# What are your superstitions? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 2, 2011, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943 "2011-04-02T14:13:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/41 "2011-04-04T23:27:27Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Yep. I was originally going to respond to **Curtis** with: ‘Yes you do,’ realized it would have been too contentious for such a lighthearted thread, and fought tooth and nail to suppress the urge. 😃 Much appreciated. Not just the OP, but a mod. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/42 "2011-04-05T01:23:36Z")
When I do rounds at the hospital, it’s bad luck to round against gravity. We always start on the top floor and work our way down. It really bugs me when someone is sick or needs to go home and I have to start on another floor. Also, you never, _ever_, make note of the fact that you don’t have many patients in the hospital right now or you haven’t had many admissions today. Yes, I maintain these superstitions while teaching strict evidence-based medicine. Why do you ask? ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/43 "2011-04-05T02:24:47Z")
I guess I’m worse than the average bear because I have my own superstition. To me, the moon at exactly half-full is bad luck (sort of). (Spoiler boxed to prevent the spread of a bad idea) If a half-moon day starts out badly, it will end well. And if that day starts out well, All Hell Will Break Loose (& head in your general direction) before you can shake off your shoes & get to sleep that night. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2011, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/44 "2011-04-05T03:34:24Z")
I do the knock on wood and pick up pennies – but only if they’re heads up. I read somewhere that it’s bad luck to pick up a penny if it’s tails up. My biggest superstitions are related to sports. I HAVE to be wearing a team-related shirt when I’m watching said team playing. If I’m watching the Steelers play, I have my Terrible Towel, and if I’m watching the Penguins, I have my stuffed penguin Sidney nearby. (If I watch on the TV downstairs, I take him with me and set him on the mantle. No, I’m not kidding). And I have this thing about jinxing my teams. My mother is terrible about this. She’ll walk in the room and see the score as 1-0 and say, “Oh, we’re winning.” No, it’s only the first period! Anything could happen, woman!!! Dammit, don’t jinx it! And I’ll never say, “We’re going to get to the Super Bowl/Stanley Cup this year. I always say IF.” That’s not saying I don’t say things like, “yeah, we’re gonna kick your sorry asses from here to Filthadelphia, losers!!!” Trash talk is one thing. Serious? No way. Oddly enough, Friday the 13th has always been GOOD luck for me. I’ve always had good days then. Go figure. When I was in high school, my friend brought me back a pair of earrings when she went to the beach. Whenever I wore them, I had a really good day. I still think of them as my lucky earrings. (I don’t really wear them anymore, since they’re really out of style – big fish.) ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/45 "2011-04-05T15:58:14Z")
Now that I’ve finally listed them, I have a surrpsing number of them. Who knew? Say ‘bless you’ when someone sneezes Pick up pennies Never walk under a ladder Never let a black cat cross my path. The one time I did, I fell down a set of brick stairs. Knock wood for luck Never open an umbrella indoors Throw salt over my shoulder if I’ve spilled it Never whistle in a theater. Bad luck for the production! Always say ‘break a leg’ instead of ‘good luck’ inside the theater itself. You never ever say good luck in a theater! Say ‘bread and butter’ when two people say the same thing at the same time. Never, ever kill anything I find inside the house that doesn’t belong there - provided I can beat the SuperKitties to the kill. Always caught and safely released to the outdoors. I never ever, ever mess with a Ouija board. A Very Bad Idea. Along the same lines, if I even suspect I might have a visitor from beyond (Maggie the SuperKitty seems to think we do on a fairly regular basis! Whatthehell does that cat see, anyway??:eek::eek:) I am unfailingly polite to them. Never a good idea to offend the spirits!😃 ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/46 "2011-04-05T16:41:15Z")
**Scubaqueen** Wait…what… black cats are supposed to be lucky yes? Where are they unlucky? ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/47 "2011-04-05T16:41:17Z")
^and you considered yourself, NOT superstitious before enumerating it? i considered myself mildly superstitious and i only had… 3-4 or so rituals. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/48 "2011-04-05T17:10:03Z")
I’ve never had to knock on wood, but I know someone who has. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2011, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/49 "2011-04-05T17:11:59Z")
Well I say bless you too, but this seems to be as much a social custom as anything - I do not do it out of superstition, but that it is a common thing to do. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2011, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/50 "2011-04-05T17:12:38Z")
> [@manila](#): > > **Scubaqueen** Wait…what… black cats are supposed to be lucky yes? Where are they unlucky? It’s bad luck to cross a black cat’s trail. (Or vise-versa, I think.) I thought that was pretty universally known. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/51 "2011-04-05T17:45:44Z")
Does anyone else make a wish when all the numbers on a digital clock are the same? ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/52 "2011-04-05T17:50:12Z")
