With a Little Luck, You’ll Survive Friday the 13th

WASHINGTON —  If Franklin Delano Roosevelt was alive and President right now, he would not want to host a dinner party tonight. But if he had to, and if the dinner was planned for 14 and one guest didn’t show up, he would order his secretary, Grace Tully, to hurry and join them rather than allow 13 people to dine at a table.

If Irene Stein was having labor pains today, she would do what she did on Friday, Nov. 13, 1959: Ask her doctors not to deliver her baby until after midnight. (They complied.)

Coldwell Banker sales agent Brenda Reed was supposed to be closing a deal on a Bel-Air home today, but the fidgety buyer insisted that the sale not be recorded until Monday.

Why?

Triskaidekaphobia!

Back to the Norse Gods

That is fear of the number 13. Dreading 13, and especially Friday the 13th, goes back thousands of years to the Norse gods and still thrives in the minds of countless people worldwide.

In Paris, 20-year-old Alexis Glorieux occasionally hires himself out for 1,000 francs (about $165) as a 14th dinner guest when a frantic hostess discovers that 13 people are showing up.

“It is not always funny, but at least you know that you will eat well,” Glorieux said. “I always remain discreet at such a party because I know I have been invited only because they are superstitious. If no one asks me anything, I don’t say anything.”

Mystery writer Stephen King has said that he will not stop reading a book on Page 94 or 193, the numerals that add up to 13. He’ll read one more page. And when he ascends his stairway, he leaps over steps 12 and 13 in one bound, so that he has taken 12 steps.

For such triskaidekaphobes, today is a very, very bad day. This is the second of three Friday the 13ths that will occur (at least we hope they’ll all occur! quick, throw some salt) in 1987. It never happens more than three times in one year, and the triple whammy won’t visit us again until 1998. So if being scared of Friday the 13th is part of your life style, you should panic now !

J. C. Agajanian Jr., vice president of Agajanian Enterprises and the “Voice of Ascot Raceway,” is not going to panic. He was born on Friday, Feb. 13, 1948, and considers himself the luckiest man alive. Tonight he is going to take his wife out to dinner and celebrate.

“I’ve never spent a night in the hospital, other than my birth. And I was with my mom so it was OK,” Agajanian said. “The only down thing I’ve had happen to me was investing in a skateboard park. There are not a lot of thriving skateboard parks.

“But I believe landing on Friday the 13th was a lucky stroke. People will walk around ladders and I’ll go straight under them. People will walk around cracks in the sidewalk and I’ll stomp on them.”

Acquaintances are often spooked when they learn of Agajanian’s birth date, “especially ladies, and I don’t know why,” he said. “They’ll look at you, quiz you, raise their eyebrows, and say, ‘Well, how is everything going? Did you trip coming to dinner?’ ”

Experts would say that Agajanian is just as superstitious as a triskaidekaphobe, because he considers the number 13 good luck--as do many other people born on the 13th. A superstitious person is one who believes that certain things (such as the number 13, black cats or broken mirrors) or certain rituals (avoiding sidewalk cracks, throwing salt over the shoulder) can bring good or bad luck. Gamblers, some of the most superstitious people of all, often consider the number 13 good luck as well. On Friday, Aug. 13, 1982, the New York state lottery had to halt sales of the number 813, depicting that day’s date, because so many bets were placed on it that a jackpot would have exceeded the state’s legal limit of liability.

Athletes, another notoriously superstitious group, have strong feelings about 13 too. Many of them don’t like to wear it, play on it, fly on it or think about it. Others love it.

Former Los Angeles Laker Wilt Chamberlain, one of the greatest and largest (7-foot-2) basketball stars of all time, wore 13 with pride. But Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca had the 12-plus-1 number on his back when he threw the pitch that New York Giant Bobby Thompson hit out of the park to win the 1951 National League championship playoff, a home run that came to be known as “The shot heard ‘round the world.”

‘Something Odd About It’

Lucky or unlucky, what is it about 13 that has given it such a reputation?

“If you don’t mind terrible puns, there’s always been something odd about it,” said Kenneth Hoffman, the former head of mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who now runs the Washington public affairs office for the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics. “The oddest thing I know about it is that the 13th of the month is more likely to occur on Friday than any other day of the week.” This was shown to be true in a famous thesis, “To Prove That the 13th Day of the Month Is More Likely to Be a Friday Than Any Other Day of Week,” written by S. R. Baxter at the age of 13.

Thirteen “is just a prime number, divisible by nothing at all,” said Arthur Mattuck, the current chairman of mathematics at MIT. Mattuck notes that 12 is considered a special number because it is divisible by 2, 3, 4 and 6, “and for that reason it’s been proposed as a better base for the number system because a lot of the fractions would come out even.” Nonetheless, Mattuck dismisses one popular theory that 12 signifies completeness, as in 12 months of the year or an even dozen, and to add one to 12 equals an evil number.

“All these theories about 13, even Friday the 13th, it’s just a joke,” Mattuck said. “I’ve always been amused by how many hotels don’t have 13th floors. The question then is whether the 14th floor becomes the 13th floor. What’s in a name? It’s the 13th floor no matter what you call it.”

Hard-core triskies claim that both Fridays and 13 have historical significance that backs up their jitters. According to Jerilyn Ross, president of the 6,000-member Phobia Society of America, the most commonly cited event is the the ancient Romans regarded number 13 as a symbol of death.

