Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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modern superstitions

superstitions for our time
  (+20, -4)(+20, -4)
(+20, -4)
  [vote for,
against]

1. It's bad luck to pump an odd dollar amount of gas, like $20.87.

2. It's good luck to change lanes without hitting a single Botts dot.

3. It's bad luck to use a credit card for a purchase of less than $20.

4. It's good luck if your state return just about cancels your federal balance due, or vice versa.

5. Leaving time on the parking meter will bring you good luck.

6. It's bad luck to replace a component on a PC that's over 5 years old. Resulting system will have a curse on it and haunt you all its days.

7. If the restaurant is ethnic and the clientele is decidedly of that ethnicity, the food will be good.

8. If you can't remember the name of the song or artist or actor, but you want to, and keep trying for days, someone is trying to remember your name.

9. It's good luck to google for something you remember from your childhood. If you find it, it's very good luck.

10. It's you skip ahead and read the ending of a book, you will break out in hives.

11. If you see a car with a bumper sticker that you used to have, many cars ago, you will have to wash your car soon.

12. If you see a headline with a word that could be a noun or a verb, and it actually makes sense either way, just a different sense, someone will notice a spot on your shirt.

13. It's good luck to discover an item of clothing from the 70's in your closet.

14. It's bad luck to plan an event for months in advance that's just a simple lunch meeting for two people.

15. If you buy a copy of a book and then discover you already owned a copy, you will feel slightly foolish.

16. If you come into the same movie on cable or dish at almost the same halfway-through point, two or three times, you will get permanently stuck; you will never see the movie from the beginning.

17. It's good luck to pick up the phone and someone is already there because they just called you and it didn't even have time to ring yet. If this happens, you will get extra good mileage for a week.

18. It's good luck to have a phone number with a pattern in it, like 248-8421.

19. It's bad luck to get a phone with a color not found in nature. If you do, telemarketers will call you all the time.

20. It's good luck to see someone actually growing something you eat. If this happens, the next item of that food you buy will be extra good.

Anyone got any others?

jpk, Aug 28 2002

a starting point for UB and BZ http://www.mindwork...lchemy/alchemy.html
me too later [po, Aug 28 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]

(?) Leather-Winged Pancreas Eaters http://www.geocitie...401/prometheus.html
"Prometheus Bound": An off-topic ramble into the art world about winged demons partaking of Prometheus' organs to satisfy the miffed egos of the Gods from the hand and mind of Rubens. [jurist, Aug 29 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]

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       Failing to google before baking will bring death to you and all who know you.   

       Drawing blood while replacing a computer component is a sign of good fortune.   

       It's bad luck to rub a [UnaBubba] the wrong way. Conversely, it's good luck to rub a [po] the right way.   

       Slowing down for a yellow light is bad luck - apparently.   

       It's good luck to pick up your feet when you cross the sound barrier.   

       It's bad luck to wash your PDA.
phoenix, Aug 28 2002
  

       I remember seeing the sun when I was a child. I just googled for "sun," lo and behold, I was able to find it.   

       So, everyone's phone number is lucky.
bristolz, Aug 28 2002
  

       My two (evil) black cats cross your path.
BinaryCookies, Aug 28 2002
  

       Rofl. Though I note there are some movies I have managed to watch in their entirety, but in no more than small snippets caught in random order while flipping through the endless reruns on HBO. I regard this as a sign of spending too much time watching TV.
DrCurry, Aug 28 2002
  

       This is a cute idea but I have to complain about number 15. I often buy cheap secondhand copies of books that I own and enjoy. This allows me to lend these books to friends and not worry too much about whether they come back.
madradish, Aug 28 2002
  

       Might I suggest you call these "substitions"?   

       I'm skeptical you were actually rolling on the floor, Peter. In fact, dollars to doughnuts (why isn't there a game show called that?) I'd say anyone who has ever said they were rofl wasn't.
waugsqueke, Aug 28 2002
  

       23) If you use AOL-speak on the Halfbakery, the leather-winged demon of the night hunts you down and eats your pancreas.
angel, Aug 28 2002
  

       What's AOL-speak when it's at home?   

       (I'm kind of glad of my innocence and ignorance towards AOL here)
Jinbish, Aug 28 2002
  

       ur lucky!!!! u will rekognize it when u c it!!!
angel, Aug 28 2002
  

       24) It's good luck if you dialed a wrong number and nobody answered, but you won't know it.
FarmerJohn, Aug 28 2002
  

       Unfortunately I cannot claim credit, which goes to Stephen William Rimmer of Alchemy Mindworks.
angel, Aug 28 2002
  

       Step on a crack pipe, break your crack mother's back.

