Triskaidekaphobia is the fear to the number 13

[meteor]

No, it's not the name of some new bacteria, triskaidekaphobia is the fear to the number 13, a kind of superstition, you can read about it here

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Triskaidekaphobia.html

Do you have any superstition? I used to have some when I was younger, but actually I do not have any at all, and I live much more happy

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I have a bit of one...sort of... I have noticed this strange pattern in my life where in almost anything significant that I do there is always one nagging detail that I never seem to resolve. It might be something like the label on a customer’s file, or a cracked mirror on the pickup truck that we hardly ever use anyway, or maybe some little detail of how something functions in my computer. I have reached the point that if I notice one of these little details and think to fix it - something that has needed correcting for months or even years, but also something that is almost completely insignificant - I am almost afraid to address it because like clockwork either the customer will promptly go out of business, or the mirror on the truck will get smashed, or my computer will promptly crash hard making the afore mentioned effort completely moot and the overall situation much worse. Sometimes it is really strange.

 

[Rut Roh]

I don't know if what I'm in the process of developing is a superstition or just a variable on putting the needs of others before mine. Here's what's going on that I'm getting a little jumpy about.

Every time I go to a doctor, something happens to that doctor :

1. up and moves with very little warning, (out of the blue retirement for one, and up and moved out of state for another. Both had something traumatic happen within the first 2 years of leaving that was seriously damaging to their health.)

2. suddenly gets diagnosed with leukemia, cancer, or something else fatal.

3. is killed in a car wreck,

4, loses hospital privaleges. (To be perfectly honest on this one, it was her choice to give up hospital privaleges to relieve a massive time pressure between her work/home/husband/retarded brother she needed to care for. But when looking for a doctor, you don't chose one that doesn't have hosp. privaleges. I wish she had told me at the beginning.

Dang, number 1, 2, and 3, (the fatal kind ) happened almost immediately after I had my first check up with a new doctor and got pap smear.

Number 4, I needed to have a really odd looking mole that changed taken off, then she loses hospital privaleges. No pap. She still has office hours here.

We're basically an smallish isolated town, we can't afford to lose any more doctors. I have not had the option of going to the same doctor twice in over 10 years.

And, well, it's kind of a joke in my family, that as soon as a doctor gets somebody mad, they're going to make me go in for a pap.

I'm leary of the impact to the doctor if I have to go see one and I really shouldn't be. I've never really been a superstitious person... but this pap smear killing off the doctors is some what of a worry even though we joke about it. I haven't even been to a doctor in about 5 years now.

(edit) Depending on how you want to count number 4, I'm 6 for 6 on physician upheavals. If there was a doctor in town I already reallllly couldn't stand,,,,,

(2nd edit: I just realized,,,, If there was a doctor in town I already reallly couldn't stand... He's be a proctologist. )

 

[Evo]

Wow Rut Roh, that is very weird.

 

[Tsu]

Wow Rut Roh, that is very weird.

Almost as weird as all of Maggie's boyfriends dying in the old TV show Northern Exposure. The last one was fused with a satellite that fell to Earth and hit him while he sat on a tree stump in the middle of the forest! What a riot! HEY! Rut Roh's wasting of all of her pap-smear docs might make another hysterical TV show.

We don't use the 'q' word in the ER. If we do, it seems to become not very 'q' very quickly! Other than that, I have no real superstitions. I tend to like to tempt fate.

 

[chroot]

Er, what 'q' word?

- Warren

 

[jimmy p]

i would guess that the 'q' word is "quiet"

 

[Tsu]

i would guess that the 'q' word is "quiet"

SHHHHHHHHHHH! DON'T SAY THAT! You stinker! Now you've gone and jinxed my whole night!

edit: but, other than that, I really don't have any superstitions...

 

[jimmy p]

whoops, ah well i had a crappy night out tonight so everyone else deserves to!

 

[Tsu]

How'd we get from phobias to superstitions? Probably me... Sorry. Back to phobias!
I know someone who moved from a major city to a very rural area and had himself a mild panophobic (fear of wide open spaces, IIRC) attack.

 

[Tsu]

whoops, ah well i had a crappy night out tonight so everyone else deserves to!

One crappy night does NOT deserve another! If it's a 'train wreck' tonight, I'll be sure to tell you ALL about it! Death, blood, guts, puke, poop.. everything! (I have SUCH a great job... Honestly tho, the 'saves' are SO worth the 'crap' we deal with... )

 

[jimmy p]

oh...great, just what i would need. fingers crossed its a night of fluffy bunny related disasters.

 

[Tsu]

oh...great, just what i would need. fingers crossed its a night of fluffy bunny related disasters.

Uhh...Chopnik? One Bunny Holocaust was enough, thanks.

 

[jimmy p]

hah, oh yeah... ok, ill pray for a night of bee-stings... what bees are doing out at night, god knows... but that will make it a 'q' evening (ok ok, I've cheered up a little now) :)

 

[Tsu]

hah, oh yeah... ok, ill pray for a night of bee-stings... Thanks! what bees are doing out at night, god knows... Well, there are bees... then there are KILLER bees... and THEN there are GANGS of NOCTURNAL killer bees. We see a lot of the last group . but that will make it a 'q' evening (ok ok, I've cheered up a little now) :) GOOD!

Ok. I won't bore you with the details if it's beesting night.

 

[jimmy p]

ooh was it a bee sting night?? did you get any puffy people coming in? with ballooned arms and stuff. Or people who have vinegar allergies who rubbed it on their arms to cool the sting... that would have been stupid but someone is bound to have cos people are idiots.

