To be fair I’m sure that strictly numerically far more fires/airplane crashes/disease outbreaks are caused by casual “let’s get together and drink” encounters than reveal parties; but it would be interesting to know if there is a percentage-wise disparity or it’s just that news editors have an eye out for those…
Best not to risk having a party. There was a woman on the maternity ward with me who was told she was having a girl, and when the baby was born it turned out to be a boy! She was busy calling her family to organise selling all the pink baby things they’d bought, and she and her husband hadn’t even thought about any boy’s names.
They strike me as silly beyond all get out. I never heard of them until I returned to the US four years ago, so I know they’re a fairly recent phenomenon.