What is up my Stonecutter peeps?
Wookiee chiming in on this special day just to talk about Friday the 13th. One of those days you just look out for bad luck or at least a rerun of Jason movies on your local scream channel. I always thought it was funny people don’t like the Number 13. As a Stephen King fan, I always look at the Number 13 and think “there’s power in prime numbers”. Ever noticed things seem to come in threes? 7 is actually my favorite number. All prime…. Makes ya think?
And those of you used to me by now know that I get to thinking and then it leads to rambling with a fact or two thrown in as well as Simpsons references. This post aims to fulfill all of that. Besides, I got to ramble last time this happened, so why not do it again? Check out that post for some Simpsons insanity references.
There’s a lot of theories about why the Friday the 13th is unlucky. Since thirteen is the number after 12, a number of significance to many cultures and considered a “complete number”, it makes sense people might not like it. There’s 12 months, 12 hours, 12 Greek Gods on Olympus, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 years of the Buddhist cycle, 12 Zodiac signs. Makes 13 feel unnatural to some I suppose. It’s kind of the punk rocker of numbers.
Fridays are also considered unlucky to some. I always like it because it precedes the weekend but it’s actually considered a bad day to start vacations or new business ventures. In Pagan Rome, it was execution day. Other pagans treated it as their Sabbath or day of worship. No surprise the church labeled Fridays as the “Witches’ Sabbath”.
One theory making the number thirteen unlucky can be traced to a Norse myth (bear with me, I’m half Norwegian). 12 Gods are having dinner in Valhalla. When a 13th guest arrived, Loki, he arranged for the blind god of darkness Hoder to murder Balder the Beautiful who was the god of joy and laughter. The result was the whole Earth went dark and humanity mourned the unlucky day. Also interesting to note that during the Last Supper, 13 men sat at a table and even non-Christians have probably heard what happened to Jesus. Christians mark his crucifixion on a Friday. There are even biblical scholars who say Cain slew his brother Abel on Friday the 13th. Curiouser and curiouser.
Keeping with secret societies like our current event, on Friday the 13th in 1307, members of the Knights Templar were arrested by order of King Philip IV. They were tortured and most were later executed. Not surprising that sympathizers for the Knights would consider the day unlucky. There’s also an urban myth about the Royal Navy launching a ship (the HMS Friday) on Friday the 13th and the ship never being seen again. The story may not be true but there aren’t many ships launched on Fridays because of it.
In Roman lore, witches were said to gather in covens of 12. If a 13th member was present, it was the Devil. There’s also a Norse legend about the goddess Freya (Friday is named after her by the way) appearing to 12 witches on a Friday and giving them one of her cats as the 13th member. Ancient Egyptians thought life was unfolded in 12 stages, the thirteenth was the afterlife.
Ever seen a movie about a failed mission to the moon called Apollo 13? In America an author, Thomas W. Lawson, wrote a popular novel in 1907 called Friday, the Thirteenth about a stock broker creating panic on Wall Street using superstition about the day.
Basically to sum up all that info… people think the number thirteen and Friday are unlucky and the combination would obviously be the worst. Some hotels have no floors with the number, the Turkish people practically expunged the word from their language. There are actually words for being afraid of this day: friggatriskaidekaphobia and paraskevidekatriaphobia. Can you believe this effects 17 to 21 million people worldwide? Travel sales are affected by this day’s occurrence and less people go out just to be safe. Irony is since less people drive, it’s actually statistically safer.
Whatever you choose to believe about the day, I just always take it as an opportunity to rewatch some of my favorite horror movies. What’s even better is some of the best bad guys and maniacs have appeared in my favorite cartoon. Here’s a few:
“Treehouse of Horror V” (S6:E6) – In “The Shinning” segment of this episode, there’s so much fun to watch. Other than the obvious love for a Stephen King book turned movie, Homer going crazy gets me every time. I love how Marge locks him in the food cellar and he doesn’t want to be rescued because he can’t kill when he’s busy eating. His rescuing ghouls include Moe, Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman, Jason, Freddy and Pinhead.
