Anti-Bad Luck Society

I never knew there was an “Anti-Bad Luck Society” until yesterday, when I ran into it while reading the latest issue of Scientific American. Seems as how the magazine wrote something about it in their issue of March 1859.

My thanks to them, as I wasn’t there at the time.

They noted the proposition held by “some brave Frenchmen” to the effect that to prove a superstition as nonsense is simply bold defiance.

I know that, you silly scientists. Walked under ladders, broke a mirror, let a black cat cross my path – and I’m still here.

It is “bad luck,” they tell us “everybody knows,” to begin anything on a Friday (so they will have regularly have dinners on that day), to sit down at a table with 13 (the number of guests at said dinners – a twofer, I guess), or to spill salt between yourself and a friend (which they will do all around during dinner -- a threepeat).

The piece is small and does not mention mirrors, cats of color black, ladders and other implements of misfortune. Did they drag all of this into the dining room of disaster?

I tried running this through Google, but all I found were four references: Two for the pre-posting of this blog and two for Scientific American.