Category: Just Because

 

From Bustle:

Humor me for a moment, and try to think back to where you were in 2006. If you also unwittingly conjured a bunch of images of frizzy hair, braces, and angsty sing alongs to Taylor Swift's "Teardrops On My Guitar" in the back of your mom's minivan, then you're not alone. Why, you may be wondering, did I just take you on a journey back to your pimple-ridden, t-shirt layering, pre-Gossip Girl youth? Because if you're wondering how often Friday the 13th happens in October, you should first wrap your mind around the fact that we haven't had one since 2006…and according to my good friend math, that means this is the first one we've had in eleven years. [This was published in 2017 – MA]

That being said, you won't have to wait as long for the next one, which will come in 2023. As for how often it occurs, it just depends on Leap Years and our good old friend the Gregorian calendar; we can go anywhere from five and eleven years between October, Friday the 13ths. (For future reference, in case you like to plan your memes ahead: the next few are 2023, 2028, 2034, 2045, 2051, 2056, 2062, 2073, 2079, 2084, and 2090. If you manage to live longer than that, don't @ me, because I personally plan on dying of butter consumption long before then.)

But why, exactly, is it so spooky to have Friday the 13th happen in October than any other month? It's not just because it's rare—it's because one of the more popularly documented origins of the superstition took place on October, Friday the 13th.

A medieval society known as the Knights Templar were arrested on Friday, October 13, 1307 by French King Philip IV; the Knights Templar, a group of mostly unmarried men, were paid handsomely by Christian pilgrims for their protection during the crusades. Apparently they amassed enough of a fortune that when King Philip IV was low on funds himself, he initiated the arrest of hundreds of them on the grounds of heresy, which is—well—bad luck if you're one of the Knights Templar.

This didn't stop people from theorizing that the knights were actually involved in shenanigans within the church, or they discovered legendary treasure, and all sorts of far more interesting fates. But despite their unfortunate arrests and the timing, more documented incidents of that particular Friday the 13th being an "unlucky" day didn't really start to stick until the 20th century, when authors began to reference it in their works (most notably The Iron King in 1955, and The Da Vinci Code in 2003). From there, the idea of October, Friday the 13th being a super spooky day instead of just a baseline spooky one seemed to take on a life of its own.

Friday the 13th may have been causing unease long before that particular one in October, though, because in Western superstition, both the number 13 and Fridays are considered historically unlucky; some people theorize that it may hark back to the Bible, as 13 people were at the Last Supper, and Jesus died on Good Friday.

As for the October factor, Knights Templar aside, October itself is a known ~spooky month~. A lot of the things we associate with Friday the 13th — superstition, magic, black cats (which are pure and good and must be protected)—we also associate with Halloween. It's kind of a psychological double whammy considering that alone; when you put the 11 year wait from the last one into the mix, it's no wonder people are more hyped about this particular Friday the 13th than they have been over others in recent past.

Whether or not you choose to acknowledge Friday the 13th this year, stay safe, y'all—and try not to let any French kings rob you of the cold, hard cash you pillaged and protected for.

And for those of you who (like me, obviously) were curious, we haven't had an October Friday the 13th full Moon (adding to the spookiness) since the year 2000—and the last one prior to that it was in 1905. I haven't been able to find definitively how often this confluence of events occurs, but based on the two dates I was able to dig up, it looks to be approximately 90-100 years.

Back in the mid 90s, I seriously doubted I would live to see this birthday. Even though I kept testing negative, after attending multiple weekly funerals and watching friends drop like flies from AIDS, planning for my "retirement" wasn't even a thing I remotely considered having to worry about. When the small architectural firm I was working for at the time set up a 401K for me, I immediately cashed it out, telling them, "I don't expect to live to see 65."

And yet, here we are…

What's your poison?

I am a digital hoarder. I admit it. But occasionally being one pays off.

It took a couple months longer than I initially anticipated, but next weekend I'm finally getting this back from my repair guy in Prescott—along with the distressing news that after he's finished with his current queue of equipment, he'll be hanging up his soldering gun and enjoying a much-deserved retirement. (He noted that since I'd already contacted him about my other Kenwood receiver to go ahead and bring that up as "it's already in the queue.")

What does this have to do with digital hoarding? Well, I asked Randy if he knew of anyone who could fashion some genuine walnut end panels for the receiver to replace the crappy vinyl veneered ones that it came with. He said he did, but after checking with the guy he reported back that he wasn't interested in taking on the project.

Well, shit.

When I got my initial Kenwood KR-7400 back in 2007, I'd contacted someone via the AudioKarma website who fashioned new end panels for me. Unfortunately the AK account I had at the time was long gone and I had no way of tracking the guy down now.

Or so I thought. A cursory search through the website was a bust, but since I am like a dog with a bone and not easily deterred once I'm on a mission, I got to thinking…what about old emails? Problematic, but it might work.

In 2007 I was still on a Windows machine using MS Outlook for mail. On a whim I pulled out the external hard drive where I hoard stuff. While I thought I'd saved all my emails from back in the day, it was still kind of a surprise to discover yearly archive files all the way from 1997 through 2008.

I knew they'd come in handy some day!

While I don't use it, I do have Outlook on my Mac, but I wasn't sure it would be able to read files that old. (Lord knows Word balks at opening any of its own files older than 2003.)

Not to worry. The 2007 .pst file imported flawlessly and almost immediately I found the email string between myself and the gentleman who fashioned the panels. And it turns out my memory really is shit; the panels weren't solid wood as I'd thought; he had merely stripped the vinyl off the existing MDF and applied real cherrywood veneer in its place. I could've sworn they were solid wood all these years, but obviously they were not.

I fired off a email to him yesterday asking if he remembered me and if he'd be interested in veneering these "new" panels for me. As of this morning the mail hasn't bounced back, so the address is obviously still active, but who knows how often it gets checked…or if he's even still alive.

Fingers crossed.

Well maybe not the Canape of Anchoves, the Hot Chicken Liver Sandwich on Toast, or the Fig Juice…

The Warner Brothers Studio Cafe menu from February 1941.

But Broiled Lobster for 75 cents? (The prices are in cents, not dollars.) Hell yes! Even in 2023 dollars that translates to only $15. Sign me up!

If you could instantly be granted fluency in 5 languages—not taking away your existing language proficiency in any way, solely a gain—which 5 would you choose?

Mine are German, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, and Vietnamese (so I can understand what the ladies in the nail salon are gossiping about).