Paraskevidekatriaphobia/Triskaidekaphobia

As many people know these words mean fear of Friday the Thirteenth & fear of the number thirteen respectively. This fear is the widest known superstition but it must be examined more closely and neither indulged nor brushed off as a silly and harmless foible of the masses.

With the advent of the highly male-dominated religion of Christianity coming into power, strong female figures in paganism took some fierce hits through some sneaky public relations work by the Church. They became intent on creating a culture of wariness towards anything remotely feminine.

Women have long been depicted as a beneficent figures who create & nurture life as in this image found in a cave who holds a horn that has thirteen notches that represent the thirteen lunar months in a year.

Venus of Laussel, France (circa 25,000 BC)

Before the widely accepted Gregorian twelve month calendar came the lunar thirteen month calendar based on a woman’s menstrual cycle and the moon also long associated with the female persona.

The power of the dozen appears many places: twelve months in a year, twelve apostles of Jesus,12 days of Christmas as well as many items are sold by the dozen. Adding 1 to this makes it seem superfluous and so 13 seems overdone. Many negative events are now placed on Friday the thirteenth such as the torture & deaths of Templars, Adam & Eve dining on fruit et cetera, Cain allegedly killed Abel on this day as well as Jesus being crucified.

After Christianity spread to people who believed in Norse gods the story of 12 gods being at the dinner table gaining a 13th guest, Loki whose presence then threw everything into chaos. Since the personage of Freya is strong and female her image took a hit as well. Friday, the day named in her honor all of a sudden is evil & suspicious.

So, add two “evil” feminine items together and what do you get? An insidious vilification of all things womanly. I say turn this back around. We love Fridays right? It’s the acknowledged end to the workweek, the beginning of fun & debauchery or at the very least sleeping late the next day for most people. There are three Friday-the-thirteenths in the year of 2009; one in February, March & November. I intend to NOT cower in fear inside surrounded by soft objects but boldly plan exciting precipitous events on each of these momentous days as I did on the first one of the year. Forge your own good luck on the thirteenth of each month & quit wasting irreplaceable days!

Note: This was posted originally in February 2009.

My Name Is Not George or How I Learned to Love Wearing Name-tags

Image via Wikipedia

I watched a documentary about the Pullman cars a few months ago & found it fascinating. Trains seem very romantic especially during their heyday. However I did learn something that drastically changed my point of view about a very small yet often despised sticker. I never really cared for those disposable yet ubiquitous name-tags that were always slapped on you & sometimes even misspelled. Frankly, too many guys look at my chest anyway so why give them an extra reason to peruse it. However this has all changed, now I am eager & proud to wear them.

First some quick history. The Pullman company gathered all their waiters & porters from the former slave population. This eventually helped establish a middle-class & they created the first ever union for black workers in the US, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. These men worked long hours & fought against the residual hatreds, prejudices & ignorance that some people barricaded themselves with after slavery was abolished. Since the owner of the Pullman company’s name was “George” it seemed completely reasonable for the passengers to start calling all of the people who worked for him “George” too. For some reason the employees objected to this & it came to the attention of the passengers & from there it was a short jump until it reached the ears of the company managers. Quite a simple & effective measure was shortly established; name-tags.

Hearing this I instantly felt guilty for ever complaining about having my name emblazoned across my chest. People had rightly fought for the right to be addressed by their own names about which I had often grumbled & idly protested.

Also, a very important figure in this is A. Philip Randolph who some credit with starting the civil rights movement. This is the extremely short version of a very interesting part of our history. There is a wealth of information on this subject & this is but one link that might interest you.

http://www.risingfromtherails.com/

Koontz Dug This One Out of the Freezer

Image by EmmaJG via Flickr

Icebound by Dean Koontz was originally published as Prison of Ice under his pen name David Axton in 1976.   Koontz said,  “it was meant to be something of an homage to Alistair MacLean.”   (Maclean  1922-1987, Guns of Navarone, etc.)  It starts with the scientific group getting stuck on a moving iceberg with bombs all around them & gets worse for our intrepid protaganist.  This book was fast-paced & even seemed to echo those huge disaster movies of the time like The Poseidon Adventure and  The Towering Inferno.   Although it was a very early work of Koontz the writing was still top-notch & he definitely had his own “voice” in this book.   Icebound wasn’t one of my favorites because the reason that I love Koontz’s books so much is mainly for the characters.  When the bad guy was unveiled I found myself desperately trying to remember which person he was while in every other book of his I’ve read there is no mistaking the characters whom you grow to know & care about.  Comparing this to the Odd Thomas series feels unsettling because of the limited character development, but compared to most action movies they are remarkedly fleshed out people.  I certainly didn’t feel as if I wasted my time, but Koontz can stick to his forte.

Startup

Image via Wikipedia

Since I’ve been in the spousal equivalent of cryogenic stasis, I am now eagerly watching movies & reading books that had been denied me.  (Cue montage of me, mouth agape & eyes abulge,  watching important stuff that happened in the last ten years.)

Point I’m trying to make if these things seem untimely feel free to skip them or go all out nostalgic with me.