Friday the Thirteenth Friday Five

Sophia says: "The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia, a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή) (meaning Friday), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς) (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (φοβία) (meaning fear). The term triskaidekaphobia derives from the Greek words "tris", meaning 'three', "kai", meaning 'and', and "deka", meaning 'ten'. the whole word means three and ten. The word was derived in 1911 and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953. (Wikipedia)With thanks to my dear spouse TechnoGuy for the great suggestion, it's a Friday the 13th Friday Five!"

1. How is this Friday the 13th looking for you? It's just another Friday....work at the day job and then off to R's dad's place tonight. We are going to his brother's to make sausage this weekend. Nothing too spooky about any of that! And I'm not superstitious about my in-laws-to be....yet!

2. Have you ever had anything unlucky happen on Friday the 13th? Not any more than on any other day!

3. Did your family of origin embrace or scorn superstitions? I don't think it ever came up at home. I remember at school going into the dark bathroom to see "Mary White" in the mirror and then running out screaming (must have been in about fourth grade or so).

4. Are there any unique or amusing ones from your family, region, or ethnic background? None...we are pretty boring as these things go....

5. Do you love or hate horror movies like "Friday the 13th"? Hate them. Just like amusement park rides....I never did see the point in courting gratuitous fear....but that's just me.

Soooo...having re-read my answers and feeling pretty darn boring about this whole paraskevidekatriaphobia business....I bring you, coutesy of aol....today's Top Thirteen Bad Events that DID happen on Friday the Thirteenth! Watch out for those black cats under ladders!

1. Friday, October 13, 2006Buffalo, N.Y. experienced an unusually early snow storm which virtually shut down when the metro area was covered in up to two feet of snow. The storm, which began on Thursday the 12th, resulted in the two snowiest days that Buffalo had seen in the 137 years that the National Weather Service had been operating. Schools remained closed for nearly ten days following the snow fall.

2. Friday, August 13, 2004During what proved to be a very busy hurricane season, Hurricane Charley came ashore in Port Charlotte, Florida. The 150 mile per hour winds ransacked the coastal town, uprooting trees, tearing down traffic lights and destroying homes. When the disastrous tempest finally left Florida behind, it also left behind a death toll of ten people and over $15.4 billion in damages throughout the state.

3. Friday, May 13, 2005The Andijan Massacre took place in Adijan, Uzbekistan when troops fired into a crowd of protesters gathered in the central square to voice their anger over growing poverty and other concerns. The final number of deaths is anywhere between 187 to 5,000 depending on who you talk to.
4. Friday, June 13, 1997One of the worst fire tragedies in Indian history occurred on a Friday the 13th when the Uphaar Cinema in New Delhi caught fire during the showing of a patriotic Hindi movie. Upon discovering the fire, those in attendance panicked and caused a stampede which killed 59 people and injured at least 100 more.

5. Friday, September 13, 1996 The death of Tupac Shakur. Shakur, a successful rapper, was shot by a drive-by shooter as he rode in the passenger seat of Suge Knight's car through the streets of Las Vegas on the night of September 7. Six days later, Shakur succumbed to his wounds and passed away.

6. Friday, October 13, 1972This Friday the 13th story has made such an impact that two movies have been inspired by the incident. The Stella Maris College rugby team was supposed to fly to Santiago, Chile on Thursday the 12th but due to poor conditions, the flight was grounded and the trip resumed the next afternoon on Friday the 13th.inspired by the incident.Continuing weather problems forced the pilots to make an educated guess about descent into Chile. They clipped several mountains in the Andes and crashed in the snow covered slopes.Initially, 27 passengers survived the crash. But as food started to run out and the freezing temperatures took their toll, those left struggled to stay alive. A search party, finding no trace of the plane, was called off eight days after the crash and the passengers realized that they needed to escape the mountains on their own. They foraged for warm garments, searched for a way out and eventually had to make the decision to cannibalize their departed companions and classmates to keep from starving.After 72 days in the mountains, two of the survivors found their way to civilization and told people who they were. They then led a rescue team back to their comrades still living in the wreckage of the plane. Only 16 of the original 45 passengers survived the entire ordeal.
7. Friday, March 13, 1992Erzincan, Turkey was rocked on Friday the 13th by an earthquake which measured 6.8 on the richter scale, and took the lives of 500 residents and injured many more. In addition, many of Turkey's citizens were left homeless after this incident.

8. Friday, October 13, 1989After a news report released information about United Airlines' parent company botching a buyout deal for the price of $6.75 million on the morning of Friday the 13th, the stock market plunged to a frightening low for the 1980s. The Dow Jones fell 6.91 percent, the NASDAQ dropped 3.09 percent and the S&P plunged 6.12 percent.

9. Friday, February 13, 1981More than two miles of Louisville, Kentucky roads were destroyed when sewer explosions woke up the entire town at 5:16 AM on Friday the 13th. Since it happened before most sane people were out and about in Old Louisville, no one was hurt or killed in the blasts but witnesses said it looked like a series of bombs exploding.
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10. Friday, June 13, 1930 Sir Henry Segrave was warned not to go out on his boat on Friday the 13th but that didn't keep him from trying to beat the water speed record – an achievement that would cost him his life. He was driving his boat, the Miss England II, in England's largest natural lake, Windermere, when he managed to break the record. But before he could learn how fast he'd gone, the boat hit a log and capsized, immediately killing the on-board mechanic and fatally injuring Segrave. Before he passed away in the hospital, he was informed that he'd broken the record. He died moments later.

11. Friday, January 13, 1939Considered one of the worst natural bush fires in the world, the Black Friday Fires ravaged much of Victoria, Australia on Friday the 13th. Seventy-one people lost their lives and over 1,300 homes were completely destroyed along with entire towns. Some areas are still regrowing after the damage from so many years ago.

12. Friday, December 13, 1867In what appears to have been a grand prison escape attempt, a gunpowder explosion targeted the exercise yard of Clerkenwell Goal, a prison outside of London, on Friday the 13th. The blast killed several bystanders including a few prison officials.

13. Friday, November 13, 1863After what would later be deemed an unfair trial, Josefa "Chipita" Rodriguez became the first and only woman to be legally hanged in Texas when she was executed on Friday the 13th. Convicted on circumstantial evidence, prosecutors never managed to definitively tie Rodriguez, who seemed to be a rather charitable inn keeper, to the axe murder and robbery of a trader named John Savage. In fact, some believe that the woman was really only protecting a man believed to be her illegitimate son.Witnesses to her death claim that she may have even been buried alive. To this day, many believe that Chipita Rodriguez's tortured ghost haunts the region where she was executed and some even suggest that her death resulted in a curse on the entire town which these days only amounts to a little over 300 residents