Rant #2,446: Scream

Good morning, you superstitious people among us.

Today is Friday the 13th.

Are you scared to walk out the door?

Are you scared to see a black cat come your way?

Will you avoid ladders completely today, so you don't have to walk under any?

This is one of those strange yearly things that I have never gotten, never really fully understood.

Bad things are supposed to happen today, and the only thing bad that I can remember happening on a Friday the 13th in the past is that my current place of work had two separate purges in two separate years on this day, firing several employees.

Yeah, that made me a bit scared, but here I am, my place of business is somehow still open, and I am still there after more than 23 years.

Go figure.

And on the opposite side of the spectrum, Friday the 13th has been quite good for the movie producers who created that film franchise, which over several releases, have taken in billions of dollars.

So Friday the 13th isn't really that bad after all, is it?

And this particular Friday the 13th we are celebrating today is so close to the mother of all scary holidays--next month's Halloween--that it kind of mutes the horror that we all face on that very-special-but-getting-less-special kids holiday, which has seemingly morphed from a children's holiday to an adult one in the span of a generation.

And the very title of this Rant, "Scream," comes from a Michael Jackson song. And sorry to say, he was a real life horror story, no matter how many ways you cut it (and with his bent for plastic surgery, he sure did).

So, what is big deal about Friday the 13th anyway?

According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th), Friday the 13th is considered to be an unlucky day in Western superstition, and it happens at least once every year but can occur up to three times in the same year. There will be two Friday the 13ths every year until 2020, and the years 2021 and 2022 will have only one Friday the 13th each.

And, a Friday the 13th occurs any month that begins on a Sunday.

So there you have it. Bet you didn't realize that last fact. I know that I didn't.

I am hoping today is a lucky day for me. That would mean that work moves swiftly, the day is over before I can blink, and the great thing about Friday the 13th is that it leads right into the weekend.

For someone who works for the weekend, how can I be afraid on Friday the 13th if it leads into Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th?

The only bad thing, then, at least to me, about Friday the 13th is that I have to get through it.

And at a little after 5 a.m. in the morning as I type this, I have more than 12 hours left before, for all intents and purposes, my weekend begins, so I am basically on third base looking at home plate right now.

Friday the 13th? As they say, a mere bag of shells.

Speak to you again on Monday. Have a great weekend.