Almost everyone's got their lucky charms they pull out when they really need something good to happen, or omens that never fail to signal good fortune.

On the other hand, if you're like me, you also have bad-luck signs. Hearing Beck's Loser on the radio before a softball game, for example, always means we'll lose.

What are y'all superstitious about? What do you do to ensure good luck, or ward off the bad?

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

Answers

I'm convinced that as soon as you say something will NEVER happen, it will. I'm big on knocking on wood.

Also I'm a great believer in karma. Whenever anything bad happens to me, I wonder what I did to deserve it. And I think of ways to improve my karma to make sure bad things are less likely to happen again.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

I always hit the roof of the car three times when you run a yellow light. In high school I was told it would add 30 seconds to your sex life, and I'm taking no chances.

And I always make a wish when the clock is all the same number, like at 3:33, etc. Though lately I've been having trouble thinking of what to wish for, beyond a huge sack of money.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

If I am looking at any digital clock when it reads 9:27, I make a wish. I don't know where it came from; the Beav started it when we were in college and it just stuck.

Also, I will never say "I never [have such-and-such bad thing happen to me]," like Aidan... it's a surefire way of making it happen.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

I make wishes on the clock, too! I explained the wish rules to a dj I was dating, though, and he got mixed up and told his listening audience that it was "12:12 - Make a wish!"

Am a salt-tosser, can spot a 4 leaved clover from 20 feet, and wish on every fallen eyelash. I sing out my ABCs while turning the apple stem and then make a wish when it comes off. I only trim my fingernails at home and then immediately flush away every one. When my palms itch, I DO expect money soon.

Frankly, it doesn't seem that there are many superstitions that I don't subcribe to. Better safe than sorry, no?

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

I have good luck and bad luck songs. For awhile, a couple of years ago, it seemed like great things would happen whenever Len's "Steal my Sunshine" played on the radio, so I'd flip stations frantically trying to find it.

On the other hand, these days it seems like "Friends and Family" by Trik Turner just leads to misery. Which is a shame, because I have the cd, but have to put it on the shelf until the bad karma passes.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

I can't go into any pitch black room with a mirror in it. I took that Bloody Mary urban legend shit seriously in high school and I'm not risking it. Scares the crap out of me.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

Lucy, I do the same thing. Bloody Mary scares the shit out of me still. Sometimes I forget and turn off the light before I leave the bathroom (with the door closed! horror!), and you can bet I do some fast busting out of there.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

Wasn't there an upperclassman girl from your high school who was at some party, tried the Bloody Mary thing on a dare, saw something that totally freaked her out, and refused to talk about it ever? Yeah, I thought so. Mine too.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

Lucy, I am terrified of dark bathrooms because I know that Bloody Mary will come and get me. I feel true, honest to god panic if I accidentaly flush the toilet and then turn out the bathroom light before I open the bathroom door. Panic, I tell you. I stumble all over myself trying to get out of there before Bloody Mary comes to take me to hell.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

Y'all, we three freaks of Orient are.

Do you picture Bloody Mary as an evil and very red Virgin Mary? Because I do, and it's terrifying.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

I do the clock thing, but only at 11:11

I believe in bad feng shui; I actually set up my room to ward off bad energy sort've (I never read a book, but go on intuition such as, never face something towards a mirror or with nothing to balance it out on the other side ...never have something point blank overhead or facing the bed) ...I haven't had anything horrible happen or any bad dreams, so it could be working!!

the black cat thing gets me squicked out as cliché as that is ...one jumped on our car and stared at me for a good ten minutes and I swore I was cursed then and bad things would happen. I ran.

I believe in bad luck days; like if something happened the previous year on that exact date, I fear something bad happening again on the date of the next year ...it only is erased of bad luck if nothing happens on that date for a long while

I've never even thought of the Bloddy Mary thing ...hah. I walk in dark bathrooms all the time and nothing has happened to me.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

My late grandfather showered in the dark. The fact that he lived to almost 81 would seem to me evidence against Bloody Mary, but maybe she only haunts Catholics.

I thump the roof of my car every time I run a yellow light.

This isn't a superstition so much as an apprehension: frequently when I take the subway into work, I cross my fingers that all buildings will still be standing when I get off the subway.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

I lift my feet when I go over railroad tracks. And it's also bad luck to put shoes on a table.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

Also, if you think Bloody Mary's scary, you've never heard of Black Aggie. Man, I just got the heebie jeebies again.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

"People who met [Black Aggie] in darkness regarded her as a symbol of terror."

My, what a fancy way of saying "were scared shitless."

I never ever played with Ouija boards as a kid and I wouldn't now either.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

Indeed. She cut off her arm from grief and gave it to someone!

Does anyone else make eyelash wishes? Hold their breath when going by a cemetery?

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

I can't go into any pitch black room with a mirror in it. I took that Bloody Mary urban legend shit seriously in high school and I'm not risking it. Scares the crap out of me.

See now I could go into dark rooms because I had forgotten about Bloody Mary, but now what am I going to do? The first thing I see when I walk into my house is a full-length mirror on the closet door! And it's one of those really old ones so it already has the dark, scary streaks running through it.

With that big of a mirror Bloody Mary won't even have to step into my house, she can just reach out and grab me and kill me right there!