“Treehouse of Horror VI” (S7:E6) – The “Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace” portion of this one is very fun with Groundskeeper Willie as Freddy. Just saying there’s a bagpipe spider involved and Maggie comes to the rescue one more time. Also a bonus that I have a figure of him in my Simpsons collection.
“Treehouse of Horror IX” (S10:E4) – The Couch Gag for this one shows Jason and Freddy Krueger on the Simpsons couch. So great that Robert Englund provided his voice for Freddy. This greatness also inspired a very radical 2D post by our very own Bunny.
“G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)” (S18:E5) – If you like jokes at the expense of the Army/American war machine, this is just the episode for you. When the Army recruiters show the children of Springfield Elementary a recruiting video, Jason is seen as one of the targets of a helicopter.
“Stop or My Dog Will Shoot” (S18:E20) – Bart has a daydream where he is attacked by Jason, Pinhead and a Math Book (now that’s scary!). Thank goodness Santa’s Little Helper shows up as Robocop to rescue him.
“Million Dollar Abie” (S17:E16) – Freddy is seen singing the song Springfield Blows. Recognize any of the other celebrities? (braces for Jar Jar haters in comments lol)
“The Falcon and the D’ohman” (S23:E1) – Wayne’s flashbacks in this episode are great. During the one about his training (“the kind they’re not even allowed to give any more”) he fights all sorts of things including ninjas, a sumo wrestler, a Vatican guard and a tank. Apparently Chucky and Pinhead are also part of this type of “special training”. There are a lot of other great pop culture references in this little bit too.
Gone Abie Gone (S24:E4) – Chucky appears with Jennifer Tilly’s on her instructional DVD for poker. Time is money… but money is money too.
Well there you go… lots of words about today and some Simpsons to boot. I’m off to watch either Jason in Space or Muppets in Space… we’ll see where the day leads. I wish every one of you all the luck in the world and may today have more teenage antics in it than machete-wielding mass murderers for all of us.
TTFN… Wookiee out!
Not Friday the 13th anymore but I find that I’m unlucky on Thursday 12th and whatever it was carries over to the 13th. This time however, it hasn’t happened 😀.
Off topic but just noticed Agnes and CBG don’t go on a date anymore. Instead he helps her to cross the road. My question is this a euphemism?
More EA realizing that his wife was now in the game for some of us making the previous dating task a skoshi awkward. Here’s to TSTO morality lol.
Wookie you always remember your first love I think Mrs CBG needs to keep an eye on this…lol
Ya, you know how those cougars can be ;P
Lol they need watching
Well. nobody watched me last night, so I do apologize to all my neighboreenos I neglected :/
😉 Girls just gotta have fun 🙂
Under what tasks do you get the Fleet-a-pitta van???? I’m level 41 upto date but still can’t get the van…. Any suggestions… Cheers
Those tasks come with purchasing LuAnn Van Houten.
I have a quick question if someone could please take the time to answer it.
If I have no krusty land can I still collect tickets from friends? Will the balance of what I have collected show up once I get to build it or will they be lost?
I ask because I don’t want to go into Krustyland to perform 3 actions if I can’t keep the tickets.
I have searched for the last hour and gave t found the answer
Answer…yes. 😉
I did this to neighbors KL before I had unlocked it and the tickets were there for me:) that was many moons (Friday the 13th reference) or updates ago but should probably still be true.
Got so excited I misspelled a few words! It’s Sjømannskirken. And familien min (not min familien lol)
Wookiee! Snakker du norske? Hvor i Norge kommer du fra? Helle min familien kommer ut av Nesodden. Så goy at du er halt Norsk!
Heia Norge!!
And if you don’t speak Norwegian 🙁 I’m sorry, I just got so excited. As an expat Norwegian (and Hungarian) I miss my fellow Norwegians. Hit up the Sjomannskirken in San Pedro for ekte (authentic) Norwegian food (oh and Swedish food but we Norwegians are so much better *at everything* than the swedes are 😉
There’s also Scandinavians at Nansen Field for maypole dancing and smorgasbord; the kids really have fun there. The 17th Mai (our independence from Sweden) celebration is gigantic and full of born-and-raised Norwegians and Norwegian-Americans.
