up, I tend to associate it with good luck because of Friday the 13th.

[Lucky 13]

Look at my username to see how much it concerns me.

[Malleus, Incus, Stapes!]

3 is one of my favorite numbers, so I like 13.

[Michael63129]

Why would a number by itself mean anything? Numbers are just a concept invented by humans to count and are otherwise meaningless. Same goes for other numbers, "good" or "bad". They only mean anything when referring to some physical measure and only in that context, such as if I bought a dozen eggs and there were 13 eggs instead of 12, then all the better since I got a free egg (yes, I know that egg cartons can't possibly hold another egg). And sure, some bad event could happen (and has happened) on a calendar day that happened to be the 13th. That doesn't make the number 13 magical though.

[Kamino Neko]

It does bug me a bit, but not for the standard triskaidekaphobic reasons.

It's just that...it's not a multiple of 2, 3 or 5, thus is a WRONG number. (Yes, I have strange hangups.)

[rat avatar]

Yes..but also for non standard reasons also..some times causes me to acquire an ear worm of the Pixie's song Number 13.

Got hair in a girl
that flows to her bones...

[Johanna]

In many a twelvemonth, to use an old term, there are 13 full moons, and a woman on a 28-day menstrual cycle will be "unclean," as Leviticus has it, 13 times a year. The moon has long been a female symbol, and the full moon, (male) chroniclers tell us, is when (female) witches fly. I hesitate on that evidence alone to ascribe triskaidekaphobia to the fell hand of the patriarchy. But 13's bad reputation may have more to do with fear of women, witchcraft, and disorder than is commonly supposed.

— Cecil Adams

This is precisely why I like 13. Mathematics first began to be developed in the Paleolithic by women tracking their periods by making notches in bones. Women invented the calendar this way which was probably the earliest beginnings of math. Compare the Proto-Indo-European roots *men- 'mind' and 'measure' *me- with the root for 'moon': *me-. Coincidence? Really?

Originally Posted by kayaker

It's a number. Just like 666, etc. I do like me some 420 though.

668
The Neighbor of the Beast!

[Hari Seldon]

I love all numbers that are sums of four or fewer perfect squares. 13 = 2^2 + 3^2.

[GuanoLad]

I have no issue at all with 13.

I wish there had been 13 months of 28 days (4 weeks of 7 days), with an extra day (called New Year's Day) making up the 365 days in a year. It would be so much tidier.

[foolsguinea]

I have positive feelings about 13, actually. It's five and ten that annoy me; not that they're unlucky, they just seem like they're snobs or something.

[blondebear]

I was born on the 13th, so I'm good with it.

[Der Trihs]

Nope, it's just another number to me.

[Nava]

I was born on March (the month of Mars) 13th (the number of Mars), but by the time I was done it wasn't a Tuesday any more (which is the day of Mars, and here is also the one which in Spain is traditionally associated with bad luck when it's a 13th), it was a Wednesday. Time of birth, 12:47 (apparently the obstetrician was as sick of me as I was of him, and the only reason I wasn't calling him a bloody butcher is that I still didn't have the vocabulary for it).

This Martian picks 13 when it's available.

[Mona Lisa Simpson]

My parents had their first date on a Friday the thirteenth, and as a result have always treated those days as "lucky." Considering they have been married almost 47 years and the first date was almost 48 years ago, I see no need to be triskadecaphobic.

[Chefguy]

A lot, as every May 13th I get a year older.

[ducati]

Born on Friday the 13th.
1300 hours.
Weighed 13 pounds.
Adopted at 13 months old, final papers signed April Fool's Day.

I'm the unluckiest bastard I've ever known. Probably won't even win the lottery tonight.

Again.

[Lynn Bodoni]

I used to kind of like 13. Then my father died on the 13th, so I no longer like this number, or at least as it applies to days of the month, because every time the 13th rolls around, I remember.

[cmyk]

Originally Posted by Emtar KronJonDerSohn

I like primes and squares. 13 is prime.

Same here. I actually like it, over being indifferent.

I like odd numbers better than even in general, as well—in the vague, asthetic sense.

[Maserschmidt]

I am a fan of 13.

[Antigen]

It's just a number. I can't say I have strong feelings for or against it, really.

[BigT]

Originally Posted by kayaker

It's a number. Just like 666, etc. I do like me some 420 though.

See, 13 doesn't bug me, but 666 still does.

[Khadaji]

Not at all.

[Machine Elf]

13 pisses me off. well, not the number itself, but people's fear of it. I regularly encounter buildings with no thirteenth floor. Seriously, the buttons in the elevator skip from 12 to 14. How stupid is that?

[thelurkinghorror]

Originally Posted by Machine Elf

13 pisses me off. well, not the number itself, but people's fear of it. I regularly encounter buildings with no thirteenth floor. Seriously, the buttons in the elevator skip from 12 to 14. How stupid is that?

Check out the picture here for an extreme example from China.

[DMark]

When I worked in NYC, to get to our office, you had to press 12A in the elevator, which was the floor directly between floor 12 and 14. Didn't fool anybody, but I guess it looked better for superstitious people coming to our office.

I met my SO at a bar in Berlin that still exists - the name of the bar? Dreizehn (German word for 13). We have been together 31 years - or as you dyslexics would interpret as 13.

So, 13 has been a lucky number for me.

[thelurkinghorror]

Dyslexics would interpret it as "We hvae bene toeghter 31 yaers" (poetic license)

Dyscalculics would intpret it as "We have been together 13 years." Or in other cases, "officer, I have dyscalculia! I heard her say she was 51."

[ralph124c]

I'm fine with 13. The numbers I don't like are 5, 7, 11, and 213.