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Superstition

Are magpies the Southern Hemisphere's equivalent of seagulls?
 
At Primary School in the '60s the Dinner Ladies put sixpences and thruppenny bits in the Christmas Pud at the end of term. If you found one you had STAND on your chair in the Dinner hall, wave the coin in the air and say "Hello little sixpence" or " Hello little thruppence" whilst receiving a smattering of applause from your choking peers.

At work if I pick up loose change from the floor I say 'Come to Momma, little penny!' before pocketing it.

I carry a magnet on an extendable rod to collect the more elusive coins.
 
Swooping from the sky with a blood-curdling shriek, the magpies that gather around parliament in Canberra have been tormenting politicians by pecking them on the head.

MPs have been left bleeding and some have suffered injuries to their eyes, officials say.

We badly need those magpies over'ere.
 
I carry a magnet on an extendable rod to collect the more elusive coins.
Are you telling me that through some sort of bitter irony my coppers are actually ferrous? I had kind of reconciled myself to the fact that silver coins had no actual silver in them, but now I feel properly brassed off. Are there no depths they won't plumb?
 
After reading a section in Animals In Translation by Temple Grandin about how pigeons and pigs have been observed to develop superstitions I totally dropped any slight nod to superstition myself. It is a function of the brain connected with learning that can become overblown and is totally meaningless.

Well yeah, we knew that! We don't really think we'll win the lottery if we get the big end of the wishbone.

It'd be nice though. Just saying.
 
Are you telling me my coppers are actually ferrous? I had kind of reconciled myself to the fact that silver coins had no actual silver in them, but now I feel properly brassed off. Are there no depths they won't plumb?

Haha, I see what you did there!

'Copper' coins can be picked up with a magnet. Silver ones can't, except I think 5p pieces. I always, ALWAYS pick up loose change wherever it is.* It's like a little personal superstition.

*Except if it's dangerous. I'm not stupid. I send someone else.
 
I have a couple of lifelong superstitious habits (greeting a solitary magpie, chucking split salt over my left shoulder) which I picked up from my gran when I was very young, and I am always interested to hear about other people's superstitions. But it dawned on me recently that I have 'caught' a new superstition.

I met MrL when I was nearly 20 and he holds the superstition, first heard at his secondary school and also followed by his schoolfriends, that you have to avoid walking over three drain covers on the pavement or you pick up bad luck. I went along with this, mainly because it was just easier when walking along next to someone (even sometimes holding hands!!!) to be ready to lurch suddenly to one side of the pavement or another to avoid the three drain covers. He would also get anxious if I stepped on them myself. I would never mock or criticise someone else's superstition and reader, I married him.

Fast forward nearly (*cough*) 20 years, and a few weeks ago I realised when I was walking home from work by myself that I was avoiding the triple drain covers - there are two on my route and I have always skipped over them. Perhaps a kind of muscle memory, but I found that when I deliberately walked over a trio I did in fact feel a bit uncomfortable. So I have picked up a superstition that I'd never heard of for the first two decades of my life, that I didn't believe when I first encountered, and that I was under no obligation to follow when I wasn't with MrL...
 
Haha, I see what you did there!

'Copper' coins can be picked up with a magnet. Silver ones can't, except I think 5p pieces. I always, ALWAYS pick up loose change wherever it is.* It's like a little personal superstition.

*Except if it's dangerous. I'm not stupid. I send someone else.
Yeah, the copper coins these days are a sandwich of copper and steel. They used to be solid copper once.
 
These politicians need cable-tie helmets. Swooping from the sky with a blood-curdling shriek, the magpies that gather around parliament in Canberra have been tormenting politicians by pecking them on the head. MPs have been left bleeding and some have suffered injuries to their eyes, officials say. Fiona Knight, the building services branch assistant secretary, said that the magpies had become a menace in many courtyards and outdoor spaces. According to experts, they are unlikely to leave of their own accord; Australian magpies can occupy the same territory for their entire life — up to 20 years. To combat the threat, countermeasures such as scares resembling hawks are being deployed, including recordings of the noise they make. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/mps-under-attack-from-parliaments-angry-birds-3sfbpcvtd

Hitchcock for PM.
 
I found a penny yesterday. I don't usually think finding a penny is a lucky thing, but I found this one after a hard rain washed things around. It was a 1957 penny--my birth year. Should I carry it forever in my pocket or put it in my shoe?

Impress your mates by saying you found it metal detecting.
Then bore your mates by telling them how much you spent on the detector.
Ha! We became fans of the TV Detectorists a couple of years ago and were pleased to find a decent detector at a thrift store around last Christmas.:curt:
 
Boots or shoes on a bed were bad luck.

I've just remembered three more Korean ones that have fairly wide currency:

1) You don't buy footwear as a gift for a boy- or girlfriend as it encourages them to leave you (walk away...).

2) Washing your hair the night before a big exam is unwise as it may 'wash away' the facts you have memorised.

3) Whistling at night may summon snakes (this, I think, is rather rural and old-fashioned. It comes to me through my mother-in-law who always tells me to be quiet when I whistle in the ubiquitous subterranean carparks with great acoustics). To which my daughter always replies. "Day-O! Dayee-ee-ee-O!" [daylight come and me wanna go home...]
 