It's bad luck to put a bed on a hat.

If a visitor enters your home, it's a sign that you will soon have a bee. If you kill the visitor, you will have bad luck, or the bee will be unpleasant.

If you push a friend off a bridge into churning rapids hundreds of yards/metres below, you will never see each other again.

To drop a comb in a toilet while you are combing your hair is a sign of a coming disappointment.

A cricket in the house drives you insane.

Pick a dandelion that has gone to seed. Take a deep breath and blow the seeds into the wind. Count the seeds that remain on the stem. That is the number of refills of prescription-strength antihistamines you will have.

Throw back the first fish you catch then you'll be wish you hadn't believed that old wives tale that said you'd be lucky the whole day fishing.

It is bad luck to walk into a ladder.
thumbwax, Aug 28 2002
  

       Well, the leather-winged demon of the night is a recurring theme on Steve Rimmer's site as his instrument of vengeance. For instance, "Should you fail to register any of the evaluation software available through our web pages and continue to use it, be advised that a leather-winged demon of the night will tear itself, shrieking blood and fury, from the endless caverns of the nether world, hurl itself into the darkness with a thirst for blood on its slavering fangs and search the very threads of time for the throbbing of your heartbeat. Just thought you'd want to know that." and "Abuse of our e-mail resources may result in legal action or a leather-winged demon of the night dining on your pancreas." The site is worth visiting just for this sort of thing.
angel, Aug 28 2002
  

       Yeah, me too. I searched for Rimmer and got a bunch of possibilities . . .
bristolz, Aug 28 2002
  

       linky for you 2.
po, Aug 28 2002
  

       angel, such an incredible image. If you're even responsible for the pancreas bit, you have my unending respect. (And how often do you say that?)   

       If you repeat the same typo more than three times in the same document, you will receive bad news by email.
waugsqueke, Aug 29 2002
  

       Never EVER EVER! under any circumstances trust sombody with no eyebrows.
Gulherme, Aug 29 2002
  

       [po]: Thanks, that's the one.
angel, Aug 29 2002
  

       Angel's anno reminded me of the impact that seeing Pieter Paul Ruben's "Prometheus Bound" (c.1612) in the Philadelphia Museum of Art had on me as a school child...Liver or pancreas, it makes one think twice about playing with fire.[link] (Strangely, I remember it being far more gruesome ...and more interestingly painted...than the image portrayed.)
jurist, Aug 29 2002
  

       It is bad luck to wear shoes umop apisdn
thumbwax, Aug 29 2002
  

       [Mephista] The link is there. One version of the painting is there. If you recall the Promethean story, then you know that the act of giving fire to mankind was the reason for Prometheus' expulsion from the Titan Cocktail Club and why Zeus decided to chain him to a couple of Caucasian rocks, whomp him silly, and feed him hallucinogens that made him think he was the daily luncheon special for his own private leather-winged demon. (Actually, I did take a bit of license with that last bit, but the rest is all true, I swear.)
jurist, Aug 29 2002
  

       Stand on your head, and you will see...
thumbwax, Aug 29 2002
  

       good luck to have an australian baby bad luck to beat up the baby good luck if you pin it on the babysitter, Mr Mephista isn't bitter about being born with no eyebrows is he.
Gulherme, Aug 29 2002
  

       [thumb] thats cool.
kaz, Aug 29 2002
  

       sorry ms Mephista, do you have eyebrows how do I know I can trust you?
Gulherme, Aug 29 2002
  

       Tipping, is surely the greatest modern superstition of them all. Karmic balance, and all that...   

       That and hitting the wastepaper basket from > 10 feet.
General Washington, Aug 29 2002
  

       I like Mephista's 'Nigeria' line. I suspect that it could be one of those things that passes into folklore as a byword for a futile and foolish enterprise as in...

"What are you doing there Bob?"
"Oh, nothing much. Just sending money to Nigeria."

I would also like to add "Never put a Spurs defender in your fantasy team" to the list.
DrBob, Aug 29 2002
  

       idea with the word "charger" in it:- one anno by either blissmiss/po = a wish. two annos, one by bliss and one by po = a kiss. three annos, three by either blissmiss/po = a letter. four annos, two by bliss and two by po = something better.
po, Aug 29 2002
  

       It's good luck to send email, and then immediately receive email from that person, before she or he got it (e-crossed-in-the-mail). If this happens you will get a baked good you did not expect.   