> [@TexasDriver](#): > > I wrote several term papers on superstitions (year after year.) Have you heard of this one? If you miss a belt loop putting on your belt, it is bad luck to redo it. Dumb, huh? Sounds very similar to another superstition that if you put on underwear or another garment, it’s good luck, but only if you did it accidentally. I read a lot about different superstitions when I was in middle school, but didn’t have any of them stick. I did pick up one habit - when I lose an eyelash, I place it on the back of my hand and make a wish while blowing it off. More of a quirk than a superstition though. I have one self-created superstition - I feel that when I get a strong sense of déjà vu, it is because something is happening that will make a major change to my life. Of course, if I track this, I don’t find noticable correlation, but it’s a hard concept to shake. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/53 "2011-04-08T07:31:11Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > I’m way too cynical to be superstitious. > Unless I’m on a craps table. I have a quick pre-roll habit of setting the dice to the point–in any configuration. Unless necessary, I’ll only turn one die (i.e., if the point is 6 and a 2 is showing, I’ll turn the other until I get a 4, not switch both to 3s). > > If I’ve made a couple throws (not made point even, just hit a few numbers) I’ll call ‘same die’ if one goes off the table. Ow hell, yeah, dice, umm… Not a gambler, but an RPG player which is more or less the same thing albeit with more dragons. I’ll set my unused dice on the table with the 1s facing down so that all the quantic weight can accumulate on that facet of the die. Then I’ll roll mostly 6s or 20s, you see ? Of course it’s only good practice to set one die aside sitting on the 6 (or 20, or 10), for when you need to roll low. It’s also expected of the DM to hand over his dice if he keeps rolling outrageous shit for his monsters while we’re struggling. And these past few days, my group has been wondering if it had really been wise to let the guy who couldn’t roll higher than 5 on a d20 be our party’s healer. 5 sessions now and the guy has yet to even hit the mean when he rolls his group heal spell, can you believe that ? But again, that has nothing to do with superstition. It’s just RPG statistics, which has fuck all to do with the mathematics subfield known as statistics. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/54 "2011-04-08T11:39:57Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Does anyone else make a wish when all the numbers on a digital clock are the same? uh huh ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/55 "2011-04-08T16:52:54Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > Sounds very similar to another superstition that if you put on underwear or another garment, it’s good luck, but only if you did it accidentally. So, it’s good luck if you … accidentally get dressed? 😃 I’ve accidentally gotten UNdressed, but never the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/56 "2011-04-09T14:19:46Z")
As promised,[a poll.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=604018) ---
**Author:** ![Void1967](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e274bd/32.png) [@Void1967](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Void1967)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/57 "2011-05-16T21:38:09Z")
The kids were home (teenagers) last summer one afternoon sirens went off—Full Metal Lotus and I just froze, being kids of the 70’s and threats of the end of the world etc. we went into meltdown mode. Through fake frozen smiles we listened to the oldest son (In first year University so he doesn KNOW EVERYTHING) explain that we were being superstitious…ewwww…while we looked at the news online to see if all was ok. ---
**Author:** ![spunkymuzicnote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@spunkymuzicnote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spunkymuzicnote)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/58 "2011-05-17T15:27:50Z")
I’ve got two, sort of. Being a theatre person I always tell people to break-a-leg, but that’s really just having fun with history. Plus I don’t want to get yelled at by some superstitious actor. Also I’m not big on walking under ladders. There’s just something about it… I don’t know. I don’t think it’s bad luck though and I will if I have to, but if it isn’t too much difference I’ll go around. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/59 "2011-05-18T02:04:11Z")
I do not tie my shoelaces while golfing. The first time I ever shot par, I was putting on my golf shoes. both shoe laces broke while tying the laces. Pro-shop was closed, no spare laces. My shoes were tight and played with shoe untied. Shot 72. Haven’t tied shoe-laces sent on the golf course. I tighten the laces and then stuff them inside the shoe. ---
**Author:** ![Jaguars](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaguars/32/5879_2.png) [@Jaguars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaguars)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943/60 "2011-05-18T04:25:46Z")
The only common one I adhere to that I could think of was making a wish on birthday candles or a wishbone. My family likes to play the boardgame ‘careers’ which has a blue dice and a pink dice. When only one dice is required, the whole family will _always_ use the pink dice. Every family member and friend who has ever played has taken up this superstition. While the person next to you is talking smack during your turn, hide the pink dice under the table and place the blue dice in front of them. Sit back and watch the consternation! When I was doing my army basic training early this year we lucked out and had good weather. Everyone referred to rain as ‘moisture’ or the ‘wet wind’ (The junior NCOs started it). The EXCON staff sergeant would counter like this: Walk up to the centre your group. Stop. Glare at group. And bellow at the top of his voice ‘_ **COME ON RAIN!** _’ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-superstitions/576943.md?page=4)