MetaChat - Quirks, habits and superstitions

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30 October 2005

Quirks, habits and superstitions →[More:]Some people have favorite clock times (11:11 and 12:34 are a couple favorites of friends.) A number of co-workers cross themselves when we pass cathedrals. A table a couple nights ago explained that, where they are from (which escapes me now), if you put a hat on the bed, a loved one will die. At work, we are collectively responsible for making sure that the good fortune kitty is facing the door at all times.

Do you have any? What are they? What is their origin? How strong are they?

post by: Frisbee Girl at: 17:00 | 51 comments

When listening to Jimi Hendrix's "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)", I always do the "cough cough... sniff sniff" along with him at the beginning. I have since seventh grade.

Also, I have never *not* listened to it all the way through.

I know, I'm nuts.

posted by interrobang 30 October | 17:06

I used to have all sorts of little superstitious tendencies but I've managed to get rid of them except for the lucky (and unlucky) numbers.

My luckiest number of all is 1,424.

posted by nomis 30 October | 17:16

When booking a dentist appointment, i always avoid two thirty.

posted by urbanwhaleshark 30 October | 17:44

I never get in ~~a pressurized aluminum tube with people on speed at the wheel who are distracted because they're not getting paid enough~~ an airplane without being heavily medicated. Otherwise the ~~contraption put together by people who snort coke off the wings before attaching them to the fuselage~~ plane will crash.

posted by WolfDaddy 30 October | 17:54

I fear October 13.

posted by orthogonality 30 October | 18:00

I have a photograph of my great-grandmother hanging on the wall above where I usually sit when I talk on the phone. Twice since hanging it, I have said something negative about my grandmother (her daughter) while sitting under the photo. Twice, the framed photo has immediately fallen off of the wall and onto my head. After that, if I felt an overwhelming need to talk smack about my grandma, I did it elsewhere.

posted by amro 30 October | 18:10

If I spill salt, I throw it over my left shoulder. If I'm walking side-by-side with someone and we "split" to go around a lamp post, mailbox, etc., I mutter "bread and butter."

I know I picked up the latter from my grandmother, and I assume that's where I got the former as well. As a skeptic/agnostic/etc. I know that such little habits are utterly pointless, but when they happen they're like little tiny itches that must be scratched.

posted by scody 30 October | 18:30

Just a habit-when I go to spin class I like to get the same bike (they are all numbered, and occasionally get moved around.) I actually have two favorites, and one is number 13.

posted by bunnyfire 30 October | 18:49

ok.. urbanwhaleshark, you are very very bad (or of asian heritage); shades of grade 3!! :-P

No superstitions here; I avoid stepping on cracks in the sidewalk to prevent tripping.

Habit: Doing the dishes, I ALWAYS wash the flatware and the glasses/cups first. The things we touch our mouths to get the cleanest water.

posted by reflecked 30 October | 19:12

wouldn't that entail washing forks before plates?

posted by nomis 30 October | 20:00

NO hats on the bed. really. please.

posted by matteo 30 October | 20:11

I'm usually sitting behind somebody when they throw salt over their shoulder, but I keep a bag of InNOut Burger fries in front of my face at all times. :)

I avoid doctor or dentist appointments after 2 in the afternoon, just out of the assumption that by that hour of the day they're probably running an hour or more late.

My lucky number is 37, but I very rarely encounter it, which says a lot about my luck in general.

posted by wendell 30 October | 20:13

wouldn't that entail washing forks before plates?

According to tableware terms, in the United States, flatware refers to sterling, silverplate, stainless, and pewter utensils used for eating or serving food. In other countries, including the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, flatware refers to dinnerware pieces such a plates and saucers.

posted by amro 30 October | 20:15

Flatware is the eating utensils here.

posted by reflecked 30 October | 20:27

When i have to go to an important meeting, I wear a ring with one huge eye. It's a middle eastern good luck charm, to avoid the evil eye.

posted by dhruva 30 October | 20:40

The hats on the bed thing was in Drugstore Cowboy.

I have no superstitions that I am aware of. Sometimes I will avoid cracks in the sidewalk because it's fun. My feet are now too big to fit in a single square of linoleum, so I can't pretend the off-colored ones are lava. I sometimes count stairs because of the one Sherlock Holmes story where he points out to Watson that he has no idea how many stairs he has climbed up to Sherlock's apartment for the past x years.

I enjoy violating other people's superstitions. I wear hats indoors, for example.

posted by Eideteker 30 October | 20:44

The hats on the bed thing was in Drugstore Cowboy.

That was the first thing I thought of, too. Damn TV Baby.

I'm chock full of little tics. For example, we've got a set of pasta bowls that has different herbs on each bowl. I have to eat from Basil. Simply must. If it's dirty, I will wash it rather than eat from Parsley or even Oregano. Basil.

I also have to park in the same area whenever we go to the mall, even if it's nowhere near the store I need to get to. That's just where I park.

And I can't eat mashed potatoes without corn. I tried recently and just couldn't do it. I got up in the middle of dinner to nuke a can.

posted by jrossi4r 30 October | 20:57

Stemming from my childhood OCD thing with symmetry and numbers, I have a particular string of numbers that I like. It feels balanced to me. I won't mention it, because I still use it as a lengthy password for things, but it is 12 digits long.

posted by dreamsign 30 October | 21:26

I finally thought of one. I won't use big or soup spoons. Only the other ones. I don't know what they are called. And I refuse to use cheap, unbalanced silverware.

posted by dame 30 October | 21:55

They're called teaspoons, silly.

posted by box 30 October | 22:06

But they're bigger than teaspoons. And too big to fit in tea cups. I always think of teaspoons as the really tiny sort. Is this like the way I think of a faucet being inside & attached to a sink and a spigot as an outside thing you attach the hose to?

posted by dame 30 October | 22:09

They're teaspoons, as opposed to soup spoons, which are more bowl-shaped, and as opposed to tablespoons, which are bigger, right?