Last Supper, where Christ joined his 12 disciples as the 13th dinner guest, was betrayed and ended up being crucified--on a Friday. This is thought to be the primary culprit behind the strongest 13 superstition of all: never to seat that number at a dinner table.

The other two most significant factors, Ross said, are that the ancient Romans regarded number 13 as a symbol of death, destruction and misfortune, and the belief that witch covens always consisted of 13 persons, the 13th one considered to be the devil.

Other experts say the 13 bugaboo goes back even further than that to yet another ill-fated dinner party, this one attended by Norse gods in Valhalla. Twelve good-guy gods had planned to dine but the party was crashed by a notorious trouble-maker, the demonic god Loki. A fight ensued and the most popular guest, Baldur the god of light, was killed.

As for Friday, the dictionary of slang notes that in the United States, Friday was known as Hangman’s Day. But Lloyd Hooker, a librarian in the federal prison system library, ran a check of random dates and deduced that only about one-third of executions by hanging took place in the United States on Fridays. Many were held on Saturdays, because they were events entire families liked to attend.

Fact seems to have little bearing on Friday the 13th ideas. Most people have feelings about it without ever calling to mind Norse gods, the Last Supper, witches or the ancient Romans. “People feel funny about it because other people do,” Hoffman said.

Is 13 really associated with bad events?

Last Day in Power

King Alfonso XIII (the 13th, that is) of Spain fled his throne. His last day in power was April 13, 1931.

The Apollo 13 space mission had to cancel a planned trip to the moon after an oxygen tank ruptured on April 13, 1970, forcing the craft and its three astronauts to return to earth. A space shuttle flight in 1984 was originally designated as STS-13 but changed to 41-C. When the ground crewed radioed a 31-13 sports score to the astronauts, they said the outcome of the game had been “31 to 41-Charlie.” The shuttle later landed safely, and was greeted by the phrase, “Welcome home on Friday the 41-Charlie,” on Friday, April 13th, 1984--the anniversary of the Apollo 13 explosion.

The Crocker Center in Los Angeles does not have a 13th floor, but that didn’t prevent Crocker Bank from being swallowed up by Wells Fargo.

A case can be made that just as many good things are associated with 13 as bad. There were 13 colonies. On Oct. 13, 1792, construction began on the White House. On Sept. 13 and 14, in 1814, Francis Scott Key was inspired during the bombardment of Fort McHenry to write the “Star Spangled Banner.” Of course, nobody can really sing it.

Reasonably or not, many people do alter their behaviors in small ways to show respect for the number 13, although Ross said that in her 10 years as a phobia therapist she never has treated a patient with a debilitating fear of 13. J. Paul Getty, Herbert Hoover and Napoleon are reported to have been triskaidekaphobes. Los Angeles socialite Contessa Cohn only recently decided to fight her fear of 13.

The Bull by the Horns

“You know what? I had a Friday the 13th party last month and sat 13 at a table,” Cohn said gleefully. “I didn’t do it (seat 13 at a table) until this year and I had to, because I just had to take the bull by the horns and do it. I had fortunetellers and a palm reader attend. Everybody had a ball and didn’t want to go home.”

Los Angeles’ Century Plaza Hotel decided the 13 superstition was old hat. The 20-year-old section of the hotel does not have a 13th floor, but the 2-year-old tower section does. “And we certainly book it. It doesn’t go empty,” said Georgiana Francisco, a spokesperson for the hotel. “The new wave is not to be superstitious.”

Two of the most famous tall buildings in the world, New York’s Empire State Building and the World Trade Center, both have 13th floors. “When you have 110 floors, 13 seems so insignificant,” said Joe Laciotti, spokesperson for the World Trade Center.

No Drop in Travel

Eastern and Pan Am airlines do not have a row 13 on most of their aircraft, but apparently the belief that people don’t travel on Friday the 13th is incorrect. United Airlines, the nation’s largest domestic carrier, showed no drop in travel on Friday the 13th last month. Airline spokesperson Matt Gonring said that today’s bookings were heavy as well. United, as well as Delta, have a row 13 on their aircraft.

At Los Angeles’ City Hall, Mayor Tom Bradley’s press secretary had to leave her office and look at the elevators to determine if both the old and new sections of the building had 13th floors. They both do.

“We didn’t even know they were there,” said the press secretary, Ali Webb.

With an attitude like that, there may be hope after all. Just don’t run for governor if you work in a building like that.

Times researchers Aleta Embrey in Washington and Alice Sedar in Paris contributed to this article.

13 Friday March 1987 If you’re superstitious, here are some things you might want to know--or avoid--on Friday the 13th. 1. Don’t seat 13 at a table. 2. Skyscraper floor numbers often skip 13. 3. Some cities skip 13 in numbering streets. 4. Never travel on Friday the 13th. 5. Do not get married on Friday the 13th. 6. There is no row 13 on some airliners. 7. Make no business deals on Friday the 13th. 8. There were 13 people at the Last Supper. 9. There are 13 witches in a coven. 10. In ancient Rome, 13 signified death. 11. Avoid sleeping on the 13th floor. 12. A hangman’s knot has 13 loops. 13. Some airports have no Gate 13. Los Angeles Times