       If your baked potato is slightly underdone in the middle, a project you never finished will come back to haunt you.   

       It's good luck to take the stairs instead of the elevator.   

       It's good luck to find someone else's original still on the photocopier. It's bad luck, of course, to forget yours. If you find theirs but also forget yours, you will miss out on a chance to eat pistachio ice cream.   

       If you see someone you don't know in a store, and then you go to another store and you notice that same person, it means a distant relative of yours won a small sum in the lottery.   

       It's bad luck to see a picture of yourself as a small child and not even recognize which one in the picture is you.   

       It's good luck if the last squeeze of the toothpaste is exactly one toothbrush-worth.   

       It's neither good nor bad luck to find a bug in a beta release. What did you expect?   

       It's good luck to suddenly realize a cognate or Latin root of a word you've known for years. If the sense connecting the two also occurs to you, it's very good luck: you will be manage to express something right the first time, the next time you want to.   

       It's good luck to discover a forgotten compartment, drawer, shelf, or built-in container of any sort.   

       It's good luck to pet the bookstore cat. Or any working animal.   

       If the bookstore cat likes you, you will buy a book there, you will read the book, and it will be good and memorable.   

       It's not bad luck to find an old t-shirt that obviously no longer fits you. It's annoying, but it's just the way it is; it's not bad luck.   

       It's not bad luck to find a small amount of liquid in a cup or bottle on your desk. It's usually bad luck to drink it, however.   

       If you find money left in a vending machine, payphone, laundromat machine, or video game, the next person you think of will call or email you.   

       It's good luck if a co-worker or friend suddenly remembers you lent him money and wants to repay you now before he forgets again. Damned good luck.   

       It's good luck if you bump into an old co-worker from a company you used to work for, now working at your company.   

       If you break the first wineglass of the set within hours or days of taking it home, it's actually good luck; it will be a long time before you break the others.   

       If a DMV or other official photo of yours somehow doesn't look that bad, you will enjoy a bean dish of some sort.   

       If you remember an old phone number but can't remember whose it was, you will feel funny.   

       If you remember your first IP address but can't remember where you were living at the time, it means you spend too much time with computers.   

       It's good luck to buy a cute little knapsack even though you have plenty. You never know.   

       It's good luck to be given a pretty or arty box to take home the wine in. Extra good luck if it's not a wine box, e.g. if they give you a Jim Beam box.   

       If you're in the hardware store and actually remember a hardware item you've been needing, of course it's good luck.   

       If you see two cars of the same make and model and color within 60 seconds, and it's not a car dealership or something, it's good luck. But if you see three cars of the same make and model and they're all black, someone you know will have an uninsured dental crisis. Or poorly insured.   

       It's bad luck to get mange from your pet. It's even worse luck to give it to your pet. What the hell's the matter with you?   

       It's good luck to get a company phone on your desk that doesn't have a bunch of half-ripped-off stickers from previous use. If this happens, someone will forgive you a comment you made that gave offense.   

       It's good luck to put the water on the toothbrush before the toothpaste.   

       It's bad luck to have a car salesman ask if he can help you. It's worse luck to have the big-box home electronics store person ask if he can help you. It's good luck if the office supply person asks if he can help you. If the small local harware store person asks if he can help you, it's neither good nor bad luck, it's just why that store is still your best bet unless you're buying a whole lot of whatever it is.   

       If your cat's ear starts to smell funny, it means you will see your vet soon.   

       It's good luck to have a crummy job of some sort when you're young. Builds character. Gives you complaining/smug rights later.   

       If your company has more than 3 Dilberts posted per employee, it will go under.   

       It's bad luck to make a cell phone call from the bathroom (public or private). It's not bad luck to take a cell phone call from the bathroom (after all, how could they know before they called?). It may or may not be bad luck to take an existing cell phone call into the bathroom; authorities differ on this one; religions schism; Dear Ann and Abby disagree from beyond the grave.   

       It's good luck to inhale deeply the scent of leather from a leather goods shop, fresh cut wood from a lumberyard, construction site, cabinet makers, etc. It's not as much good luck to breathe deeply of the flowers in a flower shop, because that's too obvious. Paint, grout, or ceramics are an acquired taste, so that's extra good luck.   

       If you notice a slight imperfection in the wallboard, paint job, baseboard, trim, etc., next time someone is there you will feel a terrible compulsion to ask her if she notices it too.   

       If you see a tree that has grown around, over, under, or through something, the next glass of water you drink will have a slight off-taste to it. The one after that will be OK though.   