I actually thought... what about wolves with bees in their mouths (courtesy a la Simpsons). The wolves would howl at the moon (how cliche) and the bees would fly out and sting people, NOT realising it is night time. Scary stuff..

 

[Tsu]

ooh was it a bee sting night?? did you get any puffy people coming in? with ballooned arms and stuff. Or people who have vinegar allergies who rubbed it on their arms to cool the sting... that would have been stupid but someone is bound to have cos people are idiots.

I actually thought... what about wolves with bees in their mouths (courtesy a la Simpsons). The wolves would howl at the moon (how cliche) and the bees would fly out and sting people, NOT realising it is night time. Scary stuff..

Actually, it wasn't bad at all (no thanks to YOU! ). But that was only because I remembered to give it the Double-Jinx Whammy' as I climbed into the car. (That's where you say to yourself, "Jeez. Why do I feel like it's a train-wreck in the ER right at this minute?") Worked like a charm.

 

[photon]

This is the first time I've really admitted this, but about 2 years ago, I was abducted by aliens from another galaxy. They took me into their ship and did...experiments on me.
HAH! Gotcha! April Fools (hey it still April, aint it?)

Aside, I have this odd sort of forsight dyslexia. Sounds weird, huh? Yeah.
Sometimes I'll be in a situation, any old time of the day. And I'll get this sort of light nagging feeling that this certain something is going to happen. I'll quickly dismiss it as ridiculous, then this thing that was nagging me actually happens! It's happened over and over, but I never learn that that nagging feeling in the back of my head is something about to happen.

 

[meteor]

Why there exist superstitious people? It's because they have some kind of mental misfunction? Or because they have been badly brought up? I'm inclined to think is the second choice.

Rut Roh: I'm pretty sure that all what happened to your doctors is purely a casuality. So, please go to the doctor if you feel bad, do not think that you are the carrier of disgraces!

Edit: to correct a grammar error

 

[photon]

Yeah meteor, I was a troubled child. Wait... I am a troubled child.
Now, I can't stop doing this (spasm involving eye twitching). I think i should sue. Now I'm some messed up dyslexic psycho, I mean psychic. Yeah.

 

[Evo]

I've become a pack rat, I'm afraid to throw anything away. I swear that the moment I decide to throw something away, I will have a dire need for it within a few days. It doesn't matter if I haven't used it in ten years.

It's the same with warranties. Anything I own is guaranteed to self destruct within a week of when the warranty expires. I recently purchased a 3 year warranty on my new refrigerator so that I know it won't break down for the next 3 years.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I've noticed that since I moved to Oregon, whenever I wash the car, it rains...

 

[cookiemonster]

It's the other way around for me, Ivan.

Whenever it rains, my car gets washed.

And it'd be a perfectly true statement to take the converse,

Whenever my car is being washed, it's raining.

cookiemonster

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Then I think you need to wash your car.

Did I mention that in Oregon, if I don't wash the car it rains?

 

[cookiemonster]

Well, you know, both the inverse and contrapositive to my statement are true, as well...

Therefore, my car is logically superior to yours! Hah!

cookiemonster

 

[jimmy p]

...? i won't bear thinking about it...

HmmMMMMmmmmm what crazy stuff happens to me??

I lose things when i need them the most (which means i end up LATE for things). But when i get back they are magically where i remember putting them in the FIRST PLACE!

you don't know HOW MUCH trouble i get in because of that... :(

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A lot of people have this problem every once in a while. I think that in many cases it may relate to the blind spot in our vision.

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chvision.html

 

[jimmy p]

yeah but not EVERY morning... i haven't turned up to a lesson on time ALL YEAR!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I've become a pack rat, I'm afraid to throw anything away. I swear that the moment I decide to throw something away, I will have a dire need for it within a few days. It doesn't matter if I haven't used it in ten years.

I know that one well.

 

[Tsu]

ARG! Chopnik, your jinx was delayed by two days! Tonight is the train wreck! We've got guys in handcuffs in the back hallway being catheterized, MVA's, small bowel obstructions... Tonight sucks! :-(

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Note to self: She leaves guys in handcuffs in the hallway to get on PF. Got it.

 

[tribdog]

I didn't have any phobias til I read all this. Now I've got killer bees and catheterization while handcuffed to think about.
As far as superstions go, I'm Aquarius and we don't believe in stuff like that.

 

[Tsu]

I didn't have any phobias til I read all this. Now I've got killer bees and catheterization while handcuffed to think about.
As far as superstions go, I'm Aquarius and we don't believe in stuff like that.

Then STAY OUT OF HOSPITALS!

So if triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13, what would they call a fear of being catheterized while handcuffed? Cathcuffkaphobia?

See, the trick here is to remember to just STAY in the mental health ward. It's not quite as scary as a hospital ER.

 

[Tsu]

Note to self: She leaves guys in handcuffs in the hallway to get on PF. Got it.

Yes, dear. But don't worry. We didn't use YOUR cuffs. They're still safe and sound in my purse.

 

[tribdog]

See, the trick here is to remember to just STAY in the mental health ward. It's not quite as scary as a hospital ER.

Like I have a choice in the matter, but if they leave the ward door unlocked for 5 seconds I'm outta here. Then it's over the wall, hitch a ride on an ostrich, change my name back to I.B. Sane and I'm back on easy street with my pencil. Alphabet soup, pooop, howdy, howdy. And that's all I'm going to say about that.