I might be crazy, and I'm definitely a little liquored-up.

posted by box 30 October | 22:12

No, I think you must me right. It makes sense. Yet it doesn't in my head where I make distinctions that make no sense. So, fine, I'll say it: I only use teaspoons.

posted by dame 30 October | 22:14

I like a nice soup spoon myself. Then again, I've got a big mouth.

posted by box 30 October | 22:18

No, they're too--well, too round. There's no other way to put it. And they don't have the cutting edge so useful for ice cream eating. And stuff falls out of them. I'm sorry, box, your spoon prefernce is sinful.

posted by dame 30 October | 22:23

What's wrong with round? (Also, if you like a cutting edge, you've really got to branch out into the grapefruit spoon.)

posted by box 30 October | 22:28

I think you are referring to dessert spoons, which are bigger than teaspoons, smaller than tablespoons and less round that soup spoons (although the capacity is similar). Personally, I won't eat icecream with anything but parfait spoons.

posted by dg 30 October | 22:28

Wow.

How many varieties of spoon are there? In my kitchen, there are teaspoons, tablespoons, a few soup spoons, a single grapefruit spoon and a single long spoon which I use for iced tea, and which, upon reflection, is probably a parfait spoon. Or maybe not?

posted by box 30 October | 22:32

Dessert spoons! Dessert spoons!

*dances, kisses dg*

Can you please provide photo of a parfait spoon?

posted by dame 30 October | 22:33

What about wooden spoons, box? Ladles? Both slotted and nonslotted serving spoons?

posted by dame 30 October | 22:38

Okay, upon further reflection, I've got all those things. Two ladles, even--one with a sort of edge-of-a-pot-shaped lip on it. Is there a name for those? My mind is reeling already.

posted by box 30 October | 22:40

I am still waiting for a photo of a parfait spoon.

posted by dame 30 October | 22:49

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by box 30 October | 22:52

Not so helpful.

posted by box 30 October | 22:52

Parfait spoon.

posted by dg 30 October | 22:53

Oh, a long spoon. I thought they were for making drinks. (I am getting great pleasure out of this spoon discussion. More spoon-porn links, please.)

posted by dame 30 October | 22:58

Any chance of a smooth segue into a discussion about spooning?

posted by box 30 October | 22:59

I also love spooning. But I can't fall asleep like that unless i'm totally exhausted. I once had a boyfriend who thought I didn't really love him because I had to stop touching him to sleep.

(How's that?)

posted by dame 30 October | 23:01

flatware refers to sterling, silverplate, stainless, and pewter utensils used for eating or serving food

Well fancy that.

I think of a faucet being inside & attached to a sink and a spigot as an outside thing you attach the hose to

Those are both taps to me. Looks like I need to go back to English(US) class.

posted by nomis 30 October | 23:01

I hear ya Dame, I absolutely can't sleep if any part of my body is in contact with another human.

posted by nomis 30 October | 23:03

"
When i have to go to an important meeting, I wear a ring with one huge eye. It's a middle eastern good luck charm, to avoid the evil eye.
posted by dhruva 30 October | 20:40
"

an afghani lady-friend of a friend of mine taught us all the evil eye.
you just look at someone and pull down your lower eyelid with one finger. that's it. that's the evil.
bit of a let down, that.

posted by sam 30 October | 23:03

I can't think of any of my own right now, but I know a guy who clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth to stop the universe from imploding on itself.

posted by Marxchivist 30 October | 23:07

More spoon-porn links, please
Here you go. I am not clicking on any of those to vet them, because I am at work. Use at your own risk.

Also, I find it almost impossible to get to sleep unless I am touching my partner in some way. When the nights are hot as they are now, we often go to sleep with just our feet touching together lightly.

posted by dg 30 October | 23:10

The hats on the bed thing was in Drugstore Cowboy.

That was the first thing I thought of, too. Damn TV Baby.

I thought Drugstore Cowboy was an American film by Gus Van Sant. Was there a tv show, too? Was it based somewhere in Scandinavia or Holland, maybe Denmark? The hat on bed = death table was definitely not American.

On preview: good one, Marxchivist! I might try that one sometime.

posted by Frisbee Girl 30 October | 23:13

Parfait spoons down here in Texas are called "iced tea spoons". Just so you know.

posted by WolfDaddy 30 October | 23:33

Fris--It's the Van Sant film we're talking about. The "TV Baby" is one of the characters in the movie.

posted by jrossi4r 30 October | 23:41

Understood - excellent! Thanks, I was incredibly confused as I've never seen the movie.

posted by Frisbee Girl 30 October | 23:46

I don't like iced tea. I don't like it hot, either.

posted by dame 30 October | 23:52

It's worth a look. Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch are really good in it. And Heather Graham is so incredibly beautiful, back in those days before I knew she was a blitering idiot.

Note: Do not ice dame's tea. Nor shall it be heateed.

posted by jrossi4r 30 October | 23:54

NO hats on the bed. really. please.

Uh oh. There's a hat on my bed right now. I slept with it on last night. Can I have a hat in bed?

posted by Specklet 31 October | 13:20

my grandma never saw Drugstore Cowboy (great film by the way, love love love Kelly Lynch) and she had a horror of hats on beds, too.

it's not American, and not recent.

Specklet: I wish you wouldn't.

posted by matteo 02 November | 16:24

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