       If you wash your car it will rain. If it's literally impossible for it to rain in your time and place (California summer) then bugs and dirt will land on your windshield, and your attempt to use the windshield wiper will result in ugly fluid streaks on your car. This will then be followed by a vegetable of your choice, or soup, or potato.   

       If you see a stroller for 2 kids, you will shortly see a stroller for 3. Or someone will see it and tell you about it.   

       If you are flipping channels and virtually every channel is showing the same thing, something big is up.   

       If the supermarket bagger forgets to ask you "paper or plastic", that will be the one time you actually cared. If however in this case you end up getting the one you wanted, you will have good luck for an entire year.   

       If you get a bad haircut, you will get over it.   

       If you forget to call that East Coast number before 2, they probably won't be there.   

       If you are drinking milk and somebody makes you laugh, you will suddenly remember everything about your childhood, the good, the bad, the mysterious, and now that you understand it all you can't go back and do it right this time.   

       If you see a cute coffee cup in a store and don't buy it, you will regret not buying it for a long time.   

       If you drop a toothpick, you will drop something else while trying to pick it up. Then something else will annoy you.   

       If you break the build, you will have bad luck as soon as the release engineer finds you.   

       If your stock is up three days in a row, you will realize you're following the market too closely, and meaningless fluctuations are nothing to get excited about, yet you will still hope someone asks you about it.   

       If you get lost in a building, and you bump into someone else and it turns out he's lost too, the two of you will become friends, and some day one of you will save the other's life.   

       If you realize you have to turn the car around, and you can't find a legal U-turn, and you finally decide to make a left into a parking lot, and then you discover it's almost impossible to get back into traffic with the subsequent right, because traffic is too heavy or people are too inconsiderate, turn the radio on immediately; if your favorite song is playing, or one of your favorites, then you will have good luck for the rest of the week.   

       If you discover someone you know is originally from Canada, you will enjoy a cold beer.   

       If you hear a piece of music in a movie, and later encounter it playing from someone's stereo, it's good luck for, oh, an hour.   

       If you see three different movies or books by Stephen King, it's just par for the course.   

       If a Stephen meets a Steven, someone will make microwave popcorn and you will smell it and feel hungry, even though you just ate not that long ago.   

       If you discover you were born out of wedlock, you will feel strange and probably not tell a whole lot of people. If you discover you were merely conceived out of wedlock, you will giggle hysterically and tell just about everyone.   

       If you find a really great website before everyone else, then everyone else does discover it and it becomes very big, it won't be as good as it was before.   

       If you're adjusting the screen window and it just falls out and hits the ground, you will stand there aghast.   

       If you like Pepsi products but the store has a sale on Coke products, you will give up and buy the Coke. This will bring good luck to someone you don't know and almost certainly never will.   

       Three copies of the same email (e.g. two arrive via different aliases, the third is forwarded to you FYI) is bad luck for the rest of the month. Plus whatever it is the email was telling you, you'll forget, even though it was probably important.   

       If you eat chicken and it tastes just like rattlesnake, no one will believe you.   

       It's very good luck to find a basically decent programming language and environment that anyone wants to pay you to develop with.   

       If you remember that it's a meteor shower and you see a meteor or two, it's very good luck; next time your toilet valve needs replacing, it will go smoothly.   

       It's good luck to eat a deviled egg.   

       It's good luck to read all the cartoons, witty sayings, etc. posted on people's doors on their offices. If you see one that you posted on your door too, it's very good luck to introduce yourself to that person.
jpk, Aug 29 2002
  

       Wow, good work [jpk].   

       //Bad luck to meet an Australian// Funny... I haven't been having much bad luck lately.   

       I think I'll change this one... all Aussies are lucky (they live in Australia don't they). It is *very* bad luck to argue with one, they may sic their pet Koala on you.
madradish, Aug 30 2002
  

       [jpk] it is bad luck to neglect your significant other   

       it is very bad luck to infer that someone is the backend of the panto horse
po, Aug 30 2002
  

       If you live out of the refuse bins from your local indian, you will have bad kurma.   

       When marrooned upon a deserted island, or lost in the wilderness, it is good luck to start a game of patience (ok, solitaire) on your laptop.   

       If you spend too much time on the internet, you may end up in half purgatory.
yamahito, Aug 30 2002
  

       //kurma// Korma?   