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

I don't know if this is a superstition, or not -

When I was a kid, I could not walk down the stairs into our den in the dark without singing Amazing Grace, aloud. Really, like it would protect me from whatever baddies existed in the dark below.

I still do it when I get nervous.

Also - and this was all in our old house on Ashland Drive in B'ham - I would make this elaborate scene every time I went into the bathroom and the shower curtain was closed. Like, I would loudly declare "I KNOW no one is in the bathtub," and then I would rip the curtain aside like I was trying to bust somebody. It was more that I did not want them (the person in the bathtub waiting to kill me) to KNOW that I was scared of them. I was trying to fake out the non-existant killer in the bathtub.

Now that I think about it, I am sure I did not think it was an actual "killer," in the tub. When I was little, I was afraid of burglers and skeletons. I guess I had no concept of homicidal violence? The innocence of youth.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

It was hard enough for me to convince myself that I wouldn't get sucked into the closets of my new apartment with their lack of doors.

Now I have to convince myself that the mirror cute little vanity area on the way to the bathroom is Bloody Mary free or I'll never sleep again, y'all. Thanks.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

If I don't put on my socks and shoes in the right order, it is just about guaranteed that I am going to have a craptastic day. Left sock, right sock, right shoe, left shoe. This started back in my basketball days and has carried over.

I always kiss my fingers and slap the roof of the car when going through a yellow light.

Oncoming vehicle with only one headlight? Everybody in the car better be yelling "BEER ME!"

Blue fingernail polish with gold sparkles over the top of it guarantees a good day at any sporting event, whether its the Hammer Throw, Ultimate Frisbee, Roping, Basketball, or Bowling.

The number four. The color Orange.

...I think thats it...

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

Years ago I got a small marble-like cross on a brown leather necklace in Charleston (where I was born). As soon as I was old enough to drive I have always had that cross hanging from my rearview. It has seen me through at least five cars.

I have been in one minor car accident and have hit a few deer, but other than that I firmly believe that I cannot and should not ever take that cross down. Whether it actually protects me while I drive it up for debate, but I find comfort in the possibility.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

Does everyone else hear Steve Wonder every time you see the title of this thread?

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

And it's also bad luck to put shoes on a table.

And also, tacky. Wouldn't it be nice if all superstitious behavior prevented tackiness?

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

I think I started something really scary by bringing up B.M... Last night I was in the dark hallway reaching down to pick up the cat to take it to bed with me and I swear to god I heard a whisper from the mirror. It freaked me out but I put on a brave face for the cat. And I made him stay with me even though he didn't want to because I knew he would hear it first if anything was coming to get me. Needless to say, I'm fine. But that is some scary shit.

I'm never going to speak of B.M. again.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

hear Stevie? as in Stevie Ray as in Austin God, yes

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

Uh, I have no superstitions apparently. I can't think of a single thing I do or believe that fits hear.

Unless you count never buying the insurance against a dealer blackjack because it's just throwing good money after bad. Except when I get an overwhelming instinct to buy the insurance and it always turns out to be a good thing.

Oh, and I never hit a 16 because it will always be a 10 or face card.

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2002

I used to wish on eyelashes, but I stopped a while ago. I'm not in the least bit superstitious (atheist, too - is there a connection I wonder?) but I sometimes make a wish when I find the clasp of a necklace has come around to the front. Close my eyes and wish while holding the clasp, then move it around to the nape of my neck without opening my eyes. I know it doesn't work, but I like doing it.

-- Anonymous, March 25, 2002

AB, Bloody Mary is very evil and is definitely ver red. You're right - just like the Virgin Mary, but mean and red, and I picture her with no eyeballs, only empty black sockets in her evil red face. As she comes out of my bathroom mirror to take me to hell.

WG, I think that once, I was taking a shower and the power went out and it was pitch black. I screamed and screamed. Now, I prevent such situations by never showering during a thunderstorm.

-- Anonymous, March 25, 2002

My whole life, my Mom has told me not to shower during a storm. Lightning might travel via water down through my shower head and zap me. Same goes for talking on the telephone during a storm.

Evidently there are many strange and convoluted ways for lightning to get you. Sneaky bastid.

-- Anonymous, March 25, 2002

Okay, yes, no light while showering is quite spooky.

I realized another superstition I have last night: that yellow cabs are invulnerable. No matter how messed-up the car, bad the weather, or inebrieated the driver, if you are traveling in an NYC cab, no harm will fall upon you.

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2002

I also do the eyelash thing and the twisting of the apple stem. But, my apple stem twisting was always that the letter of the alphabet you land upon pulling off the stem was the 1st letter of the 1st name of the person you would marry. Then, there this a whole other part where you tap the stem top against the side of the apple until it breaks the skin, all the while singing the alphabet again. When it breaks the skin, that letter is the 1st letter of the last name of the person you will marry. Strange Maryland childhood customs, I know. My superstitions have to do with having things exactly the same the next time you want something good to happen. I know you all are going to think I am nuts but, in other words, when my favorite sports teams are winning (ie. Ravens in the playoffs/Super Bowl and the current Maryland trip to the Final Four), I always do things the same. I wear the same clothes (washed in between, of course), I sit in the neighborhood pub on the same stool, drinking the same thing, etc. I know, I am certifiable... Oh, and I also lift my feet when going over train tracks.

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2002