A notoriously superstitious bunch in the US in this day and age is...baseball players! If you've ever seen the movie Bull Durham, you'll see some examples.

I strongly suspect that it's because there's is so much time between 'at bats' that those teammates in the dugout keep thinking up ways to help their team win via voodoo, or to put a hex on the opposing team's pitcher. Then there's the 'lucky bat' or 'lucky socks.' On my favorite team there are two players who are pals, who sit in the dugout together, side by side, with their arms raised, bent at the elbow, with their pinky fingers linked. This is either to prevent a double play against their own team or cause one for the opposing team. I forget which.

Baseball viewers are also superstitious about when and how they watch the games so that their team will win. I know somebody who will only listen to the games on the radio, because he says his team always loses if he watches on TV.

In a game like ice hockey, there's no damn time to be superstitious, about playing or watching.
 
As a Brit I know nothing about this game but didn't one of them play with a cabbage leaf on his head?
I had never heard of that before, so I did a quick google. Turns out, it was players in South Korea, the cabbage was frozen, and they did it to keep cool in summer. It's been nixed since. So no superstition involved.
Story here.
 
Yes I should have done that in the first place. Turns out I was thinking of this guy

https://www.biography.com/news/babe-ruth-facts-biography

and like the Koreans, it was to keep cool and nothing superstitious. They say. ;)
I had no idea! I wouldn't be surprised if the South Koreans had read about Babe Ruth's vegetable technique.

Turns out, I have a slight connection to the Babe. I got married in the same historic wedding chapel in Maryland where he had his second wedding. It even looked the same as back then. Charming place! But they finally sold the place and the whole building was turned into an office building. :(
 
I’m not a particularly a religious person, but is it just me that doesn’t like throwing away religious paraphernalia that has been given to me in the street, by Jehovah witnesses , or Buddhists etc.

First day back in the office today since COVID, and I have been presented with 4 boxes of toot that had been accumulating in my desk draw these past 12 years, - back in the summer the company employed a firm to empty all the desk draws and put the items into boxes.

Amongst other religious items, I’ve counted 6 watch tower pamphlets, 3 wooden crosses, and 4 red and gold Buddhist good luck tokens.

I keep them as it seems wrong to throw away something that has been given to me as a blessing by a total stranger.

What do you think, am I a geek for keeping this stuff or just completely overly superstitious..?
 
I’m not a particularly a religious person, but is it just me that doesn’t like throwing away religious paraphernalia that has been given to me in the street, by Jehovah witnesses , or Buddhists etc.

First day back in the office today since COVID, and I have been presented with 4 boxes of toot that had been accumulating in my desk draw these past 12 years, - back in the summer the company employed a firm to empty all the desk draws and put the items into boxes.

Amongst other religious items, I’ve counted 6 watch tower pamphlets, 3 wooden crosses, and 4 red and gold Buddhist good luck tokens.

I keep them as it seems wrong to throw away something that has been given to me as a blessing by a total stranger.

What do you think, am I a geek for keeping this stuff or just completely overly superstitious..?
Do you believe in any of that stuff?
If not, bin it!
 
dream of fish and you will become pregnant
As mentioned before, when I was friendly with a local West Indian family the mother would keep her several adult female daughters' maternity dresses until they needed them.

When a daughter was at that finger-counting/frowning stage, or even before, when she visited her mother the dresses would be hanging from the picture rail, all laundered and ready to wear. Mother knew before they did because she'd dreamed of fish.
 
OK. I have a few to offer; these come from my Polish-American peasant forebears. For those who may find these unbelievable, I assure you that these were actually told to me. …and yes, there is a distinct theme to some of these. Most of these seem more like things told to children/girls/women to control their behavior, than actual superstitions. They were widespread in my ethnic neighborhood.

Sitting on a concrete sidewalk will give you anal worms IF and only if you were a girl. Boys were exempt.
If you are a girl, you must not exercise or run too hard as you may accidentally destroy your virginity (and so a good man will not marry you).
If you are a girl, you must not exercise too much because it will make you too hairy (and so a good man will not marry you).
If you have a baby with the father being a different racial/ethnic group, your later children may inherit this even if their father is white/Polish, etc. (and so a good man will not marry you).

If you fall asleep outside, certain types of insects like dragonflies may be attracted to your breath, and enter (through your open mouth or your nose) your stomach or lungs and lay eggs there.
During a thunderstorm, do not go near a mirror as the lightning may strike you as it seeks the mirror.
It is possible to catch cancer by breathing in the air close to someone who has cancer.
Do not let a stranger see or come close to a baby (gypsies, evil eye).
Watching television can allow the devil to enter your thoughts.
 
If you are a girl, you must not exercise too much because it will make you too hairy
There's an element of truth in this. A woman who works out a lot may produce a little bit of extra testosterone, which may cause an increase in body hair.
 
Well, my crazy ass childhood gave me so much motivation - to not be that way. As in, extreme motivation :)
Yes, exercise, testosterone, and hairiness are linked; but at least for me, I have exercised my whole life, have high testosterone for a woman, and still do not shave my face.

I agree with Nosmo King - a lot of stuff is just to manipulate you into a certain behavior. The manipulation does not need to be fully consciously invented or acted upon to be real.
 
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