       It is unlucky (and disturbing) to go into a womens public bathroom and find the toilet seat up. It is even more unlucky (and disturbing) if you are a man.
madradish, Sep 03 2002
  

       Its bad luck to run over a native animal, good luck to run over a introduced species, extremely bad luck to run over an endangered species, and if you run over somthing that is meant to be extinct then you better hide under your bed and not come out for several months.
Gulherme, Sep 03 2002
  

       + for same reason 'Bubba stated.
thumbwax, Jul 08 2003
  

       If the bus is late and you light a cigarette, the bus will come.   

       If a door opens by itself and you are alone in the house, you will hide your head under the covers.   

       If the end of the sellotape isn't folded back when you find it, you will make a right mess of wrapping the present.
squeak, Jul 08 2003
  

       I'm pretty sure my phone number was once PI without the decimal, just thought it was very weird...
my-nep, Nov 16 2003
  

       If your phone number appears as consecutive digits beginning at the (phone number)th digit of PI, then you will suffer from a too-cold milkshake.
phundug, Nov 17 2003
  

       It is bad luck if you have to use 'yards'.
miazzina, Aug 13 2004
  

       It's bad luck when you use a leaf blower and the wind keeps on blowing in your direction. [-]   

       It's good luck when your JD & Coke goes down smoothly. [+]   

       It's neutral luck when you get a mediocre idea and post it on halfbakery. []
quantum_flux, Feb 28 2007
  

       Applications load and respond faster if you waggle the mouse.
squeak, Feb 28 2007
  

       If you click a dialog box by accident, then one corner of a hanging poster in your house (if you're at work) or at work (if you're in your house) will come loose.
phundug, Feb 28 2007
  

       [squeak] on some remote terminal served applications, this most definitely used to be the case. To conserve bandwidth, screen updates (animations etc) would only be sent while a user provided some suggestion that they were on the other side. Failure to move the mouse would make it look as though the whole thing had ground to a halt.
zen_tom, Feb 28 2007
  

       It's bad luck to be superstitious on a Wednesday.
MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 01 2007
  

       It's bad luck to try loading multiple websites at the same time. At least one of them will grind to a halt, and not load for the rest of your session.   

       It's good luck to say hello to someone you think is staring at you. It's bad luck to have to speak to someone you think is glaring at you.   

       If you go to school, and the class room smells musty, the teacher will be extra considerate, but may also smell musty outside the classroom.   

       If while playing a video game, or surfing the internet, you see an animal, and that same animal appears outside your window, you will stop everything and go admire the view for ten minutes.   

       If you dive up behind a slow moving truck or van, and they hit their brakes, you will have bad luck for the next half hour... or they will want to change lanes right in front of you.   

       It's bad luck to avoid crashing into a car that doesn't use it's turn sugnals. You will be karmically cursed to spend the next month dodging close calls with other cars that don't use their turn signals.   

       It's bad luck to crash your car into someone else. If they were at fault, they will have better insurance than you.   

       If you see a streetlight on the corner go out, you will have been planning on turning there, and will become slightly freaked out and paranoid for a few weeks. As soon as you forget about it all, you will give someone a ride to their home, and after you leave, you will see another streetlight go out on a corner where you were planning to turn.   

       If you are surfing the internet, and for any reason spot pornographic images of someone you once knew, you will later run into them, and have a very awkward conversation. If you end up sleeping with them, you will catch something, but if you do not, they will die before the end of the year.
ye_river_xiv, Mar 01 2007
  

       I don't mean to kill the mood here, but isn't this just a list? I thought those things were against the rules. Some funny ideas thought.
discontinuuity, Mar 02 2007
  

       Oh yeah. [marked-for-deletion] list.   

       As you come in for a landing in an airplane, if you spot an individual person just before touching down - a distinguishable person, not just a car - the conference will be interesting and your friends will be happy to see you. If, in contrast, all you see is little cars stuck in traffic, you will be ignored by all you meet, learn nothing of interest, and might as well not have come. Either that, or your next picnic will be attacked by ants.
jutta, Mar 02 2007
  

       If you are using those urinals where the flush works on a timer, then if the flush starts while you're urinating, it heralds good luck for the remainder of the day.
hippo, Mar 02 2007
  

       When restaurant food is called "fare", it's usually boring.
phundug, Mar 09 2007
  

       Leap-seconds cause pandemics.
MaxwellBuchanan, May 11 2016
  

       Like I've always told my kids, it's bad luck to believe in bad luck.
doctorremulac3, May 11 2016
  

       If you find a horseshoe and put it in your pocket, somewhere a horse will walk with a limp.
MaxwellBuchanan, May 11 2016
  

       I anyone speaks the name of a fish out loud, three fish puns must follow to prevent a month of rain.
MaxwellBuchanan, May 11 2016
  


 

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