Again so exciting! I usually meet Danes and swedes here in LA.
Håper du har en kjempe fin helg! (Hope you have a great weekend)
Wow… lots of excitement. I don’t speak any. My Dad was adopted and it’s a long story but both his birth parents came from Norway. I always love how Americans are so in to their European heritage. Scandinavians tend to always love meeting others. Silly story but when I went to EPCOT in Florida, it made my day that the beautiful ladies in “Norway” asked me if I was Norwegian. Anywho… always awesome to have stuff in common with others.
That’s wonderful that you know some of your history. As a born and raised Norwegian I truly love that, even though you are Anerican, you have a connection to the old country. I’ve found that it’s Americans especially that are very interested in their ancestry. Back home, well there doesn’t seem to be much interest in ancient days, alas. Anyways it’s my duty that even though you don’t speak Norwegian you must have one phrase in your repertoire and that phrase is:
Uff da.
I’m sure you’ve heard of it. It works for everything! Have a wonderful Friday (and from my Hungarian side to all: Shabbat Shalom).
Thanks. I always tell my Pops I’m gonna change my name to Paulson because that’s his birth name. Not sure people use Uff Da in the traditional way it was originally meant lol.
It won’t surprise you, Wooks, to know that one of my favorite practical jokes in NYC is to ask for 13 on the elevator. I love the utter confusion.
So you’re THAT guy huh?
That 2d art of Freddy and Jason is sweet!!! Good job bunny, you are an artist. Good post too wookie!!! Love the 13th of Friday..
So far it’s been a great day for me. Work went great, was asked for my number a couple of times (maybe they thought it was April Fools Day, LOL), Got up enough nerve to slip a note to the pharmacist asking him to call me if he wanted to grab a bite sometime, he has my number, but couldn’t call because of hipaa rules.
Granmama’s got her groove back 😉
lol you stole my line!
LOL!
Hi never commented here before so first of all nice job you have a great site but the main reason I’m commenting is because I had a maths exam on Friday 13th truly a unlucky day for me
Well thanks for commenting! We always love when we get newbies commenting! (be sure to do it more often, don’t worry we won’t bite 🙂 )
And that math exam stinks! Hopefully you did ok on it! 🙂
Looks like you needed SLH to save you from the scary Math also. Hope you aced the test.
I have 13 black cat knickknacks, on Friday the 13th I set them all out on my porch railing to freak out all the nieghbors. He he ha!
Cold and extremely funny.
My best Birthdays have been on Friday the 13th…
Today is a good day my boss got punched out lmfao. I unlocked Burns pool. I also got 5 sprinkles in krustyland popping balloons. And did I tell you guys my boss got punched out
So basically, today was unlucky for your boss lol.
Is anyone having difficulty with their game loading? Mine hasn’t opened all day. I have deleted it and downloaded it twice already and still nothing. It just won’t get past the opening screen it just immediatly shuts itself off. I’m so sad!
🙁 you’ve got a crash glitch it seems. Check out this post for details on it:
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/06/11/glitch-report-lock-out-money-pool-neighbor-emblems/
LoL Chucky and his Bride! 😀
I used to have bad luck on Friday the 13 I remember being at my friends house for some reason her front door didn’t work we had to use garage door the power went out our phones went from being fully charged to not being charged at all we lost our chargers our rides car wouldn’t start it was just bad luck but since I quit hanging around her I have had no problems on Friday the 13
It’s always been lucky for me …Today is my Wedding Anniversary!
Friday 13th is a lucky day:
Spain – Netherlands 1 – 5 🙂
Ole ole ole oleee ole ooolee
13 is a lucky number in Korea and China..?.
I was born on the 13th so lucky for me though my parents were very superstitious they didnt didn’t like the 13th at all